At the last city council meeting in Fort Collins (May 4, 2010) the rental housing industry in town dodged a bullet. Many neighborhood activists (and some council members) were strongly in favor of instituting a rental licensing program to help regulate the industry. In the end, everyone compromised and the city council voted to require rental owners to fill out an Occupancy Disclosure Form for each lease signed and then have it either notarized or electronically recorded (see definition in the last post to this blog “Fort Collins Passes Changes to Occupancy Ordinance“) at the time of lease execution.
The bullet dodged came in the form of rental licensing. This regulation mechanism would allow the city to level the playing field in many ways, but it also allows them to impose their beliefs into the industry. The alarming reality of this regulation is being played out in Boulder, Colorado right now. We have been following this “movement” for some time and the latest imposition is spelled out in the following Boulder County Business Report article titled “Council to discuss green rental codes in May“.
Like Boulder, the City of Fort Collins City Council is weighted in favor of environmentalism. While Environmentalists believe ALL of their desires are beneficial, they rarely take into account the affect on the economy which is vital to the execution and capability of employing smart environmental changes. Both cities are utilizing their Climate Action Plans as the foundation for other decisions.
Please note the lines in the BCBR article that states “City officials are targeting existing rental housing first because a licensing system is already in place – providing an easy conduit to enforce the green mandates. Residential landlords are required to obtain or renew a rental license from the city every four years.”