Littleton city leaders are ready to cast a final vote Tuesday on a proposed change to its land-use code that could spur the construction of denser housing types — like duplexes, triplexes and cottage-style homes — throughout the southern Denver suburb. But the idea isn’t going over well with many in the city of 45,000, where neighborhoods made up exclusively of detached single-family homes could become a thing of the past. “I think rezoning would take neighborhoods that have a nice country feel and quaintness to such a mixed mess that outside buyers and visitors will scratch their heads at the building plans and rules of Littleton,” said Earnest Mathis, a 34-year resident of the city. He spoke in opposition to the land-use amendment at a heavily attended City Council meeting last month. Tuesday night’s vote is the latest effort by a Colorado community to tackle the state’s vexing housing shortage, which has resulted in slim pickings for homebuyers and steadily escalating home prices over the last few years. In October, the median price of a standalone or detached home in metro Denver came in at $650,000. But James Mingo, who recently moved to Littleton from Denver’s Lowry neighborhood, said that if the idea was that more density automatically would equal lower home prices, he was “living proof” that’s not necessarily the case. “They kept building, building, building,” he told the council at last month’s meeting, referring to residential construction in popular Denver neighborhoods like Five Points, Highland and West Highland. “Duplex, duplex, duplex — traffic, traffic, traffic. There’s no mid(-range) in Lowry, there’s no mid in Five Points. There’s no mid.” Spencer Hanks, 32, spoke for a younger generation, telling the council members and the packed chambers that he was a rare exception in his age group: He was able to purchase a home in Littleton after living in the city for nearly a decade. Allowing more diverse housing choices would make it easier for people like him to call the city home, he said. “It is not the place of the city — it is not the place of our code — to shut the door on our future,” Hanks said. “To pretend this is as good as it gets is just a lack of imagination.” More cities tinkering with zoning codes Littleton’s measure echoes a move made by Boulder’s elected officials in 2023, when the City Council voted to lift the prohibition on duplexes and triplexes in single-family neighborhoods, according to a Boulder Reporting Lab story. But tinkering with zoning codes doesn’t come without risk. It took Fort Collins’ leaders three cracks at changing its land-use regulations to allow for denser housing in the northern Colorado city, after the first two efforts met with strong citizen backlash and the final version was dialed back from the original. And when Steamboat Springs attempted to annex land to build 2,300 rent-capped homes to serve employees who otherwise were having trouble affording to live in the tony ski resort town, residents shot down the annexation in a citywide vote last spring. But this year, the Democratic-majority state legislature passed a package of laws that encouraged the construction of denser projects near transit stops, allowed accessory dwelling units (such as garage units and backyard cottages) throughout the Front Range and lifted occupancy limits that some local governments had imposed. That’s the environment Littleton now sees itself in, said Kathleen Osher, the city’s deputy city manager. “We are mostly a built-out city,” Osher said. “Are there opportunities in our residential zones for different types of housing?” Dominic Row, a new townhome development in Denver, was built on a site that was previously an abandoned medical building, shown on Thursday, March 21, 2024. It has 18 townhomes that are roughly 1,500 square feet each. Littleton city leaders are considering land-use changes that would allow more medium-scale development in its neighborhoods, from simple duplexes to townhomes. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post) In 2017, a housing study commissioned by Littleton projected 15,000 more people moving to the city over the next two decades. That translates into 6,500 more housing units needed in the city by the 2040s. Unless the city permits more housing types, that will be a difficult goal for a landlocked city like Littleton to achieve, the study found. In recent years, the city has mostly seen delivery of traditional suburban single-family homes or apartment complexes of five or more units, according to city planners. What isn’t readily available in Littleton — often referred to by housing advocates as the “missing middle” — is housing that is less expensive and accommodates more people on a smaller footprint: Think duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, accessory dwelling units and cottage-style homes clustered on a lot. Littleton resident Emily Dykes said the proposed zoning changes presented an opportunity for the community to say no to another big apartment building — instead opting for the potential of a “nice duplex” that better fits a quieter residential neighborhood. “I can’t stress how much I want future generations to be able to live in this city,” she said at last month’s council meeting. “I wouldn’t have gotten to live here if I had tried to come in now.” The council voted Dec. 17 to move the measure to a second, and final, reading on Tuesday. The meeting is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. “The idea is to be a little more permissive” Littleton Mayor Kyle Schlachter said the city was trying to “provide some options that don’t currently exist.” “The idea is to be a little more permissive in what can be built in these Littleton neighborhoods,” he said. Osher, the deputy city manager, says Littleton’s housing stock is divided evenly between single-family homes and what is called “attached” housing, mostly in the form of multifamily apartment living. The city even has two mobile home parks, Osher said. But increasingly, she said, the city is hearing from businesses with employees who can’t afford to call Littleton home. “We’re trying to be creative about providing a diversity in types of housing,” Osher said. Related Articles Colorado News | Metro Denver housing market heats up in October, despite election jitters Colorado News | Gov. Polis, Dems on verge of “a real step forward” on housing as land-use bills sail toward finish Colorado News | Fort Collins zoning reform battle echoes Polis’ land-use flop earlier this year Should the land-use changes pass, Osher cautioned that any changes that come to the city’s housing stock would be “slow and incremental.” Residents would have to submit applications to the city’s planning department to convert their single-family homes into a duplex or triplex or to build an accessory dwelling unit on their lot. That may be too fast for Craig Coronato. He’s a member of Littleton’s planning commission, which gave its blessing to the land-use code change in November. He voted yes then — but he said he’d change his vote to no today. Reflecting on the singular beauty of Littleton’s rural pockets and green spaces in recent weeks, Coronato told the council at the Dec. 17 meeting that more discussion was needed before it made such a momentous decision. “I recommend to council that we slow this down a bit,” he said. Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.