If, as a steward of Denver’s built environment, you had to choose between a 90-space surface parking lot and a 2-acre park, which would it be?
Silly question, isn’t it?
Not for Denver’s Landmark Preservation Commission. This group of nine architects, landscape architects, developers and preservationists spent several hours last week questioning an applicant’s request for a boundary change affecting nearly 60,000 square feet of land located at the intersection of Speer Boulevard, Larimer and 14th Street.
The parcel, known as Bell Park – cut in half by Cherry Creek – boasts a small patch of grass and the bell from Denver’s first courthouse. The balance of the site on both sides of the creek is basic surface parking – no landscaping, no street furniture, nothing.
The land – for reasons undocumented in Denver’s ordinances, executive orders or records – is part of the 1988 Lower Downtown Historic District. The site has been vacant for decades, and the LPC must agree to take the parcel out of the historic district for the best development option to occur.
It’s a complex deal with good outcomes for the city, the citizens and the developer.
When the city acquired the block adjacent to the Rocky Mountain News building as part of the new Justice Center, it paid approximately $100 a square foot to various property owners. One owner, Paradise Properties, didn’t want to sell due to tax consequences. With the full support of Mayor Hickenlooper and the approval of the City Council, Paradise traded just under 1 acre of property in the Golden Triangle for about 1 1/2 acres of land at the foot of Larimer, adding nearly $1 million in cash to the transaction.
The city got a good deal, paying the appraised price of $90 a square foot for the Justice Center land, putting cash in taxpayers’ pockets and making a deal that potentially ensures the preservation of a cherished mountain view. It also adds nearly 2 acres of park land for LoDo residents, visitors and businesses. Because the park will be privately owned and maintained, the land will continue to be on Denver’s tax rolls.
No wonder so many people, businesses and organizations support the boundary change.
The developer wants to build a slim residential tower on the southwesterly portion of the site, using less than 10 percent of the land. The remaining 2 acres will be transformed into a park with access to the creek. The park would be fully accessible to the public, though constructed and fully maintained by the developer.
If the LPC denies the boundary change, development options are less attractive. The current zoning – R-5 – virtually guarantees the (very profitable) parking lots will stay forever. Or, if the parcel stays in the historic district, the developer could rezone the land and build two, five-story buildings with large footprints, eating most of the site on both sides of the creek.
The impact of this scenario? No slender tower. No park. No views.
The Landmark Commission does not have the authority to redesign the buildings. Nor does it have the authority to question the appropriateness of the land swap. It has the authority to approve or disapprove the boundary change.
If it rejects the change because of fear that the development breaks the rigor of LoDo’s height limits, the consequences are real. Its decision will guarantee either permanent parking lots or two mushroom-like edifices that might work as background buildings but are not the best approach to the site at 14th and Speer/Larimer.
Sometimes rules are made to be broken if the rules prohibit the creation of great public space. Redevelopment of the Bell Park site – according to the vision of Paradise Properties and its talented designer, David Owen Tryba Architects – is an opportunity to do all the right things: add needed park land at no cost to the taxpayer; preserve great mountain and city views; and add quality design to an iconic site.
I believe the commission will take its responsibility of civic stewardship seriously by giving citizens and visitors the full benefit of its charge: identifying and preserving Denver’s historic and architectural treasures, which include spectacular mountain views and the vision of a city set in a park, a beautiful green oasis.
Susan Barnes-Gelt served eight years on the Denver City Council and was an aide to former Denver Mayor Federico Peña. Her column appears on alternate Thursdays.
