Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill Monday that eliminates discriminatory occupancy limits statewide. That means Fort Collins will have to scrap its controversial You Plus Two rule, which allows no more than two adults, their dependents, and one additional person in a house.
The city has enforced occupancy restrictions since the 1960s to "protect the quality and character of neighborhoods," according to the city's website. At the time, it was considered a criminal offense, but it was harder to prove in court. It wasn't until the early 2000s that some city residents wanted to make the ordinance more enforceable, so it was made into a civil offense. Since then, the city has considered upping the amount of residents in a dwelling as housing gets more expensive.
"Depending on what side of that occupancy equation you're on, if you're a long standing neighbor that doesn't like their neighborhood being over parked, you might have a different feeling than if you are a young professional trying to afford housing," said Ginny Sawyer, a policy and project manager with the city.
Colorado State University student body president Nick DeSalvo has been pushing city council to find solutions for students that struggle with housing.
“Students always had a lovely four letter word for You Plus Two,” he said. “It's made the cost of rent unaffordable, (and) it’s given landlords unnecessary leverage against students who are actively breaking the law in order to afford housing.”
The city's latest data shows that rents in Fort Collins are 78% higher in 2017 than they were in 2005. The average rent price for an apartment in Fort Collins is $1,900 a month – a cost that has grown by $300 since summer of 2020 and stayed above the national average rent price, according to RentCafe. Some students have become unhoused due to the high prices.
“The issue of affordable housing isn't a Fort Collins problem or a state of Colorado problem, it's a national problem,” DeSalvo said. “This (bill) isn't a magic bullet, this doesn't solve all of our problems, but it helps chip away at the affordability problems.”
More than 1,200 houses were in violation of the city’s You Plus Two ordinance in 2018, according to the city data. Fifty-two percent of the violators were not students.
“I know a lot of people, even though they were against it, they were too scared to testify in front of City Council, which was unfortunate,” said Evan Welch, the deputy director of housing security for ASCSU.
When petitions, documentaries and city council discussions did not push the needle, DeSalvo and other students from Associated Students of CSU went to the state legislature with a contract lobbying firm they hired. DeSalvo and other officers from ASCSU joined Polis as he signed the bill.
“I'm glad it won't be an issue anymore so we could focus on other aspects of improving student lives on campus,” DeSalvo said. “You're playing with people's lives and their ability to live, and I just don't think that's right.”
But some residents, like David Roy, a former city councilmember and volunteer for Preserve Fort Collins, are disappointed in the state’s action.
“[The Fort Collins City Council] has given the power of being able to control land use planning in Fort Collins to the governor who's decided that a one-size-fits-all program is best for the entire state of Colorado,” Roy said.
Some argue that getting rid of You Plus Two could help with affordability, as Fort Collins has many multigenerational families and students would like to add one or two more students to a lease to lower the overall cost of rent. However, Roy believes that this will just be a “money grab” for equity and investment firms that will take over properties and increase the prices before these students or families can do anything about it.
“(The firms) have an opportunity to take some of the best housing stock in the state of Colorado and turn it into a cash machine without lowering the rents for a single person,” he said. “Instead of choosing to find ways to give homes to people who are homeless, (the state) has chosen instead to tax every single neighborhood in Fort Collins.”
Roy was on the city council when the You Plus Two rule was passed. He believes there has been an “upward trajectory” in the quality of life of neighborhoods since it was passed. But without a specified number of people to a house, he said there’s no guardrail anymore.
“Neighborhoods that have felt immune to overcrowding, not having any parking on the street, a deterioration of their housing stock…I think there’s going to be a real eye-opener for thousands and thousands of people in Colorado,” he said.
But some college students, including Michael Stella, the director of governmental affairs for ASCSU, thinks those arguments “aren’t based in reality.”
“Who wants to pack a house with 10 people?” he said. “When people say, ‘We're gonna make these houses group homes and fill them with a ton of people,’ I personally wouldn't want to do that.”
The bill will still allow cities to limit occupancy based on health and safety codes, and the city plans to keep other nuisance codes intact. Many students believe these ordinances will keep the quality of life that opponents of the bill were looking for, but Roy believes those ordinances are not enough.
“The theory is good, that laws on the books that helped to protect neighborhoods is a good thing,” he said. “But like most laws, if they're not enforced, and if there's not funding…then they're just a distraction and a talking point to be able to deflect the lack of actually working their hardest to keep our neighborhoods vital and healthy.”
Several other cities in Northern Colorado will be affected, such as Greeley and Boulder. Fort Collins city officials said they plan to comply with the new law before it goes into effect on July 1st.
