After a pandemic pause, accessory dwelling units regain momentum through council efforts and recommendations of city planners.
Dave Marshall can stand on the front porch of his circa 1939 bungalow on the north side of West 46th Avenue in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood and point to multiple accessory dwelling units — also known by terms like granny flats, mother-in-law apartments or carriage houses — that dot the lots on the blocks to the south.
But on his side of the historic parkway, city zoning hasn’t allowed them, owing to smaller lot sizes. So Marshall and his wife, Kasey Cordell, decided to pursue rezoning their property to open up the possibility of creating an ADU in their little-used basement — or if that didn’t work, atop their garage.
When Marshall reached out to the city for guidance, officials offered a time- and money-saving suggestion: gauge interest among his immediate neighbors and then join forces with others interested in rezoning their property. A single application would save filing costs — each application runs about $1,000 — and also streamline the city’s response.
As a result, 11 of the 15 homeowners along that stretch of 46th Avenue now have joined Marshall’s application for rezoning, while another is pursuing it on their own.
For Marshall and Cordell, their own reasons reach beyond the practical or financial advantage of having a separate living unit to a more expansive vision of the big-picture role that ADUs could play in creating so-called “gentle density” that could make housing more affordable in the city.
“We really believe in what the ADUs are intended to do for the city,” Marshall says. “We’re a big fan of not encouraging growing sprawl where people have to live out in Erie or Firestone, because there’s just not enough housing inventory. So we’re in favor of smart development, that looks at ways to increase density — not a green light for everyone to do whatever they want, but smart ways to encourage people to utilize their space more productively.”
Interest in ADUs rose steadily in the 2010s, and has only grown stronger in the past few years as the metro-wide real estate market became, for many, prohibitively expensive. City planners have seen an uptick in people moving to rezone their property, and in 2019 carved out a place for ADUs in Blueprint Denver — a “planned guidance” document that recommends removing barriers to the units in residential districts. So far, planners say, they’re not aware that any requests have been denied.
Meanwhile, elected officials like District 1 Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval have shepherded entire neighborhoods — most recently Sloan’s Lake and before that, Chaffee Park — into the ADU zoning fold, another recommendation of Blueprint Denver. Those legislative moves made that option possible for about 3,000 properties.
In District 3, Councilwoman Jamie Torres is exploring similar rezoning for the Villa Park, Barnum and Barnum West neighborhoods, where more than 2,000 lots could be added.
The West Denver Renaissance Collaborative, which aids equitable neighborhood revitalization, continues to advance ADUs by working with public, private and nonprofit organizations to help finance and build units. The group has three currently under construction, two in the permitting process, and up to four more in the financing/underwriting phase and preparing to head into final design.
“Our goal this year is to get 10 units into the pipeline and into construction,” says Director Renee Martinez-Stone. “Beyond those 10, at least another 20 are very interested in exploring the possibility of working with us.”
Interest is definitely spreading, particularly in the denser urban core, but interest also appears to be growing in the outer rings of the city, says Josh Palmeri, a senior city planner for Denver. That said, he notes that barriers still exist — starting with a cumbersome and expensive rezoning procedure that can take as long as nine months. After seeing many people express interest but then get put off by the process, city planners are kicking off a project this month to seek ways to eliminate some barriers and explore how ADUs fit various kinds of Denver neighborhoods.
“We’re definitely seeing an uptick in the rezoning,” Palmeri says, “so we feel as a city that it is definitely gaining momentum.”
That momentum is reflected in the rebounding number of rezoning requests, which took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2010, Denver issued only two ADU permits. In 2019, the number spiked to 71 before the coronavirus shutdown saw a dropoff to 54 in 2020.
So far this year, 32 ADU permits have been issued.
Dave Marshall and Kasey Cordell at their home, in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood. The couple stands by a door that could be the private entry to an accessory dwelling unit in their basement. They gauged interest from neighbors and wound up submitting a rezoning application for 11 of the 15 homes on their block. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun)
Rezoning by neighborhood
About one-fourth of Denver’s cityscape, not counting the airport, is currently zoned to allow an ADU. But spurred by guidance from Blueprint Denver, urban enclaves are pursuing rezoning to accommodate them not just through one-off applications, but in large neighborhood-sized chunks.
“My thought is if you provide the zoning to everybody, then one of the barriers is taken down,” Sandoval says. “And when they don’t have to worry about going through that process, they can hire an architect and start building. So, providing the zoning makes it an equal playing field for everybody.
“When you do one-off zoning, it’s time consuming. It seems more expedient and time efficient to rezone and re-do a whole neighborhood with that process, instead of one neighbor, then the next neighbor.”
That doesn’t mean an ADU goes up on every property. In surveys that Sandoval’s office has done to gauge interest in rezoning, she asks: Would you build now? Most people say no. But there’s also a built-in equity element to rezoning an entire neighborhood. That potentially prohibitive cost for an individual application disappears.
High construction costs still present challenges. But ADUs’ role as a mitigating factor in the current housing crunch speaks to changing attitudes toward higher density development as a desirable shift that adds to the ability of local workers to live near their jobs.
“We’d love for a bartender who works on Tennyson, or restaurant workers, school teachers who work in this neighborhood to be able to afford to live in the neighborhood,” Marshall says. “There’s also a community component when you bring a mixed, diverse group of people into your community. We’re big fans of the city’s intent to do that.”
Residents from Chaffee Park, in far northwest Denver, approached Sandoval about rezoning for ADUs once she was elected to city council in 2019. The decision to pursue a zoning change for Sloan’s Lake followed a more data-driven approach, she explains.
Research showed that to be the neighborhood with the most one-off rezoning requests. So her office sent residents flyers through the mail surveying their attitudes about ADUs. Then she hosted two town halls, where residents could learn the basics — what ADUs are, how many permits had already been pulled, what neighborhood impact can look like. Sandoval also sought input from utilities, the city assessor and fire and transportation officials.
Then came another round of flyers — this time placed directly on residents’ doors, to further gauge interest. Outreach continued until a statistically valid pool of responses had been collected. Then her office analyzed the data — 334 residents responded, nearly 95% homeowners — and presented it to the planning board for review and ultimately consideration by the city council.
More than 73% of respondents favored rezoning to allow ADUs, with 20% opposed. Nineteen percent said they’d move to build immediately, 34% said they didn’t intend to build and 46% said they might build in three-to-seven years.
Recently, Sandoval has been hearing interest from the Regis neighborhood, just west of Chaffee Park. That could be the next area where she explores bulk rezoning.
The process inevitably reveals pockets of concern — and sometimes confusion, she says. People worry that the rezoning would allow more apartment buildings or duplexes. They worry about parking, about privacy in their backyards.
“I think northwest Denver has seen so much change in the built environment that people are concerned about change,” Sandoval says. “It’s about education, right? The more education you can do to inform constituents what an accessory dwelling unit is, and show them examples within their own neighborhood, I think people start to understand it in a different way.”
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