City Council - Regular Meeting

Hey, Denver. It's time for the weekly general session of your Denver City Council. Tonight's coverage of Denver City Council starts now.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking the time to join us for Denver City Council's meeting. Today is Monday, 05/04/2026. Tonight's meeting into is being interpreted into Spanish. Sam or Jasmine, would you please introduce yourself and let our viewers know how to enable translation on their devices?

Yes, of course. Hello, everyone. My name is Sam Guzmano with the CLC joining you virtually through Zoom. And along with my colleague, Jasmine, we will be interpreting today's meeting into Spanish. Please allow me a quick moment while I give instructions in Spanish on how to access interpretation.

And thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Sam.

Oh, sorry. It's glass.

Welcome to the Denver City Council meeting on Monday, 05/04/2026. Council members, please join council member Hines in the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. Councilmember, please join councilmember Hines as they lead us in the Denver City Council land acknowledgment.

The Denver City Council honors and acknowledges that the land on which we reside is the traditional territory of the youth, Cheyenne, and Arapaho peoples. We also recognize the 51 contemporary tribal nations that are historically tied to the lands that make up the state of Colorado. We honor elders past, present, and future, and those who have stewarded this land throughout generations. We also recognize that government, academic, and cultural institution institutions were founded upon and continue to enact exclusions and erasures of indigenous peoples. May this acknowledgement demonstrate a commitment to working to dismantle

Thank you very much. Madam secretary, roll call.

Councilmember Gilmore? Here.

Parity?

Albidres? Here. Flynn? Here. Gonzales Gutierrez? Here. Heinz? Here. Cashman? Here. Lewis? Here. Romero Campbell? Here. Sawyer? Here. Torres? Here. Watson? Here. Madam president Sandoval? Here. 12 members present.

There are 12 members present. Council has a quorum. Approval of

the minutes. Are there corrections to the minutes of April 27? Seeing none, the minutes stand approved. Council announcements. Are there any council announcements this afternoon? Council member Gonzalez Gutierrez, start us off. Thank you, madam president.

Today's a very, very important day for many people who enjoy these movies as much as I do, but it is May 4. And so to all my colleagues and to the people of Denver, may the fourth be with you. I was such

a

nerd. A proud Star Wars nerd. My daughter actually made all of these for me. Aw. She's a great cliche artist, but she hates making these characters, but she does it for me. And so I wanna thank her for that. But, yes, may the fourth be with you, and may the fourth

be with all of us. Thank you.

Councilwoman Soyer.

Thank you, madam president. I also am gonna take a moment of personal privilege. It was Lily and Olivia's sixteenth birthday on Saturday. So I don't know how it happened that my youngest children turned 16, but they did. That went super fast, but I just wanted to wish them a very happy birthday and tell them I

love them. Thanks. Thank you.

Councilmember Hines?

Thank you, madam president and council member Consolos Gutierrez. As this is May 4, tomorrow is revenge of the fifth quarter. Oh, yeah. Oh, so

Like a

to get even dirtier into our legacy. I also want to to bring up that tomorrow, tomorrow, we'll we'll have have some some site site selectors selectors from from the the democratic national committee descend upon Denver and just so they can get loud and learn that Denver will be the host of the twenty twenty eight democratic national convention. So if you see some people roaming around city hall or the state capital or our center city and they look to be very democratic, Tell them how

old it is.

And I'm I'm really looking forward to to hosting and being participating in several of those meetings and meeting in on how accessible Denver is relative to so many other areas in our country and far beyond. So thank you to the site selectors as as we will see you tomorrow and throughout the week. Thank you, madam president.

Thank you. Councilmember Watson.

Thank you so much, council president. Every month, we hold community office hours in District 9. And on this Friday, May 9, we will be at Lou's Italian Specialties, the best sandwich place in on Downing Street in Five Points, and that will be from 01:00 to 2PM, and it's 3357 North Downing Street. So District 9 may community office hours. Come by with any of your questions, compliments, whatever you choose. We look forward to seeing you on this Friday from one to 2PM at Luz. Take care.

Thank you. Council member Luz?

Thank you. Just wanted to thanks folks in community who were able to be community panelists. They we had our final totally forgot what it's called. Something. We had our final meeting for our our community panelists. I'm so sorry. I totally forgot.

I forgot it was called.

Anyhoo, these are the things that

inform our micro our

micro priorities for the coming years. So thank you if you participated in whatever the thing is. I can't remember what you're calling.

Thank you. Thank you. Council member Alvidrez.

Thank you, council president. I wanna share a couple of things coming in District 7 this Saturday. We will be at the Columbine Towers with the Rocky Mountain High Institute for Career Development where we'll be talking to residents about how, what kind of career development we have, and I will be speaking and this was organized by colonel James Harvey, a distinguished airman from World War two and an American hero. In addition to I wanted to share that next Saturday, we will be joining the mayor's bicycle advocacy committee on Saturday, and you can meet us at 08:45AM. We'll roll out at 9AM, and we'll be meeting at rebel bed bread Bakery at 675 South Broadway to go for a bike ride around District 7.

Anyone's welcome to join. We haven't figured out exactly how long of a bike ride it will be, but you can always tear off if you have to leave early. And then lastly, I just wanted to acknowledge Cinco de Mayo tomorrow. It's more than just Taco Tuesday. It marks the of Puebla in 1862 when Mexican farmers led under president Benito Juarez, the first indigenous president in Mexico, defeated the French army, and it mattered beyond Mexico.

The reason it's celebrated here in The United States is because that prevented the French from coming and helping in the civil war. And Benito Juarez also sent a little bit of gold to Lincoln to defend The United States at that time, and so it is an important Mexican and American holiday that now you know maybe a little bit more about. Thank you. Thank you, council president.

Thank you. Just wanna thank everyone who came out to Larasa Park on Friday for the ribbon cutting. It was a great celebration. Just wanna give a shout out to my council aide, Alessandra, for all the work she put in and the community advisory group. If you haven't had a chance to go out there, the playground is amazing.

We got new picnic tables. It's been a labor of love. I'd also like to acknowledge councilwoman Gonzales Gutierrez. She received the order of the star of the north on April 16 from the North High School Alumni Association, and just wanna say how proud I am to be a a Viking alumni with councilwoman with councilman Gonzalez Gutierrez. We both received the award the same day.

So it was just really cool to be acknowledged by North High School alumni. And then my last update or acknowledgment is to all the moms out there. Moms wear many different capes, I like to say, and some of us raise our own kids. Some of us raise other kids. Some of us raise each other.

So anyone who's out there who's a mom who's a mom, happy early Mother's Day, and I'm just so glad that I get to serve on city council with nine other women who teach me every day what it feels like to be a woman and empower. So just thank your parents this weekend and especially thank your mom. I know every you all hear I talk about my mom a lot. I'm so lucky that I have I have the amazing mother that I have. See oh, council member Nauvidez. Yes.

I just wanted to also acknowledge that it's a council member's birthday this week. This is councilman Hines. Happy early birthday. So excited to have

holiday next week. Thank you. Nice. Thank you.

Did you know it was your birthday?

I'm on Helix. Again?

I had one last year. I have another one.

Seeing their note, there are no presentations. There are no communications. There are two proclamations being read this afternoon. Council pro tem Romero Campbell, would you please read proclamation zero five eight three? Yes.

Thank you, madam president. Proclamation twenty six dash zero five eight three. Whereas the Yellow Dreams youth art program is a community based initiative presented by the Mongolian Culture and Heritage Center of Colorado that celebrates youth creativity, cultural identity, and artistic expression among students across Colorado. And whereas the Yellow Dreams program provides an annual platform through its youth art contest, public exhibition, and community celebration offering students the opportunity to share their artwork and personal stories with the broader community. And whereas through participation in Yellow Dreams, young artists are encouraged to explore themes of heritage, identity, belonging, and imagination, fostering confidence, the And we're world.

The also designed a of we're program. Working the

world.

Proud we're

of

fostering inclusion, encouraging intergenerational understanding, and supporting the development of future artists, storytellers, and community leaders. And whereas the program has grown into a significant annual cultural event that brings of to our

recognizes

and to to celebrates the Yellow Dreams youth art program and its contributions to youth development, cultural expression, and community engagement through the city and county of Denver. Section two, the clerk shall affix the seal of the city and and county of Denver to this proclamation and transmit copies to the Mongolian cultural the Mongolian Culture and Heritage Center of Colorado and the Yellow Dreams youth art program. Thank you. Council pro temer Mary Campbell, your motion to adopt. I move that the proclamation that proclamation twenty six zero five eight three be adopted.

It has been moved and seconded. Comments by members of council. Council pro temer Mary O'Campbell.

Thank you, madam president. I want to yellow dreams art contest. This is something that I just have been so proud to help sponsor. I wrote something down because, really, I didn't wanna forget to say so many things. But this is a culminating time of vision and art and love for the art and the pathway that it presented to Sogo Mijad, his wife, Bajad, their daughter Jennifer.

They started the in District 4, started the Mongolian the Mongolian Cultural and Heritage Center for Colorado Colorado out of their home. This is something that's beautiful. It's a location, but it's something that has also gone further and broader into the community. They have art programs. You know, it's mentioned in the proclamation, but there are programs that really reach young people that share their identity, that grows that love of art.

And I think that's really where the yellow dreams are contest, took flight. And so just seeing the pride and the joy of these young people, as they are sharing their vision of what the art prompt is and what they have created in their artwork is just brings such joy. And, really, I mean, young people, so clever and heartfelt. But reading descriptions just, I think, reminds us of the truth and perspective that young people in our community are holding and that we shouldn't forget. And I think, hopefully, when Sogo, when you accept this proclamation that you'll talk more about what brought you to this point and why this art contest.

But just a little piece of it is, you know, over many lunar year meals and drinks. It has just been an honor that you and your family call Denver home and how you started as, you know, a young person inspired by an art contest, having that be your pathway and and being able to go to art school, it took you around the world. So though has been acknowledged by the mayor through our art and culture as artist. I believe in twenty twenty four twenty twenty four, has an art installation here at the Denver Art Museum that is currently being seen. So I encourage you all to go and visit that.

Has been selected to present or have have his art be part of the Denver Arts and Venue art component to the different construction projects that we have. And most recently, at the Schleshman Library, it'll be your artwork that's shared and how you've engaged community to be able to bring that forward, I think, again, just expands what what this art contest has been for young people and just what an inspiration you've been to community. So, you know, this last Sunday was a large event and a way to be able to acknowledge the young people and something that is so incredibly special. I will stop there with my comments, but I just really, it's an honor to, get to know you and to Baja and your entire family. So I just am thrilled to be able to help support that.

Thank you. Madam speaker, roll call.

Council members Gilmore? Aye. Alvidrez? Aye. Lynn? Aye. Gonzalez Gutierrez? Aye. Aye. Cashman? Aye. Lewis? Aye. Romero Campbell? Aye. Sawyer? Aye. Torres? Aye. Watson? Aye. Madam president Sandoval?

Aye. Madam secretary, close the voting, announce the results.

12 ayes.

12 ayes. Proclamation zero five eight three has been adopted. We now have five minutes for the proclamation acceptance. Council pro tem Romero Campbell, who will be who will you be inviting up to accept the proclamation? Sogo Bijad and Vasha, his wife. Or both of you. Yes.

Hello. Good afternoon. Thank you for this proclamation. I'm happy to accept this honor for the Yellow Dreams Art Program and the Mongolian Culture and Heritage Center of Colorado. Yellow Dreams gives students place to share them art, their culture, and stories.

We are so proud to support our students and celebrate their voices, especially during Asian Heritage Month. Thank you for all student families and supporters who makes this program possible. And thank you for the inner district for Councilwoman Daniel Romero Campbell for always supporting your dreams program and our AAPI community. Yeah. We just opened yesterday, celebrated for the annual show and seven different Asian communities participating kids, more than 100 kids arts there.

And we're so proud. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Councilmember Watson, would you please read proclamation zero five eight four?

Yes, council president. Proclamation number 260584. The proclamation celebrating small business week in the city and county of Denver. Whereas since 1963, national small business week has been recognized across The United States to honor the critical contributions of of small businesses to our economy, which account for more than 99% of all private sector employers and create nearly two out of five two out of every three, I should say, new jobs nationwide. I'll pause for councilmember to build a sneak.

And whereas Denver Economic Development and Opportunities mission is to build an economy that works for everyone. And the city and county of Denver is committed to fostering an environment where small businesses can start, grow, and thrive through strategic investments, workforce development, access to capital, and equitable economic opportunity. And whereas small businesses are the backbone of Denver's economy, accounted for at least 45% of employment in our city and serving as key drivers of job creation, economic mobility, and neighborhood vitality. And whereas Denver's small businesses represent a diverse array of industries and cultures, sustain our neighborhoods, and significantly contribute to Denver's unique character through the community, history, and cultural identity they have created and sustained. And whereas small business owners demonstrate remarkable resilience, creativity, and determination in the face of economic challenges, continually adapting to changing market conditions while investing in their employees and communities.

And whereas National Small Business Week provides an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of Denver's entrepreneurs and to recognize the essential role they play in building an innovative and prosperous city and a resilient and inclusive local economy. And whereas the city and county of Denver joins communities across the nation in recognizing and supporting small businesses and encouraging residents to shop local always, not just this week, year round and uplift the businesses that make Denver unique. Now therefore be proclaimed by the Denver City Council, section one, that Denver City Council recognizes the week of May 4 as small business week in the City And County Of Denver, and that all residents are encouraged to celebrate and support Denver's small businesses, not only during this week, but throughout the year. Section two, the clerk and recorder of the City And County Of Denver shall fix the seal of the City And County Of Denver to this proclamation and that a copy be transmitted to Denver economic development and opportunity.

Thank you. Councilmember Watson, your motion to adopt.

I move that proclamation two six zero five eight four be adopted.

It has been moved and seconded. Comments by members of council. Councilmember Watson.

Council president, thank you so much. Brief comment after a my thirty year career working for financial services companies, my husband and I decided to call it quits. He left his job as a educator English teacher at CU as well as in GEFCO after thirty three years. I left my job in finance after thirty, and we're just gonna bum around and chill out and enjoy the rest of our our lives. But my husband had an idea.

He said, babe, why don't we start that small business we've always been talking about for the decades that we've been together? And we we started the Watson Wang Group, small business that provided strategic support for nonprofits and and other organizations that need support. And it was the one of the most grueling things to start a small business. It freaked you out. Like, I've never given birth, but it felt like we gave birth.

What the business was we Just saying. Listen. That's from memory. I have no I have nothing to compare it to, but it felt like it felt like giving birth when we finally did our paperwork at the secretary of state's office and said, this business has been conceived. And we loved it like our baby, and we still do.

It was wonderful to know that we can, in a small way, have small impacts, small within the communities that we serve. And I look at all the small businesses throughout District 9, throughout our city, and I know the struggle that some of these small business owners are facing. And I know that they look at their businesses similar ways like we did, like they're they're they're babies, their their loves, and the toughness that they go through. And so simply for a week to say thank you to each and every one of you, small business owners, for all the good that you do and all the ways that you stick within community and elevate our culture. So I am honored to sponsor this small business week proclamation, and I'm grateful for Department of Economic Development and opportunity for making sure that we continue to support businesses throughout the year.

Thank you, madam president.

Thank you. Council member Cashman?

Yeah. Thank you, madam president. Thank you, councilman, for bringing this forward. Before I was on council, a lot of my friends know I published a neighborhood newspaper in South Denver and spent decades making my living selling advertising to small businesses. And I can tell you that the people who walk down streets like Tennyson And Pearl Street and Gaylord Street and even Cherry Creek and see these shops that look so healthy and think, boy, these people must be raking in the dough.

Some of them, some of them are making a respectable living. Most of them are living on a small margin, and it's a commitment to community. It's something they love doing. And, boy, I'm I miss the I think there's probably a percentage of small businesses that are gone Yeah. Compared to the way it was ten, twenty, thirty years ago as Denver has grown and brought more chains on board. But anybody who's putting the family fortune up, to fund a small business, especially serving our neighborhoods, my hats off to you. And, again, councilman, thanks for bringing this forward. I honor them as well.

Thank you. Councilwoman Alvarez?

Thank you, council president. I remember the day that my parents went and started our family's small business. My parents had saved up $2,000 to start a construction company, and they were able to create a good life for themselves and only because they never moved out of their house that I up in. And they pinched every penny and paid off any debt that they took on as quickly as possible, which is very hard to do as a small business. And so I just wanna uplift, yes, small businesses, and I feel like District 7 is rich in small businesses when you think about South Federal, when you think about South Broadway, Pearl Street, which is in District 7.

It it is not like childbirth. I can't confirm. But it is a very beautiful thing to start a small business, and it takes spirit, and it takes gut, and it takes doing something that a lot of people will tell you won't work out. Yeah. And I I really feel for the small businesses in our city right now as I know they're struggling.

And I as I, you know, as the Department of Finance recently presented to us the financial outlook for the city, looking pretty bad and sales tax being such a large part of our revenue is supporting our small businesses, is shopping in Denver. And I feel personally passionate that in District 7, we're surrounded by box stores. So it's very easy to leave Denver and head out to a suburb that has a large big box store where you can get your items. And I will encourage you to try shopping on South Federal. You know, Asthma Park where I live is considered a food desert, but we do have a really great grocery store called Great Wall that has a lot of vegetables and fruits that you may not find at your typical grocery store around the city.

And so I challenge people to find ways to spend money in the city of Denver. It's more important now than ever that we support our small businesses, and I think we all own that. We can point fingers at whose fault it is, but the most important thing we can do is choose where to spend our dollars, and just wanna remind people of that. Thank you, council. Thank you.

Councilwoman Lewis? Yes. Thank you so much, councilor Matson, for sponsoring this proclamation. And I just wanted to take a moment to thank the workers that are within these small businesses. Anytime I have the opportunity to go into these small businesses, it's the people that give such life and love and joy to my experience. I just wanna

thank the workers. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Hyde.

Thank you, madam president. Thank you, councilmember Watson, for conceiving of this idea. Today, we celebrate Small Business Week here in the the city in County Of Denver, and I can think of no better way to describe what our small business owners do than to call it a labor of love. Every small business in in this city was conceived with the mind of a dreamer, carried through long months of planning and preparation, and brought into the world through the kind of sleepless nights and sheer determination only those who have given birth to something truly their own can understand. Thank you.

Our dreamers nurture these fragile newborn ventures from their first breath, feed them to the colicky early years, and watch with pride as they grow into the businesses that account for at least 45% of Denver's employment. So this week, as we honor the more than 99% of private sector employers nationwide who started as somebody's labor pain at 3AM, let us remember that every storefront on every block was once a contraction of an idea. Pushed into being by founder who refused to get up in the fine give up in the final hour. Denver's small businesses are not delivered easily. And like every new arrival, they need a village to thrive.

So I encourage every resident to be midwife to our local economy, shop local, eat local, and help cradle the next generation of Genver businesses as they take their first steps into the world. Thank you. Thanks, madam president. Thank

you, council member Watson. Growing up in La Casita, I don't know any other life than making tamales and being at a small local business. We have tons in Northwest Denver. I always laugh. We have everything from Chubby's in La Casita to a Michelin Star restaurant, you can go and as council member Alvidrez mentioned that budget is looking kinda dire for 2026, and so we need to '20 well, for the rest of the year.

We need to be out promoting our small local businesses, and I would just challenge everyone to go to a place that you have never been to. I think five weeks ago, got invited somewhere in Central Park, and I'd never been there. I didn't even know little strip mall existed. And it was some of the best food I've had, and I'm planning on taking my husband back. So just go outside your comfort zone and support our small local business. So thank you, council member Watson. Madam secretary, roll call.

Council members Gilmore.

Aye. Valdez.

Aye. Flynn.

Aye.

Gonzalez Gutierrez. Aye. Heinz. Aye. Cassian.

Aye.

Lewis. Aye. Romero Campbell? Aye. Sawyer? Aye. Torres? Aye. Watson? Aye. Madam president Sandoval?

Aye. Madam secretary, close the voting, announce the results. 12 ayes. 12 ayes. Proclamation zero five eight four has been adopted. We have five minutes for the proclamation acceptance. Council member Watson, who you'll be inviting up to accept the proclamation?

I'll invite the small business owner, Adeeb Khan, our executive director from DITO, Adeeb Khan. His family owns plenty of small businesses. Thank

you, councilman Watson and city council. I appreciate you allowing me to be here today. Also, a shout out to an early happy Mother's Day. I will do that shout out and maybe not try to make direct references to starting a business at the same time to honor my mother, who is one of the best business owner operators and mothers that I can think of. And my story is like a lot of yours.

I grew up in a small business. As councilman Watson stated, I was literally from the time I was born to the time I was 18, I worked inside my family business where our house was attached to our motel. And so it was really all I knew. And for my parents who immigrated from Pakistan and came to this country without a high school education, it was an opportunity for them to prosper and to send all five of their kids to graduate from college and go on to a variety of careers and really exemplifying what we've come to know as the American dream. And so I really wanna speak to that today because I think more so than the data, because I could speak to the data all day, including the idea that one in two Denverites are employed by a small business here in our city, half.

I could speak to that, but I think the stories are really more impactful and tell that story. Because we talk about our businesses really being the backbone and heart of our city, And here are some examples. Leprino Foods, the fam Leprino family immigrated from Potenza, Italy to The United States in the early nineteen hundreds. And like many immigrant families, entered a food retail business, opening up a small neighborhood grocery store in the Denver Highlands area. That business gradually shifted from simply selling groceries to producing cheese products.

Jim Laprino, Mike's son, took over and transformed the company. In the fifties and sixties, pizza business started to take off, and he recognized that mozzarella mozzarella, not traditional Italian specialty cheeses, would become a mass market growing engine. He pivoted aggressively. Now that company supplies many of the world's largest pizza brands and food manufacturers. They have 10 US production plants and employ over 5,500 individuals.

In addition to that, Denver helped launch two of the most influential fast casual restaurant brands in America, Chipotle and Qdoba, both beginning as modest local concepts before scaling into billion dollar enterprises that reshaped how Americans eat. In 1993, classically trained chef Steve Ellis opened the first Chipotle near University of Denver, which began as a single Denver storefront. It became a global powerhouse with more than 3,700 restaurants worldwide, tens of billions in market value, and transformative influence on the consumer expectations around convenience, food quality, and restaurant design. Qdoba started in 1995 in Denver under the original name Zuma Fresh Mexican Grill. Founded by two entrepreneurs who saw similar potential in customizable quick service Mexican food, Crudoba grew into a major national brand in its own right, now operating 700 locations across The US and Canada.

Trung on Gifts in the Far East Center. It's been in Council District 3 for forty one years in business, provides a diverse array of Asian gifts and essential everyday items, effectively earning the reputation of being the neighborhood's go to Asian department store. Its owners are family owned, immigrant owned, and multigenerational. The viet Vietnamese refugees owned and established this, and they become a hub for sharing stories and traditions around our AAPI community. Rockmount Ranchwear Manufacturing Company, located in District 10.

Its historic flagship store is in Lodo, and it's been operating for seventy nine years, operated in 1946. Three generations of family owned business founded by Jack A. Whale in 1946, he worked until the age of 107, making him the world's oldest CEO until 2008. His son, Jack B, joined him in 1952, and the current owner, Steve, became president in the nineties. This business has worked with the National Western Stock Show, History Colorado, Denver Art Museum, and many other local cultural institutions.

Many of these businesses speak to who we are as Denverites and speak to our city. City Council plays a central, often underestimated role in whether our city is truly business friendly. While mayors and economic development agencies often lead recruitment and program execution, City Council shapes policy, budget, regulatory climate, and political predictability that determine whether businesses stay, grow, or leave. I appreciate the support of this body in helping us to support our small businesses. We have a lot going on this week at DITO.

We will be presenting a program to help bring more capital to small businesses with our Build Denver program, which many of you have been briefed on and will be discussed later in this meeting. We're also launching a new Denver Biz Hub this week, which will be a one stop shop for businesses to be able to access all city resources and non city resources, whether it be federal or state in one location. We're also launching a new marketing campaign focused on keep it local and shopping at local businesses, And we'll be working with the SBA, who's represented here by David Benavides, our Deputy Director at Mi Casa for the Small Business Awards this Friday. So thank you for the support and the proclamation.

Thank you. Madam secretary, please read the bills for introduction.

From the finance and business committee, 26 dash zero four eight six, a bill for an ordinance approving a resolution requesting the renewal and continuation of the 5 Points Business Improvement District for an additional ten year period. From the Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, 26 dash zero five four two, a bill for an ordinance amending section 20 dash 76 division three article four chapter 20 of the Denver revised municipal code regarding prevailing wage. And from the South Platte River Committee, 26 dash zero five two one, a bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for three three six one through three six three West Evans Avenue in Overland.

Thank you. Councilmember, this is your last opportunity to call out an item. Councilmember Himes, will you make the motions for us this evening?

Yes, madam president. Move to adjourn. I mean, I rescind that.

Thank you. And now I will do a recap. Under resolutions, council resolution zero five two nine has been called out for a vote by council member Lewis. Under bill for introduction, council bill zero four eight six has been called out for questions by council member Lewis. Under bills for final consideration, no items have been called out.

Under pending, no items have been called out. Madam secretary, please put the first item on our screens. Council resolution zero five two nine, approving a proposed agreement between the city and county in Denver and Colorado Colorado Enterprise Fund Inc. To fund the business investments, loans, and development Denver program that will provide affordable loans, grants, funding, and business coaching to small businesses seeking to start, restart, restructure, improve upon, or grow in their endeavors who have traditionally lacked access to capital markets citywide. Council member Hines, would you please put council resolution zero five two nine on the floor for adoption?

Thank you, council president. Oh. Mhmm. How am I? I will move that council resolution. Okay. I move that council resolution 26 dash zero five two nine be adopted. Perfect.

It has been seconded. It has been moved and seconded. Questions and or comments by members of council on council resolution zero five two nine. Council member Lewis. You.

So I originally called this item out for postponement under rule 3.6. I was hoping to receive a briefing on this item, and while I did receive a very quick one about ten minutes before this council meetings meeting started today, I don't feel comfortable building a settlement that I haven't really had time to dig into. And I understand that this item is is of high priority from a comms perspective for Dito with the proclamation today as well as the National Small Business Week on finding that alignment. And because of that, I will be abstaining tonight. Thank you.

Madam secretary, we'll call on the resolution zero five two nine.

Council members Gilmore. Aye. Alvidrez.

Aye.

Flynn.

Aye.

Gonzales Gutierrez.

Aye.

Heinz.

Aye.

Cashman? Lewis? Jose. Romero Campbell? Aye. Sawyer? Aye. Torres? Aye. Watson? Aye. Madam president Sandoval?

Aye. Madam secretary, close the voting and announce the results. 11 ayes. 11 ayes. Council resolution zero five two nine has been adopted. Madam secretary, please put the next item on our screens. Council bill zero four eight six, a bill for an ordinance approving resolution requesting the renewal and continuation of the 5 Points Business Improvement District for an additional ten year period. Council member Lewis, please go ahead with your questions on council resolution zero four eight six.

I just wanna I just have one question, and I was curious if the Five Points bid uses private security. I'm not sure. Oh, there we go.

Hi. I'm Jolina Lewis,

department of finance. No. The Five Points bid does not use private security, and we do have representatives from the Five Points bid as well as Department of Finance to support as well if you have any other questions.

Literally it. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.

This concludes the items to be called out. All bills for for introduction are ordered published. Council members, remember that this is a consent or block vote, and you will need to vote aye. Otherwise, this is your last chance to call out an item for a separate vote. Council member Hines, will you please put the resolutions for adoption and the bills on final consideration for final passage on the floor?

I move that resolutions be adopted and bills upon final consideration be placed upon final consideration and do pass in a block for the following items. 26 zero five two five, 26 dash zero five two six, zero five two seven, zero five two eight, zero five six zero, zero five one nine, zero five two zero, zero five four three, 0544, 0516, 0548. 0541, 0530, 0531, 0532, 0533, 0534, 0535, 0536, 0537, 0538053905400485051705220523052403670492. That's it.

Thank you. It has been moved in, secretary.

Apologies. One item was missed. 26Dash0518. Nelson, we might just read it for the record.

And 26DashDash053818. 0518.

Excuse

me. Thank you.

It has been moved and seconded. Madam secretary, roll call.

Members Gilmore. Aye. Alvidrez?

Aye.

Flynn? Aye. Gonzalez Gutierrez? Aye. Heinz? Aye.

Cashman? Aye.

Lewis? Aye. Romero Campbell?

Aye.

Sawyer? Aye. Torres? Aye. Watson? Aye. Madam president Sandoval? Aye.

Madam secretary, close vote and announce results.

12 ayes.

12 ayes. The resolutions have been adopted, and the bills have been placed upon final consideration and do pass. Tonight, there will be a required public hearing on council bill zero three four five, changing the zoning classification for 992 North Knox Court in Villa Park, a required public hearing on council bill zero three four six, changing the zoning classification for 1453 North Wabash Street in East Colfax, and a a required public hearing on council bill zero three four four, amending the Denver zoning code concerning approval periods for site development plans. If there are no objections from members of council, we will recess until 05:30PM. Before reconvening the regular meeting, city council will provide a half hour general public comment session to hear from the public on city matters except for any matter that is scheduled for a legally required public hearing.

The general public comment session will begin at 5PM.

Hey, Denver. Here's what's happening around the Mile High this week. Spectra is bringing back their incredible intergalactic art showcase. Get ready for a super special pop up art show and enjoy free drinks, super special themed gift sets, and a special event on May 4 to celebrate Star Wars Day. If you love all things Star Wars and sci fi pop culture, you will love this art show.

Catch singer songwriter David Archuleta in conversation with local audiobook narrator Sam Archuleta to celebrate David's new memoir, devout, losing my faith to find myself. Your ticket includes a copy of the book, a meet and greet, and a q and a after the signing. Colorado Asian Pacific United is a nonprofit committed to unearthing, preserving, and celebrating local Asian and Pacific Islander histories. Their storytelling is working towards starting an AAPI culture and history museum. At DAZZLE, you can hear three musicians sponsored by the nonprofit singing traditional instruments and songs.

Mayor Johnston's youth works initiative helps young people find a job with no experience necessary. There are still virtual and in person job fairs to help you land a position. And if you work a hundred hours or more between March and August 14, you get a $250 bonus. The Colorado Wind Ensemble is closing the season with transformation in metamorphosis, a program of evolution and reinvention. From Barber's commando march, his first work scored exclusively for band, to Hinamist's majestic symphonic metamorphosis, you'll enjoy this musical journey that takes you through time.

Celebrate Mother's Day weekend with a fun and heartwarming baby goat yoga session. This family friendly event is perfect for moms, families, and animal lovers alike. Enjoy an all levels yoga class while playful baby goats hop, cuddle, and interact with you. Denver Bazaar returns to the streets of Sloan's Lake, and they're closing down three blocks to bring 80 plus local makers, street food, and the neighborhood's favorite outdoor bar. Start your morning with a yoga six flow and stay for the mimosas. Stay up to date with what's happening in Denver by following our socials, and you can always ask our chat bot, Sunny.

What we found, some people are intrinsically opposed to exporting water from one basin to another. The benefit, the metropolitan area. Who am I to tell my neighbor they can sell their house or not sell their house or sell their water rights or not sell their water rights. It's a property right here in Colorado. The humans will always win. The residential will always win in that in those economics.

We are a small population. I mean, there's only, like, 40,000 people in the valley, and the front range is millions of people. And even though we've been farming here for six, seven generations, some families have been here for that long. When it really comes to push to shove, we're just little tiny voices in a really, really big issue. No. Somebody decides to to sell their water, it doesn't just affect that one farmer and benefit that one farmer. It it it has ripple effects to the whole community. You suddenly take out a whole bunch of water. The water slows down, and then you don't get as much water as it used to. I have seen the potential for losing something so precious, and and it goes beyond money.

Obviously, I'm not making millions of dollars doing this. You know, I'm doing this because it's part of who I am.

The decisions made about land and water use today will shape what Colorado will look like in the years ahead. The

That concludes our general public comment session. If we did not get to you today, please join us next week or submit your comments in writing. The next session will be held on Monday, May 11. Sign up begins at 5PM on Thursday, May 7. We look forward to hearing from you again, and thank you for attending. Colleagues, we have a three minute break because we can open up the public hearing at 05:30.

On this episode of how to Denver, how to start a podcast here at Denver Community Media. Do you and your friends have great ideas for conversations and more people should hear them? Check out the state of the art podcast studio at Denver Community Media. Memberships get you access to equipment, space, and expertise from their to help you start your media empire. Go online to denvercommunitymedia.org to learn more and sign up.

Once enrolled, learn how to script, plan, produce, and record your very own podcast. The knowledgeable staff can help you at any point and offer guidance to make sure you are making professional content. In fact, I recorded this from inside their studio. Thanks for watching. And if there are any city services you want to learn how to take advantage of, leave a comment down below.

Do you live in Denver? We know you wanna stay updated on all the things that make our city great. Sign up for the Denver Local, a newsletter with all the info you need from your in the We're next in broadcast on Denver channel eight, Tuesdays at 7PM. Connect to your city. Connect with community, with the Denver local and elevating Denver.

Hey, Denver. It's time for the weekly general session of your Denver city council. Tonight's coverage of Denver city council starts now.

Council will now reconvene from our earlier session. There is no unfinished business I'm sorry. What? Oh, we're not live yet. Oh, sorry. And now are we? I saw the green light. Bang it again. Oh, no. I saw the green light.

So I

was like, okay. Here. Council will now reconvene from our earlier session. There's no unfinished business from the earlier session. There are no proclamations being read this evening. We have three required public hearings tonight. As a reminder, council members need to turn on their video during the vote. For those participating in person when called upon, please come to the podium. On the presentation monitor on the wall, you will see your time counting down. For those participating virtually when called upon, please wait until our meeting host promotes you to speaker.

When you are promoted, please accept the promotion. Turn on your camera if you have one and your microphone. Speakers should begin by their remarks by telling council member their names and cities of residence, and if they feel comfortable doing so, their home addresses. If you have signed up to answer questions only, state your name and note you are available for questions and counsel. Speakers will have three minutes.

There's no yielding of time. If is needed, you will be given an additional three minutes for your comments to be interpreted. Speakers must stay on the topic of the hearing and must direct their comments to council as a whole. Please refrain from profane or obscene speech and refrain from individual or personal attacks. Council member Hines, will you please put council bill zero three four five changing the zoning classification for 992 North Knox Court in Hula Park on the floor for final passage.

Thank you, madam president. I move that council bill 26 dash zero three four five be placed upon final consideration and do pass.

It has been moved and seconded. The required public hearing for council bill zero three four five is open. May you please have this chapter part?

Hi. Good evening. My name is Tony Lechuga with Community Planning and Development, and I'm here to present the applicant proposed change to the zoning at 992 North Knox Court. So let's start with outlining broadly what the request is from the current property owner. So they're looking to take their property located at the intersection of 10th Avenue and Knox Court.

You can see it outlined in red on the map here. They're looking to take this roughly 12,500 square foot property and change the zoning from ESUD, which stands for urban edge single unit, and then d classifies the minimum lot size. And they're hoping to change that zoning to e m s three, which stands for urban edge, main street, and the three stands for the number of stories that can be built on the property. You can see from the slides and the staff report that what currently occupies the site is a single unit residential building that was built in 1899. There have been numerous additions and accessory structures and a garage that have been built across the large site over the past hundred and twenty seven years.

Let's dive a little bit into its broad location and context. So this is located in Council District 3, which is represented by council member Torres. You can see here on the map that it's outlined in red located in the, sort of eastern Northeastern portion of the Villa Park statistical neighborhood. I also wanna note that the property, at that corner of 10th And Knox, you can see on the map that it's located about one block South of Lakewood Gulch, which is filled with numerous trails that connect both to the East and to the West. It's where the RTDW line has transit service between Golden and downtown.

And I also want to note that it's about a block and a little bit, maybe a little bit more south of Paco Sanchez Park, home of my children's favorite playground. Yeah. It's amazing. Eagleton Elementary is just to the the Southeast there. There's dense commercial along Federal to the East, and then 10th Avenue is also home to the RTD one and nine buses that run transit service East West as well.

This is a map that shows the existing zoning. So you can see the property again outlined in red as part of that ESUD. That's a single unit district, means that the only thing that can be built there is predominantly single unit housing. You can see in the area there are some URH zone districts. That's a row house zone district which allows for more dense multiunit development.

And then immediately to the north, see that red property that is a mixed use district that allows for generally commercial and or residential uses. So what they're proposing is to go to EMS 3. The general purpose of that is to promote this sort of safe, active, pedestrian scaled commercial streets. They're meant to have these active public edges and a high degree of walkability. So the goal is to create active street frontages and typically this type of district is meant to be located on collector streets or local streets sometimes, but generally within embedded mixed use areas and we're gonna talk a little bit about what that looks like as we get into the zoning in a bit.

And notably, there are only two building forms allowed in this zone district, the townhouse or the shopfront. It is close enough to the W Transit station at Knox Court that it eliminates any of the drive through building form allowances. You can see that here that those those two building forms that are drive through have the box in them that is not checked or not filled in and that means that it's only allowed if you're farther than a quarter mile from a transit station which this is not. I do want to highlight a couple of things before we get too deep into it. So in going to the EMS districts, there would be a couple of protected district standards.

So for anyone who doesn't know, Denver does have districts within the city that are considered protected and that's generally our single and two unit districts. So because this property has single unit zoning to the south and single unit zoning immediately to the east, those are protected districts. And so this property would have some additional restrictions placed upon building forms. Quite notably, any building that has a side interior that's adjacent to protected district instead of having a zero foot setback, meaning they could build at the lot line, it means that they have to have a 10 foot setback. So buildings must be placed a little bit farther back.

That's true for rear setbacks as well where there is not an alley. This next next slide is just illustrative. This is not any proposed development. This is an image taken directly from the zoning code to sort of demonstrate what the protected district standards are like for what are called upper story setbacks. So it's a little hard to read from this distance, but, essentially, any building that is next to a protected district can rise up to 27 feet, which is about the size of a standard home, and then it would have to be set back an additional 15 feet from the lot line.

So it creates sort of what we call this wedding cake step back where in order to protect light and air to those properties that are adjacent to it that might be smaller, the property is required to create these additional setbacks on those areas where it's adjacent a protected district. And that would apply to this property should the zone district be approved. In terms of existing land use, you can see that the neighborhood is predominantly single unit residential. That's that light yellow color. However, we do see some of those darker orangish colors scattered throughout the neighborhood.

That's multi unit residential. Those could be anything that's a triplex or more. And then immediately to the north, see the dark reddish color, that's commercial retail. And those are two embedded commercial locations within the Villa Park neighborhood. While this property is listed as vacant, that is not true. We have confirmed with the applicant team that the residential structure is still there. There is a tenant in the structure. This is merely an error in the assessor's database. Here are a couple of images just to familiarize you. There are more images within the staff report if you wanna take look.

The picture on the top is the, existing commercial space across 10th Avenue on Knox Court. You can see a sort of, an an old fashioned strip mall type of development that has numerous businesses, embedded there. And then the property, itself is that picture on the the bottom where you can see the original house, sort of that little yellow structure. You can see the additions that have been made and then the abundant surface parking that's associated with it and the curb cut that's associated with it. And to continue our background discussion, the property owner has entered into a voluntary affordable housing agreement with the Department of Housing Stability.

What they've committed to is that 12% of units would be income restricted at 70% AMI if those units are for rent or 12% of units would be income restricted at 90% AMI if for sale. And any of those would come with a ninety nine year covenant on them. Alright. Let's talk a little bit about process. For anyone who doesn't know, our rezonings have a pretty standard process.

So informational notice was sent out to the community and city council back in January. Planning board held their hearing on March 4, and we anticipate or I'm sorry. We're here tonight as city council for the final public hearing. In terms of public comments, we've received no official letters from RNOs in the area, either in support or in opposition. We did receive one letter of support from a neighbor to the property, noting that they supported the location of new businesses to this commercial corridor, and the possibility of new residential, especially income restricted residential.

As I said, planning board held a hearing back in March. They voted unanimously to recommend approval noting that it aligned with our planned guidance. And now let's get into the review criteria. So anyone new tonight who's unfamiliar with how this process works, the Denver zoning code lays out three review criteria that staff, planning board, and city council are mandated to review in determining the appropriateness of a request like this. And we're gonna start with that first criteria, which is consistency with adopted plans.

And for this area, there are three adopted plans. Two of them are citywide, and one of them is the local area plan. So we'll start with comprehensive plan 2040, which is the city's citywide narrative goals for how we should be growing Denver by 2040. And we do believe that this request would create a more equitable, affordable, and inclusive Denver by aligning with these three goals and strategies that generally call for increasing housing units close to transit as well as other mixed use developments such as commercial nodes, that we should create a greater mix of housing types in all neighborhoods. As you I noted before, this neighborhood is predominantly single unit with some multiunit scattered throughout.

And that we should also use land use regulations to allow for private development of affordable, missing middle, and mixed income housing, especially where close to transit. And for anyone that doesn't know that, missing middle means buildings or sites that contain more than two units. We believe that it would produce some of the strong and authentic goals of comprehensive plan by ensuring that all neighborhoods are offering a mix of housing types and services for a diverse population. Again, this zoning district would allow for a more diverse set of housing typologies. It would also allow for neighborhood serving businesses to locate on a site where currently only single unit residential is allowed.

We believe that it would meet the connected safe accessible places goals by promoting transit oriented development. That means locating denser development near transit sites in order to encourage ridership, and that should include affordable housing, which this does. And then in terms of environmentally resilient, it does call for us to promote infill development where infrastructure and services are already in place. For those who don't know, the term infill means that we are building on lots that are that have land that is underutilized currently, and about half of this site is utilized for just off surf off street parking or paved space, and that we should focus growth by our transit stations and along high and medium capacity transit corridors. This one, as I noted, is within a quarter mile of the w line.

We'll shift now to Blueprint Denver, which was adopted by city council in 2019. This is the city's land use plan. It does take a citywide view of land use. So luckily for us, we do have the West area plan, which I'll get to in a second. But this plan calls for the property to be part of the urban edge future neighborhood context.

And while that is predominantly residential, it's noted as having some small scale multiunit residential and for having commercial and mixed use development specifically along main corridors. And we'll get into what main corridors are now. So when we look at the future places map within Blueprint Denver, it identifies a place type. It also identifies street types. And what we see here is that the place type is called a local corridor, and it describes those as having multiple options, whether they be dining, entertainment, shopping, or some residential.

It also calls for them to have active street front frontages and buildings that are potentially up to three stories. Quite notably, both 10th And Knox right here are noted as being mixed use collectors, which are those higher capacity transit corridors that I described in the last slide. Given those two descriptions and applicant request, we find that there is alignment and consistency between the request and these these maps. In terms of growth areas, Blueprint Denver calls this area all other areas of the city, which is different from some of the other more intense designations, but it does call for this typology to have 20% of new housing growth, 10% of new employment across the entire typology. And again, this district would allow for a subtle increase in density by allowing for multiunit residential.

It would also allow for new, commercial development which would increase employment opportunities within the neighborhood. Because of the site's location and its size of over 10,000 square feet, we did look we did conduct an equity analysis and asked the applicant to produce an equity response as part of their application. Through that, we look at three major equity concepts to make sure that any proposal would produce more good than harm. And quite notably in our equity analysis, we noted four areas that are of primary concern within this area. One is a lack of a lower than average educational attainment, meaning the number of people that have attained a college degree, lower than average median household incomes.

There's a low number of actual income restricted units within the area and a low amount of missing middle housing, which again is that type of housing that is between two and potentially 19 units. So we're not talking major apartment buildings and we're not talking single unit homes. And we believe that this proposed development with its affordable housing plan would help tackle some of these equity concerns, quite notably the number of income restricted units as well as the missing middle housing. In terms of Blueprint Denver's climate goals, we do believe that this would help achieve a few. Quite notably, it would help us locate denser housing near transit and encourage transit ridership.

It's also locating transit near open space and an active transportation network. Active transportation is a term we use to describe any form of transportation that requires your body to propel yourself, such as walking, biking, riding a scooter. And this proximity to Lakewood Gulch and its connectivity to the South Platte River and downtown does provide that option. And then it's well documented that multiunit buildings are actually more energy efficient than lower density single family homes as they require fewer inputs and outputs and are easier to maintain heat and cool. Alright.

We'll now turn to the West area plan which council adopted in 2023. And I wanna note that in many ways, because we opt whenever we adopt a new area plan, it is our policy to then update Blueprint Denver. So Blueprint Denver and the West Area Plan actually match in terms of their guidance for future neighborhood as urban edge, its future place type as a local corridor. But the West area plan actually provided some more refined height guidance. So where those previous plans might have called for five or three stories, this one is very specific that heights should be up to three stories within this area unless they are achieving the enhanced affordability incentives.

This property is not opting into that and is asking for a three story district which aligns with this plan guidance. There are a few narrative goals within the West Area plan as well that we think are important to reference here. One is that we are encouraged to explore strategies so that affordable housing is located everywhere, promoting a diversity affordable housing options in all neighborhoods, especially with new development, and that we should expand housing types and affordability to support households of different sizes, ages, and incomes in all neighborhoods. And we believe that the proposed zoning coupled with the affordable housing plan does help us achieve this. That's the first review criteria, consistency with adopted plans, and we do believe that it is consistent with the city's plans.

The second criteria is public interest, and we excuse me. We do believe that the rezoning is in the public interest as it would produce sort of neighborhood scale, walkable, mixed use area that many of our plans call for. We also believe that it would produce a diverse housing type near transit and open space on what is otherwise a single unit home. And then the third criteria is is the proposed district consistent with our neighborhood context, zone district purpose, and intent statements as written in the Denver zoning code? And we believe that it is, because the EMS 3 is a commercial area embedded within a residential area, because it's multiunit embedded within another residential area, and because it describes this area as low scale except for some mid rise commercial and mixed use structures at particular nodes, which this would achieve.

Therefore, finding that all the review criteria have been met, CPD does recommend the city council vote of, approval for this. I'm happy to answer any questions. The applicant is here, as well as a member of host if you have any questions about their affordable housing agreement.

Let us know if you need any water, Tony. You can go in there. Yeah. Have a little kitchen in the back behind the committee. Sorry. I lost my place in the script. We have three individuals signed up to speak this evening. First up, we have James Warren virtually.

Can y'all hear me?

We can.

Okay. My camera is not working, but we will make do with what we got.

Go ahead. The floor is yours. Uh-oh. Hello? Is he having a hard time, producer?

Probably just stop breaking the line.

Do you wanna go to David Roybal, and then we'll come back to James? Yes. Okay. Okay. We'll come back to you, James. David Roybal.

Good evening, members of council. It's so exciting

to hear. This is the

heart of the Villa Park neighborhood. I pass by it every day. Man, I grew up in this area a long time. And first problem, I don't see nobody complaining about how high it is because you really don't get a mountain view there because it kinda goes uphill, so there's really no mountains being blocked. Very dangerous street on Knox.

I'm hoping it'll expand it, but I've seen a lot of people speeding through there, and there's one side to park. But my advice is if you have a car, do not park on Knox because for some strange reason, you will wake up and your car will be totaled, and somehow they drove off. If So you park on those streets, I've seen it all the time, your car will get hit, and I'm hoping it will widen it. There used to be a big bus line at one time. The 10 bus used to go from Cold Springs to, I think, Aurora passing through there.

So this is a huge bus line, so I'm hoping that it'll expand the hours. And one thing about those alleys, when I grew up, all the alleys in that area were all dirt. And I believe in activating alleys, especially in West Denver. And I drive through the alleys all the time, junking, and when I used to do scooters because my my dad, he passed away in alley, in a secluded alley. So I feel if we could activate the alleys if this will activate the alleys, open the street, I'm all for it.

And, yeah, just if there's a way to just keep those lights in the alleys, people passing through, driving through so we don't find nobody dead. And there's been a lot of shootings at right there on the corner. So I'm hoping that this activates it, brings more light. My friend, he's worked for scooters. He works at the liquor store. Big problem with shoplifting. But at the same time, I hope it'll strengthen the economy and bring more businesses. So I'm pretty excited for it, and I'm supportive for it. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have James Warren. Is your virtual fixed yet? Your audio? You

tell me.

Yep. I can now. Go ahead.

Alright. Thanks. Hey, everybody. My name is James Warren. I live with my partner and our three guinea pigs at 10th And Newton here in Villa Park. I wanna speak to briefly in support of the rezoning of 992. We love this neighborhood. We've lived here for years. As people who don't own a car, it's really amazing having access to the Lakewood Dry Gulch. We can ride our bikes in and around the city.

And then accessing the w line as well as the nine and the one bus lines make our lives just tremendously easier. One way our neighborhood could be a little bit better, however, is access to more walkable destinations. With the exception of a few retail spaces along state and federal highways that border our neighborhood, we and many people in our neighborhood don't really have any access to retail spaces except for the liquor store and the mini mart that you saw in the presentation there. Don't get me wrong. I go to that liquor store and mini mart all the time.

It's crazy what they have at the mini mart. One time, we were like, do they I wonder if they have capers, and they have capers at the mini mart. Anyway, it was great. But we go there all the time, and it would just be great to have more options in our neighborhood to access by walking or by biking, specifically Long 10th. And so that's what really excites me about the 992 Knox presentation.

Of course, I'm really excited about the additional housing that it's gonna provide, especially those two permanently affordable units. I think we need this type of gentle density in our neighborhood, but that small retail space has so much potential for benefiting our neighborhood. And it's kind of regardless of what moves in. You know, I'd I'd love for it to be like a coffee shop or something, but no matter what it is, space the is gonna be a new resource for our neighborhood, helping take people take trips by foot instead of by car, which is great for the planet and great for just, you know, livability of a neighborhood. And, of course, that also goes for riders of the w nine and one lines like myself since it's so closely situated to Knox Station.

That's why it's so in line with the West Area Plan, and that's why I really hope you vote for this rezoning. And what a better week to approve of this new space than, for a future small business than during small business week, which we just talked about earlier in the council meeting. So thanks. I really appreciate all the hard hard work you all are doing here, and that's all I got.

Thanks, James. I love your earrings. Yeah. Was like, those are new. Next up, we have Jesse Paris virtually.

Yes. Good evening, members of council, those watching at home, those in the council chambers. My name is Jesse Lashawn Paris, and I'm representing for Black Star Action Movement for self defense, Positive Action Committee for Social Change, as well as the Unity Party of Colorado, the Northeast Denver Residence Council, or North Park Hill Coalition now, Frontline Black News, Shabbat's Black Experience Enhance, the Revolutionary Agenda. And I am a candidate on the ballot for House District 8, house of representatives for the state of Colorado on the ballot under the unity party. And I reside at the Roach And bedbug infested Legacy Laws in Darryl Washer's district of District 9, fine District 9, historically black district of 5 Points.

I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. This is more gentrification as usual. This is gonna complete the gentrification that you have done on the West Side. This will be the sign, seal, and deliver of that. As a native of over thirty years, I have seen my city drastically change. I do not recognize it. There's newcomers here that are not akin to culture of these neighborhoods or what existed prior to their arrival. So with that being said, they don't know what is best for the neighborhood that they are now residing in.

And now they seem to think that they can tell us what's good for us. Well, as a Denver native, I say no. I wanna know exactly what AMI level we're talking about because you're talking about missing middle and all of this. I wanna know the numbers, the facts, and the figures. What AMI level is this affordable housing going to be at? Has there been an affordable affordability study done? It looks like y'all tried to cover that with NES. Has there been a traffic study done? Because as David Reibaugh said previous to me, that stretch a notch is whore Knox Court is horrible. That stretch of 10th Avenue was horrible.

There's all kinds of hit and runs that go on on a nightly basis over there. What are you gonna do about parking? Parking is already limited over there. Oh, I think you just think everybody's just gonna leave their cars at home and and bike and and catch the train and ride the bus. Not everybody wants to get on the rough, tough, and dangerous. Nobody not everybody wants to navigate these crazy Denver streets. So what are gonna do about that? How many units are we talking about? And is the people that actually have called this neighborhood historically home gonna actually be able to afford to live in said property that's being rezoned? If someone could please answer those questions, I would greatly appreciate it.

We don't need no more unintended consequences from this current Denver City Council when you sign, stamp, and deliver these gentrifications in a nice package.

Thank you. That is the last of our speakers. Councils sorry. Questions from members of council on council bill zero three four five? Councilman Sawyer. Torres, do you wanna go

first since it's your district? Yeah.

Go ahead.

Are you sure?

Okay. Thanks. Tony, I just have one question. I'm very confused about the Main Street choice for this. Understand why why like, what this looks like.

But I don't know that I have ever seen a single parcel zone for Main Street. Right? Because the the whole point of Main Street zoning is to have it go along a street that then creates a Main Street feel. So Yeah. I I guess I'm just a little concerned with that choice of zoning because while the building forms that can be built on it using the zoning and all the things match, you know, reasonably with what all of our what all of our land use plans say. I keep getting hung up on the Main Street part.

Yeah. This is a great question. Very glad you asked it. So I will point out that I personally have at least done one other rezoning that was a single property to Main Street. Sometime last year, Council District 1 right around thirty second and Irving. And the reason we did it there was because it was a single small property that at the rear was a historic district. And the Main street districts actually require buildings to have sort of zero foot setbacks. So it pushes buildings closer to the street. They can't get pushed closer to those smaller low scale districts. So at this location, like, ultimately, it's up to the applicant to request the district.

But my understanding is that their request was to achieve a very similar outcome where, like, those buildings will have to be pushed closer to the corner of 10th And Knox, which pushes them a little farther away from the low scale residential that's on either side of them. But you're right. It it sort of achieves similar outcomes of a mixed use district, but it does sort of require that zero foot setback instead of more wiggle room to push buildings back.

Okay. So if this were, like, in the suburban context, we would have the ability to do what we wanted to do because those, like, suburban context have the ability to have those zero foot setbacks all the way across the front. We did this on Leeds Dale when we rezoned after the near Southeast area plan, which is why I'm thinking about that one. But there is no equivalent in the urban edge context, question mark.

So this is the urban edge context.

Yeah. That's why I'm saying.

Yeah.

So within yeah. The urban edge district is a little different than the suburban, but this is a good we believe this is a good outcome for pushing those buildings to the zero foot setback to say, like, you can do the commercial, you can do the residential, but let's achieve some strong urbanism by pushing them up towards Knox and away from the low scale single family.

Okay. Yeah. Like, what I was thinking was, like, an s m x three, s m x two x, two a, etcetera, etcetera, have what you're trying to accomplish here. Yeah. But it's the suburban context. So with this being the urban edge context, I think my question is, is the main street zone district the only zone district in urban edge that achieves the goal of pushing the building to the front in the zero setbacks?

I mean, not necessarily. It could be achieved through a mixed use district. I think this provides both the community and anyone concerned with buildings being pushed farther back. This provides them some assurance that those buildings will be at the corner of 10th And Knox and not necessarily pushed to the back of the property. Yeah. But ultimately, like, could it be achieved through an m an eMX district? Yeah. Sure. But that gives the developer the potential to say, we're not gonna do a zero foot setback. We might do a five foot or a 10 foot setback. And then those buildings end up a little farther away from the street frontage.

Okay. What does Blueprint say about the Main Street Zone District in terms of, like, single one offs? I mean, I understand functionally why this applicant chose the Main Street Zone District based on what we're talking about here, but I'm curious what the actual guidance for Main Street Zone District is.

Yeah. So so Blueprint doesn't really describe the Main Street District in itself. It describes the future place, which we then try to find a district that sort of aligns with that future place. And in that context, like, it does call it a local corridor where it does say buildings should have distinctly linear orientation along the street and that we should have active street frontages. And so I think from the applicant's perspective and our perspective, that Main Street District does achieve a lot of that in a really good way.

Okay. I gotta think about this one a little bit more. Thanks.

Thank you. Councilman Torres.

Thank you so much. I actually have questions for the applicant or applicant's representative. Hi. Hi. Can you introduce yourself real quick? Yeah.

Niles Emmerich, and I maintain a residence at 1740 West 40th Avenue. I split my time, out of the country and here in Denver as well.

K. Thank you, Niles. Can you tell me a little bit about, we've I I feel like we've we started talking about this, like, several years ago. Where are you at in terms of what the project will look like?

Yeah. So we have a preliminary site plan right now that would be a small commercial building on the corner. It'd be about 950 square feet and then it would be flanked by townhomes both along Knox and along 10th. And then there would be some additional townhomes in the back of the lot. So it's set over four or maybe five buildings depending on how it all plays out. So the intent is not to have like a bit one big massive structure there, but to break it up, there would be walkways, in between each of those buildings as well, as well as a patio next to the commercial space on the corner so that that can also be some outdoor space that the community can use.

How many residential units?

Right now, we're modeling 15.

What what is the the covenant requires a certain amount of those to be affordable. I think it's a two right now. How do those compare in terms of what kind of unit is it compared to all of the other ones that you're building?

So we don't have all of the units mapped out yet. We just have kind of rough sizes right now. So 70% AMI for rent or 90% AMI for sale is what they would be.

And I think I've asked this before, Jonathan. I think I've asked you before. How do you determine of the mix that you end up seeing if they don't haven't provided it yet, which of the units will be affordable in that build?

Hi, everybody. I'm John Collari with the Department of Housing Stability. So the requirement, as it's written right now, says that the units would have to be proportional to the unit mix of the market rate units. Is that the question you're asking about, bedroom counts? Yeah. Although we've said that if they decide to provide more than 50% of the 15 units as rental units, but they decide to provide the affordable units as ownership units, then we'll be a little bit less strict about the unit mix requirement if they'd be willing to do that.

Interesting. Okay. Thank you so much. Niles, in your planning, what impacted the parking minimum change that Denver did change at all your your plan, or did it?

Yes. We built out plans for both what the old parking requirement was and then also no parking. So it didn't it didn't really change what we plan to do with the site other than parking. So I think we will still have some parking on-site, but not every unit will have parking. There are six parking spaces along 10th, and then you have the bus and you have the bike rail. So we think that that's gonna be a good balance. So I think it's probably gonna be four or five units that will have parking, and then we'll use the street parking for the commercial space on the corner and then foot traffic as well. Okay. And we'll have bike parking too.

Okay. That's helpful. And then talk to me a little bit about traffic flow for that parking. Are they street accessing, or is it all alley?

It'd be all alley access. So the current curb cut will go away.

Okay. For neighbors that live, say, across the alley from what you're building, what is what are they gonna have directly across from them? Is it gonna be more of the drive space

structure?

So there would be so there is a setback from the alley that's required. There would be the side of one residential unit that would face 10th and then the side would be on the alley. There would be the drive aisle where come some cars would come in, and then there would be, a space for trash cans on the backside of the lot.

Okay. Great. And then finally, talk to me about, neighborhood engagement, neighbor engagement. What does that look like?

I have a whole list of going back to 2016 when we started engaging with the neighbors. So we when we acquired this property, we really wanted to have the neighborhood input. I've served on RNOs in Denver and so I've seen the process and so I really wanted to to start there. So we started that process engaging with neighbors, going to the Villa Park Neighborhood Association meetings, understanding what the desires of the neighborhood were, and then the West Area Plan started. So we were engaging with that.

We participated, really hearing from the neighbors during that process. That got paused during COVID. So that kind of put everything on the skids and we took a step back until things reengaged there. And then when things reengaged and that moved through, we started the process again. And then there was the moratorium on rezonings so that we could go back and look at, you know, how was the West Area plan being implemented.

And during that time, we we used that opportunity to go and door knock all the neighbors as well in two block radius around. So it was me personally going around knocking and leaving flyers in both English and Spanish to let people know what we were hoping to do. We've continued to engage with your office as well. And then we started the process middle of last year after we worked through and negotiated alternative with host.

Okay. Alright. Thank you. Those were my questions. Thank you.

Procter Mamero Campbell.

Thank you, madam chair. You mentioned that some of the units would be for sale and some would be for rent. Was that just for the two affordable units or was that kind of a mix of all the units that you're planning?

It'll be a mix of all. So, yeah, it'll somewhere around half and half is what we're looking at right now. And so the determination from host is if more of them are for sale, then the two units that would be affordable affordable would be affordable for sale units. And if more of them are for rent, then the two affordable units would be for rent.

Okay. Thank you. That's actually really cool. Thanks. Thank you, madam president.

Thank you. Councilman Sary, do you have any other last questions? Alright. Seeing no other members in the queue. The public hearing is closed. Comments by members of council on council bill zero three four five? Councilman Torres?

Thank you so much. So I appreciate your questions. One of the things that I'll say around that is this is a really unique intersection, especially in the plan guidance. If I think probably half of our body will remember, we rejected a rezoning one block west of here. It was also in blueprint as a local corridor.

And we rejected it because that proposal never engaged the vision of what the neighborhood had designated this two block area along 10th Avenue to really deliver something different for Villa Park. Like James said in the comments, if you're looking for something commercial in Villa Park, you are only on Federal, you are only on Sheridan. There is nothing commercial in the interior except for this node. This is the only node where we've got a mini mart, our local convenience store, and the liquor store run by the same family. They're known.

They're like familiar people to residents. The other locations of this intersection intersection are are homes. Homes. This This one one was was like a double, maybe even a triple property. Long owned, I remember Roger was the homeowner, bless you, a long time ago who retired from Coors.

He'd worked there his whole life. But it's a huge property, which is rare. And so it does present, I think, a different opportunity. Why I'm Okay with the Main Street versus the MX designation is I think the people on the other side of the alley are legitimately like, how can we push it a little bit further away from our homes for the density and Okay with it being a little closer to the sidewalk, to that frontage right, because it's going to be activated. And not just a front door, but much more like some retail version there.

And in my mind, I'm thinking Del Salvadorian Papusa truck that's always across the street can actually have a retail shop. You know? I mean, something like that that really makes sense for the Villa Park neighborhood feels pretty exciting, to be honest. And so rather than it be a single family home, which could be built there right now, two and a half stories could be built there right now. We're talking about three stories, 15 units, and retail.

It is transformational for this intersection, and and something that I think shows, I think, some of the vision that this neighborhood wanted in the West Area Plan. I will also say you heard Tony mention they are not using height incentive. Right? They're not going above three stories. But we still get affordability, and that's because of the memo that we attended at this area plan, and all of you remember when we did that.

And it is absolutely because it's helping us ensure that we're not displacing unnecessarily residents who wanna stay in Villa Park. So the affordability that they're attaching to this covenant, ninety nine years, helps us meet that particular goal. And I'm really grateful working with CPD in getting that memo in place really is delivering better work product and better housing product for the West Area neighborhoods. So I'm I'm supportive of this. I hope you'll be supportive today as well and look forward to seeing that transformative intersection really take shape. So thank you. Thank you.

Just wanna concur. I worked on with councilman Torres on the amendment to the West area plan. It had been part of my council district and to stop redevelopments coming or following the plan guidance without an affordable attachment to it. So appreciate the developer you reaching out. You're my constituent.

I connected you with council mentors and appreciate you actually following through with that. I know that that was probably something that was not on your radar when we were working on the West area plan, but it's so important because one of the unintended consequences of some of our plan guidance is to perpetuate gentrification and displacement. And that's not what we intended with the West Area Plan. So appreciate also working with CPD on that, and I'll be supporting this as well tonight. Seeing no other council members in the queue, madam secretary, roll call on council bill zero three four five.

Council members Gilmore. Albania? Aye. Gilmore? Flynn? Aye. Gonzales Gutierrez? Heinz?

Aye.

Cashman? Aye. Lewis? Aye. Romero Campbell?

Aye.

Sawyer? Aye.

Fotis? Aye. Watson? Aye. Madam secretary,

close the voting and announce the result.

10 ayes.

10 ayes. Council bill zero three four five has passed. Council member Hines, will you please put council bill zero three four six changing the zoning classification for 1453 North Wabash Street in East Colfax on the floor for final passage.

Thank

you, madam president. I move that council bill 26 dash zero three four six be placed upon final consideration and do pass.

It has been moved and seconded. The required public hearing for council bill zero three four six is open. May we please have the staff report?

Absolutely. You get me again. Tony Lechuga with Community Planning and Development. And this is similar. This is a private property owner requesting to change the zoning on their property at 1453 North Wabash Street. So let's dive into what exactly this property owner's requesting. So this one is a little unique. So you can see the property outlined in red on the map here. It's just South Of Colfax along Wabash Street. The property that would be rezoned is about 6,000 square feet.

The property owner is requesting this rezoning to use this property as part of the larger parcel that contains an auto body shop, and we'll get a little bit more into the specifics here as we move along, but the overall story is that this property and the property immediately to the north are actually one parcel despite having two different zone districts. The property owner, notably not a land use expert as myself, but just an auto body shop owner, working, to provide a service for the community, has not realized that they had split zoning and has been utilizing both pieces of property that are part of the same parcel as part of the auto body shop for over twenty years now. So this property owner is requesting to take this portion of the property that has E t u b, which stands for Urban Edge two unit, and b dictates the minimum lot size. And they are looking to match the zoning of the rest of their property immediately to the north, which is Urban Edge, Main Street, up to three stories. So this property is located all the way across the city from where we just were.

So it's located in District 8 represented by council member Lewis, and it's located smack dab in the middle of the East Colfax neighborhood. As you're all aware, this is one of the locations where we are building out the city's first BRT corridor where we do believe higher density zone districts are appropriate to help be transit supportive. You'll see to the South is Verbena Park. To the Northwest is McNichols Park and Ashley Elementary. A lot of the neighborhood is lower scale residential, which is supported by the zoning map here.

So you can see the dark red in the middle is the E District, the EMS District associated with Colfax and the majority of the commercial properties that exist along Colfax. You'll see this is part of that ETUB buffer where we see a slight decrease in residential density from that EMS to the TU and then farther to the south we get into the single unit where we see only single family homes. I do want to point out that the property outlined in red matches the depth of the EMS district immediately to the west and generally matches the the depth of it to the east. It has a slightly deeper depth. But overall, this request would put that Main Street District at a similar depth to what we see for other commercial properties along the Colfax Corridor.

Again, the proposed MS District is meant to produce those sort of, like, active pedestrian scaled commercial streets with strong active public edges, with a high degree of walkability, and the very specific intent is for it to be located on local or collector streets or embedded in mixed use areas similar to the last one except for this is part of a much larger mixed use area. In terms of allowed building forms, this would allow for the townhouse, the drive through, and the shopfront building forms. As shown on the on this one here, it is not within a quarter mile of a rapid transit stop, so it still would allow for those drive through businesses as does the rest of the East Colfax Corridor where the D 08 is not mapped. Similar to that last presentation, I wanna highlight that this would produce an MS district adjacent to a TU district to the south, which means that that TU district is protected district. So once again, we would have stronger design standards built into this district in order to ensure that there are bigger setbacks as well as, as I pointed out in the last one, those upper story setbacks.

So, again, we have stronger setbacks, then you can rise to 27 feet. Anything beyond that has to have an even deeper setback, to protect access to that two unit district to the south. In terms of land use, you can see it is identified because it's one parcel. It is identified as part of the industrial use with the property to the north because it's all one property, two zone districts. It's adjacent to a diversity of uses which we which is part of the Colfax fabric.

So immediately to the east, to that property that's listed as commercial retail is actually a former motel that's currently being converted into multi unit residential. The multi unit residential across the alley immediately to the west is also a former motel that has been converted into live workspaces for artists. But this would match that same sort of depth of commercial properties that we see before you get into the lower scale. And I'll note, you can see immediately to the south despite the TU zoning, most of the block is actually low scale single unit residential. So those protected district standards are really important for making sure that those properties feel like they are not crowded by a three story building that could potentially get built under this zoning.

Here's a couple of pictures of the property itself. So on the top, can see the active auto body shop that has been there for many years. The bottom picture shows that sort of vacant 6,000 square ish foot lot. If you go back as far as Google Street View will allow you to go, it looks like this. There hasn't been a home on that property, this century, and notably, the auto body shop has been using that property for the storage of vehicles or equipment, for the past twenty plus years as well.

Alright. Let's talk a little bit about process. Similar to the last one, this one had informational notice back in January. It went to planning board in the middle of at the March and we're here for our final city council public hearing. We have received no letters from applicable RNOs in the area.

We have received two letters. One letter, was in support. That came from the fax partnership, a noted nonprofit that functions along the East Colfax Corridor, that noted it would support a local business that has been there for a long time and that the EMS three would support the commercial context of our plan guidance, which we'll get into in a second. And then we have one letter in opposition that was from a neighbor who was concerned about the smell of paint, and the potential for the expanding business. I wanna note that it had its planning board hearing, on in in March.

I'm sorry. I should say March 4, not March 24. They voted unanimously to recommend approval, and some of the key points that they brought up were the plan consistency, and they also were very keen to note the appropriateness of this property as part of a legislative rezoning if we had implemented legislative rezonings with our first NPI plans. Alright. Let's dive into the review criteria.

So in case you just joined us, we staff, planning board, and council are mandated to consider three review criteria when determining the appropriateness of a request. The first of which is consistency with adopted plans. We'll start with comprehensive plan, which is the city's citywide narrative goals for 2040. We believe this would create some of our equitable, affordable, and inclusive goals because the New Zone District could offer a mix of housing types and services for a diverse population. It could encourage quality infill development that is consistent with the surrounding neighborhood and could increase the potential for new neighborhood amenities, it could also allow for a neighborhood serving business to continue to grow.

We do believe that this would be an environmentally meet some of our environmentally resilient goals because it would promote infill development where we already have infrastructure and services in place. Infill refers to those pieces of land, where we see underutilized pieces of land that could support more development. And it would focus growth by transit stations along high and medium capacity corridors as noted with the Colfax BRT coming soon. Now we'll turn to Blueprint Denver which is the city's citywide land use plan adopted back in 2019. In terms of future neighborhood contexts, the entire area is noted as being urban edge.

So again, while these are predominantly residential, there is some small scale multiunit residential embedded throughout and commercial and mixed use development should be focused along main corridors such as Colfax, which you can see on this map is noted as a main street arterial. The future place of this is community co community corridor, which is noted for having a diversity of uses, whether those be office, commercial, residential, retail, a mix of buildings that are both large and small in scale, but heights generally up to five stories. And the applicant is asking for an EMS three district, which we believe aligns with the recommendations for both the neighborhood context and the future place. In terms of growth, this is actually one of the targeted areas for more intense growth. It's noted as a community centers centers and corridors growth area where we anticipate 25% of new housing growth, 20% of new employment, the EMS three district compared to the existing ETUB could allow for that higher intensity growth of housing or employment along this parcel facing Colfax.

And in terms of our Blueprint Denver strategies, we wanted to note that, we are called on to use zoning and land use to encourage higher density mixed use development in transit rich areas, including community corridors where transit priority streets are planned. We believe that the EMS three helps us achieve this policy and associated strategy. In terms of the city's equity goals, we believe that it would help support small scale business growth. The site really isn't large enough to support like a Home Depot or a Kohl's, but it is large enough to continue to support some neighborhoods serving retail over time. It would also potentially increase access to jobs and amenities as it would allow for a more diverse set of businesses to locate on a parcel.

In terms of the city's climate goals, the EMS 3 District allows for mixed use zoning near bus rapid transit. That type of zoning is typically more dense and reducing auto dependency by locating it near transit. We also know that greater density is associated with better energy efficiency. Now let's turn to the East area plan, one of the city's first neighborhood plans that was adopted back in 2020. It provides more refined guidance than Blueprint Denver, but as I noted in the last presentation, it is customary for us to update Blueprint after the adoption of a neighborhood plan.

And so for this one, again, the future neighborhood end place guidance is the same as Blueprint Denver. However oh, I apologize for the typo there. The East area plan has more specific height guidance, and it does say that this site could potentially go up to five stories. But, again, the applicant is not requesting that. They are requesting to simply match the existing zoning that they have on the remainder of the parcel at EMS 3.

That's the first criteria. Moving into the second public interest, we do believe that this would be in the public through implementing our plans to build a more neighborhood scale, walkable, mixed use area near transit. We also believe that it's in the public interest by allowing support of existing businesses that have been there for a long time. And then the final review criteria is is this consistent with the neighborhood context, zone district purpose, and intent statements as written into the Denver zoning code? And we believe that it is because, again, this calls for commercial areas that are embedded in residential areas, multiunit that can be embedded in residential areas, and while it typically calls for low scale in the urban edge context, some mid rise commercial and mixed use structures can be located at very specific nodes.

Most of Colfax is a node. Alright. Seeing that this has, finding that this has met all of the criteria, CPD recommends, approval of this application. I'm here to answer any questions as well as the property owner.

Thank you so much, Tony. We have one individual signed up to speak this evening. Jess Paris, go ahead. Jesse? Jesse?

Yes. Good evening, members of council, those watching at home, those in the council chambers. My name is Jessica Lashawn Paris, and I'm representing for Black Star Action Movement for Self Defense, Positive Action Committee for Social Change, as well as the unity party of Colorado, the Northeast Denver Residence Council, or North Park Hill Coalition, Frontline Black News, Shabbat's Black Experience Enhanced the Revolutionary Agenda. And I am a candidate on the ballot for House District 8. The election is in November, and I reside at the roach and bedbug and infested legacy laws in councilman Darryl Watson's district of District 9, defined District 9, historically black district of five points.

Similar to the other one, but not really similar because this is a private owner that is just looking to espound on what they currently have. So, no, this is not the same thing. I just wanna make that distinction clear. I'm in full support of this. I just wanna know from the occupant out from the occupant's mail, what are they planning on building here or doing with this? Are they just gonna build an extension to the auto body or what? So that's all I would like to know. I'll see you on the next one.

Thank you. Do we have questions from members of council on council bill zero three four six? Councilmember Hines?

Thank you, madam president. Mister Lechuga, how does it how is it possible that one port can have multiple zoning attached to it? Like, I mean, like, you know, computer science degree, I'm thinking about how would I associate zoning. I would associate with a plot ID. And so, like, how does

how does that work?

It's a fantastic question, councilman Hines. I think one that many residents and staff ask ourselves, I think it's that, land use regulations are complex. They change often over time. So my understanding is that this home actually that there did actually used to be a home on this property many years ago. You know, we're not entirely sure when that home was demolished, but it's at least twenty to twenty five years ago.

So presumably, at the time that the Denver zoning code was adopted, that property had a zoning that was associated with a single family home. And so when we adopted the Denver zoning code, we tried to match existing zoning for what was there before. And so our assumption is that it retained the zoning that was associated with the single family home that used to be there. And then over time, like, as the property owner, you know, bought that parcel next to them that was vacant, it was consolidated as one tax parcel, but still retained the split zoning over time. That is very possible to have.

So maybe that there were two parcels and then it was combined legally into one?

That's what it seems like over time. Okay.

Yeah. Alright. I I can see that. How did how did you discover this anomaly? Did the owners say, hey. Wait a minute. I wanna do something, and I can't? Or

Yeah. Another good question. So as I noted the investment. Yeah. I hope so. As I noted in the presentation, the property owner has been using it in this fashion for twenty plus years. I'm not sure the circumstances under which this happened, but they did receive a zoning violation from our department. And through that process, the property owner learned a lot about zoning, has learned that despite it being one tax parcel on which they pay a single tax bill, they do have split zoning. They have not been allowed to operate their business on there for the past twenty years. And so this is their attempt to remedy that zoning violation that they didn't realize was a violation.

So at some point, I mean, with the maybe 2010, we adopted the new zoning code. This just kinda became an artifact. It wasn't like the owner said, I'm gonna do something, you know, that will break the mind of a computer scientist at some point in the future or whatever. So, like, is do they have to pay for this? Or, I mean, is this like a CBD is fixing something that should never have happened in the first place?

They did pay for this.

Thank you, madam president.

Thank you. I will say that's that is why planning board noted that this would have been a good opportunity to incorporate it into a legislative rezoning because it would have been noted at the time of a legislative rezoning had we done one. But yeah.

Councilman Lewis.

Thank you. Chris got one of my questions. The second one is I'm just looking at the Google Maps and I'm just curious if for the applicant, if you all plan to like pave any of this in the future or to fence any of this into the fencing that you currently have. I'm sorry. Yes, please. And if you can introduce yourself.

Yeah. My name is Jeremy Robideau. Yeah. So right now, doesn't really show in the pictures, but we have a lot of containers and storage trailers just holding parts and stuff. And it doesn't look very nice, not very appealing. So step one, get the zoning the same. Step two, find out I need to do a zone lot amendment as well. So that'll be step two. Then yes, that's my plan is to continue the fence. There's a wrought iron fence that goes around the business property.

I'd like to continue that, you know, to the end of this other property and then eventually pave it, you know, make it nice, get rid of all those ugly storage containers. And then eventually, what I like to do is just just put up one storage container, and that's it. And or not container, but more of a building at that point in time, but just one building, just the whole parts and equipments and stuff like that and just clean up the the whole lot.

Thank you. That's my only question.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Kashmir?

Yeah. Thank you, madam president. Tony, what I assume by doing this, it it allows I'm trying to figure out what controls on future usage there are as far as setbacks from from the neighbor closest.

In terms of setbacks?

Because right now, the the fenced in area doesn't include this new parcel. Parcel. You you said they're using it just for vehicle storage. I'm wondering how close can somebody, whether it's, the current owner or a future owner, how much can they build? How close to the neighbors?

Yeah. So because that it that property immediately to the south is a protected district, any building would have to be at least 10 feet away from the property line there.

Does that help? So I and again, what would be the the maximum height they could build on this property?

So the maximum height would be the three story height, which would be somewhere in the staff report officially. I don't wanna say it wrong. It's Oh my goodness. I'm sorry. So the maximum height that they could build would be 45 feet if they were to build in the shop front building form. But of course, because they have the protected district standard there, so building would have to be 10 feet setback. It could go up to 27 feet, and then we'd have to be setback even more at that point. The setback goes to 15 feet, and then it could rise to 45 feet.

Second set so you have a 10 foot setback before they can start building. Yes. Then go to 27 feet. Yes. Then did you say 15 more foot Step back. From there?

Then it becomes a 15

go up

to the next level.

To the next 45 feet, which is maximum.

Alright. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank

you, madam president.

Thank you. Seeing no other members in the queue. Do you think I know my script right now? Public hearing is closed. Comments by members of council. Approval 0346. Council member Lewis, do you wanna go?

Yeah. We've had a lot of interesting rezonings in my district. So I'm happy to hear that both the planning board and CPD agree in the effort, and I am in support of this, which has been a pretty unique thing in our town lately in District 8 with these rezoning.

So happy to support. That's it. Thanks. Thank you.

Thanks, madam president. I this used to be my district. I lost this section of East Colfax in rezoning or redistricting in 2023, but I represented this area for four years and worked on the East Area plan. And I will just say, I'm sorry that we didn't know about this at the time because you really shouldn't have had to pay for this. Yeah. That sucks.

I'm just glad

we're getting through it also.

Yeah. No. I appreciate it. But I'm actually really surprised that we didn't find it when we did the overlay along Colfax. This particular parcel is outside of the d o eight nodes that we did all the way along the planned stops, which would be why we didn't run into it and weren't able to fix it during that legislative rezoning.

So, again, sorry. The history of the parcels along Colfax, particularly as you get further east, are really, really interesting, because so many of them are so shallow. They're they're almost undevelopable in order to reach the development that you want that we want to see along that corridor, you have to actually assemble parcels. And when a parcel gets assembled, when two parcels are purchased by the same owner, it becomes one parcel, under a theory that our assessor's office uses called assemblage. And what that means is that's how this parcel had split zoning on it.

It's because it was something else. And then when it was purchased many, many years ago by the same owner, it it was assembled, under the the assessor's office. So, I am very supportive of this. I apologize that we did not find this earlier so that you did not have to pay your thousand dollars for this because you shouldn't have had to. But I I do think this fits all the criteria.

I do think it achieves the goals in the East Area plan of assembling a lot of these parcels that move along so that in the future, they they could be developable because the vast majority of the lots are, like, 25 feet deep, which is just not enough to do anything other than a one story building with a parking lot in front of it, which is what exists all the way along this area of Colfax now. So super excited about this. Thank you. And again, I'm sorry that we didn't notice this earlier and fix it for you. Thanks.

Thank you. So as a person who always feels like I have, like, a history to tell besides council member Flynn, someone called my council office when I was working for council member Espinosa about this exact property. And it was literally violation. And we dug into it, and they were working on the East area plan. And I told council member Espinosa there wasn't anything we could do. I think people just come to us because I'm Council District 1. And so I think they don't, like, go down and figure out, like, find your council district. So I get lots of rando, like, phone calls where I'm like, oh, I'm not your council district, but let me tell you a little bit of story about, like, land use

because I happen to

love land use. And it was one of the first times where I learned about parcels having different zone districts on them, and I learned about zone lots. That zone lot doesn't actually match the zone district. I think I studied this parcel for probably, like, nine months and came to and then kept saying, hey. I can't do anything for you, so pass it to to another council district. But councilwoman, sorry. You weren't even elected yet. Mhmm. It was your predecessor. So I have lots of deep roots on this one, and I was when I saw it, I was like, oh, they're finally fixing it.

So I will absolutely, a 100% be supporting this as as this is somewhat something that I went down the rabbit hole and learned a whole bunch about zoning on this exact parcel. That's a long, far, long way away from Northwest Denver. So I'm glad that to be here today supporting all of this. So with that, seeing no other speakers in the queue, madam secretary, we'll call.

Council members. Here.

I mean, aye. Flynn?

She's still here.

Flynn? Aye. Heinz? Aye. Cashman? Aye. Lewis? Aye. Romero Campbell? Aye. Sawyer? Aye. Torres? Aye. Watson?

Aye.

Madam president Sandoval?

Aye. Madam secretary, close the voting and announce the result.

10 ayes.

10 ayes. Council bill zero three four six has passed. Council member will you please put council bill zero three four four amending the Denver zoning code concerning approval periods for site development plans on the floor for final passage?

Thank you, madam president. I move that council bill 26 dash zero three four four be placed upon final consideration and do pass. Thank

you. It has been moved and seconded. May we please have the staff report? Required public hearing for council bill three four four is open. May we please have the staff report.

Good evening council president and members of council. I'm Brad Buchanan. I'm the executive director at Denver Community Planning and Development, bringing a language amendment to you this evening for your consideration. This is an extension of the site development plan validity period proposal. We will run over some of the overview and the specifics in the proposed change, run through the process that we've gone through the last several months, and then we will go through the review criteria and our recommendation.

So, sort of a, let's look at sort of a snapshot right now of where we are in time. We all know that the marketplace has slowed. There's a number of reasons why that is. Construction costs, obviously, higher interest rates, certainly higher interest rates than we were having three or four years ago when interest rates dropped close to 3%. But what we're seeing also are declining rents.

And the reason that we're seeing declining rents is that Denver has an oversupply of housing units right now. Not something we have seen a lot in the last several decades. Currently, the site development plan validity period is thirty months, and we're making a proposal to extend that for a group of these approved plans. The reason is that there are a number of them that are at risk of expiring and we would lose a great number of residential units. So a little bit on the numbers and the history of this.

This isn't just Denver. This is most US major cities saw a major spike sort of peaking in 2024. That really goes to the interest rates. At 3% interest rates, you can make a lot of things look good and you can get a lot of things underwritten by lenders. That same thing was going on in Denver.

You can see that peak in 2022, 2021 and 2022, and those projects came online. And so those, that large number of projects is what has created the oversupply we have and the drop in rents. So there's some good news in this. For folks who have been struggling to make their rent payments with rising rent costs in Denver and the entire metro area, really, They have been dropping just over and during 2025, and these are January '26 numbers. They have continued to drop since then.

The class A units, and this is sort of the newest buildings, those ones that were completed, you know, in in '24 and '25, are down 5% in their rent amounts. Class b, 5.6. And this, incredibly interesting, is the class c units. And these are these are still high quality units, just older units, are down over 11%. Here's some interesting information we thought in terms of what we're seeing a number of marketplaces, but specifically I'll call your attention to the Denver graph of course, is that these older market rate units, these Class C units, are renting for less than our designated affordable in Denver.

So for the first time in a long time, we're seeing naturally occurring affordability happen in these higher AMI, say 80%, percent, 120% area median income numbers, we're seeing naturally occurring rent. This is a rare opportunity. And because we have a large number of projects in the approved site development plan Q, we have the opportunity, unlike a lot of other major US cities that are fighting this, to capture some of those projects, backfill the pipeline now before we see rent spike again, which it will, we've seen this movie before, in the next two or three years. And incredible opportunity, I think, for our city to be providing a more affordable housing price in the coming years compared to other cities who don't have the opportunity to take advantage of this moment in time. With that, I will have Mr.

Chris Kleisner come up and present.

Good evening. Chris Gleisner, community planning and development. I'm our director for site design and neighborhood development, and you are stuck with me for the rest of the way through the presentation. The proposal that we want to place in front of you today is a suggested extension for the period of validity for site development plans for an additional three years for those projects to be able to obtain building permits. This would mean that any approved site development plan that was approved on or before 12/31/2025 would receive that three year extension, is the proposal.

And again, as Brad mentioned, this would ensure that those projects that have spent the time and effort to proceed through the site development plan process would have longer period of activity to be able to achieve their building permits and actually construct. As Brad talked about, this is a pretty big opportunity. We have approximately 22,600 residential units represented in that pipeline, 22,633, and so that is a fairly large number. Obviously not all of those would come to fruition even with this, but anything we can do to sort of blunt that future impact will be a benefit. Obviously the flip side is that without this proposal Denver could lose and will start to lose thousands of those new residential units that have achieved that approval in the current state.

And again, if these projects don't have more time to secure that financing, we are at risk of losing them. We're going walk through the process that we've been through. We've done a courtesy public review back in February. Planning Board reviewed this and recommended unanimous approval of this text amendment on March 18. We went to Community Planning and Housing Committee on March 24 and are here today in front of you for our public hearing.

At the time of writing the staff report and sending the presentation, we had received three letters of inquiry just seeking some clarification on this, as well as four letters of support. One of those letters included eight different signatures, so quite a few people. Since this, City Council has received, I believe, another eight that I'm aware of letters of support for this proposal. Going into our review criteria, we'll be looking at consistency with adopted plans, furthering public health, safety, and welfare, and the uniformity of district regulations and restrictions. Starting with consistency with adopted plans, we have comprehensive plan 2040 and Blueprint Denver that we evaluate.

In this, we do think we're meeting our equitable, affordable, and inclusive goals by creating a greater mix of housing options in all of our districts across the city, as well as ensuring our city policies, including the Denver zoning code, encourage every neighborhood to provide a complete range of those housing options. We're also touching on our economically diverse and vibrant vision elements by making sure that we're facilitating the growth of diverse business sectors. These are supported not only by those residential projects that we talked about, but also by commercial projects that are also in this pipeline. And then looking at Blueprint Denver, looking at our land use and building form recommendations, we're working to ensure that the Denver zoning code continues to respond to the needs of the city while remaining modern and flexible, as well as ensuring Denver and its neighborhoods have a vibrant and authentic retail and hospitality marketplace. Again, those residential units will obviously support that, but also commercial projects that would be a part of this will continue to support that.

Diving into health, safety, and welfare and uniformity of district regulations and restrictions, We do find that this will further our public health safety and welfare by providing additional opportunity for citizens of Denver and future businesses, and this is a uniform approach to our district regulations across all projects subject to it. With that, community planning and development does recommend approval of the site development plan extension text amendment. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Appreciate the presentation. We have five individuals signed up to speak this evening. First up, we have Brian Fishman virtually. Brian, if you'll accept the promotion.

Yeah. Thank you very much for having me. Council members, my name is Brian Fishman, South Garfield Street, Denver. I'm here on behalf of, Oliver Buchanan Group. We're a Denver based development firm focused on delivering thoughtfully designed mixed use housing projects, intended to strengthen the neighborhoods and support the city's long term goals.

The most notable of which is the Denver Rockdale project. We have an approved site development plan for a property that is adjacent to that site that includes both market rate and affordable housing units. I'd say the additional time created by this amendment is critically important. As you all know, and probably are tired of hearing from people like me, we're operating in a very challenging environment right now. Interest rates, construction costs, constrained capital markets, all represent very real obstacles.

And having this additional runway of to assemble financing will help deliver those necessary housing units, both responsibly and thoughtfully. Also wanted to just take a moment to sincerely thank council president Sandoval, Brad Buchanan, Chris Gleisner, and the entire team at CPD for their work in bringing this forward. The foresight, collaboration, and leadership have been absolutely invaluable. Respectfully encourage city council to approve the amendment that's before you, and it will help keep all the housing projects moving forward and ultimately allow the city to deliver very much housing units of all kind. So thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Thank you. Next up, we have Harris.

Last one of the night. Yes. My name is Justin Lashawn Paris. I'm a representative for Black Star Action Move for self defense, Positive Action Committee for Social Change, as well as the Unity Party of Colorado, the North Park Hill Coalition, Frontline Black News, the revolutionary agenda, and I am a candidate on the ballots once again for state house of representative for house district eight. And I reside at the roach and bedbug infested legacy loss in Darryl Watson's district of District 9, the fine District 9, the historically black district of fire points.

Finally, y'all presented me with something I can get behind. This amendment is a good thing, so it is a step in the right direction. You're actually listening to me after all these years. Yes. Affordability is a must in a more high income city. So anything the city can do to make that more feasible and a a reality, the better. So thank you for allowing me to speak. Y'all have a good night.

Thank you. Next up, we have virtually Brad Farber.

Sorry. Can you can you hear me?

Apologies. We can hear you now. Yep. Yep.

Okay. My name is Brad Farber, and, I'm a developer, based here in Denver. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here tonight in support of extending, the validity period of the site development plan for three years. I believe it's a practical targeted step that will help ensure already entitled projects can move forward as market conditions stabilize.

As many of you know, the development environment has been very challenging over the last few years, and, projects that were, you know, thoughtfully, carefully planned, reviewed, and approved are now facing, you know, a difficult reality, you know, higher interest rates, construction costs, and tighter capital markets. And I believe without this extension, many of these approved developments risk, expiring and units never being built. So, losing many of these projects, would mean losing significant housing supply. And as you know, housing supply is critical for improving affordability as we're seeing in this current environment, that we're in today. The extension would preserve the momentum we have right now and allow these projects to move forward when the market allows.

I believe it's a common sense and balanced approach that addresses the city's long term goals while addressing short term economic realities. I respectfully urge that you support the proposed

McGillicuddy. Honey. Dennis? Dennis? Thank you, sir.

I'm so fresh.

You, can you see me?

Not yet, but we but we can hear you.

Well, I'll I'll go ahead and speak. I something's, I think I'll try to get the video.

Yeah. Here we go.

Good evening, and and thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm gonna say a lot of the same things that Brian said and Brad. But to introduce myself, my name is Dennis McGillicuddy, and I'm one of the owners of the parking lot at the Corner Of 17th in California, which is in District 10. We've owned this property since 2019 with the intent to develop a significant and beautiful project on this, parcel. And last April, we received the STP approval for a 38 story, 655,000 square foot mixed use building with 273 hotel rooms and a 150 condominiums.

As others have said, with a dramatic increase in construction costs and the significant constraints in the capital markets and the current low demand, for for how for residential in downtown that that we've just not been able to move forward. And so as Brad said, this is a very common sense approach that will allow those of us who've invested, in our case, millions of dollars to get this project finally to the point of approval, that passing tonight's amendment would go a long way to create what I believe, and a lot of other projects will just enhance the vibrancy and vitality of,

the

downtown. So for those reasons, I ask you, to, please adopt this amendment, and thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have Evan Curtis.

Good evening, madam president and members of council. My name is Evan Curtis of District 13219 Stewart Street. I'm a nineteen year Denver resident and a Denver based real estate developer with Revesco Properties. I'm here tonight in support of ordinance two six zero three four four extending the validity period for approved site development plans. This is a practical targeted change that reflects today's market realities.

Over the past several years, projects with fully vetted approved STPs have faced delays driven by factors outside anyone's control. Construction costs, finance disruptions, and supply chain constraints. As a result, many entitled projects are at risk of expiring all at once creating a looming supply cliff. Allowing those approvals to lapse would force projects back through the review process, consuming city resources and more importantly delaying the delivery of housing. Those delays tighten supply and place additional upward pressure on rents.

Although, rent growth is typically beneficial in my industry, creating it through artificial self inflected delays only worsens Denver, Denver's cost of living challenges and the housing and affordable affordability crisis this council has been working hard to address. Extending SDP validity period preserves the integrity of the city's planning process, aligns with the goals of Blueprint Denver and comprehensive plan 2040, and helps ensure that entitled projects can actually move forward timely as, conditions stabilize. Excuse me. I respectfully urge, counsel to support ordinance two six zero three four four. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you so much. That concludes our speakers. Do we have questions from members of counsel on council bill zero three four four? Councilman Alvidrez.

Thank you, council president. I do have one question for CPE. Does this affect EHA at all and the projects that were in the queue before

This affects a smattering of both pre and post projects. It is agnostic as to whether or not you achieved the deadline.

So does that mean it would extend projects that are going to have EHA applied to them?

It it will extend both. It will extend projects that were that were in and approved pre EHA as well as post EHA.

I appreciate that. Thank you. And then this might be for Brad, maybe for yourself. But seeing that we're still in a high interest rate environment, I'm trying to understand why we're cutting it off. It's at December 31. And why is it why how are we thinking about the time that it takes an SDP to expire in general? If we're seeing a need to extend it here, maybe this is something that it's just very unpredictable.

It's a fantastic question. I will tell you that there is no magic answer to that question. We chose end of last year because that was very representative of a sample of projects that had been through the city's system at a time of significant change, both in the market as well as in our performance, right? Like CPD and other agencies were very behind in some of our development review response, right? So a lot of these projects saw considerable delays due to their review times, as well as just consistently seeing market realities change and demand change.

So they had quite a bit of change I'll just say change again quite a bit of change that they were dealing with all the way through their entitlement process. And so that stuck out as a fair place to sort of cut that bright line so that we could also clearly communicate to our customers which plans would be looking to receive this additional thirty six months if it's approved by city council. Totally agreed that we can't really see into the future. I don't know what'll happen or what'll transpire in three years. Nothing that we've seen in the past indicates that the typical thirty month period that we've traditionally had for site development plans is not a reasonable timeline, but for the current conditions that we're dealing with, which are fairly extraordinary.

Okay. I appreciate that. And then my I'll say a comment later. Thank you, council president. Council member Heights?

Thank you, madam president. Mister Weisner, since you you took a stab at council member Albedrez's question, you said some are post EHA, some are pre but it isn't like someone got a plan approved twenty years ago and they go, Oh, it's before December, so we're gonna dust it off and use it. Right? It is

site development plans approved prior to the end of last year, prior to the 2025, get an additional thirty six months. So if you were if your site plan was approved sixty five months ago, you have one month to get done. If you just received an approval or if you just expired, right, like this started to come to light in fall of last year, and we saw folks that were in, you know, October, November, and were saying, oh, I'm expired. I don't have an extension that's allowable to me. Those projects will be sort of back to life, if you will, but it's only an additional thirty six months from that original thirty month period of validity.

Right? So, yeah, somebody that was fifteen years ago, they're hopefully, built already.

Because this is a public hearing, I wanted to make sure that people didn't think that, you know, there was a plan approved back in 1960, and they're gonna, you know, bring it back up to, you know, different even zoning type or or zoning methodology. But, anyway, so

It's the right point to clarify.

Thank you. Producer, is mister McGillicuddy still on? Yeah. Will you may I ask him a question? Alright. Mister Miguel, can you hear me?

I can now. It took me just a while to push the right buttons.

Well, hopefully, we're not pushing your buttons. We're just pushing the right buttons. First of all, I wanna thank you for your email that that you sent on April 29. I actually responded to it because it it's because the property's in in District 10, and it remained in my drafts. So I actually did not press send, so I apologize. I'm gonna ask the questions that I sent over the email that I was actually if I had been smart and actually pressed the button, not your buttons, but the button, then I wouldn't have had to ask this live. But, just a question for you. When did you submit your application originally?

I think it took about a year and a half, and we got approved a year ago this past April. So that would be 2022 probably. So But I don't I don't have that in front of me. I'm not sure. It took about a year and a half. Of doing the plans that were required to and and negotiate with the, the planning department.

Sure. Do you would you, imagine that it was probably before 07/01/2022?

Probably. And

then I guess the one other question that so thank you for oh, do you think that this extra time would be sufficient, for you to break ground? I know I'm asking you to bring out your crystal ball and predict the future, but, but, you know, just give your, your your I'm not gonna hold you to it. But

Yeah. I I believe,

you know, if the council would do a little bit longer to give people more flexibility, but we're certainly prepared to, continue to pursue this project. My own experience is that these kind of economic cycles, even though this was a very difficult one when you combine it with, what happened with the pandemic and, you know, the office market, being impacted in Downtown Denver, It could take longer. But but for for example, our we've got, essentially eighteen months left under the original plus another thirty six. So I'd be shocked if the cycle doesn't change, and it will be in a position to do something within that time frame.

That'd be more than four years from now for foreign change. Okay. Thank you, mister McGullochati, and thank you, madam president. I have any other questions.

Thank you. Councilman Lewis? I

think councilman Watson was in the queue. Yeah. Was out of there. Alright. Quick question. On on slide 10, I believe, you all mentioned that without this proposal that we could Denver could lose thousands of new residential units that are needed to maintain. How do you all arrive at that number? Like, what's the methodology that you all use to to figure out that it's thousands of units?

Not going to try to get this exactly perfect, but what we did was we went through all of our permitting records in our Acela permit system, correlated all of the site development plan projects that had either not applied for building permits or not received building permits. And then from that pool of projects, which I think was around 170 or 180 total projects, I'd have to double check my math on that, reviewed each project against the number of potential units that they were seeking to propose. So that's as linear as I can make that.

Thank you. Thank you. And then the second question I had for you is, I'm curious if we generate money by not extending the three years. Not ex like, not making this change. If there's additional dollars of I'm not sure. I'm not saying hustle people, but I'm just curious. Like, if we don't do this, then folks might have to reapply and they pay the city a certain amount of money in order to re up?

Correct. If and when a site development plan or really any application in our system expires, right, those folks, in order to move that project, a similarly scaled project, a completely different project forward, would have to come in and start at the beginning, both for all of the tech fees that were that were to be assessed at that point in time.

And you may not have this as an answer because I'm just thinking of of this off the top of my head. Did you all consider what that might be in terms of loss or potential not loss, potential loss?

It's an interesting question. No. We did not try to calculate what a potential loss of of future fees could be.

Thank you. Those are my little thoughts.

Thank you. Seeing no other questions, the public hearing is closed. I usually go last, but if, colleagues, you don't mind if I go first as the council sponsor. So I was looking at the Excel doc that they would sent around for each council district. So it looks like the the most council district that would be impacted is actually Council District 9 by this, and it would actually end up if each if everything moved forward.

Right? If we had to crystal ball and no one fell no project fell through August 8231. In my council district, there would be a total amount of 504 units. I don't see one council district that's not impacted by this proposal, and that was what was impaling to me to put this forward is I when Brad and I were talking about this, I said, can you show me the data? Can you break it down?

And then he went to Chris Glessner and Sarah Showalter and said, we break this down into, like, a tangible graph for data for city council members to see how this would actually impact their council district? And then when I saw this these graphs, that was actually what was compelling for me for this change because if if we could could just saying if there's lots of ifs in there. But if we could put 22,000 more units or 23,000 more units into Denver, I think I'm all about that. So I think that affordable housing is an issue. And what's fascinating for me is in Council District 9 and Council District 10, there and in Council District 5, we have part of EHA high

High cost.

High cost areas. Thank you for saying it that way because other times, it doesn't work out. And right now, in downtown, we actually want people to be building downtown. And so with those high cost areas, we're not seeing working as well. We are in Council District 5, which is an anomaly.

I still don't understand how Cherry Creek is performing the way it is. I'll study that when I'm out of council and can write a master's thesis on that in my time. But in my time here, since COVID, I just have seen such a fluctuation of housing stock, and we kinda all knew that something was going to happen after COVID. So this is kind of what I feel like is happened after COVID and after EHA. So I would ask that all of you support this so that we could have the potential to add some of these units which would be affordable just because the way that they're entering into the market back into and anytime that you send something back out to your into the world, it's gonna add cost from engineering.

It's gonna add cost from architects, and then it's gonna come in, and then we are the residents bear the cost of all of that. So I hope that we can pass this tonight. And thank you, Brad, for having these conversations with me and being a thought partner on this and asking me to sponsor this. You all know I love to know buddy's secret that CPD is my favorite agency that I love working with. The the zoning code is clear. If I don't like something, how can I change it to get the outcomes that I want? And I've really been working on that since I've been elected. So thank you for working all together. Next up, council member Hines.

Thank you, madam madam president, and thank you for your your comments. You you have the blessing and the curse of having to go last every time. So thanks for going first because this is something you have a lot of knowledge on. Director Buchanan, thank you for the for the briefing a month ago, month and a half ago at this point. And and also thank you for for taking my calls when I had others reach out with questions and and and frankly concerns.

I so council member Alvidrez talked about pre In in the briefing, I mentioned that the council had already voted to extend the applications by eighteen months and then voted again to extend the applications by another eighteen months. And and I I promised that I would not dig out that I went on the record to say that I would not vote to advance these EHA applications again. I'm gonna eat my words here in a minute, but but, you know, like, someone could go back to me. I'm gonna be as as transparent as I as I can be. Mister Miguelicuddy's email, and he sent to all the council and maybe most of CPD too.

There were a lot of names on the on the email. I think is is is particularly intriguing to me because his his SDP, his site development plan is approved for a 38 story. It's downtown. It's not Cherry Creek. It's not, you know, it's like where we should have height and density.

273 hotel rooms and a 150 condominiums. And that's very intriguing to me. I didn't know that we had pre EHA inventory that is for sale stock. And, you know, we've got the four seasons. We've got Waldorf Astoria maybe in in Cherry Creek.

We've got Waldorf Astoria in Cherry Creek. I don't represent Cherry Creek anymore, But, you know, we don't have a lot of in the Ritz. We don't have a lot in in maybe one in Golden Triangle in the in the future where we have hotel rooms on the lower floors and condos for sales stock in the on the upper floors. And that's I I really I I hope that we get more condominium, you know, for sale units. That is how people will have the opportunity to to unlock home ownership in our center city in District 10.

You know, there are there are two slices of two neighborhoods in District 10 that have single family homes. Other than that, 80% of my residents live in multifamily homes, and we've just been building so many apartments after apartments after apartments. So how can I do the mental math to get around how I said I will not vote for another extension of the EHA? Mister Miguelicuddy's demonstration of housing for sale and and having that opportunity and having it pre EHA. That's part of the reason why I wanted to ask the question.

I think that's we we need more housing for sale. We need more developers that will take the risk. We need need more legislators at the state level at risk. Here we are. So I'm willing to to say yes to another extension.

I hope that should we consider these again, we can finally put to rest things that are happened that were approved before 07/01/2022. So I won't say I'll for sure vote again. I think I probably said something like, it'll be very difficult for me to vote for another extension because I don't really deal in black and white, but it'll be very difficult for me to vote for another extension for site development plans that were submitted before 07/01/2022. So but I'll be a yes tonight. Thank you, madam president.

Thank you. Captain Munzoyer.

Thank you, madam president. Brad, thank you and to the team for putting this together. I think what is clear is that we have a housing crisis and that we have a responsibility to actively do something about that housing housing crisis. We have done that in a lot of different ways, the I think being the most impactful, but there are a lot of different examples I can give over the last seven years that I've been with some of this class in office. I I think that we have an extraordinary opportunity here.

And while it doesn't sit well with us because because we want that affordability, the that's not the way the market works. Right? Even the properties that are included here that are not deed restricted affordable or don't have deed restricted affordable units in them, add to the supply, and that brings costs down. So as we are well, it brings the cost of housing down. I'm not sure it brings the cost of the materials or the land or any other stuff that it takes to actually build it down.

But that's our goal here. Right? And so I think that this is a really easy way for us to partner with the development community in in just holding steady on what the on the work that they've already done and what they have already invested that is gonna bring us the results that we want. It's just that the market hasn't really sorted itself out right at the second for the financing to be available. And, like, we can we can wait for that.

We can wait for that, and we can wait for it in a way that allows us to be good partners with our partners in the city. And that is something that I think is really important. So really appreciate you guys coming up with this as a potential option for how to move forward and preserve literally thousands and thousands and thousands of units that we would otherwise lose, that we would cost the development community significantly more money, which would raise the cost of whatever it does end up getting built there. This is this is the right thing to do as partners to our development community where we all have the goal of additional housing units in our city right in front of us. So I really I will be supportive of it tonight, and I really appreciate you guys putting all the

work into this. So thanks. Thank you. Council member Watson.

Thank you, madam president. Thank you so much for sponsoring this as well. Thank you to CDP and the good work that you've done on this. My question would have been around the rigor of the evaluation of kind of truly does this will this three year window provide the flexibility needed in this schizophrenic economy that we're in, and most of it is some of the supply chain impacts are, you know, derived because of decisions that our government has made. It's it's not naturally occurring ups and downs and peaks of of the financial sector.

So those decisions are still ongoing. However, providing that window, and as you look at the housing stock that's in Council District 9 and the cost invested to provide that housing that's necessary, I think this is essential. It's a it's a smart step. It's not a never ending timeline. It's a a three year timeline based on where you are at within where the developing development community was at in the process.

And I look forward to leaning in with your team and others to kind of evaluate which one of these developments, at least in District 9, are going to actually make the steps and get through that final financial stack to be able to provide homes for folks who wanna live and work in a fine District 9. So very smart, very thoughtful. Absolutely, we'll be supporting this. So thank you so much. Thank you, madam president.

Thank you. Councilwoman Alvidrez?

Thank you, council president, and thank you for sharing the spreadsheet. I hadn't seen it and to see the impact that it will have on District 7 is a relief because it does feel like District 7 doesn't have a ton of empty space and land. We do have all of the Brockway development area, but in general, so to see thousands of units essentially get built in District 7 is really exciting. And I just wanna say, Brad, it's been really refreshing to talk to you about the issues and how you look at the data and how you think about the problems in a way that I can tell that you understand housing and that you're very passionate about it and you want what's best for our city. And I haven't heard that before.

So I just wanna thank you so much for the thoughtfulness that you put into your work and actually getting and and to all of CPD that's working on this to actually getting these units built because you're right. It's a beautiful thing that rent is going down. That is a great thing for our city. People are renegotiating their rents all across my district. I recommend people when they're having problems that this is a time they can actually, you know, renegotiate their rent, and we need to keep that going as long as we can. So thank you for both of your work on this, and I look forward to supporting. Thank you, council president.

Thank you. Seeing no other members in the queue, madam secretary, we'll call on council bill zero three four five.

Council members Alvidrez? Aye. Flynn? Aye. Gonzales sorry. Hines? Aye. Cashman? Aye. Lewis? Aye. Romero Campbell? Sawyer? Aye. Torres? Aye. Watson? Aye. Madam president Sandoval?

Aye. Madam secretary, close the voting and announce the results.

10 ayes.

10 ayes. Council bill zero three four four has passed. On Monday, 05/11/2026, council will hold a required public hearing on council bill zero four eight six, approving a resolution requesting the renewal and continuation of the 5 Points Business Improvement District for an additional ten year period. And on Monday, 06/01/2026, council will hold a required public hearing on council bill five zero five two one, changing the zoning classification for 361 through 363 West Evans Avenue in Overland. Any protest against council bill zero five two one must be filed with the council offices no later than noon on Tuesday, 05/26/2026.

There being no further business before this body, this meeting is adjourned.