The Boulder City Council fulfilled one of its top priorities on Thursday when it unanimously agreed to move forward with changes to the city’s accessory dwelling units, one of which removes the saturation limit, making way for more ADUs within low-density neighborhoods.

“I am fully supportive of going all in and eliminating saturation limit,” said City Councilmember Bob Yates. “It’s probably something we should have done in 2018. We didn’t have the courage to do that back then, but I hope we have the courage to do that (now.)

During a meeting in November, the City Council gave staff the go-ahead to begin working on four objectives which included eliminating Boulder’s saturation limits, reconsidering the maximum square footage in place for ADUs, clarifying codes in the city’s ADU rules and improving the city’s ADU approval process.

Staff brought those objectives back to the council on Thursday for more feedback and approval.

Boulder first approved an ordinance for accessory dwelling units, which include livable spaces such as “granny flats” and converted garages, in 1983.

Since then, the city has updated the saturation limit, which sets a cap on the percentage of properties that may have ADUs in a particular neighborhood, and removed the restriction everywhere but low-density neighborhoods. In 2018, the limit for low-density neighborhoods was expanded from 10% to 20%.

“Say there’s 10 properties within 300 feet, only two of those can have an ADU, so if two of those properties have an ADU already, and you’re the third property owner to want to put in an ADU, you’re not able to get an ADU approved, and so you’re kind of just stuck with no options other than that,” said Lisa Houde, a senior city planner.

As of July 31, 15 properties were on the city’s waiting list because the saturation limit of their neighborhood exceeds the limit of 20%, according to the staff memo. Of the 200 ADU applications approved since 2019, 41 exceeded the previous saturation limit of 10% and would not have been allowed prior to the 2018 update.

Other than the change to the saturation limits, the council agreed to increase the size of ADUs to 800 square feet for a detached ADU and 1,000 square feet for an ADU attached to a home. They city’s 2018 update increased detached ADUs from 450 square feet to 550 square feet but did not modify the allowable size of attached ADUs.

In other action, the City Council continued an item to form council liaisons who would serve on boards and commissions.

Council members asked staff for more information on the rules and requirements pertaining to serving on a board or commission before the item is brought back before the City Council.