The Colorado House has passed a bill that would allow nonprofits, school districts and transit agencies to build housing on their land without their local government’s approval — the latest salvo in the legislature’s yearslong crusade for land-use reform.
House Bill 1001, the first bill introduced in that chamber this year, cleared a final vote 35-24 on Friday. Most Democrats supported it, against total Republican — and some Democratic — opposition.
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The bill now heads to the Senate, where a similar version of the proposal bled out in the 2025 session’s final days. Lawmakers backing the measure say it represents one of the most direct attempts yet to break through local zoning barriers that have slowed the construction of affordable and workforce housing across Colorado.
The bill would allow school districts, institutions of higher education, housing authorities and transit agencies to build housing on their own property by right. It would also allow other nonprofits to partner with a peer organization that has a “demonstrated history of providing affordable housing” to do so on the nonprofit’s land.
Dubbed the HOME Act — short for Housing Opportunities Made Easier — the bill, if passed, would take effect Dec. 31, 2027.
HB-1001 “is about streamlining the process and making sure that overly strict zoning laws do not prevent nonprofits who have a history of providing affordability housing — schools, organizations like RTD — from building housing if they want to, if they have a good plan,” Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat, told fellow lawmakers last week. He’s sponsoring the bill with Rep. Andy Boesenecker, of Fort Collins.
The proposal is both a continuation and a remix. It builds upon three years of land-use reforms backed by most Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Jared Polis. They have viewed measures easing the development of housing — achieved by leapfrogging local zoning rules and planning boards — as a primary solution to Colorado’s housing supply challenges.
Supporters of the approach have argued that local intransigence has slowed and blocked housing development across a state starved for more units of all types. They’ve pointed to reform- and development-stopping votes in places like Steamboat Springs, Littleton and Fort Collins.
This year, Democrats are also bringing a bill that would end minimum lot size requirements established in many jurisdictions for single-family homes.
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The HOME Act resurrects the bill that died last year. That version had focused more on allowing religious organizations to build housing on their land.
Like last year, Republicans and local government groups — chief among them the Colorado Municipal League — oppose the bill, arguing that it would violate locals’ ability to dictate rules for their own communities. In the bill’s committee vote last week, Rep. Max Brooks invoked the fundamental issue at the heart of that opposition: local control.
“I’m really not entirely sure that we’re talking about the same thing here, are we?” the Castle Rock Republican asked. “To where the public truly has an opportunity to come out and sit down, through those traditional processes, and voice the concern of what’s happening in their own neighborhood?
Mabrey replied that there was a “philosophical disagreement about this piece.”
“Across the country, people showing up at public comment to complain about housing being built in their backyard is part of the problem,” he said. “We are trying to streamline this process and make it easier to build housing.”
Housing advocates contend that without such state intervention, Colorado will continue to fall behind demand as rents and home prices outpace wages. Opponents counter that one-size-fits-all mandates ignore the unique needs of rural towns and mountain communities already struggling with infrastructure limits.
After crossing over to the Senate, the bill needs another committee vote before it can reach the floor.
Originally reported by Seth Klamann in The Denver Post.
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