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.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thanks for joining us.

This is the South Platte Committee of July 22nd, 2026.

I'm Councilwoman Torres.

I present West Denver District 3.

We have one action item today.

And before we get to that presentation, let's do introductions and I'll start with anyone online.

Thank you so much.

And that's it.

Okay.

I'll start on my right.

Amanda Sanovan District 1.

Daryl Watson, fine District 9.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Our item today is a permit to KSE LLC, Parking LLC, about a right-of-way encroachment permit.

So I'll turn it over to Stephen and Andy, please introduce yourselves and take it away.

Great.

Good afternoon, and thank you for having us here this afternoon to present the tier three right-of-way encroachment for the Wine Coop Crossing Bridge.

Introduce yourself.

I'm Andy Rockmore.

I'm principal at SAR Architects.

I reside at 50 and 50 Wincoop Street in Denver.

I think I forgot that part.

So Stephen Wilson, Community Planning and Development.

Thank you.

Also great.

So I have just a couple of slides.

So today's request is to allow the Wine Group Crossing Bridge to cross Spear Boulevard.

And so through the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, this is called a Tier 3 encroachment, and it's only allowed with approval.

So the location of the Wine Coop Crossing Bridge, although I think we're mostly familiar with it, I'll still do some recap.

So it's approximately halfway between Wewata Street and Arraria Parkway, and it's indicated by the red arrow on the slide.

And it will connect the phase 1A of the Ball Arena redevelopment with the bridge circulation on the Cherry Creek side on the area that's currently a parking lot.

The right-of-way encroachment is approximately 19069 feet wide, and it goes uh entirely across the span of Spear Boulevard.

And as you can see in the plan, um the area that it covers, the the encroachment area is represented uh with the the blue polygon uh that's on the screen.

Uh so there is one other future council action that I'll uh uh just identify now so that you're familiar with it.

Um, but there is a uh portion of a right-of-way vacation that'll happen um along the or is pro pros for along the parking lot area, um, and then also along a portion of the downtown playground.

Um and if approved, that vacation will um right size the right-of-way so that it's a correct width, all up and down Spear Boulevard.

That will be a separate request.

And then I'm pointing it out now because uh we have anticipated that with this tier three encroachment, and the tier three encroachment will automatically adjust uh if that right-of-way vacation is approved.

Uh in terms of project uh highlights, um so the bridge is an opportunity to provide much needed connection between the future ball arena redevelopment and the historic downtown uh lower downtown uh neighborhood.

Uh the bridge will have a 5% slope maximum.

So, as we uh talked about in in previous uh meetings, there will be no elevators, it will be just stairs and uh ramps.

Uh as I mentioned it's a suspended bridge that spans all the way across Spear Boulevard.

Uh it will enter into a promenade level uh second level space on uh the ball arena phase 1A development and then transition down to the the entry level for ball arena um and then the bridge will maintain uh 20 feet clear height from Spear Boulevard so that maintenance of uh existing and future utilities can be done underneath the bridge with typical equipment.

Uh so that's the the just the highlights on the presentation.

Um South Platte River Committee uh anticipated and then it would go through its uh typical process.

Um so here today with me we have uh Andy Rockmore, the architect for the bridge, so we could go over uh any of the slides that we presented previously, or there are any questions.

Um, and then we also do have Jason Proskovic uh who could answer questions about the construction of the bridge.

Um, Matt Mahoney who could answer questions about anything with the developer or the district.

Great, thank you.

Okay, thank you so much.

Um let me acknowledge Council President Romero Campbell has also joined us online, and um I'll open up the queue for any questions.

I'll jump in um and let folks kind of ruminate on uh on the project.

Um Stephen, thank you.

Um Stephen, can you uh go back to the right of way vacation um and what that includes when that comes back to us?

Yeah, so the um the right of vacation vacation will include um so from the edge of Volker Lofts, there's sort of a triangular portion, um, and it will be roughly parallel to the sidewalk.

Okay.

So typically in right of ways, um, you know, the the the roadway center line and then the curb and gutter and then the sidewalk are all typically parallel.

Um in this instance, uh, because Speer Vol uh Boulevard is very old, um, the the configuration along the edge there is uh inconsistent.

Um and so the the vacation would make that more consistent.

Okay.

Who um what's the vacation there for or what's the right of way um purpose now?

Uh the the area that's to be vacated so um children's playground goes over a portion of that now, um, and and then part of the parking lot goes over a portion of that now.

Okay, so we're including the territory of it, even though it hasn't been vacated yet.

Once it gets vacated, it just becomes a part of the uh permitted area.

Correct.

Okay, yep.

Okay.

Uh thank you.

Councilwoman Alvideris.

Um thank you, committee chair.

Um my question is that the permit is revocable.

So what does that look like and when would we revoke that permit?

That's a great question.

Um, and in terms of um, you know, the the the mechanism, there are there are sort of three different levels for um allowances uh in the right of way.

Uh they're they're all revocable, um, and we have other um we have other permanent structures uh in the right of way in the city, like bridges or catwalks that have the same um that have the same condition.

So um I I think it's the typical condition, and um actually I'll ask Karen.

We have Karen from Dottie.

Um I don't know if there's anything that you could add to it, but I think it's a typical Dottie process.

Yes, there's nothing different about this one.

Okay.

I covered it okay.

Um and just to clarify, as we've talked about in different um hearings about the same or different issues with the same structure is that any maintenance going forward will be by the maintenance district, correct?

By the metropolitan district, district.

I I mean, thank you.

Yes, that's all I have.

Thank you, great.

Councilman Hines.

Thank you, committee chair.

Um, I want to thank CPD for um there were uh considering some changes to the tier three encroachment process.

Uh I'm glad that we have the opportunity to consider these.

Um since I uh joined council, we did um say no to one tier three encroachment right after I started, which was in my district, um, and we had consideration about a second one.

I don't know if we ended up saying no to that, but um uh but at any rate, this this is uh the tier three encroachments are uh rather standard.

I don't know.

Uh I don't know if we've uh actually maybe maybe this is a question for CBD.

Have we ever um revoked a tier well in the last decade?

Not ever um revoked a tier three encroachment against the wishes of the the um encroachment holder.

I think the answer is no.

Oh, we have.

Uh well that's a tier three.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

At the um the quality of time.

Yeah, and it's Dottie, it's the three tier three good encroachments, good through dotted.

Yeah, okay, thank you.

Yep, all right.

Thank you.

Uh for answering my question.

Thank you, committee chair.

Thank you.

And you know, the miraculous memory holder.

No, I'm like, that was so bad, council member staff.

Sorry.

Uh uh not sorry, but I've just um during my council presidency.

Um Dottie had come to me numerous times asking me to change these tier three encroachments, wanting to actually not have them anymore, and wanting to streamline them and wanting to not have them come through this city council process.

And I'll just say publicly that I'm not about giving relinquishing any of our rights.

I'm not going to do that.

I'm not gonna do that.

And as long as I'm on city council, I feel like we should be using these tier three encroachments to have dialogue.

Um and in this case, actually, this tier three encroachment had us discover had we not had to go through this, Councilman Torres and I wouldn't have been at the um table as much in figuring out that we actually didn't own the land and we had to actually buy the land, and that we had a lot of things going on, and so I am a fan of keeping tier three encroachments under the purview of city council, and so I had to do this whole exercise, Councilmember Hines of which ones had been denied and not, and um that's the most recent one.

I also asked you all to deny one, not this class, but I asked you all to deny one during COVID in my um tenor because it was in Highland and it was egregious and the neighborhood didn't want it, and I that was my only way of leveraging with the developer to get something different.

It didn't end up coming for us, but I was lobbying for you all to have if it had to vote it down.

Um so I think that this is a good um mechanism that we have to be able to get different outcomes when it comes to development in our right-of-way that we have purview over.

So that's why I just that's been at the forefront of my mind because I've been asked numerous times to look at if I would be open at exploring getting rid of this under council's purview, and as council president, I was like, absolutely not.

You can vet it through my colleagues and vote count around me, but I will be a no.

Um so with that, um just want to say that thank you all for working with us.

Thank you all for um having this.

I really appreciate even this being an action item on today's agenda, because I don't think we have tier three encroachments always come to city council.

This one I was again worried about is I have to council member Hines, I know you and I have commiserated about this at committee a lot.

Bridges are a really good asset, and then they can be really, really challenging on our community if they're not built right, if they're not thought thoughtfully cared for.

And so to your point, it's an encroachment.

How do we like revocable?

How does it get revoked?

I don't know.

I've never experienced that before.

I just have had to go through the whole when the um small cell towers, which aren't small, they're really big in our neighborhoods.

Those were all tier three encroachments as well, and that's when I really dug into tier three encroachments when I was working for council member Espinosa, and they said they wouldn't make noise.

The one across the street from me makes tons of noise.

It's really pain.

Um, I don't love it.

So, but back to this one at hand.

I really appreciate all of the outreach you all have done.

I appreciate that in the IGA that we got a copy of for last committee that you all will be responsible for this.

I'm glad that we cleaned up the entitlement so that when you go back and we're not sitting around this table, that the entitlement work will show who is responsible for what, and that this is a mechanism for us to be able to understand what is being built within the city and county of Denver right away, and that it for some reason it's a mechanism that comes to city council.

It's a tool that we have.

Um I will say that maybe it has stopped some of the like it it it it is a going through the legislative process, I understand adds time to it, and sometimes time can be utilized in a different way.

I think that we actually utilized this time and found some things that had we not done all of this due diligence, it wouldn't have come to fruition the way it had.

You all would have been in a really hard place had we known that Union Pacific owned that land.

How do you do a tier three encroachment on land that's not in the city and county of Denver?

So I really do believe that this is um has been utilized the way that it should be, and I'm a fan of having these come before this body so that it can remain a checks and balance, and I don't have any concerns.

I I think the ones you I forgot about the vacation, forgot about that, so thank you for reminding me that one question I have is that in the queue right now is that going through the agency processes?

Yes, yeah, so I could look it up on Xella.

So I'll look it up and make sure I don't have any on how those verge together.

I don't have any concerns right now, but I forgot about that vacation, so I'll check that out um before it comes to the floor and make sure anything any questions I have, I'll send them your way.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Yeah.

The other one that we the second term was voted on denied was uh on exposition.

On exposition, there's a wall that we said no to.

And then I think there was gonna be one on Wada and Ballpark.

Remember when they were gonna vacate and then they were gonna encroach in the right-of-way, that was gonna be a problem.

They're not guaranteed, yeah.

For sure.

Yeah.

Um, Andy, um, can you or somebody from your team talk to me a little bit about timeline and what construction uh would look like on this?

Yes in the sense of uh defer to Chase.

Good afternoon.

Jason Proskovek with Kiwit.

I'm an area manager and also project director for this project.

And uh of course, uh we we're going through the design process right now and getting through those gates, which is which is pretty important.

Uh we're currently looking to start the shaft construction in March of next year.

So the shafts are nine foot diameter, deep shafts on both sides of the bridge.

And then there's a huge buttress, concrete buttress on the ball side.

Really, this this arch has thrust, it's really thrusting in one direction.

So that huge buttress really takes a lot of that load.

And after we do the foundations, then we'll put what we call a false deck over spear.

So it's really a bridge to build the bridge, and that uh really is for public safety, and also you know, the it will also support the arch.

So there'll be columns coming out of this false deck that will really support that arch.

Then you put the arch up, and then you have the cable hangers coming down, and then we actually build a precast deck on this false deck in concrete, and then we'll do the closure pores, and then we tie the suspension cables to the deck, and then we slowly we call it guitar tuning, Steven, right?

Then we slowly put the load into that arch and and and remove that false stack from the bridge, and then remove the false deck, and then we have a bridge.

It's like that simple.

I'm sure it is.

Can you tell me a little bit about traffic um uh flow?

Yeah, sir.

So on spear, that that will be you know, that will be a challenge that we're working through through street occupancy and with the team.

Um, you know, we will need to close, you know, directions of spear down from time to time just to install this false deck, and also when we're installing the major components of the arch.

I mean, these are huge structural steel components, you know, around 500 tons of steel in that in that arch structure.

Um so we'll have to work with you know with street occupacy with the city to figure out the right times to close a direction of spear for you know for some time.

Um, there will be some night work.

We will try to limit that.

I mean, we we're well aware of the noise variance process and have worked with that before in the past.

Uh so there's still a lot of a lot of things to work through.

Um, but but ultimately public safety and traffic safety is paramount to us and and making sure that we can work together um to construct this bridge safely.

And I'm having a hard time visualizing the medians um uh from Arraria Parkway all the way up to like the Zunai or I-25 area.

Is it are you're not able to keep two-way continuity, you have to fully close one direction or the other.

From from time to time, yeah.

And on a daily basis, we I mean almost daily basis, we will need to have a right lane or left lane or center lane closure just to facilitate you know getting construction equipment and concrete and things like that in and out of spear because we want to be good neighbors for Volker Lawfts in that community as well.

Um so yeah, they're that part of the plan is still under development, and we'll work closely with uh the city throughout that.

One request that I'd make um for particular thinking um Councilwoman Sandoval, Councilman Heinz, and myself, um, whose districts uh I think that most directly touches.

If you can keep in touch with us about what uh traffic changes are gonna look like during construction, um, because we'll we'll likely be see seeing calls come through that we want to be able to say this will be the case for this period of time, or there's a point of contact at QIT that we encourage you to contact, like just things like that, so we're prepared for any um resident impact um in advance.

Yeah, very very uh helpful there to communicate with y'all and also having uh you know robust public information, yeah, right?

So people know two weeks ahead of time, you know, month ahead of time when things are going to happen so they can plan you know their life around what's going on.

Okay, all right.

Well, this will be an interesting interesting councilman sound of all.

Can I um so where will you do staging?

So the pre-cast concrete has to come staged somewhere.

Will you be using ballerina land to stage all because there's gonna be heavy equipment coming in?

public information yeah right so people know two weeks ahead of time you know month ahead of time when things are going to happen so they can plan you know their life around what's going on okay all right well this will be an interesting interesting councilwoman sandoval can I um so where will you do staging so the precast concrete has to come staged somewhere will you be using ballerina land to stage all because there's going to be heavy equipment coming in where will you because I is it the sequencing the bridge has to be built and then the land is going to be developed or is it all happening at once they work together they they do work together so really that first buttress abundant is on the development side yeah and so we have our own shoring that we work together with the the vertical teams to get that constructed but then everything starts to get really tight to your point right and you know the precast will come from an offsite precast facility and we'll we'll try you know most of our just in time deliveries is what we call them and have many staging areas within the ball arena property because space is it it will be very very tight.

Okay but you know very very solid logistics for you know daily deliveries of what we need to get the project completed.

Okay thank you thank you Madam Chair great thank you Jason thank you I don't have any other questions in queue um with that I'll uh take a motion and a second motion by uh councilwoman sandoval second by councilman heinz everybody okay moving this forward yeah thank you councilwoman council president Romero Campbell yes thank you um thumbs up okay this moves forward to the floor thank you ball uh all so much appreciate it uh we have one two items on consent if you have any questions uh come to me or Melissa uh Alyssa thank you everybody