Community Planning and Housing Committee Meeting Summary: June 9, 2026
Community Planning and Housing Committee Meeting Summary: June 9, 2026
The Community Planning and Housing Committee of the Denver City Council met on June 9, 2026, at 1:30 PM. The committee considered three rezoning action items and one consent item. All action items were approved for filing by a vote of 5-0, with members Sandoval and Torres absent. The consent item was approved without objection.
Consent Calendar
- 26-0770: Approved a contract amendment with LCM Architects LLC to extend the end date to December 31, 2026, for citywide ADA consulting services. No change to contract capacity.
Public Comments & Testimony
- For item 26-0712 (4625 N Milwaukee), one letter of support was received from the Elyria Swansea RNO, and a letter signed by 40 community members supporting the rezoning was noted.
- For item 26-0776 (406 S Quitman), no public comments were received.
- For item 26-0777 (4901 S Monaco), 29 comments of opposition were received, citing concerns about parking, allowed uses, infrastructure constraints, and safety. No RNO exists for that area.
Discussion Items
-
26-0712 – Rezone 4625 N Milwaukee Street: Request to change zoning from E-SU-D (urban edge single-unit) to U-TU-B (urban two-unit) to allow two-unit housing on a 4,605 sq ft vacant lot that was part of the I-70 expansion. Fran Penafiel (CPD) presented. The site is in Council District 9 (Councilmember Watson). The Elyria Swansea neighborhood plan supports moderate density. Planning board recommended approval unanimously. Councilmember Watson spoke in support, noting collaboration with Habitat for Humanity and Tierra Colectiva. Danny Swaba of Tierra Colectiva stated the homes will be sold at approximately 57% of area median income to address displacement, and the community outreach included bilingual door-knocking, info sessions, and RNO engagement. The motion to approve the rezoning for filing passed 5-0.
-
26-0776 – Rezone 406 S Quitman Street: Request to change zoning from E-SU-Dx to E-SU-B on a 10,400 sq ft vacant lot with a half-story basement house. Will Prince (CPD) presented. Purpose is to allow lot splitting for additional housing. Located in Westwood (Council District 3). The Southwest Area Plan encourages splitting lots over 9,000 sq ft. No public comments received. Planning board recommended approval. Councilmember Alvidrez asked about the basement home (grandfathered) and the need for rezoning; staff explained no plan support for two-unit, so single-unit per lot. Motion to approve passed 5-0.
-
26-0777 – Rezone 4901 S Monaco Street: Request to rezone from B-4 with waivers and use overlays to S-MX-5 (suburban mixed-use up to 5 stories). Brandon Shaver (CPD) presented. The site is a 3-acre existing three-story assisted living facility near the city border. The applicant, Guardian Recovery, plans an adaptive reuse addiction recovery facility with up to 170 beds (phased in), 24/7 staffing, and 24-hour supervision. No expansion of the building footprint. Planning board recommended approval. Opposition comments raised concerns about traffic, parking, and safety. The applicant team (Amelia Stefan, Brian Tierney, Austin Kane) explained that the rezoning removes the need for a two-year use permit renewal and enables financing. They described a good neighbor pledge addressing: 24-hour responsiveness, no signage reading "recovery", no methadone clinic, and gradual occupancy ramp-up. Oversight includes state BHA annual licensure and Joint Commission accreditation. Payer mix expected: 40% Medicaid, 50% commercial, 10% private pay. Councilmember Romero Campbell expressed concerns about community trust (due to prior Arapahoe County detox proposal) and the increase in capacity from previous 70 beds to 170, but voted to move forward because the rezoning meets criteria. Motion to approve passed 5-0.
Key Outcomes
- 26-0712: Approved for filing (5-0). Public hearing scheduled for July 13, 2026.
- 26-0776: Approved for filing (5-0). Public hearing scheduled for July 27, 2026.
- 26-0777: Approved for filing (5-0). Public hearing tentatively scheduled for late July 2026.
- 26-0770: Consent item approved.
- All votes were 5-0 with Sandoval and Torres absent.
Meeting Transcript
Community Planning and Housing Committee with Denver City Council. Your community planning and housing committee starts now. Let's report online only. Ah, there we go. Hello. Welcome to community planning and housing. Today is Wednesday, June 9th, 2026. I'm Diana Romero Campbell. And we are ready for our meeting and introductions. Let's go online. I believe we have some council members online. We'll do introductions with them first. Sarah Perity, you're a council member at large. Good afternoon, Amanda Sawyer, District 5. And hello, everyone. And can you go ahead and start to my left? Awesome. Thank you. Flora Lidres, Lucky District 7. Good afternoon, Dora Watson, fine, district 9. Chantel Louis, District 8. Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4. We have four action items today, so it's a pretty tight schedule. I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over. Go ahead and turn it over. I think we're starting with the rezoning for 4625 North Milwaukee. Perfect. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, members of council. My name is Fran Peña Fiel, and I'm a principal city planner with community planning and development. And today I am here covering for Joe because I'm not Joe. In this rezoning for 4625 North Milwaukee Street. We are looking as always as the request, location and context. We're gonna look at the process and then finally we're gonna go over the review criteria. This rezoning is coming to you, sponsored by Council Member Watson, and he is working in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity and Tierra Collectiva in rezoning this site that it's a small site, it's 4,605 square feet, that it's currently zoned ESUD, and the request is to go to UTUB. As you can see in this side, in that image, this is part of the expansion of I 70. So there used to be a house in the site that got demolished when that expansion happened, and now that's why you see that the site is smaller. It used to be 9,000 square feet, now it's 4,600, and is currently a vacant site. As I said, the current zoning is ESUD, what's the urban edge single unit with a minimum zone lot size of 6,000 square feet? And the proposal is to go to UTUB, which is the urban two-unit district. This district allows for two-unit uses on lots that are supposed to be a minimum of 4,500 square feet. Now let's look at the location and context. As I said before, this is in Council District 9, that it's Council Member Watson's district, and it is in the Ilaria Swansea neighborhood. Here's the existing zoning. So you can see that it's it is ESUD, and it's mostly surrounded by other ESUD to the north. There is like that side that it's UTUC, and then you can see that south of I-70, it's ETUB. Now looking at the land use, as I said before, there used to be a house here that was demolished with the expansion of I-70, and now it's a vacant lot. And here are some images you can see there on the top right. That's the vacant site. Now let's take a look at the process.
openpublica.com