Denver creates new manufactured housing zone | Government

Denver is home to approximately 300 mobile homes spread across five mobile home parks, which, up until Monday, were considered “nonconforming” to city code.

However, after a unanimous vote on Nov. 25  Monday, Denver City Council approved a map and text amendment that created a new manufactured home community zone. The new zone will ensure these communities comply with the new rules while maintaining safety standards.

The zoning amendment will also make it easier to replace older mobile homes with newer ones, helping preserve one of the city’s last remaining sources of unsubsidized affordable housing.

The new MHC zone establishes specific building form standards, such as maximum height and minimum setbacks, that reflect the current conditions of existing mobile home parks located in Westwood, Athmar Park, College View and Elyria-Swansea. cq.rs

“The proposed zone district is intended for existing mobile home parks,” Senior City Planner Justin Montgomerycq.rs said. “Only new manufactured home communities could be developed within other existing zone districts within the code. Our goal with this text amendment is to continue to encourage the continued use and improvement of these communities while discouraging their redevelopment.”

New mobile home parks could be permitted under other city zoning districts, but not the MHC zone.

Historically, Denver’s zoning code prohibited replacing mobile home units built before 1976. It also lacked a section that permitted mobile home parks, so existing mobile home parks have been grandfathered since 1956, according to a city staff report. And because the parks were grandfathered, homeowners couldn’t replace their current units without violating the code.

This restriction also resulted in some residents remaining in older mobile homes that may become unsafe and unlivable.

Also, when a mobile home park is placed on the market, prospective buyers – including mobile home park residents – face multiple complications in obtaining financing due to because of the zoning limitation.

“I am very happy to see some solution to this zoning issue that will ensure that piece of the community of Swansea can continue to exist,” said Alfonso Espino, a lead organizer for the Globeville Elyria-Swansea coalition.cq.rs

“This is a moment I, honestly, was not sure would arrive when we started these conversations,” Council President Jamie Torrescq.rs said of the MHC zone amendment’s passage. “When I came to office in 2019, I started an anti-displacement working group because that was one of the, if not the most pressing concerns in west Denver. But we needed a perfect storm of willing community, local government support and, frankly, state government — and some of the work that was done statewide — to see the vision and the path in legalizing mobile home parks, to protect them, and then to arrive here at what our solution has been today.”