How tall can a detached ADU be in Colorado Springs?
✓ Verified against code · August 19, 2026
16 feet, regardless of roof pitch — city council amended that down from the prior 25/28-ft standard during adoption, over the staff proposal. That's the strictest DADU height cap in our corpus; two-story backyard units are effectively out unless you're converting above a garage (25 ft).
Citation: UDC 7.3.304E.2.b
How current is this?
Colorado Springs’s ADU rules run under UDC 7.3.304E (City Code Ch. 7) (Ordinance 25-45). Colorado Springs adopted on time — and pushed back on purpose. Council amended the detached-ADU height cap down to 16 ft from the floor, restored a parking requirement staff had proposed eliminating, and wrote into the ordinance's recitals that conflicting state laws 'may be superseded by local law' under home rule, even while seeking supportive-jurisdiction status. We verified this answer against primary sources on August 19, 2026, and every change we catch is logged in the changelog.
More Colorado Springs ADU questions
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All Colorado Springs ADU rules → · Compare Colorado cities →
Not legal advice — lot-specific overlays can change the answer for your parcel. The citation above points at the governing code section; check it, or ask the city to confirm.