Welcome back to this biweekly meeting of the South Platte River Committee of Denver City Council.

Join us for the discussion as the South Platte River Committee starts now.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thanks for joining us.

This is South Platte River Committee.

I'm Councilwoman Torres.

I represent West Denver District 3.

Let's do quick introductions before we get started.

And thank you.

We are a little early because we have a pretty full agenda.

So I'll start to my left.

Good morning.

Actually, it's afternoon, my gosh.

Good afternoon.

Daryl Watson, fine district nine.

Kevin Flynn, South West Denver's District 2.

Thank you very much.

And just checking.

Okay, nobody online.

We can go ahead and get started.

We only have three members of the committee in uh in the meeting, but we'll need four to actually do the action item.

But Justin, please go ahead and present.

And hoping we get our fourth one in pretty soon.

Sounds good.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

All right, my name is Justin Montgomery.

I am a senior city planner with community planning and development, and I'm here to present the official map amendment for 1252 West Buyers Place.

The presentation today will consist of four main parts.

I'll go over the request, talk about the location and context of the subject property, talk about the rezoning process, and then the review criteria that staff uses to analyze the project.

The request before you is a rezoning request from Urban Edge 2 Unit B to Industrial Mixed Use 3 with waivers.

The subject property is under uh 8,000 square feet.

It's vacant and located on the south side of West Buyers Place and east of South Navajo Street.

Now I'll get into the location and context of the subject property.

It's in Council District 3, represented by Councilwoman Torres.

It's in the Valverde statistical neighborhood there on the southeast side.

The existing zoning of the property is urban edge two unit B, and it's next to properties that are also zoned the same, the ETUB.

It's also next to IMX 3 B4 and in close proximity to EMX 3A along Alameda Avenue.

The proposed zoning is industrial mixed use three with waivers.

And it's gonna accommodate a mixture of uses with a three-story height limit.

One thing to note the proposed waivers would not allow for the townhouse building form to be used on the subject property.

And here's what the waivers are.

The intent of the waivers is to ensure that the site is not developed with only residential uses because the property is within the Sun Valley Manufacturing Preservation Area.

So it is uh calling for specific uses on the street level for this property.

The uh land use currently is vacant and it's the site's being used uh for adventure van parking right now.

Uh it's adjacent to other industrial properties, commercial properties, and residential properties as well.

The building form scale of this area is primarily one and two-story residential and industrial buildings.

Um, on this block, there's residential properties to the east and industrial properties to the west and across the street.

Now we'll talk about the rezoning process.

The application was deemed complete in February, and uh informational notice was sent on February 6th.

Planning board notice was sent on August 19th, and the planning board held a public hearing last week.

Uh we're aiming for a city council public hearing on October 20th.

To date, staff received two emails from the public that are attached to the staff report, one was from a nearby property owner stating opposition to the request and expressing concerns about the future use of the property.

Uh staff called to clarify the request with them and clarify the West Plan area plan guidance, and the citizen is less opposed to the project, just does not want to see a junkyard or a parking lot on the property, as is email states.

Uh the other citizen had questions about uh waivers in general and the the condition uh concerns about parking as well.

Planning board uh voted unanimously to recommend approval of this project.

Uh there were no public comments provided at Planning board hearing.

I'll get into the rezoning review criteria.

There are three review criteria for the proposed map amendment, which are consistency with adopted plans.

It's in the public interest and consistent with neighborhood context, zone district purpose and intent.

For consistency with adopted plans, there are three plans applicable to the subject property, comprehensive plan 2040, Blueprint Denver, and the West Area Plan.

The proposed rezoning is consistent with comprehensive plan 2040 strategies, which are organized by vision element.

There are two strategies to highlight for this case.

The proposed rezoning would allow for additional housing options near transit within an established neighborhood, consistent with equitable, affordable and inclusive goal two strategy B.

The proposed map amendment would allow for compatible infill development in an established neighborhood near transit, consistent with environmentally resilient goal 8 strategy A.

And moving on to Blueprint Denver.

We'll start with the neighborhood context.

The subject property is in the special district neighborhood context.

The districts are described as areas with specially designed purpose, such as education campuses, civic centers, or manufacturing areas.

In this case, the subject property is within one of eight manufacturing preservation areas identified by Blueprint Denver.

It's the Sun Valley Manufacturing Preservation Area that's shown on the bottom right here.

This is a district with both innovation flex and value manufacturing future place types.

The proposed IMX 3 with waiver zone district is consistent with the future neighborhood context because it ensures industrial uses on the property at an appropriate scale and supports innovation and flex uses.

The subject site is within the innovation flex future place type and blueprint Denver.

This future place type is a subcategory of the district's context.

These places can be mixed use and offer a range of amenities and services.

Residential uses are compatible.

The proposed IMX 3 with waiver zone districts can enable a small mixed use building with industrial uses on the street level and residential uses above, which is consistent with the innovation flex future place type.

For the growth strategy, it's in the district's growth area.

These areas are anticipate to experience 15% of new employment growth and 5% of new housing growth by 2040.

And Blueprint Diver provides additional guidance related to manufacturing areas, as this economics policy shows.

The subject property is a small site within an innovation flex future place type.

Residential uses are appropriate and the proposed zoning is consistent with the guidance and the site's designation within the Sun Valley Manufacturing Preservation Area.

And for the West Area Plan, this plan was adopted by city council in 2023 and applies to the subject property.

The economy and housing chapter provides policies and strategies relevant to the proposed rezoning.

The subject property is underutilized, vacant, and currently being used as a recreational van storage lot.

Higher intensity uses are encouraged here, and the proposed waiver language ensures industrial manufacturing wholesale primary uses on the street level for this site.

The potential for job opportunities is greater with the proposed waiver language included because the IMX 3 zone district allows solely residential uses and doesn't require industrial uses.

There are also specific recommendations for the Valverde neighborhood, and the subject property is recommended for an innovation flex on the summary of Valverde recommendations map.

The IMX zone districts are supported here.

The proposed waiver languages balances the specific support from the economic policies above and the recommendations from Blueprint Denver.

And the second review criteria is public interest, and staff finds that the proposed official map amendment furthers the public interest through implementation of the city's adopted land use plans on a currently vacant lot.

In addition to providing industrial uses, the proposed rezoning could also provide the benefit of additional housing that can be compatibly integrated into the neighborhood.

The third review criteria is consistency with neighborhood context, zone district purpose and intent.

The requested zone district is within the industrial neighborhood context, which generally consists of areas of industrial uses of all types, as well as areas subject to transitions from industrial to mixed use.

This is appropriate for the subject property adjacent to the same base zone district of IMX3.

Within the industrial context, mixed-use zone districts accommodate a variety of industrial, commercial, civic, and residential uses and encourage affordable housing.

This is an appropriate purpose for a site in this area comprised of both industrial and residential uses.

The requested zone district is consistent with the neighborhood context description, zone district purpose and intent, as the requested zoning is intended to provide for mixed-use development.

And with that, uh CBD recommends that the South Platte River Committee move this application forward for full consideration by city council.

Thank you, Justin.

Thank you very much.

I'd like to welcome Council President Sandoval who's joined us online.

Is that right for me, sir?

Good.

Okay.

And uh council um uh Pro Tem Romero Campbell, thank you for being here.

Um I'll open up with just a couple of questions, Justin.

Um, the Sun Valley Manufacturing District.

Yeah.

Is that what you mentioned?

I don't know a whole lot about that.

Hi, Councilman Heinz.

I got you.

I'd like to welcome Councilman Heinz as well.

Um what other guidance does that give um in terms of this corridor?

When was it established?

Well, it's a it's a good question about its origins.

I know it's a uh definitely in the blueprint uh Denver from 2019 and um recently kind of got upgraded, updated.

This these the future place type in this area got updated when the West Area Plan came into effect.

This is one of eight areas identified to uh preserve uh many value manufacturing and innovation flex uh uses in these areas.

I think I have one in Lama Lincoln Park as well.

Yes, yeah, okay.

And there's one that is just to the south of this as well that extends southern.

Okay, thank you for that.

Um a question for the applicant.

I'm assuming we have an applicant representative.

Okay, thank you.

If you can come to the mic and introduce yourself real quick.

Hi, I'm Paul Anderson.

I'm uh the architect, I'm representing the owner today.

Great, thank you, Paul, right?

Yeah, okay.

Thanks, Paul.

Um, when I met with Mark, right?

Um, Mark is the owner.

Um, he gave me a bit of an uh insight into what's proposed there.

Can you describe what uh the project is looking like just to make sure it has such a moment?

It's a um it's a I would say like a relatively small um two-story building that would be uh that would have those industrial uses on the as the primary uses on the ground level.

And then the upper level, it's a partial upper level, part of the building is two-story height to help accommodate some of that, you know, some of those possible uses.

The upper level would either be office or residential, depending on I don't know what something that he he was he would decide.

But it's so I think some things to note, just like from the architect point of view, is it is not coming anywhere close to maxing out like what could be built on the site.

Um, I think it's much more in scale with the buildings that are on either side of it, which are both also two-story buildings.

And one of the reasons why um we've been looking specifically at the industrial building form for the site is because it allows um parking between the building and the street, and I think he's very sensitive about not trying to kind of like flood the you know the street, which is like well, you know, a combination residential and industrial sort of um block um with parking.

So he's trying to, you know, even even with the the you know the the suspension of the parking requirements, like he's trying to make sure that there's room there for customers to park.

Excellent, um sizes.

Do you know offhand the size of the parcel and then the size of the building, like the footprint?

Yeah, so it's uh it's a 50 by 125, so it's like 6150 square feet.

Okay, and um I believe the building is uh both floors combined, roughly 2,000 square feet.

Okay.

Okay, perfect.

Um, thank you for that.

Yeah.

Paul, yeah, that sounds right.

You can double check it.

It might actually, you know what?

I think it might be less.

I think we're like 1750.

Okay.

Upper levels now fold.

Um, uh question on outreach.

Um, uh, I know Mark had already talked by the time you talked to me, it had already talked to uh the RNO leadership, but do you have any sense of um how conversation or communication went with neighbors or maybe circling back to the RNO at all?

I don't know much about that.

I I the only bits I that I know of are the ones that Justin mentioned that came up at the city council meeting.

Um by the time it comes to council for hearing, if we can get some uh just confirmation on what that outreach looked like, that would be excellent for me.

Yes, okay, perfect.

Um those are all the questions that I have.

Um anyone else in queue?

Any hands up online?

Councilman Floyd.

I'm sorry, I have a stuff out.

Mm-hmm.

Um, just I think a slide line, I'm operating off my phone right now.

Uh could you explain what are the permitted uses?

Uh, so I have a better understanding of those.

I understand the townhouse form is waived.

Well, trying to understand the rest of the year.

Yeah, so essentially what it's what it's doing is trying to restrict what can be done on the street level to prevent just residential uses on the property.

And so for the primary use, it needs to be within the industrial manufacturing and wholesale primary use classification, uh, which some examples of that are uh communication and information uses, industrial services like food preparation and sales, uh contractors specialty trade, uh manufacturing, of course, uh fabrication and assembly, either a custom, general or heavy, or actually not heavy, sorry.

Um there can be transportation facilities, there can be uh waste recycling services and warehouse uh wholesale storage and warehouse uses.

Those are generally like the primary uses.

I think that was just too high level for me to have some remote.

Absolutely, yeah.

That's all great, thank you so much.

Uh welcome, Councilwoman Napides.

Um any other questions?

Uh, do I have a motion and a second?

Councilman Watson motion.

Thank you, Councilman Heinz Seconds.

Um, uh, thank you, Justin.

We'll see you in uh full council.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Everybody, well, let me get a vote.

Everybody good.

Okay.

Perfect.

Thank you all so much.

Um we will transition to our next item, which is a construction contract uh for the Washington Street 47th to 50 47th of 52nd project in council district nine.

So we'll give a little bit of time to transition there.

Okay.

Oh, I don't want to be on the side.

Okay.

We're good informed.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

So my goodness is strong.

Hi ladies, thank you so much uh for being here.

If you wouldn't mind introducing yourselves and then you can get started.

Certainly.

Molly Scarborough with the Elevate Rise Bond Program.

And Maggie Thompson with the Dotti external affairs team.

Great.

Um, and we're here because the approval of the contract.

Um we had an early conversation with councilmember Watson, who um seconded the importance of this project and wanted to bring it to everyone's attention because we are excited that it is moving forward.

So we're just gonna provide you a brief update and answer any questions um as we go along.

Um, so um, and I do want to say um Jed Turner from Dottie, um, may be joining us on the way.

We kind of move things around in the schedule, and so she may be joining us.

Um, probably.

Okay, that's my fault.

Sorry, no worries.

We're gonna cover it regardless.

So, we're gonna talk about the project scope and status, the project timeline, uh GES citywide coordination in general, of which this is a part, um, and traffic impacts and detours.

So this is an elevate bond program.

It also has RISE, federal funding associated with it.

Um, as an elevate program, we always like to start with um the project summary that was um in place when this was approved by city council and the voters, and so we always go back to that original intent.

And so this description, I'm not gonna um walk you through it all, um, uh covers that.

And so it's really about the full roadway reconstruction of Washington Street from 47th Avenue to 52nd Avenue.

Um it's about reconstruction, mobility improvements, pedestrian bicycle facilities.

And in the middle of that kind of first paragraph is that goal of making Washington Street an attractive corridor that creates a positive sense of place, attracts private reinvestment, and better accommodates all transportation modes.

And so we are excited to fulfill that intent.

So I'm gonna turn it over to Maggie, potentially to talk about the specifics of the project's scope as we're moving forward.

Yeah, so for anyone who's familiar with Washington Street and its current state, there's a lot of room for improvement.

So this project, you know, has gone through several rounds of community input, several rounds of community conversations about what is needed there for residents, businesses, folks who travel through the area.

So the items that we're gonna be doing are improving travel, so two-lane roadway design with new signals and undergrounded utilities.

Um if you're up there right now, you may see some of that utility work happening as we speak.

Um there's action on the corridor.

Uh we're going ahead and moving those lines underground to make it a more pleasant place to be and avoid more conflicts with things like industrial traffic, trucks, things like that.

Um, we're also going to be adding amenities to this area.

So, right now there isn't even a sidewalk in this area.

So, by adding not only sidewalks, bike facilities, but also that pedestrian lighting, wayfinding signs, and there is a green infrastructure component along here too.

So there will be some bioswales and other things to help collect rainwater and clean that before it goes into the South Platte River to kind of bring us back to our grounding item for this committee.

Um, and then as we know, uh this is a very unique part of our city that has a fascinating history and a fascinating um story to tell that doesn't always get told.

So we're making sure that there is placemaking, that we've gotten community input on those placemaking items, and you'll see those start to go in uh with community input as we move the project forward.

So we've got two projects going on uh right now in this area.

Just a quick explanation of why we've split it into two projects.

This entire area that you see in both green and purple is part of um the bond item that we're talking about.

That's what was in the bond item.

Because of the federal funding that was received for the Washington component of it, we split this out into two projects.

So 51st Avenue was an on-call contract.

That contract has been approved, that contractor is outdoing surveying work as we speak, is gonna be rebuilding 51st, um, Clarkson, and most importantly, that intersection of 51st in Washington, which is currently really offset and has been a problematic intersection for many years from a safety perspective.

We're lining that intersection back up again, making it safer for folks to cross on in all modes.

Um, but this is just to give you an idea of the scope of this project.

So if you're familiar with this area, we're essentially going from I-70 to just shy of the city line, where some private development was able to do some roadway improvements above 52nd.

So there's a lot of work to be done, but a huge corridor in and out of the city in a community that also has very limited options for transportation as far as um roadways that go to north, south, east, and west because of I-25 and I-70 running through the community.

Yeah.

So similar to what I said earlier, uh, design is complete.

We've started some early demolition and some utility relocations.

That first uh contract has been moved forward, the 51st contract, and what we're talking to you guys about today is the contract with SEMA construction for the 22.7 million.

Um, the anticipation is if we can get this through council over the next few weeks here.

Um, we can see some full-scale mobilization happening by the end of this calendar year.

So we'll really have work happening and really see these changes that we've been talking about for a very long time come into play.

Um we have some different requirements for our maybe we be in DBE based on the types of funding that we have coming through this project, but there are contract amounts going into both of those pools for this project per city ordinance and our DBE requirements.

And then just to give you kind of the broader picture of funding where this is coming from, we've got 20 million dollars coming from the Elevate Bond.

So that puts us on that timeline, right?

We're in a little bit of a time crunch.

We got to get this project done before the end of this bond cycle.

We've got some elevate sidewalk funding.

That's primarily for those areas that you see up in the neighborhood and clerks, the Clarkson Street area, etc.

We've got about 12 million dollars in grant funding, 5 million in CIP, and then a little over 2 million in other.

And Deb Turner, who's just joined us, may be able to answer more questions about those funding sources, but just know that we've cobbled this together.

The total budget for this project is over 40 million dollars.

So a big investment in a neighborhood that has been underinvested in for many years.

Hi, welcome Deb.

Yes, I thought we were third, so I'm yes.

Okay, great.

And well, maybe we'll turn it over to you for timeline next.

Yeah, timeline.

So we've finished the design.

Um, we were awarded the gr the raise grant in 2022, but we also had bond funding from the 2017 bond, which was the major funding for that.

So we entered into the planning process where we came up with the cross section.

So we didn't want it to look like Adams County's four lane with you know all asphalt and concrete.

The community really wanted it to have trees and more accessible sidewalks, access to transit.

Um, so that took some time, and then we started the design process, and with the raise grant, we we had to go back and do some federal NEPA studies as well.

So, um, and then I think they showed you like 51st and Washington were kind of broken into two separate projects.

Um, 51st will be starting this month, so there's a groundbreaking that I think will happen at the beginning of October with that one.

Um, we broke them into two separate projects just because it made how it made sense and with the property acquisition.

Um, so then Washington Street, we we hard bid that one over the summer, and even starting last summer, Denver Water was out there relocating lines.

Umergy has been out there doing a bunch of work.

Comcasts are undergrounding all the utility lines out there.

So it's really gonna transform this area for the citizens and make it much more accessible for both bike and peds and actually better street lighting.

So it's pretty dark out there and dangerous out there if you're a pedestrian.

So we sent this one out for construction for a hard bid in April.

Um we're just sending the SEMA contract, they were our low bidder.

We got it approved by FHWA since it's a direct recipient bid.

Um, and we don't have to do any funding agreement amendment, but this is the contract that you see before you is only for Washington Street 51st was bid using our on calls.

So you'll start to see construction pretty heavily out there with 51st by the at the beginning of October, and this one we're anticipating NTP in November.

So there's a lot of work already going out there with the levy project.

Um, so the detour has already been on Washington Street, and and the railroad will actually do the work over the railroad.

Um, but yes, so we'll see construction.

We anticipate substantial completion by the end of 27, so well within the bond scope, which was I think the driving factor in this one.

Great.

So as we go through the construction phase, uh it's important to know the positive economic impact.

And while we don't have specific numbers for this project, we do know the elevate Denver bond, like all bond programs, has a significant impact on our economy through the contracts, through the jobs, and of course, through the infrastructure that is built that is the foundation for our residents and our businesses.

Uh, also want to note, as Maggie noted before, um, there's a lot going on in the DAS area.

We are excited about this level of investment, and but we also know it's hard on the community as we are going through construction.

So there are groups at the city who come together regularly to understand all of the different things that are happening.

There is an online map that shows the status of different city projects in this neighborhood in particular.

And there are weekly meetings, public information staff to make sure that we're coordinated, because community members don't know if it's DOTI or if it's other organizations.

They just know that things are happening in their neighborhood.

And so we're trying to coordinate so that it's coordinated outreach to that neighborhood.

And they don't get hit, you know, 15-20 times by every different project.

Yeah.

Yeah, really the two the two goals of that of this program that we've put together, are one to make sure that we're streamlining information so folks can get a digest of what's going on.

My example I like to use is it's Sunday night, and you have to figure out how you're gonna get to work on Monday morning, how you're gonna get your kids to school on Monday morning, and in this neighborhood, there are not a lot of options.

We fortunately have some very good items written into our contract that we'll talk about here in just a second to make sure that access is maintained through this neighborhood, but it is a significant difference to know whether you're accessing your child's school by one street or another street, and you know that with plenty of time before you're scrambling on Monday morning.

And Maggie, I'm gonna turn it to you for construction.

Yeah, so like I was saying, um, you know, we do have some very good communication plan and process.

We're making sure that each of our contractors is working together with DOTI as an organization to, like I said, get those information that get that information out through a digest.

So they have a one-stop shopping, they can save the item, you know, we're using a QR code a lot to make sure that folks can say this is the website I go to, this is the website I go to, making sure people are saving that site information, and then also getting that out through what's currently a monthly newsletter that could be changing depending on how hot and heavy construction gets as we're moving forward.

Um, but we do also have requirements through our contractor to maintain traffic through the area.

So at least one lane of traffic in each direction has to be maintained on Washington Street through this entire project.

For those of you who have who've who have moved through this neighborhood, you know there's there aren't options to ditch off and take a back route.

Um, it's a very constricted area, particularly for freight, and there is a decent amount of freight that moves along this corridor, and the alternatives that I may be able to take on my bike or someone might be able to take in a passenger vehicle are not available to those to those folks moving freight through the area, so we're making sure that that stayed open.

So you will see full and partial closures potentially through the corridor that are coordinated with our contractor and our city traffic engineer, similar to the way that we do other projects.

Most of those closures will occur in, you know, if you go back to that map in some of those off Washington Street areas like Clarkson, etc.

Businesses will maintain access as part of this project.

We have been working really closely with individual businesses.

A great example that I will use is many of you might be familiar with Project Angel Heart, which is not only a critical service provider here in Denver, but they provide meals all the way down to Pueblo and Colorado Springs to folks with medically complicated dietary needs.

And so they are moving food and meals in and out of their building 24 hours a day a lot of times.

They're moving volunteers in and out, they're having food deliveries, so making sure that those folks don't get caught up in one of our closures or in one of our construction issues.

We worked really hard last year to make sure that they maintained water service through the Denver water upgrades that were going on.

If you're running a commercial kitchen, you can't lose water, that's not an option.

So we've been working really closely with those folks.

And then we will be maintaining access to side streets, et cetera.

This area has so many projects going on in it right now.

Just to rattle off a few, um Deb mentioned the levy project that's going on.

So that's why you'll see a bike detour for the South Plot River Trail right now along Washington Street.

We have private development happening in the area.

We've got a new library being built.

We've got the new Carpio Sanguinaire Park being finished out, which is going to be a gorgeous amenity for the community.

And then on top of that, we're making sure that when the stock show starts, folks are able to get in and out of Stock Show properties.

So we're also coordinating on a regular basis with the event planners, the folks at the CSU spur, et cetera, to make sure that access is maintained to National Western through through all of this.

Alright, so next steps, we are here today.

Hope that you forward this on.

Next is Mayor Council, City Council first reading targeting in October.

And again, as we mentioned, we're looking for a notice to proceed in October or November.

Groundbreaking, actually, 51st, as we said, is a physically grand groundbreaking.

Washington is soon thereafter.

We're gonna have a combined groundbreaking event end of September or early October.

We're still kind of landing on that date.

So but we are very excited about this project for the neighborhood.

We're excited to move forward the bond projects, and of course, for the federal funding.

So any questions?

Great.

Thank you all so much.

We do have a queue, but let me just um kick to Councilman Watson Watson as the council member for this neighborhood, if you have any comments or questions.

Yeah, I'll just start with comments and then I'll see many uh-up questions after my colleagues speak it.

I want to say to the uh the Dotti team and to everyone that's participated, seeing there's other folks around.

Thank you so much for um the ways in which you've leaned into community, uh, the community dialogue.

I didn't see Chris Callahan here.

Um, and I can say for um several years, those monthly or bi weekly or bi-monthly, whatever the term is, um, meetings with um all segments of the community to get their input on the direct impact, I think was essential, and it's not the norm for a um a construction project that wasn't fully the funding fully wasn't there.

We didn't know that we were gonna get this funding, but still that communication coordination with businesses and community members alike has been there.

Um the thoughtfulness, we as council just um uh approved uh 4965 um Washington on the building of the library, and that um housing um that's gonna go there for our deeply affordable housing for 99 years on this street, um, the coordination with that project as well to ensure that um they can move forward and begin their due diligence of building that um while you are still uh preparing on Washington Street for this good work.

Uh I think this is a demonstration of why our bonds make sense with elevate and then rise coming together to finally develop and provide to our neighbors in Globewill, Illyria and Swansea sidewalks and streets, and access, I think is important.

So I think this is an amazing project, and I wanted to just really just start by thanking you all for um the years of good work and uh look forward to um hopefully moving this to the floor.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh Councilwoman Ovidis.

Thank you, committee chair.

Um, thank you for the presentation.

I was curious, and sorry, I was having computer problems while you were talking, but did you all speak to the 2.3 other funds?

Where what are those other funds?

Oh the ones on the breakdown.

There's a 2.3 at the bottom.

Sorry, I think Dura is most of those funding in the area.

TIFF funding.

Or separate Dura funds.

I think they're TIP, TIP funds.

Okay.

Let me double check.

Okay.

Um, and then I was curious about the sidewalk funding.

Was that sidewalk funding allocated to several parts of the city?

Or was it just this project that got sidewalk funding?

It was part of the bond citywide sidewalk and then also the GES area specifically.

So we as we looked at the projects that have been outlined backing and then 1718, it made sense to add them to this area and to help develop it out rather than do like a block here and there.

So they are GES funds and District 9, citywide sidewalk funds.

And were there citywide funds for the whole city?

No, yeah, they were all allocated.

Or district.

Yeah, and I think there was a district equity that had to be met, so yeah, they didn't take money from other districts and move it into this one.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

That was all our questions, Johnny Jerry.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Quick question.

I've heard twice that rise funding went into this, but I didn't see it in the list, and I didn't see it on the dashboard.

So I just wasn't sure what that was.

I don't think rise funding raise funding.

Thank you.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

It may sometimes made it really complicated for us.

I think I think we did say rise at one point, but I think the intention was raised.

I think they're just very similar sounding.

And so that is a federal funding grant.

Perfect.

Thank you.

That is answers all of that.

You know, it actually this and the I think the culmination of so many projects happening in Globeville, it's totally the same in Westwood.

Two bonds funding the reconstruction of Morrison Road, a rec center from Elevate, a library from RISE, like all of these things are happening in neighborhoods, very similar in story on investment and disinvestment.

And probably keeping a really keen eye on how this investment could spur displacement, gentrification, while still making sure that we are giving neighbors what they need.

So thank you so much for the presentation and the information and look forward to seeing it finished.

This is an action item, so I need a motion.

Councilman Watson, a second, Councilman Heinz, thumbs up votes.

Everybody good?

I don't get a vote.

Okay, you don't get a vote, but thanks for listening.

Happy to participate.

All right, we are good to move forward.

Thank you all so much.

Thanks for having us.

I apologize for being late.

No, you were not late.

You were on time.

We were just early.

We will uh transition now to a briefing from our friends at the Mile High Flood District.

Uh, so give us just a couple seconds, and whoever's part of that one, come on up and take a seat.

And what a perfect dovetail from what we just heard.

Um, so looking forward to hearing about this.

We're gonna go back in time just a little bit.

It did they're slame.

Um, so go ahead and introduce yourselves and go ahead and get started.

Go ahead, Terry.

I'm Terry Martin uh with Dottie Wastewater Department.

And I'm Beth Bogle Sain with OV Consulting, working for Dottie on these projects.

All right, okay, just go ahead.

Please, please do.

All right, so to in conjunction with Washington, we're gonna spend a minute on Globeville Levy, and we want to give you a status of the improvements and where they're at today, but we want to take a little step back and just show you how we got here and the work that was done to really get to this um these really kind of fabulous coming together uh things today.

And uh Terry's gonna touch on some adjacent supporting work briefly because Washington Street's already been mentioned.

So when we think about the river, we um we always have to go back in time and remember that this river has not always looked like it does today, that it was a different river.

Um it was a place of trading and hunting for our indigenous populations, and the characteristics of the river though have are similar in that it's sometimes shallow, sandy bottomed low water levels.

And then here comes a big rush, and there's a lot of water.

So we we um have always had that type of characteristic.

As we moved into the late 1800s and early 1900s, we began to develop along the river and the location to the east of the river with the gentle slope from our topography made the railroads and our early industrialization and commercialization possible, and that became the focus and the concentration of that um that movement, and that changed the nature of our river to be a shallow uh not necessarily controlled river along through our industrial area.

Over time, we experienced some flooding and we had some different issues, and today our river is very channelized, managed pretty heavily through um the use of our reservoirs, and um looks a lot different than it did in its early days.

So, with that, we want to go back and look at Globeville in particular, and this illustrates all those yellow, all those yellow orange lines are the various drainage basins that we have throughout our metro area, and the big orange one at the top is the Globeville one.

And this is one of only three that does not have a natural waterway in it.

So we water moves, stormwater moves across the basin in whatever pattern it chooses.

So this is it at a closer look, and you can see Washington Street there, that's what we were just talking about, very close to the river, and you can see the rest of the basin out toward Shaffee Park.

So this is an interesting basin in that it has both river flooding or fluvial flooding and stormwater flooding.

And this is not this is unique in some locations of our city.

There's a handful of locations where we have this.

And so this creates an interesting interesting challenge as we go to talk about flood measures.

We have always fought the river and its conditions and its tendency to flood.

And as early as the 1920s, we thought we had it under control and we tamed the treacherous plat in Globeville.

So we weren't even close, but we gave it a try, and we wanted to all claim victory.

It cost us 80,000.

But as we developed over time, we realigned our highway, we made investments, and in 1965, you're all aware that we had a huge flood that impacted Valverde Athmar Park up through the city and all the way to Globeville.

So by 2008, we had developed a levee along the river in Globeville.

And that's the current levy that exists.

So we do have to ask ourselves why, why have we been fighting this so hard and why are we, why do we have both types of flooding?

And so when we went to create solutions through our stormwater study and work with the community on this, we developed a whole series of educational materials to get help people understand why are we flooding so much in Globeville?

Why do we have this risk?

So this topography is really important in that the orange area there is where the Globeville basin is, and you can see that Denver sits in the lowest portion, the lightest colors along the river and the lowest topography.

And the high points are the red to the edges.

So water just tends to naturally flow to the river and to the majority of our development along the river.

This is important because when we look at the Globeville basin, we say, okay, so what's happening here?

The highest points are over by Chafee Park.

That's our highest elevation, and the lowest portion, which is all the blue, which is essentially not much higher than the river itself, sits right along the blue area, which covers the central portion of our Globeville neighborhood.

So when we go back in time and we say, well, what does why does that matter to us?

The this is a picture of how the river used to move through the area.

And if you kind of look at that block compared to that blue area, basically the river used to be through much of what is Globeville in its natural condition.

So when it rains, or or when water elevates through the river, it wants to be in that same spot.

So we go back and we say, so what did else did we do?

What else did we do to influence water through this area?

Not only did we just build our community in the riverbed, which is one thing, but we also grew and developed.

So Globeville was home to our earliest industry, our smelting industry, and that meant railroads.

And so all those lines you see are all the railroads that cut through the Globeville basin area, and were really home to the smelters and some of our very first neighborhoods that you can see in the little purple dots is where you started to see a little bit of residential coming in to support the smelting industry.

So this cut our area up quite a lot.

By the time that we got through that and we moved into 1940s and 50s, we started to talk about highways.

And then we decided that we would put both I-25 and I-70 through this neighborhood, bisecting it, along with the railroads.

And as we did that, you can see not only did we just create transportation barriers, but we started to really create infrastructural infrastructure that influences our stormwater runoff.

And so as the highways went in, you'll see all that purple development became the footprint of all of our industrial development, which means it's paved, which means that water is not absorbing into that when it falls from the sky.

So the combination of all those things, which is the dark gray that you see there, coupled with the topography that we have in place, means all that stormwater, when it rains in Chafee Park and throughout this area, it rolls along toward wanting to get to that low area along the river.

And because we've put so much infrastructure in place, it follows some really interesting patterns.

It made up its own path.

This isn't its natural path, but it kind of rolls over to the big rail Rennick Yards, and as it comes south along the Rennick Yards, it hits that arrow along 48th, and it goes down what is essentially a lovely little canal, which is a railroad bed, but it's shaped perfectly to carry that water across 48th and land in the core of the Globeville neighborhood.

And that is our stormwater runoff issue.

And it sits in the Globeville neighborhood because that is our lowest point, and it has to very slowly eke its way over to the river.

And so we want to know that this is the stormwater story, and this is an issue that we're dealing with.

And then in addition to that, this is the South Put River spill.

So this is the other flooding that we have.

So the current levy from 2008 when we built that is the dark gray there.

It runs along most of the Globeville area.

It does not extend as far south as what we're looking at today, but through there, but down at the southern end, kind of across from Taxi in that area down there, there's a spill location where the west bank is much lower than the east bank.

And if the elevation of the river rises, that is where the water is going to come out.

And so, as that water comes out, unfortunately, it also lands in where you see the blue right through the core of the Globeville neighborhood and up along.

So when we were working with this community, it was really important that they understand that there are two issues to flooding, both the river and the stormwater, and that we have to come up with solutions for both.

And in doing so, we implemented what we called this new approach.

And so typically we look at pipes, absolutely, and we still look at pipes, but we wanted to bring a program that said, and we're going to work with you to understand this issue so that you know why we're doing it, and we're going to look at other solutions like green space, green ways, things at the surface that could be assets to the community, not just the pipe.

And so in the end, hopefully we end up with solutions with multiple community benefits.

So that was sort of our mantra as we went through a pretty uh extensive engagement process.

We set our primary goals at alleviating stormwater and reducing risk of flooding and of course increasing awareness and improving water quality, but then really making room for the community goals, which were those other benefits, like reconnecting them, dealing with some of that mobility issue, encouraging sustainable or natural solutions, increasing partnerships, and being, among others, being consistent with the Globeville Neighborhood Plan, which had been completed prior to this.

We did, I don't even know, maybe 40 to 50 events out here.

We had a stakeholder group called the Vision Implementation Team that was really tied and very significant to the process.

We did multiple tours.

We started in Chafee Park on a bus, a little tour bus, and we rode the path of the raindrop, and we understood where it went and how it went.

We had lots of public meetings.

Anyway, the idea is that we looked for those solutions, not just for the community, but with the community.

And the two biggest outcomes of this process were tied back to the two types of flooding that we have, which is we came up with the 48th Avenue outfall to the river, so a new outfall to the river to alleviate all that water that sits in Globeville Basin there in the low part, coupled with a greenway element that extends from Lincoln through the park and all the way over to the river.

So that's the big picture concept.

And then with that, we also came up with improvements to the levee to prevent that flood risk coming from the river.

So with that, I'm gonna turn over to Terry who's gonna talk about those two because those two became the big projects coming out of the work that the prior work.

Yeah, thanks.

So my name is Terry Martin.

I've been managing the design and construction of uh multiple projects in Globeville that we'll go through here.

Um so the the levee and the outfall project kind of both came out of uh 2018-2019 Globeville stormwater system study.

Uh we've been working on preliminary, or that's when preliminary design of the levee started, is in about 2018 or so.

In 22, we finished the first phase of the levy project from uh 50th to Franklin, which is basically through Carpio Sanguinetti Park.

Uh phase two of levee construction started last winter and is currently ongoing until about 27.

Um, and at that point, uh construction of a portion of the 48th Avenue Greenway and Outfall System will start.

Uh, and that will take us through, I guess that will start in about 26, I should say, is when uh 48th Avenue outfall and greenway will start.

Um, and then phase three of the levee project is essentially from 38th Avenue to 31st.

And uh we are still in design, we're in preliminary design, about a 60% design level of phase three, and we're just getting started on uh moving design of that forward.

So that'll be more towards the end of the decade uh when phase three is implemented.

So your map so you can walk them through that.

Uh oh, there you go.

So, as far as the levee specifically, uh the entire project reaches uh from 31st to uh Franklin, which is the county line uh essentially.

Uh, we're raising the existing levee anywhere from three to five feet, something like that to add freeboard uh and uh a little bit of additional stormwater uh resilience to the neighborhood and to the river system itself.

Uh typical levee improvements are either like an earthen embankment uh for about half of it towards the southern end.

It's it's more wall-oriented because they're just the corridor is too tight and we don't have room uh for the earth and embankment.

Um so it's either gonna be a concrete wall anywhere from three to uh five feet tall during phase two or a big berm essentially.

Uh as part of that, we're also rebuilding the South Platte River Trail.

We're widening the trail.

Uh we're adding uh crusher finds um portion of trail through the corridor as well.

Um so we are adding some recreational benefits uh to the corridor and to the neighborhood as well.

Um Dotti is partnered with Mile High Flood District on the project, uh funding is coming from Mile High and from our enterprise fund.

Um, and it's about 30 million.

Uh phase two is about 30 million, and uh not quite sure yet on phase three.

We haven't gotten far enough in the design to uh come up with the firm cost on that, but we'll let you know.

So here's where kind of where we're at with the current construction.

Um, these photos were taken last week.

These are essentially at 48th Avenue.

Um, on the left-hand side is is part of the 48th Avenue outfall system.

Uh, essentially what we're doing at the outfall is building a new plaza overlook onto the river that's gonna have bench seating, it's gonna have a wider trail, it's gonna have some cool swings, and then you can see the actual uh outfall itself on the bottom right, those wood forms right there.

That's where the the pipe is discharging into the river right there.

So, as part of the current construction project uh contract, we're essentially building this plaza and outfall system and trail.

And you can kind of see on the picture on the right, um the top left, you can see some concrete wall back there, and that's the actual levee.

Pretty pretty exciting stuff.

Um so it'll add a nice uh recreational amenity to the river where previously there was none.

And here is a rendering of the next phase of the outfall project.

Uh so this will be constructed starting next next winter, essentially winter of 26 into winter of 27, fall of 27, I should say, hopefully.

So what we have here and in the rendering, starting on the right side on the east side of the river is the new Betty Cram Dry Bridge, which we haven't really mentioned much.

That's a new bridge connection from Globeville over to the stock show.

Uh that will be built uh under the same contract as the Greenway piece, which is kind of in the center of the rendering.

Uh what we're doing with the bridge and uh and the 48th Avenue itself is 48th Avenue moves north from where it currently is, where it um in its existing location, we're building a new greenway uh essentially.

So instead of a street, there's about a 50-foot wide green space with some trail connections between Washington and the river, seating, some plaza areas.

Uh it's also gonna have a small portion of water quality uh as well, like Maggie had mentioned earlier.

Um so it'll be a nice, uh nice amenity, nice connection between green spaces uh between Washington and the river.

And there's the outlook.

Yes, yeah.

Bottom right is the outlook, which we're currently building uh itself.

Uh another project uh in construction is a Carpio Sanguinetti Park.

Uh construction of the park started in 2002 and is currently in the last and final phase, uh expected to be complete next spring or summer, I think is when we're looking at doing a uh ribbon cutting.

So uh the initial phases of the park were all the infrastructure, there was pipes, there's detention and water quality basins, and phase two that we're currently building is all the fun stuff.

It's all the place structures, it's all the trails, uh, two million dollars in new native vegetation, or uh revegetating about 20 acres uh uh from what was there previously.

It was just kind of a dumping zone essentially, and it's all gonna be brand new park space, uh, open space, trails, educational nodes, plazas, pavilions.

Um, and they just last week they put the new playground equipment on a boat, shipping it from Norway uh to New York.

So we should have that here in a few more weeks.

Um, so very exciting.

It's gonna be really nice once it's done.

It'll be the city's fourth largest park once it's done.

Nice.

So last but not least.

And we were gonna leave you with this rendering.

They stole our thunder on it.

So linking it all.

Exactly.

Uh, the pond at the north and 48th and adjacent to the river.

So that's what we have for you today.

Amazing.

Um, thank you all so much.

Um, I remember I had asked for this briefing because um I'm one of the Denver Reps 2 Mile High Flood District, um, where I'm always learning so much, and it was one of the items that we approved, and I thought this would be such um a valuable uh informational item to bring to committee, and so thank you so much, and I'm glad it was timed with the Washington Street um update as well.

So um one of the things um I just these maps are so amazing.

Um, and the historical kind of navigation you took us through in terms of how water moves, how it gets to the plat in the Globeville neighborhood, that's exactly why I think we are so excited about this kind of committee focus on the South Platte.

Um, my grandmother's sister lived in Globeville uh in 1965 when it flooded, and um recalls quite dramatically um how she had to leave her home and come back to a mud-filled house.

Like it was a total ruin and everything.

Um she and her family owned.

So it is uh it is such a real memory for for Denver families.

Um I councilman uh let me go to Councilman Watson really quickly, and then I'll go to Councilman Heinz.

I was just gonna say, um, the the maps.

I mean, I've been raised on a lot of this, and like a council Member Torres said, I don't recall the actual clear mapping of where the river ran and where Globeville sits, and you wonder, you know, floods and and the storage of water, it answers it so clearly, and I think for this to be recorded on Channel 8 for folks to have just that clarity I think was so helpful.

I had just one question on the reconnecting um communities um grant.

Is that just um providing funding for a Betty Cram, or is it providing for the greenway?

Just Betty Cram.

Yeah, as far as our project goes, that was just Betty Cram.

Yeah, the green way is paid through enterprise funds.

That's through enterprise.

Yep.

Thank you so much uh for the work um on the park as well.

My gosh, I just I mean, I the last time I went through there, it was still you're still trying to get the native grasses to grow, but to see all of the change so far on the estimation of that's gonna be done next year.

Um, the community absolutely absolutely is excited about it, and the fourth largest park from a space that really had no access, community members had no access to.

The smelting dumping grounds, yeah, it's it's amazing.

I mean, it's hard.

I mean, it's it's easy to visualize because you have all the pictures, but it's hard to remember how how bad that it was in rough shape.

Yeah.

Well, thank you all so much.

This was a really great presentation.

Definitely, it gives hope to all of us with industrial coordinates.

Um, I was hoping it would be inspiring because there are a couple more spots to go.

I agree.

Councilman Hines and then Proton.

Thank you, Council Dores.

Um, thank you for the presentation that I agree that the visuals are great.

Getting uh to learn more about our city is great.

Um to hear positive stuff uh continuing to come out about 80216, um, that has had um you know reputation of being number one in a uh in a ranking you don't want to be anywhere near number one, so you know uh number one is in the single most polluted zip code in our nation.

So um how it makes me jealous, it makes me want to uh move into a different guy.

2027 when you did that, I don't know.

Uh I would I would never do that.

Um, but uh but also I was not here in 1965.

Um it wasn't part of the flood.

I was part of, I don't have any pictures from my youth uh because um uh because we for a brief time uh my mom and I moved to this um this house that was up on like pretty large um center block or not center block, brick um uh uh platforms, and um we're like well that's weird, and we're just this huge, you know, grassy area.

It was a floodplain, um, and I remember when I was little, um, I was on the shoulders of a uh firefighter, and I have my lunch box, and I was trying to be a big man at you know, seven years old, and my lunchbox was just shaking.

My mom uh, you know, I didn't think about that at the time, but my mom was saying my lunchbox was shaking.

And we uh we store all our all our photos under the bed, and it flooded so high it went into the house.

Um so I don't have any photos going on.

So, um, for your family and uh the so many other families that were affected.

Um, no one should have to go through that.

So thank you for um for turning 80216 into um a um uh a neighborhood that makes people jealous.

So thank you for that for thank you, Pro Tem.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh thank you for the presentation.

I just kept thinking during during the process and as you're talking and showing maps, what a Denver story um it is, and I don't know where in the process it's like always nice to think about where in the process have um or where it can be captured.

I think about history Colorado, I think about involving young people to understand what the history or if they're gonna be any um place uh interpretive, like is there is there a way to do signage or something that commemorates the the change and part of our history um so that we can see it over time and and understand it.

I love that so I will say um on Washington Street for that job there will be historic signage just telling the street the story of the industry and the commerce that took place there and along the river we have locations in the final design for similar signage and at that overlook and so we're hoping to work with River Sisters and some others and and we still have room to develop that that message so the the information's not identified yet just the locations that would be amazing and then also wondering and I don't know if it's too late in the process but I'm thinking about you know um K 12 students but those who are in college now and what's their involvement or understanding or being able to come and see this as a case study um knowing that our climate is you know changing dramatically and what Denver is doing for remediation not only for um for the land and the space that it's been on but also thinking about flood mitigation I think is really an example that is very timely unfortunately for a lot of young people that are going through and maybe choosing this as their careers.

And so I don't know where that connection can happen but that would be another or an additional thing to maybe bring to the table um you know it's not far from you know the National Western I know that there are our um we think I think of it in a very agricultural way um for what the National Western is doing um around like their Vita building and so forth but thinking about just I feel like there's there's a touch point that as part of the park project we are installing I think it's 19 educational nodes throughout the trail system and then as part of phase one of the levee project uh in here in Carpio Sanguinetti we did do a little educational note about the watershed itself the watershed of the South Platte River uh there's a big like carved carving that we did showing all six or seven states that are the watershed that make up the watershed of the river so we've definitely been including some of that where we can that's fantastic it's a growing it's a growing effort we're we're just starting some work in Valverde and and hopefully that all of that will continue to just come together and we've been in a park I know that there is an art um installation that were I believe there are mass created by youth um the um uh over the years and there's there's a space where there's an art installation so there's some youth participation that has occurred just organically because those things were stored there already and so that's part of it so just on the share note as well there's three art installations and then the uh poetry stones is what we call them yep yeah yeah that's fantastic and exciting um I've worked in nonprofits my job my work in my life before this it was in nonprofits and um did a lot of work within um the Globeville area Swansea neighborhood as well uh and I remember these outreach meetings that you had as a nonprofit receiving some of that putting information out like so it's it was a nice kind of reminder of like oh yeah I guess I I remember receiving that in what 10 years ago um and for the record I was not around in 1965 either.

I was not born in 1965 we'll just no we don't know I don't remember the flood although I was born and raised here but um thank you again for the presentation awesome and um just a quick plug for Milehead flood district thank you all so much seven county uh district focused on improving our waterway systems and mitigating flood risks um and uh really grateful for the partnership between you all and um our Dotty team so thank you so much we have no items on consent um that's our agenda.

Thank you, everyone.

Appreciate your time.