Monthly Archives: September 2008

Any clues about how the trouble on Wall Street will affect District 9? Denver InFill had an upbeat assessment a couple of weeks ago:

We’ve got 45-story, 41-story, 22-story, and 17-story projects under construction Downtown (not counting the 32-story One Lincoln Park which is about 99% finished) that can keep us entertained until things get better. Add in the possibility that Two Tabor, at 43-stories, could still break ground this year (fingers crossed) and that the 17-story Embassy Suites project is sort of under construction now (or is that still parking-garage-foundation-removal going on?)… and we’re doing pretty good considering the national situation.

Despite the uncertainty that is severely stressing the real estate development world, how can we not still feel pretty upbeat about Downtown Denver?

Of course, that was written before the appearance of the Paulson plan and all the politics associated with it. But so far, financing for all those projects appears to be secure; no word yet that any of them has had to slow down or suspend construction. Stay tuned . . . .

If you haven’t been over to the new LoDoNA web site yet, you ought to check it out. It’s a nice online showcase for Denver’s showcase neighborhood — not only pretty to look at but also very functional, with lots of info on upcoming events, philanthropic initiatives, and other goings on. There is also a good running list of upcoming meetings about the Union Station redevelopment, local design / development, liquor licensing, FasTracks, safety, and other neighborhood issues.

Heads up on a pending amendment to the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, or IHO. Passed by Council in 2002, the year before Judy took office, the IHO requires large-scale residential developments (30 units or more) to include a certain amount of affordable housing — 10 percent of the overall units. The ordinance is credited with having created more than 1,000 units of affordable housing since its enactment.

The IHO includes four bonus incentives for developers, including one related to parking and another related to density. Under current law, developers who invoke the parking and density incentives must set aside 10 percent of their bonus units as affordable housing. The pending amendment would eliminate the 10 percent affordable requirement for the bonus units.

Let’s take an example. As the ordinance is currently written, if a developer builds 100 units (including 10 affordable) and wants to take advantage of the density bonus incentive, the developer would get to build 10 bonus units — but 1 of them (10 percent) would have to be an affordable unit. That undermines the value of the density bonus and deters builders from pursuing density — the exact opposite of what the IHO intends.

Judy supports the amendments in part because they will bring the IHO into agreement with the way other cities apply these incentives. The amendments are supported by local and national affordable housing developers, as well as at least one of the former Denver City Council Members who authored the original IHO.

At the moment these amendments are still in Council committees, but they’ll be before the full Council at some point this fall. If you feel strongly about this proposal, yea or nay, weigh in here or contact Judy’s office.

RTD District A commissioner Bill Elfenbeing will be hosting two meetings today to gather public input about possible adjustments to the FasTracks buildout. The first is at noon today at the RTD headquarters, 1600 Blake; the second will be at South High School (1700 E. Louisiana) tonight at 6 p.m.

Due to rising costs and slumping tax revenues, the agency won’t be able to build out the system as originally conceived; some lines will have to be built out more slowly or built to different (smaller) specs. For a summary of the situation, check out this document. It won’t be easy to resolve these issues so the buildout can move forward; RTD seeks public guidance.

If you can’t make it to either of these meetings, there will be numerous other ones throughout the metro area over the next month; see a complete list here. If you can’t make any of the meetings (or even if you can), you can also e-mail your thoughts to comments@rtd-fastracks.com.

Now here’s something you don’t see every day: a YouTube invitation to a public-transit meeting. The meeting (actually two of them) will concern an update on the North Metro corridor of FasTracks; subject matter will include environmental impacts, rail technology, station placement, and alternative buildout options to cope w/ FasTracks’ budgetary issues. Neither meeting is inside the District (or in the city of Denver, for that matter), but a good chunk of this rail corridor is. If you want to attend, the Wednesday meeting is at Skyview High School in Thornton (8990 York), and the Thursday meeting is at Adams City High School in Commerce City (4625 E. 68th). Both meetings begin at 6 p.m.

Shifting over to the Gold Line: project leaders for that corridor are putting together teams to analyze access and design options for the seven stations on the line. Two of those stations are in District 9, in Sunnyside and Chaffee Park. If you are interested in serving on one of those teams, send an e-mail to info@rtdgoldline.com or fill out the form at this link.

And don’t forget: there’s an important meeting tonight to help determine the location of the new RTD bus-maintenance facility. All the proposed locations are within District 9, in either Sunnyside or Globeville. Make your voice heard tonight at the Stapleton Recreation Center, 5090 Broadway, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Two events for your calendar this week. On Friday night, September 26, the Tango House (3617 Osage Street) will be hosting its Equinox Food Drive for the Ellen Torres Bienvenidos Food Bank. Tango House is trying to collect at least 1000 lbs. of fresh produce. The evening will include an introduction to the Argentine tango and three hours of Practic-Longa, or open dance. You don’t need a partner, and you don’t need to know the tango either; everybody’s welcome. Festivities begin at 6:30 p.m.

On Wednsesday, September 24, the League of Women Voters of Denver and Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation will sponsor a candidate forum for State House District 5, where incumbent Joel Judd is running against J.J. Swiontek. The forum takes place at Denver 8 TV studios, located at 8269 East 23rd Avenue in Denver’s Stapleton neighborhood.

The public is enthusiastically invited to attend the forums, which are taped for later rebroadcast on Channel 8. You can submit a question to the moderator, and it may become part of the discussion. The forum begins at 7:00 p.m.

Heads up District 9 — tomorrow (Friday September 19) is National Park(ing) Day. Several metered public parking spaces in LoDo will be transformed into temporary public parks to showcase the need for more park space in cities across America. Sponsored by The Trust for Public Land (TPL), this event will be marked in about 50 cities nationwide. This is the first year Denver has taken part.

The “new” parks will be on Blake Street between 15th & 16th, and on Market Street between 16th & 17th. Mayor Hickenlooper will hold a press conference from the latter location at 10:30 a.m., and the parks will be open all day from 9 to 5. For more information, visit the Trust for Public Land’s website.

With Election Day only about 6 weeks away, we’re seeing yard signs all over District 9 — all over Denver, actually. While it is everyone’s right to express their choice of candidates (and Judy encourages you to do so, whomever you might be supporting), she wants to remind everyone Denver Community Planning and Development rules do apply to these signs. The main regulations:

• Election signs are limited to posting on private property and only with the owner’s consent.
• Election signs cannot be placed on the public right of way. To be certain that you are not placing signs on the right of way, don’t place them on the tree lawn between the curb and the sidewalk and keep them at least 3 feet back from the sidewalk.
• Election signs are limited to wall, window and ground signs not more than six feet above grade. Placement on a fence is considered to be ground mounted.
• No sign shall exceed an area of 8 square feet. Signs must be maintained in a clean, orderly and sightly condition.
• Signs must not be illuminated or animated and must not flash, blink or fluctuate.

As long as we’re on the subject, the Denver Elections Division is asking voters who have recently moved to verify that their address information on file with the Elections Division is correct. This information is necessary to ensure that voters are sent to the correct polling place on Election Day, and/or that they receive their mail-in ballot at the correct address. The deadline to register to vote or change an address is Monday, October 6.

You can verify your address information or download a voter registration form at www.denvervotes.org. The form can be returned by fax to 720-913-8600, scanned and emailed to voterregistration@denvergov.org, or mailed to 3888 E. Mexico Ave. Denver , CO 80210 . For more information, visit the Denver Elections Division website at www.denvervotes.org or call 720-913-VOTE (8683).

So how cool is it that this year’s One Book Denver selection is a Dashiell Hammett potboiler? District 9 will be hosting two events this week to get folks involved. The first is tonight at the Starz Film Center on Auraria campus, where there will be a screening of Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery. Hugely entertaining movie, if you haven’t seen it; doors open at 6 p.m., and the lights go down at 7. And two nights later you can sit in on a taping of the first segment of a four-part Thin Man radio drama — that’ll be at Auraria too, in the CU Denver Arts Building, room 295. It begins at 6:30 p.m.

These are both free events, and afterward you can walk on over the the Tattered Cover to buy a copy of the book and start reading. For more information, visit www.denvergov.org/onebook.

Mark your calendar this Saturday to attend the 15th Annual South Platte Riversweep — September 20 from 8 a.m. to noon, just above Confluence Park. Co-sponsored by the City of Denver and the Greenway Foundation, this gigantic multijurisdictional cleanup effort draws hundreds of volunteers every year.  The goal is to pick up trash along a 15-mile segment of the river. After the cleanup there will be a big luncheon for the volunteers at Fishback Landing Park (between REI and the Downtown Aquarium.

BRS Architecture is coordinating the cleanup in one big section of District 9′s riverfront. If you want to participate, you have to send in a registration form in advance; download the form and e-mail it to riversweep@bsarch.com. You can also send it to Tina Romero at Hands on Denver, (303) 916-2694. This is a great activity for families and/or groups of friends or co-workers.

If you were planning to attend RTD’s public workshop next Wednesday on the siting of its new bus maintenance facility, the meeting has been rescheduled. It now will take place on Tuesday, September 23.

This meeting is of great importance in District 9, because all 5 of the sites under consideration lie within the district. They are:

• Fox South – Southwest corner of I-25 and I-70 (Sunnyside neighborhood)
• Fox North – North side of W. 48th Avenue and Fox Street (Sunnyside)
• 51st West – E. 51st Avenue west of Washington (Globeville)
• 51stEast – Northwest corner of E. 51st Avenue and Emerson Street (Globeville)
• 54th- Southwest corner of E. 54th Avenue and Washington Street (Globeville)

The purpose of the September 23 meeting is to summarize the preliminary analysis of each site and gather public input that will be integrated into the site selection process. If you’d like to attend, the meeting will run from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Stapleton Rec Center, 5090 Broadway.