Denver Community Planning and Housing Committee Meeting - May 19, 2026: Rezoning and Lobbying Reform
Denver Community Planning and Housing Committee Meeting - May 19, 2026
The Community Planning and Housing Committee of the Denver City Council met on May 19, 2026, chaired by Councilmember Sarah Perry. The committee addressed two action items: a rezoning request for the Loreto Heights campus and a presentation on lobbying reform. The rezoning was approved for referral to the full City Council, while the lobbying reform presentation generated detailed discussion but no vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were submitted for either agenda item.
Discussion Items
Rezoning: Loreto Heights PUD Boundary Adjustment
- Presentation: Fran Peñafiel, Principal City Planner, presented a rezoning request by Denver Arts & Venues to adjust the boundaries of two existing Planned Unit Development (PUD) districts (PUD G24 and PUD G25) into new PUDs G41 (campus core) and G42 (residential). The change moves a 14,000-square-foot parcel from the residential PUD to the campus core PUD to allow for a surface parking lot and future two-story parking garage serving the existing theater (700 seats) and library. The parcel is currently vacant. New sub-area C includes reduced heights and setbacks to transition to adjacent residential areas. The Planning Board recommended approval unanimously on May 6, 2026. No public comments were received as of the presentation date, though one later traffic concern was noted for the City Council packet.
- Councilmember Flynn (District 2) expressed support, noting the adjustment makes sense and preserves views, and said he would like to see the item on the floor.
- Councilmember Alvidrez asked clarifying questions about the use of the parcel, parking demand, transportation demand management (TDM) measures, bike parking, EV charging, and RTD stop plans. The project team confirmed the parking garage will have 215 spaces, 25 bike racks, EV charging per city code, and ongoing coordination for an RTD stop on the north side.
- Councilmember Parady asked for clarification on the current use of the parcel (vacant) and access points.
- Outcome: The committee voted unanimously to move the rezoning to the full City Council with a recommendation for approval.
Lobbying Reform Presentation
- Presentation: Councilmembers Torres and Gonzalez Cocherez, along with the Clerk and Recorder's Office (Andy Savitz, Paul Lopez, Nick Mann), presented proposed updates to Denver's lobbying ordinance. The goals are to increase transparency, align with best practices, clarify disclosure requirements, and establish a consistent enforcement model. Key provisions include requiring lobbyists to disclose compensation per client, identify covered officials they lobby, and disclose grassroots lobbying spending. The ordinance would cover elected and appointed officials (excluding career service employees) and require lobbyists to identify themselves and their client when contacting officials.
- Cooling-off period: Initially proposed at 18 months, but after member discussions, sponsors recommended a 6-month period to align with the existing ethics code. Councilmember Parady expressed concern that 6 months is too short, noting the state uses 2 years and the federal 1 year. Other members were divided: 6 members favored 6 months, 3 were open to either 6 or 12, and 4 had not expressed an opinion.
- Coverage of aides: The ordinance would require reporting of lobbying contacts with a council office as a whole, not individual aides, to avoid administrative burden and accommodate potential changes in staff titles. Councilmember Sawyer asked for clarity on the trigger for reporting (e.g., direct requests for votes or meetings, not routine stakeholder engagement).
- Mayoral appointees: Councilmembers Parady and Sawyer argued that senior mayoral staff members (e.g., chief of staff, legislative director) and agency heads not defined in the charter (e.g., HOST, DOTI, CASR) should be subject to the cooling-off period and reporting requirements. The sponsors agreed to explore definitions using HR classifications (e.g., at-will employees) and follow up with HR and the City Attorney's office.
- Ethics board alignment: Lori from the Board of Ethics noted the existing 6-month cooling-off period in the ethics code applies broadly; the new ordinance would specifically cover elected officials. The sponsors indicated a willingness to conform future updates if the ethics code changes.
- Enforcement: A hearing officer would adjudicate serious violations, with fines or ability to revoke lobbying registration.
- Outcome: No vote was taken. The committee discussed substantive changes and directed sponsors to refine language on the cooling-off period duration and scope, including inclusion of senior mayoral appointees, and to continue working with the Clerk's Office and HR.
Key Outcomes
- Rezoning (Loreto Heights): The committee voted unanimously to recommend approval and refer the item to the full City Council by June 29, 2026. The rezoning will create PUD G41 and PUD G42, moving a 14,000 sq ft parcel to the campus core with design standards for transition to residential areas.
- Lobbying Reform: No committee vote; the presentation generated substantive discussion. Sponsors agreed to refine the 6-month cooling-off period (opposed by one member) and to explore including all at-will mayoral appointees and non-charter agency heads. Further language will be drafted and revisited.
Meeting Transcript
The Community Planning and Housing Committee with Denver City Council. Your community planning and housing committee starts now. Welcome to the community planning and housing committee of Denver City Council. Today is May 19th. I'm Sarah Perry. I'm one of your council members at large and the committee chair, and I will start with introductions to my right. If council members are on your right. Good afternoon, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4. I mean, sorry, District 5. Flora Ritres, Bucky District 7. I mean, Samuel North West Denver District, right? And I think we have a colleague online as well. Maybe two. Alright, hi, Flamengo. Thank you. I like your card. I was gonna say. You added that to your outfits since morning. The good card. Alright, so the first thing we have today, we've got two action items, starting with a rezoning that um Fran is ready to present. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, members of committee. Uh, my name is Fran Peñafiel. I'm a principal city planner with community planning and development. And today I'm gonna present an overview of the rezoning request for Loreto Heights. Arts and Venues is requesting to rezone the current PUD G24 and PUD G25 zone district into a two new PUDs that are gonna be PUD G41 and PUD G42. As you know well, in this presentation, we're gonna go over the location and context, then I'm gonna touch into existing and proposed zoning, we're gonna go over the process, and then finally we're gonna look at the review criteria. Um this property is located in Council District 2, which is represented by Council Member Flynn, and it is in the Harvey Park South neighborhood. Um here I'm gonna take a quick minute uh to go over a little bit of the background so that then we can move faster because you're gonna see that it's actually a pretty simple when it looks complicated, but it's a very simple rezoning. Um the sites were originally rezoned in 2021. If you recall, a few of you were here after we approved the L'Oreal Heights Small Area Plan. This rezoning primarily consists of a targeted adjustment of the PUD boundaries and the reorganization of the existing PUD framework into updated PUD G41 and PUD G42. As a reminder, a PUD or Plan Unit Development is a customized zoning district that establishes site-specific land use and development standards tailored for a particular property. Here in this aerial view, um, you can see that the sign showing to the west is what it's called currently PUD G25, which is proposed to be rezoned to PUD G42. Uh, for the purposes of this presentation and make it easier to follow, I'm gonna refer to the PUD G25 as the residential PUD and the PUD G24 as the campus score. Just to make it easier. Let's numbers. Um so all of this rezoning is simply, and I'm gonna get into the detail and I'm gonna show you a more detailed image, is to move a small parcel that it's only 14,000 square feet from one PUD to the other. So it's gonna move from the residential PUD into the uh the campus core. So here you can see this is assuming uh if you're familiar with Loreto Heights, you can see there are the library and the theater, and that little parcel that's there that it's owned by the city. It's this 14,000 square feet uh property that used to be in the residential PUD, and now uh the applicant is requesting to move it to the uh campus core. Let me see here in my notes. Uh yeah, and this is gonna create a new sub-area. Then I'm gonna go into the details. As previously mentioned, the current zoning of the site is PUD G24 and PUD G25. If you recall from the rezoning from 2021, it was a bigger area. So we did rezone back then in 2021 that uh area that you see there that it's UMX3. So that one went to a standard district, and then also like the CMPE 2. Uh, that one to the south, that's where the DPS school is. So those areas where we're zoning to standard districts, and then what you see in yellow is what we're uh rezoning now, but it's the two PUDs.
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