Election: Louisville voters reject housing, impact-fee ballot measures

LOUISVILLE — Two measures related to affordable housing and impact fees were headed to defeat Tuesday.

Voters in the eastern Boulder County community are deciding on Ballot Question 300 — which relates to residential zoning and affordable housing on large tracts of land such as Redtail Ridge that are envisioned as mainly commercial — and Ballot Question 301 — an overhaul of the city’s impact-fee system to make developers pay for additional public infrastructure.

Both initiatives are promoted by an issue committee called Love4Louisville and are opposed by another issue committee, Louisville Together.

Ballot Question 300 was failing, with 4,772 against, or 79.27%, and 1,248 in favor, or 20.73%.

Ballot Question 301 was failing by a similar margin, with 4,624 against, or 76.62%, and 1,411 in favor, or 23.38%.

The measures faced fierce opposition by a coalition of business and community leaders and organizations.

AdventHealth Avista, a future Redtail Ridge tenant that could be impacted by development restrictions on the site, endorsed opposition group Louisville Together’s efforts to encourage “No” votes on the pair of ballot measures. Louisville Together also claims support from Flatirons Habitat for Humanity, local affordable-housing developer Thistle Community Housing, community organization Together Colorado, the Louisville Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Business Association.

“I’ve never seen such a strong, broad coalition in opposition to a measure. We’ve got a number of respected residents, former (Louisville City Council) members, former mayors, (members of) of our current council, officials with the hospital, Habitat for Humanity and all of these affordable-housing organizations all in opposition to these deceptive and misleading measures,” former Louisville city councilmember and Louisville Together organizer Tim Bierman told BizWest. “I’m really just proud to represent that coalition.”

— Lucas High contributed to this report.

— Updated as of 8:47 p.m.

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