A proposed new law would give communities stronger tools to enforce the kinds of blueprints they create to establish housing and schools, businesses and shopping malls, hospitals, police stations and all the roads and rails and parks to round them out.
The proposed legislation, written by the Colorado chapter of the American Planning Association, seems tailor-made for new and growing cities that wish to solidify their plans for the future, according to a review of a draft of the bill. Currently, state law makes master plans advisory only.
“This is so enlightened jurisdictions can do really good planning,” said Graham Billingsley, the local chapter’s president and the director of land use for the Boulder County.
Such secured planning, they say, would increase residents’ quality of life.
“People actually do look at (master plans) when they look at a home, because they’re not just buying a house, they’re buying a view, they’re buying community,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder. “And if then there’s suddenly a strip mall they hadn’t anticipated right across from their backyard, they feel it’s been a bait and switch.”
The bill’s supporters likely will face stiff opposition from a wide range of groups, including elected officials from cities, counties and towns. Opponents say a plethora of laws and regulations already give communities the tools they need to do good planning.
But zoning regulations don’t have to conform with a community’s master plan, Billingsley said, making it too easy to tinker with that community’s vision of itself. A master plan requires significant public input and analysis, but zoning changes typically affect a small number of people. So a zoning change here, a zoning change there, and soon a community has been significantly changed without a corresponding level of public input, Billingsley said.
“If your master plan says that the area should be preserved, and it’s advisory only, your City Council can say, ‘But it’s more important to get an employment generator in here.”‘
Under the proposed law, local officials who opt to make their master plans enforceable would face a different scenario. If officials want to attract more jobs, they would be encouraged to revise the master plan, Billingsley said. Instead of simply rezoning an area to make room for a new store or business, the city could rethink which areas of the city could be zoned for employment opportunities, and then plan for the roads and services needed to make it workable.
The measure also would require that master plans follow “key planning principles” that focus on protecting the environment, alternative transportation and tighter groupings of population meant to avoid sprawl and congestion.
Opponents worry the new law would make it harder for developers to persuade local officials to alter zoning rules to transform, for example, land designated as a future park into an office complex.
“If that becomes part of your basic planning process, you’re going to shut development down,” said Bob Moody, who oversees legislative matters for the Colorado chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.
Supporters say the proposed changes aren’t meant to slow or restrict communities from developing, only to bring more certainty to the process.
Both the current and proposed law focus on towns or cities of 10,000 or more people and larger counties.
Opponents say that local governments of that size already are required to have master plans, and that any changes to zoning are accompanied by plenty of public input.
“We have felt pretty strongly on the issue of local control of our land-use prerogatives and resisted statewide planning dictates,” said Sam Mamet, who directs the Colorado Municipal League. “I get slightly nervous when I hear folks tell me that we’ve got to do even a better job of planning when I know that we have so many local plans already in place.”
Researchers at the Denver Regional Council of Governments, which represents more than 50 cities and counties, said they are unaware of cases where changes to zoning significantly altered a master plan.
“We don’t see any problem existing,” said Sherry Patton, a spokeswoman for the council. “I do think their hearts are in the right place, but I do wonder which communities are out there that are the problem.”
Staff writer Chuck Plunkett can be reached at 303-820-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com.
