Awarded in honor of Virginia Oredson who was the secretary of INC for several years in the 1980’s. Virginia worked to protect her Montclair neighborhood from crime and problem bars, and encouraged neighborhoods to work together through INC.
Margie Valdez
Capital Hill United Neighbors
Margie Valdez has been involved in INC for many years, first as a Cultural Arts Residential Organization delegate and recently as a delegate from Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods. For many years she led the fight against several problem bars on Broadway and Lincoln (a fact that she had in common with Virginia Oredson, who did the same on East Colfax).
She is the chair of the INC Zoning and Planning Committee. Her expertise as an attorney and her leadership, political awareness and communication skills keep INC members involved in and informed about the many zoning and planning issues that impact all neighborhood organizations in Denver.
Margie also arranged and moderated a series of Citizen’s Academies to help neighborhoods learn the complicated and often-changing zoning, planning and licensing processes. Those academies were a major success.
Other examples of her hard work are as follows:
-Workiing now on the City’s Denveright Taskforce charged with the update of Blueprint Denver.
-Helped many RNO’s craft good neighbor agreements with marijuana and alcohol businesses seeking licenses.
-Led the citywide neighborhood discussion on zoning changes for Arapahoe Square and the Platte to Park Hill drainage project.
-Represented neighborhoods and INC in the creation of Excise/License evening hearing procedures and on defining hearing procedures for marijuana license hearings.
-Led INC efforts in developing and representing the consensus neighborhood voice on Short Term Rental Legalization, the Small Lot Size Parking Amendment, both Social Use Marijuana ballot initiatives and Neighborhood Planning Initiatives.
Margie is inclusive, thoughtful, and understanding in her words and deeds. She focuses on empowering neighborhood organizations and actively engaging them in addressing city-wide issues. She works with individual neighborhoods to make them stronger by working together and learning from one another. She enables Denver’s neighborhoods to speak in a unified voice to City officials. In all of these ways and in many others, Margie Valdez is our INC Person of the Year.
