Welcome back to this bi-weekly meeting of the South Platte River Committee of Denver City Council.

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

Good afternoon, everyone.

There we go.

Welcome to the South Platte Committee Corridor Committee.

and today is February 11th.

We have one item on the agenda,

and I know several of us have been working on it

for several years now,

so we're really excited to see it come to this point.

But before we get to our agenda item,

let's do introductions, and I will start to my left.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Flora Alvidrez with Lucky District 7.

Sarah Parity, one of your council members at large.

Good afternoon, Daryl Watson, Fine District 9.

good afternoon diana romero campbell southeast denver district four perfect and we don't have

anyone online correct producer yes we do oh thank you and councilman flinn southwest denver district

two thank you for joining us councilman flynn um so let's dive in um we will welcome cpd

to the table fernando thank you for joining us and this is to review the southwest area plan

All right, thanks for having me.

Council members, my name is Fernando Abud.

I'm with Community Planning and Development.

I'm the project manager for the Southwest Area Plan.

And here with me, we have the rest of the Southwest team, Will Prince, Scott Robinson,

and Cortland Heiser.

And today, we're here to share with you an overview of the Southwest Area Plan and then

go through the adoption criteria as well.

So I'll get started here.

As I mentioned, this is today's agenda.

I'll get started with the plan overview.

So the Southwest area plan includes the five neighborhoods of Westwood, Marley, Ruby Hill,

Admar Park, and Overland.

Just a quick snapshot about the area.

It includes around 52,000 residents.

The majority of them Hispanic or Latino.

It's a younger community as well as it includes larger households in the area.

Throughout this process, we started the process in spring 2024.

So it's been a couple of years as Councilwoman Torres was mentioning.

We started around the spring and throughout the process I just wanted to highlight that

we worked with community organizations in the area, community navigators from these

for organizations of Comun, Una Mano, Una Esperanza,

Bucco West, and Colorado, Asian Pacific United, or CAPU.

And as you all may know, the MPI plans and Blueprint Denver

is usually organized into those three chapters of land use,

which includes more of the use categories,

character, design, elements like that,

mobility that talks about how we move in our area,

and then quality of life that it talks about all the other elements that make a great place,

including parks and three canopy and stuff like that.

The Southwest area planning process throughout this process,

the community highlighted and mentioned the six priorities on your screen,

which I'll go through in the next couple of slides.

Started with the diverse cultural hubs,

The community wanted to make sure that the area will continue to be and maintain the diversity of the area,

the diversity of people and neighborhoods in the area.

So the supporting recommendations that support this community priority talk about affordable housing, businesses, public spaces, food resources.

Our second community priority is safe communal spaces.

We heard from the community that they wanted to see safe and comfortable spaces where the community can gather, celebrate, and just interact.

There's a variety of recommendations that support this community priority that go from a topic such as community institutions to parks, trails, community public spaces, and health care.

Our third community priority talks about housing, housing stability and options.

we heard from the community that they wanted to see a range of housing options that reflected

the community's character as well as new housing that would not help prevent displacement.

So the supporting recommendations in this section, they talk about affordable housing,

the supply of housing, and how that's represented on the different future places in the area,

as well as historic character and preservation.

The next community priority talks about the industry that's in the area, the integrated

industry.

So the community shared they wanted to make sure to support the existing industrial areas

and manufacturing districts in the area, but making sure they're better connected to the

surrounding communities in terms of land use connections and impacts.

So the support and recommendations talk about those industrial uses, the mixed uses within

those industrial areas better connectivity to and across this areas as

well as the impacts to the surrounding residential neighborhoods as well. The

fifth community priority talks about the infrastructure in the area so the

community share they wanted to see improved infrastructure to be able to

safely move throughout the area in a variety of different modes. The

supporting recommendations talk about mostly the connectivity and crossings of

major barriers in the area which there's a significant amount of barriers here

and then how to move throughout in a variety of different modes from bike

infrastructure to pedestrian safety and comfort comfort sorry and then our final

community a priority is talks about the natural resources in the area so the

community shared they wanted to make sure to protect and celebrate what's

there including parks water and the South Platte River as an important and

key component for this area the supporting recommendations talk about

environmental impacts parks trails and just safety in this faces but also more

details a recommendations about the parks along the river the protection and restoration of the

river and the safety and stormwater along those areas as well so in addition to kind of the the

community priorities we do have on the plan different focus areas where more detailed guidance

is provided this ones include morrison road on westwood the marley shopping center federal

Boulevard that touches on four out of the five neighborhoods Alameda Square that's in

Admar Park and then Mississippi Avenue Shopping Center which borders Ruby Hill and Admar Park

and then the final a focus area is a Riverside Communities which includes the South Platte

River itself as well as the surrounding areas including the industrial uses as well as some

of the residential and mixed uses that are within that boundary.

I wanted to highlight this area a little bit more since this is the South Platte River

committee.

Since this focus area is a larger area, we wanted to divide the area into some sub areas.

So each of these sub areas listed on the screen does have a more detailed guidance on the

vision and going from the South Platte River itself as I said to some of the

industrial areas likely Pam Street or more of the commercial areas as Evans

Avenue and Santa Fe a there's more detailed guidance goes from a more

recommendations around the river itself helped the restoration of the river its

connection to the parks and the indigenous peoples in the area more

detailed guidance around the land use of either mixed use or industrial as well as access

and safety and comfort.

So that was more of just an overview of what you can find on the plan itself and I'll go

through the adoption criteria based on the comprehensive plan criteria that the plan

should follow an inclusive community process, be consistent with the comprehensive plan

and then demonstrates a long-term view.

So starting with the first part of the criteria,

as I mentioned, we started in spring 2024.

This first phase, we started building relationships.

We formed the advisory committee.

We had one-on-one conversations

and attended a lot of community events

just to get the word out and start to create

and build those relationships.

As I mentioned, the advisory committee that we formed

includes 22 members representing diverse backgrounds and areas from different neighborhoods.

We had nine meetings throughout the process and three equity subcommittee meetings.

And they did provide a letter of support that was attached to your resources.

Just the pictures here, the one on the bottom is the committee itself.

And then the one on the top is a mix of the committee and the community navigators on

our last meeting that we that we had. So on the the next phase what we did it

was more of the saturation engagement so we really wanted to get the word out

that the plan was starting and what was the plan about. We send a postcards to

all the households in the area around 23,000. We had our kickoff meeting which

was really well attended around 200 plus people. We had options for the community

to participate online and in paper.

This is where the community navigators started to help out.

We hope we attended the different RNOs in the area.

During this phase, I think this is where we attended

the most events.

We attended almost 40 community events,

whether that was just existing events like Saigon Azteca

or Trunk or Treat, but we were out there

in the community a lot.

We had our, we attended high school classes in their classrooms.

And we also had a statistical ballot survey.

So this phase is where we really try to get the word out and be out there in the community.

And what we started to hear was a lot of what the community valued,

such as their parks and green spaces and some of the elements that they would like to see improve,

such as safety, family-friendly, and affordable housing.

So we took all that input and put it into the draft number one that we went back out to the community mid 2025

We hosted another open house this time in Goldrick Elementary where we had around 90 people attend

But we also did a tour of R&Os where we took the same materials and hosted like many public meetings

where we got a lot of attendance as well, around 150 people.

Most of them had not attended the open house.

So we did reach out to other people, I think, throughout this tour, which was really helpful.

This time around, we also had paper surveys and online surveys

and kept attending existing community events.

We had two student workshops here in the city

where high school students from high schools in the area were able to provide input,

but also were able to know more about the city and learn about careers at the city itself.

We also hosted some focus groups during this time.

So we took all that input and revised the draft itself

and put it into draft number two that was released later on 2025.

During this phase of engagement on the review of the second draft, the outreach and engagement

was more focused.

We had a shorter survey.

We still had the document up online for comments.

The community navigators really helped us get this survey out there.

And during this phase, the more focused outreach, we worked on having an industrial and river

conversation and a business mixer that we worked closely with Council District 7 and

promotion is setting it up in organization.

So we had those more focused conversations as well as a conversation with DHA.

So during this phase we heard really strong support for the overall vision and the overall

vision of each neighborhood.

And we're here at the final phase of the process during the adoption process which I'll talk

a little bit more about what we heard in Planning Board, but going through this last phase.

So based on all these findings, we find that the Southwest Area Plan was developed through

an inclusive community process.

Moving into the second part of the criteria, there is more detail on the staff report regarding

the different goals and strategies of the Comprehensive Plan in Blueprint Denver and

how they relate to the Southwest Area Plan, but overall, there's over 40 policies and

100-plus strategies that are consistent with each of these plans.

So, we do find that the Southwest Area Plan is consistent with the goals and strategies

of the Comprehensive Plan 2040.

That's part of this second part of the criteria.

And the third part being the long-term view, we do find that the Southwest Area Plan was

developed with a long-term a horizon of 20 years into the future into 2045 and

it establishes a missionary and aspirational a view of this area that

will take some time to achieve so we do find that it demonstrates this long-term

view in terms of what we heard from planning board just wanted to provide an

update to the committee it was approved unanimously 720 on a with a vote of 720 on January 21st

and during this time we did got some input in the form of an advisory committee letter of support

and a support letter from the Admar Park neighborhood association and one comment on

opposition from the general public that was all attached as on your resources as well and during

the hearing itself for planning advisory committee members, sorry, spoke in support of the plan.

So as a result, the planning board approved the Southwest Area Plan with the condition that the

document be edited for clarity and correctness and that the future place designation for one of

DHA's properties on Knox Court be changed from low residential to low medium residential.

And just wanted to provide a little bit more context on that.

a prior to planning board a an oversight from our part we forgot to

change the future place type on this property that based on conversations

with DHA it was a division was low medium but a an oversight from our part

we left it low so that change has been made after planning board so the property

it is now the aligning with the vision of low medium so based on all this

findings that the southwest area a used and inclusive community process it's

consistent with comprehensive plan 2040 and blueprint Denver and it takes a

long-term view is staff recommends that the South Platte River committee forward

the southwest area plan for consideration by the Denver a city the

full Denver City Council with the condition that document be edited for

clarity and correctness so thank you very much for your time and happy to

answer any questions. Thank you so much, Fernando. Council Member Alvidrez, Councilman Flynn, and I

really appreciate all the hard work that you and the CBD team put into this. A quick question before

we go into the queue, that adjustment, that correction, when does that get made in this process?

It has been made already. It already has been, okay. The document that I shared, I think, as part of the

package for this committee, the change has been made.

Okay, so it's in there, correct. Perfect. Thank you. And I'll welcome Councilman

Watson and Council President Sandoval to the meeting.

And we'll start first with President Sandoval, then Alvide is on deck.

Thank you. Thank you all for the work. I find

this plan fascinating as on

who lives in the Southwest area, half below the age

of 30. That's significant. So you're literally creating a plan for the next seven generations

and 67% Hispanic. So the recommendations are, I feel, very culturally relevant.

The one question I have that I've asked all plans that have come through that incorporate the

South Platte River, do you know that if in the land use section of the plan that there is wording

that matches the west area plan, the northwest area plan,

the south plan, and the downtown area plan

that the South Platte River serves as an important ecological

and recreational amenity for the residents.

Do you know if that was incorporated?

Yes.

Yes, we've heard that before,

so we made sure to include that language

into what the sub-area vision we have there for the South Platte River,

so that language is basically the vision for that.

So we can follow up with you on that.

Perfect. Thank you. Just want to say thanks to the sponsors. I think there's three of you.

Is that accurate? Yes. I think the last time the West Area Plan was the last area plan that had

three council sponsors or council members. It was seven, three, and one. It's a lot of work for all

the council members, and this seemed very fast. What was the whole time frame for this process?

So we started with more of the pre-planning on like March or spring of 2024.

But since we started the first advisory committee meeting and that's kind of our more official

kickoff that was on June.

So it's closer to the 18, 20, 20 something months.

Yeah.

Just want to commend everyone on that hard work.

a lot of outreach in a time that a lot of people have don't have trust with our government.

So just want to say thank you to all the sponsors to all the council members for all that hard

work and to CPD.

That's a lot and to the organizations the promos who went out that's huge to be ambassadors

on behalf of advocating a lot of times people don't even understand what a neighborhood

plan is right because it doesn't change the zone district it doesn't change any of that

but it sets the guidance for all of that to come.

And then hopefully after this,

we'll follow a legislative rezoning

similar to all of the other NPI plans

that have come through.

So I look forward to seeing that come through the process as well.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Council Member Avedres?

Thank you so much, Committee Chair.

Thank you, Fernando.

Thank you, Council President, for your words.

Also, thank you to my staff.

Thank you, Victoria.

I had even other staff members that worked on this before.

and I will say we did do a lot of community outreach.

And because of the demographic of this area,

we spent a lot of time knocking doors,

having meetings in community.

And every time we knocked doors,

somebody was like, I never heard of this.

What's happening?

How is this happening?

What does this mean for me?

And also to teach our community about zoning,

we held a book club on the book, The Color of Law.

So it was a huge effort in our office to really not only have input, but what I found is that community has a really hard time providing input on something that is some pictures and like some codes that don't make sense, dash MX, dash SUD, whatever.

And it doesn't mean anything to our community members.

And so I think that our community is more well educated on this now.

I think they still don't understand it. You know, I don't, I think a lot of people don't understand

land use or zoning. Um, I think CPD did a great job saying this is a plan for the next 20 years

and this is a visioning process and it doesn't exactly change the zoning of your personal home,

but what are we trying to do? I really appreciate, um, just the historic wrongs that this community

has gone through and being able to see, like along with reading the color of law, learning that

there's parts of this area that said you can't live here if you're Catholic, for example, or other

old things. And so, and there's also a lot of DHA housing here that was at first not allowed people

of color, and then it ended up concentrating people of color. And so to really dive into the

history of the wrongs has been really hard for me, just knowing that this is the area I grew up in,

not knowing all the history that my family as immigrants found a place to live in this area,

that immigrants are still finding a place to live in this area. And I appreciate that the plan also

documents that and how important that is to the culture of our district. And, you know, now it's

been a very Vietnamese, very Mexican community, and now we have more Venezuelan community and

other communities that have joined and how it is such a special place. One of the biggest concerns

I have with the plan and right now is that there has been industrial wrongs in this area for a long

time. So we are removing some of the industrial zoning in that legislative rezoning, which has

been a battle with the department, with DITO, because they want to preserve as much industrial

as they can. However, that continues to concentrate air quality issues. I've been made of more air

quality issues just this week that people wake up and there's really bad smells in my

neighborhood. And we don't know why. And so we're digging into those. But my other concern

is data centers and water usage. And we don't have guidance right now. I tried to get a

map of where in this area plan are data centers allowed, and we didn't get that. And the

administration is working on their own memo of what their opinion is of where we can have

them. But there's still a lot of confusion around what that looks like. And so I would say to any

council member that is going through the planning process or will be soon, we need to be able to

knock doors. We need to be out in community talking to people. And even some of the promotoras didn't

really understand the plan either when we knocked doors with them. And so I would continue to push

CPD to really educate community to come up with some kind of curriculum because when this first

started it was like do you like this picture or this picture two images like pick one and that

really doesn't speak to what the potentiality was with overlays or other or other things but I will

say I know Fernando worked really hard on this I think the whole CPD team worked really hard on this

it took a lot of my time and energy it took the time and energy of my staff while we were dealing

with the many other things, and I think we created a really great product, but it doesn't

solve all our problems, and there's still more things that need to be answered.

So thank you for your partnership on that, and I don't know if you could speak to the

data center part of, like, where would they be allowed in this plan, and what does that

look like?

Because our concern is this area also experiences a lot of power outages, and it hasn't snowed

much this winter, and all of those things are scary.

Yeah, I think to speak to that part, I think since the data centers is such a new use that

it's not part of the code right now, it's hard to pinpoint where it can be.

But what we did add it as part of kind of a visioning outcome of what we would like to

see is that uses like that that become more current with technology would have more research

and study in terms of the impacts that it could generate in the surrounding communities.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And we did, and I think part of this for me has been documenting those things, and that

is documented in the plan.

And I appreciate that.

And also Excel right away, and their transmission lines go through this area as well, which

there's just a lot of inequities in the area.

And I think when I think about my community, they don't like to complain, you know, so

it's very rare.

And they're like, well, you know, I have a place to live.

That's a huge thing for a lot of people.

So to also complain that you're getting power outages or that you have other concerns or

you wake up with the smell of chemicals in the morning is something that people overlook.

And so I just want to commend you all for your work.

Thank my staff, Mark, Ben, Laura, for their work knocking doors and being in community.

I think I'm really proud of this plan and the work that it did.

And again, it doesn't solve all of our problems.

But thank you.

I appreciate it. Thank you, committee chair. Thank you so much. I'll just add, I think what really speaks to me and I'm really proud of in this effort.

One, the advisory committee stayed engaged during this entire time. And, you know, I don't think anything really compares to the length of the West Area Plan.

it was three, three full years. We also did it. We started it right before COVID. Um, and so we

didn't know what, what was going to really get in the way of us bringing people together, um,

getting into a room and looking at plans and having conversations. So it definitely, um,

challenged us in a lot of ways. Um, but it also, I think created bonds and I, and I see that in

this one as well, uh, that, uh, people who were learning together are really connected and want

to be able to see a lot of the things that they got excited about come to fruition through

this plan. So thank you for that. Westwood had the most recent neighborhood plan of all

of the neighborhoods. And it was great to be able to even be able to see where we had

made progress on a lot of the things that that plan had set forth and what we still

need to keep working on. And so it gave us a lot of great, really important benchmarks

for where that neighborhood is still looking to go.

So I appreciate all of that work.

It was very intentional.

And I think things like diverse cultural hubs,

which include food resources,

like these are things that we talk about all the time

in West and Southwest Denver.

How our community gathers, it is in person.

They want spaces and places that are meaningful to them

and to still be a part of how the city grows and expands.

We've talked about bus rapid transit in the future along Federal Boulevard.

We've talked about how people get around our neighborhoods

because they're not all the same and they're not all very easy.

So there's something in here for everyone

and really just can't wait to see a lot of this come through.

We are definitely working on a rezoning package to follow and excited about the areas that we're focusing in on that as well.

So I appreciate all of CPD's work in this.

I will go to Councilman Flynn online.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Fernando, I would like to just add one note of concern, and that's the use of the concept for missing middle and suburban context.

It's on page 55.

The process that is considering how to address missing middle is still underway, and that's a concept that we looked at.

It's not something that's been approved or brought to council.

And there was a joint meeting in December with the planning board and the council in that room where a lot of skepticism was addressed.

Marley is mostly suburban context, all of it in my district and about half of it in District 3.

and the guidance and blueprint for suburban context is at odds with that concept plan,

other than the ADUs.

So I just wanted to point out that that is not yet adopted,

and I'll make note of that on the floor.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much, Councilman Flynn.

I don't have anyone else in queue.

Fernando, any final comments?

No, thank you all for your time,

and we'll look a little bit more into Councilmember Flynn's comment,

and we can follow up with that, but appreciate your words

and thank you all for your time.

Okay.

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

A motion from Councilwoman Ovidres.

Second from Councilwoman Parity.

Everybody in favor of it moving to the floor?

Thank you all.

And that moves to the floor.

We have one item on consent that hasn't been called off,

so that will move forward as well.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you, Fernando. Have a great day. We are adjourned.

Thank you.