Cherry Hills Village Voted for Local Control. Here's What It Still Doesn't Decide.

"The City shall not be required to adopt or implement laws, standards, approval processes, assessments, plans, or reports on such matters other than as may be enacted by the City Council... or the voters of the City... irrespective of state mandates to do so." That sentence now sits in the Cherry Hills Village home rule charter, as part of a new Section 1.6 titled "Home Rule Authority to Regulate the Use of Land." On November 3, voters approved it as Ballot Question 2C. The unofficial count on VoteColorado shows roughly 85% voting yes. Counties have until November 25 to certify their results, so the numbers are still unofficial as this post goes up.

I read that margin as the Village's opening position. The state laws the measure responds to still name Cherry Hills Village. The state enforces them mainly by deciding who gets grant money, not through anything a city ballot controls. And the legal question of whether a city charter can override those laws belongs to a courtroom in Denver. If you're comparing the Village with other south-metro suburbs, or you already own here and are thinking about what your lot could become, those three facts matter more than the margin does.

The Sentence Voters Added, and the Laws Behind It

Section 1.6 says that planning, zoning, density, land use, and the location and character of structures are "matters of local and municipal concern." It also says the city will regulate them only through its charter and its own ordinances. The amendment doesn't name the state laws it's aimed at. City Council named them a year earlier.

Resolution 28, Series 2025 passed 5-0 on October 21, 2025. It lists five 2024 state laws that Council said "encroaches on the City's home rule authority."

The resolution also gives Council's reasoning. It describes the city's Master Plan as reflecting "the semi-rural character, form, and function" of its development. It lists the responsibilities Council says local control protects, including water supply and utility services, public safety, recreation, historic resources, and the infrastructure needed to support any increase in population or more intensive land use. This isn't new territory for Council. In February 2024, while HB24-1152 was still moving through the legislature, Council approved a resolution opposing it.

The State's List Still Includes the Village

The charter now says the city doesn't have to implement state mandates. The state agency responsible for those mandates still counts the Village among the places that do.

The Division of Local Government at the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, usually called DOLA, keeps the official list of Transit-Oriented Communities under HB24-1313. Under the law, a municipality qualifies if it sits within a metropolitan planning organization, has more than 4,000 residents, and contains more than 75 acres of mapped Transit Areas. Cherry Hills Village is on that list, alongside Denver, Boulder, Centennial, Englewood and Glendale. The same DOLA page lays out a reporting schedule for those communities. It includes a June 30, 2025 deadline for a preliminary assessment report and later Housing Opportunity Goal reports.

The ADU law works the same way. According to the bill summary for HB24-1152, a covered municipality must allow one accessory dwelling unit wherever it allows single-unit detached homes. DOLA's accessory dwelling unit page lists the Village as a subject jurisdiction. The Village isn't on DOLA's separate list of certified ADU Supportive Jurisdictions. That list is a voluntary certification, not a ruling on compliance.

So the city charter says one thing and the state's list says another. Both are now on the books, and nothing about the November 3 vote changes what the state's list says.

The State Enforces Through Grant Money

The charter amendment speaks to authority, and the state's main lever is funding.

On May 16, 2025, Governor Jared Polis signed Executive Order D 2025 005, later amended and supplemented by D 2025 011. Resolution 28 describes the order as declaring that municipalities that don't comply with these laws "will be deprioritized for competitive or discretionary funding opportunities, including grants, incentive programs, contracts, loans, and tax credits." CPR News reported that the order tied eligibility for more than $100 million in state grants, including transportation and energy funding, to compliance with recent housing laws.

This is the part of the dispute that 2C can't reach. A city can write into its charter that it won't adopt a state standard. It can't write itself back to the front of the line for discretionary state money. The order doesn't try to force a city to change its zoning. It changes what that city's choice costs when grant decisions are made. That's why I see the 85% figure as a starting point. It tells the state, the courts and any future Council where residents stand, and the cost of acting on that position shows up in grant decisions rather than on a ballot.

A Denver Courtroom Decides the Legal Question

The question of who has authority has its own venue, and Cherry Hills Village isn't a party to the case.

On May 19, 2025, six home rule cities sued the State of Colorado, Governor Polis, DOLA and its executive director in Denver District Court: Arvada, Aurora, Glendale, Greenwood Village, Lafayette and Westminster. The Colorado Municipal League announced the filing the same day. According to Colorado Newsline, the cities asked the court to declare HB24-1313 and HB24-1304 invalid in their jurisdictions and to block enforcement. Their complaint includes claims based on home rule authority, public participation, the right of referendum, and retroactive impairment. CPR reported that the Governor's office called the laws a common-sense way to remove barriers during a housing shortage and said it expected the state to prevail.

In Resolution 28, Cherry Hills Village formally backed those plaintiffs and the relief they're asking for. In an April 2025 analysis, the Denver law firm Otten Johnson wrote that a court would likely have to decide whether HB24-1313 preempts local zoning once a challenge or an enforcement action came up. Section 1.6 strengthens the Village's own statement of its authority. Whether that statement holds up against a statewide law is a question for judges. In its pre-election guide, Brownstein described 2C as a charter amendment "intended to reinforce local authority over land use and zoning decisions." "Reinforce" fits better than "resolve."

What This Means If You're Weighing a Lot in the Village

When I walk a buyer through a Village property, our questions about the lot usually focus on what's there today: the acreage, the setbacks, the sewer or septic answer, the trees. Since 2C passed, the questions about what's allowed on a lot, or on the lot next door, now involve the charter, two state agencies' lists, a pending lawsuit and the grant system all at once. In practice, that changes three things:

1. Get the current code from the city, not from summaries. The city's own records have described accessory units in different ways over the years. A 2021 planning staff memo drew a line between "guest houses" and dwelling units. For a specific lot, the reliable answer is the zoning text in effect today, confirmed with the Village's planning staff.
2. Read the amendment for what its text says. As written on the ballot, Section 1.6 says land-use rules will come from City Council under Section 3.1 of the charter or from Village voters under Section 13.11. How it interacts with state law on any particular parcel is a legal question, and as Otten Johnson's analysis suggests, possibly one for a court.
3. Treat the grant question as a city budget question. If you care about road, transportation or energy projects in the Village, the executive order makes the city's position on these laws part of how it competes for state money.

Everything above is general information about public measures and laws, not legal advice. If you're making a decision that depends on how these rules apply to a specific property, please confirm it with a land-use attorney and the city's planning department.

If you're considering a Cherry Hills Village property and want to know what the zoning, the lot and this new charter language mean for that specific address, Kelly Mauro will go through it with you before you commit. Contact Kelly for a personalized consultation and home valuation.