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Colorado APA Chapter
Position Statement on Growth Management Legislation
Adopted by APA Colorado Board 2001
Comprehensive Plans
Every community (cities and counties) should be required to have Comp. Plans. Smaller communities should be provided with special funding and planning support. Planning standards and expectations should be less for smaller communities.
Every community should be required to adopt Comprehensive Plans and bring local regulations into conformance with plans within a set period of time. The time could be longer for smaller communities.Plans should reflect a 20-year time frame to support typical infrastructure and land use needs. Localities should be able to also include longer time frames. Capital facility planning should also use smaller 2-5 year increments.Local jurisdictions should not be able to revise their plans more than once a year. The jurisdiction should be able to revise the plan more often in cases of emergencies involving public safety, economic loss, or significant actions by other governments.Comp. Plans must address but are not limited to, as appropriate to the particular community, the following:
- Land use
- Transportation
- Housing
- Open Space
- Recreation
- Infrastructure and capital facilities
- Water supply
- Economic vitality
- Public facilities and services
- Community image
- Environmental resources and hazards
Comprehensive Plans shall include an urban growth boundary or urban growth area that is based on the jurisdiction's ability to provide infrastructure and services for the plan's 20-year time frame. Urban development shall only be allowed with the urban growth area. There should be definition of what either is or is not allowed outside the boundary. These areas should be exclusive - a property cannot be in more than one growth area.
Comprehensive Plans shall address the balance between jobs and housing. They shall describe how the balance shall be achieved within the community or cooperatively with other communities. They shall describe how a full range of housing will be provided to meet the demands associated with the projected growth.
Conformity with Comp. Plans
Zoning and development regulations, land use approvals, capital budgets and expenditures, and other actions shall be in conformance with the Comprehensive Plans.
If development applications are received that are consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and with all regulations, policies, and standards of the community, they shall be reviewed in an efficient and expeditious manner. There shall be a presumption of buildability for all development applications that only require administrative approvals, if they conform with the Comp. Plan and with all regulations, standards, and policies of the community.
The ability to use moratoria to support the adoption of Comp. Plans, regulations, and standards conforming with legislation should not be curtailed. Moratoria should be limited to such appropriate use.
Regional Cooperation
The Denver Metropolitan area should be required to adopt a regional plan with appropriate content.
Local plans in the Denver Metropolitan should be required to conform to the regional plan.Other regions should be encouraged to have regional plans.
Regional will need to be well defined.
Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms
An alternative dispute resolution mechanism should be developed to resolve disputes between jurisdictions involving overlapping or adjacent planning areas or involving areas outside of jurisdictional boundaries.
Urban Growth Boundaries/Urban Growth Areas
Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs)/Urban Growth Areas (UGAs) must be adopted into the Comprehensive Plan by each jurisdiction based on its community objectives, projected growth, and its ability to provide for and maintain required infrastructure needs generated by development.
Each jurisdiction shall set a minimum density requirement in the Comprehensive Plan for its Urban Growth Boundary/Urban Growth Area in conformance with any adopted regional plans. Flexibility shall be available within each UGB/UGA to determine how that density will be defined and achieved.
Establishment of UGBs/UGAs shall include the creation of a map that delineates, either by line or by acreage, where growth is to occur that will be accommodated by infrastructure; policies shall be developed to limit development outside that line.
Conservation Measures
Enhance the potential use of transfer of development rights, purchase of development rights, or purchase of conservation easements.
Ex Urban and Rural Areas
A critical part of requiring urban growth boundaries is determining what is allowed outside of those boundaries. Uses outside of urban growth boundaries should be limited to agriculturally related uses or development in designated rural villages. The Colorado Chapter of APA should do more work to recommend how these areas should be planned.
Impact Fees
Legislative authority for impact fees needs to be strengthened.
Special Districts
Special districts must be in compliance with Comprehensive Plans.
Fiscal Responsibility
- Specific tools should be used to evaluate and to help encourage fiscal responsibility, including fiscal impact analysis, cost-revenue analysis, impact fees, and capital budgeting. The use of revenue sharing between jurisdictions should be studied and encouraged. Growth within Urban Growth Boundaries should be fiscally responsible, with financing mechanisms allowing for phased infrastructure development to occur through a combination of public (jurisdictional) and private resources.
- The authorization and regulation of special districts should be in conformance with comp plans and should be fiscally responsible.
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