LITTLETON, Colo. — While Littleton is known and beloved for its small-town charm, the south Denver metro community continues to grow.
Over the past year, the city’s residents have been divided over the future of its neighborhoods.
Last January, Littleton City Council was prepared to pass an ordinance allowing denser housing options, like duplexes and triplexes, to be built in areas zoned for single-family homes. The ordinance’s goal was to allow for more development of “missing middle” housing options in order to increase supply and bring housing costs down.
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But residents loudly spoke out against it, saying the changes were too sweeping. A tense, standing room only council meeting convinced city leaders to drop the idea.
“Talked to all the councilmen we could, we showed up and we fought them,” said Mark Harris, a Littleton resident. “We made sure our voices were heard.
“Littleton is a beautiful place full of beautiful neighborhoods. Many of them are single-family neighborhoods. That's why a lot of us are here. It's certainly why I moved here.”
Harris is a board member for the community organization Rooted in Littleton, which did not stop their fight after the ordinance was shelved.
The group proposed changing the city’s charter and successfully got a measure known as Ballot Question 3A on the November ballot, which voters then approved.
The ballot question, included in full below, effectively freezes Littleton’s zoning law as of Jan. 1, 2025. That means city leadership would be unable to make any major changes to zoning without voter approval, though individual property owners could still ask the city to rezone their own property.
Shall Section 65.5. Preservation of Neighborhood Land Use Restrictions, be added to clarify the intent of the citizens to preserve single-family residential land use and ensure that current and future owners of property in certain residential zoning districts may rely on restrictions on land uses that protect their properties. Accordingly, land uses of properties presently permitted under the Littleton Unified Land Use Code (ULUC) within zoning districts Small Lot Residential (SLR), Medium Lot Residential (MLR), Large Lot Residential (LLR), and Acreage Residential (ACR) are limited to uses specified therein as of January 1, 2025. Furthermore, any action by Council to initiate any comprehensive rezoning and official zoning map amendments, including text changes, shall first require notification to all affected property owners by First Class mail delivered by the United States Postal Service. Nothing herein shall prohibit or prevent a property owner from seeking rezoning of the owner’s property.
“We're not in any way against affordable housing, but we are against destroying the character and nature of our beautiful single family neighborhoods throughout Littleton,” Harris told Denver7, adding that he believes subsidies and developing outside of established neighborhoods are better affordable housing solutions.
“Density and affordable housing have been conflated, coast to coast,” he added. “These are nationwide issues, and I think some folks on the city council got involved in that issue and density.”
One of those pro-density leaders is recently re-elected Mayor Kyle Schlachter. He and city council as a whole did not support Ballot Question 3A.
“I thought it was very restrictive, that it kind of freezes our housing, residential housing, to where it was back in January of last year.,” Schlachter told Denver7. “Voters decided to pass that. And so we are going to continue the conversation of housing within the parameters of the language that is now in our charter.”
But that conversation is getting complicated. The city sued to legally challenge the ballot measure before November’s election, saying it would put the city out of compliance with state housing law aimed at expanding affordable housing.
The city eventually dropped that lawsuit in October, “upon consideration that a completed review of the issues was unlikely before the November 4 election.”
Some raise the concern that the charter language reverting back to the start of 2025 negates changes Littleton made to make it easier to build accessory dwelling units (ADUs).
Harris, a retired attorney, wrote the ballot measure and says the language should be clear.
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“Having written it, it was in the first sentence,” he told Denver7. “It was singularly focused on preserving single-family neighborhoods. We didn't intend to affect ADUs, or to stop all development, or to prevent chicken coops or additional chickens or gardens, or all types of things that we were accused of.”
Sorting out the legal language may take a while.
“We stand ready and willing and able to assist city council in those efforts,” Harris said.
“It's not going to be something that's going to be quick and sudden,” Schlachter added. “It might take a few months, or even a few years.”
In that time, Littleton will keep getting bigger.
“A lot of the growth that we have had recently here in Littleton has been in our corridors, where there's been a lot of multifamily development,” Schlachter said. “The charter amendment doesn't affect any of that.”
Residents weigh in
Denver7 Your Voice visited Littleton to listen to the community and discuss a variety of issues, including the debate over 3A and the future of housing in the city.
“The cost of housing across the whole metro area is expensive, so making sure that the City of Littleton is being thoughtful about that, and planning for that and making sure that Littleton can be a home for everybody, no matter what their economic status is,” resident Ian Dalton said is an issue important to him.
When it comes to the single-family zoning freeze, Dalton said he’s “kind of divided on that.”
“I think that sometimes when there is denser housing, it can take away from the feel of a neighborhood,” he said. “But also, more and more people are moving into Colorado. They've discovered the amazingness that Colorado is, and if we don't make room for them, and don't have the right housing options for that, they will just be priced out of our future.”
Julia Guzman says she understands both sides of the debate, but questions whether the ballot measure was the right solution.
“We definitely have needed more affordable housing, but we also want to try to preserve the community that we have,” she said. “I, you know, personally, wasn't thrilled with the idea of changing kind of our, you know, for all intents and purposes, our city constitution to be a certain way, and so that things can't just be changed from year-to-year depending on what's going on.”
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