A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 1634, 1640, 1642, 1650 and 1680 Sheridan Boulevard in West Colfax. Approves an official map amendment to rezone properties from U-RH-3A and U-SU-C2 to U-MS-2 and U-MS-3 (urban row-home and single-unit to urban main-street districts), located at 1634, 1640, 1642, 1650 and 1680 Sheridan Boulevard in Council District 1. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 6-18-19. Community Planning and Development has determined that the requirement for a legal protest (signatures by the owners of 20 percent or more either of the area of the lots included in the proposed change or of the total land area within 200 feet from the perimeter of the area proposed for change) has been met (petition signatures represent 0% and 21%, respectively).
11 I was one accountable. 818 has passed if you. For our. You are welcome and invited to stay with us because we're still going. If you're not going to, I would ask that you please exit as quietly as possible in respect for the people who are still here for the next one. And take your conversations out into the hall if you have a conversation. Councilman Sawyer, will you please put Council Bill 577 on the floor? I move counts will 19 dash 0577 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. It has been moved and seconded. I'm sorry. The public hearing for Councilor Bill 577 is open. May we have the staff report? Theresa may, Sarah with community planning and development. I can get to the right place. So this is a map amendment. It is an application to. And again. Ask if you are not staying for this next item, we are into it already. So if you could please continue your conversations until you're out in the hallway, please, and exit quickly. Thank you. And can we ask that the doors be closed also? All right. All right. Should I start again? Let's give it a try. Go for. It. So, Teresa Lucero with community planning and development. This is a map amendment application to rezone property at 1634, 1640, 1642, 1650 and 1680 Sheridan Boulevard. The request is to rezone from urban single unit and urban house three storey to urban main street to and Urban Main Street three. So this is in City Council District one in the West Colfax Statistical neighborhood. Again, the request is to rezone from single unit and row house three to Main Street two and three. The urban context is characterized by one and two unit residential embedded in with some commercial uses townhomes, shopfront buildings from 30 to 35 feet or 30 to 45 feet. And this is intended to promote pedestrian scaled commercial streets and typically located along our collector or arterial streets. So existing zoning to the north is Sloan's Lake Park. So open space and to the south is the Rowhouse. Three story to the east is a single unit and row house three and then across Sheridan is Edgewater, which has a I'm sorry, I'm finding my R two, which is a two family zoning and then a little bit of Lakewood, which is RMF, which is residential multifamily. So the existing land uses a mix of duplex and single unit, mostly single unit surrounding to the north of the park, a mixture of single unit and two unit to the east and south and then actually the same in Edgewater Cross Sheridan Boulevard. So informational notice on this application went out in April of 2018. A revised application notice went out in February of 2019. Planning Board held a legally posted public hearing and voted unanimously to support this application or recommend approval of this application. We were at Liberty in June of this year and then of course, we're here today with a legally notified hearing. So there are several RINO's in the area. There is one letter of opposition from the Sloan's Lake Neighborhood Association, primarily objecting to the heights above the base plain and then several, well, one letter of support and 44 letters of opposition. Now, this doesn't count the letters that you received in the last two days from the applicant. I my understanding is, I think 12 letters of support, one of them containing several signatures. So existing form, building scale in form. These pictures kind of show you the top four. Are the properties being considered for rezoning the middle? In the middle row is Sloan's Lake Park. The middle right is the property to the south on Sheridan. The bottom two on the left are on Zenobia Street on properties directly adjacent to to the subject property. And then the bottom right is the some properties in Edgewater across Sheridan Boulevard. So the criteria we will go through the plans that apply our current plan 2000, Blueprint 2019 and the West Colfax Plan, which was adopted in 2006. Plan. Details in your staff report. Some of the policies that the staff believes apply building housing as a continuum to serve residents across a range of incomes and needs. Creating a greater mix of housing in every neighborhood, a mix of housing types, encouraging infill development that's consistent with the surrounding neighborhood, and promoting development and infrastructure where services are already in place. Blueprint Denver This is an urban context. I again small multi-unit, residential and mixed use areas embedded with one and two unit residential uses in residential areas, low scale multi-unit buildings also sometimes embedded. A future place is residential, low, medium, which is a mixture of low and middle scale units, residential interspersed in single and two unit areas with a building scale of three stories or less in height. The street types for Sheraton Boulevard, a mixed use arterial for 17th Avenue, a residential collector for any place to the south, a local street. Fifth Future Growth Strategy Blueprint. Denver is all other areas of the city, which is anticipated to see 20% of new housing growth and 10% of new employment. Land use concept in the West Colfax Plan is Main Street, which is a linear and oriented to the street. The plan calls for a height of 2 to 5 stories with a mixture of land uses and creating that comfortable pedestrian environment on a main street. The framework plan recommendations that apply are rezoning commercial properties on our main streets, including Sheridan Boulevard. For these kinds of uses, promoting a range of housing types and costs at higher densities in our town centers and main streets, supporting infill development and focusing both structural and use intensity on our main streets, transit stations and town centers. The West Colfax Plan also has district plans which speak to the character of an area. They called this area the Main Street Pig and Whistle District and consider said we should consider the impacts of this main street on the future adjacent residential and with deeper parcels should consider Main Street two and three, which were a former Chapter 59 Main Street, which translated into five and five and eight actually in our current code. So staff believes this is consistent with the applicable plans that by using a standard zoned district, we're furthering the uniform application of our regulations by implementing our plans and allowing character that's in development with the area, we're furthering public health, safety and welfare. Justifying circumstances is changed conditions. This is an area seeing a lot of change with the West Line, with the redevelopment of St Anthony's and staff believes this is the appropriate justifying circumstance. And we did talk a little bit earlier about the context and staff believes this is these two zone districts that are intended to promote safe , active, pedestrian scaled commercial streets are the appropriate zoned district and with that, staff recommends approval. Thank you very much. We do have 23 individuals signed up to speak this evening. Thank you so much for sticking with us late into the evening here. If I can ask if we can free up this front bench for people because I'm going to call five at a time up here so that we can get through everybody quickly. So the first five, if you'd come up to the front bench, Corey Manders, Annemarie Manders, Ricky Lang, David Weber, Bruce O'Donnell. I mean, that's five. Yes. So go ahead. Cory Manders, you're up first. Hello, city council members. I appreciate the opportunity to speak in favor of rezoning the 1634 to 1680 block of Sheridan Boulevard. My name is Cory Manders. I am. The owner of 1634 Sheridan. Boulevard. I have lived at this residence since 2004 and have welcomed the growth and. Positive changes that we've seen in recent years. While watching those growth, we owners realized that combining our properties to offer multifamily apartments would allow the most and best use of limited space with the smallest carbon footprint and decided to pursue rezoning to comply with Blueprint. Denver and the West Colfax Plan. When discussions began. The city requested. That we donated 16 feet of the sidewalk. We eagerly agreed, being that. My wife, dog and I walk through the neighborhood daily based on community opposition and the request of then Councilmember Espinosa. We entered into mediation to work to resolve the majority of the neighbors concerns. During the 16 month process. The following. Modifications were made based on the neighborhood. Feedback. Initial proposal had a. Five story building and was supported by Blueprint, Denver Draft and West Colfax Plan. Throughout the course of mediation, it was reduced from five stories to four stories to three stories, and ultimately, at the request of the neighbors, a combination of two and three stories. In. Accordance with a revamped. Blueprint, Denver and West Colfax Plan. We have also recorded a. Covenant to ensure input from the neighbors as reflected. This includes requiring two separate buildings. Height limitations that are lower than allowed by code, for example, behind my house. Building height is limited to below 30 feet, which is less than 35 allowed. And as you zoning. On Zenobia. Blueprint down very correctly identifies this is an area that is underutilized in. Decay and in major. Need of reinvestment. And closing. Ask City Council. Vote to approve the rezoning of 1634 to 1680 shared and to you. AMS two and. UMass three. Thank you again. For your time and consideration. Thank you. Next up, Anne Marie Manders. Good evening, city council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of the rezoning. Of the 1634 to. 1680 block of Sheridan Boulevard. I'm Anne Marie Manders, and along with my husband, Corey, I'm the owner of 1634 Sheridan. I've been a Sloan's Lake resident for the past ten years. During this time, I've witnessed much positive change in the neighborhood. The most recent being this past spring, with the addition of a sidewalk at Sloan's Lake. Along both 17 excuse me, both. 17th Street and Sheridan Boulevard. I love living here, mainly because of its walkability and proximity to everyday. Resources and of course, the park. I truly want what is in the best interest of the community as a whole. Which is why I believe redeveloping this block makes sense and is smart change that will continue to enhance. An already thriving and growing area. What I personally feel to be the most beneficial change the rezoning can offer is the creation of a much needed sidewalk on Sheridan. Currently, there is no sidewalk, just an uneven. Sloped dirt path. It's extremely unsafe and nearly impassable. Especially when there's any type of precipitation. As a result, were forced to walk down the alley, which is often riddled with trash and overgrown weeds. Residents of the Zenobia BLOCK. Do not use the alley for vehicular access, so its care is often neglected. The only alternatives to the alley route are. To risk our lives navigating the treacherous terrain or playing a deadly game of Frogger across Sheridan Boulevard. Members of the community who use wheelchairs must also. Take the alley. Or worse, utilize the streets, because sidewalks in the neighborhood are only 32. Inches wide. Maintaining the front of our home is dangerous. And an unwanted. Unwanted job. We can only do in the early morning hours when traffic is light for fear of being hit by passing. Cars, traveling up to 40 miles per hour, just feet away from us. Installing a proper sidewalk and tree line would allow. Easy, direct connectivity to Sloan's Lake Park and safer access to daily necessities like bus routes. Bike lanes. Grocery stores, doctors, etc.. In addition. Approval would give the community a complete sidewalk for the entire block at one time versus piecemeal. If and or when homes are redeveloped, we owners. Entered into the mediation process with the intent to work with our fellow residents to craft an offering that not only incorporates. Their input, but also runs in accordance with Blueprint Denver and the West Colfax Plan. This rezoning does exactly that. So while I understand the opposition's fear of change. Because with any. Change comes the potential for risk. This is smart. Necessary change that makes sense. And these perceived risks will be. Easily outweighed by the benefits our community will gain. In conclusion, I request that. City Council vote to approve the reasonable rezoning of 1634 to 1680. Sheridan to you must. Too, and you must three in conjunction with the vision of. Blueprint Denver and the West Colfax. Plan. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, recalling. I am Rick. Lang. I'm the owner of 16 a property at the corner of 17th and shared. I brought along the masters of the petition that we turned in. Never should have got it. This these petition has 102 signatures that support the rezoning. And we captured those from many of of the people around town. And we did it all in four days. We got that many. If we would have had more time and started up this had this idea earlier, we probably captured several hundreds of them. So anyway, the three of us or the three other associated parties or property owners, along with myself collectively formed an assemblage to pursue this rezoning and to have all the properties developed and sold as one assemblage. As such, we all participated in the mediation in response to neighbors input to reduce zoning. We honor the requests by compromising from our original five stories to four, then from 4 to 3, then to a combination of 2 to 3. Two and three stories to ultimately cross. Compromising to. Um, as to and um. As three which is an exact fit and complies with plan, recommendation and blueprint. Denver, 2019 and the West Colfax part. A 16 storey building was rezone on 17th and Meade Street with absolutely no mediation. They did not care what the neighbors thought. However, we did work with our neighbors and gave many concessions regarding height parking and rooftop rooftop limitations. And despite that, we weren't able to achieve an agreement and support from the local neighbors. Our assemblage did submit and recorded covenant to ensure input from neighbors are reflected for the following lower building heights that are more than allowed in zoning. Guaranteed 25% more parking that is required in zoning place limitations and restrictions on use of rooftops. And it's very important to note that this project goes if this project goes through and the rezoning is approved, absolutely no one will be forced from their home. Lastly, homes concerns because this is not desired, desirable because there is not a desirable much needed tree lined sidewalk along Sheridan frontage arterial for a safe pedestrian environment. The alley is routinely used as a transit corridor between Colfax and Sloan's Lake Park by the homeless. Because of all the neighbors across the alley on this block have six foot high fences and never use the all except for trash. There are totally oblivious to the excessive problem of the homeless. Routinely. Using their trash. I'm sorry, but your time. Your time is up. And storage area for clothes. I'm sorry, but your time is up. Next up, David Weber. Okay. I am David Weber, the owner of two houses at 1640 and 1650 Sheridan Boulevard. And I'm one of the home homeowners who are applying for the reason I've owned these properties for 17 years and lived in the neighborhood for 26 years. I grew up in Denver, taught high school geography for DPS for 25 years, and I'm well aware of the issues dealing with Denver's growth. As far as the rezoning goes, the neighbors of Zenobia and others have multiple complaints that can be boiled down to three main issues. Size of the buildings, parking, loss of community. In my opinion, these issues have been addressed during a lengthy period of mediation where we went from a five story proposal to a three story proposal under the old blueprint Denver. And when we did offer this compromise, we were rejected by the neighbors. Then in the advent of the new blueprint, Denver, we compromised again and went to a two building proposal. So two separate buildings, zoning to UMC two and UMC three. We also added 1 to 1 parking, lowered the height of the building roughly equivalent to row house three. Then we limited rooftop and retail uses of the building and would add three bedroom units. And of course, we would have a 14 to 16 foot sidewalk built on the block. These compromises were also unacceptable to the neighbors, even though all of these compromises were well within the framework of the Planning Board's guidelines. It's obvious that true compromise is nearly impossible to attain unless we had offered row rowhouse zoning, which to me seems completely incompatible for a busy street like. Sure. It's understandable that people dislike change. In fact, most of us, including myself, yearn for the good old days. However, this isn't the reality of the situation. The world isn't a static place. As I've seen, Sloan's Lake in the last 26 years become revitalized and vibrant in its outlook. However, it is also now debilitating, expensive, and this is causing established residents who live on a tight budget to move out. Surprisingly, the struggle to rezone our land has been met with many claims of the neighborhood's demise. We are miffed as to why we can't share the resources better or share again on Sheridan and adapt a new era that's facing the city with better transportation and less expensive housing. Denver's currently considered one of the greatest cities in the United States, and that's partly because we have a forward looking planning board. I just hope our city is agreeable to sensible change, and I hope the city sees this. Zoning change will help preserve our diversity through mixed use, smart use and the best use to create more complete neighborhoods. The 20 minute neighborhoods, so to speak. And I believe we can continue to make Denver right again. I'm sorry, but your. Time is. Up. Neighborhood. Thank you very much. Yes. Next up, Bruce O'Donnell. Thank you, Mr. President. Members of council. Good evening. I Bruce O'Donnell at 770 Sherman Street and I'm the applicant's representative on this rezoning request. My old friend Jennifer Moulton, the former city of Denver planning director, taught me that cities never stay the same or remain constant. They are always changing. Cities either grow or shrink. Both growing and shrinking come with challenges. Cities that continue to shrink begin to die. Look at the aptly named Rust Belt cities. Denver's a growing city. Our city plans recognize and plan for inevitable growth. The most important of these plans is Blueprint Denver, which is adopted a short five months ago by city council with substantial neighborhood input along this stretch of shared input from immediate neighbors, many of whom are here tonight, resulted in a blueprint. Future land use designation of urban residential low medium with building heights up to three stories. The community's voice was heard and has now adopted city policy. The requested combination of UM's two and three zoning is an exact fit for this blueprint prescribed future land use and is an appropriate implementation step of blueprint. The combination of UM's two and three was crafted in direct response to neighborhood input, keeping the overall scale and future development compatible with the surrounding context, especially when compared to our original application for five story zoning over a year ago. In addition to honoring the community input to reduce building heights through zoning, we have also been responsive to neighbors by directly incorporating their input into a protective covenant and deed restriction that has been recorded with a Denver Corcoran recorder and runs with the land. The Covenant reduces building heights below. What is allowed in zoning, requires two buildings, requires a parking minimum, prohibit specifically requested and unwanted uses, requires three bedroom units in limits the uses on rooftops. These restrictions and requirements assure better compatibility with the neighborhood and surrounding context. An unfortunate result of shared and being a jurisdictional boundary in Denver's edge is that shared and has long been ignored, making Sheridan a forgotten place to include not having a sidewalk on a blueprint identified mixed use arterial in an RTD bus route. This rezoning can correct this, bringing eyes on the street along with amenities. This rezoning creates a chance to bring this block of share and it into Denver rather than continue the edge condition that backs itself up to Denver because Denver can't stay the same and it will continue to grow. And because Blueprint tells us what type of growth should occur here, and because this rezoning meets the criteria established in Denver, Denver's Zoning Code Section 12 24.10. And because the recorded covenant memorializes the applicant's responsiveness and commitments to community input, I respectfully request the City Council vote yes in Approve Council Bill 19 0577 rezoning this property to USM two and three. Thank you. Thank you. All right, so I'm going to call for the next five. We have her mine, Blough, Ephraim Buelow, Joel Unger and DeWitt and five old Dawn Gaillard. If you come up to the front. And. Her mind. Wow. All right, you're up. I'm on my way. I'm Hermione mind. Can you pull the microphone down so we can hear from her? Thank you very much. I'm from in Blount. I live at 1656 Zenobia Street. For the last 46 years, we have enjoyed our life on the West Side. We put my glasses on. I can see where. So I want us to see. Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. It was very interesting to listen to you earlier on. With the different discussion. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak here tonight. Two years or so ago, I stood here as well and left this room with a city in my heart. Tonight, my hopes and expectations are flying as high as a kite because things have changed. And no one needs in this neighborhood a different than the way a few years ago. But I'm here tonight in the hope that your values, your intelligence, your wisdom will guide you to make the best decision and vote against. A much too large. Project with not enough parking spaces. Yes. We need sidewalks. One day, I hope an entire generation of West Sider, as we call ourselves, young people, will point to this city council on every one of you. And thank you. For your. Wise decision to preserve a neighborhood established many years ago. And to preserve it for many more years to come. Please, please vote, as they say in French at their club. But I'm a bottle conscious. With your soul and your conscience. I also want to add I have a few more seconds. My husband and I have enjoyed living at 1656. These days. My husband is no longer skiing. He's 91. He's a Holocaust survivor and he's a Korea war veteran. His only joy is to sit in the back on the porch, and every single evening when he feels good enough, look out to the west side and look at the sunset. It is beautiful. Thank you. I'm sorry, but your time is up. Please don't take this opportunity. All right. Next up from Buffalo. Yeah. Hi. My name is from Buffalo. I live at 4634 West 14th Avenue in the West Colfax neighborhood. I'd like to say that we live we have lived in. The neighborhood for about 19 years. And what we live in is the historic remnant really of what this community was. This community was a very vibrant Jewish community and a very vibrant Latino community. And when we moved in 19 years ago, there wasn't a Saturday that would go by that we wouldn't hear mariachis playing and, you know , people celebrating and having parties and things. This community has now been gentrified to the point of non-recognition. The the our young people can't afford to buy houses. There are our community is is has been destroyed. And I look at this and say, this is this is the last piece that we have the last chance to preserve the I think, the oldest historical Jewish community in in in Denver. And the last chance to preserve our way of life as a family community. And, you know, I've got four grandchildren who live in this neighborhood. And the increased traffic density that this will bring makes it more dangerous to try to cross the street, especially if you're a little guy and a row of parked cars along the streets means you can't see what's coming until you dart out in between them. It's frightening. And this this idea of. Bringing in all this density of units. Along Sheridan and the only access won't be from from Sheridan, it'll be from Zenobia. And from. Any place. So you're going to have this enormous traffic jam on those streets. You're just going to have all these these cars trying to get in to this area. And although I know people are saying, no, people don't really need so many cars these days, the reality is, and you'll forgive me, but the kind of people who can afford to live in these kind of housing units, people who are coming into our neighborhood, they've all got cars. They have two cars per person, per per couple. And there's a lot of traffic and there's a lot of density. And it makes it a place where you cannot safely let your children play. And that is a shame. I raise my children in this neighborhood and my daughter is trying to raise her children in this neighborhood. And I'm very afraid that without you to stand up and protect us and our community, that that will not be able to continue. Thank you. And next up, Joel Unger. Good evening. My name is Joel Unger. I live at 4930, West 17th Avenue, Corner Yates, a block away from the property under properties under question. Our family has lived there since 1969. I'm here to speak against the application. And primarily because this property is a substandard, defective property. And I'll explain why. You can access it on foot or by parachute, but it's hemmed in on all sides. Sheridan with its traffic, with its noise and its fumes as on the West Side, 17th Avenue, which is now overburdened with traffic. If you have an idea how bad 17th Avenue can get, just think of what it looks like after a Bronco game. Well, the 17th now, all the people running to King Soopers and target and the population increase on the east side of Sloan's Lake AV overburdened 17th Avenue. So you can't really access the property to or from 17th Avenue, particularly with all the traffic turning in from Sheridan, Zenobia is blocked off by the residents, so the only egress or entrance is any court, which is a small street to the south end of this property. That street, if you come out the alley on to Annie Court, if you make a right, turn your right into Sheridan, you can't go from any court, the Sheridan, without losing your front end. Cars are whizzing by at 35, 40 miles an hour. The only choice you have is to make a left turn and go to the Zenobia where you can't go north, because that'll take you into 17th. So you can go south to Colfax and in Colfax you can't get across Colfax. It's an obvious you can only go west. If you want to go east, you have to wend your way across till Wolf where there's a light where you can access Colfax and go east. This property is ill suited for high density. It's not that high density is a bad idea, but this property will create all kinds of difficulties and consequences. And therefore I. Urge the council to reject it. Thank you. Thank you. Next up in a do it. Good evening, City Council. I'm on a date with a teacher and Denver resident. Today I'd like to discuss the super majority vote. What's undoubtedly necessary for this rezoning to pass. A super majority, I feel, is a tool that allows. Affluent property owners more power than less affluent property owners. So what is a super majority? Well, its very nature is, I believe, classist and racist. The voices of renters are. Completely left out. And a renters opinion isn't even taking in consideration. In this process. And because of historical injustices. Black and black. And brown residents are far less likely to be homeowners in Denver than white, affluent residents. Moreover, more than half of Denver's residents are renters. Renters outnumber homeowners, and their numbers are growing. So when a neighborhood disperses, a supermajority petition whose voices are taken into consideration. When you dig even deeper, you realize that the term neighboring property owners. Doesn't mean the amount of people. It means how big the property is that that owner. So, for example, in order to push a supermajority, you need signatures of 20% to 20% of the total land owners within 2200 feet of the property. Meaning that if I own a larger property than you. My vote matters more. So not only the supermajority not taken to the point I'm sorry. Not take into consideration the voices of renters, people who are typically younger and less affluent. It takes into entire another step and listened to the voices of large landowners more. America was founded by white landowners who gave only a vote to, shockingly enough, white landowners. The supermajority policy. Does the same. It is vile and it must end. Councilwoman Black, I applaud you for bringing this very topic to council. I'm saddened that you weren't fully supported, but I understand there was obstacles that were in the way. So I'm asking the council. Move those obstacles. End this practice once and for all. And to all of us here, I know the change. Can be frightening. But if you think change is scary, consider the status quo. We are destroying our earth for our children, and we must change our ways. One way is to reduce our carbon footprint as an entire city. We must have density in our cities and mass transit, or we will continue to destroy our earth. This year, I attended. A. Passover Seder. When we read the Haggadah. I couldn't help but think to myself what plagues, how we brought upon ourselves. We are currently running an insane experiment on our earth. Building more and more highways. Driving more single passenger cars from even farther distant neighborhoods. All because we oppose new density. In our. Cities. When will it stop? I have a three year old child. And she's precious to me. To everyone in this room who is more precious than you do. Our children do not care about the world. They will live in. Please approve this. Rezoning. Thank you. Five old. Dawn colored. My name is five Gaylord. My wife and I are 27 year residents and property owners on the west side of Denver. And before we moved here, we were building contractors for 20 years in another state. I am the Treasurer of Congregations Abraham of 132 year old congregation on the west side of Denver. And contrary to a popular rumor, I am not one of the original members is my personal opinion and my professional opinion that the proposed zoning change is extremely out of proportion and will be damaging to the adjacent neighborhood and threatening to other single family residential neighborhoods is a recognized fact, particularly in the current market, that there is a need for additional housing and that is indeed a moral imperative. But there is a conflict of moral imperatives. Operating here is also a moral imperative to address those needs in the context of orderly and esthetically compatible architecture and density and consideration of the adjacent neighborhoods. And there are long term residents. Previous discussions with the city were consistent with this principle regarding the appropriateness of, quote, a low scale multi-unit residential mixed with one and two residential uses, unquote. This is much more in-keeping and compatible with the adjacent established neighborhood spots. Owning this strip with its most difficult and limited vehicle access is really quite unnecessary in light of other vacant properties closer to the light rail, which are already zoned for higher density. It would be a very damaging precedent to rezone single family lots to a high density development. This would establish an economic pressure that will diminish the number of single family residences and increase the value of those that remain, making them even less affordable. This would seriously damage our neighborhood of large families of very modest income. Our congregation is more than 50% underpaid teachers. The large number of families surrounding Colfax Elementary School, also of very modest means, would also be threatened by setting this precedent. We would sincerely hope that the esteemed members of the City Council will review and reject this request in light of these very strong conflicts. It is our hope and expectation that you will have the best interests in mind of both the existing residents of the neighborhoods and any new residents of the proposed development who will be much more comfortable in a lower density setting with two or three bedrooms similar to the previous application that you just overwhelmingly approved. Thank you very much for hearing me out. Thank you. Next five, if you come up to the front, Ryan Keaney, Kelly Anderson, Dimitris Fortney, Aaron Wasserman and Adam Astrof and Ryan Keeney, you're up first. Join. My name's Ryan Kenney. I live at 112 on Northampton Street in Capitol Hill. I'm going to speak off the cuff today. It's late. I think my dedication to staying here, the whole council hearing, kind of speaks to my the magnitude of my support for this rezoning. I mean, it's three. Stories on an arterial. Road, and I just think it's a no brainer. So I urge you all to support. Thank you. Thank you. Kelly Anderson. I of. You can hand that when you're done. When you do 3 minutes, then you can go over our secretary inhibitor. Kayla Anderson 1655 Zenobia Street. I ask you to vote. No on the current application. Let's look beyond the typical M.E. arguments and rhetoric. And give a thought to this historic. Community that is affected by this. And also pay attention to our adopted plans, which would not be so long. If the formula. Were as simple as busy street big apartment. The new blueprint emphasizes the need for quality transitions. It designates a strip. Along Sheridan as a low, medium residential. Place type with max height of three stories, but also says the tallest building. Heights may not make sense. Where a site is providing transition and where they occur. Multi-unit buildings are low scale. On page 100, it presents an infographic that highlights a situation just like what is being proposed here as an identified problem. By definition, Main Street zoning is the. Most extreme. Build to requirements, and when applied here, it would result in a larger than normal three. Storey building. With zero setback from the shared. Alley with the Zenobia. And because of the 25 foot slope to Sheridan would result in actually four floors above ground near 17th and 50 feet in height. Even with the proposed deed restrictions. This is a low density residential neighborhood at the edge of Denver. And in this context, a block long 100 unit building is not low scale. Yes, it borders Sheridan, but throughout the area, the commercial and residential properties along Sheridan are shorter buildings. The 26 West Colfax Plan did say mainstreet zoning may be appropriate, but directed it to respect the variations inappropriate scale, ensure appropriate transitions and bulk height mass as mainstream buildings approach residential structures. If these criteria are not applicable in a situation like this, then ask when are they actually applicable? It rationalizes Main Street zoning for deeper parcels in proximity to more intense residential structures called Sheridan, a street attractive for pedestrians, bicyclists that can have on street parking that is not applicable any more shared and cannot have on street parking today. Finally, the scope and intent of Main Street zoning is is clearly not just to build an apartment with the leasing office yet that is the concept the applicant presented to the neighborhood for apartments. In this residential neighborhood, there are better conforming multi-unit residential zoning codes and the planning board agreed with that. But there is no developer here attached to this and the applicants told us they were not even entirely committed to sell the properties together. This would be granting significant extra entitlements, but with no plan for what comes next. This is an idea that members of this Council have specifically rejected in the past. During mediation, Mr. O'Donnell boasted he would get this passed without any neighborhood or R and or support if he needed to. But I stand here with the sincere hope that the City Council of Denver has higher standards and the votes to not approve this and send it back to the drawing board. It's not just a few neighbors who oppose this. It is an entire community. Of homeowners who renters, rental. Property owners and institutions alike united in their. Sorry, but your time is up, but thank you very much. Next up, Dimitri Zandvoort zawadzki so close. My name is Dimitri Xavier Romney. I live at 1950 North Logan Street and I'm here on behalf of myself as well as Yimby. Denver. I think if you've heard of arguments, I can go on about a number of them. I could talk about, you know, why dense urban housing is good for the environment, that it decreases the overall footprint, allows people to live close, sort of work closer to where they shop, make more trips on foot by bike and be close to transit, especially on a arterials such as Sheridan. But I think, you know what? What comes to mind is our housing shortage. I would rather have stood here in favor of a five storey building, and that's not happening because of compromise, you know, and I think we all have to do that. And so I'm. Here. You know, not ideal for me, but I think it's still a push in the right direction. I don't. In terms of affordability, it's a drop in the bucket. But what I think about is what happens when this doesn't get resolved, because I think inevitably these houses are going to get scraped and they're going to be replaced with 4000 square foot McMansions going for 800 K or higher. You're going to have plenty of parking and plenty of cars. You're going to have people making most of the trips that way. And the folks that could have been living there are now living 1 to 3 or four, five miles out, probably not living in Denver, you know , taking our highways or through our neighborhoods into the city to work. So I think, you know, this is kind of a microcosm of a bigger issue. But, you know, at the end of the day, we need to support even the smallest. It's in the right direction. You know, I think it could have been better, but this is what we have. And I think it's better than a bunch of single family homes along a major arterial. So thank you for your time. Thank you, Erin Wasserman. Good evening, members of Council, and thank you for your commitment and for your time. I'm Aaron Lawson, 1670s Novia Street and also president and CEO of ISSUE Veterans. Hi, I'm 53 year old institution on the west side of town. I like to voice my strong opposition of the zoning plan being proposed at 17th Avenue and Sheraton Boulevard. As the resident, there is no idea of Zenobia Street, one block east of Sheraton Boulevard. My family and I are directly affected by the proposed changes. I believe that the added density and traffic congestion and excuse me with resulting safety concerns will have a decidedly negative impact on the quality of life of our family. Furthermore, visual changes to a neighborhood are worthy of consideration as well. Our calm and peaceful neighborhood will be disrupted in Europe, irrevocably changed by a proposed zone rezoning through oppose. New changes do not take into account the historic nature of this established Denver neighborhood. I'm a longtime resident of Denver's West Side neighborhood, and I was born in neighborhood on this block, actually, and have lived there over 46 years . And a member of the Jewish community and our children have grown up down the block from their paternal grandparents. The proposed housing caters to a transient population. Given the size of units, I fear that these new housing developments will displace a stable, long standing community. As we see already, so many have been displaced and are moving away due to the size and price of housing. I fear that these new and I'm sorry the Jewish community relies on the infrastructure of religious institutions that have existed in this community for over a century. We don't have the option of just picking up and moving. While I understand that nothing stays the same, I strongly objected to gross abuses of developers who leave neighborhoods unrecognizable and overpopulation in their wake. They are not stakeholders in our community, and many of those who spoke tonight are not either. The stakeholders in our community are coming from other areas who don't really understand what not that we're against density or change, but what each piece of change, what that does to our community. Their greed and desire for more of what drives their wishes for zoning changes is what's going on. As was mentioned by Councilman Flynn earlier in the last proposal that what we need more of is larger homes, is larger apartments, three bedroom and so which has which has an idea of multi-generational. And that's not what we're seeing. We're seeing studio apartments, small apartments, which again caters to transient community and displaces the larger families and the family oriented community, which we have now. And we see many of the the Latino community that's been in a way driven out, I think, due to the pricing and the raising of homes which they've been living in at this time. I respectfully request that you consider the position of the stalwarts of the neighborhood and community and make appropriate zoning decisions accordingly. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Adam Castro. No, Adam. All right, next five. If you'd come on up. Erin Steinberg, John Rickey, Murray Darrow. Uh, Chairman Sekou and Tovah Zuckerman. Go ahead. Good evening, counsel. My name is Aaron Steinberg. Rabbi Steinberg. I'm the rabbi, a congregation, Santa Abraham, located at 1560. Wenonah, our congregation, Sarah Abraham, has been on the west side of Denver since 1887. Our community appreciates a newly adopted plan which establishes goals to preserve the authenticity of Denver's neighborhoods and celebrate our history, architecture and culture, unquote , and to, quote, embrace existing communities and their cultural assets, unquote. We are a community geographically rooted here because of our institutions. Yet, as high density development increasingly expands from Colfax Avenue into the adjacent low density residential neighborhoods, it threatens to dismantle this lovingly established century old community. When in negotiations with the applicant, we discussed a plan, an idea in which we could have the applicant work with us to meet our housing needs. It was suggested by the councilwoman who organized that meeting to consider 25 to 20% of the apartments. That would be three or four bedrooms. Meeting the need of the current community. The response by the applicant, which was termed as a compromise, was 3%, three bedroom housing. That's not compromise. That translates as one or two units of three bedrooms. That's not a compromise. That's insulting. The adopted plants identify this neighborhood as both vulnerable to displacement and lacking in the missing middle of housing options. It calls for the city to, quote, diversify housing options by exploring opportunities to integrate missing middle housing into the low and low, medium residential areas. Let me be frank. I'll skip the notes. Our community is not going to survive this. We are consistently seeing our community fall apart. Our young families are moving away. Young families which seek to move to our community. Don't they come to visit and they see they don't have a place to live? Single family homes are regularly razed and multi-unit structures are put in with one or studio one. Bedroom apartments, studio apartments. They can't live there. They move away. I ask the zoning board. Consider and please trust me on this. Consider. I'm sorry, but your time is up. Thank you. Next up, John Rickey. Good evening. My name is John Ricky. I live in a district three and a councilperson towards this district. Thank you very much for having me. Sorry if I'm a bit punchy. It's been an evening and I. As it happens with most people, I think I started paying attention housing when I bought a house. I started paying attention in the streets at the same time. You know, how do you get in between the houses and the places you want to go? I became passionate about cities and how they work. This rezoning that's being requested at the up to 2 to 3 stories of Main Street, I believe, is a really good idea . I urge you to vote for it. 2 to 3 stories. Main Street zoning is the most pedestrian friendly we have. If you're going to try to encourage mode shift, this is the way to do it. Forcing more parking into it isn't the right way to do it. But like was said earlier, compromise. I know it's difficult for people to imagine that cars aren't necessary to get things done, but when you live across the street from a park and a grocery store and hardware store and a home goods store and a beer store. Heck, I don't. I wouldn't. You don't even need a bike at that point. You can just walk across there and get everything that you need. The the the the I mentioned the way cities work. 86% of Denver is dedicated to single unit residential. And that form of zoning requires well, it doesn't require, but it makes it really difficult to live without a car. And that's too much of our city to try to force people into cars. There's no more room on the streets if we are to get the mode shift we need, we need the density to support the transit . It helps that this particular rezoning is along. Sheridan and two blocks off of Colfax are the main Premiere. I consider a transit way and hopefully will be upgraded one day, but we have to be able to to to have the population to support that transit. I find it curious. The last speaker said that he wants young families to move into the neighborhood, but you have to have a place to move them into and there are no more single family houses being built there. You can't, you can you can only replace them. So if you want a place for young families to be, you have to have units for them to move into. Not to mention that, you know, couples and singles and transients need housing, too. And we keep falling further and further behind. Every year in Denver, more people move here, and we still aren't building enough housing in order to house everyone. And we need to do something about that. We keep trying to scrunch it all down into a smaller space as we can, and you can see what it's done to, you know, the city and everyone's really great attitudes. Thank you very much. I apologize for rambling. Have a good night. Thank you. Next up, Marie Durrow. Good evening. My name is Maureen Darrow. I live in an apartment on the 1500 block of Xavier Street in Denver. I'm here today to express my opposition to the rezoning of the properties located on the 600 block of Sheridan Boulevard. Denver has worked hard to put into place various plans for redevelopment in order to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population. Within these plans, one focus mentioned is equity. Our society today spends a lot of time talking about inclusion and diversity and protecting minority or at risk segments of the society. I would ask the Council to take into account one such minority community located in the West Colfax neighborhood where the proposed rezoning would take place. The West Denver Jewish community is made up of over 100 households, all within a geographic area of a mere half square mile. The cultural practices within this community include active involvement in the various organizations belonging to this segment of the population, including multiple daily services and classes, the local synagogue, ongoing classes and services at the Adult Learning Center, two active high schools that draw students from around the globe and many others. There's a prohibition of driving on the weekly Sabbath and holidays, which prevents this community from being able to look at housing options outside of this small geographic area. There is much infrastructure in place for this community, which has been active in West Denver since the 1880s, along with the needs of housing close to these Jewish community centers . The housing needs of this population requires larger units than the average requirement of the surrounding area, although the average household size in this zip code is 2.9 persons. Over 11% of the households in this area are made up of six or more persons. With these larger household sizes being average within the Jewish community. Because of the intergenerational focus of this community. Many children desire to remain in the neighborhood near their parents when moving out and starting families of their own. However, these families need more than a studio one better two bedroom apartments in order to remain long term. Despite this need, less than 1% of units in this neighborhood are larger than two bedrooms with the proposed units. If the rezoning goes through, allowing for a mere 3% of units to be three bedroom. This ignores the needs of this minority population while adding to the traffic congestion and lack of parking that already characterizes this section of the neighborhood. The concern with this rezoning is not only the houses that would be torn down, but the precedent that would be set allowing other low density housing needed by this minority population to be resold and replaced with high density housing. I'm a single woman and currently rent an apartment two blocks from the properties under discussion. I have rented in over a dozen neighborhoods in the Denver area in the course of my adult life and can testify to the unique nature of this neighborhood. In addition, my family has been in Denver for over 100 years, so I have a vested interest in seeing this neighborhood retain its character and to make sure that I. Heard that your time is up. Thank you. I don't see Chairman Sekou. All right, Tovah Zuckerman. And then I'll call the next five. Okay. Next last three. Dan Schorr, Jesse Paris and Daniel Krauss, if you want to come up to the front. Good. Good evening. My name is Tova Sussman. I'm here to speak as a member of the Orthodox Jewish community of West Colfax. Several members of my community are here and many more would be here, but have been busy with their families or evening prayer and study sessions. It's hard for me to be here too, and I thank my daughter for putting her younger siblings to bed. Our community is a unique one. We live in a geographically small neighborhood because of the infrastructure that's been in place for a very, very long time. We do not drive or ride in any vehicles on the Sabbath each week, so we need to be within walking distance of the synagogue and other Sabbath observant families for our children to play with my husband and I. But our home on Tennyson Street two years ago, it was very hard to find because the prices have gone up so much over the years and there are so few houses available for sale. I have many friends who would like to be able to buy homes but have been unable to do so because of the prices and limited housing stock. Some of my friends have moved away because of the housing situation. We are not a wealthy community. We are interested in living in single family homes in order to have space for our families. My husband and I have a relatively small family of four children. Some of my families, some of my friends who have managed to buy homes in the area have eight or nine children. We need the arts for kids to play in and streets that are not overly full of heavy traffic and will be safe for children to cross. Apartments do not work for us. I have heard that building more smaller units will make the price per square foot in the neighborhood even higher, causing the prices of homes to go even higher. Rezoning single family homes for apartments will cause. A number of single family homes to go even lower. I am very proud to be living in the neighborhood where my husband's great grandparents and grandparents lived. If rezoning in our neighborhood continues as a trend, our community will be displaced. In conclusion, I opposed the rezoning of the properties on Sheridan Boulevard. Please protect our community. Thank you. Thank you. Dan Schorr. Hi, I'm Dan from the West Colfax Business Improvement District. So I'm here for the West Colfax bid. And we we did vote the board voted to support this rezoning. You know, largely for the reasons that it's you know, it's it's within plan precedent, you know, well, within a blueprint, it supports more intense development on arterial. And main streets. And it really works toward completing a complete. Street network that we're is is painfully absent, particularly in this location with no sidewalk. And we're also afraid about the lack of of attainable housing, especially as you've heard about this neighborhood. Gentrifying does not, you know, is dwindling. And this would, you know, at least provide some opportunity for some of that stock to come back. And then, of course, we're a business improvement district. And we believe that building a vital pedestrian connection and creating a broader network of infrastructure. To serve, that. The entire community, commuters, everybody who's living and walking and shopping is really beneficial and not just for the business community, but really for everybody in the community. And in fact, you know, many of the speakers here opposed tonight are very much you know, we've been working on making Colfax a safer place to walk across and beyond. And of course, that's something that a lot of people here, even opponents of this rezoning also are seeking. So there's a lot there is some commonality there. I think that what we are seeing tonight is that change is difficult. And unfortunately, I think that sounds like there was an effort to make this housing, this potential site, a this site a potential place for the Jewish community, you know, to accommodate the Jewish community by, you know, housing them there. And that didn't work, unfortunately. And so I think that it's a difficult thing. And then we're seeing that actually broadly in the city, that change is difficult. There's a lot of tension about development and housing. This is an example of one where there's not a developer, which is kind of unusual. And but what I come back to is that on this in this location on Sheridan Boulevard, and some people have already referenced this, it's a somebody mentioned it to you did. So, you know, it's just a very it's not an easy site to to develop and build on. And so I just don't think that there is a realistic solution. To this. That involves townhouses, which would really be the option. So anyway, for all of those reasons, I do want to see something happen here and. You know, take your time. Thank you. I don't see Jesse Perez. All right. Daniel Krauss. Hi, my name is Daniel Prowse and I need to first say I'm here on personal business as a neighbor. I'm also senior architect for in CPD in the building side, not in the planning or the zoning side, but I live at 1339 Range Street and they also my parents have a home just as a direct neighbor to the property. And I was there for at some of the meetings, mostly observing in the in the mediation. I have to say that that did not include the community that was for neighbors directly, you know, the ones who petitioned, I guess, in protest formally. But the community concerns are legitimate. There is a very different dynamic and you're hearing about it. There are people ready to buy families, ready to buy homes. I can tell you very specific examples of, for example, a couple with a woman with multiples with M.S. and they want to buy a cross from the synagogue. And the home was advertised as a red brick Tudor with the original fireplace and wood floors, etc., and it was being marketed for a family to move into as a, you know, a number of bedroom home. Like it's typical in the neighborhood. There was typical in the neighborhood. And because of the four plex zoning, which was not intended, that was the duplex zoning that went awry that people were building these four plex. And largest concentration, as far as I know, is in the West Colfax neighborhood. And those are displacing actual housing. In this case, that was an offer well beyond the expectation of the of the seller. And they're like, well, wow, a developer wants to buy this will raise you know, they'll raise the house and put four small vertical units. Of course, someone is not going to live in a vertical unit like that and our families are not going to be able to live in homes that don't have the yards, don't have the bedrooms. And really, sustainability comes to mind because I'm very, very involved in green building and in the committee member for the adoption of the sustainable building codes. Now it's going to 20 into 2019 and the sustainability and the cost of new housing. When you're going to raise existing housing and build new, they're going to be more expensive and it's driving up the per square foot, even the cost of the existing housing stock, which is very limited in a very small area . But it's certainly something that could be avoided if the it was appropriate, things were appropriately zoned. And I do think that the blueprint, Denver, the actual zoning and the new comp plan get it right and they don't call for a 50 foot building an m a main street building which doesn't respect the alley the same way there's there's issues with this trust. You know, there are issues. What I suggest is there's a neighborhood planning effort going on for West Denver and it's starting October 5th. If I could please implore. The I'm sorry, but your time is up. To wait and have this thinking adjudicated as part of the neighborhood plan. I think it would be appropriate. All right. That concludes our speakers. Are there any questions from members of Council Councilman Hines? Thank you, Mr. President. May I speak with someone from the Jewish community? I don't know exactly who to call, but if you could select someone. Awesome. Thank you. And I'm sorry, could you could you mention your name again? Daniel Krauss. Krauss, yes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Krauss, for your service to the city. Also, thank you for for coming here. Also, thank thank you. The Jewish community for for coming. I'm glad that we could do this on a time other than between Friday and Saturday night on Sunday on what is an era of. The Arab is a boundary that allows people to either carry things or example to push a stroller on the Sabbath. So within the air of a family could travel to synagogue with their children as opposed to without. Is an air of something that's recognized by the city. Like an ordinance. There's a declaration by the mayor for a declaration. What about an ordinance? Mr. Goulart could speak to that. Okay. Five of Gallard. I've had the merit of managing the area for the last 25 years. The the city council's 25 years ago under the mayor, Webb passed a resolution that recognized the need for the Jewish community to build an enclosure, according to Jewish law, without infringing on anybody else's rights that would allow us to carry on the Sabbath. There are 39 classifications of work that we don't do on the Sabbath. I won't name the other 38, but one of them is carrying in the public domain. And so we have inspectors that go around every Thursday to see that the integrity is there and make sure that people can carry food to the sick, carry their children, push a stroller, keep the keys to their house in their pocket, carry their prayer book to synagogue, etc., etc.. Okay. Is this an it's error of. Error of. A roof. Okay. And most Jewish communities through the centuries have such a construction. Okay. Is this the only eruv in Denver? No, it is not. There's one on the east side. There's one on the on the southeast. And I believe the current community has recently also constructed one. Is this recognized as a historic area or a historic district? That's not my department, but I don't think so. Okay. As the city allowed you to use utility poles to demarcate the era. We had to. It was an arduous process. The legal process probably took a year or a year and a half, and all of the utilities had to sign off and approve our use. Even the water department had to sign off and they were underground. But yes, we do indeed either use the utility poles with their existing infrastructure or we are allowed to. As long as they are in the low voltage area, we are allowed to attach to the utility poles. And who's Golda meir? Who is. Golda meir? Golda meir. Meir, excuse me. Yes. She was the prime minister of Israel years ago, the first female. She lived in Denver. And her house, I believe, is a little historic edifice someplace on the west side. Was it part of this area, this era or no? Well, I don't know if it was in the era of there was no Arabs when she was here, but the Jewish community was. There were 2000 families at one time, and it has since. And 13 synagogues, I believe 20 synagogues. It has since shrunk. We are the only synagogue left. The oldest one, I think, west of Chicago. The only synagogue left west of Chicago. Left on the west side is congregations there. Abraham There used to be 20. Okay. And I apologize. I'm I'm learning quickly tonight, one of my aides speaks Hebrew and and is an American. But. But it was educating me when I was looking at my phone. I apologize. She can't be here physically. She was physically present earlier, but was trying to learn as much as I could as quickly as I could. And I. I might have more questions in a minute. So I appreciate your interest. I don't know. But, you know, I hope I was able to answer your question satisfactorily. Yes, of course. I mean, I guess where I'm going with the line of questions is if this is a distinct area and it and and to preserve the air of this this new building might destroy the era of I'm that's where I'm trying to go with this. You know. I the average certainly runs up to that that alley. But we're we're very used to being having to respond to changes all the construction goes on. I worked with RTD for, I don't know, 15 years as they changed things around as there are pull hits or people take fences up and down. So there's a reason I have to inspect this go around every week because we need to respond to change in that regard. Yeah. So. When we consider zoning requests, we as a city council, we have to follow a very narrow set of guidelines, but conformity with existing plans is one of them, and equity is the first metric in both blueprint and comp plan 2040. And so that's kind of my thought process. But I'll yield to Madame Vice President or President Pro Tem. Thank you. Well, we do indeed have a vested interest that goes back over a century in the neighborhood. Historically, financially, educationally. And the area was just really one one aspect of that. And the very admirable concern you had for the Latino population in the last and that minority. We would hope that you would look upon our needs in the same, you know, in the same light. Thank you for your consideration. All right. Thank you. Councilman Hines, Councilman Sawyer. Thank you. Teresa, can I just ask you a couple of questions about the surrounding area? And so in your first couple of pages, as you're coming up, you mention in your staff report 44 letters of opposition. I'm sorry, didn't you mentioned. In your staff report 44 letters of opposition? It's on the page. Hang on. Well, I'm looking at looking puzzled because I thought it was while there were. I'm sorry. 46 total letters. One was an R.A.. One was in support. So I guess that's 44. Yes. Yes. 44 letters of opposition. And you sort of glossed over that and had said, hang on, let me just pull it up really quickly. Sorry. So it was it's nine. Slide nine. One letter of support, 44 letters of opposition. And then when when you were going through this slide, you just sort of glossed over it and said that those didn't count any more or there was something that had gone on around the mediation attempt. Can you explain? Kind of. So those 44 letters of opposition are are intact in your staff. They're in the staff report. And those ones that are in there are intact. Okay, great. And then can we talk a little bit about the surrounding area and what sorts of transit options exist and what sorts of transit options are planned for that area ? You want to. Yeah. Go back to existing land use or. Yeah. I guess. Or maybe this is a question for someone from Public Works that I'm just sort of trying to figure out as I look at the maps what the and I look at Google Earth, what the actual transit options are that are there because to me, it sort of looks like there's Sheridan Boulevard where there are cars and there's 17th Avenue where there are cars. Um, 17th avenue where there are cars and bus and bus. They're shared an avenue where there are cars and bus lines. There are two complex avenue where there are several busses. Well, right now it's like seven, several blocks down. So I'm just looking at the immediately surrounding area. Okay. So there's a bus line on 17th and there's, as I recall, and somebody checked me, I thought there were at least three bus lines on Sheridan. And are those planned upgrades? Are there are there planned upgrades? Is that a high capacity corridor that's going to give. It in a high capacity corridor? Okay. And it's one of the ones that's planned eventually to be built out to something else. Do we know? I. Not to my knowledge, but it is a high capacity corridor and those are the ones we try and emphasize adding transit to. So it would not surprise me. Okay. And then without a is it typical to do a rezoning like this without a builder and without some sort of plan? Yes. We're only talking about an entitlement at this stage, so. Okay. I guess I'm a little confused because it was mentioned several times that it wasn't typical for this to happen without some sort of discussion of pulling out of a planning stage as well. So can you clarify that a little? Well, yes. Staff is looking at this from the perspective of the entitlement. A lot of times the builder or the property owner is looking at it and what they might propose to build. And sometimes that feels like a disconnect, I guess. Yeah. Because I guess, you know, as we're talking about equity issues and we're talking about a very specific community of people who are looking for a very specific thing and have very specific needs, for example, to have separate countertops, to separate refrigerators, to separate dishwashers, to separate. Right. If you're keeping kosher, you have to have completely separate cooking areas and prepping areas in your kitchen, which makes design and layout of something like a home, an incredibly intricate and different process that is very specific and has very specific requirements and very specific needs. So it's it's very hard to have that conversation when there is no builder or design at all, I guess, and. Maybe that's a better question for Bruce, but because I was not in on the discussions of what exactly was being built. All I know is apartment and I don't even know the number of units. Okay. Sorry. No further questions then. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Black. Thank you, Mr. President. I have a question for you, Bruce O'Donnell, please. So we've we've talked about letters of opposition, and then one of the applicants had a petition of people who are in support. So can you tell us about some of the support that you've had in the community? I don't feel that people from the community who are in support of it came tonight. Sure, I'd be interested in hearing about. Letters of support that are from that community as well as who signed that petition. So we in have furnished in our in the official record and in your packets 12, I think it is additional letters of support from neighboring property owners. Two of them are from well, actually five of them I guess are from property owners within 200 feet who could have signed the protest petition but instead signed letters of support . So they're in the immediate you know, they would be classified certainly in the immediate neighbor vicinity. And then the over the last weekend and I was not involved. You could ask Rick Lane, who kind of headed up the effort and one of the applicant property owners, but went to in the neighborhood over the weekend and gathered 102 signatures in favor of the rezoning proposal. Mr. Lane, would you mind coming up and telling us more about the petition, the signatures you got on that? Yes, please. Well, we just wanted to find out what the interest was. With petitions to see how much support we could get. I was quite was quite surprised that we got a lot of support basically over the. I think we started on the 12th and we went through the 15th and most of those were I was obtained on the 15th. And we just simply asked people if they would support that. You know, we would support the rezoning of the low to medium density that we wanted to put on there. And we got a lot of response. A lot of people signed it. So. And did you go door to door? No, actually, what we for the. Well we did for some. Yeah, we started doing that and but Sunday there was a bazaar that was on Raleigh and there was a lot of people walking around. So we just stood in one spot and as people would walk by, we would ask them if they would like to support us . And they would they would ask us questions. We answered the question questions. And we've got we got 102 signatures as a result of it. Okay. Thank you. And do you live in one of these houses? Yes. The corner house on 17th and Sheridan. And are there are five houses or are. It's hard to. There. There there are four. Houses were houses and ah. Do you all occupy those houses. No. Who do. Okay. So before you sit down, so we've heard a lot from people in the neighborhood just east of this row of houses who it seems like everyone is part of the Jewish community. Are any of you. Part of that Jewish community? No, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. Fine. Thanks. Thank you. Councilwoman Black. Councilwoman Torres. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hi, Mr. Darnell. Just a quick clarifying question. If there's no development or plan slated for this, can you clarify why? I've heard a couple folks talk about 3% affordable or some more specific language. Sure. So it is correct that there's no developer. There's no development plan. There's no architect. There's no project in in my experience doing this work in Denver for about the last 25 years, that's actually quite common. And I've I've done a lot of that type of work throughout the city. And so we've, as you've heard, spent over a year in community engagement and public outreach and mediation, working with a number of people that are here tonight. And we kept trying to craft restrictions and limitations and requirements into our proposal that in an effort to see if we could find come up with a compromise or a solution that would be acceptable to the neighboring community. And so that was unsuccessful, although the the commitments that we've said we would honor, we've lived up to by recording a covenant in a deed restriction against the property about a week ago now. And so, for example, there is a requirement in there and it runs with the land that 3% of residential units be three bedroom, and that that is one of the requirements in the covenant. And it's in direct response to the input we got from the community in, in all of the components of the covenant collectively are our attempt to respond to the input we've received over the course of the last year in why that is good is that if when this property if and when it is purchased by a developer, they will inherit these obligations. And and so the, the that portion of the community input that we were responsive to will be inherited by them. And in in they'll have to live with it. And the the covenant only covers. Three bedroom layout. It doesn't cover price point or correct it. It covers a number of other topics. More on the development standard than the use standard side, but one of which is the three bedrooms. It also addresses height and parking and the number of buildings in the use of rooftops and all these many topics that we heard over the course of the last year or so. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Councilwoman Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Bruce. If you'd stay up there along those same lines, we also I think I heard something about 100 units or so. So the application councilman is for Main Street zoning. And so there as I have said, there isn't a plan, there isn't a developer. It could be mixed use. It could be all commercial. It could be all residential. No one knows today. It is because of its location. It's likely. And what we've talked a lot about over the last year or more, it's likely that it is a multifamily site, perhaps with ground floor activation as is required in Main Street in if it is multifamily. Our estimate is that this site in two buildings would support somewhere in the 80 to 100 units perhaps. Okay. Do you have any comment or about concerns over access and egress from the site? Yes. So it most likely will be Allie served. Sheridan is a state highway and with limited access and then within the block to Zenobia there is limited space. And so one thing that was this was talked about quite a lot over the last many, many months or a year. One thing that's true is that none of the Zenobia houses take vehicular access from the alley. They all have front yard. Zenobia facing or any place facing driveways and garages. And so the alley today is used only for trash and recycling and utility type services. And so, as I think we're aware on zoning situation, the access and those types of issues are not part of the zoning. They're addressed by public works at the time of site plan, but that it's it's likely that it's very reliant on the alley. Thank you. Yes, Theresa. One question for you. Is this neighborhood going to. Can I correct one thing? Mr. O'Donnell said the zoning requires alley access if there's an alley. Okay. Thank you. Is this neighborhood part of the NPI initiative? It is. And when would you expect that to start? It's already started. They're already in the midst of it. The first meeting I think, was last week. The steering committee. The steering committee is. That's right. Sorry. Okay. Thank you, Teresa. That's all right. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. So, Bruce, would you mind coming back up to the microphone? So did I hear that there was mediation on this site? Yes. The city engaged Steve Charbonneau company to do mediation. And we had a over a period of many months, a number of meetings and back and forth. And so who were the community players that were involved in that mediation? I'm assuming this looks like the neighborhood group was at the table, but were some of these immediate neighbors? Yes. The Jewish community part of that? Yes. There's a number of people here this evening that have spoke that we worked with throughout that time. Okay. You mentioned that over the last 25 years that you've been involved in doing the zoning changes that it's common to rezone without a site plan. Yes. That's only been happening since 2010 because prior to that, the the requirement and expectations of this body were looking at details of what came before. Wasn't just a zoning without plans for what was going to go on the site. Well, I respectfully in my experience, I disagree respectfully. I reasoned the 80 acres at the Gates site in 2004 and five with a. Robust planning process as part of that rezoning. It wasn't just a blanket rezoning without having some some clear. It also included, you know, discussions about obligations from that development to the community. That's all of. That. That's all true on the east side, on what was Cherokee. But I was on the west side. But anyway, I like to argue. But but ivory's on a lot of property in Denver with no no developer. And in fact, it's interesting it in particular a planning board today that for the past many years we're not allowed to talk about the specifics of a project or show design or anything like that, because zoning is all about is this zone district appropriate at this address? Well, some of us are hoping to change some of that so they don't. Play by that rulebook when it happens. Understanding of what specifically we're being asked to approve, besides just looking at scale without seeing the details. And, you know, this has come to light with the 41st and Fox area. Councilwoman and we. Dressing those. Yeah we could get going on that discussion for a long time and the hours late, so maybe we could focus on this one. Let me call up Rabbi Wasserman, if you wouldn't mind, if you're still here. Do I remember correctly that as part of the Sloan's Lake redevelopment, that the school at the corner of Colfax and Perry was replaced with housing that DHS is doing? That was part of the Jewish school. And I don't remember if it was a land swap or but that in exchange provided some resources for the school to do additional improvements. So that was it? Yeah, that was our dormitory, which was four blocks away from the school, which is on Stuart. And the idea was to create a contiguous campus and to have a were a boarding school to create, to build a dormitory on site. So we had sold that property to. And what is the location of where the dormitory was built? Councilwoman, if they would stick to this. It's all part of the same neighborhood. So that's why I'm asking. A new dormitory? Yes, a new dormitory is. And it is 1555 Stuart Street, right across from the Saint Anthony parking lot. Great. Okay. So that's within this same geographical area. Okay. Thank you. I just needed clarification on that. Can you just. I'm sorry. One quick question. What was the the scale of that? Is that a two story building? One story building? Two story building. Okay. And we had to fight hard, so. All right. Let me see. I think I had one last question. No. I think I've covered them all. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Cannick. Thank you, Mr. President. I was curious about Main Street zoning. I was looking. Theresa, this is probably for you. But, Bruce, stay close. I see that there's no comment from transportation. I'm really familiar with this area. I used to live not too far away. And I'm just curious about the practicality. If street activation is required, this is a. Tough. Couple of blocks. Like I've seen the strollers in Sheridan and the wheelchairs in Sheridan. And so I guess I understand we don't do site review, but at a certain level it would be very bizarre to be doing Main Street zoning in a place where it might physically be impossible to comply. So I'm just a little concerned about that. And that's I think this is probably a Bruce question because he's been the one in discussions with transportation. But my understanding is that there is discussion with transportation of dedicating 16 feet for a detached sidewalk on Sheridan. Yeah. Okay, Bruce, if you want to come up, I guess a sidewalk only gets you across the site. It doesn't guarantee that anyone's going to use an activated space. I just, you know, I can't imagine personally myself walking and going to a shop or a a restaurant in this particular block of shirt and even with a sidewalk . Right. The only people I've ever seen are people getting to the park or the bus stop. It's not a destination. So Main Street, to me, we're having a lot of conversation about density. I'm I'm not sure we have the right sound district, so that's what I'm trying to understand. Sure. Thank you, Councilman. So we have there's been a lot of talk over a long time about improvements in the shared and right of way. And so Theresa mentioned to the sidewalk when when Councilman Espinosa was involved, he started an effort to see if as tied to the actual zoning, if 16 feet of right away could be dedicated to Sheridan because he thought there might be some bond money available that a sidewalk, a detached sidewalk in a tree line could be done immediately. And we agreed that we would pursue that. And then it just for a whole variety of reasons, it never panned out. We we tried to work with the real estate department and also with public works. And so the the only real assurance of a detached sidewalk and tree line today would be just through the rezoning and through the development review and permitting process. The in regards to activated use and the in you're more concerns in the building. I agree with you that this is a difficult site there and we actually explored a whole variety of zone districts. We've inquired about a desire to do a Pudi. We looked at Enmu, we looked at our ECS and CPD insisted all along that it be Main Street because of Sheridan being an arterial, a mixed use arterial pardon me. And also because of in particular the West Colfax plan. And so the inn so we've we kind of got boxed in the main street and we'll have to figure out how to make that work. During the development or implementation down the road. Okay. So CBD, Theresa or if you can please come back up, can you please explain to me since you since it sounds like it was the department that insisted on this zone district, I get the idea of like a generic arterial and a generic location, but this actual site has an actual slope. Even with a sidewalk, it's not a pleasant place to be on that side of it. And I'm just so sorry. I don't recall us saying this has to be Main Street. I think that when we did the prep, it was a mixed use or Main Street. There was a lot of discussion with the council office, so it was sort of a pick, one of these kind of thing. Okay. I guess the next question then for the applicants, so thank you is again, I understand we don't have a site plan, but we're having a very big late debate involving your whole community. And I'm not sure that what you're describing as what the zone district allows you to do is feasible. So can you explain to me how it is that you are assured that you can fulfill this zone district? First of all, in terms of the Main Street and activation and secondly, why you set certain thresholds for what you could and couldn't agree to in, for example, like the three bedrooms, right. Why? Why if you don't have someone testing the economics of this, why not? I mean, why who who is advising in terms of what the applicant. SA agreeing to or not agreeing to in the good neighbor agreement. So we've that's been a big part of my role certainly. And then the I've worked closely with the applicant on all of that. And so, for example, with the three bedroom question, when this came up about a month ago, three weeks ago or so, we started researching it and looking into it and gathering a lot of data and information. And it I've learned through this information gathering that in the West Colfax and Sloan's Lake area and also in the downtown LoDo, Central Platte Valley, kind of Reno area, since 2014, about 12,000 apartment units have been built and about 120 of those are three bedroom. So it's it's just a here under 1%. And in we learned a lot of market factors and market reasons of why that's the case. But we also heard that the community was interested in three bedroom units. And so we've talked about it and determined that doing three times what the market delivers is a step in the right direction on that. And and so there's, you know, real data and information backing that up. There wasn't any feasibility in this site. There wasn't any testing of the economics or the design on this site. Correct. Okay. My last question. I guess maybe, you know, Daniel Kraus or if you prefer, the rabbi or someone else. You've posed an alternative, and I have to focus on the criteria, so I'm going to focus on the criteria. But you've proposed an alternative that we should not rezone this, which implies that if we did not rezone it, there would be housing opportunities for the community, right? That we're foreclosing opportunities if we do this. But I'm not. I guess I need to understand why you think not rezoning it would somehow result in something better for this community. What what evidence or analysis have you put into the fact that if this doesn't get resolved, it would in fact, provide the type of housing that you're you're curious. I very much appreciate that specific question because I was involved in Blueprint Denver as a citizen at the time, and there was concern about the community. And there was very targeted, specific areas of change identified along West Colfax, which everyone wanted it to be, become less blighted. And there was a transportation transit corridor at the gulch that would receive light rail that needed to change. And there was also the Saint Anthony redevelopment. So there was a very careful surgical, almost like saying, okay, this is what we want to preserve, because if we give increased entitlement to the single or duplex zones, we're going to essentially what we've seen already with the four plex, which was a mistake. But we're going to have homes razed literally the homes that we've lived in and people leave the community because eventually people do move around. And when they do, for whatever reason, they're selling to a developer to demolish a house that was lived in for 30 years. That is perfectly can continue to be that. And we have very limited housing stock. So I do think that anything that encourages a developer to say instead of us paying market at Colfax because these lots are available on Colfax, we're seeing lots of these single I mean, that's what Mr. Sherman they were saying is that we're seeing 12,000 units, of which only 1% are what we need. Right? So we're seeing mostly what we don't need. And that is going up all around us. And it's been going up where it's intended by the zoning plan. And that is correct. And all we're asking is to not infringe and not invite people to look and say, well, I can offer less than market to people who can only sell for low density. And I'll tell them no, they can sell for more because we'll go to council. I feel very strongly that a neighborhood plan is on the docket. We should use that to do this through the city, not through this process, because this process has already undermined the community, just literally. It's not a risk that people have talked about. We're looking at, you know, a potential threat. No, this has happened. We have lost housing. And I must say that people who've come to me and asked, can I look in the zoning department whether they can use an established basement unit to rent so they can buy a home and they can have some income? They're being told, no, it's single family zoning. You can't. And that already has the kitchen already has access from the outside. They're being told they can't put up an Adu. So we would thrive from increased density. We could put 100 units in this neighborhood in an appropriate way easily just where it's intended through the correct process. Okay. One last question, Mr. President. So, Teresa, can you come back up, please? So can you just clarify for me the current zoned district, this is something I was CPD, by the way, would just do for every zoning, but just tell me what can be built currently. And then you mentioned the mixed use zone district. IMU was the alternative if they didn't go with the MZ, is that right? So I would just like a very high level brief summary of what else could be built on the properties in question under their current zoning and what can be built under means. I'm actually did I not do a comparison in your staff report some of the different zone districts and. Well I see what the surrounding zone districts but. Okay I'm just not sure because. I have the options two and three summary of Zoning Request. If you let me know where to look, I can certainly go there. Slide six, I'm. Oh, I'm in the staff report. Oh, sorry. Let me get my staff report. All right. So it's the site is us you see to and you are three a single in two unit residential. I just don't know exactly if you us we've got to we've got four parcels though so I don't, I don't. Yes. I'm just like if you were to say to me we have four parcels with four residences now under the current zoning we could get eight, you know, let me know that. Like that's where I'm trying to get bottom line. Sorry. Well, so the US you see two is single unit build an urban house two and a half storeys or 30 feet because that two is on there. The C two, you can also build an Adu, a duplex, a tandem house on corners where at least one of the streets is a collector or arterial. So on Sheridan Corner, 17th Avenue Corner, you have that ability to build that 82 duplex tandem house. So bump up your density slightly with that you as you see two. Okay. Okay. I so yeah, we're we're we're neck and it's late. I just literally want to know, are the four homes that are there now if we maxed out the current zoning, we could end up with eight. We could end up with six. Counting Adus. I don't care about height right now. I'm just hoping you could do two at the corner there at 17th Avenue. You could actually do two at the other corner at any place there's already one of the properties is already a duplex, so that's six already. Okay. And then so the seventh one you do seven houses, a single unit. But then the actually I'm sorry because they let me get to this. I'm looking, I need to look at the existing zoning. So. It is. The two properties at the end are this row house. Yes. Okay. So for the row house, though, you have the ability to build more because you can build row house, duplex, tandem house. You've got a variety of things you can build there. Okay. And then there was a little dispute about who insisted on Main Street or whether it was a choice. There was a lot of discussion between the council office, the planning office and the applicant. And as I recall, there was discussion about the context. There was discussion about the zoned districts. And we probably want to sort all that out. So just between so there's the existing zone district and there's the main street that could end up with the apartment form and the 8200 units in between is the other zone district you mentioned that they could have gone to. Can you just say what that is again? Mixed use. Right? You ask just can you give me the whole mix if. Well, again, you. M. X x. Okay. You could choose three five. Okay. So and then just let's just say it was the three. If it was a you x three for the whole, the whole set of parcels, what would be the potential number of units that in that zone district we'd be talking about. I hate that question. I know cos. I don't know unless I know how it's being parked. Is it parked in a garage or is it being parked on the surface. Okay. Because surface parking takes up so much space, it really limits the amount of units you can build. Okay. And garage, if it's underground, I mean, it lets you build a lot more at the surface. So that's why I really hate that question. Mr. President, I know that I am going for a long time, but this really is trying to figure out the criteria for my vote. So one last question to Mr. O'Donnell, please. You shared at one point that you saw it or someone shared me. It might have been an applicant that the only thing folks would have been happy with is townhomes. Can you speak to why the applicants were not willing to pursue a different zoned district that was more of a townhome type approach rather than the apartment type approach? Well, the you know, the the South and the very south end of the block is already zoned for row homes. And in so the there was in I'm not trying to argue with trees or anything, but there was very strong direction from CPD to pursue Main Street. And so we got into that in in got locked into Main Street because of the plan support in the in the all of that and the the real desire of the applicant is to has been to prepare their property to be able to implement blueprint recommendations in in. So we've been through this long kind of arduous path with mediation and on and on, and we've tried to craft it with the covenant and the deed restriction to be more sensitive to the immediate neighbors and the community given kind of the tool kit we were able to work with. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Kels on black. Thank you, Mr. President. I have a quick question. I think for you, Mr. Goulard. I think that's your name. So I'm very carefully listening to everyone's concerns and I feel like what I'm hearing is that there's concern that there's not enough housing for future generations. And so I'm. Curious. These four houses are not currently occupied by by people from your group. So can you explain to me how disallowing. New development there. Changes the housing options for the people. Who live in the community? Well, I think I the concern I vocalized was that the rezoning sets a precedent to be able to rezone single family zoning. I'm not familiar with all the code words and and and letters, anagrams, wherever they are. And that will make residential property therefore more valuable for raising and rebuilding and requesting similar zoning within the neighborhood. And then more single family residences will evaporate from the marketplace. So, I mean, I remember a family that came here that lived in five basements before they could find a house to rent. And and there are property owners in the community who rent below market to be able to attract young people to stay here. So I think the logic is that if we don't oppose this rezoning, we set a precedent that will spread just because of the economic incentive to other residential areas, which would be harmful to us and would also be harmful to other people of modest means who are not part of the Jewish community. And my answering the question. Yes, yes, you are. And so I know it's just one question, but Teresa, if you could answer a follow up question. So thank you very much. So thank you. Mr. Aguilar is concerned that this would set a precedent for a rezoning into the neighborhood. But is is there. Plan support for rezoning those single family. Homes to the east of Sheridan? Well, I guess I'm a bit puzzled by that, because the reason we're supporting Main Street on on Sheridan is because it's it meets the criteria. It's an arterials street. The Main Street zoning talks about being on that sort of a linear situation like that. So I don't think that we'd support going into the residential with Main Street because Zenobia is not a Main Street. We would we consider that the whole point of blueprint is that our arterial streets are where we push the density. We wouldn't push it to a zenobia street. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Black. All right. Seeing no other questions, the public hearing for Councilman 577 is closed. Are there comments by members of council? Councilwoman Sandoval, this one is in your district. Did you want to go first? Sorry, I. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. President. Sorry, I was looking over some notes. So I just want to say that. I don't like sitting here tonight at 1145, having neighbors who I represent pitted against each other. It doesn't feel right. It's really unfortunate. And I remember when this application came in. And I'm going to counter what CPD said. Councilman Espinosa wanted the sidewalks dedicated, and he would have done anything possible to have those sidewalks dedicated. I don't think any person in this room can say different. He made that known throughout his whole campaign. He made it known everywhere. And so that's what Councilman Espinosa wanted. That was his will. And so if that meant it was Main Street, that meant it was Main Street. Now, in my councilman Espinosa. No, I am not. So when this came to our office, I saw the writing on the wall because it was actually a five story rezoning application and blueprint. Denver was going on the updated blueprint Denver. And we were working robustly in all of our neighborhoods to make sure that the map that was adopted was reflected from the work of the people. And the map that was adopted from the work of the people in this neighborhood actually changed the plan support from five stories down to two and three, because that was the will of what the people in this neighborhood and the registered neighborhood organizations wanted. So I'm sitting here and as I was, the reason why I wasn't paying attention right now is because I was looking through the MSA zone district. So I like zoning. I think it's pretty clear on what you can do and what you cannot do. So if we were to pass this rezoning, we could have duplexes, we could have tandem house, we could have row house, we could have townhome, and we can have an apartment for them. And then we could also have a drive thru service on the corner of 17th and Sheridan. And the most interesting thing that I find in this is that the general intent of an EMS zone district is to improve compatibility with and respect for the existing character and context of Denver and its neighborhood. Give prominence to the pedestrian realm as a defining element of a neighborhood character. And I could go on and on and on. And I will tell you one thing. Chardon is not a pedestrian neighborhood. Sheridan is scary. Sheridan from Colfax to 17. People cannot walk. They push their strollers in the right of way. Nobody can get there. It's a transit quarter. So I do not agree with the fact that we are going to mess. And I will agree with Bruce that that was forced upon us by community planning and development, because as many of you know and as many of you, especially you like Robin and Debbie, have you ever heard KPD say that the council office got to pick a zone district? Now you go in front of community planning and development. You do your pre-application. I have done them for council members. They push you into a zone district and then it's your job as the applicant to come up with the five criteria that meet the rezoning. So I will I thank you, Bruce. I know that that is to be true. I also know it to be true that this neighborhood does need more development. You. The Jewish community is suffering. It's sad. I feel sad that you all are being pushed out. And I also understand that if this were to get rezoning, we might find a developer who might do more bedrooms. We're not thinking outside the box. We're looking at the application before us, which is very challenging. And before I go on, I just want to for those crazy people who are watching at 1145 at night, I want to talk about what's called a supermajority. It's not called a supermajority. It's called a petition protest. And that is what this neighborhood did. So anyone can have a petition protest. It could be in a minority neighborhood, which I actually think the Jewish people in this neighborhood considered are considered a minority. So thank you for owning your homes and thank you for doing the hard work to get a petition protest done. It's not easy. It's been happening. It's in the Denver zoning code. And so, Ana, I do not agree with what she said. I just had to go on the record and state that I actually do believe that the Jewish community in West Colfax have been a minority. For as long as you all have been there. You have not been the majority. So in that vein, I have been sitting here vacillating back and forth. What do I do as the councilperson? What is my role? And I think I have to go back to my values. I have to start with my values. And my values are that we need more housing in northwest Denver and we need more opportunity in northwest Denver. And we need developers to look at this. Yet at the same time, I do not believe that we can use our housing as a Swiss Swiss bank account. I don't agree that you can just suddenly have three land owners. What if one wants to sell and the other one doesn't want to sell and then these three parcels get broken up or four parcels get broken up. There's no guarantee that this is and we've moved forward in one section. So I just have to go back to EMS, provide human scale and buildings through the use of detail, contrast form windows, doors, placement, provide identifiable pedestrian connections between private development, public right of ways and more time modes of transportation. So in that vein, I will have to vote no on this because of the mess, and it just does not match Sheridan. And I just want everyone to know I hope to never be sitting on this site again. I was elected July 15th, running on the fact that hopefully I can be a good facilitator. And I just want you to know I feel guilty. I was in the council office when this came through. I attended the first meetings to establish a working group, a task force. I thought it was going somewhere. I left the office in November, and I am sorry that you didn't have the representation that took you forward to get this done. I think it could have happened. I really do. And so I feel disappointed by what has happened. And I feel I take accountability and I take responsibility for that. But thank you all for staying here this evening. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Hines. Thank you, Mr. President. I'll just be brief. I you know, the first metric for both Blueprint 2019 and current Plan 2040 is equity. And I want to make sure that we provide an equitable solution here. And I am a bit troubled by considering equity with this particular rezoning. Why is this rezoning better than the original zoning? I'm not certain I know that particular because we don't have an immediate developer in, you know. Waiting for this rezoning. The M's form troubles me a little bit as well, which has already been discussed. And the final thing is, well, two more things, I guess. It sounds like there's a robust stakeholder process that has just started or will start on October 3rd. So either way, it seems like we've got something in front of us that in the very near future that will have a lot of comment that will affect this not only these particular plots, but but also the area for this particular Jewish community that would allow them for a lot of them, with with more comment. And the last thing I would say is, please, if you're going to have a stakeholder process, allow them to have some at least some of them to happen, not on the Shabbat . Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Sawyer. Thank you, Mr. President. I also am going to have to be a know tonight. I am very concerned about the public safety issues with this rezoning, not only because I think as we delve further into this, it it is the wrong zoning district. It's not. There's something very wrong here. But also because we've got you know, we're talking about 80 to 100 units added on a parcel of land to get a sidewalk, it seems like, which doesn't make a lot of sense, logically speaking, you know, and we're talking about adding density to a community of people who, yes, need a sidewalk so that they can walk around the community. But the trade offs there don't seem to make a lot of sense. There's just the disconnect here. It's just not it's just it's not. Something is wrong. And so I think that the there are just the safety implications of what we're talking about here and the public welfare implications of what we're talking about here. Just don't add up. And I think that unfortunately, that means going back to the drawing board. And I'm I'm you know, I'm sorry for that because I think that you guys are really the victims of a mistake in our planning board or, you know, in CPD somewhere along the way or in a disconnect in our council office somewhere along the way, I'm not sure, but it stinks. And so I think that that I hope that you will go back to the drawing board and find something that works better and come back and I'm sorry that you had to stay this late at night for that. But I do think that we have a responsibility to our community as a whole to make sure that the decisions that we make, especially when it comes to zoning, do make sense for public safety and welfare. And this just simply doesn't. So I will be a no tonight. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Torres. I just want to mention a couple of things. Yes. The West area plan kicks off on Saturday. October 5th. That won't be the only opportunity. And I guarantee you, Councilwoman Sandoval and I, because we share the West Colfax neighborhood, will absolutely make concerted efforts to find times when your entire community can weigh in on the West Area plan. I guarantee you that. One thing that I would mention, though, is that what I'm finding in a number of other neighborhood conversations that are preparing to enter in that West Area plan, they're already thinking about how do we proactively plan for density so that density doesn't happen to our neighborhoods, to the communities that we live in without kind of our participation or our say, how do we proactively zone? And so those are conversations that Villa Park is having, that Westwood is having, that Varnum is having. And and those are going to be some of the things that will filter into the West Area plan as you go farther down. Sheridan You find a mix five mix eight m2, and so you do find density. This is where density should be on Sheridan Boulevard. And I'm compelled, though, that we've lost an opportunity for better conversation here. I would say that in all of these options, Main Street seems to be one that would protect the interior of your single family home neighborhood. And that's one thing to consider among the variety of options that could encroach farther in Main Street would only be on Sheridan. So I'm I'm struggling a little bit with the direction, but I know that there'll be a lot more opportunity to figure out. What happens in West Colfax. And and and I'll support the community in a lot of that. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Mr. President. I got to know this community very well. About 13 years ago when I was at the Rocky Mountain News and RTD was going to start construction of the West Rail line. And that's where I became familiar with your roof. And I walked past the A Mikva that's there on Equipment Street, I believe, and that's Beth Israel and the boys school there. Who the name of which escapes me on the north side of Colfax talked to this is the the the home not only of the west side Jewish community, which as I discovered, was vastly different from the east side Jewish community, but also for over a century had been very well integrated with the Latino community as well, side by side everywhere from lower Colfax, down by the old Starr Bakery, all the way west to the Jefferson County line. I learned so much about these communities living together for decades. And I'm very appreciative of that, of knowing that heritage and hearing some of it come alive again tonight. Thank you. Because of that and because of the testimony I heard from that community, I think a strong case has been made that criteria three has not been met , that this does not further public health, safety and welfare because of the impact it has on the character of the community. One of the directives in Blueprint Denver is that while we grow intentionally and carefully, that we pay attention to conserving and preserving the character of our diverse existing neighborhoods. They're very different all over town. You will find neighborhoods that have different character. We talk about building complete neighborhoods, but those neighborhoods are all they all have their different character. That doesn't mean they all look have to look alike. And so I don't think I can support this tonight because I think it fails on criteria three. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Flynn, Councilman Cashman. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. I also have concern about I have concerned about criteria one and criteria three as far as adopted plan. If the city has decided that it's time for this neighborhood to have a new plan that is is basically already started, I guess the formation of the the steering committee. I can't rely on a plan from 2006 as having much validity. And as has been stated with with such division, I think it makes sense to be more protective of health, safety and welfare to have that extended community discussion. Now, there may be a bad news to all of that, depending on your point of view and where this planning process ends up. As Councilwoman Torres said, there's no guarantee you get two and three stories there. I would advise the community, if this does get voted down tonight, that you be very, very involved and do your best to get the the outcome that's best for this community. And the while it's not. Maybe it's directly related or not. I think looking to the future for all of our neighborhoods, an increase in the number of multi bedroom units. Again, I think furthers the health, safety and welfare of the community. So I'll have to vote no this evening. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Councilman Black. Thank you, Mr. President. This is a tough one. I agree with the comments of everyone has made tonight. I actually do think it meets the criteria, but I also recognize there are issues with it. And the fact that the neighborhood plan is coming is very compelling. We've had other rezoning similar to this over the years on Colorado Boulevard and other busy streets that neighbors have opposed . But we spend an awful lot of time working on Blueprint Denver, and it does, as Councilman Torres points out, really does want us to put density on those commercial corridors. And that does not mean that it is going to go into the neighborhood. Those are there's very different. Appropriate plan, support for what would go on a busy. Corridor versus what would go in a residential neighborhood. We can all count. And I think it's very clear that this is not going to pass tonight. As I said, I am I am torn. I do think it meets the plan's support. So I am going to support it because I feel like that is my job. But I'm I'm hopeful that you all will come up with a better solution. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Black Council Manager. Thank you, Mr. President. I was going to say two different criteria than some of my colleagues, which is the uniformity of district regulations. I don't think similarly situated properties that are on a sloped site like this can possibly meet the Main Street expectations for activation in terms of of just what we expect of a main street, you know, Tennyson as a main street 32nd and little even 25th in federal by Edgewater makes sense as a main street. I just think that this was a little bit overly broad and I don't think we would treat a similarly situated property property as a main street if it weren't just that it had been painted with that brush . So I think it fails to meet the criteria, I will say. For me, it's not so much just about pure density. The only I rarely, you know, on especially on a thoroughfare, you know, vote against density. But the site matters. And, you know, the one other site Colorado needs, Hartsdale, that I also voted against was for a similar reason. I will say in that example, the applicants did come back with a different proposal and were able to rezone to something that I think worked better for a very awkward site as as this one is. So I want to thank the applicants for for being here and for making your case. And I want to thank those who testified. I want to make clear that as persuasive as folks, folks, the story and the community cohesion is, it's the criteria that is the basis of the vote. And so that's that's why, you know, I'm voting this way. But I do hope that folks stay at the table. I guess I would disagree that you can't continue to talk while a new plan is coming. The current plans are in effect. There's a lot of guidance in those citywide plans that are brand new. And I think that it probably behooves everyone to get certainty by continuing to talk than waiting for a two year planning process. So I might differ a little bit with my colleagues about that. I would suggest your position is best if you get to the table as soon as everyone gets some sleep and recovers and figures out whether or not with a little more focus on feasibility on the actual site. And I will say I'm I'm a little disappointed that y'all didn't get a chance to get some actual advice. You have a ready made market for three bedroom units. Part of the reason they don't build them in LoDo is because three, you know, families with that many kids don't want to live in LoDo, but to look at that and make a decision about what's feasible in your market, you deserve site specific market information. And I would I would hope that if you are going to continue, you shouldn't agree to something you don't feel like is feasible. But I think you have a very different market for very different reasons in your site and you deserve actual feasibility from your site and not just some generic analysis of the whole city, including places like Reno, that are just not going to be applicable. So so I hope that you can get that so that you can come to the table and understand what's really possible for you all. And with that, I'll be voting no tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Kennedy. Councilman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to. Add that I think the biggest challenge with this particular site is the fact that it is very, very difficult to get a curb cut from court, from, you know, being able to access the site off of Sheridan, which means the traffic will come in on what was at any street and and then it would be through the alley. And I think that challenges the safety of the neighborhood. I heard a lot of discussion about people from the Jewish community having to walk down many of the alleys. And that safety concern, I think, is is real. But we know that Sheridan needs sidewalks. This conversation should not be about sidewalks. We know that developments that come into the city have to provide their their own infrastructure. And so in this case, that would would have needed to be done. And I was right there with Councilman Espinosa before we even knew there was a reason application for this area. Fighting for sidewalks on this part of Sheridan, because it's on a slope where you see people walking in the snow with strollers or with children trying to traverse being that close to the bus and traffic that's on Sheridan Boulevard. So the safety concerns, you know, with this being a slope site really are somewhat concerning. But, you know, the city would have made sure those sidewalks were put in in in a way that could allow people to walk through there and do that safely. But I think the need for a curb cut to get access to this site is one of the biggest challenges. I've worked on some of those kinds of projects, and they're not always approved. And so that that makes this area even more challenging to try to develop on it. So I'm not going to be supporting it tonight as well. I appreciate the work that everybody put into it. Thank you all for staying so late. I'm sorry. The previous process, you know, went went on as long as it did. But I think this is the right decision tonight. And there's plenty of opportunity to to look at the right way to do this. And I think the fact that the the area plan is moving forward really gives the opportunity to to look at the area a little bit more comprehensively and figure out how it all fits in together. So thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you all for sticking it out this late. Councilmembers is a reminder that community planning and development has determined a requirement for a legal protest has been met. Ten affirmative votes instead of the standard seven affirmative votes of council are required to pass this bill. Madam Secretary, Roll Call. Sandoval Black Eye. CDEBACA No. Flynn No. GILLMOR No. HINES No. Cashman No. Kenny Ortega No. Sawyer No. Torres, I. Mr. President? No. Madam Secretary, please close the voting. Announce the results. Ten days to ICE. Ten days to council. Bill 577 has failed depending on publication. On Monday, September 23rd, 2019, Council will hold a required public hearing on Council Bill 19 0913 designating 4345 West 46th Avenue as a structure for preservation. We'll see you in 9 hours for budget hearings.