The Denver Planning Board unanimously voted to send a measure asking the Denver City Council to approve a blanket zoning code that would allow the construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) citywide.

Though advanced to the City Council, it was not revealed when the measure will be considered by the legislative body.

The measure has been in the works for two years and the vetting process included a pair of virtual town hall-type meetings and a web form that drew more than 700 comments. The measure originally drew flak as one councilmember believed not enough community engagement had been done. After it previously cleared a committee, a public review ran between April and June and the proposal lay dormant until Wednesday’s planning board meeting.

Many who responded to the city’s web form support the change. Other commenters, who were not identified in the survey, worried about decreasing property values and did not like that the city was moving away from a case-by-case analysis of each zone change request.

But eliminating the case-by-case analysis is part of the whole point of the blanket zoning change, Vice Chairman of the Planning Board Fred Glick said. The current process results in a huge waste of city resources and residents time and money.

“A few years ago, I looked at the numbers and about 60% of re-zonings that were coming through were individual re-zonings,” he said. “Even though we found ways to expedite them, it’s an incredible amount of time and resources on the part of city staff and the applicants.”

Denver Department of Planning and Development officials recommended the planning board adopt the change. The measure was sent on to council after a public hearing — where no one signed up to speak — and a few remarks from the board.

A pair of Denver City Councilmembers, sponsors Chris Hinds and Sarah Parady, were present at Wednesday’s meeting. Councilmember Darrell Watson is the third member sponsoring the change, but could not attend the meeting.

During the public hearing, Hinds acknowledged that there were people who may be worried about specifics aspects of the change, but believes many of the issues were addressed during the public review period.

“My takeaway is that all the concerns brought up in those meetings were ones we’d heard already,” Hinds said. “We were able to answer everything and people seemed satisfied with the answers. While residents may not have been satisfied 100%, I think comments were overwhelmingly positive.”

One resident asked how the city would deal with the increase in people on an already overtaxed infrastructure. Others worried a sudden influx of people would contribute to major congestion and parking dilemmas.

These concerns are predicated on a massive influx of ADU construction, concerns that Hinds pushed back on.

“Other cities that have relaxed ADU restrictions have not seen that,” he said. “It’s still an expensive item to build so this is not something that will suddenly bring a swarm of ADUs.

“It is a gentle density tool.”

Other prominent concerns were how smaller lots in some of Denver’s old neighborhoods would not be able to handle the added density, no matter how “gentle.” Furthermore, residents were deeply worried that absentee landlords would only take advantage of this measure and cram more rental units on a lot that can’t necessarily support more than one family.

That concern was partially addressed by a recently passed state law that requires a property owner to live in the primary residence only at the time of the ADU application.

“We are coming into compliance with state law and not exceeding that by also allowing ADUs to be built by someone who’s not planning on occupying the main unit,” Parady said. “We could certainly exceed that in the other direction and get rid of the requirement, but there’s not an appetite for that on city council for a lot of different reasons.”

Despite the measure not being 100% perfect, Glick praised the councilmembers who worked on the zone change and made it as sufficient as possible.

The measure does not include everything he wanted to see, especially in terms of ownership requirements, but the fact that it’s as close to approval as it is following Wednesday’s meeting warrants celebration he said.

“I want to recognize that leadership and governance is actually getting things done and that often means making compromises,” Glick said. “I hope the three of you will also find ways to lead the way on helping people who want to get these built, and that includes resources, easier ways to permit these and other pieces.”