Lafayette joins legal suit to preserve home rule rights
Hot of the presses!
This notification from the city just arrived in my inbox, and I thought many of you might want to hear the news.
Want to send comments about it to the city council? Here you go.
Lafayette joins legal suit to preserve home rule rights
The City of Lafayette has announced a decision to take legal action to secure its state constitutional right as a home rule city to control the manner and rate in which the community grows, develops, and manages land use.
Lafayette, a municipality located in eastern Boulder County with a population of approximately 30,000, will be joining the cities of Aurora, Arvada, Glendale, Greenwood Village, and Westminster in a lawsuit against the state of Colorado and Governor Jared Polis to advocate for jurisdictions who are dedicated to intentionally developing communities that reflect and uphold the unique characteristics and desires of their residents.
Lafayette’s Comprehensive Plan is the City’s official roadmap for smart, integrated growth through 2040, weaving community character, environmental stewardship, a connected community, and a strong economy into a strategic planning framework. This type of thoughtful development has long been a community priority. Lafayette is the only municipality in the state to pass a resident-led Growth Management Initiative, first in 1996 and reaffirmed by voters in 2002, 2008, and 2017. However, in 2023, the City’s ability to manage building permit allocations within their jurisdiction was abruptly preempted by HB23-1255, one of the first of now many overreaches by the state into home rule authority.
Lafayette’s ongoing management of sustainable growth has included robust efforts around attainable and naturally affordable housing opportunities. In 2024, residents began moving into the Willoughby Corner neighborhood, a 400-unit, net-zero, below-market housing development made possible in partnership with the Boulder County Housing Authority and Boulder County. This is the largest affordable housing project in the State of Colorado. In 2023, Lafayette secured funding for residents of the La Luna Community Co-op to purchase and become one of the few resident-owned mobile home parks in Colorado. Through these efforts, Lafayette is on track to meet its 12% goal of deed restricted affordable housing units by 2035 through the Boulder County Regional Housing Partnership.
Lafayette’s planning process provides opportunities for members of the public to participate and be heard in land use decisions. House Bills 24-1313 and -1304 violate Lafayette’s constitutional authority to plan a community that builds upon the unique characteristics of its residents and deny community members the chance to have their voices heard. These bills exclude City leaders from preserving and servicing a livable quality of life for its residents in an area pressured by regional growth. Lafayette seeks to preserve its authority to manage development in a way that allows for community input.
Want to offer more support? Awesome!
Wonderful news! Let's keep up the fight!
At the risk of creating more heat than light, I will observe that Progressives (not liberals mind you):
- Use municipal government to control the lives of individuals in accordance with their personal values
- Use state government to control municipalities in accordance with their personal values
- Use central government to control states in accordance with their personal values.
Subsidiarity is that quaint idea that the guy with the problem is, most often, the best person to solve that problem -- not the guy up in the bleachers. Yea for Lafayette standing up for subsidiarity!