Judy Montero

Friday odds and ends:

• The co-chairs of the Denver Rec Center Task Force, Peggy Lehmann and Florence Novarro, weighed in with an article in today’s Rocky Mountain News introducing the Task Force’s recommendations. Remember, public-input meetings get underway next week, so if you want a quick overview of the plan, check out this article.
• Here’s a piece of good news that slipped through this week: According to a recent survey, 83 percent of metro-area residents remain convinced that FasTracks is a good idea and a good use of money. That’s up 7 percent over last year’s survey. The margin of error on that survey is +/- 3.5 percent. Press release here, complete results of the survey here.
• Denver Digs Trees is accepting applications for new street trees. Residents of several District 9 neighborhoods are eligible to get their trees absolutely free; if you live in Baker, Chaffee Park, Elyria-Swansea, Globeville, Lincoln Park, Sun Valley, or Valverde, you can get a street tree for nothing. To get an application, click here or call Denver Digs Trees at (303) 722-6262.

After 16 community meetings and reviewing the community’s priorities for the recreation system, the Recreation Center Task Force is ready to present its Draft Recommendations. The Task Force members, facilitated by GreenPlay, LLC and the National Civic League, will present these recommendations and solicit feedback at a series of five community meetings. They begin next week at locations throughout Denver, including one in District 9.

After all of the community meetings, the Task Force will reconvene to finalize and submit final recommendations to Parks and Rec chief Kevin Patterson. All of the community meetings will begin at 7 p.m. and last for about 90 minutes. Locations and dates are:

• Tuesday, February 3: ML King Recreation Center, 3880 Newport St.
• Wednesday, February 4: East High School Cafeteria, 1545 Detroit St.
• Thursday, February 5: Swansea Recreation Center, 2650 E. 49th Ave.
• Tuesday, February 10: Harvard Gulch Recreation Center, 550 E. Iliff Ave.
• Wednesday, February 11: Barnum Recreation Center, 360 Hooker St .

The Draft Recommendations that will be presented at the community meetings are posted on the Denver Parks and Recreation website; click here to see the full document.

The station area planning process for the 38th and Inca station is about to resume. The process has been on hold for several months while RTD examined the station location as part of the Gold Line Environmental Impact Statement process. Issues related to the railroad right-of-way, historic structures, property impacts, and traffic impacts had to be evaluated and addressed in the EIS.

All those issues have now been resolved, and RTD is moving forward with a recommended station location at approximately 41st and Fox streets. Over the next several months, the City and County of Denver will be working with the community to develop a land use and mobility plan for the area surrounding this station.

It all begins next Tuesday, February 3, in the North High School cafeteria from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The planning process is expected to continue through the spring and summer of 2009, as the City works closely with residents and businesses in the community to develop a vision, recommend strategies to implement the vision, and analyze future possibilities.

If you need a refresher on where things stand with this project, visit this page at the Transit Oriented Development website. You can also contact Thomas Hoaglund, the station area project manager, at thomas.hoaglund@ci.denver.co.us or (720) 865-2930.

Here’s the promised companion piece to this morning’s post about Recycles Bicycles.

Last week Mayor Hickenlooper announced plans for a citywide bike sharing program, to be called Denver B-Cycle. Beginning this summer, there will be 30 to 40 bike-sharing stations throughout the city, with as many as 500 two-wheelers in circulation. This is an outgrowth of last summer’s successful bike-sharing program during the Democratic National Convention; in fact, the initial funding for Denver B-Cycle comes from the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee, in the form of a $1 million donation

The Downtown Denver Business Improvement District will kick in $50,000 for bicycle parking projects. This will include the installation of 75 to 100 racks, as well as matching funds for property owners who improve the bicycle parking facilities for their respective properties.

Denver will be one of the first cities nationwide to launch such a comprehensive bike-sharing program.

The initial set of B-Cycle stations will lie within a 3- to 4-mile radius of downtown Denver and will be integrated with existing transit hubs, including the 16th Street Mall, Denver ’s Union Station, RTD’s Market Street Station, and FasTracks. The program is expected to double in size to more than 1,000 bikes by Spring 2010.

As the City implements the Strategic Transportation Plan it completed last October, bike sharing will be integrated into the larger multi-modal transportation system, including buses and light rail, making Denver one of the most accessible downtown areas in the United States.

At any given moment, hundreds of bicycles are languishing in Denver alleys, basements, hallways, attics and garages. If you have one of those, give your bike the circle of life by donating it to Denver kids in need of a bike.

Rude Recreation Center and Recycles Bicycles have teamed up to fix bikes for some of Denver ’s youth. Rude Recreation Center recruits 12-15 kids every other month to participate in the event. Recycles Bicycles will teach the kids basic care and maintenance of their bicycles as well bike safety tips. Each participating youth will receive a bike helmet to go along with their new bike. For more information on Recycles Bicycles, visit their website.

The next Build a Bike day will be held on Saturday, January 31, 2009, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Rude Recreation Center, 2855 West Holden Place. To donate, contact Dave Bauer at (303) 788-0672. For more information on participating in the program, contact either Ken or Martin at Rude Recreation Center, (720) 865-0570.

For information about another bike-sharing program, log back on at about 1 o’clock this afternoon.

The Denver Police Department would like to invite all Denver-area residents to attend its Citizen Academy. The Citizen Academy provides a good overview of what the Denver Police Department does on a daily basis; it covers all the bureaus in the department. You’ll learn about the crime lab, the SWAT team, the gang and narcotics units, and the handling of DNA evidence. You’ll also get a primer in the guidelines regarding the use of lethal force. For a complete course agenda, click here.

The class is offered twice a year; the first 2009 session begins on April 1, 2009. It runs 11 weeks and is free of charge, and it’s open to people from all over the metro area; you do not need to live in the City & County of Denver to attend. Click here to view a flyer for the course.

To get more information or to register, contact Technician Mike Rappe at mike.rappe@denvergov.org.

City Council is considering a proposal to lift the ban on sidewalk sandwich boards — ie, the free-standing, A-shaped signs that businesses used to place on the sidewalk to advertise their businesses. The Public Works department banned the signs, regarding them as a hazard to pedestrians. But neighborhood business owners — including many in northwest Denver, LoDo, and elsewhere in District 9 — value sandwich boards as an effective way to boost walk-up traffic to their stores.

Judy is gathering opinions from businesses and residents in District 9, as well as people who work in LoDo. If you feel strongly about this issue, yea or nay, leave a comment here at the blog or call Judy’s office at (303) 458-8960.

Judy’s bill on housing for older adults (CB 725) passed on a 10-0 vote Tuesday night. The bill lifts restrictions in the B-2 zone, making senior housing a use by right.

As noted the other day, Judy introduced this bill to make it possible for longtime District 9 residents to remain in the neighborhoods they’ve inhabited for decades, without the burden of caring for a large home. Demographic change have created a high demand for this type of housing, and it’s bound to grow higher as the population ages.

Why was senior housing prohibited in B-2 zones in the first place? It may be that in the era when these zones were defined, “senior housing” generally meant “nursing home.” But, as one of the speakers at Tuesday night’s hearing pointed out, the definition of “senior housing” has changed as people live longer and maintain healthier lifestyles. Today it often applies to housing that offers high degrees of independence.

In this case, the housing is almost indistinguishable from generic multifamily housing. Its advantages for seniors include ease of maintenance and easy proximity to transit, shopping, and other services. Above all, it allows neighborhoods to retain their most long-standing residents; it creates places for people to go when they’re ready to move out of a large house, but are still active and vital parts of their communities.

Gideon Berger, the senior city planner who’s running point on the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood plan, has posted some updates on the city’s web page. Click here to see the new info.  There are links to community-input summaries, a map of future land use, a memo summarizing recommendations for land use and transportation, visualizations for the redevelopment of East 46th Avenue, a photo gallery, and more.

CDOT has added two months to the public comment period for the I-70 Corridor Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). This is one of the critical planning documents related to the FasTracks buildout; it will guide the highway improvements to I-70 between downtown and DIA, including the elevated portion that runs through District 9 in Globeville  and Elyria-Swansea.

You now have until March 31, 2009, to review the plan and submit your input. You can download the plan here or see a copy at various local libraries. For further information, see the minutes of the corridor-wide meetings held December 9-11, 2008.

Submit your comments online using this form, or send them via e-mail to contactus@i-70east.com.