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.

I've got always agreements.

Good afternoon, everyone.

There we go.

Hi, welcome to the South Platte uh committee corridor committee.

Um, Councilwoman Jamie Torres who represent West Denver District 3.

Um, we have a um packed and really exciting agenda, I think today.

Um so I want to get started with uh council member introductions.

Um, do we have anybody on Zoom?

Great.

Um so I'll start to my left.

Uh good afternoon, Darrell Watson representing the flying district nine.

Rora Elvidres with Lucky District 7.

Perfect time.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, sir.

Um, and uh we've got a few action items.

Um, we'll go ahead and start with uh the downtown Denver area plan, and I'll hand it over to uh our guests, and please introduce yourselves and go ahead and get started.

Thank you, Councilman Tours.

David Gaspers with Denver Community Planning and Development.

Uh I'll walk you through some more of the technical slides, but first I'll hand it over to Courtney Garrett of the Downtown Denver Partnership to start us off.

Amazing.

Um, as David said, Courtney Garrett, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership, want to thank you all for this opportunity.

And I want to start with a little bit of the potential of this plan and why we at the Downtown Denver Partnership care about it so deeply, why we've become both financial and project management partners with the city and why this is a true North Star for our organization moving forward.

Um, so David, could you just go back to the opening slide?

Um wanted to start by just kind of thinking about when we look back at the 1987 downtown area plan and then what we saw again in 2007, it's absolutely undeniable that despite two recessions.

So if you think about 87 to 2007, two recessions, so many market ups and downs, yet despite all of that, over the course of 40 years, those plans fueled more than four decades of unprecedented growth.

And our city changed, and our city continues to change.

So whether you're looking at that change through the lens of a global pandemic or historic office vacancy rates, or you're more of the cup half full kind of a person, and you see that we have massive new development being proposed and new investment in our city, it leaves us at this moment when we can either choose to let these things evolve around us, or we can lead a vision for the future and write our own story.

So that truly is the impetus for this plan and why we believe it's so important at this moment in time.

So we all often point to Denver Union Station as a vision-turned reality.

That's one of our best examples that's looked at internationally.

And it's because of the thoughtful planning, the multi-agency partnerships, private sector moving in the same direction, this complete neighborhood that truly is a Mecca for transit, amenities, housing, entertainment, open space.

That has been delivered in our city because of the vision and the collaboration on the front end.

So now we sit, and next slide, David.

We sit at this moment when we can do the same.

The real urgency around this plan and what this plan presents is a plan that calls for immediate and urgent and important action items today, as well as setting a long-term vision for the future.

So to reiterate why now, you all have heard all of us talk about these statistics over and over and over again.

Downtown continues to be an economic engine for this entire city.

But if you'll go to the next slide, David, we'll see, and we all know that this is incredibly fragile.

When we look at office vacancy rates, we see the lack of green space.

We see the lack of diversity of housing stock to really care for our community.

We also know that just at a baseline, we are missing people back in downtown.

So that's where the plan started, is with that, the people.

So even though we were on a very short time frame, because we knew, again, those near-term urgent and important action items are imperative.

So even with a short time frame, the community engagement, the high engagement has been very robust.

Over the course of time, we received some positive feedback, but by and large, we heard concern.

We heard concern about affordability, about vacancy, about safety, and this overarching feeling of downtown just doesn't feel like it's ours anymore.

Heard in multiple, multiple communities.

So when we talk about solutions, the converse sort of of that theme was well, what will bring Denver together?

And over and over again, we heard this theme of play.

Play unites us.

Places where all backgrounds, all communities, all neighborhoods in Denver feel that they have a place and that they have a piece that they own that's a part of the city.

Carol Coletta, some of you may know, is an amazing thought leader in urban planning space.

She calls downtowns the civic commons, the historic places in our cities where government, where neighborhoods, where jobs, and where memories all come together, and it's all within this notion of diverse play.

So when we look, and you know, it's very coincidental.

Your agenda in front of you today talks about this quite a bit.

Where have we been successful?

Why do people come downtown?

Where we have kids, where we have families, we have our sports, really providing play.

This isn't about playgrounds on every corner, though that would be great.

It's about play for all ages.

Because with play, we know comes economic opportunity, cultural celebration, and that social connection.

And you see that succeed all over our city from Union Station to Ball Arena and everywhere in between.

So from a data perspective, Cushman and Wakefield again fortuitously recently put out a study about the value of play.

For decades, we as cities and as urban centers have talked about a live work play environment.

And we've doubled down on investment and efforts in the live and the work, but we haven't been as intentional around play.

So what that looks for in the plan is to really apply that principle in a number of categories.

So what you will see in this plan, and what you have seen in this plan, is of course very keen attention to mobility, connectivity, housing, grocery stores, social services, affordability, sustainability, green space, all of those elements that truly make great cities, with a through line of making downtown Denver the place where our region comes to play.

So I'll pass it back to David, and you'll get into more of the specific strategies and tactics, but again, just want to thank you all so much on behalf of the downtown Denver Partnership and look forward to partnering on the implementation moving forward.

Thanks, Courtney.

That was a great start and uh a walk through uh the slides here that talk more about plan content, uh, the criteria for evaluation of the plan to be consistent uh with the comprehensive plan and provide that recommendation to Ford to full city council.

Uh before I do that, I want to acknowledge that um it's not just been a partnership between CPD and the Downtown Denver Partnership, even though we've been joint project managers, but all city departments have played a role in this uh because every city department touches downtown in some way uh form or fashion, right?

So we have great support in the crowd today from not only DDP staff.

Thanks, guys, but also uh Arts and Venues, CASER, Dottie, um, DPR.

Uh so uh, you know, this has been an all-in effort from city staff, especially to move with the speed that we actually have accomplished this plan.

We really launched this in the public around Labor Day of 2024 and uh through very much uh intentionality uh to make sure that we are not spending two or three years trying to plan because we knew we had immediate actions, uh got to a draft plan this summer, uh, and here we are today, wrapping this up, hopefully by November if we get to city council as planned.

So uh it's been a really uh fun experience uh in the sense of that it's been such a collective effort across all these different departments to make this happen.

Not only to deliver the plan, but then be committed to implementation.

Uh we've had a lot of great public input here.

I just have a note here on the comment resolution and plan content that we delivered in the August draft.

Ultimately, we had over 1500 comments come in between the public, the CAC, the advisory committee that steered this whole thing, our internal review as well as planning boards review.

And so major themes there heard.

There's safety, affordability.

I think Corney already mentioned those, job curation, economic investment, mobility and access, better streets and public spaces, arts and culture, green and sustainable, all things that I'll I'll touch on as I go through some of the slides that highlight plan content.

I'll start with this plan snapshot, which we've called a planner on page before.

I kind of think of this as like a visual elevator speech, if you will.

And we really want to emphasize this near-term and long-term focus that the plan has immediate actions, things that we are already doing today and will be doing uh in 2026 around safety, affordability, uh streamlining governance, uh supporting local business and office, uh improving connections and access that are grounded in our foundational elements of the plan, these building blocks of investment, resilience, stories, innovation, equity, and connection, and most importantly, play.

We really have that element kind of rising to the top and with a focus on play uh that will provide a spark, a momentum uh for downtown.

So we start to deliver on some of these really big short-term uh projects, likes of Extender Next 100, reimagining Glenarum Plaza, already have momentum on that, investments into Skyline Park and adjacent uh projects around Skyline that um will help us in support of this long-term vision of a complete and vibrant downtown.

So uh that's like reimagining Broadway, uh, something that we've been talking about, but want to deliver this time, uh, realigning and rethinking of uh Spear Boulevard and Cherry Creek and other significant transformational projects.

So I'll walk through uh the plan here a little bit.

First chapter about the plan has a lot of the data that uh Courtney already went over, but um we're grounded in a lot of elements of the impact that downtown has for not only the city of Denver but the entire region.

Uh we also want to uh really relate the plan to our stories.

Uh, we heard a lot from the community about um how they have such great memories of uh visiting downtown throughout their entire lives and bringing their children downtown and and all those things.

So uh I encourage you uh if you ever look at the appendix.

Uh the first uh appendix A is a really great um summary of different stories that we've collected uh that Historic Denver helped us actually put together and is a really great read of different vignettes.

We capture that here on this page.

The building blocks again are the vision elements to create a vibrant, healthy and complete downtown.

Uh so I've already ran through those, but it is really the the structural um core of the planned content.

Chapter three challenges and opportunities.

Uh again, what Courtney was saying, we very much acknowledge some of the real uh and acute challenges that downtown is facing today.

Um, but we want to look at that as an opportunity to actually think forward and how barriers to connection you can actually bring uh you know connection to all of our neighborhoods into downtown.

That uh the existing inconsistent investment across downtown actually is an opportunity to activate the market and the lack of places to explore and linger is an opportunity to actually elevate play across all of downtown.

So uh want to highlight that this graphic was done by one of our CBD staff members, Jen Kim, who really highlights uh on the left here what maybe we experienced today in downtown, which uh has its good, but also maybe uh not it's not its ideal, uh, and what it could be as we start to implement this plan vision and really activate uh downtown places uh to invite everyone to to come back to downtown.

Uh chapters four and five are where most of the plan recommendations lie.

Chapter four is uh policies and programs.

We have seven bundles of policies here that run across all of that.

This is a good example of uh navigation and eligibility here that has a an outcome-based goal and also outcome-based policies.

That's the A, B, C, and D here, really focused on uh what are we trying to achieve, and then the more detailed uh strategies uh take a deeper dive.

We also will have a full implement implementation plan associated with this.

The implementation matrix was included in the materials given to you.

Um, and that even takes a deeper dive on actually how we're gonna achieve some of these strategies.

Uh so we put a lot of effort into to implementation here.

And then uh focus areas.

Uh we have plan recommendations that run uh all across downtown, but we had seven particular geographies that we wanted to focus on and have uh spread like what you see on the screen here for civic center that uh gives an illustrative graphic of how all these things come together.

We've thought a lot about how these projects are not independent of one another but bundled together to have the greatest impact and have the most uh value for uh public investment, and then each one of those those big ideas has a narrative here.

And again, with the implementation planning, we're hope to have even greater detail on how we're gonna deliver on these projects.

So we have seven focus areas.

Uh the implementation chapter is probably the most robust implementation chapter we've produced so far.

It really is a roadmap for action.

Uh we have this uh schedule that shows the immediate short term and long-term actions, starting with some essential additional kind of next step studies, uh, but quickly getting into actual on the ground changes to downtown, while also acknowledging that some of these big ideas in the plan are gonna take years, uh, a decade or more to deliver.

So, again, we want to have both immediate, short, and long term.

And I want to acknowledge that uh from an implementation standpoint.

Uh we have a lot more detail in the plan on on how each one of these time frames work, but we already have departments like uh Dotti are working on how to actually move forward with this transportation two-way study and actually what that means to them in the next six to twelve months to actually have that funded and thinking through what other funding sources they need to have to actually potentially deliver on on two-way conversion.

So, we're already thinking about implementation and executing implementation of the plan.

And again, that appendix uh worth a read those Denver stories is really valuable and interesting.

We do have a map book to make sure that all the maps are clear and uh concise, and also reference maps.

Those are all gonna be append appendices that are adopted in the plan, uh, the implementation matrix, implementation plan, and other reports and studies that our consultant Sasaki provided for us will also be included but not adopted.

Uh, to quickly just cover the criteria for evaluation when evaluating plans, uh, council and planning board uh look to comprehensive plan 2040 and consider the following criteria that it's inclusive community process, that the plan is consistent with the vision goals and strategies of the comprehensive plan and demonstrates a long-term view.

So, as we mentioned before, very inclusive process, very intense over the last 12 months to deliver all the input that we had, very intentional reaching out to equity groups uh uh with different focus area uh focus groups and and other other means.

Also, had representation on the CAC, not only from our fine council members, Watson and Heinz, but um also folks from uh labor unions, for example, so very um intentional of that.

Uh we have uh reviewed both the conference of plan and blueprint Denver as a key supplement and found uh broad support and consistency with both of those documents and finally uh the long term view.

Uh the downtown area plan is a long-term collective aspiration of the community, it envisions a vibrant, healthy, and complete downtown, and uh will serve as a compass for guiding future growth and investment from all different resources, including the downtown development authority.

So, with that, I will open it up for questions and then hopefully move to a recommendation.

Thank you so much, David and Courtney.

Um, let's start with Councilwoman Alvideris.

Thank you, committee chair.

I appreciate the presentation and all the work that went into getting us to this place.

So thank you for that.

This is the plan that DDP helped pay for, right?

So I guess.

Thank you for investing in this plan.

I think it has some really exciting things.

I love how it talks about people centered rather than car centered as downtown should be.

One of my concerns is around implementation.

I know I appreciate that there's an action plan.

I don't know if other plans have included that, but I don't think I've seen that.

But one of the things that I saw in the public comments was about public versus private investment.

And can you talk a little bit about how that conversation went and where you kind of landed with the plan?

Yeah, yeah, I'll start and happy to hand it over to Courtney.

It was a you know kind of a driving um thought as we started this process, knowing that there was unlike other plans that we sometimes do, it has a potential funding source for some of the projects with the downtown development authority.

And so we really look to try to um maximize potential public investment to you know really leverage that to get the private investment back into downtown.

So very intentional to think through how we can um be thinking of uh investments in in the public realm or uh investments uh for adaptive reuse or other things that are combined together uh ultimately have a collective um value, more so than their individual uh uh investments, and so the idea of you know good planning being a public action in this case investing in our downtown, uh, but then bringing about um a long-term and long-lasting widespread private uh investment.

So we're actually getting more for our city dollars by bringing the private investment along was an important part of the whole planning process and how we came to the recommendations that we had.

And from the private sector perspective, that's one of the reasons why we feel this plan is so incredibly critical right now, because when we have development interests coming to the table, or when we're recruiting development interests, frankly, to have a clear vision is step number one.

So if I'm sitting across the table from a potential investor, I can't tell you how many times the question is raised.

What is your vision for both downtown and this property?

And we're able to guide it to a vision that we've all said this is right for our downtown.

So when you look at that implementation matrix to speak a little bit more broadly to your question, we feel as an organization that one of our best partnerships that we can offer and serve the city is the stewards of that plan.

So we dissect each and every one and say if this is a private sector um action item, then how are we helping to generate that investment?

And it becomes somewhat incremental because we don't have, I mean, we have the development authority, but that's not gonna solve for all.

So we have to collectively work with private sector investment, what the public sector can provide in everything in between to address each and every line item one by one.

I really appreciate that.

That makes a lot of sense.

Um, and then one of my other questions is I have been talking to like lodging and tourism uh professionals, and one of the things that they also bring up is safety, and so I don't see too too much about safety, but I am curious.

Um, one of the things in the public comment was also around what services are being provided to individuals.

I think we all know that individuals go downtown when they need help, and so if you could speak um to where maybe that is in the plan if I didn't see it, or what the thought is there.

Yeah, I'm gonna speak specifically.

Yeah, just the plan is and I can speak.

Absolutely.

In in chapter four, we have uh the third bundle of safety programming and activation.

And so we have quite a bit there.

Um, you give me the page number.

Oh, I don't have a page.

Okay, no worries, I'll look it up later.

Yeah, yeah.

If someone else has it, uh, let me know.

Um, but yeah, safety programming and activation.

So we have specific recommendations there that are capturing uh both things that we are already doing as well as wanna continue to augment and improve, and you know, there's a lot of examples of that partnership occurring already.

Yeah, absolutely.

And one, when you see safety reflected in a long-term plan, it is something that also changes so rapidly that I think what you'll see in chapter four reflects our principles and what we believe is right to be done morning, noon, and night from now for the next 20 years for our community, and then on a more ongoing basis, we have to address both public safety and public health in real time.

So it's hard to codify in a plan, quite frankly, that's adopted for the next 20 years.

Um, but definitely when it comes to land use, um, when it comes to ensuring there's a proximity of services, I believe you'll see in there that that's been addressed.

Um, and then we'll continue as the downtown Denver partnership to provide our layers of outreach and downtown security and perpetuity.

Is there any place where people can go downtown if they need help?

There are a number of places.

Um frankly, I think that's one of our greatest challenges, and I think is somewhat addressed in the plan.

Um from our perspective, we have two outreach case managers who are on our team, and they work alongside our security.

Um so we have that available.

They're actually they become well known downtown, why and Jesse for people who are in need.

So they help as a facilitator and a warm handoff to the number of services that are out there.

And I would say the support that we've had from host with outreach, we also partner with St.

Francis on outreach.

So a lot of that are the people who are out doing the work day by day, getting to know the individuals who are in need, and then helping to make placements with the proper services.

I appreciate that.

I think with the aid center gone and not having a place to go, that's can be confusing.

So, but my last question is around children.

I don't I may have missed it, but um definitely concerned about daycare centers and schools.

I know that right now it talks about how there's not a lot of children downtown, but I love the idea of children being downtown.

I was recently at the biennials pop-up in Ryder Square, and I know that's near that um Blay area for children, um, which I as a mom really appreciate, but curious how we're going to continue to integrate young people.

Something that I've been talking about and that has come up in my district is just people complaining about kids being out even at a park or hanging out and getting calls and emails about those things.

So I think it's because people aren't having as many kids, and a lot of people don't have children, so when they see them, I don't know, I don't understand it.

I'm all really annoyed by them.

Yeah, these little people.

What are these creatures?

I have two teenagers.

So I appreciate I would I'd like to hear just a little bit about how uh we are going to be welcoming children into downtown and how we're gonna meet those needs of education and daycare.

Well, I would just start.

Sorry, I feel passionate about this.

Well, we have kids, yeah, similar in age that have been downtown together actually.

Um during a massive storm.

Yeah, it was not the best.

But anyway, I digress.

Um, I think that's where the element of play is the headline of this plan is so magical because while it definitely is play at all ages, it places an emphasis on a family-friendly downtown, which is what we heard, whether it's child care, whether it's um having more playgrounds.

I mean, that in terms of the the threads in the community engagement that we heard was a family-friendly downtown, and it has to be more complex than again just playscapes, and we need to have family-friendly housing and all of the support systems.

Um, but that that is in my mind and in our minds why that resonates so significantly because that's that's how families and that's how kids are drawn.

And if we make it safe enough and we create those experiences, I think I've told this story at council before.

Now my 13-year-old son bikes from our house in the highlands over I-25, parks it at Skyline Park and takes his buddies to the movie theater at the pavilions, and we need more kids to feel like that.

So that's great.

I will say when it comes to the public side of investment, I would like to see public investment in it in a school or daycare.

And um, I don't see any real commitment or like ideas that are moving towards that.

Is there any?

Yeah, we do you have recommendations about having more of those neighborhood amenities, and I think within the strategies, we can continue to figure out exactly how this the city investment can be front and center on that, you know, including with the DDA.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you.

And I didn't mean to say I'm annoyed by children.

Um just to clear that up.

Um, I really do feel like kids make neighborhoods what they are.

Um, there's a responsiveness in the built infrastructure to kids and families and the kinds of things that they need, and parks being one of them, schools being another, care centers being another.

So for downtown, sorry, I'm jumping ahead of some of the folks in queue.

For downtown to feel like a neighborhood and not a destination, I think that becomes a really critical piece.

Councilman Flynn.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'm initially skeptical of the Spear Boulevard issue.

Could you provide us, all of us, with any documentation on purpose and need, cost benefit uh ratio as I look at the lay of the land, it looks like there's some very narrow passages between what's already built on Auraria versus on the uh the main downtown side, particularly around the D Pack and uh a little farther south toward the convention center.

So it's a lot of money to do something that I'd like to know what is the marginal gain in benefit.

So, I'll start and I mean we acknowledge that's one of the long-term projects that will take not only significant amount of uh capital to actually realize the vision, but a lot more planning design and thought put into it.

So that's I want to acknowledge that from the get go.

I did read some you know, material, some of the material up front and understand what some of the goals are.

Sure.

And I'm just wondering uh is it worth the cost in for whatever the marginal gain is.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I think the key there is is it a marginal gain or not, right?

And I think we need to evaluate that more thoroughly.

But we're not the plan's not the first time this has come up, actually, right?

I mean, the city has uh a study from HDR uh that looked thoroughly at this and weighed the pros and cons.

Um, and then others have looked uh, including uh tribe architects at all the other ways to potentially do this, and we need to be able to kind of at least have a conversation and move that forward and figure out uh from a potential um opportunity for city owned properties to provide affordable housing to actually uh open up the river and actually improve the experience so um the water-based play idea that we actually want to get into our water bodies like the Cherry Creek and Platte Rivers and actually feel like we can interact with those, um, it could be an amazing amenity for downtown that is just right there on our doorstep, we're not utilizing fully today.

Um, and so I think there's a combination of a potential recreational amenity and open space opportunity that we could better realize, and as we would increase density in downtown, doubling our residential population um through the plan horizon, we're gonna want those open spaces, and at the same time uh we can kind of break down that what is today feels like a barrier over to Auraria and the new development that will be happening at Ball and River Mile and make it feel like it's more like the center of a new downtown Denver, opposed to uh an edge, right?

And so it'll still be a barrier.

Well, it would just be in a different place.

Well, I mean, but redesigning the roadway and making it feel like it's crossable, opposed in some instances today, it feels like it's about a quarter mile across, um, could change that perception.

I'm not saying that the barrier will go away.

And of course, I remember when we when you had to go down to like market in Wazi and when you were going north and you had to go over the creek to continue on the wagon and horse, but not really.

Not really, I could go back to when the flood wiped out the original Rocky Mountain officers.

In 64, but I want to understand better because we're talking about doing this will open up some of the area for development.

Then we're talking about preservation of open space.

But when you develop, if you open it up and open an area for development, it's no longer an open space.

So I want I want to get a better understanding of that.

Yeah, yeah, and I think that's what the study that we're proposing would start to really get down to the the details of what are the bounds between that.

Well, I'm wondering is, is there a way to accomplish some of these goals?

More accessibility to the stream and uh more open space by the water without necessarily the tens of multiple tens of millions of dollars that will cost.

I'll just add one more thing and I'll hand it over to Courtney.

I I think Cherry Creek, as well as you know what we envision in the plan for Broadway, are we're very pragmatic, I would say, in the sense that those are two very big ideas, but each individual aspect of those projects can be beneficial on their own.

So a first thing that we want to look at with Cherry Creek is how do we actually improve the ecosystem of the creek, right?

And actually make it feel like you could you can enter it, right?

You know, and feel safe in it and all those type of things.

That by itself would be a benefit, right?

Um, as we do that, we can look at other ways to potentially reimagine that space.

Same thing with Broadway.

I mean, we need to look through how to make Broadway and Lincoln function better, especially as they kind of come together there around 20th, um, and and make that be a an actual green boulevard as less less of a barrier.

Not saying that it'll be entirely uh be removed, but and that by itself, a two-way study might actually be worth uh considering.

But that could open up other opportunities that are highlighted in the plan to create more uh park space in that area of downtown and to increase the multimodal access along Broadway.

So I totally understand the apprehension of some of the big ideas, but it is a 20-year plan.

We want to dream big, um, but have short-term actions that at least move it forward in a positive way.

Yeah, understand that.

I don't know that I could say it any better.

I would just say one thing very directly is our interest in putting this in the plan has been to call the question because to your point, I think there have been multiple scenarios that have been out, been dreamt of, put out there, and it's time that we decide as a community what is that ROI?

Because if you look at each concept, it's a little bit different.

So let's all come together under one study and one initiative to take a look at it and see what we really want to get out and what the feasibility is.

Sure.

I can say it directly.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and I'll point out the Broadway used to end at 20th Street.

Back in the day before they pushed up to Brighton Hulk.

Okay.

Does it start in district seven?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Watson.

Well, thank you, sir.

Um, so thank you all so much.

Um, and your teams as I'm looking around the discourse folks.

I mean, this has been an uh amazing experience.

I mean, to have a a downtown that has a clear plan for where we're going is essential.

Um we can discuss the uh immediate shortfalls, we can discuss the ebb and flows of economic growth.

Um, but a city without a clear plan and direction as far as where our future is going um is a city that's dying.

And so I appreciate the thoughtfulness, I appreciate the collaboration and the opportunity for to participate.

I am uniquely um interested in obviously uh ballpark and walton street corridor um pieces um within this, and I appreciate you the understanding of cross transit coming to and through and the impacts within this plan, which many other um Denver area plans did not include those dialogues.

Um can you share your description of trunk transit on page 91 as it pertains to Welton Street?

Explain what that means, because I don't think I've heard that term before.

Sure, sure, sure.

So uh the idea there is you know, Welton Street obviously bisects downtown but extends into five points, an important uh connection historically from downtown to five points.

Um and it today it's uh it's a one-way uh vehicular motion out um with uh the light rail um uh within the the ride-of-way, and uh we want to be able to explore uh reimagine transit service along Welton and thinking through how that can better serve the community as well as uh the businesses along Welton and how that then pulls uh you know five points, you know, in downtown closer together.

And so uh there's a Dottie already has a study that's gonna be working with RTD to advance uh that evaluation, not only to rethink Welton, but also how we actually make the connection up downing to 38th and Blake and complete the fast tracks um uh plan for the central corridor.

And so the thought there is that uh you know, light rail has been there since 1994.

Um, if you would build light rail there today, they probably would do it differently.

Um, and uh it's limited in its uh uh capacity and frequency because of the single tracking.

And that would only uh continue if you brought the light rail all the way to 38th and Blake.

So you're limited to 15-minute headways.

Uh at the same time, RTD has uh lots of bus uh lines actually running parallel to Welton, uh the 43 and the 38 in particular that have better ridership uh than the light rail does today by a large margin.

And so uh we want to examine if if we would potentially uh remove the light rail uh from Welton, which is a big if.

Um but we again just want to evaluate that and think through putting multiple bus lines uh that are connecting other parts of East Denver through your district, the 38 to 43, as well as a connection to 38th and Blake, so at least three lines.

Um you could create five-minute headways.

So you have high-frequency bus and invest in the stops along Walton and the public realm that you could actually create a green street, a transit street that is better serving that neighborhood and those businesses uh with you know space for sidewalk cafes, et cetera, while better connecting uh downtown uh to that area might be worth uh that big big leap.

And so we want to evaluate that by putting three lines, uh bus lines on there, that's what you might consider a trunk line.

Kind of like how South Broadway, it would be a trunk line to the south of Denver, Colfax, East and West.

That would be a transit trunk line to East Denver.

Well, David, thank you so much.

And I'll saw using a trunk line piece.

And I'll say to folks in my final comment on November 5th, uh, we're having uh that first uh meeting.

My office is facilitating a discussion with Dotti and RTD on the future of Welton and the beginning step of the mobility study that you just described, and we encourage folks to come to um our meeting uh for the fifth from 5:30 to 7 p.m., Glennon Recenter, um, and uh for more information, go to district nine at DenverGov.org.

And so thank you all for your good work and thank you for um being responsive to the neighbors in um district nine um and adding that piece as well as ballpark into this plan.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

And I need to, before I go to them for questions, uh, invite and welcome Council President Sandoval and Protever Mero Campbell to the meeting.

Um President Sailorville, you're next.

Thank you.

Just wanted to say thank you.

Uh thank you for this plan.

Um I hope it gets the outcomes that I I've talked about this um in Snow's secret at this committee that I love land use.

Um and so when I was studying when I was talking about this plan a long time ago, um, it was pre-COVID, it was like right during COVID, my plat, my office is on 1810 Platte Street, and I had never heard this term of light industrial use before, and someone explained our central business district as light industrial use, and I was like, what does that mean?

Um, in regard to the built environment, and they were and the perfect person I was talking to said what it means is people go into downtown to work and then leave.

And so there's all these different uses, but it's not a neighborhood.

And I was like, oh, I never thought of downtown as that of having people go in there, go to work, and then leave and come out.

And so hopefully this plan will get us to the neighborhood aspects that we need, and all of the things that all of us want to do to be able to bring back downtown.

Um, the one thing I'll just add is when I was having my briefing, my the plan kind of encompasses part of my council district, like down towards the South Platte River, and right the week prior to my briefing, or maybe the same week, I don't know, time is weird, when you're elected, um you hear or we heard from the River Sisters about the South Platte River, and we had just heard at this committee about the turquoise necklace and this idea of personhood for the South Platte River and honoring how important it has been in the honoring like really the confluence is the first place of people, meaning um it wasn't um miners who found Denver, it was actually people's land before.

So with that, I started asking David, and the other people from um the downtown Denver Partnership.

What language was in this plan to preserve the like help facilitate the South Platte River?

And I went to language that was in first put added in with Councilman Torres with the West Area Plan.

And then we added it in the near Northwest area plan.

And then I asked David to add it to this plan.

So I'm hoping David, it was, I don't know if I can't speak to that.

But just so you all know the language that I asked him to add, is it says the South Platte River serves as an important ecological and recreational amenity for residents, prioritizing the health of the river and increasing public access to and along the river corridor are critical in transforming the South Platte River into a premier urban corridor where people and nature thrive in harmony.

And I hope it made it into this plan because I feel like it's really important to have a through line through all of our planning documents instead of recreating new language every single time.

And so I'm just bringing that up because this is the South Platte River Committee, and I think it was last week that we had the River Sisters here talking about the importance of the South Platte River and honoring it.

And I gave them an example.

One example I have is I have a um I have sorry, I have brain fog the aquarium in my council district.

Anyway, sure.

It's like what's its name?

I have the aquarium in my council district, and at one point they wanted to put a five-story building parking lot right next to the aquarium.

It would have faced the South Platte River.

We don't want uses like a five-story parking garage on the Platte River.

We want uses that are really important.

And so I just gave that as an example.

I had to work with the Greenway Foundation and other entities along that area to fight back against the aquarium.

And so I think this is these plans are so important for our built environment.

They can influence really positive things, and they can also influence the creation of really negative things because they actually can influence zone districts.

And so just want to, and that's where my brain immediately goes with the plan, because as we all know, when we come to city council when we put our land use commissioner hats, does it meet our adopted plans?

It's one of the first questions we ask.

So it has to, I'm always gonna go back into that plan because we vote on words and words didn't develop into policy which developed into zone districts, which develop into the built environment, and that's how my mind delineates these processes.

So just want to say thank you.

I saw you nodded, David.

That's why it's clearly in there.

In the plan in Central Platt Valley focus area, that's page 82.

Great.

So thank you for all of that.

And the next step I'll just say is putting these plans into action.

So I'll take off my land use commissioner hat and put on my DDA person hat who I sit on the downtown development authority 3DA.

And my focus has been had can this plan help us actualize some of that money, that tool that we have with the downtown development area, and make it work so that we have that tool because that tool was so successful with Denver Union Station.

We paid it off 15 years early, which now is helping us in a real time of a budget crisis and really helping spur redevelopment as you all have seen as the DDA projects have come on.

And these plans need to there has to be a through line between what we all approved with the DDA amended plan of recommendations and this plan in order for all of this to holistically work.

So it's like you're bigging, we're building a big puzzle piece, and you're filling in the puzzle as we go.

So this is just one other tool to help us actualize some of the work that we're doing on the DDA, which anything that was over $500,000 comes to us as a body as well.

So it's all interconnected.

Um so thank you for all that work and thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much.

I just want to do a time check.

We're at 45 minutes now for this item.

So let's go maybe up to another five.

We have a couple more folks in the queue before we transition to our next item.

And we've got Councilman Hines.

Thank you, committee chair.

Oh boy, this is all my district.

I have to compress it to 30 seconds.

I hope this isn't your first consultation.

No, so it's the second, I think.

So it's certainly been in a really I have comments, not questions, and related in support of the uh that you know the plan.

And um, you know, I just say the downtown area plan talks about moving from a central business district to a central neighborhood district, as council president mentioned.

Um, the two downtown neighborhoods are the least populated of the district 10 um uh neighborhoods, and um, and this is the best way for us to get activation 24-7 is to remote this area to more residents, including families to council member Ovidra as this point.

Um, and for what it's worth, I think the plan does talk about that.

About the central neighborhood district, means that we don't want workers to just come and leave.

We want people to but to feel like they can age uh age in place from a practical standpoint.

Um, I would say that when uh you know when we pass the golden triangle uh realignment, we um created more mandatory ground floor activation, and so developers ask me, well, what should we do with this ground floor?

First thing I suggest every time is child care because I keep seeing developers buy up buildings that have child care centers, shut it down because they don't want, they're not in the business of child care, they're in the business of redevelopment, but development takes years to go through the planning process, and uh and so we're losing child care centers and we're not gaining uh, we're not gaining them back.

So, um council member Flynn about the spear realignment.

Um, the goal of this plan is to focus on downtown, but to also make sure that the uh that downtown can breathe, as in uh you know, interacting with the other uh uh the other neighborhoods around downtown, and that means that we have to have better connect connectivity between the due town, the two downtown neighborhoods and um surrounding ones.

Of course, we have to do a financial and uh priority analysis.

So maybe Spear is the right answer um to go first, maybe it's the right answer to go third, and maybe it's the right answer to not do it at all.

But um, but I certainly want to have those conversations about connectivity in that particular conversation.

We're it's talking about the connection of the largest college campus in our state to the largest job center in our state.

So, how do we leverage how do we maximize that competitive advantage when students are using the in-state tuition from California to come here to see you Denver and we want to steal that that knowledge and that talent and keep them here for Denver jobs, and so um maybe spear is the right answer, maybe it isn't, but we certainly want that connectivity.

So I'm glad that we're at least um we have it on the plan to to consider.

Um, one more point about breathing.

Um, we've got Cherry Creek West, a billion dollar project, we've got um, River Mile multi-billion dollar project.

We've got billion dollar uh investment in Golden Triangle.

Um what's between all of those is 570 million dollars of public investment, the largest public investment of any center city in uh in any city in the nation.

And so I sure hope we have Ballerina and River Mile residents come downtown uh to see our playgrounds and to see our our play.

Um, and that's uh that's what I see in the downtown area plan as well is is uh is taking the Cherry Creek West folks downtown for play and taking golden triangle folks downtown to play.

And so uh we've got the 16th Street Mall, the spine of our city, and I see in this downtown area plan connecting Civic Center to 16th, connecting the performing arts complex to 16th, connecting um Union Station and the two sports uh stadiums to 16th, and that's part of the plan as well to make sure that we have connectivity inside the downtown neighborhoods.

Uh, we allow them to breathe outside the downtown neighborhood.

And finally, I want to thank you for the 5280 trail.

We're connecting seven neighborhoods in a circle around uh the center city just as 16th is the spine through the center city.

So I think I've encapsulated some of the thoughts and questions I've heard from council members and uh before me, but um I think the answer is yes, that this does contemplate all of the things that um uh that keep me awake at night that want uh that I help me make um the biggest job center in the state vital, revitalized and vital once again.

So thank you, committee chair.

Thank you.

Uh Pro Temer Maryland Campbell.

I can do this in 60 seconds, there you go.

It's a challenge.

Um go for it.

Thank you, madam chair, and thank you for the presentation.

I you know, I represent Southeast Denver.

It is not the city center, it is um, but people within Southeast Denver have choices, and so through the four light rail stations that run through the district and two that are just on the other side of um of a boundary line to another county to two other counties, people have choices in Southeast Denver, and so with this plan, what I'm also saying is that place for people to go to buy or to you know have housing and go with children and also have recreation, huge, it's a huge deal.

Um when I say we have choices, easily we can go south, um, and there are a lot of options south right now, and so having a strong downtown um and having it revitalized and thinking about it in such a way that is a draw, is I think super important um for Southeast Denver.

And so it's it's why I come to South Platte because I know I'm not right along it, but uh right along the South Platte.

But there are similarities within we have the Highline Canal, although it's now no longer used as a waterway.

Um there is a conservation easement on it, and I think that that health and um finalization, or I should say health, around the canal and uh the Highline Canal as well as Cherry Creek is so incredibly important, and I think there's so many similarities um that I see with the work that's happening here.

So I just wanted to say thank you and thank you for this committee for moving this forward.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't get a vote on it.

But um I'll give it a thumbs uh just really quickly, David.

Do you know um kind of how this leaves um uh civic center in terms of future plan guidance?

Like does it does it have enough guidance because it's not technically part of the um like the NPI.

We did a small area plan, just wondering where it leaves um the the neighborhood.

So uh I'm gonna make sure I get this right, but so Civic Center, including Golden Triangle and everything where we're at right now, is within this downtown area plan.

And so uh the So it has enough plan guidance that it's fully like this is its new plan guidance.

Yeah, that neighborhood.

So uh we've I've had a discussion with uh the city attorney's office, and we'll make sure we get this language right when we get to council on November 17th on what supersedes um what compared to uh the other small area plans, yeah.

But uh, so like from uh from a land use perspective, I guess maybe maybe I'll just focus on that.

This plan does not have a future land use map that changes anything that would have been done in that previous plan.

Same thing with um uh say the the amendment to the downtown plan.

So uh those elements are not gonna be changed by this plan being adopted.

Okay, okay.

Let me know if there's anything else around that.

Um uh and we need to move on, so any other questions I'll kind of um send them your way or we can follow up um separately.

But this is um an action item, so we'll need a uh motion to move this forward in a second.

Thank you.

Second.

Okay, I thought hesitated.

Flynn is that.

I don't know if there's a it's okay.

Okay, I'll be there as a second coin.

All right.

Um everyone, good with this moving forward.

Great, thank you so much.

Um thank you, David.

Uh thank you, Courtney.

Uh, we'd love to invite up um other members from CPD as well as uh Department of Finance, maybe DDPHE.

Uh, not sure who everyone is joining us.

Thank you for sending me back.

Yeah, of course.

And if you wouldn't mind starting with introductions, and then you can go ahead and get started.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for having us here today.

So, my name is Steven Wilson with community planning and development.

And I'll hand it over to Andrew.

My name's Andrew Johnson.

I'm here with the Department of Housing Stability.

And Reggie, the Department of Finance.

Great.

Um, so thank you again, thank you for having us.

Uh, so we're here today to um uh follow up on um uh actions taken by City Council last year in October to rezone the Ball Arena property and approve the associated development agreement.

Um, and we're here today to talk about uh update to that development agreement um along with uh three other portions that are related to that.

Um so we'll be presenting the second amendment to the Ballerina Development Agreement, uh escrow management agreements for affordable housing linkage fees for both of those projects, Ball Arena and River Mile, and a companion special new special revenue fund uh for the escrow accounts.

So, first one we'll go over is uh the ballarina development agreement.

Um, as you may recall uh in the development agreement that outlines uh Cronkey Sports and Entertainment's responsibility to build a central park uh in the Ball Arena project, uh the goal of that uh was is to become a city-owned and dedicated park space.

Um, and so in order for the city to accept that park space, um the agreement specifically outlines the environmental requirements and what happens if those cannot be met and provides forms of easement for public access for clean corridors.

So this is what the addition is or the amendment is.

Um it also gives a developer the option to control of the street if it cannot meet the city standards, and just provide public access to allow uh the public to use the street like a typical city street.

Oh, this is similar language to other development agreements that we've done in the city, um including Broadway Station, uh Fox Park, and River Mile.

Um with that, I'll hand it over to Andrew to cover the next item.

Yeah, uh, and also uh we do so um here with the Department of Housing Stability and kind of just talking about uh how uh the other two pieces of or other three pieces of legislation as uh are impacting as well with this uh second amendment to the development agreement.

Uh we are uh also uh amending the development agreement uh exhibit, which is the high impact compliance plan for Ball Arena.

And uh what we're doing is we're trying to bring that into alignment with the community benefits agreement that's uh in place, and in there is one term that we discovered later on that was not in alignment, and uh so we're doing that, and what it is is to we're adding a uh term in there of just three uh limiting 300 units in two of the all affordable towers when they get built, so that we also are uh limiting the size of the affordable units at the site, and but then also making sure that there's uh integration of affordable units through the balance of the site.

So, try not to avoid the concentration, and so uh with that uh we are uh the rest of the uh legislative pieces that we're bringing forward today are uh all about administrative implementation of uh the River Mile Development Agreement and the Ballerina Development Agreement.

And so let's.

I think you're too far.

That one.

Alright.

So the uh both of the uh uh second the second and third pieces of legislation here are uh reflecting how to basically administer the development agreements and what we and both the River Mile and the Ballarina development agreements call for a provision where uh amounts of the linkage fee should be set aside in a certain escrow account, and that escrow account can then be accessed to develop affordable housing on each of those sites.

And so um in here uh at the ball arena, we do have a uh a provision where 20% of the linkage fees collected would be put into an escrow account on the river mile agreement.

It talks about the first 65 million or 65,000, 65 million or 6.5 million.

Thank you.

Oh, come on, Andrew.

Um 6.5 million square feet of uh non-residential development would have its linkage be put into the escrow account.

So um the agreements will call out like the compliance arrangements, um, as well as like how do they uh make draw requests and uh the city approve those uh subsequent draw requests.

Um next slide would be just to talk about the escrow agreements or the uh special revenue fund, we call it an SRF, and uh for this we are creating a special revenue fund uh just to manage these escrow accounts that will be held at Colo Trust, and those uh um uh agreements uh basically call or a special revenue fund will basically track and allow us to account for the money being received by the city through CPD, subsequently deposited into our city accounts, and then accounted for and then deposited off-site in Colo Trust, and so those are uh the three additional administrative pieces that we are bringing forward today.

So with that, I think we have any questions.

Oh great, thank you guys.

Um Councilman Flint, you're up first.

Thank you.

Just a real quickly then.

Um, on the development agreement amendment, uh amending the affordable housing compliance plan to cap the number, and I understand the because we discussed this at the rezoning and everything.

Um what did the development agreement allow as far as affordable units prior to this amendment?

What about the current status?

So the um there is an appendix in there, and but basically the the total amount of affordability is 18% of all the residential development out there is to be dedicated as affordable housing, and there's various component and breakdowns and sub-requirements for like two and three bedrooms and things of that nature.

Uh does that answer your your question?

Um I'm flipping through the appendix now, and uh, yeah, try pages 12 to 13, maybe.

Because uh, we're estimating about uh 1,000 or so affordable units on the set on the whole ball arena site, isn't it?

Uh Andrew Laia might have the answer as well.

Yeah, but I have my department, so we just didn't have any cap for those affordable housing structures, and those are for the units, those are for the structures that are um most likely gonna be financed with low-income housing tax credits.

They're gonna have the more deeply affordable units, so the um the high impact development compliance plan include includes a commitment to 30% AMI units, so those more deeply affordable units, and they're going to be in two, there's two allowable structures that are for those more deeply affordable.

So we didn't have a size limit built into it.

So we're going from no limit.

We're going from no limit to a cap of 300 units.

Okay, and we discussed that a long time ago.

We did.

No other questions about it, okay.

Thank you so much.

Um, one of the things that um I just wanted to understand, um, can somebody walk me through uh what we might see in terms of dollars flowing into the escrow and utilization of the escrow.

Like what do we think that might look like knowing phase one might be underway right now on the ball arena site?

Um phases two and three might be a lot later, but I don't know when escrow dollars continue to flow in.

It's probably through the development of other buildings in those other phases.

Um so they don't really flow in.

I just want to make sure that we're not just holding on to a lot of money in the escrow account because we're waiting for the other developments to come through.

I don't know.

Sure.

I'm saying that right.

I think I'm following what you're saying.

And uh the uh the concept of like collecting those linkage fees, right?

Is like you only collect the linkage fee whenever it's non-residential development, and so um there they're if you look at the whole site of Ball Arena there, there's some commercial uses and there's residential uses.

And uh when we we've talked with uh the developer team and what they're you know, projecting and estimating, and who knows what'll really happen years from now, right?

But um phase one is gonna be heavily residential.

So there probably won't be a whole lot of uh collections of linkage fees in those those first few phases.

But there will be affordable housing built.

There is gonna be affordable housing built in as part of that.

I think you can use the residential.

Sorry, can you come to the mic?

That's right.

You also might want to use this.

So phase one's primarily not residential.

I think you just said residential, so it'll be primarily more of the linkage fee collection, less of the units.

So it's more of the entertainment district, smaller bedroom sizes, and so like the linkage fee will be captured and then reinvested into the units, and maybe KSC wants to speak to planning the phase.

Sure.

Yes, Matt Mahoney with Trump and Sports and Entertainment.

Bless you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um yeah, within our first phase and our first buildings in phase one, um, we're projecting roughly 300 units of multifamily residential, which will have the 18% affordable requirement um blended throughout.

We're looking at a hotel that would pay linkage fee into it.

Uh we're looking at a performance venue as a potential, that would also pay linkage fee into the fund.

So linkage fee, the the actual reserve fund will start collecting linkage fee in the first phase.

Matt, do you have any anticipation of when that escrow, whatever's held there would actually then be used in the next phases?

Like how much time uh would be taking place.

I think one of the concerns is will we be waiting a long time, right?

And all of those dollars just kind of sit in there.

Right, right.

I mean, I believe in our development agreement that we're not able to utilize linkage fee dollars until the second phase, phases two and three downfield.

So we're not we're not tapping into the fund in the first phase of buildings.

Okay, and the city feels okay with just waiting on that, not really having a timeline on it.

Um I know we can use linkage fee dollars in affordable housing all over the place, but we're saying we're just gonna keep holding it.

That is there a timeline, a deadline.

There uh there's a deadline for the overall agreement, but there is not a deadline where the uh funds need in the escrow account need to be deployed before then.

So as a as a on the ball arena in specific, just uh as a clarification, uh it is um uh is it 20% or 25% uh goes to the escrow account?

The remainder goes to the affordable housing fund.

Correct.

And so just to be clear, the money that does go in there, we still are getting if money is deposited in the escrow, we're already getting other affordable housing funds to use in the meantime.

Say worst case scenario, phases two and three don't get built.

Um, how long are we waiting before that escrow account um like hits that deadline?

Yeah, the uh if uh it gets to June 30th of 2050.

I'm hoping I won't be here at that point.

Hopefully, hopefully.

That would be a long time.

Um that uh that if that would be the termination of the escrow agreement, and at that point, any funds that would be left over in the escrow account would then revert back to the affordable housing fund for any uh sources or uses that it can be used for.

Okay, and so past phase one, what does it look what do you what do you what are you guys planning?

And just to tie back for the 2050 day, that that's the same day, that's why it's the 50 day was chosen because that's the length of our vesting property, right?

Okay, so those are tied together.

Um, so phase one, I mean we're we're projecting as of now a build out around all of ball arena by 2032.

Okay, and I will remind folks that's things change, right?

But that's that's the production.

Totally.

I already typed in Matt, you're in you're in my notes.

The other one of the other things that we approved was a um like a property agreement um with Park Center Creation to begin some of the South Platte uh river work um that I think is also part of the um plan in terms of the river mile section so we had already seen that come through here um uh which I know has to happen before you start construction on those other properties right that was a that's a site use agreement yeah that's right okay very good thank you Matt any other questions yes Cutzman Heinz uh thank you committee chair um since you're there um the uh you said all of Ball Arena by 2032 are you saying all three phases um just the entertainment district district around ball okay so not even so is that phase one or you say not even phase one um uh you but sorry I'm not sure there were probably you know two or three phases within phase one right just to make it more complicated for you uh but when we use the word you know it's really and I think um phase one is in its entirety is the entertainment district phase one a is the first buildings that we've submitted as a concept plan to the city which is the multifamily the performance venue the hotel and the bridge at spear and that's 2032 no that one is that that starts earlier that we're projecting construction start next year and a completion in 2020 2029.

Okay right yeah thank you and you don't have any uh you're not working on phase two or phase three at all not at the moment no okay um and then one question for host is part of the hold of the linkage fee uh to you know until phase two is that to make sure that we um you know encourage the developer to develop is that is that part of the um the locking of the linkage fee until phase two I think what we were looking for is like we there's two we have some permanent supportive housing that's contemplated in two all affordable towers and it's gonna be very hard and very complicated and involves you know low-income housing tax credits and whatnot but um it is loosely understood and hopeful that it probably the linkage fees will be used to support two towers that for that include some deeply affordable including maybe some permanent supportive housing that's required and so I in my guesstimates and I think we want to save it for those kinds of projects which are in phases two and three or in the other not the entertainment district.

That's right.

And if I recall correctly one of the fully affordable towers is in phase two and one of them is in phase three okay so um yeah so not only is it to help fund that fully affordable tower I would I would I take it as a bit of an incentive to uh to moving forward with the development too so we I mean we're spending all this time planning and creating uh uh instruments uh sure it'd be great to get to use those instruments at some point so thank you thank you thank you so much any other questions um we can consider these in a um in a block if I have uh uh motion and a second thank you second by councilman watson any um issues when we get to the floor thank you uh we have no items on consent um with that we are thank you everyone's good I don't have this week next year all right for you I don't even got out their deadline