A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 2827 & 2833 West 25th Avenue in Jefferson Park. Rezones property located at 2827 and 2833 W 25th Avenue from G-MU-3, UO-3 to G-MS-3, from general urban residential context to general urban main street context, in Council District 1. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 2-21-17.
Thank you. 11 I's two days. Council Bill has been ordered publish as amended. Final consideration of Council Bill 161. Public hearing will be Monday May days May 1st. So want to let the public know for the new council bill as amended, 161 will be May 1st. We have two public hearings this evening. Speakers should begin their remarks by telling council their names and cities of residents as they feel comfortable doing so. Their home addresses. If you are here to answer question only when your name is called, come to the podium, state your name and note that you are available for questions and council speakers will have 3 minutes unless another speaker has yielded his or her time and which will result a total of 6 minutes on the presentation. Monitor You will see you will not see it because our presentation monitors are down. So we apologize about that. You will actually look on you'll have a light at the podium. Green light means you have 30 seconds left. Red light means sit down quickly. Your time is up. No, don't sit down quickly, but your time is up. Okay. Speakers must stay on topic of the hearing and must direct their comments to council members. Please refrain from profane and obscene speech. Direct your comments the council as a whole and refrain from individual or personal attacks. We do not like that. Okay, Councilwoman Ortega, will you please put Council Bill 150 on the floor? Mr. President, I move that council bill 150 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. All right. It has been moved. And second it the public hearing for council about 150 is open. May we have the staff report? Sarah Whyte, how are you? Good. How are you? Good. Good evening. I'm Stairway three Planning and Development. Here to present the MAP Amendment at 2827 and 2833 West 25th, which is sponsored sponsored by Councilman Espinosa. The request is to go from GMU three with yellow three. Overlay two. James three. We are in Council District one in the Jefferson Park neighborhood. On the next slide, you can see a closer location of the site. It is just east of the 25th and Elliott intersection and commercial area and two blocks east of Federal Boulevard. On Slide five, you can see the existing zoning. The property is approximately 14,700 square feet and consists of two single family homes and accessory structures. The request is to rezone to allow neighborhood mixed use and again it is from GMU three, UO three to GMC three, which is the general neighborhood context. Main Street. Three stories. To the West. The zoning is Games three, which is what the proposed zoning is. And then to the north east and south we have GMU €3 three overlay, which is what the current zoning on the property is. On Slide eight, you can see a map of the existing land uses in the area. The site is currently single. Family residential properties to the north, east and south are a mix of single family and lower scale multifamily, including an under-construction multifamily development at 25th indicator that is not yet reflected on the land use map. And then to the west we have the 25th, an Elliott commercial node and the associated mixed uses. On Slide nine, you can see some pictures of the top picture is the existing site and the bottom photo is an example of the character at the 25th and Elliott commercial area. The next slide is additional photos of the existing character of the area. The top photo is another photo of the toe from the commercial area, and the bottom photo is pretty representative of the mix of housing types in this area. Slide 11, we have the process so far outlined. Planning Board held a public hearing on February 1st and voted 7 to 1 in favor of the request. The Land Use Transportation and Infrastructure Committee moved it forward on February 21st. The public outreach so far, all of the appropriate renos have been notified with the application was submitted, a letter of support from the Jefferson Park United Neighbors. And throughout the process, Jefferson Park United Neighbors did include an updated letter of support. There was also a letter of support from the Federal Boulevard bid. In your packet, you will see a letter of opposition from the neighborhood to the neighbor to the east. But that letter has been withdrawn as of Thursday afternoon, and I believe that email should have been forwarded to you. And then we did receive some additional questions about the historic nature of the property with no stance given. Onto the review criteria. We do have three plans in place here to review the consistency with adopted plans. We have comprehensive plan 2000 Blueprint Denver and Jefferson Park Neighborhood Plan. Comprehensive Plan 2000 has several recommendations related to mixed use development, infill and legacies, which this request is consistent with. Those are further detailed in your staff report. Blueprint. Denver does map this property as single family residential area of stability. However, we are proximate to a neighborhood center area of change designation, and we do have language in Blueprint Denver that states that the boundaries of the land use building blocks provided in the plan are not fixed and that some areas are in a state of transition. So given this language, we do believe that the request is generally consistent with the blueprint. Denver Land Use Building Blocks. The Jefferson Park neighborhood plan. On Slide 17, you see some overall framework goals and recommendations from the Jefferson Park plan related to maintaining and enhancing the character and identity of the neighborhood, creating focal points within the neighborhood , which includes West 25th and Elliott. And then we also have language about developing the potential of West 25th Avenue as a principal neighborhood corridor. Furthermore, we do have sub area maps in the Jefferson Park neighborhood plan. This property is technically mapped within the core residential sub area, but it is the first property on the other side of the boundary from the 25th and Elliot commercial sub area. And again, we have language in the Jefferson Park neighborhood plan that says boundaries between the sub areas are not absolute and the characteristics overlap suburbia boundaries. So given this language, we do find it appropriate to evaluate the request under the goals and recommendations of the 25th and Elliott commercial area. And those recommendations include making sure that any new development is consistent with the character that exists at 25th. And Elliott encouraged new construction to be mixed use with residential and retail and to strengthen the neighborhood retail center to support the neighborhood. And the the GM's three district that is required does provide for a height limit and build to and transparency requirements that do reflect the existing character at 25th and. ELLIOTT So we do believe that the request is consistent with the Jefferson Park Neighborhood Plan goals. Onto our other review criteria. The request would result in the uniform application of the GMC Arizona district, and we will further the public health, safety and welfare primarily through the implementation of adopted plans. The justifying circumstances cited in this case are that the land or its surrounding environs has changed or is changing to such a degree that is in the public interest to encourage a redevelopment of the area or to recognize the changed character of the area. And there has been a lot of residential development in Jefferson Park, quite a few added units. And so we do believe that allowing for additional neighborhood skilled retail is a good enough justifying circumstance to serve a lot of those added residents. And then consistency with neighborhood context. So in addition, purpose and intent, the GM's three zone district is consistent with the surrounding general urban neighborhood. Context and the purpose and intent of the GM's three zone district is consistent with the adopted plans. So given that all five criteria have been met, CPD recommends approval. I'm here to answer any questions. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We have. Four speakers tonight, I'm going to ask that we clear the front to allow these speakers to come and sit down. David Roybal, Justin Potter, Eddie Givens and Ambrose Ambrose Cruz. Hello. David Roybal a concerned citizen in large my address 2107 Salve Jason. I have a relative lived in this area for 40 years right there on the intersection of 25th and Elliott. And as his time there, he's seen the whole color of the neighborhood change. Neighbors is gone. I've been in this park ever since. The mystery theater was, you know, where they used to cut open the dead bodies from baby dolls all the way to chili peppers are talking about family star was channel 12 I remember I grew up in the Sun Valley and we used the church bus used to go from the Sun Valley to pick up the other kids on the other side. But as you see the part of this neighborhood, there's no character, there's no identity. I grew up in this neighborhood, went to North High School. I can't even identify it. And it's like to say the character, I don't see the character. It's a very uneasy neighborhood. When I go being a person of color, I have many police follow me. And I even tell the police I born raised here. I've been here since 1993. Come to this neighborhood. I'm against this. I mean, there's already another one that's on the other side. It's like and then when it's built, how much is it going to be? 26, 20 $700. It's like, who can afford that? A person like me, I have so much to bring to the community with my community experience, you know, bringing people together and I can't even afford it. And the people that come here, they want to be here because it has good view downtown, because it's 5 minutes from downtown. What happens to the history, the culture? I am against this and I just hope it's for the better me because every single rezoning counts. How did it get this bad? From Susan Sheppard? How a whole neighborhood could be turned upside down. Every rezoning counts. And I just hope that this that the until the character and it's growing and there's affordable housing opportunities, I don't think there should be any more rezoning. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Robel. Justin Potter. His own name is Justin Potter's as mentioned resident Denver. I live at 2319 Decatur Street and I sit on the Jefferson Park United Neighbors Land Committee and the chair for that. So I'm speaking on behalf of the Chapman organization. We had multiple conversations with the developer regarding this. We did pretty significant outreach the community. We publish a monthly newsletter that goes out, and so we try to solicit as much feedback for positions that we take as a neighborhood organization. And throughout the process, through the land use committee meetings and through the general membership meetings, basically all the support we had was very positive for this. As it was mentioned earlier, the neighborhood has grown drastically in the last couple of years. I moved into the neighborhood about four years ago and since then the population, the neighborhood has more than doubled and there's been no real significant commercial space added to the neighborhood. So generally most people are on board with getting at least the ability to have more commercial in the neighborhood. We have kind of the Jefferson parking. Our neighbors has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the developer, and we are going to be placing some restrictions on what can go into the commercial space, because we felt, you know, marijuana and some of those other uses that were allowed by the change are not necessarily allowed, but some some uses that were allowed by the changing zone. We're not going to be beneficial to the community. So we tried to kind of, you know, work with the developer and also kind of do the outreach to the community to see if there was support for this. And like I said, it's it's been overwhelming support so far. Land use voted unanimously to support it and recommend that it support that general membership support it and our general membership meeting. We voted unanimously to support the rezoning as well. So thank you, Mr. Potter. Eddie Givens. My name is Eddie Givens. I'm from Englewood, Colorado, and I represent the developer. And I thank you for your time tonight. This this development, this process started some time ago, and we reached out, you know, met with the councilman, reached out to the local community groups with the Jefferson Park United neighbors, with the Federal Business Impact District . And in and through that, they're they're supportive of the of the rezoning. And in addition to that, that they had specific things they were interested into. So we came to agreement in a memorandum of of understanding, which will it'll cloud the title of the property. So the development will meet some criteria that the neighborhood group was highly interested in and and Councilman Espinosa was spearheading. And then that's to have more business development on the street level, to have retail space. And additionally, as Justin alluded to, not having certain businesses and and drive through certain types of structures. So it's it's a nice situation. It'll never be a unanimous agreement, but it's a nice situation where overwhelming support from the neighborhood groups, the local government and Councilman Espinosa spearheading this and the developer are all all in agreement with the way to move forward. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Givens. Ambrose Cruz. I'm Ross Cruz, speaking on behalf of the United Northside neighborhood. R.A., in which I chair everybody an hour and only everybody I've come in contact with has been pretty much against this zoning change because, I mean, if you adding another building, another zoning change that is going to with that's going to hold these types of businesses in this type of residential areas. There's that right around the corner from the main boulevard. Everything that they could put there is already a walking distance from it. There's nothing more that they can add to right there. And as far as it being holding up with some of the character there, the character wasn't changed. It hasn't changed. It's been destroyed like when it went gone. It's been gone within two or three years. I think that was one of the last neighborhoods, their Jefferson Park area. To not be touched by the gentrification was one of the last. Now that block is gone, too. There was a house a couple of my friends were actually renting out around the corner and they got evicted. So that one next door to where she's trying to put this one is they can put that there's already two around the corner. They got evicted. So why ain't nobody I know that comes from Jefferson Park from way back in the day when you know the stoners and the hippies and the, you know, everybody in the bikers got together and took over that park. Does anybody remember that? Anybody here does. But that's the that's the that's the character that was there as the character that's still there. Some of those people are still there. And to add another another building that can hold, what, maybe a yoga studio brewery or three blocks away, you'll find one. There's no reason to reason in this area. None whatsoever. If there's going to be any type of rezoning, it should be affordable housing. There was no reason for this to happen whatsoever. If you need it, like I said, walk two blocks. You'll get it. You want to pay $3,000 in rent? Walk less than a block. You'll find it next door. You don't need this. That's all I got to say. Thank you, Mr. Cruz. This concludes our speakers questions for members of Council. Councilwoman Ortega. I just wanted to ask both the staff person from CPD and the representative of the developer. What? So. So we're talking about a commercial use in place of what is there today. Correct. The proposed zone. Zone district would allow commercial uses. Yes. Will allow housing as well? Yes. Okay. So what is the the total sort of. Bulk of of space or units that could go into the site given that it's two properties. And I'm assuming they're adjacent to one another. I pulled. Up the. It really depends on the character of the development, how many units can go in. Obviously, that varies. The proposed zone district has zero setbacks on the sides and does have a pretty significant build too. So it can be a pretty large coverage site in terms of units. That come with the parking requirements per unit. I don't have that off the top of my head. I can take a look in the zoning code. Okay. And I'm assuming that the commercial space would have its own parking requirements. Parking requirements are dependent on use. So it depends on what uses is there and it varies based on different retail uses as well. Okay. I would appreciate having that information. And then while you're doing that, I'm going to ask the developer's representative to come forward. So can you just give us an idea of what the developer is planning to put there? Well, the developer hasn't made any plans and hasn't approached the community planning development yet because to do that prior to this, this hearing would be futile. But the general idea is to have street level retail. So whatever that manifests into, I'm not sure, but the coffee shop restaurant, it's some kind of retail. And can you share what the uses are that are in the agreement that are not going to go in? You mentioned marijuana. Yes, the well, the marijuana facility. But I believe you can't do that anyways because of the proximity to schools, um, a drive thru, the drive thru and there was a, there was a few other things. Um, I can expand on that a little bit. So can you come. Closer to like so I can expand on that a little bit. So the new zoning, there's a whole use table and we basically allow, I forget like all the commercial uses that are more retail, residential like retail type of spaces and then we kind of restrict anything that's more of an industrial type of use because we didn't think that would be a good, good fit as well. So it's, it's kind of like the drive thru is the marijuana stuff and then just kind of industrial type uses, car servicing type of things that we didn't think would fit into that. So is is there a reason we didn't look at just exempting those out? We've done that with some of the other zoning laws that have come before us. We've seen, you know, a zone request with exemptions. With through through a memorandum of. So when we see zone districts requested with waivers or conditions, it's CPD is policy to only support waivers are conditions when those are bridging to a future text amendment, which means that we've identified an issue that is on a list to be solved with a future text amendment, and the waiver condition is to bridge to that because it's not in place. CPD generally doesn't do waivers or conditions simply because of input, because it's not if unless it's consistent with our policy. In terms of what's part of a memorandum of understanding or deed restrictions, CPD doesn't take stances on those because we're not involved in them. So although this is a private agreement between the community and the developer, I understood the representative of the developer to say that it will be filed as a covenant on the property. Is that correct? Okay. Thank you. I have no further. Questions and I have the parking ratios still interested. So for any multi-unit dwelling, the vehicle parking is one per unit for eating and drinking establishments in the EMS districts. It is two spots per 1000 GFA and then for for retail sales. There's different requirements for a lot of different categories. But in general the vehicle restriction requirements are 1.875 per thousand. GFA Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Councilman tell you, Councilman Espinosa. Yeah. Know Councilman. I mean, President Brooks, if you. I'm asking for you to indulge me a little bit in case my colleagues have questions, since I am the applicant to sort of give a little background on on this all came to be permitted. Thank you. And it's unfortunate that David and Averroes aren't here. So I could speak. Explain why the reason for this rezoning. But the the primary property that this rezoning exists on actually is a an original Homestead Act home that was built in established way before Town of Highland was. And this came through as a yet another certificate Vernon historic status that would have had all the technical support to get to the council. But as we know, that would die on the vine once it got here. And and so this was one of those challenges where it this is our our character and our history being ground up by development. In the same form that has all the has done most of this damage in the GMU three zone district. So the status quo would have been that it would have gotten denied by counsel and would have had a multifamily apartment, I mean, a townhome project, uh, akin to everything else that is going on in , in the district, I mean in, in Jefferson Park in this zone district. And so the dialog was having been part of neighborhoods first the steering committee for Zoning Planning, I had been present for a lot of discussions about the future of 25th Avenue, which was a former trolley line. It's a very wide street and we're currently working with public works on putting diagonal parking on half of it. And so this was is, you know, because this was an area of stability and it was supposed to be single family, character and Blueprint Denver and all that. But it got rezone to Jim, you three. The character of that neighborhood has radically changed and departed from the adopted plan, which is was adopted in 2015, in 2005. So recognizing and that's part of the CPD presentation, but recognizing that there are community needs that won't necessarily be fulfilled entirely by another multifamily residential project, but it could benefit from a mixed use project. That's how the three parties came together the R.A., the bid and the developer. And it's actually been multiple developers because this dialog originally started with a different developer. And so and that this mechanism is actually something we've used previously in the district of AMU and a companion covenant, which is there's an agreement between those three parties that they will, once this rezoning goes through, that the covenant will be attached so that we can secure mixed use development, an area, a portion of that redevelopment that would be neighborhood serving and gives some direction on the architecture. So those concerns about pattern and material, as much as I would love to do it, and waivers and conditions and we have the tools in our zoning code to do that. You get resistance from CPD and then you ask the developer to sort of go rogue to come forward with an application which I'm sure would go through planning board and get to us. But it's it's a very cautious approach and they want the developers want to have some sort of accounting and accountability. And that's what the process that led us to, to this time. So if you have any questions about any of that, but hopefully I've illustrated most of what's going on. Yeah, I think we're ready to go to comment. So it looks like there's no other questions by members of council public here in council 150 is now closed, comes from the Council Councilwoman Espinosa So I went through the whole elaborate story. I can just tell you that there was tremendous support. We sat through a very actually that was the same day that the the small lot exemption went in. And so I was there for a very long day at planning board, but really, really supportive comments from Planning Board about sort of the uniqueness of this approach and to sort of how we how we capture change in areas of change when there's existing plans that sort of we're directing this in a different direction. So with that, I mean, we have community support. I want to make the developer aware. I think just in with the R.A. is aware that the two members that spoke out in opposition do not live in Jefferson Park. And so they don't necessarily represent they certainly represent an ethos and something that has been transformative in the area. And it's something that I, I desperately try to honor and respect. But that that the the frustration you heard there is is is not currently present as this entire process has been a very positive one. So with that, I encourage my colleagues to support this. So an amendment. All right, thank you, Councilman Espinosa, Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank Councilman Espinosa for that explanation. I want to congratulate him on this on this work and this application. That's all. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Seeing no other comments. It's been moved in Sacramento Secretary Raquel. I'm sorry. It's frozen. Espinosa, i. Flynn, i. Gilmore, i. Herndon, i. Cashman Can each. Lopez I knew Ortega I. Susman Black I. Mr. President. I. I think it. Please call the. Clerk. Forget the president pro tem 13 ice. All right. 13 Ice Council Bill 150 has passed. Congratulations. Councilwoman Ortega, will you please put Council Bill 162 on the floor?