housing
It's hard to build housing in Littleton
It’s hard to build housing in Littleton. When the council tried to make it easier, residents revolted.
After months of acrimony, Littleton voters this November will get a more direct say in city housing policy through city charter amendment 3A and a slate of mayor and council races that have become a referendum on growth.
BY BRIAN EASON, THE COLORADO SUN
In December 2019, a proposed community of 85 relatively affordable homes was on the cusp of approval in the south Denver suburbs.
Two months earlier, the Littleton City Council had voted unanimously to adopt Envision Littleton, a long-term plan that called for more apartments and starter homes. Without more housing options, planners concluded, the city was becoming unaffordable for working class families.
So when a developer wanted to build narrow single-family homes on small lots, priced at around $450,000, the city planning staff recommended the project as a good use of an old industrial lot at the corner of West Powers Avenue and Delaware Street. The planning commission agreed, voting in the project’s favor.
But the council refused to rezone the land.
As Gov. Jared Polis and state lawmakers promote density as a solution to Colorado’s affordability crisis, success will depend on places like Littleton, where homebuilders say the deck is stacked against them.
Housing projects have to navigate a web of red tape just to get through the early stages of planning, housing professionals and local officials say. And even if they survive the initial approval process, months or years spent fine-tuning blueprints can be all for naught if enough residents rally the council against new housing.
In recent years, a more housing-friendly City Council has pushed to overhaul Littleton’s land use code. They legalized accessory dwelling units or “granny flats” in accordance with state law, and empowered planning staff to approve some projects on their own, bypassing the usual gauntlet of neighborhood opposition. But in January, a proposal to allow “missing middle housing,” like duplexes and small townhomes, in single-family neighborhoods proved a bridge too far.
Homeowners pushed back in force, packing public meetings and threatening to unseat the mayor and most of the city council. The backlash led the council to table its zoning rewrite and pledge to work more closely with neighborhood groups on future planning efforts. But that wasn’t enough to satisfy opponents.
After months of acrimony that culminated in a brief court dispute, voters in November will get a more direct say in city housing policy through a city charter amendment and a slate of mayor and council races that have become a referendum on growth.
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NIMBY in Littleton
Krista Kafer, a columnist at the Denver Post, adjunct professor, and broadcaster, writes an insightful take on the push to block everything but Single-Unit Homes and rental apartments from Littleton. Her January 2025 piece is worth revisiting as the city's voters consider a Charter Amendment to lock housing uses to January 2025, permanently. "Growth is good. And it need not change the character of a city; in fact it often improves it. I grew up in the Columbine High School area when Downtown Littleton was seedy and threadbare. The influx of new residents and new diverse housing from condos to million dollars homes and new and updated commercial districts make it the vibrant city it is today."