Recreating Main Street: How Erie is using local control to solve its affordable housing problem

Weld County (Colo.) is offering its set of solutions to its housing woes as a sensible paradigm, even as state leaders and municipal and county governments prepare for a major battle over local control.

Gov. Jared Polis laid out the contours of that fight during his State of the State address in January, when he mentioned housing 37 times and argued the state needs "more housing for every Colorado budget, close to where jobs are.”

Indeed, he wrapped housing around a series of solutions to all kinds of problems: “Housing policy is climate policy. Housing policy is economic policy. Housing policy is transportation policy. Housing Policy is water policy.”

To make that happen, the governor called for “more flexible zoning to allow more housing, streamlined regulations that cut through red tape, expedited approval processes for projects like modular housing, sustainable development, and more building in transit oriented communities.”