A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 4225 Elati Street in Globeville. Approves an official map amendment to rezone property from I-A UO-2 to C-RX-12 (industrial to urban center, mixed-use), located at 4225 Elati Street in Council District 9. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 8-27-19.
I. Madam Secretary, polls close voting in the results. 1339 Council Bill 877 has passed. Councilman Cashman, will you please put Council Bill 878 on the floor? I Yes, Mr. President. I move the Council Bill 19 0878 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. Thank you, Councilman. Can I get a second? It has been moved and seconded. Thank you. The required public hearing for Council Bill 878 is now open. May we have the staff report? Good evening members of council on all these here from CPD to represent the staff report for the rezoning case at 4225 North LRT Street requesting from IAU oh two move to C.R. x 12. The subject property is approx is located in the District nine Globeville neighborhood and more specifically in the Fox station East Area. The proposed rezoning is to rezone from urban center neighborhood context to residential mixed use 12 storey height maximum. The subject property is approximately 25,000 square feet or just over a half acre. The rezoning is to allow for redevelopment of the site. The existing zoning on the site as IAU oh two, which is our light industrial complex, which uses FDR as a maximum way of measuring form intensity. And you oh two as a billboard use overlay. No, billboard is currently on the site. The surrounding area is primarily zoned IAU oh two, but there is some CRCs directly to the east as well as CMCs 20 and CMS eight to the west. The existing land use on the site is office and industrial uses and the surrounding uses are industrial multi-unit, some residential office and vacant parking type uses. The subject. Property is shown on the lower right hand corner and the top right hand corner shows the property across the street. And as you can see, the primary character is industrial, low scale uses. The process here today. I'm sorry. It looks like we have an old PowerPoint on here. Ludi that was in August and the public hearing is tonight. In terms of public comments, we have receded, received a letter of support from the Globeville Civic Partners United Action. You can and those are both included in your staff report as well as a letter of support from the property owner at 4320 North LRT Street. The rezoning review criteria are illustrated here and there are five in which I will go through. The first of which is consistency with the adopted plan. The proposed MAP amendment is consistent with several strategies and comprehensive plan. Specific strategies consistent with this rezoning are equitable, inclusive and affordable goal. One Strategy to increase the development of housing units close to transit and in mixed use developments, as well as the following to create a greater mix of housing options in every neighborhood for individuals as well as trade as well as families. Excuse me. The proposed rezoning will enable for mixed use infill development that allows for new housing near the 41st and Fox station at an intensity that is consistent with the dense, walkable mixed use neighborhoods around transit. Explicitly expressed in this plan. With regard to Blueprint Denver, it provides guidance on the future neighborhood context and identifies the as urban center, which is characterized by high intensity residential uses as well as some significant residential and employment uses. Development typically contains a substantial mix of uses with good street activation as well as connectivity. The future place types as identified as high residential, which is intended to accommodate a high mix of uses, including many large scale multi-unit residential uses as well as some commercial uses. LRT Street is identified as a designated local, and Fox Street is a mixed use collector. Found one block over the site, is close to the new station platform at 41st and Fox, and there are additional bike and pedestrian connections along Inka Street connecting down to downtown. Per the blueprint growth strategy. The site is within a high residential area and these sites are anticipated to accommodate 30% of new housing growth and 5% of new employment growth by 2040. And the proposed map amendment will see our ex 12 will focus residential mixed youth growth growth near transit station and an appropriate context which is intended for a growth of this kind. Therefore, the proposed rezoning is consistent with blueprint done over the Forty-firsts and Fox stationary. A plan was adopted in 2009 and established a diverse, transit supportive, sustainable urban center for the station. The subject site is mapped as urban residential, recommending maximum building heights ranging from 2 to 12 stories. Urban residential is intended to accommodate primarily residential uses, but allow for a noteworthy number of complementary commercial uses. Some of the infrastructure recommendations of this plan have not yet been completed as noted previously, and the city has adopted rules and regulations this past November to apply to any development in this area that requires a site development plan . The rules and regulations establish a vehicle trip capacity in the area that allocate the remaining trips as the projects are submitted and then built. The Globeville Neighborhood Plan was adopted in 2014, and it reinforces the vision established at the 41st and Fox station for a diverse transit supportive urban center at the station area. The subject site is mapped as urban residential, which is intended to accommodate higher density, primarily residential uses with complementary commercial uses. It is also map to the area of change and therefore it is an area where it is desirable to channel growth. The proposed rezoning will result in uniform application of zoned district building, form, use and design regulations. Additionally, the rezoning will further the public health, safety and welfare through the implementation of adopted plans, as well as facilitating increased housing density through a mix of uses which has been linked to several positive health impacts. The justifying circumstances for this area is changed or changed condition. The staff report details physical changes in the area, including the 41st and Fox station, opening the pedestrian bridge, connecting to the west and the English Street multi-use path as well as some nearby development as well as redevelopment occurring. The rezoning would recognize the changed area character of the area as it transitions to a transit oriented development and finally, consistency with neighborhood context, district purpose and intent. The requested Crux 12 is consistent with the neighborhood context description, its own district purpose as well as intent. As noted before, while the subject site is not immediately adjacent to an arterial as it is located on anchor, Fox Street is immediately one block over and the site as a whole is served by arterials and is also established within a transit station. Allowing for other multimodal connections with that staff recommends approval, finding that all the review criteria have been met. That concludes my staff report and the applicant is here as well and is signed up to speak. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have three individuals signed up to speak this evening. First up is Andy Blanding. Hi. My name is Andy blaming my wife and I own blaming dirt work. That is an excavation company that excavate basements and we do sewer and water installs and repairs. We've been in business 26 years and we've been on that site 20 years. The property is about two blocks away from the Fox Street light rail station. We have a metal building on the property that's 1000 square feet we use for an office and an attached garage that we use for storage. We also use the property dump trucks, trailers and tractors. I noticed that last November. We noticed that a rezoning was taking place around us. So I, I thought that we should start doing that. So I enlisted the help of Steve Farris here to help me with the zoning process. We started work with the pre application conference in February and have been encouraged by city staff and others to complete the process, including unanimous support from the Planning Board in August. That said, the main reason I'm rezoning is I'd like to have the property ready to sell when it's time for me to retire. Steve and I met with city staff, community groups and neighbors, and all were supportive of the rezoning. I'm one of the smaller landowners planning for rezoning and it looks like the bigger properties are being resolved, and I hope that I'm going to be rezoning also. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Steve Farris. Good evening, counsel people. I reside in Denver. Steve Faris. As Andy noted, this rezoning is a significant facet of his retirement plan. He's worked on this since February. We've, as you know, reached out to a lot of neighbors. We also found early on that there was a lot of consistency with all of the city plans, as was referenced in their earlier rezoning you just looked at tonight. And I do think there's a lot of good reasons, but I've heard some inklings that some people felt this rezoning is different than the other one you just heard . And I just want to kind of make it clear that this is Andy's only property. The prior rezonings are was by people who own several different parcels have also re zoned other parcels in upper fox. In the meantime, this is Andy's only site and he is looking forward to seeing this come to fruition. It's a smaller site. It's more likely to be combined with another site in the future. He supports any infrastructure and affordable housing requirements that are out there. There's are looking we're watching those and I think Chris Nevitt and Karen Good are doing a great job. I hope they do some innovative and new things that'll help this area achieve its infrastructure goals. And finally, I guess we just want to state that this is a great area for rezoning. It's an opportunity where redevelopment can be a force for good. There's that train station there deserves more higher density. It's a five minute ride to downtown and a five minute walk from most sites up there. So rezoning facilitates that, and it's great for the city to have that done. With that in mind, I just hope if you're considering anything negative about this, I'll be happy to answer any questions we've counted or 11 or 12 other rezonings up here that have been approved and we hope are in that list tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, Jesse Paris. Good evening, members of council. My name is Jesse Pierce. I'm represented for Denver Homicide Law. Black Stocks. A Movement for self-defense. Positive Action. Commitment for Social Change. Universal African Peoples Organization and Unity Party. Colorado. We are actually in favor of this. I just wanted to know what the AMA level was going to be for the residential mix you see at this property. And also, if you did a traffic study to determine whether or not Foch Street is going to be able to accommodate all of this new development, all this traffic that is coming through this thoroughfare. So if you could please answer my questions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers. Are there questions from members of council on this item? Catholic America. Thank you. So, Mr. Blending, if you can come forward. If. So you're you're wanting to do this as part of your retirement plan, but do you have any specific plans for this site if you're successful getting it rezone tonight other than selling it? No, my my plan would be to sell it. I'm not I'm not a developer. Okay. Are you looking at doing that in the immediate future or. You know what I would think in the next year or two. Okay. Um, I want to ask Chris now if you wouldn't mind coming back. This particular application made reference to the trip generation study. And what I didn't clarify earlier was when you anticipate that the study will be completed so that we have some clarity on what options are available to the property owners in this area that want to develop. So again, Chris Nevett, city's toady manager. The the next step study is what I'm talking about. Sorry. Right. So that the next step study will not is not a traffic analysis of like what the capacity of the existing infrastructure is or necessarily a detailed analysis of what additional capacity will be gained by new infrastructure investments. The the the rules and regulations have established as a, as a matter of record that Public Works believes that the capacity of the existing roadways is 25,000 trips in 2023. We sort of set a five year, you know, let's let's have these rules and regs in place for five years. Five years hence will be 2023. And in 2023, we'll do a re analysis of what the roadway capacity is and how much of that capacity is being used. But the next step study won't be doing those those calculations. So clarify then specifically for my colleagues what the next step study is doing. Sure. I will drag my colleague Karen good up again. She's the project manager for the next step study and she can answer any detailed questions. I'm trying to get to the connection between. Yeah. What's been developed and how many troops will be in the area to, you know, how we solve the problem of the fact that we've got one intersection to get traffic through into this site. We have no CDOT commitment at this point in time unless you have some new information to revisit looking at that intersection. And that's critical to moving traffic both into North Denver and into this 41st and Fox area. So help me with that. And then I've got one last question. Okay. Let me just toss this out here. The in some ways, the the the next step study can even be independent of of these rezonings. We have a station area plan that anticipates considerable density and we have a roadway capacity that cannot accommodate the kind of density that we've planned for now in many places in the city , we do a station area plan or a small area plan, and then we come back with a next step study to sort of drill down on what are the infrastructure moves specifically that the, the, the the station area plan might call for. And the station area plan did call for additional capacity into this area to accommodate development, but wasn't very specific. The next step study is doing precisely that is figuring out what are the infrastructure moves that can be made to add roadway capacity and multimodal capacity to this area to support the development that the plan anticipates. But for the detail, I'm handing it to my colleague, Karen. Good. Karen Good Denver Public Works. So the easiest way to think about the next step study might be taking. As Chris said, it's that next step of that stationary, a plan it's looking at. Okay, here are the big picture. High level ideas in the stationary plan. What can we really do? How much is it going to cost? We in a plan, you're looking at a 50,000 foot level where we're the 10,000, 5000 foot level. Now, I'm saying, okay, well, we looked at connections to the west. Where could those be? How could they work? How much might they cost? Who could contribute to those and those connections? At the north end of the station, we're looking both at a connection to the West or a connection to the North. But either way, at that north end of the station to augment the 44th connection, we're only looking at the connection onto the 45th Main Street as having supported bike and pad, not additional vehicular capacity. So that's important to know. But there are two ins and outs to the stationary, not just one. We also have sat down with CDOT. They're open to conversations. They don't have any funding and you would need to go through a federal process to get any changes to the interchange, whether that and we are looking at some different things. You can you can look online, lots of fun stuff. We had a public meeting. We were looking at possible changes to the signals to how the interchange works from a layout standpoint and signaling standpoint to even roundabouts. So we're just, again, high level, not saying any of these are the right solution, but let's look at what. The. What the Delhi train might include and then picking and choosing what actually will work in collaboration, obviously with the community members and property owners and businesses in the area. Does that hit your questions? It it helps. So now I'm going to go to, if I may, I have one last question. Good. Mr. President, to in Elise, if you wouldn't mind, coming up. So given the fact that we only have 5000 trips left of the 25,000 available based on what's been assigned to other projects, and that really includes only like three or four of the sites that have come in for rezoning. And we've already done close to a dozen that have been brought before City Council. So what happens to the sites that are already resold or are in the pipeline to be resolved when all the trips have already been allotted and there are no trips left for any of the ones that didn't get in line fast enough to get any of those trips assigned to their development. Yeah, if there were no more trips allowed. And so it was before the time that we revisited those trip counts, then they would not be able to move forward at the time of site development plan. They would not be able to develop at all. Generally speaking, I mean, they might have a few trips that they're currently using from their existing site, so they might have a small delta, but generally if they don't have the trips, then they might be limited in their development capacity. So let me ask this question in a different way than. I understand anybody has a right to try to rezone their property. But if. The reality is that we have maxed out what can happen in this area because of the way that we're calculating trips. Has CPD. Basically not allowed any new ones coming in because I don't want us to be putting the city in a situation where we're giving everybody the impression that they can build to the maximum height that the zoning potentially allows, but yet the amount of trips is going to significantly cap what people can do. And we all know that if you can't if you can't park a project, you can't finance a project. Banks won't finance projects without parking. So that's why I'm asking the question. Just trying to understand whether or not CPD is continuing to allow applications to keep coming through the door. Knowing the challenges we have with this specific geographical area of the city. And water comes up, can we just ask one clarifying question? When you say applications, do you mean rezoning applications or. Yes. Great man. Answer the answer to that. Thank you. Good evening, Sergio Walter with community planning development. So I wanted to answer this one just because it's a kind of big picture question how somebody thinks about rezonings in this area. The rules and regulations are tied to site development plan, and part of that is because it's at that time that we know enough about the project to be able to know how many trips to allocate. So right now, in most of the rezoning applications before, you would allow for a wide variety of projects to happen. They can have very different trip counts. And also that trip count can vary depending on very specific things about, for example, team strategies they might do to reduce trips . So so far as you know, and that's why there's the situation that we have now, our approach has been anybody who wants to come in and submit an application can do so. We are talking about no because we're aware of how constrained this area is and the fact that there are a lot of rezonings that have already been approved. We don't know what might happen on those sites. They might not develop at all and they wouldn't take any chips. They might develop and take a certain amount of trips. If they build one type of project, another amount of trips, if they build another type. But going forward, we're looking for ways to better connect the trip, count to the rezoning stage rather than just at site development plan. And that would remove the disconnect that's happening right now, where you don't get to how many trips are available until you come in for site development plan. So we'd like and that's the reason why the rezonings are happening, because the rules and regs aren't connected to the rezonings and the rezonings have to be evaluated by the adopted plan that's in place. But going forward, for any future applications that you see, we're looking to do a better tie between a rezoning and how many trips are left at that time. Okay. Thank you. I have no further questions. Thank you. Counsel comes from Sandoval. Thank you, Mr. President. So I have a question for analysts if you could come. So if you could go to slide or in your slide deck to slide 11. So on slide 11, if you read bullet point six and eight, I just I just want to bring this to everyone's attention. So it talks about environmentally resilient goal, promote infill development where infrastructure and services are already in place. And I just have to say that I feel like that's inaccurate to have that bullet point on this slide deck, considering that we're having a whole entire discussion about next step studies and considering having rules and regulations. I don't know anywhere else in the city and county of Denver that have rules and regulations on parking. So I just have to say that I don't agree with that. Kathleen, I just want to remind you, we're in questions. Our comments. You are you get this is a question. Okay. And then I just want to say that number eight, it says environmentally resilient, focused growth by transit stations along oh, no, it was a different one encourage mixed use communities where it can it basically it's talking about medium capacity transit corridors. So can you tell me is this just like. Is this just like you put this in every presentation, the same the same bullet points, or is this presentation specifically for this rezoning? So does this slide look different and different rezoning or is this boilerplate? The slide does modify based off of rezonings, and while there are still many infrastructure gaps, it's also not greenfield development. So we already have a street network in place and some infrastructure connectivity. So while there are many infrastructure gaps, it's getting at trying to incentivize redevelopment of areas as opposed to just going out and developing greenfield development . So that's why that bullet point was included. The last went on there focus on growth by transit stations because this isn't a transportation, it's also a and high and medium capacity transit. So because it's intended to capture all kind of transit rich areas, whether it's a transit station such as these or potentially areas along Colfax, we found that to be applicable and consistent. But I can certainly see your perspective and we can evaluate those a little bit more closely. I also just do want to take the opportunity to clarify that the rules and regulations do not talk about parking specifically. They are focused on trip generations of automobiles. Okay, so then I have another question. Chris never can you come. So for the rules and regulations that are in this area, can you talk to me about the process? Because are those adopted by city council or who adopts those rules and regulations? So the rules and regulations that you guys have authorized public works, CPD, other agencies to adopt rules and regulations consistent with the Denver Revised Municipal Code. And so the process in this case was public works and CPD together develop these rules and regulations went through the prescribed public participation process. I can't remember how many meetings we had, but you know, you're required to do things and post it for a certain amount of time. I wish I had that at the top of my head, but we made sure that we obeyed all those procedural rules and then they are adopted by the manager of Public Works and the manager of CPD. Okay. Thank you. And I have one question for the applicant or the owner. Not the applicant, but the owner. Yes. Hi. Good morning. Thank you for being here this evening. So you worked and owned this business, your this property for 20 years, correct? Yeah. I've been on the property for 20 years. Okay. Are you aware of the next step study? Were you aware of these rules and regulations and these trips that are that we're talking about? Have you been part of that process? I have been I've been to two or three meetings regarding this. And and. And you had input. So knowing that you had these rules and regulations and these trip counts, you knew that potentially, depending on how you sell this, that this will impact your potential development because there's only so many trips in this area. You know, I don't I don't quite understand how this is going to work. Again, I don't know when I'm selling it. I mean, I don't have any offers on the table right now. So I kind of think I'm going to go with the flow. I mean, if if if I decide to retire in five years, you know, I mean, this it seems to me that this area, I think, is 127 acres. It's going to develop. I mean, we have my my warehouse is a dump. I mean, it it's not it's not a very nice place. It can be nicer. So this I think this area is going to develop into a really cool thing. And if it's in five years or ten years or 15 years, that's that's my expectation that I could sell it next week. And somebody made me a great offer, but I'm not ready to retire, so I'm going to continue on with what I'm doing. And if I if if you approve the rezoning it, it may come to fruition in ten years, for all I know. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman. Councilwoman. Councilman Hines. Thank you, Mr. President. So, as we heard Mr. Neavitt about I just want to talk about the trip count and what happens. So right now, there's about 5000 trips available, is that correct? I want to make sure I'm listening correctly. I'm checking my own listening skills. Again, to be clear, public works has established total capacity of roughly 25,000 trips. It's about half full. So that leaves 12,500 trips left. And then, as per the rules and regulations, projects have come in for concept. Had their concept approved in their concept, we require them to calculate how many trips they will need or how many trips they'll generate. We also require them to do a transportation demand management plan. So how are you going to drive down the number of trips your project will generate and then so that people don't have to rush through the development process thinking that somebody is going to, you know, come in ahead and steal their trips. We say you can once you've gotten through concept, through this process, you've reserved those trips and you can move through the the site development plan process in a methodical way. So it's it's that process that has now eaten up, if you will, about half of the remaining trips. And so there's 5000 trips that are just loose out there. And roughly 6500 have been allocated to a project or two projects. But those projects aren't constructed there. They haven't even completed the site development plan process. They've simply gone through the next step, been able to have trips allocated to them. And so that's the status of those trips there. They're currently assigned to those projects. But those projects are not yet constructed. So 12 and a half thousand trips have been constructed. Is that right? Or where? 12,000. Again, these are rough numbers. I'm just trying to get their math pros on the end of it. Prefer exact numbers, but I'm just kidding. Roughly 12,000 are being used today. The existing uses. He's eating up some trips. I don't know how many, but. So existing users, there's still roughly 12,000 remaining. And of those 12,000, about 6500 have been assigned to projects. Okay. So there's 5000 loose and. There are enough properties that there are there's more land available than trips. Correct. And so what happens when the trip count goes to zero? We will no longer approve site development plans. So our our goal is to make sure that this area is not overwhelmed by vehicle trips from new development. So we we do not want to approve projects. So, yes, you can go ahead and build your project and that produces trips that then bring the limited roadway capacity to a halt. It would be, I mean, bad for people living there, bad for people living around it and critically bad for emergency services. So. Okay. So if nothing. So in some ways, this is kind of a gold rush. I mean, you've you've kind of limited the gold rush a bit because you've said we're going to reserve some spots as you go through the development process. But but so in some ways, there's an advantage to people who are informed to the political process. I guess when you created this process where the were the owners of the properties in this area, were they informed that there was a limited amount of trips available? So everyone knows so well. I mean. Well, I mean, everyone is notified. Everyone has been notified. Right. So we we mailed out to all the property owners. We had email list. So we tried to reach everybody we could. We we had community meetings. So we did our level best to make sure that every property owner was informed and had an opportunity to weigh in. I mean, we took a lot of, you know, community input into the rules and regs and tried to make clear all along that, that, that. And I think Mr. Blanding knows this, that his entitlement is not an entitlement to build a project and produce new trips if there are no trips left. Our goal is through the next step study and actually constructing in increased capacity would be to make that ceiling higher and to drive development in the direction of more multimodal service. Okay. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. And I'll ask a question and whoever wants to answer. I feel like the skies have opened and there's this is first time I think I've heard CPD or Public Works acknowledge that there's a limit to how many cars we can move on certain road systems. And I think this is brilliant and I think it's a great approach. And the way I understand it is you're hoping to increase access to that area somewhere down the road. Well, you know, whether it's at the mousetrap or cross side 25 and some or whatever, and I think that's brilliant. I'm just wondering if the plan is to employ this in other parts of the city. To look at areas and and say that. Yeah. I mean, what I'm hearing is we have the capacity to make these judgments. A control. Don't fight over me, kids. Councilman. This is we're stretching a little bit from this zoning and this hearing that we're still in an open public hearing. So if we get a very quick answer to this and maybe we can take this to a committee or something where we could talk citywide as a tool. But just in this hearing, since this isn't really relevant to this site, very quick answer or. Short and sweet. Make it more relevant, but you get the point. Thank you, sir. So that's something that in other areas that are constraints such as this we would likely look into. But this is a rather unique geography that is significantly more constrained than almost any other location in the city. But it is relevant. Will continue to look at this as a pilot, to see how it works and how we can improve it in the future and move on from there. And I would agree that it's particularly constrained, but I think the hundreds of people who call my office every year think the whole city is particularly constrained. Thank you for your latitude misstatement. Thank you, gentlemen. Councilwoman Torres. Thank you, Mr. President. Just so I'm clear, the proposal before us does not equate parking spaces because we're not talking about a site development plan. Right. Okay. Thank you. For everybody watching on TV. That was a yes answer to that. Correct? All right. Okay. See. Zero connotation to trips or reserving any trips. It's simply this is really just about the zoning trip to that trip. Capacity and reserving of trips would happen through the development review process. Thank you. All right. Seeing no other questions. The public hearing for Council Bill 878 is closed. Are there comments from members of council on this issue? Councilman Sandoval. Thank you, Mr. President. I just would like to make a quick comment. When this came through at committee, I had concern that a lot of property owners would not understand this, these trips and what this meant. And I was very strategic in asking this property owner if he understood what is his potential is. And he clearly said no. And I think that obviously he's smart. He has ran a business for 20 years. But when you're talking about development, it's hard to understand, like what you can do in 12 stories and the type of projects that go on there. So, Steve, I think it's your job to advise your client that as these big projects come in the queue, there is an Excel spreadsheet that I found the other day by having a meeting with Karen and and Chris and them explaining it to me probably more times than they probably wanted to, but they took the time. That's how I got it. That actually counts the trips, and it's a public document and you go to the 41st and Fox next state next step study and it's going to be updated hopefully monthly with how many trips. And I think that is going to in the next year, it's going to go down and it's we're going to see it at really low numbers in the next few in the near future. And so my concern is just coming from a very small family background. My my father owned Lacazette's Northwest Denver. He was very involved in politics. But when it came to him building his own new restaurant, we had problems with parking spaces because as smart as my father was building its family empire and advising people in politics, he could not understand why he could not build the two Mali factory that he wanted and he didn't need the parking spaces because the actually the retail's really smart and we wanted a bigger toy factory and it's all numbers. And so I just wanted to convey to CPD in Public Works again that we're going to have to peel back another layer of the onion and really talk to these property owners and do different type of outreach than we're accustomed to because this will impact I would hate to have someone who has had a building here for 20 years. They built their whole empire on it, come in here and not understand what this trip count means. So I know I'm beating a dead horse. I know I've said it. But this is really important because it's on the other side of my council district and I've been watching this area and I'm afraid that we have all this public investment in this station area. Stop that will go unutilized if we're not smart and strategic with this area, including the area on sunny side because it's landlocked as well. So thank you for your work. Thank you for acknowledging it needed a next step study. Thank you for. Your work on the globe. I'm no stormwater plan and thank you for taking your time to brief me like three times on this area so that I can understand it in a different way. So then I can be a conduit for you as well and talk about this in a different way. Maybe people understand it. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Ortega. Thank you, Mr. President. I also appreciate the work that CPD and Public Works have been doing, trying to look at this issue. As we started seeing more and more applications for this area. I just kept saying, we can't keep doing this without talking about the infrastructure. And this is part of the problem of having changed the way that zoning is done in this city. We don't get to see any of this stuff on the front end. And it's important for the property owners, for the neighborhoods, for other people to know how some of these things are getting worked out. When you consider the fact that there are only 5000 trips approximately left for this area. And it does not include the 43 acre Denver Post site. And there are still others who have come through the pipeline, applied and gotten their rezonings approved by this body, who may not be able to move forward to proceed to the process of getting their project approved by CPD. And and I'm concerned about what that means for the city. That we're we're continuing to move people through this pipeline. They're assuming they can build. And and yet when they get to the stage where they're ready to, you know, say, okay, I've put pencil to paper, I've spent money on an architect. We've looked at, you know, exactly what we can do on this site. And now you're going to be told no. That's part of the the the change that I think as a body we need to make in our zoning process that go back to city council. Looking at the details that we used to see in projects that came before us, it was very common to have renderings, which meant a developer had to spend some money on the front end or a property owner to change the zoning of their site. We had general information on how many parking spaces, how many units were going to be put on the site. Typically, there was a traffic study done. We see none of that, especially with big sites. And this when you start looking at this area for me, I'm looking at the cumulative impact to this area of the city by having raised these questions with CPD about what are we doing in addressing the infrastructure issues. We're going to have this same conversation as we get ready to start seeing all these projects along I-25 impacting the West Side neighborhoods where we're not talking about how we're addressing gentrification and displacement. But to get back specifically to this site, I am concerned that. We're we're approving people to move through this process, to then learn that they're they're going to be met by a stumbling block and and rightfully so. And I appreciate the the the fact that we are looking at the drainage, and I'm concerned that we will not have caught doing anything with that interchange, which is critical to traffic moving through and into this area. I drive that regularly. I live in this neighborhood. And and it it's a nightmare today. Before we add all the development into this area and all you have to do is go drive down. I don't remember if it's Arkansas port or which one is on the east side of the river. It's Arkansas. Where we've built, we have approved developers to come in and build new high density development close to two Todd sites. And there's parking back to back on both sides of the road and there's a parking garage in that project. But we you know, and so this is the the the tough balance we're trying to find in this city between how do we encourage people to look at alternative modes of transportation. And how do we look at development in the city. And part of the answer is making damn sure. We're looking at first mile, last mile connections that move people around the city so that we're not just saying, Oh, you can't have as many parking spaces, therefore people aren't going to come with cars until we have the right connectivity in the city. People are still going to drive their damn cars. And so that's part of the the the rep we keep bumping into in terms of how do we solve this issue, not just in this area but across the city as we're trying to figure out, you know, the right solutions as we keep growing as a city because if we keep growing the way we have been and all we're doing is adding more cars to our roads, we're just adding to the congestion and the nightmare and the brain damage that people are already sick of dealing with in the city. So I, I cannot support this one tonight. I do see this one different than the one that came forward before because that's existing development. That's I don't see that changing any time in the near and immediate future. You know, it's serving youth in our community who who go to our our school, our downtown campus. But for me, this boils down to health, safety and welfare. And that by not really having some of this stuff worked out, knowing the next step study won't be done for some time, knowing we're not going to have 3825 Fox and Park Avenue redone before all this development comes into this area. And I think as a city, we need to be talking about a moratorium on no new zones in this area until we figure this stuff out on the front end. You know, yes, we want more housing and we want it next to Todd. But we can't do it in a vacuum without addressing the infrastructure issues on the front end. So that's why I'm going to be a no vote tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Hines. Thank you, Mr. President. When we were inaugurated on July 15th, we had an interview actually in that corner right there, the five new council people. And one of the questions that that we were asked was, what do you see the biggest issue facing Denver today? And three of my colleagues said affordability, which I think is absolutely an appropriate answer. I gave the really nerdy answer of the relationship between land use and transit infrastructure. What I meant by that is kind of what we're talking about today, as in we have development that's happening to the city, but it's not happening and it happening in a way that that has development. Really consider the area around it. You know, how do people get there? How do people get away? And, you know, the people in District ten are all complaining about traffic. I mean, the few people who aren't complaining about traffic are people who aren't using cards, cars at all and and are really not using our city. You know what? Anyway, what I'm. What I'm getting at is that. We have a lot of people who live in District ten and we have a lot of cool things that people want to see in District ten. And so we're really struggling in District ten and Denver's perfect ten about all the traffic on sixth, eighth, 12th, 13th, Colfax, Colorado University, York Spear. All of those are in Park Avenue. All of them are in ten. And we're getting a lot of regional traffic. And and and people are concerned about their children or their grandchildren. They're trying to, you know, teach their kids how to ride a bike and follow the American dream. And that's been really difficult for for us as an as a as a struggle in that people want to visit all the cool stuff in District ten. But, um, but then, you know, how do we balance that with the people who are living there now or have lived in, say, Congress Park for 60 years? Fact Someone who had my seat. My predecessors. Predecessors, predecessor lived in Congress, has lived in Congress Park for more than 60 years. And so he's seen the growth in the in the city. And I want to thank Mr. Nevett and the and the the administration for coming up with creative solutions that that help us address transit. I'm not sure you're doing it all by yourself, but you are doing it all by yourself. Okay. Well, good bye. So certainly it's it's it's important. It's really critical for us to think about how do we how do we balance land use and transit infrastructure. And I home and I've said this many times I'll say it again. I am I would love to be part of the Denver that breaks Denver's dependance on cars. And and so I just I want to put that out there because this is this is part of the certainly we've got the zoning rezoning conversation here. But this is this is just one example of of something that's really eating at our city. And we've got to we've got to address it. You know, we might well, obviously, we'll have a very small way to address it tonight with this vote. But but we've got to address it going forward so that we can have people still enjoy their own neighborhoods and not worry about all the traffic coming through or or frankly, come up with options to single occupant vehicles, I think is really the better solution. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Carl. Sometimes. Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. Yeah, I worry about traffic as much as anybody on council, but my understanding is that no matter what we do with this property, we're not affecting the traffic. There's a set number of trips for this property, and the only way Mr. Blanding gets trips on his property is if his project develops rapidly or his whoever ends up owning his property develops site plans quickly enough that there's some trips left. And if not, then his retirement's going to be a little more lean than he might have expected. To me, it feels clear that I hope the number that public works and CPD have arrived that is accurate, that this road system can handle 25,000 trips more or less. But that is the number. And whether we give Mr. Blanding his rezoning or not, I don't see how that changes it. If at some point we have another rail line running along I-70 and down I-25 or some other solution to open up more trips, then there's more trips going to be generated , whether it's the old Denver Post site, Mr. Blandings site, or whatever else we do there. So I'm. I don't see a reason why I wouldn't approve this this evening. So thank you. And again, since we're in comments now, you're in the right direction, but it needs to spread. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. All right. Seeing no other comments, I will just add, I think this is you know, this one is a fascinating part of town. And to go through these conversations that were going through on it, I think really forces conversations that I do believe that Councilman Cashman is on to something. Even though I was trying to push him off of that conversation right now, I really think that he is on to something about how we look at and do this and that. You know, from a rezoning standpoint, I think that this meets the criteria. Unlike other parts of town where we meet the criteria and there are small parcels and then there's no promise that there ought to be traffic studies or any of those kind of impact studies. Here is a place where we have something that meets the rezoning but also lives within this world where we have to figure those things out. And I think that it puts the pressure for making sure that that infrastructure gets better on all the people who are going to want to develop, because now they have an entitled right to do development, but only if we can find a way to fund infrastructure that adds to a trip count. And I think it's a very interesting way to look at how do we manage some of the problems that we're having when we have this disconnect between, hey, here's the plan and here's the area that is right for development. So that is not happening on top of our historic neighborhoods and in ways that are inappropriate. But we also have this massive infrastructure gap that we have to solve. And it's not just one big developer like Gates or like Laredo, where we can build some of those tools in its lots of different parcels. And this is kind of I see this as a way where we can start to have that pressure that's driving that pointed in the right direction instead of just pointing in a pressure for rezoning. It's going to be pointed and hey, it's been rezoning, but you can't build it until we fix this. And all of a sudden, getting owners to work together to fund infrastructure in the way that a master developer out of Loreto or a Gates funds infrastructure, I think is going to be key as we continue to try to build a city that does have the density, that supports a better transportation, multimodal transportation system, that where we build a city that has the kind of housing that has less of an impact on our environment as we combat climate change and has the kind of development that provides more housing, bigger housing supply as we grapple with affordability and attainability and our. So I think this is really exciting. I will continue this conversation beyond this site and really interested to see how this continues to take shape in the site. And if we do have the pressure points in the right place to really get the outcomes that we're looking for. But for tonight, I believe that this does meet the criteria and I will be a yes vote. Madam Secretary, roll call. Black Eye. CdeBaca. Eye for an. Eye. Gilmore. Eye. Herndon. I Heights. Cashman. Cannick I. Ortega. Know. Sandoval, I swear I. Torres. All right. Mr. President. Hi, Madam Secretary. Please call the voting and know the results. One need to have eyes.