The City of Montrose is in the early stages of updating its land development regulations, and that could mean more multi-family housing, in addition to the extensive single-family development the community is already seeing.
Currently, the City of Montrose land development code (things like zoning) don’t allow for mixed development in many areas.
It is no secret there is plenty of home development in Montrose currently taking place, even with high interest rates, but almost all of that development consists of subdivisions and development of single-family housing.
There is very little work creating “middle housing,” as the city calls it — developments like townhomes, duplexes and other types of housing which give a variety of options to community members.
Jace Hochwalt, the city’s community development director, is overseeing the land development code update, and he says the efforts are really to modernize the current code.
“We’re starting to see a little bit of an increase in standard multi-family apartment complexes like the Basecamp (at Colorado Outdoors,” he said. “What we’re really missing is things like townhomes, duplexes triplexes — things that can kind of get somebody’s foot in the door from an ownership standpoint, and they can also rent well.”
The problem is there aren’t a lot of areas in Montrose that allow for those types of developments. Currently, developers can build
And in areas where they are possible, often there is plenty of paperwork involved; and developers have to get special permissions to build in certain areas.
One example is something called an accessory dwelling unit. Most know those as mother-in-law suites, or some other similar name. Currently, only homeowners in the downtown and surrounding area can build those types of units, which can then be rented to those who aren’t in a position to buy.
In fact, the city incentivizes those types of units with its REDO initiative.
Hochwalt said the city is looking at expanding access to those types of units in other zoning districts.
Duplexes and triplexes are currently only allowed in the city’s higher-density districts, Hochwalt says. That could be expanded to medium and lower-density districts with the code update.
Hochwalt said there has already been interest in building units like townhomes and triplexes from developers, but it’s tough to get those types of projects completes.
“There’s kind of more stringent hearing processes that go along with the, because they’re viewed (in the code) as standard multi-family, just like apartment complexes,” he said. “And at the end of the day, they’re really not. That’s not what their purpose is, but that’s how they’re viewed from a process standpoint.”
He said the interest continues to gain, and the community could likely see more of the duplex and townhome type development as other developers see success.
Hochwalt was just involved last week with the the first public engagement meeting for Phase 2A of the project (there’s also a 2B).
Though there are no dates set yet for further meetings, he said there will be more in the future.
There are lists for the considered Phase 2A changes to the code, as well as 2b changes online.
Hochwalt said all the changes proposed tie back to the city’s Comprehensive Plan and grant-funded Housing Needs Assessment.
The page for the Land Development Code Update can be found here.
Justin Tubbs is the Montrose Business Times editor. He can be reached by email at justin@montrosebusinesstimes.com or by phone at 970-765-0915 or mobile at 254-246-2260.
