Planning Board approves Emmaus rezoning

Highlights:

• Denver Planning Board approves Emmaus rezoning.
• Planning Boar’s recommendation now goes to City Council.
• Emmaus seeking zoning change for medical office building in West Highland.

The Denver Planning Board, after  listening to hours of neighbors vehemently and emotionally opposing a rezoning request for a church site at the eastern gateway to West Highland, on Wednesday night voted 5-3 to support the rezoning

The U-MS-2x zoning is needed for a controversial medical office building sought by the Emmaus Lutheran Church at West 32nd Avenue and Irving Street.

One woman wiped away tears after the vote, which took place more than four hours after the meeting began.

Others said they were disappointed, but not surprised, by the vote. Some said they were angry that the board was ignoring the objections of the vast majority of the people who testified during the lengthy hearing.

The Denver City Council this fall is expected to vote on the rezoning request from U-SU-A, which allows single-family homes to U-MS-2x, which allows a variety of two-story buildings for commercial uses, including a medical office building.

“It was the correct decision,” said Sundari Kraft, spokeswoman for the Emmaus redevelopment plan.

The zoning dispute also illustrates a much broader, citywide issue that many neighbors feel they have no voice in developments, noted several Planning Board members.

Kraft said the people speaking against the rezoning are not indicative of the overall neighborhood.

“There are lots of people in this neighborhood that are extremely excited about the idea of more medical services nearby, particularly parents with small children and seniors aging in place,” according to Kraft. “We’re also hearing from those who want to create walkable, dynamic communities by incorporating necessary services within our wonderful neighborhoods.”

Emmaus officials have had numerous meetings with neighbors regarding the rezoning during the past two years.She noted that she did not make any effort to encourage supporters to attend the meeting. Also, many supporters were at work, or were at home taking care of young children and could not attend, she said

Despite the church’s efforts to keep people informed, Kraft said a lot of misinformation, such as the medical building would accept ambulances or that patients could spend the night there, has been  presented as facts, when they are in fact not true.

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The site, the largest available for redevelopment in the immediate area, would be about the same size of the empty school building on the property that would be razed to make way for the office medical office building. To put it in context, it would be about 6 percent larger than the Mondo Vino building at West 32nd Avenue and Lowell Boulevard, said Paul Haack, president of the nearby Anderson Mason Architect firm, which would design the new building for the church.

The church, which would start by owning 50 percent of the medical office building, and within 10 years would own 100 percent of it, said the need it to provide a steady stream of income for the church for the future.

The church has a letter of intent from the Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge to run the medical office building.

“We’re not fix and flippers, said Neil Neudorff, the president of the church.

He noted the church had been a fixture in the neighborhood for 100 years and with income from the medical building will be able to remain in the neighborhood for another 100 years.

Dozens of neighbors spoke against the medical office building, some saying that a “nightmare” intersection near 32nd Avenue and Speer would only worsen if the medical office building were built.

West Highland resident Marilyn Quinn noted that the church had sold land to the west of its building several years ago for more than $1 million and questioned what has happened to that money.

She also said that the church, with its dwindling congregation, has not been much of a force in the neighborhood in recent years.

Another common complaint was that neighbors do not believe the church officials and felt that had not dealt with the neighborhood in good faith.

Several people, who had earlier signed a letter supporting the rezoning, said they have since rescinded their support.

Officially, the city has received 34 letters supporting the rezoning and eight letters in opposition.

One young professional who lives near the church said that the site needs a “cool” development and a medical office building is not a hip use and won’t attract people to West Highland.

Others said the proposed medical office building is the latest of a number of large, unwanted developments in the area that is changing the character and ruining the charm of the area.

However, the proposed building would only be about 6 percent larger than the Mondo Vino building at Lowell Boulevard and West 32nd Avenue, just to the west.

Several of the Planning Board members noted that despite the concerns of the neighbors, their role is to vote on the zoning request, not the use of the building.

The U-MS-2x, or Urban-Main Street zoning, is the most restrictive of any commercial zoning. The zoning is considered ideal for commercial properties that are embedded in neighborhoods.

Earlier, the West Highland Neighborhood Association took four votes on possible positions regarding the rezoning.

Overwhelmingly, the members who attended the Registered Neighborhood Organization meeting said they wanted a Planned Unit Development for the site, to give them more say on details of any future development and giving them a higher comfort level with the transformation of the site.

The church was open to a PUD, but the city strongly discourages them and they are only allowed on extremely unusual sites, such if they have an irregular shape or it will be a phased development.

The flat, rectangular-shaped Emmaus site does not qualify for a PUD.

Planning board member Joel Noble, who voted in favor of the rezoning, said if you look at the map and see that Blueprint Denver has classified the site as an area of stability, and that is mostly single-family homes in the vicinity, at first blush it would seem to be a no brainer to oppose the rezoning.

However, he said when you visit the site and see the empty school building and a parking lot with weeds and faded stripes, it is clear that the parking lot itself is a blighted and underutilized site that needs to be redeveloped.

Also, immediately to the west, there is a commercial development on just about every corner, except at that intersection.

However, the strong and vocal opposition to the development reveals a “gap” in the planning process, not only for this specific development, but across the city, he said.

“Neighbors want more input,” he said.

When the city used to grant PUDs “at the drop of the hat,” neighbors could “hold developer’s feet to the fire,” he said.

The city has good reasons to get away from PUDs, but he said neighbors understandably want more say in developments that can change the fabric of their neighborhoods.

Noble encouraged every neighborhood to adopt a “small area plan,” that would provide a better roadmap for dealing with issues such as this.

Indeed, before the Planning Board heard the Emmaus rezoning request, it quickly approved a rezoning for a property in the Baker neighborhood, which has a small area plan. In that case, the rezoning was supported by the Baker Historic Neighborhood Association.

Unlike the Emmaus rezoning, no one lined up to speak against it.

In fact, there was no opposition or fireworks from angry and upset neighbors.

Meanwhile, the Emmaus rezoning proposal is scheduled to go before City Council’s Neighborhood and Planning committee on Sept. 16. After that, it will go to the full council for a public hearing and ultimately a vote.

“Both Community Planning and Development staff and Planning Board have found that the rezoning is appropriate within the surrounding context and aligns with the overall vision for the neighborhood,” Kraft said.

“We look forward to moving ahead to City Council with these positive recommendations.”

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