Planning staff seeks broad text amendments to remove "family" from zoning code; moratorium on enforcing group-living rules to go to council

Planning staff told the Grand Junction Planning Commission on Tuesday that they will present a multi-page zoning text amendment that removes the word “family” from many code definitions and replaces it with “household” or deletes it where redundant, and that the city will seek a moratorium on enforcing its group‑living rules while state law issues are resolved.

The change affects definitions across the zoning code, staff said, including the definitions of “household,” “dwelling unit,” and shifts from terms such as “single‑family” and “multifamily” to “single‑unit” and “multi‑unit.” "Most of the actual significant changes are in the definitions. So I'm gonna start there," Planning staff said during the presentation.

Staff said the amendments are largely terminological: the package runs 22 pages but "it's only, like, 30 words that are changing," and the revisions were drafted to align local language with state law. The staff cited a state measure in the discussion and read a statutory phrase into the proposed household definition that would allow occupancy limits only…