‘Flex zoning’ concept could increase housing availability in Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The City Council discussed a preliminary plan during Tuesday's work session that would allow residential developers to provide a wider variety of housing within the same development, and do so without requesting a zoning change.
Under the "flex zoning" concept, zoning for housing developments would be based on the number of units per acre rather than on the size of single lots.
The advantage would be giving developers flexibility to build single-family homes, townhomes and apartments within the same development -- which could provide a greater variety of housing, increase availability and diversify those neighborhoods.
"It allows developers to have different-sized lots and developments, and they're not strictly adhered to as they are now," said City Councilwoman Jill Gaebler. "Only a few cities in the country have adopted flex zoning. But if it works out, it can fill a need for the city."
However, a criticism of the concept is that making those developments more dense would reduce the number of traditional single-family homes in the future, and make it difficult for homeowners who may want to subdivide their property.
City Councilman Don Knight said he's concerned about that.
"We're already seeing developers build fewer single-family homes because younger adults don't want them as much," he said. "They'd rather have townhomes or condos where they don't have to do yard care or shovel sidewalks. People who want single-family homes would have to find homes older than 2021. I don't think that's a good way to do city planning. I like flex zoning if it's part of our existing zoning requirements, but not if it's the only tool we have."
Knight also said he wants to know whether flex zoning would affect ordinances passed by the council recently to regulate short-term rental units and accessory dwelling units.
"Newer units are only supposed to exist outside of single-family neighborhoods," he said.
Peter Wysocki, the city's director of planning and community development, brought the idea to the council after studying it as it exists in only a few cities across the country.
Wysocki will study the concept further before bringing it back to the council. The hope is that the council will vote on the matter before a possible change in council membership after next spring's city elections.
Greenways at Sand Creek, a planned housing development on the former site of the Springs Ranch Golf Course, is similar to the flex zoning concept.
A vote could take longer because the COVID-19 pandemic limits the holding of town halls and other means of public input that are part of the process.
Because of that, it's unclear whether the matter will eventually be decided by the current council or by the new council after the municipal elections next April.
