“Imagine a great city” was the rallying cry in the 1980s during Federico Peña’s mayoral tenure. Now we have a chance to actually shape that great city, and it’s essential that citizens step up.
For the first time in 53 years, Denver officials are working on the city’s zoning code, a task long overdue. But it will be worthwhile only if residents study the proposed changes and speak up.
The zoning code determines the physical makeup of the city, how to accommodate growth, how tall buildings may go, how much land they may cover, etc. The 1956 zoning code has been amended over the years, yet it still does not reflect what residents today want.
For five years, a 15-member task force — made up of city planning and zoning department staff, architects, a developer, Realtor and representatives of neighborhoods and the National Trust for Historic Preservation — have discussed a new code.
In the past, furious citizens have charged that the city was being handed over to developers, that it didn’t matter what residents wanted. One of the biggest battles has been over developers coming in to an established neighborhood and razing existing homes, replacing them with giant, expensive structures. “Property rights” has often translated as rights to profits. Surprisingly, the task force has been listening to citizens, and incorporating changes they say are important, especially in protecting the character, look and scale of neighborhoods.
The new zoning plan suggests that downtown will be most heavily developed with high-rise buildings. This will be circled by mixed-use urban centers, and beyond that residential areas with commercial uses in corner stores and small clusters on main streets, and then the primarily residential neighborhoods. To have Denver codify such land use and protection in this new zoning is significant and desirable.
Our abiding devotion to varied residential neighborhoods is why historic preservation has bloomed in Denver the last 40 years, and why we have 49 designated historic districts to maintain the character, look and scale of a neighborhood. They vary from areas with modest homes on 25-foot-wide lots to those with more expansive frontages. In 1956, the city decreed no houses could be built on 25-foot lots, but had to be 50 feet or wider. That meant that in recent years, new huge houses overwhelmed some neighborhoods. The new code considers permitting 25-foot lots again, recognizing that many desirable houses are on such lots and meet individual needs and desires.
“We need the public to watch, and make good suggestions,” said Michael Henry, zoning task force member and perhaps the city’s most devoted neighborhood activist. “We need to make this zoning code as good as possible, to reflect the values of today, our environmental interests. We may not have another opportunity for another 50 years.”
The task force plans to have code and map complete by February 2010. This is a major and dramatic proposal which will indeed determine the Denver of Tomorrow, and at this point looks quite hopeful. But it will only lead to that great city of our dreams if we all join the effort. Help plan that city. You can make a difference, and you’re needed.
Joanne Ditmer has been writing on environmental and urban issues for The Post since 1962.
