In early 2018, Colorado Springs City Council asked the City Planning Department to explore the idea of expanding the use of ADUs (accessory dwelling units) in Colorado Springs. The Planning/Zoning Department immediately assembled a steering committee and began to research ADUs and outline a plan for how ADUs can be implemented into the Colorado Springs zoning code, in order to best help our community address the encroaching affordable housing crisis in our city.
In the Fall of 2018, the committee presented a proposed ordinance for ADUs to several local commissions to receive additional feedback and to refine the ordinance. The community was very accepting of the proposal and, after months of work, a fine-tuned version was presented to the City Planning Commission of December 2019.
In the Spring of 2019, the ordinance was presented to City Council for review, at which time City Council determined to host two town halls to allow the community to join in the conversation. These town hall meetings were hosted in November and December of 2019. There was some opposition from some community members, who were concerned about the impact that ADUs would have on their cherished neighborhoods, and on the other hand, significant support was shown from local individuals and non-profit housing organizations.
Taking all of the information and feedback gathered during the town hall meetings, the City Council asked the Planning Department to make some revisions to the ordinances to ensure they took into consideration the concerns and suggestions voiced by the community. The Planning Department went back to the drawing board and came back with 3 separate ordinances that integrated all of their careful research, the feedback from the community, and the instructions from City Council. These ordinances were presented to City Council on May 22, 2020.
City Council members were given a chance to ask questions about the three ordinances during this presentation, and were overall very satisfied with the ordinances, not requesting any significant changes to be made. The City Council determined that the ordinances will be voted on during their June 9, 2020 City Council Meeting. The responses from City Council seemed to indicate that the ordinances will have no trouble passing when they are voted on at this meeting.
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