Each week we will be sending you news updates and articles of interest that have been recently released in an effort to provide you with the most current information pertaining to the industry.

The following articles are are from this week (01/11/16 - 01/18/16).

Thank you,


Hickenlooper Calls for Construction-Defects Reform in State of State Address

Hickenlooper Calls for Construction-Defects Reform in State of the State Address
Jan 14, 2016, 2:06pm MST

Gov. John Hickenlooper called for construction-defects reform for the first time in his State of the State Address on Thursday - one of a number of issues that he has some, but not full, across-the-aisle support.

The sixth-year Democratic governor also made a particularly impassioned plea for the Legislature to begin addressing transportation funding by turning the hospital provider fee into an enterprise fund.

" Let's strive - I mean really try - to be more bipartisan this session," Hickenlooper said, drawing some of the biggest across-the-aisle applause of the entire address. "Let's forgo cheap shots in favor of civility and productive dialogue."

Economic-development and affordable housing advocates are on their fourth year of trying to pass a bill making it harder for small groups of condominium owners to file class-action lawsuits against builders - legislation they believe will jump-start the largely nonexistent new condo market in the Denver area. Hickenlooper has supported the effort but has never gone out of his way to tout the need for reform in public speeches.
 
On Thursday, however, he pointed to skyrocketing rents across the state and noted that 11 cities have passed   some sort of local ordinance. Then he said it was time for the Legislature to take its own action on the matter, declaring that, in conjunction with an extension of the state's low-income housing tax credit program, such a bill would help to bring down the cost of housing for first-time homebuyers.



Rain Barrel Proposal Drizzles Down on Colorado Legislature

Rain Barrel Proposal Drizzles Down on Colorado Legislature
New Legislation Attempt Would Allow Coloradans to Collect Water from Roofs
By  Peter Marcus   Herald
Article Last Updated: Sunday, January 17, 2016 10:11pm
 
DENVER - Another attempt to allow Coloradans to collect rain water that falls on their roofs has started with a drizzle of legislation.

Reps. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, and Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, introduced the first piece of legislation on the subject Wednesday, the first day of the new legislative session.

The measure is written similar to legislation last year, which died on the second-to-last day of the session after it never received a Senate floor vote.

"It's so simple. You've got rain that falls on your roof. You want to store it in a barrel to put it, instead of on your lawn or on your sidewalk, on your tomato plants or your flowers," said Danielson, the daughter of a Weld County farmer. "It's really straightforward, and it makes a lot of sense."

The bill would allow people to capture rain from their roof in up to two 55-gallon barrels for use in their garden or on their lawn.

Colorado is the only state in the nation that prohibits rain barrels.

Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee, led opposition to the bill, raising concerns over eroding the state's prior appropriations system, in which water rights are granted to the first person to take water from an aquifer or river, despite residential proximity.

Sonnenberg suggested requiring rain-barrel users to register their barrels with the state and requiring local water providers to replace water taken from rooftops.

He would also like the legislation to consider impacts to all bodies of water in the state - such as a groundwater basin - instead of just streams.

Sonnenberg has, however, backed off on the registration requirement, stating that the proposal was just a starting point.

"All I need is someone responsible and a solid legislative declaration, and I think I can convince my other folks in the water community that do not like this, that absolutely hate this, that this is a good compromise," he said.


Longmont Council on Construction-Defects Law Reform:
More Info, Please

Longmont Council on Construction-Defect Law Reform: More Info, Please
By Karen Antonacci
Staff Writer
POSTED:  01/12/2016 10:45:25 PM MST 
 
In a debate on Tuesday night that often turned to speculation on the state legislature's new session, the Longmont City Council ultimately asked city staff to bring back more information about construction-defect law reform by March.

Councilwoman Bonnie Finley, during her successful re-election bid last year, campaigned for reforming the law within Longmont's city limits in order to give developers more protection from condo association lawsuits.

At the end of Tuesday night's regular council meeting, Finley proposed a motion that would ask staff to come back with a drafted ordinance for the council to discuss. Finley wanted the ordinance to include measures like other cities' construction-defect laws, such as allowing a builder a "right to repair" before a lawsuit could be filed and requiring homeowners associations (HOAs) to get a majority of owners to consent to a lawsuit.

Members of the council, however, sought more information before an ordinance is drafted, so the motion was amended to ask staff to bring back a "menu" of options for dealing with construction defect law within Longmont city limits.

The motion passed 5-2 with Councilwomen Joan Peck and Polly Christensen dissenting. Both Peck and Christensen said they had their doubts that giving builders more protection from suits would convince developers to build more condominiums, thus increasing the supply of affordable housing for sale.

Both Christensen and Peck said they thought that millennials' tendency to rent due to credit problems, student loans and other factors was hurting the condominium market rather than the state's construction defect law. Both also agreed with Rep. Jonathan Singer, who asked the council to wait and see if the legislature could pass meaningful reform.

Finley said that she expected the state legislature would fail to pass the reforms, just as it has for the past three years.



Mayors Call for 'De-Brucing' Colorado at DBJ State of the Cities Forum

Mayors Call for 'De-Brucing' Colorado at DBJ State of the Cities Forum
Jan 12, 2016, 2:10pm MST  
 Updated   Jan 12, 2016, 3:46pm MST

Mayors from across the Denver metro on Tuesday railed against gridlock at both the state and federal levels while discussing local and regional solutions to problems such as affordable housing and transportation, and called for the "de-Brucing" of state finances in the way many municipalities that have done already.

Five metro mayors gathered at the Denver Business Journal's annual State of the Cities event to field questions on topics ranging from education funding to construction defects laws and the effect it's having on construction of mid-priced condominiums.

Asked about proposed state-level measures including a $3.5 billion bonding effort and moving revenue from the state's hospital provider fee to an enterprise fund, both with the goal of boosting funding for roads, mayors said that bigger, constitutional issues need to be addressed first.

"It has to be said. Before we address bonding, we need to de-Bruce. Period. And allow, without raising taxes, for the state of Colorado to take the revenue they receive and to begin to invest in important programs like transportation, roads and education," said Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.

De-Brucing is a reference to tax activist Douglas Bruce, author of the 1992 Taxpayer's Bill of Rights constitutional amendment. TABOR placed limits on the amount of tax revenue that can be collected by governments in Colorado and mandates tax rebates in some cases when revenues exceed limits tied to population growth.

The term "de-Brucing" refers to ballot measures that allow governments to opt out of the revenue limits and keep amounts raised by existing tax rates. Tax rate increases have to be approved by voters under TABOR.

Several municipalities, including Denver, have de-Bruced their finances with the approval of local voters, but similar efforts to make those kind of changes at the state level have never gotten off the ground.

Hancock said it's time to change that. And Aurora Mayor  Steve Hogan   said while Colorado is at it, voters should whack two other amendments to the Colorado Constitution that wreak havoc on the ability of state and local governments to govern.  



Colorado Springs Mayor Leads Financial Charge to Improve City's Stormwater Program

Colorado Springs Mayor Leads Financial Charge to Improve City's Stormwater Program
Published: January 17, 2016  

Colorado Springs is revving up its stormwater program, more than doubling its staff of inspectors and engineers to deflect lawsuit threats and fix problems cited by Pueblo County and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Mayor John Suthers vowed from the start of his tenure in June to address the city's long-neglected stormwater problems, and he soon started carving $16 million from the city's 2016 budget to add to $3 million from Colorado Springs Utilities.

"I can't emphasize enough, this money wasn't easy to come by," Suthers said. "I've got a lot of unhappy police officers and firefighters out there," because raises and staff additions were frozen for the year.

That $19 million dedicated to stormwater issues this year compares with $5 million from the city's general fund in 2015, though federal grants bolster expenditures yearly. But Pueblo County officials are lamenting the loss of the Stormwater Enterprise Fund, which the City Council dismantled in 2009. They're pointing to the eradication of that fund as cause to possibly rescind the 1041 permit they issued to Utilities to build and operate the $829 million Southern Delivery System.

The timing of the threat couldn't be worse. The enormous project is scheduled to start pumping April 27, delivering up to 50 million gallons of water a day to Pueblo West, Fountain, Security and Colorado Springs.

Meanwhile, the EPA has threatened to sue Colorado Springs for not meeting terms of its Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System permit, better known as the MS4. After inspections in August, the EPA reported that the city didn't have enough resources, inspections or internal controls to maintain and operate its stormwater infrastructure properly. The city also doled out too many waivers and failed to hold developers' "feet to the fire," the inspectors found.

Neither Suthers nor the City Council has denied the magnitude of those problems. Indeed, the city and Utilities have proposed an intergovernmental agreement that would guarantee a minimum of $19 million a year in floodwater projects for 10 years. Utilities would be on the hook if the city experienced an economic downturn.

 

Colorado Association of Home Builders
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