Zoning for All: End Exclusionary Zoning in Denver

The Problem

For most of the twentieth century, American cities used zoning as a tool of exclusion. Denver was no exception. Single-family-only zoning - which prohibits apartments, duplexes, and multi-family housing on the vast majority of residential land - was designed not to manage growth, but to keep certain people out of certain neighborhoods. It worked. And it is still working today.

The result is a city where land is scarce, housing costs are high, and families are priced out of entire neighborhoods. When most of a city’s land can legally contain only one home per lot, housing is artificially scarce. Artificial scarcity drives up prices. High prices displace long-time residents, particularly Black and brown communities who were steered into neighborhoods and then priced out of them.

This is not an accident of the market. It is a consequence of policy. And policy can change it.

What Denver’s Zoning Code Currently Does

Denver’s zoning code (Denver Zoning Code, adopted 2010, updated periodically) has undergone meaningful reform - but not enough. Blueprint Denver (2019) laid out a vision for more complete, mixed-use neighborhoods, and some rezonings have followed. The 2023 statewide ADU law (HB23-1255) and 2024 transit-oriented communities bill (HB24-1313) forced Denver to update its code further.

But Denver has not fully implemented the spirit of these reforms:

• ADUs are technically allowed citywide but face a gauntlet of local regulations: owner-occupancy requirements, design standards, parking requirements on lots, and high development fees that make backyard or basement units economically unfeasible for most homeowners.
• Minimum parking requirements - which require a certain number of parking spaces per home - still apply in many areas. These mandates add thousands of dollars per unit to construction costs and waste land that could hold additional homes.
• Much of the city remains low-density with no realistic path to additional housing without rezoning, a slow, expensive, neighborhood-by-neighborhood process that is easily captured by opposition from existing homeowners.

Why Zoning Reform Is the Foundation

Every other housing policy - rent control, social housing, anti-displacement protections - operates within the constraints zoning creates. If land is legally restricted to one home per lot, even publicly funded affordable housing can’t be built there. Zoning reform is the policy that makes everything else possible.

The research is unambiguous: cities that have eliminated restrictive zoning and allowed more housing have seen rents moderate relative to comparable cities. Minneapolis eliminated single-family-only zoning in 2019 and saw rents decline 11% in the years that followed, even as peer cities experienced increases (University of Minnesota, 2024). Auckland, New Zealand upzoned 75% of its residential land and saw construction nearly triple and rents fall relative to the rest of the country (Greenaway-McGrevy & Phillips, 2023).

Our Solution

1. Legalize Multi-Family Housing Everywhere

Amend Denver’s zoning code to allow a minimum of four units per residential lot citywide - in every neighborhood, on every block. This does not force anyone to sell or develop. It gives property owners the right to build additional homes on their land if they choose. It means a homeowner can add a duplex. A family can build a small apartment building. A developer can construct four homes where one stood before - without a rezoning process.

This is not radical. It is the baseline in most of the world. Paris, Tokyo, and virtually every major European city allow dense mixed-use development throughout their residential areas. The result is not urban chaos; it is housing abundance.

Near transit corridors, the minimum rises to eight units per lot, consistent with HB24-1313. Denver’s light rail and bus rapid transit network exists. It should be surrounded by homes, not parking lots.

2. Eliminate Minimum Parking Requirements Near Transit

Remove mandatory minimum parking requirements for all new housing development within half a mile of rail stations and frequent bus routes. Parking mandates raise construction costs, reduce the number of units per lot, and subsidize car ownership at the expense of affordable housing.

Developers who believe their tenants need parking can still build it - the market will determine what is appropriate. But the government will no longer mandate that every new home be accompanied by an expensive, land-consuming parking space.

3. Streamline ADU Permitting - No Owner-Occupancy Requirement

The statewide ADU law is a floor, not a ceiling. Denver should go further:

• Eliminate owner-occupancy requirements for ADUs. Homeowners should not need to live on-site to build or rent an accessory unit.
• Allow ADUs by right with administrative review only - no discretionary approval, no design review board, no public hearing.
• Fee waivers for affordable ADUs. Waive permitting fees for ADUs that are deed-restricted affordable at 80% AMI or below.
• Expand the ADU financing program. Fund low-interest construction loans for low- and moderate-income homeowners who want to build an ADU but cannot afford upfront costs.

4. Reform the Rezoning Process

The current discretionary rezoning process gives organized neighborhood opposition veto-like power over housing. A small, motivated group of neighbors can block any project by flooding public hearings and raising procedural objections. This is a structural problem, not a people problem.

Reform the process so that:

• Projects that comply with the City’s adopted plans (Blueprint Denver, Neighborhood Plans) receive administrative approval, not City Council votes subject to political pressure.
• City Council rezoning votes require a supermajority to deny a conforming application - reversing the current burden of proof.
• Community benefit agreements for large developments are negotiated transparently and consistently, not extracted through behind-the-scenes political deals.

Evidence

Zoning Reform Works - The Research

The mechanism is straightforward: when it is legal to build more homes, more homes get built. When supply grows alongside demand, prices moderate. This does not replace the need for affordable housing programs - market-rate housing serves moderate and higher incomes, social housing serves lower incomes - but zoning reform is what allows both to scale.

Denver’s Own Evidence

Denver’s experience with the 2023 ADU law and 2024 transit-oriented communities bill demonstrates that streamlined rules produce results. ADU permit applications increased significantly after the statewide preemption removed some local restrictions. Areas near transit that were upzoned as part of HB24-1313 compliance are already attracting new housing investment. The barrier is not demand; it is remaining local regulatory friction.

The 2025-2026 market is a live demonstration of the supply mechanism. A wave of new apartment construction pushed metro Denver’s vacancy rate to roughly 7.5% - its highest in 16 years - and the average apartment rent fell to about $1,891 in mid-2026, down ~2.5% year-over-year, with steeper declines in the neighborhoods that absorbed the most new units (RentCafe, 2026; Apartment Association of Metro Denver, 2026). Building more homes did exactly what the research predicts: it cooled rents. Zoning reform is how Denver sustains that supply pipeline instead of letting it stall the moment the current cycle ends.

Local Context

Denver’s housing crisis is fundamentally a supply crisis. The city’s population grew by over 100,000 people in the 2010s (U.S. Census Bureau) while housing production lagged significantly. The region has a documented shortage of over 100,000 homes (Colorado Division of Housing, 2023).

This shortage hits renters hardest. Renters make up approximately 46% of Denver households (U.S. Census Bureau ACS, 2023) and have no protection against the land-cost inflation that exclusionary zoning creates. When land is scarce by government mandate, the people who pay the premium are renters - who have no asset appreciating alongside rising land values.

Denver’s communities of color bear the greatest burden. Historically redlined neighborhoods were simultaneously denied access to homeownership wealth and disproportionately targeted for demolition and urban renewal. Today, Black and Latino households are more likely to rent, more likely to be cost-burdened, and more likely to be displaced by rising rents. Zoning reform that increases housing supply in higher-income, lower-density neighborhoods - the areas historically protected by single-family zoning - is a racial justice intervention.

Frequently Asked Questions

“Won’t this destroy neighborhood character?” Neighborhood character is made by the people who live there - their culture, their businesses, their relationships. It is not made by the number of units in a building. Minneapolis eliminated single-family zoning five years ago. Its neighborhoods are still recognizably themselves. What zoning reform changes is who can afford to live in a neighborhood. Right now, the answer in much of Denver is: only people with significant wealth. That is not character. That is exclusion.

“Won’t developers just build luxury housing?” New housing, even luxury housing, improves affordability by reducing competition for older, cheaper housing stock. When high-income residents move into new units, they vacate the slightly-older, slightly-cheaper units they were previously occupying. This “filtering” effect is well-documented in the housing economics literature (Mast, 2021; Rosenthal, 2014). Zoning reform is not a substitute for social housing or affordable housing requirements - but it is a necessary complement to them.

“What about traffic and infrastructure capacity?” Denver’s existing water, sewer, and road infrastructure was designed for a city that was mostly low-density. Some upgrades will be needed in high-growth corridors. But the alternative - a city that cannot build enough housing to accommodate its workforce - has its own infrastructure costs: longer commutes, more vehicle miles traveled, more congestion, more carbon emissions. Dense, transit-oriented housing reduces infrastructure costs per capita compared to sprawl.

“Will this increase my property taxes?” No. Zoning reform does not change property tax assessments. If anything, making it easier to add an ADU increases property value for existing homeowners - and provides rental income that can offset property tax costs.

“What about anti-displacement protections?” Zoning reform without anti-displacement policy can accelerate gentrification in lower-income neighborhoods, as new development raises land values and attracts higher-income residents. That is why this policy must be implemented alongside - not instead of - the Anti-Displacement, Tenant Bill of Rights, Rent Control, and Community Land Trust policies in this platform. Upzoning should be prioritized first in higher-income, lower-density neighborhoods where displacement risk is lower.

How We Pay For It

Zoning reform costs virtually nothing to implement. It is a regulatory change, not a spending program. The primary costs are:

1. Staff time for Denver Community Planning and Development to update the code and process applications (~$2-3M/year in additional capacity).
2. ADU financing fund: A $25M revolving loan fund for low-income homeowners building affordable ADUs, funded by the Affordable Housing Fund or a portion of vacancy tax revenues.
3. Fee waivers for affordable ADUs: ~$500K/year in foregone permit revenue, offset by increased property tax base from new units.

The savings are substantial: every new market-rate unit built without public subsidy reduces demand for subsidized affordable units. Every ADU rented at below-market rates is an affordable unit produced at zero public cost.

References

• Apartment Association of Metro Denver. Vacancy and Rent Report (Q1 2026). 2026.
• Denver Community Planning and Development. Blueprint Denver. 2019.
• RentCafe. Average Rent in Denver, CO [Yardi Matrix market-trends data]. 2026.
• Colorado General Assembly. HB23-1255, Accessory Dwelling Units. 2023.
• Colorado General Assembly. HB24-1313, Transit-Oriented Communities. 2024.
• Greenaway-McGrevy, R. & Phillips, P. Housing Affordability in Auckland. University of Auckland, 2023.
• Harding, R. Why Tokyo is the model for housing affordability. Financial Times, 2022.
• Manville, M., et al. The Effect of California’s SB 9 on Housing Supply. UCLA Lewis Center, 2023.
• Mast, E. JUE Insight: The Effect of New Market-Rate Housing Construction on the Low-Income Housing Market. Journal of Urban Economics, 2021.
• Rosenthal, S. Are Private Markets and Filtering a Viable Source of Low-Income Housing? American Economic Review, 2014.
• Sightline Institute. Oregon’s Middle Housing Law: Year Two Update. 2023.
• University of Minnesota. Minneapolis 2040 - Rent and Housing Supply Outcomes. 2024.
• U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. Denver Housing Tenure Data. 2023.
• Victoria Transport Policy Institute / Parking Reform Network. Parking Cost and Reform Analysis. 2023.