I was once one of \u201cthose people.\u201d Until I purchased a house in my mid-thirties, I rented. I also know \u201cthose people.\u201d Several friends rent saving to buy a home. Others own condos or townhomes.<\/p>\n
I might even enable one of \u201cthose people\u201d by building an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) above my garage to bring in some income or I could become \u201cthose people\u201d once again by moving into a duplex or townhome after retiring.<\/p>\n
On behalf of all of us \u201cthose people,\u201d the just starting out 20-somethings, the young married couples saving for a home together, the retirees, the starting overs, and the singletons looking to develop their modest lot, I voted \u201cno\u201d on Littleton ballot measure 3A<\/a>.<\/p>\n The proposal would amend the city\u2019s charter to restrict land use, property rights, and changes to zoning for single-family homes and neighborhoods. The proposal would erect barriers to the building of affordable housing such as duplexes, condos, townhomes, and ADUs and make it more difficult for people to find an affordable home for purchase in Littleton or to alter their own property to meet their needs.<\/p>\n If I wanted a small group to dictate what I could do with my property, I would have moved into a neighborhood with a Homeowners Association and a lengthy list of mandates. 3A would HOA a whole city. No thanks.<\/p>\n Moreover, by amending the city\u2019s constitution, the proposal would freeze residential land use code as it was at the beginning of this year. Changes henceforth would require a citizen-initiated ballot measure and the city council could no longer make common sense changes as needed.<\/p>\n Proponents would have you believe that the city is worse off for development. That couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. I grew up just outside the city limits. Back in the 70s and 80s there was little reason to visit Littleton. That began to change as people moved into the city and commercial and residential properties were redeveloped and new developments were added.<\/p>\n Twenty years ago, I bought a house in Littleton and have watched as the city has gotten better and better thanks to all of the new people, new money, new ideas, and new growth. Today we have a charming, revitalized downtown, new shopping and dining options on Littleton, Belleview, Broadway, and Santa Fe thoroughfares, and more beautiful parks and bike trails. \u00a0Cultural assets like the Littleton Museum, Hudson Gardens, and the Town Hall Arts Center and longtime local gems like Reinke Brothers and Romano\u2019s Pizzeria are better than ever.<\/p>\n Littleton is a wonderful small city and its best days are ahead. Thank goodness no tried to stop its potential from being developed decades ago by freezing zoning and development. Littleton welcomed newcomers, all \u201cthose people\u201d who wanted to make a new start in a little city, and the city has thrived.<\/p>\n Even though I currently have a single-family home, I welcome a full range of housing options and new neighbors who want to plant roots in the city I call home.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I voted against 3A and urge others to do the same.<\/p>\n Krista Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more. <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online<\/a> or check out our guidelines<\/a> for how to submit by email or mail.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was once one of \u201cthose people.\u201d Until I purchased a house in my mid-thirties, I rented. I also know \u201cthose people.\u201d Several friends rent saving to buy a home. Others own condos or townhomes. I might even enable one of \u201cthose people\u201d by building […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":682,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions\/682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sleepystork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}