(1) (a) The general assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that: (I) Accessory dwelling units offer a way to provide compact, relatively affordable housing in established neighborhoods with minimal impacts to infrastructure and to supply new housing opportunities without added dispersed low-density housing; (II) Accessory dwelling units generate rental income to help homeowners cover mortgage payments or other costs, which can be important for a variety of residents, such as older homeowners on fixed incomes and low- and moderate-income homeowners; (III) Accessory dwelling units provide families with options for intergenerational living arrangements that enable child or elder care and aging in place, and a 2021 survey by the AARP found that approximately seventy-five percent of people fifty years of age or older want to stay in their homes or communities for as long as they can. According to a 2018 study by the Center for American Progress, fifty-one percent of Coloradans live in a child care desert-a community where there are no child care providers or so few options that there are more than three times as many children as there are licensed child care slots. These child care deserts are situated within rural, suburban, and urban communities and are a major reason for working parents to leave the workforce. (IV) Accessory dwelling units are often occupied at low to no rent by family members, and if they are rented privately, their rents are relatively affordable because of their small size; (V) As Colorado's population ages and typical household size continues to decrease, accessory dwelling units offer more compact housing options that align with the state's changing demographics, and Coloradans over sixty-five years of age are the fastest-growing age cohort in Colorado according to the state demography office; (VI) Accessory dwelling units enable seniors to downsize, move into accessible units, or live with family or a caregiver while remaining in their communities. A 2018 AARP survey found that sixty-seven percent of adults would consider living in an accessory dwelling unit to be close to someone but still have a separate space. Most seniors do not live in homes that are accessible, even though disability is prevalent among the senior population and increases with age. Less than four percent of existing housing units in the United States are estimated to be livable for people with moderate mobility difficulties, according to "Housing for an Aging Population" in the journal Housing Policy Debate. (VII) Relative to dispersed, low-density development, compact infill development, including accessory dwelling unit development, reduces water use, greenhouse gas emissions, infrastructure costs, and household energy and transportation costs; (VIII) Accessory dwelling units use significantly less energy for heating and cooling than single-unit detached dwellings because of their smaller size, which reduces household energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Accessory dwelling units can reduce lifetime carbon dioxide emissions by forty percent compared to medium-sized single-family homes, according to a report from the Oregon department of environmental quality. Reducing emissions from the housing sector is critical for meeting the state's greenhouse gas emissions targets established in section 25-7-102. According to "The Carbon Footprint of Household Energy Use in the United States" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reducing floor space per capita is a critical strategy to reaching mid-century climate goals. (IX) Compact infill development reduces water demand and infrastructure costs by using less piping, which reduces water loss; includes less landscaped space per unit; and makes better use of existing infrastructure. (X) Accessory dwelling units reduce government capital and maintenance costs for infrastructure since accessory dwelling units are built in existing neighborhoods and have a relatively small impact on existing infrastructure. National studies such as "Relationships between Density and per Capita Municipal Spending in the United States", published in Urban Science, have found that lower density communities have higher government capital and maintenance costs for water, sewer, and transportation infrastructure and lower property and sales tax revenue. These increased costs are often borne by both state and local governments. (XI) A number of local land use laws prohibit homeowners from building an accessory dwelling unit, or apply regulations to accessory dwelling units that significantly limit their construction; (XII) A number of municipalities have removed barriers to accessory dwelling unit construction such as parking requirements, owner occupancy requirements, and restrictive size and design limitations, which has resulted in accessory dwelling unit permits increasing to ten to twenty percent of total new housing permits and an overall increase in the total housing supply. Since California implemented various reforms to encourage accessory dwelling unit construction, including requiring cities to allow accessory dwelling units as a use by right, preventing the imposition of parking requirements, and preventing owner occupancy requirements, accessory dwelling unit construction has increased significantly in California. Following reforms to California's accessory dwelling unit law in 2016, accessory dwelling unit development has increased rapidly from around one thousand accessory dwelling units permitted in 2016 to over twenty-four thousand in 2022, or about twenty percent of new housing permits statewide, according to data from the California Department of Housing and Community Development and analysis by the Bipartisan Policy Center. (XIII) Housing supply impacts housing affordability, and housing prices are typically higher when housing supply is restricted by local land use regulations in a metropolitan region, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research in working papers such as "Regulation and Housing Supply", "The Impact of Zoning on Housing Affordability", and "The Impact of Local Residential Land Use Restrictions on Land Values Across and Within Single Family Housing Markets"; (XIV) Increasing housing supply moderates price increases and improves housing affordability across all incomes, according to studies such as "The Economic Implications of Housing Supply" in the Journal of Economic Perspectives and "Supply Skepticism: Housing Supply and Affordability" in the journal Housing Policy Debate; (XV) Academic research such as "The Impact of Building Restrictions on Housing Affordability" in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Economic Policy Review has identified zoning and other land use controls as a primary driver of rising housing costs in the most expensive housing markets; (XVI) Accessory dwelling units offer affordable and attainable options to live in high- opportunity neighborhoods, which can help improve equity outcomes regionally and statewide. An analysis of accessory dwelling unit permitting in California found that accessory dwelling units are typically permitted on parcels with relatively good access to jobs compared to surrounding areas, according to "Where Will Accessory Dwelling Units Sprout Up When a State Lets Them Grow? Evidence From California" in Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research. (XVII) Local government regulation of accessory dwelling units varies significantly within regions and statewide in Colorado in terms of where they are allowed, the dimensional and design restrictions applied, and other requirements. This inconsistency inhibits the development of a robust market of accessory dwelling unit developers, modular accessory dwelling unit designs, and associated cost reductions. Colorado is similar to most states in this regard, and, according to "Zoning By a Thousand Cuts" in the Pepperdine Law Review, which analyzed accessory dwelling unit regulations across Connecticut, "The high degree of regulatory variation thwarts the development of prototype designs or prefabricated [accessory dwelling units] that could satisfy different rules across jurisdictions". (XVIII) More permissive regulation by local governments of accessory dwelling units provides a reasonable chance for homeowners to construct or convert an accessory dwelling unit and thereby increase housing supply, stabilize housing costs, and contribute to affordable and equitable home ownership to adequately meet the housing needs of a growing Colorado population. (b) Therefore, the general assembly declares that increasing the housing supply through the construction or conversion of accessory dwelling units is a matter of mixed statewide and local concern.
‹ Prev All Colorado sections Next ›
Lexace provides legal information, not legal advice, and no attorney–client relationship is created. Statute text is provided for general information and may not reflect the most recent amendments; verify against the official state code.