A proposed zoning change in a northeast Denver neighborhood is creating tension between residents and a nonprofit provider of affordable housing. The issue will likely be decided today.
The San Rafael Neighborhood Association has applied for an overlay district, which would restrict height and design elements of new developments in the neighborhood. Hope Communities, which owns a property in the heart of the neighborhood, is opposing the change, arguing that it would limit its building plans.
The Denver Planning Board will review the application today. If approved, it will go before the Blueprint Denver committee and then to the City Council. Hope intends to ask the board to either postpone its decision or exclude its property from the overlay.
Around the Victorian-era neighborhood, nearly 250 signs reading “Save San Rafael” are posted in yards. The enclave, which abuts Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The OD-9 zoning overlay wouldn’t change the R3 and R4 zoning but would cap development at a height of 35 feet. It also would require a setback of 15 feet and mandate 25 percent open space.
“This allows for infill development that is consistent with the neighborhood,” said Paul Benington, president of the San Rafael Neighborhood Association.
Denver’s development department has given the overlay a green light. According to the city’s review of the application, only three residents, in addition to Hope, oppose the change.
Blueprint Denver, the city’s master zoning plan, identifies San Rafael as a stable neighborhood and the neighborhoods around it as areas of change where density is encouraged.
“We felt vulnerable with all the development going on in the three areas around us, especially high-rise development we wanted to keep the neighborhood stable,” said Nelson Bock, a former president of the San Rafael association.
Hope Communities claims the overlay will restrict construction of affordable housing. Hope owns a complex at 23rd Avenue, near Clarkson and Emerson Streets.
It would like to demolish its existing buildings in San Rafael and build a bigger complex, said Brad Bates, executive director.
“We want to be certain that there are opportunities to build and develop affordable housing,” he said.
The current site has 21 units; Bates said the agency would like to increase that number to 60. The problem, he said, is the height requirement.
“We didn’t really have a vision for the site, but we know we can do more with it,” he said.
Bates said the overlay restricts affordable housing because curbs on how many units can be built make such projects less financially feasible. The neighborhood association says the overlay does not restrict what is built, but how it is built.
“The OD-9 won’t stop them from doing anything, but they would have to meet the requirements,” the association’s Benington said.
The new zoning, according to the neighborhood and the city, would allow Hope to expand as long as the new buildings were within its limits.
“It’s not the number of units that concerns us, it’s the height and the bulk that would result,” Benington said. “It has nothing to do with the fact that it will be affordable housing.”
Elizabeth Aguilera: 303-954-1372 or eaguilera@denverpost.com
