Today’s Heart and Soul of Golden events are brought to you by the Golden Library and Miners Alley Playhouse.
9:15AM Baby Time at the Library
10:15AM Toddler Time at the Library
11:30AM Library for All – Interactive Program for Adults with Disabilities
2PM Buying & Selling Online: eBay and Craigslist at the library
7:30PM Miners Alley Playhouse – Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune
This is the last weekend to see Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune–only 4 more performances!
Other Thursday Events:
10AM Ladies Billiards at the Front Porch in the Community Center
2PM Buying & Selling Online: eBay and Craigslist at the library
6PM Shelton Elementary’s Silver Celebration Auction
6:15PM Overeaters Anonymous at Natural Grocers (map)
6:30PM Overeaters Anonymous at the Methodist Church (map)
6:30PM City Council Regular Business Meeting
7PM Choir Concert at Golden High School – 701 24th Street, Golden, CO (map)
Thursday Music:
6PM Eric Golden at the Buffalo Rose
6PM Dave Frisk at Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
6PM Rum Creek at New Terrain Brewing Company
6PM Open Pick Night at Over Yonder Brewing
8PM Karaoke at Rock Rest Lodge
9PM Karaoke at Ace-Hi Tavern
9PM Roots & Rhythm at Golden Moon Speakeasy
6:30PM City Council meets tonight in City Council Chambers. They will review the design plan for DeLong Park. Staff will update them on the Heart of Golden feedback to date, and will discuss demolishing the recently-purchased Coors office building at 311 10th Street.
Council will consider two ordinances regarding Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). The first changes the definition of a “household.” Traditionally, that was assumed to mean people related by blood or marriage. The new definition is considerably more complicated. It says that any number of related people can live together, PLUS two unrelated people. IN ADDITION, a house can contain an ADU with three more unrelated people. A household can’t include more than one sex offender, unless they’re juveniles. The definitions are more complicated than I’ve described them…see the meeting packet to review all the permutations and combinations.
The second ordinance changes the maximum size allowed for ADUs. The current specs say that for detached single family homes of 1000 square feet or more, the ADU can be up to 50% of the living space with the maximum of 800 sq. ft. For houses smaller than 1000 square feet, ADUs are limited to 500 square feet. The new ordinance says that an ADU can take up an entire floor, regardless of how many square feet it includes. This ordinance also says that duplex owners can carve out part of their homes to serve as ADUs. Duplex owners, however, cannot build stand-alone structures in their yards to serve as ADUs.
The Planning Commission pushed strongly for homeowners to be able to create ADUs without providing parking spaces for them. City Council is thus far holding the line on that. An ADU can house up to three additional people in a house, and they must be provided with at least one parking space.
Editorial:
I have mixed feelings about ADUs. The rules permitting ADUs passed about ten years ago. Back then, Planning Commission meetings were not recorded, and their ideas were subject to much less scrutiny. As I recall, the same was true of City Council meetings. The only way to watch a City meeting was to sit in the room while it happened. So most residents had no idea this change was coming.
I read about the ADU change after the fact, in the Golden Transcript. The idea of having them inside homes struck me as harmless…Golden people have been renting out parts of their homes to Mines students for 140+ years. They also talked, at that time, about “Granny Pods…” setting up a sort of shed in the backyard for your elders to live in during their declining years. Again, I thought, well, if that’s what those families want, OK.
Then people began building two story garages, so they could have a rental apartment over their garage. I first saw this in the 12th Street Historic District. Most of those houses are two stories tall, and the new two story garages are generally not visible from the street. OK, if that works for that neighborhood, it’s not significantly changing the look of Golden’s “small town environment.” And maybe they like the more urban feel of having more people living closer.
Now the trend is moving outward from the historic districts, into the Central and North Neighborhoods. These areas, with the single story 1960s ranch homes, don’t accommodate the ADUs quite as gracefully. They begin to look like second (taller) houses built on a single lot.
In neighborhoods with many above-garage ADUs, the alleys now function as a streets-between-streets, with residents, traffic, and parking. Two weeks ago, Council was visited by a resident who says that so many people are parking in her alley that she can’t get into her garage. Between the cars and the unplowed snow in the alley, the garbage truck couldn’t get through, so her garbage hadn’t been picked up recently.
That’s the kind of thing you don’t necessarily know until you try something.
Tonight’s meeting packet cites the City’s plan to “incentivize” more ADUs. It says, “These updates are intended to respond to community values by addressing the need to retain neighborhood character, promote housing choices, and increase the number of more affordable housing units in the community.”
Are we “retaining neighborhood character?” Some might say that the explosion of ADUs is dramatically changing neighborhood character. Are we “responding to community values?” Have we asked residents whether they wanted their single family neighborhoods to accommodate single family homes + income properties?
Maybe the answer will be yes. But I think it’s time to ask citizens how this experiment is going before “incentivizing” still more ADUs.
Preview of Friday Events:
Support Your Local Farmers Day!
9:15AM Baby Time at the Library
10AM Open Studio at Foothills Art Center
10AM Free Legal Advice – Elder Law & Probate
10:15AM Toddler Time at the Library
12PM Grandmas on Strike about Climate Change – 10th & Washington
1PM Friday Tour at the Railroad Museum – The Caboose
4PM Vaccine, License & Microchip Clinic at Foothills Animal Shelter
6PM CSM NSBE Homecoming – Cultural Celebration
7:30PM Miners Alley Playhouse – Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune 8PM Lucas Wolf at Buffalo Rose (in the restaurant)
8PM That Eighties Band at Buffalo Rose (in the events venue)
