Committee postpones rezoning for two vacant lots on North York Street to April 8

Denver — The Land Use, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Tuesday postponed a rezoning request for two vacant lots at North York Street in the Elyria‑Swansea neighborhood to a date‑certain April 8 meeting after staff and council members said the applicant did not appear and neighborhood outreach documentation was incomplete.

Abner Ramos Acedo of Community Planning and Development (CPD) presented the application, saying the request seeks to rezone two vacant parcels currently zoned ETUB to Urban Row Home (URH‑2.5). Ramos said the parcels are located in Council District 9 and described the area as impacted by Interstate 70 expansion. He told the committee the URH‑2.5 district allows building forms such as row homes, duplexes and urban houses, and that CPD found the rezoning consistent with Comprehensive Plan 2040, Blueprint Denver and the small area plan for Elyria‑Swansea.

Ramos said the properties are vacant and that the small area plan and Blueprint Denver map the area to allow low‑scale multiunit residential forms. "The purpose of that zone district is a residential zone district that promotes and protects residential neighborhoods," Ramos told the committee.

Council members raised concerns that the applicant was not present for the committee meeting and that recorded outreach to registered neighborhood organizations (RNOs) was incomplete in materials available to the committee. Councilmember Torres and others asked whether the neighborhood context mapping and the small area plan had already anticipated the change; Ramos said the small area plan process recommended updating the neighborhood context to allow this scale of housing and that outreach to the GES (Globeville, Elyria‑Swansea) coalition had been attempted but staff and the applicant had not received written support.

Given the lack of applicant appearance and outstanding neighborhood documentation, the committee moved to postpone the application to April 8 and requested that the applicant attend and that staff confirm outreach and any letters of support or opposition from RNOs. The motion to postpone carried by voice vote with no oppositions recorded in the transcript.

CPD staff told the committee the applicant is represented by an architecture firm and that outreach materials and copies of emails submitted with the application should appear in the application packet; staff said some outreach copies were included in the application but that direct responses from neighborhood groups were not received.