“I hate slot homes. I hate them,” said Maggie Miller, a resident who worked to rein in the controversial building 😆 design. “It feels like being in a canyon.”

With a unanimous 11-0 vote on Monday, the city’s elected leaders moved to 😆 ban the construction of the unusual residences that have spread through northwestern Denver neighborhoods in recent years.

First: What is a 😆 slot home?

“Without a doubt, these slot homes were an abuse of our zoning codes,” said Councilman Paul López, whose west-side 😆 district has seen plenty of them. “They robbed our neighborhoods of character and they robbed residents of community.”

A slot home 😆 is a multi-unit residential project that is designed around a narrow driveway or open space, aka “the slot.” At the 😆 heart of the years-long controversy was a seemingly simple design question: Should buildings have to face the street?