YIMBY News for 4/9

[Eric Budd]

Medina Throws Up Emergency Rules to Block 'Big Box' Housing

The Urbanist

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KEYWORD SCORE: 42.67. comp plan, comprehensive plan, construction, density, development, growth, house, housing, income, project, public hearing, rent, single family, single-family, urban, zoning

[image: Medina Throws Up Emergency Rules to Block 'Big Box' Housing] New emergency building regulations have clamped down even further on the types of homes that can be built in the mansion-heavy enclave of Medina. Put in place in the wake of one home construction project along high-profile Evergreen Point Road, the adjustments are intended to "allow harmony between residents" and have increased sideyard setbacks, imposed landscape buffer requirements, and fully eliminated a height bonus program that had existed for years. Owners of properties in Medina determined to be vacant face additional

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Lakewood vote may violate pro-growth law, drawing criticism from Polis

Denverite

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KEYWORD SCORE: 36.45. affordable, affordable housing, construction, density, growth, housing, housing cost, parking, project, rent, single-family, urban, zoning

The results of Lakewood’s special election drew criticism from Gov. Jared Polis and may put the suburban city out of compliance with one of Colorado’s pro-growth laws. Voters on Tuesday night overwhelmingly chose to repeal the city’s new zoning laws, which had included pro-density policies meant to comply with new state requirements. “This vote increases the need for the legislature to step up and take bold actions to deliver lower housing costs,” wrote Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for Polis, in a statement. Councilmember Roger Low said that by going back to the old zoning rules, Lakewood wil

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With cuts coming to Proposition 123, Colorado’s budget crisis is about to make its housing crisis worse

Colorado Sun

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KEYWORD SCORE: 31.67. affordable, affordable housing, apartment, construction, development, homeowner, house, housing, housing crisis, income, project, rent, urban

[image: A photo of a historic hotel being used for transitional and permanently affordable housing in Longmont, It is fenced and there is a play area in the courtyard for children.] After years of pumping taxpayer money into affordable housing at the direction of voters, Colorado lawmakers are preparing to gut a program that developers say has become fundamental to how low-income rental housing gets built in the state. Colorado’s state budget proposal would cut $130 million from Proposition 123, with most of the money coming from programs that develop affordable rental housing for low-income f

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Denver will combine police station, housing, retail on one Colfax block

Denverite

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KEYWORD SCORE: 27.59. apartment, bus rapid transit, construction, density, development, housing, parking, parking lot, project, walk

The District 6 police station on Colfax Avenue will get some new neighbors, including workforce housing and retail space, as part of an upcoming city project. The police station has dominated the block at Washington Street for a half-century, and city officials originally planned to keep it that way. The city planned to remodel the station and use the rest of the block for automobile parking. But now the city is changing course, as Mayor Mike Johnston told Denverite on Tuesday. “We’re going to go forward with a plan for that site that will include both housing and a police station and retail o

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Protecting Our Cities From ICE Will Require a Regional Approach

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 20.31. house, preservation, public hearing, rent, urban, zone

Residents gather during a community vigil in Pasadena, California, on June 30, 2025, to stand in solidarity with an immigrant family after ICE agents detained Rosalina Luna Vargas in front of her children days prior. (Photo by Damian Dovarganes / AP) Like many of you, I was grief-stricken watching the fallout of the Trump administration’s attack on Minnesota. Too many of our neighbors were left living in the kind of fear that quickly makes its way through school drop-off lines and courthouse hallways and can keep someone from going to work or even seeking medical care. Yet we were also reminde

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Denver’s new housing head is the mayor’s old homelessness advisor

Denverite

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KEYWORD SCORE: 19.59. affordable, affordable housing, development, house, housing, project, rent

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has appointed his senior homelessness advisor, Cole Chandler, to lead the Department of Housing Stability (HOST). Chandler has been the face of the mayor’s homelessness strategy — and at times a punching bag for Johnston’s critics. “I’m tremendously proud of what we’ve done to address both homelessness and affordable housing over the last two-and-a-half years of this administration,” Chandler told Denverite. “I think I’m well positioned to continue moving that progress forward and being a strong leader for the team of creating stability and camraderie and support.” “

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Inside a Kentucky City’s Unusual Experiment in Citizen-Led Governance

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 19.30. house, income, project, rent, transportation, urban, walk

*This story was produced as part of Next City’s joint **Equitable Cities Reporting Fellowship for Rural-Urban Issues** with **Kentucky’s **CivicLex* *.* Public trust in government is near historic lows. But Americans’ trust in their local government far outweighs trust in the federal government. It’s been this way since the mid-2000s, when the State of the Nation Project began keeping track. Standing on the sidelines of Kentucky’s first civic assembly – and one of the first carried out anywhere in the country – the palpable excitement I saw in that conference room was a far cry from the profou

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Wednesday’s Headlines Have Good News and Bad News

Streetsblog Net

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KEYWORD SCORE: 19.06. affordable, affordable housing, downtown, gentrification, housing, transportation, walk

- The good news: Traffic deaths fell by 6.7 percent last year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The bad news: Drivers still killed 36,640 people. (Smart Cities Dive). - The Governor’s Highway Safety Association, meanwhile, estimates an 11 percent drop in pedestrian deaths for the first half of 2025 — but that still amounts to over 3,000 people killed. For anyone who doesn’t particularly care about human lives, the economic impact was at least $40 billion. (Streetsblog USA) - If all the SUVs in the world were compared to countries, the People’s Republic of Third-

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Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade announces reelection campaign 

Colorado Public Radio

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KEYWORD SCORE: 18.09. affordable, affordable housing, development, growth, housing, project, transportation

Yemi Mobolade is running for a second term as Colorado Springs mayor. He made the announcement Monday, one year from next year’s municipal elections. Mobolade was first elected in 2023, defeating Wayne Williams in a run-off election. He is a business owner, a Nigerian immigrant and naturalized citizen, and the first elected black mayor in Colorado Springs history. Although city elections are nonpartisan, Mobolade is registered as an independent. He’s citing successes in improving public safety as one of his main accomplishments. A press release announcing his official campaign said he has hire

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