A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 50 South Steele Street in Cherry Creek. Approves a map amendment to rezone property from C-MX-8 to C-MX-12 (extends mixed-use from 8 to 12 stories), located at 50 South Steele Street in Council District 10. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 9-21-21.
12 I's Council Build 20 1-105 to has passed. Thank you, Libby, and our speakers who joined us. Councilmember Black, will you please put council Bill 1071 on the floor for final passage? I move that. Council bill 21 and. 71 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. Thank you. It has been moved. May we get a second? Thank you. The required public hearing for Council Bill 1071 is open and I see we have Fran here with us. So we'll go ahead and go with the staff report. Perfect. Thank you. Good afternoon, members of City Council. My name is Fran Beneficial Associate City Planner with Planning Services. And today we will be looking at the rezoning request for 50 South Steel Street. The subject property is in Council District ten, represented by Councilman Hines. In the Cherry Creek neighborhood. The subject property is located between Ellsworth Avenue and Bayard Avenue along South Steel Street. The site is about 1.4 acres and currently contains some ten story office structure. Built in 1973, with a garden level and approximately a thousand square feet, parking consisted of one level at great parking and two levels of below grade parking. The applicant is requesting to resign from CMCs 8 to 12 to facilitate mixed use redevelopment of the site. And there are tentative plans to build a mixed use building with ground floor retail and residential units above. The existing Sony IMX eight surrounding Sony includes the IMX five directly to enforce Jim U 1203 to the East Open space parking, public parks to the south and B3 to the west, where the shopping center is located. The existing existing CRM. X8 is very similar to the CRM X12 in that they both allow for the townhouse general and shopfront building forms. The minimum parking street setback is zero feet, except the townhouse building form, which is has a ten foot minimum primary street setback. Surface parking is not allowed between the building on the primary and side streets. Multi-unit dwelling required 0.75 parking spaces per unit are seen on the table, and the main difference between CRM, X12 and see mix eight is the height it allows for a 12 storeys or 150 feet. The current land use for the site is office use and the immediate vicinity of the area's land use are multi-unit residential. Other office uses commercial retail and some parking uses. You can also see the the corner of school and first avenue. There is some mixed use development, just like the one proposed here. Shown on these photos. The ten story structure currently on the site is located just across the street from the Cherry Creek Shopping Center parking lot north of the site. There is a two story office building and south of the site there is a public park with some tennis courts. He stood beside the 214 story multi-unit residential buildings with a ground level parking lot in between them. And then also just a block north of the corner of steel. And first. There is a total sturdy, mixed use building. Concurrent with the rezoning, the applicant has entered into a voluntary, affordable housing agreement with host. The terms of the agreement are the 12.5% of the all residential units will be dedicated as income restricted units for 99 years. Of those income restricted units 100% shall serve household earning up to 80%. The applicant has committed that at least 25% of all income residential units. We'll have two or more bedrooms. Throughout the rezoning process. Application modifications are being provided according to code requirements. Planning Board recommended approval unanimously on September 15th. Stub received a position statement from Cherry Creek East Association where they explained that the majority of Cherry Creek East constituents voted in opposition to the proposed rezoning for 50 South Steel Strip from the 8 to 12 stories based on a survey provided by the R.A. the survey. The survey results were shared with District ten and CPD and attached to Stuff Report. In their letter, Kia cites its role as an R.A. to communicate to the planning board and City Council how its constituents feel. The KIA Board voted unanimously to recommend that council oppose the rezoning. However, the letter goes on to note that the R.A. and the developer agreed that it is in the best interests of both parties to have a sign agreement covering the development and its construction. The letter described the applicant's willingness to enter into the agreement despite the unfavorable CC vote as a sign of good faith towards the community . The Good Neighbor Agreement addresses issues like exterior design, sidewalks, landscaping, lighting, access at parks and safety provisions, residential unit sizes, street level activation, onsite parking and storage. Outdoor amenities. Locations. Community meeting. Space security and staffing. Staff also received a letter of support from the Cherry Creek Business Alliance. Given that Steele Street, his ambition as a high capacity transit corridor, which will require density to make any transit, transit and hence enhancements work, and also given the high need for affordable and attainable housing options in the area. Other than that, staff has received one letter from a neighbor, mostly referencing the Terry Greek East survey and how the redevelopment of 50 still could impact neighbor neighboring views. It is important to note that rezonings approvals on district not a specific development proposal. Potential traffic impacts related to a particular development are not assess as part of the rezoning request because the development plan is subject to change at the time of the site development. Transportation engineers will identify what mitigation measures might be required prior to issuing a permit. Now moving on Denver's zoning code criteria, it must be found. The request map amendment is consistent with five criteria. In regards to criteria number one, there are three adopted plans that apply to the requested rezoning Comprehensive Plan 2040 Blueprint Denver and the Cherry Creek Area Plan. A stated on the staff report. The rezoning is consistent with several goals in the comprehensive plan. The rezoning is consistent with two key goals in equitable, affordable and inclusive vision element, as it allows additional housing in a rich mixed use environment. Near active transportation opportunities. The proposed rezoning would allow for mixed use development, including an increase in allowed housing density, while also enabling additional housing units close to services and amenities, some of which would be restricted to residents earning less on the area. Median income. It is therefore consistent with the strategies in the equitable, affordable and inclusive, inclusive vision element. Finally, the rezoning is consistent with two key goals in the environmentally resilient vision element. AC two will enable mixed use development at a new fuel location where infrastructure is already in place. The requested zone district broadens the variety of uses allowing residents to live, work and play in an area. Therefore, the rezoning is consistent with Denver Comprehensive Plan 2040 recommendations. Now moving on to a consistency. We'd look in Denver. The proposed 12th District is part of the urban center context and is intended to promote safe, active and pedestrian skill diverse areas through the use of building forms that clearly activate the public street edge. And the mixed use districts are focused on creating mixed, diverse neighborhoods, since the proposed district allows a mix of uses and allowable building forms that contribute to street activation, the proposed rezoning to a urban center context is appropriate and consistent with the plan. The Future Places MAP designates the subject property as a regional center and describes it as providing a mix of office, commercial and residential uses. Buildings are typically large in scale and orient to a street with a strong degree of urbanism and continuous street frontages. Heights can be generally up to 12 stories in the taller areas and should transition gradually within the center's footprint to surrounding residential areas. The CM x 12 zone district allows for a variety of commercial and residential uses in a pedestrian oriented pattern with an active street level. Therefore, the requested CM 12 is appropriate and consistent with future plan place plan direction. Blueprint. Denver directs growth to key corridors and centers and high density residential area certified transportation options. The subject property falls within the plan's growth strategy area of regional centers, which anticipates a 50% of growth, job growth and 30% of new housing by 2040. The proposed rezoning will achieve this goal. Now looking at the two Greek area plan. This plan was adopted by City Council in 2012 and applies to its subject property. Cherry Creek Area Plan notes that overall these areas benefit from new development, reinvestment and more intense use. The plan also recommends that the city modify land use policies, zoning regulations and design guidelines to encourage appropriate reinvestment to assure that these areas continue to mature in a possible positive ways. The requested rezoning to 12 is such a change in zoning regulations and would enable reinvestment and development in the subject property as expressed in the plan . Additionally, the future land use map for the Cherry Creek Shopping Center designates the subject property as a regional center, where the recommendation is to continue to support a mix of uses, including office retail, commercial use, multifamily, residential and hotels. The maximum building height recommended in the plan for this site is 12 stories. Therefore, the recommended scheme, X12, is appropriate and consistent with the Cherry Creek Area Plan recommendations. Stuff also finds that the requested Sony meets the next two criteria. The rezoning will result in uniformity of district regulations and will further public health, safety and welfare primarily through its implementation of adopted plans. The application identifies several changes and changing conditions as a justified circumstance under Denver's zoning code. Since the date of the approval of the existing Stone District, there has been a change to such degree. The proposed rezoning is in the public interest, specifically due to the adoption of the blueprint Denver in 2019, the Terry Creek Area Plan in 2012, both of which came after the last rezoning of the property in 2000 and. Both Blueprint, Denver and Area Plan were developed with extensive public input, and the proposed rezoning would ensure that plan's recommendations are adhere to and that the public receives the full benefit of their work. Overall, the proposed rezoning is consistent with the urban center neighborhood context that exists in the surrounding area and with ACM, X12 representing ten. Without government approval based on finding all review criteria has been met. All right. Very good. Thank you so much for the staff report, Fran. And this evening we have seven speakers signed up and our first speaker or first couple of speakers are here in chambers. Sean mainly is first followed by Mark Sabella. Good evening, Madam President. Members of Council. My name is Shaun Maley. Addresses 1137 Bannock. I'm here as part of the applicant team. Just addressing any questions regarding community outreach. Thank you so much. All right, great. Thank you, Mark Sabella. Good evening, Madam President, and members of Council. My name is Mark Saviola. I'm with the Barrow Real Estate Group and Steel Street Holdings as the applicant. Our address is 252 Clayton Street, Suite 400 Denver, Colorado. It's a pleasure to be here tonight with our rezoning application. We began this process in March of 2019 and with a short break for for COVID and some of the uncertainties of the market, we've been working with the neighborhood and the community for well over 18 months. As you've heard in the staff report, our zoning application is consistent with the Cherry Creek Area Plan and Blueprint Denver recommendations . It's located adjacent to a high capacity transit corridor, regional center and high growth location and is supported with the TMX 12 zoning. We've worked diligently with Host on an agreement for income restricted units as well as with the community on a good neighbor agreement as mentioned in the staff report. And we've also been in direct communication with covered senior life. There are neighbors directly behind us and trying to work with them on some party solutions for their employees prior to construction. So I'd like to thank city staff for their efforts. Councilman Hines and the Cherry Creek East Neighborhood Association for all their input, comments and involvement during this process. And we're really excited to move forward with this project and the design of this project. So thank you for your time tonight. Our team will be available for questions as they come up. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Our next speakers are all online and we're going to go ahead and start with Thomas Regnery. Good morning, Madam Chairman. Members of city council. This is Tom Reagan. Edie, I'm here representing the Applegate, and I'm available for questions as necessary. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Our next speaker online is test. And so my name is Ted Sturdy. I live in District nine. And given that this rezoning is in Cherry Creek and we've seen a lot of rezonings in District nine this year, in other parts of the city, it's not not so often that we see rezonings in Cherry Creek as often as we do downtown. And so I think it's important to understand how discourse about gentrification helps the community address its goal of regeneration. This community is fraught with systematically distorted communication that uses power and language around economic and political discourse. And theoretically, gentrification is essentially the affirmation of dominant modes of spatial production at the expense of disempowered ones. So I would just encourage and hope that we could start digging into how we talk about these rezonings and how it how it plays a role in in gentrification and displacement and and the perpetuation of white supremacy in the city of Denver. Because I think that sometimes there are competing value systems in the city of Denver and especially in terms of these rezonings. And I think that the challenges can lead to, you know, public conflict that really gets in the way of finding solutions for housing. And I think we need to really start to dig in to exactly what we mean when we say, you know, things like affordable housing, things like urban redevelopment, revitalization and what that really means and whether or not it's coded for something else. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker online is Michael Bell equipped? And I wanted to call his name because it doesn't look like he's in the virtual platform and wanted to make sure he wasn't here in chambers. All right. We're going to go ahead and move on then. Jason Schaffer. Doesn't look like Jason's on the virtual platform and we're not seeing Jason here in chambers. And so we'll go ahead. And our next speaker is Jessie Parris Online. Yes. Good evening. Member of the town hall. My name is Justin Wissam Paris, and I'm a physician for Black Sox and more of self defense. Housing has become a sizable party of Colorado and frontline black males. And I'll be the next mayor of Denver in 2023. I'm an honest man. I agree with everything that's said previous to me about how you go about these visa earnings. Um, I had a few questions. Um, I understand there hasn't been a traffic study done on. Has there been a parking study done? I'm glad to see that there was a neighborhood agreement signed. How many square feet are the apartments going to be? Mm. 82. Am I affordable, I guess for Cherry Creek, but, uh, for other areas of town that it's not affordable. Um. And see if I'm missing anything. The letters of opposition. What were those? And what was. The, uh. Letter opposition from the I.R.A.? What was that? So if someone could please answer those questions, I will greatly appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And sorry about that, Jason. We found you online there. And so our next speaker online is Jason Schafer. Yeah. Thank you. Pregnant. Remember the council? Now, I just wanted to speak in support of the development. Not only the neighborhood context, but out of as much needed housing. And I think one point I'd like to make is that when we when we think of housing. And we think of affordability, I think it's important to. Factor in transportation and housing together. Right. And one thing I like about this development is, you know, this allows an option. For people. To live, work and. Play near where they live and. Could help our household. Reduce it maybe from two. Parts to one or zero. You know, being that it's near transit, it's multimodal bike in. There and then also. Near jobs and education. And travel. So I'm excited to see the strong support. To. Support these meetings. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Jason. That concludes our speakers questions from members of Council on Council Bill 1071. Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Madam President. Fran, I have a question. I don't know that you can answer it. And I don't know if the owner would be able or the applicant would be able to address it. But it's a ten story building, but it's CMC's eight. And it was built in 1973. So it was there when we resigned in 2010. How did how did a ten story building end up at CMC? Can you answer that question? That's because you're the applicant is just as confused as I am. There's two criteria with the CMCs eight and 12. One of them is number of stories and one of them is height, right? It currently is actually an 11 storey building with a little penthouse, but it's probably closer in the height context to CM X eight versus 12. So I don't know the history of how it got assigned, what it is, but that's what happened. Or that's what could have happened. Okay. I guess I'm still confused, but I guess no one can really answer that. Thank you. That's all I have in prison. Okay. All right. Thank you, Councilmember Flynn. Next up, we've got Councilmember Cashman. No, thank you, Madam President. I'm Sam bread. Wine. A gift from host i question for you, brand. Good evening. Good evening. So slide ten says voluntary agreement reached in principle with host and 12% of the units are IOUs. So the question is, is this. What I'm wondering is House Bill 1117, it changed the landscape for negotiations on affordable housing. I'm wondering, is that the context with which we're working here? I'm wondering how we got the 12 and a half percent, because it's not a number that I would like to see. Sure. Thank you for the question. Councilman Brad wining with housing stability, the department, the city and county of Denver. So a couple of questions in there. One. It's actually been executed by the sponsors. So we're beyond kind of agreement in principle that the sponsor of applicant has signed and executed their end of the agreement and is ready for process pending council action tonight. To your question about that, that the House bill that passed 1117 in May, it does change a bit about how we are attempting to negotiate these, again, voluntary agreements across the board. That said, as you've heard tonight, the sponsor has been engaged with my department for well over a year at this point and talking through terms. And it's fairly well represented about the tenor of agreements that we were negotiating at that time. We feel good about the number, especially given the scale of it. We did push them to consider Laura and I. We also pushed them to consider a larger percentage, or at least a floor of of larger format units, knowing that we don't get a lot of those, especially in areas like Cherry Creek. And so all in all, we are we do feel good about what's in here. If we were starting the conversation today on the negotiation, it might look a bit different. But we're honoring terms that we that we worked on with them over the course of the last 12, 18 months. The building that is. Being replaced. Are there any affordable units on site now? I think it's an offense. I'm not not aware of any. Yeah. Okay. Um. Okay. That's all I got. Sorry about that. Thank you, Councilmember Cashman. Up next, we've got Councilmember Hines. Thank you. Council president. Question for the applicant. Do you know when the existing structure was built? But was it before 2010? 79. Is helping me out there. So I was just to Councilmember Flynn's question about the ten or 11 stories and yet it is still eight. I wonder if it was an artifact of the 2010, um, you know, drawing. I mean, you know, we had tens of thousands of plots and maybe this one was just. Part of that. We've corrected other mistakes in the past, and I'm sure that there are other mistakes that we will continue to correct. And the other piece of that, too, is similar to a lot of buildings that were built in Cherry Creek at the time. It has that garden level lowest unit. And I believe that's not counted as a story for the zoning. Okay. And I guess since I'm already here, you do not currently have an agreement with Gabbard, correct? We have received signature from them and we are routing it internal with AMS within our organization for signature. So we have an agreement in principle for them to utilize 20 parking spaces until we start redevelopment work. Oh. Okay. And it's not in the package just because it's in principle not executed for you. We have an agreement. We just need to finalize the documentation. Okay. Thank you. No further questions. All right. Thank you, Councilmember Hines. The public hearing is closed. Comments from members of Council on Council Bill 1071. Councilmember Hines. Thank you. Council President. Um, I've got a few comments. Let's see. Um, I want to. First of all, I'm getting old. And this will be my first council meeting where I'm wearing glasses. I just started doing this a couple of weeks ago in my livestreams, you know. Anyway, okay. So I want to commend the applicant for the affordable housing provided in this agreement. We do have a housing crisis here in Denver, as has been well covered for the entire time I've been on council. What's more, Cherry Creek businesses have a worker shortage that has extended far beyond the recent great resignation. The biggest challenge is getting Cherry Creek workers to their jobs and back home, particularly considering many of the surrounding neighborhoods are unaffordable for people who work in Cherry Creek. I hope we can improve non card transit access to all areas of our city, including particularly a place like Cherry Creek and this specific plot that has lots of destinations that people want to visit. That said, I have some concerns about this rezoning and it isn't me. After all, you'll see in the packet the Arno has as the Arno in this area, the Cherry Creek East Association has conducted a survey, obtained 275 responses and ultimately received 64% in opposition to the rezoning. Some are answers are different than others. This particular R.A. has a track record of engaging the community and church produced, and I believe they are one of the better earners in District ten. Please don't ask me to rate Arnaud's anyway, so I place more weight on this Arnaud's comments. The majority of the concerns appear to be about public health, safety and welfare, particularly traffic, parking, sidewalks, safety, which by the way, is something that I consistently, consistently ask the developer to consider more strongly. When this was still in the pre-application process. I think I could strike this whole paragraph about being concerned that there wasn't a signed agreement with Covered. I would just say that the residents in Covered are older and often have disabilities and they will be even more impacted than most should. The pedestrian experience isn't, should the pedestrian experience not be broad and inviting? After all, many of these residents receive or achieve much of their joy by walking. Walking around this area in their walk around the block or neighborhood is often the only exposure they have to the outside world. However, let's talk about the alternative. What happens if we vote no? The alternative likely is an eight storey building used by redevelopment that could look like anything without any input from the neighbors. At least we have an option here that helps us better understand exactly what the neighbors will get. And we have quite a bit of input from the community that went into the Good Neighbor Agreement. And theoretically this almost executed agreement from code. Ultimately, this is a rezoning, not a completed site development plan. That means that that there are other checks along the way before something gets built. I hope the developer will continue to seek and obtain more engagement and and acceptance from the community. Sounds like there's been progress, but I urge both sides, the developer and the community, to push through the finish line. I want to thank all of those who completed the survey. I will continue to watch this specific plight as it continues through the process, and I hope the developer will again strongly consider the feedback in the survey and incorporate those comments as you move through the process. I did mention a public health, safety and welfare earlier, which is one of the five criteria which we should legally consider . That said, I believe this rezoning does meet the five criteria and and I will once again urge the developer to engage in the community so that the next survey has more yeses. The no's. Until. Until then, I will be a yes vote. And I encourage my colleagues also to vote yes. Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Councilmember Hines. And I was going to share that not everybody has the the pleasure of getting older. And so it's all right when you need those glasses, let me tell you, they're a life saver. A lot of times we'll go ahead and go to the council members. Lawyer Thanks, Madam President. I am a little bit concerned about this rezoning when it comes to consistency with adopted plans. I just I don't understand how it ends up at CMCs eight zoning after 2010, even though it was already in existence. That to me sounds like there was a conversation that went down and the decision was to limit this to CMC's eight and not 12. So I'm. I'm not. Sure that the lack of information around that is convincing to me, and I don't think that this is consistent with the adopted plan things. Thank you, Councilmember Sawyer. And seen no others in the queue. I am going to go ahead and vote in favor of this one tonight. Given the information that was presented, I do believe it meets the rezoning criteria. And Madam Secretary, roll call on Council Bill 1071, please. Ortega. I. Hines. All right. Cashman. I. Can each. So, you know. Torres. I am black. CdeBaca, I. Clarke. I. Flynn. I. Kremlin. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and announce the results. One name of a nice. 11 I's Council Bill 20 1-1071 has passed our pre adjournment announcement this evening and thank you, Fran, and the community members who joined us this evening. On Monday, November 29, the Council will hold a required public hearing on Council Bill 21, Dash 1187, changing the zoning classification for 3600 North Cook Street in Clayton and a required public