The Boulder City Council has unanimously repealed occupancy limits that restricted how many unrelated people could live together in a home. The new ordinance, approved on March 6, will take effect in April.
The decision closes a chapter in a decades-long debate over zoning regulations many criticized as outdated and discriminatory. Health and safety codes — such as building and fire regulations that restrict how many people can occupy a home — will remain in effect.
The ordinance also removes all references to “family” from city housing codes, in part to reflect modern living arrangements. For decades, family-based zoning definitions dating back to at least the 1950s have imposed restrictions on nontraditional households and unmarried people.
“For a lot of us who experience the way that this law has held back our ability to determine our own families, tonight really matters,” said Councilmember Nicole Speer, as she fought back tears while introducing the motion.
Boulder’s modern occupancy limits originally emerged in part to manage density in neighborhoods like University Hill. Critics have for years argued that these limits exacerbated housing shortages, inflated costs and restricted who could live where.
In recent years, city officials defended them as necessary for community health, safety and welfare.
In August 2023, Boulder increased its occupancy limit from three to five unrelated people across most of the city, aiming to make housing more affordable by allowing more people to split costs. But in April 2024, Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation prohibiting municipalities from enforcing occupancy limits based on familial relationships, calling such rules discriminatory. Historically, these laws reinforced discrimination against same-sex couples and nontraditional households.
The council’s repeal of occupancy limits based on family status likely concludes the debate for now. Several members reflected on the policy’s fraught history during Thursday’s city council meeting and the broader shift in the city’s approach to housing policy.
“I really appreciate the direction that this takes us towards looking at protecting our community strictly around life safety issues,” Mayor Pro Tem Lauren Folkerts said, “and in that way, providing more safety for our community members by not being overly prescriptive about how people live their lives.”
Eric Budd, co-chair of the Bedrooms Are For People campaign, has been working to repeal Boulder’s occupancy limits since 2014. The campaign unsuccessfully attempted to increase the city’s occupancy limits through ballot measures in 2020 and 2021.
“They were politically untouchable,” Budd said of the occupancy limits when he began his advocacy work. “I want to acknowledge tonight how far we’ve come.”
The proposed ordinance removes all references to occupancy limits for unrelated people in Title 9 of the city’s land-use code. Instead, city code will be amended to adopt the International Property Maintenance Code, which sets minimum bedroom and living space standards. For instance, bedrooms must be at least 70 square feet, with 50 square feet per occupant for rooms with multiple people.
Additionally, the ordinance removes all references to “family” from housing terminology. Single-family homes would be redefined as “detached dwelling units,” while multifamily homes would become “multi-unit dwellings.”
The ordinance also eliminates Boulder’s cooperative housing regulations, first introduced in 2017, which required licenses and imposed strict guidelines — such as mandatory 500-foot buffers between co-ops and giving the city manager power to vacate properties.
Mayor Aaron Brockett said he helped draft the ordinance that legalized cooperative housing in Boulder and was proud to have played a role in allowing people to “come out of the shadows.”
“But the process was still way too complicated, too expensive, too hard to apply for, too hard to renew,” Brockett said. He added that he was relieved to see the cooperative housing regulations removed from city code.
“I’m glad that we now have this much more straightforward approach based on life safety,” he said.
Folkert and Speer (and Polis) are going to be greatly disappointed; housing is now going to be bought up by rich investors, including private equity, and not sold to families, as house are now worth way more as rentals. So we will have the rich in their houses and students stuffed 4-5 in a 3 bedroom (living rooms are now bedrooms for people).
When will the housing leadership address the punitive rule that forbids air/b/b in affordable housing? Millionaires rent their Boulder homes on a sort-time basis, and those way below the top 1% are not able to supplement their limited salaries w/a real estate/short-term rental play.
Seems like this should have been tackled at the state level all along instead of trying to prod Boulder into action. 10+ years wasted on trying to move the needle in Boulder only to have that made irrelevant by a stroke of the state pen. Boulder is extremely timid and slow in its approach to anything that moves in the direction of equity and inclusion, despite their constant lip service. Now — what can we do about creating and preserving affordable housing? Hint for city council: don’t just wait for staff to bring you their endless research with no actionable goals.
Boulder’s housing department is unable to monitor affordable condos and has relinquished over site to management firms who do little more than pay for insurance and apply bandages when pushed to spend.
Boulder, historically, has had one of the most restrictive zoning policies in Colorado. It made new housing construction by builders extremely difficult. All that hand-wringing about ‘affordable housing’ by Boulder officials is disingenuous, in my opinion.
Me being a home owner in martin acres and having every house around you with 5 different people living there. That’s 5 cars per household parking on the street. There’s not enough room for that.