POLICY + DESIGN

POLICY + DESIGN: DENVER METRO AREA

SUPPORTIVE POLICY

Supportive and understandable policy sets the stage for the market to respond appropriately and can help procure more public sources of ADU funding.

Despite general enthusiasm for ADUs as an emerging housing strategy, the market response has been several steps behind. According to West Denver Renaissance Collaborative, ADUs remain a relatively new typology, which means that few builders specialize in ADUs, construction practices have not been streamlined or widely used, and a limited number of lenders are familiar with the particularities of ADUs or are willing to work with nontraditional borrowers.

Many community groups like the Neighborhood Development Collaborative (NDC) and The Fax recognize the importance of not only local policy but statewide supportive policy. For example, the director of NDC stated that, “the local control for inclusionary zoning that was passed as part of the 2020 Colorado Legislative Session will allow cities to change their regulatory framework in a way that is efficient and effective for them.”

ZONING POLICY

In order for ADUs to serve the target population of low-to-middle income households, the City and County of Denver needs to prioritize the role of zoning and design policy. In addition to looking at minimum lot size, height, parking, and other

30%

OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER IS CURRENTLY ZONED FOR ADUS

regulatory requirements, this needs to be coupled with financial programs for lower- and moderateincome households interested in building ADUs.1

The Denver Zoning Code regulates where detached and attached ADUs are allowed and includes building form standards regarding height, minimum lot size and depth, setbacks, parking, floor area, and structure length. The zoning code also includes limitations on ADUs that further define the circumstances under which they can be built. Policy also makes it so the land under detached ADU cannot be subdivided or sold off separately, and the owner of the property must live on the property. 2

The building form standards for a Detached ADU are quite restrictive and can impose many cost implications that make for difficult design decisions in building an ADU.3 To build a detached ADU, a property owner must comply with the ‘ADU building form standards.’ The form standards currently do not consider different neighborhood contexts, and that can pose various challenges.

With the plan guidance of Blueprint Denver 2019, many single-unit residential properties are now

1 What’s Blocking an ADU Boom?, American Planning Association 2 ADUs in Denver Program, City and County of Denver 3 ADUs in Denver Program, City and County of Denver

ADUs are just one of many tools to increase housing stock in Denver.

eligible for a rezoning to allow ADUs on their property. But the rezoning is only the first hurdle. Rezoning is currently being done either parcel by parcel or through a legislative rezoning process. Each council district has a different approach to ADUs due to the politics of the area - some areas have more pushback than others.

N order to rezone a property to allow an ADU, a property owner must submit an application and pay a minimum $1,000 review fee. Some property owners, intimidated by the process, pay additional fees to hire a consultant to administer the application for them. The rezoning process takes 4-6 months and includes a staff analysis of the rezoning’s consistency with zoning code criteria and involves public hearings.

Denver Community Planning and Development (CPD) staff note multiple reasons for the relatively low number of ADUs that have been created citywide. Staff describes that ADUs can be costly for homeowners and are not typically built unless there is family need. Many ADUs are built as part of new home construction and are rented for a while to recoup construction costs. The City and County of Denver Community Planning Department (CPD) has kicked off their project to address current zoning barriers to ADU construction and assure that ADUs can fit into a variety of contexts: ADUs in Denver. This project will not rezone any properties, but look at how ADUs are designed, how they fit in with different types of neighborhoods and block patterns, and how updates to the zoning code may reduce barriers to creating ADUs. It will also address minimum lot sizes and consider strategies for allowing ADUs in combination with non-SU primary uses. The intent of this is to expand the number of lots that could qualify for ADUs. Studying how ADUs function in non-SU primary use zones will specifically look at how ADUs could add density in employment hubs or transit oriented development areas.

This project will also evaluate and propose strategies to address certain zoning barriers to ADU permitting and construction. Some of these barriers include number of occupants per square foot, the 1.5-story limit, bulk planes, maximum building coverage and minimum setbacks. This builds off the 2021 Bundle of Zoning Code Text Amendments adopted at the end of June 2021 that added additional flexibility for detached ADU setbacks on smaller lots.

TIMELINE OF LEGISLATIVE REZONING

2019

Councilwoman Sandoval underwent the first legislative rezoning process for ADUs in 2019 for Chaffee Park. Sloan’s Lake and West Colfax were rezoned with her support in 2021.

70% of residents who responded to the survey in these neighborhoods were in support of rezoning to allow ADUs even though 35% of those respondents would not build an ADU. The Fax Partnership would like to see additional housing added to their district to provide options for a range of income levels, and they believe ADUs and missing middle housing are at least part of the solution. As they say, “These options need to be allowed by right, subject to appropriate and realistic design standards, and the process should begin now to encourage this.”

Regis Chaffee Park

West Highland Sloan Lake West Colfax

Villa Park

Barnum Barnum

West

East Colfax Collaborative brought up another benefit to ADUs - neighborhood vitality. As they put it, “more people living in East Colfax increases the likelihood of stores, restaurants, and other neighborhood-serving retail locating in existing commercial areas.”

East Colfax was rezoned at the end of 2021 with support from Councilman Herndon and Councilwoman Sawyer.

East Colfax

Barnum, Barnum West, Villa Park Regis, West Highlands Chaffee Park

Sloan’s Lake, West Colfax

ADU PERMITS BY YEAR

East Colfax

1899 - 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

Denver Neighborhood Boundary

2022

Villa Park, Barnum, and Barnum West were rezoned with support of Councilwoman Torres in early 2022.

Barnum RNO leaders said that they felt like increasing the amount of ADUs in their neighborhood would not only give families intergenerational housing options, but also provide more variety in the housing stock.

REZONING PRIORITIES

If the City and County of Denver were to rezone certain areas before others to slowly expand ADUs throughout Denver, stakeholders identified the following priorities: • Utilize ADUs as an important tool in increasing density in areas that may be resistant to vertical development but are more welcome to context-sensitive development. This recommendation was made by residents in several neighborhoods, and echoed by those involved with policy change. • Target ADUs in areas that are accessible to desirable goods and services such as Chaffee Park or Athmar

Park to continue to build complete neighborhoods that are accessible and equitable. Research by Enterprise

Community Partners indicates that the most important predictor of ADU production are access jobs - near employment centers and/or transit options. This was mentioned by several community organizers and aligns with the neighborhood planning initiatives the City and County of Denver are completing. • Increase housing supply in at-risk neighborhoods, or neighborhoods of opportunity, like East Colfax and

Sunnyside through ADUs while continuing to build resident wealth; currently these residents want options to add additional units in their area but do not have the flexibility to do so, as discovered through stakeholder interviews.

If minimum lot size standards were removed nearly 21,500 lots would then be eligible to construct an ADU.

RECOMMENDATIONS : POLICY + DESIGN

The development of ADUs is complicated, as outlined previously, but they also have great potential to build wealth and reduce displacement if the development process is more accessible. The City and County of Denver has recently started encouraging simultaneous zone lot amendment review and residential permitting to make the process more efficient. These are steps in the right direction at creating an accessible process for development, which cities like Portland have done. The following are additional possible policy recommendations:

Continue to streamline permitting by doing the following:

1. Dedicate staff to review ADU development applications in order to reduce review cycles 2. Dedicate staff to address equitable site readiness issues like zone lot mismatches or unpermitted structures 3. Centralize record keeping and allow for more flexible order of operations during permitting so that delays are minimized 4. Expedite review for all Deed Restricted Affordable Units

This recommendation was developed based on conversations with builders and property owners. The permitting and review process generally results in many delays that can be burdensome for those developing ADUs on their property. The above are suggestions to mitigate those burdens.

Address overly restrictive zoning requirements (the below will be discussed in the ADU in Denver program, so participation in that process is paramount) such as:

1. Number of occupants per square foot 2. Percent of ground floor dedicated to parking/other vehicle-related requirements

The above recommendation was created after discussing with both community organizers and planners for the City and County of Denver. The zoning requirements along with context-sensitive design is being addressed through the ADU in Denver program at this time. Many of the stakeholders interviewed for this project are serving on the steering committee for that project.

Address certain design elements that are barriers to construction, such as:

1. Allowable height for at grade units 2. Bulk plane standards 3. Roof pitch allowances 4. Minimum lot size

Multiple builders were interviewed - those that currently participate in WDRC’s program as well as other home builders who have chosen not to develop ADUs at this time. The above are barriers to construction as they make the design either impossible or costly.