Brian Eason’s piece in The Colorado Sun lays out the newest version of the same old statehouse fantasy: if Democrats just regulate housing one more time, this time they will finally manufacture affordability by decree. The article explains that House Democrats have shifted from pushing apartments and townhomes to targeting single-family housing itself, backing bills that would make it easier to build on smaller lots and split existing residential lots in two. In their telling, the problem is that homes are too big, lots are too big, and local governments have simply not been enlightened enough to force the “right” kind of housing on their communities.
Eason reports that House Bill 1308 would require many local governments to let residential property owners split one lot into two, while House Bill 1114 would bar most cities from requiring lots larger than 2,000 square feet for a home. The article presents these ideas as an affordability push, leaning on advocates who argue that smaller homes on smaller lots mean lower costs. It also quotes Democratic lawmakers openly saying that local opposition only proves the state needs to step in harder. That right there is the tell. When voters push back, the lesson they draw is not “listen better.” It is “override faster.”
The most revealing thing in the article is not even the policy. It is the posture. The arrogance under the Gold Dome is something to behold. They really do believe they can fix markets with mandates, override local governments because they know better, and cram more density into places they do not represent without paying the infrastructure bill that comes with it. Great suburban normie, apparently you are living too large, and the glorious ruling class in Denver is here to help.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Democrats have shifted from pushing townhomes and apartments to what the article literally describes as “shrinking the single-family home.” So now the people who made housing harder to build want credit for making houses smaller too.
- House Bill 1308 would require many local governments to allow lot splits, meaning one residential lot could become two lots with two single-family homes. Because nothing says “local control” like the state legislature ordering a city what it must allow in its neighborhoods.
- House Bill 1114 would ban most cities from requiring lots larger than 2,000 square feet for a house. Traditional SF-1 zoning often starts around 6,000 square feet, which is already modest. Two thousand square feet is not some magic affordability wand. It is a crowding experiment.
- The article admits these bills would continue the state’s recent pattern of forcing density through mandates near transit, relaxing parking requirements, and overriding local zoning choices. Denver Democrats call that progress. Most normal people call it meddling.
- Local critics in the article raise exactly the right concerns: infrastructure, traffic, water demand, public safety, neighborhood character, and the loss of public hearings. Those are not side issues. Those are the whole ballgame when you start stuffing more homes onto the same footprint.
My Bottom Line
Government does not make housing more affordable by mandate. It just does not. Government can make housing harder to build. It can make housing slower to approve. It can make housing more expensive with codes, fees, mandates, delays, and market distortion. And then, after creating half the problem, it can hold a press conference and pretend the answer is even more control. That is what this is.
The arrogance here is breathtaking. “Oh thank you, state legislature, for requiring that a locally elected government do something.” That is the mindset. Democrats under the Gold Dome do not trust local elected bodies, do not trust neighborhoods, do not trust markets, and increasingly do not trust voters either. Every time local residents say, “We would like a say in how our community grows,” the answer from Denver is basically, “Cute. We know better.”
Here’s what matters for Colorado families. Subdivisions were designed with water, sewer, electric, roads, drainage, and service capacity tied to the lot sizes and density originally platted. You do not just wave a legislative wand, double the homes, shrink the lots, and assume the pipes, streets, transformers, and public safety load somehow sort themselves out. They do not. If you increase density without increasing infrastructure capacity, you do not create affordability. You create strain. You create congestion. You create conflict. And eventually, you degrade the neighborhood you claimed to be helping.
And let’s be honest about the cultural part of this too. A lot of families want a yard. They want some breathing room. They want a neighborhood that was planned like a neighborhood, not like a spreadsheet exercise by activists and lawmakers who think every problem can be solved by packing people closer together and calling it compassion. People are not wrong for wanting that. They are not backward. They are not misinformed. They are citizens with preferences, property, and a right to have their local government reflect both.
If Democrats were serious about affordability, they would start repealing the regulatory burdens and legislative mandates that drive up construction costs in the first place. They would get out of the way. They would stop pretending that commanding the market is the same thing as fixing it. But that would require humility, and humility is in short supply under the dome these days. Their narrative wins the day, prices keep rising, and somehow the answer is always more of the same.
Source: The Colorado Sun
