Off-year elections are often sleepy affairs, featuring ballots filled with questions about tax increases, changes to charter language, minutiae on vacancy appointments and details about municipal office terms.
While all of that is true in Tuesday’s election, there are a couple of measures in the Denver suburbs — and slightly beyond — that have generated a bit more attention.
One has to do with Colorado’s fraught and ongoing quest to land more affordable housing. The other has to do with sex.
Littleton voters will be deciding on a charter amendment that would make it more difficult to build anything but single-family homes in a large chunk of the city. It comes amid a wider — and fierce — debate over how to address Colorado’s lack of affordable housing, a fight that has spurred municipal lawsuits against Gov. Jared Polis over state housing density requirements. In the other direction, the governor has threatened to withhold grant money from cities and towns that don’t comply.
Central City voters will be deciding whether to allow sexually oriented businesses — think strip clubs — on the gambling town’s historic Main Street. Rick’s Cabaret and Steakhouse opened for business on Main Street earlier this year, but it hasn’t been able to secure a sexually oriented business license due to geographic restrictions on that type of business in the mountain town.
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Rick’s corporate owner sued the town last year, claiming the town’s restrictions were an unconstitutional infringement on the business’s First Amendment rights. Rebecca Blondo, a 25-year resident of Central City, is urging her fellow residents to vote down Measure 2A.
If it passes, she said, a 1,000-foot buffer protecting three churches, City Hall and the Elks Lodge from such businesses would be eliminated.
“Sexually oriented businesses are already permitted in the designated industrial zone, providing opportunities for such operations without encroaching on our central downtown area,” Blondo said. “There is no compelling reason to expand the sex industry into the core of our community.”
In Littleton, the fight over the housing measure has included the use of a truck equipped with three jumbo screens to broadcast support for Measure 3A, which would slow the city’s efforts to rezone neighborhoods for greater density.
“Everybody’s watching it,” said Mark Harris, a city resident who is helping spearhead the measure. “It’s an eye-catcher. This is all we wanted — to have the people of Littleton have a say. What do they want for their homes and neighborhoods? Do they want multiplexes or not?”
Littleton Councilwoman Andrea Peters, who opposes Measure 3A, said the ballot question is “poorly written” and misleading. She hosted 14 people at her home last weekend before a canvassing effort to urge voters to say no.
Peters believes the lack of diversity in Littleton’s housing stock is having a negative effect on younger families seeking their first home, as well as on older people looking to downsize.
The campaign has gotten tense at times.
“I know everyone is waiting for this to be over — both sides,” she said.
Public safety measures
In Denver’s northern suburbs, public safety is on the ballot.
Westminster voters will be asked to pass a 0.4% sales and use tax to raise $14 million annually to hire 30 firefighters, emergency medical and support personnel. The money from Measure 3H would also fund the construction of a new fire station, as well as the purchase of new emergency vehicles.
The South Adams County Fire District, which covers fast-growing Commerce City and adjacent areas, is asking voters for a 0.5% sales tax bump. The increase would raise $12.5 million a year to quicken response times, lower ambulance costs and ensure firefighters and paramedics have the proper training and life-saving equipment. The ballot issue is Measure 6A.
“The cuts made by the state in 2024, and the 100% increase in major equipment costs over the last six years, have forced the department to ask for help so that we can continue to provide the essential emergency services within our district,” Chief Bob Olme said.
Local issues and charter changes
There are many local tax issues for voters to consider on Tuesday. In Boulder, voters will decide whether to extend the Community, Culture, Resilience and Safety tax in perpetuity for building and maintaining capital improvement projects.
Mountain View, in Jefferson County, wants to pass a lodging tax.
Then there are the typical updates to municipal charters. Aurora, Colorado’s third-largest city, has five charter amendments on its ballot, including one to replace gender-specific language with gender-neutral terms and another to eliminate residency requirements for the city manager.
In Broomfield, the dual city and county wants voters to decide whether to pass a code of ethics, prohibit elected officials from holding two elected offices and establish standards for approval of intergovernmental agreements.
Colorado Municipal League Executive Director Kevin Bommer said not all ballot questions make headlines, “but they all matter.” And voters will be driven by events happening far beyond their municipal boundaries.
“Municipalities in the Denver suburbs and around the state are seeing practical, nuts-and-bolts issues — streets, safety and services — but this fall could test how much fiscal appetite voters have left amid a state budget meltdown and a federal government shutdown, especially if they are personally affected,” Bommer said.
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