A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 2065 South Cherokee Street in Overland. Approves an official map amendment to rezone property located at 2065 South Cherokee Street in Overland from I-A UO-2 (industrial) to C-RX-8 (urban center, residential mixed-use) in Council District 7. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 4-24-18.
The Council members please refrain from profane or obscene speech. Direct your comments the Council as a whole and please refrain from individual or personal attacks. Councilwoman, can each we please put Council Bill 366 on the floor? Yes, Mr. President. I move that council bill 18 0366 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. All right. It has been moved in second it. All right. The public hearing for Council Bill 336 is open. May we have the staff report? Thank you, Mr. President and council. I'm Liz Weigel. With Community Planning and Development. The map amendment before you today is for a 2065 South Cherokee Street. It's located in Council District seven in the Overland neighborhood. And the request is to go from IAU oh two, which is an industrial district to Sierra eight, which is a residential mixed use district. It's located just north of Evans Avenue on Cherokee Street. And it's approximately 31,000 square feet. It's occupied currently by two industrial buildings, but is vacant, and the rezoning would allow redevelopment with a mix of residential. And commercial uses. Again, the request is for six eight, which is. In the urban center neighborhood context. It's a residential mixed use district that allows us to eat stories. This district allows a mix of uses on the ground floor, but the upper stories are reserved for residential and lodging. The existing zoning is I.A., which is a light industrial district. It also has the YOU oh two overlay, which is for billboard uses. There are no billboards currently on the site. It's generally surrounded by a year or two. There is also some residential zoning to the east and south and commercial zoning and mixed use zoning on Broadway. And near the Evans station. Here is land use map. As I mentioned, the subject property is currently vacant. There industrial office and parking uses surrounding it and a brewery just across the street. And there are mix of residential uses again in following the zoning districts to the east and south in commercial uses along Broadway. These images show the site and the uses around it. Generally low scale industrial. Buildings and open parking areas. There is a view playing the Washington Park Mountain View playing in the area. Though the height that would be allowed here is above 110 feet. That is allowed by the eight story district. The the rezoning went to planning board in April, where they voted unanimously to recommend approval. And we also have a letter of support from the Overland Park Neighborhood Association, which is included in the application. There are five review criteria that the zoning code puts forward. The first is consistent consistency with adopted plans. There are five adopted plans. In this area. And I'll go through those. The first is comp plan 2000, and there's a number of strategies that this would be consistent with. Most of these recommend infill and mixed use development. Excuse me. Secondly, we have Blueprint Denver and the. Land use concept here is transit oriented development, which recommends a balance. Of mix of uses and basically mid to high density. Development close to transit, which. We have the seven station here. It's also in an area of change which is recommended for it for places that we should direct growth. Blueprint. Denver includes street classifications cherokees and designated local and even station is a mixed use arterial. And an enhanced transit. Corridor. The proposed rezoning is consistent with the Blueprint Denver recommendations. We also have three neighborhood plans. The first is from 1993, which is the Overland Neighborhood Plan. It recommends that commercial industrial businesses see more investment. This area was still at the time identified as an industrial area. It also recommends supporting light, rail and neighborhood access to it. The Shattuck District plan was from 2003. It has a vision for a mix of housing, employment and services and also recommends putting these older commercial industrial parcels into more productive uses, which would be consistent with what this district would allow. The Evans stationary plan is our most. Recent plan, and that's from 2009. It has a vision for transit oriented development around light rail. It really recommends thank you. Transformation of this area from industrial and commercial to more of a mixed use community with active and pedestrian oriented uses. It specifically calls out this area as mixed use residential for the primary uses intended to be residential and office and retail it would be allowed. So consistent with what that CRT district would allow. You have a primary residential use with mixed use as allowed on the ground floor. It recommends a mix of housing types and a more active ground floor in urban form. Seven Stationary plan also recommends heights, and this area is recommended for a height of eight stories, and it's specifically calls out that the area is adjacent to the rail tracks would be more appropriate for taller buildings. And this is consistent with what is proposed with the Sierra X8 district. So the CPD does fine with the adopted plans. The rezoning is consistent with all five of those. Further, the the district would result in uniformity of district regulations and would further public health, safety and welfare by adopting or by implementing our adopted plans. The application identifies and staff agrees with that. There are several change or changing conditions in the area. This includes new residential units and some commercial revitalization that both demonstrate the emerging mixed use character that was envisioned in the neighborhood plans. Further, we find that the rezoning is consistent with the urban center neighborhood context and the mixed use, the residential mixed use zone district intent. So with that, CPD recommends approval based on finding that all the review criteria have been met. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Liz. Excellent presentation. We have four speakers this evening and I'm going to ask I know we have staff on this first row here. I'm going to ask you all to. Find another seat, please. Did I do that politely? Okay. All right. In four speakers. Come on up. Steve KURTZ, Bob Breck, Jesse Paris and chairman say coup. Mr. KURTZ, you are first with 3 minutes. Thank you. Council members, thank you for hearing us tonight. My name is Steve KURTZ and with LCP Development and I'm here with an associate Bill Breck, and we'd like to answer any questions you guys may have later on. Great. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Mr. Bob. Eric. My name's is Brick. I'm here. With Steve. I'm available to answer any questions you guys have. Great. Thank you. Jesse Paris. Good evening. Members of council. My name is Jesse Paris. I'm with Black Star Examiner for self-defense in Denver Homicide Law. I have two questions about this development. How many of these units are actually going to be affordable? Between zero and 30% am I? And this was planned out 15 years ago. So this seems like another gentrification move by way of city council and the business planners. So I just need clarification of how many of these units for this development are going to be affordable. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Paris. Chairman Sekou. Yes, my name. My name is Chairman Sekou National Action Movement, founder, organizer representing poor, working, poor, homeless, senior citizens and youth of the city. We enthusiastically support this. Ordinance change. For our folks that we represent. It is our hope as these projects go forward that we're included in the construction and also in terms of sub contractors being able to come up in this and partner with major corporate merger contracts and also jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. We need jobs. Now the city is doing great in its unemployment rate, so it seems. But in the black community, we have chronic unemployment up to 60% for the last 15 years. Folks have looked the other way. And if that was applied to the white community, it would be a crisis. But yet things go unsaid and undone down here. And we get lip service about change that never happens. Because I know as well as everybody else knows, this is a very slow, grinding process over a long period of time, especially when folks don't want to do it in the first place. So I'm counting on General Patton here. For the clerk to marshal us in and make this a project that the city and all the communities can take pride in. And I know that, Councilman. New has been a champion in advancing the cause of minority black subcontractors and women and brown people. So in closing. It takes teamwork to make this dream work. And without your. We don't stand a chance in this thing. Because you are the ones we're counting on to carry our interests forward. So thank you very much for your time and. Good luck. All right. This concludes our speakers questions by members of council. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to ask the applicant, when you came to the city, if you were asked a question about the proximity to rail, was that a question on the application form you were asked to fill out? And have you had any conversations about the the close proximity to rail and whether or not you're expected to do anything to address buffering or whatever? I see there is a site to the West and I'm not sure, you know, if you own that or if somebody else is proposing to develop on that site at some point in time in the future. So can you just speak a little bit to that? Sure. Councilman Ortega We have considered that from a marketability standpoint of the site, there is a building planned. Not at the moment, but the site to the west of us will have an eventual structure on it, probably about the same size. We also have some experience in Inglewood developing along the tracks in Inglewood, where we have actually employed acquisitions or sound consultants to look at the noise that's generated from the rail and Santa Fe Drive in that area too tends to be a little bit more constant than rail is through that analysis. We've designed or specified windows that have a higher STC rating or a sound transmission resistance. So at this point in time, going through the specifications of the project, we're looking at alternatives and window manufacturers to address that issue for the residents who live in the building. Okay. So when you came to the city, did they talk to you at all about just mitigating that if there were to be an incident on the rail lines that carries cargo? And as you know, there's a lot of petroleum products that travels on that corridor. Very much the same as some of our other corridors in the city. Right. This is something the city is starting to address. And I'm just trying to find out if they've had conversations with you. You know. We did not. Okay. Specifically to that. All right. And it may be that the site to the west is far enough that you don't need to do it with this property. But if you're looking to build on that site to the west, they may ask you to address it. Okay. When you get ready to do something with that site. Thank you. Okey doke. Thank you. Thanks. I think that addresses my questions. Thank you, Mr. Wright. Yeah, thank you. Oh, Councilman, you. Ought to thank Mr.. Oh, ask the. Question. Applicant. Yeah. What do you guys want to. Just wanted to give you an opportunity to tell Mr. Parrish his question about the affordability of the project. Could you talk a little bit about how that's going to be raised? Absolutely. So we do not have any units that are. Income restricted so that there won't be any units available in. The 0 to 30% army range. As far as affordability. Goes and what we're doing to address some of those concerns is we are certainly participating in the affordable housing linkage. Fee. This project's a little bit. Over 100,000 square feet. The fee is a dollar 50 per square foot, so it's $150,000 will be paid to the city into that fund. And we're proud to participate in that. Other affordability actions that. We're taking, as we've designed a number of units in this building to be small. Studios. So we have units ranging from about 437 square feet to 570 square feet that comprise nearly 50% of the entire project. And we're doing that with the goal in mind to be able to allow residents to achieve a more affordable gross price point. And still have their own apartment and a well, amenities. Building close to transit, etc.. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Councilman. Counselor Flynn. Thanks, Mr. President. Let me also ask, was there a study done of the soil conditions there because there was a tin manufacturing facility. Is this site suitable for residential development? Have you been able to certify that? Yes. As you're familiar, the Shattuck project was just to the north. A lot of uranium byproducts on it. We've done quite an extensive study on the site from an from a commercial and residential suitability standpoint. And miraculously, it is very clean. Actually, it surprised all of us when we went through the study. I can drill into the detail for you, but there was a little bit of chromium on the site which exceeded a residential level. But none of the site right now is going to be below grade and all of the residences are going to be three stories above grade. So there's very a lot of isolation between the soil. We're not going to excavate a lot of the soil, and. It's. Clean by all standards for residential commercial development. Okay. Thank you. That's all. Okay. Councilman Espinosa. Beau I sort of want to follow up on councilman news question mostly because this is an area that is sort of outside the urban core a little bit and may or may not have the demand I mean, the demand for rental rates that some other areas of town and maybe I don't know, I'm starting to ascertain that because of where it's at. Do you have a sense about what that 437 square foot unit would go for right now? We believe. You know, we can rent that 437 square foot unit for around 1300 dollars a month. We built some similar units in a project. Up at 35th and Larimer, and those units were. Actually as small as 335 square feet. They were our most affordable units in the project we were leasing in 2016. We started leasing those at $1,050 per month, and they were the first. Units. To lease. Okay. I appreciate the candor in that response, because that's that's not a number that's easily swallowed by a lot of people here in the city that are looking for affordable housing. But I think it does speak to the level of the problem that we've been consistently trying to face. And that's not that's not on you. That's on our success as a city. So thank you. All right. Seeing no other questions. Public hearings now closed. Comments by members of council council president pro tem Jillian Clark, please. Thank you, Mr. President. You know, I think thank you to staff for laying out how this meets the criteria. I think it does meet it and I will be supporting it. I think, you know, this part of town is facing, as all of Denver is, but this is a part of town that is near and dear to me, is facing intense development pressure that is leading to a lot of things happening right in our neighborhoods, whether they're historically designated or they feel historic and they're not designated. A lot of angst, a lot of things going on. And this is one of those areas where the community has really come around a vision and a plan for where we can fit more housing and we can fit the demand of the 10,000 new people who are coming to Denver every year. And yet it has taken a little while for it to take off. But when you look at the big picture here, this is right next to what was the most polluted piece of land in all of Denver. And because the community worked really hard to get that cleaned up, now we have soil that is clean enough to build residential, not just on on your property that was next door to it, but on the actual Shattuck site that those are coming out of the ground and leasing right now. And now looking at not only housing, but the density of housing, you are one block to the light rail station and you don't have to cross EVANS You walk underneath it and you'll be one and a half blocks from the Jewel Bridge that voters approved for funding for in the bond that will then connect to the entire South Platte River Trail system, to the Ruby Hill Pavilion and Ampitheater and Ruby Hill, our third largest regional park. This is an area that can really accommodate more people, and I think it's exciting to finally start to see some of those pieces come together. I also really want to thank the applicants for working very closely with the neighborhood. I know that there were multiple parcels around here and on this block where different things were were contemplated. And at one point there was a proposal to go higher than what we had an adopted plan for. And while our overall plan hearkens back to 1993, which begs the question of is anything in there still relevant for today ? And we have across the street, across Broadway and Platte Park, no adopted neighborhood plan. We do have a stationary plan that is relatively recent that the community did work very hard on. And and so to have someone go to the community and be open to listening to that versus the other proposal that wasn't you guys came forward that that was kind of pushing that I also appreciate because again there is an opportunity for density here that the neighborhood is very supportive of, that the community is supportive of putting it here. That really is could not be better situated for a place to live. And so working with the community to make sure that that still fits within what they want and staying true to, you know, one of our criteria here, which is being directly in line, I mean, it is it's not every day that we get a rezoning where it specifically has a map that not only calls out the kind of zone districts that should be here, but the exact it doesn't even give a range. It doesn't say this should be between five and 12. It says eight stories right there. And so to come forward with an application that's in line with that not only means that it meets the legal criteria, but I also appreciate the effort to work with the community and to help deliver on the vision that the community has come up with at exactly what they were asking for. So I will be supporting this tonight, and I hope that my colleagues will as well. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Council president, pro tem. All right. See, Councilman Espinosa. Yeah, I just I don't think I brought it up on this particular rezoning in Ludie, but I do want to say, I think I brought it up here and I do want to say it again that the entitlement to go from industrial a to. Our X8 is a considerable amount of an entitlement that is granted for the fee that we charge, which is very minimal, $1,000 per acre or roughly there. There's some calculation based on square footage plus whatever you pay your architects and and zoning consultants to go through this process, which is not very much in the grand scheme of things. And so to get that entitlement, additional entitlement is a very, very low bar or cost. The good news here is that hopefully it's it's the person that speculated on the land some four years ago that will develop it and that value that is now going to be if this gets through, that value doesn't get siphoned out of the site and actually gets put into a project. But this is. This is this is the ongoing frustration that I have had since I've been on council, particularly for my 41st and Fox area. 41st anchor is my side, the sunny side side in an area that I represent which is massively gentrified and and what with this level of investment that we have made at these tods that is your public dollars. And Councilman Clark just explained how much more public dollars are going into bond projects surrounding this parcel. Your dollars, this is a considerable amount of public investment that will benefit the owners of these properties. And what I have been trying to articulate from day one is that we need better tools, better steaks and better carrots to get to address the affordable housing concern, which is now a legitimate concern for an area that was also like a lot of northwest Denver, very affordable for a long period of time. It now seems seems very clear at more than $3 a square foot for rental. It is not as attainable as it once was. And so I have spent two years trying to articulate a different way to address gentrification that would be pro-development, pro-development, and allow greater flexibility by the developer on a way to accommodate that plan is in the hands of Brad Buchanan as of a month ago. And I want everyone to know that that it is getting pushback because it is different. It is getting pushback because it is not the way we have done things historically. But I can tell you that I've spoken to developers and I'm going to reach out to you regardless of whether how this vote goes. Not for you to voluntarily take this on, but to vet this idea to see if there is, in fact, a way that developers could reasonably accommodate some of the help, address the concerns in a way that is more significant than a buck 50, a square foot. That's no laughing matter. That's $150,000 out of your pocket that you would not have had to spend two years ago. I get that. But that is not going to address our problem. And so where we have done great infrastructure investment in public infrastructure, I think we have the ability to look at this delta between what is it zoned for now? What is it planned for in the future? And how do we use that ability, that delta, that that capacity that we're planning for and building for to to drive more inclusive development because market rate. Is what the market is. You know, it will build the sort of neighborhood that it can support now. And if it declines, it will be that sort of neighborhood in the decline. And so how do we actually build more healthy, vigorous communities that are placemaking? Use this investment to to do that and to spur sort of a better sort of mixed economy that is healthier that you see in in the healthiest parts of our of our city. So that said, that is I want to be articulating that here because this is the exact sort of rezoning and scenario where this sort of idea makes the most sense is not apply to this rezoning. These are tools do not exist, so we can't ask. But I do want you to know that we should be and could be working on those things as a city. And we are not. And so with that, I will still I respect that the criteria has been met and it is as we face it today, I just wish we had better tools to address definite concerns in this city. Thanks. All right. Thank you. Councilman Clarke Tatum is president. I just want to you know, Councilman Espinosa brings up some really great points. I've I've had the opportunity to see some of these ideas in his office. I think they're really exciting. But I want to, you know, bring it back to again, not lose in that because that was kind of taking it to a macro level. But lose again, the micro in this where this community put forth this vision and not that we can't do other things there, but this is not displacing current homes. This is an industrial building that's currently vacant that will create more housing, which we desperately need at all income levels. But it also, again, this is a community that rallied around a piece of property that the company left and would have been completely unusable forever. And they rallied to work to clean this up with a vision that someday it would be clean enough and vibrant enough and have finally a public investment in things like rail and these bridges when it had been overlooked for so long that it could be a walkable community. And now you're going to have an eight story residential building across the street from Declaracion Brewing, one of the coolest places to hang outside on a patio and have a beer and eat, you know, something from a food truck. And that seemed impossible to the residents of Overland who have been involved with that neighborhood association for years and years. And so this will we continue to evolve what we need to do from a macro citywide and have more tools. This today does represent the fulfillment of the biggest. Best seemed impossible dreams that this community had 20, 25 years ago. And I just don't want to lose track of that, because as we as we go to these big picture things of what's happening right here. Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah. All right. We got some more folks in the queue. Ortega and Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. I can remember when we started development in the Central Platte Valley. The city built parks and opened the access to the floor of the valley by taking down our viaducts and putting in new roads. And we had this same conversation back then, and we created an ordinance that gave us the opportunity to ensure that we were getting affordable housing and developments across the city that became our inclusionary housing ordinance. We started by just doing them as one offs because we had developers doing the same thing, looking at industrial land and working to increase the density and the investment the city made was to attract part of that development because we wanted to expand downtown. Fast forward to today. We did not anticipate that we would be seeing the rapid investment in this city and the rapid gentrification that's occurring as well, which, you know, has resulted in many people not being able to afford to live in the city, both as homeowners and renters. And we have to be very intentional, and we have to look at the tools that we need to bring forward. We are the legislative branch, and we can do this. We know that Telluride exists, but at the same time, we know there are some things that we can do. And I think this involves having a serious conversation with our development partners in this city to look at how do we make that happen so that we, in fact, are a city that everybody can afford to enjoy and live in when we have service workers in this city who have to move as far away as Henderson because they can't find a place not only in Denver, but in some of our neighboring counties that have also become very expensive. Then we have to look seriously at how do we make this happen so that we are, in fact, a city for everyone. And so I would just commit to work with whoever is interested in helping us be part of the solution in a way that allows us to look at what those right tools are, that ensures that we do have that affordability and that we don't have service workers who at some point will choose to work closer to where they live. And then we're going to be struggling with how we keep doors open of some of the the businesses that rely on service workers from our hotels to our restaurants. We already know our restaurants can't get enough workers. Right. And I'm really concerned that as soon as Gaylord opens and we get ready to open the Great Hall at DIA, whether we can find those service workers to work at in the Great Hall. So these things are real and it impacts everybody. And so I just think it's an important conversation where we all need to roll up our sleeves and figure out what those right tools are that allow this to be a serious conversation that truly makes us a city for everyone. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. I really appreciate the dialog here. I think, you know, a lot of this just, you know. We can't vote in on a rezoning with a lot of the land based on a lot of these issues. Legally, we have to really look at it just as a zone district. We get that. There are criteria that we have to follow and there are criteria that, you know, ensure the due process of the applicants and the public and the hearing. That doesn't mean that. Folks cannot go above and beyond. Just because that's the bar, it doesn't have to be so low. In Denver. It is cliche. For us now certain to say we have an affordable housing crisis. We have a lot of crisis in the crisis is our everyday working people and especially people of color, can no longer live in the city where they were born and raised. And that is a crisis. And Denver, is it? There's development. Yes, development will happen. A development cannot happen irresponsibly. And I think, you know, as as we consider all of these on this this particular area and I think we've we've really looked at. Opportunities to really create smart urban centers and neighborhoods and really think of connectivity. You know, the neighborhood in which Councilman Clark speaks of is a neighborhood we'd all like to think our neighborhood would have access to. But it is only we can only go so far on council. The charter allows us only to go so far. And so that's why I'm asking the applicants and the public to make sure. You don't operate just when you hear the conversation in the dialog in this in these chambers and that they're not empty words. Now, we do have a crisis and it involves all of us, right? It's easy to say that no single drop believes it's to blame for the flood. But we can really, really, truly make something happen together if we have commitments. And that's what we're asking. I think that's what's coming out of these chambers is we're asking for commitments, even though it's not legally, we can't do a vote based off of it. These are just the issues that are at the mine and it really helps. To hear that on the front end and that kind of commitment. It eases the worries of the public and the council. I look forward to seeing something happen here that is that embodies that responsibility and development. Right. That that social aspect of it, that commitment to it. So with that, I know we have something else in the queue that is on the agenda, but uh, to, I just, I just, I just wanted to be able to say that, Mr. President, I think that's, that's, you know, it is a commitment that we all want to hear. Right. We look forward to seeing. Thank you. All right. Okay. See no other comments. This has been moved in second. Madam Secretary, roll call. Clarke Espinoza. Flynn Gilmore Cashman. I can eat. Lopez. I knew Ortega like Susman. Mr. President. I PCOS voting announce the results. Two are missing. You know, we have people hanging fire. See one more. There we go. Again. 11 eyes. 11 eyes, 366 as past. Congratulations. All right, Councilwoman, can you put 421 on the floor? Mr. President, I move that council bill 18 to 0 4 to 1, be placed upon final consideration and do pass.