Home Care In Layfayette, CO

The Lafayette City Council’s accessory dwelling unit rules now are on track to comply with state laws, meaning that the units – often known as “granny flats” or “mother-in-law apartments” can only exist in certain zoning districts.

Like neighboring municipalities, Lafayette is reviewing its city ordinances to meet Colorado House Bill 24-1152, which requires municipalities to allow accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, in all zoning districts that allow single-family homes. The deadline to comply with the law is June 30, meaning Lafayette must amend its code by then. An ADU is an attached or detached dwelling unit that is independent from the primary residence, but still on the same lot.

The council Tuesday gave initial approval amendments to its ADU regulations to comply with the state law. The council is expected to review its regulations through the Land Use Code Working Group, which is currently rewriting the city’s zoning code. The land use code, or zoning code, is a set of rules the city enacts to govern how land can be used. The code hasn’t been updated for nearly 40 years, and the updated code will be based on the community’s vision for the future, according to the group.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the initial approval included eliminating the requirement for parking for an ADU, with certain exceptions; removing some design requirements, like exterior design and roof forms; and specifying where ADUs are allowed.

As the city works toward updating the code, further amendments to the accessory dwelling unit regulations and its affordability are expected to be addressed.

Lafayette has permitted detached ADUs in the Old Town residential neighborhood since 2002.

In 2023, the city expanded the use, permitting attached and detached ADUs in all areas zoned for single-family detached homesin an effort to allow for more housing types under the city’s land use code, Phil Kleisler, long-range planning manager, said.

The Lafayette Planning Commission suggested additional ADU amendments, such as increasing the maximum square footage of an ADU in certain conditions, lot size coverage and height maximums.

Councilmember David Fridland said that the commission’s suggestions are “common-sense changes,” and should be a part of the city’s ADU regulations.

During public comment, one resident expressed support for ADUs and said that while ADUs are not the “silver bullet” to solving the housing crisis, they will help create more housing stock and options.

Councilmember Tim Barnes said the city has had the affordable ADU conversation for years.

“I think we do need to get (this amendment) across the finish line, and add some of these suggestions into the ordinance,” Barnes said.

While Barnes said that he would rather see the suggestions from the planning commission be placed in the ordinance sooner rather than later, he is confident that the “common sense” amendments will be addressed with the zoning code rewrite.

The council is expected to continue to speak about the ADU city code amendment during a scheduled second reading at its June 3 meeting.

Lafayette officials approved moving forward with placing a fitness center in the former King Soopers building along U.S. 287 and Baseline Road.

VASA Fitness, a membership-based fitness center, submitted a planned-unit development amendment to transform the former grocery store location, 480 U.S. 287, into a roughly 55,600-square-foot fitness center. The building is currently zoned as a regional business district, which allows for recreational use under a special use review. “Zoning” is a local government’s rules for what can be built in different areas of town.

The city Planning Commission unanimously recommended that the Lafayette City Council approve the special use review request during the commission’s Wednesday meeting. Commissioners Fatima Hirji, Mark Ortiz and Zachary Mettler were not in attendance. A date for the council’s review of the request was not noted in the Planning Commission’s agenda Wednesday.

VASA proposes to build a pool, sauna, steam room, cold plunge pool, multiple studios and gym space, according to city materials. Significant changes for the interior of the building are planned, with minor exterior changes. The amendment also proposes utility, parking and accessibility updates.

Brad Nelson, senior architectural manager with Farnsworth Group on behalf of VASA, said according to a traffic engineer, they expect to see less traffic generated when compared to the traffic brought in by the grocery store.

According to Lafayette Senior Planner Jesse Rounds, VASA is estimated to generate about 1,700 daily vehicle trips while the grocery store generated roughly 6,197 daily trips.

Commissioners noted that Kroger, parent company of King Soopers, own the building and would be leasing the space to VASA. While the city has limited say in who gets to occupy the building, officials are happy to see VASA take over the space and not leave the building vacant for long, according to the commission.

“I can’t imagine another use that is this qualified or that would use (the space) as well,” Chair Darcia Thomas said.

During public comment, one resident said it is common for empty big retail spaces to sit vacant for years, but the idea of the space being used again within a year is attractive to him and his neighbors, as it prevents blight in the area.

In October 2024, the King Soopers in Lafayette at the intersection of U.S. 287 and Baseline Road closed amid the grand opening of a new King Soopers roughly half a mile away in Erie.

After moving to Lafayette, Peter and Margo Wanberg noticed the lack of a large, locally based farmers market to help the community find sustainable groceries.

They decided to take matters into their own hands and launched the Lafayette Farmers Market.

The new market will debut from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday for two blocks on Public Road — from Cleveland Street to Geneseo Street. The market will be held every Sunday, through Oct. 26.

The Wanbergs are leaning on their experience of organizing and creating the City Park Farmers Market in Denver to create the Lafayette Farmers Market. Like the Denver market, which the duo will open its fifth year in May, the Lafayette market will be producer-driven, Peter Wanberg said, meaning that the market’s goods come directly from growers and producers, offering a direct connection between the shopper and the farmer.

After all, farmers markets should be for farmers, he said.

Lafayette has tried two iterations of a farmers market in the past (neither run by the Wanbergs). From 2013-2015, a market operated behind JAX Mercantile, east of U.S. 287 near the South Boulder Road intersection, but it shuttered in 2016 due to a decline in sales. Then, the Boulder County Farmers Markets nonprofit launched a market in town from 2018-2022, but then ended it because of a lack of “diversified veggie growers,” according to a spokesperson at BCFM.

Wanberg said it’s “a little intimidating, but mostly exciting” to resurrect a large farmers market like this, but he’s hoping to create a stable market that will last a long time. The Wanbergs will start with a splash and “just go for it,” he said.

“We knew that you have to go in, full throttle, in order to make it sustainable and long-term,” he said.

It’s also important to host the market in a central location that’s accessible to the community, while having a variety of good-quality vendors, Wanberg said.

When the brand new 2025 market launches this weekend, the market will feature over 60 farmers, ranchers and producers from Colorado, with many of them based out of Lafayette.

Wanbergs said he doesn’t want to “have something flop,” especially when farmers take risks to commit to selling their goods, since livelihoods and harvest schedules surround the market.

The Wanbergs have years of success and experience running the Denver market, and Peter Wanberg said he’s received a positive response from Lafayette residents, so he believes that the Lafayette Farmers Market will become a regular part of summers in the city and a convenient place for people to shop.

“We want to be a grocery store alternative,” Wanberg said, “We want to be a local spot where people can come and comprehensively shop locally for groceries from local producers.”

Buying local produce offers far more benefits than buying food from big-box grocery stores, Wanberg said, noting that fresh produce tends to lose nutrients over time, and eating a tomato that was harvested the day before is going to taste better and offer better health benefits for consumers than a tomato from the grocery store that may have been harvested days ago.

Noelle Trueheart and Phil Cordelli, owners and operators of Common Name Farm in Lafayette, said that local markets allow people to buy produce that is fresher when it’s cultivated within their neighborhood. Common Name Farm produces organic produce staples, as well as herbs and floral bouquets. As well as being farmers, Cordelli said they are also both artists and will sell their original artwork and merchandise at their stand on Sunday.

Cordelli said that the journey that big-box grocery store produce takes is often a long one as it travels from the farm, to a warehouse, a truck to be shipped out and finally gets to the grocery store.

Shoppers can find comfort in the fact that the produce at the Lafayette Farmers Market will have been recently harvested from their part of town.

“This is not a faceless farmer,” Cordelli said, “This is the farm down the block.”

Trueheart and Cordelli are transitioning to Lafayette from Denver’s City Park Farmers Market. Since they live in Lafayette, not only will their commute be much shorter, but their food will travel much less of a distance to get into the hands of the consumer.

“One of the things we love so much about farming is bringing the community together, and a farmers market is such an easy way to do that,” Trueheart said.

The pair said their favorite thing about being at the farmers market is meeting neighbors and hearing what recipes shoppers have made from the produce they farmed.

Ashley Overstreet, a founder of the local bakery Daily Grains in Lafayette, said she is looking forward to having a large farmers market in the city again this year. She said that the impact of buying local is much more profound than buying bread from a grocery store chain.

“Besides using local and regional grains, we mill our own flour,” Overstreet said.

It’s common for Daily Grains bread to be made from freshly milled flour for customers to pick up shortly after baking. It’s easy to tell the bump in quality, she said, because of how fresh the bread is.

Overstreet said going to farmers markets is not only a good way to build community, but she said it’s a sustainable way to get groceries, to learn about local happenings and to make new friends.

Brigid Keating, economic development director at Lafayette, also expressed her and city staff’s excitement about the return of a farmers market in the city, especially since organizers Margo and Peter Wanberg are Lafayette residents.

“We’re proud to partner with them to launch this growers-focused market and watch it thrive in downtown Lafayette,” Keating said.