Land Use Code Updates: Draft Release#

The City of Fort Collins is currently updating its Land Use Code (LUC). This update reflects community input, feedback from City Council, and ongoing work to ensure the code is clear, equitable, and functional.

Review the Updated Draft

The latest draft of the Land Use Code is now available for public review:

• ARTICLE 1 General Purpose and Provisions: Draft Update 
  Summary of Proposed Changes:
  • Revised the Purpose Statement of the Land Use Code (Section 1.2.2) to clarify the role of the Land Use Code. 
  • Revised the Applicability Section of the Land Use Code (Section 1.2.4) to clarify the relationship of the Land Use Code to adopted policy plans and subarea plans. 
• ARTICLE 2 Zone Districts: Draft Update 
  Summary of Proposed Changes:
  • Clarified the purpose statements for a majority of zone districts. 
  • Adjusted the Harmony Corridor and Employment zone districts to allow more land use flexibility and clear method for measuring primary and secondary uses. 
    • This change is intended to allow more land to be occupied by secondary uses, especially residential development, where it has otherwise been limited by the existing primary and secondary use requirements. For example, under the new changes the Harmony Technology Park will be able to develop a majority of the remaining land withing their Overall Development Plan area as residential units.
  • Updated the Transit-Oriented Development Overlay (TOD) including the following specific changes:
    • Limit new gasoline stations within 1,000 feet of transit stations, other existing gas stations and Convenience Stores with Fuel Sales within the TOD Overlay.
    • Prohibit new enclosed mini-storage use in the TOD Overlay.
    • Prohibit new boat sales with storage in the TOD Overlay.
    • Eliminate parking minimums in the entire TOD Overlay. Set a maximum allowance for areas of contiguous surface parking.
      • These changes are intended to better align code requirements to the purpose of the TOD in promoting more walkable, higher-density, mixed-use development near transit.
  • Revised standards to allow 5-story buildings within the General Commercial (GC) zone district. Currently, only 4-stories are allowed. Existing height incentives within the TOD Overlay will still apply.
    • This change allows for more residential density within the General Commercial (GC) zone district. The team reviewed various pro-forma analyses performed by our consultant, Cascadia Partners. According to their analyses, a 5-story residential building performs best in the current market. Due to high construction costs, it is unlikely that developers would see any market benefit in building above 5 stories without other incentives or subsidies. That is the basis for this recommendation. 
• ARTICLE 3 Building Types: Draft Update 
  Summary of Proposed Changes:
  
  • Added Shopfront and General Building Types (Shopfront replaces and expands on the Mixed-Use Building Type currently in the Land Use Code).
    • These Building Type changes are intended to simplify text-based code standards and move the code into a more form-based system. These proposed changes are similar to the Residential Building Type updates made with the first major (housing-related) phase of updates. 
• ARTICLE 4 Use Standards: Draft Update 
  Summary of Proposed Changes:
  
  • Performed minor edits for clarity and consistency.
• ARTICLE 5 General Development and Site Design: Draft Update 
  Summary of Proposed Changes:
  
  • Removed or cleaned up standards that are subjective.
  • Reformatted sections and tables to make them easier to understand.
  • Moved some information from other Land Use Code articles into Article 5 to keep standards focused on the same topics together in the code. 
  • Improved consistency in the use of certain terms governing affordable housing requirements. 
  • Removed potential barrier to access affordable housing (authority of the City to pre-approve affordable housing tenants).
    • These changes are intended to clarify and simplify language in Article 5 to make the code easier to understand and follow, both for staff and applicants. 
• ARTICLE 6 Administration and Procedures: Draft Update 
  Summary of Proposed Changes:
  
  • Added new text under Change of Use (Section 6.3.10).
  • Clarified Modification Review Procedures and Variance Review Procedures (Sections 6.8.2 and 6.14.4) as well as Text and Map Amendment Review Procedures (Section 6.25.4).
• ARTICLE 7 Rules of Measurement and Definitions: Draft Update 
  Summary of Proposed Changes:
  
  • Moved detailed content contained within definitions to other more appropriate sections of the Land Use Code. 
  • Clarified and cleaned up terminology and definitions, removed definitions for terms that do not appear in the Land Use Code.
  • Revised the definitions for affordable housing development, affordable housing unit for rent, and affordable housing unit for sale.
    • These updates improve consistency between the definitions and the options in Section 5.2.1(C) for developers to meet affordable housing requirements. The definition for rental units is revised to incorporate Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) rental limits based on income level and dwelling unit size. The definition of units for sale is updated to make the household-size adjustment based on an assumption of 1.5 people per bedroom (rounded down).

This draft reflects changes based on community feedback from past engagement—including the recent open house. In addition to these substantive changes, the update includes a variety of clean-up items to improve readability and consistency throughout the code. The Land Use Code is a living document and these are not the last changes being made to the code.

Submit Your Comments#

We want to hear from you! Public comments on the draft Land Use Code will be accepted through September 30th.