Can Colorado cities prevent thousands of apartments from losing affordability protections?

While some of the advocates backing the right-of-first-refusal bill also support Polis’ land-use reforms, that policy approach, if successful, will take years to bear fruit. They repeatedly have stressed the need to provide help in the meantime, given the severity of the state’s housing affordability crisis.

“We have to start by preserving the existing affordable housing that we have,” Hasstedt said. “Otherwise, we’re just going to keep digging the hole deeper, and we’re never going to get out of it.”

The change in approach, along with amendments made during the bill’s journey through the House this year, has successfully neutralized some of last year’s opposition, including from groups representing bankers and title insurers.

But other old foes, including the Colorado Apartment Association and the powerful business group Colorado Concern, remain opposed. So do Republican legislators, who view the bill as an encroachment on property owners’ rights.

“If you’re thinking about investing $20 million into an affordable project in Colorado, then you’re still concerned about having this cloud on the title of what you develop, and (some may decide) to go elsewhere because of it,” said Drew Hamrick, the senior vice president of governmental affairs for the apartment association. “We still believe and worry about the stigmatizing effect it has on housing investment.”

Hamrick argued that the policy would depress prices on developments because would-be buyers wouldn’t invest as much time or money in researching and bidding on properties that may end up being owned by a local government anyway.

He said he supported another piece of the bill that would give local governments a “right of first offer” on for-sale, market-rate properties. But he was flatly opposed to the rest.

Other groups and entities seeking changes to the bill have links to high-profile developers and property owners.

The path to governor’s desk

The bill now heads to the Senate, where the broader measure passed last year after delays and negotiations. If the new version passes, the bill will enact the first statewide right of first refusal of its kind in the country.

Some cities, counties and housing organizations have a version of the policy, and lawmakers in Maryland have advanced legislation that includes a right of first refusal for tenants to buy their residences.

Denver also has a similar policy that seeks to preserve subsidized housing properties. Renee Gallegos, the deputy director of housing opportunity for the city’s Department of Housing Stability, said it had been used twice in recent years, via a nonprofit partner, to buy properties and sell them as condos with affordability requirements.

Should HB-1175 clear the Senate, the final say would again rest with Polis.

In his veto letter last June, he said he didn’t support a right of first refusal “that adds costs and time to transactions.” Sponsors this year have worked to trim the timelines in the bill, expediting sales as well as local governments’ decisions on whether to exercise their right to step in.

In a statement to The Denver Post on Friday, Polis spokeswoman Shelby Wieman said the governor “appreciates the dialogue happening with sponsors and all stakeholders” and that Polis “will continue to monitor this bill as it moves through the legislative process.”