A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 2208 North Bellaire Street in South Park Hill. Approves a map amendment to rezone property from U-SU-C to U-SU-C1 (allows for an accessory dwelling unit), located at 2208 North Bellaire Street in Council District 8. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 5-11-21.
Councilmember Torres, will you please put Council Bill 5 to 2 on the floor for final passage and move that Council Bill 20 1-52 to be placed upon. Final. Consideration and do pass. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded. The required public hearing for council bill 5 to 2 is open. May we please have the staff report? And I see we have some here. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Ed Henry. Yes, I am with CPD today and before you today we have 2208 North Street and the applicant is currently zone US U c which is a single unit zone district and they are requesting to change course to allow for an accessory dwelling unit. So it's currently located in Council District eight in Herndon in the South Park Hill neighborhood. So the site itself is a single unit, residential. It's just approximately over 6000 square feet. You can see City Park there to the west and it's between 23rd and 22nd Avenue. So the current zoning as you as you see, it's surrounded by us, you see, which is a single unit zoned district and you do see some open space which is at City Park. Um for the land use its current. It's currently single unit residential and it is surrounded by single unit residential in this area. And as you can see on the top right corner is the subject property. But you can see that in the close proximity there is a one story, two two story structures. And this went before the planning board in April and it was approved unanimously and has before you today as a present we have received two comments of opposition and those comments were around noise, the placement of the ADU, such as the setbacks, the height, as well as several visual impacts that can happen by the placement of the detached ADU. And you all received a response letter from the applicant that was responding to a lot of the concerns found in the opposition. That was by Bruce O'Donnell. Then he submitted that about Friday and I sent that over to you. Um, and so now whenever we're dealing with a rezoning case, we look at a specific review criteria that's found in the Denver zoning code. So the first one is consistency with adopted plans. And so we're really focusing on three plans here, which is a comprehensive plan, 2040 blueprint, Denver Land Use and Transportation Plan of 2019 and the East Area Plan of 2020 that was recently adopted. Um, there are several strategies found in comprehensive plan 2040 and that's specified in the staff report. And I would jump into your blueprint. Blueprint classifies this area as urban, um, which allows for small multi-unit residential and low intensity mixed use buildings. Um, and within the future place type classification, it's classified as low residential, which is predominately single into uses and accessory dwelling units are easy to use, are appropriate, and below street is a local street, which is primarily served by residential uses. As well as when we look at blue print, they have their specific policy that addresses AIDS, such as policy for funding the language in built form housing, which is the diversity housing choice through the expansion of accessory dwelling units in all residential areas. When we jump when we jump into the east area plan, the east area plan classifies this area as low residential single unit, which is predominantly single unit uses. And it does call that accessory dwelling units are appropriate. And when we look at specific policy and strategy language in the plan, policy six does talk about accessory dwelling units and appropriate locations as well as implementing and adopting city policies for the expansion of aid to use. And when we look at specifically Section four, South Park Hill, it talks about integrate accessory dwelling units in appropriate locations and then for the rest of the criterias are specified in the staff report. Therefore, CPD recommends approval based on all findings of the rubric right here have been met. I am available for any questions you may have as well as the applicant should be online. All right. Thank you. This evening we have it looks like. Seven speakers who are joining us and they are all joining us virtually. Our first speaker this evening is Tess Dougherty. Hi there. Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. Since I wasn't able to speak at the general public comment session, even though there were 3 minutes left. So I would just I just don't quite understand how that works. It seems like you're taking 3 minutes away from the people. But I was I wanted to talk about the the zoning and how it relates to gentrification and displacement. I'm in favor of this aid to you. I think we need to be providing more, you know, options and making it easier. I think the planning process needs to be easier and the criteria need to be updated to reflect the needs of the city. I don't think that that's been done and I'm still curious what is being done, because we've heard you all discuss how they're out of, you know, they're not effectively meeting the needs of, you know, of the city to protect people from displacement. And I'm I'm just curious how much of the history people in Denver know about displacement and the proposal, the recent proposal of the arena for the satellite area campus? Well, when the area campus originally came to be, it displaced, forcefully displaced people. And so when we're in these zoning, I would like to be hearing more of the the historical context that y'all are making these decisions from, because this city of Denver has a history of displacement. I mean, it goes back, you know, over 100 years. And and like that is a feature of this city. Zoning is displacement. And it doesn't feel like that is is at the center of your conversations about zoning. So thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Carol Kraft. And we have a dick crack. And so, Carol, if that's you, if you could, please raise your hand and we'll get you into the queue. But our next speaker is Carol Crack. Or there's a motley crew as well. So whoever is, Carol, we need you to raise your hand so we can bring you into the Q place. We're here all together. So it's Molly and Carol. Christine. All right, go ahead, please. We're the ones who own the property. My mom is. And so we're the ones making the request. All right. Thank you for joining on this evening. Sure. I mean, we can tell you if you want to know a little. Bit about what we're planning on doing, I'm not sure if you know. But so my mother, who's lived in the house since 1975, is wanting to age in place. And so it was her idea that we explore the option of building a very tiny adu in her backyard so that. My husband and I, with. Our son, would move into the larger house and be able to take care of her so that she can age in place. That's our. Intention. We're available for any questions, too, of course. Do you want to make the request? Yes. I ask that you grant us the variance. All right. Very good. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and move on to our next speaker. We have Luann Erickson. Hello. So I really hate doing this because Carol is my next door neighbor. And it it is difficult when you put neighbor against neighbor. But what I have my situation is that I'm retired and my investment is my house. That is my legacy for my children and my grandchildren. And I'm looking to protect that investment. I'm looking to continue to have as much privacy as I can. The placement of the lady you shared with us right now is really an issue for me because it will be very close to space that I use on a regular basis. The front of the ADU would be where I can see it, not only from the outdoors but from the indoors. So that interest in and out of the location of the. The zoning requirements don't really define how you get access in and out of this unit. If it's placed where they shared, the closest way to get to the front door would be basically on my driveway. And, you know, making the gate into the fence that exists right now because there just isn't room on the property on that side of the residence. So I said a letter. There's a number of issues, but what I'm finding is that the zoning requirements, when you're trying to do a new build on to an existing small law, not where there's an existing two car garage that they're trying to convert or one of these very large lots that we have within the neighborhood. The neighbor that is closest to them, which just happens to be me, is the one who was impacted. And so what could be a very good thing for Carol ends up being a very not good thing for me, because I'm going to have to figure out how to spend money to try to undo the damage of privacy and noise and other issues by the creation of the. Are you basically sitting five feet from where I spend my time in my yard? So although, you know, I. I understand what Carol wants to do and I applaud it. As it currently stands. I just can't support it. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Our next speaker is Geoff Baker. Hello. Good evening, counsel. My name's Jeff Baker. I live at 2422 Tampa Street. And I am here in support of this. The crack family actually hired my company waiting for you to help with the build of this. A little back story on the crack family. For over four decades, Carole has lived in the house. Molly was raised in the house. And Carroll wants to age in place, which is a perfect example of what blueprint Denver is outlining. And we built or have designed a very small area that started at 480 square feet and 17 feet tall and was reduced after Logan's comments to 396 square feet and 16 feet. And this. I can't see a better reason to build one of these. This is exactly what Denver needs. Carroll is going to be able to stay on the property that she's been in. Molly and her family are going to get to move back into her home that she grew up in. And it's not going to change the character of the neighborhood. This thing is teeny tiny. There was outreach done. There was some support for it. There wasn't comments submitted because Carol does not want to get into neighbors arguing with each other. And then I'll address a couple of the concerns that. We ran mention so that the lot size is actually a medium sized Denver law and pretty standard for for most of the the bicycle aid use built on them. And there is um minimum lot size requirements in the code. The height and sun blocking that she's concerned with is addressed by the bulk playing in the code. Um, and the concern about the, the electrical feed and connection that is all addressed with utilities coming off the primary house. Um, access to the edu on the property is not outlined in the code, but the north side where she's describing has never been used in over four decades as a primary access point to the back and actually has a permanent fence there with no gate. That doesn't mean you can take it down, but that is not where there will be access. There's a driveway that goes all the way up on the other side. And as far as I see, yes, there will be a sea and many split unit which is similar to running an AC unit and the five foot buffer between the property is addressed by the set back requirement. I understand that that's too close for comfort for lou-ann, and I apologize for that. But that is what the code is. And we ask tonight that you support this and that you approve the reason of this property so we can build this adorable little cottage for Carol. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker is Rachelle Subfloor. Good evening, members of City Council. My name is Rachel Floor and I live in the Five Points neighborhood in Denver. Bruce O'Donnell, myself, are assisting the Craig family with the rezoning application. So I'll try to keep this short and to the point, try not to repeat. Too much information you've already heard. So first, the proposed rezoning was recommended by approval, by planning board. And. As it meets the rezoning criteria for. An 80. Map amendment. Second, it has plenty of planned support from citywide plans such as. Comp Plan 2040. Blueprint Denver 2019 Blueprint. Denver specifically speaks positively to the addition. Of ideas and most, if not all, residential neighborhoods, as they are a low intensity approach to. Diversifying the housing stock. It is also supported by Housing Inclusive Denver, as well as the land use and zoning goals and recommendations of the East Area Plan and the Parkdale Neighborhood Plan. And overall, they just add to the much needed housing stock allowing for development that is also in character with the neighborhood. In addition to the neighbor outreach conducted by Jeff Baker with a. Do for you and the homeowner. We reached out to local Arnaud's back in December 2020, including a phone call with Greater Parkhill. We informed them or them and the other several RINO's of the homeowners plans. To build a granny flat. And. Of the proposed rezoning as well, which would allow them to do so. We invited them to meet with us virtually so we could share more information if needed. The Arnaud's did not reply needing any additional information, nor did they hold a position. For these. Reasons that they meet the criteria. I ask that City Council members. Please vote yes on this bill for the. Rezoning of 2208. Miller Streets. And I am able to answer any questions about the application itself. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Our last speaker is Jesse Perez. Yes. Good evening. Member of the council. Those watching at home, those that are out of town full time. My name is Justin with some personal representative for black staff to move to self defense, positive action, Memphis, Memphis, The Times as well as the Unity Party of our auto and Frontline Black News. And I'll be the next mayor of Denver in 2023. I'm in favor of this 82 request tonight. It meets all the criteria that is specified in Blueprint Number and Comprehensive Plan 2040. So I have no choice but to vote in favor of this. I also live in Council District eight, which is good for this district and Northeast Park here. I supported 80 youth when I ran for city council at large in 2019, almost 15,000 votes with no money. And I continue to continually support these 82 requests throughout various parts of the city. We need more housing lost their aging mother to aging in place. I'm in favor of that. We need to have more of this across the city. We need to support our seniors and allow them to age in place in the communities that they. Have helped to build and grow and say over the years. So I'm in favor of this rezoning. Please pass this to. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers questions from members of Council on Council Bill five, two, two. I'll give it a moment. Seen no questions by members of council. The public hearing is closed. Comments by members of Council on Council Bill 522. Councilmember Herndon. Thank you, Madam President. I, I just want to say I believe the criteria has been met quite clearly, and I would urge my colleagues to vote in support of this. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Herndon and I agree the criteria have been met and we'll be voting in favor of this rezoning. Madam Secretary, roll call on Council. Bill five two. Two. Herndon, I. Hines Cashman. I. Canet. I. Sandoval, i. Sawyer, i. Torres, i. Black. I. See. Tobacco. I. Clark. I. Flynn. I. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, close the voting and announce the results. 12 hours. 12 eyes Council Bill 21, Dash 522 has passed. All right. Moving on to our second hearing this evening. Councilmember Torres, will you please put Council Bill five, seven, seven on the floor for final passage? I move that council bill 20 1-0577 be placed upon final consideration and do pass.