The Colorado Springs City Council will take two more weeks to modify and consider the city's widespread updates to allow accessory dwelling updates in the city.
At the Tuesday council meeting, the City Council voted 6-3 to postpone the ordinance presented on the additions, also known as ADUs, until the next work session March 24.
Council members wanted to consider a broad swath of changes to the policy, including requirements and limits on where units can be built that would place the city's home rule authority into potential conflict with the new state law around the units.
Council members Yolanda Avila, Brian Risley and Mike O'Malley voted against the delay although Risley and O'Malley wanted to consider major changes to the ordinance.
"I believe very strongly that we should take the position that is right for our community, regardless of what the state says," Risley said.
A state law passed in 2024 required large cities in Colorado to lift the restrictions on ADUs in single-family areas. The state law would allow the units without requiring them to be approved through a public hearing or other public vote and without requiring any parking spaces.
The council discussions Tuesday night leaned heavily into keeping the parking space requirement that is currently in place for ADUs. There was also widespread support for limiting or banning certain types of ADUs from being built in the Wildland Urban Interface.
Those restrictions would bring the city's additions further in line with the preferences of the Historic Neighborhood Partnership, which has been heavily involved in giving feedback through the last months of work on the new rules. Dianne Bridges from the Historic Neighborhood Partnership said they wanted to keep working toward ADUs with an "initial step, not a giant leap."
Come back to gazette.com for more on this developing story.
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