It took Spencer Hanks nearly a decade to buy a house in Littleton. About halfway through his search, he said, he thought he had landed a place near downtown. At the last minute, an out-of-state buyer came in with fistfuls of cash and dropped $50,000 above his offer. His dream home — so tantalizing ly within reach — now belonged to someone else. “I almost moved out of Littleton,” said the Greeley native, who went back to renting in the city. Hanks, 32, and his wife did finally buy a house in Littleton a year ago, landing a mortgage — albeit one that’s “definitely a stretch” — to cover the $600,000 price tag of the modest 1,700-square-foot home near Sterne Park. But he knows of so many other young families in his generation who feel “fatalistic” about breaking into the metro Denver housing market. Colorado’s housing challenge is clearly not a Littleton-only problem. But in recent months, the city of 45,000 has become a reluctant microcosm of the larger battle playing out, in which a shortage of 70,000 houses, apartments and condos in metro Denver has kept home prices high. The situation has prompted state lawmakers in recent years to pass legislation aimed at boosting density in cities across the state. That, in turn, has led some municipalities to resist such efforts as an infringement of their local control over land-use decisions. Pressure has also come from below, as in Englewood — where an attempt to encourage more density in the city abutting Denver prompted recall elections in 2023. In Littleton, things came to a boil in January. City leaders, after facing significant resistance, tabled a proposed zoning ordinance dubbed the Neighborhood Housing Opportunities initiative. It would have permitted denser types of housing throughout the city, like duplexes, triplexes and attached townhomes. Many homeowners saw the measure as an assault on the character of their suburban haven, which is largely made up of tidy single-family homes tucked into leafy neighborhoods. But the building of more detached homes likely won’t lead Colorado out of its housing woes, advocates of greater density argue. In metro Denver, the median sales price of a home last month was $599,000 — just 3.9% below the April 2022 price peak. “They feel they’re never going to own,” Hanks said of friends struggling to afford a place of their own. Shortly after the showdown at city hall, a newly constituted citizen advocacy group that preaches caution on densification sprung up, called Rooted in Littleton (formerly known as Save Old Littleton). The group commissioned a survey from Magellan Strategies, a polling form that last month asked nearly 1,200 residents questions about Littleton’s residential portfolio. Construction take place on a home addition in a neighborhood in Littleton, Colorado, on April 10, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post) The survey, the results of which were released in late March, found a strong lean toward supporting less housing density in Littleton. One notable result from the survey was a strong preference (among more than 3 in 4 respondents) for a direct voter voice in any future major zoning decisions in the city, rather than leaving it up to the City Council. That sentiment alone told Joe Whitney, a nearly 30-year resident of the city who helped start Rooted in Littleton, that his fellow denizens felt they weren’t being listened to enough. “Blanket zoning and blanket density is not the answer,” said Whitney, 64. “It’s like setting a wildfire to do a controlled burn.” Resistance to state laws Littleton isn’t just seeing recalcitrance on changes to its land-use code from its residents. Like the rest of Colorado’s municipalities, it is also negotiating directives on housing policy coming down from the state — some of which have triggered a forceful local-control defense instinct. Littleton’s council recently passed two resolutions staking out positions on housing bills moving through the state legislature this session. It urged a “no” vote on House Bill 1169, the so-called YIGBY — or “Yes in God’s Backyard” — bill that would generally allow religious groups and educational institutions to build housing on their properties, regardless of how the land is zoned. The Colorado Municipal League has called the bill an “unconstitutional” assault on cities’ and towns’ home-rule authority — and a measure that rejects “sound long-range community planning.” Conversely, the Littleton council urged a yes vote by the legislature on a construction-defects reform bill that lawmakers are pitching as a way to encourage more condominium construction in a state that has seen little of it in the last few decades. On April 24, the city will host an open house to discuss how it should comply with upcoming state mandates on housing and related matters that passed in the 2024 session, affecting Front Range communities. Those include laws dealing with allowing accessory dwelling units — including garage and backyard units — as well as parking requirements in neighborhoods near transit stops and residential occupancy limits. Final votes by the Littleton council on implementing those mandates are expected in June. At the height of the debate over the city’s proposed zoning measure in January, Councilwoman Pam Grove — who’s co-hosting the upcoming open house — said that during her half-dozen years in office, “never has an issue hit such a hot button.” “We’re getting pressure from the state, and we have citizens in our city that feel strongly one way or another,” she said. “We can only do so much to fix this.” A housing study commissioned by Littleton in 2017 projected 15,000 more people would move to the city over the next two decades. That would translate into 6,500 more housing units needed in the city by the 2040s. So far, Littleton hasn’t joined the growing list of cities that have pledged to push back on state housing laws they see as overreaching. Westminster, Arvada and Northglenn are three metro cities that have indicated they may not fully comply with the laws, Colorado Public Radio reported in February. The resistance goes beyond metro Denver. Colorado Springs officials said recently that they would take a stand against the accessory dwelling unit mandate passed by state lawmakers last year. Last month, the Lafayette City Council mulled taking legal action against the state over House Bill 24-1313, a law that required cities to allow denser developments around transit stations. The Colorado Municipal League has mounted challenges against a number of housing bills over the last few years. Kevin Bommer, the organization’s executive director, said some of his member cities haven’t always felt included in the process of crafting those laws. “When you have a bunch of people sitting in the room thinking about what local communities should do — but when you don’t have feedback or input from local governments — the outcomes aren’t necessarily things local governments can live with,” he said. And cities, Bommer said, don’t build — “cities plan.” “That’s what Littleton is doing. That’s what Arvada is doing, and Westminster,” he said. “What they need is the state to be a partner, instead of telling them what to do.” What do Littleton’s residents think? At the same time, Littleton’s city officials are facing pushback from residents exercised about potential changes to their neighborhoods. The Magellan survey, which was sent to 1,197 registered voters by text March 6-11, showed a strong lean among respondents toward prohibiting — or tightly controlling — density in the city. The survey, conducted by a well-regarded Colorado polling firm, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.79 percentage points. A majority of respondents felt that denser housing in Littleton would not lower home prices, would not alleviate traffic congestion, would not reduce wildfire risk and would not reduce homelessness. When asked if they supported or opposed policies that would increase the housing density of some city neighborhoods, 54% came out in opposition, versus 44% in favor. But there was a notable difference between age groups. Among respondents 18 to 44, support for more density outpaced the opposition, 53% to 45%. In the 45 to 64 cohort, however, increased density in the city lost by a wider 61%-to-34% margin. And renters, who tend to skew younger, urged more density in Littleton by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, according to the poll. Councilman Stephen Barr said he’s not surprised by the numbers, especially when it comes to the age breakdown. Barr, 38, moved to Littleton in 2018 and rented before buying a unit in a quadplex three years ago — the very kind of “missing middle” housing that Littleton’s 2017 housing survey said was needed to absorb the city’s projected population increase. Having lived in a 400-square-foot accessory dwelling unit over a detached garage in California before moving to Colorado, Barr was the only person on the council in favor of adopting the Neighborhood Housing Opportunities initiative. He called the measure a “reasonably equitable step in starting to tackle this question.” “If you’ve had economic security for 30 or 40 years, then we’re coming from different places,” said Barr, who graduated college just as the economy was cratering in 2009 amid the Great Recession. “As a renter, as someone who has lived in an ADU, as someone who lives in a quadplex — it’s hard to hear that the ways in which I’ve lived are unwanted.” Whitney, with the Rooted in Littleton group, conceded that the high barrier to entry for younger people looking for a starter home in the metro area is something to pay attention to. “It’s a valid claim,” he said. Single-family homes line a neighborhood street in Littleton, Colorado, on April 10, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post) But when it comes to making sometimes-drastic changes to someone’s neighborhood, most people see the largest investment they will ever make — their home — as sacrosanct, he said. It becomes “such an emotionally charged issue for people” — and one that is much bigger than one city alone. “It’s a nationwide problem we have in terms of affordability,” Whitney said. “I don’t think it’s Littleton’s job to solve it for America or for Colorado.” “It was a good policy,” mayor says Littleton Mayor Kyle Schlachter has reservations about how the Magellan survey was conducted and how the questions were worded. He took the survey and determined that the results should be “taken with a grain of salt.” He feels there is more sympathy for the city’s efforts than the survey results revealed, he said. “I think it was a good policy. It was a good ordinance,” Schlachter said of the Neighborhood Housing Opportunities initiative. “But there were threats of lawsuits, threats of referenda and threats of recalls.” Approving it, he said, would have been “one step forward and two steps backward” in the effort to make Littleton more affordable. City officials need look no further than next door to Englewood, where two years ago a similar focus on density led to recall efforts and lots of consternation in the community. Related Articles Littleton tables measure aimed at welcoming denser housing types in face of growing opposition Littleton may allow denser housing throughout the suburban city — but not everyone is on board Metro Denver housing market remains in holding pattern 5 years after COVID-19 shock Four of seven council positions were subject to a recall election in the fall of 2023, an effort that ultimately failed. While Littleton has tabled its rezoning ordinance indefinitely, that doesn’t mean residents are a hard no for any type of effort to bolster density in the city. Where that type of housing is located seems to matter a great deal. A question on the survey that asked respondents whether they supported increased housing density within two blocks of busy Santa Fe Drive, Broadway, Mineral Avenue or Littleton Boulevard lost 52% to 44%. But when that distance was reduced to one block, respondents came down 48% to 47% in favor of higher density — though that’s within the margin of error. South Metro Housing Options, Littleton’s housing authority, has been busy building several projects geared toward offering more affordable options in recent years. In 2024, a project called Overlook at Powers Park opened with 51 income-qualified apartment homes for seniors 62 and older. And this summer, groundbreaking is expected on the 50-unit Montview Flats project near downtown Littleton. Another crack at a citywide zoning ordinance is not expected again this year, said Littleton deputy city manager Kathleen Osher. Hanks, the 32-year-old new Littleton homeowner, said curtailing and limiting efforts to improve the chances of securing affordable housing in the city could mean it never happens. “My fear is that the scope would be so narrow that it would be easy to shrink it to where it is ineffective,” he said. “At some point, you’re going to have to pass that torch.” Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter. ...read more read less