Northglenn reviews DRCOG regional housing needs assessment to satisfy state deadline

Northglenn’s City Council heard a presentation July 21 on the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) regional housing needs assessment and the city’s options for meeting a state requirement under Senate Bill 24-174.

Director of Planning and Development Brooks Favoda told the council the DRCOG study provides a data-driven regional baseline and that by recognizing DRCOG’s assessment the city can demonstrate compliance with Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) methodology requirements, avoiding the need to hire a consultant to perform a separate local study required by December 2026. “We are here really to satisfy a state legislative requirement,” Favoda said during the study-session presentation.

The presentation summarized DRCOG’s timeline: the regional assessment was initiated in 2023, submitted to DOLA in December 2024, received conditional approval in 2025, and DRCOG completed requested revisions in April 2025. Favoda said the council has a 60-day review window and staff plans to return the item on a future consent agenda as an acknowledgement; staff said the city has until September 12 to provide formal acknowledgement or feedback to DRCOG.

Favoda and council members discussed key study findings highlighted in the presentation: low-income households (those below about 50% of area median income) represent the largest gap in housing need; demographic shifts (an aging population and smaller household sizes) will require a wider variety of housing types; and the distribution of housing types and affordability is uneven across the region. Favoda emphasized that the precise statewide numbers are less important to the city than understanding the study’s scale and scope and using both the regional study and Northglenn’s 2023 housing study as complementary data sources.

Favoda told the council Northglenn is contributing new housing that the regional analysis does not yet reflect: “we’re effectively gonna be adding almost 1,400 residential units” since the 2023 study, and he listed the planned additions as 738 market-rate units, 164 low-income restricted units, 172 senior market-rate units, 196 townhomes and 86 detached single-family homes. He also noted Northglenn’s household income and rent context: the city’s median household income is about 15% below the North Metro regional median, multifamily rents averaged about $1,300 in Northglenn versus roughly $1,600 in the broader North Metro area in the city’s 2023 study, and renter household burden was presented at about 53.8%.

Council members asked how accepting DRCOG’s assessment would affect local methodology and policy. Council member Nowicki said she understood that recognizing the regional assessment does not force Northglenn to adopt a single methodology: “I don't think we need to adopt this methodology. All we're doing is recognizing that DRCOG did this study and that we are going to then … be in compliance with Senate Bill 24-174.” Several council members said the regional perspective is useful but that Northglenn should avoid becoming the primary location for lower-income housing and should consider local constraints — such as limited land area — when comparing itself to neighboring cities.

Council member Cond0 (as recorded in the meeting transcript) encouraged colleagues to use the interactive DRCOG website to compare dwelling-type mixes and see how Northglenn compares to adjacent cities and Adams County. Council member Goff said the regional picture helps prevent the city from bearing a disproportionate share of low-income housing.

Next steps: staff will place an item on a forthcoming consent agenda for the council to acknowledge receipt of the DRCOG regional housing needs assessment and to provide any feedback within the stated review window. No formal vote on adopting the assessment or changes to local housing policy was taken at the July 21 meeting.

Because the DRCOG assessment served as the primary topic for the study session, council members indicated they would use the regional data alongside Northglenn’s 2023 housing study as the basis for future policy discussions, particularly about “missing middle” housing types and how to balance regional need with local constraints.