Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Community Planning and Housing Committee with Denver City Council.

Your Community Planning and Housing Committee starts now.

Today is January something, 2026.

It's definitely Tuesday and we're here in our planning and housing committee.

Nothing on consent.

Hopefully we'll have more council members trickling in and I will introduce them as they do.

But for starters, I'm Sarah Parity, one of your council members at large.

I'm Flora Alvides with Lucky District 7.

I'm Daryl Watson from District 9.

We will pause in case we do have anyone online and I also hear footsteps.

So I will introduce this to you.

So we have to start your district five.

Sorry.

No, perfect timing.

Perfect timing.

All right.

With that, I will go ahead and turn it over to Edson Ibanez from Community Planning and

Development for 260062, a rezoning on North District Street.

Councilmember Watson.

Thank you so much.

No, no, no.

Thank you so much, committee chair.

And thank you to my colleagues for allowing me to present.

And really, thank you, Edson and CPD, for the good work that you are doing on this.

I want to share a few words before we turn over for the presentation for Edson.

This rezoned, from my perspective and from the community's perspective and the applicant's perspective,

is about repairing harm, restoring housing, and keeping neighbors rooted in Elyria-Swansea communities.

A few blocks from this site, families once lived on streets that no longer exist.

Kids walked to school.

Neighbors watched out for each other.

Then the I-70 expansion came through Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods.

Fifty-six homes were removed and families were forced to leave through no fault of their own, based on their positioning.

What remains are vacant parcels and a promise we still owe this community.

4631 Josephine Street is one of those vacant.

parcels left behind. The rezona has four family-sized homes with multiple bedrooms. It is

one small but meaningful step toward fulfilling the promise the city owes this community.

This rezone is led by our good friends at Tierra Collectiva and you'll be able to hear from a few

of them as this process goes along and they'll be available to answer questions from our council

members. A little bit about Tierra Collectiva. From my perspective, Tierra Collectiva is a

a trusted community-led partner in Global Air and Swansea.

They have already delivered 14 permanent homes.

Yay, yay, yay.

Bump it up.

Ownership homes from families of color and over half the residents being children, which is phenomenal.

They have 23 more ownership homes and about 220 rentals in a pipeline.

At 4965 Washington Street, that council members are fully aware of,

They are delivering 170 affordable apartments, community space, and a library in collaboration with the city.

Tierra Colectiva's homes stay affordable forever through a 99-year renewable ground lease.

And this ReZone matters because it allows for affordability, affordability decided by the community through Tierra Colectiva and their amazing community-informed process.

This Rezone Alliance and Blueprint Denver, it supports Comprehensive Plan 2040, goals for equity and housing stability.

It follows the Gilarious Swansea neighborhood plan.

The Rezone also supports missing middle housing on local streets and matches the scale of nearby homes.

These homes include yards and spaces for kids to grow up because this housing is built for families, not investors.

Our office has collaborated throughout the process with Tierra Colectiva, not just on this, but on other rezones.

And we look forward to hearing your questions from Council and look forward to hearing the presentation from CPD.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Hello, everyone.

This is Edson Ibanez with CPD.

Thank you, Council Member Watson, for that introduction.

So this is one property that was impacted by the I-70 expansion.

It's currently vacant.

And so the request is to go from former Chapter 59 PUD into the Denver Zoning Code URH 2.5, which is a row house up to 2.5 stories in height.

So I'll go through the request.

We'll look at the location and context, and we'll review the process and jump into the review criteria for this rezoning.

So the request is a row house up to 2.5 stories.

So the site itself is 16,000 square feet.

But like I mentioned, it was impacted by the I-70 expansion.

The site is vacant, and the request is for row houses up to 2.5 stories.

The applicant, Tierra Colectiva, is looking to construct four row houses here with parking on the alley.

So looking at the location context, it's located in Council District 9, Councilmember Watson District.

and it's in the heart, kind of in the middle of the Alara Swansea neighborhood there.

Like I mentioned, the zoning is PUD 335, but it's surrounded by ETUB, which is highlighted in yellow.

ETUB is a two-unit zone district.

And then directly to the west of the site is URH 2.5, which is the same zone district this property is applying for,

which is at Row House, up to 2.5 stories in hell.

To the south, we have EMX2, which is a mixed-use up to two stories,

but it's predominantly residential here. PUD 335 is a former Chapter 59 zone district

that was for an auto body repair shop, which was previously here, but it also allowed for

commercial uses. And now it's just vacant. So like I mentioned in the land use, this site is

currently vacant. To the north and mostly to the east, we have a single unit residential,

but the zoning is two unit, and it's predominantly single family here.

So the site is highlighted on the bottom right corner, as you can see,

closed off by a fence there, which is vacant.

And then to the north of the site, we see single family houses,

which predominantly range from one story and two stories.

And then just wanted to highlight some of the affordable housing for this specific site.

So G.S. Coalicentera Colectiva Community Land Trust will develop, like I mentioned, four affordable home ownership units.

They will be income restricted of up to 80% of the AMI, Area Medium Income, with a 99-year land lease.

So jumping into the process, there was an informational notice sent out in November.

It went before the planning board this month on the 7th, and it's before you today,

and tentatively scheduled to go before City Council Public Haring on March 9th.

We've notified all the R&Os as part of this process.

We did receive one letter of support from the Nularis-Swanzae R&O.

Additionally, we received 22 letters of support.

The letter of the R&O as well as the letters of support all highlighted its support for affordable housing.

It's consistent with plan guidance and having a diversity of housing options and home ownership in the neighborhood and how this will help attain that.

Now, jumping into the review criteria, the Denver zoning code highlights three review criteria that every rezoning have to follow,

which is consistency with adopted plans, public interest, and how the rezoning is consistent with the neighborhood context, zoning district purpose, and intent statements.

So the first one, consistent with adoptive plans.

It's consistent with three specific plans, which is Conference and Plan 2040, Blueprint in Denver, and the Alara-Swanzee Neighborhood Plan.

So the staff report highlights multiple strategies that this rezoning is consistent with, but I want to highlight a few under equity goals,

such as equitable, affordable, and inclusive goal-to-strategia, create a greater mix of housing options in every neighborhood for all individuals and families,

and encourage quality infill development that is consistent with the surrounding neighborhood

that offers opportunities for increased amenities.

And under climate goals, under environmentally resilient goal A,

strategy A, promote infill development where infrastructures and services are already in place.

When we jump into Blueprint Denver, it's classified as urban and neighborhood context,

which this is predominantly single and two-unit uses on smaller lots.

And within place type, it's classified as low residential,

which is predominantly single and two-unit uses on small and medium lots.

And building heights are generally up to 2.5 stories in height.

Now, Josephine Street is a local street, but you do have York and 46 South in close proximity

that are collector streets, like mixed-use collector street there on York Street.

In terms of the growth area strategy, it's classified as all areas of the city

where we anticipate 20% of new housing growth and 10% of new employment growth by 2040.

Additionally, it does fall under more of our equity goals and concepts within Blueprint,

such as the land use and bill form housing goal to diversify housing options

by exploring opportunities to integrate missing middle housing

into low and low-medium residential areas,

as well as increase the development of affordable housing and mixed income housing.

And then, you know, in terms of climate impacts, multi-unit buildings are more energy efficient than low-density residential development types.

When we look at the Alaria-Swansee neighborhood plan, it's classified as single-family duplex with heights up to 2.5 stories in height.

But when we go into the definition of what is a single-family duplex, it's residential areas that are moderately dense areas that are primary residential.

This has a mixture of housing types, such as single-family houses, duplexes, row houses, and small apartment complex.

So the definition does allow for row houses.

Additionally, when we're looking at policy, let's talk about explore opportunities to introduce building forms that are consistent with a single-family duplex.

Land designations, such as duplexes, tandem houses, and row houses.

and then as well as encourage investment of new housing to expand the total number of residents

and to provide for a diversity of housing types to bring more people of all ages and income levels into the neighborhood.

In terms of public interest, it's consistent as specified in the staff report

as the goals and policies as found in the small area plan and blueprint Denver income plan

and it's consistent with the neighborhood context on district purpose and intentments as specified in the staff report.

Therefore, CPT recommends all approval based on all the findings of the Rookertur have been met.

I'm available for questions.

The applicant can get up with the Divas here for any questions.

Thank you so much for your time.

Great.

I would like to welcome Council President Sandoval and Pro Temer Mel Campbell to the meeting.

And the queue so far is Council Member Sawyer followed by Council Member Alvedrez.

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, you guys.

Really appreciate you bringing this forward.

This is really, really exciting.

I think it meets all of the criteria.

I'm happy to move it forward.

But I do have a question.

I've never seen one of these come through before, right?

Like these, we always hear about the eminent domain that happened with the I-70 project,

but I've never actually seen it mapped like this before where the property is half in the street now.

Um, so I'm curious when you say that it's a 16,000 square foot, a little over 16,000 square foot property, does that include the part that's in the middle of the street now?

Um, the parcel itself is the GIS mapping is still being fixed for these areas.

And so, so technically the parcel is significantly less than 16,000 square feet.

It's not, but that's how the records show.

Can you...

Nola and Danny, or...

Do you know what the square footage is?

Like 6,000?

No, no, wait.

You've got to come up to the mic and introduce yourself.

Sorry.

Just so the people, if there's anyone online, can hear you.

Thanks so much for both of you being here as well.

Hi, I'm Nola Miguel.

I'm the Executive Director of the GS Coalition and Tierra Colectiva Community Land Trust.

And this is Danny Slebo, who's our Real Estate Director for Tierra Colectiva.

So I want to say it's about 9,000-something.

Hi, Danny, real estate development director for Tierra Colectiva.

I'm sorry.

Y'all got me so flustered.

I can't even say my own name.

I would need to look at the survey to be accurate and really know.

But I think it's roughly half of 16.

So probably around 9,000 to 10,000 square feet.

9,000 in one of the PowerPoints that's in the documents.

Thank you.

9,000 something.

Yeah, I didn't pull up the staff report to look in it

because I usually wait until the hearing to do that.

But I've never seen this come through before.

And so when you said 16,500 square feet, I was like,

it's a little big parcel, and that doesn't look like 16,000 square feet to me.

That's really, really interesting.

So the property, do you pay full property tax on that?

Let me, if I can back up just a step.

Um, so there were a bunch of remnant parcels all along the highway, predominantly on the

north side of the highway.

Um, so we worked with director Lou of CDOT, um, to figure out, okay, which of these parcels

would be good for housing.

Um, and, but then they couldn't just sell them to us or just give them to us.

We had to actually buy them and we had to buy them for market rate value.

So we worked with Senator Hickenlooper's office to get congressionally designated funds to purchase the properties.

So yes, it took many steps.

So this is one of three parcels that we're purchasing.

This is potentially the only one that needs rezoning.

There's another one that might.

But it's a different issue.

So Habitat for Humanity, we've been incubated under the Colorado Community Land Trust, and then Habitat for Humanity, Metro Denver, and Colorado Community Land Trust merged.

So right now, Habitat for Humanity still owns these.

We normally apply for a tax exemption for all of our properties, just the land portion of the properties.

And then the home buyer pays taxes, but they only pay taxes on what they could resell the home for.

So they don't pay taxes at a market rate.

So we're not going to, I just want to kind of, like I said, I've never seen one of these come through before.

So I'm not sure.

And I just want to make sure that we're not paying, we're not setting a future homeowner of an affordable property up in a situation where they are going to be paying property tax for a portion of the property that is road now.

Okay.

Awesome.

Thank you.

That's good.

Good to know.

Is there anything else you wanted to add?

I pulled up the survey for the, you know, record or whatever.

It's about 9,484 square feet.

Okay. Got it. Thank you very much. Really appreciate that clarification.

But this is an interesting one just because these remnant parts, this is the first remnant parcel that's come through like this.

So that's it for me. Thanks.

And what we'll do, Council Member, sorry, this goes to the floor.

We'll preempt in a presentation the clarifier of this, the things that you just kind of clarified.

we'll preempt in a presentation the sizing and all that stuff so that folks

know on record on beforehand and of course on Danny and Nolo be there answer

questions again. Awesome thanks thanks you guys. Well thank you great questions and

the only other member I have in the queue is Council member I'll be addressed so let me know if anyone else wanted.

Thank you. Thank you for bringing this forward to everyone. Always excited to see

more housing this is much needed family housing is something that I continue to

say that we need. And I appreciate the story because part of one of the questions is going

to be how to pay for it. But I am curious about, and I really appreciate Nola, you asking for that

comparison just to see, but what would the resale value look like? And have you done any type of

analysis of who would potentially qualify to purchase these parcels eventually?

um maybe i'll take the so um we we do orientations um in the neighborhood to work with people families

in the neighborhood that are interested in purchasing a home and go through all the details

of um the process of buying a home um the requirements for getting onto our wait list

and also the restrictions that exist with the community land trust as compared to a traditional

home. So we go over all of that and then prepare folks that they, in order to get on our wait list,

they need to do a CHFA certified first time home buyers class and qualify for or pre-qualify for

a loan on the home, which sometimes is the hardest part. So then we have a wait list of folks.

And as homes come up, we ask on our wait list, would you like to buy this home? And they take

a look at it. And if they want to buy it, then, um, then we move forward and we have to income

qualify folks. So they do have to be below 80% of the AMI. That's what I was wondering, like

who, what is the scenario where an individual would qualify? So I'm guessing around 80,000,

what would the family size be at 80,000? I'm guessing based on AMI being around a hundred

thousand. Um, and how many people are there that may have a specific amount of money and can

qualify to buy a home. Usually it's between about 50 and a hundred thousand is kind of just

depending on how many people are in the household that are qualifying. I don't know if you would add.

Yeah. Tierra Collectiva works because our mission is anti-displacement focused.

We work with who's interested in becoming a homeowner and we help them get prepared

and repair their credit and do everything else that they need to do. And often that means that

We're also looking at what's reasonable for them to actually afford and what's truly like a reasonable purchase price.

So we actually provide our homes at a purchase price between $200,000 and $225,000 for a three-bedroom house in Denver County.

That's about a third of the market rate currently.

We also help folks access down payment assistance resources so that they can reduce that purchase price even more.

And actually right now we have a small two-bedroom that we're looking at listing slightly below $200,000.

So that allows a pretty deep level of affordability.

We aim to support homeownership for folks between 50% AMI and 80% AMI,

understanding that when we go below that, we can sometimes create a vulnerability for folks

who might not be able to keep up with maintenance costs or tax increases over time,

even though there are very limited tax increases because of the limited increase in resale value.

I appreciate that.

And I understand also that they don't pay on the land.

So how much is your land lease fee?

And are you planning on having an HOA for these?

Yeah, that's another aspect of the affordability.

So there's no HOA.

We very specifically design our development to avoid the necessity for an HOA

because that's when we really get into challenges with affordability

because of insurance requirements because Colorado is super fun with condos.

Our land lease fee is $90 a year.

We have no, oh, I'm sorry, $90 a month.

And we have no intention of increasing that anytime soon.

Thank you for answering all that.

I appreciate the thought you've put into this.

I was also going to add that one of the things Danny and Nola also share

is that the targeted community or folks that live in global air response

So the workshops, I mean, they're not saying folks from outside can't come and participate in the workshops.

But it is when you look at the households, I don't know if you all have the percent, so I'm not going to ask you.

But from the households, it's a very large percent of communities that live in G.S.

that would either have to be displaced and go to another city, not even another neighborhood in Denver, to be able to live and own.

and they're doing it for folks who live there now who are paying rent,

and then they're getting an out to home.

It's beautiful.

I was able to go on the bus tour with you all,

and that was really meaningful to meet some of the people that you have helped with housing

and hearing you explain how when Habitat was doing it,

they weren't able to really necessarily get people from community.

So I think all that is really important and commend that work.

So thank you for all you're doing.

That's beautiful.

Thank you.

Thank you committee chair. That's all I have. Yeah, great questions to both of you. We always learn a lot when you guys are in the room. Council president is next in queue. Thank you. Just want to say thank you. I know you've been working on this, but you love this area with every fiber of your being, Nola.

From when we started as councillors in 2012 together, you've been diligent, steadfast, and just thank you so much for your leadership figuring out how CDOT, I mean, we couldn't even figure out how to put a mural.

on CDOT when you and I were working together and then you figured out a bureaucracy of how to

buy a parcel of remnant land from CDOT. I couldn't even figure that out. I ended up putting,

because I-70 goes into Northwest Emberies, you know, I ended up having to put a community garden

there, a Doug community garden, because I just got so tired with the bureaucracy that I was told no,

no, no, no. And it's really hard when you get told no so many times and to figure out how to

So, just thank you for your commitment to this neighborhood. Thank you council member Watson for sponsoring this. This is what democracy in a good way looks like and putting trust back into our local government is exactly what you all are doing. So, bravo.

Thank you, Madam chair.

Well, I'm going to president. Anybody else have any questions? All right. Can I get a motion? Second?

I'll move.

I'll move seconded by Pro Tem.

I don't think anyone needs a voice vote. Thumbs up to go to the floor.

We will joyfully see you there. Thank you guys.

And that is it for committee today. Nothing on consent.

So.

Thank you.