Rezones property at 3301-3411 West Nevada Place from Urban Edge, Mixed Use, 3 stories, Use Overlay allowing adult businesses and billboards (E-MX-3 UO-1, UO-2) to Urban Edge, Residential Mixed Use, 5 stories, Use Overlay allowing adult businesses (E-RX-5 UO-1) in Council District 3. (NEIGHBORHOODS & PLANNING) Rezones property at 3301-3411 West Nevada Place from Urban Edge, Mixed Use, 3 stories, Use Overlay allowing adult businesses and billboards (E-MX-3 UO-1, UO-2) to Urban Edge, Residential Mixed Use, 5 stories, Use Overlay allowing adult businesses (E-RX-5 UO-1) in Council District 3. A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD AT LEAST FOUR WEEKS AFTER PUBLICATION. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on  10-15-14.
The first public hearing will be on 822. Councilwoman Sheperd, will you please put Council Bill 822 on the floor for final consideration and do pass? Thank you. Mr. President, I move that council bill 822 822 be placed on final consideration and do pass. It has been moved in second in the public hearing for council bill 822 is open. May we have the staff report? Good evening. My name is Tim Watkins with Community Planning and Development Case Manager, Case Manager for Rezoning Application 2014 I number 52. This is for property located in West Central Denver Council District three along the northern northern boundary of the Westwood neighborhood at the intersection of Alameda and Irving would point out that it's just really less than a block away from Morrison Road, which is an important gateway into the Westwood neighborhood. The property is just over two acres. The applicant's goals are to create a transition of development that would transition from Alameda. The intensity of Alameda to the local condition of Nevada place additional building height for residential mixed use development. The current zoning is urban edge mixed use three story use overlay one and use overlay to. This current zoning allows for mixed uses, including residential office and retail on any level within the three stories use overlay. One is adult use use overlay, two is billboard. The requested zone district is er5 or urban edge residential mixed use up to five stories and retaining use overlay one. And I would point out the retaining use overlay one helps the city of Denver retain a freedom of speech, a First Amendment protected right within the city and county of Denver. Urban edge residential mixed use development provides for. Retail or residential or office uses on the ground level and residential or lodging uses on the upper storeys. The site today is predominantly vacant. There are some rental properties, some residential uses fronting Nevada place. Otherwise it is vacant property. And briefly describe the existing context and the surroundings. Just on the north side of Alameda, you see commercial use as well, commercial buildings, but a a variety of uses within those buildings, including retail. Even some church assembly uses and some industrial uses. And then over on the Irving Street, we see retail single-family and multifamily. Just abutting the west of the property is retail and residential. This is being a mixed use condition. And then south along Nevada place you have single family as well as church assembly and a school that's associated with the church. This is another view of the property looking west from Irving and Nevada, place in the foreground, you see multifamily to the left, you see the church assembly use and this is the subject property with the residential properties fronting Nevada Place. Beside is well-served by transit today, including RTD Route three along Alameda Avenue has 30 minute intervals as standard service with 15 minute peak intervals and Federal Boulevard is served by routes 30 and 30 limited, 36 limited with 15 minute standard intervals as well as a 30 minute during the the low, low hours . And just wanted to provide a regional view of transit that the site connects to regional light rail. Just two miles to the north is the Decatur Federal Light Rail Station. Two miles to the east is the Alameda Light Rail Station. So. It is well served regionally to and from the site, accessing a variety of transit options. Public process to present. Includes significant public outreach by the applicant to the neighborhood organizations listed above, and that has resulted in multiple letters of support. There was one letter of concern by a nearby resident, and there have been some questions raised about Denver's zoning code parking standards, and questions about what the intended management of potential apartments on the site might be. But I would point out that these two items are beyond the standard review criteria for rezoning. There's a planning board hearing on September 17th, board members recommended unanimous approval of the application. There were a number of supportive public comments during the hearing, both from private and public entities. There were some questions raised again about the parking standards and some safety concerns related to children walking along sidewalk conditions, which they question of being adequate today along Nevada place and what traffic impacts future development might create along Nevada place. The Neighborhood and Planning Committee reviewed this application on September 30th and posting and notice sign requirements were met and written notice for both public hearing and this hearing tonight onto the review criteria and consistency with adopted plans. Comp Plan 2000 encourages infill development near existing services and infrastructure and supports transportation or encourages development that would support transportation near shopping schools and jobs. Encourages quality infill development that's consistent with the character of the surrounding neighborhood and also encourages high quality, mixed use development that would support diverse housing needs in public transportation. Blueprint Denver identifies Alameda Avenue as a pedestrian shopping corridor, and you see that hatch lines representing area of change along the corridor. Four properties fronting Alameda Avenue. Alameda Avenue is a commercial arterial. These are regionally significant streets that carry traffic as well as other modes of transportation, including pedestrians and transit, to access mixed use conditions and to connect various districts and particularly commercial districts throughout the city. Irving Street is an enhanced transit corridor or excuse me, Irving Street is a residential collector, and collectors are intended to connect neighborhoods to other neighborhoods or to commercial street arterial streets and Nevada Places Local Street The Westwood Neighborhood Plan was adopted in 1986 and recommends mixed use development as part of a business district fronting Alameda. It recommends improving the linkage or transition between the Westwood neighborhood and Farnham neighborhoods to the north. It's a just providing services and products through this development, fronting an Alameda that would benefit surrounding residents and also suggest ample street frontage or excuse me, ample front and rear setbacks with landscaping. And you'll note in this photo that there is no on street parking. And so there's a fairly intensive street condition with traffic moving right next to the sidewalk. And so this could be the purpose of this recommendation is to create some more of a buffer between that street condition and future development. I would point out that the Plan West with plan recommends or references B-2 zoning, which allows for commercial and residential mixed uses and also allows for 1 to 1 floor to area ratio with no specified height limit. The rezoning request of the Zone District would result in uniform application of district regulations. It would further public health, safety and welfare by implementing the recommendations of these adopted plans. The justifying circumstance as a changed or changing conditions, including the need for housing in Westwood neighborhood to support existing and new businesses and public transit along Alameda. The other condition is the demolition of commercial structures on the site that took place about 15 years ago. And I just point to this 1995 aerial showing, commercial block buildings fronting Alameda. They were demolished by 2000 in this aerial image and still largely vacant site today. The final review criteria is consistency with neighborhood context, zone, district, purpose and intent. The urban edge residential mixed use zone districts are intended to improve the transition from commercial mixed use. Areas to lower skill residential areas. They allow for diverse uses and building forms that activate the public realm and create safe, walkable and pedestrian skilled neighborhoods. An Era five zoning would allow for limited commercial. And more flexible building standard that would allow for landscape buffering along busy streets such as Alameda Avenue. Upon finding that these review criteria have been met, CPD recommends approval of this application. And I would also mention that there are two representatives, if you care, to pose any questions to them about their rezoning interest. Thank you, Mr. Atkins. We have three speakers and I'll call all three. Out to the front pew Bob Golic, Arthur McDermott and Jason Hahn. And Mr. Golic, you can go ahead and take the podium and begin your remarks. Mr. President, members of Council, good evening. My name is Bob Golic and my address is 609 South Gaylord Street in Denver. Change conditions are what support this rezoning request. There's a revitalization going on throughout the entire Westwood neighborhood. We have new development and new infrastructure in Mawson Road, which is just two blocks west of the subject site. There's a new park called Quattro Viento, meaning four winds which recently opened at the corner of Alameda and Newton, which is two blocks away from the subject property. There's already a five story building at Alameda and Federal a little bit further to the west called Los Altos de Alameda. There's a desire for people to live near transit. Alameda is an enhanced transit quarter with RTD service, two light rail stations, two two separate light rail stations, as a matter of fact. And that'll help lessen the reliance on cars, people who work downtown. We always see people who work downtown in these areas need transit. They really need transit. They don't just desire they need transit to get to their jobs and to get back home in a safe, reliable manner. This will provide that access to several hundred new residents. It will be on Alameda if this is approved. I believe that we as a city are very fortunate to have a two acre parcel that's basically an infill site and that we can it's an opportunity to redevelop on Alameda Avenue with the infrastructure already in place. This zoning request is already supported by Blueprint Denver. It's an area of change for pedestrian shopping corridor. The shopping quarters, as defined in Blueprint Denver, are for high residential density. We're providing medium to high residential density. Housing always drives retail, and that will be the same with this on Alameda. The more residential units, the more people we can put on the street, the better all the commercial businesses will do along. Alameda The Westwood Plan recommends mixed use development along Alameda quarter to improve the transition between the neighborhoods, which is what we are providing. The proposed air zone district is the correct zoned district. It's a good solution for the site. It limits development above the first floor to only residential development with ground floor commercial along with additional residential units. This provides a good transition to the existing neighborhood south of us and buffers them from the Alameda corridor. In some instances, this could be considered a down zoning curve. We're coming from a commercial zone district. We've had an extensive outreach program for this rezoning, and Mr. McDermott will speak to that afterwards. Planning and a result in the numerous letters of support, by the way, that are part of the Application Planning Board and CPD have given their support, planning board, unanimous support. I urge you to do the same, and we will answer any questions you might have. Thank. Thank you, Mr. Garlic. Arthur McDermott. Good evening. I'm Arthur McDermott. I live at 2290 South Adams Street in Denver. And it's very nice to be here this evening for this hearing. My wife and I own a small company that does big things. We develop apartments. We develop market rate apartments, and we develop affordable apartments. In fact, we've developed over 3000 affordable apartments. We've got really good, strong partners. Transamerica Insurance, for example, is one of our partners. J.P. Morgan Chase is another one of our partners, the Royal Bank of Canada. RBC Capital Markets, I just mentioned is one of our partners. We have Raymond James is one of our partner, so we have blue chip partners. We are recognized for the quality work that we do. A few months ago, Dora came to me and asked if I could find a site in the Westwood area. They came to me because we had had a very successful project with them called Dahlia Square, Senior Partner Apartments up in the Dallas Square area where Councilman Chavez's district is. We went out and searched for a spot and we found the two acres that is before you this evening. We need to go to the higher zoning, the more stories to make the project feasible. We have to have 25 more units, which would bring us to a total of 98 units to really add for the economic feasible of the property. Building affordable housing is tough work and many, many years ago Mayor Wellington Webb told me, You just don't realize how tough it is to build affordable housing, but we've solved that problem and we ask for your support this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McDermott. Jason, hon. Hello. Good evening. My name is Jason Hunt. I come from three 420 West Alameda Avenue. I'm from the Frank Record Store. I'm the retailer. You know, I just next to that empty space to ground. So I need to develop. So, you know, I love to, you know. To accept or to join you. Change, whatever. So. You know, it's going to be more population for us for me and you know all the Taylor needs to more business so and. Uh. No more population means. You know, but great developing. I believe it. So. Well, this I I'm. You know I'm speaking. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Han. That concludes our speakers. Is now time for questions. Do we have any questions from members of council? All right. Seen there in question. The public hearing on 822 is closed now, but. Oh, my God. I apologize, Councilman Lyman. Yes? I was wondering if somebody could please explain to me that this overlay allowing adult businesses in why that's included in this. So the use overlay won the business. Is a means that Denver can provide for the First Amendment freedom of speech, right? That due to Supreme Court case law, it's incumbent upon every local government to provide for this. And so Denver's policy is to. Not create new but to retain existing, which provides options and flexibility in the future. So is there an existing? There was existing you will one adult use and existing your to billboard. The billboard is expires with this rezoning but you will one is retained. And have you heard from the community about this use being retained? I have. And when I provide this explanation, it seems to satisfy their inquiry. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. My apologies for that. Now moving on to comments from members of Council Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. You know this the when rezoning this this area, it looks a little tricky. You know, before it was B2 and B2 was kind of a broad brush of a zone district for the area, really allowed everything. And on on this site, I think for those of you who have ever been to this area, used to be the airplane bar and you just where the store the field goal after the 1978 think 77 championship game field goal post ended up at this bar. And so that's why it's a very popular place. Long gone is the bar. You know this you know, the structure there were pretty blighted. So they were leveled. It's been empty and vacant for at least ten or 12 years, I think I think even more I think probably close to 15. You know, there have been houses behind this. We've looked at other uses, including commercial. Part of the problem with this particular area is that Alameda is a is a seat on. Corridor and any inlet or any cut through or anything like that has to go through cedar. They won't allow it. They just won't allow that turn in from Alameda because it's considered a state state highway. So it's always been tricky. This particular use, however, is meeting a big need in our city. It fits the area. I think, you know, on numerous occasions I think I've seen Mr. McDermott and the folks with the development come to the community. Community met extensively with the with the organization, I think with West Virginia, those of us with residents. Barnum, the whole gamut. Boku West, which is down the street and they're right. This is an area that is developing pretty quickly. A lot of blanks being turned around. And there's the problem in this part of town is, you know, there are folks who want to create businesses. There are folks who could pay rent. There are folks who would buy. There just is not very many structures, is not the infrastructure is not there. The the bones, the brick and mortar is not there. And it's very expensive for folks to build. So that's basically the challenge in this area. We've looked at it as a grocery store. We looked at it for different we looked at at a soccer field, one at one point. It's kind of a tricky corridor because that intersection is still not modernized, and that's going to be changing through public works later on this year. However, this particular zone district, I think, helps address this need and kind of ushers it in as opposed to just amx3, which would only allow three stories. The other thing I think that you didn't mention, which was and of course, we looked at this because the other story that's needed is due to the the east, the southeast corner, which creates a it's the ground kind of slope. So you can need that that extra floor, which would create, I think, the 4 to 5 building on that side just so that this building could fit on this site. And it creates that that foundation for it. But it also makes sure that that structure is safe. That's the reason why we're going there. We're looking at this tonight and we're going for this actual zone district as opposed to just leaving it at some other mixed use zone district. So in short, this is a you know, what seems to be a very good use. I think this is addressing a huge need for the neighborhood, but also for our city. And I think the fact that we don't have very many folks here, if any, opposed to it, speaks a lot to the neighborhood. So I don't want to prolong the obvious. And, you know, I'm in support of this. I think this is a good use name. What I said my colleagues also support. Thank you, Councilman Tony. Thank you, Councilman Lopez, any other comments from members of council? So, you know, Mr. Secretary, roll call. Brooks, I. Brown I thought I can teach. Damon. Lopez. Ontario. I never. Hi, Shepherd. Hi, Mr. President. Hi. Mr. Secretary, please close the voting, announce the results. Ten I0 nays tonight. 088 22 has been placed upon final consideration and does pass. All right. The next public hearing is on Council Bill 841. Councilwoman Sheppard, would you please put a41 on the floor?