Basalt looks to allow more ADUs in 2026

The town of Basalt, as a part of its affordable housing efforts, is seeking to expand its policy on Accessory Dwelling Units so that more properties can consider building them.

Currently, they are widely prohibited in town limits. 

“We are moving from basically a zoning code that barely allows ADUs anywhere to allowing them to be used everywhere,” Basalt Planning Director Michelle Thibeault told Basalt Town Council and Eagle County at their joint meeting on Jan. 13. “It’s our first low hanging fruit item (for affordable housing).” 

Basalt is looking to update large portions of its land-use code alongside Eagle County as both governing bodies seek to bring land-use codes up to modern standards through a number of measures, including updating policy on ADUs. 

The town’s Master Plan includes a provision calling for an increase by 500 units of deed-restricted affordable housing units to address current shortfalls — Basalt’s Town Council hopes that ADUs could be one easy measure to begin making progress toward that goal. 

In a 2025 Basalt Town Council meeting, the council learned that ADUs are currently only allowed on around 7% of land in town limits. 

An Accessory Dwelling Unit, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, is an “internal, attached, or detached dwelling unit that provides complete independent living facilities for one or more individuals, is located on the same lot as the existing primary residence, and includes facilities for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation.” 

Basement apartments, upstairs lock-offs, and separate structures within property lines are all structures that could be used or modified to function as ADUs, potentially increasing the housing density without building entirely new homes on new land. However, their use as short-term rentals in communities around the US has caused criticism of their ability to create affordable housing. 

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Basalt would seek to address this in policy that it adopts by requiring that ADU tenants be long-term renters of at least six months, something they could regulate via deed restrictions placed on potential ADUs.

However, homeowner’s associations can still be an obstacle to ADU development, regardless of expanded ADU policy in the town’s land use code. 

According to county documents, almost all HOAs in Basalt currently restrict ADUs in some way, even if they fall into the limited percentage of Basalt that can currently permit ADUs. 

Local HOAs cited concerns about increased traffic, increased street-parking, and change to neighborhood character, even if they expressed a general support for eventual policy changes that would expand ADU permissibility. 

The State of Colorado took an overriding approach to some of those covenants on the front range when it passed House Bill 24-1152 in 2024, which allowed them to ignore local HOAs restrictions on ADU development. 

Basalt is not seeking that approach as they accepted recommendations made to them by Design Workshop, a company contracted by Basalt to develop an ADU incentive framework. 

Design Workshop recommended that Basalt do an education and outreach program that would help encourage homeowners in HOAs to amend potential restrictive covenants to open neighborhoods up to ADU development.