No parking? Denver City Council looks at halting some development plans without it
Small-lot parking exemption is targeted for tightening to keep developers from building too densely
From the Denver Post
By Jon Murray | jmurray@denverpost.com
Avanti Plaza, an apartment building in Highland at 3201 Osage St., is the only project in Denver that has been built with no parking under the city’s off-street parking exemption for small lots in certain areas. Jamie Cotten, special to The Denver Post
It’s been a decade since Denver began allowing developers to build on tiny lots near neighborhood urban centers without providing off-street parking, but only one new building has taken advantage of that exemption.
That’s about to change. And as the city’s development boom targets smaller and smaller spaces to shoehorn townhomes and micro-apartments, City Council members and some neighborhood activists worry that developers soon will exploit the parking exemption in a big way.
The council this week advanced a moratorium that would pause the parking exemption for some potential developments so the city can tighten the rule this fall, potentially to limit how big new buildings could be without providing parking. The exemption applies to small lots, defined as 6,250 square feet or less, in mixed-use zoning districts.
“There are tons of these opportunities on old South Pearl Street where all of a sudden, it could be row after row of 16 units with no parking, where it used to be single-family homes” or shops, Councilman Jolon Clark said. He represents south Denver and spoke in favor of the seven-month moratorium during Wednesday’s meeting of the Neighborhoods and Planning Committee.
At the June 2016 Delegate meeting the following motion was introduced:
The ZAP committee voted to support the following motion, with 26 in favor, 2 opposed and 1 abstention
Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation urges the Denver Community Planning and Development Department and the City Council to support a moratorium on applying Section 10.4.5.1(A) of the Denver Zoning Code to the issuance of zoning/building permits for development of apartments on small lots (6250 square feet or less) unless adequate parking is provided. Such developments can put extreme parking pressure on surrounding neighbors and businesses.
Small Lot Development as introduced by CW Jeanne Robb 2014
http://www.denverinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/understanding_small_lot_development.pdf
Small Lot Parking Exemption reeks of payback to developers for election “contributions”.
Who, in their right mind would presuppose the residents of these dwellings would not have a car? Better still, is there a mindset in City Hall that neighborhoods are stupid, blind and can’t smell the odor?
City Council did well to give pause to the Parking Exemption for some potential developments. As I have said a every INC committee meeting I’ve attended, we will remember come next election time with our vote. I for one have a long memory.