The location also is arguably sensitive for neighborhood advocates and city officials because it sits at a high-profile corner adjacent to an area the city seeks to transform through the $1.1 billion National Western Center project.
The renewal hearing was requested under city regulations that allow residents to voice opposition to licenses in industrial mixed-use zoning districts. The testimony led hearing officer Suzanne A. Fasing on May 10 to recommend that Loucks deny the annual renewal for Starbuds’ retail cultivation license.
More than 60 people signed up to speak on the issue during a public hearing. Predictably, those who support expanded short-term rentals were mainly people who already have them and didn’t want them limited to primary residences. Those who opposed were from established neighborhoods, but they said the restrictions would be better than nothing.
Chair Margie Valdez convened the meeting of the INC Zoning and Planning Committee and introduced City team leaders of the large citywide planning efforts just beginning: 1) Caryn Champine and David Gaspers of the Community Planning and Development Department working on the update of the 2002 Blueprint Denver Plan; 2) Courtney Levenson and Dody Erickson of Parks and Recreation working on an update of the 2003 Game Plan and Emily Snyder and Cristina Evanoff of the Public Works Department working on an update of the 2011 Denver Moves Plan and a new Denver Transit Plan. There will be citizen task forces for each of the plans and collaboration among all city departments. The goal is to develop a 20-year vision for Denver’s land use, transportation and parks in order to get ahead of Denver’s fast pace and pains of growth.
Committee Chair Margie Valdez called the meeting to order and introduced a discussion of marijuana and its effects on neighborhoods and young people. City Councilwoman-at-Large Robin Kniech described Council Bill 16-0291, a very complicated and much-negotiated ordinance to regulate and limit any new marijuana retail licenses and cultivation licenses, which is scheduled for final reading on April 25 and, if passed, will be effective on May 1, 2016. There will be a possibility of 44 new locations in Denver. There are currently 213 cultivation-only locations in the city, 146 retail-only locations and 64 combined locations, for a total of 423 facilities
San Francisco’s struggles to regulate vacation rentals in private homes aren’t over.
Short-term-rental sites like Airbnb and HomeAway/VRBO would be on the hook to ensure that their hosts follow the city’s registration requirements under amendments to an existing law that Supervisors David Campos and Aaron Peskin plan to propose on Tuesday, The Chronicle has learned. Platforms that flout the mandate would face fines of up to $1,000 a day per listing and misdemeanor charges.
“Unless the hosting platforms have a role in enforcement, enforcement is not going to happen,” Campos said. “They have to have some skin in the game.”
The City wants to pause and slow down the growth of marijuana businesses. The City Council adopted a moratorium in November 2015 that runs from January 1 to May 1, 2016. The City is considering caps on marijuana businesses. Some people argue the City should let the free market work out solutions; others contend that excess marijuana supply in Denver is being diverted to a black market.
