Moratoria Bill Passed in Three NW Denver Areas
(Denver)- Northwest Denver City Councilman Rick Garcia announced that Council Bill 586 was passed by City Council on Monday, October 26, 2009 on an 11-2 vote. The bill adopts a moratoria on construction of more than one dwelling unit (unless replacing a 2-unit structure) and on Planned Building Group development on defined properties currently zoned R-2 in three defined areas of northwest Denver in Council District 1 until the new zoning code is adopted or December 31, 2010, whichever is earlier.
The moratoria shall be in effect beginning January 1, 2010. The temporary suspension of multi-unit development is not widely applied to all of Northwest Denver, but effects three areas that are bounded by approximately:
1) Tennyson Street, 46th Avenue, Lowell Boulevard and 41st Avenue; 2) Tennyson Street, 35th Avenue, Lowell Boulevard and 32nd Avenue; and 3) Irving Street, 38th Avenue, Federal Boulevard and Highland Park Place. These boundaries were established by residents living in these neighborhoods, not by the Councilman or the Denver City Council.
The legislation was proposed by Councilman Garcia as a compromise to three neighborhood groups who earlier this year requested that he legislatively downzone these areas from R-2 to R-1. Garcia resisted the request then because the city’s New Zoning Code was expected to be implemented by December 2009. The new code proposes that these areas would be rezoned to reflect its dominate single unit character, so the Councilman asked the neighbors to wait a few months for the new code to be approved because its passage would address their concerns.
Elizabeth Wheeler, a leader in the Highland Park neighborhood’s efforts to rezone the area to R-1 earlier this year says, "on behalf of the Highland Neighbors, I wish to thank Councilman Garcia for the moratorium in Highland Park and for keeping a promise of an extension if Blueprint Denver is not implemented in 2010 or the end date of this moratorium period."
During the period of the moratoria no permit shall be issued which would allow any structure to be built if the structure would contain more than one dwelling unit, nor shall a permit be issued which would increase the total number of dwelling units in any structure to more than one, provided however, that if a two or more dwelling unit structure is demolished a two dwelling unit structure may be built in its place if all the requirements of the R-2 zone district are met without adding any land area to the existing zone lot upon which the existing two or more dwelling unit structure was built.
Councilman Garcia says," the new zoning map calls for these areas to be mapped largely as Urban Single Unit or U-SU which meets criteria being used to implement the Blueprint Denver vision plan for Northwest Denver." He adds, " the moratoria is simply honoring the original and expected adoption schedule put in place by the city’s planning department that has now been changed to early 2010."
Any property owner desirous of or planning to build a multi-unit under R-2 zoning in these areas can continue to do so upon filing a site development plan application with the Planning and Zoning Department before December 31, 2009. This action will allow the site to be reviewed and approved for a multi-unit development in accordance with current R-2 rules and regulations. Assuming city council enacts the New Code by late February 2010, the R-0 to R-5 residential zone districts will be replaced with new form-based Urban residential zone districts including Single-Unit, Two-Unit and Row House which reflect the neighborhood contexts of Northwest Denver neighborhoods.
The moratoria shall apply to all applications for zoning permits for construction in these areas which have not been submitted to the City in substantially complete form, with any required fees paid, prior to January 1, 2010.
Any legal multi-unit property which exists today and through the end of this moratoria period will be a legally conforming use and structure. This also will apply to any recognized multi-unit structure when other areas of Denver are rezoned to another zone district that reflects the single-unit character of any neighborhood.
