The HBA Advocate | Tuesday, August 5, 2025

• Commerce City to Consider Revisions to Development and Impact Fees, Fire Sprinkler Requirements 

• Thornton City Council Approves Updated Development Code 

• Colorado SecureSavings Program (CSSP) Compliance Toolkit Now Available

Given the cost of these unnecessary systems in residential development, the HBA of Metro Denver vigorously opposed the mandates two years ago and has continued to raise the issue with Council and city staff ever since. Through receipts received from active builders in Commerce City, the HBA has determined that the total cost to install these devices would add approximately $15,000 per unit, depending on the size of the home. Given the impact this cost would have on the industry’s continued challenges to deliver attainable housing to aspiring homeowners, City Council is considering modifying the current mandate by making it optional going forward.  

At the July 14th hearing, City Council also provided direction to staff to conduct a comprehensive review of the City’s development and impact fees and report back with an updated proposed fee schedule and recommendation. A significant portion of the study session centered around the escalating costs associated with these fees and Commerce City’s ability to remain competitive with neighboring jurisdictions and an attractive place for future development.   

Over the past two years, Commerce City has implemented substantial increases to its Public Parks and Recreation Fee, Drainage Fee, and Road Impact Fee. The City has also implemented a series of new fees for public safety, general government and public works. Collectively, these new and existing fee increases have added $20,722.09 to the cost of building a home.  

The HBA of Metro Denver submitted a comments letter and other resources and participated directly in the July 14th study session. The HBA, along with Oakwood, Tri Pointe, KB Homes and others, participated in a series of stakeholder meetings in June. We will remain engaged in this important discussion as future hearings are scheduled. 

Thornton City Council gave its initial approval of proposed revisions to the City’s Development Code on July 22nd. Prior to the hearing, city staff provided significant public outreach opportunities to solicit feedback on the amendments--both to current residents and the development community. Updates at the HBA’s bimonthly Joint Taskforce meetings provided a continued opportunity for regular updates and input, along with a series of stand-alone meetings that the HBA scheduled on specific points of interest and concern.   

While the HBA supported many of the staff-recommended updates to the UDO as presented and believes it is a positive step in the right direction, we did recommend Council consider creating “a single-family detached-small lot” category to support new, more affordable consumer preferences in the marketplace. 

Given current market conditions and the persistent shortage of attainable for-sale housing opportunities, the HBA submitted a letter in June proposing outlining how lot size and width requirements within the UDO remained overly restrictive for single-family detached front, alley-loaded and transit-oriented categories, with modifications only being allowed through a PDO process.  

We are concerned this will add additional review times, unnecessary uncertainty and needlessly restrict more affordably priced units from the marketplace. 

While city staff did make some revisions to the code to accommodate our request, we still have a few additional amendments, particularly regarding minimum lot area and lot width sizes that need to be addressed.   

Upon bringing these issues up to members of City Council, staff has agreed to immediately begin working on resolving these issues once the UDO is adopted later this month. The HBA agreed this would be the most effective way of dealing with these issues without unnecessarily delaying pending development applications.  

We will continue to keep our membership updated on these developments going forward.  

To avoid these penalties and empower employees with a path to a secure financial future, employers must either register for the no-cost Colorado SecureSavings Program or certify that they offer another qualified retirement plan. 

We urge you to share this information with your business networks to ensure they take action now. More information is available on the Colorado SecureSavings Webpage available here.