Greeley’s household occupancy standards have’t changed in more than 40 years. Should they? The city is working to answer that question.
By Kelly Ragan
Greeley’s household occupancy standards haven’t changed in more than 40 years. Should they? As communities across Colorado grapple with rising home prices, Greeley is looking to answer that question.
In an interview with the NoCo Optimist, Brad Mueller, Director of the Community Development Department for the city, said many Greeley residents are having a harder time finding affordable housing that meets their needs.
At a city council meeting Tuesday, city officials presented options around housing occupancy standards as part of Greeley’s efforts to address the lack of affordable housing.
As part of the housing plan the city adopted in 2018, Mueller said, the city found that while Greeley had good job growth, there wasn’t enough housing to keep up with it.
New housing developments are part of addressing that issue, Mueller said, but the city is also looking at adjusting housing occupancy policy as an option.
As it stands, Greeley is a U+1 city – meaning in Residential-Low Density or Residential-Medium Density areas (think suburbs rather than college houses or apartments), a family can have one unrelated person living with them.
For example, that could include a married couple plus one roommate, or a married couple with kids plus grandma plus one unrelated roommate, or two adult siblings and a roommate.
Recent changes in Colorado
In a vote Monday night, Denver City Council voted to allow more people to live together – opting to move from U+1 to U+5, after a public comment session that stretched late into the night, according to a report by Denverite. Denver first started considering the change in March 2018.
“That points to the fact that this is a very timely issue for many jurisdictions,” Mueller said. “For those of us in the planning industry, we know it’s coming up frequently in communities across the country.”
It goes without saying that Denver is very different from Greeley – yet many neighboring or comparable communities also have higher occupancy limits.
Fort Collins, Evans, Pueblo, and Boulder are among cities with U+2 limits.
Windsor, Aurora, Brighton, Grand Junction and Fort Morgan have U+3 limits.
Longmont, Thornton, Arvada and Colorado Springs have U+4 limits.
Cheyenne (located in Wyoming, which apparently some in Weld have found renewed vigor for attempting to join) has no limits on occupancy.
Why is Greeley considering change?
The U+1 standard dates back to 1980, said Caleb Jackson, city planner, at the meeting Tuesday.
In 1962, Greeley was a U+Unlimited city. In 1966, it changed to U+2. In 1976, it changed to U+0. In 1980, it changed again to U+1.
Mueller said the conversation around change has a lot to do with the fact that demographics have changed.
“A generation ago, over 50% of households were households with children,” Mueller said. “That’s now down to 25%. We know people are waiting longer to have children, expressing a preference for alternative housing situations – having four roommates for example – even as unrelated professionals living together.”
Cost of housing is also outpacing wage growth, said Jackson.
Greeley has long been seen as an affordable place to live in northern Colorado, Jackson said, but that’s changing.
In 2010, the median sale price of a house in Greeley was $140,000, Jackson said. By 2019, that increased to $320,000, according to city documents.
People can argue that Greeley’s and Evans’ s housing prices are lower than other northern Colorado communities, Jackson said, but the rate of housing price is increasing faster than in surrounding communities such as Fort Collins, Johnstown, Loveland, Severance, Timnath, Windsor and Berthoud.
“Our advantage in the affordability aspect is declining faster than other communities in northern Colorado,” Jackson said.
Beyond increasing median sale prices in Greeley, rent is also rising.
“In 1983, you could get a three-bedroom apartment in Greeley for $404 per month,” Jackson said. “In 2020, that’s $1,509 per month. A one-bedroom apartment in the 80s went for $281 per month. In 2020, a one-bedroom apartment went for $845 per month.”
While rents have tripled or quadrupled, Jackson said, incomes have doubled in that same time.
The pitfalls
Jackson noted changes to occupancy rules could impact the character of family-oriented neighborhoods and give rise to nuisances related to parking, trash and noise.
During the meeting, councilmember Ed Clark said that increasing occupancy limits could lead to additional cars parked on the street, cluttered neighborhoods and angry neighbors.
Councilmember Kristen Zasada said it was her mission to protect the integrity of single-family, Residential-Low Density zoning (reminder: she is a Real Estate agent).
“There is a difference between a family of four and a house of four 20-year-olds,” Zasada said. “Which houses do you think will have noise issues? Which houses do you think will have trash issues?”
Zasada and Clark both mentioned enforcement being an issue as well – as the city typically enforces the occupancy policy based on complaints.
“There are very few tools already available to enforce this,” Zasada said. “I would hate to take away that resource in our city.”
Councilmembers Tommy Butler and Dale Hall both spoke about an interest in tying the number of occupants to the number of bedrooms.
What’s next?
Ultimately, council told the planning department to move forward in exploring the option to change the occupancy allowance, and to base it on thenumber of bedrooms in a home.
The vote to move forward landed 4-3, with many councilmembers indicating they were lukewarm on the issue.
“I don’t have a preference,” said Mayor John Gates. “I didn’t when I read it, and I’m less sure now.”
Council will revisit the conversation on occupancy limits in the fall and vote on a number of housing policy issues.
To learn more
To learn more about Greeley’s conversation around housing occupancy standards, go to https://greeleygov.com/services/cd/dev-code-update/household-occupancy-standards .