Saturday, July 27, 2013
1201 Williams St.
930am – noon

AGENDA:

1.  Discussion with representatives of Neighborhood Inspection Services to share current issues and strategies in NIS. Inspection and enforcement are extremely important to neighborhoods.
2. Discussion about upcoming ordinance to regulate retail marijuana establishments. How can neighborhoods be protected from harm?
3. Review and comment on work of subcommittee working on a “Planning  &Zoning Platform” for INC
4. Please bring any items or issues from your neighborhood relating to zoning/planning.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
5. Any other business.

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING

INC ZONING AND PLANNING COMMITTEE MINUTES – June 22, 2013

By Michael Henry, Committee Chair

Michelle Pyle and Tina Axelrad of the Denver Community Planning and Development Department discussed several issues with the committee:

• ·         They explained to the committee a proposed “omnibus text amendment” to the zoning code, which CPD hopes to present to City Council near the end of 2013, after considerable community outreach. This will combine “lots of changes” into one amendment so that numerous piecemeal City Council hearings will not be necessary. They will come back to INC in a few months when the draft is more complete. The purposes of the changes are to improve usability of the zoning code (through greater use of graphics and intent statements for standards); to clarify several sections (through inserting several missing items) and to add a few items of substance (such as a minimum area of active ground-floor use in Main Street zones).
• ·         The committee reminded them of the committee’s request many months ago to amend the zoning code to require notification to Registered Neighborhood Organizations of “regulating plans” and an opportunity to comment before they can be approved by the Manager of Community Planning and Development.
• ·         Tina and Michelle said that they will wait to see if City Council wants to regulate the locations of recreational marijuana retail stores in the zoning code or another section of the Denver Revised Municipal Code.
• ·         They said that in 2012 and 2013, the rate of rezoning applications has been approximately half the number before the new zoning code was adopted in 2010.

Jeff Archambau, Michael Guiietz and David Solomon of Jefferson Park United Neighbors discussed an issue which JPUN has appealed to the Board of Adjustment for Zoning Appeals and requested support for Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation. The committee passed the motion below by a vote of 20 in favor, 0 opposed and 1 abstention and expressed that this was an important issue that could impact many neighborhoods. The hearing at the Board of Adjustment will be on July 23. INC Delegates should be prepared to vote on this on July 13.

Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation supports the appeal to the Board of Adjustment for Zoning Appeals by Jefferson Park United Neighbors (JPUN) of the decision by the Denver Zoning Administration to permit a new development at 2100 Eliot Street which, if built, would violate the bulk-plane protections given to adjacent R-2 property by the zoning code in effect under the Chapter 59 Zoning Code in effect until the new zoning code was passed in June 2010. Unclear language in the new code did not clarify the implied and necessary coordination between the adjacent zone districts.

INC should also communicate to Community Planning and Development, City Council and the Mayor’s Office that the unintended error in the new zoning code which implies but does not effectively define the bulk-plane protections given to land in certain lower-density zone districts within 175 feet of a higher-density zone district should be corrected by an amendment to the zoning code as soon as possible. INC Delegates should be prepared to vote on this on July 13.

The committee unanimously passed the motion below to urge the legislature to amend state law to require posting, notification and a needs and desires hearing for proposed “breweries.” INC Delegates should be prepared to vote on this on July 13.

Inter- Neighborhood Cooperation should urge the Colorado General Assembly to amend state law to require posting, notification and a needs and desires hearing for proposed “breweries,” which are a type of state license that currently has no such requirements. In recent years, approximately 7 have been approved in Denver neighborhoods. INC Delegates should be prepared to vote on this on July 13.

The committee briefly discussed the first draft of a proposed Planning and Zoning Platform being prepared by a subcommittee of the ZAP Committee.