Our great city, along with the rest of the state and nation, is going through a housing shortage, which is driving demand and raising prices to historic levels.

Additionally, the current zoning in Littleton is too restrictive and prescriptive to allow market supply to meet market demand. This is preventing the market from building what people need.

For example, starter homes are hard to build due to:

• Large lot minimums (smaller minimums could accommodate quality compact homes)
• Lack of ability to build single-family attached (duplexes & townhomes)

As a result, we have too few options for our aging population, graduate students, moderate-income families, and others.
It is also preventing us from addressing specific issues, such as:

• Affordable housing needs sufficient density to pencil and qualify for financing (Ex: downtown zoning prevented construction of new affordable housing)
• Insufficient “revenue efficiency”
• Spread out development doesn’t pay for itself; threat to fiscal health
• Walkability & sustainability
• Inclusive community

We continue to work with City Council and other local partners to address and identify these needs and solutions. Only by working together can we truly address our city’s housing needs and make Littleton a place people can live, work, and thrive.

Learn more about the NEW Land Use Codes recently released by the City of Littleton HERE.