New Year, New Project

There is a joke in Boulder that garages are more valued for sports equipment storage than car storage. In fact, garages in this mountain town seem to be used for everything but cars.  Our garage is no exception. We don't have a fleet of elite mountain bikes or space hogging kayaks, but we easily filled our generous two car garage with all the random and cumbersome things in our lives, plus a few cruiser bikes.  Our excuse was partly practical. The small and awkward carriage doors on the 1920s structure make opening and closing the garage quite tricky, and because we are not allowed to change them due to their historic significance, settling for convenient storage seemed fine.   Then the Boulder floods hit hard in September and we be began to look at the garage with fresh eyes and to ask a fundamental question: was there a better purpose for this 500 square foot structure beyond gratuitous storage?

Our 2011 land survey revealed that our property sits in a medium density zoning block within the Mapleton Hill historic district.  We are zoned RMX-1, which means we are zoned medium density and zoned for an Owner's Accessory Unit (OAU).   OAUs are complete housekeeping units that can be legally rented.  They can exist either within a primary dwelling or as a separate structure. Many older properties have garages and carriage houses that have been converted to informal guest houses, but unless you get the formal OAU license, you are only permitted a sink and toilet (no shower or kitchen) for your guest house.

Our preliminary discussions with the city in late September proved promising.  We met with the zoning, building and Landmarks departments and got an initial green light to pursue an OAU.  In October, we hit a bump.  Our landmarked building was actually too large.  They allow 450 square feet for an OAU and ours was over 600.  We were caught between two competing city codes: we had a landmarked building that couldn't be altered and a yet we were over the limit on the allowable OAU size.  This situation led us to take our case to the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BOZA) to get a variance.  In December, our case was presented to BOZA and our variance was approved.   It was a unanimous decision to allow us to use the full size of the building for the OAU.  The next step was to apply for the OAU with the city.