At the conclusion of nearly 10 hours of debate and public comment, the Denver City Council early this morning approved two rezoning measures that will limit future development for two northwest Denver neighborhoods.
The measures rezone the areas from R-2 to R-1 to bar developers from replacing single-family homes with multiplexes. The council approved the measures 11-2, with council members Charlie Brown and Jeanne Faatz dissenting.
During the past three years, developers have seen West Highlands and Sloan’s Lake as ripe for development and have begun buying two-bedroom homes to tear them down and build large scale duplexes and multiplexes.
The rezoning proposals for 53 acres of the West Highland neighborhood and 72 acres of Sloan’s Lake were pushed by residents who said they feared developers were taking over.
Opponents of the rezoning measures argued that it would diminish property values and make the areas less likely to attract development.
The decision capped more than a year of wrangling over the issue that had pitted neighbor against neighbor and residents against developers.
More than 100 signed up to speak during two public hearings Monday night, and an overflow crowd of more than 200 showed up.
The debate extended well past a normal council meeting, with residents taking all the seats in the council chamber. An extra room was set up to accommodate the overflow crowd, and sheriff’s deputies were on hand to handle any potential disturbances.
The council finally came to a resolution at 3:20 a.m., making it the longest meeting Council President Michael Hancock had ever presided over.
Several council members said it was the toughest issue they had faced during their tenures, especially since the outcome was being closely monitored by other neighborhoods grappling with similar issues. “I’ve met with both sides of the issue, and I’ll say you both have very compelling arguments,” Hancock said.
But Hancock said he made his decision after driving and walking the neighborhoods and seeing large, owner-occupied multiplexes that he found jarringly inconsistent with the rest of the homes in the area.
He said that in Sloan’s Lake, he found the multi-family units coming up block after block.
“The first thing that came to my mind was startling,” Hancock said. “Startling. And that’s what I came in here tonight with.”
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
