carriages houses sold as SFR, unique to Denver? (Arvada, Golden: sale, rentals)

[boilingblacksea]

I'm looking for some insight into how the practice of allowing the sale of one's carriage house/garage as a single family house came into being in Denver.

Many historic turn-of-the-century homes we looked at, especially in Capitol Hill, had their carriage houses separated from the main house and sold off to investors. Who in turn rent it out to students as a mini house.

Something that is strictly banned in most states -where it'd be considered slum living.

How did this policy come about?

[Bradburn1]

How interesting, I didn't know that happened. My house built in 2004 has a carriage house over the garage (which I would never sell! Where would I park? Street I guess). I know that in Vancouver, Canada they have something like this, where homeowners can build and sell a secondary small dwelling behind their primary home (they call it "Laneway Housing"). The city of Arvada recently changed their zoning to allow the construction of carriage homes, but I don't know if you can sell them.

I think it can be done because of how carriage homes are zoned, as "Accessory Dwelling Units" (ADUs), since they can be rented legally, why not sold? Not sure why you would call this "slum living". It's higher density, yes, but can be a clever solution to high housing costs in urban areas and is highly resource efficient. Were the carriage houses you saw being poorly maintained? I could see that as an issue, but that can be an issue with rentals in general. My carriage house is very nice, and the Laneway houses I've seen photos of in Vancouver were awesome.

[Bradburn1]

Researching this more, it looks like a zoning/ordinance issue that varies by city. In some cities where zoning allows ADUs, their laws do not specifically prohibit their sale and it was argued their sale is allowable because it does not change the use (meaning it is still residential)--this happened in New Mexico where they changed the law so the ADUs could not be sold separately but grandfathered in units that had been prior. Other places that allow ADUs specifically say it is a deed restriction that the unit cannot be sold separately from the main house. I imagine the answer about this in Denver is related to exactly how their ADU stuff is written.

[BoulderWhitewater]

Current zoning does not allow ADU's to be sold seperate from the main house. In fact in Denver, Arvada and Golden either the main house or the ADU MUST be owner occupied.

Some of the older carriage houses in Capitol Hill were seperated years ago under different rules by either subdividing the lot or creating a condo.