A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 5231, 5301-5307, 5335 Leetsdale Drive, and 420 and 450 South Grape Street in Washington Virginia Vale. Approves an official map amendment to rezone properties from PUD 627 and B-3 Waivers and Conditions to E-CC-3 (planned development to urban edge, commercial corridor), located at 5231, 5301-5307, 5335 Leetsdale Drive and 420, 450 South Grape Street in Council District 5. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 5-21-19.
Please refrain from profane or obscene speech. Direct your comments to council as a whole and please refrain from individual or personal attacks. Councilwoman Gilmore, will you please put Council Bill four for six on the floor? Yes, President Clark, I move that council bill 19 dash 0446 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. It has been moved. Can I get a second? It has been moved and seconded. The required public hearing for Council Bill 446 is open. May we have the staff report? Good evening. Council President and council members. My name is Liz Waghorn with Community Planning and Development and this is an official map amendment application. Four 5231 5301 through 5307 5335 leads, dale drive and 420 and 450 South Grape Street from planned unit development 6 to 27 and B three with waivers and conditions to SCC three. The MAP Amendment is located in Council District five in the Washington, Virginia Vail neighborhood. It is located on along Lee's Dale Drive between Forest Street and Hudson Street on the North Side. It's approximately five acres and it's currently developed with two retail buildings and undeveloped land. As I mentioned, this is a rezoning from former Chapter 59 custom zoned districts to the SCC three district, and this is requested to facilitate redevelopment of the site with mixed uses. The requested zone district is in the urban edged neighborhood context. It is a commercial corridor that would allow up to three stories or 45 feet. This district allows for a mix of uses that's intended to balance the need for pedestrian, skilled, diverse areas with need needs for a convenient automobile access. It allows the general drive thru services and drive thru restaurant forms. The subject site shown here is currently zoned within former Chapter 59 and I'll go through the details of those. The surrounding properties are generally single unit to the north and then a mix of districts, commercial districts, residential districts and other custom districts along Leeds. Dell Drive the Putty, which is a large portion of the proposed parcel, was established in 2009. This was an update from a previous PD and a portion of the site is also zoned as B3, which is a commercial district in former Chapter 59 with waivers and conditions, and that dates back to 1998. Both districts generally allow commercial uses, but they specifically prohibit residential. They include setback requirements, use limitations, requirements for buffering and screening, and also a maximum heights in elevation. There is a large grade change that happens on the site from leads due to the north. There are portions of the PD that are not included in this application and they would remain empty. 627 Going forward. As I mentioned, the subject property is currently developed with retail and there is some undeveloped land there, single unit residential generally to the north and then a mix of retail office and residential along Leeds Dell Drive. This is an image of the site looking north where you can see the existing buildings on the site and these are images of those buildings. Here are some retail commercial and office uses to the east. Here you can see additional retail office uses along sorry to the west and then some of the residential use that are to the north along Dakota Avenue that the MAP Amendment went to the planning board on May 1st, where the planning board voted unanimously to recommend approval. Three members of the public spoke at that hearing, related very much to the public comments that I have listed on this slide. We had comments from to our nose in the area, the preservation of Residential South Hilltop Neighborhood Association and the Dakota Hills Homeowner's Association. Also, the Dakota Hills are now they have been working with the applicant over a couple of years now to establish a covenant agreement that would go along with this rezoning between the applicant and the neighborhood they were. That was still in process. Also when we brought this to the Land Use Transportation Infrastructure Committee, they have since come to an agreement that includes additional use limitations, a height in elevation for the site and set back requirements. And that agreement has been signed and we now have a letter of support from the Prishtina Neighborhood Association. In addition to that, we did receive two emails also in support of the application. I will go through the five review criteria that is set forth in the Denver zoning code for maximum applications, the first being consistency with adopted plans of which we have a comprehensive plan. 20:40 a.m.. Blueprint. Denver We do find that the MAP amendment is consistent with our comprehensive 2040, a number of plan, guidance and strategies that we have around infill development, encouraging mixed use community communities, and putting infill development in places that have amenities and access to transit, which you do have long leads. Dale Drive Blueprint Denver calls out this area as the urban edge neighborhood context, which is predominantly residential and tends to act as a transition between urban and suburban areas. A commercial and mixed use development tends to be found along corridors, which is very consistent with what you see in this neighborhood. This area is called out as a community corridor and blueprint, which provides that mix of uses and a mix of larger and small scale buildings. In the urban edge context, particularly, some of them can be set back from the street to accommodate parking and it says its heights can be generally up to five stories that just to the proposed SCC three district is consistent with this. This is a commercial corridor district that would allow that mix of uses and particularly is called out in the intent as being appropriate along arterials such as leads to so leased out in Blueprint. Denver is also called out as the commercial arterial street. These are designed for a high amount of through movement and they typically contain commercial uses such as shopping centers along them. The blueprint over growth strategy says that generally in the city we should be directing our growth to community corridors with with them being anticipated to see 25% of new housing growth and 20% of new employment growth by 2040. And providing this growth in these centers and corridors increases access to amenities for alternative Denver rates. And this gives us makes us move closer to our goals for complete neighborhoods. The proposal rezoning that would allow for residential uses along with site is consistent with our growth strategy. CPD staff does also find that the proposed MAP amendment is consistent with the uniformity of district regulations or results, in that it would further our public health, safety and welfare by being consistent with our adopted plans and also bringing this site into use by the modern zoning code regulations that are in the Denver zoning code. The application calls out changed and changing conditions for justifying circumstance, specifically that this site remains in former Chapter 59 zoning and this rezoning would bring it into the Denver zoning code. So we do find that to be an appropriate justifying circumstance. Lastly, we find that the proposed amendment is consistent with the neighborhood context zone, district purpose and intent. As I describe the urban neighborhood, urban edge neighborhood context primarily has single and two unit residential uses and that commercial uses a mixed use are generally around local arterial and main streets of the commercial corridor district specifically are intended to ensure that new development contributes positively to neighborhood character and improves that transition between commercial development in adjacent residential areas. And specifically the SCC three district is intended for arterial street corridors and again that is what we have a long leads do. So with that, CPD recommends approval based on finding that all review criteria have been met. Thank you very much. We do have four individuals signed up to speak this evening, so if you signed up to speak on this item, I'll ask if you can come up to the front bench here and if you make some room for them to come up here so that we can get through everybody. So when your name is called, step right up and your time will start. First up is Grant Nelson. Good evening, members of Council. My name is Grant Nelson and with Republic Investment Group here. On behalf of the applicants, the applicant in this property is 226 Monroe. It is local family. Paula Arnold and her son Ken Arnold are the owners of this property. They originally purchased the property to move their businesses to the property, and she currently operates a business that her and her family have operated in Denver since 1947 on the property. So they did not start out to be real estate developers or owners. In this case, they bought one property to build a building on. Determined it wasn't a great property to build a building on. The natural grocery building came for sale so they bought that to move her business into and it's always a good idea if you owned properties on either side to the one in the middle as well . So they ended up buying the one in the middle to make sure that they can control their own destiny. They have been working for the last couple of years on this rezoning, and we've been working hard with the neighbors, Brad and the the parishioner we've met with for the last couple of years. We have a signed neighborhood agreement here on behalf of the Arnolds. And if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up, Jesse Pearce. Jesse Pierce represented for Denver Homicide, Low Black Star Action Moment for self defense and positive commitment for social change. And I was on top of the ballot for City Council. While large this past May 2019 election, I got almost 15,000 votes with no money. I'm neither for or against this. I thought this was going to be another rezoning for a more gentrification that's rapidly happening throughout this city. This previous speaker just confirmed that that is not the case and that these people are just looking to relocate their business. So I made a four against it. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Brad Yoshimoto who? Thank you. Good evening, City Council. My name is Brad Yoshimi two 5300 East Dakota Avenue. And I am the president of Krishna, the R.A., which was formed in 1996. Our boundaries are. Alameda to the north. Lee still to the south. Holly to the east and Delta to the west. My speech will be brief this evening in the. Because of the time limit and because I know you guys are busy this evening, but person has been negotiating, like Grant said, for about a year and a half now. And we recently came to an agreement. We've signed a restrictive covenant agreement with the applicant a couple of weeks ago, and I'm here today on behalf of personnel to officially support the rezoning. We want to thank the applicant for their willingness to work with us throughout the process and address some of our major concerns. We believe that this restrictive covenant agreement gives us some of the protections we had under the current zoning, including height, restrictions, setbacks and uses. In the interest of time. There are other board members here, but I will be the only one speaking tonight. I have Monica Hess, who was also part of the negotiations, as well as Jane Broda. They are both on the board as well. I'd also like to thank Mary Beth Susman for her direction and communication throughout the process and application and want to thank her for her years of service. We are hopeful that this rezoning will bring good, thorough and productive development that we can. Welcome to our neighborhood. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Chairman Sekou. The German so-called black star movement. Self-defense. We support this zoning change and we want to salute Councilwoman Sussman for her outstanding leadership and getting this thing done over a two year period. Now, that requires perseverance and commitment to getting this thing done. And with the approval of the neighborhood organizations, we feel confident that there will be a what's. Organization that would monitor this so that as things happen and things changes over the course of projects such as this, the intent and essence of the project that this council will approve tonight will not be altered anyway. Significantly, that will put the neighborhood in a jeopardizing position of principal. So congratulations for the hard work. And this is how the partnership between community organizations and developers work, where we create a win win situation and the possibilities where you have adversarial relationship between developers and neighborhood are minimized and that we can move forward because there is life after development. Thank you very much. Thank you. That concludes our speakers. Are there any questions from members of Council on this item? Councilman Espinosa. One question for the prisoner representative and one question for CPD for staff. Let's do the shift to the staff. Can you explain the Graves Street address? There was a formerly a street there sometime ago that was vacated at some point that the addresses still remain along, that. You didn't actually connect north? It does not connect currently. Yeah, I didn't see that. All right. Thanks. On the so to the representative for the association. Do you know if your restrictive covenant has two signatories? Is it just the owner or is the owner and your your organization? It's the owner and the organization both. Yes. Terrific. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Espinosa. Councilman Ortega. Thank you. Mr. President, I am not sure. Probably someone from staff, if you can answer. So under the previous zoning, the limit was five storeys. So we now have a covenant on the property. What is that? Restrict it to. The. So the previous zoning. Actually, there were two height limits. One with the PD 627 was an elevation in height. So it wasn't a storeys piece but a specific elevation. And then the B3 with waivers and conditions had a maximum of two stories, 39 feet, and also an elevation with that piece. So the the new zone district would allow 45 feet and three stories. And I believe that the the covenant that the applicant and the neighborhood has agreed to is 5410. Correct. That's the elevation height, which is approximately equal to about the the fence line of the houses at the top of the hill. And does that height include the all the mechanical on on top of the structure as well? So the agreement limits those to nine feet. Okay. Generally, by zoning, they could get up to 12 feet for certain types of like the elevator overrun in those types of mechanical pieces. Great. I have no further questions. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega. All right, see no other questions. The public hearing for comfortable four, four, six is closed. Comments by members of Council Councilwoman Sussman. Thank you, Mr. President. This was a rather complicated piece of property because of the unusual topography that it had, the the extreme elevation from street level to the neighborhood just above it. And I just want to congratulate first the neighborhoods who worked so hard with the with the project, who who had to, along with me, understand that the previous zoning was about elevation and not storeys. And if the elevation changed, how did the stories change? It wasn't an easy sort of project to understand. But I also want to thank the family that wants to do something with this property and do something that I think is very valuable to the city and to the neighborhood and still maintains the beauty of the person and neighborhood. Well, I won't recommend that everybody go there because then you'd have a whole bunch of traffic. But it's a it's a beautiful, beautiful neighborhood. And thank you. Thank you so much for all the work you did. I'm almost two years of back and forth ing between all of the neighborhoods, and I'm pleased that we could reach that, that you all could reach an agreement about, well, what will work there. And I urge my fellow council members to vote yes for this. Thank you, Councilwoman Sussman. Seeing no other comments. Madam Secretary. Raquel Sussman. Hi. Black. Hi. Brooks Hi. Espinosa, I. Flynt II. The Fillmore Herndon Cashier. I can teach Lopez. I knew Ortega, I. Mr. President. I am secretary. Please, cause the voting in those results. 11.