Slot Home Evaluation & Text Amendment
Latest News
City Council approved the slot home text amendment at its meeting May 7.
Strategy report documents
- Download and read the Strategy Report Executive Summary (PDF)
- Download and read the complete Slot Home Strategy Report (PDF)
For Registered Neighborhood Organizations
Neighborhood groups and other interested organizations may request a staff presentation on the proposed text amendment. Contact Senior City Planner Analiese Hock (analiese.hock@denvergov.org) to set up a presentation.
About the Project
The Slot Home Evaluation & Text Amendment project will include research, analysis and public outreach to identify the problem, explore alternatives and identify tools to promote improved design outcomes. It will culminate in proposed text amendments to the Denver Zoning Code in early 2018 intended to promote multi-family infill development that engages the public realm, considers neighborhood character, addresses human scale, and minimizes negative effects on pedestrians and neighboring properties while ensuring solutions that provide equity, flexibility and predictability. The project will consider all zone districts and building forms relevant to slot home construction regardless of where they occur in Denver. A stakeholder task force will guide the project and ensure an inclusive public process.
A "slot home" is a multi-unit residential structure consisting of attached dwelling units arranged side-by-side and primarily perpendicular to the street. Slot homes are also sometimes called “sideways-facing town homes” or “fraux homes.” In recent years, slot homes have been constructed in many neighborhoods throughout Denver resulting in a new development pattern that can detract from the design quality and sense of community in Denver’s neighborhoods.
Download a two-page information sheet on slot homes Denver.
Problem Statement
The Problem Identification Report (PDF), the product of a well-researched and community-driven process, describes the existing conditions and regulations under which slot homes are built, summarizes trends in recent slot home construction, and outlines the public process used to develop the final problem statement.
The problem is that new slot home construction does not promote neighborhood objectives in five key respects:
Many slot homes do not engage the street, sidewalk and semi-public frontages. They rarely feature street-level activities, porches, or pedestrian entrances and transparency (windows) that promote interaction with neighbors and ownership of the public realm.
Siting, setbacks and uses (residential, commercial, etc.) within slot homes sometimes do not reflect the existing character or desired future conditions of the street, block and neighborhood.
Many slot homes don't incorporate human-scale proportions, heights and design elements that could promote compatible mass and scale relationships among buildings, such as coordinated facade widths, heights in stories, window patterns or distinctions between building floors.
Slot homes often incorporate visible driveways, parking areas and garage doors that have a negative effect on the pedestrian-oriented character of the street, sidewalk, and neighborhood.
Slot homes often orient their most active facade areas toward adjacent properties, rather than the street and sidewalk, or include other elements, such as rooftop decks, which may have negative visual, solar, or privacy impacts on neighbors.
Slot Home Evaluation Task Force
A task force will assist CPD staff with an evaluation of issues associated with slot home development in Denver’s neighborhoods, and recommend specific zoning text amendments to address identified issues. The task force represents community and other stakeholder interests, including residents, property owners, elected officials, developers and architects, to help ensure an inclusive public process. The Denver Planning Board and City Council will consider task force recommendations before adopting potential future amendments to the Denver Zoning Code.
Task Force Members
- Rafael Espinoza, Denver City Council
- Wayne New, Denver City Council
- Don Elliott, Denver Planning Board
- Nathan Adams, Real Estate Developer at Adams Development
- Dave Berton, Designer at Real Architecture
- Enrico Cacciorni, Berkeley-Regis United Neighbors Board and Real Estate Developer at Red Lodge Development
- Anna Cawrse, Designer/Landscape Architect at Design Workshop
- Scott Chomiak, Real Estate Developer at Koelbel Homes
- Anne Cox, Cherry Creek neighborhood representative
- Jane Crisler, Board of Trustees at Historic Denver, Inc. and partner at Form Works Design Group
- Christine Franck, Director, Center for Advanced Research in Traditional Architecture
- Sarah Kaplan, Designer at Kephart Architects
- Maggie Miller, Curtis Park Neighbors Board Representative
- Ty Mumford, Real Estate Developer at Dawn Development
- Heather Noyes, Berkeley-Regis United Neighbors Board and Landscape Architect at Studio CPG
- Melissa Rummel Real Estate Developer at Nichols Partnership
SDP moratorium
and Implementation
To limit the opportunity for new developments that would not meet the proposed text amendment standards, Councilmen Wayne New and Rafael Espinoza—following the recommendation of the Slot Homes Task Force—will propose a moratorium on approval of site development plans (SDPs) for side-by-side residential developments submitted on or after March 15 until May 10, when the proposed new regulations would take effect, if approved. (See complete details in PDF linked below.) This approach differs from what was initially laid out in the task forces’ strategy report.
Only formal site development plans that have been submitted and received a log number by 4 p.m., March 14, will be allowed to proceed under the current rules and must be approved by November 10.
The following document offers complete information on key dates for implementation of the moratorium and the proposed text amendments.
- Download and read Information for Development Services customers and developers (PDF) - updated 2/26/18
Abe Barge
Principal City Planner
abe.barge@denvergov.org
For ongoing updates on the forthcoming slot home text amendment, please subscribe to our Community Planning and Development newsletter.
Task force meeting #1
2:45 p.m. Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Webb Municipal Building, 201 W. Colfax Ave., room 4F6
Meeting summary (PDF)
Meeting packet (PDF)
Meeting presentation (PDF)
Task force meeting #2
2 p.m. Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Various locations
Meeting agenda (PDF)
Meeting packet (PDF)
Meeting presentation (PDF)
Community Open House
5:30-7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 8
Scheitler Recreation Center
5031 W. 46th Ave. Denver CO
Meeting flier (PDF)
Meeting agenda (PDF)
Meeting presentation (PDF)
Meeting summary (PDF)
Posters (PDF)
Task Force meeting #3
March 16, 2017
Webb Municipal Building
201 W. Colfax Ave., room 4F6
Meeting packet (PDF)
Meeting agenda (PDF)
Meeting presentation (PDF)
Meeting summary (PDF)
Planning Board information item
May 3, 2017
City and County Building
1437 Bannock Street, Parr-Widener Community Room (#389)
City Council Land Use, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee information item
May 23, 2017
City and County Building
1437 Bannock Street, Council Committee Room (#391)
Task Force Meeting #4
2-4 p.m., Wednesday, April 12
Webb Municipal Building
201 W. Colfax Ave., Room 2.I.1
Agenda (PDF)
Presentation (PDF)
Summary (PDF)
Task Force Meeting #5
2-5 p.m., Thursday, June 8
Webb Municipal Building
201 W. Colfax Ave., Room 4.F.6
Agenda (PDF)
Presentation (PDF)
Summary (PDF)
Meeting packet (PDF)
Activity worksheets (PDF)
Task Force Meeting #6
2-5 p.m., Thursday, July 20
Webb Municipal Building
201 W. Colfax Ave., Room 4.F.6
Agenda (PDF)
Presentation (PDF)
Summary (PDF)
Meeting packet (PDF)
Task Force Meeting 7#
2-5 p.m., Thursday, August 24
Webb Municipal Building
201 W. Colfax Ave., Room 4.F.6
Agenda (PDF)
Presentation (PDF)
Meeting packet (PDF)
Summary (PDF)
Community Open House #2
5:30-7:30 p.m., Thursday, September 7
Colorado Health Foundation
1780 Pennsylvania Street, Denver
Meeting summary (PDF)
Slot home strategy overview (PDF)
Poster boards (PDF)
Presentation (PDF)
Task Force Meeting #8
2-5 p.m., October 19
Webb Municipal Building, 201 West Colfax Ave.
Agenda (PDF)
Presentation (PDF)
Meeting Packet (PDF)
Summary (PDF)
Task Force Meeting #9
2-5 p.m., November 16
Webb Municipal Building, 201 West Colfax Ave.
Agenda (PDF)
Presentation (PDF)
Meeting Packet (PDF)
Final Task Force Meeting
2-5 p.m., January 23
Webb Municipal Building, 201 West Colfax Ave., Room 4.I.4
Agenda (PDF)
Community Office Hours
Slot Home Text Amendment Public Review Draft (PDF)
- Monday, February 26
3-5:30 p.m.
Webb Municipal Building,
Room 1.D.1
201 West Colfax Ave.
- Tuesday, February 27
4:30-7 p.m.
Gonzales Branch Library
2nd Floor Conference Room
1498 Irving Street - Wednesday February 28
12:30-4 p.m.
Ross-Cherry Creek Library
Meeting Room B
305 Milwaukee Street
- Thursday, March 1
1:30-4 p.m.
Mile High United Way
Moderators Room
711 Park Avenue
Planning Board Public Hearing
3 p.m., March 21
Parr-Widener Community Room (#389)
City and County Building
1437 Bannock St.
Slot Home Text Amendment Planning Board Draft (PDF)
Staff report, and comments (PDF)
City Council Land Use, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
10:30 a.m., March 27
Council Committee Room (#391)
City and County Building
1437 Bannock St.
City Council Public Hearing
5:30 p.m., May 7
City Council Chambers (#451)
City and County Building
1437 Bannock St.