City of Lakewood
Policy Report No. 2002-03
To: Mayor and City Council
Thru: Frank Gray, Director of Community
Planning & Development
From: Vincent Harris, Manager
of Development Review & Enforcement
Date: August 15, 2002
Subject: Zoning Ordinance regulations related to
the definition of Household
August 19, 2002 Study
Session
On August 5 you directed staff to provide information regarding existing Zoning Ordinance regulations related to the definition of “Households”. The information is to be presented at your August 19 City Council Study Session. The information includes Lakewood’s existing regulations and other jurisdictions’ regulations. Attached is a matrix summarizing the information staff has been able to attain.
The issue at hand is concern about the number of unrelated individuals allowed to reside in a single-family dwelling. The neighborhood near Colorado Christian University (CCU) currently has some dwellings which have been rented to students who attend CCU. On July 17 two neighborhood organizations (Mid-Lakewood Civic Association & West Alameda Heights Homeowners Assn.) conducted a meeting to discuss their concerns about housing around the CCU campus. At the conclusion of the meeting it was decided a letter would be produced to include questions the neighborhood groups wanted answered by the City. City staff received the letter, reviewed the questions and provided the answers to the questions. The letter from staff is attached.
On July 29 CCU arranged a tour of three of the houses that are intended to be rented by students at CCU. Each of the 3 houses has 10 habitable rooms, thus currently allowing a maximum of 10 unrelated individuals to live in the house. Staff understands the property owner and CCU together are going to voluntarily agree to limit the number of people residing in each house to a maximum of 8 people.
CCU begins classes on August 26 and students are currently moving into the houses they have rented for the school year. As we have indicated to you in the past few weeks, any changes to the Zoning Ordinance you may wish to pursue will need to be structured to ensure internal compatibility with all zoning regulations and that no City, State, or Federal laws are violated.
Also attached is other information staff and City Council have received in the last few weeks from citizens in the City. This report will outline a series of alternatives available to the City Council. It does not include a specific recommendation from the staff. If City Council chooses to amend the Zoning Ordinance, all residential property owners and tenants within the city, not just the neighborhood of CCU will also be affected by the amendments to the Zoning Ordinance .
Staff needs to reiterate, each dwelling in the City is currently allowed to have unrelated individuals living in it. None of the dwellings near CCU that are or will be rented by students are considered dormitories. They are simply being resided in and rented by people who are unrelated as allowed by the “Household” definition in the Zoning Ordinance.
The Lakewood Zoning Ordinance currently defines “Household” as follows;
Any Family or any number of unrelated individuals or
related and unrelated individuals, living together as a single housekeeping
unit up to a maximum of one person per habitable room which is being used for
living purposes. This definition is
subject to the following:
a)
The following words, terms and phrase, when used in
this Article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this subsection.
b)
“Habitable room which is being used for living
purposes” is space in a structure for living, sleeping, eating or cooking. Not included in this definition are
bathrooms, toilet compartments, porches, balconies, unfinished rooms, closets,
halls, storage and utility spaces, and similar spaces.
c)
“Living together as a single housekeeping unit” is
generally characterized by a family like structure, and/or a sharing of
responsibility associated with the household, and a concept of functioning as a
family unit with a sense of permanency, as opposed to the transient nature of a
bed and breakfast establishment, motel, hotel, or dormitory.
d)
Any household which meets the definition of a group
home or group living quarters shall be regulated as a group home or group
living quarters rather than as a household.
e)
A household shall not include more than one individual
who is required to register as a sex offender under the provisions of the
Colorado Revised Statutes, 18-3-412.5, as amended. This Subsection (e) shall not apply to a registered sex offender
who is living with his immediate family.
For purposes of this Subsection (e), immediate family is defined as a
person, the person’s spouse, the person’s parent, the person’s grandparent, the
person’s brother or sister of the whole or half blood, the person’s child, the
person’s step-child or the person’s child by adoption.
f)
Enforcement of Subsection (e) above shall occur only
after notice of the violation has been sent by regular mail to the owner and
tenant of the household and ten (10) days have elapsed after mailing of said
notice.
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To date, Colorado Christian University has indicated they are willing to work with the neighborhood to assist in resolving concerns that the neighborhood has relating to students renting dwellings. CCU has offered to place additional limitations (such as limiting the # of students in a dwelling; limiting the number of cars to be parked at the dwelling) on the dwellings students will rent if they can work out those agreements with the neighborhood. However, some neighborhood residents and leaders of the neighborhood Associations have indicated that they do not want to work with the University on this issue.
This report is provided to you in order that you can have as much information as possible related to the issue. Following are 4 alternative ways you may want to consider to regulate the number of unrelated persons residing in a dwelling. It is staff’s understanding that no changes are anticipated in conjunction with related persons residing in a dwelling. Any number of related people may reside in a dwelling.
If an amendment to the ordinance is directed to be prepared, staff will draft the proposed changes and will provide you with an evaluation of its enforceability.
The existing Zoning Ordinance regulation is based on a performance standard of allowing 1 unrelated person per habitable room. Habitable room is defined as any room in a dwelling except bathrooms, utility spaces or closets. Following are a few alternative ways to establish different performance standards for unrelated people living in a dwelling.
ALTERNATIVE # 2 - Create an Absolute Limit of the number of unrelated persons allowed to live in a dwelling
ALTERNATIVE # 3 - Combination of Amending the Household definition and setting an absolute limit on the number of unrelated people allowed in a dwelling
For example: 1 person per habitable room to a maximum of 8 people; or
1 person per bedroom to a maximum of 5 people; or
1 person per 500 square feet to a maximum of 7 people
ALTERNATIVE # 4
- Leave the existing regulations
in the Zoning Ordinance as is
Another alternative for enforcement is by filing a civil action in Jefferson County District Court. A civil action has a different burden of proof from a criminal action. It is also more time consuming and expensive.
PARKING REQUIREMENTS - The Lakewood Zoning ordinance requires that a minimum of two off-street parking spaces be provided on each lot with a single-family dwelling in residential zoning districts. One possible provision that City Council may want to evaluate is that of requiring additional off-street parking spaces on a single-family lot. Such a requirement will most likely change the character of the neighborhood area if double or triple wide driveways are necessary to be used for the parking of cars.
The opposite approach would be to limit the number of cars allowed for each household by instituting a parking permit system in a neighborhood. This type of system would be time intensive and be costly for the City to administer.
AMORTIZATION PROCESS - The amortization process is also similarly referred to as the “grandfather’ or Non-conforming use process. If the Zoning Ordinance is amended to exclude a use once allowed, a non-conforming use begins once the new ordinance becomes effective. If the City Council chooses to do so, an amortization schedule can be included in the ordinance. An amortization schedule for a duration of time may be approved to phase out the previously allowed use on properties. An amortization of 5 years has been upheld by Colorado Courts. A lesser time frame may be legal, but could be subject to challenge.
SUMMARY - If you choose to ask staff to prepare any version of an amendment to the Zoning Ordinance definition, staff will evaluate the concept and provide to you an analysis on the issues, risks and legal implications of the concept. As you can see from the attached matrix for other Cities a variety of standards or limits exist within the Metropolitan area and other Colorado Cities. To our knowledge none of the other cities’ definitions of household have been tested by the Colorado Courts.
If a change in the ordinance is requested, staff requests that the amendment include a standard of performance that can be easily calculated upon entering any given dwelling. In addition, any amendment has a risk of challenge in the courts by a variety of residents or property owners in the City currently relying on the existing standards or by disagreeing with a new standard.
SUBMITTED BY: REVIEWED
BY:
_________________________ _________________________
Frank
Gray, Director Michael
J. Rock, City Manager
Community
Planning & Development
_________________________ _________________________
Vincent
Harris, Manager of Joni
Inman, Director of Mayor
Development
Review & Enforcement and
City Manager’s Offices