From my perspective, Denver City Councilwoman Jeanne Robb has the most tedious job in Denver.
Yet it’s also one of the most influential.
As chairwoman of the Blueprint Denver Committee, she helms the discussion on zoning applications. I often watch her.
(Yep, zoning. Watching Channel 8’s coverage of City Council meetings is the leading non-narcotic sleep-inducer in Denver.)
Observing as Robb wrestles with the convoluted code reinforces two facts: First, local government, the one we pay least attention to, has a direct effect on our everyday lives.
Second, zoning politics can be fun – well, fun as in watching exceptionally vicious fights between neighbors.
My recent experience observing a battle unravel in a West Washington Park neighborhood – over a coffee-shop patio, no less – only reinforced my awareness of how ferocious these conflicts get.
But that fun may be a thing of the past.
In the next two years, Denver’s future – the preservation of neighborhood identity, affordable housing, new housing and room for business development – is all on the table as the city reinvents its incomprehensible zoning code.
The last revamping of Denver’s zoning index was done in 1956.
While nary a human has translated the old code into anything resembling English, we continue to allow antiquated zoning to hamper the city’s overall organic growth and business potential.
Then again, predicting the future has never been an exact science.
“I would say the zoning should definitely be dynamic. What they did in the 1950s was their best view, and it’s rarely right. Times have changed, and we’ve found out where their view didn’t come to be,” explains Robb.
But Denver can learn a lesson from the old code: We shouldn’t have too many premonitions about the future.
In the 1956 version of Denver’s future, for instance, LoDo no longer exists; it’s been wiped out and replaced by post modern skyscrapers. In that view, Denver would be a place where people drove to work but would never live.
What would these ’50s bureaucrats make of Stapleton and Lowry? Of thousands of suburbanites actually streaming back into urban Denver?
“We’ve been changing our zoning codes so that now it’s 4 inches thick,” complains Robb. “So the idea of Blueprint Denver is: OK, it’s time. If we keep going like this, we’re going to have 8 inches before we know it.”
Things do change, and Blueprint Denver hopes to take a creative approach to city planning: less prophesy, more flexibility. Its goal is to add higher-density areas and mixed-use developments.
And to bring neighbors together.
For instance, soon Denverites will be able to have a meet-and-greet with Colfax’s homeless at the brand new Lowenstein Theatre with its Tattered Cover and Twist & Shout shops.
“We’re looking at simplifying our zoning code in terms of processes and complexities and language, and we are looking to see that we have zoning that really matches what’s in our neighborhood,” explains Robb.
For this, Denver will use “form-based zoning.” Translation: Instead of thousands of annoying words, we’ll have hundreds of pictures – an easy-to-use directory of the types of buildings that would be allowed in each neighborhood.
“The 1950s envisioned a total separation of uses. You wanted residential to be strictly residential. Business was regarded as unpleasant,” says Robb. “But the way people do business today has evolved. Instead of having separation of uses be the primary way to envision our zoning, we’re going to talk about form being the primary route.”
It all sounds so productive. But this can’t be a success without the public.
Now, I’m not going to suggest you watch a City Council meeting – that would be malicious and irrational.
But if you have some suggestions, contact your local councilperson (www.denvergov.org/citycouncil) and become a nuisance.
Or you can wait another 50 years.
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
