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Denver Update November 7 -13, 2008   City News Briefs   Paying Tribute, Then Celebrating     A time for tribute, remembrance, culture and celebration in our city. Denver residents are being encouraged to take part in the many cultural activities that are part of Arts Week, beginning this weekend – and culminating in the city’s 150th anniversary.   Honoring Veterans    But first - earlier this week – it was our veterans who we paid our respects to. The City’s Annual Veteran’s Day Parade on Saturday was a chance to show support for the troops currently serving, and veterans who have served in the past. The Parade gives the young and older supporters alike an opportunity to let veterans know their sacrifice is not forgotten. As veterans in the parade came by, many in the crowd called out a simple – “thank you”. The official Veterans Day, of course, was Tuesday the 11th – the day of the armistice between German and Allied forces in World War One – at the 11th hour – on the 11th day of the 11th month.   There was also a special recognition event held specifically for Veterans working for the City. Some of the city’s veterans shared their thoughts about what makes Veteran’s Day important.      “Because freedom isn’t free and the mean and women that put their lives on the line to make sure we stay free are a special group.”   -          Sondra Tribble    Case Manager    Denver Human Services   “I think it’s the issue of service.  One of the things we say about the vets we help – we say they serve and they deserve to be served.  A lot of times guys come to us and are in real trouble and they say thanks, and we say don’t thank us – you earned this.  This is something you have coming to you because of your service.  What’s neat is a lot of people in the military go on to have service careers afterwards as well.”   -          George Cassidy    County Veterans Services Officer    City and County of Denver   The Mayor stopped in to show the veterans his appreciation.   Celebrating the City’s Culture   Then mid-week City leaders got the  150TH anniversary celebration going by officially kicking off Arts Week.       At  a news conference at the Denver Performing Arts Complex , arts weeks was announced to  Celebrate the City’s performing and visual arts, and encourage people to experience all Denver has to offer.     “We’d like to elevate and build on our national reputation of being the center of arts and culture here and with the help of people in the community we’re really doing a great job of positioning  ourselves.”   -          Richard Scharf    President/CEO    Metro Denver Convention and Visitor’s Bureau   “We all believe that having a great cultural community creates far more than just those products that are created within that cultural community.  It reveals – just as great arts attracts and draws out our inner self – revels to us our most secret self – in that same sense as a community we have a revelatory opportunity when we look at what that role of what that cultural community is.  Certainly in today’s economy, it’s even more critical.”    -          John Hickenlooper    Mayor    City and County of Denver   Mayoral Art    Local Artist Malcolm Farley was part of the event – painting none other than Hizzoner - the Mayor - to be auctioned off at a later date.  Farley is the official artist of the NFL, and the World series.    Arts Week – a week long celebration of Denver’s arts and culture features Night at the Museum on November 14th, Night on the Red Carpet November 15th, and the Starz Film Festival .  For full details, go to DenverArtsWeek.com.   The Mile High City Turns 150   Cake and free admission to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Mile High City – on the actual day – November 22nd.   Of course Arts Week is only  part of the City’s 150th celebration – as was the unveiling of a huge ice sculpture at the Arts Week news conference   Denver’s birthday celebration will include free admission at select cultural facilities, a new exhibit titled:  Imagine a Great City – Denver at 150 at the Colorado History Museum, and other events. For more information – Denver150.com.     Smarter and Better?   New smart parking meters are expected to make your downtown experience more pleasant. The meters were installed this week and are solar powered, wireless, and accept credit and debit cards – as well as coins. The meters will be installed in a ten block area downtown – for a six month pilot period and then the smart meters will be evaluated for ease of use, efficiency, durability and reliability. If you have a chance to use the new meters and want to share your thoughts – you can take a survey at www.DenverMeter.com.     Pets and People Match Up   The Denver Municipal Animal Shelter closed out the month of October by setting records for pet adoptions. Denver’s shelter, which is supervised by the Department of Environmental Health took advantage of ‘Adopt-A-Pet-From-A-Shelter’ Month and held four public events in Downtown Denver.  The events were designed to allow future owners a chance to meet pets from the shelter up close and personal...and the adoption rate from the events was 95%   City Shelter officials are trying to overcome the impression that many Denverites have that the only place to adopt animals in the City is the Denver Dumb Friends League.   “We have so many dogs and cats as well as other animals, we have bunnies at the shelter, we have snakes, we have anything you could possibly want.”   -               Meghan Hughes         Communications Director         Dept.Of Environmental Health   The adoption process at the shelter is designed for ease of customer use.   “We ask people to come in and fill out an adoption application, we have adoption counselors to help guide you through the process and tell you more about the dog just to make sure you have a good fit for your type of situation, for your personality or maybe what you’re looking for in your home situation because we really want to make sure it’s a good fit. Then we ask you to fill out an adoption application, there’s a fee. We send them out for spay or neuter and typically you can take them home that day or within a couple of days after they are spayed or neutered.”   -               Meghan Hughes         Communications Director         Dept.Of Environmental Health     The Shelter is located on South Jason Street in Denver and is open six days a week.  You can view adoptable pets on line at denvergov.org/PetAdoptions.  You may find a new friend, or even a new member of the family. “It’s important to spay or neuter your pets and it’s important to come get animals from animal shelters because they are just wonderful animals waiting for a new home.”   -               Meghan Hughes         Communications Director         Dept.Of Environmental Health

Denver Update - Weekly Council & Council Committee Meetings Denver City Council Meeting   Denver City Council members are at odds about how to deal with an emotional zoning issue in a South Park Hill neighborhood.   Downzoning Distress – “Round Two”   It came before them the previous week where there was a lot of gripping testimony regarding the down-zoning proposal. Council bill 526 would change what kinds of housing could be built in an area generally bounded by East 16th Avenue, Batavia Place, Albion and Dahlia Streets.   Many of the people who live in that area want to go from R-2 to R-1. A change like this would mean that only single family houses could be built in the future but not so-called multi-unit dwellings.   One person against the down zoning said she would lose much of her life savings if her almost 14-thousand square foot lot could not be parceled off to make room for a four unit development.  Council member Charlie Brown sided with the Meredith Carson’s appeal.   “This house is all I’ve got she wrote us, I hope that’s not true, I hope tonight we can also tell Meredith that she also has us.”   -     Charlie Brown    City Council Member    District 6   Brown offered up an amendment that would exempt Carson’s home from the down-zoning bill which had already been okayed on first reading.  Some other council members weren’t so keen on the idea.   “This would be changing the policy of blueprint for one person.  If I support this I don’t know how I could justify next week when another person comes forward with their hardship story - why shouldn’t I let them out as well.”     -     Carla Madison    City Council Member    District 8   “I sympathize with Ms. Carson, I clearly understand where she’s coming from and her heartfelt letter or e-mail to us is certainly one that gets our attention and we understand that but to spot zone it would be certainly not be recommended and would not be good public policy.”     -    Michael Hancock    City Council Member    District 11   “I oppose the amendment for two reasons. One is I don’t think we should do spot zoning on the floor as a legislative process – we’re normally prohibited from doing that in zoning matters that are brought before us from the planning office.  This is different because it’s a legislative rezoning but normally we don’t pick apart zoning proposals that come before us geographically.”   -     Doug Linkhart    City Council    Member-at-Large   Councilmember Linkhart also says he disagrees with a statement Carson made in which she said that without the R-2 zoning, she would loose an estimated 150-thousand dollars on the sale of her property.   Planning staff members say a developer could still buy the land and build two single family homes on it. And they say this kind of piece-meal zoning could negatively affect property values in a neighborhood.   “It doesn’t create the idea of consistency in an area. One house has one set of development rights, the next house has another set of development rights, the next house has another set of development rights. It doesn’t create that predictability and consistency that we really look for that in our estimation aids stability and drives value in a neighborhood because not only do the people live there know what can happen the people that want to come in there know what can happen.”     -   Chris Gleissner     Associate City Planner     Community Planning & Development   When council members approved the bill on first reading, they also agreed to an amendment to allow a developer to build a nine unit complex in the same neighborhood.   Council member Carla Madison, who represents district 8, said they did so because that developer had been working on the project for some time, and it was already in the pipeline.     Madison said she didn’t have any idea about Meridith Carson’s plan to sell her property so that four units could be built on it. By a vote of 11 to 2, the amendment to exempt Carson’s property failed and the original bill, to proceed with the down zoning, passed.    A couple of councilmembers used the lyrics of Woody Guthrie to emphasize their feelings about this decision.   “As through the world I rambled I’ve seen lots of funny men - some will rob you with a six gun - others with a fountain pen.”    -     Charlie Brown    City Council Member    District 6   “This land is your land the second line is, this land is my land and the import of that is, we’re all in this together.”   -    Chris Nevitt    City Council Member    District 7h   Mayor’s 2009 Budget   Also on the agenda was the final approval of Mayor Hickenlooper’s 2009 budget. Council member Jeanne Faatz voted against approval because she said there weren’t enough details in the plan to prove that it was actually balanced. The budget calls for 13 million in operational savings and another 7 million to be cut as the year goes on.  City Staff said Department Heads asked that they be allowed some leeway regarding the additional cuts, so that they could respond and react in a responsible way as they see how the economy and other factors play out over the next 12 months. The budget was approved.   Meeting Preview:  Monday, November 17th   Currently, there are six public hearings scheduled.   The first is an amendment to the Gateway Village General Improvement District 2008 budget. The second public hearing would adopt next year’s budget, work plan and 2009 Mill levy regarding the same Improvement district.   Council bill 546 would change the zoning at 4495 East Harvard from R-1 to R-5 to allow for an adult daycare facility.   Council bill 547 would change the zoning at 2000 South High, 2045 South Race and 1901 Evans to R-3 for a new academic building on the University of Denver Campus.   Also on final consideration is council bill 548, which would amend the code allowing each household to keep up to two domestic honey bee hives on their property with regulations regarding hive locations and flyway screening.   And finally, council bill 550 would amend the code to allow occasional sales, such as Christmas trees and wreaths, for non-profit or religious purposes on those properties.     Blueprint Denver Committee   West Washington Park Looks at Rezoning   For generations the Washington Park area has been considered a cozy neighborhood of single-family homes. In order to keep the character of the neighborhood intact, the Blueprint Denver Committee considered a zoning map amendment to address the current mismatch between multi-family zoning and the more predominant single-family uses. This will ensure that residential development is consistent with the character of the neighborhood.  The area is on the western edge of Washington Park.    Among other things, the rezoning will allow for new development of single-family structures within the district, allow reinvestment consistent with the predominant pattern of single-family structures and allow for the continued use and improvement of multi-family structures.    And – among other things, the rezoning will NOT allow new multi-family structures and will not prevent the demolition of existing structures for replacement with single-family structures.      A Moratorium West of Washington Park   In a related proposal, the committee considered establishing similar measures on the neighborhood just to the west.  This would be in the form of a moratorium limiting the development of multi-unit structures.  No duplexes may be built on zoning lots less than six thousand square feet.   The moratorium would be in effect for eighteen months, to span the gap until the City’s new Zoning Code Update takes effect.  There was some concern that eighteen months might be too long.    Council Hearing December 15th   Opponents have expressed concern about property rights.  The proposal goes before the full council for a public hearing on December 15th. Public Amenities Committee   Master Planning for Denver’s Mountain Parks   The citizens of Denver are justifiably proud of their Mountain Parks, first designed in the early 1900s under Mayor Speer’s ‘City Beautiful’ plan.  But the funding and, consequently, the condition of the Parks began to slip over time.  So in 2006 Denver Parks and Recreation began an eighteen-month process to research and shape recommendations in a comprehensive Denver Mountain Parks Master Plan.  And this week the Public Amenities Committee got a peek at what’s in ahead for these jewels.   The Master Plan recommends several priorities to continue the park system for generations to come.  Protect the natural, cultural and historic resources, with strategies to include individual park plans, design guidelines and historic designation status.  Repair and restore existing parks and facilities, wildlife habitat, and natural resources. Improve and expand facilities to meet current, basic recreational needs.  And expand the vision.  This refers to that ephemeral look into the future to determine new approaches to park planning.    Winter Park Warms to Change   The committee also looked at some amendments to the City’s agreement with the Winter Park Recreational Association.