Find out what the lot next door is zoned for before you design the patio. It is a five-minute lookup, and it has saved more backyards than any fence I have built.DT · Owner, BH Builders
Denver pulled its citywide upzoning back to the transit corridors
The biggest land-use story of the week is about what will not change on most Denver blocks. On September 28, Denverite reported that the city’s planning department has scaled back “Unlocking Housing Choices”, the zoning proposal that would have allowed duplexes, triplexes and four-unit buildings on residential lots across the city, provided they met certain criteria.
What planners are discussing now is narrower:
- Where it would apply: properties within a quarter-mile of Denver’s “transit priority streets” and rail transit stations. Denverite names Colfax Avenue, Mississippi Avenue and Leetsdale Drive among those streets.
- How much smaller that is: the change shrinks the affected area by about half.
- Why it changed: pushback from City Council members and others who said the citywide version would disrupt their neighborhoods. Environmental and housing advocates are criticizing the retreat for the opposite reason.
Two cautions before anyone redraws their lot. First, this is still a proposal. Nothing has been adopted, and the city keeps the current drafts and meeting schedule on its Unlocking Housing Choices project page. Second, none of this touches what a single-family lot can already do. An accessory dwelling unit runs on separate rules that are in force today; our guide to Colorado’s ADU law covers them, and the Denver ADU page has current cost ranges.
A federal judge narrowed the Energize Denver lawsuit, and kept it alive
Last week we covered the rewritten Energize Denver rules. This week the policy was in court. BusinessDen reported on October 2 that U.S. District Judge Regina Rodriguez ruled that landlord groups can keep suing over the program, while cutting the case down. The Colorado Apartment Association, the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and two other industry groups sued the city and the state in 2024.
According to BusinessDen, the judge agreed the groups missed a two-year window to challenge the rules covering consumer appliances and dismissed that part. Their challenge to the building-wide standards goes forward. The paper also reports that 47 percent of large buildings already meet the city’s 2032 efficiency targets.
A ruling like this decides who gets to argue, not who wins. The rules that took effect in August are still the rules. If you own a small apartment building or a mixed-use property, keep planning mechanical work against the compliance path you have, and do not hold a boiler replacement waiting on a court date.
Belcaro: a car wash where a church stands
BusinessDen reported on October 5 that Quick Quack Car Wash has proposed a car wash on a church property at 999 S. Colorado Blvd. in Belcaro. The lot is about one acre and runs back to Harrison Street, the residential street parallel to Colorado Boulevard. Neighbors, the paper reports, are not excited.
We are not taking a side on a car wash. The useful part for a homeowner is the pattern: the lot behind you or beside you can change use, and the zoning already on that lot decides how much say the neighbors get. If you are about to put real money into a backyard, a patio or a home addition that faces a commercial parcel, look up what that parcel is zoned for before you design the windows.
Downtown: a 16th Street project gets smaller
Also on October 5, BusinessDen reported that Green Spaces Market has downsized its plan along the 16th Street Mall. The project was awarded $4.3 million in Downtown Development Authority money in August 2025, one of ten picked that round, and was planned across two buildings between California and Welton streets. Founder Jevon Taylor told the paper there were not enough resources for the whole block, so he had to choose where they went.
That is a public-money retail project, a long way from a kitchen remodel. The lesson travels anyway. When the budget will not cover the full plan, the job that finishes is the one where somebody cut scope on purpose, early, instead of spreading the money thin over everything.
City work and transit: one bid, one grant
- Aztlan pool replacement is out for proposals. Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure issued an RFP for construction manager/general contractor services on the Aztlan Outdoor Pool Replacement on September 29. The site is 4435 Navajo St. The scope replaces the existing lap pool and kiddie pool with a 25-meter lap pool with an integrated zero-entry kiddie pool and splash pad, plus pool mechanical and plumbing systems, a standalone equipment building, and locker room work to meet current building code and accessibility standards. The pre-proposal meeting is October 6 at 11 a.m., proposals are due November 5 at 2 p.m., and the construction phase carries a 15 percent MWBE participation goal. Funding comes from the Vibrant Denver bond program.
- $44 million for more bus service. CDOT announced on October 2 that the state’s Clean Transit Enterprise is granting RTD $44 million to run the Flatiron Flyer between Denver and Boulder more often, start a Boulder-to-DIA service, and add frequency or hours on more than ten other routes, including Evans Avenue, Alameda Avenue, Broadway and Mississippi Avenue. CDOT expects nearly 3.8 million additional rides in 2027.
It was a quiet week for Denver-metro highway closures on CDOT’s news page after September’s two I-70 shutdowns at Kipling. Check the Denver metro project page before you promise a delivery window all the same.
What this means for your project
Four takeaways from this week:
- Plan with the zoning you have. A proposal that has already been cut in half once can change again before any vote. If your project only works under rules that have not passed, it does not work yet. ADUs, additions and finished basements all add living space under rules that exist today.
- If you live near a transit street, pay attention. Within a quarter-mile of streets like Colfax, Mississippi or Leetsdale, the narrowed proposal is the one aimed at your block. That can cut both ways: more options for your own lot, and more building next door.
- Look up the neighbors’ zoning before you build toward them. Belcaro is the reminder. It costs nothing to check, and it changes where you put the patio, the fence and the bedroom windows.
- Cut scope early and on purpose. If the number is tight, decide what comes out before demolition, not halfway through. Our Denver remodeling pricing page has current ranges by project type, and the Denver permit timelines guide shows how long each review takes, so the schedule is honest too.
If you want to talk through what your lot allows right now, call BH Builders at (720) 980-3913 and we will walk the scope with you.
Keep reading from the BH Builders blog
I do not build on a zoning rumor. If the city changes what your lot allows, good, we will look at it then. Until it passes, we plan with the rules on the books.DT · Owner, BH Builders
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