Denver Community Planning and Housing Committee Approves Two Rezonings and SDP Extension – March 24, 2026
Denver Community Planning and Housing Committee Meeting – March 24, 2026
The Community Planning and Housing Committee of Denver City Council met on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at 1:00 PM (early start) to consider three action items: two map amendment rezonings and a text amendment to extend the validity period of Site Development Plans. All three items were approved unanimously (5-0) with Councilmembers Lewis and Sawyer absent. The meeting was chaired by Sarah Parady.
Public Comments & Testimony
- 992 North Knox Court rezoning: One letter of support from a neighbor was received; no comments from registered neighborhood organizations (RNOs).
- 1453 North Wabash Street rezoning: One letter of support from the FACS partnership and one letter of opposition from a neighbor concerned about paint odor; no comments from RNOs.
- Site Development Plan extension: Three written comments were received, all inquiries about the amendment’s scope and interaction with other codes.
- No oral public testimony was given during the meeting.
Discussion Items
1. Rezoning at 992 North Knox Court (Bill 26‑0345) Staff planner Tony Lutuva (note: meeting minutes list staff as Luke Palmisano, creating a discrepancy) presented the applicant-driven request to rezone the property at 992 North Knox Court (Council District 3) from E-SU-D (Urban Edge Single Unit) to E-MS-3 (Urban Edge Main Street, up to 3 stories). The site, currently occupied by an 1899 single-family home, is located at a small commercial node in the Villa Park neighborhood near light rail and bus transit. The proposed district allows townhouse and shopfront building forms; protected district standards require 10-foot rear and side setbacks and upper-story stepbacks to protect adjacent single-unit districts. The applicant entered into a voluntary affordable housing agreement requiring 12% of units to be income-restricted (70% AMI for rental or 90% AMI for for‑sale units) with a 99-year covenant. The applicant (Niles Emmerich and Stephen McCullough) plans 12–15 units plus ~1,000 sq ft of commercial space. No comments from RNOs; one letter of support; Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend approval on March 4. Committee members asked about the affordable housing terms and community engagement.
2. Rezoning at 1453 North Wabash Street (Bill 26‑0346) Staff planner Tony Lutuva presented a rezoning from E-TU-B (Urban Edge Two Unit) to E-MS-3 for a ~6,000 sq ft parcel in Council District 8 (East Colfax neighborhood). The property shares a single parcel with an auto‑body shop to the north that already has EMS-3 zoning; the owner discovered a zoning violation due to the split zoning and seeks consistency. The existing business will continue; no immediate expansion is planned. Drive‑through building forms are allowed because the site is not within 1/4 mile of a transit station (though Colfax BRT stops are nearby – some committee members expressed concern about drive‑through proximity). Protected district standards apply to the south. Two public letters were received: one in support from FACS partnership, one in opposition about paint odor. Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend approval on March 4, noting that the East Area Plan might have been a candidate for legislative rezoning. The applicant (Jeremy Robideau) stated he wants to organize the lot with fencing and a storage building. Committee members questioned the suitability of EMS-3 deep into a residential block and the drive‑through allowance.
3. Site Development Plan Validity Extension (Bill 26‑0344) Staff (Sarah Schwalter, Brad Buchanan, Chris Gleisner) presented a text amendment to extend the validity of Site Development Plans (SDPs) from 30 months to an additional 3 years for any SDP approved on or before December 31, 2025. This responds to current market conditions – high interest rates, construction costs, and oversupply have stalled projects. Approximately 22,633 residential units across 156 projects would benefit. Without the extension, many shovel‑ready projects could expire, losing years of investment. Planning Board recommended approval unanimously on March 18. Committee members discussed distribution across council districts (highest in Districts 9, 11, 10), interplay with building/energy code changes, and the need for metrics to track success. The amendment is designed to be temporary and removable.
Key Outcomes
- Bill 26‑0345 (992 N. Knox Court rezoning): Approved for filing on a motion by Councilmember Torres, seconded by Vice Chair Romero Campbell. Vote: 5‑0 (Alvidrez, Romero Campbell, Sandoval, Torres, Parady yes; Lewis and Sawyer absent).
- Bill 26‑0346 (1453 N. Wabash Street rezoning): Approved for filing on a motion by Councilmember Torres, seconded by Vice Chair Romero Campbell. Vote: 5‑0 (same).
- Bill 26‑0344 (Site Development Plan extension): Approved for filing on a motion by Councilmember Alvidrez, seconded by Vice Chair Romero Campbell. Vote: 5‑0 (same).
- All three bills will proceed to full City Council for a public hearing, anticipated in early May 2026.
- No items were placed on the consent calendar.
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. We're on air. Today is March 24th, 2026. Councilmember Romero Campbell's birthday is tomorrow. I'm therefore oriented in space and time. I'm Sarah Barody, Councilmember at Large, Chair of this Committee, and we'll start with Council Introductions to my left. Front Videreza, Flackey District 7. Get out of your near man town on Northwest Denver District. And Jamie Torres, West Denver District 3. And I'm just pausing to see if we have anyone online. Madam Pro Tem might be online. So giving her a moment. Not yet. Okay. Hopefully she's celebrating her birthday. Although I doubt it. Alright, so we're we have an early start today because we've got three action items. So we'll start with the rezoning at 922 North Knox Court as he strolls to the table. All right. Good afternoon. So my name is Tony Lutuva with community planning and development. And yeah, I'm here to start on the west side of Denver with a applicant-driven rezoning to change the zoning classification at 992 north of the Knox Court. So let's start with what they're requesting. So this property owner owns the property that's outlined in red in the map here. You can see they're asking to go from ESUD to EMS3. So that's an urban edge single unit district to an urban edge main street district. Increasing heights up to three stories. We'll see some images of it a little bit later in the presentation, but it is currently occupied by a single unit residential building that was built in 1899. And there have been numerous additions, accessory structures, and garages that have been built on the property in the past uh 127 years. So this is located in Council District 3, represented by Council Member Torres. And it's located right here in the Villa Park neighborhood. So I just want to note this map's uh a little bit zoomed out, but it is about one block south of Lakewood Gulch, which is uh known for an abundance of newly created trails over the past decade, uh connecting both east and west. Um it's about one block south of a transit stop for the W line, which connects Golden and Union Station. Um Eagleton Elementary is just to the southeast. Federal is known for having dense commercial to the east there. Um just on the northern boundary of this property, um, has stops for both the RTD 1 and 9 buses, which bring people across town. Um so this is the property itself. Um, and you can see its existing zoning is ESUD, which as I said is a single unit district, um, as is a lot of the area around here. Um the only difference between the SUD and the SUDX to the north is that the DX allows the suburban house building form, so slightly different house structures allowed to the north and to the south. Um but you can see it's located sort of at this very small commercial node within Villa Park, where to the north we see the EMX 2X district. Um, and then there are a couple of row house districts where we see slightly denser housing. Um but this is located right at sort of a commercial node at 10th and Knox. Uh what they're proposing is to rezone this property to EMS 3. Um so the EMS3, that's a main street district that is designed to promote sort of safe pedestrian-scaled commercial streets. Activate that public edge wherever that primary street is. In this case, it would be along 10th Avenue there, with a high degree of walkability. Um it's den uh uh typically placed at local or collector streets and embedded mixed-use areas within residential districts. So we do think that that uh meets this definition as we go through the presentation. Um and there are two building forms that would be allowed here the townhouse and the shop front building forms.
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