The Denver City Council on Monday night unanimously approved the first rezoning under Denver’s Main Street redevelopment plan, authorizing construction of a five-story residential and retail building at East Colfax Avenue and Madison Street.
The proposed $10 million development – with 39 residential units and 4,300 square feet of retail space – has generated controversy among residents in the Congress Park neighborhood because of fears it will cause parking problems.
“There are 25 houses over 100 years old right in our neighborhood, and now we’re going to have this behemoth,” Kathleen Hynes, president of Congress Park Neighbors, told the council before the vote.
The project, proposed by Len Goldberg of Mile High Construction and Development LLC, is the first to win rezoning under Denver’s Main Street plan, which is supposed to encourage more pedestrian- friendly development and denser neighborhoods.
But Hynes and other residents said they feared the “main street zoning 2” designation would push parking into nearby neighborhoods. Under the proposal, the developer could build the project up to 65 feet high and have 49 parking units.
“By my count, there will be 10 to 20 cars trolling the street every day trying to find parking,” said resident Barbara Wright.
Hynes said the residents would have preferred a different zoning designation that would have limited the height of the project to 38 feet, but the developer said that would have made the project unprofitable.
The council also approved on a 12-0 vote a rezoning of about 85 acres of land in the Denver Tech Center in hopes of spurring additional residential development there.
Under the former zoning, the land, in the 4300 block of South Monaco Street, was restricted to 220,000 square feet of residential space. Now the developer, DTC West Land Venture, can develop an additional 1.48 million square feet of residential space. The developer said changing market conditions favored residential development over the former emphasis on commercial.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-820-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
