A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 2541-2731 W. Holden Pl., 2602-2660 W. Holden Pl., 2516-2610 W. 13th Ave., 2646-2746 W. 13th Ave., 1260-1280 N. Decatur St. and 2775 W. 13th Ave. Rezones properties at 2541-2731 West Holden Place; 2516-2746, 2775 West 13th Avenue; and 1260-1280 North Decatur Street from I-MX-5, UO-2, I-A, UO-2 (industrial and light industrial, mixed use, 5 stories, use overlay allowing billboards) and C-MU-30 with waivers and conditions, UO-1 (urban center, multi-unit, 30 stories, use overlay allowing adult businesses) to C-MX-8, UO-1 (urban center, mixed use, 8 stories, use overlay allowing adult businesses) in Council District 3. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 8-3-16.
I Please closer the voting and announce the results. 12 Eyes. 12 eyes. Counsel Bill 509 has passed. Thank you. Regulations for the final bill tonight. Councilwoman Gilmore, will you please put Council Bill 563 on the floor? Yes, Mr. President. Council Bill. 563 should be placed upon final consideration and due pass. It has been moved. And second, you have the second. There it is. It has been moved. And second, it up and up. Then can you please bring in the staff report? Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. Members of Council Curt Upton, Community Planning and Development tonight. This rezoning is a legislative proposal from Councilman Paul Lopez to rezone some property in the Sun Valley neighborhood. So obviously, we're in Council District three in the Sun Valley neighborhood and just southeast of the Decatur Federal Light Rail Station, almost about a quarter mile at 13th Avenue in Decatur Street. So the existing zoning is a mixture of industrial zone districts and a former Chapter 59 or old code mixed use District two north of 13th Avenue. There's two overlays in place in this rezoning area. South of 13th Avenue is the U. Oh two overlay, which is a billboard use overlay. North of 13th Avenue. There's a yellow one overlay, which is an adult use overlay, and that's those both of those overlays are in place today. So the proposal is a little over eight acres. Again, this is a legislative rezoning initiated by Councilman Lopez to implement the recently, recently adopted Sun Valley neighborhood slash Decatur Federal Stationary, a plan to move away from the existing industrial zone districts. There's a variety of barriers with the industrial zone districts for establishing the vision of the neighborhood. And the billboard overlay, again, that's located south of 13th Avenue, is proposed to be removed. The Adult Use Overlay, which is currently in place today north of 13th Avenue, is proposed to be retained. Initially it was proposed to be removed, but there are some legal issues with removing it which we could get into later in the presentation if you have any questions on that. So I'll get into the existing land use context. There's a variety of land uses in the district today. There's some residential vacant land surface parking and some industrial land uses as well as office or nonprofit uses as well surrounding as is quasi public, obviously with a public park and some utility infrastructure directly to the northeast in terms of an Excel substation. This gives you an idea of the scale and the character of the existing buildings. Low scale, primarily one and two storey buildings. And again, sort of the transitioning residential mixed in with industrial warehouse character today. So in terms of process, we did do this a little differently from our standard process, although we did notice it as we do all map amendments. But we did meet with the Sun Valley Community Coalition, hosted us for a variety of meetings on six different occasions out in the neighborhood, and that was attended by myself, the councilmen and the council and staff, as well as a variety of stakeholders to discuss and answer questions on this proposed rezoning. The Planning Board did recommend unanimous approval of this. However, there is some opposition out in the community. Sun Valley Community Coalition is in support of this. They did vote to support this rezoning. However, there is a nonprofit organization in the in the proposed rezoning area called Earth Links that provides a variety of important services for the neighborhood . And they are concerned that the increase in height could negatively impact their urban agriculture slash community garden facility. This was a topic that was discussed a few times in our meetings out in the community, and there are some some additional letters in the packet from small from a small business owner that is very much in support of the increased height. And the Sun Valley Community Coalition is in support of this increased height as well. There's also some additional letters that have been submitted from organizations outside of the rezoning area and outside of the neighborhood that are also in opposition to this because of the potential negative impact on the Earth links, property and operations. So with that, I will get into consistency with adopted plans for a blueprint in Denver. This is an area of change and is classified as transit oriented development. As you all know, both of those are areas of change. Our areas where we're trying to direct growth in the city transit or in development is also an area we're trying to direct growth in terms of mixed use development, higher intensity development, multi storeys and pedestrian friendly design. The street classifications for 13th Avenue and Decatur Street are both mixed use collectors. Mixed use collectors also recommend mixed mix of uses, higher intensity, multistory developments and pedestrian friendly street frontages. We also have the Sun Valley neighborhood and Decatur Federal Station area plan. These were recently adopted in 2013. They align also with Blueprint Denver in designating this area, which is the red polygon is the rezoning area. But all of the pink area on this map is designated as Transit Warrior Development, with the same recommendations as Blueprint Denver. Again, higher intensity uses to take advantage of the light rail station, multi stories, multistory development and mixed use development with pedestrian friendly design features. The Sun Valley Neighborhood Plan also has recommended heights map and this location. All of it falls within the eight storey maximum height recommendation for the plan. There are other designations throughout the area that range from three stories and up to 12 stories in the station area. This image is of 13 Avenue and gives you a sense of what the proposed vision is at build out of the station area. Again, this is more of the pedestrian friendly streets and multistory mixed use development. This is another shot looking west from the river and again, gives you a sense of the transit oriented development, character and scale that's articulated in the Sun Valley Neighborhood Plan and that the proposed zone district of CMCs eight is intended to help facilitate. So with that, we do find that the proposal of mixed use development CMCs eight of up to eight storeys is consistent with all of our plans. It's consistent with Blueprint Denver. It's specifically consistent with the recently adopted Sun Valley Neighborhood Plan Indicator, federal stationary plan that calls for mixed use development of up to eight storeys with a pedestrian friendly design features. It does further the uniformity of district regulations for the public health, safety and welfare and meets our justified circumstances criteria. Obviously, the Carter Federal Light Rail Station is in place. There's changing conditions and there's multiple plans calling for a redevelopment of this area. Denver Housing Authority has also completed an extensive visioning effort and master planning effort for their Choice Neighborhoods application with the Sun Valley Eco District. And so for those reasons, we do feel it meets our changing circumstances criteria. It's also consistent with the neighborhood context zone, district purpose and intent. The district, again, is intended to encourage pedestrian friendly, mixed use development of up to eight storeys, and that's the character that's articulated in the adopted plans. And so with that, I'll be happy to take any questions on this case. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'll be I'll call the first five speakers. You can come on this front row and we'll start with Caitlin Cronin. Caitlin Cronin, Phil Cassar, Gaia Summers. Sorry if we have some of the spelt wrong read Silberman. And Carol McLean. You guys can all come to the front in that order. So we'll start first with Kathleen Cronin. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Brooks and members of the council. Yeah, my name is Kathleen Cronin. I'm the executive director of Earthlings. And while I actually physically live in Aurora, Colorado, all my waking hours are spent at 2746 West 13th Avenue in Denver, where Earthlings is in the packet. I think that you were looking at in the and the overview that Mr. Upton was doing. We're located basically right at the corner of Current 13th Avenue in Decatur. The plan that's under consideration or possibly going to be put into effect actually moves 13th to a block to our south. But at the present time, we're at the corner of 13th and Decatur. Our concern basically has to do with the potential shading of our garden. We have occupied this space now for about two years. We've owned it for three years and we've put approximately $1.1 million into this property. And one of the major things that we do in our program is working with homeless adults in and gardening and workshop program. We're a micro employer of folks and we have a 70% or better success rate at getting folks into housing if they've been working with us for a year or more. So we we we know that what we do is significant and we know that what we do works. There's plenty of studies that talk about the benefits of working in Earth and in fact, various organizations from other justice communities or social services communities come to talk to us about how to establish similar programs in other locations. The worry is if we go to eight stories around us from our south and our east, we will basically close off about two thirds of our potential gardening space. That will leave us with about 2000 square feet to garden, as opposed to the 8000 square feet that we have available to us. We are a central piece of the Food Access Coalition for Sun Valley. We moved there with the intention of being able to provide locally grown food, which was part of the plan that's being referred to here. And we feel that we're trying to help in that. And that means and that this change to eight stories right in our area would well possibly affect us negatively. I would like to point out that as the city, we have kind of a suggestion or a plank, if you will, we wish to be a sustainable city. And I've been told over and over again by Mr. Upton and others that there is no protection for sun access in the city under the zoning code. And I would just ask that this council consider at this time that this is an opportunity to perhaps provide some access for discussion. Your time is. Up. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Next up, Phil Kasper. My name is Phil Kasper. I've been a resident of Sun Valley for virtually 30 years. I guess you might call me the face of gentrification, but. 90% of the property owners in the rezoning parcel signed to have their properties zoned before Councilman Lopez chose to go ahead and bring this as a legislative action. And we appreciate the fact that it did so. It's taken a longer process. The planning for this community to increase its residential use goes back to the Fairview Community Land Trust that was established in 2000. One was supported by Mayor Webb, but because of zoning, we couldn't do anything in the neighborhood. This is appropriate. To be considered tonight because of the problem with the inability to house the working class. I would highly recommend. That you pass this tonight. And I highly recommend that when you consider affordable housing, you consider making it permanently affordable, whether it is rental or ownership. Make it make it so that someone that buys a subsidized, built house does not get to capture as much of the appreciation as someone that buys it just straight off the market. And again, I, I appreciate your support on making this change in Sun Valley. We can be part of the solution. Thank you, Casper. Guy Summers. But they are the. Hi towns. I was homeless and I walked by. Excuse me. I'm sorry. And so. Can you say it's. Beautiful? Can you say your name for the record, please? Stating guy. Guy Summers. Thank you. Sorry. Stating love, hope, courage and community in many languages. And I went into this amazing place. Earthquakes is in a food desert and also serves many homeless angry people. Sorry, some of the plants grown there are sold. We need sun to grow them. With the funds going. How's the homeless population? The bee hives. We have eight of them. The bees will leave these hives, which without the flowers we could grow, which will also result in a financial loss. If the eight story buildings are built to the east or the south of 27, 46, West 13th Avenue, which is Earthlings property, our garden will be cut in by more than half. I have spoken to senators and mayors about financial help to aid us, the disabled, the seniors and the homeless. There is no funding for us, but earthlings and its garden towers. Please use your hearts, not people's wallets. When you vote tonight, please do not pass this change. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Summers. Reed Silverman. Good evening, council members. My name is Reed Silberman. I'm the owner of Ink Monster Graphic Design and Printing. Also the. Proud. 2016 SBA, Colorado Small Business Person of the Year. I do mention. This because Sun. Valley was a very big part of the reason I was even nominated for this award. So thank you for allowing me to express my opinion on the matter of the Sun Valley CMC Zoning. I feel very strongly about this point considering my property. 2721 West Holden Place. Is one of the properties Earthlings would like to prevent from. Being rezoned in line with the development. Plan. Since I purchased the building, I have put a tremendous amount of sacrifice. Time, money, commitment into. This building and into this neighborhood. I am formally requesting that my property. Be zoned to see a max eight as it calls out. In the approved development. Plan. I would like to point out that everyone who purchased property in Sun Valley area in the past five years already knew these properties were intended to be rezone to CMCs eight, as it was clearly stated in the station area plan, which is now and has final approval. A large. Motivating factor for purchasing my property. In 2012, one year. Before Earthlings was knowing and in favor of. The new. Development plan and the rezoning to see a max eight. It is hard for me to understand how somebody could purchase property in and invest in renovation, knowing they'll have to dispute new zoning down the road. Think Monster took. Loans, not. Grant from the Fed and SBA to move Ink Monster to this enterprise zone. For job creation. And economic development in Sun. Valley. All in. I have just about $1,000,000. Invested into this particular. Property. You can see the cost breakdown in your packets. That I provided also. Before and after. Pictures of what I have done to renovate and. Make this property what it is. Since we moved to Sun Valley, we have more than doubled in size from 6 to 18 full time paid employees ink masters, creating. More jobs, bringing tax revenue. To the city, educating youth. And is growing very. Quickly. We are heavily involved in the community by producing community events including the Sun Valley, Denver Days, Neighborhood BLOCK Party. For the second year in a row, we work with. Fresh Start in the Rudy Rec Center during. Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as. I provide internships. Through his YMCA program and always its workforce program. I also give Sun Valley Youth motivational tours of our facility and encourage them to follow their passions and dreams. I understand Earthlings opposition of the rezoning, and I can deeply appreciate it. However, it is my understanding that almost every residential and commercial property owner is aware of and in support of the new CMHC zoning and has been aware of the possible change for many years, especially considering most of us are on the Pillar committees for the Sun for the Valley Development Plan. Mr. Silver, you are out of time. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Col McLennan. Could in a council members. My name is Carol McLennan. I live at 2 to 4 to Ivanhoe Street, but I'm the president of the board of directors of Earthlings, and I'm speaking tonight in that capacity. I just wanted to make three points briefly. We've submitted probably more information than you'd like from us talking about our own investments, etc. But I wanted to clarify that when we bought the property, we did that with full knowledge of the Decatur Federal Station area plan. We met with CPD specifically because we had this kind of strange IMX five zoning at the time and wondered if that was something that was going to be a problem in the future. We knew there might be some consideration for rezoning, particularly with the I.A. properties, but maybe ours, maybe not. We did a fine analysis of the Decatur Federal Station area plan, and that's included in your packets. And yes, we knew that the maximum building heights could be eight stories, but throughout the plan it talked about 2 to 8. And as you've seen, there are many, many policies that made us feel as though we could be part of this tiered, we could contribute to the community, and that we could provide a service not only to our participants but to the Sun Valley community. And we have done that. Our packets indicate we put another $550,000 into the property since we moved in two years ago, 130,000 of which is with a CDBG grant from the Office of Economic Development. We knew that we had a gym when we bought this property, and we were thrilled and surprised that speculators hadn't jumped in and bought it before we did. What we didn't know was how much that property was going to help us fulfill our mission even more than we anticipated. We are close to services that our participants need bus stops, the bike and pad trail, the medical center and the Health and Human Services less than a block away. Our participants who come to us are low income people who have been homeless. They come and stay with us week after week for an average of two years. And when they come to us, they work, they make products, they are creative, they are productive, and they are adding to the community. And we've made incredible connections in that community. Our board voted to stay and to get a permanent home so that we wouldn't be gentrified out of yet another community in a few years. We want to be there. We are good friends with our neighbors. We support Reid and all and all the other properties around us. I know we disagree on this issue, but we're asking you to look at the full array of policies that are in that plan, diversity being one of them, and ask you to consider rezoning just a couple of these properties other than eight stories, maybe five stories , so that we can do what we do, provide services for those who need the services the most, where they are available, and make this an example of what you can do to be inclusive and diverse and every tod across the city. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our last speaker is Jean Ann Granville. Janine Granville. I'll get it right. Hi, I'm Jean Granville. I'm representing the Sun Valley Community Coalition, the registered neighborhood organization. I'm also the executive director of Fresh Start, a nonprofit that is located in and owns property at 2715 West Holden Place, which is also included in the application for rezoning. I just want to reiterate that we did have numerous meetings and are very grateful for Councilman Lopez, his staff, and for Curt Upton with the Planning Department for keeping us part of this process throughout its tenure. And I really appreciate to above that we did review the application and voted on it in our June 7th general monthly meeting, and it was by a majority vote in favor. It was noted at the time, prior to the vote, that the zoning application was consistent with the Decatur Federal Station area plan that had been passed in 2013, and many of the impacted property owners had participated in that planning process and wanted to see it move forward. It was also noted that this was an excellent opportunity for the affordable housing that we've all been really concerned about. Concerns that were expressed by Earthlings, I think, have been met with a tremendous amount of sympathy and empathy. They are a vital part of our community since they have moved in. They have provided leadership and services beyond just their own mission, but to contribute to the development of the neighborhood. While it's not an easy solution, and frankly, we have no easy idea of what that solution might be. We really do hope that Earthlings can get whatever assistance it needs as the plans start to unfold, that they can continue to be part of our neighborhood and to thrive as we all hope. So thank you very much. Thank you so much. This concludes our speakers questions by members of council. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. I have a couple of questions about the. The role that our food policy and food coordinator in the city plays. We've had a series of public meetings that took place around the city that asked for input on the role of food sustainability in this city and the importance of it. You know, we all know that California doesn't get the water they used to. And so a lot of our produce no longer comes from California. And a lot of these conversations were about how we need to be taking some initiative to create food sustainability right here in our own community. So when we have organizations and entities that are doing that, I think we need to do everything possible to try to protect those important elements within our neighborhood, particularly when they are providing service to the very neighborhoods that they are within. So that's one issue in terms of understanding the interface between the plan that has been put together by Blake Angelo and the zoning applications that we have coming forward across the city, not just in this neighborhood, because some of the input that came out of some of those meetings was we need to be seeing developments very similar to our own park across the street where we have flower gardens, but we're growing food in between the flowers. And I'm not sure where exactly that food goes, but looking at those kinds of opportunities all across the city. So I'm asking our city staff if that issue even came up in terms of the interface between our food policy plan, if you will, and in this particular development, because of the impact to a particular business in the neighborhood that plays that very role. Yeah. Yes. I mean, the the Sun Valley, Decatur Federal Stationary Plant I'll speak to that was very much support of of the idea of, you know, healthy foods, growing foods, you know, supermarket access, eliminating food deserts and all those sorts of things. And so that's why there was this discussion in the community that the issue is for this location. It's very close to the light rail station. And so we also have recommendations in multiple documents throughout the city to take advantage of these prime locations that are very close, you know, within the quarter mile of a light rail station to target it with additional redevelopment and density and mixed use development. And so there's a very clear map in the plan that shows this area as eight stories. And so for those reasons, while, you know, there was a lot of sympathy and there was a lot of value of the community garden idea and the Earth Links idea , the plan was very clear. It should also be noted that the the existing zoning today on the surrounding properties from Earthlings would allow up to 70 feet in height. So this change would would bump that up to 110 feet, which is eight stories. So there would be some additional height, but there is a would be potentially impacts today with the current zoning with heights that are not built out as as high as they could go today. So the basically what you're saying is the stationary plan basically trumps the food policy plan. I guess I wouldn't say that. I guess for for this zoning case, we have to look at adopted plans blueprint, Denver and the and the station area plan. And while there is some recommendations that are consistent with the food plan that you're talking about for this particular location and this particular proposal, we feel that this zone district is appropriate. So let me change the focus now on proximity to Fairmont School. So is that directly across the street? We're looking at a map. Is it half a block away or across the street from the boundaries of where this new zoning is proposed? I was looking at the map and I couldn't tell if it was across the street from the edge of the school property or if it's half a block away. But it's right across directly. It's just north. So we're talking about eight stories that would be directly across the street from. You know. The. Because it seems they were rezoning, too, right? I've seen several folks say no. Anybody want to clarify? I'll pull up the map here. The way you have to. You have to you have to you have to come to the mic, actually. Point of order, Mr. Chair. I don't know that our staff realizes we don't. We don't any more see the presentation that you're giving. Yeah, we can open the same PowerPoint, but we have no idea what side you're on, and there's no slide numbers. So please try to describe the slide you're on when you reference it so that we can follow. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. Councilwoman Kurt, can you give 2 seconds for us? Yeah. Okay. So 12th Avenue North Side is a full row of homes with short, mostly short lots. And then on the corner of Decatur and 12th and there's a community garden. And then opposite that on the alley is a church that's all residential for about eight lots. And there's vacant I a property that has been hasn't been developed. It's been demolished for 20 years. Okay. And then the rest of the properties that are all signed on to be resolved. Thank you. Uh, Curt, did you want to show something to the council or. Well, I guess I just. I moved back to the. The location slide in the presentation, which is an aerial photo. What is what? What slide is that on. It's the blue. I. Think. It's what. Page do you have a page or the. Numbers on here. Like what? Slide for everyone, for city council. For this location at the top of the slide and 2014 aerial photo at the bottom left. So if you can see hold in place there it's actually the school property is to the south of of that it's you can't it's kind of off of off of the screen. So while it's not directly adjacent, it is in proximity to the school property. So the school property, just to be clear, the school property is across the street from the edge of what this new boundary will be. Well, there's not. So if you look at the aerial photo, if you see hold in place on the aerial photo, right. If you look down, there's an alley there and there's another block of properties there. And then to the south of that is the school. So it's probably about a block or two from the rezoning area. Councilman, Councilman Lopez, you want to get in? Thank you, Mr. President. Councilman Ortega, if you look at the slide, this is proposal. I don't see the numbers on the slides proposal. And you see the blue was that CMC's proposed that that southern edge is buffered by homes, it's buffered by structures. When you go south, the 12th, 12th is the property line at the school. Okay, so you have that buffer between the CMC in the school that's probably you're looking at probably. 200 feet max, probably maybe 250. I don't know. It it goes from it's almost like a. Isosceles triangle. All right, it just. Narrows out to the east, but it's thicker on longer on the west side. It's if you look. There, you could see looking at. It. 12th Avenue, south of 12th Avenue is a fair amount, is it doesn't? So to answer your question, it doesn't. But Fairmont is just a half a block north of it in some places, and it's like probably maybe 100 feet. Just one other further clarifying question. Okay. Does the rezoning in any way, shape or form propose maintaining the grid system of the current roads? Or. You know, the area is a little restricted to get in and out of. And so if we're proposing higher density, but we're not doing anything to improve the infrastructure. Are we are we creating more problems down the road that this neighborhood's going to have to deal with? I mean, I, I think we're looking at a similar situation where we've re zoned the whole Foch Street corridor with very, very high densities , and we've got one road into that site. And so are we going to be dealing with some of those kinds of challenges? And did those issues come up in the conversation about this rezoning? Yeah. So there is a plan as part of the the adopted stationary plan to reconfigure some of these streets and reintroduce more of a grid system in this area. And I believe Public Works is looking at 13 Avenue as an early project of realigning 13th Avenue to improve the connectivity in the area. So yeah, there is a plan to improve the street infrastructure and add more connectivity than there is today. But those will be separate conversations about how that happens and when that happens. Correct. Or was that part of this process? It's not part of the rezoning, but the rezoning is consistent. I guess I would say the rezoning doesn't prevent that from happening in the future. It's consistent with the circulation plan that's in the adopted plan. Okay. Thank you. I have no further questions. Okay. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. If you stay up there and just so I can address one of these questions, if I may, that we are talking about the 13th Avenue realignment realignment, some of those streets. I mean, here's the thing. You really got to look from a further height, from a higher standpoint to look at the whole neighborhood. There's going to be a lot of questions of how we realign, because it's not just this site that I mean, it's also the DHEA properties in the Casitas and stuff that are you know, we're going to look at increasing density as we go in the future, creating more opportunities for affordable housing. My my question is, there's a couple of properties trying to figure this out here. There's there's a property just south of 13th Avenue that is west of the Garden and I'm sorry, east of the things properties. And then just north of Pink Monster. That is not part of the plan. Can you speak to as to why they are not part of the rezoning? Yeah. So they came in earlier on a different schedule than this rezoning and they were already approved for Max eight. So that's why on the proposal slide that you're mentioning, there's that little sort of notch that's missing. Can you speak also to a little bit more the community process I want and, you know, intended future use? And this is something that perhaps I don't know, somebody from the neighborhood association can speak to as well, too. So if you can kind of talk a little bit more about the community process, what that was like, what the how we addressed some of these questions. And if you want to come out to the to the podium to talk about, you know, the intended use and what the plan will be, what's envisioned there, I think that kind of clears up this. Description of it as being, quote unquote. You're asking for the intended use for the already zoned for property. The vision for the future. Use for the already zoned property for the. Post. O for our our larger proposal. Zoned and then proposal. Well, I think that is part of the whole the Carter Stationery, a federal stationery, a plan. The whole idea of it is is to try to really activate as much as we can around the light rail station. And as has happened in other parts of the city and counties, we are seeing much more density around those areas . And we are very committed in Sun Valley to be a neighborhood that really is affordable, that continues to be family oriented as it is now, and to be one that is affordable and to be more of a mixed income. I think that the ACM x eight zoning that was allowed, I think back almost a year ago that was passed by council, it was one step to try to provide a parcel that could be a future theater, as well as also house arts and other kinds of of activities or amenities. So we have really ambitious plans, but we think that with the leadership of the Denver Housing Authority who is steward stewarded much of the choice neighborhood planning that those plans can actually come to fruition. If I. If I may. Thank you. If I may. Mr. President. Chris. I'm sorry. Chris are. Go, Casper, if you want to come up as well to. Come on. Who are you calling up? Phil? Phil? Yeah. Do you want to come up to the podium, please? On the Cater Federal Stationery Up plan and the Sun Valley Neighborhood Plan. Simple question. When's the first time that you all sat down to talk about plans for these areas? The response? The Sun Valley neighborhood hasn't had a neighborhood plan for 40 years until recently. And the. Attempted to get a neighborhood plan to increase housing going all the way back to 2001. But the city wasn't ready because the transportation infrastructure was in the planning works and it was delayed and delayed at the expense of generations of kids in a very bad neighborhood for a very, very long time. And I don't think that most of these council people could be considered to be part of the reason for that. There are I know Debbie has always gone to bat for this community, and I've said it before in this in this council room, that there were a lot of council people that were complicit to a crime against all those kids for all those years. It's time to make. This a healthy. Family neighborhood. And this is the zoning that's going to do it. So. I think that it should be supported. Now, are there any questions I'd be glad to answer? Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. You, Councilman Espinosa. Hey, Phil. Phil Kobach. So it's good to see you again. It's been a long time. There's a slide in the deck that shows the Sun Valley neighborhood planning a vision for 13th Avenue. Were you part of that planning process that developed that? Yes. I'm going all the way. Yes. So does this. Property owner for 25 years. Does this rezoning alone do what's necessary to get that vision implemented? Could you repeat that? Will this rezoning alone do what's needed to make that vision for 13th Avenue come to fruition? Well, it will need. It'll need the support from council. It will also need a lot of resources that that will come from federal sources and and hopefully state and city and local and and developers. It needs to be a mixed community with ownership and rental, but it does not need to be a party place. You know, when there was a discussion with the community and and Kurt might be able to answer this as well. Was there discussion about this vision and how infrastructure rezoning could and should perpetuate that vision? And what that because there's a specific character that's rendered here that isn't just inherent in the reasoning. And so all. Discussions and our discussions were complete with infrastructure changes, the character of the of the streets, the different types of housing placement of different types of housing, including grocery services. Access across the river, actually pedestrian bridge and possibly expansion on and on, stuff like that. And. I'm talking about a community that had to fight 15 years to get a laundry facility. Yeah. No, the reason why I'm asking is that if you says you have this vision, so you know this neighborhood, you've been there really long time. This 13th Avenue, this zone is is considerably wider than the existing 13th Avenue. And while there's a street, a tree lawn on both sides of 13th Avenue, as depicted here, there's also this sort of healthy sort of cafe breakout space that is certainly doable. A cmcs eight is a use by right but you would have to voluntarily not build to. And the other thing is is we first have to widen the ride away to to capture both to vehicle travel lanes, to bike lanes into on street parking lanes. And so to implement this vision. One of my frustrations is we have this great vision that we worked a long time with Sun Valley residents and a lot of the people that just testified on both sides of this thing and in how the problem is, is that should we be using when we get in the legislative process, should we have codified ways to implement this vision? As part of that rezoning piece? I don't sense that it's in there. So was there any discussion about doing that? Not directly. I will say with that depiction there, what we have is an old 13th Avenue and a new 13th Avenue and the old 13th Avenue will see much less traffic and the bicycle lanes in the parking that is depicted there may not all be exactly the same. However, what will be the property is being consolidated into one ownership. So the entire property on the north and south side of what is holding today and. 60% of the property on what is 13th today has been accumulated by by one controlling entity so that they can it's being planned for cut through to realign it, which has been the city's design for 15 years, while 13 years they brought it to us 13 years ago. This community didn't like it. Well, the community that was there has gone for the most part. Is that a private party or is that a public entity that it's. A partner in the neighborhoods? The development group that's working with the FHA. Yeah. Okay. So they are working with the. Yes. Okay. So thank you. Thanks, though. Thanks. Question for anything else? No, thanks. Okay. Thanks. Appreciate that. It's for somebody from earth Linx that mentioned the 80% shadow coverage of the late. And thanks for mentioning the heights, because that's one of the things that struck me about Cinemax. Five I mean, IMAX five is, is very healthy. So when you did the study that came up with the 80%, what height was used in that analysis? That was the eight stories. So 110 feet or. Yes. Okay. And then what was the percentage of coverage at 70 feet? It's much less we we only lose about 25, 25 by 100. Square feet of our garden, so we lose much less when we had done that study before we moved in. That's 2500 square feet. You said so it's right by the back alley of our I don't know if you're familiar with our spot, but we have a lot of gardens over there. So we would lose some. But we we were willing to take that risk when we moved in. Okay. And so how many square feet did you say you would lose in the eight cm x eight scenario? We lose all of our two lots on our east side and we would lose half of our current south north garden. So we would have one north garden left. I'm estimating right now we would have about 50 feet by 50 feet left. That's currently gardened. Yeah. So. Okay. Do you have you ever talked about partnerships? I mean, I know it's dedicated parkland, but we do have gardens of sorts. Have you ever talked with using about with with Denver parks or any other city agency about that space between you and Rudy? That's great. Solar access and not exactly a ballfield. We have not talked to Rudy. No. You know, our history, we have done gardening offsite from our location. We're very anxious to be able to be owners and continue to live where we are and not be subject to the whims of other landlords. Yeah, but we have not had an opportunity to speak with Rudy directly about that. And did you ever have any conversations about potential 70 foot, 75 foot height limits on the CM eight zoned district, at least for a portion to sort of protect the existing development? We had talked to Councilman Lopez and Mr. Upton from planning, and at one time it looked that that was maybe a possibility, but that that has changed. Any reason why you maybe, Curt? Well, I'm sure they could speak for themselves. I can't really speak for them. Great. Thanks. Thank you. Kirk. Yes, Councilman. So we did discuss that as part of the community dialog, an option to restrict heights. And part of the challenge is that it's not Earthlings property that where they're requesting necessarily the height reduction, the real impact is the surrounding properties that they don't own. Right. And so but it's not a taking if you're capping a portion at 70, which is their current. Yeah. Yeah. Essentially agreed it's not a taking but there there were some voices that felt that that was limiting their rights or their potential rights in the future and therefore that you know that. We were sort of picking winners and losers where the plan was very clear. So so for those for those reasons, because there are property owners surrounding the Earthlings facility who want the eight stories. And the plan is very clear that says eight stories, one of the issues. So that being one issue, another issue is as if it was taken off or adjusted in the legislative city initiated rezoning. There could be a scenario where those private property owners move forward with their own rezoning and CPD internally as a team, we thought about that and because the plan was so clear for eight stories, we would recommend probably recommend approval for those as well. And so for those reasons, plus, again, a lot of stakeholders discussion around this issue. Again, we met out there about six times. We landed on implementing the plan as it was written. So the struggle that I have is that the pride growing season are really when the solar angles are pretty high. So you don't need that much of a step back in order to sort of move in a story off of a seven story and or a six story and still maintain a good I mean, maintain the solar access that you're providing. So. I mean, you're still you could still do eight stories in 110 feet. It's just it's just, you know, it's step back for a distance to sort of maintain that access. I didn't I don't think that's a huge ask. But so back to what I was showing with Phil Kasper, though. This is so I think, Councilman Lopez, do you want to speak to this as well? Because you said you had to. Yeah, I do. So so two points in the discussion because, you know, of course, you know, with a legislator resigning my office myself and, you know, particularly were very, very instrumental and right at point zero with these discussions in the talks with are things early on and looking at those properties to the south and potentially looked at an idea of having a smaller. Height, a. Lower height, but the property owners immediately to the south that were adjacent to those two earthlings, once they realized that everybody else was eight except for theirs, were absolutely opposed to it. It was they felt there was a property rights issue and therefore not knocked down with that either. One of the companies, I think, feel that that's Margie that there's not one of those houses isn't it. Yeah. You and that. So they were opposed to it, number one. It's not it's not everything's property. And second, just as a point of order, we already determined that, you know, solar access is not a viable or a legal . Factor in a zoning such as this. So yeah, that's where the conundrum exists. And so we can chase down that rabbit hole all we want. But at the end of the day, the community in our community process is very thorough, had discussions with folks all over the neighborhood, particularly with earthlings, particularly with the property owners to the south who are opposed to that. And these are folks who have been these are some of the only property owners, only residential property owners in Sun Valley. Yeah. Now, my issue, I mean, my concern is, is, is multi-layered in that and I'm sorry we didn't bring this up in committee, but the when we do, I did mention that when we're doing a legislative rezone, we should be doing that. We should sort of try to leverage our position such that we actually are sort of pushing for the outcomes that are are being that had already been shared and negotiated and and and adopted. In some cases. There's a GDP here and a smaller rate plan and others in other investments. And so, you know, how do we how do we sculpt? When the city's doing legislative rezoning something to get the outcomes that have been shared. So back to that graphic, though, because this is to my colleagues, I'm going to bust this out again. I've done it. Haven't done this in a long time. This is the existing 13th Avenue that's been depicted here. It's two lanes in a parking width, you know, stall space wide. You know, is there. I know this is sort of public works, but how do you compel future development here to sort of render get to this rendering when that's the right of way? And if we grant this new zone district, you can build CMCs aid as you use to go right to the property line tomorrow, I mean, the day after it's adopted. Yeah. So you're correct. Public Works is studying this street specifically in 13 day Avenue. I think that there is some additional right of way beyond what's shown in the pavement there. So while this this concept drawing is not engineering exact, there is, as you mentioned, an approved general development plan that does specify the lanes and the rights of way widths for 13 avenue and all that the circulation system in place. And so when, when projects come in to development services, they will be checked against that general development plan that's in place that will provide some protection of that system as it develops. Yeah, but we don't have any design guidelines or standards for this area. That's correct. Okay. All right. Thanks. Further questions. Okay. Councilman Cashman. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. So, Curt, were zoning to a maximum of eight storeys, is what the proposal is, right? Yes, but we're not. We don't know that it's going to be eight storeys. They can build anything outside storeys. It's the usual deal. We have no development plan. We don't know what building is going where at this point. Correct. Okay. So. Is it? Going to cripple the neighborhood plan. If we were to zone as earthlings, who's asking, you know, some five stories around that plot? Is that creating some sort of a problem to realizing the goals of that neighborhood? So. So in the scenario that the proposal came in for less than eight stories, you're saying would it be inconsistent with the neighborhood plan? No. I mean, I understand the neighborhood plan says it wants eight there. Yeah. So it would be inconsistent. But I'm wondering to what degree you think it would. Really affect the goals of the neighborhood because we don't know what they're getting anyway. They may get three stories in these eight story districts, or they may get eight. But I guess. Where I'm coming from is. And I don't know the neighborhood as as well as Phil or as my friend Councilman Lopez. But we keep talking about how important affordable housing is in Denver. And then we zone 100 acres of Arapahoe Square with no affordable housing. And we talk about food deserts and the need for local food plan. And I'm just wondering if. Maybe it doesn't make sense to try to accommodate something like this. It may not. I'm just asking. Mm hmm. Well, I think I mean, I think it's a it's a good point. We did discuss this issue in our neighborhood conversations of if eight stores was even feasible on these parcels. And so that was something that we discussed. And we did find an example of a similar block size that could fit eight storeys, as in this proposed rezoning area. But I think the larger issue is that this is a very recently adopted plan. This rezoning area is very close to a light rail station. And we only again, we only have so many of those available throughout the city. And because there are property owners involved and as the councilman mentioned, owner occupants of some of these residential properties who would like to take advantage of the plan that was recently adopted. And if we were to go in a different direction and recommend a different height and those private property owners came in at a later date and asked for the zoning, consistent with the plan, we would have probably our hands tied to recommend approval because the plan is so clear in this area. So again, I think for those reasons, that's why we came to any story recommendation for this. Some neighborhood plans now. Governance, zoning. Because that's not my experience. I mean, their neighborhood plans are recommendations. We hear that over and over and over again. And then we see situations where the neighborhood wants one thing and their plan says one thing and CPD recommends something else. So. So certainly. I mean, they're not. Not all neighborhood plans are regulatory, and this one isn't regulatory. So I kind of agree with that. But one of our criteria for recommending approval or denial, as you know, for rezoning cases is consistency with adopted plans. And so that was the point I was making. Just to clarify. Sure. No, I understand that. And it it it is a conundrum. I have respect for for the neighborhoods self-will. Without question, but operations like earthlings are just going to be subject to getting pushed farther and farther and farther away as we gentrify every square inch of land in the city until they don't exist. So what's in the best interests of the city, you know, is what I'm trying to figure out. So that's all my questions. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Curt. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Councilman Clark. Thank you, Mr. President. It was mentioned earlier that somewhere in the plan calls for 2 to 8 stories from what I've seen. It looks like it's just identified as eight. Can you speak to that? Yeah. So whenever we have height recommendations and this goes for all of our plans, including this plan, it's a maximum, right, a maximum height. But we put in a range meaning that we don't want to be unclear, that if that if there was an eight stories recommendation in place and someone for whatever reason wanted to come in with five stories or three stories or some other height recommendation that we wouldn't necessarily not support that because the market could be at the time that that height just wasn't feasible. And so we usually recommend ranges of heights up to a maximum for those reasons. But there's nowhere in the plan that calls out the what the zoning should allow as anything less than eight. There's nothing specifically in the plan that says we should not support something less than eight, if that's what you're just. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. All right. Any more speakers here? And I see none. A public hearing for counsel. Bill 563 is now closed. Comments by members of council. Hmm. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. I, I wanted to start by thanking everybody who came out tonight to testify for the bill. You know, it's a good day. When we got Sun Valley on the agenda in the city council, especially this neighborhood. And it is one of the poorest neighborhoods, the poorest neighborhood in Denver and one of the poorest in the state. And it has always had that stigma and it's always been the stigma of not. Mile High Station, mile High Stadium or a light rail or, you know, the Platte River and the amenity of the Platte River. But as this industrial area or as as a small island of poverty and projects surrounded by industry, surrounded by a barrier of I-25, surrounded by the river as a barrier, not as an amenity, sort of, you know, kept a far from Mile High Stadium. Any opportunities up north? No one ever thought of 13th Avenue as an opportunity to create economic development and jobs for the neighborhood. Nobody ever looked at real lining the streets in the neighborhood to make them safer until we started. And I say we should say until the community in Sun Valley really started pushing the idea of the neighborhood plan. The idea and its advocates. And that goes for folks who don't live in the district and the neighborhood as well. I think EarthLink is a very important partner. And, you know, I've sat down with the members of earthlings to look at those ideas very early on, that we look at the idea of possibly taking it down a notch on that south side, given with the caveat that given that the property owners are okay with it, and I resent the fact that this is labeled as some kind of gentrification. The folks who have lived south in those lives, those properties in question. Are not a gentrifying force. These are the only property owners. And they're not McMansions. They're not high scale owners. These are neighborhood folks who have lived here, and you could shake your head all you want. These are neighborhood folks who have lived here since before I was even born, before my mom was even born, when it was not popular to live in this side of town. They dealt with the violence. They dealt with the poverty. They dealt with the stigma. And if we really want to go after affordable homelessness, we build units, folks. That's what this area is intending to do. That's what this rezoning is intending to do. And not to build duplexes, but to build units, enough units, so that we can tackle this issue of affordable housing without being pointed at and saying those are the projects that kids from the projects. That's the worst thing that we've done in this city as we've clumped all the projects together. East Village. Westwood Homes. Columbine. The Casitas. The worst thing that we could have done is say, but Mala, we have units for poor folks because that stigma lives on. And Sun Valley has probably there's no other neighborhood than Sun Valley that's been hit with that stick more. We want to fix that. We want to create that opportunity. The answer is mixed income, mixed use, industrial. Does this create this creative new the zone districts out there that allow you to live up top, work on the bottom. Right. And we want to hold that accountable. And for me, when we when I look at this rezoning, it. Absolutely. Look, this is something that I have said, especially when we had the Westwood plan up in front of us, that these are not these plans are not, and nor should they ever be intended to sit on a shelf and say, look at this architect. Look at the architects we paid a bunch for and the planners who we paid a bunch for. Look at their work. It's going to sit on this dusty shelf in the city. We don't want that. These plans are intended to be implemented. Right. And that is one of those that's the intent here. We don't want that. Finally, finally, after 40 years, this neighborhood has a neighborhood plan and a path forward, and it's going to sit on some dusty shelf. It's meant to be implemented. And we want to create this opportunity. We want to create this density. We want to create affordable and affordability here right at the light rail station. It is an alignment of a lot of our values. The Anti-Poverty, Safe Streets, access to transit, Sun Valley is where it's at. And when you when you zoom back and you look at all the property south, you look at the Casitas, you look at what's in store and what the vision is for legacy. This is a neighborhood that's going to be transformed without requiring poor people to leave. Which is what gentrification does. Gentrification and community development are two separate conversations, two separate things. Gentrification requires an aristocracy to push out people that are poor. You replace people who are poor with this aristocracy, this gentry. That's the. That's where gentrification comes from. That word. The gentry. There's a displacement. There's no displacement. What we want to create is this implementation of plan. So, ma'am, I absolutely feel you when you when you tell me, look, we this is our home. This is our home. This is our hope here. We want to be able to establish that. We want we want to give her things. I when I look at this, I want to give earthlings the same bargaining chip that every other property owner does get with this rezoning. Without that, I think it's an injustice. I think you could do a heck of a lot more than the opportunity is there. Now. Is this solve the whole problem of Sun Valley? Absolutely not. This is solve the problem of food deserts. Absolutely not. Right. But it does put a step in the right direction. And I don't want us to have to be put in this weird position where we have to choose. Do we choose closing a, you know, you know, hindering an opportunity to lift us out of a food desert or creating more affordable units for folks that really, truly need it? You want both? It's the matter of figuring out how we do that. And we can't do that by limiting somebody's property rights. She? Legally. We can't do that. So when we look at this reasoning, it is illegal for me to be able to say, Well, I'm opposed to this because it creates more shade . That is not a legal reason for us to do it. We can't. So in you know, in closing my closing remarks, I just I'm I want to implement what the residents of Sun Valley have worked so hard decades for to do. It's a start implementing that plan. And as a councilman, that's why this is a legislative rezoning. So it's not for developers, it's for the residents. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. And we're glad you're you're here. Councilwoman, can each. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to briefly address the criteria, which is what we're required to judge zoning on. And I think that the criteria is fairly clear in this case, that there is a strong case for the rezoning. But it does not mean that I'm not very empathetic. I want to thank Earthlings for having me out and touring me and some of the neighboring properties as well, for showing me some of the important opportunities. And also just should have said this. First, thank you to all of you for staying on. What's the late and long night? So I appreciate all of your presence. So I guess the thing I want to say is that based on the plan, based on the criteria, I just don't have a basis to vote against this rezoning. But I you know, here are a few problem solving suggestions and hopes because I think that we have some time these projects take a little while to go from concept to construction. So I don't know what that is for each of the neighboring properties. But you know, hopefully you have at least three years until that shade arrives, perhaps more depending on the economy and financing and all the things that have to come together to make a tall building come to fruition. So, you know, one idea is that, you know, I don't you know, I don't know if you've had a chance to go to see a place like, oh, my gosh, it's late. It just escaped me. The grow house, the mind meld of the at large seats grow house, you know, an indoor space aquaponics. There's a whole bunch of ways to grow inside structures, but and there's a cost involved. So you have me committing right now to say that would be the kind of ideas invested in your current space already may need to invest more to be able to keep, you know, the next generation of food growth. You know, we have a marijuana industry that tells us all the time that they would like to be better neighbors. And we know that some of them are in this vicinity. And so they know a lot about indoor growing and structures. And so maybe there is an opportunity there to connect an industry that wants to and should be doing better as neighbors, to think about how you might be able to use space, you know, with artificial light or other things. There is the opportunity for rooftop gardens. So if your neighbors I understand that that for your neighbors to use their rooftops, that puts you at the mercy of the landlords in the same way that you have not wanted to be. But there's also we have a homeless, you know, housing toolkit that helps to pair folks who are service provider experts with housing experts. And so maybe you have your own three, five or even eight storey housing with rooftop gardens, and you can pair through this toolkit process that the city has to really bring expertize together. These are all really long term ideas and they're all really expensive, and I don't offer any of them lightly as solutions, but I do believe that the service you provide is essential. I think it's as essential as the rest of the neighborhood plan. And I want you to know that I'm committed if I can make introductions. You know, Susan Powers is a person who's always talking about podium growth. You know, how could you build over parking lots and things like that? So we have some creative folks. And so if we can help introduce you to them and make those partnerships so that we can make this time matter, I don't want you to feel like the testimony has fallen on deaf ears. So. So my obligation is to vote with the criteria. But the education you've provided, the perspective you've brought is important. And I'm here and dedicated to helping to make whatever's possible. You know, explore that with you. So thanks for thanks for your time tonight. And to the neighbors, congratulations on, you know, the long process of moving a plan towards fruition and lots lots more work to do we know and the infrastructure we're we'll probably be here next on that but we're aware of that as well. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman, can each Councilman Espinosa. Oh, yeah. You've always had a tough row to hoe are earthlings because the as my colleague Robin Can said, Councilwoman Canete, sorry, the justification is there. You know, obviously we're not compelled to the justification for IMAX is also thought of there as a use by right but you know it's my frustration and why my line of questioning is there is a lot of public investment that has gone on for decades in Sun Valley and then more recently on this revisioning and in the future on implementing those plans for the river and for Sun Valley and. And in the stadium. And when council's involved, I would have liked. I'm just sorry, Paul. I would like to see more sort of agreements sort of hammered out either through the administration or whatnot, on how this vision can be brought forward. You know, my frustration is we create these neighborhood plans in any one of these individual property owners could have come to the council and initiated their own rezoning application on their individual process parcels and gotten them through on the same criteria. I mean, you could have rubber stamp this thing and just on your plot and your plot and your plot, and it would have been the same justification, the same things for each individual. So when the council's leading that as a legislative move, I my my expectation from us and is that we're we're actually doing we're going the extra step to move towards that that long term vision because I'm you don't have to look any further than my neighborhood of Jefferson Park to go. We have got zero. Zero new mixed use development that wasn't fought for by the neighborhood. So everything that's happened since 2010 has been residential, pure residential. That's not true. There's now a new building at 25th and Elliot going up, but that's a main street zone district and they can't actually know they could do you. Right. 100% residential. The that's it. Very minimal square footage in all the redevelopment of that community. And so when when we create this zone district and we don't have other regulating tools in place, we're sort of at the whim of the of the market in the industry. And hopefully those agreements are being hammered out with the FHA and that whatever vision is going to that's out there is going to come to fruition. But that's just my just general disposition is that, you know, we have spent a lot of public money getting these neighborhood plans to this point and all this documentation. We actually had all the formative legwork to go the next step, which is to sort of more compelling regulations. And instead we went the rezoning, which, like I said, any property owner could have done and made this exact CPD would have made the exact same case. So, I mean, there's no again, there's no compelling reason why the I mean, the criteria is met, but it's just I just it's so I feel for you earthlings know, like I said, you would have been facing it in a different format as well. Thanks. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Clark. Thank you, Mr. President. I actually had the opportunity to work on the Federal Decatur stationary plan before I was on council as a stakeholder. And it's one of those plans that I always think back to now whenever we're embarking on any kind of plan in the communities that I serve today, because the community outreach and engagement was so robust and so creative and there was just so, so many community members involved and their voices being heard and engaged in that process, like maybe no other plan I've ever seen. And, you know, I think that the the plan is pretty clear on this. And unfortunately, you know, I mean, and I've also had the opportunity to go and visit with earthlings and just phenomenal work being done over there. So it is one of those rock and a hard place kind of things. But at the end of the day, the the volume of community input that went into that plan and the engagement and the buy in of that community. And then, you know, as Earthlings mentioned, coming in and knowing that that plan was there, being able to look at that plan and take a calculated risk. And to be honest with you, it may still pan out just fine because as you've heard somebody, just because they have eight story zoning doesn't mean that they build eight storeys. But as my colleagues have pointed out, the criteria that we are tasked with looking at with this is clear. And this is is well within that criteria. And also, you know, I think on top of that, I think why we have the criteria that does this lineup with neighborhood plan, especially neighborhood plans that are as new as they are, is to respect the fact that this is what the community decided was the vision for this area . And that is is is bigger than individual land uses. And so, again, my my heart goes out. I hope that we can find some creative solutions. And some of this may, you know, resolve itself as buildings get built. But this is the vision. And a clear roadmap was laid out. And it clearly meets the criteria that we're faced with as this community continues to grow into a plan that had so much engagement and buy in. So I will be supporting this tonight. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, President Pro Tem Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. A lot of my comments have have been shared by my colleagues. You know, Earthlings could have chosen to not want to be included within the boundaries. But that wouldn't have solved the problem. The the the height would have. Been there from adjacent properties and that would have still had the same impact on Earthlings had you chosen to go that route. This Saturday, I had the opportunity to go over to the Delta Center at 34th and Eudora and they have an incredible facility which is much larger than the grow house, which is in the O'Leary neighborhood . And they're doing hydroponics and aquaponics. And I really believe this is the direction that food sustainability needs to move towards because, you know, otherwise we're reliant on just so many days of sunlight to to grow our food in in this city. And so I, too, am committed to working with you all to find a more long term solution. I think it's incumbent on us as a city to be looking at supporting more of these types of projects. And, you know, I firmly believe that we need to be incorporating food sustainability into all of our developments, that we should be having more solar gardens, we should be having, you know, more green space that requires gardening as opposed to grass or, you know, other types of of vegetation. But. The other thing I want to mention is that once this up zoning passes, the pressures will be incredible for developers to want to purchase and assemble enough land to be able to do more development. And as much as you all want to retain affordability and retain that neighborhood feel of the Sun Valley community. I think those pressures are going to be real. Just like we've seen at all the other TOD sites where land is being assembled and resold. So those of you who are property owners, I would just strongly encourage you to, you know, to drive that train and not let it be driven by somebody else. If if that's the destiny that you all want for the neighborhood is to really dictate what that development is going to look like, what it's going to feel like , how it interfaces with the properties to the south and the school. And, you know, I think the school is going to be an even more important asset in that neighborhood as you have more bodies that would would move to the neighborhood, whether it's, you know, some of the Todd land that's that's closer to the rail stop that will be developed or whether it will be any of these parcels. So I think the the challenges will come with as the city works with you to widen that street. Obviously, if this zoning goes through tonight, it more likely will those of you who are property owners, the city will have to be paying more for that land to widen that street because of the change in the zoning. So those are just some inherent issues that are real that we'll be dealing with down the road. Like many of my colleagues have shared. I think because this has been part of the overall plans for this area. And, you know, Sun Valley is one of those communities that, as Phil Kasper said earlier. There's been lots of requests to have attention paid to this neighborhood. I can remember when we had many of the single family homes on 13th Avenue who couldn't get a loan to do fix up work on those homes because of the industrial zoning that they had. And so people were kind of stuck, you know, at the mercy of of trying to find some other way to get their homes improved because banks wouldn't lend to them. And so this neighborhood has dealt with many challenges over the years. And I think the changes that are yet to come will will absolutely benefit the neighborhood, the opportunities to get a nearby grocery store. The fact that you currently have such great access to the light rail station at Federal Boulevard and in. What is that, 14th avenue? Yeah, um, just. Just add to the opportunities for the people who live in the neighborhood and, you know, I know you need to create that synergy and have more, more bodies in the neighborhood. But I think it's important for this to move forward. And I'm going to be voting for it tonight. But I am absolutely committed to working with earthlings in trying to find another way to still keep that food sustainability available. And I just want to commend you for your work that you do with the homeless population as well, because that is such an important element of us as a city trying to find tools and solutions to helping get people back to work. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Ortega, Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. I wish I had an answer to all these a rock and a hard place deals that come before us. And I think I could as far as meeting the criteria that were charged with addressing, I think I could make a dying swan grasp at impacting an agricultural use in a negative manner. May not be me meeting the health and welfare of our community. For me. Feel like Simon Legree Earthlings knew what the possibility of what they were getting into. The main thing is, I would like to. Strengthen our cities attention to small area plans. Rather than Chip added Because I've had small area plans in my district, Chip Dad and development take place that the neighborhood majority voice spoke against. So that is a major element in it as far as gentrification or not gentrification. If it. I could get a written contract that whatever is going to happen on this plot of land is going to benefit the current residents and their families for generations. I'd be saluting this in a New York minute. But my what I've been seeing unfolding in our city. Is. That's not the case. I have the same worries for Globeville, Elyria, Swansea, you know, and the changes that are coming to those neighborhoods. If this is going to benefit them, absolutely. Without question. I hope that be the case. For me, the guiding factor is a clear neighborhood process, a clear neighborhood plan. But this is not a yes vote I'm going to be happy about, not 100%. Thank you, Mr. President. All right. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Councilman Espinosa, you back up? Yeah, just this is just dovetailing on what Councilman Cashman said and specifically, actually what Councilman Clark said. He said that this is a community vision. When he was recounting his experience with the Decatur station. And and so I want. What? Also I wanted to comment to my colleagues is that yeah, those, those plans are just what you said in the way you said it about that vision and it's implemented in the plan. But somehow we end up just looking at that map. There's a there's all those pictures and there's a lot of words in there that talk about a lot of things. But we end up just looking at the map and and if it says eight and the purple is shaded the right shade, the justification is largely there, and then the rest is sort of boilerplate stuff. So to what I mean, sorry, Councilman Catherine, you know, I'm starting to think that we need to figure out what the tools are to actually capture the rest of that plan. Yeah. More robustly in these decision making processes. Thanks. All right. Thank you. Councilman Lopez, you're back. Yeah. Just really quickly, I think it bothers me to hear folks on this say that they have questions about the community process. I think it won. We've had it. I think we've been working on this for, what, eight months per. Close to eight months. Started out with community. Countless community meetings read. We had meetings in your shop. Had meetings in your facility. To her the site. Fact that we started this the the actual vision for this community plan. Federal to Cater Station plan since, what, 2001? They say that there's a lack of community process as such a misnomer is so incorrect. It's community that brought this to my desk. And so I assure you that that is the case. And secondly, you know, got to go back to the dictionary and look at gentrification. So it is that this placement. Is the fact that so many people in this city, if they look like my skin color, they walk into a bank. Chances are they're going to get the night alone. Discrimination is rampant, especially for folks in this neighborhood. The fact that somebody has an industrial use and simply wants to put in a windows in their house or, you know, try to find financing so they can stay in their house. That's a big deal. And yet, you know, we're going to say, well, we want to limit their property rights because we want to grow for five months out of the year to help homelessness. Which is a good and very noble cause. But we got to step back and look at the big picture. Is the fight in the homeless? Is it going to be right here in that parcel at this particular rezoning? The fight to close the food desert in Sun Valley, is it going to be on this particular rezoning? There's so much more that's going to take place in. And you know, if you really want to implement the plan and have this customized zoning that Rafael Espinosa love so much about. Right. Then that means your property is going to get taken and you got to give it up. That's just a matter of fact. In the streets in Sun Valley. That's the question that we have. If we're going to widen some of these streets, if we're going to align them, that means that some property is going to get taken. I would love to see you there being the first one to say I'm in. Because I tell you what, it's going to sting when you see the price and what that's going to cost you. So for me, you got to step back. You got to look at the bigger picture. You got to look at the neighborhood plan. You got to look at what's there and what's being implemented. And yes, there was a community process and all poor people are getting pushed out for the sake of. Hipsters are gentrification. This is. Taking it from an industrial use to something that's a little bit better, especially for those residents on that side. Thank you, Mr. President. I support this, obviously. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. There are no more comments. I have some thoughts on this, but I will save them all because I'm so grateful that you're sitting in those hard seats at midnight and you all have worked really hard on this whole neighborhood. And sometimes the decisions go like you want them to, sometimes they don't. And I would just ask that you would stay in it. The fact that you showed up and we got to hear your perspective. You may not feel it, but it has helped this conversation and helped our future success on small area plans, amending plans, working on station area plans. And so I appreciate all of your involvement with that. Madam Secretary. Raquel Lopez. I knew Ortega. I Sussman. Black eye, Clark. All right. Espinosa. Flynn. I. Gilmore, i. Herndon. I. Cashman. Yup. Can each. By. Mr. President. I please close the voting, announce results? Lebanese love. Mr. President. No, no, no. It's a Lebanese because a settlement is not here. To be true. But, yeah. It didn't work. LOPEZ It's good. That's why we have you here. Just for the record, it didn't show up. Okay. Computers. Okay, let me get through this. 1212 I's council. 563 has passed. There is some pre adjournment announcements. The first one is Councilwoman Black, Councilman Lopez, myself. We need to get a hat for the CSU ram.