Colorado is not one place. It is mountain towns and plains cities, resort communities and agricultural hubs, neighborhoods that have been here for generations and new developments finding their footing. What unites them is not a single set of rules handed down from Denver, but a shared conviction that the people closest to a community are best equipped to shape it. I’ve witnessed this principle throughout the 15 years I’ve served in the General Assembly. And Senate Bill 26-098 upholds it. 

Last year, the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling in Hobbs v. City of Salida eliminated something Colorado businesses and local governments had relied on for decades: the authority for local governments to balance the needs of businesses and residents on their own terms. 

Entertainment venues, restaurants, art galleries, and other local community businesses that depend on live programming now don’t know whether their events are legal. Property owners are fielding questions they can’t answer. Local officials who want to work with the businesses in their communities — who know their zoning, their neighborhoods, and their residents — may no longer have the legal standing to do so. That is a problem we created, and one we can fix. 

No community had done anything wrong. The court identified a gap in state statute, and that gap is now costing real businesses real certainty. Eighty-two percent of Colorado voters say they want the legislature to fix it. Our communities are counting on us to do exactly that. 

A statewide survey conducted by LSG in March 2026 found that nine in ten Colorado voters support local governments setting and enforcing their own noise standards, rather than deferring to a single statewide rule. That holds across party lines, with 88% of Democrats, 89% of swing voters, 93% of Republicans showing support for local control. 86% of Colorado voters agree that local officials are better equipped than state government to balance the needs of residents and businesses in their own backyards. This consensus does not come along often. When it does, the best response is to act on it. 

Senate Bill 26-098 does not silence residents but actually gives them the ability to let their voices be heard. The bill preserves their right to seek noise restrictions and ensures that local governments retain the authority to respond to complaints. It restores the ability of those same local governments to also work constructively with businesses, issue permits, and set context-appropriate standards. Both things can be true at once, and in most Colorado communities, they already were, until Hobbs made that balance impossible to maintain.  

This bill was heard in committee, scrutinized, debated, and passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support. Members on both sides of the aisle reviewed what Hobbs did to communities across Colorado and agreed that this needed to be fixed, and it needed to be fixed carefully.  

Colorado’s entertainment and hospitality industries are not footnotes in our economy. They employ people, generate tax revenue, and give our communities the kind of vitality that attracts residents and investment alike. Prolonged uncertainty has consequences, including deferred bookings, stalled investments, and venues that quietly scale back rather than fight a legal battle they did not ask for. The window to provide clarity is now. 

This bill passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support. It now sits before the House Transportation, Housing, and Local Government Committee. The public is not divided on this. The need is not in question. What remains is for the House to act, and to return to Colorado’s communities the authority that should never have been taken from them. 

Senator Larry Liston represents Senate District 4 in the Colorado State Senate.