This duplex is exactly the kind of housing Longmont needs more of. It’s also illegal in most of the city.
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Longmont can be a community where everyone can afford a place to live—where teachers, trades people, and service employees can find stability through homeownership; where young adults can put down roots; where seniors can age in place.
This vision requires action—questioning regulations that restrict housing supply, enabling diverse housing options in every neighborhood, and measuring our progress against meaningful metrics.
The work won’t be easy or quick, but the results will be transformative. Imagine walking down your street and seeing people of all ages and all walks of life who are your neighbors—not because they can afford to live anywhere, but because they choose to live in Longmont. That’s the future we can create together.
The question is not whether change will come to Longmont—it will. The question is whether we’ll harness that change to improve people’s lives.
Only 12% of Longmonters Can Afford a Home in Longmont
Longmont’s housing market has reached a breaking point. The mortgage payment for a median Longmont home1Zillow with a 5% down payment (typical for first-time homebuyers) is $5,125 per month at current interest rates. To avoid spending more than 30% of income on housing, a household needs to earn about $200,000 annually—far above our median household income of $89,140.2US Census Bureau While the details differ from city to city, these trends are repeated across Colorado’s Front Range and in almost every city in the United States.
This crisis affects residents across all demographics:
- Longmont needs 14,000 more affordable homes just for people who already live here3City of Longmont 2023 Housing Needs Assessment
- 61% of Longmont households are rent-burdened, spending over 30% of their income on housing4US Census Bureau Table B25072
- Young adults (25-34) spend 32% of their income on rent and make only about 25% of the income required to buy the median home5US Census Bureau — it’s also worth noting that this average is drug down artificially. 29% spend less than 20% of their income, 41% spend more than 35%.
- Just 12% of Longmont households make enough money to buy the median home.6US Census Bureau Table B19037
- The housing price-to-income ratio has skyrocketed from approximately 3.5x in the 1970s to 6.5-7x today7St. Louis Federal Reserve/LongTermTrends.net
Escalating housing costs aren’t an inevitable market outcome—it’s the result of specific policy choices we’ve made about how homes are built, where they can be located, and who can build them.
Why do we have a housing problem?
Several interrelated economic forces have created our current predicament:
Lots of people want to live here
Longmont’s desirability has grown substantially:
- There are 20% more jobs in Boulder County than there were in 2010.8Bureau of Labor Statistics Report Series LAUMT081450000000005 But the county has only 16% more homes. 9US Census Bureau Table B25001. Boulder County had 146,373 housing units in 2023, 125,768 units in 2010 Because Boulder has not added its fair share of homes10Boulder had 47,842 housing units in 2023, 42,475 in 2010 for 12% growth despite its role as a major employment center in the county, much of this price pressure has settled on Longmont11Longmont had 44,200 housing units in 2023, 35,075 units in 2010 for 26% growth
- The population of Colorado’s Front Range has grown by 17% since 2010.12Wikipedia
- Remote work allowing higher-income households to relocate to desirable locations. 27% of Longmont households now work from home13City of Longmont Transportation Mobility Plan
- Longmont’s excellent quality of life and comparative affordability within Boulder County
Outdated laws make it hard to build what we need
Our local regulations severely restrict housing supply through:
- Zoning that limits housing primarily to single-family detached homes. 63% of Longmont homes are single family detached and most residential zoning in the city only permits single family detached.14City of Longmont 2023 Housing Needs Assessment
- Dimensional requirements (setbacks, lot coverage, height limits) that prevent efficient land use15City of Longmont Municipal Code Section 15.05.110 – Residential Design Standards
- A development approval process that’s particularly challenging for missing middle housing (duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes)
- Legacy parking spots that consume land that could be used for housing. Parking minimums may be gone, but we’re still stuck with the result of building too much parking for 60 years.
When coupled with Colorado’s strong economic growth, these supply restrictions have predictable effects: higher prices.
Financial System Influences
As Charles Marohn notes in Escaping the Housing Trap our communities and federal government have structured housing markets to produce financial returns rather than affordable places to live. This fundamental misalignment drives costs upward.
- Housing is a necessity everyone must purchase
- Using homes to create wealth means they must rise in price faster than inflation
- Financialization of the housing market favors large-scale projects that are primarily for Wall Street, not places for people to live
How to make the homes we need
To address these economic forces, we need policies that directly target the supply constraints, align financial incentives with community needs, and enable more diverse housing options:
Policy Reforms
- Legalize missing middle housing citywide This means updating the land development code to allow duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in every residential neighborhood. This creates more housing without changing neighborhood character and creates paths to homeownership beyond unaffordable single-family homes.
Townhomes are visually attractive — and provide opportunities for ownership. - Allow more efficient use of lots By reducing excessive setback requirements, easing height restrictions, and encouraging adaptation of parking lots into new uses, we can make better use of existing land. Two surface parking spots take up about 900 square feet — plenty of room to build an ADU. Prioritize adopting the latest fire safety regulations, which improve safety and allow for more efficient land use.16Assuming the bill is signed into law.
This duplex is a better home because it isn’t required to have too much parking. - Streamline approvals for community-aligned housing Our current process makes housing development expensive, time-consuming, and uncertain. By creating clear, predictable approval pathways for projects that meet community goals, we can reduce development costs that get passed to residents.
Lower development costs
- Reduce development time frames Every month a developer holds land during the approval process adds to housing costs. By establishing clear timelines for approvals, we can reduce risk and carrying costs.
- Enable incremental, small-scale development Rather than relying solely on large corporate developers, we should make it easier for local property owners and small businesses to create housing incrementally. This builds community wealth and creates naturally affordable housing.
What Success Looks Like
Policy effectiveness depends on clear metrics and a willingness to adapt based on results. I propose the following:
Quantitative Goals
- Make it possible for the median household to afford the median home
- Reducing the housing cost-to-income ratio to 3.5x like it was in the 1970s17St. Louis Federal Reserve/LongTermTrends.net would be a generational victory – what is probably more achievable is preventing the multiplier from getting any bigger than it is right now.
- Decrease the percentage of rent-burdened households to below 40% (from today’s 61%)
- Return new residential construction permit levels back to early 2000 levels (about 100 permits per 10,000 residents)18City-Data.com in order to backfill our 14,000 unit deficit within the next 10 years. Almost all of these units will need to be missing middle since Longmont can no longer sprawl further out.
Action-Oriented Approach My campaign slogan “More Walk. Less Talk.” reflects my commitment to:
- Work quickly with other city council members to implement changes — especially when they are easy and obvious
- Evaluate policy effectiveness continuously using real data by setting meeting agendas to include regular updates from city staff on the impact of policy change
- Take incremental steps that build momentum by starting small, finding what works and building on it
