Making Sense of the New Denver Zoning Code

The New Denver Zoning Code was recently signed by City Council and is now in effect. There is a 6 month transition period where the old & new Denver Zoning code could be applied based on your preference. So let's take a look at what they multi-year project has given us Denver Real Estate professionals to work with as we move forward.

The New Denver Zoning Code is BOTH Form & Context Based. Here is a clip from the Code itself distinguishing what that is and how it will be used:

CONTEXT BASED APPROACH
The Code is organized by Neighborhood Contexts derived from existing and desired characteristics of Denver's neighborhoods. The Neighborhood Contexts are distinguished from one another by their overall physical and functional characteristics including but not limited to: street, alley, and block patterns; building placement and height; diversity, distribution, and intensity of land uses; and diversity of mobility options. This context-based approach provides a range of zone districts that set standards for compatible development.

FORM BASED APPROACH
The Code also uses a form-based approach to explain how buildings and structures relate to their lots, surrounding buildings and structures, and street and alley rights-of-way. Each zone district includes a menu of illustrated building forms. The building form standards that control height, setbacks, parking location, building configuration and ground story activation, as applicable to the Neighborhood Context, zone district and type of building form. The illustrated building forms are not intended to limit the shape, forms, roof styles or architectural styles. The illustrations are intended solely to illustrate typical volumes that building forms may occupy in order to maintain a consistent context for the neighborhood.

Now that we have an understanding of the purpose & intent of the New Denver Zoning Code, I am going to introduce the basic code definitions here and follow up with subsequent posts detailing each individual component.

Every parcel of Land in the New Denver Zoning Code will be assigned a basic 3 Code Designator. For Example: U-SU-A.

The First Letter Designator is "Neighborhood Context". It could be one of the following five designations:
S = Suburban
E = Urban Edge
U = Urban
G = General Urban
C = Urban Center

The Second Letter Designator is "Building Form" (note this and the first designator using the foundation of the code... Form & Context). There are ten different Form Designators:
SU = Single Unit
TU = Two Unit
TH = Town House
RH = Row House
MU = Multi Unit
RO = Residential Offi ce
CC = Commercial Corridor
RX = Residential Mixed Use
MX = Mixed Use
MS = Main Street

The Third Letter Designator refers to Lot Size or Building Height:
Minimum Zone Lot Size
A = 3,000
B = 4,500
C = 5,500
D =6,000
E = 7,000
F = 8,500
G = 9,000
H = 10,000
I = 12,000

Heights
2 = 2 stories
2.5 = 2.5 stories
3 = 3 stories
5 = 5 stories
8 = 8 stories
12 = 12 stories
16 = 16 stories
20 = 20 stories

So to use the original example: U-SU-A. That parcel of land is zoned for Urban Context, a Single Unit with a minimum Lot Size of 3,000 SF. Pretty easy.

Look for subsequent posts detailing the different contexts and forms. And FYI, there is sometimes a special last letter designator. I'll cover those later as well.