INC RESOLUTION RE: Postpone Approval of Denveright Plan Documents
INC RESOLUTION RE: Postpone Approval of Denveright Plan Documents
Approved at INC Delegate meeting 09 February2019
Whereas, the Denveright Comprehensive Plan 2040, the Denveright Blueprint Denver and the Denveright Game Plan for a Healthy City are scheduled to be voted on by City Council on April 15, 2019;
Whereas, the Denveright plan documents are voluminous, detailed, and complicated;
Whereas, collectively, the Denveright plan documents total more than 1000 pages, with over 100 goals, nearly 300 policies and recommendations, and more than 450 strategies;
Whereas, maps crafted for individual neighborhoods and sub-districts of the city are complex and require layering of one on top of another to evaluate the implications;
Whereas, there were multiple requests for staff to come and meet with neighborhoods throughout the city to explain the very detailed information in the documents and proposed changes in local neighborhoods;
Whereas, such meetings with neighborhoods to explain impacts of these documents have not occurred throughout the city;
Whereas, the city’s official website listing information received through citizen and neighborhood comments is missing many individual comments that were formally submitted;
Whereas, information identifying changes made to the plan documents for the second draft are divorced from the materials listing specific requests for changes and additions received from the public;
Whereas, these plan documents continue to be incomplete and vague in terms of addressing impacts on the city’s budget and work program, especially with the more than 450 proposed strategies;
Whereas, Denver citizens need more time thoroughly and intelligently to review and provide meaningful input upon the Denveright plan documents;
Whereas, all City Council members and the Mayor are up for reelection on May 7, 2019 and the Mayor and all but two current City Council members have election challengers;
Whereas, the Denveright plan documents will be Denver’s guide to be used for the next 20 years, among other things, to guide decision-making by city officials, staff, citizens, and property owners, to inform the city’s budget process, to provide a framework for future planning, and to guide future re-zonings and regulations;
Whereas, city business will continue as normal if there is a postponement to the scheduled approval of the Denveright plan documents
Whereas, the incoming Mayor and City Council members cannot be held accountable for the Denveright plans passed immediately prior to their election;
Now therefore, Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation calls on officials of the City and County of Denver to postpone bringing the Denveright plan documents for approval until after the City Council members and Mayor are sworn in following the upcoming 2019 city elections.
The “plan” is this government’s opinion of what we should become. Considering what they have done, it is good that the plan is only a plan. The city’s history is littered with “plans” which have moldered on shelves all over the archives. If we elect a new government for Denver, this plan will join the others ignored and increasingly hilarious as the future unrolls in its own time.
I concur that such an important decision about Denver’s future be delayed until after the May 2019 election.
I concur entirely with the resolution passed Feb. 9, 2019, and I encourage city council to postpone approval of Denveright Plan documents. I have attended Denveright meetings and still do not feel I have been able to thoroughly review documents. Nor do I feel that my voice is reflected well in what I have seen. Please delay approval.