A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 930 North Bryant Street, 2449 West 10th Avenue and 991 North Alcott Way in Sun Valley. Approves a map amendment to rezone property from C-RX-8 UO-3 to C-MX-12 (urban center residential mixed use to mixed use), located at 930 North Bryant Street, 2449 West 10th Avenue, and 991 North Alcott Way in Council District 3. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 5-18-21.
Per council bill 553 on the floor for final passage. Yes. I move that council bill 20 1-5 53 be placed upon final consideration and do pass. Thank you. It has been moved and seconded the required public hearing for council bill 553 is open. May we have the staff report? And I see we have James here. Go ahead, please. Thank you, Madam President. James Van Duzer, CPD. It's a pleasure to be presenting in front of you in person. I presented in front of you a lot, but I've never seen your face. Well, welcome to the street. Before you today requested rezoning at 930 North Bryant Street 2449 West 10th Avenue, one North Walcott Way. The request is to go from x eight to see m x 12. Located in Council District three. Jamie Torres is district in the Sun Valley neighborhood. This property is located within the Denver housing authorities. Sun Valley Homes Affordable housing development is approximately 3.28 acres and currently consists of one and two story multi-unit residential buildings. I will note that many of these. How about that full screen? Most of the buildings are currently vacant in anticipation of the larger redevelopment of the Sun Valley homes. The proposed zoning district is to go to Cemex 12, which is a mixed use district that allows for mixed use development. The existing zoning is S.R. eight, which is an eight storey residential mixed use zone district. The property is surrounded by OSA and other C are x eight parcels. Existing land uses multi-unit residential surrounded by other multi-unit, residential and industrial to the south. Some photos for context. The photos on the left are typical of the Sun Valley homes and affordable housing complexes of the school to the north, and then some industrial buildings to the south and to the west. Process. This was unanimously recommended for approval at Planning Board back in May and Luti sent it to the full council on May 18. Looking at our review criteria we have for consistency with adopted plans, we have current plan 2040 Blueprint, Denver, Housing and Inclusive, Denver and the Decatur Federal Station Plan as outlined in the staff report. The proposed rezoning is consistent with a number of plan 2040 goals. Looking at Blueprint Denver for the Urban Center Neighborhood Context. The Urban Center context is intended to promote safe, active and pedestrian scaled diverse areas through the use of building forms that clearly activate the public. Street and urban centers are characterized by a high mix of uses throughout the area, with multi-unit, residential, typically in multistory and mixed use building forms. The proposed TMX 12 zone district is a mixed use district which are focused on creating mixed, diverse neighborhoods. Looking at our future place types. This parcel is in a community center, which is a mix of office, commercial and residential uses. Buildings are larger in scale than local centers and orient to the street or the public spaces and building heights are generally up to 12 stories. Looking at our street types, this parcel to be re zoned is also currently undergoing an infrastructure master plan with our colleagues at Development Services. We will see a reconnection of the historic grid, including a reconnection of 10th Avenue and a reconnecting of Bryant Street. 10th Avenue is designated as a main street pursuant to the Decatur Federal Stationary Plan, and Brien Street will remain a local or a designated. Future Growth strategy. A community center where we anticipate seeing 25% of new housing and 20% of new employment by 2040. Looking at housing inclusive. Denver One of the goals of this plan is to promote development of new, affordable, mixed income and mixed use rental housing. There are a number of restrictions currently in place on this property and that will go into the future, including a current HUD declaration of trust recorded against this property which restricts it to use as affordable housing. And then there will be a land use restriction agreement filed with chapter for a 40 year term of affordability. And finally, this property is subject to the agreement between the city and DOJ, which requires permanent affordability on this site. Looking at consistency with the Decatur Federal Station Area Plan is located in a transit oriented development character area, which sees the highest intensity of development and mixture of multi-family, residential office and commercial land uses. The plan also states that the urban center neighborhood context menu of zone districts are the most appropriate for this location. I will mention the federal station. The Decatur Federal Station Area Plan has high guidance of up to five stories. However, staff does find that the requested CMCs 12 stories is consistent with the totality of plan guidance from the Decatur Federal Station area plan and the plans in general. Criteria. Number two is is a uniform zoned district furthers criteria three, furthers public health, safety and welfare by the implementation of adopted plans and providing better health outcomes through increased physical activity that is inherent in mixed use districts where you can live, work and play all in the same area. The applicant and the staff report list change or changing conditions in the neighborhood and West Denver in general as a justifying circumstance. And the proposal is consistent with the neighborhood context, district, purpose and intent. Filing the application to be consistent with all five criteria CPD apologists, I should say. City Council Planning Board. CPD recommends City Council approve the application. All right. Thank you, James, and great to see you here in person. After an entire year of seeing you via Zoom meetings, we have three folks signed up to speak this evening and we've got a couple of folks in chambers. So we'll ask you to go ahead and come to the first pew here. We've got Ryan Tobin and Jean Granville. And once Ryan gets up here, Ryan, you're first. First. I'm sure. Well, I was just so glad to see you right out of that chief real estate investment officer for Denver Housing Authority. And I'm overseeing the redevelopment in Sun Valley. I can give you a few details about the project if you want. I didn't have any formal remarks. Oftentimes, I would love to address questions if you have them use the time that way. Generally speaking, the project proposal on this site is a collective effort between multiple housing sites and different years of textured applications. The one specifically that is tied to the 12 stories old district is a senior high rise, 100% affordable, serving 0 to 60% am I. Over half of those units are proposed to be subsidized to support very low income, while the remaining balance of those units will be at 60% of your money. The adjacent building that will start construction later this year is also benefiting from the proposed rezoning, with the second story utilization on a ground floor commercial space that will provide a greenhouse to allow for production of food and access to healthy food in our neighborhood on a year round basis. So each of these programs are part of a total redevelopment that's underway. The first phase has just opened up here in the last couple of months and are starting to be occupied. But in total, almost 960 units of total housing that will be really a catalyst to the redevelopment that's mentioned and in conjunction with the large infrastructure plans that are also nearing completion. And we'll start construction by first quarter of next year. With that, I'll take a few moments for any questions you might have. All right. Thank you, Ryan. We're going to go ahead and get through our public speakers and we'll bring you up if anybody has questions. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Jean Granville. Good evening. My name is Gene Gristmill, here in support for S.B. 553. We might need you to go ahead and pull the mic just right down closer to you, Jean. Yep. Perfect. There you go. And just speak right into it. We should be able to pick you up. So I'm here in support of CB five, five, three. And thank you for your consideration tonight. And I'm here to really represent the Sun Valley Community Coalition, which is the registered neighborhood organization, and here to reaffirm our neighborhood position that was taken on April 6th in support of this zoning rezoning. And I might just say that the plan the plan that was submitted is one that is many iterations in the planning phase. And it's really to the credit of DHS staff, as well as consulting planners, that they really listen to the community. And so this really becomes a very exciting rezoning for us. While we have, I think, four major housing, affordable housing projects already under construction, two of which have been completed throughout the neighborhood. This really brings together a lot of the elements that we think speaks to what the whole idea of Choice Neighborhood is about, which is to really not just build and allow for housing security, which we know is just critical, but to also provide an environment where our families and our residents can really thrive and succeed. So it's providing and really supporting a home value of healthy living, which is trying to move our gardens from just seasonal gardens to year round, growing growth that can really help support not only residents themselves, but also the Decatur Fresh Market, which having been a food desert for so many, many years, it's just critical and has been at the top of the list for outdoor. It also provides gathering spaces. Now, one of the things that we were a little concerned about is that this is some three plus acres and quite a bit of it will be sold for private development. But it's our understanding that by developing design standards and guidelines in establishing a design review committee which has agreed to have community representation on that committee and not to move forward without community resident representation with private developers, that we can really implement the vision for that total parcel as the neighborhood sees it. So, so really urgent. Thank you for your support. We're very excited for this. All right. Thank you. Our last speaker is Jesse Perez and he's joining us online. Go ahead, please, Jesse. Even with the council, those watching at home, those that are in the chamber. My name is Jesse Larson, Paris, and I'm representative for black stocks. The move was the first positive action to move for social change, as well as the Unity Party of Colorado in lone black nobles. And I'll be the next mayor of Denver in 2023. This rezoning tonight underscores. The fact that this criteria is not working. When you say affordable, it is not affordable. What we need is not 0 to 60%. And my house, we need 30% in my house. In the fact that. Zain is so happy about there being subsidized housing here. It's not. It's not good. This is not good at all. This is more redevelopments in an already rapidly gentrified neighborhood, area of town of Sun Valley of the West Side, which has been rampantly justified to size low below five points in other areas of town were predominantly black and brown residents. It sounds good on the surface. It really does. I like the fact that this is going to be a green house there. I like the fact that there's going to be subsidized housing, especially for seniors. But the fact that together with a private developer, there's no guarantee that any of this is going to come to fruition in terms of affordability or attainability, of which you really should be using inference criteria, not affordability, because the average area median income in Denver is like $71,000 a year. So all this development you're doing is pricing people out because the people that live in this neighborhood are not going to be able to afford to live in the 60% Army units. Building, build building. So I would really like for you in the near future real soon. To reevaluate your criteria because this clearly does not increase health and safety. It. Even if you did reach out to the community, as Jane stated. I honestly don't think he did enough outreach because we would know that 60% and my is not what this community needs. At all. I really wish I could get it through your head that this criteria that you're using is not working. You keep creating development that nobody can afford. And the people that have been here for decades, generations, can afford to live in. So I would ask you kindly and politely not to pass tonight. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes our speakers questions from members of Council on Council Bill 553. Counsel Pro Tem Torres. Thank you, Madam President. Ryan, thanks for being here. So the building will increase by four stories. Can you remind us the number of units total? And am I levels for the building? So the particular project that's benefiting from the additional height currently is proposed at 212 total units. Of those 212, 83 are proposed to serve below 30% of a mine. That's a mix of 73, 79 one bedrooms and four two bedrooms. The balance of the units, 21 one bedrooms at 50% and another two bedrooms at 50% and by 102 units at 60%. And mine and two bedroom. There's four more units at 60% in line for the total of 12. And what I remember happening in some of the other conversations around Gateway, which are the buildings that are you're currently putting residents into there, they're constructed. Is that even the 60% and the 50%? My folks with project based vouchers. In the Gateway North and south, there's a total of 70 replacement units, as we call them, of the 333 that existed there prior to our redevelopment. Each of those are going to be replaced one for one bedroom style. And we have very large bedroom units throughout. So in the Gateway North Project, which just opened in the Gateway South Project. Seven of those residents that were living previously in Sun Valley will come back into those two buildings unless they choose to move into one of the other buildings and wait for that move. I'm asking if the the buildings that are under rezoning right now, if the 60% units, if those folks will have that same opportunity to use a voucher on that to reduce that income obligation. That's right. So 83 of these units will have the subsidy available for them in the form of a housing assistance payment or Section eight balance. But the remaining will not they'll be set at 60. That 50 and 60%. Okay. How much space is dedicated for the gardens? So if it's the second floor, how much. You talking about in the greenhouse is about 5500 square feet. And who's going to run it. So right now we're looking at a partnership with the Botanic Gardens. The Botanic Gardens currently operates our garden that's in the open space along the Platte River. So those would be looked we would look to operate those in concert. Obviously, there's some negotiations that need to happen there, but there's been a long term commitment as a partner of ours around the healthy living initiatives. And so that's at least where we're starting our consideration right now. And then how how would the food then get to the community? So we currently under the trust grant, we have people connectors and we'll have staff. So not only as the as Jean mentioned, our new market that's opening will be run by a youth employment academy. And so we would envision continuing to work with our youth employment academy to focus on jobs and training and education around all of the agriculture and the production and then sourcing that food either into the marketplace for we'll call it a pricing of food or as needed on a daily basis, is how we're doing it now. So it could go to like Osage Cafe as. That's right. Osage Cafe is run by a youth employment academy as well. And so there's kind of a collective growth in scale that's allowing us to continue to build on the momentum that the food source has allowed us to do and on the jobs and training that go along with it. Got it. Any more? So the private development, how much land of the total DHC land in Sun Valley will be turned to private ownership? Currently as proposed, we're looking at approximate 12 acres. Out of how much. We start. There's 33 acres on the existing Sun Valley housing site. Keeping in mind that to help with the concentration of low income, we acquire additional sites outside the footprint and also allow us to mitigate floodplain concerns that were there, which would have precluded us from building housing on site originally. Now, through the infrastructure, we've been able to work with the city and our agency partnerships to alleviate those concerns that will allow us to start moving forward with building on the existing housing sites. Okay. And does the 33 acres include the tank farm and. No, it does not. The 33 acres was our existing housing site, and that includes all of the new right of way that we're required or required out there in addition to the four acres going to Parks and Rec. Okay. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Madam President. I thank you, Counsel Pro Tem Torres and Ryan, for answering those questions. Next up, we have Councilmember Flynn. Thank you, Madam President. James, could you address a question that's puzzling me about this? And that's the the use overlay for historic structures. Certainly in the staff report, it says that there are no historic structures to which this could be applied. So plus, we're we're considering rezoning it to a a classification that to which it wouldn't apply in the first place. How did the use overlay come to be placed upon this larger site where it is when there are no historic structures on it? How'd that happen? Thank you for the question, Councilperson Flynn. That was before my time. I do not know the answer to that. However, it is only applicable to residential zoned districts. You could apply it to any residential zoned district. It was applied here. Presumably the 2010 code and it will be moot if this moves to a mixed use home district. Okay. You know, that doesn't stand in the way of my vote or anything. But I'm just curious if is now claiming that there are no historic structures to which you would apply? Why the heck was it applied in the first place? It's almost seems like we were. Or someone in the planning in the 2010 rezoning was thinking that the that the buildings as they existed at the time might be considered historic. Is that a reasonable assumption? It's not a bad guess, but I can tell you that the three overlay is found in other places without historic structures currently on them. So it's not completely out of line for this to exist. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. I think I might ask CPD for a list of of all the applications of the new oh three overlay in the city so we can see if this exist somewhere else. Because it just seems odd to say we're removing an overlay that had no point in the first place. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilman. Flynn And yeah, definitely I would support getting that overlay so that we can understand if there's any other situations like this. All right, next step, we've got Council Member Cashman. Thank you, Madam President. Yes, Councilman Flynn. So many things do seem odd nowadays. James. Oh, I'm sorry. This is actually for Ryan. You said something early in the presentation. I missed the context. You said something about 960. That's the total redevelopment that's ongoing out there through the four phases proposed right now, including these 200 and some. That's correct. That we're talking about. Okay. Thank you. That's that's all. Thank you for the clarification. All right. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. And that concludes the questions from members of council. The public hearing is closed. Comments by members of Council on Council Bill 553 Council pro-tem us. Thank you, Madam President, and thank you for being here and representing the residents and organizations in Sun Valley. I know the discussion has been lengthy and over many years, so I appreciate the work that's gone into this. I just want to be very clear. I think about the the the expectation this affordability is guaranteed. And because it's Denver Housing Authority and because of the partnership between them and the city, this housing is is is necessary and and deeply valued. And what I hope is that future conversations about how residents will be engaged with one another will be really important. There used to be local resident councils that brought folks together to talk about common interests who lived in housing authority sites that I haven't seen and hope to see revived kind of in the in the next phase of Sun Valley life. So thanks to the Denver Housing Authority team for keeping this moving forward and keeping your commitment to that neighborhood. Thank you, Madam President. I'll be voting yes tonight. Thank you, counsel pro Tem Torres and seen no other speakers in the queue. Madam Secretary, roll call on Council Bill 553. Torres, I black. I see. Tobacco. I. Flynn. I. Herndon, i. Cashman. I. Can each. I. Sandoval. I. Sawyer. I. Madam President. I. Madam Secretary, please close the voting and announce the results. Ten Eyes. Ten Eyes Council Bill 20 1-553 has passed. Thank you to the staff and our speakers and community members who joined us both in-person and virtually. Our last hearing this evening is coming up. Council members say to Barker, Will you please put Council Bill 532 on the floor for final passage?