2026-09-10 · Colorado · Compliance

Fort Collins removed its own barrier to accessory dwelling units and left the private one entirely untouched and unmentioned. Ordinance No. 009, 2025 — “Amending the Land Use Code to Align with Two Adopted State House Bills Concerning Accessory Dwelling Units and Parking for Multi-Use Dwellings and to Clarify and Correct Certain Provisions” — passed on second reading for final adoption on February 4, 2025, after a unanimous Planning and Zoning Commission recommendation on November 21, 2024 and first reading on January 21, 2025.¹

The full eighteen-page ordinance was extracted and searched. It contains zero occurrences of “homeowner,” “HOA,” “covenant,” “association,” “deed” or “restrictive.”

Its recitals state the driver plainly: HB24-1152 “require[s] the City to eliminate certain restrictions on ADUs and allow ADUs to be built in all zones where a single-unit dwelling exists or could be built by June 30, 2025.”

Where ADUs now go, and how big

UE (Urban Estate): detached house on a 21,780 square foot minimum lot, 100-foot minimum width, three storeys maximum — “Only one detached house on a lot, may include one (1) ADU.” ADU height: “No taller than Detached house on the same lot.”

RF (Residential Foothills): 100,000 square foot minimum lot, 200-foot minimum width, same one-ADU allowance — plus the constraint that no building on an RF lot “shall extend above five thousand two hundred fifty (5,250) feet above mean sea level.”

RL (Low Density Residential): detached house lot area is “the greater of 6,000 ft² or three (3) times the total floor area of all buildings excluding an ADU” — so ADU floor area is carved out of the lot-area calculation.

MH (Manufactured Housing): “Lot may include one (1) ADU”; the ADU must be “No taller than” and “No greater than the Mobile Home on the same lot.” Setbacks: front fifteen feet, rear ten, side ten, with ten feet minimum between the mobile home and the ADU and three feet between accessory structures.

OT (Old Town) A, B and C: one ADU maximum per lot; in OT-B and OT-C the ADU may sit on a lot with a detached house, duplex or triplex.

1. Ordinance No. 009, 2025, City of Fort Collins — full eighteen-page text (source of the quoted district standards, parking minimums and recitals) ↩
2. HB24-1152 signed act, adding C.R.S. 38-33.3-106.5(4) — the ADU covenant preemption cited in the ordinance recitals ↩
3. "No More HOA Restrictions on Public Streets," Altitude Community Law — on C.R.S. 38-33.3-106.5(1)(d.5), added by HB22-1139 ↩