Summit County last month hosted “County 101: Housing the Missing Middle,” a community meeting that included local housing experts and numerous government officials – including staff from Gov. Polis’ office, the county and local towns – to discuss how we can provide more housing to meet our community’s needs.

Meetings like this are happening at every level of government, in nearly every community in Colorado, including at the state Capitol in Denver, where Gov. Polis and just about every lawmaker began the 2023 legislative session with a pledge to tackle Colorado’s housing challenges.

But in the middle of many collaborative and constructive conversations about reducing the costs associated with housing, we have to address legislation like House Bill 23-1090. This proposal seeks to put severe limitations on metropolitan districts – a form of local government in Colorado that has the ability to finance, build and maintain infrastructure like streets, sidewalks, parks and water and sewer lines without placing those costs immediately into the price of a new home.

By financing these investments over time, metro districts serve an important role by making housing more affordable and allowing new developments to pay their own way. Metro districts also ensure that infrastructure costs do not burden existing taxpayers outside a new development area, since without a metro district, towns and counties would have to seek tax increases and bond approval from all residents to fund new infrastructure.

If approved, House Bill 1090 would make it nearly impossible to use metro districts by banning developers from financing the first stages of a project. Developments in the early stages are sometimes considered too risky for traditional debt markets. However, roads, sidewalks, water and sewers must be constructed before homes are built.

Limiting developer financing would require costs that can be financed over time through a metro district to be added to the initial sales price of a home, likely pricing many buyers out of the market and making master planned communities impractical because of large up front infrastructure costs.

Fortunately, Senate Bill 23-110 provides legislators an alternative to House Bill 1090’s draconian provisions. The goal of this bipartisan proposal is to increase accountability for metro districts while keeping in place the financing tools used by these districts.

Senate Bill 110 acknowledges that there are places in state law that can be fine-tuned to offer greater transparency for taxpayers and homeowners by putting into law best practices utilized by several municipalities and counties when approving metro district service plans.

Senate Bill 110 requires municipalities and counties to set both a mill-levy cap for bond payments and a debt limit in a metro district’s service plan. These provisions provide assurances to homeowners that their property taxes will not go above a certain level for as long as the district’s bonds remain outstanding and that debt issued by the district cannot exceed set amounts. The bill also requires debt issued by a developer to be at the same or lower rates and terms as bonds issued by the public market.

The bill includes transparency requirements to increase accountability. This includes an annual town hall meeting for metro district boards to ensure that homeowners have an opportunity to meet with the board outside of formal meetings. During these town halls, metro districts must provide information on projects and outstanding debt, and then allow time for questions from community members.

Finally, Senate Bill 110 requires early disclosure during the resale process, before escrow money is committed, so that potential homebuyers can make informed decisions about the taxes and debt within a metro district before finalizing the purchase of a home. The bill also requires disclosure of the metro district’s website and requires that website to include critical information like the district’s service plan, mill levy and debt limitations, budget, audit and board election information.

Senate Bill 110 is the type of proactive, collaborative legislation that will help – not hurt – our ability to provide more housing in our communities. House Bill 1090 is just the opposite.

It’s already hard enough to build affordable and attainable housing here in Colorado considering factors like high interest rates, skyrocketing labor costs and ongoing supply-chain issues. We don’t need the legislature making it even harder. That’s why lawmakers need to support Senate Bill 110 – keeping the critical financing tools of a metro district in place while adding more transparency and accountability for homeowners and taxpayers.

Paul Camillo is president of the Summit County Builders Association.