When it comes to the Land Use Code debate, Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce and the Northern Colorado Board of Realtors and the are some of the more salient groups. The business community is generally acceptive of the Land Development Code for a number of reasons.

The Land Development Code, in general, gives property owners more flexibility in regards to what they can do with their properties. With more flexibility to add additional dwelling units and increase density, the hope is that while supply will increase, prices will decrease. 

The Chamber of Commerce is an association that is composed of small and large businesses that advocate for business issues on behalf of their member businesses. 

The Northern Colorado Board of Realtors is a group that represents real estate agents who have joined their group. A realtor is a higher level of a real estate agent, meaning that they paid a fee to join the Board and have sworn to uphold a code of ethics. 

Both groups were supportive of the Land Development Code and took an active public stance to their support. 

Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce

“One of our top issues is housing,” said Joe Rowan, policy consultant and housing specialist for the Chamber. 

The Chamber advocates on behalf of its member businesses and one of the recurring issues that they hear from their members is about housing. 

“With our member businesses, one of the number one issues that they face is being able to attract and retain employees,” said Rowan. “ An issue that is brought up over and over again with their employees is that the difficulty in finding not only appropriate housing but housing that they can comfortably afford.” 

The Land Use Code created barriers to development which was limiting the supply of housing in Fort Collins. The Chamber sees housing as a supply and demand issue so breaking down those barriers to development in the Land Development Code would allow for an increase in housing supply. 

Advocacy on behalf of business is one of the pillars of the Chamber of Commerce and that is what they did with the Land Development Code. 

Fort Collins Board of Realtors

Similar to the Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Collins Board of Realtors took a similar position in regards to the Land Development Code. 

“All real estate has local and national issues that have to do with government,” said Marcus Valdez, director of Governmental Affairs for the Fort Collins Board of Realtors. 

“When you really look at it [The Land Development Code], what it does is it increases the density,” Valdez said. 

“ So if someone wants to build a duplex or sixplex and they have that much land for the property, this allows them to build on that land and to use it for the highest and best use for that particular property.” 

The Land Development Code would take away barriers to denser development that will increase the supply of housing in Fort Collins.

The Board of Realtors met with the City to talk about parts of the Land Development Code that they had questions about. 

“As the government affairs committee we had meetings specifically with the City about it and there were just a lot about how the utilities work, who pays for the water and they had answers for them but I’m not sure some of those answers were super thought out,” Valdez said. “When they make a new rule they’re not going to know the unintended consequences of that rule.”

A complex part of making policy is not knowing the unintended consequences. This is what the Board was worried about but overall the Land Development Code was better in their eyes than the Land Use Code. 

Valdez has been involved with real estate for over 30 years now. He sees groups like the Board as a part of the process of the Land Development Code because they hold the industry knowledge that the City might not. 

Conclusion

Both groups support the Land Development Code but there are nuances to why they support it and those nuances come from what their group stands for.

The Chamber of Commerce supports the Land Development Code because their members need employees that can find appropriate and affordable housing near their place of work. To the Chamber, the supply side of housing is too low and that is why prices have increased. 

The Chamber also supports it because it would create more appropriate types of housing. While Fort Collins has lots of student housing for CSU, that is not the type of housing people outside of college are looking for. 

The Board of Realtors supports the Land Development Code because they want everyone who owns property to have more flexibility over their property. 

More flexibility will allow property owners to develop their properties to the best purpose of that property. This will allow for more housing which will increase density. It also means that more variety of housing is likely to be developed. 

In case you were wondering about my last article, I am still working on a couple interviews. More to come on that later. As always, feel free to reach me at michael.stella@colostate.edu or @Michaelstella_.