A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 1550 West Colfax Avenue and 1400 Cottonwood Street. (NEIGHBORHOODS AND PLANNING) Rezones the property located at 1550 West Colfax Avenue and 1400 Cottonwood Street from I-MX-5 (Industrial, Mixed Use, 5 stories), UO-2 (Use Overlay allowing billboard) to CMP-EI (Campus, Urban Edge 12,000 lot size), UO-2 (Use Overlay allowing billboard) in Council District 9. A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD AT LEAST FOUR WEEKS AFTER PUBLICATION. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 9-17-14.
During the public hearings, we are going to start with Council Bill 669. Councilwoman Ortega. Would you please put the Council Bill 669 on the floor. I move that council bill 669 be placed on final consideration and do pass. The Public Pelican for Council Bill 669 is open. May we have the staff report? Thank you, Mr. President. I'm Sara Showalter with Community Planning and Development. The property that's in question is located in Council District nine, very close to the area of Colfax and 25. It's in the Lincoln Park statistical neighborhood. This aerial zooms in a little bit more. The site is outlined in a yellow dashed line. It's immediately south of the Colfax Viaduct with the area campus that people commonly think of, of the campus already being developed to the north. It is part of about 13 acres that has been planned for some years and is currently under development as a ballpark and athletic complex for the campus just south of Colfax. This is just one small piece of that larger 13 acre site. And there is a light rail station just north of the site along Fifth Street, which is this property highlights the site in blue. The current zoning is I am x are industrial mixed use five with the U oh to use overlay. It's about 28 acres in size and the owner is requesting to rezone just to bring this property into the same zoning as the rest of the site as well as the rest of the larger campus. The proposed athletic complex that's growing on the site is allowed per the current zoning. So this rezoning is really just to bring this parcel into conformance with the zoning for the rest of the campus. The proposed zoning scheme. P.E.I. is a special context. Our campus context is what the CMP stands for and the EEI stands for Education Institution. So this is a district that's specifically designed for large campuses such as the area campus, and then it will retain the use overlay of UO too, which is to allow for existing billboards. There's one existing billboard on the site that will remain in place. This map shows the existing zoning of the site as well as the area around it. It has the IMAX five zoning I mentioned earlier. You can see that gray area is everywhere with the campus zoning. And then there is some more industrial zoning on the perimeter of that 13 acre area that's being developed for the athletic campus. These images show give a little flavor of what the areas are like around the site. So the top image is looking north from the site with the Kovacs Viaduct there. And then you can see some of the higher density campus buildings to the north. The image in the middle shows the site again with the in this case, Colfax Viaduct is on the left of the image and the billboard. There is the existing billboard on the site that will remain. And then the image on the bottom shows the kind of typical development in this area, which is the one story warehouse kind of industrial flex type uses. I'm in terms of the process that this rezoning request has been through. It went to planning board on August six. They voted unanimously to recommend approval. They went to the Neighborhood and Planning Committee September 17th. And now we're here tonight for the city council public hearing. All of the notification requirements have been met, which included posting the property 21 days prior to this hearing. We did receive a letter of support from the affected R.A. in this area, which is the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association. And I'm very quickly walk through the review criteria that apply to all rezoning requests. First, the consistency with adopted plans in this case, comp plan 2000 Blueprint Denver apply as well as to small area plans. So in terms of comp plan 2000, there are three main areas where we find this rezoning is in compliance with the plan strategies that relate to promoting infill development in areas that already have infrastructure and development, promoting mixed use communities as well as quality development that is compatible with surrounding neighborhoods. And it also supports goals in the plans that relate to promoting high quality educational institutions like the Area Campus Blueprint. Denver was adopted several years before the campus engaged in the master planning process to consider moving the athletic fields to the south. So it actually shows this area as an industrial and yes, it does show this entire area as an area of change. And since Blueprint Denver, we've adopted to local area plans that are more up to date with the campus plans. The first one law, Lincoln Park Neighborhood Plan. This was adopted in 2010. And you can see the site has a blue star there. It is shown as a recreational use. So this proposed use is in compliance with that plan. And the other applicable city adopted plan is the area west station plan, which also shows the site as recreation and open space use. And this is not an adopted city plan. But I did want to note that the Area Higher Education Center does have a master plan. They updated it in 2012 to show the concept of the athletic complex here, expanding south past the Colfax Viaduct that is shown here and per the zone district that's proposed when zoning staff does development review. The master plan, as well as the design guidelines that have been adopted by the Education Center for this campus will be considered as part of review in terms of justifying circumstances, we do find that there have been changed conditions. The ownership for these two pieces have changed, as well as newly adopted plans that show this land becoming part of the Ariah Area Higher Education campus. And we also find that there's consistency with the neighborhood context and zone district purpose and intent. The campus education institutions own district are intended for these types of campuses, and as I noted before, the rest of the campus has the zoning that the applicant is requesting. So based on compliance with these criteria, we do recommend approval. And that's why. Thank you, Michelle Walter. We have two speakers for this public hearing and you all can come up to the front pew. Sean Nesbitt and Paul Galan. Good evening. My name is Sean Nesbit and the director of Facilities Planning for Metropolitan State University of Denver. And I'm here to answer any questions you might have. Thank you, Mr. Nesbitt. Nesbitt. Paul Galan. Paul Garland with DAVIES partnership architects and hair supporting. Any questions? Sean may not be able to answer. All right. Thank you. Well, it is now time for that concludes our speakers is now time for questions of members of council. Councilwoman Canete. Thank you, Mr. President. This is probably for Paula. I was just wondering if you can talk about what the pedestrian connectivity will be to get across Colfax, whether there are, you know, existing safe crossings or whether that's part of planning that you're talking about with the city. Great use. I'm just concerned about the safety of students crossing Colfax, and I realize we're under the viaduct and it's lower traffic. But I still feel like it's a it's a pretty hairy some some hairy spots down there. And just wondering what this one looks like. Yes, I'm used to going to the capital capitol of iniquity and they so whenever I see in the we are the pedestrian connection from campus to that area was already pretty strong as far as the sidewalks we've connected them as well with, you know, accessible curves up and down there. We've added ADA parking to the area, we've added pedestrian lights along the side as well. Then there's street lighting around the facility. We've added emergency call centers like we have around our campus as well. So that has been incorporated within the campus. I think we still probably have some work to do on on lighting from the fields into campus, but that's something we need to look at with the the other three institutions as well. But it's been pretty well incorporated to be a part of campus and not an island separated from campus. And if I may, Mr. President, one additional question. Go right ahead. I was just wondering if you'd had any conversations. It's great. You have good neighborhood support. Do you anticipate that the field will be available or are there any intentions to try to make a community connection? I think, you know, it's it's a big move south of Colfax. And I think it's great that you've built the trust with the community to have that support. But is there any connection possible? Yes, there is. We've been we hired an associate athletic director this summer who is specifically in charge of the facility operations. And in those few months, the athletic director and associate athletic director have been working with Denver Parks and Rec on how to program the site. So they just had a meeting last Friday. I haven't gotten the download yet, but we are reaching out to the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association and believe it, their November board meeting or neighborhood association meeting to discuss the plans moving forward. This complex will come online in the spring. It'll be substantial completion right at the end of January or early February. And so the athletic department has been working with Denver Parks and Rec and other grants that they've been getting from baseball for tomorrow, which is returning baseball to the inner city program. And Denver Parks and Rec are working on types of programs that we will have when we're not using it for intercollegiate athletics or academics, the summertime, the weekends, the evenings and things like that. So that partnership is really important to us, and we've stressed it every time we go to the neighborhood associations on how to make this open to the public. And so that will be really important. One of the connections we want to look at a year ago and want to continue to look at is that that pedestrian connection from our site to the park, which is a little rough on 13th Avenue. So whatever help we could get from the city, planning on that would be great. But we've walked it a few times on how we can improve that. Thank you so much. No further. Questions. Thank you, Councilwoman Kennedy. Councilman Monteiro. Thank you, Mr. President. Isn't there a memorandum of understanding that meets you or your area? Foundation has with llama Lincoln Park. Correct. There is. Yes. Utilizing the campus new facility in Memphis. There is an IOU that was signed when they purchased when the campus purchased the property at the end of 2008. Right. And that's this relationship. And the special staff that we've hired is staying with that MSU that we make sure we are reaching out to them. And we're will that MSU that will be between the neighborhood and and the area. But will you have that on file and in the neighborhood group. Correct. Okay. Mean, I just have two more questions. Can you tell me what? So this is for two addresses, right? For 1550 West Colfax and then for 1400 Cottonwood Street. Correct. So what's going to be the address? 1600 West Colfax Avenue is the complex address. Okay. So so these addresses will go away. Yes. Yes. We just want one address for the for the site. We do have one on a restroom facility now, because that was part of phase one. And it's on Shoshone and it's 1310, I believe, right around there for the restroom. Now, phase two, we want everything to be under the one address to 1600 West Colfax that these two addresses. So I'm not mistaken were the the addresses on the parcels may purchase them they were separate parcels. One was Denver Housing Authority and one was from Beth Go. Both were purchased in 2013. Okay. And then I just have one other question. So it's my understanding that you guys were going to install the B bike stations. Did that happen near the BALLFIELDS? No, that wasn't in our design. The Prairie campus was looking at installing them near the westbound light rail station, and I'm not sure where that is in development. Can you follow up on that? Absolutely. Yes. All right. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Monteiro. Are there any other questions from members of council? Seen none public 9669 is closed time for comments from members of Council. Councilwoman Monteiro Thank you, Mr. President. I want to let the public and my colleagues know that we've been working on this for quite some time, and there's been an intensive community outreach effort by the by the property owner. And there is a great deal of support, especially by llama Lincoln Park neighborhood, who states that MSU is a vital institution in Denver and a very valued neighborhood, neighborhood neighbor. So what I want to say is that all of this looks pretty simple, but there's been a lot of work that's backed this up and a lot of steps that have taken and it's gone through all of the proper mechanisms, including following the law. The Lincoln Park Neighborhood Plan and the planning board vote, which was August 6th, approving this. So I, I am supporting what we have in front of us and encouraging my colleagues to do the same. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Monteiro. Do we have any other comments from members of council seeing? None. Madam Secretary. Raquel Montero. Nevitt Ortega. Rob Shepherd. Sussman Brooks Brown. I forgot. I can eat lemon LOPEZ. All right. Mr. President. I have been Lopez. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and announce the results. 3939 669 as in place of one final consideration and does pass. We are now moving on to the second one for Council Bill 709. And Councilwoman Ortega, would you please put 709 on the floor?