Commission backs new mixed‑use Lutheran Legacy Campus zoning to guide hospital‑site redevelopment

The Wheat Ridge Planning Commission on Dec. 18 voted 6-0 to recommend approval of an ordinance creating a Mixed Use Lutheran Legacy Campus Zone District and making related conforming amendments to Chapter 26 of the city code.

Senior Planner Scott Cutler and staff presented the nearly final ordinance, which implements the Lutheran Legacy Campus Master Plan and establishes development standards intended to guide future redevelopment of the largely vacant hospital campus. Cutler said the draft ordinance will appear before City Council for first reading in January, with subsequent Council review expected later in the month; if the ordinance is approved, individual rezoning hearings for the campus would follow in March and April.

Cutler noted two substantive changes in the latest draft. First, the ordinance includes provisions to prioritize preservation of significant on‑site trees, with an approach that favors preservation of healthy, noninvasive large trees and a "like-for-like" replacement table for any trees removed (for example, replacement inches of trunk caliper must match removed inches). Second, staff revised an earlier, less‑prescriptive mixed‑use requirement to propose a minimum square footage of retail or restaurant uses in specific subdistricts (subdistricts 2 and 4, the areas closer to 30th Avenue) to increase the likelihood that ground‑floor commercial activity will be built and occupied.

Cutler and staff explained that the ordinance text is still being refined in places, that graphics are being finalized and that the full ordinance text runs to roughly 50 pages with the draft code at about 32 pages. Commissioners asked questions about how the commercial‑square‑foot requirement will be applied, opportunities for adaptive reuse (the "Blue House" and chapel were mentioned as likely candidates for commercial use), and whether the city can require deed‑restricted affordable housing. Staff said the city cannot require affordable housing but can encourage it; the code does differentiate parking and other requirements for deed‑restricted units where they are proposed.

Commissioners praised staff work on the district regulations; after discussion the commission voted to recommend adoption of the ordinance to City Council, 6-0. If City Council adopts the ordinance, later hearings will consider rezoning parcels on the Lutheran Legacy Campus to the new zone district.