Bridget Walsh and Tom Morris spoke about the issue of major land use decisions within parks being removed in the 2010 Zoning Code from the elected City Council and put in the hands of the Executive Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, appointed by the Mayor. After discussion, the Committee approved the following motion by a vote of 17 in favor, 1 opposed and 5 abstentions:
It is Resolved by Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation Zoning and Planning:
We request City Council to amend the Zoning Code such that OS-A land is
subject to community-inclusive zoning control processes similar to other zoning
classifications and under the authority of City Council and commit to take no action in
Council to bring forth a bill in this matter until a meaningful community engagement
process has been completed.
Charlotte Winzenberg now represent INC on the STR Advisory Committee. Excise and Licenses has hired a private company to search for STRs, primarily through online listings, to make sure that, as the ordinance requires, an owner has obtained a license for the STR and that the STR is the primary residence of the owner. The city believes that there are approximately 3000 STRs (although many are rented only a few days per year). Currently, 2054 (about 67%) are licensed. Other city departments, not Excise and Licenses, regulate properties for issues such as noise and trash. Excise and Licenses has issued about 1600 warning notices and imposed fines on 35 properties.
The Zoning and Planning Committee of Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation met on August 26, 2017 and briefly discussed the proposed “framework agreement” that will govern the National Western Center for the next 50 years and which is expected to be filed with City Council on September 7, 2017. Please note that we had no access to the document to review, because the very lengthy agreement has not been made available to the public and was negotiated and written behind closed doors.
Applications were accepted for attendance at the first Denver Marijuana Citizens Academy. Hosted by Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation (INC), Denver’s Office of Marijuana Policy and the Department of Excise and Licenses, the free, two-part Academy provided 50 participants with information relating to the various marijuana rules and regulations as well as Colorado amendments and Denver ordinances. Part 1 May 8, … Continue reading →
Denver’s Department of Excise and Licenses will have to decide which group if any it will listen to as it finalizes its rules later this month. The city hopes to start reviewing and approving applications for social cannabis consumption areas and events starting in July.
Prior to a public hearing on the rules Tuesday, Molly Duplechian with the Denver Office of Marijuana Policy said the city received about 70 comments on the rules. More than half were supportive of what was proposed, Duplechian said.
Here are some of the I-300 backers’ requests, broken down:
Allow businesses that sell alcohol to also allow cannabis use as long as they’re not being consumed at the same time in the same area.
Make the same allowances as above for events.
Clarify the restriction on having consumption areas near “other places intended for use primarily by persons under 18 years of age.”
Do not make government-issued IDs a requirement to enter consumption areas because consumption areas are already off-limits for people under 21. That way, if someone were obviously older than 21, they could enter the area without ID.
