Chair Margie Valdez convened the meeting of the INC Zoning and Planning Committee and introduced Ryan Winterberg-Lipp, a senior planner with the Community Planning and Development Department (CPD). She explained the process of developing the 2016 “bundle” of text amendments to the Zoning Code, which are not yet finalized. CPD assembles a bundle of text amendments approximately once per year to obtain citizen comments and get approval from City Council. She may be contacted at ryan.winterberg-lipp@denvergov.org or the latest information can soon be found at www.denvergov.org/textamendments. The informational notice will be sent to registered neighborhood organizations through their contact persons in December, with a Planning Board hearing in January and the final City Council hearing probably in March 2017.

Anyone may suggest ideas for the following bundle of zoning code text amendments (probably in 2018) through City Council members and/or to Kyle Dalton at CPD – kyle.dalton@denvergov.org. Many of the current proposals are minor clarifications, graphics changes and corrections of errors. Some of the major proposals being drafted are:

• To conform with a new state law (which no neighborhood people had heard about) that would require that a new liquor store may not be closer than 1500 feet from another liquor store (as opposed to 1000 feet in the current code).
• To remove minimum area requirements for some map amendments, design overlays or conservation overlays. Some of the committee members expressed concern about this, depending on how it will be worded.
• To conform with federal Fair Housing requirements related to assisted living facilities.
• To conform with federal regulations for telecommunications facilities.
• To allow certain common-sense items to be located in setbacks, such as mailboxes, driveways and sidewalks.
• Create new Residential-Mixed Use-3 zone districts in Urban Edge, Urban, General Urban and Master Planned contexts to allow more options.
• Include any recommendations recommended by the subcommittee studying the small-lot parking exemptions. (NOTE: On October 11 the Board of Adjustment for Zoning Appeals turned down the appeal filed by the Humboldt Street Neighborhood Association, which was supported by INC) of the zoning permit which will allow the development of 108-apartments and a restaurant at 1570-78 Humboldt Street with no parking spaces.)

Steve Nalley of CPD presented the Neighborhood Planning Initiative (NPI), which is an aggressive plan, supported by INC’s 2013 Zoning and Planning Platform, to develop plans for every statistical neighborhood in the city, of which there are 78, within approximately 14 years. Currently 42% of the city has no neighborhood or area plan at all and 39% has a plan from before Blueprint Denver was adopted in 2002. The initiative will group up to 6 neighborhoods together for planning purposes, which would mean a total of approximately 19 new plans. New staff will be hired and, under the proposed budget, there would be 3 plans underway concurrently, each of which will take 18-24 months to complete. One of the first will be for east-central neighborhoods – Capitol Hill, Cheesman Park, Congress Park, City Park, City Park West and North Capitol Hill. Steve can be contacted at steve.nalley@denvergov.org.

Margie Valdez explained to the committee that the INC Delegation at the October 8 meeting tabled a resolution presented by the ZAP committee after discussion at the September 24 ZAP committee meeting, regarding a proposed rezoning at 5315 Montview Boulevard. (See the September 24, 2016 ZAP minutes for the text of the resolution and some of the discussion.) The property owner, Chris Wong, who had not been present at the September 24 ZAP meeting, gave his side of the story, along with his next-door neighbor, Blair Taylor, who opposes his proposed rezoning, and Bernadette Kelly from Greater Park Hill. After discussion, the committee decided not to take its earlier motion off the table and to encourage the neighbors and GHPC to work further to resolve the dispute among themselves.

http://www.denverinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/NPI_INC_102116.pdf