Top 5 stories of the past week: Dark skies, homeowners association reform and new rules on I-70

The stories on this list received the most views on SummitDaily.com from September 8-14.

1. Nearly 6 million birds flew over Colorado in one night, and more are expected. Dimming outdoor lights can help with their journey.

Colorado residents are being asked to dim their lights to help the millions of birds that fly over the state each night as a mass annual migration begins.

According to the National Audubon Society, billions of birds migrate north in the spring and south in the fall each year. Most of them travel at night and often orient themselves by starlight. However, artificial lights from humans can disorient birds, leading them off their migration route and sometimes causing them to crash into buildings or windows.

“Migrating at night allows birds to avoid certain predators,” Connie Sanchez, director of the Audubon Society’s bird-friendly buildings program, said in a news release. “It’s also more energy efficient. Birds can conserve more energy on their migration route by flying in cooler temperatures in the dark.”

—Ryan Spencer

2. Are you traveling to the Denver area from the mountains soon? Please note that there will be overnight delays due to the complete closure of I-70.

A portion of eastbound Interstate 70 near the Genesee exit (mileposts 254 to 259) was completely closed for three consecutive nights, from Tuesday, Sept. 10, to Thursday, Sept. 12, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

—Robert Tann

3. ‘We need some government oversight’: Colorado homeowners plan to push for more reform of homeowners associations with rally at state capitol

Property rights violations. Foreclosures. Sky-high rates. Coloradans say they’ve reached a boiling point with their homeowners associations.

A newly formed group of homeowners plans to take their message to the Capitol with a rally on Saturday, Sept. 14, to share personal stories and urge lawmakers to pass reforms for homeowners associations, often called HOAs. Organizers with Colorado Homeowners for HOA Reform and Representation say the rally is the first of its kind in Colorado and comes in response to a litany of alleged misconduct by HOA boards.

“The infrastructure that the government has created to deal with homeowners associations allows bad actors to infiltrate them,” said event organizer Holly Crystal. “There is no consumer protection and no government oversight.”

—Robert Tann

4. Colorado’s mountain towns are littered with vacant trophy homes and short-term rentals. Some officials want permission to tax them.

As Colorado lawmakers debate how to address rapidly rising housing costs, more than a dozen city and town councils across the Western Slope have voted to support authorizing local taxes on vacant homes and short-term rentals.

The concepts, proposed by the Colorado Association of Ski Towns, or CAST, would have to be approved by the Colorado legislature and local voters before they could take effect anywhere.

“The lack of available, affordable housing for employees in Colorado mountain communities has reached a critical level,” CAST wrote in the legislative policy statement approved by the cities. “CAST’s Housing Task Force supports targeted legislation to provide increased financial resources to Colorado mountain communities to address housing needs.”

— Elliot Wenzler

5. New Colorado laws go into effect limiting truckers on parts of Interstate 70

The Colorado State Patrol in a Sept. 10 news release alerted commercial truckers to new rules limiting their use on portions of Interstate 70 that recently went into effect.

The change is a result of Senate Bill 24-100, which was passed by state lawmakers earlier this year and expanded the scope of the state’s existing chain laws. The legislation aims to prevent accidents and road closures by restricting truckers from using the left lane in certain high-risk areas of Interstate 70.

Under the new rules, truckers cannot use the left lane on:

• Glenwood Canyon
• Dowd Junction (the curvy section of I-70 between Avon and Vail)
• West side of Vail Pass
• Tunnel level on both sides of the Eisenhower-Johnson tunnels
• Georgetown Hill
• Floyd Hill

Truckers will also be required to carry chains on larger stretches of I-70.

—Robert Tann