An apartment complex under construction at 2141 S. Broadway in Denver in September 2021. (BusinessDen file)
Denver may again push back a final deadline determining which developments are exempt from new regulations enacted in 2022 – a move that would affect hundreds of proposed projects.
Currently, projects seeking to be grandfathered in from the “Expanding Housing Affordability” ordinance must receive at least their third round of plan comments by May 17. If that deadline is met, they have until the end of August to get their plans fully approved.
A spokeswoman for Denver’s Community Planning and Development department, which reviews plans, told BusinessDen last week an extension is being considered, although details haven’t been finalized.
“We are considering a potential extension of the deadline and working through what a proposal would look like,” spokeswoman Alexandra Foster said in an email.
The City Council would have to approve the proposal. Foster said a proposal could go before them “in the next couple of weeks.”
The new regulations, which went into effect in July 2022, require those constructing residential buildings in the city to incorporate a varying number of income-restricted units, or to pay a fee of $250,000 or more for each missing unit. Developers building a non-residential project, such as a warehouse or office building, must pay an increased linkage fee.
As is typical for major legislation, however, the regulations also established a way for developers who were already planning projects to build them under the previous rules. To do so, they needed to submit a “concept plan” — a precursor to a site-development plan, by June 30, 2022.
Hundreds of plans were submitted in the weeks before that date. As of July 1, 2022, the city had 746 plans to review: 364 concept plans and 382 more-detailed site-development plans. That doesn’t count plans related to single-family homes or duplexes, which go through a separate process.
Initially, developers had to get their site-development plans approved by Aug. 31, 2023. But last spring, the council voted to push the deadline back by essentially a full year.
The initial deadline push acknowledged a critical fact. Whether a project’s plans are approved by a certain date is not necessarily in a developer’s control — it also depends on how fast city staffers review plans. And review times slowed following the influx of plans around the same time, prompting Community Planning and Development to at times embark on a “blitz,” in which certain staff ignored phones and emails in order to fully focus on review plans.
Foster said Thursday that 270 proposals submitted by June 2022 had yet to be approved by the city.
An apartment complex under construction at 2141 S. Broadway in Denver in September 2021. (BusinessDen file)
Denver may again push back a final deadline determining which developments are exempt from new regulations enacted in 2022 – a move that would affect hundreds of proposed projects.
Currently, projects seeking to be grandfathered in from the “Expanding Housing Affordability” ordinance must receive at least their third round of plan comments by May 17. If that deadline is met, they have until the end of August to get their plans fully approved.
A spokeswoman for Denver’s Community Planning and Development department, which reviews plans, told BusinessDen last week an extension is being considered, although details haven’t been finalized.
“We are considering a potential extension of the deadline and working through what a proposal would look like,” spokeswoman Alexandra Foster said in an email.
The City Council would have to approve the proposal. Foster said a proposal could go before them “in the next couple of weeks.”
The new regulations, which went into effect in July 2022, require those constructing residential buildings in the city to incorporate a varying number of income-restricted units, or to pay a fee of $250,000 or more for each missing unit. Developers building a non-residential project, such as a warehouse or office building, must pay an increased linkage fee.
As is typical for major legislation, however, the regulations also established a way for developers who were already planning projects to build them under the previous rules. To do so, they needed to submit a “concept plan” — a precursor to a site-development plan, by June 30, 2022.
Hundreds of plans were submitted in the weeks before that date. As of July 1, 2022, the city had 746 plans to review: 364 concept plans and 382 more-detailed site-development plans. That doesn’t count plans related to single-family homes or duplexes, which go through a separate process.
Initially, developers had to get their site-development plans approved by Aug. 31, 2023. But last spring, the council voted to push the deadline back by essentially a full year.
The initial deadline push acknowledged a critical fact. Whether a project’s plans are approved by a certain date is not necessarily in a developer’s control — it also depends on how fast city staffers review plans. And review times slowed following the influx of plans around the same time, prompting Community Planning and Development to at times embark on a “blitz,” in which certain staff ignored phones and emails in order to fully focus on review plans.
Foster said Thursday that 270 proposals submitted by June 2022 had yet to be approved by the city.
