A bill for an ordinance vacating a portion of an alley bounded by 15th Street, Wynkoop Street, Wazee Street and the Cherry Creek, with reservations. Vacates a portion of the public alley bounded by 15th Street and the Cherry Creek and Wynkoop Street and Wazee Street, with reservations, in Council District 9. The Committee approved filing this bill by consent on 2-14-17.
Oh, yeah? Mm hmm. Madam Secretary. Let's do 153. Okay. This is the. This is the vacation in the alley. Okay. I've called out council about 153 regarding the eviction of Ali on 15th Street. Wynkoop Plaza in Church Creek for a vote. Councilman, Clerk, will you please put Council Bill 153 on the floor for publication? Yes, Mr. President. I move the council bill 153 be ordered published. All right, it has been moved. We need a second. All right. Thank you. It's been moved and seconded. So this is a vacation. It's Kalispell 153. It's Vacation Alley, a portion of behind 15th Street and one Cooper Massey Street and Cherry Creek. And there has been a a ton of consternation around this by my neighbors. And I wanted to give the folks who are proposing this alley vacation the opportunity to speak to this and answer some pretty direct questions that we've been receiving from the public. So. Peter Aw, come on up here, introduce yourselves and then please, let's bring this up so everybody can see it as well. Members of council. You want to go to your audiovisual? Oh, great. We have a. Rather large screen in the back. That's going to do it for us. Thank you. Good evening. Council members Brian Connolly with the law firm of Otten Johnson Robinson and Regan Eddy. And we represent Unico Properties, which is the owner of the property. The properties on either side of the alley. I'm actually using the cursor, which you can't see very well. We can show you all you can. Okay, good. To show you the properties. So it's the two surface parking lots on either side of the alley. And can you zoom in just a little bit to that picture? Sure. One more time. Great. Okay. Excellent. So orient us, explain what the project is seeking. And then I have a couple of questions for you. Sure, Mr. President. So Unico Properties is seeking to construct a new building which will go across these two service parking lots. The building is anticipated, just for your information, is anticipated to be a six storey building with a residential penthouse on top of it. And it will also have a feature, a pedestrian promenade along the creek, sort of in the area that I'm moving the cursor which will run between Swasey and Wynkoop streets and will extend the current pedestrian promenade that exists sort of above the retaining wall on properties all the way down to Del Gainey. Okay. We're not going to be doing anything to to change the ramp that goes down to the creek. This is about a 15 to 20 foot drop off this retaining wall. And so what we're seeking from you this evening is a vacation of this alley, or at least this portion of the alley terminate right here. So it would allow the building to go all the way across between wasI and Wynkoop. What how many feet is the portion of the alley you're requesting to vacate? It's about 1500 square feet. 1500 square feet, yes. Okay. A couple of questions. So there's a lot of concerns as you go into that alley right there. That alley folks can access the alley all the way to the river. And folks are saying that you guys are shutting off that alley is going to become unsafe. So is that private property right now currently where the parking lot is? It is. So is the alley shut off anyway? Are people just accessing it? It's a good question. The alley is shut off anyway. So right now the alley is has a dead end condition. The alley goes all the way down to the retaining wall and dead ends right here. Okay. Right now, there are chains on either side of the alley. So you could not, for example, drive a car out the southwestern end of the alley because either side of it is private property. And we also are hearing that you all are proposing an L-shape to to allow private access out the alley on to I believe that is was he is that true as well? That's not correct. So we've not we have not proposed an L-shaped. We've proposed the alley would terminate right where the cursor is. Yeah. And then there would be a garage door there that would access the back side of the building, the building still in the design phase. So the size of the garage door to be determined, but there would be an access to the building there. So the Hollywood dead end of the building. So the city is giving you 1500 square feet. What what are you what are you giving back to the city? What are you giving back to the public? Sure. So I mentioned the pedestrian promenade. The pedestrian promenade picture. Of it, by the. Way. I do. So here's here's an image of what the building would look like from the this is the creek side. So what you see down here at the bottom is the creek. You see the pedestrian walkway along the creek, the ramp, and there would be a promenade along the creek beach again between Wynkoop Emwazi, which would total approximately 3700 square feet. The promenade would allow for, again, pedestrian access all the way across the property, as well as the concept for the building is that it would have some type of first floor retail and restaurant space. So the promenade would allow for outdoor dining or, you know, outdoor sales or, you know, whatever would be what would go on there. What and I understand that CBD or public works. One of our agencies asked for that. Correct? Cbd's for the promenade. Okay. Okay. And it's 3700 square feet. Yes. We're giving you 1500. Okay. That's a question to have. Councilman, do. You just have a question of public works if they're. Here? Yeah. Angela. I think they're just wanted a public works reviewed this request. And did you have any kind of difficulties with this request? Nos. A pretty straightforward application. And we reviewed it as we review all of our applications for vacation. Okay. So drug the use of the dead in L.A. then. Does that cause any problems for trash collection or anything like that? There's there's no there's no problems with any of that. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Councilman Cashman. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. President. Whoever prepared to answer this? So the. The building to the north. Which my understanding is, while the lot that the developer wants to build on is now access to that property is blocked off. Historically, the neighbors to the north had had that kind of open as a cut through space. Is that about right? Yes. It's our understanding from some of the neighbors that that the I think you're referring to the use of the parking lot as a cultural space. Historically, some of the neighbors had used that as a cut through space. If you're on foot, you can obviously hop the chain and walk across to Osea or Wynkoop, if you like. And the chain was down for a long time, was it not? So the tenants to the north could cut through the property there? Through that lot. The current owners owned the property for the past year and a half and the chain's been up since the current owners on the property. We actually know the former owner of the property as well. The chain sort of went down and up and so there were certainly times when the chain was down and folks could access across it. But there were also times when the chain's been up when that access has been blocked. Okay. And then I guess maybe, Angela, if there's anyone here from the fire department, so by cutting that alley off, does that present safety concerns for the people in the building to the north? So when we do these applications, they're reviewed by several utilities and several different city departments. We did not receive we did receive a letter from the fire department saying that they were okay with the configuration of what what was happening here. And what is can you describe what the access then becomes for that building to the north? So basically, this is this is a 400 foot alley which will then they're asking to vacate about 100 feet of the alley. And so it will become a 300 foot alley. You know, it'll still dead, dead end at the 300 foot mark. Okay. So they have sufficient access and egress without this. Yeah. I mean, the challenge is, is that this was platted in I think like 1879 or 59 somewhere in there. And so, I mean, this isn't something that we would historically do today, but because of the way it's platted, that's that's what we're that's what we're offering here. Thank you. All right, Councilman Flynn. Thank you. Angela, could you rise again? You told me you are here and you can speak for Rob Duncanson and right of way as well. So you're knowledgeable of all that he's knowledgeable about. Okay. And he knows and you probably know that I am a map geek and an historian. So my lesson for today in question. In 1859, Boyd's survey showed this. All these lots, all dead ending at the Cherry Creek. In other words, 14th Street historically ended to the south of here. Just to disagree with Councilman Cashman and some public works folks about the direction of our downtown streets and the blocks farther north along the creek, always dead, ended at the creek and not at 14th Street. So all these have always been dead end alleys. Correct? Yes. Okay. And interestingly to me, if no one else, the three blocks, including this one, and then up to 16th and 17th between Wynkoop and OAC on Boyd survey were shown as city parks without an alley . But my understanding is that the surveyor Ebert came back and later filed the true subdivision plat and we all have these dead end alleys. Are you familiar with the historic uses on that block? If I if I asked you, for instance, were you aware that the entire frontages on Rosie and online coupe historically had been built up from lot line to lot line all the way from 15th Street to the creek? Do you know that to be true? Well, I do know that there have been several variations. And that the buildings that were there have been torn down, but they are still private property. Right. Okay. If we did not vacate the alley, the owner of the property on either side fronting on either street would be able to build from lot line to lot line. Yes. Without providing a an access out of the dead end. Right. Okay. That's all, Mr. President. All right. Thank you, Councilman Flynn, for that historic lesson of the fine district nine and lower downtown. What else happened in 1859? That's pertinent. William Byars established the Rocky Mountain News. Okay, and allowed and allowed me to be laid off in 2009. There's one more big event that happened. Eight years ago tomorrow. Do you know the other event that happened? I believe it was the councilman's 10th birthday. And I'm going to leave it at that. This is the wheels are off the car here. Okay. Councilwoman Black. Thank you. I was going to ask the same question that Councilman Flynn did, but just to reiterate it. So if two different parties owned it, if two different parties owned each of these parking lots, they could build up to the lot line and that would the alley would still that end. So what you're talking about is just still making it a dead end alley and it's going to be shorter. Right. So my other question is the building that is sort of to the northeast that has looks like an elevated parking. Does that go over the alley? Yes. Yes, it does. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Black. 1859, we became a city. I just thought that was important information, but. Okay. And Uncle Dick Wooten's saloon opened. Yes. Okay, I. I have another question for the. So. So, obviously, we're starting to understand a little bit that this is a private lot. And it's, you know, there's no technical qualifications for us to for me voting for this to deny it. But I am concerned about a alley that is blocked. A lot of cars go in there, met with some residents and they talked about, you know, having an alley that's going to be closed and not have that light come in. Are you guys willing to put lights in the alley to just make sure we have a well-lit alley? Yes, we are. Okay. And did you talk to the neighborhood about that? We did. We offered we offered lighting as well as that. We know that the neighbors also had some security concerns relating to vagrancy or whatnot in the alley. And we are also willing to put in security cameras and to monitor the alley. Okay. And the last question, we each have a huge, uh, I believe is a lawsuit on our, on our desk that we've been looking into. This is not a lawsuit against the city. This is a lawsuit with you and the neighbors. No, the neighbors have filed a lawsuit against both you, all the city and against us. It's in the form of Rule 106 action challenging the decision by the Lower Downtown Design Review Board to approve the maps form in context of the project. And the basic premise of the lawsuit is that the neighbors are alleging that they have a right of ingress and egress across Unicom's property and that by approving the maps form in context of the project, the Lower Downtown Design Review Board has interfered with that right of ingress and egress, as has been spoken to tonight. The neighbors do not have a right of ingress and egress across our our client's property. And so and they've never had a right of ingress or egress across our client's property. So we are currently working with your city attorney's office to defend that. Okay. But if I'm clear tonight, that lawsuit is not on this particular on council Bill 153. It's okay. All right. The it's been moved in, seconded all members of council. 153 is now on the floor. Madam Secretary, roll call. Kenny Lopez. All right. New black. I clerk. I Flynn. I Gilmore. I cashin. I. Mr. President. I Please close the voting. Announce the results. Nine Ice nine Ice Council Bill 153 has been ordered publish Madam Secretary, put the next item on our screen, which is one I believe is 161. I move that council bill 161 be held in committee and brought back to the floor of council on Monday, March 20th, 2017.