Denver City Council approved the adoption of all three bills creating new Expanding Housing Affordability Guidelines after hearing comments from around 50 speakers at its public hearing Monday night.

This means a certain amount of affordable units must be developed alongside market-rate condos and apartments, with zoning and financial incentives included as well.

Builders can either build more affordably priced units as part of any construction or pay a fee to offset construction of affordable units elsewhere. Policies such as these are known as inclusionary housing policies.

This will apply to new developments of 10 units or more regardless if it’s residential or non-residential. If the new construction is less than 10 units, builders will pay a one-time linkage fee to go toward the city’s Affordable Housing Fund, unless the development already includes affordable housing.

The guidelines would require that 8% of a project’s units be priced to serve those who fall into the 60% of area median income for apartments and 80% of AMI for ownership units. Builders can price units closer to market price in exchange for building 12% of their units as affordable.

“I strongly believe that the ordinance(s) up for consideration tonight (are) extremely well researched, well defined and will benefit Denver residents for years to come,” Laura Aldrete, executive director of Community Planning and Development, said at the council meeting.

One aspect of the program many members of the public who spoke Monday took issue with is that it doesn’t prioritize those at the lowest end of the AMI scale below 50%, which includes the city’s most vulnerable populations.

City staff have previously emphasized that this program is just one piece of the puzzle and is not intended to solve the housing affordability crisis entirely. Multiple speakers in support of the program reiterated this point and said those between 30% and 80% AMIs need housing they can afford too. Denver’s Chief Housing Officer Britta Fisher said the funding from the linkage fee goes into the city’s Affordable Housing Fund, which directly benefits folks in the 0-30% AMI range daily.

Organizations who had representatives speaking in favor of the program included the Downtown Denver Partnership, the Denver Foundation, Healthier Colorado and the Elevation Community Land Trust.

Council member Candi CdeBaca was the only member to vote no on all three of the bills. She said relying on the market hasn’t served the city well so far, meaning it won’t be helpful in the future. CdeBaca also said the policy was put together in a way that favors developers as opposed to the people of the city. She proposed two amendments she said would make the bills more equitable, both of which were voted down by her colleagues.

“This body doesn’t need my vote to pass this bill tonight. Your minds are made up. They always are well before the people speak,” CdeBaca said after the public hearing closed. “I too am still just a minority on this body. But the people out there — they need my vote tonight. They need it because they need to know that I see them. Someone sees them and understands this is smoke and mirrors and we all deserve more than developer crumbs.”

Councilmembers Robin Kniech and Amanda Sandoval, who were the council member leads in creating the guidelines, thanked city staff and the many stakeholders who were involved in creating the program and said they look forward to seeing it work with other city housing programs.

“Denver is proud to be the first city in Colorado to make use of the state legislation allowing us to regulate affordability in new rental development, along with for-sale,” Kniech said in a news release. “This policy was the missing link among our many other housing affordability strategies like funding and renter protections, and it responds to the strong demand of our residents to ensure more of our new housing supply is within reach of the workers who keep our city running.”