Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval has submitted an application to rezone portions of Denver’s Sloan’s Lake neighborhood, allowing for accessory dwelling units (ADUs), colloquially called “granny flats,” in the neighborhood.

If accepted, Sloan’s Lake homeowners will no longer have to ask the Denver City Council for permission before building the structures on their property. Each of these individual rezoning requests costs homeowners $1,000 in filing fees.

“Legislative ADU rezonings not only save property owners time and money, but also benefit the city by being a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars than one-off rezonings,” said Sandoval, who represents Denver’s District 1.

An accessory dwelling unit is a small living area that shares a single-unit lot with a traditional home. This includes apartments in basements and above garages and small stand-alone structures in yards.

Sandoval said Denver City Council has received “numerous” rezoning applications from Sloan’s Lake residents in the past few years to allow for ADUs.

In August 2020, Sandoval began neighborhood outreach to gauge interest in large-scale rezoning to allow ADUs in the entire neighborhood. She said 73% of residents support the rezoning, with 20% in opposition and 7% undecided.

These results are from a Jan. 8 survey, following two virtual town halls, two rounds of door-to-door flyering and sending mailers to each property in the neighborhood.

“I am thrilled to sponsor this legislative rezoning on behalf of the Sloan’s Lake neighborhood and to continue to further ADUs throughout Denver,” Sandoval said.

This effort comes after Sandoval successfully rezoned the Chaffee Park neighborhood to allow of ADUs in November – the first neighborhood-wide rezoning in Denver’s history.

Current zoning regulations allow for one ADU per lot in approximately 25% of the city.