Conservation and housing groups support new executive order rewarding local governments for tackling the housing affordability and climate crises
Contact:
Matt Frommer, Transportation & Land Use Policy Manager
mfro...@swenergy.org | 908-432-1556
[DENVER, CO] –Today, smart growth advocates applauded Governor Polis’ signing of the second half of his Strategic Growth Executive Order (EO) to reward local governments that are complying with state land use and housing laws. Local governments in compliance or working toward compliance now receive priority for a specified list of state discretionary funding programs from the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), the Colorado Energy Office (CEO), the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), and the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT). The Governor’s Office estimates that the EO leverages over $200 million in state grants to encourage more pro-housing and climate-friendly growth policies across Colorado.
The EO incentivizes compliance with state laws passed in 2024 and 2025, including:
- HB24-1007, Prohibit Residential Occupancy Limits;
- HB24-1152, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs);
- HB24-1304, Minimum Parking Requirements;
- HB24-1313, Housing in Transit-Oriented Communities (TOCs);
- SB24-174, Sustainable Affordable Housing Assistance;
- HB25-1273, Residential Building Stair Modernization; and
- SB25-002, Regional Building Codes for Factory-Built Structures
Some of these laws created new grant opportunities, such as the ADU Grant Program and the TOC Infrastructure Grant Program. The new prioritization applies to both those new funding programs as well as existing discretionary funding – 34 programs in total. Compliant jurisdictions are better positioned for competitive grants like CDOT’s Multimodal Transportation and Mitigation Options Fund, CEO’s Energy Code Adoption Grants, and DOLA’s Community Development Block Grants.
Addressing the state’s housing affordability crisis requires a coordinated effort across jurisdictions. With Colorado expecting to grow by another 1.7 million people by 2050, the EO helps align state and local governments around strategic growth, while giving cities and counties flexibility to comply in ways that best suit their community’s needs.
“This executive order ensures that all jurisdictions are sufficiently motivated to contribute to a shared goal of expanding housing availability and affordability across Colorado,” said Matt Frommer, lead for Housing Forward Colorado at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP). “Our analysis shows that most local governments are already taking steps to meet or exceed state laws, largely because they’re proven best practices in planning and land use that closely match local plans and priorities.”
At a time when state and local budgets are tight, the state’s land use reforms are a cost-effective tool to lower housing costs, build more housing, and reduce climate pollution. Legalizing and streamlining permitting processes for ADUs and removing parking mandates allow the market to deliver more affordable housing at zero cost to state and local governments – sometimes even reducing costs. For example, Denver city staff estimated that the Council’s recent decision to eliminate parking minimums citywide will save over 650 hours of staff time annually.
“Colorado’s largest housing gap is for homes affordable to low-income families,” said Jonathan Capelli, Executive Director of the Neighborhood Development Collaborative. “We can make our affordable housing incentives go further by coupling them with key land use reforms that allow more housing at lower costs, which is why pairing state funding with policy changes makes sense.”
In addition to reducing housing costs, these policies have been shown to cut climate pollution from new buildings and transportation, marking a critical opportunity to address climate change at a time when the federal government is eliminating important investments in clean energy, electric vehicles, and other important climate solutions.
“Colorado’s growth patterns have consumed open space and natural lands, worsened water shortages, and increased transportation pollution – especially in our most vulnerable communities,” said Renee Larrate, Conservation Colorado’s Climate & Transportation Campaign Manager. “By allowing more sustainable housing types within existing communities, we can reduce pollution and better protect our natural resources.”
Local land use policies that promote dispersed development patterns – placing new housing far from existing jobs, schools, and services – require costly new infrastructure such as roads, water, sewer, and utilities. These investments come at the expense of maintaining and repairing existing systems. Since much of this new infrastructure is funded by state agencies like CDOT, it is reasonable for the state to use its funding to encourage more efficient and financially sustainable land use patterns.
“Today’s executive order shows the tremendous amount of work the state has done to address our housing crisis the last few years,” said Zach Martinez, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Gary Community Ventures. “Yet even with all these changes, families continue to feel the stress of our high cost of living. This executive order is the next logical step to ensure laws at all levels of government are aligned to promote more housing at all income levels for all of Colorado’s families. We appreciate the governor’s commitment to making a more affordable Colorado and look forward to doubling down on all these efforts over the next year.”
Colorado is 105,000 homes short of a stable housing market, giving it the fifth highest home prices and third highest rent in the country. The state’s recent land use laws encourage more housing and more affordable housing types to be built in urban areas, enabling more efficient use of land.
The state laws serve as a policy floor, and SWEEP’s August 2025 Colorado Land Use Progress Report found that many local governments are choosing to go beyond the state’s minimum requirements to meet their community’s housing needs with their own unique solutions. As of July 2025:
- At least 21 jurisdictions have recently removed or are in the process of removing minimum parking requirements for multifamily housing to comply with HB24-1304.
- At least 26 jurisdictions have taken action to eliminate family-based occupancy limits in compliance with HB24-1007.
- At least 29 jurisdictions recently updated their local codes in response to HB24-1152 to make ADUs legal and easy to build.
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Housing Forward Colorado is a project of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP), a public interest organization promoting greater energy efficiency, clean transportation, and beneficial electrification in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. In spring 2025, SWEEP launched Housing Forward Colorado to advance pro-housing and smart growth policies, and to support the effective implementation of the 2024 state land use laws.
housingforwardco.org / swenergy.org
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