Planners recommend rezoning 4507 Rifle Way to SMX‑5 to allow suburban mixed‑use development

City planning staff on Tuesday recommended that the Land Use, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee forward a map amendment for 4507 Rifle Way (file 241794) to full City Council consideration. The request would rezone about 12 acres in the Gateway/Green Valley Ranch area from former Chapter 59 Planned Unit Development (PUD 319) into the Denver Zoning Code as SMX‑5, a suburban mixed‑use district that allows buildings generally one to five stories tall.

CPD planner Tony LaChuga told the committee the site is “approximately 12 acres” and largely greenfield land in the Gateway Green/Green Valley Ranch neighborhood, just east of Peña Boulevard. He said previous PUD rules limited the entire superblock H to 291 residential units; the new SMX‑5 district would permit additional residential development and a broader mix of neighborhood‑serving uses under current zoning standards.

City staff said the site already has roads and infrastructure planning completed under the older PUD. LaChuga said that because transportation, drainage and other infrastructure studies were already finished under the PUD, the city’s Large Development Review (LDR) process was not…