Zoning & Planning Committee Meeting
Meeting: Saturday March 22, 2014 930am-noon, 1201 Williams St. 19th Floor.
AGENDA:
- Discussion with Acting Director of Denver Department of Excise and Licenses, Judy Steele, who will be serving for a few months until Director Tracie Loucks returns from maternity leave. Discussion about any recommendations that we might want to make about liquor licenses and marijuana licenses.
- Discussion with City Councilwoman Robin Kniech about inclusionary housing ordinance and possible changes to help develop more affordable housing.
- Any other business. Please bring news and issues from your neighborhood.
INC ZONING AND PLANNING COMMITTEE MINUTES – February 22, 2014
By Michael Henry, Committee Chair
Approximately 30 members participated in this meeting and sampled Voodoo Doughnuts, purchased by committee member Suzanne Gilbert from the new hipster-oriented store on East Colfax between Humboldt and Franklin.
Michael Henry updated the committee on the fact that House Bill 1132 (which would have allowed cities and counties to permit nightclubs, bars and restaurants to serve alcohol to 4:30 am, instead of 2:00 am) was killed on February 17, at the request of the sponsor, State Representative Crisanta Duran. However, committee member Margie Valdez attended a town meeting held by Rep. Duran on February 22 at the same time as our committee meeting and reported:
I will say she is relentless and her efforts to get legislation on the extension of alcohol sales does not dampen. She had a couple of “experts” in attendance to support her efforts…The bill is not dead. It is on life support…They are working on putting together legislation (this session) to allow an extended permit provision. Right now the State law provides that on-premises alcohol can be served from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Consistent with her argument for local control the legislation would allow the liquor establishments to apply for an extended permit period from say 2:00 a.m. until 4:00. So the establishments would have two permits or licenses. No needs and desires hearings. The extended periods would be for any establishment that applies for the extended period permit or license.
Michael Henry reported that newly-appointed Excise and Licenses Director Stacie Loucks, who had tentatively agreed to attend this committee meeting to get acquainted with INC members concerned about liquor and marijuana licensing issues, is unable to attend because she had a baby on Wednesday and will be on maternity leave until mid-May. We will invite the Deputy Director, Judy Steele, who will be the acting director, to meet with the committee next month. In addition the committee agreed to establish a working group to develop specific ideas for improvement of licensing matters. Anyone interested in participating, please contact Steve Kite (skite@ares.csd.net. or 303-480-1981) or Michael Henry (michaelhenry824@comcast.net or 303-377-6609).
The committee discussed the fact that Community Planning and Development Executive Director Rocky Piro recently resigned and that the Mayor has appointed Brad Buchanan in his place. The committee will work to communicate with and educate him about the needs of neighborhoods as soon as possible. Committee members were informed that the terms of at least 2 Planning Board members will expire in June and that we should encourage the Mayor to appoint members who understand and care about neighborhoods.
The committee discussed a proposed ordinance to be sponsored by Councilwoman-at-Large Robin Kniech, which would allow the sale of home-grown food and food from urban gardens out of homes. The bill was described by Feven Netsanet (Councilwoman Kniech’s aide), Sustainable Food Policy Council member Dana Miller, and Tina Axelrad and Sarah Showalter from the Community Planning and Development Department. They have already met with some neighborhood groups and will be glad to meet with others. The bill would amend the zoning code and would require that a home-occupation zoning permit be obtained and that hours of sales be limited to 7am to dusk. The committee expressed appreciation for hearing and being able to comment on this before the last minute. The proposal will be presented to the Planning Board as an informational item on March 5.
Committee member Cindy Sestrich summarized an interesting study on Health Effects Associated with Indoor Marijuana Grow Operations conducted by members of the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences of the Department of Medicine at National Jewish Health. Anyone wishing to see the study and/or a 1-hour webinar, may contact michaelhenry824@comcast.net.
INC President Larry Ambrose announced that INC has contributed $1000 to Doors Open Denver. This year’s free event, the theme of which is Celebrating Neighborhood Architecture, will occur on April 12-13. Information is at www.doorsopendenver.com.
Rosemary Stoffel reported that Tina Axelrad of the Community Planning and Development Department recently made a clear and beneficial presentation of “Zoning 101” to University Park Community Council.