A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 1901 7th Street in Auraria. Approves an official map amendment to rezone property from CMP-ENT to D-CPV-R, D-CPV-C, located at 1901 7th Street in Council District 9. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 11-6-18.
I'm secretary. Please close voting. Announce the results. 1111 I is council bill 1407 as amended has passed our rate. With that, we're going to move on. Councilman Lopez, will you please put council vote one, 2 to 5 on the. Floor and get to that page? Thank you, Mr. President. I move that council bill one 2 to 5 series of 2018 be placed upon final consideration to pass. It has been moved and seconded. Public hearing for Council Bill 1 to 25 is now open. May we have the staff report? Thank you, Mr. President. Council members again, Christopher Johnson, senior city planner with community planning and development. So now that we are through the first half to establish the zone districts themselves and the affordable housing requirements that run with those, we will now address the first proposed rezoning to these new zoned districts for 1901 seventh Street, known as the River Mile. It is generally the area of the current U.S. Gardens amusement park. So this this particular property does fall entirely within Council District nine represented by Councilman Brooks. It falls also within the area, overall statistical neighborhood. Here you can see in red, it's generally the the property that is in between the consolidated mainline railroad and the South Platte River. The request for this map amendment is to rezone to two out of the three new zone districts that we just talked about, the DC, PVR and the DD CPC. So the river in the center districts. You can see on the screen there's a dividing line that essentially runs as an extension of the current Ilitch circle right of way that is right there, that runs sort of to the southwest and then makes a jog before connecting. A little bit further down towards the river. The existing zoning for this property is currently skimpy. E.A., which stands for Campus Entertainment, which is a very open ended and broad zone district that was created when the news the zoning code was adopted back in 2010. There's very, very little in terms of any kind of design standards and regulatory items. There is a height limit for this area that's currently 200 feet to the north is kind of a mixture of of open space that runs parallel to Cherry Creek. There's several PUD zone districts related to the Union Station area and also some downtown lower downtown zone districts and a small area of Sierra eight there to the east, the Pepsi Center side of the property. This is mostly old code zoning. It falls under CMU 30 with and there's a number of waivers that are attached to that. There's also some existing CMCs five and eight zone districts that are also on that eastern side of the consolidated main line. You can see as you get towards the area parkway, there's a number of existing, both residential and office properties there that fall within that zone. District to the south is primarily CSX five. That generally follows the I-25 corridor. And then on the west side is a is a mixture primarily at least directly adjacent to the property is is open space. The obviously the open space that is city owned that is adjacent to the South Platte River, Centennial Gardens, which is up at the far northern end, and then on the western side, Fishback and Crescent Parks. And then there's also a number of old code zoning, CMU ten zoning that's over on that side and a few C-Max five and 12 zone districts as well. The Old City Hall Mountain View plane that was raised earlier. As you can see here from this diagram, it does extend and cross over the southern portion of this property. As mentioned before, the height limits related to that view plane are in the 95 to 100 foot range in that in that area. So regardless of what the zone district might be, as long as that view plane is is in existence and in effect, it would limit height of buildings to that 95 to 100 feet. And as mentioned, the the the state capital view plane also extends over a small portion, but is essentially overruled by this particular view plane because it's more restrictive. The land use is, as you might imagine, it's entertainment and cultural uses here. On the property itself, there's also a lot of surface parking that is a very similar situation on the eastern side with the Pepsi Center and the surrounding parking lots related to that. On the northern side is is a mixed use and multi-unit residential the characteristic of course of of downtown and all the development that's happened around the Union Station area to the south is kind of a mixture of industrial and mixed use. And then to the west, as I mentioned, parks and open space and a number of other entertainment and cultural uses, including the Downtown Aquarium and the Children's Museum, is also there on the on the western side near Water Street. A few photographs to get a sense of kind of the built context of this area. The first photo that's on the right is from the opposite side of the river, looking back towards downtown, across the English Gardens amusement area, and then a few onsite photographs in the in the middle and the lower right, showing some of the existing parking lots and a few larger buildings and structures that surround the area at the far right. And that middle photograph is the confluence building, confluence residential tower, and then the Pepsi Center, of course, on the other side of the railroad tracks, as is feature there in that lower photograph. And then this is sort of Google Earth aerial photographs that is is able to provide a little bit more context of the overall area and some of the surrounding context related to some of the structures and its relationship as being part of downtown. So we've started talking about this a little bit already. But one of the most important things that runs with this proposed rezoning is that because of the scale and the complexity of this project, there is an associated development agreement. And so the development agreement is is a legal contract essentially entered into between the developer and the city. And we're using this development agreement and then a future infrastructure master plan that I that I referenced before, really as a substitute to the general development plan process or the GDP. And that's partly just because of the scale and the complexity and the longevity of this project. Things are going to evolve. And at this moment of of getting the rezoning, we don't have all the answers. And so part of what the general part of what the development agreement is requiring is for the developer to continue with a number of various studies to look more closely, particularly at some of the infrastructure requirements and some of the traffic needs. So in the development agreement, which is in the staff report, it includes a requirement for a process to complete this infrastructure master plan. So that's going to involve all of the major utility infrastructure, water service, sewer service, streets and roads, right of ways, the relationship and the character of what those roads look like, bike lanes, number of traffic lanes, parking, all that, all those kinds of things will get vetted and worked through a process that includes not only our department , but also our public works department and the Parks and Recreation Department and others within within our city agencies. So another aspect is for the the developer to develop a comprehensive transportation demand management program. So this is really over and above any parking maximum requirements that are already built into the zoning. This is a system of more programmatic elements that can be used to to limit the amount of of vehicular traffic and try to shift people towards other modes of transportation. Much further study on the vehicular and the pedestrian bicycle and transit connections here. As you're probably aware, this particular parcel is fairly isolated in terms of its connectivity to the greater street grid and and part of what would be required to allow the level of development that we're talking about here and that we've mentioned there's going to need to be a number of additional new connections, and those could be vehicular connections. They could be multi-modal transit connections, pedestrian bridges, other things like that. And so we don't know exactly how many or where those need to be. There's ideas and a vision for those things that are that are described in the plan amendment. But these future studies are going to help the developer and the city come to a more resolution about exactly what's required. There's a very specific requirement for the amount of open space within this project, a minimum of 12% of the net developable area. So after all, public right of way and other items are subtracted out of that overall 58 acres, then 12% of that must be identified and specifically set aside as a public park and open space. There's been a negotiation with our Parks Department as to the the size and the character and the amenities that are provided in each of those different parks. So that's all, again, included in the development agreement that a minimum number of specific park types and amenities would need to be provided and including a few other community benefits, including a corn shell, actually the developer paying to build the core corn shell, improvements for a recreation center and also a new Parks Rec maintenance facility that is desperately needed in that area. One of the most critical items that's going to be really first on the docket for the developer as they move forward is there are significant floodplain issues with the current property. And so the first thing is going to be how to address the floodplain and the river improvements that are associated with that. So that's really the first step towards actually in conjunction with the course development of an infrastructure master plan working through and determining what all of those mitigation needs are going to be and then actually executing those before moving forward with the project. Same thing with environmental remediation, as you're well aware of. The history of this site is very industrial, very linked to the to the rail history there. And so there's there's a significant amount of remediation to be addressed. And so the development agreement sets forward a requirement to enter into a process to determine how that's going to be dealt with. And then also in the development agreement and the reason why it's being presented to you tonight is that there is a vesting of certain zoning requirements, particularly including some of the height and the. They are allowances and standards that are in the zoning. So the piece that everybody wants to talk about that's also part of the development agreement is this affordable housing plan. So as as Abe has described, the amendment that was just made and and approved to the revised municipal code establishes this requirement for any buildings that are above five stories that that actually execute on that incentive height. One of the ways to address that and one of the ways to qualify for that incentive height for a large or phased project is to develop this affordable housing plan. So the the specific affordable housing plan that is that is tied to the river mill development and to this rezoning here tonight, as Melissa has mentioned, requires 15% of the overall number of housing units to be provided as affordable. There's minimum dedication of units as being affordable for the number of years. Minimum here is is 40 years. If there are any city subsidized, then that would trigger the six year duration that was just recently discussed and passed here by council. As Melissa also described, the requirements for a dedication of a number of those units or a certain percentage of those units to meet various levels of of ami portion of those units being affordable up to 100% if they are for sale minimum percentages to be a certain size so that we can encourage larger units, family, affordable units , minimum percentage for for sale, for rent differences. And also this includes a mechanism for nonresidential uses to also contribute to the affordable housing requirements. So the revised municipal code amendment that was just passed that has a requirement for both residential and nonresidential types of projects, both of them have to meet a certain increased affordable housing standard. This does the same thing. So any kind of commercial development or nonresidential development also has a requirement to contribute funding towards additional units or to community serving uses. And the last note here is that there are compliance milestones that are built into that affordable housing plan. So hopefully we can avoid the situation that happened at Stapleton, where a lot of that affordable housing was put off to the end. Here, there are compliance milestones that as the project is developed phase by phase, time by time, that there will be certain compliance requirements to be met as the project moves forward over a 20 to 25 year time frame. So the standard map amendment rezoning process has has carried forward. The property has been posted. Similarly, as as we did tonight, we went to a planning board with a combination text and map amendment and also this was recommended for approval by the planning board by the vote of 91, went to the land use Transportation Infrastructure Committee and then posted the property again for a city council hearing. And we are here this evening. And the the only public comment letter that we received specific to the rezoning was the same letter that was submitted by by Tim Bors related to both the text and the map amendment. And that was in support. So the review criteria for rezonings is very similar to what we just discussed for the text amendment. There's a few additional at the at the end that I'll refer to, but making sure that the rezoning is consistent with adopted plans and as we described, the text amendment itself has taken care of a lot of these things. And so it's it's very clear that now the rezoning or the request by the property owner to rezone to those districts will be similarly consistent with those adopted plans. I talked through the comp plan 2000 strategies and some of the vision statements that are in in that comp plan. It's summarized in your staff report. One of the other items that is noted here was a legacy strategy here to identify areas within the city where increased density and new uses are desirable and can be accommodated. Blueprint Denver 2002. Same thing here. It's in the downtown context. It's part of an area of change. All of this is consistent with the text amendment and the zone districts that were just adopted into rezone to this would would follow that pattern. Blueprint Denver also talks about future street classification. There's very little road infrastructure at all that's internal to the site. Speer Boulevard and Area Parkway, way down at the very southern end is adjacent to the property. Those are identified as mixed use arterials. And then the only other street is Ilitch Circle, which is identified in Blueprint as a non designated local. So again, the need for that infrastructure master plan as we move forward with this to define new streets and the street grid and the connectivity to the rest of the city is is going to be very important downtown area plan identified this this particular location is as an area for a future opportunities to densify and then same thing with the downtown area plan amendment which dove into again much more detail and spoke about how the regulatory tools could apply to to implement the plan objectives and move this forward. So those those were all speaking to the consistency with the adopted plans. The the rezoning would also result in uniformity of district regulations. And between both the DCP River and center districts, it would further the public health, safety and welfare by implementing adopted plans and enabling this walkable urban neighborhood. And then the two additional items for rezonings. One of them is that there needs to be a justifying circumstance to help trigger and justify the change. And one of those justifying circumstances that would qualify is that the city has adopted plans and policies or changed the direction since 2010, which obviously this has happened. So this has been met through the adoption of that downtown area plan amendment earlier this year. And then also another justifying circumstances is the changed or changing conditions. And I think we're all very aware of how much significant development has really happened in this particular location adjacent in the Union Station areas, Riverfront Park in the Commons area and even up into the into the Lower Highlands neighborhood, and then finally making sure that the rezoning and the request is consistent with the context and the zone district's purpose and intent. So in the text amendment that was adopted, there is clear language about the intent of these zoned districts and where they should be applied. The downtown neighborhood context itself consists of a mix of multi-unit and residential, commercial office, institutional etc. uses in large buildings containing one or more uses. That's the description of the downtown context that's in the Denver zoning code. We're obviously consistent with that. And then the the river district as described in the new text amendment as appropriate, located within approximately one, two, one and a half blocks of the river and in the map. That is what's being proposed here. And then the Central District being located within approximately 2 to 3 blocks of those existing transit facilities, the consolidated, my main mainline and a few other specific locations in the overall CPV area district. So with that, CPD recommends that City Council approve the Map Amendment Application Number 2018 i00131 which before you is council bill 18 1225 and based on finding that all of these review criteria have been met and then we also recommend that City Council approve the related River Mile Development Agreement that's in front of you as a resolution 18 1287. Thank you. Thank you very much. We do have eight individuals signed up to speak this evening. I'm going to call the first five up. I would ask you to come to this front bench if you're in the first five, because as I call your name, your time will start. So step right up to the podium and begin Doug in, Jeff Shoemaker, Mary Ann Thompson, Kim Colley and Jesse Parris will be our first five priests. The microphone is yours. Thank you all. My name is Reece Dugan. Three, three, two, four, two, one. Street in Denver. 3 minutes is not a lot of time to describe this project, but I think we've talked about it not only tonight at length, but also for the past two years. I really, really want to thank everyone who's been a part of this process for the past two years. A lot of people think that city is just happened by accident, but it takes a lot of work and this has been two years of work. So for those of you who keep coming out night after night, month after month, thank you all. Really quickly, I think we've hit the high points. I just want to run through some numbers. I'm going to give you the river mile by the numbers. You all have a book in front of you that talks about the project. But here's the high points. The numbers, 62 total acreage of the site, including the ME. I will cite contaminated downtown adjacent one mile of riverfront, historically, historically neglected disconnected from the city due to historical and current land uses 205 yes 205 meetings with the Public Neighbors Council and city staff resulted in a surprising and encouraging shared vision for this area of downtown. 15 as we've heard. Percent of residential units that will be affordable the most comprehensive, affordable housing plan undertaken in the city to date, another 15% of the site area that will be allocated to parks and open space, exceeding the 10% mandated by the city staff, said 12. Our site plan currently reflects a 15% $600 million of infrastructure spend $6.8 billion in total development costs at full buildout. 16,450 possible future residents across a wide socioeconomic spectrum. 25,730 possible future workers, many of whom will have an opportunity to live in the community where they work for 25 years . The estimated time frame for total buildout. We're planning for the future of Denver today. Zero. The amount of dollars being sought from the city developer funded. 2500 rainbow trout stock to date in this stretch of the river, proving the untapped potential of this stretch known as the river mouth. In closing, on behalf of my team, our partner, Mr. Cronk and his family, we're excited to be in front of you tonight to share our vision. We hope you share our excitement and that we can move a step closer together on this 25 year journey. We're available, as is our as are our architects and consultants to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up, Jeff Shoemaker. Good evening, members. It's great to be back. Jeff Shoemaker two, three, four, five, six. East Cornell of New Denver, 802 ten. It's an honor to stand before you. I'm honored to have Devin Buckles and Ryan Ades of my staff here throughout the journey this evening. I also want to take a moment to this body and thank you for your support of Measure to a back in July. I'm delighted that 61% of our voters agreed with your leadership and in particular, Mr. President and Councilwoman Black, I want to thank you for your particular leadership in seeing that movie, that motion go forward. It's at moments like this when as the 38 year director of the Greenway Foundation, I get to witness a true and full realization of the Greenway Foundation's 45 year goal to allow the South Platte River to one day become the best place to work, live and play in Denver. This was if there can be anything such as the worst of the worst of the worst of what this river and the adjoining area used to be. This is it. The best thing we've found in this area is coal tar, and it goes downhill from there. And look what this is going to become. Look what this is going to become. And it is an opportunity to maximize the very birthplace of Denver. I'll conclude with this. I have engaged with numerous land owners, numerous developers, numerous visionaries. And I have not come upon an organization or group of partners that has engaged to maximize this river any stronger than this group has. Two examples. They are exceeding the minimum amount significantly of affordable housing within their site and they are exceeding the required amount of park space, open space and river space. This does not happen. This does not happen every day. And it's an example of who they've been over the last two and a half years, and I'm confident who they will be moving forward for the next 25 years. I'll finish with I enthusiastically refuses to ask you to support this measure. This is one of very, very few moments where I'd like to be on your side of the aisle. Thank you all very, very much. Thank you. Next up, Mary Ann Thompson. Ladies and gentlemen, I guess I am the pink. Elephant in the room as an activist with the homeless, with Denver. Homeless out loud. I want to. Take the time right now. To. Say the. Word. Affordable is deceptive. Hmm. Affordable? To whom? Ladies and gentlemen, if I came from San Francisco like my daughter did, and I am now have I am now living the good life here, I am now able to travel the whole world. What about the Denver ites? What about the. Gentrification that happened. Up by points? People that got pushed out to Aurora OC? Right now, ladies and gentlemen, in this city tonight, there are at least 6000 homeless people of whom 23,000 are children in the Denver public schools. Homelessness is increasing yearly due to rental increases and many other systemic problems. Again, you are failing to build housing for the homeless. Denver Rights are being swept away out of our city and state because people who are being transported here are able to afford all this. I am not cutting down development. As a person from Arizona. I watched the same thing happen where I could never buy a house I could never afford and be able to afford all the stuff that's coming in. So, again. With all this. Are we are we being inclusive here? Do we again, I'm saying where is the Colorado coalition? I don't see I don't see any representatives here in this chamber. And this is about we the people. So I'm just closing and saying, no, I disagree with this. Thank you for your time. Could you please state your name for the record? Oh, I'm sorry. Mariana Thompson. Thank you very much. Next up, Kim Collie. Kim Collie. All right. Next up, Jesse Pearce. Jesse Paris Black Star. It's a moment for self-defense. Denver Homasi out loud and positive action commitment for change. And I'm also an at large candidate for 2019. Like was previously stated by Mariam. We are against this. This is not addressing the need at all. Yeah. You're planning for five, ten, 20 years from now. This city is already being frantically, rampantly gentrified, so it's no telling what it's going to look like in five, ten, 20 years. The bottom line is, if you don't have any money, you are not going to be able to live in Denver. Period. It's already are already currently seeing this already in these rebel mile districts and all these other zone districts is not going to solve that problem. Like was already stated, there is nobody here from the coalition. There is nobody here from DSA. There is no guarantee any of this is going to actually be affordable. What we really need to be talking about is attainable and accessible housing. Housing that actually starts at 0%, areal minimum income. They like to talk in codes, so I have to break it down to you. That's what the AMA is and that's where it needs to be starting if you really want to address the housing issues in the city. So yeah. Then we're almost out loud. Blessed are some movement parties have actually come in for changes against this. Like I said earlier, we need to sweep council into sweep the mayor like he's sweeping the homeless every night. Thank you. Thank you. I will call the last three people who have signed up to speak for this. If you could come to the front. Michael Duties Chairman, say Q and Ronnie Crawford. I'm sorry if I got that name right. It I'm not sure how it came through in the system. I apologize. Go ahead. The microphone is your. Good evening. I'm Michael Gates. Thank you, council members for. Allowing me to speak. I'm president of Jefferson Park United Neighbors whose. Boundaries are superior to 17th. And federal to Water Street, where the closest neighborhood to the west of the. These zoned districts. For over a year we've had a dialog with the city and developer. Of this area. Part of this dialog. Was about improving the connectivity for. Residents of Jefferson Park. Sloan's Lake was Colfax and West. Highlands to these new zone districts into downtown. Specifically all for a multi-modal transportation. Solution on 23rd Avenue. The 23rd Avenue Bridge and Water Street. This area has a host of transportation problems, ranging from the lack of sidewalks to speeding cars exiting the highway. It impacts not only residents, but those who attend nearby attractions such as Denver Aquarium, Children's Museum and Bronco football games. We'd like to thank Councilman Espinosa and. Community Planning and Development for listening to the concerns. Of residents and expanding the language. Related to the 23rd Avenue Bridge. From just two. Paragraphs in the initial draft to two pages in the final version of the downtown area planned amendment. We'd also like to thank. Reece. Dugan for being available to answer questions and. Collect feedback from residents. At several of our well-attended. Neighborhood meetings. There was concern about the ferocity of the development and how the city will work with CDOT. In regards to transportation projects around this area. Our RINO's asked the city to be. Cognizant of these issues as as we move forward in this. Lastly, I'd like to. State that our Land Use Committee and. General membership voted. Unanimously to support these new zone districts. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next up, Chairman Sekou. Germans say Ku Klux. Our movement next May come in December 2019. But first of all, I don't want folks who are watching this on television to misunderstand the process. President Clark was proper and admonished me from the chair so that this thing could take upon a certain context with understanding. There are children who are looking at this on TV and that's not a good thing to do. So. That's one, too. To get to the subject matter. I. Stand firm with the words in which I expressed, not necessarily in terms of exactly those particular words, but exactly those meanings. So I do not apologize for the meaning of what I said. I apologize for the manner in which I expressed that. This again required me to go to Google and look up some words that may be appropriate for kids looking. So here we go. This. Here is some more poo poo. La la. Legislation. And it's poo poo la la because it doesn't really get to the essence of what it really is. It's kind of like if you step on some poo poo lala, that's one thing. But if you bring it into the house, it's another thing. So here we go with this again, self-interest. Poo poo la la. All about me. Myself and I. All these years. Born and raised here. 67 years. Yes. You should clean it up because you did it. Take responsible what you did. I didn't do it. But people didn't do it. We didn't pollute it because we got in the water. Would it turn bad? Come on. You did it. So you clean it up. Yeah. You're supposed to. And after 1500 meetings in the last 15 years of coming down here, I have the moral authority to say it. And I'm here when you ain't here after you gone. Well, you had other dates, but it ain't about you. I'm here every day for the city, not just me. So I'm not that impressed. For real? You should be here every day. Because you benefit from it every day. So start showing up every day. Otherwise, this is more poo poo. La la. And you deserve nothing more than what you get. Thank you. Next up, Ronnie Crawford. Wow. Ronnie Crawford. Excuse me. Overland Park neighborhood. I'm here to talk about the river, not the construction or the height of the buildings or any of that. I am on the board of Denver Trout Unlimited, and I'm here to talk about the fish and things along the edges and below the waterline. Are we trout? Denver Trout in a little bit is glad to be at the table with you. Principles of this project would be giving input all the way along on how to make the river better, more effective, and a good place for all the creatures and the fish to live this point, I wish I had another 25 years to see how the heck all this is going to turn out. It'll be. It'll be interesting. Anyway, I represent Denver Trout Unlimited. I'm here to speak with for the fish stay. They are always the overlooked critters and the critters below the waterline because nobody thinks about them. And we'll be at the table to represent them. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers. Are there any questions from members of Council? Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you. Present your closest to the microphone. I just want to ask the question about discussions you've had with the city, about the interface with the adjacent railroad line. Yes. As I think you referenced, nothing we've talked about preliminarily at least about raising the grade about 20 feet along what we call the back of the site. But the site that borders the CML rail line where the meat of that is going to come in is through our E&P discussions with staff as we further refine and refine the engineering for the site. But that's our intention right now and I think it does a couple of things for us as it relates to the railroad. I think it gives us that extra 20 feet of separation and safety as we think about raising the grade and then thinking about another two or three or four layer layers of parking above that. And so you kind of get to 50, 60 feet of grade separation from the rail. We also have some horizontal separation on our site plan. We have a service line in the back that further sets the buildings back. So I feel like we're doing the best we can there. Thank you. I appreciate the attention to that as well. Thanks. Thanks. I have no further questions. Thank you. Councilwoman Ortega. Councilman Espinosa. The one real trivial question, is it? Am I seeing this correctly? Is the fish logo play off of the map area? Previously someone did a drawing depicting the site as a whale. But we didn't. We didn't steal the urban trout from the site. Plan to close it. It's a whale. So I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but it was it was actually driving around this week in this the Jefferson Park neighborhood plan contemplates a view plane. Jefferson Park is is unique, sort of like Zuni Park in that it has at least seasonally it has some amazing views of downtown. And part of my history was sort of battling developers to sort of maintain little vignettes of our views from Jefferson Park to downtown. Do you guys has anyone in there? There are views that were preserved with development along that along Crescent Drive and River Drive. Have you guys contemplated those vignettes when you when you've laid these things out? Because there are there are some buildings that actually would would be framed. I mean, potential plot layouts that would be framed by those views. The short answer is we haven't gotten that granular on our site, plenty of the individual sites. It's interesting because when we started this process, I thought height and encroaching in to that neighborhood specifically might be an issue. And I don't want to put words in Michael Gates's mouth or Japan's mouth, but it really didn't come up in conversations. I think what the conversation was about was creating a new downtown view for Jefferson Park, one that might have some more interesting architecture attached to it. And I think going all the way back to the area plan amendment process, there was a really conscious conversation and and a decision about trading height for amenities. And I think the neighbors got that and it was a very conscious decision for them. Yeah. Yeah. Our biggest issue is, you know, we didn't in the area plan, we didn't incorporate parts of Jefferson Park in the boundary for even the ability to sort of consider this porosity. But I think it would actually be welcome. It's a welcome tool and at least we just codified it. So it's something we can now explore. So could you you know, if this zoning is if this map amendment goes through, could you at least, you know, maybe charge your design team to at least go back to through Jefferson Park, look at those vignettes, sort of one more sort of, you know, relationship to other parts of the city to consider. Sure. Sure. We're happy to do that. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Espinosa, Councilman Brooks. Yup. I'm going to call a breeze. But first, let me let me ask Abe a quick question. Or Chris, it doesn't matter. You guys are like brothers. Quick question, just on overview real quick. Planning board, do we have any anybody in our position. At Planning Board? I think Mr. Elliott also voted no on the map amendment just for consistency with the fact that he thought the zone district shouldn't exist in the first place. Okay. I was about to say make sense, but to him make sense. Good consistency. And then real quick, again, letters of support from community folks saying we didn't have any letters of opposition at all. Okay, great. And this question is for Reese. Reese, in the community, we had a lot of conversation on mobility issues. And one of the things that hasn't come out, but I know you have in the plan and I want you to talk about a little bit, is you have some autonomous opportunities. So can you kind of talk about that a little bit and maybe some implementation around that? Yeah, I think as a general comment, we're going to be back in front of you with our MP and there's going to be a lot of conversation around parking and single occupant vehicles and ways to get people out of their single occupant vehicles. And hopefully we'll have a bunch of good ideas for that. But specifically to your question, yeah, that's been my. As we look 25 years down the road, it's hard to plan a new downtown neighborhood, of course. But one of the things that I love the idea of as autonomous technology starts to get credible and starts to get real, how do we implement that here as a way to solve that first mile, last mile connection between this site, for example, and Mile High Stadium and Union Station on the other side? You know, can we can we put together a system of autonomous shuttles that connect us all as a more expedient way to solve that first mile? Last mile, but lots more lots more ideas where that came from, I hope. Okay, great. So is it is it more aspirational or as. I'm sure most of if you've been out to Panasonic, out in Panasonic is the head office of a company called E-Z Mile, which is a European company who decided to bring their own North American headquarters to Denver, Colorado, which is great. And that's what they're developing. If you go out there, you can take a ride on one. For those of you who haven't been on it, it's it's real. It's happening. And I think one of the things that we have to wrestle with in this building, in the building across the street, is how do we have how do we have the regulatory environment? Keep up with that because it's coming and we need some changes to accommodate it. But then the last question, you know, typically maybe 15 years ago, we built cities and we didn't really think about families. Right? We thought about young professionals. It's the Richard Florida model rise of the creative class. Let's get all the creatives now. We're in a downtown. We're talking about there's there's no schools. There's no, you know, child care. There's no things like that. Have you contemplated that in this kind of development? Yeah. Those of you have heard me talk about this project. You've probably heard me talk about what a great place Denver, Colorado is for a certain demographic that we built it for. I moved here 20 years ago when I was 30 years old, and it was a great time to be a 30 year old in Denver, Colorado . I think it's a great time right now to be a 30 year old in Denver, Colorado. I think what we haven't focused enough on is exactly your point is how do we start to accommodate families downtown? I grew up and watched Vancouver grow up as a city, and one thing I really noticed is that the downtown didn't start to thrive until I would wake up downtown and I'd see families pushing a stroller downtown on a Saturday or Sunday morning. So how do we do that? Families aren't going to come downtown and live in a studio apartment. They're just not. So our plan is to build a diversity of housing product that can accommodate families that's at a market rate. And also, as we heard earlier tonight, on an affordable level as well with larger unit sizes. But I think as importantly is the infrastructure that you need to build a school. And we've been in conversations with DPS. I'd like to do a a grade school in this area, which they say will be required. They say we're good on a high school with north and West servicing this site, but a grade school for sure . We have committed to build a community center, a rec center for the citizens of the city and exploring opportunities for daycare and the like, amenities that families really need. Thanks. Appreciate it. Thank you. Councilman Brooks, Councilman New Reese. Thanks again for all you're doing. There's going to be a credible project for downtown and you're bringing the river to downtown. It's just going to be wonderful. I can't think more highly of what you're what you're doing with the project, especially innovative ideas. You have a transportation and it's very impressive. One real quick question I note after this, we're going to be improving the development agreement and just that's all been finalized and agreed by all parties, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yes, it has. I know there was a lot of conversation about Section 27 that I think was the last related issue. But yeah, it was it was definitely a hard negotiation with the city, but I think we got to a good place in the end. Great. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. New Councilman Lopez. Yeah, thank you. Some we've had this conversation before and you know, to understand the future use and the need that's out there is definitely there. I hear a lot. From folks in the community that are. Villages will have to move again or. Is this the end? So my question is, what is the future plan for the current use? And I want to preface that by saying, as we grow and as we expand as a city and as it's great for 30 year olds, we need to make sure that it's also great for our young people who need a safe place and affordable place for them and their families to be able to enjoy this city. What happens to the current use? What happens to those cards? Thanks for reminding me. I can't give a presentation without reassuring people that dealerships is not closing anytime soon. So come to the park. Come to the park. We have a phased plan for development that sees the park stay in place and we make better use of the 17 acres of surface parking that we have. And we do that by building a centralized parking garage on a portion of that 17 acres for the Ilitch patrons. And that allows the park to operate as we build out phase one. So the carefully chosen phrase that I use is the park will be there for the foreseeable future. So if you're not, it's going to be there for a long time to come. Your comment about giving kids a place to go. I understand that. And, you know, changes change is hard for people right to let go of something and they let go of villages once already at 38th and Tennyson. So I'm not sure if that makes it easier or harder to let go of this. But I can tell you two things. The ownership group is committed and actively looking at feasibility on a relocation, as we've talked about in the past. They won't be for years to come, but it's definitely in the forefront of our minds. And number two, I hope we can replace the glitches when that time does come with this 15% parks and open space that we have planned along the river. And that takes a bunch of different forms. That's passive space walking that separated bike and pedestrian paths. That's active sport court type uses and then a lot of active river use as we've talked a lot about fishing. We haven't talked a lot about the river work that needs to go on on the floodplain. But what that can result in is a bunch of recreational opportunities in the river, aside from fishing, such as stand up paddle board and perhaps a standing surf wave, things like that. So trying to be inclusive and also by bringing what I call the new model of entertainment for young people, Meow Wolf to the site. Which is in what council district began. And the a really good one. Then the third council district. Mr. President, I'm if I may continue, I'm flirting with with commentary here, but I just wanted to ask that question because I want it to be on record and I want it to be clear. I think it's it's what we're doing in creating the open space and providing this opportunity and maximizing what could be on this site is a good thing. My concern is that we make sure that it's still available for folks that don't have to pay too much. And I'm not talking about freebies and free tickets and handouts. Working people can pay. However, it's some of those amenities that make Denver what it is. And I keep thinking, Mr. President, of the Ferris wheel and saying not to see this is not. To see Denver. And it just keeps ringing in my head. Any uses for the old carousel or the Ferris wheel, perhaps? You may have a book in front of you that may have a rendering in it of our central square. One idea that we've toyed around with that is depicted in the rendering of relocating our carousel into the central square that may have, may or may not have been a direct result of one certain councilman's suggestion. Okay. Thank you very much for that answer. Are you all done with your leading questions, Councilman? I rest my case. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Seeing no other questions. The public hearing four counts. Bill 1 to 25 is closed. Comments by members of council. Councilman Espinosa and then Councilman Brooks again this time around. Or we know this is unfortunately all in the side of my district. Councilman Brooks. Yeah, just off. Thank you, Mr. President. I will be supporting this rezoning enthusiastically for a number of reasons. But, you know, I believe this is consistent with all adopted plans. It's uniformity of district regulations. It furthers the public health and safety and welfare, and it meets all the justified circumstances listed below. And it also is. Consistency with neighborhood context, zone, district and purpose and intent. And for the major reason, reason is I've been a part of the entire process from the beginning and there, you know, in a time when Denver is going through the most growth and there's so many questions about that growth and there's so much perception and you heard it tonight, we come up with this plan. Reese comes to us with his partner, with this plan to blow it out of the water, to say that there's going to be no zoning requirements and we're actually going to go further into this urbanist ideology. And the neighbors in District one, you know, put District one on the spot here who probably came in a little tidbit and I was a little timid, actually fell in love with the project and because the process was right. And so I'm so excited about this and it was not easy. I think both the city I think the council folks that were at the table, Councilman Espinosa, Councilwoman Quinn, each Reece's team, there were some long meetings that we had. But we're here. And this is how you build a city. It's it's it's being inclusive of all ideas. It's it's, you know, really embracing multiple values. And that's what inclusivity is all about. And I really believe that we got to that place here. We embraced everything and we fought a little bit and we came out with a beautiful project and so much props goes out to Reese for staying in the foxhole. Much love to to Abe and Chris, who were also in the foxhole as well. All the OED staff, Melissa and Laura was working really hard on this as well. And I'm really excited to see what we become. And I think this just goes out to, you know, people talk about developments and I think this is really smart, thoughtful, considerate development. So I hope that we have more of this in the city and county of Denver. And I think this is this is more putting a stake in the ground of saying this is what we want to be about. We want to be about environmental responsibility. We want to be about inclusivity and affordability of all income ranges. We want to be about mobility options that single occupancy vehicles in a downtown neighborhood is not the right idea. We've got to have multiple options and that's not a bad thing and shouldn't be. I shouldn't be feel bad for saying that. Right. And matter of fact, we're going to do it boldly. And so in the the last thing families you are welcome in downtown Denver. We want you downtown because it's going to make us an incredible city and a sustainable city. So with that, Mr. President, I'll be supporting this. And I just want to thank everyone who put in all your hard work to make this a reality. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Brooks, Councilman Espinosa. Thank you. Council said council president. I thank you for every council present. Thank you, Councilman Brooks, because in your comments, you sort of put me back into a place that was so long. One of the weird things, if you want to if you want to see four years of your life go by an instant, get elected to District one and I'm sure District nine sort of the same way. I can't. But it puts me back to when we first got here. And I remember I remember when I when you sort of introduced me to to the property, to Reese and how timid and reluctant you were to even have me engage with developers that you're familiar with. And I, I wasn't, you know, because I yeah, it's a lot of fear. That was what kind of what kind of ideas that I was generating at that time. And, and. And what came from that discussion is it turns out Reece is a constituent of mine. Right. And he's it's it's it's it's there's there's been relationships that have sort of flourished. I mean, not not relationships among us, necessarily, but things that are precursors to what has now occurred here. Great partnerships in the community, putting people together, putting ourselves together. So thank you for you didn't have to include me in the Central Valley rezoning. I mean, master plan update. But you you committed to it and you made it happen. And that was a forum where, again, that was largely your constituents sort of interjecting with my ideas and things like that. And and what what came of that. You know, we talked about previously and it was really a great thing when we had Central Park there and you made that happen. So thank you for for for sort of including me in this whole process because back to my previous comments, I do think this city benefited from that collaboration . And I in a sort of goes back to day one, that is I think you were reticent that I was willing to go there, but I always was, still am and look forward to doing that continuously in the future. This is what implementation looks like when the text amendment hits the ground. So we talked about that sort of before this rezoning seeks and commits to the regulatory tools. Long wanted to be I wanted to use I don't mean I can't write tools long wanted not just to generate revenue but to create vital, inclusive and sustainable city focused on the well-being of our citizens. What is being considered is adoption of the biggest. Ask this we as a city have made on our in our based zoning code. Thank you, Reese, for your willingness to both engage with us and to compromise to do what was right for all of us together. You and the city have managed to incorporate so much of what the citizens were asking for and affordable to citizens and affordable housing champions we're asking for. I won't rehash everything you just said in response to Councilman Lopez, but it's all there on tape, in the recording and in the attachments that we have online. How sort of far reaching everything is the tools that we created, the agreements and and the adoption of this rezoning. Thank you again for your commitment to introduce housing for all income levels in Denver living together. There is data about co-location of different income levels and the creation of truly vital, thriving communities. There are social benefits for all. Mixed income development has long been seen as an important tactic to strengthen neighborhoods. At the same time, it improves prospects for low income families. Mixed income facilities often soften the negative perceptions of concentrated, subsidized housing by removing obvious geographic and visual indicators of class. This is what we this is the way we want and need the city to be heading. So thank you. It's it's it's a great for to a mind to be able to to to what Jeff Shoemaker just said, to be on this side of the dais and to be able to vote. We'll work on getting this done and to vote for it being adopted. Thank you. With that, I'll be voting in favor. Thank you, Councilman Espinosa. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, folks, for for working on this and keeping us abreast of what's what's going on. Council District three borders the southwest corner of this site and Mile High Stadium, and that property just to the west, the other side of the river. I hope and I have a lot of faith, but I hope that the future council and future councils make sure that this doesn't just happen in a vacuum, that it's more than just design. But and and it's more than the commitment to affordable housing here. There is such a thing as a community benefits agreement on the vertical development and on future development agreements. And I think it's it's important and it's critical that we continue to keep our eyes on the ball to make sure that that diversity is not just reflected here spiritually, but economically. If you want diversity in neighborhoods, there has to be economic opportunities. You want diversity in the city. There has to be economic opportunities for that to take place. This is one of those engines that's I mean, it's one of those economic engines. It's a very powerful one. And this idea of overdevelopment or gentrification and in this case, you're basically pushing out parking lots. You want to you want to utilize those kind of tools. It's a process that can be interrupted and it's a process that can be diverted. And I think it's something that we as a city have to be mindful of and intent for when we implement the recommendations of this plan, when this council continues to do that years in advance. Having said that, I think it's you know, I meant what I said, but some of the leading questions. I think it's important that we think of Denver in terms of an opportunity for all and making sure that we still have those places that are affordable. You ask our young people now without having to be charged an arm and a leg, there's really nothing for them for folks to do. We have one skate park in the whole city. Not much space. Anywhere you go where there's public space available, it's like skateboarding is a crime. It's illegal, you know, you really can't do it. And on some of these structures and it's not you. I'm not just speaking up for the skaters, but I'm speaking up for our young people and making sure that they have those opportunities. There's also work opportunities as well to those are also jobs and it's some people's first job and it's some adults only jobs or secondary jobs. And I think it's important as well as we do what we think, we think in those terms. Just to the West, this council will see and consider a plan a masterplan for Mile High Stadium and the future development of Mile High Stadium and the properties that surround it on the Metropolitan Football Stadium, Stadium, Football District. I think it's something that we are in negotiation with and talking to. We have folks in Sun Valley on across the West Side that are looking at this and taking some cues and filling in gaps. It's not necessarily. An ideology, but it is a necessity in a city, and I think it's a necessity for folks to be at the table and continue to be able to call the city home and not have to break the bank to do it. So I look forward to seeing this pass. I'm not a neighbor that's far away to this side. There's a lot of history associated with these with these neighborhoods. And I hope that's reflected as it moves forward in future votes of this council to be able to consider those kind of opportunities, those kind of benefits for the community . So with that, I definitely will support this moving forward. So thank you and thank you for your hard work. And if I may add one more plug. Yes, to the carousel. Keep that Ferris wheel there. It's the skyline. It's the skyline. It's those things that make Denver recognizable. All right. Keep it. There. Thank you. Councilman Lopez, Councilwoman Black. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, everyone, for being here so late. We appreciate your passion for Denver and your willingness to sit in those hard pews bleachers. I don't know what they're called in 60 seconds or less. I'm going to tell you two personal stories and tell you why I'm voting for this. My dad, along with Joe Shoemaker, was very much involved in the great Wayne Foundation 40 years ago. I was at the dedication of the first park there when I was a little kid. I have a painting of it in my office. And wouldn't my dad and old Joe Shoemaker have their minds blown by this? This is amazing to imagine that we're going to have a mile long park on the river where there are trout swimming instead of it being a dump. I just think it's incredible. The other thing I have to share about Ilitch is when I was seven years old that the old elegies, I knocked out my front tooth on the Wildcat. Today I have, like I called it, $1 million tooth. I've had so much done to preserve it. I will be supporting this. It meets the criteria, but it's also an incredible opportunity for our city to have a master planned urban center, to incorporate all those things that we like about great cities, and to think about it ahead of time and make sure we have all of those things. There is no gentrification there. There's nobody living there. There's a bunch of parking lots. We're creating housing. We're creating affordable housing, one that we do affordable housing with a partnership instead of using a stick. I appreciate that you're putting green space there. We very much need more green space in Denver. Thank you for that. I already mentioned the mile long river. Over by the mile long park by the river. You're putting in the infrastructure that we need. This is density where density should be. And you're providing all those connections. So when there people are living there, they can get out and not have to be in a car. I also really appreciate the architectural standards. There is so much ugly new architecture in Denver. The whole Denver process that was one of the big themes that came out of there is yuck, ugly. These are not going to be ugly. And the fact that it's all planned out, we also have a lot of mishmash in our city. Some of it is in my district. I know a lot of it is in Councilman Espinosa's district. So really happy that you guys are doing that. And thank you. I will be supporting it. Thank you, Councilwoman Black. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. I can remember when the Downtown Denver Partnership took a trip to Vancouver and everybody came back really excited talking about density in the city of Denver. This goes back, I don't remember like maybe 20, 25 years. And that became part of the discussion of looking at building out the core of our city with higher density, attracting more people to our downtown, making sure that we had a thriving downtown. And fast forward to today, we have a Vancouver former resident assisting us in looking at how we continue to build in our city. And I want to personally thank Reese for coming and meeting with me in my office on several occasions, but really more so for the work that you've done with the adjacent communities. I used to represent Jefferson Park Highlands, lower downtown, Central Platte Valley, and these are active communities. And if there was concern, the opposition would fill this room and the fact that. There were no letters of opposition. The fact that you had two folks from Jefferson Park and Highland speaking in support of the project really is a testament to the work that you've done and your entire team of people that worked with you, including our city team, to bring forward something that exceeds city goals both on housing and open space. And not not only is looking to address parking maximums, but also has a commitment to a team. The 44 neighborhood meetings, not including all the ones with city and the rest of us, really. I mean, just highlight your commitment to want to do this right and to do it in a way that not only you would be proud, but I think the rest of the Denver community would be proud. Denver doesn't have an ocean, but we will have riverfront property that will serve the entire community. It won't just be for the residents that will live within this development, but it will serve adjacent neighborhoods and beyond. And that's exciting just to know the kind of improvements that will happen on the river, taking that area out of the floodplain as well. The infrastructure masterplan for this site is critical and it's important for it to work. I would really like to see our city get to a place where we're connecting your project to Mile-High Stadiums, project to Sun Valley and to all the others along this river corridor, because I think it's something that we have to collectively do to make sure that we're doing it right for our entire city. So with that, I will be supporting this tonight. And I want to thank my colleagues. Councilman Burks, Councilman Espinosa, who were very engaged in this process, and Councilwoman Kenney to plugged into the affordable housing part of this as well. Thank you. Councilwoman Ortega, Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. As Denver continues with the mantra of density, density, density, I can't think of a more appropriate place anywhere in the city than to drop this density with to add a couple of light rail stations on the property, a couple of more in spitting distance. So that's extremely extreme. Is it wrong to use that word, Councilman? I didn't mean to offend you. I didn't say bags. I don't. Feel easily entertained. By that. I also like the the CPV districts that were pros approved before that seemed to promise the ability to build this density without overwhelming the skyline. I like the river work. I mean the possibility of what's being talked about. I love the fact, Mr. Dugan, that you're talking about 15% open space rather than the 12 the city is talking about. I don't know that 15% is enough considering where the city is now. But I appreciate that the 1200 units, if that's what it turns out to be of affordable housing, is somewhat heartening. I just wonder if we have our numbers right on what we need to be building. I think the under 60% might be a little bit light for that much acreage. I don't know how we get our under 30 taking care of at 120 units on that bigger property. It's going to be interesting to see what actually gets built there. As Councilwoman Kennedy alluded earlier, what's being planned to be built now on the Gates site is fairly dramatically different than what was planned for that site ten years ago. So we'll see where the economy goes and how Denver fares and how your plans actually are manifest. I the one thing I hate about this is I hate to hear about 20 to 25 years. I would love those 8000 units tomorrow. It would take an enormous amount of pressure off the rest of the city because I do see some density in other parts of the city that I think is inappropriate. And so I'd love to see the Central Platte Valley buildout more quickly, but as I said, we'll see how fast this actually actually happens. And the other thing I didn't mention. I very much like as far as the affordable component, that there are benchmarks, that it doesn't wait till the end of the project is if I understand that as this evolves, the elements of affordable will come along with it. So I wish you the best and I wish all of us the best. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Councilman Neal, because. I look forward to voting for this. And thank you again, Reese and the cranky family for making this major investment. Our cities is incredible. What you're going to be doing and and especially the dedication and I can remember the early discussions about this, about affordable housing and how you were dedicated then as well as you are as much as you are now. So thank you. Thank you for that. Really appreciate that, Councilman. Espinosa and Brooks really led the effort with you. And I'm proud that it came out to be a such an agreeable proposition and development for you. I'd also like to thank you. Probably all the council people would like to thank you for addressing the Council Councilwoman Ortega's railroad issue. We really appreciate that. So the the buffer, this makes us really pleased, especially for her. So thank you again and look forward to a great project. Thank you. Thank you, Kels. Menu. Councilwoman Gilmore. Thank you, President Clark. I want to definitely think Councilman Brooks and Councilman Espinosa for working together on this. And, Reese, your entire team, I mean, you guys worked really hard on this. And, you know, I know folks will miss Elegies someday, but before we had Elegies, we had nature in the outdoors. And so that one mile of river that you're going to reactivate and create a wonderful riparian habitat is so important because that connects young people and their families to actual careers. There's careers in science, technology, engineering, art, math. And so all of those steam components are so important. And on top of it, we've got the affordable housing, we've got additional park space. And this project I can really see as a model project and when you talk about adding density, but then also adding nature and greenspace to it, that's the way that we've got to go . And so I share my desire that that Councilman Cashman has I hate to have to wait too long to get something like this because it's going to be so important and transformational to the families and residents who are going to live in this area. And so I'm happy to support this. I see that it meets all of the review criteria and great job and look forward to see what comes next. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman Gilmore. Seeing no other comments, I just want to thank everyone for coming tonight, for sticking so late in those chairs for all of your engagement in this. And, you know, I will echo a lot of what everyone else said without saying it. I just I'll just add that I think the first time you and I met, I said, you've got the best piece of riverfront real estate in the city. And it has been really cool to watch that process of the vision emerge for that. And, you know, to, to, to have the history that we have with our. River. And to see and hear tonight, I wrote down that the river is a main street. We are literally treating the river as a main street, the river as our front door. And that is not the history that the city has with that river. And really, this project is, you know, that that we're really living that vision up to to as far. So I'm excited to support this tonight. And with that, Madam Secretary, roll call. Black eye. Brooks Espinosa. Hi, Flynn. Hi. Gilmore. Hi, Cashman. Hi, Mitch Lopez. All right. New Ortega. Hi, Sussman. Hi, Mr. President. Hi, Madam Secretary. Please close voting in those results. 12 hours. 12 hours counts, Bill one, 2 to 5 has passed. Councilman Lopez will put council resolution 1287 on the floor.