Gov. Jared Polis has pushed a passel of laws through the legislature over the past couple of years that mandate sweeping revisions to local land-use rules. His attempt, essentially, to rezone Colorado’s metro areas micromanages matters ranging from the number of housing units per parcel to whether new housing can be required to have off-street parking. 

The purported near-term goal is to create more affordable housing — smaller units, sandwiched closer together — especially near public transit. That, in turn, is supposed to drive prices down by creating more multifamily residences. It amounts to a textbook truism that’s likely to be thwarted by the realities of Colorado’s real estate market. 

The longer-term vision underlying the governor’s housing agenda is the ever-vague “sustainability” that denser zoning supposedly confers on a community. And if you’re unsure of the exact meaning of that much-abused magic word, rest assured, so are we.

Of course, the antithesis of density zoning is the time-honored, all-American and ever-popular single-family home — in a neighborhood zoned for single-family homes. It’s under attack by density advocates even though fully two-thirds of all Coloradans choose to live in single-family homes.

In Tuesday’s election, the citizens of Littleton pushed back — in a vote that should make waves all the way to the Governor’s Mansion. 

Last January, elected leaders in the city of 45,000 south of Denver tried to impose density zoning on their community’s cherished single-family neighborhoods. The City Council backed down after the attempt raised a public outcry. 

But residents weren’t about to take any chances. So they mounted a grass-roots, local ballot drive to protect single-family zoning in their city charter. It also protected other kinds of zoning already in place. 

As reported by The Gazette, the proposal, 3A on the Littleton ballot, was passing by a comfortable margin at press time Tuesday evening.

It’s a victory for the single-family home and a repudiation of the density-zoning dogma that is the hobby horse of urban planners and politicians — but the bane of rank-and-file residents.

Littleton’s uprising isn’t the only rejection of the governor’s density agenda. After Polis issued an executive order in May requiring local governments to knuckle under to his new state mandates or risk losing out on assorted sustainable housing grants, six other Front Range cities filed suit. Arvada, Aurora, Glendale, Greenwood Village, Lafayette, and Westminster contend Polis’ executive order as well as his new laws violate the state constitution.

Aurora is of course Colorado’s third-largest city. 

And just last week, No. 2 Colorado Springs reiterated its support for the six plaintiff-cities in a City Council resolution.

There’s good reason Colorado law and state constitution have reserved matters like zoning to local governments. Locals have a much better idea whether or not they can live with high-rise housing that packs people cheek to jowl; or, where they want commercial development; where they want to preserve open space, and so forth. 

And sometimes, even local governments fall out of touch with the communities they’re supposed to serve, as evidently was the case in Littleton. That’s when citizens avail themselves of democracy’s relief valve — the citizens’ initiative.

Communities are served well by a mix of housing to accommodate a range of needs, incomes and lifestyles. But that’s no reason to undermine the cohesion of existing neighborhoods. And they certainly don’t need to be bulldozed by self-styled visionaries at the State Capitol.

Tuesday’s vote was a potent reminder to the governor to respect the rights of Colorado’s communities — and of their many single-family homeowners.