Community Development Department
Reference: Housing Needs Assessment Update and Housing Action Plan
To: Mayor Gregory Mills, Members of City Council, and Members of the Planning Commission
Through: Michael P. Martinez, City Manager
Prepared By: Shawn Weiman, Affordable Housing Coordinator
Date Prepared: May 27, 2026
PURPOSE
To introduce an update, strategies, and implementation concepts related to the City of Brighton (the “City”) Housing Needs and Incentive Strategies Assessment (“HNA”) and to the Housing Action Plan (“HAP”).
BACKGROUND
The HNA was presented to the City Council on October 24, 2023. The HNA forecasts a ten-year housing need of 3,100 units and recommends twenty-two strategies by which the City’s housing needs may be met.
After the HNA was accepted as the City’s housing strategies guide, Colorado Senate Bill 24-174 (the “Bill”) was passed that established methodologies by which housing needs are assessed. The Bill includes a provision for updating pre-existing assessments that do not meet the Bill’s minimum requirements. The Bill also requires the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (“DOLA”) to put forth a set of strategies by which housing needs goals can be met. Jurisdictions are required to select a certain number of those strategies and format them into an HAP. Subsequently, both an HNA update and HAP are required to comply with the Bill.
STAFF ANALYSIS & RECOMMENDATIONS
The current HNA largely satisfies the Bill’s requirements, with assessments of these three metrics needing inclusion:
1. Accessible and visitable housing needs;
2. Supportive housing needs; and
3. Housing displacement risk.
Additionally, the HNA’s recommended housing strategies greatly overlap with DOLA’s list of strategies, and some HNA strategies have already been implemented either via code amendments or policy adoption. Staff selected the following strategies to include in the HAP (those marked with an asterisk “*” have already been implemented and satisfy the Bill’s requirements):
1. Leverage public land for housing,
2. Subsidize or reduce impact fees for affordable housing*,
3. Implement a density bonus program,
4. Implement an expedited development review process for affordable housing*,
5. Incentivize accessible or visitable units,
6. Adopt laws that support family housing,
7. Remain eligible for Proposition 123 funding*,
8. Amend zoning to encourage ADUs*,
9. Support legal costs for evictions or foreclosures*, and
10. Preserve existing affordable housing*.
In addition, since the selected HAP strategies correspond with recommended strategies in the HNA, Staff presents for consideration a concept implementation plan: Rewrite the Community Benefit Incentives into a bundled housing incentives program that is approved and modified from time to time by the City Council via resolution. If the concept plan is approved, seven HNA and four DOLA strategies will be implemented, and six Comprehensive Plan strategies or policies will be addressed.
MATTERS FOR CONSIDERATION
Should the Planning Commission and the City Council find the HNA addendum and selected HAP strategies favorable, a final document will be prepared and a resolution adopting the updated HNA and HAP as the City’s guide for meeting housing needs will be brought to the City Council for a vote at a later time. Secondly, should the Planning Commission and the City Council give support to proceed, Staff will prepare code amendments that structure housing incentives designed to implement housing strategies and ultimately meet the City’s housing goals.
ATTACHMENTS
● HNA Addendum
● Draft PowerPoint Presentation