Denver CPH Committee Meeting – Feb 3, 2026: Rezoning & Property Tax Relief
Denver Community Planning and Housing Committee Meeting – February 3, 2026
This meeting of the Denver City Council's Community Planning and Housing Committee included two action items: a rezoning request at 385 South Zuni Street and a presentation on proposed changes to the Denver Property Tax Assistance Program. Both items received committee approval to advance to full council.
Consent Calendar
- No items were presented on the consent calendar.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were received or presented during the meeting. One councilmember noted an RNO concern about the rezoning property being adjacent to a cold weather shelter, but no formal testimony was given.
Discussion Items
- Rezoning at 385 South Zuni Street (Council District 7): Joe Green from Community Planning and Development presented the request to rezone the property from B1 with specific waivers (dating to 1984) to EMX3, a mixed-use district in the urban edge context allowing up to three stories. The applicant intends to use the existing building as a medical office; redevelopment would also be an option. The waivers had previously prohibited a range of uses, including medical clinics. Councilmember (District 7) expressed support, noting the neighborhood lacks social determinants of health, and raised a community concern about the city potentially acquiring the property for a shelter. Councilmember Torres confirmed the community center designation from Blueprint Denver continues. Councilmember Sawyer commented on the messy nature of old waiver lists. Planning Board had recommended approval unanimously on January 21, 2026. No public comments were received.
- Property Tax Assistance Program Changes: Matt Walter (District 5 senior counsel), along with Melissa and Ian from the Department of Housing Stability (HOST), presented proposed ordinance changes. Key modifications include: lowering the homeowner age eligibility from 65 to 62, adding surviving spouses (not remarried) as a new category, raising the area median income (AMI) threshold for homeowners from 60% to 80%, and phasing out renters from the program by April 30, 2030. For renters remaining in the program, the AMI threshold would be unified at 30% and the age lowered to 62. The program budget for the 2025–2026 year is $4.9 million. Councilmembers discussed outreach, maps, the phase-out plan, and the need for future updates. Councilmember Torres requested a return to committee after a full year of data (by April 30, 2026) to assess impacts.
Key Outcomes
- Rezoning (385 S. Zuni St.): Motion to approve advanced to full council with a unanimous vote (thumbs up). Moved by Councilmember Alvedo? (District 7), seconded by Councilmember Sawyer.
- Property Tax Assistance Program Changes: Motion to approve the ordinance changes and forward to full council passed unanimously. Moved by Councilmember Alvedra, seconded by Councilmember Lewis.
Meeting Transcript
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. All right, we're on air. This is the Community Planning and Housing Committee of Denver City Council. It is February 3rd, 2026, and we have two action items today, starting with a rezoning at 385 South Nunei Street. We'll start with Councilmember introductions. I'm Sarah parody one of your council members at large and I will go Hello there. Good afternoon. I'm Diana Romero Campbell Southeast Denver district 4 What I'll be there is both lucky district 7 Chantel is district 8 Amanda Sawyer district 5 Stacy Gilmore district 11 Jamie Torres West Denver district 3 And do we have anyone online? I don't think so okay the first time I have is actually CPD I don't have anyone up at the table yet. Yeah, you're up. Sorry, I didn't know if you knew you were first. Thanks, Joe. Yeah. All right. My name's Joe Green with Community Planning and Development and as you said, we have a rezoning at 385 South Zuni Street. Jumping in, we'll go over the requests, the location and context, little bit about the process we've been through this thus far and then get into the review criteria so the applicant is looking to go from B1 with specific waivers to the property that limit a lot of what that B1 does to emx3 which is a mixed-use district in the urban edge context that allows three stories of height and a variety of commercial office and residential uses B1 in general allows a lot of office residential and commercial uses but in this case a lot of those are waived but I have a slide up about that in a couple seconds the applicant in this case really just wants to make to use the existing building as a medical office though obviously if the rezoning passed redevelopment would also be an option and getting into the location and context It's in Council District 7, Councilmember Elvides' district. It's in the Athmar Park neighborhood in this big shopping center, the Alameda Square shopping center. As you can see, there's a lot of different zone districts kind of surrounding it. To the west, you have ETUC. To the south, you have a single-unit district. To the north is mixed use. And then just across the street, you have a Costco business center, so really big, big-box development with lots of parking. So the waivers waive a lot of different commercial uses. I listed them all out in the staff report, but there's about 20 to 25 uses that are not allowed because of the waivers. One of those is medical clinic, which is a specific interest to the applicant, but there's a lot of other ones as well. It also limits the total floor area. The first floor has to be 2,500 square feet in size. It allows the second floor to go up to 1,800 square feet, and then it also limits the height to 32 feet. The requested district goes up to 45 feet, three stories, so a little bit taller.
openpublica.com