Donna Drebenstedt (left to right), Barbara Lencicki, Paige Burkeholder and Debra Armento listen to a Denver Planning Board public hearing about changes to group living rules. They came out to oppose the changes. Aug. 19, 2020. Donna Drebenstedt (left to right), Barbara Lencicki, Paige Burkeholder and Debra Armento listen to a Denver Planning Board public hearing about changes to group living rules. They came out to oppose the changes. Aug. 19, 2020. Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

City planners have retreated from suggesting that halfway houses be allowed in single-family neighborhoods and have dropped a provision for as many as 10 unrelated adults to share a single-family home.

Those key changes to proposed amendments to how Denver regulates group living were outlined during a Denver City Council committee meeting Tuesday. During the Land Use, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meeting, some council members expressed concern about compromises they nonetheless acknowledged were necessary to ensure the full council accepts the group living regulations. The regulations are aimed at creating more housing options for moderate- and low-income families, ensuring vulnerable people such as those coming out of prison are sheltered and supported, and expunging 20th century assumptions about race and class from the city’s 21st century zoning code.

The proposed amendments first presented to the public earlier this year emerged from two years of study and debate by an advisory committee that included homelessness service providers, operators of halfway houses and homes for older Denverites, and roommates in shared homes. Some argued that planners were trying to do too much in one piece of legislation and that the proposals would radically change Denver’s neighborhoods.