The grandfather clause, and why it is narrower than it sounds

Properties that held both a legally permitted ADU and an STR permit before June 30, 2025 may continue as nonconforming uses — but only “until the uses change, the permit expires, or is otherwise terminated.”

That is a use-based grandfather, not an owner-based one. It does not travel indefinitely, and it does not survive a lapse. An owner in that position who lets an STR permit expire has lost it permanently.

What it means for a Colorado Springs association

Two things happen at once, and they pull in opposite directions.

Detached-home associations in Colorado Springs lost the ability to flatly prohibit ADUs, and the city says so on its own letterhead — which means owners will arrive at the architectural committee having already read that their board cannot say no.

But the city has simultaneously removed the outcome boards feared most. An owner who builds an ADU forfeits eligibility for a city STR permit on the entire property. A board weighing whether to fight ADUs at all should factor that in: the lodging risk is already regulated, by the city, for every ADU in Colorado Springs, whatever the declaration says.

The practical work is therefore in the reasonable-restriction lane. Placement, materials, architectural compatibility, height within the city's limits, prior notice — the kinds of design standards that do not unreasonably increase cost, effectively prohibit construction, or extinguish the ability to build. A blanket ban is the one thing that is off the table.

Condominium and shared-wall townhome associations are largely outside the statute's reach, because its hook is a single-unit detached dwelling.

The rest of the Colorado Springs short-term rental framework

Boards fielding STR questions should know the standing rules, all confirmed on the city's STR page. The underlying ordinances — 18-112 creating the programme, 19-49 on sales tax, 19-82 on occupancy limits, and 19-101 on non-owner-occupied regulation — predate this window.

Annual permit: $124.95. “Owner-occupied” means physically occupied by the owner no less than 185 days per year. New non-owner-occupied STRs are prohibited in R-E, R-1 6, R-1 9 and single-family planned development zones for applications after December 26, 2019; elsewhere a non-owner-occupied STR “must be 500' from another.” R-2 allows two listings, multifamily up to four, and condominium complexes are capped at a maximum of two short-term rentals per owner. Maximum occupancy is “two (2) occupants per bedroom, plus an additional two (2) occupants per dwelling unit,” with a fifteen-occupant ceiling per unit. Permits are non-transferable on sale. A twenty-four-hour emergency contact and weekly trash service are required, and no events or weddings are permitted. Active-duty service members stationed in El Paso County may obtain a one-year occupancy waiver on reassignment.

The STR page is silent on HOAs and covenants. The condominium cap is a city rule about permits, not a statement about declarations — and a city permit has never been permission under a declaration. A board whose documents prohibit short-term rentals enforces that itself.

A sourcing caveat

The ordinance text itself could not be opened during this research: the American Legal Publishing page carrying Ordinance 25-45 returned an HTTP 403 error. Everything above comes from City of Colorado Springs pages that did load — the ADU Ordinance Update page, the short-term rental page, the city's November 12, 2024 announcement of the rewrite, and the council legislative file. A board wanting to quote ordinance language directly should retrieve the codified text from the municipal code, which may resolve in an ordinary browser.

The city's November 2024 announcement had already trailed the HOA point: “HOAs or other associations would not be allowed to unreasonably restrict the construction of ADUs.”