Rezones 22 South Adams Street and 44 South Adams Street from PUD 75 to G-MU-12 in Council District 10. (NEIGHBORHOODS AND PLANNING) Rezones 22 South Adams Street and 44 South Adams Street from PUD 75 to G-MU-12 in Council District 10. IF ORDERED PUBLISHED, A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD ON THIS ITEM.  REFER TO THE "PENDING" SECTION OF THE FUTURE COUNCIL MEETING AGENDAS FOR THE DATE. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 7-22-15.
Speakers are prohibited from using profanity or making personal attacks during their comments, and speakers must refrain from applauding. All right. First, I'm going to start with Ford 98 with our intention to postpone. But first, we need to put that on the floor. Councilman Lopez, will you please put Council Bill for 98 on the floor? Thank you, Mr. President. I move that council bill 498 be placed upon final consideration to pass. It has been moved and seconded. Councilwoman Sussman, your motion to postpone. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that. Final consideration of Council Bill 498 with this public hearing be postponed to Monday, September 21st. Oh, wait. For technology. Oh, I'm sorry. You have to go ahead. Go ahead, ma'am. That's chaos. Which is what you later. Okay. It has been moved and seconded. Comments. Councilwoman Sussman. At the request of community planning and development, the public hearing needs to. Be postponed in order to meet. Noticing requirements. All right. Short and sweet. Thank you. Any other comments on the postponement? Scene nine Madam Secretary. Raquel Sussman. I Black Brooks. I. Espinosa, I Flynn I Gilmore. Cashman. I can eat Lopez. I knew Ortega. Mr. President. Hi. Madam Secretary. Please close the vote. And now the results. 1212 Eyes for 98 with its public hearing have been postponed to Monday, September 21st, 2015. All right. Next, we're on to the actual public hearing, which is on 503. Councilman Lopez, will you please put Council Bill five of three on the floor? Thanks, Mr. President. I move the council bill five or ten 2015 be placed on final consideration and do pass. It has been moved and seconded. Council Bill 503 approval approves the Zoning Map Amendment. The Council is required by law to conduct public hearings on zoning map amendments and Council's actions are subject to a court review in order to provide a record for the court reviewed testimony is recorded and any items presented to the Council are marked as exhibits and become part of the record. The public hearing for Council Bill 503 is now open. May we have a staff report? Good evening, members of Council. I am a barge with the city of Denver's Department of Community Planning and Development, and I'm here to walk you through the request for a map amendment or rezoning at 22 through 44 South Adams Street, which is in Council District ten in the Cherry Creek Statistical neighborhood, 22 to 44. South Adams, the site you see outlined on the slide here is bound by South Adams Street, East Ellsworth Avenue and East Bayard Avenue. It's one block east of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center and the Cherry Creek Greenway. It's across the street to the across the street to the south is the Polaski Park and Gates Tennis Center. The site is immediately adjacent to two RTD routes. There are additional RTD routes along Steel Street, a block away. The property is just under 1.5 acres. There are 211,000 square feet of buildings on the site now. The property owner is requesting rezoning to allow an increase in the floor area allowed on site over the floor area that's allowed on site by the existing plan, unit development or PWD. So just to get into the requested district is GMU. 12. It's in the general urban neighborhood context. That's the G. The EMU is multi-unit with a 12 storey maximum height. I'll walk you through a little bit of the existing context, starting with the existing zoning, which on the site is pegged right now to the north and west. The sites there are zoned GM you 12, which is the district requested by the applicant to the south is zoned open space to the east is a different PD PD 183, which is for the seasons apartment complex, a large mid-rise and high rise apartment complex. And to the northwest there is some mixed use zoning. So just to talk a little bit about the existing zoning rules that apply on the site. PD 75, was established in 1982. It was taken out of the former Chapter 59 hour three zone district. It has a height, maximum of 75 feet. It has a land coverage maximum. The area of the site that can be covered by buildings and impervious surfaces like parking lots, is a little over 52,000 square feet. And then there's a maximum floor area on the site of 221,000 square feet. A little over that, the use allowed on site is residence for older adults. This is the covered senior living facility and the parking required on site is 0.24 parking places per dwelling unit. The Cranmer Park View plane also applies to the site. The site is downhill enough from the origin point of the view plane here though, that that viewpoint plane limits maximum heights on the site to 150 to 159 feet approximately, which is above the maximum height limit of the requested zone district. And so the view plane doesn't really factor into isn't really a limiting factor on the site or wouldn't be if the site were resolved. The existing land use on site is multifamily high rise, which is consistent with much of the nearby land use. There of course to the south is open space and then nearby about a half block away, there's some office uses and a little bit further away, of course, the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, there's commercial uses as well in the existing context. Looking up and down Adams Street here you see the existing covered senior living complex and there are two joined buildings that are part of the complex. The taller of the two buildings is eight stories. That was the original building and then the after the PUD was adopted, a second building was built to to the south that's linked together. And you can see here there's a limited single row of parking in between Adams Street and the buildings. The rest of the parking is provided behind the buildings off of the alley. As you see in the lower left slide. They're looking at some of the nearby buildings on the upper right. That is a 16 story residential building that's directly across the street from the site, directly across Ellsworth to the north. And then in the on the lower right, that slide, we're looking north on Adams Street. And that that taller building on the left is part of the covered senior living complex. That is not part of this Map amendment application. They're only looking at the buildings on the right hand side of that picture, which are in the pad on the left hand side. That part of their complex is already zoned GMU 12. And that's that building that's across the street that's part of covered on the upper right. And then on the lower right, there is part of the seasons complex, which is the high rise residential complex that's just to the east across the alley. So looking at the process, there's been several points of notification to registered neighborhood organizations and to the counsel office. And also signage was posted on the site prior to the planning board hearing as well as prior to this hearing. I'll walk you through the review criteria for this MAP amendment. Starting with consistency with adopted plans. The plans that apply on this site are comprehensive comprehensive plan 2000 Blueprint Denver and the Cherry Creek Cherry Creek Area Plan excuse me, Comprehensive Plan 2000 defines Cherry Creek as an urban center, and it says that an urban center is a place with an opportunity to concentrate population and land uses within a limited geographic scope. Comprehensive Plan 2000 says a number of other things that that are relevant to this rezoning about reusing existing sites where infrastructure is already in place and you'll see those in your staff report. Moving to Blueprint Denver The concept land use for this site is regional center, which is intended to include a balance of retail, employment and residential uses. It is located in a Blueprint Denver area of stability. As you can see on the map there, those hatchet lines indicate area of change. And so there's areas of change mapped very nearby on nearly all sides of this property as part of the Cherry Creek Area Plan implementation process. This property was actually and the immediate surroundings were taken out of being designated as an area of change. They were previously within Blueprint Denver with the recognition that the high density residential character of this particular area was desirable to retain in place. So those areas of stability are, as you know, places that have been identified to maintain the character of an area while accommodating some new development and redevelopment. The future street classifications mapped in Blueprint Denver are residential collector for East Bayard and then the other adjoining streets are both on designated locals. And the language that's used in Blueprint Denver about these street types primarily relates to them being used to access properties and to serve as transit routes for pedestrians and bicyclists as opposed to being regional. All types of corridors for transit. Steele Street, a block away to the west, is designated as an enhanced transit corridor by Blueprint Denver, where the goal is to increase transit ridership, improve service and transit efficiency. So get to the recent, relatively recent 2012 Cherry Creek Area Plan that actually looks at sub areas within Cherry Creek and places this site within the Cherry Creek East Sub area. One of the things it says about Cherry Creek East is that it's a highly desirable, moderate density residential neighborhood that also includes a high density office and residential district on its western edge, which is kind of that more purple hatched area where this site is located. And then it talks a little bit more about the character of that particular part of Cherry Creek East. Talking about the area west of Madison where this site is located, it says the district supports primarily high rise residential and office uses with buildings reaching 16 stories. It's really talking about the existing context there, the concept or future height map that's in the plan. You see on the right hand side of that slide, that dark purple area where the site is located, says that the desirable concept land use for this site is 12 stories. Another interesting recommendation of the Cherry Creek Area plan is that it specifically calls out the existing pods that are in the Cherry Creek East area for potential rezoning as opportunities arise and with property owner interest that there's an opportunity to work together with the city to determine the appropriate base. Denver Zoning Code District that will serve to implement the Cherry Creek Area Plan. So we have an opportunity to do that tonight. So we would find KPD staff that the requested MAP amendment is consistent with the adopted plans that apply to the site and then looking at uniformity of district regulations. The next criteria the requested zone MAP Amendment improves uniformity of zone district regulations by rezoning to a standard zone district. That applies to other very similar properties nearby, including the the remainder of the covered project across the street. And we find also that the project furthers public health, safety and welfare. Looking next at justifying circumstances. The applicant has indicated that changed circumstances or changed changing character is the justifying circumstance. And some of the things that have changed since this PD was adopted quite some time ago are the adoption of multiple new plans. All of the plans that we just talked about were adopted after that PD was created. So all of those recommendations didn't factor into that PD. Also, of course, the adoption of the new 2010 Denver zoning code. That creates a whole new range of districts that provide opportunities to this site. And then also, as we all know, the general Cherry Creek area has been changing and there's been a lot of redevelopment and there's a need for potential flexibility to keep pace with the changing character of the area. And then just moving back to the last criteria. Consistency with neighborhood context, zone, district purpose and intent. This is looking at the intent statements for the neighborhood context and zone district that the applicant seeks to rezone to in the Denver Zoning Code. Some of the things that the code says about the GMU U12 district, it states that they're appropriate for residential for areas with residential uses that are primarily located along local and residential arterial streets, for areas with a regular pattern of blocks and street grids as well as alleys that the character of the area that is covered by the zoned district would include residential buildings with a consistent shallow to moderate front setback. And that moderate, high to high residential building heights are typical in that area. At the Planning Board public hearing in early July, the planning board voted unanimously to recommend approval, finding that all applicable review criteria had been met, and CPD also recommends approval based on finding that all review criteria have been met and I would be happy to answer questions. And we also have the applicant here as well to answer questions. Thank you. All right. So we have three speakers lined up and I'll call all three. You can make your way to the front pew. Sean Maley, Michael Klein and Susan Smirnoff. You can make your way up and Mr. Maley, you can go ahead and begin your remarks when ready. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Madam Members. City Council. My name is Sean Maley. 1660 Lincoln and I'm serving as applicant representative for Covered Senior Living. And as you heard from Abe's staff report, this is a rezoning to Jim you 12 from PDS 75 from 1982. And unlike many rezoning applications which are in order to accommodate new development, this application is not necessarily for new development per se, but to accommodate for renovation of carloads properties that is currently ongoing. Codes update to the properties is mainly interior, but there is an exterior circulation walkway on the outside of the building that put us over the threshold of the PDS lot coverage allowance. And so this 900 square foot walkway goes from the south building to the east building, but you should call the east the north building because it's the to the north and south buildings on the lot. So currently residents wishing to circulate between the two buildings either have to go outside or go through the dining area, which oftentimes the covered will have activities going on in the dining area. So that circulation disrupts that. So the purpose of this rezoning application, when we met with staff about this renovation project was to rezone in order to accommodate this development. Again, we have no other plans to redevelop the site other than the current project that has been submitted. And we also worked closely with the Cherry Creek East Neighborhood Association that is here supporting us tonight. So I'll keep it short and sweet. If you have any questions about the rezoning process or the application, I'm happy to answer those. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Maley. Next, we have Michael Kline. Good evening. I'm Michael Klein. I'm the executive director of Commode Signor Life. I live at 1795 Locust. Just a few facts were nonprofit, were located in Cherry Creek East. And we provide affordable and subsidized senior housing for people, seniors, 62 years and older. We provide social services, meals, transportation activities, exercise a full range services. We were established in 1971 and we have every reason to stay where we were at. We actually recently renegotiated with HUD, so we're around for at least another 15 years, which is really good. As Sean mentioned, we've been spending a lot of money in upgrading the facility, making sure that it meets the needs of our seniors in doing this project. We really wanted the circulation, which would allow residents to go back and forth between the building without having to go outside, without having to go through the dining room. We never thought when we started the project that it would be a six month rezoning process because we were short by only 132 square feet. But so be it. We're here. I think, as I mentioned, this project will really add to the life of the seniors that live within our building. We work very closely with the community. Cherry Creek East Association is here to support us and we worked with Councilwoman Robb in the past and with Council Man new now and I think that's about it. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer. Thank you, Mr. Klein. Thanks. Susan Smirnoff. Mr. President, members of the council. I'm Susan Smirnoff, 240 South Madison Street. I'm here representing Cherry Creek East Association tonight. Cherry Creek supports the proposed rezoning to GMU 12 hour or no had several are much I will say thoughtful outreach. We emailed the 400 person email list that we had with information about the rezoning. We invited any and all community members, not only in our neighborhood but in surrounding neighborhoods, to come to our board meeting where Covered was very gracious to host the meeting and answered all questions that we had. We also did special outreach to Mountain Shadows, which is the abutting R and excuse me away that is next to Covered. We also did special outreach to Cherry Creek North Neighborhood Association because we share an area plan with them. There was no OP as well. I would say there was only one person who just didn't support any rezonings of any sort, but otherwise there was unanimous support both from the neighborhood and from the board. We recognize that the request is in conformance with the Cherry Creek Area Plan and other adopted plans and in consideration of public outreach. Cherry Creek East Association was unanimously in support of the Capote request. We would add that we very much appreciate a door and love having covered in our neighborhood, and we can't say thank you enough. I would say that if helpful to anyone, what triggered this rezoning? If Michael and I were to stand up, hold hands and stretch our arms out and spin in a circle, that much space is about what triggered this. So in essence, we kind of said, Well, okay, fine. So we're good to go. Thank you. Thank you, Smirnoff. All right. That concludes our speakers. And we are now for questions. Any questions from members of council? Councilman Espinosa. Can I speak to a barge, please? High aim is a variance process, not not a tool that you can use on a party. It would potentially be an option. However, that's a particularly potentially unpredictable scenario. But that's the owners decision, correct? What's that? That's up to the property owner to make that determination. All right. That was it. No further questions. All right. I have a question actually have questions for a mr. Klein and Mr. Maley. Actually. Mr. Klein. Mr. Klein, I'm sorry that you ended up in a six month process. Are you familiar with the Board of Adjustments and the variance process? Could you repeat that again? Are you familiar with the variance process in the Board of Adjustment? Not until the process came up and we engaged Sean to help us walk through the process. So why did you choose to go through the six month rezoning process as opposed to probably a far less costly and more expeditious Bowa process prior to embarking on the rezoning process? I think at least in our initial one, what we had heard was that this was the way the city was recommending. Also, we talked with the city and they were saying that they were looking to move everyone to follow the plan that had been established and they would support that. So we felt that was the safer way to go. Okay, I. I can't speak for the board, but I did sit on it 132 feet on a 900 square foot addition on a building this size. Probably going to find some support there. The legitimate hardship, if the idea is binding you, I think. You think Mr. Malley or Maley. That Malley or Maley mainly. Sorry Sean. So. Yeah. Just simply y you know, if, if you were advising your, your, your, your owner, why did you select the redevelopment, I mean the rezoning route as opposed to the far simpler, less costly board of adjustment around. So to my knowledge, plans were submitted on the renovation project and actually a number of reviews had taken place and some sign off. And it was actually actually somewhat mid-stream that zoning realized that there was this 132 square foot delta between the Pudi and the zoning. I can't speak for all those meetings because I wasn't engaged that time. I'm not sure if the Board of Adjustment Process came up at that time, but when we did sit down with staff and had a pre-application meeting, you know, the policy of rezoning towards this was, of course, in February of of this year. You know, the policy of of coming into the new code and rezoning into standard new code districts was encouraged. It's included in the Cherry Creek Area plan. So that was the path that we followed. You know, I think you bring up a good point in the Board of Adjustment. I'm not familiar right now. I know you served on it with the hardship criteria, so I can't cite those off the top of my head. But we were, you know, a combination of being midway through the process or not midway, but into the process and following the direction of city staff found that the rezoning met the criteria and the guidance from the plans, and that's just what we pursued. Yeah, and I'm only looking at this from a taxpayer so thing that's a lot of city resources investing in staff to to sort of go through these presentations and all of that when this is a pretty cut and dry hardship. You had overwhelming support from the Arnaud's and sort of all the different players there strongly encourage you to use that tool on future insignificant changes like this. Thank you. Yep. Thank you, Councilman. That's another. Yes. My question. Okay, great. One that I just made with my computer. All right. So any other questions? 503. Seen none. Public hearing is now closed. Time for comments, Councilman. New? Yes, I really I know the coverage staff and I'm really pleased to support the rezoning tonight. And and as you know, covered means honor or respect. And in my interactions with how the staff treats residents is just that with honor and respect. And I'm just so proud of having this organization in the Cherry Creek community. It's a wonderful nonprofit organization and like Mr. Classy has been around since the, you know, gosh, through the seventies and so provides wonderful services for senior citizens and very unique example for Cherry Creek of having low income housing in Cherry Creek is it's almost an oxymoron. So it's a wonderful, wonderful example and we're so proud to have them in our community. As I had sort of fun when I was doing my campaign, I went over to converse and talk to the residents and they are so wonderful and talented and smart and and I said how I remember going the first night , going to their dining area, and they were so chatty and so glad that we were there. And, and I went to the first table and they all smile, their motherly looks and, you know, very charming and sweet. And the first lady says to me, What do you do about that damn parking? So I said, Well, they are on their on target. They're so smart. I had one of the roses send me a 20 page thesis on how to improve transit in our city. So they are so intelligent, so, so smart. I'm so proud to be a part of that community with them in our organization. So I'm really proud to support the rezoning effort and look forward to seeing how they provide greater services to our senior citizens. Thank you, Mr. President. Councilman, new councilman Ortega, you're up. Thank you, Mr. President. This one is a no brainer. And I remember during the campaign process going over to Harvard as well and speaking with Mr. Klein, where he showed me this area that was going to need to go through a whole rezoning process. And there should be an easier way for us as a city to figure out how to fix these, you know, these little nuances that shouldn't have to require, you know, going through a lengthy and costly process. But I am happy to support this. I just wanted to say, Mr. New, I. Councilman knew when I when I was over there, the issue they were talking to me about was the concern about losing their Safeway store and and specifically the the ability to be able to get prescriptions and groceries from there because it's within walking distance. And I'm not sure what's happening with that, but they are very active and very vocal residents that live there and was happy to engage with them. And so I'm happy to support this tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Or any other comment on 503? Scene none, ma'am. Secretary Roll Call. New Ortega. Sussman Black Eye Brooks Espinosa. Flynn, I. Gilmore Cashman. I can eat Lopez. Hi. Mr. President. Hi. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and ask the results. 11 eyes. 11 eyes. Five of three has been placed on final consideration and does pass on Monday, September 28, there will be a required public hearing on Council Bill 586, changing the zoning classification for 4245 Fox Street 4143 to 4159. Fox Street four 642 West 43rd AV 4211 Fox Street and 4205 Fox Street. Denver, Colorado 80216. Any protests against Council Bill 586 must be filed with the council offices no later than Monday, September 21st, due to the Labor Day holiday. The next time you'll see council as a whole will be on Monday, September 14th, 2015. Have a safe and happy holiday season. No other business before this body. This meeting is adjourned. Denver eight TV. Your city. Your source. Denver eight. On TV and online. Stay connected to your community, your city, your source.