A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 1660, 1682 & 1684 Grove Street and 3088 & 3092 West 17th Avenue in West Colfax. Approves an official map amendment to rezone property located at 1660, 1682 & 1684 Grove Street and 3088 & 3092 West 17th Avenue from G-MU-3 to C-MX-5 (general urban, multi-unit to urban center, mixed-use) in Council District 3. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 2-27-18.
Madam Secretary, close of voting. And now it's the results. Eight eyes. Eight eyes. Final consideration of council 172 with its public hearing has been postponed to Monday, April 16th, next Monday. All right, Councilman, will you please put Council Bill 173 on the floor. And move the council? Will 173 be placed upon final consideration and do pass? It has been moved and seconded. Public hearing for Council Bill 173 is open. We'll start with the staff report. Hello, Miss Lucero. Good evening, Theresa Lucero with community planning and development. This is a map amendment. The addresses are 1660, 1682 and 1684 Grove Street and 30, 88 and 3092 West 17th Avenue. The request is to rezone from general urban multi-unit three storey to urban center mixed use five storeys. This is in City Council District three in the West Colfax neighborhood. It is nearly an acre. 36,900 square feet. Existing 21 multi-unit apartment are on the property. And again the request is to rezone from GMU three to cx5. It is a redevelopment of multi-unit to multi-unit structures. Existing zoning is Jehmu three surrounding on the north and south GMU three to the east C-Max five with a couple of overlays, the adult use overlay and the billboard overlay. And then to the West are to a Chapter 59 multi-unit zoned district. So the subject property is affordable housing multi-unit residential to the north across 17th avenue is parking and single unit residential to the south, multi-unit residential to the east commercial along Federal Boulevard and then to the west more affordable multi-unit residential and gives you an idea of the location and its proximity to Mile High Stadium. This gives you an idea of the form and scale of the structures in the area. The center is the structures that are proposed for rezoning. To the right is the parking lot and electric facility across 17th Avenue, some commercial on Federal Boulevard to the right below. And then the new three storey apartment building or condo building that was under construction to the south and then to the west, a more multi-unit, three storey residential. So the CMC's five would be multi-unit residential with mixed use commercial allowed, and it would call for pedestrian scaled in diverse areas and improving the transition between commercial and residential . Informational notice on this application went out in November of 2017. Planning Board Notice was posted 15 days ahead of the Planning Board hearing on February 7th of this year, and by a unanimous vote, the board recommended approval. And we were at Moody Committee on in February of this year. And then, of course, we're here this evening and proper notification has been made of this hearing. The R.A. is in the area. Our West Colfax Association of Neighbors, Sloan's Lake Citizens Group, West Colfax Business Improvement District, Federal Boulevard, Corridor Improvement Partnership and of course, I.N.S.. And to date, staff has no comment letters on this application. So, you know, the criteria I'm going to talk to heavily about those are the plans that apply. We've got four different plans, comprehensive plan 2000 Blueprint, Denver, West Colfax Plan of 2006, and then the Decatur Federal Stationary Plan of 2013. Current plan staff believes that these strategies from current plan are the strategies that this application conforms with and those are detailed in your staff report in Blueprint Denver. This is an area of change where we do want a channel growth that's beneficial. Urban it is an urban residential land use category. So that's calls for higher density, primarily residential, but some complementary commercial uses and a mixture of housing types, including single family townhome, multifamily apartment and some high rise structures. 17th Avenue is a residential collector, Grove Street and on designated local street Federal Boulevard, a residential arterial and an enhanced transit corridor. So. Where of course you want to or on our arterials you have city wide connections and the enhanced transit corridor is focused on transit supportive land uses. So the West Colfax Plan has two different sections. The framework plan calling for gives us guidance on the zoning changes and this property is considered part of the urban town center. And the plan talks about a compact, dense core that. Is connected and walkable and clustered near the intersection of major and major, major arterials. Sorry, and that this compact core filters out to the edges. And so there's a focus on intense development at the core and that you're maximizing development of urban land in this area . The land use recommendations talk about that dense core and walkable development and radiating that dense core to from there to the through the neighborhood and talks about promoting the inclusion of affordable units and supporting infill development and. Focusing both structural and use intensity to these town centers. So this gives you an idea of the town center and the location of the property in that town center from the Colfax Framework Plan. Then the district plans in the West Colfax plan talk about character and scale of areas and this property is within the Cheltenham Heights Town Center in this portion of the plan which talks about new development fitting seamlessly into surrounding neighborhoods, town centers functioning as the heart of the community and focusing the most intense structures and uses in the dense core and ensuring a dynamic mix of uses, focusing the most intense uses east of Julien Street and promoting significant increase in residential densities and improving the permit permeability of the town center . And this picture shows you the in the Heights Town Center as depicted in the plan. One thing you might notice between this and the other town center map was that this town center map extends a block further north than the framework town center map. And then, of course, the Decatur Federal Station Area Plan, which is the most current plan which focused primarily on the Sun Valley neighborhood, but did incorporate and refine some comprehensive plan and blueprint Denver recommendations. But the plan specifically did not change the recommendations of the West Colfax plan. So the development concept from Decatur Federal is a station area connected to downtown and the region. Federal Boulevard and 17th Avenue were called neighborhood activity nodes. Federal Boulevard and 17th Avenue are were key multi-modal connections linking the neighborhood and the region. 17th Avenue's street classification stayed residential collector in the Decatur Federal Plan, but Federal Boulevard was changed from a residential arterial to a mixed use arterial in this plan, emphasizing a variety of travel choices. There were several top recommendations in the federal Decatur federal plan, creating a compact development pattern, creating a diverse, cohesive and walkable community, encouraging both vertical and horizontal mixture of uses, and attracting high quality, mixed income residential communities. And the Blueprint Denver land use concept was not updated in the Decatur federal plan. So the property that we're talking about remains urban residential, as is in the blueprint plan. So recommendations from Decatur Federal for Residential Communities are encourage the development of a variety of high quality and attainable, high priced residential options, encourage the development of new, high quality, affordable housing units. And as you see on the map for this property, the plan recommends five storeys in height. So with that, staff believes that this proposal is consistent with the four different plans that we've discussed. That by using our standards zone districts, we are consistent in the uniform application of our zone districts by encouraging a denser mixed use redevelopment near an enhanced transit corridor and transit station where shopping, jobs and services and transit ridership will increase. We and we are implementing the city's plans and there is, as everyone in the city knows, for a lot of changes happening in the West Colfax neighborhoods. So we believe change circumstance is justifying is a correct justifying circumstance. And we believe that this is consistent with the urban center context, which allows a mixture of land use, is compatible with the area and a moderately skilled mixed use and transit oriented residential development that is characteristic of the area. So with that, staff recommends approval. Thank you very much, Mr. Sarah. We have three speakers tonight Richard Taft, Bruce O'Donnell and Sekou. Mr. Taft, would you like to start us off? Evening, Madame President, and members of council. I'm Dick Taft. I live at 817 17th Street in in Denver. I am the president and CEO of Rocky Mountain Communities, which is a501 C3 nonprofit corporation. We own manage and develop affordable rental housing communities across the state of Colorado. In addition to providing housing at four of our communities, we also provide programs and services for resident families and the families in adjacent neighborhoods. These programs and other types of support provide programs in this sorry step out of bounds there, including but not limited to early childhood education, English as a second language. Gardening plots, food pantries and senior health and wellbeing. English as a second language rent assistance. Mom baby classes. Raising a reader and the list can go on. Of the eight properties we own, three are in Denver. The 300 unit garden court property and at 12th and Syracuse is actually in your district. The Arroyo Village is a joint venture with the Dolores project and is under construction at the Knox Court Station on the west front line in Councilman Lopez's district. And our third community, the town view community, which is what we're here to talk about tonight, is also in Councilman Lopez's district. We're here this evening to request the approval for a rezoning request of a small parcel of the town view community. The entire and the entire town view community is over 50 years old and has only 122 apartments on five acres. The Grove Street parcel in the southeast corner of the site has three buildings with only 12 units and is at the end of its usable life, as actually is the case for most of the other 120 units on the site. We all know about Denver's seemingly unending upward spiral in housing costs. We also know that the current value of the full town view site across from the entry to the stadium to the Broncos stadium is significant, to say the least. However, our mission and vision is not to sell or trade. Our hope and expectation is that we will be able to rezone the balance of this five acre site in the future, in the near future, and be able to create somewhere of around 250 more rental units than we have on site there today. The apartments will be for families across a wide range of income levels, from 30% EMI up to 100% EMI. In addition, we will be providing community space in which we can grow programs and services for the families. Your time is. Up. Okay. I know it goes quickly. Thank you very much. I only got three words. Thank you, Mr. O'Donnell. Thank you, Madam President, and members of council. My name is Bruce O'Donnell, and I live at 386 Emerson Street in Denver. I've had the pleasure of working with. Rocky Mountain communities on this Town View Project for almost three. Years now. We've tried to sort. Our way. Through master planning the entire five acre site and. As a result of lack of plan, support for the balance of the site. The rezoning before you this. Evening is only for this small portion of it for which there is plan support. For the five story out of the Decatur Federal Stationary Plan. Throughout this process, we've had extensive community outreach and public engagement. We held three meetings each with we can and with this launch like Citizens Group, we had a seventh meeting that was convened by CPD and Councilman Lopez, his office. And the result of that, as you can see, is there's very little fanfare this evening. And I think the neighbors. Are generally on board with the concept. So consistent with the. Staff report. And with the planning board recommendation for approval. We ask that you approve Council Bill 18, dash 173 tonight and we're available for questions. Should you have any. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. O'Donnell. Mr. Sekou. Chairman Sekou Blackstar, a movement for self-defense, primarily client based, poor, working, poor, homeless, senior citizens and youth. We support this. Change zoning. So that the area can have the economic development tools to work with to increase the housing base that is not affordable but what we can afford. And when you talk about being below these ranges of income ranges from 30% to 100%, that leaves some possibilities that maybe out of, say, 250 units, we might get by that multinational import, which means the other 400 245 go to folks who can't afford to got the money. Who's moving into this? Who's got money? And now we have replacement of local people, new people coming in who can afford it. And it's a real interesting challenge that we face. Now, we salute Councilman Lopez because out of all of the folks he has fought the hardest and against the most resistant to this income level, stuff that most poor people can afford. No. How did he bring it down? You know, from 80% to 60%, we're talking about 30%. That's outstanding. And no one can claim that in the district that they're doing that, which needs to be more that done. So we have to support this. And at the same time, Paul, we've been working very hard, especially with Councilman Newman, to look at when you're building this stuff. Like Debbie was talking about, how can the people get involved economically so that they can get paid to be on these jobs who are skilled labor that are being overlooked and not being enrolled in one of these processes. I just spent lunch at Sunny Lawson Park talking to folks who are skilled laborers who across the street they were building, but they couldn't get no work because they left. So there seems to be some kind of caveat here that if you say something about black people getting some work done, we're considered the scum of the earth because it means we should join the scum of the Earth Church. And maybe then we can find some employment because no one's willing to say that work. We are down for black people being included, but when everybody else is working in our neighborhood and we're not even working in our own neighborhood, there's. Don't say nothing. Don't rock the boat because we get what we need out of this. And there's a muffle sound. So I'm here to advocate on behalf of those who say that no voice, that we need work. And we need work now. And we need work not only in our neighborhoods, but all throughout the city because it's fair, because everybody throughout the city's working in our neighborhood but us. And so as the story goes, Mr. Stevens, you just put your top. Years is. Up. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers. Are there questions from counsel Councilwoman Ortega? I just wanted to ask either Richard or Bruce if you wouldn't mind coming to the microphone. Just want to ask if the buildings are all vacant right now or what is the phasing look like? Can you just talk about that a little bit? Was the question, are the buildings still full now? Yeah. Are they vacant? Are they empty? Yes. Yes, they are. Okay. All of them. Well, except for one or two vacancies. But that's just the normal flow of business. Okay. And what is that phasing look like? You going from the south to the north? Help me. Understand with the buildings that you have identified as part of this phase. So what we're what we're intending to do is on that parcel, that Grove Street parcel, we want to put a senior building on that spot, in that spot. And the way the buildings are configured right now, they are they take up a tremendous amount of ground for no good reason. So what we're trying to do is get up to about 130 units of senior housing. About 40% would be two bedroom I'm sorry, 30% would be two bedrooms and 70% would be one bedrooms. And the other thing we're trying to do is we're trying to start building buildings that have a mix of incomes in those buildings so that we're not constantly piling low income people on low income people. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Kennish. Thank you. I just wanted to follow up on Councilwoman Ortega's question about, you know, in terms of how you reach really deeply low income folks, though, because there are folks who are the most vulnerable. And so do you guys accept Section eight vouchers at all your age? So do you have residents who earn? You know who? What's the lowest amount of rent someone might be paying in one of your apartments? And regardless of whether am I level is what's an example of the lowest rent someone might pay if they have a Section eight resident out of or section four out of their pocket? Basically, permanent supportive housing is the lowest. We we get vouchers from the HRA for those those individuals. Can you just give an example of what they pay in rent out of their own pocket about. If they if they get SSI, Social Security. Income. They get, I believe up to $90 a month is their income and they're required to pay, I think, one third of their income as their rent. So your your properties generally include some folks who earn very, very little and pay only $100 or a couple hundred dollars in rent. They include that. I think that gets lost sometimes in the AMA level. So thank you for clarifying. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Lopez. Thank you. And dig the for the record. Can you please go through the amount of units? How many a certain am I bedrooms? Just so we can be clear on the records. I know a lot of folks pay attention to Channel eight late at night or about 730 right now. I think it's important point. You want the for the record, the chronology of this effort. No, just just the amount. If the rezoning is approved tonight. How many units are we upgrading and the breakdown of those units? This is the best. Yeah, it's tough to say at this point because we've only had one master plan done. And and that was somewhere around that 300 units range. The highest density is the senior building to it, because just on that block they'd have 130 units. It's one time. So we're we're trying to figure out the balance between community space, open space and the number of units and also the types of units. I think when we when we have talked with you, Councilman, we were talking that we'd seriously try to get as many four bedroom units in as we as we could just because of the fact that there's such a dearth of three and four bedroom units in affordable housing today, so that those four bedroom units would probably bring the count down just because of the size and the fact that they take up bedrooms. So just the ultimate goal is if we can max out the the the property to to the point where we have a mix of income, a serious mix of incomes, and a serious ability to provide community based programs for the residents that live there. That's that's really what we're trying to accomplish. And if I could do 500, I'd try. But it was a ballpark number of how many units. Right now I'm figuring it's going to be between 250 and 300 to 15. 300 aside from. And I really appreciate councilman, can each his line of questioning in terms of some of the vouchers to this day supportive housing. That's important. It's critical because nobody talks about those nobody mentions those. Some property owners willing to. But the army levels. If we were just talking, am I mixed of mixed income? What are the ranges of those 50? What are the ranges of am I oh. The ranges of. The way am I for those maybe 250 to 300 units depending on the on the on the master plan. Just ballpark. You know, probably it could probably go out as as just a standing percentage. We could we could break that between 30%. I up to 100%, Amy, in in 20% ranges and have, you know, five tranches of of of the income ranges. And so we're you know, we're we're also looking at the idea of 100%, Amy, is it we're going to start picking up people who actually have have jobs and are actually having a difficult time finding something that is affordable in in the Denver market. Um, but. Yeah. It's. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Kennish. Thanks. I'm sorry. I just have to jump in and clarify the record. Something you just said kind of hit me. You said people are 100% of am-I are actually working residents at 50% of. Am I also. Yes. Yeah, that's not I just don't. Can you do you want to clarify the record? Yes, yes. Yes. And there are people who are making 30% AMI and 40% alike. Yes. The whole the whole stratum has has people who are working. I apologize. Thank you. Do I have any other questions? Seeing none. I'm going to close the public hearing and comments by members of council. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Madam President. I really appreciate you coming to the microphone and staff for doing the report. Thank you very much. That is a you know, when I was first approached by. About this application, you know, of course, as council members, we have to be very objective. Right. Especially when it looks at rezoning. I know this area very well and I know that these these units have been subsidized units. I've always wondered who and before you had actually approached me, I've always wondered what's with all the land space around them and they're configured in a way that's just not efficient for the need. Right. And then I think about it and I think of when they were built in the time that they were built. And this is Old Mile High Stadium, right? This is when that does single single family, you know, two storey homes were all that existed in the area when Denver I don't think even you know, there was no eulogies. It was I mean, you started McNichols Arena in the area. I mean, it was a different time. The need always there. But now this is more of a modern way in a modern zone district, especially in this area, especially because if you looked at the prices of homes in this area, if you looked at the build in this area, everything's growing up. Everything's going higher. Higher density, higher prices, home values. The fact that we. We're growing so quickly in that area, it's hard to be able to identify areas that we could actually preserve for affordable housing and to do exactly what you're saying, to hang on to this is a big deal and to take it to the next level is a big deal. And no one really wanted to commend you for the use of mixed use, because it isn't just the affordable housing that we need. It's not just housing that is a crisis in the city. It's also wages and job opportunities. And with that commercial retail space, you have that in some areas you could actually live, work, have like a live work use, especially when it comes to affordable housing. Now it's not too far away from Sun Valley. Sun Valley is also another area that's going to be built that's going to be going higher in terms of stories and density with affordable housing. It's not too far from our Royal Village. It's not too far from other projects that are also slated for affordable housing. However, it's right across the street from probably the biggest. Some of the biggest parking lots that are unoccupied for most of the year in the west side, right in Denver, next to Pepsi Center. And we know and we know because of the announcement that CPD made and some of the intent of the Metropolitan Football District and the stadium district is that those lots are going to be developed. So much is going to be happening on the other side of Federal Boulevard. It's going to be hard for us to be able to keep keep up with the development and also making sure that it's affordable. And we have. And so this kind of this kind of rezoning application, this rezoning that actually takes it to Cemex five is is appropriate because of the density question. We need more. And so with that, I don't see why there would be I know that there's no opposition to this in the neighborhoods. I know there's no opposition to it in the communities. It's it's exactly what's needed in the area. That's why you don't see a lot of folks here. There's one rezoning that we don't have very much opposition to at all, if any. So. Madam President. I'm good with that moving forward. Thank you very much, Councilman. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to thank this team for their commitment to really making a sincere effort on the affordability component. I mean, obviously, the mix of income levels, I think, is important in developments across the city. And when we allow people to buy out their affordable units and put them somewhere else. We're not creating the integrated neighborhoods that we want to have throughout the city, and you guys are doing that. I also want to thank you for the work that you're doing with your project over on Knox Court as well, which is very nearby this development as well. And I wish we had more developers that were more committed to making sure that we had integrated neighborhoods with affordability built in. You know, we're not calling this rent control, but, you know, in New York City, that's that's what they've done. They've made sure that they've got integrated projects with all income levels. And it's what makes me think any great city, you know, the outstanding city they are because it ensures that, you know, everybody in our community interfaces with one another in lots of different ways. And so I just want to say thank you for for your work in doing this. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. And seeing no other comments. Madam Secretary, welcome. Lopez. Hi. New Ortega. Flynn, I. Gilmore Cashman. Hi. Can eat. Madam President, I. Please close the voting. Announce the results.