Littleton’s councilmembers Tuesday backed down — for now — from a proposal to permit a variety of housing types, notably multiplexes and duplexes, in communities zoned for single-family homes.

It is unclear when the council would reconsider the proposal or what changes, if any, would be made. Residents critical of the proposal applauded the council’s decision.

Following an hour-long staff presentation, Councilmember Andrea Peters motioned to indefinitely postpone the proposal to allow more time for discussion.

“This did come up fast,” Peters said. “I think (postponing) is the right way to move forward. Let’s talk about ADUs, multiplexes and duplexes more.”

Mayor Pro-tem Stephen Barr was the sole “no” vote against tabling the proposal.

“We are addressing a Front Range need for additional housing,” Barr said. 

The proposal has drawn opposition from residents of single-family homes, arguing it would devastate the town’s character and sharply increase their communities’ density, with developers peppering older neighborhoods with the new units.

Proponents countered that the move would help address the town’s lack of housing opportunities. Back in 2017, Littleton said it anticipated a need for 6,550 housing units over the next couple of decades.

“The city would like us to believe that this will be a ‘gentle density’ influx with a modest number of homes being converted,” Jane Brennan, who joined neighbors in a group called Save Old Littleton, said in a statement. “We believe otherwise and are concerned that deep-pocketed developers with cash liquidity will converge on the entire city looking for opportunities.”

Littleton’s proposed zoning amendment would allow for the construction of multiplexes within communities zoned as single-family homes and ease Accessible Dwelling Unit requirements. Those housing types would include duplexes, small lot residential complex units, three-to-four-unit townhomes, multiplexes — three or four units in the same building — and “cottage court communities.”

Littleton is pushing a project called “Neighborhood Housing Opportunities,” which seeks to promote the “missing middle” — units that straddle between single-family houses and mid-rise apartment buildings.

“The missing middle,” Littleton officials said in the zoning resolution, “often have restrictive standards associated with them in the ULUC that make them difficult to build.”

Mayor Kyle Schlachter, planning commissioners and councilmembers have lamented the lack of housing opportunities and options in the city. 

“This isn’t something that we’re not going to just let go,” Schlachter said. “Pausing is the most prudent step right now. I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding of what this ordinance is, and I think talking about it more and learning about it more is the most important thing.”

A key part of that project is for the city to amend its unified land use code. City staffers said proposal isn’t a rezoning per se, but, rather, a “residential to residential” transition. 

City officials said allowing other housing types offers “compatible additions” to neighborhoods dominated by single-family homes, arguing it would create “gentle density.”

The proposed changes would directly affect acreage residential areas, and small, medium and large residential areas.

Officials said reducing existing zoning code barriers and expanding land use types support the city’s goal of “housing diversity.”

“We need to think about these alternative housing types,” Councilmember Pam Grove said. “We need the right kinds of housing in the right kinds of places.”

Kathleen Osher, Deputy City Manager, said housing has been a “priority since the city talked about it in 2017” and that Littleton needs “diverse housing types to meet the needs of all incomes.”

Hundreds had shown up to Tuesday’s meeting. Some wore shirts reading, “NO! to Ordinance 31-2024.”

“We are here because we love the city the way it is,” Glenn and Kristen Habicht, a couple who have lived in Littleton since 1970, told The Denver Gazette before the meeting:  

Other critics said multiplexes and similar housing types could “triple” an area’s density. Many of the city’s single-family homes are decades old and are owned by generational landowners, they said.

In a statement, members of Save Old Littleton, which formed to oppose the proposal, said the rezoning would cause a “devastating impact on the character, open spaces, and family friendly areas that make Littleton special.”