A bill for an ordinance amending the Denver Zoning Code relating to overlay districts. Approves text amendment #10 to the Denver Zoning Code to establish a new Bungalow Conservation Overlay zone district (CO-6), make associated amendments in Articles 11 and 13, and amend the Potter Highlands Conservation Overlay (CO-4) for clarity and correctness. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 2-16-21.
12 days. 12 Council bills 20 1-0156 and 20 1-0157 have passed. Councilmember Hines, would you please put council bills 158 and 159 on the floor for final passage. Of the council bills 20 10158 and 21 that 0159 be placed upon final consideration. And you pass in a black bag. All right. Thank you. It has been moved. And I think I heard that second from Councilmember Ortega. First there. So we got that the combined public hearing for Council Bill 158 and Council Bill 159 is open. Speakers may offer comments on either or both items and may we go ahead and have a staff report. And we have Brad Johnson with us this evening. Thank you, Madam President. We. My screen shoot here. Seeing that. Okay. You got it, Brad. Okay, thank you. One more thing. You. All right. So Brad Johnson, senior city planner and urban designer with CBD. I'm here to talk to you about Tech's amendment number ten to create a bungalow conservation overlay or scope six and the MAP Amendment 2020 899 to apply that conservation overlay in the Harkness cites portion of the Berkeley neighborhood . It's. Okay. This is sponsored by a councilwoman, Amanda Sandoval, of course. And the big idea here is to ensure and modify the zoning design standards in this area to ensure that development that occurs out here into the future is more compatible visually with the existing character of the neighborhood. So to the text amendment, we would actually create a bungalow conservation overlay C of six. We would make some supportive associated small amendments in articles 11 and 13, and then we'd do some minor kind of cleanup work to conservation overlay CO four, which is the Potter Highlands land just for clarity and consistency, nothing substantive there. And then again, a map amendment, tourism properties in harness heights from us, you see. And us you see. One to us you see z06 six and us you see 106. So we're in Council District one in the Berkeley neighborhood, Zoomin, just west of federal so so areas generally bounded by federal low 44th and 41st. There is this one hole in the middle of the rezoning area, which is pad which is not proposed to be was the overlay would not be applied to. So I'll talk about the text to amendment first. So very in 2010 when the zoning code was was updated. You know, when you're doing a zoning code update of that scale in a city the size of Denver, you have to come up with some manageable number of zoning classifications to apply to the to the thousands of acres of single unit residential areas around the city. And in doing so, you have to, to some degree, take a sort of a broader approach while still trying to be mindful of context sensitivity. And so they did do that. And our zone districts are set up to be context sensitive when it comes to predominant lots sizes, building coverages, the location of garages and things of that nature and driveways and such. But they knew the authors of the zoning code at that time, and maybe many of you that worked on it, and those in the community knew that they weren't going to get it all right. And so they they saw that ahead of time. And they put in place this mechanism, which is a conservation overlay, which allows council members, community members, the city, to to come in and essentially write custom zoning for specific areas to to right size that zoning to the character of a specific neighborhood. How it works is that the conservation overlay overlays or sits on top of the underlying zoning regulations, those baseline regulations stay in place and new or modified standards are also put in place through the conservation overlay where there's any difference between the two. The conservation overlay standards are those that apply. And then as you heard in the last presentation, the conservation overlay cannot modify permitted uses in the underlying districts. This would be the sixth conservation overlay in the city. So in ten years, really not that many have come online. So. So this bring us to a total of six. Just to quickly mention and I'll come back to this in more detail, but we do have a very specific and clear support from Blueprint Denver for the use of conservation overlays to enhance and retain the existing character neighborhoods. So I'm trying to give you a feel for what this neighborhood is like. If you go and walk this neighborhood and you look around and try to try to take it all in, I think mostly what you're going to see is you're going to see a. For the most part, you're going to see one story sort of bungalow as you would think. A bungalow neighbor, a bungalow, a building forms. You're going to see a mixing of two story forms as well. Throughout the neighborhood, buildings typically have pitched roofs, pretty modest footprint sizes and home sizes overall. As you look down the street, kind of taking in the streetscape, you'll see this sort of rhythm of traditional front porches that predict project from that front facade of the building. You also see that the first story or that street level story is typically raised after the grade a bit. And then here you'll see pretty generous side setbacks compared to some of our other neighborhoods in Denver. And then something really unique here in Harkness Heights is that you'll you'll know it. And then the data sort of backs this up, is that the setbacks from the South Side property line are typically more generous than those from the . So as a council district in the neighborhood came together and started thinking about this tool and the appropriateness of it for hurting as high as they want to first understand what could be built under the existing baseline regulations. So what you're looking at here is a graphic that indicates in the middle, sort of a typical bungalow house that you'd see in Harkness Heights, and then on the left and right, a couple of different styles of buildings that maxed out what you could do under the existing zoning. And so through those types of exercises, they identified a range of compatibility concerns that they wanted to address, which are summarized here in the slide. And they sort of landed on a series of key objectives to go into the development of this overlay, one, to ensure the development is compatible in scale and massing with the existing character of the neighborhood to ensure that the siting of buildings in this neighborhood reflect prevailing side set back patterns, as I just spoke about, to ensure that there is a maintenance of that, that a rhythm of one storey elements in this case projecting front porches and to mitigate potential impacts of upper level outdoor spaces on adjacent property within the adjacent properties. And within the context of those overlay objectives, they, the neighborhood and council also wanted to maintain a certain degree of design flexibility to allow for contemporary design or different materials maybe that were were typically or traditionally used in the neighborhood. So really focusing on form and not details like style and materials. So when I walked through some of the, the through all the conservation overlay elements themselves. So if adopted, this conservation overlay would reduce building height both in feet and in stories, and it would do so more significantly in as it pertains to feet for structures with what's called a low slope roof and as defined in the code that has to do with the pitch of the roofs. If you see the graphics over here, anything that's at three, 12, 3 to 12 pitch or less is considered a low slope roof, but for all intents and purposes is basically a flat or almost flat roof . And so that's a move to try to allow flat roof forms and almost flat roof forms that weren't really traditional to this neighborhood. But if if constructed, a certain height can still be compatible with the existing character. The overlay would put in place upper maximum or excuse me, minimum and maximum height for the upper surface of that street level floor of 12 inch and 36 inch respectively, to ensure that development in the area is scaled in terms of its first floor to fall within the range of what's typically seen in the neighborhood. The overlay would incrementally constrict the boat plane, which is a zoning code word, which essentially means the building envelope or volume within which a building can be built. Under the zoning code, some some some small tweak there to bring the scale and masking down a bit. It would put in place gross floor area maximums for the primary structure of 3000 square feet and allow additional flexibility for larger lots. And I just want to note here that again, this only applies to primary structure and it also only applies to above grade floor area. So if you have basement space or something like that, it wouldn't count against this. Oh. The overlay would also put in place what's called a lower slope, upper storey step. And what that says is that if you have a portion of a building that has a low slope roof greater than 15 feet, that that portion of the building above 15 feet must be set back from the primary. The lower portion of the primary street facing facade, a minimum of ten feet. I talked about citing the overlay for most lots out here would increase the minimum interior side setbacks incrementally and it would also require this setback to be staggered. So, again, a larger setback from the south sides on line than that from the north. The conservation overlay would require front porches be provided in development and that those front porches meet specified design criteria. And it would the overlay would prohibit rooftop and or second story decks that are on or above the second story or that are projecting from the building above the street level. You know, talk about the map amendment. Existing zoning, as I mentioned, was as you as you see and you as you see one, there's this 1c1 property in there that zoning was approved for that, I think, back in February. That's relatively new. And then you also see the zoning in the surrounding context. This map shows existing land uses in the rezoning area and then first round in the immediate context. Some more pictures of existing build, form and scale both within the neighborhood. And then some of those uses and forms an immediate context. The public outreach for this project was really amazing, both on behalf of her, as done by Councilwoman Sandoval and led by her and Councilman Espinosa before her time in office. And I would also say that the work by the residents of this neighborhood themselves and helping with the outreach was also nothing short of amazing and very, very rigorous. This display certainly doesn't do it justice. But I did want to highlight some of the some of the key outreach elements that were undertaken here. I'm in terms of public comment, we got a letter of support from the Heritage Sites Neighborhood Association, R.A. And we got as of the publishing in the staff report, I had received 25 letters of support and three in opposition. I think you have received a couple more letters of support since the publishing and the staff report. To my knowledge, the letters of support should be up to 27 at this point, although maybe you may have received others that I'm not aware of. Most of the letters in support are are in support of this because it is again, maintaining the character of the neighborhood as an overlay is intended to do. Some of the letters in opposition were generally in opposition to additional regulation, but just at an overall level, not a lot of specificity about specific points, the overlay that they were in opposition to. We followed the process for a text map amendment as as we were required. And that brought us here to the city council public hearing. For the review criteria, we have to look at both the specialized review criteria for a conservation overlay and also the typical legislative texts and map amendment review criteria. So we'll start with the conservation overlay. So what the zoning code says is that the area to which a conservation overlay is applied shall have one of the following distinctive building features or distinctive siting features. So I went over those already in the previous portion of the slide show. But suffice to say, staff certainly found that this overlay and and the area needs not just one but both of these criteria. So now I'll move into the adopted plans. The text and map amendment mean any number of of policies and can't plan 2043 of the ones that we found to be most relevant we've shown here for your reference. Moon to blueprint Denver. The future neighborhood context is urban, calling for residential areas, a single unit and two unit. This text and map amendment would not change the permitted uses in the area, so we're just simply maintaining consistency with your neighborhood context. Feature place type is low residential calling for predominantly single and two unit uses. Again, since the text and map amendment wouldn't change, the permitted uses of this action would just maintain consistency with a blueprint. Denver feature place type features, street types or combination of residential street types. Although most of the streets in the rezoning area are actually local on designated streets. But for those that are designated, what they call square is primarily primarily residential uses too. So but those streets and that those used to be modestly stepped back are sorry have modest front setbacks that would vary by neighborhood. In this case, this text and map amendment wouldn't change anything about the allowed uses or modify the front setbacks. Therefore it would just maintain consistent and see with future street types. And then growth area strategy. This is designated as all areas, all other areas of the city, meaning it's meant to accommodate incremental change. Over time, the tax amendment will continue to allow that incremental growth over time. So we maintain consistency with the future growth strategy. Excuse me. Couple other policies to point out. Again, the one I showed you earlier where Blueprint Denver specifically encourages to use conservation overlays in areas where there is a goal to retain the unique character of a neighborhood. And then also, there is a clear policy that supports this type of large scale legislative rezoning and text amendment, provided that there is a robust outreach. And certainly this text map would be consistent with both of these. As a large Texan map amendment, we need to do our equity impacts analysis. And so if you look at access to opportunity, this area is scored as having average access. The TEX Amendment and MAP amendment would not change the uses that are permitted. So wouldn't and would also not increase transit service or result in any specific development project. Therefore, it's likely to have no impact on access to opportunity. Involuntary displacement is area scored as not vulnerable. The text ma'am amendment. Excuse me. The text and map amendment would not change the permitted use as out here or increase the development potential in terms of the number of units that are allowed on a lot and therefore is likely to have no impact on involuntary displacement. In terms of housing diversity, the areas scored as having less diversity. For most measures, we think that for some of the same reasons I've been mentioning that that that the tungsten map and women are likely to have no impact on most of those measures. However, you look at home size diversity, which is one of the measures that may have some minor impact on that, and that it does place limitations on square footage which would result in smaller homes if new homes were to come along and may also have an effect of reducing the likeliness that a home would be demolished and replaced with a very large house because of the delta between what's on the ground and what can be built would be somewhat reduced here. Then for jobs, diversity, the the the area within the rezoning area that sort of made it on the board here. Half of the area didn't get it make it make the cut in terms of this measure at all. But the Western portion did and that block group scored is having more retail. And again, since this text and map amendment wouldn't change, the permitted use was like introducing other nonresidential uses than than what the underlying zoning already allows . It's likely to have no impact on jobs diversity. We also found that this rezoning would result in uniformity of district regulations, and there would also further public health, safety and welfare of the community, both by implementing adopted plans, but also maintaining this very walkable, pedestrian friendly area into the future. And so with that, CPD recommends approval of Denver Zoning Code Text Amendment Number ten, establishing bungalow conservation overlay CO six and associated amendments finding that the applicable review criteria have been met. And secondly, staff recommends approval of MAP Amendment 2020 999 rezoning USAC and USAC one zoned properties in the rezoning area to apply the SEAL six overlay zoning district, finding that the applicable review criteria have been met. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you very much, Brad, for a concise staff report. We appreciate that. And tonight, council has received four written comments on Council Bill 158. There are four submitted comments in favor of the application and no submitted comment in opposition of the application. No written comments have been received for Council Bill 159. All members of Council that are present have certified that they have read each of the submitted written comments to any members need more time in order to read all of the written testimony that was submitted. CNN council secretary let the record reflect that all written testimony, both in favor and in opposition of Council Bill 158 have been read by each member of Council and all written testimony will be submitted to the official record of the hearing this evening. We have seven individuals signed up to speak, and we're going to go ahead and get started with our first speaker, Tom Mobley. All right. Well, we had. Tom, we've got you here, Tom. We're going to need you to go ahead and unmute, please. All right. We're going to try to figure out what's. Going on with Tom's audio here. And in the meantime we'll. Go ahead and move to our next speaker and see if we can get Tom back up in the queue. Jonathan Tobacco. Yes. Hello? Can you hear me? Go ahead, John. Hey, thank you for having me tonight. My name's Jonathan Stokoe. I live in West Colfax, 802041. To make a couple of comments on this specific overlay and some concerns I have with the way it is, the language in the overlay and very supportive of overlays in general. Appreciate what you've done with the active transportation overlay and I do recognize the value of design elements here. But but I, but I sincerely worry that we have sort of gone too far with some of this language and restricted out some types of forms that would generally promote some of the city's goals around affordability. And particularly, we have and we also have some elements in here that are inconsistent with the reality of the neighborhood as it stands today, one of which is about the front porches. The guidelines say that a front porch must exist and cannot a lot more than exterior wall. This despite the fact that many of the original homes that are in this neighborhood right now are in violation of this rule. Wraparound porches are really common porches facing a driveway, in some cases, porches facing a side of a building. That is particularly true for the multi-family, the currently multi-unit spaces, and will restrict further development that makes multi-unit spaces attractive. My understanding from a discussion with a planner was this was not the intention. This did not intend to forbid wraparound. This was a mistake. But when I raised this feedback was told it was too late to make any changes because it had already gone, had been submitted, dilutive in some way. So we're passing something that doesn't actually meet the intent of of what the planners had designed. I'm also noting that there is this sort of apparently arbitrary and arbitrarily large figure of 120 square feet for front porches currently. Again, 100% of the multi-unit properties between 41st and 42nd are in violation of that. Their board sizes are too small. And I did learn that this square footage came from a meeting from neighborhood submitted measurements, neighbors who wanted to submit measurements. I'm assuming that folks with large, large porches are the one that submitted measurements to create an average, because looking around the neighborhood, most of the homes in the neighborhood right now violate this overlay criteria because their porches are too small. So in both of these cases, we were creating standards that don't actually match the reality. What we see today and again, I'm concerned. Put together a standard that encourages the creation of the most expensive housing type. Large single family bungalows with excessively large porches and space, etc. and will discourage affordable development here. Otherwise. I think that's that that's about it. I'm a little worried that there's a few stated intense here. Affordability is not one of them. And we we are doing things that may damage that city goal. And I'm concerned we haven't addressed that here. Thanks. All right. Thank you, Jonathan. And Mr. Mobley, if we're not able to get you into the queue here, we see you, but you might need to log out and log back in. And our central staff will be looking for you in the attendees. And so we hope that we can get your audio and camera up working if you log back in again. And our next speaker is Roberta Anderson. And you're going to have to unmute. I'm unmuted. Okay, great. Mr. Mobley, if you can hold on. We'll get you up next in the queue. We've got another speaker ahead of you right now, sir. All right. Miss Anderson. Good evening. My name is Roberta Anderson, and I'm president of the Harkness Heights Neighborhood Association. And I would like to thank the council for taking the time to entertain our monologue conservation overlay. Before I come to you as the President of HRH in a my residence as a resident, my ties to the neighborhood go back 63 years or generations of my family have lived or now living in the neighborhood. My parents bought their home in 1956, raised myself and three siblings. We purchased our home in 1998. I raised two sons and now my granddaughters are residing in the neighborhood as well. With that being said, as president, I come before you with confidence to let you know that our board of directors of Harkness Heights supports this approval by voting ten in favor, zero against and one abstention. You'll hear in the testimony of Mr. Mobley and Greg Sader that we've worked endlessly and for many years and have reached out , reached and solicited feedback from the entire neighborhood. Keeping them up to date on the entire process. In July of 2019, counsel Amanda Sandoval and her staff took over the continuation of the overlay process from Counsel Espinosa. She brought on board Naomi Grundfest, who was invaluable resource in enhancing our overlay. So we were able to bring it back to the entire neighborhood for their review in March of 2020. Councilwoman Sandoval invited all property owners to two different town halls where she discussed herself, as well as her staff and the CDC representatives and our zoning chair after these two meetings. Every property owner was invited to share their thoughts and opinions on every component of this overlay via an online survey. If anyone had difficulty, we contacted them by phone or socially distanced them in person and helped them fill out the recent survey. I spoke I personally spoke with an 83 year old resident who had no computer or Internet access but wanted her opinions highly in favor of the overlay. With the survey, we reached 200. We had 211 responses six with a 62% response rate. Over 80% supported the overall overall overall overlay and shared comments on the specific elements. The task force, along with CBT and Amanda's staff, made adjustments to the sentiment of community. It was then turned over to CBT staff for formal drafting. Throughout this time, we kept the neighborhood abreast of the situation. As plans were finalized. We posted these on our web page as well and we emailed the hearing notifications to our residents as we see them. At this time, we would like to thank former Councilman Rafael Espinoza, Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval, their staffs and numerous volunteers for the endless hours of support they put into this overlay process to keep the unique, unique character of our neighborhood. Thank you very much. And please take this into consideration. All right. Thank you so much for your comments. And next up, we have Tom Mobley. I see we've got your video and audio, sir. So go ahead, please. I apologize. I was using my laptop, which is the first time I've used it on a zoom. And halfway through it just said, you can't talk on zoom on your laptop. No worries. I blocked my iPad into India, so I'm back on. My name is Tom Mobley and I live at 4191 Irving Street. As a resident of hardness heights, I'm here to support the approval of City Council bills 20 10158159. The bungalow conservation overlay will ensure excuse me will ensure that Harkness Heights will retain its historic bungalow character as it continues to grow and thrive. My wife and I moved away from Denver in 1992 for employment offers. We relocated back to Denver in 2011, knowing that we wanted to find an individual vintage home in northwest Denver. We quickly discovered Hart inside, falling in love with his sense of community and small neighborhood feel. We purchased a wonderful 1923 crescent bungalow, of which we are only the third owner. In 2016, I was elected president of the Harkness Heights Neighborhood Association during my first year in that role. There were discussions among the Harkness House neighbors about the increasing amount of tear downs and new construction in nearby neighborhoods that were felt to be having a negative impact on the character of those neighborhoods. Those concerns motivated the Hhn eight to begin exploring what could be done to protect the unique character of our small enclave of 360 houses. We initiated discussions with Councilman Rafael Espinosa and his then aide, Amanda Sandoval, representatives of historic Denver, as well as members of the Berkeley Beach's United Neighbors, about our concerns and our best options. In March 2018, Councilman Espinosa and Denver CPD hosted a community town hall session for Brunt and Hhn, 31 of the total 51 residents attending were from Harkness Heights. Even though Harkness Heights comprises only 360 houses compared to approximately 4000 in Berkeley. Following discussions with Amanda, Rafael and CPD, we decided to not pursue a joint overlay with Brun, but pursue our own heart and insights overlay. We formed a task force of 31 residents who had attended the Joint Town Hall and in May 2018 with the assistance of Amanda Sandoval. We hosted the initial organizing meeting of our Art and Insights Task Force from the beginning and throughout the entire process to develop the conservation overlay for heart insights, we committed to to engage the entire neighborhood in the review discussions, crafting and final approval. We maintained frequent and open communications with the neighborhood through the entire process. Our effective outreach effort utilizes direct mail in all property owners, town hall and annual membership meetings. Numerous newsletter email, nextdoor notices and hand-delivered fliers. We are confident that we met our commitment to keep the entire community engaged and informed along the way. That's the time we have allotted for each speaker this evening. Glad we got you backed up into the queue. Our next speaker is Gregory Sader. Go ahead, please. All right. As you can all hear me. Mm hmm. Go ahead. Greg said earlier that 41, 85 Irving Street Farms, neighbor of our zoning committee, asked me to play a role, and I. I accepted that. And. Subsequently advised the task force committees. I am an I'm a resident of Northwest Denver since 1994, living in Eileen's, then Sunnyside, and then moving here to Harkness Heights in 2012. So I've seen all the grit and I've seen all the growth and all the all the, you know, all the changes that have occurred. In the neighborhood over the years. And, you know, listening to the. And street overlay, you know, I think in Harkness Heights, we have we have those concerns that were expressed there as well. And so we ventured into this this effort to try to preserve our neighborhood character. I'm an architect. I've been practicing for the past 20 years. And so that's I think that's why I'm tapping you to to to advise the group. And so my my effort was really focused on helping the neighborhood residents understand from these codes and to help us navigate and really try and just help people to understand the language of the code and how the formal based code, you know, affects that character of the neighborhood. And so really, I think the task force efforts were were were very productive, very engaging. And. You know. Rocio Espinosa Huntsman started that process. Brought on a consultant for us that did an amazing an amazing effort of of surveying the neighborhood and sort of defining characteristics of the neighborhood for us that we were able to incorporate into the overlay. It was very vibrant, active workshop. Style meetings that led to some really good discussions. And I think furthered and bettered the outcome and. I hope you all support our efforts. And thank you, too. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mike Corden Day. Thank. Thank you. Council President. Distinguished Council members. Can you see me? Can you hear me? We can hear you. We can't see you, Mike. Okay. Sorry about that. My wife and I reside at 4269 Julien Street in Denver. Having is operator two and one. I've heard the testimony that preceded my own or excuse me prissy my. I'm delighted to hear the passion that we all share about the special neighborhood. I come at this from a slightly different angle. I'm a past president of. Harken cites circa 1994, a 29 year resident in my education, training and experience includes both undergraduate and graduate degrees in community and regional planning. My undergraduate degree having an emphasis on historic preservation. My graduate degree being from the University of Colorado. At Denver and also the principal. Of a small land planning consulting firm based in Evergreen. My having had some 38 years of combined public and private sector experience, and I've been on the overlay task force for three years since its inception. In an effort. To conserve time and avoid repetition. I think my message is simple. We as a neighborhood pulled together, along with the competent guidance from Councilman Sandoval and Councilman Espinosa before her. Her staff and the staff of CPD to try and create something that reaches beyond the typical protections that traditional zoning achieves. And rather than get into that discussion about the nuts and bolts language, about the overlay that CPD's Brad Johnson summarized so eloquently, I wish to share a story with you. Shortly before a February 3rd planning board hearing. A good friend of mine who just retired from his landscape architecture practice and I met in our back yard for a socially distant year due to COVID. We had not seen each other in a very long time. Shortly after we. Settled in for a visit, I asked him how his trip was. He came from Race Street on the east side of Washington Park. And while I don't mean any disrespect for the owners of the many beautiful homes that exist in that area now, my friend responded that it was a rare treat to visit our neighborhood, where much of the original character has remained unaltered. He added that the house south of him and on the corner. Was recently raised and replaced with a big black box, adding that he is tired of living in the shadows and that they will likely sell their family home and that same teardown and replacement template will likely be repeated. In fact, both he and his wife are avid gardeners and he said This is the first year where they will not be planting due to their loss of solar gain in sunlight. Madam President and council members, that is sad. But today we have an opportunity to take a different approach. We have an opportunity to supplement the existing zoning within Harkness sites with a largely community driven bungalow overlay initiative. And we respectfully. Request your support. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Our last speaker this evening is Amber Carrasco. Hey, Lenny. There's my video. Okay. Go ahead. Hello. A sincere thank you to each one of you for taking the time to be present at this hearing. A special thanks to the city councilman, especially Amanda Sandoval, for sponsoring sponsoring this overlay and also Brad and Amy for their hard work. I truly appreciate the efforts to help ensure this changing city maintains much of what makes it unique. I am asking for your wholehearted support for zoning change 20 10158 and five nine. I am a Colorado native with a deep love for this state in all of its beauty. My husband and I moved to Harkness Heights in July of 2019. We looked at around 120 homes before deciding on our 1911 craftsman charmer. As a realtor in Colorado for 14 years. We were able to move quickly on our dream home. A large part of the appeal to this home was the neighborhood full of charm, mature landscaping, beautifully maintained older homes with few scrapes. This is what we wanted a neighborhood where owners were preserving the character and not tearing it down. As a member of the younger generation living in Harkness Heights. The charm of the bungalows that make up the streets in this area is something I want to be a part of keeping and not changing. We are one of the 20 larger lots in the area and there was no way I would ever knock down our home to build a larger home with less land. In fact, I ripped up over 800 square feet of sod and now grow a vegetable garden. Although the time I have lived here has been shorter than most, the love for the area neighbors and charm runs deeply in my veins. After reading through the 200 plus survey responses, there were two concerns a few residents had. One is regarding values, and the other is property rights. As a realtor, I wanted to see if the concerns about an overlay negatively affecting value was true. I heard the data from the MLS and this is what I found. I use the Potter Highlands overlay boundary for this data. It went into effect in November 2015. I used sold home values in this area and then compared it to the entire metro area for the same time period. What I found where the values went up 46% in the metro area over the last five and a half years. The value increase in Potter Highlands was 43%, just in line with the Metro average. These numbers are very few any cause for concern with overlays negatively affecting value. The other concern some had on the survey was about property rights. No matter when you purchased your home, you bought a home that had some type of limitation on what could be built or changed. Billing constraints have been a part of the city since 1925. So over the last 95 years, there have been limits. This overlay is seeking to refine those limits to ensure this neighborhood keeps the energy, esthetics and character it has maintained for over a century. As the results from the survey indicated, the large majority of residents are in favor of this overlay. With over 80% of the respondents in support. This overlay is also in line with Denver's comprehensive 2040 plan. Striving to celebrate architecture, keeping smaller, more affordable homes, and maintaining the character and vibrancy in this area. I kindly ask for your support to vote in favor of this overlay to preserve the charm of Harkness Heights. Thank you for your time, and I appreciate having the opportunity to speak on behalf of our wonderful neighborhood. All right. Well, thank you, Amber, and to all of our speakers this evening. And that concludes our speakers questions from members of Council on Council Bill 158 and or Council Bill 159. And we've got a couple of members up in the queue. Councilmember CdeBaca, your first. Thank you. Just wanted to ask Brad a little bit about. The list of. Building features or site features that qualify under the criteria. I'm really excited. About this. And want to thank Councilwoman Sandoval for her work on this. And I'm interested in it for some parts of. My district, but also a little bit worried. Because it seems like the. Features might be associated with people. Who might have had more. Money when they were constructing their homes. And so I want to know, like, what are the things that could count as the building features or the siting features? Yeah. I appreciate that question. I'm trying to bring up the section so I can give you a very clear answer, but I would while I try to find that, I'll just say that it's typically about the form of the buildings in the area. And so a typical process would be to do an analysis of a certain area to determine, you know, what the data and what's actually on the ground is telling us. It could be roof form, it could be the presence of porches, it could be the siting of the building, it could be materials, it could be a lot of different things. And so the key is that it focuses on sort of the physical form of of both building and siting features. So I think there's a quite a bit of flexibility actually in terms of of. Well, what can be on the table for what constitutes what's appropriate for a conservation overlay? And it might be completely different in one area versus another, and a neighborhood might have a different view about what compatibility means in one area versus another. And what is the process for inferred catalyzing? Is there a decision involved? So I'd like to chime in on your first question. So there's an important piece of documentary. It's called Discover Denver. So Discover Denver has done it works with historic Denver and community planning and development. And they did an analysis of this area. I want to say that this analysis came out in 2015, and it talks about some of the characteristics that you mention. And so that is how we got a lot of the report done, is if you go into them, discover Denver, they've done some of Globeville, various ones here. Jefferson Park mine is called the 1920s, small, lot, small homes. And so actually it was these homes were not associated with people who had more money. It was actually a group of architects who founded an association in 1914 to come up with homes so families could move into them. But they were it was nationwide and they were constructed so that they could be affordable for families moving into this area. So I can share that with you. But I just wanted you to know that there's this amazing resource out there that started this work. And I found that when I was working for Councilwoman Monteiro to help figure out where it should go next. And we pointed it, directed it to Global in Swansea because of the gentrification and change in the built environment. Thank you. And Brad. Can you catch. The other. The other question. About how how many people you need or how many blocks you need to catalyze this process? And is there like a petition involved. Where homeowners have to approve it? No, there's no formal homeowner approval. I think typically the council district representative is the one that sort of leads the process. So of course, you could talk to to Councilwoman Sandoval and she could tell you about her experience in doing that. We have developed some basic guides in CPD that we could provide you just for what the typical process might be to develop a conservation overlay. But again, this is sort of just guidance, understanding that every every case is different. And and there's no hard and fast rule about, you know, you need this many votes, etc., etc.. What we would be looking for to make a recommendation for a conservation overlay and CPD, of course, would be that there was adequate outreach, that it seemed like there was a consensus that this was in a direction that people that own property in the neighborhood wanted to go. But it's not like, you know, must be 60% or anything hard and fast like that. And if I can, just to your other question, I found that piece of of code says to apply a conservation overlay to the district should contain distinctive building features such as a period such as period of construction style, size, scale, detailing, mass color and material or the design or distinctive site planning and natural features such as light cladding, building, light coverage, street layout, setbacks, alleyways, sidewalks, creek beds, parks and gardens. So I mean, I just read that to give you a sense of how how broad and flexible this tool is. Awesome. Thank you so much. You'll be here for me. That's it for me. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Up next, Councilmember Hines. Thank you. Council President I have a question about Slide 15, the scale and massing, specifically the upper surface of the floor on street level. I, I understand there was a bit of a conversation in your, in your process about the, you know, ensuring that there on grade was not allowed and that that meant the minimum surface was between 12 and 36 inches. Specifically with regards to the disability community. And actually, I want to thank Councilmember Sandoval and your office for for providing this again today. So I just I it sounds like you had a rich engagement. You had some conversation about that. So. So, Mr. Johnson, perhaps you can you can talk about that, that engagement process. Oh, happy to start. And Councilman Sandoval and or Naomi may want to jump in after. So, yeah, we struggle with this one a little bit. On the one hand, this is such a character defining element in the neighborhood, right? I mean, when you think of a bungalow form, that's what you think of. The porch is like a little bit a and you're sort of hanging out in the porch above the street level. Right. And so the the importance of that physical characteristics of the neighborhood was was clear from the beginning. On the other hand, we did want to be mindful of accessibility issues. So we did a couple of different things. So we we did ultimately decide in coordination with the council district in the neighborhood to keep the rule about, you know, minimum 12, maximum and 36 inch for that first floor and place. But we did a couple of other things to build in a little bit more flexibility. So first thing we did was we. So in the existing code, in the baseline regulations, you are allowed to to have an ADA around that that encroaches into the setback area for an existing building only and only if you exacerbated all other options beyond the front set back first. So the first thing we did with this overlay was we said, forget about that, we're making this new rules, so let's build in more flexibility. So we said no, in this overlay, you you can encroach into any set back regardless of whether it was your best or third or second option or whatever. So you can do that period. And we also made it so that you could do that for an existing or a new building. The other thing we did was we made that rule so that it only applied to the front 40% of the zone lot depth. So it's really just the front part of the house. So that would allow perhaps a little bit more flexibility, you know, in the rear portion of the lot or even the middle portion of a lot to gain that access. And it is. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Yes. So just wanted you to know that as soon as this got brought up about ADA Access, we immediately reached out to the Division of Disability Rights for in Denver and talked to Dr. Russo, Aisha, and talked to her about concerns or different issues that we had heard. And so we vetted this several different times in several different ways. So I know exactly what you're talking about. And ultimately, what is a character defining feature in Harkness Heights also is to have a higher ceiling so that people can have basements because we have the Denver Hill and the topography so strange and the water table has gone up a lot of times is people aren't having as big basements. And in northwest Denver, especially in Harkness Heights, you can actually have some apartments, like you can have an attached accessory dwelling unit basement or accessory ground unit in these units. And so that was a character defining feature that we found in our analysis that we did do extensive outreach to the Office of Disability Rights. And if needed, you can always go to the VOA to buy right to bypass the standard of the overlay if needed, because it is in the church itself. It's a hardship. Okay. Thank you for your your thoughts and context. And we were all and actually so one other question this actually does it apply to it applies to new construction, but also existing construction is is that right? So the whole construction. That really changes in the FDA requirements. And you said 40%, and I think I heard you say that that also can apply to existing dwellings, that they also have additional flexibility should they want to make accessibility improvements. That's correct. And that's allowed in the baseline current. Thank you. Thank you. Council President. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Hines, Councilwoman Sandoval, we have you up. Thank you, Madam President. I just would like to call up one of our speakers, former Councilman Espinosa. He worked on a lot of the part that Councilman Hines is talking about. So I just wanted to bring him up to see if he has any clarifying thoughts or any anything else that he can add to the conversation. All right. Sounds good. We've got him moved up into the queue. And I have to say, a couple of these slides I think I've seen in the past, not just in the recent committee, but from way back when, when we were talking about the scale and massing. So welcome back, former Councilman Espinosa. And if you wanted to address the councilman's question. Yep. Thank you for the opportunity again. Council President. The yeah. So as a. At the time this started, I was a licensed architect and I just want to be very clear that federal ADA does not apply to privately owned homes. It is only for public facilities. And so the right of way, you know, public buildings and whatnot. And so this was something we were super cognizant of. But at the same time, if you lose, if you know the topography of this neighborhood, the only way to to access a new construction home would be to basically to demolish the historic Denver Hill and build a form that is completely antithetical to the neighborhood. So what we were pursuing was a conservation overlay, which is a very specific tool in the Denver zoning code toolbox, not unlike, say, the Cris, the park conservation overlay that we approved in prior council. So it's, it's, it's addressing unique features to this specific community. And among them is the elevated ground floor level. That being said, being mindful of the topography changes the alleyways most of most, if not all the blocks are accessible through alleys. And so if you have the resources to build a new construction project and excavate out the hill and bring your building down, you probably would have the resources as an architect. It would be far simpler to to enter level from from your an accessible garage into an accessible home. And the rest of the tools and rules in the overlay district do allow for a fully accessible unit to be built. It's the it's the front porch access. That would be a challenge, but it would be a challenge nonetheless, mostly because of topography. So it is something we were mindful of. But again, ADA itself, federal ADA rules do not apply to single family homes. That are built with private dollars, I should say. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Former Councilman Espinosa. Councilman Sandoval, did you have any other questions for the councilman? All right. Well, might just keep you up here, because I see Councilman Hines has has raised his hand again. And so we're going to go ahead and go to Councilmember Ortega and get her question asked, and then we'll go back to you, Councilman Hines. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to ask a question about the the size of the porches. One of the speakers raised the question about the fact that some of the porches are actually smaller than what the language calls for. And clearly, we're not saying that they have to go build a larger porch. This, I'm assuming, applies to any new construction that would happen in the neighborhood that would require a larger porch. So can either Mr. Johnson or Councilman Sandoval just clarify that that point. Yeah. I'm happy to take this and grab a minute by myself. Feel free to come. So when the speaker Jonathan from my facts met with my staff, Naomi, three things were inaccurately portrayed in those comments. It specifically this overlay specifically made it clear which is Naomi made it clear that the wrap around purchase in no way are prohibited. We wouldn't want to create anything that's not prohibited now and that the standards are merely their minimums. So it's just a minimum standard to have a porch and you can go above that minimum as much as you would like to, and you can have a wraparound porch if that's something that you would like to. About the comment above the duplex form having side porches. There are seven duplexes in Harkness Heights and only two of them have had entries on the side and that's due big to the corner. It's a corner unit and they're in trees on the side. So the other duplex has its newly built and it's not an original building. And so the data on the porch was collected not not by name, not by the neighborhoods it would come from. And Espinosa hired Helena architecture from from Boulder, and they did all the data collecting and all of the information gathering. It wasn't just neighbors putting together information. It was it was I wouldn't do that. It was very meticulous and very thoughtful. And then Naomi vetted it and vetted it and vetted it time and time again. So I hope that answers your questions. Yeah, that's very helpful. I'm trying to understand they know there was some comparison to the Outer Highlands conservation overlay in Potter. Highlands is also a historic district and I'm just curious why overlay versus historic districts? For this area. So the Potter Highland overlay, that's a two unit zoning. So it's different zoning and that was for the infill development that was not they didn't feel like was taking cues from the Potter Highland Design Review Board that is there. So that one was for infill development and it was the Harkness Heights Association voted prior to us getting involved. And they decided that they didn't want to do a historic district. They wanted to pursue the conservation overlay. And that was when Tom Mabrey talked about the conversation with historic Denver. That was when they decided that they didn't want to pursue a historic district, that they would rather pursue the conservation overlay. So it was the neighborhood that made that decision. Okay. Great. Those are all the questions I have. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilmember Ortega and Councilmember Hines, we got you back up. Thank you. Council President So I don't remember. ESPINOSA Absolutely not. But but not that he needs aid. Nobody needs affirmation from me. Excuse me. The Honorable Espinosa is absolutely right. It doesn't apply to single family units. And so that's why I mentioned accessibility as opposed to specifically ADA, you know, and I also totally get that, that we should retain some of the neighborhood character. I think that if we destroy neighborhood character for I mean, the whole idea of this is to create more neighborhood character, not just, you know, McMansions or whatever. So I, you know, personally, I'm a fan of universal design. And so if I cannot access an entrance the same way as everyone else, then I wouldn't live there. But that that's my personal choice. That's not a choice that we should make as a, you know, as a deliberative body for every every place in the city or in this you know, in this overlay. But but here's an interesting observation. Since my crash, I haven't seen it where my friends live or the people I've dated. I don't know if they keep a clean house or a messy house or they have pictures on their walls or whatever. And and it's I try to create neighborhood. It's been really amazing to have you in in my time on council. A lot of those a lot of those properties have elevators. And it's partly because they know that we're aging as a as a state, we're aging as a society. And and so more and more people will have accessibility concerns. But but I think, you know, something that's interesting to me is being able to visit where friends live. And so. I get the idea of the Denver Hill and I get the idea that that we shouldn't steamroll what is amazing, you know, in in a particular neighborhood that makes that character of the neighborhood. I guess you mentioned the early access, though, and that's interesting to me. And I wonder, because I had my hands full with District ten, I didn't know this, you know, this area as well. But I wondered if the that alley access you mentioned that was agreed. Is that what you're saying, that that's an aspiration or is it generally that the homes in this area are at great? In, Ali. And I love to speak. Well, I. I was sort of waiting for Brad to chime in there or counsel one of our. But if you know the answer, Councilman Espinosa, please go ahead and chime in. These homes, you know, built. In the twenties and stuff and whatnot, they are not they are not without obstacles when entered from the rear, that's for sure. But the I was saying from a technical standpoint on a new construction project. The Delta, the. Great difference between the alley and the first floor is is basically the six inches that you would build a foundation that would be the only requirement. Whereas the great difference between that same floor level and the street level is typically well in excess of 30 inches. It's probably closer to 60. But and that's without. The additional the additional floor level that we're in, that datum that we're. Establishing. So it is it is just the nature of the nature of the topography, that. It is. A much closer I mean, a much shorter rise. Over a longer run from. Alley to rear entrance. Than it is from front entrance. To street. All right. Thank you. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead, Councilman Hines. I didn't know if Councilman Sandoval wanted to to answer as well. Yes. Thank you. So, as Rafael mentioned, this is for new construction or for anybody who wants to age in place. And we have a lot of people in this neighborhood who are looking to age in place. And this has been in discussion. And a lot of the I've lived across the street from this neighborhood. I live on the other side of 44 for almost 20 years now. And aging in place, I think, in Denver is a big conversation. And so we when we were talking about this with the Office of Disability Rights, we did talk about that. And that's why we brought in the ability for them to go to the. And oftentimes, you will see in this neighborhood, not throughout all northwest Denver, but the topography changes so drastic in this neighborhood, you can start on 44th and go down to 41st in the cities in the Seattle area and probably drop 50 feet, if not more. So many times homes as people have had hip replacements or knee replacements, major surgeries. They do end up having bigger garages in the back and they do usually access their homes through the back. I've seen it and they've entered some houses that you bring up great points about the fact that you're not able to go visit your friends. And that's something that I have thought about without aging in place for sure. Yeah. And and I don't mean that. I mean that it needs to be built for me. I'm just thinking as we be personally Christians, but you know, just as we as we do get older as a as a society, I think having a way to to break bread with with your friends or neighbors that helps us with community. And so that I with new construction, you know, just be nice to have that that consideration of that if if it's effectively grayed through the alley. I think that that's a reasonable accommodation to use an 80 term. Again, 88 is not quite but it is a to use the term having that, that ingress and egress maybe not through the front and um, and so, but anyway, that really the main reason why I brought it up is to think, you know, the District one office for, for your fourth art and I say the District one office because I know, I know all of us, but knows it was also thinking about it. So and I. But Councilmember Sandoval, thank you for for continuing that that deliberative process. So that's that's what I think you council president. All right. Thank you, Council Member Hines, and thank you, former council member Espinosa for also joining us this evening. And the public hearing is closed. Comments from members of Council on Council Bill 158 and or Council Bill 159. Councilmember Sandoval. Thank you, Madam President. When I think about the classic timber brick bungalow, I instantly think of partner sites. I love that type of original neighborhood architecture and my change is constant. It is so important to fight for what you love and what makes Stender distinctive. The rapid rise of out of scale and out of character infill and redevelopment in surrounding Berkeley neighborhood after the 2010 overhaul of the citywide residential zoning code spurred Harkness Heights to action. Not only did this neighborhood come together to get involved, but they have done it in such a thoughtful and thorough way. Home is where the heart is. And as we've had tough and important conversations. The discussions at the meetings were wide ranging, including the potential effect on property values and demand for homes, and the potential impact on homeowners planning to undertake additions or renovations to their properties. The task force has work with two objectives in mind to encourage preservation or partial preservation of existing homes instead of scrapes, and to have new buildings enhance the character of the neighborhood. The result of these community conversations is a strong proposal that balances the need for change and growth with the with the preserving with preserving what the community values most about their unique neighborhood. The neighborhood engagement for this effort has been inspiring. It started as as when I was a council aide. There have been countless small meetings of dedicated community volunteers. Numerous large task force gatherings and four community wide town halls. Harkness Heights Neighborhood Association went door to door, making sure everyone's voice was heard and had one on one conversations with anyone who had not participated during the survey. At each step of the way, we've gone back to multiple levels of stakeholders to vet new information, carefully considering unintended consequences, and voting together on a path forward. I would like to thank everyone who has participated in this process, starting with my predecessor, Councilman Espinosa, who brought me Naomi McLendon, who goes above and beyond, has taken phone calls about the overlay and worked really diligently and methodically on this. I would love to thank Brad for numerous hours he spent working with Naomi and myself, vetting information back and forth. And I would like to thank Tom Mobley, who led this and has been a champion of this over May for a very long time. Roberta Anderson, who is now the president and everyone on the small task force and the large task force. And most of all, once again, I'd have to say, I just have to thank my staff. Thank you, Gina, for setting up the meetings. Thank you for going above and beyond. Thank you, Manny. And just my staff. I can't. None of this would be possible if I didn't have a staff supporting me and all my crazy zoning ideas that I say, let's make a difference. But it makes them work even harder. And I just have to say that the last overlay I mean, this overnight, we had to pivot. We had to pivot due to COVID. We did this while people were losing their family members. We did this for people. We're experiencing something that no generation has ever experienced, a great pandemic. And we moved virtually. And I just want to say thank you to my community for pivoting and being able to move virtually. And thank you to my staff supporting me on long nights when I didn't know what to do. And you always just had confidence that we could figure it out together. And with that, I would ask for everyone's support. Thank you so much. Well, thank you, Councilmember Sandoval. And thank you to the CPD staff and Brad and all of your staff as well. Council member Sandoval and the speakers who joined us here tonight and shared their perspective. I'm happy to support both council bills 158 and 159. And Madam Secretary, roll call on both of those bills, please. Sandoval. I. Sawyer. I. Torres. I. Whack. I see tobacco. I. Clark. All right. Flynn. All right. And then. I. HINES. All right. Cashmere. Hi. Ortega. Hi, Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, closed the voting and announced results. Well, I. 12 Ies Council Bills 20 1-0 158 and 20 1-0159 have passed. Congratulations. Council Member Sandoval. On Monday, April 19th, Council will hold a required public hearing on Council Bill 257, changing the zoning classification for 4735 North Equipment Street in Berkeley and a required public hearing on Council Bill 258. Changing the zoning classification for 4345 excuse me, 4530 North Wynona Court in Berkeley and 4345 North Bryant Street in Sunnyside. Any protests against council bills? 257 or 258 must be filed with the council offices no later than noon on Monday, April 12. And there being no further business before this body, this meeting is adjourned.