Cherry Creek provides a natural experiment as to the supply addition and tax revenue benefits of the Livable Urban Village (LUV) approach.
- It shows a simple path to housing abundance, based on two proven land use steps:
· By-right mid- to high-density residential zoning in LUV Core areas (currently zoned commercial, industrial, and mixed use).
· By-right Light-touch Density (LTD) in LUV Adjacent Areas.
- From 2000-2022, LTD zone infill has resulted in 745 new homes vs. 17 in the neighboring larger SFD zone. Through market action, 37% of the LTD zone acreage was redeveloped, a conversion rate of about 1.6%/year vs. 0.05%/year.
- Since 1970, the LUV core and LTD zones combined have more than doubled their housing supply.
- Redevelopment was primarily LTD (townhomes, duplexes, and some 2-8 multifamily). This conversion process was natural and gradual, requiring no subsidies.
If Denver were to enact the LUV Core and LTD Adjacent approach throughout the city, it
would require no subsidies and, over 10 years, add:
- 40,000 homes (11% increase in Denver’s housing stock), comparable to the 44,000 homes expected to be added under the sales tax funded Affordable Denver.
- Allow tens of thousands of serviceable owner and renter homes to filter down.
- $118 million in added property tax (PT) revenue (LTD Adjacent) in 2035 (in today’s dollars), a 6% net increase over total 2023 residential and non-residential PT revenue.
- New LTD homes would be valued at about the same price as Denver’s current stock of single-family homes.
LUV would support homeownership and strengthen Denver’s middle class. Compared to plans promoting subsidized and price-controlled housing, LUV would build more homes, especially owner-occupied ones, while saving the city one billion dollars in subsidies over 10 years.