AURORA —Directly under an overpass that carries East 17th Avenue over Interstate 225, between Toll Gate Creek and Potomac Street, is Petra Bennett’s home.
“When I moved in here, it was just dirt out front and dirt out back,” said Bennett, 48. “But now I’ve got a pond and a garden and I planted trees in the back and I have a swing out there. … This is my home, not just a place to live.”
Bennett has lived in Denver Meadows, a combination recreational vehicle and mobile home community in North Aurora, for the past 15 years. But a potential zoning change set to go before City Council could force Bennett and approximately 100 other residents to move so that the land can be redeveloped.
“The move is definitely going to happen,” Bennett said. “They want to go ahead and rebuild this area to better serve the veteran’s hospital and the light rail, so us vacating the land is definitely going to happen. … they made it clear.”
A 20-acre site north of Colfax Avenue and east of the incoming Regional Transportation District’s R Line light rail track alongside the Anschutz Medical Campus is targeted for rezoning to transit-oriented development. That move would depose Denver Meadows to make way for a redevelopment that could include things like high-rise apartments, commercial, mixed-used residential and retail or hotels.
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“There are currently no plans for development, just renderings showing conceptually what is contemplated in the future if the property is rezoned to TOD,” said Stephen Rodriguez, senior planner with Aurora.
But many residents in Denver Meadows are already upset.
“Basically they’re coming out of nowhere and trying to kick us out of our home. It’s pretty unfair,” said Shawny Olivas, 23, who moved in with her husband and 3-year-old daughter a year ago. “We’re hoping they don’t approve it.”
Olivas, Bennett and more than 100 other residents of Denver Meadows showed up to a zoning commission hearing two weeks ago to speak against or hear about the issue, Rodriguez said. The commission voted 3-2 against the change, but City Council gets the final decision. The zoning change is not scheduled for council yet.
But Shawn Lustigman, who has owned Denver Meadows for 27 years, said that he is confident that the zoning change will go through once it’s in front of City Council.
“I don’t know why it wouldn’t got through; it would be good for the city,” Lustigman, 69, said. “It’s a rundown park, it isn’t very attractive, and I think the city will welcome a change in zoning so that it can be redeveloped.”
If the property is rezoned, Lustigman said that it would be at least a couple of years until any development would occur on the site, and that residents would get at least six months notice before they need to move.
But for many of the residents, moving isn’t going to be easy.
“We moved here hoping this was a permanent home, not temporary, and so we made plans,” Olivas said. “We’re afraid we’re going to lose this investment, and we can’t afford the costs of moving if we can even move it at all.”
And for some residents, moving their modular home isn’t even an option.
“My house is 30 years old, and I won’t be able to move it at all,” said Luz Galicia, 50. Galicia moved to Denver Meadows three years ago. “I can either stay there, or I lose everything.”
For all of the residents, finding a place to relocate was among their highest concerns. In Aurora, there is a zero percent vacancy for affordable housing.
“It’s a losing battle we’re fighting,” Bennett said. “The lots for mobile homes are disappearing.”
She said she thinks that redevelopment is inevitable, but she hopes that some form of help can be given to the residents of Denver Meadows when the time comes.
It’s a notion that Lustigman is mulling.
“We’re going to try to work with some of the people there to try to help them out,” Lustigman said. “They have been my tenants and I’m going to try to help them.”
