Speaker 2: Yes, Council President. I move the council bill 20 10391 be placed upon final consideration and. Do pass.
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 0: Thank you. It has been moved and we've got a second in there from Councilmember Hines. They required public hearing for council. Bill 391 is open. May we please have the staff report? And I see we have Scott Robinson here. Let me see, Scott. I don't know. We're not hearing. Or at least I'm not hearing your audio. All right, now it looks like you're muted. Now you're not. But we're still. Do you want to try to leave the meeting, Scott, and come back into it? And we can hang tight here for just a second. Okay. Go ahead. All right. Well, go ahead and allow Scott to hopefully get back into the meeting and get his audio connected up correctly. For the public. We are on Council Bill 391.
Speaker 1: Can you hear me now?
Speaker 0: I can. There you go, Scott. You're back. All right. Nothing like a quick moment of panic right before you're going to do something. But go ahead if you want to, go ahead and share your screen.
Speaker 6: Yes. Sorry about that. Thank you, Madam President. And members of Council Scott Robinson with Community Planning and Development. This is a request to rezone 49, 49 and 4995 North Washington Street and 49, 30 and 4934 North Pearl Street from I am x 3 to 2 and five. The property is located in Council District nine in the Globeville neighborhood. It is at the southwest corner of 50th Avenue and Washington Street and then extends Southwest over to Pearl Street. It's about two and a half acres. And the property is owned by the city and is being positioned by our Department of Housing Stability for an RFP for development of an affordable housing project. Which I'll touch on a little bit more in a bit. And then Jennifer SIEGEL from Post is also here to talk about that in more detail. As I mentioned, the property is zoned. I am x three, which is industrial mixed use for a three storey maximum height and it also has the go to which is the billboard use overlay. You can see surrounding properties are a mix of industrial, industrial mixed use and urban center mixed use zoning. The subject property was a car dealership and you can see it is surrounded by a mix of industrial uses and also single unit residential uses in this area. Here you can see the subject property in the bottom right photo and then some of the surrounding properties in the other photos. So as I mentioned, the property is owned by the city and the host will be issuing an RFP to find a development partner for it. The federal funding that was used to purchase the property requires that a minimum of 50% of the housing developed on site be affordable and no more than 80% alive. But it is hosts intent to exceed both of those requirements. That being a higher percentage of affordable and offering lower levels of affordability below 80%. Host also intends to include community serving users on the property in the RFP. As I mentioned, Jennifer SIEGEL can discuss that in more detail. He proposed zoning. As I said, it is GMAC five. That is general urban context, main street zoning with a five storey maximum height that would allow the townhouse drive thru and shopfront building forms up to five storeys or seven feet. It requires significant build to and transparency requirements in the mainstream zoning that allows a range of commercial, residential and civic uses. This went to the planning board on March 34, 31st and received a unanimous recommendation of approval and went to the committee on April 6th. That has not received any public comment on this application, although HOST has been doing extensive community outreach to understand the community's needs and desires in shaping the RFP. As you know, in order to approve a rezoning, the city must find that these five criteria have been met. The first criterion is consistency with adopted plans. There are four plans that apply to this property. The first is Comprehensive Plan 2040, as described in the stat reports that finds that the proposed rezoning is consistent with multiple strategies from Plan 2040. Putting these relating to mixed use development and infill development in terms of equity stuff on the proposed rezoning consistent with these two strategies from the Equitable, Affordable and Inclusive Vision Element Backup Plan 2040 relating to providing a variety of housing options in appropriate locations. And in terms of climate fines, the proposed rules are inconsistent with these two strategies from the environmentally resilient. There's an element, again, relating to infill development and mixed use walkable development. The second plan is Blueprint Denver. The future context designation for the property is General Urban, which calls for a mix of uses in street activation consistent with the general urban context of the proposed GMC five zoning. The future place designation is community center, which again calls for a mix of uses, ideally up to eight storeys, a strong degree of urbanism which would be provided by the proposed GMC 510 district. Washington Street is a commercial arterial calling for a mix of uses and bringing buildings up to street. And then 50th Avenue and Pearl Street are both locals providing that property, accessing connection, and then the city's plans growth area strategy. This falls under community centers and corridors, calling for 20% of new jobs and 25% of housing by 2040, which would be furthered by the proposed GMC five zone district. The third plan is the global neighborhood plan from 2014. The land use concept for this property is a mixed use, which calls for employment and a variety of mid to high density housing options, with a maximum of five storeys in height consistent with the GFC five zoning. Also calling for linking the building to the street, which the main street zoning would do a good job of, and also providing a broad range of housing types and price levels which this being a city affordable housing project would also advance that goal. And then the final plan is housing and inclusive. Denver, which is the city affordable housing strategy that calls for leveraging publicly owned land like this to provide affordable housing and providing development in mixed income and mixed use developments. As the intent is with this property and the proposed GMC five zoning would allow. So step finds the proposed rezoning consistent with adaptive plans. And the first criterion meant the second criterion is uniformity of district regulations. Staff finds the proposed rezoning would result in uniform application of the GMC five zone district. The third criterion is to further the public health, safety and general welfare of city staff finds the proposed rezoning would do so by implementing the city's adopted plans and that the James five zoning would provide extended community services and also require building for design elements that promote a walkable environment. Creating more health and safety. The fourth criterion is justifying circumstances on proposed rezoning justified by changing changing conditions. There has to be changes in this neighborhood turning over into more of that mixed use corridor that the plans call for. Then also the adoption of both the Globeville plan and Blueprint. Denver calling for that change justify the rezoning. And the first criterion is consistency with neighborhood context, zoning, district purpose and intent. Staff finds the proposed rezoning would facilitate the and consistent with the general urban context and the purpose and intent of the five zone district. Without specifying, all five criteria are met and recommends approval. And then, as I mentioned, Jennifer SIEGEL is also here to walk through the RFP process that you like to see that.
Speaker 3: Hey. Thanks, Scott. My name is Jennifer SIEGEL. I'm a housing development officer with the Department of Housing Stability, also known as host. And next slide, please. Since host is the applicant for this rezoning, I'm providing a brief overview of the request for proposal process we intend to follow to ensure that the site is developed for affordable housing in conjunction with the community priorities. As Scott mentioned, the city acquired the site with federal funds, specifically HUD Community Development BLOCK Grant. This funding source requires that the subsequent use serves households out of below 80% of the area median income. But please note that this is the maximum income allowed by that funding, and we expect that the final development will serve households at lower incomes. And did you term in the community priorities for the site host held to listening sessions last year. And we will incorporate those priorities into the RFP and we intend to issue this RFP in the second quarter of this year, approximately June. And we expect to select a qualified development partner as a result of that RFP. Next slide, please. And here you can see an overview of the timeline. And please note that this is an estimate and could change. Once the hours our RFP is issued. We'll provide a response time of about eight weeks so that the closing date will likely be mid to late summer depending on the issue state. The selected respondent will be notified in the fall, probably around October and then negotiations will commence regarding the disposition of the land and that will take some time and will likely be completed by March, around March of 2022. That selected respondent needs to demonstrate this site control in order to apply to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority for federal low income housing tax credits for the rental component of the site. And we expect that application to be submitted in the fall of 2022. And the construction starting completion portions on this timeline here assume that tax credits will be awarded from that application and that other financing could be secured. However, that's not really within our control and the timeline will be delayed if that financing can't be secured in that timeframe. Next slide, please. The review panel will include city staff with expertize in housing finance, site development and land use. Additionally, three community representatives are going to be selected through an application process and they will participate as non-voting members of the review panel. As you can see, the review process will be highly technical to ensure that the selected proposal meets the requirements for the RFP is financially feasible and can be completed in a timely fashion. Next slide, please. This process is modeled after the successful RFP process that was used for the East Colfax properties. At 8315 is Colfax. The RFP process was used to select Mercy Housing as a developer and are in the process of moving forward with a rental development that will serve households with a wide variety of incomes and will also include an early childhood education center. Next slide, please. And finally, Hostess captured those community priorities during the listening sessions, and they include both rental and homeownership development, providing units that can serve families so large size units and housing that meets a wide variety of income levels. Additionally, several community uses were identified, including potentially a grocery store, fresh food market and an early childhood education, shared space or library. So those are the various priorities that were captured, and we intend to incorporate those in the RFP. And thank you. And I can answer any questions that you are the community has.
Speaker 0: All right. Well, thank you, Scott and Jennifer, for the great presentation. And this evening, council has not received any written testimony on Council Bill 391. And we have one individual signed up to speak this evening and we'll go ahead and get Jesse Paris back in the queue here. All right. Go ahead with your comments, Jesse.
Speaker 6: Yes. Good evening. Members of council, those watching at home. My name is just the bishop here. And I'm represented for Black Stars to move for something pretty. Oh, Colorado and front line black nose. And I'll be the next mayor of Denver in 2023. We're in favor of this rezoning tonight. We have a housing crisis. I'm glad the city is finally realizing that we have a housing crisis and it's making it is due to create affordable housing, housing that people can actually afford years after the fact. So we are in favor of this rezoning tonight. I wanted to know what the army levels are going to be for this specific property that's in question. I heard something about 30%. But how many units specifically are going to be at 30%, 30 to 80%?
Speaker 8: What is the.
Speaker 6: Army level range going to be for this proposed rezoning and some I could please answer that question. I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
Speaker 0: All right. Thank you, Jesse. And that concludes our speakers this evening. Questions from members of Council on Council Bill 391 Council Councilmember Hines.
Speaker 6: I thank you, council president. I apologize if this was already in the presentation. I had to use the restroom anyway. The only question that I have is we're intending for the city to purchase the land. Ah, well, I think I understand is right. We're going to purchase the land. Are we then going to give that to a community partner or are we going to do like a long term lease, like 99 year lease or how how how is the ownership going to work on this? And I apologize.
Speaker 3: Okay. Yeah, actually, I wasn't addressing the presentation. I mean, if we model the that East Colfax, that land was provided to mercy housing. I think it you know, a nominal $10 rate. So the expectation is that it will be provided to the selected respondent at a very nominal cost and that will provide them with the site control that they need.
Speaker 6: When you say provide, you mean sell or lease?
Speaker 3: Well, I say so. If it's $10, there's always a potential that it could be leased as well. But right now the plan is to sell the property. But that could potentially change if the city had decided to lease the land. But currently it's intended to be sold. So, you know, $10.
Speaker 6: I, I don't think that that will change my vote tonight, but it would be if we're purchasing it, it would be great for us. I mean, just long term to have to retain the land effectively. It would be the same for for mercy housing if we were to lease it for a dollar or $10 a year. But but just I'm just thinking about I think Councilmember Sandoval has said seven generations. So, you know, if we're going to purchase the land, maybe we could the the financial amount would be the same in the end for the for the housing developer. But just seven generations from now, we would have more assets as a city. Anyway, thank you. Thank you. Council President.
Speaker 3: Okay. Definitely. I'll. Communicate that.
Speaker 0: Okay. All right. Thank you, Jennifer. And thank you, Councilmember Hines. And seeing other hands raised for questions. The public hearing is closed. Comments by members of Council on Council Bill 391. Council members say tobacco.
Speaker 3: I don't have any questions.
Speaker 0: Okay. All right. Sounds good. Seeing their hands raised. Madam Secretary, roll call on Council Bill 391 place.
Speaker 3: CdeBaca. I, Clark.
Speaker 1: I.
Speaker 3: Flynn.
Speaker 1: I.
Speaker 0: Herndon.
Speaker 1: I.
Speaker 5: Hines.
Speaker 6: I.
Speaker 5: Cashman. I can. I, Sandoval.
Speaker 7: Hi.
Speaker 3: So you. I. Torres. I. Black eye.
Speaker 5: Madam President.
Speaker 0: I. Madam Secretary, closed the voting and announced the results. 12 Eyes. 12 Eyes. Council Bill 20 1-0391 has passed all right are pre adjournment announcement on Monday May 24th Council will hold a required public hearing on Council Bill 20 1-0515 approving a proposed and Arco market development agreement by and among the city and county of Denver, J.V.
A bill for an ordinance changing the zoning classification for 4995 North Washington Street, 4949 North Washington Street, 4930 North Pearl Street and 4934 North Pearl Street in Globeville.
Approves a map amendment to rezone property from I-MX-3 UO-2 to G-MS-5 (industrial to general, main-street), located at 4949 and 4995 North Washington Street and 4930 and 4934 North Pearl Street in Council District 9. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 4-6-21.