Fort Collins City Council explores adding U+2 question to November ballot

Fort Collins City Council is considering adding a question on the November ballot asking voters if the city should loosen its "U+2" residential occupancy restrictions.

Mayor Jeni Arndt brought up the idea to council during its meeting Tuesday. Arndt suggested council add a ballot question asking voters if they want council to explore relaxing the city's occupancy regulations. The vote wouldn't actually change U+2, but would provide council broader feedback about residents' appetite for change.

Arndt suggested council ask voters if they would like to see a change in the ordinance, and if so, council can do the work in figuring out what the change should be.

"I think, in all fairness to the community and for more information for the council, that we don't put a specific ordinance on the ballot but we ask the people of Fort Collins if the City Council should consider increasing occupancy in Fort Collins, to give us more information on how to proceed forward on what has proven to be a hot-button issue," Arndt said.

Council member Kelly Ohlson, a longtime supporter of U+2, criticized this suggestion as "bad governance" and said "it's such a complex issue, I think we should be the ones formulating" the solution.

Current housing restrictions essentially prevent more than three unrelated people from living in most housing in the city.

"It strikes me as a very last-minute thing to put something of this substance on the ballot," Ohlson said.

Arndt said she didn't suggest council take action on U+2 earlier because she didn't want council action to interfere with a citizen-led ballot initiative effort to repeal and replace U+2 with a looser occupancy ordinance — basing the number of adults allowed in a residence on number of bedrooms and bedroom size — that was active through mid-June. The petition fell short of getting the signatures needed to get on the ballot by the June 27 deadline.

Prior to the launch of the citizen initiative this spring, about 100 Colorado State University students and community members attended an April City Council meeting to show their support for placing the repeal of U+2 restrictions on the ballot.

"I feel like if we ask the voters of Fort Collins if they'd like us to proceed, then we feel comfortable proceeding with talking about increasing occupancy in Fort Collins," Arndt said Tuesday night. "I feel comfortable asking their opinion."

While signatures on citizen-led petitions needed to be submitted by the end of June to get an initiative on the ballot, City Council has several more weeks to add anything it wants to the ballot. Council is scheduled to vote on any tax measures it would like to send to Fort Collins voters at its Aug. 15 meeting.

Representatives leading the petition effort previously told the Coloradoan there was significant interest in their effort, but gathering the signatures needed was a relatively tall order with one week left in CSU's spring semester.

"I don't think every time a group of residents fail dramatically in getting the signatures to put something on the ballot that the council ought to react and put the question on," Ohlson said. "I think that's what the process is there for. You either get the signatures or you don't, and if you don't, all the sudden the council does the work for you."

Mayor pro tem Emily Francis said council chose to put ranked choice voting and the plastic bag ban on the ballot previously, two items passed by voters that had at one time been citizen-led initiatives that did not gather enough signatures.

More election news: Fort Collins City Council narrowing down tax proposals. Here's what they would fund, cost

"I think just considering, just asking, 'Should we proceed?' is a good move," Francis said. "If the voters said 'yes,' we would still do the work on what it would look like. ... I think it's a good balance of 'should we spend our time doing this, and if so, we'll do what we were elected to do, which is work through it.'"

Council members Shirley Peel and Tricia Canonico both supported sending this question to voters so council can get a better direction from the community.

"I think that we should give the public, our residents, our constituents an opportunity to speak out," Canonico said.

Council member Susan Gutowsky voiced her concern that this felt rushed and that because this is a "contentious ... hot-button issue," that she worries "it might become too hot-button an issue that would enter into (council member) elections," which will also be on the November ballot.

With the majority of council supportive of exploring sending this question to voters, staff said they will come back with a few variations of ballot language for council to consider and vote on during their Aug. 15 meeting.

City Council's prior work on U+2

City Council began revisiting U+2 at a work session in July 2021. City staff conducted a survey of residents in mid-2022. Here are some of those survey results:

• Nearly 70% respondents — and 80% of respondents identifying as renters — to the city’s occupancy survey felt that Fort Collins’ occupancy limit should not stay as is.

• 56% of respondents think occupancy should increase to more than three unrelated occupants.

• 59% of respondents said the process to approve extra occupancy should be easier.

In the 2022 survey, 51% of respondents were in support of an ordinance that limits occupancy based on the number of bedrooms in a home. A task force formed around the same time made up of renters, landlords and homeowners recommended that council either change the occupancy code to align with the number of bedrooms or allow extra occupancy rentals citywide and evaluate extra occupancy through an administrative permit process rather than land use.

The city has considered changes to its occupancy and rental regulations 10 times since the 2005 passage of U+2, according to previous Coloradoan reporting.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins City Council considering sending U+2 question to voters