Judy Montero

Great news for Globeville: ASARCO is paying nearly $2 billion for environmental cleanup and restoration at sites it contaminated in 19 states. One of the sites is the much-litigated ASARCO plant in Globeville.

The payment agreement was reached as part of ASARCO’s bankruptcy reorganization. Tom Strickland, a former U.S. Attorney in Denver and now an assistant Interior secretary under Ken Salazar, worked on the agreement. To be clear, that $2 billion is being spread around among 80 sites — it’s not going to Globeville. For that matter, this is separate from the class-action lawsuit of several years ago, in which ASARCO paid damages directly to residents of the neighborhood.

This payment is strictly being used to clean up sites that were damaged by ASARCO’s operations. But those cleanup operations have long been delayed by disputes about who ought to foot the bill. Now that this question has been settled, cleanup will go forward — in Globeville, and around the country.

Click here for more information on the ASARCO bankruptcy.

The Denver Union Station Project Authority (DUSPA) will hold a public meeting tomorrow — that’s Thursday, December 17 — to provide an update on the project, to present a design update and to answer questions. The meeting will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. at RTD’s offices, 1600 Blake Street, in Rooms T&D. More info on the project Web site.

Also tomorrow, Denver Planning will hold the first of two “Office Hours” sessions to answer questions about the New Zoning Code. Tomorrow’s session will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. in Room 4.I.3 of the Webb Building , 201 West Colfax Ave. (If you arrive after 5 p.m., you’ll need to enter on Court Street and proceed through security with personal identification.) If you can’t make that one, the second session will be on Friday, December 18, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Room 4.F.6/4.G.2 of the Webb Building.

These sessions follow the heavily attended November office hours and the City Council/Planning Board Listening Sessions, at which more than 430 citizens asked questions and shared opinions on the New Code. This input is being used to inform the final version of the New Code that will be sent to City Council early next year.

If you plan to attend, please register at the following link so that the Planning Office may schedule adequate staffing: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MXCCQLN.

Judy is thrilled at the level of participation from District 9 residents and business owners. The District’s heavy representation at public meetings, e-mails, phone calls, letters and Website interactions will all help ensure that the New Code is transparent, user friendly, and supportive of neighborhoods.

The remainder of the New Zoning Code process will go like this:

• Jan. 18: Posting of fourth and final draft of the new code on the Internet at http://www.newcodedenver.org.
• Feb. 17: Planning Board public hearing, after which the Board will forward a recommendation to City Council.
• Mar. 10: Blueprint Denver Committee considers whether to send the Code to full City Council for consideration.
• Mar. 16: Mayor and Council review and discuss Blueprint Denver recommendation.
• Mar. 18: If Blueprint Denver gives approval, Denver Planning files bill to adopt the New Code
• Mar. 22: First reading of New Code ordinance before City Council
• Apr. 19: Public hearing and final consideration of New Code ordinance by full City Council

Wednesday evening, Mayor Hickenlooper will be present for the 13th Annual Homeless Persons’ Memorial Vigil. The candlelight ceremony will be held on the steps of the State Capitol from 5:30 to 6:15 p.m., and will honor men and women who have lived on the streets and who died during the past year.

Similar events are held in cities across the country to remind everyone of the human costs of homelessness. The vigils pay tribute to those who lost their lives as well as to those men, women and children who continue to survive against the odds.

Although there is no official tracking of homeless deaths in Colorado, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless conducts an annual count through a coordinated process involving more than twenty-five homeless service organizations in the seven-county Denver metropolitan area, representing medical clinicians and other healthcare professionals; case managers; outreach and social workers; hospice, shelter and emergency service personnel; housing managers; chaplains; volunteers and others who provide direct assistance for those that are homeless.

Click here for more information. This event will NOT be postponed in the case of inclement weather.

Important announcement from the Department of Public Health and Environmental Health:

You may have heard about them in the news or have witnessed the sudden appearance of signs featuring feathery green leaves in storefronts across the city – either way, the issue of having medical marijuana dispensaries in Denver has come to the forefront. It is a complicated issue with lots of questions and few known answers. Yet.

On December 2, during Denver City Council’s Safety Committee meeting, Councilman Charlie Brown brought forward legislation for discussion that would regulate medical marijuana in Denver. Regulate it, that is, within the narrow confines that a city can regulate it. Cities only have some say over how to issue licenses to dispensaries and how they are regulated through zoning, but it is state law that addresses much of how we can govern medical marijuana. It is widely reported that the next session of Colorado’s state legislature will take on setting up regulations regarding medical marijuana. Here are some of the areas that the Colorado legislature can address:

• Legitimacy of doctor-patient relationship and the relationship of doctors to dispensaries.
• The meaning of “primary care-giver” and whether they should be separately tracked and licensed at the state level.
• Ratio of patients to care-givers and the ratio of care-givers to patients.
• Public health regulations for human consumption of medical marijuana and the lawful amount of medical marijuana that may be possessed by patients and caregivers at any one time.

In the meantime, as we watch what the state legislature will do to regulate the issues noted above, Denver City Council will move forward toward passing our own regulations. Some of the major components being proposed for a City ordinance include:

• Requiring all dispensaries that open after December 1, 2009, to meet distance requirements — they cannot be within 500 feet of any school or child-care establishment; they cannot be within 1,000 feet of any other medical marijuana dispensary. Those who establish dispensaries that violate these proximity rules after December 1 are taking a big risk in that they could very well be shut down when Denver’s legislation passes.
• Required licensing of dispensaries will be very similar to those of liquor licenses with some exceptions that have not been worked out yet
• March 1, 2010, will be the date in which all dispensaries will need to be licensed by Denver. This does NOT grandfather in any existing dispensaries. If the dispensary isn’t licensed by March 1, they will be operating illegally.

The proposals noted above are still in the discussion stage — they are NOT established law yet! It has been pointed out that it is important for the City to act fast given how many dispensaries are popping up across the city, but it is important to remember that we need to make certain we do a good job of regulating this new business in Denver or we may end up with problems that other cities face — such as Los Angeles, where there are now more medical marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks!

So stay tuned, and let me know your thoughts about the issue. The next Safety Committee meeting to discuss the proposed legislation will be December 16 at 9:15 am in the 3rd Floor Council Conference Room, Room 391 at the City & County Building. You can also watch it live on Channel 8 or online at www.denvergov.org/denver8TV. Catch re-runs on Channel 8 or watch online.

Unfortunately, Judy was unable to attend last night’s Council meeting, and therefore she missed a big triumph for District 9 — the adoption of the 41st and Fox Station Area Plan. It was a long slog to hammer out this plan, but the entire District came together and got a result that will be great for the city, and great for the local neighborhoods too. One constituent wrote her this morning, “It was a shame that you weren’t able to be present at the culmination of such a long effort. Without your support, your finding of extra money for the Study, and your persistent attention, this excellent result would not have occurred.”

Judy did send over some remarks to be read into the record last night. Here they are:

I’m sorry I can’t be with you this evening, but I’d like to express my strong support for the 41st & Fox Station Area Plan and share with you some of the reasons why I believe this plan is good for Denver.

Since beginning the planning process in 2008, numerous meetings were held for the purpose of engaging the local community in order to develop a vision for the station area and to identify the opportunities that will present themselves as the station is built out. Over the course of approximately two years, community members representing businesses, developers and residents worked with city staff to complete this process and develop the plan concepts.

First of all, this plan creates a flexible framework to guide future development around the station. The feature I find most important in the plan is that over time it will significantly improve pedestrian connections to the station, along major corridors, and between Sunnyside, Highland and Globeville — three District 9 neighborhoods that are poorly connected now in large part due to the existing built environment. The pedestrian improvements proposed in the plan move the area toward a walkable, healthy, and enjoyable community in which we can add more housing, jobs and services for the surrounding neighborhoods. This is very important because 41st & Fox can potentially offer more affordability for housing, business and retail than some of our prime downtown real estate located conveniently just one rail stop away at Denver Union Station.

As Tom Hoaglund has pointed out, he made sure that the plan carefully looked at the built environment from a health perspective so that it includes ideas for great biking and pedestrian amenities. In the same spirit of the Living Streets Initiative, the plan focuses on people happy places, not only on car-convenient places.

The plan also offers suggestions for amenities that would add to the character of the community such as the incorporation of plazas, parks and open space throughout. The plan’s very flexible approach to adding parks, plazas and/or open space amenities is not simply about creating enjoyable window dressings, but these amenities could serve to enhance neighborhood livability by providing positive orientation, buffering, recreation, and storm water management.

Further, the plan identifies possible partnership benefits with important existing area businesses such as the Regency Student Housing by suggesting ties between academic institutions, student populations, and incubator employment uses. I am especially proud of the work we’ve been able to accomplish through this planning process with the help of neighborhood groups, property owners and other agencies, and I am looking forward to coordinating with them as we move forward in shaping the development of area surrounding the 41st and Fox commuter rail station.

This morning, Tom Hoaglund of the Planning office sent out some remarks as well. They are right after the jump: Keep reading →

That’s right — Mayor Hickenlooper is in Denmark to talk about FasTracks at the worldwide global warming summit. He’ll be on a panel called “Buses, Trains, and Commuter Vans: Reducing Carbon through U.S. Public Transit,” sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). And you can watch it live via webcast.

Log on tomorrow (that’s Tuesday, December 8th) at http://cop15.state.gov/uscenter/meetingroom/index.htm. The panel is supposed to run from 8:45-9:45 a.m. Denver time. Here’s the official description of the session:

“Public transportation offers a low-emissions alternative to driving, and investments in transit and compact land use have important synergies that enhance greenhouse gas reductions when pursued as a comprehensive strategy. Transit agencies across the U.S. are not only providing low-emission transportation alternatives to their customers, but are also reducing greenhouse gas emissions within their own footprint. A panel of experts from federal government, local government and academia will discuss exciting efforts in the U.S. to build livable and sustainable communities with high quality public transportation. This panel will showcase the role of public transportation in reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, which is responsible for 29 percent of all U.S. emission.”

Speakers:
•  Robert Cervero — Professor at the University of California , Berkeley
•  John Hickenlooper — Mayor of Denver
•  Fred Hansen – General Manager, Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon (TriMet)
•  John Inglish – General Manager at Utah Transit Authority

Moderator:
•  Therese McMillan, Deputy Administrator, Federal Transit Administration

Responding to requests from neighborhoods, businesses and individuals, Denver City Council and the Denver Planning Board have agreed to extend the final stages of the public review process for the new zoning code. The extension is specifically intended to give residents and business owners additional time to review and comment on the code.

The deadline for public comment on the third and latest draft of the new code has been extended to January 4. Moreover, citizens now will have a full month to review the fourth and final draft of the code once it is posted on January 18. The new timetable also will allow additional time for review by the Planning Board and the Blueprint Denver Committee of City Council.

In addition, the Zoning Code Task Force has recommended that, following adoption of the new code, residents and businesses be permitted to file development applications (but not rezoning applications) under either the new code or the old code for six months (expanded from four months) to allow additional time to transition to the requirements of the new code. City Council will consider this recommendation next Monday, December 7.

Today’s announcement responds to input received during six hours of listening sessions on the new code sponsored last month by City Council and the Planning Board. More than 140 of the 400 who attended the sessions shared their comments.

All drafts of the code are available on the New Code website, http://www.newcodedenver.org.

North High will host its 4th Annual Community Open House tomorrow night (Thurs., Dec. 3) from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Cool new wrinkle this year: a special presentation in the North High planetarium. Astronomy students will take you on a tour of the galaxy; the star-gazing will take place rain, snow, or cloudy skies. Show times are at 6:00 p.m., 6:25 p.m., 6:50 p.m., and 7:15 p.m.

Parents can learn about North’s academic programs and extracurricular activities, and there will be exhibits and presentations by North High students. Come on out, show your support, and learn about the good things that are happening at North High.

Mark your calendar for next Monday, December 7. The 41st and Fox Station Area Plan will go to Denver City Council that evening for a public hearing and adoption.

A lot of folks in District 9 worked long (more than two years) and hard to produce this plan; here’s a quick summary of what it includes. Judy was very active throughout the planning process and supports the end result; it would be helpful to have supportive community voices at next Monday’s meeting, so please do come out.

You can read the whole document at www.denvergov.org/TOD. If you have questions, comments, contact Thomas Hoaglund at thomas.hoaglund@denvergov.org or 720-865-2930.