A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 7111, 7101, and 7125 Tower Road in DIA. Approves an official map amendment to rezone properties from C-MU-10 with waivers and conditions AIO to S-MX-8 AIO (urban center, multi-unit to suburban mixed-use), located at 7101, 7111, and 7125 Tower Road at Denver International Airport in Council District 11. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 12-17-19.
I. I'm. Secretary. Please close the voting. Announced Results. 1339. Council Bill 1361 has passed. Councilmember Flynn, will you please vote? Council Bill 1363 on the floor. Yes, Mr. President. I move that council bill 19, dash 1363 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. Thank you, Councilmember. It has been moved and seconded. The required public hearing for Council Bill 1363 is now open. May we have the staff report? Good evening, council members. I'm Liz Weigel with Community Planning and Development. This MAP amendment is an application for property located at 71017111 and 7125 Tower Road. I'll provide an overview of the application and staff analysis and more detail can be found and found in the staff report. The MAP Amendment application is located in Council District 11 in the DIA neighborhood. The subject property is located at the northwest corner of 71st Avenue and Tower Road. The property is approximately 80,000 square feet. It's occupied today by a one story commercial building. The site is just south of Penn Yan Boulevard and about seven miles from Denver International Airport. The site is currently zoned in our former temporary 59 district, and the applicant is requesting to rezone into the Denver zoning code and retain the airport influence overlay. The request is for the Max eight, which is a suburban mixed use eight story district in our suburban context that is intended to promote safe, active and pedestrian scaled diverse areas. The influence overlay is intended to reduce exposure and minimize noise impacts on residential and other sensitive uses. It will not permit residential uses on the subject site. As I mentioned, the existing zoning is CMU ten with waivers and conditions. This is a former Chapter 59 district. It allows a mix of uses with the waivers. Do currently also prohibit residential uses on the site. We have now mapped, but it doesn't apply to former Chapter 59 districts. The site is occupied, as I mentioned, by commercial uses today. Surrounding uses include commercial office, retail and vacant land. This is a view of the site where you can see the existing building and surface parking and surrounding vacant land and other commercial and retail uses . This slide shows an image of the existing building on the top left and you can also see the surrounding uses. The map was received in September. It went to a planning board in December where it received a unanimous vote to recommend approval. And today we have not received public comments on the application. I will review the five criteria for evaluating map amendments. The first is that it be consistent with our adaptive plans and we have our city wide plans and we also have the recently adopted for our northeast area plan in this area. But we do find that the MAP Amendment is consistent with several strategies and comprehensive plan 2040. This includes improving access to amenities, building a network of centers and corridors, and encouraging info which are consistent with our comprehensive plan. 2040 goals and blueprint over this area is called a is the suburban context and it also calls us as having the DIA overlay, which blueprint recognizes as having additional restrictions in place. Blueprint Denver also calls. The site is within a community center, which includes a mix of uses and heights up generally up to five storeys. But Blueprint Number does say the area plans can provide additional guidance on height, which the partner these plan does in this area. Tara Road is designated as a commercial arterial and 71st Avenue as a commercial collector. The proposed district is consistent with the blueprint, Denver context, place and street type guidance. The property is within areas in Blueprint Denver. Denver, where we're expecting to see 25% of new housing growth and 20% of new employment growth. Blueprint Denver that recognizes that this varies in areas and places with how will see job growth and not housing growth. Blueprint Denver also recommends that we bring properties out of former Chapter 59 and into our new zoning code. I will now go over the far north east area plan where it also calls this area as the suburban context and recommends commercial development along main corridors and centers. It also calls this area as a community center. There is specific guidance in far north these plan, encouraging a mix of uses, community serving and many amenities and more pedestrian friendly design. We do find that the requested district is consistent with this context and place designation. Similarly to Blueprint Denver Partner, this area plan also gives guidance on growth areas. It does speak to the particular potential in these areas to add new jobs where we won't see residential growth. As I mentioned, the maximum height recommended for this area is eight stories, which is consistent with the proposed max eight district. And lastly, the plan provides neighborhood specific guidance for the for the day neighborhood and recommends creating a variety of centers and sees this area as an opportunity to provide new job and commercial development. And it does recommend bringing properties at a former Chapter 59 to help achieve the vision of the plan. The plan, the proposed site is also within an area where we have an adapted general development plan that comes from 1995. This plan states that the land use concept is to see business and hospitality uses, and it also shows a conceptual street and stormwater network. We do find that the proposed district is consistent with the guidance provided in the GDP with regard to criteria number for the application, identify as changed or changing conditions as the justifying circumstance. This includes the retention of former Chapter 59 Zoning and Adobe and the adoption of the New Far North East Area Plan, which calls for denser development. Lastly, the proposed rezoning is consistent with the purpose and intent of the suburban neighborhood context. The mixed use zone districts and the airport influence overlay. So with that, CPD does recommend approval based on finding that all review criteria have been met. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have two individuals signed up to speak on this item this evening. First up is Jim Irwin Sloboda. Hello. Council members, Jim Irwin supporter, the applicant's representative here tonight. And I want to thank Liz and her team for. The thorough presentation. And willing to answer any questions from you guys. Thank you very much. Next up, Jesse Pierce. Good evening, members of Council. My name is Jesse Pears. I'm representing for Denver Homicide Lao Black Star Action Movement for Self-defense parties have actually come here for social change, as was the only party of Denver and a universal African People's Organization. Denver chapter in Mile High North. And I'll be your next mayor at 2023. I had a few questions about this. I've seen numerous rezonings in this area, so this is going to be strictly commercial, correct? I want somebody to answer that question. This whole area is going to be strictly commercial. Everything south to 64th is going to be residential or is it all going to be mixed up? I would like somebody to please answer that question. Also, I would like to know exactly what is going to be here, because it's currently being a hotel is being put up here in office buildings. This is going to be an entertainment strip. Are you turning this into a promenade like you're doing Brighton Boulevard in District nine? I would like to know the answers to these questions because we have a housing crisis. A affordability crisis in this area does not seem to be the area where you are wants to concentrate any areas of poverty or low income. So I want to know if this is going to be strictly commercial. Is it going to be residential? It's going to be mixed use. I think the public would like to know, like what all these building codes, all this acronyms, all this stuff mean. So if someone could please answer the questions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers. Are there any questions from members of Council on this item? Council Member Gilmore. Thank you. President Clark. Liz, could you talk a little bit about the airport influence overlay and the restrictions that we have and why? Yes, the airport influence overlay is mapped to make sure that we don't have undue or negative impacts on residential uses and also to make sure that our airport is able to expand and grow over time. So the airport influence overlay does have different restrictions for properties north of 64th Avenue and south of it, and this property is north of 64th. So it prohibits residential uses south of 64th. You can do multi-unit, but not a single one two unit uses. Thank you. And just to clarify, the 61st and Penna transit oriented development area, 64th Avenue to 56th Avenue is that area that will only allow multifamily. Along the tower corridor. That's correct. All right. But we do have that that map in our zoning code. And we do recommend that as rezonings come forward, that we apply the airport inference overlay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember. Councilmember Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate that clarification because slide 16 in the presentation spoke to 25% new housing. Understanding the overlay. So I think we could be a little clearer by saying the airport overlay supersedes any expectation for housing in that area. Yes. In both the blueprint Denver and the far Northeast plan, it groups those into those categories but has an overlay on it in those plans that says that these are areas where residential is not expected. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Councilmember Councilmember Flynn. Thank you, Mr.. Just a quick question, Liz. This is subject to a general development plan that dates to 25 1995. Is this the only parcel that's in that particular GDP? Because I see that the whole tower quarter has PBGC. And and this is not the only parcel within. It is a larger area that you can see on this map here. And there also are additional GDPs for this Denver International Business Center right in this area. So this is one piece of of one of the GDPs. It is a very simple GDP. It is a one page GDP that speaks to kind of the vision of it and the the street network in those pieces. Okay. Now, this is different than a planned building group. A PBJ? Yes. Okay. So we can with the changes we made with the LDR update last year, we can do a rezoning on a portion of an area that had been subject to a GDP. Yes. Council. Yes. So council can approve a rezoning for an area, a parcel that's within a GDP as long as they find it consistent with that GDP. It's different than a PWD, which is something that's a zone district that that that was a change that you also come before you of allowing someone to zone out of their custom zone church checked into a new one. So a general development plan is more about the the uses and the layout on that that site. And we can change the zoning of a parcel within a larger GDP only with the with the consent only of the owner of that parcel and not necessarily needing the consent of the other parcel owners within the GDP. Yes. And actually, the the the zoning that's reflected on this GDP map is our older gateway zoning. So it's actually we have Series ten, which is different than the original zoned district. Thank you. That's all I'm really thinking. Councilmember seeing no other questions. The public hearing for Council Bill 1363 is closed. Comments by members of Council. Councilmember Gilmore. Thank you, President Clark. I will be supporting this rezoning tonight and I appreciate the applicant coming to the council office early on, briefing us and then attending community meetings, extensive outreach to the RINO's in the area and following the will of the community around the far northeast area plan. And I think all the criteria has been met and I ask my colleagues to support this rezoning. Thank you, President Clark. Thank Councilmember. And I'll just add to thanks staff for all your hard work on this and providing us with a great presentation and staff report. Madam Secretary, Roll Call. Gilmore. I. Black Eye Seat. Abarca I. Flynn. High. Herndon High. High High. Cashmere High. Kenny Ortega. Right at the end of all i. Sawyer, i. I. Mr. President. I. I'm secretary. Please the voting announce the results. 1313 I accountable 1363 has passed on Monday, March 2nd, Council will hold a required public hearing on Council Bill six, changing the zoning classification of 1430 Race Street and he protests against Council Bill six must be filed with Council officers no later than noon on Monday, February 24th.