JOINT RELEASE: Legislation to Save Coloradans Money on Housing by Eliminating Parking Mandates Takes Effect

Legislation puts ‘people over parking’ to lower the cost of building new homes, increase Colorado’s housing supply, and reduce harmful air pollution

COLORADO - Legislation goes into effect today to make housing in Colorado more affordable and reduce traffic congestion. HB24-1304, also sponsored by Former Rep. Steph Vigil and Former Senator Kevin Priola, eliminates parking mandates that drive up the cost of building new housing, especially multi-family developments.

“Parking minimums add to building costs that then get passed down to potential homebuyers and renters, increasing housing costs for everyone,” said Rep. Steven Woodrow, D-Denver. “Each parking space can add tens of thousands of dollars and reduce the number of units that we can build—restricting supply and driving up costs. This law going into effect, coupled with the other housing legislation that Colorado Democrats passed in recent years, will help alleviate our affordability crisis.”

“Parking spots cost tens of thousands of dollars each to build - an unacceptable amount at a time when too many Coloradans are struggling to find housing they can afford,” Senator Nick Hinrichsen, D-Pueblo, said. “We must do more to encourage the construction of new housing in our state, including for Pueblo which has a large amount of land devoted to parking that could be redeveloped as housing and businesses. I am incredibly proud of our new law that will make it easier to do just that while reducing traffic, bolstering economic development, and freeing up valuable space for our communities while enhancing our downtowns.”

Beginning June 30, 2025, HB24-1304 prohibits a county or municipality within a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) from enacting or enforcing minimum parking requirements for most new multifamily residential properties that are within a quarter mile of a transit stop or station.

The law still allows a local government to impose a parking minimum of up to one space per unit on proposed housing developments with more than 20 units or that include any units classified as affordable housing. To impose this mandate, they must show that the parking minimum is required to avoid a substantial negative impact.

HB24-1304 does not allow a county or municipality to decrease required parking spaces for people with disabilities and does not prevent a local government from enacting or enforcing a maximum parking requirement or requiring a number of spaces for temporary loading purposes.

Lastly, the law required the Colorado Department of Transportation and other state agencies to publish a map of the applicable transit services area and technical assistance materials and best practices for optimal parking supply and management policies by the end of 2024.

Parking minimums increase home prices and rents by requiring developers to use valuable space for cars that may not be fully utilized and could instead be dedicated to more housing units. In 2020, new structured parking spaces in Denver cost $25,000 each.

The city of Minneapolis, which eliminated parking minimums in 2021 and has enacted a suite of other land use reforms, saw rents increase by just one percent between 2017 and 2022, while rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Denver increased by almost 25 percent over the same time period. Research attributes the significant expansion of the housing supply in Minneapolis, leading to lower rent increases, to the elimination of parking minimums.

The oversupply of parking is also directly linked to higher vehicle miles traveled. The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas pollution in Colorado, with passenger vehicles such as cars and light-duty trucks contributing nearly 60 percent of the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions.