More density, more affordability

*Editor's Note: The online version of this article has had the headline updated to more accurately reflect the nature of the City of Cheyenne's ordinance*

As part of an effort to make housing more affordable, the City of Cheyenne, Wyoming, passed a group of ordinances in December that eliminate lot area minimums and density requirements for some types of housing.

The changes make it easier and less expensive for developers to construct housing. As a result, the city expects more housing will be built and the greater the supply compared to the demand, will improve the affordability.

Emery Penner, public works director and zoning administrator for the Town of Saratoga, said some of these changes to the Cheyenne code could work in Saratoga and they are looking at them currently.

The Cheyenne ordinances allow a mix of types of housing.

“Removing the minimum lot area will also allow a mix of residential lots and allow more duplex and townhouse lots as long as the minimum lot frontage is met,” as stated in the city staff report.

For example, before the city of Cheyenne amended the ordinance, the lot area minimum for a detached dwelling in a suburban area was 9,000 square feet. That has been eliminated with this change in the ordinance.

Charles Bloom, Cheyenne’s planning and development director, said eliminating lot area minimums makes it possible for a developer to build housing on a smaller lot. This will mean they can spend less money on roads, and water and sewer lines as well. It is a more efficient use of land.

The Cheyenne City Council created an Affordable Housing Task Force in March of 2021, said Seth Lloyd, city planner.

“The Task Force reviewed many different elements that could contribute to making housing unaffordable and potential changes,” Lloyd said. “They created a final report and in that report the Task Force recommended various amendments to city code.”

The Affordable Housing Task Force is charged with making specific recommendations to the Governing Body, as stated in https://www.cheyennecity.org/Your-Government/Boards-Commissions/Affordable-Housing-Task-Force.

Lloyd said the three ordinances designed to make the construction of housing more affordable are:

Ordinance 4535 eliminates minimum lot area for single-family lots, including duplexes and townhomes.

Ordinance 4536 eliminates a density requirement for multi-family development. Previously an applicant needed 1,600 square-feet of land for each multi-family dwelling unit.

Ordinance 4537 reduces the minimum parking requirements for multi-family buildings from 1.5 parking spaces to 1 parking space for each senior housing, one-bedroom and studio unit.

“The City of Cheyenne does retain a minimum frontage requirement (width of a lot along a street), setbacks, and a coverage requirement (maximum area of a lot that can be covered by impervious surfaces), so there are some controls on lot sizes and the way lots would look from the street,” he said.

Bloom said before the change in the ordinance, an apartment unit had to have a 1,600-square-foot lot area per unit. So for a 20,000-square-foot lot, the developer could only build 12 units.

“The ordinance changes have been well-received by the development community,” he said. “This is exactly what we’re looking for” developers have told him and they intend to file applications taking advantage of the ordinance.

Penner said making these adjustments to the code in Saratoga would help in certain zoning districts.

The town is currently looking at these items currently, especially the eliminating the maximum density requirement for multi-family development, he said.

“The density maximums for multi-family here are more likely constrained by parking requirements,” he said. “I do think the changes Cheyenne made would probably open up more opportunities for infill in areas that are already mostly developed, which is something we need to look at in Saratoga.”