A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 225 East Bayaud Avenue in Speer. Approves a map amendment to rezone property from U-TU-B2, UO-3 to G-MU-3, UO-3 (urban two-unit to general, multi-unit), located at 225 East Bayaud Avenue in Council District 7. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 5-24-22.
12 days. Cancel the 22 days. 0585 has passed. Councilmember Flynn, will you please put Council Bill 20 2-0586 on the floor for final passage? Yes, Madam President, I move that council bill 20 2-0586 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. It has been moved and seconded. The required public hearing for Council Bill 20 20586 is open. May we have the staff report? Yes. Thank you. Brad Johnson, principal city planner with Community Planning and Development. Bringing you today, a rezoning request for 225 East Bay Avenue from u t u v to u032g in u three. U of three. This is in Council District seven in the spear neighborhood. And again, the request is for general urban neighborhood, context, multi-unit with a three storey maximum height or 40 feet. This would allow multiple dwelling going units on the lot more than two as would be allowed under the baseline zoning. Building forms allowed would be urban house duplex, the garden court townhouse and apartment forms. And the applicant does. The Swiss have retained the Euro three overlay, which is use overlay, which is a historic structures use overlay and use overlay. If the building on the site was landmark, that use overlay would allow additional flexibility for a few nonresidential uses. Which are art studio office, non-medical, non dental and bed and breakfast. However, this this building is not landmarked. So for now anyway, this use of would not apply. If it were to be landmarked in the future, it could come into play. And this proposal is intended to facilitate re-use of the structure from from a religious institutional use to to be adapted to adaptively reuse for residential units. So just zooming in on this site a little bit more right here at the corner of Bad and Grant. The lot itself is 94, 95 feet wide, more or less along Green Street. That frontage and the lot areas just over a quarter acre at 12,000 square feet. Here. You see the existing zoning on the site that drew me to you, too, and some of the other areas around it on that block as well. And then the surrounding zoning, you see a lot more that G in Q3, which is what's what's requested here. The existing land uses both on the site and in the vicinity. So you see a wide variety of of different uses. The majority of them are single unit and two unit residential. But if you look along that Ad Avenue corridor, you see quite, quite a variety there. Here are some photos. First at the bottom bottom middle of this page are the site itself. So there you see the former Faith Center Building. It's on the site. Now, that would be the is intended to be adaptively reuse and to the left and right you see some of the immediately surrounding buildings of the subject site. I want to mention that the applicant has the senior staff report up and has entered into a ten year non demolition agreement for the building to maintain it in place at least over the next ten years. And the historic timber. This this rezoning followed all the procedural requirements of the zoning code in terms of noticing the rezoning and posting on the site and so on. In a public hearing tonight. In terms of outreach, we received four letters of support from members of the public, generally supportive of re-use with residential on the site, but also excited about the opportunity for this building to be maintained in place. We did receive one letter voicing concerns about parking impacts in terms of demand that this might generate relative to the when compared to the existing use. And we saw a couple of comments like that at the planning board as well. We haven't received any official or no comments on this. So moving to the criteria is criteria, starting with consistency with adopted plans. We did find that this rezoning would mean numerous goals, objectives and strategies in Plan 2040, just a couple of which are flagged here and others identified in the staff report. In terms of blueprint. Denver The future neighborhood context is urban, so that calls for small multi-unit, residential and mixed use areas that are typically embedded in one and two unit residential areas and buildings that are of a large scale and closer to the street. You'll notice on this map that this site is the context that's called for is urban design district. That's being requested is general urban. See, it's right on the edge there of a general urban designation. So given that and what's being proposed here, blueprint Denver anticipates as a citywide plan that we're not going to map those boundaries. Perfect. And this is a case where blueprint ever provides guidance. There's some flexibility could be shown in a case like this where you have a property that's right on the edge of one of those boundaries, especially if it meets goals that blueprint. Denver And so more on that in a couple of slides. Feature place type is low residential as predominantly single unit and two unit uses on smaller lots. Although you see this language kind of at the bottom of this paragraph says that vacant institutional uses on corner or select sites may be appropriate locations to introduce additional residential density . So this will qualify as that type of vacant institutional use. Future street type is local and designated which blueprint? Denver says that for that type of that street type, there could be a variety of different land uses and urban farms adjacent to that that type of street. And so given that flexibility, we did find that this rezoning would be consistent with future street type. Growth area strategy is all other areas of the city, which calls for 10% of new jobs and 20% of new housing on the properties that are designated as all other areas of the city through 2040. Given that this rezoning would allow additional resident residential units on the site, it would allow for some moderate increase in housing in the city, and therefore we define it to be consistent with growth area strategy. So I talk about how the future context didn't perfectly aligned, but that blueprint does allow flexibility in that regard, especially if the rezoning would meet other goals of the city and that are in Blueprint Denver. And so these are a few pieces of policy language from Blueprint Denver that Carla called for facilitating compatible redevelopment of institutional sites like this, calls for additional land use flexibility in that cases and in those types of cases and actually calls out redevelopment. This would be a reuse of the site, but it goes even stronger than that and calls out a redevelopment of the site as being potentially appropriate. We have one area plan, which is the West Washington Park neighborhood plan. That's a pretty old one from 91. A lot of the focus of that plan is on maintaining the residential character of the neighborhood, which this rezoning would. There is some language that we thought was relevant, particularly relevant, which is this land use policy here, which calls for maintaining and improving historic and architecturally significant structures which we thought this would would fall into that category. So we did find this rezoning to be consistent with this adopted area plan. We also found that the rezoning would result in uniform district regulations and further public health and safety and welfare of the community through implementation of our adopted plans and those policies I just shared with you. Justifying circumstances for this one again pointing to the to that language in blueprint deliver about flexibility on institutionally institutional sites for redevelopment or in this case for and supporting that type of flexibility to infuse additional units in a compatible way. We felt that it did meet that justifying circumstance. And then finally, we did find that this rezoning would be consistent with a neighborhood context zone, district purpose and intent. And so with all of that, we do recommend approval finding of review criteria. Okay. Thank you. We have four individuals signed up to speak this evening in person to Travis Mahfouz. For the record, if you could give us your name and city of residents. Thank you. My name's Travis Michael Foose, the city of Denver resident, the owner of this property and the applicant. And we're excited. I'm here with my development partner, Yani Bellis. We're excited to present another opportunity for the city of Denver to adaptively reuse some of our historic properties, do them in a way that the neighborhoods are excited about and can maintain their character and also enable future community members to participate and enjoy architecture and character in the neighborhoods that make Denver so unique. So thank you for your support and want to persuade planning support supporters. Well, thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is online, Jesse Paris. Yes. Many, many members of council. Those watching at home I name is just in the staff here and I'm up for Blackstone actionable self defense positive actually for social change as well as the Unity Party of Colorado, the East Denver Residents Council Hotline, Black News and I will be the next November 2023. Initially, I was against this rezoning. I thought it was going to be more gentrification as usual. But seeing from the presentation, it's not, Hey, I'm in support of this rezoning tonight. It meets all five of the criteria. So yeah. Should pass with. No problem. Thank you. I have less night. Thank you. Our next speaker also online, Michael Flowers. All right. My name is Michael Flowers, and I'm director of Preservation Action at Historic Denver 523, nonprofit dedicated to preserving Denver's unique identity, cultural landmarks and workplaces. Our offices are located at 1420 North Ogden Street in the old Everson School. Historic. Denver is fully in favor of the zoning change. The church was built in 1911 as the second Church of Christ Scientists and later was run by the Spiritual Assembly of the Beehive, Denver, for a number of years before it came up for sale with an uncertain future. The building is a great example of the classical revival style, and the current owners are dedicated to preserving the structure while adapting it into housing to show that commitment. Mr. McAfee has entered a ten year restrictive covenant and non demolition agreement with historic. Denver is also a proven and proven steward of the historic buildings. The Patterson Mansion, a Denver landmark, and Capitol Hill is a prime example. Adaptive reuse projects like this year, buildings a new life, ensuring that they will be around for years to come. The zoning changes are critical. Allman's project will preserve a piece of Denver's history. Now new housing units to the neighborhood. Thank you for your time and I hope you will vote in favor of the zoning change. I'm also available to answer any questions about the covenant, if there are any things. Thank you. Our last speaker online is Gregory Holman. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak now. My name is Greg Home. I've lived in West Wash Park for 33 years. In order for neighborhoods. To meet the housing needs of people at various levels of income, at various stages of life, a variety of housing types and sizes is essential. This project will provide a moderate cost option for people who want to live in the West Coast Park neighborhood but can't afford the high cost of a single family home across the island . To the west are numerous parcels zoned Jimmy 303 and there are numerous other similar apartment buildings along are to the east in the Speer neighborhood. 225 is bad is two blocks from bus lines on Lincoln and Broadway, less than a mile from the Alameda Light rail station. Line residents who use transit to commute to work and shopping project said adaptive reuse of a former church building as churches has declined. Adapting former churches to multi-family use is an excellent way to respond to a current housing shortage. For Denver to thrive and continue to attract talent, talented people to move here. Denver needs an explosion in housing construction of various types. Sizing cost in every neighborhood throughout the city is the only way to respond to the housing crisis. I'm glad that staff supports this project and it's great to hear positive comments from other speakers. I said City Council approved this project. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers questions from members of Council on 20 2-0586. Councilmember Flynn. Thank you. Travis, can I ask you to come up and I'm sorry, I am not recalling the name of the gentleman from historic Denver if he might be available also. Why a tenure non demolition agreement as opposed to a permanent conservation easement that would protect the building it since it's so very important to the to the neighborhood and to to you and your prior efforts as well. Sure. Thank you. And it's a good question. It was a question we received at a previous meeting and from the neighborhood as well. So I'm happy to address that. And also with Michael Flowers helping me from the start Denver standpoint. Our goal is as a development team is to preserve this property. We wanted to enter into agreement with historic Denver that showed that commitment and also enable us time to let the vision that this property will evolve and to evolve and come to fruition. There's no magic recipe in this ten year figure. And the idea is that as that time goes by, there'll be significant investment into this property with a successful rezoning. If that is how we are successful today, it will be significant capital invested into the interior of this property. The exterior will be very minimally, if at all worked on. And so the idea was to provide the time for the development team to put the whole picture together after we have the successful rezoning, but also show the forthcoming commitment to the city, to the neighborhood, to historic Denver, that our intent is to maintain the integrity of this building for for forever, not just for ten years, not just for ten years. Okay. Michael, do you have anything to add to that? Michael have anything. That Travis said? Sorry. I don't know what that was. I'll just second everything that Travis said. And, you know, ten years is typically long enough in a development cycle, you know, to allow for the project to be completed. And we just wanted it to be, you know, protection and control in place to ensure that, you know, immediately after the zoning change that there was protection in place, you know, and especially during the timeline of the project. We've worked with Travis before, and, you know, we think it's going to be a great project. And so we thought ten years would be long enough, you know, that we could control in the future for permanent protection. But I think for right now that the ten years shows a great commitment on Travis's part, and we're happy to continue working with him if he wants to work with us. Michael I looked through I didn't read closely the entire ten year agreement, but I think lamb's through. It doesn't give historic Denver any leverage or any oversight of any exterior modifications or alterations. Now this is this is just a non demolition agreement. So this is not, you know, like our easements and other documents that we have, it's just so that the property cannot be demolished. Okay. Well, it says if the owner promises no demolition or a significant alterations, I believe that that's going to speak to that premise. Sure. And also to the intent of designating this as a historic structure going forward. There's a number of implications that are involved in that process, all of which we're exploring as preservationists and as a successful track record throughout Denver of identifying properties that have the potential to work themselves into the next cycle of development. You know, the idea is that the exterior of the church will be maintained. There will be a roof. There'll be some roof work because of complying with modern code and the like. But the architectural detail is exquisite on this building, and we plan to really use that as the base for the whole development. We're even going to be preserving the majority of the second floor of this building, incorporating those into the interior of the units , much as we have in this beautiful building. And so the the exterior of this building will be as minimally impacted as possible to enable its next purpose as a residence. Thank you. Does the use overlay through the historic use overlay? Does that have any power or any leverage in it to require any city review of any alterations? Or is it simply a a use overlay that allows. Nonresidential uses in historic buildings is the latter. However, for it to even apply, the structure would have to be designated. And so all of the things that keeping infrastructure, being landmarked, including review under our LPC process and so on, would be there. If that your theory was applying, right? Mm hmm. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Fire. Thank you. Seeing no other questions, the public hearing is closed. Comments by members of Council on Council 1220 2-0586 Council Member Clark. Thank you, Council President. This is a really, really special building in the neighborhood, and I'm just thrilled that this group came together. You know, I remember the first time we sat down, just there's so much excitement and passion to preserve it. Right. And that's that is often not we're especially in this neighborhood where we've had very a ton of contentious ones where, you know, there is a hostile attempt to to preserve something that somebody else wants to just tear down. And this was the opposite. This was, you know, this ownership group coming in saying, hey, we want to preserve this. We want to find a way to work the zoning, because the zoning is these are really hard to preserve. But we want to change the zoning to be able to preserve this structure and then to bring residential in line with the community. And, you know, I just want to say thank you for all the time you spent with a very smart and very engaged community that does this a lot of times. And I know, you know, put you through the ringer as you guys were working through this. But to continue at it, to work with them, you know, and to share that excitement for preservation with some folks who really, really care about preservation, this would would just be a heartbreaker to lose a structure like this and to hear the plans of how to give it a whole new life for decades and decades to come is really exciting. So I just want to say thank you. And I think that it's special that we still have owners and people willing to come forward and spend time and money investing what is in not an easy project. This isn't just, hey, buy something, tear down and build, you know, another 3 to 5 stories that looks just like everything else. This is unique. It is special. It's going to be a really, you know, just one of a kind, kind of place to live. And so I appreciate all the hard work working with the neighborhood, working on what is a zone district that fits that really meets these criteria, but also meets this goal of of preservation and reuse and to bring it all together here. So I think as illustrated by staff, through your hard work, this clearly meets all the criteria. I'm happy to support it. Today, I want to say thank you for bringing this forward, and I would encourage my colleagues to support this tonight as well. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Tim Sandoval. Thank you, Madam President. I just want to say I also recognize how hard it is to keep the historic structures. I have several in my council district and I've used the same very process and it creates a win win. It allows you to adaptively reuse the building and update windows and update other things that might be challenging if it was deemed historic currently right now, but allows you to build density where we need it and also bring a different type of housing stock that is lacking in Denver. So just want to say that I absolutely support this type of use and this type of creativity. I know it's not easy and I look forward to when they may be voting on the designation of it because it has tax credits that happened also in my council district. Once you've gone through this process, then coming back with the designation so that you as the owner can benefit from those historic tax credits. So thank you for being creative and helping solve some of the solutions of historic preservation and housing at the same time. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilmember Hines. Thank you, Council President. I'm done. Some of the rescind of all kind of said much of what I wanted to say and that we need more people like you who are willing to take properties that are distinctive and and preserve them and and work within the structure to make it something that works today but but celebrates where Denver has come from. You've mentioned the Paterson so I reached out Paterson is in my district in Denver is perfect ten and we I don't know if the council recalls but we actually went through a rezoning of the Paterson not too long ago. So while I was it was fun to learn a bit about your property today. I've been inside of Paterson lots of times and watched its journey as it becomes more accessible to people in, you know, who use wheelchairs like I do. But also it is it is another example of an adaptive reuse. So thank you for. For having a track record of taking great properties and making them current as well. So thank you. Thank you, President. Thank you, Madam Secretary. Roll call and Council Bill 20 2-0586. Clark. I. When I. Herndon. I like Cashman. Kenny Ortega. Sandoval. I saw your eye blank. I see tobacco. I. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, closed the voting and announced the results. 12 hours. 12 hours. Council Bill 20 20586 has passed a preaent recess announcement. I'd like to use a little bit of privilege here real quick and say a few words about one of our City Council family members who's going to be moving on to another adventure, Zacharias Meyer, whose last day will be this Friday, July 22nd.