Denver cracking down on basement/ADU STR rentals

[James Carlson]

Through my contacts in the Airbnb world here in Denver, I'm hearing a lot of complaints about the city cracking down on basement unit and carriage house short-term rentals. I've heard of three distinct scenarios:

-- Sounds like the city is denying STR license renewals to basement units with any kind of kitchen. And this is in homes where the owners are meeting the primary residence rule.

-- I've also heard of some instances in which even if the basement doesn't have a kitchen, the city is requiring owners to remove any kind of door that blocks off the upstairs unit from the downstairs unit. 

-- Finally, I had some people tell me that their old carriage house is being declined for an Airbnb because it doesn't meet certain setback standards. (According to two people, this is for carriage houses that were built well before any current lot-coverage/setback limits were in place.) 

Anyone else out there seeing this? I'm not a complete government-get-out-of-my-business guy. I think it has a strong role to play, but this seems a step too far to me. 

[Katie Gade]

They are cracking down on carriage house. I was flagged when we renewed our license, and Denver zoning had to weigh in on the topic. Zoning said that a carriage house is considered a second primary residence on the parcel. Since you can only STR your primary residence, it is denied based on it being a second primary. We are petitioning city council, and have filed an appeal with Denver STR regulators. Not sure how it will go, but seems rather silly to allow ADU's to rent STR, but not carriage houses.