Like a crowded Monopoly board, it’s becoming more difficult to find unused land within the city of Durango.

Developers are snatching up vacant land, and some property owners are tearing down old homes to build new ones.

The building is coming amid a national trend of buyers and builders flocking to urban cores. More people prefer to live downtown, close to restaurants and stores, and invest in lifestyles that allow them to walk or bike to work.

While the local building industry still relies on large developments, such as Edgemont Highlands and Three Springs, developers are finding small pockets closer to downtown.

“Location is everything,” said Steve Eccher, a Durango architect. “There’s a lot of value in having product that is in close proximity to the Central Business District.

Local developer Mark Williamson is moving ahead with building 14 units at Florida Road and Colorado Avenue. The Silverview project would have eight single-family homes and three duplexes. The project won conceptual approval from the Planning Commission on Dec. 8 and will face City Council consideration in January.

The three-bedroom homes would be about 1,600 square feet.

“What we’re shooting for is smaller homes geared towards younger families,” said Williamson, who recently formed a new company, Agave Group, with home-builder Jim Philippon. Silverview is their first project as Agave Group.

Williamson said buyers value “proximity to the schools and the parks and all the amenities in town.”

The Silverview homes would be close to Riverview Elementary School and Chapman Hill, selling points for Agave Group’s proposal. He most recently built four townhomes on 15th Street between East Second and East Third avenues on the site of a former lawnmower repair shop.

Building is down slightly from a year ago but still ahead of the post-recession period. The city issued 54 single-family building permits through November, down 10 percent from 60 during the same period in 2013. The 2013 total was the highest since 2006.

Multifamily permits were issued for 53 units, up from 34 a year ago.

Some of the projects are teardowns. An Arizona couple demolished a house at 802 East Fifth Ave. and replaced it with a 4,661-square-foot home built by Shepard Builders.

Many other downtown homes are being remodeled.

“Nationally, there is a trend toward walkable, livable neighborhoods,” said Greg Hoch, director of planning and community development for the city of Durango. “People want to live in those types of places.”

Young people, in particular, are opting to live in urban cores. That also means they’re driving less.

Between 2001 and 2009, the average number of miles driven by 16- to 34-year-olds dropped by 23 percent from 2001 to 2009, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

“They don’t want to live in suburban houses,” Hoch said. “They want to live in the center of where the activity is going on.”

Eccher said he’s working on two mixed-use projects that haven’t yet entered the city’s planning processes. One would be a live-work building for an established local retail business; Eccher said he couldn’t divulge details because the project is not yet a matter of public record.

Some infill projects are commercial. Homeslice Pizza’s north Main Avenue location is one example, where Eccher fit the pizzeria onto a narrow lot that had escaped previous attempts at development.

Infill projects tend to cost more because the land costs more, and opportunities are limited.

Eccher said some Durango properties are ripe for redevelopment, but the economics don’t work right now in part because of high asking prices.

“There’s going to be a point where the economics work,” he said.

Eccher predicted Durango will continue to see more infill development in fits and starts.

“As populations grow and pressures to provide opportunities to businesses and homeowners grow, we’re going to see more creative solutions,” he said.