What if you owned a house and wanted to share it with another family to defray the cost of the mortgage? What if you wanted to build several houses as a kind of “compound” of like-minded friends?
The first is called “cooperative housing” and is a violation of Denver’s zoning code. The second is called “intentional communal living,” about which the zoning code is silent.
Denver is seeing more demand for non-traditional housing, city planners say. Sorting out these sorts of “emerging uses” is one big task of the 35-plus-member Group Living Advisory Committee, formed in March, which is holding its first community meeting June 13.
Senior city planner Andrew Webb said a high-level goal of Community Planning and Development (CPD) is to make sure the code meets the evolving needs of Denver residents while preserving neighborhood character.
The advisory committee’s list of tasks is a long one. It can be boiled down to updating regulations in the zoning code for group-living arrangements such as sober housing, homeless shelters and community corrections (A 2008 moratorium on new community corrections facilities expires this year); adding regulations for tiny home villages; removing barriers to various kinds of cooperative and communal living; and, addressing concerns of some neighborhoods about concentrations of social service facilities. CPD also plans to update the code for consistency with state and federal regulations.
“All residents will benefit from a code that contains clear regulations that meet evolving housing needs while protecting neighborhoods from unintended impacts,” City Councilperson Deborah Ortega said.
The Committee includes housing providers and their clients, policy makers (including at-large City Council members Robin Kniech and Ortega) and neighborhood groups. The members are assigned to six subcommittees charged with defining problems and proposing solutions.
“There are significant nuances in the zoning code, some of which are very outdated, that are affecting our ability to be creative in … housing types,” said member Jamie Licko, representing the River North neighborhood. “I believe some smart, incremental changes to zoning can make significant impacts.”
In response to some concerns that the committee was weighted toward shelter and other service housing representatives, CPD added four more neighborhood representatives.
Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods (CHUN) representative Michael Henry said in a telephone interview that most neighborhood representatives agree that homeless people and those needing treatment facilities need to be served safely and affordably.
“There needs to be a balance between the needs of these facilities and the people who live in them and the surrounding neighborhoods in terms of safety and good management and no undue concentrations,” he said, pointing to Capitol Hill, Downtown, Northwest Denver and Congress Park as areas where this concentration has historically occurred.
“This is a challenge faced by many cities as service providers tend to cluster where existing services and transportation are already in close proximity,” Ortega said. “The Zoning Code currently contains spacing and density limitations for certain uses aimed at minimizing the ‘institutionalization’ of neighborhoods. Participants in this project have indicated that they want to explore whether these regulations and enforcement are having the intended effect.”
The Full Advisory Committee’s first community meeting is scheduled for 5:50-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 13 in the Webb Municipal Building, Room 1.B.6, 201 W. Colfax Ave. Enter near Court Place and 15th Street.
More information about the Group Living Advisory Committee can be found at denvergov.org/groupliving.
