Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Community Planning and Housing Committee with Denver City Council. Your Community Planning and Housing Committee starts now. Okay, I guess we are live. Hello there. Hello, everyone. Today is Tuesday, June 2nd, and I'm Diana Romero-Campbell, and we are going to start with some introductions. I believe we have, let's start with council members online first.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and we can come play Southwest Denver's District 2.

Thank you. And I will start here tonight.

Good afternoon. Flora Alvarez with Lucky District 7. Chantal Luz, District 8. Amanda Sawyer, District 5.

Wonderful. Again, Diana Romero Campbell. I represent Southeast Denver District 4. And we are going to get started with the legislative rezoning for the Southwest Area Plan. So I will turn it over to you, Libby.

Thank you. I'm Libby Glick with Community Planning and Development. And I will be presenting the rezoning on the Southwest or for the Southwest Area Plan. So first, we'll go through the background of the plan. Then we'll discuss the proposal, followed by the process, and then finally the review criteria. So the Southwest Area Plan was adopted in March of 2026. It outlines the vision for the neighborhoods of Westwood, Athmar Park, Marlee, Ruby Hill, and Overland. So overall, the community priorities for the plan include creating vibrant cultural hubs, having safe, comfortable, and welcoming public spaces, making sure that housing is affordable and high quality, making sure this area remains a key center for industry and manufacturing, having well-designed infrastructure, and then protecting and celebrating the natural resources. It's located in council districts two, three, and seven, and council members Flynn, Alvidrez, and Torres are the sponsors of this rezoning. So now we'll go through the proposal. So this is just a quick overview of the proposal. I'll get into more detail about the specific proposed to and from districts when we go into the review criteria. So this proposal will implement key land use guidance, including making sure that the corridors are vibrant, commercial centers and corridors, that industrial areas are right zoned, that Southwest residents have access to affordable and secure housing options, and that the zoning is consistent with the overall vision for these neighborhoods. So there's four kind of categories that these rezonings fall into. This is kind of how we've organized the rezoning. So the first is centers and corridors. The second are the riverside communities, which is kind of the existing industrial areas. The third are housing opportunities, and then the fourth are institutional properties. So I'll go through each of these in a little bit more detail and then more detail later on. So for centers and corridors, for all the corridors, we're removing the billboard use overlay where it exists and keeping the adult use overlay. And then for federal Boulevard, it's kind of a few different things that we're doing, but mainly rezoning to existing mixed use or to mix use in Main Street districts, applying the active centers and corridors design overlay within a block of future bus, rapid transit stops, and then aligning the allowed heights with the plan guidance. For Mississippi Avenue, we'll rezone to include the design overlay, so just adding the DO-8. For Broadway, the proposal is to rezone from existing mixed-use and industrial, so that all of Broadway is a Main Street or within a Main Street district. And then Morrison Road, we're just rezoning the former Chapter 59 properties into a mixed-use district that matches the existing corridor. And then lastly for Evans Station, rezoning those existing industrial properties to an urban center mixed-use district and then aligning the allowed heights with the plan guidance. For the Riverside community, so these are our existing industrial areas. So along LaPan Street, we're proposing to rezone from industrial mixed use to Row House and then Main Street. In the value manufacturing areas, we're proposing to rezone from industrial mixed use to a light industrial area. Industrial or I a district and then along the Santa Fe corridor, which is just east of Santa Fe Rezoning those areas from a light industrial and more intense industrial to industrial mixed-use five stories again aligning those allowed Heights with the plan guidance For housing opportunities, these include properties owned by Habitat for Humanity and Denver Housing Authority. So the first piece is to rezone single unit properties to two unit, and that's about 16 properties. And then there's four properties owned by DHA that we're proposing to read that are currently single unit and two unit that are proposed to be rezoned to mixed use and multi-unit. And then lastly, for the institutional properties, there's just two. The first is the Denver Health Westwood Family Health Center and the proposal is to rezone from an old code hospital district to a campus healthcare. And then the Westwood Library and Community Center is proposed to be rezoned from an old code multi-unit to multi-unit. So now I'll go through the process. So this application was complete at the beginning of March. It went to planning board in the beginning of May, and then we're here before you today for, sorry, it says Ludi Committee, it should be CPH, and this will go before you at City Council in mid-July. At planning board, the board voted unanimously to recommend approval. There were some points raised during deliberation, including just asking how the rezoning will impact existing uses, particularly those existing industrial uses. And then federal park or federal about the parkway setback, which is 20 feet and if the lots are, how deep they are along federal, because that parkway setback would kind of override the DOH setback of two feet. For public comments, we received a public comment from the Westwood Community Action Team RNO that they commented they support the rezoning with protections to support residents and businesses that are already in the community. And then we received comments from nine members of the public. So four were questions just about like, is my property included? What does this mean? Five commented in opposition. So one resident near the Evans station is concerned about going, allowing up to eight stories in height. And they submitted a lot of information. They had concerns about just bringing more apartments and potentially more dog owners and dogs that don't have areas to relieve themselves in these apartments, as well as parking. And then there were two property owners along La Panne who are business owners who are concerned about rezoning to Main Street. And then one resident in Athmar Park is concerned about the industrial uses and rezoning from a more mixed-use district to solely industrial. And then one resident, Amar Lee, who would like to see a fenced off dog park in that area. So for public engagement for this rezoning, it was conducted concurrently with the Southwest planning process. So staff attended workshops, focus groups. We reached out to key property owners where the guidance was changing. So along La Panne, for example. We presented to the advisory committee. And this allowed us to kind of compare the evolving plan recommendations with the rezoning proposal and to ensure that the plan guidance informed the rezoning. And then as a part of the official rezoning process, postcards and signs so far have been mailed and posted twice. We'll post a third round of signs before City Council. And for the postcards, you know, it sends to both property owners and renters now. So I think over 9,000 postcards have been sent two different times in this process. So now we'll go through the review criteria. There are three review criteria that must be met for rezoning to be approved. The first is consistency with adopted plans. It must further the public interest and then be consistent with the neighborhood context zone district purpose and the intent statements found in the Denver Zoning Code. So I won't go over information on the comprehensive plan. You can find more about that in the staff report, but it does further several strategies in this plan. So we'll just focus on Blueprint Denver in the Southwest Area Plan. So the maps from the Southwest Area Plan were, or Blueprint maps were updated after the Southwest Area Plan's adoption. So the future context for the proposed rezoning areas include there's a broad variety. So there's suburban, urban edge, urban for Federal, Morrison and Broadway. And I will note that we're largely proposing urban center context within these urban areas. We do find that these proposed districts are consistent with the urban plan guidance given that For federal, for example, that includes the Design Overlay 8, so that will make sure that that area is pedestrian-friendly and walkable. We're going to Main Street on Broadway, which is going to a better zone district, and then along Morrison Road. though the plan guidance is urban there's also a lot of plan guidance about maintaining flexibility in this area because of the kind of unique diagonal lots and so we think the urban edge district will do that additionally there's one more like small thing on why we're going to urban edge is that for some reason our zoning code doesn't allow food trucks in the urban context but it does an urban edge and so that's also obviously a very important aspect along federal is maintaining allowing those food truck uses So that's another piece of why we're maintaining the urban edge context in these areas. Then there's urban center guidance near the Evans station, parts of Broadway, and then districts within the industrial areas. For the future places, Blueprint designates the centers and corridor areas as local and community corridors and community centers. The Riverside communities are value manufacturing, innovation flex, local corridor, and low-medium residential. For the housing opportunity sites, those are mostly low-residential and low-medium residential. And then the institutional properties, it says low-residential and low-medium residential, but they're both low-residential. For future street types, there's a variety in this area, but the centers and corridors are largely along mixed use main street and commercial streets. And then the industrial areas are along industrial streets. The majority of the areas and residential and then local streets. The growth area strategy is largely community centers and corridors for those main, you know, Morrison Road, a portion of Federal, and then Broadway and Mississippi, and then districts within the industrial areas where we anticipate more employment growth and housing growth, and then all other areas of the city for the remainder of the rezoning, the properties included in the rezoning. So because this rezoning is so large, we do need to look at the equity analysis found in Blueprint Denver, and that includes three metrics, so improving access to opportunity, reducing vulnerability to involuntary displacement, and expanding housing and jobs diversity. So for access to opportunity, the scores range from two to four out of five. So the lowest scores are in access to transit for the western portion, mortality, childhood obesity, and then access to health care. The highest scores are in access to centers and corridors and social determinants of health. For vulnerability to involuntary displacement, Westwood and the eastern portion of Marlee are the most vulnerable areas. And actually Westwood is getting most of the DHA and habitat for humanity properties are located within Westwood. So that's where we'll allow for more affordable housing. And then for expanding housing diversity, the scores range from one to four out of five. So Westwood is the most diverse. And then portions of Athmar Park and Marlee are the least diverse. And then there are several strategies in the Southwest Area Plan that seek to further the city's equity goals found in Blueprint Denver. So it talks about how Southwest residents should have affordable and secure housing options, that affordable housing should be available in our centers and corridors, that local businesses should be supported, and that we need to design vibrant community centers that reflect the neighborhood's cultural character. And then this rezoning also further several strategies found in Blueprint Denver. It will rezone properties from the former Chapter 59 into the Denver Zoning Code. It's a city-led legislative rezoning, and it will ensure an active and pedestrian-friendly environment, especially along Federal and Mississippi, where we're mapping the Design Overlay 8. And then finally it will further the climate guidance found in Blueprint Denver and that it will create more walkable places in the centers and corridors in Southwest Denver by rezoning to districts that have stronger design standards than what exists today. So now I'll move to the Southwest Area Plan and this is where I'll go through more specifically the existing zoning and then what's proposed as well as the plan guidance. So of the six community vision items, this rezoning really furthers three of them. So creating diverse cultural hubs, providing housing stability and options, and then integrated industry. So overall there's plan guidance in the Southwest Area Plan that larger scale legislative rezoning should be prioritized and that the billboard overlay district should be removed through the rezoning process. So this is a legislative rezoning of this area and within the rezoning boundaries we are removing the use overlay to where it currently exists. So we'll start with centers and corridors. So we'll start with Mississippi Avenue. The proposal for this area is to rezone from the existing mixed-use three-story district to just add the D08. So that's adding the active centers and corridors design overlay. The goal is to require ground floor active uses and promote a pedestrian-friendly environment. So for those watching who are not familiar with the DO-8, the left-hand side is what exists today on Mississippi. So this is the general building form. It's really far setback. There's a lot of parking. This is kind of what the current rules can produce. The DO8 will produce is, first it will require non-residential active uses for a portion of the ground floor, but it also doesn't allow parking between the building and the street, and it also doesn't allow the drive-through building forms. So you get more of what's on the left-hand side, which is what we're hoping to encourage with if and when new development comes. So the guidance for Mississippi Avenue in the plan is to evolve this shopping center into a mixed-use destination, to update the rules to have a more pedestrian-friendly built environment, and to promote active ground floor uses along Mississippi. So now moving to federal. This one is the most confusing because we're doing a lot of different things. But the first thing we're doing is rezoning just all the old code properties along federal in this area. And then the second thing is rezoning to include the design overlay 8, which we just talked about, within one block of a future BRT station. And then the third piece is rezoning properties south of Mississippi Avenue to allow for up to five stories in height. So it's all three stories today is what's mostly lettered in the new code. So again, going up to five stories south of Mississippi where the blue is. So the goal is to promote a mixed-use corridor with active ground floor uses and match the existing heights with the planned gardens. So the plan guidance for federal is to making sure we honor the heritage of the area, especially for Little Saigon. And part of that is that building heights in Little Saigon should only be up to three stories. So that's why we're not rezoning, we're not increasing height between Alameda and Mississippi. But the plan talks about allowing up to five stories south of Mississippi. It also discusses limiting drive-throughs within a quarter mile of BRT stations and that the station area should have active ground floor uses. So again, that's why the BRT or the DOA is proposed within a block of BRT. And just to go back, it's kind of all combined on the south part because the stations are a lot closer together south of Mississippi than they are north of Mississippi. Oops, sorry. So now moving to Broadway. So this area, so this is just applies to the western portion of Broadway because Broadway is the plan boundary and starting at Mississippi. So this will be rezoning existing mixed-use, old code, and industrial properties all to Main Street districts. And then we're matching the heights with existing entitlement and plan guidance. So the goal is to promote a more pedestrian-friendly environment and better maintain Main Street character. So you can see, like, right at Mississippi and Broadway, that's an existing CMX-12. It'll just go to CMS-12. The majority of the corridor will go to urban Main Street three stories, but then right at Evans, that currently has five-story zoning, so it will go to a Main Street five-story district. So the guidance for Broadway is to maintain the traditional Main Street character, prioritize ground floor commercial uses, incentivize the transition away from car-oriented uses, and then limiting drive-throughs, gas stations, and car dealerships. So now moving to the Evans Station. So this area we're rezoning from mostly industrial zone districts, so IA and then industrial mixed use, to urban center mixed use, three, five, and eight stories. So you can see eight stories are proposed north of Evans, right kind of along the tracks there. The reason it's kind of a weird cutout is because those, one has already been rezoned to eight stories, the other is currently going through the rezoning process as a private applicant. So that's why the boundaries are a little odd. And then the blue areas are going to five stories, so that's like the parking lot that's associated with the light rail station, and then a little farther north between Jewell and Evans. And then three stories is proposed south of Warren Avenue. And the goal of this is to promote transit-supportive densities near a light rail station. So the plan guidance is to support transit-oriented uses. It talks about how the blocks facing West Evans and surrounding the station should allow for a mix of uses, and that heights should support TOD. So the areas near Evans and Colorado should be up to five stories, and then buildings as tall as eight are appropriate adjacent to the tracks. And then there's one kind of property that got added in at Planning Board. And so this is the Table Public House. Is that the right name of the brewery there? Table Public House. So that's just rezoning from UMX3 to EMX3. So it's a very small change, but it's to allow the existing food trucks. So this kind of goes back to our food truck challenge. So this will just make that allowed in the zoning. And there's the plan guidance for this as well. So it talks about encouraging semi-permanent or mobile food vendors such as food trucks within our centers and corridors. And then finally for Morrison Road, this we're just rezoning a handful of old code properties to EMX 3, which is what exists today along the corridor. And the goal is to promote flexibility in the development and match the existing corridor. So the plan guidance for Morrison Road is for it to continue serving as a neighborhood destination while also allowing flexibility on these diagonal lots, or kind of rectangular lots. And so retaining the maximum building height of three stories, so we're proposing a three-story district, and maintaining current flexibility build-to requirements and setbacks, allowances for parking, so potentially allowing parking between the building and the street, and then removing the use overlay too. So now moving to the riverside communities, our industrial areas. The first, this is LaPan Street, which is just north, or this portion is just north of Ruby Hill Park and east of Sanderson Gulch. And the proposal here is to rezone from industrial mixed-use three stories to main street three stories to facilitate a mixed-use corridor environment and act as a transition to the more intense industrial area to the east. So it's mostly single unit residential to the west. So the plan guidance is for this to be a local corridor, but that existing industrial uses should be allowed to remain, but the area should evolve over time into a local community serving commercial corridor. And all existing industrial businesses can remain and continue operating as they exist today. And then the second piece along La Panne is farther north in Athmar Park near Aspgren Park. So there's like a strip of properties that are currently have single unit zoning, but most of it is industrial mixed use. So the proposal here is to rezone to a row house district to facilitate a residential area, again, to act as a transition between the single unit to the west and the more intense industrial to the east. And the guidance for this area is for it to be low, medium residential, but again, that the industrial uses should be allowed to remain, but it should eventually evolve into residential blocks with a mix of low residential and low medium residential uses. And then for the value manufacturing areas, so these are areas that currently have industrial mixed use zoning where we're proposing to rezone to a light industrial district. And the goal is to ensure these areas remain industrial for warehousing and manufacturing uses. And so the guidance for value manufacturing areas is that these should prioritize light industrial and manufacturing uses and do not allow any residential uses. So IA does not allow for any new residential uses. And then the final piece in the Riverside communities is the Santa Fe corridor area. And so this is existing commercial corridor and more intense industrial use zoning. And so the proposal is to rezone to a mixed-use five-story district to transition to a more mixed-use area from industrial and allow for some residential development. And the plan guidance is that this is an innovation flex area that should allow for a mix of uses, including residential, to reflect the changes along Santa Fe and Broadway and the I-25 station. All right, so now for housing opportunities. The proposal, so you can see in red are the properties that are all single unit going to two unit that are kind of scattered around the area, and then the blue are going to mixed use and multi-unit. So there's 16 that are currently single unit going to two unit, and then four that are two unit, single unit going to mixed use and multi-unit. And this is just to allow for more affordable units that are owned by DHA and Habitat for Humanity. And the plan guidance here is that the DHA owns a lot of dispersed sites in this area that should be allowed to redevelop, that height should reflect the surrounding context, but also allow for more density, and that we should be able to provide an adequate supply of high-quality, well-maintained housing that meets community needs. And then, again, exploring ways to allow more housing types across the city. So this rezoning would do that. And then finally, the institutional properties. There's two properties again. One is Denver Health, which is the blue one. And that one we're proposing to rezone from Old Code Hospital with waivers and conditions to Campus Health Care 2. And then the Westwood Library rezoning from R5 to a multi-unit three-story district. So the goal of this is just to bring properties into the Denver Zoning Code and allow for flexibility in the future to potentially add more uses or add more to these existing sites. So there's guidance in the plan about how community institutions and other nonprofits should be well integrated into the community, but also should allow for flexibility to expand their footprint. And then specifically for the Westwood Community Center, it talks about how this should continue to provide services, but also explore ways to provide additional services like food access, affordable housing, parking, and open space. And so I think for the city, we had discussed potentially this would allow for affordable housing, in the future to add on to the existing Westwood Community Center. So now, moving to the second criterion, staff finds this rezoning will further the public interest by implementing the policies in the three different plans, providing better design outcomes in centers and corridors, ensuring that the value manufacturing areas remain industrial, providing more opportunities for affordable housing, and allowing our institutional uses to grow while also keeping with the neighborhood character. And lastly, staff finds that it's consistent with the suburban, urban edge, urban, urban center, industrial, and campus context, and also the intent of the mixed use, main street, light industrial, industrial mixed use, multi-unit, row house, two unit, and campus healthcare zone districts. So finding that the three review criteria have been met, staff is recommending approval of this rezoning package. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Wonderful. Thank you, Libby. That was amazing and very comprehensive. I'd like to welcome Council President Sandoval to the meeting and then the council members that this is in their district. Council Member Flynn, did you want to make some comments?

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair, Madam Gautam. I appreciate that. I don't have any questions because we've been working closely over the last several months on this. And I just want to thank Libby and the CBD team and the whole Southwest Area Plan team for coming up with something I think really reflects where this needs to go. And I'm fully supportive of this, getting out of committee and going to the floor. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you.

Councilmember Alvidrez. Thank you so much. Definitely feel like Councilman Flynn's comments as well. We've done so much work on this. You've done so much work on this. We've gone back and forth about every inch. And I think every time we're still learning new things and finding new things. Like today, it was the first time I heard about the parkway thing. So that's interesting. But overall, I'm really excited about this rezoning. Something that I never realized growing up was that the neighborhood that I grew up was covered with giant billboards and they're often have alcohol or other harmful things to the community advertised on them. And so I'm excited to see the zoning to take away some of those billboards. And when people come from the east side of my district to the west side of my district. They're the ones that actually told me because I grew up with them. I thought that was normal. And then you realize that a lot of other communities in Denver don't have these giant billboards. So that small note is really meaningful for our future, I think, and what our communities feel like. Maybe we'll have trees. That will be nice instead of billboards. So that's one thing I'm excited about. I also appreciate that you're referencing what we used to really call the industrial area as the riverside communities and thinking about it, focusing on the river. And I know the Southwest Area Plan, like previous area plans, like what Council President talks about the West Area Plan that was worked on and how we stopped turning our back to the river. And I think this plan also does that, thinking about how we are changing the zoning around the river, especially because a big concern that remains is that it is one of the few places where gas stations can be. And so getting rid of some of the industrial zoning and maybe not, and we're talking about potentially not rezoning before it gets to the floor some of the industrial areas. So we're thinking about that at the moment. So there could be a floor amendment, just highlighting that for you all, something we continue to think about. But I'm really excited also that we were able to include South Broadway because the plan only went to half of South Broadway. And I'm really excited about the future and what that means for the transit-oriented development. One, because we have the light rail, but we could have the front-range passenger rail there now, too. So I think that's something we're really thinking about, especially with that Santa Fe corridor, because I thought originally the Front Range Rail was going to go with I-25, but it actually goes with South Santa Fe. So that rezoning in those areas I think is really crucial to what that looks like. And again, supporting the small businesses by requiring to still have commercial on the first floor because I know a lot of people that live by South Broadway or when the train stops in this area, people are going to want to go get shops, get food, and those kinds of things. So I think that was really important. I also just want to add a topic that you mentioned that has come up in our district has been about the Asia Center. If you haven't heard anything about that, I'd be surprised. But it's the Asian culture is extremely important to this area, especially to that area of South Federal. And so we did go over this rezoning with the Colorado Asian Pacific United group, who was also a contributor to the Southwest Area Plan. And we, you know, they said they were okay with it. They weren't going to oppose the rezoning. The Asia Center is in this area, and they have use by right right now to build the three stories that they want to, and they will still have that with this. The only thing that changes is the DO-8 plan. which everyone agrees is necessary. If we're going to keep the culture, we need to keep the small businesses. And so I wanted to mention that. I did have one question, which... isn't really related to the rezoning, but just curious, was there thought about taking this to the river committee or this committee?

Yeah. So I think when we submitted the ordinance, um, we, I've noted like a few properties are near the riverside, but I think when we discussed, cause as far as Southwest, we had the same, um, comment that, um, it makes more sense for this committee because it includes a lot of properties that are not along the river.

Okay. That's great. And then I did get one concern from community that I would appreciate. I don't see anyone from Denver Housing Authority here. Are they online by chance? Do you know if they were going to come to this? I do not. So a lot of those spot rezonings that you'll see are either Habitat for Humanity or Denver Housing Authority in this. And some are kind of, I would say they're significant going from one story to three stories for almost a block on Iowa or Colorado on Ruby Hill. And so we did get some questions from the Ruby Hill neighborhood when we were there asking what wraparound services are going to be provided to those residents as it gets more dense. From my experience with Denver Housing Authority, they do. support those and have a lot of those wraparound services, I would ask that they be there, if you could pass that along, that they be here at the final rezoning so that we can just have that conversation. And that's it. That's all I had. Awesome. Wonderful. Thank you. And thank you, Libby, so much for all your work on this, Fernando and team and everyone that worked on the Southwest Area Plan as well.

Thank you. All right. Council member Sawyer. Thank you. This is amazing. It must have been just an absolutely extraordinary amount of work. So great job. I had a question for you about the change to industrial in certain places and light industrial at that as opposed to heavier industrial. Is that going to create nonconforming properties?

in that area? Yes. So one of the ones that Councilman Alvidrez mentioned that we might be pulling out a couple properties that currently have IMX that are going to IA, which would not allow for residential uses because they have existing, as we found out in the process, have existing residential uses. So those might be pulled out at first reading. But yes, there are, there's definitely non-conformities being created going from IMX to RH. That's probably the biggest. Yeah. one. Um, so those are light industrial going to residential. Um, and you know, we, that's why we reached out to those property owners and like the plan guidance was changing from what blueprint had. Um, they're allowed there because they're nonconforming. So they are allowed to continue. Um, as they exist today, they can even, you know, get little updates inside, but if they're making any significant changes or if like it's vacant for 12 months, for example, they will lose that non-conforming use. We didn't hear much from the property owners of the resident of these, that area along La Panne, but I think from our perspective was that, you know, The properties are unlikely to rezone on their own to go from IMX3 to RH, for example. So if this is what the plan guidance is, if it's low residential, the best way to implement that plan guidance is for the city to do a rezoning. But yes, it will create nonconforming uses. Answer your question. Okay. That is really hard.

I mean, I'm supportive of it. It is what it is. It's just so hard to manage that situation, especially when we've led an entire process where the community has said that this is what they want, but it's not what's there now, right? And the transition between those two is just, it's a tough one. It is.

And that's where we've heard from a couple of property owners along LaPan going to Main Street, which is less of a change. And we, so like, you know, I met with one several times where he talked about, you know, and those uses are making more likely to be compliant, which has a lot more flexibility than non-conforming because Main Street and IMX really aren't that different when you look at them. The main difference is that the building form is better. So instead of that industrial building form that doesn't have any transparency requirements. Shopfront has transparency. So they'll just get a better building even if they maintain some industrial uses. But those are the owners we've mostly heard from who do have, who are worried. I mean.

Yeah, fair. I mean, it is. It's a fair.

Yeah.

Okay. I really appreciate that. And I will just say, My, my favorite case of Berea place is a taco truck that is on federal that had to move because they were nonconforming with, or they weren't allowed to be there in the zoning. So I'm very, very excited that this is going to maybe allow for. My taco truck, um, because it's a real loss to the city of Denver to not have that case of a taco truck in and along federal. Um, but I really am curious to know whether, like, I appreciate that that is being managed in. This specific rezoning, but this is a problem for the entire city. Right. And so I'm just curious whether there's been any conversation around a larger update to or the next time there's a bundle that's going through or whatever, some sort of specific way of addressing this challenge that is not like changing the zoning for an entire half of the city.

You know what I mean? It's not the perfect solution, going from U to E. But yes, so obviously we're aware of it within the department, and I know that it is on our list of text amendments. I think it's just a matter of how much. Yeah, and I know that council members are aware and interested in changing it. So yes, I know that it is on the official list of future text amendments.

Okay, I really appreciate that. I will just say, can I just make a request? Have you moved up the list? And the reason for that is because what we are seeing is the cost of rents for businesses is going up so significantly that food trucks are a very attainable and realistic way for business owners to create a small business and start to earn that equity in order to sort of move into kind of like... like when you buy a condo and then you move up into a house, right? Like to be able to enter the market and build generational wealth that way and then be able to invest in sort of a more solid business. And if our zoning code is stopping that from happening, then we are stopping an entire industry, potential industry from existing and that is not okay.

Right here is not to put her on the spot, but I think Liz was on the call. I don't know if she can give she might know more as Elizabeth. Um, she might be able to give more insight on to.

I don't know if she isn't that's okay. I know she was going to join virtually, but do we have it's cool online? You don't need it. I don't need it. It's fine. I so appreciate you guys. If you can hear me. Um, no, I get it. I just, I truly feel like this is something that is hampering. Small businesses in our city, and as we know, those small businesses are the backbone of our community. And my case, a Bria taco truck is just 1 small example of this, but I do think it's really important. So I would just like to ask if you. Guys are having that conversation and CPD, like, let's let's elevate that 1.

Okay, Liz is online. It's okay.

I mean, if she has anything she wants to add, would you like to have a moment?

Trying to mute her.

Hello, do you hear me?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, we can.

Council members, this is Liz Weigel with CPD. I don't have that much more to add. I know that council members expressed this desire to prioritize this text moment in, I think, one of the recent work program updates that was provided to committee, and that our team is working pretty hard to figure out how we fit it in. So we agree on the priority piece, and we can get you more of an update of where that might be fitting in.

Little more of an update.

Awesome. Thanks, Liz. Thank you. Okay, next we have Council President Sandoval with Alvedrez back on deck.

Thank you. So on slide 35, where land use recommendation 11, it talks about larger scale legislative rezoning should be prioritized over site-by-site rezoning to implement plan recommendations. How do you make that determination? On So if I own a property in here in this southwest area plan and want to come, do you have a threshold to say we don't want more site? Because this is similar to the west area plan, so you don't have it's a tool to stop gentrification and displacement. And Torres and I really worked on that in the west area plan. how do you, what's the threshold?

Yeah, so we don't have any kind of memo or thing like that like we did with West. But I think this is really just saying, I think it was really meant to just encourage that legislative rezoning is an important aspect and kind of the second piece of this plan work and to make sure the plan is implemented. As of right now, you know, if we receive a site, an individual site rezoning, as long as it meets the review criteria, I mean, it's something that we would process and then potentially recommend approval of if it meets the criteria.

And then have you all done an analysis on the implementation of the design overlay aid, the active street corridors on the and how it interacts with the parkway setback on Federal? I'm in the middle of a conundrum right now on where I put an overlay, this exact overlay on federal and now we have an applicant and it's the parkway setback, it's like colliding and CPD doesn't oversee the parkway setback, it's parks and recreation. So is there any talk about how we look at that and how we work through it? parks and rec in the future?

Not that I'm aware of, but it is something that we can look into on, yeah, what that means for these properties.

Yeah, it really, that parkway setback, I understand why it's there. I like, you know, it has a different feel. It does hinder development. Okay. I mean, I have lots of areas. It's 20 feet. 20 feet. I have lots of areas in Northwest Denver that don't have a big enough lot to to get that 20 feet. This property does because it's from right of way to right of way, right? So the alley to the, to Federal. But there's several that I have along Federal that were not, that they're more, like it's more shallow. That's similar to East Colfax and how they don't go all the way in depth more. And it really does hinder redevelopment. And I don't even know how to go about asking Parks and Rec how to, if you look, those are antiquated, like super old. They've never been updated. And they are, and with federal having BRT, how do we actually want federal to act and like have transit along if we have this park setback that literally only the executive director of parks can even have any say into like i have another parkway off of 46th avenue where it's great i think 17th avenue is a park is a park setback sixth eighth colorado but there's some where i think that we like there there could be an exercise where cpd and parks and rec and say all right how they how are these actually working now in 2026 and beyond okay yeah okay thank you thank you manager Thank you. Council Member Rodriguez.

Thank you. Thank you for that explainer. I wasn't sure what it was, but I can tell you that Federal Boulevard doesn't look like a parkway. And there's nothing green or anything park-like. And if there was, there should be. And they let curb cuts. It doesn't say anything about curb cuts. And a lot of that parkway is a park. Working anyway, really good to know and understand why some things just haven't been fixed. They do have a long term impact on these neighborhoods and their ability to develop. So that's interesting. I just wanted to add one more note for my colleagues more. Maybe 232024, we voted down a rezoning in our park that was next to a park where they were going to put industrial zoning and that is in this rezoning to be row homes. Part of the reason why there was concerned from the neighbors about switching to an, I think it was at the time or I. was the gas station thing and what all could be right there next to a park. And so this being row homes is really exciting. Hopefully we do see that dirt lot turn into something great. I haven't talked to the owners or applicants. I don't know if you have. I had to reach out to them. Yeah, and they were supportive of the rezoning?

But they mostly just had, because I think they had a concept in for single unit, which is what the current zoning, or part of the current zoning allows, where they were proposing IMX at the time. So I don't know if they'll come back now that they can do more than single unit.

I hope it does. Yeah, hopefully they do. Yeah, great. Well, thank you again, Libby, for all your work and just wanted to fill in that history.

okay great um this is an action item do we have a okay thank you sawyer and elvira second all right thumbs up we're all good okay on to the next one we have a landmark designation for 2100 california street and 2101 welton street you did

Thank You Libby Yeah, he ran into this Colorado Boulevard Colorado Boulevard We're ready when you are I'm a senior city planner with designation

Sorry, this is my first presentation back, so I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'm with Community Planning and Development, and we're gonna talk today about a landmark designation at 2100 and 2101 Welton Street. These are known as the federal garages. So this designation is located in Council District 9. It's technically in the Five Points neighborhood. The current zoning is DAS 20. The applicant and owner of the property is the United States of America, as represented by the General Services Administration, so the GSA. These are two historic bus garages located along 21st Street between California and Welton. This is often known as the Arapahoe Square neighborhood or area, and it is an owner-supported designation. This is the proposed boundary for the site. It's very tight around the two buildings. And just as a note, the federal government does not own or control the property, the property parking lots to the north. They own just the two buildings. So that's part of the reason the designation is right around there. So just a brief overview of the landmark designation process. I know you all heard this last night at council, so I'll be quick. But just a reminder that Denver's landmark ordinance was enacted in 1967. It's one of the oldest in the country. And its purpose is to designate, preserve, and protect important buildings in our city, foster civic pride, and promote good urban design. As of last night, we now have 369 individual landmarks and 60 historic districts. This accounts for approximately 4.5% of the structures in the city, which is on average for the national average of designated properties. The designation in Denver is a community driven process. It can be initiated by the property owner, the manager of community planning and development, city council member or three residents of Denver. And as I mentioned, this process is started by the property owner in this case. So in order to be a Denver landmark, a structure must meet the following criteria. It needs to maintain its historic integrity. It needs to be more than 30 years old or exceptionally important. It needs to meet at least three of 10 significance criteria. And the Landmark Preservation Commission needs to consider its historic context. So I'll go through each of these criteria in turn and talk about how these buildings meet the criteria.

So first we're gonna start with the significance criteria.

The application argues that these properties meet three out of 10 significance criteria, including being representative of the historic development of the city, having visible characteristics of an architectural style or type, and promoting an understanding of the urban environment through physical characteristics or rarity. So starting with criterion A, direct association with a significant historical event, or with the historical development of the city, state, or nation. The federal garages buildings are significant for the role in the development of the transportation across Denver and the Front Range. They were home to the Denver-Colorado Springs Pueblo Motorway. These routes provided consistent, affordable intercity travel between three of Colorado's most important cities during the early 20th century. The system provided crucial connections between the employment hubs of the Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, the steel mills of Pueblo, and the capital of Denver. These garages reflect the change from a reliance on rail transportation in the early 20th century to road and bus transportation over the next few decades. By the 1920s, as rail ridership declined and the roads and highway systems were developing, railroad companies began to actively develop their own bus companies or invest in a stake in a different bus company, which were cheaper to run and maintain. So at their peak usage in the late 1930s, this bus line in particular transported over 1,500 people a day. This is more than what the really popular bus tank route does today. So it was incredibly heavily used. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, which was one of Denver's largest railroads, bought out this company and had a 50% stake in it. So that's why it's also called the Denver-Rio Grande garages. So the Denver Colorado Springs Pueblo Motore also promoted sightseeing by bus, advertising the routes showcasing the Pikes Peak region and beyond. This was a very innovative thing that hadn't been done before and it really gave people an access to the mountains of Colorado in a way that they had never had access to before. The garages at California and Welton Street provided the buses with a home base and a maintenance space. The California Street Garage was constructed in 1925. It initially had room for six buses and expanded in 1938 as the need for buses expanded. And then with the continued growth of the bus industry, a second garage was constructed 10 years later in 1947. So these garage buildings are significant for their role in supporting the key shift of transportation patterns in Denver and reflecting how the industry grew over time. The main ticket office for the motorway was located at 8th and Wazee, but that's since been demolished, making way for the Auraria campus. So therefore, this is one of the few remaining buildings in Denver associated with transportation history. The federal garages are also eligible for designation under criterion C for embodying the distinctive physical characteristics of the Spanish colonial revival style. This style was common in the United States from about 1915 to 1940 and was especially prevalent in the western states and is seen all around Denver. This style is characterized by low-pitched clay tile roofs, round arches at entries and windows, towers, arcades, balconies, and masonry exterior walls, typically with stucco accents. So consistent with its more utilitarian use, the California Street Garage is a simplified version of this Spanish colonial revival style, but you can really see those details in the tiled pent roof, the red and brown brick walls with the stucco accents, and this corner tower. The 1938 edition replicates the exterior features of the original building. And then the Welting Street Garage, even though it was completed in 1947, as a supplement to this building, it maintains that same sort of architectural style, even though the style had fallen out of favor by that point. So they provide a really continuous experience as people walk down the street of that Spanish colonial revival style. And just wanted to note too that although the building's windows and entrances are currently covered in plywood, the original windows and openings remain and could easily be restored. We have pictures of the interior showing those windows existing. So the garages also promote an understanding and appreciation of the urban environment by means of their rarity. These garages are among the few industrial buildings that remain in Arapaho Square from the early to mid 20th century. The buildings reflect the change over time of this portion of the Five Points neighborhood as it evolved from single family residential to industrial. As you can see from this 1925 Sanborn map on the screen in front of you, the neighborhood was home to many single family buildings originally, which is not really what we think of when we think of Arapahoe Square. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty fascinating. And it went through that same transition that Capitol Hill did, where it went from single-family buildings to apartment buildings, actually. And then later, this area around Broadway transitioned into industrial uses as more industrial and auto-centered businesses emerged along the Broadway corridor. So we often call further south on Broadway, we call it Gasoline Alley as a reflection of all of the motor uses along that, but actually it stretched, this Gasoline Alley stretched all the way north into this Arapahoe Square region. But then, of course, urban renewal in the 1960s and 70s radically altered the neighborhood with widespread demolition. And it's still visible in the multiple surface area parking lots that dot the area. This map shows just a hint of the many, many parking lots that exist and buildings that have been lost. And I think we have another map later that shows this even more, that this area is just completely surrounded by parking lots and then high rise buildings with very few of those sort of moderate buildings of moderate scale in between. So these garages do promote an understanding of how this area was used at one point, and this really interesting evolution of the neighborhood. They retain many of their original features, allowing their original purpose to be easily understood. So this contributes to this understanding of this one's industrial nature, but also this transportation region. They're a very rare example and they have been used as garages by the federal government since they were purchased in 1967. So that's also why they're called the federal garages is just because of their ownership for such a long time. So chapter 30 also requires that a landmark designated property maintains its integrity. Historic integrity is defined as the ability of a structure to convey its historic, geographic, architectural, or cultural significance and how it belongs to a particular time and place in Denver's history. A sort of gut check is would people who were around when the building was constructed recognize the building today if they were walking down the street? And the application argues that these buildings do maintain their historic integrity. They've not been removed from location, so they maintain their integrity of location. They retain their integrity of design, materials, and workmanship. Even though the buildings are currently boarded up so that you know, they aren't broken into. The original features still remain underneath the plywood and can be easily restored and repaired. Historic openings still exist, so the structures do meet this integrity requirement. And here's the picture of showing, illustrating the many, many service parking lots in sort of the white cream color around the area. So as is appropriate for a property proposed for designation, the historic context is strongly interrelated to both the areas of significance and the period of significance. The designation provides context on the evolution of the Five Points neighborhood, the role of bus routes in supplementing and then supplanting rail transportation, and the history of development and expansion of the garages. The period of significance is 1926 to 1961, reflecting the use of the buildings as bus garages and the ownership of the building by the motorway. And then just briefly, I wanted to talk about plan guidance, which you don't always hear from us at Landmark, but it's really important, I think, in this case. These garages are located in Arapahoe Square or the Upper Broadway study area of the recently adopted downtown area plan. Their location is at the intersection of two visionary elements of the plan, 21st Street, which is part of the 5280 Trail, and Welton Street, which was identified as a transit priority corridor. The 5280 trail would create a trail-like experience to explore, and I'm quoting, the special and unique neighborhood and community spaces, cherished destinations, and new gathering spots. And the location of these federal garages along that trail would allow many more people to learn about the changing historical landscape of the Arapahoe Square Five Points area and provide vital historic context for the area. Additionally, the downtown area plan calls for these buildings to have ground level activation. The buildings with their existing bay rhythms and large expanses of windows could easily provide small affordable commercial space for local businesses to provide pedestrian oriented activation. So as of 10 a.m. on May 28th, CPD has received no written comment regarding the application. And at the Landmark Preservation Commission hearing, one member of the public spoke in favor of the designation. That was John Deffenbaugh with Historic Denver. So as the property is over 30 years of age and it meets at least three significance criteria, it retains its historic integrity and the LPC has considered its historic context. Staff is recommending that this application be forwarded to the full council for their deliberation.

Thank you for the presentation. Um, I'm going to go with council member Sawyer.

Thanks. Just 1 quick question. Um, on the list of, like. Criteria that it has to meet there was 1 piece that I'm trying to remember what slide it was right now and I can't, but it said it. it like it met the the preservation piece the integrity piece on a bunch of different things but not on one thing can you pull up that slide number i have to go back and look and see which one it is but it was the one where it's a picture of the buildings and we talked about how they're boarded up and they could easily be removed Producer, could you pull up that slide? There we go. Thank you. So under setting, the widespread change, what does that mean?

So when we think of historic integrity, there are seven aspects of this integrity, location, setting, design. And all buildings kind of have a weight of integrity. And so each building Each time we're looking at whether a building maintains its integrity, it's going to have a different balance of these features. And so in this case, while it does maintain its integrity of location because it hasn't physically been moved, we do acknowledge that the setting around it has had a lot of widespread change. I see. Okay. Yeah, so it doesn't retain its integrity of setting, but that's also why we're designating it, because it's significant. Great, because so much has changed around it. Yeah, for its rarity. So it's kind of like a give and take in that situation.

Got it. I really appreciate that. It just needed some clarity. I was like, why in spread change? Why would you put that on a slide where you're talking about integrity? But now I understand what you're saying.

Perfect. Thank you. That's it. Thanks. I have a real quick question about the, is this an owner petition for...

Yes, this is supported by the federal government. They are disposing of the property, which is selling the property. And to mitigate that sale, they are moving forward with the landmark designation. They also got it listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Can I respond to that really fast? Sure. Because I will just say we had this experience with the sale of the VA property in District 5. Correct. So it's the same kind of thing. So the state SHPO, the State Historic Preservation Office gets involved. The federal government is the property owner. When they want to dispose of it, it goes through their general services department. And one of the things that they have to look at is they have to look at the historic integrity of it. So the state makes a determination of whether it is something that should be preserved in the state's opinion. And then that is like a part of the sale, a part of the conversation around the sale. And so I lived this with. of 9th and Colorado or with the VA outside of 9th and Colorado. And that's how I know how it does. And so they make, like SHPO basically makes the determination of whether it should be preserved historic or not. And if they do make that determination, then the federal government as part of like their sale of the property agrees to designate it historic as part of the qualifications for the sale.

And so this is before, so nobody's purchased it or is there a buyer?

As far as I know, there's no buyer. And so it is, will be, you know, no one will get caught off guard. Have they put it up for auction yet? I don't think so. Okay. We do have someone from General Services online if you want to ask them more questions or we could ask a full council or...

No, I've driven actually by this building multiple times. I know, you know, it's like, I've seen it and, you know, you don't really think about what's inside the building. What is its current use? It's still a parking lot. Um, yeah. Yeah.

So it's pretty open, um, inside and we think. that it could be adaptably reused really easily. I did bring this to my design review colleagues just to get their sense of, do we think that this can be adaptably reused? Could things be built on top of it? And it has a lot of potential for a lot of really interesting future projects.

Since it was used as a garage, I guess that would be like a next step. If there was remediation that would be necessary, that's the next step in a process. Yeah. Okay. All right. I don't have any other questions, but... I'll move. Okay. Thank you. I was going to move and second. So I've got Alvidrez and Lewis as a second. Everybody a thumbs up. Okay, we have four items on consent. They have not been pulled off. So we are gonna move forward and this meeting is now adjourned.

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