Denton City Council Expands Housing Options
Last night, the Denton City Council took an important step toward expanding flexible housing options across the City of Denton [watch the public hearing]. The Council voted to amend the Denton Development Code to standardize design requirements and make it easier to build Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and townhomes throughout the city.
Different types of ADUs
View some examples from City of Boston, Minneapolis, and Vermont
The amendments passed by a 6–1 vote, with the lone dissenting vote advocating for even broader allowances. Regardless, the outcome sends a clear signal: Denton is ready for more housing options.
These smaller homes go by many names: granny flats, casitas, backyard cottages, or the technical term: Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)
These changes reflect careful planning, broad professional input, and a clear commitment to expanding housing choices in ways that are thoughtful, incremental, and compatible with existing neighborhoods.
At their core, the amendments help Denton do something essential—grow more wisely. By allowing second ADUs in more zoning districts, clarifying design standards, and removing unnecessary parking requirements, the city makes it easier to add modest, well-designed housing within the neighborhoods Denton already has. That matters, because when it becomes difficult to add housing within the city, growth is pushed farther out fueling urban sprawl, longer commutes, higher infrastructure costs, and greater environmental impact.
A patio in front of a townhome
Townhomes can provide a unique indoor-outdoor living room which invites community interaction while protecting our children as they play or our elderly as they visit with neighbors.
The same principle applies to the townhome updates. Clear, modern dimensional standards encourage the kind of missing-middle housing that fits naturally into Denton’s existing fabric with housing that is often more attainable, more efficient, and more accessible for first-time buyers, seniors, and working families.
People walking through a community of townhomes
The design of townhomes puts human life first. In an age when people are more disconnected than ever, being intentional about how our neighborhoods are designed helps rebuild the community we love about Denton.
These changes do not eliminate single-family neighborhoods, nor do they lower design expectations. Instead, they provide more choice, more flexibility, and more responsible stewardship of land while aligning with the goals of the Denton 2040 Comprehensive Plan and the unanimous recommendation of the Planning and Zoning Commission.
At a time when affordability, sustainability, and community character are all at stake, this ordinance helps Denton hold those values together rather than treating them as competing priorities, and it lays important groundwork for the housing conversations still ahead.
