Loveland council advances 90-day fast-track review for qualifying housing projects

The Loveland City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the first reading of Ordinance No. 6836, a Unified Development Code amendment creating a fast-track review process for qualifying housing projects. The change is intended to keep Loveland in compliance with Proposition 123 by setting up a 90-day maximum review timeline for eligible affordable and attainable housing applications.

City staff told council Loveland opted into Proposition 123 in 2023, making the city and its development partners eligible to seek money from the state affordable housing fund. To remain eligible, communities must both increase affordable housing units by 3% annually for three years and adopt a fast-track review process, Strategic Planner Carrie Burchett said. Burchett said Loveland is on pace to meet the housing-growth requirement by the end of this year, and that the draft code changes have already received a compliance "thumbs up" from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

Burchett said the ordinance is only one piece of a broader housing-code modernization effort. The city received a $160,000 DOLA grant and hired consultant Framework to review the development code for barriers to housing construction, she said. A larger package of housing amendments is expected to come before council in August, while the city is pursuing this narrower ordinance now because the state is offering a $45,000 early-adoption incentive grant for communities that implement the fast-track process by the end of June.

Under the new process, Burchett said, qualifying projects must meet state eligibility rules and include at least 50% of units aimed at Proposition 123 income thresholds, including ownership housing affordable to households earning up to 120% of area median income and rental housing at 60% of area median income. She said applicants can choose whether to use the fast-track option and can request extensions. Planning Commission recommended approval on a 6-0 vote May 11.

Public comment backed the change while also underscoring the shortage of lower-cost housing. Lisa Cunningham, chair of the Loveland Affordable Housing Task Force, said the task force supports the amendment and argued that shortening review times can lower development costs in a period when "cost is money, time is money." Cunningham said Loveland faces a shortage of about 2,900 affordable units and pointed to Legacy Crossing, a roughly 330-unit project that took five years to approve, as an example of why faster review matters.

Council Member Kalina Middleton said she supported complying with Proposition 123 but questioned whether one part of the ordinance gives too much discretion to staff through a "director qualified" category that is not required by the state program. Middleton said she would prefer eligibility standards to be spelled out directly in the code. In response, the city attorney said the variety of development applications makes a one-size-fits-all approach difficult and suggested any broader shift away from administrative discretion would need careful review.

Mayor Patrick McFall also asked whether the city was addressing delays that hold up entire applications when one part of the review stalls. Burchett said the city is looking at "untangling" review steps so related approvals can move forward more logically rather than waiting on a single bottleneck. Second reading is scheduled for June 16.