Public Meeting June 24 & Background Information

[localone]

Dear South City Park residents,



Denver is introducing a New Denver Zoning Code. The entire city will be re-zoned under the New Denver Zoning Code. A series of meetings--one meeting for each City Council District--has been announced, where the re-zoning map will be publicly introduced.

Flyers will be distributed to South City Park residents in the next few days. The Flyer, which is now being printed, alerts South City Park residents about the District 8 Zoning Meeting to be held June 24, 6-9 PM, at the Blair Caldwell Library, 2401 Welton Street. The Flyer also stresses the importance for those who can to attend the June 24 meeting to see the map, to understand its effect on your home, and to provide early input on the process. It behooves South City Park residents to have a strong attendance at the meeting.

A few residents were able to review a draft of the New Denver Zoning Code map on Monday, June 15 with City Council District 8 Councilwoman Carla Madison. This initial map, if not altered, will impact South City Park through greater density, increased height, and reduced parking requirements. We must now determine for ourselves what are the new zoning categories for our section of Colfax and for our resident streets that will best honor what we have fought to define all these decades--including the R-3 to R-2 rezoning campaigns and even the Main Street Zoning Stakeholders work. There may or may not be unilateral resident support for mapping that best honors what we have fought for, but those at the meeting with the Councilwoman think it a better place to start versus what we were shown at the meeting.

South City Park residents are encouraged to:

(1) go online to the City's informational web site (newcodedenver.org) and learn about the New Denver Zoning Code
(2) attend the June 24 meeting where you can see and respond to the New Zoning Code map
(3) go online to the neighborhood's web site (scpna.org) and participate in local discussion of the New Denver Zoning Code
(4) discuss the topic among residents on your block, intentionally including those residents who may not have easy internet access



Jim Slotta-for SCPNA



ADDENDUM: WHERE TO FIND INFORMATION ABOUT THE NEW DENVER ZONING CODE

The New Denver Zoning Code can be studied at
www.newcodedenver.org

Neighborhood maps are not yet available. As it says in the Media Advisory below:
The zoning maps will be available on newcodedenver.org after they are presented in each council district.

In the New Denver Zoning Code, Neighborhood Types include:
Suburban
Urban Edge
Urban
General Urban
Urban Center
Downtown
Special Context

They can be seen and studied at
www.newcodedenver.org/types

The following is a Media Advisory:

MEDIA ADVISORY

June 10, 2009

Draft of Denver’s New Zoning Code available for public review online

Public can view The New Code and comment at newcodedenver.org

A draft of Denver’s New Zoning Code is available online at newcodedenver.org.

The public can download and print the draft code and make comments on the code through the Web site.

The release of the draft code marks the culmination of the four years of work by the Zoning Code Task Force, a diverse group comprised of volunteers drawn from neighborhood organizations, various business sectors, the historic preservation community and City leadership. More than 3,000 people have participated in various community meetings hosted by the Zoning Code Task Force since the project began.

The New Zoning Code Web site is a way for everyone in Denver to get involved and give feedback on the code. The interactive site has many features, including blogs, video blogs, questions and answers, a public meeting schedule and general information on The New Zoning Code.

“Newcodedenver.org is a great place for the public to go to learn more about the new code and review and comment on the draft code,” said Peter Park, manager of Community Planning and Development. “We want everyone to be able to provide their feedback on the code, and have created many opportunities for feedback.”

A series of the public meetings will start next week, when the new draft zoning maps will be taken to each City Council district for public review and comment. All meeting dates and locations are posted at newcodedenver.org. The zoning maps will be available on newcodedenver.org after they are presented in each council district. Another round of public meetings will begin in July, when revisions to the zoning maps based on previous public input are taken to each City Council district again.

“The Web site is a great supplement to the public meetings that have already occurred and to those that will take place throughout the summer,” Park said.

The New Zoning Code fixes Denver's 53-year-old, unwieldy, patch-worked zoning code. The New Denver Zoning Code, a comprehensive rewrite, will support a growing economy, a sustainable environment, a diverse mix of housing, strong neighborhoods and a high-quality of life.

The next round of public meetings in date order are:

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
Tu 6/16
1
Mr. Garcia
6 to 9
Scheitler Recreation Center
5031 W. 46th Ave.

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
W 6/17
7
Mr. Nevitt
6 to 9
DU Driscoll Student Center north, Governor's Ballroom
2055 E. Evans Ave.

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
Tu 6/23
5
Ms. Johnson
6 to 9
Temple Emanuel
51 Grape Street

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
W 6/24
8
Ms. Madison
6 to 9
Blair Caldwell Library
2401 Welton St.

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
Th 6/25
4
Ms. Lehmann
6 to 9
Temple Sinai
3509 S Glencoe St

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
Tu 6/30
10
Ms. Robb
6 to 9
National Jewish, Molly BlankConference Center
1400 Jackson St.

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
W 7/1
9
Ms. Montero
6 to 9
To Be Announced

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
Tu 7/7
3
Mr. Lopez
6 to 9
Barnum Recreation Center
360 Hooker St.

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
W 7/8
11
Mr. Hanthingy
6 to 9
To Be Announced

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
Th 7/9
6
Mr. Brown
6 to 9
To Be Announced

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
Tu 7/14
3
Mr. Lopez
6 to 9
Southwest Improvement Council
1000 S. Lowell

(Date/Council District/Council Member/Time (PM)/Location/Address)
Th 7/16
11
Mr. Hanthingy
6 to 9
To Be Announced

###

Best Regards,
Julius Zsako
Communications Director
Denver Community Planning and Development
201 W. Colfax Ave., Dept 205
Denver, CO 80202
720-865-2969
[e-mail]

[localone]

(posted by Jim Slotta with permission)
Rich Kadinger, Block Captain for the 1500 Block of Steele Street, has been recently keeping his block's residents abreast of this topic. He felt the need to provide the following summary of what has transpired in the past few days:

Hi Becky, Marcia, Alison and Jennifer:

I got your replies mentioning that the email from Carla and the website I sent the link for are confusing and unclear. Although I did not attend the meeting I will give you my impressions. They may or may not be 100% accurate, but they should help with an understanding of the basic issues. I am going to copy everyone on this email as I suspect many shared the confusion.

The actual proposed zoning for our neighborhood is shown on the draft of the zoning map. I am not able to find a map anywhere at the website I sent you the link for. A recent email I got from Jim Slotta says it won't be available before the June 24th meeting.

Apparently Carla has a preliminary map that she and the group were looking at during the Monday meeting. Carla's email indicates that the proposed zoning for South City Park east of Madison is G-RH-3 (Row House 3). The proposal for west of Madison is G-MU-5 (Multi Unit 5). Both of these categories are under the General Urban Neighborhood context:

This is for areas that are Predominantly Multi-Family.

I personally think that SCP and our beloved Steele St. would be more appropriately categorized as Urban Neighborhood context:

The Urban category has residential land uses are predominantly single family with some duplexes. Homes have a traditional form with detached garages. There are occasional rowhouses and small apartment buildings. The area is not Predominantly Multi-Family.

Although I have not reviewed the specific uses allowed under the new code, I am sure the General Urban category allow much more dense and higher elevation uses like the old R-3 category did.

In "hot areas" like ours developers historically have been able to build big projects on R-3 land if they get enough lots together. That is what the assemblage reference in the email from Jim is about. Developers buy two or three houses next to each other, scrape them and build something big and out of character that doesn't fit in with the rest of the neighborhood (like the development at 16th and Colorado). That is why many people in the past changed the zoning of their lots from R-3 to R-2.

Another thing mentioned in Carla's email is the Main Street zoning on Colfax. In our area of Colfax the zoning is currently MS1 and MS2. The preliminary map that Carla and the group were looking at during the Monday meeting apparently shows our part of Colfax as being MS5 which would allow much higher buildings than the current designations.

Carla's email proposed keeping our part of Colfax MS1 and MS2 as it currently is. She proposed Urban Neighborhood context category U-TU-B (Two Unit B) for South City Park which is probably closer to our current R-2 zoning. Hopefully this email will be helpful in understanding some of the zoning issues. Let me know if you have questions.

Rich Kadinger

[robh]

Rich,

As one who was at the meeting with Carla, I think your explanation is spot on. Thanks for posting that.

After reading through the code, I agree with you entirely, that SCP is, currently more an "urban" neighborhood as opposed to a "general urban" neighborhood. The zoning code that would seem to make the most sense for the eastern areas of SCP seem to me to be Two Unit A-1 (U-TU-A1). This code allows for "up to two units on a minimum zone lot area of 45oo square feet with additional units allowed on corner lots subject to locational restrictions. Allowed building forms are the urban house, detached accessory dwelling unit, duplex and tandem house building forms. Rowhouses are allowed on certain corner lots."
This category would allow for the gradual densification of the neighborhood but would primarily limit that to the lots fronting 17th or 16th Avenues while keeping the north-south streets primarily single or duplex homes.

Of course, the areas where existing muti-family residences are would not fit this category and would need to be something else that allows neighborhood and courtyard apartments. I think that this is where the central question lies. Should the entire neighborhood be designated to allow for (eventual) much denser and higher development or should the neighborhood be cut up into smaller districts of varied zoning to allow for densification but not alter the overall character of the neighborhood?

Rob Hunsley

[denrican]

My big question. With the code as is what could be built on the north east corner of 16th and Harrison if the existing single family home was leveled ? Higinio Malavet

[robh]

Higinio,

That lot is over 10,000 sq ft. Under current R2 zoning, it could be developed as a triplex without needing any variances.

Rob

[robh]

In reading through the "Urban" and "General Urban" codes, the problem for the city planners seem to be the current mansion, courtyard, and neighborhood apartment/condo buildings in the neighborhood. The "urban" districts do not allow for anything more (denser) than neighborhood apartments built on the corners. Think of the buildings on the corners of Harrison and 17th or St Paul and 16th. This section does not allow neighborhood apartments to be built within the block (like the existing apartments on Cooke, Steele, or Detroit. The "urban" districts do not allow for mansion apartments like on Steele or St Paul Streets or courtyard apartments like on Steele, Monroe or Harrison Streets. To get to a code that allows for these uses, you need to move to the "general urban" districts. In addition, the Main Street district that is proposed for our section of Colfax is from a third section of code - the "Urban Center" code. As best I can tell, the only difference between the C-MS-5 and the G-MS-5 is the parking ratio. Guess which one is lower. ;D

[monroehomeowner]

Does Denver have a long-term plan for south city park? Is the development at the old Provident hospital site the long-term plan? Are they merely trying to change the code so that it reflects the current uses in the neighborhood? I am guessing that most of the houses in the neighborhood are in pretty good shape and none of the houses seem to be so big that they are not economical for a person/family, re more suitable for multiple dwellers or commercial. How long should a 100 year old house last? Does Denver do planning incrementally or do they have a long-term 15 year plan? I am confessing to ignorance about this.