Lawyers list liabilities in new transit-oriented zoning law | Government [Video]

A new law that mandates more than 30 Front Range municipalities incorporate state housing density goals along transit routes will lead to messy conflicts over contractual obligations and yet another erosion of Colorado’s long history of local control over zoning and building regulation, according to critics.

Supporters, on the other hand, argue that the high cost of housing is a problem that needs to be fixed, and Coloradans don’t care who solves it — their local government or state actors.

“It’s certainly arguable that the reasonable expectations of parties to contracts could be adversely affected by state regulation,” said Jack Luellen, special counsel at the Buchalter law firm. “And it really leaves the homeowner or the landowner that bought into an area with certain expectations and executed contracts based on that — to have that materially changed by a state statute — is a significant reach at a minimum.”

“The …