Photo by Philip B. Poston/Sentinel Colorado
AURORA | The city is holding a series of meetings to gather feedback from residents on a proposed housing strategy to address future growth and development.
City officials are working on updating the Aurora Housing Strategy, which identifies the city’s housing priorities and opportunities and guides future decisions.
The six-week series of meetings will kick off on July 22. A meeting is scheduled for every ward, although residents can attend any meeting. All of the meetings are slated to take place from 5:30 p.m.–7 p.m.
- July 22 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 9898 E. Colfax Ave.
- July 29 at the Aurora Municipal Center, 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, in the Aurora Room
- Aug. 5 at the Aurora Center for Active Adults, 30 Del Mar Circle
- Aug. 20 at the Central Recreation Center, 18150 E. Vassar Place
- Aug. 26 at the Southeast Recreation Center, 25400 E. Alexander Drive
Details for the Ward 4 meeting are still incomplete.
In addition to the in-person meetings, residents can submit feedback on the Engage Aurora website from Sept. 1–Sept. 15.
Aurora’s population has grown from 325,000 residents in 2010 to 414,000 residents this year. With the population boom, the city says its housing shortage has grown, too. While a 2017 estimate found a shortage of 7,500 homes for very low-income families, the current estimates indicate there is a shortage of 12,000 housing units in 2026.
City council approved the creation of the Aurora Housing Strategy in December 2020.
Maybe Aurora has grown enough. Maybe we have sprawled as far as is advisable. Maybe Council ought to worry about whether they have water enough for those of us here. Maybe the folks who would use new units of housing can go back to where they came from or can move to areas where the load limits have not already been exceeded. There is no mandate, no obligation that the City expand. Expansion is not in the Charter. Expansion is the goal of developers, and is to the benefit of developers, but not the benefit of existing citizens who will be overcrowded and underserved with every new expansion. That raises the question, who does Council serve, the citizens, the residents currently here, the ones who voted for Council, or the developers, the ones who have bought Council. Sadly we already know the answer.
Great post. I have noticed that the quality of life has decreased considerably since our City Council has tried to cram more and more people into our city and neighborhoods. Opportunists are buying single family homes with walk-out basements and turning them into mini long-term hotels thanks to new zoning regulations.
There is quite clearly not a “housing shortage” – this headline is purposely misleading. Home prices in Aurora have been stagnant or dropping for 5 straight years. “Lack of homes for very low income households” ≠ “housing shortage”. When will leadership start thinking about the middle class, that does 90% of the heavy lifting to keep Aurora alive but is faced with tons of crime, a terrible reputation leadership has done nothing to fix, bad schools, high prices, and awful public transportation. Once again, leadership focuses on narrow sociocultural issues instead of thinking about the majority of Aurora.