A bill for an ordinance approving the I-25 and Broadway Urban Redevelopment Plan and the I-25 and Broadway Project, the creation of the I-25 and Broadway Urban Redevelopment Area and the I-25 and Broadway Tax Increment Area, and in connection therewith repealing the Cherokee Urban Redevelopment Plan. Approves the I-25 and Broadway Urban Redevelopment Plan and authorizes the creation of an Urban Redevelopment Area to support the Broadway Station Partners project in Council District 7. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 9-12-17.
The members of council as a whole please refrain from profane or obscene speech and please refrain from individual attacks. Councilman Ortega. Ready. Will you please put Council Bill 1004 on the floor? Will do. Mr. President, I move that council bill 1004 be placed on final consideration. Do pass. It has been moved in. Second it the public hearing for council bill 1004 is open. May we have the staff report? You are not Brett Dodson. I am Nora Dodson. You are Tracy. I am Tracy Huggins. I'm the executive director of the Denver Urban Renewal Authority. And I'm sure you wish I was limited to 3 minutes in my ass, but I have a little bit more that I need to cover, so please bear with me. Thank you. So the Denver Urban Renewal Authority order is requesting City Council approval of Council Bill 1004 to do a number of things under this ordinance to approve the I 25 and Broadway Urban Redevelopment Plan in which we will be establishing the 25 and Broadway Urban Redevelopment Area, the 25 and Broadway sales and property tax increment area approve the I-25 and Broadway project and repeal the existing Cherokee Gate's Urban Redevelopment Area and tax increment area. So I'm going to take these in. Somewhat reverse order. So in 2003, City Council approved the Cherokee Gates Urban Redevelopment Plan, establishing the Cherokee Gates Urban Redevelopment Area. At that time, tax increment financing was not approved as the development program had not been identified. In 2006, Council approved an amendment to the Cherokee Gates plan to authorize tax increment financing to support the construction of certain public improvements required to advance the redevelopment of the site. For a variety of reasons, including the economic downturn in 2008. The Cherokee Denver plan did not move forward. Well, that plan did not advance. A portion of the area. South of Mississippi Avenue was redeveloped by Trammell Crow Residential. That development has generated approximately $3.19 million of incremental property taxes. None of that tax increment has been spent by Durham and upon repeal of the Cherokee Gates plan will be returned to the original taxing entities in the following approximate amounts. DPS Denver Public Schools will receive $1.97 million, the city and county of Denver approximately 1.2 million, and urban drainage and flood control district just over $24,000. So with the originally the existing plan repealed, we are now looking to establish the I-25 and Broadway urban redevelopment area. The proposed area is approximately 85 acres and is generally bounded by Broadway to the east south Santa Fe Drive to the west, Interstate 25 to the north and west Mississippi Avenue to the south. The site is located in Council District seven. While the vast majority of the area is empty. There is one notable exception, which is the I-25 and Broadway transit station operated by the Regional Transportation District, or RTD. The station serves as a major transfer station and is one of the busiest in the RTD system. The primary historic user of the property in the area was the Gates Rubber Factory, which at its height employed over 5500 workers and had a building footprint that occupied what is now vacant land immediately south of the transit station. The factory was demolished in 2014 after lying dormant for over two decades. The area is a brownfield site and has ongoing monitoring of its contamination levels. As this is a new urban redevelopment plan, a new urban redevelopment area, the finding of blight must again be made during commission matrix design group to conduct a study to determine if the area is blighted. That study, dated July 2017, has been filed with the city clerk as part of the record of this public hearing. In summary, the Blight study found the following five factors that constitute blighting conditions. First is predominance of defective or inadequate street layout. In its current state, the study area suffers from poor access due to few connections to the outside street network, the lack of an internal street network and the light and heavy rail lines that cut right through its middle to the west. Slide South Santa Fe Drive along with the South Platte River, which together cut off access to the West except along Mississippi Avenue. At the extreme southern end of the study area. This situation cannot be improved without major infrastructure projects, including additional bridges across the river, as well as additional intersections on South Santa Fe Drive. Bisecting the area along a North-South access is a major rail corridor serving both freight and passenger rail. Again, this access barrier cannot be mitigated without major investments in public infrastructure, including additional bridges, in order to develop the area in a fashion consistent with the character of the surrounding area, as well as the framework established by the city of Denver in its zoning code. An internal street network will need to be developed to complete the street grid to the greatest degree feasible because of the lack of access across major barriers surrounding the area, as well as a lack of internal access through the area itself. A finding of inadequate street layout has been made. Deterioration of sight or other improvements. The majority of the study area is vacant land, and despite the fact that it has relatively few site improvements, clear issues with lack of maintenance exist, especially in the northern portion of the area in the vicinity of the parking lots associated with the RTD station. Overgrown vegetation was common and one parcel in particular had excessive amounts of litter and debris. Additionally, much of the parking for the station is unpaved and potholes were observed in various locations. Because of these conditions, deterioration of sight or other improvements has been found in the study area. Unusual topography or inadequate public improvements or utilities. The area lacks the public infrastructure needed to fully integrate with the surrounding urban fabric, including the lack of a street grid that is consistent with non-industrial properties in the surrounding area and poor connections to the transit station itself. While there are some internal public rights of way in the study areas Northeast, they are unimproved dirt roads that will have to be brought up to city standards and sidewalks are needed in this area along South Santa Fe Drive. The greatest infrastructure need in the area relates to the lack of access and connectivity, both east and west, across the railroad tracks and the South Platte River, as well as North and South Access across I-25. There are issues with pedestrian pathways in the immediate vicinity of the RTD station. There is a lack of sidewalks connecting some of the unpaved parking areas to the station, and some of the lots are difficult to navigate due to fences, park cars and other obstacles. The lack of improved roads in the public rights of way in the northeastern portion of the study area, and the need for vastly improved pedestrian access across major barriers all contribute to a finding of unusual topography or inadequate public improvements or utilities in the area. In viral environmental contamination of buildings or property. The area has been the site of heavy industrial manufacturing for the better part of a century producing tires, rubber belts and hoses and other automobile parts. Although this activity is no longer present, environmental contamination persists, including elevated levels of lead petroleum products and volatile organic compounds, affecting both soil and groundwater in the vicinity. A portion of the gate study area is identified as being a brownfield site by the Colorado Brownfields Program, as well as being part of the State Voluntary Cleanup Program or VICAP. The Colorado Brownfields Program recognizes the environmental contamination on site as being a hindrance to redevelopment and provides a streamlined review process. Tax credits, revolving loans, grants, and other tools to help clean the property and ready it for redevelopment until the cleanup process is completed. And property within the area receives a no further action letter indicating federal and state approval of the cleanup. Financing any redevelopment efforts is severely restricted due to the possibility of the state or the United States EPA ordering more potentially costly environmental cleanup since multiple properties within the Gate Study Area are listed in the State ViCAP registry as of 2015. The study area is considered to exhibit the environmental contamination of buildings or property factor. The existence of health, safety or welfare factors requiring high levels of municipal services or substantial physical underutilization or vacancy of sites, buildings or other improvements. Since the Gates factory closed its doors in 1991, the land in the area has been greatly underutilized. Redevelopment plans were drawn up more than a decade ago, but ultimately never materialized. Since then, the warehouses that formerly occupied the eastern portion of the area have been raised. And three years ago, the site of the main factory building has been raised as well. The time duration of the areas underutilization in bankers and vacancy is especially notable given its central location in a growing metropolitan area and its proximity to multiple major highways, as well as a major station in the region's mass transit system. Due to the majority of the area being vacant. There is a finding of high levels of municipal services or substantial physical underutilization or vacancy of sites, buildings and other improvements. These blight factors individually and collectively impair or arrest the sound growth of the municipality and constitute an economic and social liability and a menace to the public health , safety, morals and welfare of the area. In bringing forward this urban redevelopment plan, we have sought to align the goals and objectives of the plan with the existing city plans for the area, including the Denver Comprehensive Plan 2000 Blueprint, Denver, the Broadway and I-25 Station Area Plan, the Infrastructure Master Plan, and the Urban Design Standard and Guidelines . In reviewing the plan, City Planning Department staff found that the Urban Redevelopment Plan conforms to Plan 2000 by furthering several citywide objectives, policies and actions in the plan, including to promote quality infill development, encourage mixed use, transit, aurion development, support, mixed use income housing development, and use public private partnerships to facilitate development. Blueprint Denver Denver's Integrated Land Use and transportation plan adopted by the City Council in 2002, identifies the area as being located within an area of change, with the goal of having it absorb new residential and commercial growth in the future. The I-25 and Broadway station area plan creates a connected, resilient, vibrant and transformative multimodal hub that rents the station area into the fabric of the city. The I-25 and Broadway project will also be managed through the Infrastructure Master Plan, or AMP, which provides the master plan infrastructure concept for streets, sewer lines, waterlines, stormwater systems and bike and pedestrian circulation and connections. The IRP ensures the infrastructure requirements and upgrades are identified, so the proposed development is adequately served. Additionally, the IMP provides the mechanism for the city to approve the then current infrastructure costs and ensure implementation of the IMP over the projected 10 to 15 year development timeline. In addition, urban design standard and guidelines have been approved and recorded against the property to provide a comprehensive road map for developers, urban designers and architects to guide the process of designing and constructing streets, pedestrian connections, buildings and outdoor spaces consistent with the transit oriented, mixed use, vision and direction of the project. The Urban Design Standard and Guidelines further refines design elements regulated by the zoning code and defined by the IMP. The proposed urban redevelopment plan seeks to eliminate blight through the creation of the I-25 and Broadway urban redevelopment area. The main goals of the Urban Redevelopment Plan are to eliminate blight, renew and improve the character of the area, encourage commercial, residential and retail development more effectively, use underutilized land. Encourage land use patterns that result in a more environmentally sustainable city. Encourage land use patterns where pedestrians are safe and welcome. Encourage high and moderate density development where appropriate. Improve and provide employment centers near transit, and encourage a diverse, sustainable neighborhood economy incorporating mixed use and commercial opportunities. In order to undertake these efforts, we are seeking to establish a tax increment area. The initial property and sales tax increment area would cover all portions of the urban redevelopment area, except for the property owned by RTD. The yellow portion of the site is that property that is owned by RTD. While there was a desire for the project to also include a redevelopment plan for the stationery itself, the parties were not able to come to consensus on the plan at this time. That does not mean that if and when development for the RTD site is developed and tax increment would be necessary, that we wouldn't be able to use that that tool for this site as well. Instead, in the event TIV is needed to support redevelopment of the RTD portion, we would consider coming back to City Council to ask for an amendment to the plan to approve a separate, separate tax increment area for the RTD property. As property tax increment is being contemplated under the Urban Redevelopment Plan, state law requires that daera enter into agreements with the other taxing entities. Dura has entered into agreements with the three other property taxing entities. The first is Broadway station metropolitan districts number one, two and three. Dora has agreed to pay all incremental property taxes received from the additional mill levy of the metropolitan districts to the districts for their use in the construction and financing of certain infrastructure improvements in the area. Denver Public Schools, Dora has presented the development plan to DPS in order for them to determine what, if any, impact the plan would have on their ability to deliver services to the area. The analysis conducted by DPS concluded a need for additional elementary school facilities and expecting to make enhancements to the McKinley Thatcher Elementary School. Per the terms of the agreement, Dora will cause $3 million of tax increment to be made available to DPS no later than December 31st , 2019. In order for the necessary improvements to be made. And then with urban drainage and flood control district, we again presented the development plan to urban drainage and flood control in order for them to determine what, if any, impact impact the plan would have on their ability to deliver services to the area. While urban drainage did not identify significant impacts from the proposed project. They requested that their staff time needed to review plans related to any regional drainage facilities be reimbursed and that the metropolitan district maintained the facilities until the tax increment area has terminated. We are also asking council to approve the I 25 and Broadway project. As noted previously, the planning area's redevelopment potential suffers as a result of the lack of infrastructure, in particular transportation infrastructure, to not only support the needs of residents and businesses within the development, but also to improve connectivity to and through the site from the surrounding neighborhoods and regional facilities for all modes of transportation. The IMP identified key transportation infrastructure improvements, including two new pedestrian and bike bridges across the central main line, one at approximately the I-25 and Broadway station and what in one at approximately West Tennessee Avenue. Acceleration and deceleration lanes along northbound Santa Fe from Mississippi to the New West Kentucky intersection. A left turn lane on South Platte River Drive north of Mississippi to the New West Kentucky intersection and a multi-modal bridge across the South Platte, South Platte River, connecting the development on the east side of the river to the expanded Vanderbilt Park on the west side of the of the river. The IFP also included a proposed development plan that included a variety of uses to create a diverse and vibrant, transit oriented development, with a focus on creating a unique, attractive and reconnected development and was divided into four Subdistricts a Marketplace and mixed use district in the southwest section of the site, the I-25 I'm sorry, the south east section of the site, the I-25 and Broadway station district to the north, an office in Parkland District in the northwest portion of the site and the Santa Fe Residential District in the southwest section. The I-25 and Broadway project, which has been refined to reflect current development assumptions, is further broken down into a development phasing schedule. If construction, if constructed consistent with the current assumptions at full buildout, the site would include approximately 2600 residential units approximately 900,000 square feet of office and co-working space. Approximately 109,000 square feet of retail and approximately 18,000 square feet of civic space. As noted on the far right of this slide, the tax increment supported development costs of approximately $63 million correspond with the regional infrastructure called for in the IMP to support the development vision. In addition to the estimated $63 million of infrastructure hard costs, there is an estimated $6 million of related soft costs and $11 million of continuing environmental remediation for a total of approximately $81 million. This will be the amount that there is 1% for Project Art and 1% for our Construction Employment Opportunities program would be applied against. An additional $6.1 million of tax increment is to be used to address city land conveyance costs and the $3 million that I previously noted to address the impact to DPS for a total projected tax increment investment of $90 million. These are based on 20 $16. And so they are not reflective of of any type of inflation at this point. And I also want to be clear that this is not a hard cap for these dollar amounts. Instead, as the infrastructure is better defined and to the extent the tax increment is available, we will pay for those costs as they are actually then bid out at that time. In addition to the tax increment, additional local infrastructure of approximately $48 million will be financed through the existing metropolitan districts. So again, to summarize the use of the tax increment, the anticipated TTIP eligible project costs are broken down as follows approximately $81 million to remedy the blight conditions, including demolition of remaining building foundations, regional connections, environmental remediation and site work, and $9 million to mitigate the impacts to DPS and to the city. So there are a number of other legislative findings that are required by the urban renewal statute. The first is that council find that the urban redevelopment area described in the Urban Redevelopment Plan is found in declared to be a blighted area as defined in the Colorado Urban Renewal Law. And the conditions of blight constitute an economic and social liability and a menace to the public health, safety, morals or welfare. This is a legislative finding by City Council based upon the blight study and other evidence presented to City Council. The boundaries of the urban redevelopment area have been drawn as narrowly as feasible to accomplish the planning and development objectives of the plan. If any individuals or families are displaced from dwelling units as a result of adoption or implementation of the I-25 and Broadway plan, a feasible method exists for the relocation of those individuals or families in accordance with the Act. We do not believe that to be the case in this urban redevelopment area. If business concerns are displaced by the adoption or implementation of the I-25 and Broadway Urban Redevelopment Plan, a feasible method exists for the relocation of those business concerns in accordance with the ACT. The project area, as I said before, contains no residences there. Therefore no individuals or families will be displaced. Additionally, due to the vacancy of the project site, no business concerns will be displaced by the Urban Redevelopment Project. Written notice of this public hearing has been provided to all property owners, residents and owners of business concerns in the resolution setting this public hearing. City Council requested Dura to undertake this task. Written notice was mailed first mail to all known property owners, residents and owners of business concerns in the I 25 and Broadway Urban Redevelopment Area on August 29th, 2017, at least 30 days prior to this public hearing. No more than 120 days have passed since the first public hearing before City Council on the plan. Tonight is the first public hearing before Council on this urban redevelopment plan. This is the first consideration of an urban redevelopment plan for this site, and thus the City Council has not previously failed to approve an urban redevelopment plan for this site. This is the first consideration by City Council of an Urban Redevelopment Plan for this redefine site, and as such, the requirement to wait at least 24 months since any prior public hearing is inapplicable. Conformance with the Denver Comprehensive Plan. On September six, 2017, the Denver Planning Board unanimously found that the Urban Redevelopment Plan conforms with the Denver Comprehensive Plan and its applicable supplements. And a letter to this effect has been submitted as part of the record of this hearing. The I-25 and Broadway redevelopment plan will afford maximum opportunity, consistent with the sound needs of Denver as a whole for the rehabilitation or redevelopment of the urban redevelopment area by private enterprise. The project area is owned by Broadway station partners, who intends through coordination with the Broadway Station Metropolitan District, to undertake the horizontal development of this site necessary to attract additional private sector development of the area. The Urban Redevelopment Plan does not consist of any area of open land which is to be developed for residential or nonresidential uses or any agricultural land. And the Urban Renewal Authority has notified the boards of each other taxing entity whose incremental property taxes would be allocated under this plan and agreements have been negotiated governing the sharing of incremental property tax revenues. The city and county of Denver can adequately finance and agreements are in place to finance any additional city and county of Denver infrastructure and services required to serve development within the Broadway and I 25 urban redevelopment area for the period during which the incremental property taxes are paid to the authority. And the plan allows for cooperative agreements between the city and borough to address any additional infrastructure requirements should they arise. And finally, no acquisition by eminent domain is authorized by the plan. We are very excited to be here again. This will be the third time we've appeared before council on this very challenge site. I think it really speaks to the need for public investment in order to advance redevelopment on this site. We believe that the terms that we have reached with our partner agencies, as well as with the Metropolitan District and Broadway station partners, are consistent with the plans that have been put forward through a lot of interaction with the community positions, the property very well for redevelopment and we ask for your favorable consideration of this ordinance. And with that, I will be happy to answer questions when the time is right. All right. Thank you, Tracy. Well done, as always. Okay. We have three speakers this evening. If you would just come up to the front here. I will invite you on. We have Charlie Bush, Lisa Engel and Chairman Sekou. All right, Charlie Bush. Hi. My name is Charlie Bush. I reside at 715 South Sherman Street, which is spitting distance to this development. I've been there for 20 years. I've been working on this project for 16 of those 20 years. I represent two voices tonight. The first is for West Washington Park Neighborhood Association. West Short Neighborhood Association voted 12 zero zero. We were all in agreement to support all three of these bills. It's our third time here with the tiff and the it. It just makes sense. We commend the Broadway station partners and Dora for the smooth planning process. And I'm now going to transition to my own comments. Even though they're my comments, they are widely held by the board and by West Fischbach neighborhood residents. The Gates site has a lot of challenges, and the full Gates site goes from Broadway to Santa Fe, Mississippi, to Alameda. One of the biggest challenges it's had and the least addressed challenge is the East-West connectivity. There's already traffic issues on Alameda and on Mississippi during rush hour at this site, the Broadway station Partners anticipates 43,000 vehicle trips per day in and out of their site. I tried to find the numbers for the part to the north, the Alameda Partners. I have a number in my brain, but I. I don't like to rely on my brain. It's my least reliable method. So if we just double, you know, the Broadway station partners, it's about 83 vehicle to 83,000 vehicle trips per day into this area. 83,000 just to compare is the same amount of traffic as three lanes of I-25 in a 24 hour period. Think of the amount of traffic of I-25 and three lanes in 24 hours. That is the anticipated daily traffic in this site. There are four lanes on Alameda. Alameda is crumbling. There are four lanes on Mississippi and they are already slam full at rush hour. This this development is going to be a solid bucket traffic. When we started, it was going to be the model for Denver. We're going to show the world how it's done. We do not anticipate that that will happen at full buildout. It'll be great for me as an 88 year old lady because I can take my little shopping cart and weave between the stopped cars to get over to the site. But it won't be good for the area. I would encourage the city of Denver to take a step back for other developments and evaluate all issues and. Not just. Follow the developer's lead to keep passing things because they want to get to construction. We need Denver to take a lead. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Ms.. Lisa Ingle. Hello. For the record, Lisa Ingle, 2024 17th Street. I'm here today as a representative of Broadway Station Partners. Broadway Station Partners is the owner of the former gate site at I-25 and Broadway. And I am absolutely thrilled to be here with you today. Thank you. We purchased the property back in September of 2014 and have been working towards its redevelopment ever since. In addition to ongoing remediation activities, we from 2015 to 2016, we participated in the I-25 and Broadway station area plan is one of the many stakeholders. We rezone the property to bring it into conformance to the current zoning code. And that, I think as you recall, came through council June of 16. Since then we have been working feverishly with the Denver Urban Renewal Authority on this particular finance package throughout this multi-year process. We worked with the community. We convened a Broadway station area advisory committee that we referred to as the B stack to ensure that the community was aware of our development plans, the remediation progress and our intent. Our request for a tax increment package. I believe in front of you, you have a packet containing support letters from the Mar Park Neighborhood Association, the Overland Park Neighborhood Association, the Ruby Hill Gottesman Neighborhood Association. Platte Park. People's Association. It's my time up. And and also the West Wash Park Neighborhood Association. So we are I'm hopeful that you will support these bills this evening and happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Miss Engel. All right, Chairman Sekou. Yes. My name is Chairman Sekou, organizer, founder of the Black Star Action Movement for Self-defense, representing poor, working, poor, homeless senior citizens. We are unconditionally in support of this ordinance. And this is in my experience of being down here for almost ten years, this is probably the largest. Two. Project that has ever been attempted by the city. And I'm fully confident that the city council folks here are more than adequate to the task of marshaling this project and so that it can be something of significance for the entire city, especially for poor, working, poor and homeless people who are in desperate need of economic support and jobs and contracts to make this thing happen. Now, I was talking earlier with councilman news about how important his work is in terms of identifying those folks who represent my constituency, who can perform with excellence on this project and being actual subcontractors to this and to share in some of the economic benefits that happen to the city that many times are passed over with the. Folks that I represent who most of them are people of color. Specifically black people. Now. This one is going to be. And require what we call a knockout punch, because now we can begin to level the playing field for real once and for all about how the city and county of Denver conducts its business. And there has to be a serious push. But City Council to oversee this project, to make sure that the playing field stays equal and that we lift that which has been suppressed in terms of receiving some of the benefits of being a part of the city count in Denver. So this is going to require that. The citizens. City Council, mayor's office and all interested party engage in a unified effort which we call TKO knockout punch and TKO. Those let letters stand for teamwork. To. Knowledge, data and fact k all organizational unit. We have got to be organized to make this thing happen and pay specific attention to the details. Because this one's huge. And of course, there's going to be mistakes made. There's going to be errors. Anything that happens, you know, except for a football, you know, that's just bad playcalling. We can do this. We can do this. And we've got to get behind way in the works that he's doing because he's going to need a lot of help to monitor this thing, sit on top of this thing, and then make sure that this thing worked because his name and reputation is on the line. He's heading this thing up to bring it up. And we've got to help. God help him. Seriously. All right. So anything that you ask for us to do, Wayne, for you, including maybe giving, you know. Mystikal. Let's stay on Broadway. Let's. Let's stay on Broadway. We do what we see on Broadway. Yeah. You know, it's a big street. So I'm. I'm I'm not trying to minimize role model. I'm going get it. And I'm going to do everybody a favor tonight, too, because it's getting late and close this thing out because some time has been yielded. But I just wanted to make sure that I got that point across to folks. I honestly believe that folks listened to what I had to say and I'm looking very, very much forward. And this project being successful and hey, boy, you got is on its own. All right. Congratulations on being our General Patton on this thing pushes through. All right. And keep on working. And don't forget don't lose your sense of humor because it's going to be rough. Thank you. And thank you, Mr. Sekou. All right. This concludes our speakers this evening. Questions by members of Council. Oh, here we go. Okay. Councilman Espinosa started off. And a couple of questions for Tracy. If I understand the slide, right. The total sort of economic benefit of this would be in the $60 million plus range. Is that correct? Yes. Is it possible to pull the lights back up? Because I can go to that one of the groups if we want, maybe. That is the. How about that slide? So the infrastructure hard cost is about $63 million. So the slide slide 16 has a breakdown of the redevelopment plan. I mean, well, that's the height and the breakdown of the sort of development phasing in parcels. Yes. Is that part of what you consider when you're analyzing the mean this this plan area? The development phasing itself or the related infrastructure could. Potentially. Go together. Yes. So, I mean, that's the infrastructure for this buildout, essentially, right? That is correct. Which is consistent with what was put forward in the infrastructure master plan. Okay. So then I have a one question on the on the project team on this slide as well. And I have my calculator, but what is the total number of square footage? The total square footage of the of the potential build out here. Lisa, do you want to address that? Why don't you repeat that? Councilman Asari I could add up that bottom line, but do you have that total square footage? 6.5 million square feet. 6.5. Okay. So I'm missing some zeros here. Yeah, all product types. Okay. Do you have. So all this new development would be subject to the new linkage fee. Correct. Yes. No, it's not. But. It is not subject to the linkage fee as it was put into the the review process prior to the application of the new impact fee. Okay. So is there a separate affordable housing planned for the site? And can you explain that? There is a separate affordable housing plan. I am not the right person to describe that. And instead, I'd like to ask Jeff Romaine from the city's Office of Economic Development to address that. Jeff Romer in the Office of Economic Development Council. President Burks Members of Council. Councilman Espinosa Yes, there is a separate, affordable housing plan that's been approved and adopted back in December of 2016. It calls for 330 units based upon the 2600 proposed units that are right now in the plan. And they'll they'll be responsible for delivering all those units without subsidy or they'll still be there. They are responsible for delivering those units under the guidance of the agreement. There is some characteristics of that agreement that talks about how we've incentivized those units to come forward. When we worked out the agreement with Broadway station partners. The focus that that was trying to achieve was both long term affordability. So we achieved a 40 year affordability period. We are trying to encourage obviously tiered residential development. So that was called out. Additionally, we were trying to increase the size of the units. So therefore, there is some incentive within the program in order to encourage two and three bedroom units as opposed to just studios in ones. And then finally, part of the plan is really trying to encourage a mix of affordability and so calls for vouchers to possibly put in place. So that would be some additional subsidy. Okay. And is there a requirement that that all happen within this dura boundary or can it happen off site like a lot of others? It is intended that it all occur within the boundary that it's talked about within the and I'm sorry about the color because I don't remember Tracy, but the one color was encouraged. So right there to your left. Oh, just in the RTD side. The no, not the not the but the the Broadway station portion portion. And I think the RTD side was kind of an orange color. And the other was, I believe, a purplish color. And so then we could do well. Perfect. You probably already gave it to me. But if you could, there might be some value in me seeing that housing plan for for future reference. So if you could please just make sure I get a copy of that. Thanks. Absolutely. Councilman, we have shared it with several of your colleagues already, and we're happy to share it with you also. Thank you. No further questions. Councilman Espinosa, it's a prelude to 38th and Blake. But yes, you should see it is really it to your credit, is innovative. Councilwoman Ortega Tracy, would you mind coming forward, please? The land that is to the west of Santa Fe going southbound. That's within the boundaries. Help me understand why that's included. I know that city is city park or is that land that is actually owned by gates. Okay. And that's not swapping the park land for Vanderburgh Park that's on the site already? That is correct. Okay. And then Park that's on the site will be in part used as storm drainage. Course, correct? Yes. Okay. You think? If I may. Councilman Ortega, if you can see on the screen here. So this triangular parcel right here is actually a city owned park. And that's, again, on the east side of Santa Fe. This parcel down here is owned by BSP, by the developers. So that is why this property is being included in the urban renewal area. It's going to provide the opportunity to cross the river as well as redevelop the park land. That is all that is owned by BSP. And to your other question, yes, this is the city park that a portion of it will be used for drainage . And that's three acres. Is there any green space being added to it or is that the entirety of its size of the park? There is additional space that is being added to the park as a result. And I apologize. I don't have the slide that speaks to to that agreement, which is really part of the land conveyance agreement. But there will be additional land. I'm going to if I can find my pointer here in approximately, approximately this area that will be added to the existing park space that will be developed. If you drove by there right now, you wouldn't know that it is park space. But as part of the development plan, it will be developed as a park and then there will be an additional amount of land that is included to in part offset some of the use of the park land for the drainage facilities. And the drainage will dump into the South Platte River. Correct. Yes, that is correct. I'm hearing behind me. Great. Okay, that's on my questions. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. I take it let me just ask real quick, the drainage piece. Is that a part of this is GDP. IMPEY Okay. Is that a part of the Impey? Does that require. Okay, great. Well, we'll just I just I just have a quick question. What what's the. I'm curious on the drainage portion of it. What is the capacity? Brad Dodson, Department of Finance. The capacity for the portion that's in the park is limited to I believe it's under an acre. I believe it's point eight, 6.83 acres. And that's what we have as defined in our code. In the infrastructure master plan. Thank you. Appreciate it. Oh, I'm sorry for for listening public. I said GDP, which is Jennifer General Jennifer general development plan. But AMP is. Infrastructure master plan. Okay. Just for the public that's listening to all these crazy acronyms. Councilman Flynn, you're up. Thank you, Mr. President. Tracy on slide 18. Could you clarify for me the expected amount of TIFF assistance is approximately 90 million in parentheses in 20 $16. Does that mean that in year of expenditure dollars it will be more? And if so, how much? Don't know how much more. It's all going to depend on inflation, other economic conditions that are in place at the time that the development is being undertaken in the infrastructure master plan, there is an allowance for inflation and I want to guess and say 3%. I think that that is right. But that is really in part why we have in large part way the infrastructure master plan is in place to already have identified according to the development plan that is anticipated what the expected infrastructure is, what the cost should be. And that was vetted very carefully by the city's public works department to then put some type of an inflation factor in place so that when the actual infrastructure is more clearly understood, there is a baseline from a cost standpoint to be laid up against what we believe the expected tax increment, maybe to make sure that there's a fit between the cost and what the amount of increment might be available to pay that. Mm hmm. What? And if, you know, what are the years of expenditure? Do we know how out that can be? It could be as far as, you know, 8 to 10 years. It really just depends on under then current market conditions. Lisa, is that something you can speak to? Exactly what Tracy was saying in market conditions will sort of tell us what that full buildout is. We're planning anywhere from 10 to 12 years at this of 12 years. Yeah. Okay. And one last question, Tracy. The RTD parcel. What is the it's not included right now in the TIFF. It's included in the redevelopment area, but not in the tiff for now. And why was there not the ability to reach any kind of an agreement to incorporate that at this time? Thank you for asking that question, because I in no way wanted anybody to feel that we did not have a cooperative partner because RTD worked very, very actively with the city, with BSP in trying to accommodate a development program in order to currently in order for us to bring it all together. And we there were just so many different influences that just really put us in a position where we were not able to reach those terms at this time. Remember that this is one of their busiest stations and it would really need to be a turnkey operation to make sure that their service was not disrupted at all. And so it was really just a matter of timing and a number of other issues that just really prevented us from coming to an agreement at this time. Thank you. Very complicated. And. And as you know, I've been concerned about maintaining the accessibility for patrons to use that by car. I have some constituents who drive there rather than take the bus over from from southwest Denver. And it's much more very convenient for them as it is. But in the event that RTD does at some point come into the TIFF district, how complicated will that addition be for us? You will have to come back to us to add it. We've just. Got to restructure the whole tiff. Through. Really all of the steps except for the the finding of blight. If we were to amend the plan, it would be as a material modification, a substantial modification to the plan. So we would have to understand what the development program is. Go back to Planning Board asked them to find that the amendment to the plan continues to be in conformance and go through the whole city council review process again. Okay. So we get a second bite at this apple. Yes. Thank you. That's all I'm proposing. All right. Thank you. Councilman Flynn, Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm not sure who will be best to answer this, but I watched the Gates site for decades in my previous job as a journalist, and I met former councilman and current TOD Director Chris Levitt when he was, I think, director of the Front Range Economic Strategy Center and was fighting for local hires and living wage in the jobs that would be created on site. Is there anything in the agreements to date that addresses those issues? Thing is, as I look at Lisa, we're going to tag team this and maybe Brad as well. I can speak to that from Dora's perspective. In the companion ordinance that pertaining to the cooperation agreement between Durham and the city, there is the requirement by the city that Durham cause our programs to be applied against the project as they normally would. And one of those I mentioned Project R previously, one of those is our first source hiring program, which requires that any new jobs that are created as a result of the project are first made available to low income Denver residents. And that is true not only for the construction jobs, but any permanent jobs that would ultimately result on the site. So that is something that we, through the metropolitan district, will be looking to make sure that that is put in place, that it was an existing program even back when the Cherokee plan was in place. So that is going to continue. There were some other requirements that were in place under the Cherokee plan that that Durham is not responsible for. And I'll have Lisa or Brad speak to the status of those. Thank you. The the versus hiring will be enforceable through the metropolitan district and all the infrastructure will be installed under the metropolitan district. So we will be subject to that provision as well. Any any guidance on wage? And living wage. Yeah. You know, is what I understand is it's really not as applicable to the horizontal. That really comes into play with the vertical construction. So at this point in time, that is not part of our agreement. Okay. May I also add, though, that both under duress policy, but more specifically under the Metropolitan District Service Plan, there is a requirement that all of the infrastructure be undertaken paying prevailing wage. So prevailing wage will be paid on all of the infrastructure that that the tax increment is supporting, as well as what the metropolitan district is supporting . Great. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Councilman Cashman. All right. This concludes the question portion of this public hearing. Public hearing for Council Bill 1004 is now closed. Comments by members of council councilman, president pro-tem, Jillian Clark, you're up. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm really excited that we are finally here tonight. I've said this before and I say it again. This site has everything. It has a rail station and not just a rail station, but the second busiest transit center in all of Denver as Denver Union Station and then Broadway station. It has Broadway, which is Denver's iconic Main Street. You have a connection, an on and off ramp directly to I-25. You have the South Platte River, Santa Fe, and a dedicated city park that since the 1950s, the citizens of Denver have never been able to access or use Denver. 40 new people moving here on average a day. This is creating intense development pressure on our older neighborhoods, pushing housing prices through the roof and creating gridlock on our streets. This is the site where we can fit new people without tearing down historic homes or providing integrated, affordable housing unit. And there's no better place to show that transportation demand management tools can work to achieve the kind of mode shift that we have to be able to get to as a city than here. We also get two new bike ped bridges over the rail lines, a new vehicular bridge with an attached bike PED Bridge over the South Platte River, a dog park, a pedestrian focused market street, and so much more. This has been a really long process that started way before I was on council, but I'm so excited to be able to sit up here tonight and vote yes, yes to smart urban infill, yes to building a true transit oriented community. Yes to infrastructural infrastructure that will serve so more, so much more than just the people who will work, live, and play on this land, but will connect neighborhoods that have been separated by huge barriers for decades and provide real bike and pedestrian options that connect people on the West Side. Finally, to transit on the east side of those barriers and to Denver's Main Street on Broadway and the people on the Eastside connected to the South Platte River with $30 million of new parks and improved trails, and the Levitt Pavilion offering 30 free concerts a year. So with that, I would urge all my colleagues to please vote yes on this, and then let's go grab some shovels. And at long last, get this project started. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Clark. It almost sound like you're pitching somebody. They're like Amazon or something like that, but I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay. Councilwoman Canete. Thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate a lot of the questions that my colleagues asked just to get some of what back in the day we called community benefits that are emerging from this project. On the record, I was with the former colleague that Councilman Cashman mentioned was very involved in this project from helping a coalition kind of achieve a vision for the site, and then to negotiate that vision with the former developers and frankly, with the city, you know, because the city wasn't as excited about affordable housing then as it is now. Hard to believe, but they kind of thought the market should take care of those things. We've come a long way and in some ways the discussions we had about this site really created a whole bunch of things that are now much more institutionalized in the city. So the fact that prevailing wage applies and shrunk infrastructure and other projects never was a policy. Prior to this. We weren't doing a great job with first source local hiring at the time that this project was being discussed. And so there have been fits and starts with how well we do on that local hiring program. But but there are and now it's it's much more of a frequent expectation that affordable housing plans be adopted. And just to clarify just one tiny point, the fact this this project would not have been exempt from the linkage fee without an affordable housing plan because it didn't have actual development plans approved. So the fact that it had a vision in the pipeline would not have exempted it from the linkage fee. What exempts it from the linkage fee is the fact that there's an adopted housing plan. And I think that that is it's you know, we always have this dance about whether or not we should take big projects or big sites in the city and just apply our standard policies, which sounds like a good idea when you want uniformity and predictability. But then you have sites that feel like they want to create customized solutions because they have unique opportunities or they have unique challenges. We can never quite decide which is better customized or standard. And so we have a policy that allows for both. And I think that that's. A good thing. I appreciate especially the fact that the former housing plan for the site included some lower income units than the overall plan here is including in some ways. But it also it had necessarily a shorter potentially a shorter period of affordability. So we've exchanged some of the deeper affordability for a longer period of affordability. The other thing that we're getting is the fact that one of the community's visions for this site was that units that were affordable would be spread throughout the project. At the time we negotiated the last deal that wasn't possible. We were relying on tax credits and they tend to have to happen all in a building. And so in some ways, it's fascinating that we're actually more achieving that vision today with this revision, which it's a new proposal, but it's a revision to a former former plan in some ways, from the community's perspective, that we actually are achieving more integrated and more mixed income throughout the site rather than just certain buildings. And lastly, I want to express my appreciation to the department and to Broadway station partners for the fact that some of these units will be for those who have Section eight vouchers. We know that we have folks in the city who have vouchers, who can't find apartments. So so there's a number of things in this plan that although they look different and they feel different than that long ago process, they achieve some of the same outcomes or better outcomes. And so I appreciate the fact that that affordable housing plan was so carefully thought out and negotiated. And I appreciate the fact that we also did better this time on some of the connectivity and mobility. Right. And so there's a lot in this plan to like. We know it's a tough market out there. So that is going to be the challenge that you face after this vote tonight. And I'm hopeful that we can be resilient this time around. And I know that that won't be easy. But but that's my hope, is that we see this vision built. So thank you to everyone who is involved in for all the work you did, keeping my office and in particular involved in aware. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Kenny. Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to first thank Councilman Clark for picking up the ball on this project and helping to get it to this point of moving forward. And I especially want to thank the the dozens and dozens of neighbors from throughout South Denver, like Charlie Bush and and many, many others who have sat through meeting after meeting after meeting of advisory groups starting back in the days of Cherokee. And I also wanted to mention the gentleman that I met along the way named Steve Maskey, who was became a point person for Cherokee development and almost got this project to the point of taking off. There were grand plans. I mean, Robert Redford's Sundance Cinema was interested. We had a big time developer out of Chicago ready to break ground, and then the 2009 rolled around and everything went down. So, yes, Steve Moore took me for a spectacular. Tour. Of of the Gates campus when it was completely empty but had not begun being demolished yet. And I'm telling you what we're talking tunnels and enormous, enormous old industrial buildings that we just don't build anymore. And so hopefully Steve's aware that we're at this point and I didn't want this to go by without calling calling his name . He passed away at 47 years old back in 2012. And so, Steve. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to congratulate John and Barbie Session Partners. Thank you for your work on on this particular site. I. Cannot begin to imagine what it's going to look like. I'm very glad that they were able to incorporate at least some of the affordable housing, local hire stuff. I mean, the connectivity. You did do a great process, kept us on a loop from day one, and I do appreciate that. It says a lot when you have the community with you and when you have a lot of folks saying, let's finally do something here, you. The other thing I have is kind of I mean, growing up just a stone's throw away. I got to me, it was great target practice. But I mean, with with baseballs and rocks and stuff, it was actually pretty cool. All the different colored windows you to be able to. I got that one. No, I got it. And we just it was this great pastime. Those are the old days. But can I just have one selfish request? I lost my gates rubber ball. That thing was awesome. The super balls that they had. If you find one, return it, please, while you're digging. If you have those things, you can throw right down the street and they just keep going. But those hours of. Okay. So thank you. So we got that. I know you, though. I know you've been waiting to get that one out. Councilman Espinosa, we're out of a good. I'm glad my colleague digressed and I can keep going. No, no. One of the things I was get I was scribbling here was a bunch of numbers. And the numbers are, you know, me sort of figuring out how much taxes my block generates and it pays in property taxes. And I came up with just under $60,000 a year for the 59. Let's be simple structures. I mean, homes on my block and I did the math on paving. And if we paved both lanes and on the block, that would be $31,000. So every year, my my block contributes. That's without sweet street sweeping fines and towing fees that are related to this the games. And so we're pumping money into this economy that's I mean into the revenues into the city. That's how this thing works. I understand that we're not always going to get what we put into it. And actually, I did that math wrong, that 58,000 is what we get from the city. I mean, that's that's what's left over, actually. We collect $146,000 a year from that block. Most of that's going to schools, which we didn't have very many kids on my block, actually none for about nine years. So we were that was net going to the schools. I mean, that's our part. My point being that earlier today council members discussed our budget request and this property in this station area has the benefit of having an applicant willing to go to a leadership in an organization willing to go through this entire process for the GDP and the IMP. And these are things that our all of our station areas would love to have. And in some cases, like 41st and Fox, my station area on sunny side, we don't have that sort of massive master developer. Councilwoman Black asked for money for her sophomore station. We have a lot of stations that actually need this level of analysis, planning and put in, in and in thoughtfulness that may actually end up in a a request. But the city has to put resources in. So for decades, blocks like mine have existed by these other station areas, contributing and paying their dues and paying their fair share and getting minimal resources in exchange. These are areas without sidewalks, the areas with crumbling streets, because that paving cycle's 15 years. So that $31,000 that gets kicked back in paving every 15 years. And so I just want to use this the sort of feel good nature of what we're finally hopefully going to get this round with this this level of deferred investment. You know, it's it's taxing yourselves to to sort of pump this back into the infrastructure to enable all this redevelopment to to then contribute to this economy the way we are. There are communities that are actually station areas that don't have that massive take down to one single developer, but they have the same infrastructure needs, the same planning needs, the same zoning requirements, the same design guidelines, the same affordable requirements that need to be addressed. And so we can do that as a city, that we can do that as a council. But we need a push for 41st and FOX GDP AMP and need a push for South More Station because we have the resources to do that in our budgets today. So I just wanted to remind my colleagues that it's it's decisions like this. It's great when we have people coming forward that are doing this, but we have station areas that we put in infrastructure already. And if we don't, we get what RTD sort of initiates and that's not great. So thank you for bringing this forward. Thank you for sort of circumventing RTD and then pushing RTD to probably a better place in the end. So I'm looking forward to supporting this things. Okay. Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Mr. President, for that introduction. Yeah, no problem. Any time. I just want to briefly make note of the historical significance of this site being once the center of industry in Denver. The convergence, I think, of three railroads, the Rio Grande, the. The Santa Fe, the Colorado and Southern that went down the alignment that they came I-25 in the first place. And of course, Gates Rubber. And when I ran for this office, I met so many folks who were retired from Gates Rubber, living in West Denver and Southwest Denver still drawn pensions from what was once a great industrial operation that gave a lot of good living and good good incomes, working class incomes to working families in Denver . And I'm looking forward to seeing that site once again become an iconic location for Denver's working families. So thank you very much. I'll be proud to support this. Thank you, Councilman Flynn. For those of you watching, Councilman Flynn always gives us the historical context of all of our bills and projects going on. I just want to say thank you to Broadway partners. Lisa you did a fabulous job. Kim you did a great job. CRL the city. Excellent work. I know this was very complex. Jeff, I want to thank you because Paul's not here. He no longer works with the city. But I love it when we incentivize affordable housing to get the returns and the rewards that we want. Larger, right. More bedrooms, longer affordability. Those are all good things. And Tracy and the team, I don't know where you're at, Tracy, but great job. And you know, this really takes a collaborative team effort to get this done. Brad, I know you worked on this a ton. So, you know, someone once told me about the city of Denver. Nothing happens in this city without key collaboration. So thanks for everybody working hard to get this done. With that, Madam Secretary. Brokaw. Clerk by Espinosa. Flynn I. Gilmore. Cashman. All I. Can each. Lopez I knew. Ortega I. Black I. Mr. President. I. Police. Those voting in US results is. Sorry. It's not quite recording everybody. Thank you. Sorry, you. That's right. Oh. 11 eyes. 11 eyes. 1004 passes. Congratulations, everyone. Okay. Councilman Ortega, will you please put Councilman 1005 to be placed on final consideration duplex?