AURORA | A drive through the suburbs is usually a tour of single home lots with large lawns and expansive driveways in front of each house. For the most part, apartments and condos are kept to their own subdivisions.
The older neighborhoods of the metro area, such as northwest Aurora, had smaller lots with garages in alleys and parking behind the home. Apartment buildings could be next door or across the street. The way these neighborhoods were built, with businesses close by and more mixed housing, makes them remain more walkable and localized, city planners say.
Now, as post-World War II neighborhoods age and fewer people seek large lots, the city is considering changing its small-lot code to somewhat marry the old and new concepts to create flexibility, affordability, and a more livable design.
Aurora’s long-standing limits on small-lot, single-family development could soon be loosened to expand compact-housing options citywide.
During a city council study session Nov. 4, Brandon Camaratta, a manager in the Planning and Business Development Department and staff project manager for the project, told lawmakers the “Small Lots, Compact Housing” initiative is meant to update rules adopted under the 2019 Unified Development Ordinance, known as UDO.
Those rules currently allow small-lot homes only in the city’s eastern “Sub-Area C,” which is primarily the area east of E-470, and only up to certain percentages of a master-planned community, according to Camaratta.
One example of how the code change can create more affordable housing and reinvestment in older neighborhoods is to allow large lots to add detached “accessory dwelling units” — sometimes called “carriage houses” or “mother-in-law homes — to their large, potentially underutilized lot.
“Over the last few years, we’ve had continued interest from the development community to be able to use small lots in other parts of the community besides out east,” Camaratta said. “We’re also hearing a desire to allow larger percentages of small-lot products within those master plans.”
Chris Brewster, vice president of Multi-Studio, audited the city’s zoning code and helped draft amendments. Brewster told council members the review found the city regulates “all the right things” in terms of design but that the process has grown overly complex, with rigid formulas and overlapping standards.
“The code may be pushing in the right directions, but it’s not as easy as it needs to be, and it also doesn’t adapt well to different situations where flexibility might be needed,” Brewster said.
The next phase, he said, aims to simplify and expand options across all three planning sub-areas, A, B and C, while preserving key “neighborhood design principles” such as street and pedestrian connectivity, public realm and streetscape design, mix of housing, access to usable open space and proximity to mixed-use activity centers.
Sub-Area A is primarily the area west of I-225, and Sub-Area B is primarily the area between I-225 and E-470.
Among the goals:
- Increasing the number of small lots in Sub Area C, reconsidering mixed-housing requirements, and adding flexibility for green court design.
- Expanding small-lot eligibility into older and infill neighborhoods, such as sub-areas A and B, to encourage homeownership near transit corridors and reinvestment in aging areas.
- Simplifying and unifying design standards across residential zones, emphasizing context rather than geography.
- Allow more flexible parking configurations, which include shared or alley-loaded designs, to reduce front-facing garages that disrupt streetscapes.
- Re-evaluate masonry requirements and permit new materials that maintain durability and aesthetics while lowering construction costs.
Brewster said that if there is reluctance to build alleys and “alley-loaded” or alley parking, there are benefits for access and space management by having parking in a more collective space.
“People would be able to go beyond the minimum parking requirement,” Brewster said. “And a lot of these configurations, the most efficient way is the alley, because we’ll be prepared to show that most of these housing types, even the narrow lots, can park upwards of two, three or four cars on the lot, even at the most narrow lot, where, when you do it front loaded, it’s not always the case that you’re getting those efficiencies.”
The council members said they were all in favor of the proposals, calling them overdue. If there were any opposing views, they were not mentioned.
“I thought it was a little bit crazy that small lots were not allowed in sub-areas A and B, where you have transit-oriented development,” Councilmember Françoise Bergan said. “We’re wanting people to have ownership and not just rent apartments.”
Mayor Mike Coffman said he preferred alley parking for small-lot homes.
“What is such an eyesore in small lots is when you have single-family, detached, smaller homes with front-loaded parking,” Coffman said. “I strongly prefer alleyways, parking in the rear of the property instead of on the front of the property and on the street on small lots.”
Brewster said he agreed, and that is what they hope to prevent with some of the code change ideas. He said that the narrower someone’s lot gets, the more a driveway and garage conflict with the “neighborhood design goals.”
“In other words, it’s not just about what that house is doing,” Brewster said. “It’s a compounding factor down the street and block, which affects the whole neighborhood design.”
Brewster said that Aurora’s existing “water-wise” standards and regional guidelines already enable sustainable frontages, street trees, and shared green courts without excessive irrigation.
“We don’t think it means sacrificing those spaces,” Brewster said. “They can be designed in a very water-efficient way.”
The code overhaul will be joined with the Connecting Aurora transportation plan and ongoing Parks, Recreation and Open Space updates, Brewster said, ensuring that compact neighborhoods tie into multimodal streets and local green amenities.
Councilmember Alison Coombs asked whether they considered connecting “parallel routes” to major arterials to improve pedestrian and bike connectivity, which Brewster said was one of their principles.
“Sub-arterial streets actually become the most important streets because they do several things. They provide that alternative connection that you want and need,” Brewster said. “They can also allow the arterials not to carry such a heavy load in transportation and become barriers.”
Camaratta said staff expects to begin drafting formal code amendments in November and December, with proposed language introduced for adoption as early as January.
“We’re trying to get to a point where we can have a little bit of flexibility,” Bergan said. “Making sure that we have flexibility is great without sacrificing quality. I think we’ve come a long way over the decades to make Aurora look really, very desirable.”
Who will clear the alleys of snow? Who will maintain or repair them, the homeowners through their associations or the City? When residents put out large items the trash companies don’t take and the alley starts to be clogged, an eyesore, and a place which harbors rats and raccoons what will be the remediation plan and who will pay for that, homeowners or the City? Will the alleys be lit at night to supress crime? Will the police have more linear feet to patrol or will the alleys go unpatrolled? Will vegetation not be permitted to grow to prevent obstructing sight lines so residents can easily travel the alleyway and if so how will that be enforced? If broken or abandoned cars block an alley how fast can they be towed to allow access and who will be responsibile for the towing and the related costs? Will the alleyways cause more storm water runoff and is the storm water system contemplated to handle that increased load?