Short-term home rentals (“STRs”) are big business in the Colorado front range, both in places where they are currently allowed and those where they are not. In many cities, people are renting their residences on apps like VRBO and Airbnb, even when prohibited by the zoning code. One such city, Lakewood, Colorado, is attempting to deal with this issue head on by adopting ordinances to directly regulate STRs. However, Lakewood’s proposed ordinances have a stricter bite than the regulatory schemes of other cities in the area such as Denver.
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Chaffee Park Proposed Rezoning
Chaffee Park may become the first Denver neighborhood to be entirely rezoned for the sole purpose of allowing accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on all residential lots of at least 4,500 square feet. The Denver Planning Board unanimously approved the community-generated proposal on September 16, 2020, and the rezoning proposal now awaits City Council review and adoption. The proposed zone districts are the same as the current districts except that they allow the ADU use, either within the primary structure or in a detached structure. The Chaffee Park neighborhood extends generally from 48th Avenue on the south to 52nd Avenue on the north, and from Federal Boulevard on the west to Kalamath Street on the east.
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Lakewood Voters Pass Strategic Growth Initiative
This post was authored by Alexandra Haggarty. Alex is a summer clerk at Otten Johnson, and a rising 3L at the University of Colorado Law School.
This post is an update on three earlier posts about a citizen initiative to limit residential growth in Lakewood, Colorado.
With a near 53 percent majority, voters in the City of Lakewood approved Ballot Question 200, capping growth of residential unit construction by one percent annually and requiring city council approval of projects with forty or more units. The city joins Boulder and neighboring Golden in responding to Colorado’s population growth by capping development.
Proponents of the initiative argue that it will preserve Lakewood’s culture and environment. Specifically, the initiative was pitched as a way to preserve open space, protect single-family development, ensure that infrastructure and services are not overburdened, and curb alleged problems of unmanaged growth, such as crime and urban decay.
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Colorado Court of Appeals: Court Should Defer to City Council’s Code Interpretations, But No Bond for Rule 106 Defendants
In May, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the City of Thornton’s approval of a specific use permit for a self-storage facility against a challenge brought by a competitor self-storage facility. While the court’s decision in Stor-N-Lock Partners #15, L.L.C. v. City of Thornton was a victory for the defendants, including the city and the developer, the court ruled that defendants in Rule 106(a)(4) actions may not recover delay-induced damages through the imposition of a bond. Otten Johnson attorneys Brian Connolly and Bill Kyriagis represented the defendant landowner and developer, CenturyLink and Resolute Investments, Inc., respectively, throughout the proceedings.
In the case, Resolute obtained the city’s approval of a specific use permit for its project. A neighboring self-storage facility challenged the approval under Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 106(a)(4), which allows for judicial review of quasi-judicial decisions by local government bodies. The plaintiff alleged that the approval of the specific use permit did not improve the welfare of its property, which was one of the Thornton code’s criteria for the issuance of a specific use permit. The district court affirmed the city’s decision but denied the defendant’s motion to require the plaintiff to post security in an amount that would cover the defendant’s losses incurred as a result of litigation-related delays.
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Boulder to Grow Open-Space Network with Purchase of $9.5 million Parcel
Tuesday evening the Boulder City Council unanimously approved the $9.5 million purchase of the 615-acre parcel located at 4536 N. 95th St. (pictured below) to add to the city’s 45,000-acre open space network. The parcel is the fourth most expensive open-space parcel purchased by the city, will be one of the largest, and will become