A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 935 West 11th Avenue in Lincoln Park. Approves an official map amendment to rezone property located at 935 West 11th Avenue from U-RH-2.5 to U-MX-2x (urban, row-home to urban, mixed-use) in Council District 3. If ordered published, a public hearing will be held on Monday, 4-9-18. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 2-27-18.
On the presentation monitor. On the wall you will see your time counting down. Speakers must stay on the topic of the hearing and must direct their comments to the council members. Please refrain from profane or obscene speech. Direct your comments to council as a whole and please refrain from individual or personal attacks. Councilman Nu, will you please put Constable 170 on the floor? Yes, Madam Chair. I move the Council Bill one seven to be placed by final consideration and do pass. Okay. We're waiting for a second. It has been moved and seconded. The public hearing for Councilor Bill 170 is open. May we have the Step five report? Welcome, Scott. Thank you. Scott Robinson with Community Planning and Development. This is a request to rezone 935 West 11th avenue from you are h 2.5 to U Annex two X property is located in Council District three in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. It's on 11th Avenue between Kalama Street and Santa Fe Drive Properties, about 6500 square feet. And it's currently the home of the scum of the Earth Church. Request is to rezone from U RH 2.5, which has urban neighborhood context rowhouse zoning with a two and a half storey maximum height to you annex two X, which is still urban neighborhood context mixed use zoning with a two storey maximum height and the X indicates that there are additional restrictions in the zoning to ensure compatibility with surrounding residential properties. The applicant is requesting the rezoning to allow for retail uses in the the church. The intend to keep the church there. But also want to add some additional uses. The surrounding zoning to the north and west is the same. You are h 2.5 that stretches along the east side of Kalama street, north to the east along Santa Fe Drive is CMC, which is Main Street eight story zoning north of 11th Avenue and then south of 11th CMC five, which is Main Street five story zoning. Current use, as I mentioned, is a church further north along Kalama Street are single unit residential along Santa Fe Drive, a mix of uses with commercial, retail, office, industrial and residential, and then a variety of residential uses throughout the Lincoln Park neighborhood to the south and across. Ellsworth is a daycare. And then on the other side of the alley is the Colorado Ballet. You can see the existing church building on the top left of that photo there and then some of the surrounding uses in the other photos. This went to planning board on February 7th. They voted 8 to 1 to recommend approval. There were four members of the public that spoke at that meeting, went to the Land Use Transportation Infrastructure Committee on February 27th, and you'll notice in the packet there is a letter of support from the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association, and we have received no other public comment at this time. In order to approve a resounding, the city must find that these five criteria have been met. The first criterion is consistency with adopted plans. There are three plans that apply to this property. The first is Comprehensive Plan 2000, as described in the staff report. Staff has found that the proposed rezoning is consistent with these five strategies from Top Plan 2000, mostly relating to infill development, mixed use development and creating neighborhood commercial centers, which the proposed rezoning would facilitate. The second plan is Blueprint Denver from 2000 to the concept of land use in Blueprint Denver for this property is urban residential, which calls for higher density, primarily residential, but also a noteworthy number of complementary commercial uses, which is what would be allowed by the UN text to X zoning, either residential or commercial development or the existing civic use. It's also designated an area of stability which the plan recommends maintaining the character of the areas while accommodating some new development and redevelopment. The proposed umx2x would allow development and uses consistent with the existing character. It's currently a nonresidential structure that would remain the case, and there's a mixture of of residential and nonresidential throughout the Lincoln Park neighborhood. 11th Avenue is designated as a mixed use collector, which calls for mixed use development along the streets with slightly higher intensity, which is again consistent with the proposed annexed two X zoning. The third plan is the Lincoln Park neighborhood plan from 2010. The plan designates this as part of the residential character area, which calls for generally stability supported by appropriate zoning. But it also calls for support services such as those that would be provided or could be provided under the new annex to ex zoning. More specifically, this is in the townhouse land use area in the land use map for the plan which calls for rowhouse zoning recommended as an example of the existing you RH 2.5 zoning. But it also encourages a mixture of uses and says other uses may be consistent or appropriate if they are substantially mitigated, which is what the new annexed two X zoning district is intended to do. There are other calls for providing these sort of neighborhood services and buffers from the commercial development along Santa Fe to the neighborhood, which would also be provided by the proposed duplex. Two X zoning also recommends a three storey maximum height. The proposed zoning would have a two storey maximum height, 35 feet, which is the same maximum height as the existing you RH 2.5. So overall staff finds the proposed rezoning consistent with the recommendations of the Lama Lincoln Park Neighborhood Plan and the first criterion met. The second criterion is uniformity of district regulations. Staff finds that the proposed rezoning would result in the uniform application of the U.N. text to ex zone district. The third criterion is to further the public health, safety and general welfare of the city. Staff finds that the proposed rezoning would do so by implementing the city's adopted plans and allowing for additional neighborhood serving amenities in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. The fourth criterion is justifying circumstances, staff finds. If the proposed rezoning is justified by the changed and changing conditions in the area, there's increased residential density in the area, some redevelopment, particularly the Mariposa District development, just two blocks to the west. But there's also been additional development in the area and along Santa Fe. Notably the Colorado Ballet Building just across to 11th Avenue. These changes have increased residential density, increased commercial activity, increased the demand for a mix of uses to make it appropriate to rezone this property to annex two acts. The fifth criterion is consistency with neighborhood context, zone, district purpose and intent. Staff finds that the proposed rezoning would allow development that is consistent with the urban neighborhood context, description and the purpose and intent of the U.N. next to zone district. And therefore, staff finds that all five criteria are met and recommends approval on the answer. Answering Questions. Thank you very much, Scott. We have three speakers tonight and I'll just call you up. Jesse Holman, William Moore and Sekou Wood. Jesse Harmon, please come to the podium. Hello. Good evening. My name is Jessie Hileman. I live at 3531 Milwaukee Street, so I reside in Councilman Brooks district. And then I am the senior pastor of the Scum of the Earth Church. And so I do quite a bit of investment in Councilman Lopez's district. Yeah. Skipping the what has already been mentioned specifically, what we are intending to do is create a retail shop for roller derby products. There is there was a shop on Broadway is closed down a couple of years ago. And we would like to replace replace that hole in the community of roller derby. We have a lot of overlap with our community, our church community and with our and with the roller derby community. They're both incredibly positive communities, and yet we still have a lot to learn from each other. And there's like a great meshing of that they were hoping for. It's a we already have investment in the neighborhood in other ways. Music. Bicycles for kids in the neighborhood. Things like that. And yet. Roller derby is fairly large, relatively speaking, in Denver. We have one of the top five teams in the world and another top top 30 team here in Denver as well. So it's we have a draw for a roller derby in Denver and we actually pull in. This would be a landmark visit for the state and even surrounding states because there is not much in the way of retail for this. So thank you, Mr. Howard. Appreciate it. William Moore. Wilmore. I live at 1112 Kalamazoo. I've lived there for 25 years. A lot of my neighbors are multi-generational. If this zoning. Goes through, will this be opening the whole neighborhood up to be a reason to for multi-use? Am I going to be losing residential in the neighborhood to multi-use? Are we going to, you know, just kick everybody out and. Let them fend for themselves. That's about all I have to say. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Moore. Sekou. Yes, ma'am. My name is Chairman Sekou. I represent the Black Star Action Movement for Self-defense, whose client base is poor, working poor students. Retired folks. Pretty much. You're scum of the earth. And we take pride in approving this ordinance because we have a direct relationship with the people who are struggling to be self-supporting and to be an asset to the community. And not only that, but the truth is everything that they talked about conforms exactly to all the plans, regulations and whatnot. So that in and of itself is enough to have a unanimous, unanimous vote on this thing. And when you add on to what is going to be able to happen there, but they're going to be able to plug the gap of services that have disappeared so that they can reappear to enhance the development of what they do. That's our standard. That's outstanding. So I can't see how you would not vote to approve this. And we want to thank Paul for bringing this forward. And we want to thank. I am going to do it. What Paul did. You know, because you're the queen mother, because people don't remember. You just do this all the time. I was here when you did two terms of this. So thank you for being here and your leadership and. My daughter's watching you, Ben Franklin. So thank you very much. And that's all I got. Thank you, Mr. Sekou. That is it concludes our speakers questions from counsel. And I see no questions. It's taken a while. It is. Oh. Councilman Lewis. Thank you, Madam President. If you want to come up to the. To the podium, sir. Mr. Peebles. Right. If you want to talk, I don't just want to just be. So skate shop is just what it sounds like. You sound roller skates, selling equipment, or is it a facility where you're skating it? I just want to make that clear on the record. It will primarily remain a church scum of the Earth Church. But yes, we will have retail hours selling product. But like I said, community is very important to both our church and to roller derby in general. So a lot of community events happening in the building for that purpose. Okay. If I can ask you this question, I mean, I know the area very well, but. On that block. What other uses exist that you're aware of as just residential? There is there's one residential property we have commercial directly to the east. There's the Colorado Ballet, of which my daughter is one of our students, and then a daycare directly to the south. So, yeah, there is there is one residence that borders us, but the rest is retail. Yeah. So it's my mama. A 7-Eleven on the corner. Yeah. 7-Eleven is two doors down to for myself as a magical across the block. Yeah. So there's the. Would you consider that like a mix of residential or just mostly. It's yeah, it seems to be mostly commercial, but. And then but if you go west, it is, it turns into residential. Actually, we consider our church and our mixed use the mixed use zoning and an elegant to transition from the commercial to the residents. Scum of the Earth Church. Are you here to recruit the City Council? Recruiter Oh, we're all scum of the earth. Yes, that's what we consider. Is that all your question? That's all my question. Okay. Last night. Councilman Flynn, Councilman Cashman had kind of put his hand up before I saw your thing. Do you mind if we let him go ahead or do you want to arm wrestle for it? I think I like to arm wrestle and actually. But. All right. Councilman Flynn. That's because two comes before six. Okay. Scott, could you address Mr. Moore's question as to the impact that the CBD sees as having on the block? Yeah. If other properties wanted to request to rezoning, they would have the right to do so and we would evaluate it against the the plans and the criteria. I think this property is a bit unique because it is existing nonresidential use, whereas the rest of that rowhouse on council's side is existing residential and it's directly adjacent to the existing commercial development along Santa Fe. So, you know, without having an application in front of me, I can't tell you what we would recommend on other other applications. But I do think that this property has some characteristics that would set it apart from other residential properties in the area. Okay. And thank you. Let me make sure I understand again, Pastor. I'm sorry. Your name again. What will be different in the functioning of the property, or is it still going to be used as a. Church for services? Yes. Primarily. You're just adding in church. Yeah. Adding that there'll be primarily afternoon, we'll add signage to the outside and that's the only physical change to the outside. Okay. Mr. Moore, could I ask you a question? Yes. A question. Mr. Moore, would you like to come to. Could you mostly. You came up in your testimony and you asked a question. Can I ask you to make a statement, make an affirmative statement as what are your concerns with this rezoning? What what's your concern about it? Well, I'm right next to the right. You are right. Literally on the same side of the aisle. Yeah, at the front three. I have the front half of three lots. They have the back half. Right. And my major concern is it's going to be a roller derby concert venue, which is just destroys my life, you know, my retirement. I, you know, I've spent 25 years really working on that property. And I'd like to retire there now. I'd like I like my neighborhood. I'd like it to stay residential. I'm really concerned about the roller derby and the concert venue. Okay. Thank you. Pastor, could you address that? What what will be going on in terms of I mean, you're not doing roller derby in the building. They were there could be we had, you know, a sanctuary, a fairly large space. So you had probably be some test of the product inside the building. Infrequently, concert venue. We are not technically a concert venue, but our usage is quasi public for religious gathering. We do have worship services. We have music there. Which have music. Okay. Not Gregorian chant, I imagine. No, no. I'm just curious. I can still read Gregorian chant. Madam President, I defer to Councilman Cashman. All right. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Cashman. Thank you. Pastor, if you don't mind. So. Is there. Or maybe Scotland need to answer this as well. Is there licensing or they could they hold paid concerts or things of that nature at this church? Admission for free concert specifically? No, not at this time. I mean, there's some exceptions that would have to be made to the usage, I think for that. And the church itself is is not structured. So there would be actual roller derby contests? Oh, no, definitely not. And how much space do you expect to be devoted to this retail use? The retail offerings will actually be movable, so they will be be able to be put away. I mean, a few. Hundred square feet. At about 4 to 500 square feet. Okay. And how large is the building itself? Altogether, I think we're at 2100. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor Scott. What was the one no vote at the planning board about? Yes. As I recall, the planning board member had concerns about specifically the fourth criterion, the justifying circumstances, and that there wasn't enough change to justify. If this if the church went away and it went entirely retail, that that change would not be appropriate. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilman. Are there any other questions? I'll look up and down. All right, Paul, you. Did you have another question? Is it. Not? Yeah. Is it a it's not. It's not working quite right. Okay. No, no, it just came up. Go ahead. Yeah. If you want to come back to the. No, I'm right. Sorry, Steph. So it, it appears that there's a it appears that there's a church now at our church use is allowed in residential. This I mean one of our churches that play music allowed in residential areas. Yeah. I mean churches are allowed in pretty much all zone districts are subject to certain restrictions in some cases. I don't know the specific requirements related to playing of music. I think generally that's considered incidental to the church use. But the city attorney's here, they may be able to provide more direction on that. If that doesn't answer your question. I just don't I don't think they need to. I just wanted to just based on zoning in that I mean, I don't know if maybe the city attorney wanted to. Do you do you want me do you want to address that question? Is it? One is. I just want to get your expertize in terms of the church that plays music in a neighborhood like this residential zone district allowed in. Is it breaking any laws by doing this? No. The church should be allowed to play music associated with their services. They may need some type of permit if they're going to hold a special event or something along those lines. But as far as playing music related to their services, they could do that. Thank you. Sure. Thank you, Nick. Did you have any other questions, Councilman? No, ma'am. All right. Thank you. Is there anyone else who has questions? No. That closed the public hearing and asked for comments from council members. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Madam President. I really appreciate the the staff report and also the. The request when you go over to for me, when you go over to the site and I've seen this plenty of times I graduated from West High School in. In the late nineties and this was our route back and forth. There was different churches there at different times. If this was a new use, that was a venue that played concerts. I mean, it was not ever in existence as it is. I'd be, you know, and be a little bit more open to hearing and possibly being a little bit concerned, primarily if it was residential. What makes me feel good about this rezoning is on 11th Avenue. It's all commercial, almost. You have a car lot. You got the ballet. You have. You have 7-Eleven, which is busy all the time. And you're only a block off of Santa Fe Drive. And being that close in an existing structure that has been a church before. There's really nothing you can do against that right now. Retail. This is the only reason why, from what I understand, is going to use is because you want to do retail. You actually want to sell, sold things out of the shop. That in and of itself is the question at hand. I don't see anything that would. That would be problematic if it. You know, I know that the Lama Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association wrote a letter in support and they're very particular. When you when you talk about llama Lincoln Park and this and this part of the neighborhood, the existing structures and uses, you know, they're very particular and they're very diligent in sitting down and talking it over and making sure that this is something that does not displace anybody. There's nobody living there right now. So there's nobody is being displaced. It looks like this old church that has been have different iterations over time is just being reoccupied again for the scum of the Earth Church. So having said that, I, I don't see any problem with this. It does conform to the to our requirements. And I. Madam President, I think it's good to go. All right. Thank you, Councilman. Any other comments? Just looking up and down. No seeing no other comments. Madam Secretary, Raquel Lopez. I knew Ortega, I. Flynn No. Gilmore, I. Cashman. I can eat. Madam President, I too. Madam Secretary, close the voting and announce the results. Seven eyes, one nay. Seven eyes, one nay. Count for 170 has passed. Okay, now, Councilman Nu, will you please put Council Bill 172 on the floor?