Wheat Ridge City Council discusses reducing parking requirements in city code

— housing where its cost is restricted by the deed to stay a ordable.

BY ANDREW FRAIELI AFRAIELI@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Parking is always a sensitive issue in a city mostly reliant on driving. With that, Wheat Ridge City Council extensively discussed options for reducing parking requirements for mixed-use zoning, focusing on suggestions made by their A ordable Housing Plan on how to cut costs as well.

One focus from the Feb. 6 study session that came directly from the plan was on reducing the required parking for deed-restricted a ordable housing e city highlighted in the meeting that not only does the current code not discern between housing types for parking, but a study referenced by Foothills Regional Housing shows that the needed parking at this kind of a ordable housing is much lower than Wheat Ridge’s current mandate of one to one and a half spaces per unit.

Not only are there potentially more parking spaces than needed, but the plan also highlights the extensive cost of creating parking due to high land prices, suggesting one way of bringing a ordability to developments is through less required parking.

“What we’ve found is the mixed-use districts in the city, and some other higher density residential zones, are already in close proximity to public transit corridors,” Senior Planner for the city Scott Cutler said in the study session. He added that these mixed-use areas, the only areas being considered for lowering the parking requirements, also have retail areas like grocery stores close by.

Another a ordable housing related code change suggested was eliminating the requirement of creating parkland or paying a fee instead for deed-restricted a ordable housing. is fee was used to fund the city’s parks and trails, but say in the sta report the waiver would not impact the park system. It also points out that “in a project consisting of a mix of a ordable housing and market-rate units, the fee reduction would only apply to the deed-restricted a ordable units.”

As Cutler explained, it’s a small fee, but any money o adds to creating more a ordability.

Beyond parking, the council also discussed replacing public hearings for subdivisions. According to the sta report, a subdivision “entails the creation or recon guration of lots, tracts, or parcels for the purpose of sale or development, and in some cases to clean up title or ownership issues.” e city’s concern is the public misinterprets the hearing as meaning the subdivision is up for debate, when it is not — the Planning Commission and City Council are “compelled” to approve these subdivisions as long as they meet all requirements.

“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for us to have public hearings where the public doesn’t have a whole lot to say on what is going to happen,” Councilmember Scott Ohm said. “We can vote no, but the end result is going to be, I assume, us getting sued because they met all the requirements.” e council agreed to pursue a di erent direction of informing the public about these subdivisions rather than hearings.