A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 3325 West 16th Avenue in West Colfax. Approves an official map amendment to rezone property from G-MU-3 to G-MX-3 (multi-unit to mixed-use), located at 3325 West 16th Avenue in Council District 3. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 6-9-20.
Yes, Madam President, I move that council bill 20200538 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. Thank you. It's been moved. May I get a second? Second. Thank you, Councilwoman. The public hearing for Council Bill 20 20538 is open. May we have the staff report? Can you hear me? Mm hmm. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Edson Ibanez, and I am with clean time employment. Let me see if I can put this on. Or screen it. Perfect. So before you today we have 33, 25 West 16th Avenue. It's currently zoned GM three and the applicant is requesting GM x three. It's currently in Council District three in the West Colfax neighborhood. And the property is on the north west corner of Irving Street and 16th Avenue. It's approximately over 56,000 square feet. And it's a one story, Boys and Girls Club facility and they're currently requesting is GM x three. It's currently zoned GM three and it's surrounded by GM, you three to the north, south, west and east. And the current line use is public, quasi public, and some of the surrounding uses are multi-unit residential, two unit residential and a public quasi public land uses. Here is a bird's eye view of the property looking north. To the bottom right hand corner is the actual Boys and Girls Club facility. On the bottom left is the elementary to the south. And then the top two photos are new multifamily housing. So it went before the planning board on May 19, June 3rd, and it was approved unanimously by the planning board. And before you today it has received eight comments of opposition and one comment and one con support which are attached to the staff report. So there are five review criterias that are analyzed for the appropriateness of the request, and so we will dove into each one. The first one is to see what with adopted plans, apart from comprehensive plan 2040 and Blueprint in Denver of 2019, there is one neighborhood plan, which is the West Colfax Plan of 26, but before the first will look into Plan 2040. The proposed MAP amendment is consistent with several strategies from comprehensive plan 2040 that are mentioned in the staff report. But I'm going to dove into a few here within the neighborhood vision vision element under the strong and take neighborhood goals. Specifically, goal number one strategy talks about building network of well connected, vibrant mixed use centers and corridors. Strategy B says ensure neighborhoods offer a mix of housing types and services for a diverse population and strategy d encourage quality infill development that is consistent with the surrounding neighborhoods and offer opportunities for increase in amenities. Under the equity vision element, specifically under equitable, affordable and inclusive goals. One strategy to increase development of housing means close to transit and. Mixed use development. Strategies to improve equitable access to resources that improve quality of life, including cultural and natural maladies, health care, education, parks, recreation, nutritional, nutritious food and the arts, as well as Goal nine Strategy to improve the quality and availability and affordability of early child care, education and Child Development Services. Within the climate vision element specifically environmentally resilient goal eight strategy and a promote infill development where infrastructure and services are already in place and strategy. B Encourage mixed use communities where residents can live, work and play in their own neighborhoods. Now the request rezoning is shown on the context map of general urban context under Blueprint Denver. The proposed GM three zone district is consistent with the neighborhood content description and appropriate for this location because it allows a variety of building forms, compatible heights and building form design standards. The building form standards and use work together to promote safe and active pedestrian scale residential areas. When we're looking at the future place for this area that it is classified low, medium residential areas, which is primarily residential with limited neighborhoods serving servicing commercial and buildings are generally three stories or less in height. Irving Street is a residential collector. As a residential collector, street and 16th Avenue is an and an on designated local street. The building form standards for the proposed gmc's three zone districts are consistent with the plan's direction, including three storey heights, building high building coverage and low to moderate setbacks. But the land use is allowed could be more intense than contemplated by the plan direction. The Gmc's three zone district allows restaurants, retailers and offices which could result in significant intensity if the entire property were to redevelop. The application ignores that the plans that the plan statements that limited neighborhood servicing commercial can be found within specifically what the applicant is requesting with the gmc's districts. GMAC's districts are intended to ensure new development contributes positively to established residential neighborhoods and character, and improve the transition between commercial development and adjacent neighborhood. Residential neighborhood. Within the growth strategy area. The request is consistent here, which maps the area as all other areas of the city which anticipate to see 20% of new housing growth and 10% employment growth by 2040. Now within the West Colfax farm, this neighborhood plan has a vision for improved urban design. Strengthening the mix of land. Uses and enhancing mobility options for residents. The subject property is located in the framework of the Framework Plan's Future Land Use Concept Map as town center and the plan reference town centers as perfect locations for destination, retail, employment, dining and entertainment venues and as well as elderly housing. Housing for low and moderate income workers, daycares and youth programs within the town center. Regulatory tools recommendation into it gives specific directions on the mix of land, uses that support the function of town centers and the GM x three is consistent with the town center, regulatory tools, recommendations and town center district planning goals, the West Colfax Plan . So on balance, the proposed Gmc's three is consistent with the adopted plan direction. It provides an appropriate transition that complements the surrounding uses with the allowance of mix it uses, although it may not be the best fit for the future. Place Recommendation under Blueprint Denver. It is consistent with other recommendations, including street type, building, height and growth strategy, and it is consistent with the recommendations of the adopted West Colfax plan. So here I provided specifically just to give a little bit more guidance on what the applicant requested, which is a GMC'S three. So their current use, the Boys and Girls Club is classified under vocational and professional schools, which they want to continue and they want to provide offices by building a two storey structure that provides offices and the continuance of several services. So the applicant requested the GMC'S three specifically aligning with the type of uses now under the general urban neighborhood context, there are other mixed use zone districts such as S three, which is the residential mixed use de RL three, which is a residential office, and then the GMC three, which is the main street three. So as you can see under D.R. three, these, I kind of made them in gray so that you can specifically see these. These are not what the applicant proposed. These this is just to give a quick comparison on the uses that the applicant is requesting. So under the graphics three, the uses that they're looking for would not would only be allowed on the first floor. And they're looking to do a two story construction under the road. Three The residential office vocation or professional school would not be permitted, but offices are permitted and under the GMC three, it is permitted. So therefore, looking at the other criteria, the proposed rezoning will result in uniform application of zoned district building, form, use and design regulations. It would further the public health, safety and welfare of the city by implementing the adopted plans and change or changing conditions is an appropriate justification justifying circumstance for the proposed rezoning. And the request GM story is consistent with the neighbor concerns inscriptions on district purpose and intent statements. CPD recommends approval based on the findings that all the criteres have been met. I am available for questions and the applicant is here as well. All right. Thank you, Edson. We tonight council has not received any written comments on Council Bill 538, but we have two individuals signed up to speak this evening and those two individuals are Kim Davidson and Jim Berghoff. And so we're going to go ahead and. Work to get them. Moved up so we can hear their testimony. All right. We've got Kim Davidson in. Hello. My name's Kim Davidson. Are you able to hear me? Mm hmm. Yes. I'm representing Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver, and Edson has done a great job of describing how this requested rezoning complies with the city. The city of Denver adopted plans. So I'd like to just address a little bit of how we came about wanting this with wanting this rezoning and what we planned to do. This rezoning will provide us an opportunity to construct a two story administrative building adjacent to our Arthur E Johnson Club on a site that is presently a soccer field. This makes economic sense for our organization because we're presently in a warehouse district north of Eighth Avenue and east of I-25 with our program Support Center. The new location would, number one, enable us to train our new employees with an operating club next door. It would permit partnership with early childhood development organizations and also community based organizations providing meeting space. And in partnership with with other nonprofits, it would improve employee access because there are so many public transportation options nearby, from light rail to bussing to. Other transportation and. The the other thing that we would really benefit from is the ability to bring board members and other donors to that new office building and be able to show them a club that's actually working next door. So those are kind of our points of logic. We understand that there have been maybe some objections about us taking too much parking in the area. And and actually we would provide city required onsite parking that I think would pretty well cover all of our needs. And there might be some on street parking during the day, but I think that would go away in the evenings. We've got a 60 year commitment to that area. We've had that that club in that location since the sixties. We've had developers approach us and ask if we could if we'd be interested in selling. We're not. We're there to stay. And I'll take any questions you might have. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Davidson. We had one other speaker, Jim, first off, and it doesn't look like we are still seeing Jim in the Q. And so that concludes our speakers questions from members of Council. Councilwoman Torres. Madam President, one I'd just like to thank. Where are you from? CPD. That's an. For the slide. There you are for this slide, comparing some of the possible other zone districts, just to better understand what it doesn't it doesn't provide. I think that might be even useful for me as I go back to community and kind of talk about the decision that was made here tonight. I do want to ask him, you're not doing any making any changes to the existing building, is that right? No, we don't plan to make changes other than improvements, capital improvements as as as we're able to. We actually just did a fairly significant renovation of that club, and we're preparing to put new mechanical equipment on the club. And and it's basically in very good condition right now. And that's a couple stories already, is that not? Well, it's a single story by definition, but the gymnasium is actually the same height as a as a two story building. Okay. And they how much parking are you building on site? I can't answer the exact number of spaces, but I know that we will need a building permit and we'll need to meet city requirements for parking, and we certainly will do that. And then you talked about your intention to not build straight to the setback on the portion of the property that goes up against kind of residential. Can you remind me what that. What that was going to look like. Sure. We we committed to building to the neighborhood context and not building something that looks out of place in that location. We would follow setbacks that are. Similar to others in the UK. Thank you. I don't have any more questions. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Edson. Did you have something to add? Yes. I just got an email from Jim, the second speaker, and he was having technical difficulties and wanted this and say his apologies. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. See? No other questions by my colleagues. That closes the public hearing for council bill 20 dash 538. It's closed. Sandoval had. Oh, I'm so sorry. Oh. Councilman Sandoval. Thank you. Did you see my hand raised function work? Sometimes it works. No, I didn't see it up there. But I'm glad you can always just yell at me. That works. Thank you. So may I ask the gentleman who's representing the boys in question? Sure. So when you say you're going to build to the neighborhood context, so that can mean a couple of different things. So I just want to clear clarify for the public what you mean by that. Do you mean by the zoning or do you mean by the neighborhood context? For me, when you say neighborhood context. That context means brick. That context means landscaping. That context means more mature trees. So I mean the neighborhood context that you'll take cues from the neighborhood context or that you'll actually just follow the zoning regulations and the hyphen and the sidestep accent and that type of detail. I am not the architect who is designing the facility, but I'd say that it would be our commitment to make it look like it fits in that in that location. And we already have actually trees that are mature on the property. So we're a step ahead there. I can't completely commit to you exactly what kind of an exterior we would put. But if. If Brick would be helpful, then we'd certainly consider that. Let's look. That's all I can really say. I would just encourage you to block a couple blocks. The architect who designed red rocks like middle school. And that is a beautiful historic structure, landmark structure in Denver. And the Kaki Gonzales Library is new. It's modern, but you can tell it takes cues from the neighborhood as well. So when I think of neighborhood context, I think of the built environment and taking cues from the built environment. So I would just for me, somebody who loves land use and gets into the nitty gritty details of things, I would just be cautious with using neighborhood context because it can mean for me, if I go by there and you haven't taken cues from the built environment, I would be I would be remiss supporting this because I think that's really important and architecture subjective. I'm not trying to say that you have to go modern or older. I'm just saying long lasting quality building so that in 50 years from now your building is still there. And that's what you see. That's in the neighborhood. That's the buildings that are still standing. That makes good sense. And our club has history also. It's, you know, it's it was built. I think in the fifties for as a Jewish school and temple. And then we bought it from from them. So that architecture already exists. Great. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman. All right. Looking through the list of council members, and I'm not seeing anybody with hands raised. So the public hearing for Council Bill 20 20538 is closed. Comments by a members of Council Council member Torres. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Kim, for shepherding this along. I'm just really excited to see Boys and Girls Club really grow its footprint in West Colfax, its connection to the schools in the area, to its building that exists there. You know, one of the comments that was attached was officially labeled as opposition, but it was pretty praising of the asset that Boys and Girls Club brings to West Colfax in diversity and youth engagement and after school planning. And so just really glad to see that you're planning to. Make West Colfax your your home and grow that a little bit more and happy to support tonight's rezoning. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Torres. Any other council members who would like to make comments? Give it a moment. Say no others. And looking for hands raised. Nobody. Okay. Madam Secretary, roll call. For us, I. Black I. CdeBaca. I. Park. Sorry, Clark. All right. All right. I. Times I. Cashmere. All right. Can each. I. Sousaphone, I swear. I. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and announce the results. 12 hours 12 ies council bill 538 has passed. All right. Thank you, everybody. Next up, Councilman Herndon, will you please put council Bill 562 on the floor?