As fights over development and density dominate headlines in Colorado Springs, local activists say a bill that won approval at the state House of Representatives Tuesday is unfair. 

The bill would require neighborhoods groups to cover a local governments attorneys’ fees if they lost an appeal of a land-use decisions. Developers would not have to pay such fees if they lost.

“It’s extremely lopsided,” said Kat Gayle, an attorney who works with Colorado Springs groups Westside Watch and Integrity Matters. Westside Watch opposed a proposal to build hundreds of apartments at 2424 Garden of the Gods Road. The Colorado Springs City Council voted down the apartments after hearing impassioned testimony about the risk they could pose in a wildfire evacuation. 

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The bill also drew opposition from a coalition of neighborhood groups from Colorado Springs and elsewhere called the Colorado Community Coalition. 

Supporters of the bill frame it as a way to block frivolous lawsuits and support multifamily and affordable housing projects. 

The state Senate approved House Bill 24-1107 Tuesday on a 22 to 11 vote and it is now headed to the governor’s desk.

Senate Democrats issued a statement celebrating the bill Tuesday as a way to address the housing the affordability crisis by limiting lawsuits that can slow down development. 

“The bill strikes the right balance between protecting the rights of existing homeowners while making it more difficult for a few outspoken neighbors to weaponize the judicial process to stop affordable housing,” said Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Arapahoe County, in the statement. 

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Colorado Springs has not seen slow apartment development, despite a handful of controversial proposals. 

A recent Pikes Peak Regional Building Department estimate said 3,058 apartments were completed and opened to renters in 2023, The Gazette previously reported. Nearly 8,900 more units are under construction and will be added to the area’s multifamily inventory this year and beyond.

Colorado Springs Republican Sen. Bob Gardner was among those who voted for the bill. He described it as a very serious policy choice. 

“It is focused in a particular way and that particular way or policy is about not having impediments of affordable housing,” he said. 

However, the bill does not call out dedicated affordable housing specifically. It would require residents to cover attorneys’ fees if they lose a court appeal of any residential development of five housing units per acre. 

Gardner noted residents could not be ordered to pay fees if they appeal commercial developments and he would have opposed such a measure. 

However, Gayle said the bill does not provide equal protection under the law and could actually hurt the ability of low-income residents to stand up for themselves against the large development proposals. 

“The developers and the city or county interests are being held at a higher level than the right of the citizens,” she said. 

Westside Watch co-founder Bill Wysong said last week state Rep. and El Paso County Commission candidate Don Wilson’s support of the bill prompted him to run against Wilson in District 3. 

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“You just shut down the ability of the people to petition the government for redress due to exorbitant requirements,” Wysong said previously. 

The developer proposing the market rate apartments at 2424 Garden of the Gods Road appealed the council’s denial and lost in court. Under the new bill, the developer would not owe attorneys’ fees. 

But residents fighting a very similar apartment proposal in the same area at 4425 Arrowswest Drive would owe fees if they eventually lose in court. 

The bill could also limit the recourse of residents living in established affordable neighborhoods to stand up to developers. For example, the Mill Street area neighbors south of downtown want to negotiate with any developer taking over the former Martin Drake Power Plant property for certain community benefits, such as a community garden. 

If a developer did not honor such an agreement through their development plans with city council, the neighbors probably could not afford to hold them accountable, Gayle said.