EDGEWATER, CO · CHAPTER 16 ZONING
What Edgewater's code actually allows for a backyard ADU.
Edgewater is a scrape-and-rebuild market: small platted lots, pop-tops, and full teardowns are rewriting the blocks between Sheridan Boulevard and Sloan's Lake. Underneath that pressure is a short, readable zoning code — Chapter 16 — that already answers most of the ADU question. Below is what it says today, number by number, with a link to each section. This page is illustrative only — it is not a code determination.
Current Code
What Chapter 16 allows today
One ADU per lot — in four districts
A single accessory dwelling unit is a permitted residential use in R-A (§16-4-10(2)), R-1 (§16-5-10(b)(2)), R-2 (§16-6-10(b)(2)), and R-C1 (§16-8-10(b)). Yes — R-2 is included.
Size: 750 sq ft, and smaller than the house
An ADU can be internal, attached, or detached. Its total floor area cannot exceed 750 square feet, it must stay smaller than the primary dwelling, and it must sit on the same lot. A detached ADU is treated as an accessory building for the rest of the chapter — which is what puts the 15-foot height cap and the bulk plane in play (§16-1-50, definitions, as amended by Ord. 2025-16).
Height: 15 ft for an accessory building
No accessory building may exceed 15 feet in R-A, R-1, or R-2 (§16-4-20; §16-5-20; §16-6-20).
Parking: an ADU adds nothing
Residential use in R-A, R-1, R-2, and R-C1 requires 2 off-street spaces per dwelling unit — and the table's unit of measure is “dwelling units (excluding ADUs).” An ADU does not add to the parking count (§16-3-160, Table 5).
Bulk plane: 45° from the property line
The bulk plane starts at each property line at a set height and rises toward the center of the lot at a 45° angle; nothing may be built beyond it except listed encroachments like eaves and dormers (§16-3-130(d)). Starting heights: R-1 and R-2 begin at 12 ft; R-3 at 15 ft; RC-1, R-4, R-PD, C-1, and C-2 at 35 ft — dropping to 12 ft on a property line adjacent to R-1 or R-2, and 15 ft adjacent to R-3. Read that chart carefully: it does not list R-A. We won't quote a number the code doesn't give.
CORRIDOR RULES — NOT CITYWIDE
R-C1 on the 25th Ave, 20th Ave, and Sheridan corridors
On 25th Avenue, and on 20th Avenue from Sheridan Boulevard to Depew Street, R-C1 buildings can reach 3 stories or 45 ft (whichever is less) with no minimum front yard — a zero-setback, storefront-style corridor where the permitted uses include one dwelling unit plus one ADU alongside a non-residential use (§16-8-10(b); §16-8-20; §16-8-40). Buildings on Sheridan Boulevard itself can reach 6 stories or 75 ft (§16-8-20(2)). Everywhere else in R-C1, the base height limit is 35 ft.
Check Your Lot
Which district is your lot in?
That answer drives everything above. The lot lookup is live: enter an Edgewater address and it names the parcel's district from the city's official Zoning District Map (Map Updated October 17, 2023), sealed onto Jefferson County parcel geometry. Some lots the map can't cleanly answer — a hatched overlay, a district boundary straddling the parcel, a low-confidence read — and those get an honest human site check instead of a guessed district.
In Progress — Not Law
The 2026 rewrite
Edgewater is rewriting Chapter 16. The city's zoning code update has a completed diagnostic, and its Technical Focus Group drafts discuss ADUs, cottage clusters, and the 25- and 50-foot lots that make up much of the city — the June 8 TFG draft covered the low-density districts and their ADU provisions. The 25th Ave streetscape project has already rebuilt the main-street corridor in parallel. None of the rewrite is adopted. Until city council votes an ordinance in, the Chapter 16 sections above are the law.
This page is illustrative only. It is not a code determination, a permit approval, or legal advice, and it does not create any rights. Codes change and parcels differ — confirm everything with the City of Edgewater before you build.