After more than five years of talking about overhauling the city’s zoning laws, the Denver City Council is finally poised to start voting on whether to put the changes into law.
The city’s Planning Board on Wednesday unanimously recommended that the council pass the proposed new zoning code.
The revamp would be the first comprehensive change to land-use laws in the city since 1956. If the council approves the measure, Denver will join a handful of other cities in implementing such far-reaching new land-use guidelines in recent years, including Milwaukee and Miami.
Council members will take up the proposed new code during their Blueprint Denver Committee meeting Wednesday. The full council is scheduled to give initial consideration May 24, with a public hearing and final council consideration to occur June 21.
The code would replace a zoning code that city officials characterize as inefficient and inflexible with one they say will steer growth and density to areas near transit corridors while encouraging stability in long-established neighborhoods.
The new code also would create a broader range of zone districts, requiring urban characteristics in areas of high density and suburban characteristics in others.
“We have great developers that are keyed into what demand looks like, but they have to get a rezoning because the mixed use and the intensity and density that makes sense for them to do the development is not allowed under the old code,” said Peter Park, manager of the city’s community planning and development department. “So they have to go through a rezoning process to do what the city and the community and our adopted plans say we would like to see happen.”
One proposed change that has produced much debate deals with what to do in residential neighborhoods where multiplex development is allowed. In some of those areas, the new code would restrict future residential development to single-family homes.
Councilman Charlie Brown, who receives strong support from developers, said he still is unsure whether he’ll support the new code. Although numerous meetings throughout the city have been held to solicit public input, Brown said he still wants city officials to send notices to all property owners who will see new restrictions on multiplex development on their land.
Some contend those new restrictions will harm property values. Others say they will protect areas where small bungalows are getting razed to make way for modern duplexes they view as out of character with their neighborhoods.
The code also will alter retail development in certain areas. In some retail and mixed-use urban areas, the code will require new buildings to be closer to the street while eliminating parking in the front.
Three months ago, a coalition of retail developers, grocery stores and gas stations threatened to fight the new code and vowed to steer clear of developing in Denver if the council approved it. But a task force of city officials, civic leaders and retailers negotiated a complicated compromise that eased tensions.
