A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 2100 South Cherry Street, 4500 East Evans Avenue, and a portion of 2135 South Cherry Street in University Hills. Approves an official map amendment to rezone properties located at 2100 and 2135 South Cherry Street and 4500 Evans Avenue from C-MX-5 to C-MX-8 (urban center, mixed-use, 5 stories to urban center, mixed-use 8 stories) in Council District 4. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 10-8-19.
Hours. 12 hours. Council Resolution 11 zero six has been adopted. Council is now reconvened and Council will resume its regular session. Council can it will you please put Council Bill 1008 on the floor? Yes, Mr. President. I move that council bill 19, dash 1009 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. I think we're on 1008 and I missed one 1008 first. Yes. 19 desk ten await be placed in my final consideration and do pass. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded. Public hearing for Council Bill 1008 is now open. May we have the staff report? Thank you, Mr. President. And Council Scott Robinson with Community Planning and Development. I got the PowerPoint up on the screen, please. Thank you. So this is a request to rezone 2120 135 South Cherry Street and 4500 Evans Avenue from C five to see Annex the property is located in Council District four in the University Hills neighborhood is at the southwest corner of I-25 and Evans Avenue. It's about one and three quarters acres just south of the Colorado station, light rail station. And the request is to rezoning the property in order to redevelop the site. As I mentioned, the property is currently zoned C and five with the same zoning surrounding it on the East and west with a planning and development zoning just to the south and C 20 zoning across Evans Avenue to the north. You also notice outlined on the map is a another rezoning that is the following public hearings. So these are two rezonings from the same applicants, same property owners, but two separate applications for separate rezonings. The property is also part of the Colorado Station General Development Plan, which was approved in 2008. It is in the secondary G.D.P. area development area, too, which calls for primarily office uses with ground floor, retail and heights generally up to six stories. It also calls for new open space if land assemblage allows, and the GDP also states that it does not specifically control height, use or density. And those things can be changed without any amendment whatsoever to the general development plan. Existing land use is office and commercial. And then you can see commercial and mixed use along Evans Avenue and then residential to the south. And here you can see the subject properties and some of the surrounding properties. As part of this rezoning, the city has also negotiated a development agreement with the developer that covers housing, open space and streetscape. Specifically, the developer has committed to providing 10% of the residential units as affordable at 80% of the area median income for 99 years. 25% of those units will be two bedroom or larger, and units will be built as part of the first phase of this development. For the open space, the developer has committed to a minimum of 30,000 square feet of private or publicly accessible private open space with at least 20,000 square feet of that in one compact and contiguous segment to serve as a pocket park. And that will be protected by an open space easement with the city. And then the developer has also committed to install detached sidewalks with tree lines, as opposed to the standard requirement in this area which would be attached to sidewalks. This went to the planning board on September 18th, received a unanimous recommendation of approval. One member of the public spoke. Went to the committee on October 8th. You'll have in your packets a letter of support from the University Hills North Community, along with the Good Neighbor Agreement that they have signed with the developer. In order to approve a rezoning, the city must find that these five criteria have been met. The first criterion is consistency with adopted plans. There are four plans that apply to this property. The first is Comprehensive Plan 2040. As described in the staff report, staff has found the proposed rezoning is consistent with these ten strategies from Count Plan 2040 relating mostly to equitable development, providing a range of housing types near transit. Increasing access to affordable housing and open space. The second plan is Blueprint Denver from 2019. The plan designates the context for this area as urban center, which is consistent with the urban center context of the proposed Sea Annex eight zone district. The future place designation for this property is a community corridor, which calls for a mix of office, office, commercial and residential uses and heights , generally up to eight storeys, which again is consistent with the proposed sea and zone district. Evans Avenue is a mixed use arterial, and both Cherry and Claremont are designated locals providing property access. The property is within the community corridors in the center's future growth area, which is intended to accommodate 25% of new housing and 20% of new jobs over the next 20 years. Also within Blueprint Denver, there are various strategies. Staff has found that the proposed rezoning is consistent with these three strategies relating to providing mixed use development, particularly near transit, affordable housing and providing additional open space. As a staff finds the proposed rezoning is consistent with Blueprint Denver. The third plan is the Colorado Station General Development Plan, which I mentioned earlier. As I said, the uses are primarily commercial, which is consistent with the proposed zoning. The GDP calls for heights generally up to six storeys, but again, the GDP does not actually control height, density or use, and it also calls for that open space which would be provided through that development agreement that finds the proposed rezoning generally consistent with the Colorado Station General Development Plan. And the last plan is housing and inclusive. Denver. The city's affordable housing plan, which calls for providing additional affordable housing throughout the city. And again, through that development agreement, additional affordable housing would be provided on the site. So staff finds the proposed rezoning consistent with the relevant adopted plans and the first criteria, and that the second criterion is uniformity of district regulations. Staff finds the proposed rezoning would result in the uniform application of the C Annex eight zone district. The third criterion is to further the public health, safety and general welfare of the city. Staff finds the proposed rezoning would do so by implementing the city's adaptive plans and providing that park space, promoting physical activity and better health. The fourth criterion is justifying circumstances. Staff finds the proposed rezoning justified by the changing and changing conditions in the area. There has been a fair amount of new development in this area, some higher intensity development on the south side of Evans, making this a denser area and new development around the station on the north side of Evans. Turning this really into a transit oriented development area. And this rezoning would be furthering that and consistent with those changes and justified by those changes in the area. The final criterion is consistency with neighborhood context, zone, district, purpose and intent. Staff finds the proposed rezoning would result in development that is consistent with the urban center neighborhood context, description and the zoning district purpose in intent for the CMC's zoned district, which is intended for areas or intersections served primarily by arterial streets where a building scale to date stories is desired. As I mentioned, Evans Avenue is an arterial street and blueprint. Denver calls for buildings generally up to eight stories, so staff finds all five criteria have been met and recommends approval. I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much. We have three individuals signed up to speak on this item this evening. First up is Chase Hill. Good evening to you all. I'm Chase Hill, the developer with Cypress Hill Advisors, and I'm here to answer your questions. Thank you. Next up, Ben-Hur to. Good evening. I'm Ben Hiroto with federal capital, also with the applicant. I'm here to answer our questions. Thank you. Next up, Jesse Paris. Good evening, members of council. My name is Jesse Paris. I represent for Denver Homicide Loud Black Star Action Movie for Self-defense, Positive Commitments for Social Change and the Unity Party of Denver, as well as the OPIO and Mile High North. And my questions are, what guarantee do we have that this is actually going to be affordable? And who is this exactly affordable for 80%? Am I is not affordable. We have a housing crisis in the city and we need units that are 0 to 30%. So 10% at 80%. That is not affordable. I don't know who lied and said that it is affordable. It is not affordable. So I want to know exactly what guarantee that we have that this is going to be affordable and what how many units are going to be built here? And when is the construction process on is going to begin and when is it going to be completed? Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers on this item. Are there questions from members of council? Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. Can you give us an idea? I guess I'm asking Chris Hill if you wouldn't mind coming forward. Can you give us an idea of how many units are proposed to be on the site so we know what 10% on the affordable is actually equates to. The initial initial massing. Studies show about 150 units. Okay. So we're talking about 15 units. That's correct. Okay. And 25% of them will be two bedrooms. That's correct. Will be proportional to what we do at the market rate, but a minimum of 25%. And will there be any commercial space on the site at all, or is it all intended to be residential? There likely will be. We're actually much farther along in the design of the first phase, which we'll be talking about next, but we anticipate having a retail component at the ground level. Okay. Will that phase, Evans? It will likely front Evans and turn the corner at Claremont. Okay. Great. Thank you. I have no further questions. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Black. But I don't think you're Mike Tyson. Jenni, did you mean to speak? I guess. Yeah. So why don't you come up now and speak? Thank you. My name is Elizabeth Davis, and I live at 2575 South Cherry Street. I'm the co-president of the board of the University Hills Community, registered neighborhood or Neighborhood Organization. My co-president, Jennifer New Helfand, and I have provided a letter of support for your packets and are here to read a statement of support for the rezoning applications. 20181-00112 and 2019100024. In September 2018, the University Hills North Community R.A. Board met with representatives from Flywheel Capital and Cypress Real Estate Advisors regarding their planned development at the Cameron Motel site. For the first time in the following months as the R.A. reviewed the project's Phase one plans. Board members and the community at large cited concerns with traffic, parking, architectural fit and overall project impact to the neighborhood. These concerns were relayed to the development group in an effort to establish lines of communication for neighborhood input on the impacts of the proposed development. In a subsequent meeting, representatives from the Cameron Project informed the board of their intent to request zoning, zoning, zoning variances for Phase one. Pudi g m you three to see them x five and phase two of their project or from S.M. x five to see a max eight to gain neighborhood support for the variance. The developer was willing to enter into a good neighbor agreement to address neighborhood concerns with the aforementioned plan. Scope and overall impacts of the Development. I want to be clear that the only reason the board and neighborhood is in support is due to the contents that were agreed to in that good neighbor agreement. We expected developers to be accountable to it. The zoning variances are consistent with the Denver Transit Oriented Development Strategic Plan, calling for increased housing density through the building height and light rail station watersheds that are prime locations for activation. The Colorado station watershed has been identified as such a location, and the Cameron site is in close proximity. Safe, pedestrian, bicycle and E-Scooter passage across Evans Avenue to the to Colorado station will be paramount in achieving TOD density goals while promoting light rail use. The developers have committed to working with the neighborhood and the city to address these multimodal traffic concerns to the benefit of the safety and welfare of the existing neighborhood and its current and future residents. I'm out of time. I see. So sorry. Just to clarify, so it looks like you had signed up to to speak as speakers for this item, and we got you on the wrong one. So both of these are connected. They're both in our neighborhood. Okay. So just to clarify for the record from our secretary and legal, do they need to make this statement on the record for both items then or speaking at this one hour so that it's officially on the record in case this were to be reviewed? How do you want to handle that? Kirsten Crawford Legislative. Counsel I think it would be good to have her to speak on both matters. Speaking on both matters in this hearing or speak on both matters wants at each hearing. One for. Each hearing. Wants at each hearing. Okay. So then we are going to keep you under the hour. Rules for testimony to the 3 minutes. Councilwoman Black might call you back up to answer questions or to finish anything. But we're going to get you and finish with Jennifer on 3 minutes, if that's okay. Jennifer knew how often. You also have 3 minutes. Okay. Thank you. Um, I am Jennifer New Hoffman, and I am the other co-president of the new agency, R.A. And I will finish the statement that Liz started. The newly adopted Denver Comprehensive Plan 2040 designated the site is located within an urban corridor neighborhood context that calls for increased ground level activation. This project will achieve that goal through ground floor retail on the Phase two property on August 20th, 2019. The voting members of the R.A. were presented. The principal proposed assurances to be included in the Good Neighbor Agreement, including an RTD pass for each initially signed and designated green space, both of which address and improve public health, safety and welfare. An empowered neighborhood primary point of contact. A thoughtful construction and parking plan. And continued collaboration communication with the University Hills North community are other assurances provided by the developers and the Good Neighbor Agreement. These will ensure that the project will be a partnership that integrates a new development into our community in a way that maximizes its benefit to the developers and the community. The University Hills North Community Board voted in favor of supporting the zoning variance from CMCs five two CMCs eight, as well as the PD and GM use three to CMC's five contingent upon the execution of the Good Neighbor Agreement. Today, the Good Neighbor Agreement has been completed to the satisfaction of both the Cameron Project representatives and representatives of the agency. The University Hills North Community fully supports the proposed zoning variance and the statement was provided on behalf of the entire board. And see. No, thank you. Thank you very much. All right, Councilwoman Black, now we're going to get back to do you have any additional questions in addition to that? Yes. Go ahead. Okay. I have a question for the development team. Can one of you come up and talk about this sign? It's an iconic sign. And I know there was a lot of talk about preserving it somehow. So can you tell us what you're planning to do with the sign? It's really. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for asking the question. We feel the signs are iconic as well, and we had intended to preserve those signs, in fact, as part of this project. There was a small portion of land immediately adjacent to Evans and the onramp to I-25 that was previously owned by C Dot. And as part of our agreement with Cedar, that was access real estate that Scott was going to dispose of as part of our agreement with C, that we have agreed to preserve those signs and incorporate those signs into the project. And so that agreement is in place. And if for whatever reason, that does not happen, we had agreed with that to offer those signs to the city of Denver or historic Denver or another nonprofit type of organization in order for them to be preserved. Thank you. Thank you. And for those of you who don't know what we're talking about when we say the sign, it's the Cameron Motel is from the fifties and it's right on Evans and I, 25. And it has a very cool old neon sign. That would be a nice neighborhood landmark. Thank you, Councilman. All right. I thought Councilman Cashman was up next, so I apologize. Councilman Kennedy, I'll get back to you. I don't know. We got a lot over there, Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. So anyone from the development team. So 1008 and 1009, which will be coming up next, are paired together. Was total acreage of the two plots. Total acreage is right around five and a half acres, five and a quarter acres. Okay. And you said 150 units estimated on on this portion. How about on the on the other portion? On the other portion is about 360 units. Okay. So about 500 total units. Do you have any idea have you done any traffic studies as at this point looking at what your development would generate? We're still very early on in the site development plan process and building budget process. We have reached out to the relevant departments of the city and we are advancing those conversations. But to date we have not completed a traffic study, but we do anticipate it being a requirement of the STP. Yeah, I'm just trying to envision, I believe one of the main access streets would be cherry. Is that correct? And let me ask my client, Cherry Street's Cherry Street Dead ends at a at the highway. Right. The main access point is off of Claremont, North Side. Thank you. And one of the things that we've discussed with the city and staff up until this point is ingress and egress off of Claremont and what the potential options of those are. While those have not been finalized at this point, we have been in discussions with city staff about what those options could be. Yeah, I'm trying. Regardless of numbers of units or whatever, I'm trying to envision how you would turn left to go westbound on Evans out of that. I don't I don't think that would be possible. Okay. The idea we envision is that you would actually get a bird such as a light protected light and take a left there. You you'd go over. So you would take Warren over to Birch north on Birch, and then take a left or west on Evans. Great. Okay. Thank you very much. That's another question. All right. Thank you. Councilman Cashman, Councilman Hines. But thank you, Mr. President. I also have a question for the developers. You decide. Pick your favorite. We'll take. We'll talk to you. Okay. So there are 150 units. In this and this section in Bill 1008. Correct. Housing units under 50 on the North Parcel we're talking about now and 360 on the southern half. Okay. And 10% affordable housing as I. Right. So 15 on this, uh, this this parcel. That's right. And 36 of the other. And will the affordable housing will there be on site four. Is that is it in this industry exclusionary affordable housing within the projects we're building? Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman each. Thank you very much. I just kind of thought that maybe Melissa Teddy is the one to ask about this, but is there a parallel build, alternative plan or development agreement? So I just want to clarify. I heard that there is a good neighbor agreement and that the affordable housing is in there. But that's we're not it's not in there. Oh, okay. So let's I just want to clarify which city, where, what the status of any city applications or agreements are regarding this. Melissa Tardy Department of Housing Stability. We have an executed development agreement which solidifies the affordable housing commitment. And so that development agreement is not being submitted to council because it doesn't meet the thresholds for council approval. Correct. Okay. So there are no vested rights in that development agreement then than that? Correct. Okay. And then can you just remind us again, even though when we have these units created at 80% of AMI our law and regarding source of income nondiscrimination in voucher holders, can you just talk about how it is that units at this level might be occupied by families who are lower income. For a deeper affordability or at the 80%? Well, how they would how how a family with a voucher might might be a lower income than 80. Sure. So various organizations, but especially the Denver Housing Authority, administers our housing choice vouchers, which are what we call tenant based vouchers. So they travel with the tenant. So, for example, a family who has a 0 to 30% AMI may carry a voucher with them to this project and could live in an 80% or below in my unit . Additionally, there is a source of income, nondiscrimination or anti-discrimination ordinance which says that landlords cannot discriminate against tenants based on how they pay their rent. So if someone came with a voucher, that would need to be accepted. And can you just refresh us as a family at 30% of AMI, as a working family often, what is it that they're earning at that level. And have to look it up? I pulled up the 80%. Okay. It's would it be fair to say they're like minimum wage workers in that range? Yes. Right. So these might be service workers. Yeah, it could be. You know, to single are two parents, both working full time minimum wage. Okay, great. Thank you. And then can I just speak to the developer team for just a second? So you have executed the development agreement, so there's a binding city ability to enforce. This is in lieu of your linkage fee payments? I'm guessing so. And you're aware of the need to be nondiscriminatory in advertising these units and making them available? That's correct. Okay. And you will be operating these units, not just will you be developing and then maintaining ownership or you'll be selling? That is correct, that we don't know for how long or when, but the idea is to develop and operate it and also manage it. Okay. Well, then I would ask for your commitment to make sure that if you are passing on ownership of this, that you make sure that any buyers are on notice regarding Denver's laws and regarding I know that they're bound by the development agreement, but just making sure they're aware of the need to advertise nondiscrimination in their in their in their advertising. We certainly. Will. Okay. Thank you. And your management company, I guess in some case, you probably won't be managing it. All right. All by yourself. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. All right. Seeing no other questions. The public hearing from counsel Bill 1008 is closed. Comments by members of Council Councilman Black. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you to our neighborhood leaders. Thank you so much for coming down here and really for doing such an incredible job for your neighborhood. They have spent hundreds of hours working on this and advocating for their neighborhood and talking to a lot of different people who have a lot of different opinions. So thank you very much for your leadership. And I also want to thank Chris Nevitt, who I didn't call up to ask. Questions of. But Chris Nevitt is our toddy director for the city and he was very much involved along with Scott Robinson on this project. It is in a very central location in Denver, directly across Evans from the Colorado Light Rail Station. And it is one of our goals in our city to direct density to our light rail station so that people will take the train and not drive their car. And so this is meeting one of those goals currently, that edge of the neighborhood, the edge of their neighborhood that's closest to Evan, has just a strange mishmash of random zoning that there's really no rhyme and reason to it. Paul Cashman and I, I think as far back as 2015, met with our community planning and development director and staff, begging them for some kind of plan for this neighborhood because we predicted what was going to happen. And that is exactly what has happened is now there's lot homes and one really big apartment building that everyone hates and a lot of other stuff. And so it's really unfortunate that they did not listen to us, but I'm excited to say that this section of Evan's will be part of our next neighborhood planning initiative starting next summer, and that public works is working very hard to get an Evans Corridor study funded, so it will coordinate with that neighborhood planning initiative. And then we are also working with Stantec to do sort of a mini neighborhood generated little neighborhood plan so that we can have some more weighty discussions with anybody else who who comes forward. So a couple of the big benefits to this program is the open space. Chris Nevitt and his team negotiated with them for that which was much needed. And believe it or not, in this part of town, we have Hollywood sidewalks and initially public works was just going to let them put in Hollywood sidewalks. But thanks to Chris, they are not. And so, yes, wow. Imagine that we're going to have real sidewalks. They can walk to a light rail station. So I'm very happy about that. And as I think everyone knows, earlier this year, the city purchased almost two acres for a neighborhood park, which was greatly needed. So good things are happening. We need to remain vigilant and we need to hold the developers accountable and make sure that the good neighbor agreement is enforced. I'm really excited. You're going to give people light rail passes. That is exactly the kind of thing we need to do. So again, thank you to everyone. I will be supporting this. The final thing I'm going to say is to public works. We need to make these streets around the light rail station more safe and more walkable. Bucktown, Colorado Boulevard and Evans, they're not safe to walk across. And so we need to keep on that. So thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Cashman. Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. So I've had two concerns about this development, one being traffic, just knowing the area. They're having a hard time envisioning the access and the egress. The other concern that I have is and this is not particularly this development, it's how it's our approach to affordable housing period. I don't think we can raise a flag over 10% affordable housing. It's not going to get us where we need to go. However. I believe the proposal meets the criteria that we're asked to assess. I have COBRA no precedence here supporting the development and I have nobody here raising their voice against it. So I'll be supporting this this evening while maintaining those concerns and hope they're well addressed along the way. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Hines. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank all of you for all the work that you've done for this for this project. I also want to thank Councilwoman Black for her lifting up the replacement of Hollywood sidewalks for the sidewalks that people can actually use. And I want to thank you for your commitment. You know, it's important for us as a city to to get beyond a car centric society. 75% of Denver ites commute to and from their work by single occupant vehicle. And it's partly because 10% of Denver has no sidewalk at all. Another 30% of Denver has sidewalks narrower than four feet wide, like these Hollywood style sidewalks. So this is part of the part of that all hands on deck on you know, I mentioned climate change earlier. You know, helping us protect. Our. Our planet means that we need to get out of our cars. And and the way we do that is to make sure that we have the freedom to get from A to B and feel safe while doing it. So thank you for for being willing to to put in real sidewalks there and and to put in and to provide bus passes. Thank you, Honorable Nevitt for for all your work as well making sure that we that we continue to push this and so I will be supporting this this evening as well. So thank you. Thank you. Councilman Kelso. I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr. President. I have to just second. Councilman Cashman's comments. I think that, you know, we have Arnaud. Presidents here who are. Supporting this. And I think that that is fantastic. And without anyone here from the neighborhood who is speaking against it there, and it's clearly fitting into the criteria, there's really no reason for us not to support this. But I definitely don't think that 15 units is getting us anywhere near where we need to be with our affordability goals. And that is a shame because there's a real opportunity here, especially this close to transit, for us to really achieve some much needed affordable housing. So I just want to put that out there. And, you know, I wish that there were a way for us to achieve some. To make a real dent in our affordable housing needs in this. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Counsel. I'm sure seeing no other comments on this item. Madam Secretary, roll call. Black I. Flynn. I Gillmor. I Herndon. I Heintz. I Cashman. Kenny Ortega. Hi. Sandoval, I. Sawyer, I. Torres. Hi. Mr. President. Hi, Madam Secretary. Please close the voting in the results. 12 hours. 12 hours counts. Bill 1008 has passed. Councilman Kennedy, will you please vote counts? Bill 1009 on the floor?