More than 300 people turned out Wednesday night to hear how a group of Denver officials is planning to shape the future of city development.
The crowd that filled the atrium of the Wellington Webb Municipal Building heard that Denver’s zoning code is so complex and conflicting that, in many cases, it is no longer useful.
“We’re dealing with decades of overlapping regulations,” Denver’s planning director, Peter Park, said. “That seven-year party in the ’70s (when much of the modern zoning code was written), we’re kind of dealing with the hangover.”
Park and people representing interest groups have worked as part of Denver’s Zoning Code Task Force to simplify and modernize the rules that oversee land use in the city.
Their work has drawn attention as Denver residents continue to spar over development in neighborhoods.
Many of Denver’s established neighborhoods are dealing with changes as older homes are scraped off in favor of new, often larger, structures. The conflict between neighbors hoping to preserve the area’s character and those worried about preserving their investment has led to heated disputes.
“It seems like our areas of change are stable and our areas of stability are changing,” said Jim Lindberg with the Denver office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
One such conflict was evident Wednesday as more than a dozen people donned blue stickers advocating against “downzoning.” The stickers were referencing a proposal in the Sloan’s Lake and Highland areas to restrict duplexes from the zoning.
Assistant city attorney Kerry Buckey told the audience that areas labeled as “stable” may still have changes.
“It does not mean that every structure that is there will be there 20 years from now – or even that most of them will,” he said.
Michael Henry, with Inter- Neighborhood Cooperation, said the point of the effort was to make zoning helpful for both the developer and the preservationist.
“We are trying to zone Denver in a collaborative way,” he said. “Zoning is not the most important thing in the neighborhood if neighbors are at war with each other.”
The task force is continuing to work on recommendations, but there is no scheduled date of completion.
