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.

Welcome everyone.

Thank you for joining us.

This is the South Platte River Committee of April 22nd.

I'm Councilwoman Jamie Torres.

I represent West Denver District 3.

Let's do introductions before we go to our rezoning, and I will start to my left.

Good afternoon, Darren Watson from District 9.

Good afternoon, man is Hanvon, Rank West Denver District 1.

Rora Vidres, Lucky District 7.

Southwest Denver District 2.

Thank you all, and thank you for the aroma of popcorn.

And it's not burnt.

We do have a council member on Zoom, if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself, please.

Good afternoon, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

Thank you so much.

We have just one action item today, nothing on consent.

So I'll turn it over to Abner.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you all for being here.

I'll try to be respectful of your time and keep this quick.

So Abner Ramos Artelo with community plan and development.

Here to present the rezoning for 361 363 West Evans Avenue.

So the request is to go from IAU02 to CMX8.

The property itself is a pretty large site that's 60,000 square feet and uh or 1.385 acres.

Currently on the lot, uh there are some single-unit buildings and just surface parking.

Location and context.

This property is located in Council District 7, represented by Councilwoman Alvidris, which is present.

It is in the Overland neighborhood.

And the current zoning, as previously stated, is IAU02.

It's surrounded by a variety of uses, but as we look uh east, it starts to become more of a mixed use or multi-unit uh zone districts.

The purpose of the CMX 8 zone district is to promote safe, active and pedestrian scale diverse areas, uh primarily two to eight stories, and the building forms that are allowed are the townhouse general and shopfront building forms.

This is a table that visualizes what I previously stated for the allowed building forms that are townhouse general and the shopfront for the CMX8 zone district.

The land use, uh the land use is aligned with the current zone district, so it's an industrial uh use currently.

Uh as we look east, it is still industrial, but it starts transitioning towards uh single unit, two unit, multi-unit.

Uh similarly, there is a mixed use and a uh office use to the east of this on the same uh to the east of this property, just east of the block.

The building form and scale, so existing conditions.

So on the top left, we see the property itself for the large surface parking lots and a lot of the single-story buildings that are there.

Uh to the south, just uh crossing Evans.

We see some of the uh mixed use and uh higher uh height development that is happening near the Evans Station area.

The process so far to date, so there was informational notice that was posted on the property uh within the 10 days that are required, so that was posted on February 6th.

Planning board notice was sent out uh March 30th.

We had our planning board hearing last week uh on Wednesday 415, and planning board voted unanimously to support this application move forward.

We're currently at council uh at committee and hopefully tentatively going to uh city council on June 1st.

Uh we have not received any comments uh from the RNOs or from the public uh at this time.

The only comments we've seen are those that the applicant was able to uh collect during the engagement process.

For the review criteria, the three review criteria that we're gonna be looking at are consistency with adopted plans, public interest, and then consistency with neighborhood context, zone district purpose and intent statements.

Starting with Comprehensive Plan 2040, uh this uh rezoning is consistent with uh a number of the strategies and the vision elements for comprehensive plan 2040 to housing near transit to promote infull development and to ensure a mix of housing types and services.

Looking at Blueprint Denver, it's consistent with the uh feature uh neighborhood context, which is urban center.

That's what the C stands for in the CMX8 zone district.

Uh the future place guidance is community center, which is appropriate up to 12 stories.

This property is requesting eight, so it is consistent there as well.

The uh feature place uh feature street type is commercial arterial along Evans, and it is consistent with the requested zone district to provide some commercial uh uses.

And then the last map from Blueprint Denver is uh the growth area strategies map, looking at it being mapped as community center and corridor, which is anticipated to accommodate 25% of housing and 20% of employment, which is consistent with the CMX8 zone district.

Lastly, we have the Southwest Area Plan, which was recently adopted about a month ago now.

So the future place guidance and the future neighborhood context remain the same.

The uh land use framework map designated this area as a high-intensity mixed-use area.

These areas will see the most growth in housing and jobs, so it's appropriate to have the CMX 8.

Similarly, there are uh land use and built form recommendations uh regarding housing and centers and corridors, and then lastly, looking at the centers and corridors designation.

This should be providing a design that's vibrant for commercial centers and corridors.

Uh given that this recommended given that this request is consistent with the uh adopted plans, it is in public interest.

And then lastly, when we look at consistency with the neighborhood context, zone district purpose and intent statements, it is also consistent with the um context guidance that says that it should be generally multi-union residential and a mixed-use commercial uh center.

And similarly, it should activate and promote a pedestrian-scaled diverse area in the uh public street edge.

With that, CPD recommends that the committee move this application forward for consideration by the full city council based on finding all review criteria have been met.

And I'm open to questions.

And the applicant property owners are also here.

Oh, great.

Thank you so much.

Um yes, Councilwoman will be the display service.

Thank you so much.

Um thank you for that great quick presentation, getting to all the important details.

I appreciate that we have this plan now to provide that guidance.

And my question may be for the applicant, but I'm just curious: is there a is there access from this site to the light rail station?

There is, yes.

Uh, along Delaware Street, uh, it's goes under Evans and has direct access to the Evans station.

Great.

And then uh my understanding, can you sh do you happen to know where the jewel bridge will also land?

Uh I don't think I have that in this.

Not super crucial, but just want to point out the transit-oriented development nature of this, so it makes a lot of sense to me.

So we supporting scan in our parking lawn seat.

Would you mind coming up to the microphone real quick?

It's just so we can talk at your yeah, so uh from the property they can't view where the bridge is gonna go, and this is jewel right here to the north.

It is uh two or so blocks to the north.

Given that it'll be right here.

Wonderful.

You see my cursor.

And then I guess just one more question for the applicant if you don't mind coming up and introducing yourself.

Um, is what are the plans for the land, or do you have plans for the land?

My name is Steve Jason.

I'm the owner, uh, and that's my wife Nancy.

Um my plan for the property is to get it rezoned and sell it outright.

I know I'm looking for a certain price.

Great.

Well, I I went through rezoning 10 years ago.

And uh at that time they said there was a plane that was sufficient to go all the way up to CMX 12.

And and instead now we're in CMX8.

Correct.

The view plane guidance uh has a height limit for this site at 141 feet.

Uh the requested CMX 8 zone district has a height, a maximum height of 110 feet, so they're well below the maximum height allowed in the viewplane.

Wonderful.

Great.

Well, thank you for sharing that.

I appreciate it.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Um, I don't have folks in queue, but I do have um one question, Abner.

I'm looking at the um uh Southwest Area Plan, and there's uh one recommendation around language on commercial centers and corridors.

So just help me understand like the um the difference in in what I'm hearing.

Blueprint says it can go up to 12 stories in this location.

This one though says buildings in community centers and corridors identified as high intensity mixed use areas should generally range from one story up to five.

Um how how do we how do we like reconcile those two things?

I believe uh when we're looking at the South Asterium plan, I was trying to reach Fernando earlier, and I think there was like an omission of a uh future place because I think it's like regional center and then community corridor, and it doesn't have the community centers, and the community centers is a one that would state that it is up to 12 stories, um, and then based on engagement with Councilwoman Alvidress and then the community, I believe eight stories was deemed appropriate for the site.

Um then based on engagement with Councilwoman Alvidress and then the community, I believe A stories was deemed appropriate for the site.

Okay, got it.

Thank you.

That just helps me understand.

I think the two um they're obviously not going for 12 um on this one either.

Yes, Council President Santa Paul.

Just want to make a comment in the on legistar the um community outreach just to the applicant.

I appreciate you walking the neighborhood.

I think that's where a lot of the fusion confusion comes in, is people rely on email and then rely on these volunteer boards to go out and walk the neighborhood, and that's just not feasible.

And so I appreciate you even though those mailers went out.

I read that you actually walked the neighborhood and people remembered you from the last time.

So just want to appreciate that because that helps us here do our work to ensure that we get oftentimes told that those mailers get lost and snail mail doesn't work.

And I always am like, well, why don't you go walk the neighborhood?

Um so I appreciate you doing that.

You talk you have to we've been there since 19 We've been there 20 years.

Yeah, 20 years.

So I know all the neighbors.

Um and I still know well, the neighborhood was about I can't remember, there was an across the alley for us.

There was a number of little old houses, and so some people live there.

Um but I used to have everybody over to our we have a pretty good size meeting room.

So I you know, 10 years ago when we were talking about this, they all would meet it at my place, at our place.

And um, yeah, I mean, I knew there's some of the neighbors I don't know now.

I mean, I think thank you for doing that.

I appreciate that.

Sure.

And thank you.

Um appreciate having a plan adopted and implementing it right away.

Like that's the magic behind having an adopted plan.

So thank you for that.

Yeah, my chair.

Great.

Thank you so much.

I don't see um Pro Tem uh queuing in.

Um so no one else in queue, is there a motion?

I'll move.

Thank you.

A second, thank you.

Um is there a need for a roll call?

No, we're good.

Okay.

We'll see you on the floor.

Thank you, Adam.

So thank you all.

Um with that we're adjourned.

Thanks everyone.

Thank you.

Good job.

So Abner, I'll see you tonight.

Yes, I'll see you tonight over for the advisory committee.

Yes.

Thank you so much.