The many volunteer homeowner associations that surround downtown Colorado Springs are organizing to strenuously resist changes to single-family zoning being proposed by the city government.

Among those associations is the Old North End Neighborhood, located between Colorado College and Penrose Hospital along North Cascade and North Nevada avenues.

Officers of that organization are mainly concerned about a proposed provision by the city that will allow two new homes to be built in the backyard of every existing single-family home in the city.

That’s right: Wherever there is a single-family home in Colorado Springs, the property owner will be able to build two additional single-family homes in the backyard and sell them to other owners.

The owner will have the right to do that without getting permission from the City Planning Department or City Council.

The official name for new houses built in the backyards of existing houses is an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU. The proposed law would allow two new ADUs per lot. This would change every single-family lot in Colorado Springs into a potential three-family lot.

Note that if every property owner in a particular neighborhood exercised the permission given by this law and added two ADUs to their property, the population of that neighborhood would be tripled.

At the same time, the number of children from that neighborhood going to the local public school would be tripled. No mention is made of how the additional school rooms and schoolteachers required would be paid for.

The demand for utilities such as gas, electricity, water and sewer would be tripled. Again, no mention is made of who would pay these large additional costs. Apparently, these increased costs will be paid by utility customers citywide.

And the number of automobiles looking for a place to park in the neighborhood could possibly be tripled, thereby forcing residents to have to hunt for parking spaces and at times park their car far from their home and walk back.

A state law specifically forbids the city from requiring off-street parking for the new ADUs.

None of this will happen right away, but it is the longtime perspective for any neighborhood in the city if this tripling of houses on a single building lot is permitted as proposed.

Another problem with the proposed new law is that it would allow each of the two new homes on the lot to be similar in size to the original home on the lot.

To help accomplish that goal, the two new homes can be built high in the air (two to three stories high) to add more floors and more people.

And keep this in mind: As the backyards behind many existing single-family homes are turned into houses, open land on the lot that was previously available for children to play, for patios, and adult recreation such as a badminton court will simply disappear into housing.

That will reduce the attractiveness of the house, and eventually the neighborhood, to families with children or who have hobbies requiring outdoor space.

Imagine living in a single-family home with three houses and no yard space on one side and three houses and no yard space on the other side. There will be no such thing as privacy in your own backyard, because there will be new houses with windows on both sides of your backyard.

That will increase the pressure on those families that remain in single-family housing in the neighborhood to join the pack and build the two permitted ADUs in their backyard space, as well.

Another problem with the proposed ordinance is that it will tempt real-estate investors to “scrape and build.” Nothing in the proposed ADU law prevents investors from buying an existing home, tearing it down, and putting three rowhouses in its place.

As time goes by, and more and more lots throughout Colorado Springs are converted from R-1 single-family zoning to what is, in effect, R-3 triple-family zoning, the attractiveness and pleasantness of living in residential areas in our city will be considerably diminished.

City officials have scheduled the following hearings on the new ADU plan:

• Planning Commission (tentative), Wednesday, Dec. 11.

• City Council Work Session (tentative), Monday, Jan. 13, 2025.

• City Council Public Hearing (tentative first reading), Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025.

• City Council Public Hearing (tentative second reading), Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025.