Community Planning and Development outlines 2025 work plan, regulatory overhauls and code changes

Community Planning and Development Executive Director Manish Kumar told the Budget and Policy Committee on March 17 that CPD will focus in 2025 on regulatory overhaul, plan implementation and improving permitting and customer service.

The presentation listed major projects coming to council this year — a downtown area plan geared toward post-COVID recovery, Southwest and Far Southwest neighborhood plans, a Burnham Yard planning effort and regulatory initiatives including removal of parking minimums and a citywide effort to allow “gentle density” in single-unit neighborhoods. CPD also described a diagnostic review of the Denver Zoning Code and draft 2025 Building and Fire Code amendments.

The work plan matters because it sets the department’s priorities and identifies the proposals and code changes that will come before council this year. Kumar said the department’s overall budget is $42,300,000 and outlined permitting workload from 2024 — 213,000 building inspections, 48,000 CNIS inspections and about 75,000 permits with a valuation near $3.5 billion — as context for the work plan.

“Today we’ll talk about the work plan for 2025 in community planning and development,” Kumar said at the start of the…