Approves a rezoning of 3600 East Alameda from B-4 with Waivers UO-1, UO-2 to C-MX-5 and C-MX-8 in Council District 10.  (LAND USE TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE) Approves a rezoning of 3600 East Alameda from B-4 with Waivers UO-1, UO-2 to C-MX-5 and C-MX-8 in Council District 10.  The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 4-22-14.
And so the proposed rezoning to the new zoned districts would retire all of these existing entitlements and replace with two zone districts, two proposed zone districts, CMCs five and CMC. I would just point out in the first rezoning case that we heard related to the Welton Street Station that we were talking about split zoning and Cortland mentioned generally not practiced. There are times when it is necessary to implement the vision plan and I will demonstrate tonight how that is the what we feel is the best opportunity to implement a vision that set forth clearly in an adopted plan. So I'll be addressing that throughout the presentation. So a look at the existing context. As I mentioned, there's existing commercial office and surface parking. The area is served by multiple bus routes on Alameda, North Cherry Creek Drive and Colorado Boulevard. And Alameda Avenue is a dividing point for transition along Alameda between the lower scale residential in Cherry Creek to the north and commercial and mixed uses to the south in the Cherry Creek Triangle. There is a recent trend of investment and redevelopment in the Cherry Creek Triangle to the South. Here's a view of property to the east across from Garfield Street. A four story office. To the south, we see redevelopment currently underway under CMCs eight zoning, which was recently resumed. And a recent development about five years old is a multifamily mid-rise project to the west across from Monroe Street and fronting Alameda. This particular project implemented or further improved the Alameda Parkway, which is very much a neighborhood priority. And you see this 20 foot setback as applied and enhances the condition along the street between development and the street for both the visual qualities along Alameda for motorists as well as the pedestrians and cyclists using using the parkway to the north across from Alameda is vacant property and the lower skilled residential to the north. So the public review process has followed our standard notification and outreach efforts. I'm very appreciative to the applicant has done a great job reaching out to applicable registered neighborhood organizations, property owners and written notice. Receipt of application and hearing notices have been sent to applicable neighborhood organizations and council districts. Planning Board Public Hearing was held on April 2nd, 2014, which resulted in unanimous recommendation of approval. And there have been three letters of support submitted on behalf of this project, and we have also provided the proper legal posting written notification for this hearing this evening. So I'd like to speak to the five criteria applicable to current Denver zoning code. First, starting with consistency with adopted plans, comprehensive plan 2000 encourages infill development that provides housing that meets increasingly diverse needs in a manner that is consistent with surrounding neighborhood character. Blueprint Denver The concept land use shows the Alameda excuse me, formerly known as Alameda, but now the Cherry Creek Triangle as an area of change and intended to evolve into a regional center such that future land uses serve not just the surrounding neighborhood, but also serve neighborhoods throughout the city. And this is appropriate given the the regional service provided by Colorado Boulevard, Alameda Avenue. These are arterials that do bring people from across the city, as well as the Cherry Creek Parkway, bringing folks to this area from throughout the city in the region. Alameda fronts the property to the north. Blueprint Denver Street classification for the street is mixed use arterial and the two side streets Monroe and Garfield are local streets recently adopted. Cherry Creek Area Plan also shows the intent for this area to evolve into a regional center. And you'll note that I've highlighted the property, the subject property proposed for rezoning in the red box and that there are actually two building heights recommended for for this particular area. And the intent here is to create a transition from a five story Alameda frontage, which is considered to be most appropriate to the lower scale residential to the north, and then transitioning up to eight stories and then to 12 stories for the the bulk building height transition. So also contained in the Cherry Creek Area Plan is encouragement to improve the Alameda Parkway. And this includes encouraging private investment adjacent to Alameda such that new development fronts and addresses new buildings on Alameda that can improve , placemaking and improve the public realm. That this can also create a vibrant urban mixed use district, especially office and residential in the proposed or in the recommended regional center area. The plan also encourages adopting form based and context based zoning the new Denver Zoning Code and finally the building mass transition with the five storey edge facing Alameda , transitioning up to eight storey and then 12 storeys to the south. These graphics are taken from the adopted Cherry Creek Neighborhoods Plan showing the intended vision for improving the Alameda Parkway. It shows today's condition. And then a proposed condition. And you can see the intent to provide amenities in terms of landscaping, new walkways, and then the new development fronting and activating this parkway. And so to implement and improve the Alameda Parkway vision, a 20 foot setback is is currently a requirement in place and is applicable to both sides of Alameda. Also applicable to this site are other regulatory controls, including a 75 foot height limit within 175 feet of protected residential districts. And you can see in the highlighted yellow areas these are protected residential districts. G RH three The current PD applicable to the vacant, partially vacant site is not a protected district, so the Red Hat area results in a 75 foot height limit in this rather peculiar scalloped form, as you can see. And so this is the resulting bulk playing given some of the regulatory controls in place. You also see the 20 foot parkway setback as the applicant is actually proposing to zone districts to implement this transition from five storey to eight storey applicable to this area. Fronting Alameda. So try to provide this graphic to make it visible and comprehensible at a glance. But the applicant is proposing CMCs five at a depth of 40 feet. 20 feet of that depth would be the applicable parkway setback, with a 20 foot distance remaining four cm x five and then the remaining portion to the south would be CM eight, a portion of that with the 75 foot height control and then some of that allowing for the 410 feet allowed under CMC zoning. I would point out that the 20 feet of CMC five is the depth allowed for CMCs, or it's the step back depth when you mix five and see Acceder adjacent to protected residential district. So we staff felt that that was an appropriate depth to implement that transition between five and eight storeys. So the second criteria, uniformity of district regulations find that these two zoning districts would result in that uniformity uniform application of district regulations and further the public health, safety and welfare through implementation of adopted plans. The justifying circumstances changing circumstances include the fact that there is a recently adopted neighborhood plan, that there is underutilized property in terms of today's standards and market demand, and that there is a surrounding pattern of investment and development in the neighborhood. And this also would result in consistency with neighborhood context, zoned district purpose and intent and finding consistency with all the plan criteria or the rezoning criteria. CPD recommends approval for rezoning to these two zoned districts. See them x five and see if say thank you. We have three speakers. I call on them one at a time, Robert, and I can't see the last name, can Smith? Madam President. City Council members. My name is Bobby Smith. I represent the applicant in this rezoning for your consideration tonight. I'd like to thank him for all of his fine work. And I'd like to thank you all for your consideration this evening. And I'm here to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you. Increasing. Thank you, Madam President. I'm back again to my neighborhood. As Councilwoman Robb knows, I'm a resident and property owner for the last 15 years and I live on 217 South Jackson Street, literally right behind Monroe. So I'm here as vice president of the Cherry Creek Eat Cherry Creek East Association. I was elected as vice president recently, and I had joined last year, mainly because of my work in the Five Points area. I felt that the experience that I was gaining in the last two and a half years should be used as well in my own personal neighborhood. So my fellow board members felt the same way and and selected me as VP. So I'm today here speaking in support of this rezoning application because this request is consistent with the Cherry Creek Area plan. We appreciate Smith, Jones, Partners Awareness, Insights and tivity to the public right away. Requirements for Alameda Parkway. We are encouraged that they want to enhance the pedestrian and the multimodal transit connections between Cherry Creek East and the Cherry Creek Triangle. So if you have any questions for me, please feel free to ask me. I will be here. Thank you. Thank you very much, Chester. You know, I can't do it alone. I can't do it. Here we have a project that we support because what the project works is a possibility that maybe we'll get some jobs out of this and maybe, you know, some members in our community and some subcontractors and maybe we can go to work, so maybe that we can afford the housing being built in our neighborhood, which is beyond our means right now. See, part of the deal in being part of this city is that we're all connected in some way, form or how. And for those who are. Blessed. Too much that is given. Much is expected not to do less, but to do more. We broke. We're done. We need help. But we're not begging because we got skills, too. And if this city is going to be a diverse city and not have the unintended consequences of turning itself into an elitist town like Boulder, then we got to do something different. We have to do something different. And I know we can do better than this. We got to do better. So I ask. Myself, why? What? Why am I here, man? Why am I here? People trying not to listen, but to look like they're listening. Why am I here? Well, I'm here because I refuse to quit. I can't quit. I'm stuck. So think about it as you going about building your projects up. The councilman. I can't even say his name knows about minority serves. Kind of looks like one sometime. He knows who they are. Enrolled him in the process so he can get you some votes. I didn't say his name. I don't care. So it can be personally found. No, I'm not finished yet. But I think. Okay. Well, I think I'll just. Go on back the girls, because I'm not going to take a lot of questions from. Thank you, Madam President. This question is for Mr. Smith. Mr. Jacob Helmer Smith. I just thought it might be educational for you to explain the relationship of this project with the one to the south of it, the one that looked like a lot of other lots in Cherry Creek right now, the dirt lot with the cranes, because you've planned them to really coordinate. As I understand. We have a patent pending y'all's consideration tonight. The intent is, were the developers of the project immediately to the south of what's before you this evening. And that was zoned by you all a little over a year ago. Four CMCs eight were under construction now. And the idea with this proposal this evening is that we would start with a five storey edge along Alameda as the transition from the Cherry Creek East neighborhood to the north across the existing Alameda Parkway, which would in our new development of were successful tonight with rezoning set the stage for a future Alameda Parkway, improvements of five stories, setback and transition to meet the project that we currently have under development at CMC eight to the South. Okay. And does the parking work together or not? No. We've our intentions pending Earl's approval tonight would be to have this project be a completely standalone self marked as our project to the South as self park. All the parking hidden from the street view completely encompassed within the building. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Councilwoman Robb. I see no other questions, so I'm going to close the public hearing and ask for comments. Councilwoman Robb. Thank you, Madam President. This is another example of huge private investment in the Cherry Creek area, of which we have seen many examples of lately. But I want to point out, as Tracy Winchester knows so well, while in a lot of areas we invest with tax increment financing in infrastructure and in attracting development in Cherry Creek, we don't have to worry about attracting development. We do that pretty well, it seems. But that doesn't mean that public investment in infrastructure isn't needed. Mr. BROOKS. Or excuse me. Mr. BROOKS. Not you. Mr. Smith talked about setting the stage for the future. Alameda Parkway developers can set the stage, but there's no light rail in Cherry Creek. We're not talking about what Joel Noble. Spoke about, where light rail was already in place in five points. We don't really it's designated a parkway. But this is the one stretch of Alameda between First Avenue and Alameda to the east of Colorado Boulevard that isn't planted in the median. It's River Rock. It really doesn't look like Parkway. There are not trees along this side consistently of the street. Some reconfiguration needs to be done and it's going to cost money. And my constituents, long after I'm gone, I'm sure at least gone from this dais, I might still be on this earth, will be asking for those improvements. So I really want to put that out there because a lot of you will be around the next time we have a bond issue. And I'm working very hard to be sure we set the stage publicly because we can't rely on the private investment to do that. There are also you have a letter in front of you on your desk from the Cherry Creek East neighborhood, things that I have talked about before, as well as the Alameda Parkway. They talk about the Garfield Bike Boulevard that is in the planning phase this year. And I hope there will be implementation money that goes all the way from Cherry Creek, the creek up to City Park. There is also in the plan a proposed bike, PED Bridge over Cherry Creek from Garfield on the South over no funding for that. So that's a very important improvement. So I just want to keep pointing out that as we put the people here, we really have to make the investments. But I will be supporting this rezoning tonight and lobbying you in the future for those investments. Thank you, Councilwoman Robb and I see no other comments. Let's go for that roll call. Rob. Hi. Sheppard Brooks. Hi, Brown. I fats. I can eat lemon i. Monteiro, I. Ortega. Madam President. Hi. Okay. All righty. Councilman Ortega. For. Council. Councilman Lopez. Okay. Madam Secretary, close the voting. Announce the results. 11 eyes. 11 eyes. The zoning does pass. Thank you all for your good patience and goodwill. And I am going to have to say that this meeting is a journey. Denver eight TV York City your source. Denver eight on TV and online to stay connected to your community. Your city, your source.