Affordable housing collides with San Rafael neighbors
By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News
The tiny, historic San Rafael neighborhood in northeast Denver is locked in a zoning dispute with a nonprofit group that builds affordable housing.
Hope Communities wants the neighorhood to temporarily back down on plans to rezone the neighborhood as an OD-9, or overlay district.
The OD-9 zoning calls for a height limit of 35 feet and sets numerous other restrictions. It does not prevent the demolition of historic buildings, as a landmark designation would.
The Denver Planning Board is scheduled to consider the request at a hearing from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on the second floor of the Webb building at 201 W. Colfax Ave.
The planning department staff supports the rezoning, noting that the majority of the neighborhood supports it, with the exception of Hope and two other property owners.
The zoning change, which has been in the works for months, is needed to preserve the historic character of the neighborhood that’s filled with Victorian homes, said Paul Benington, president of the Old San Rafael Neighborhood Association. Benington and others say they don’t want to see buildings constructed that would be much taller than existing buildings in the neighborhood.
However, affordable housing could be in danger if the new zoning is in place, said Bradford Bates, executive director of Hope Communities. Hope owns the Carolton Arms, which has 21 units in three buildings at East 23rd Avenue, Emerson and Clarkson streets.
Hope has indicated it eventually plans to develop the site with 50 to 75 units but hasn’t made public the height of new buildings.
“Affordable-housing developers need a certain density to make development feasible,” Bates said. “By tying our hands with this zoning overlay, the city will force affordable properties to return to market (rates)in the near future. This decision is literally slapping the working poor in the face.”
Bates said he doesn’t necessarily oppose the OD-9 zoning, but says he would like the association to table it for 30 to 60 days to give Hope more time to study it and see if a compromise can be reached with the neighborhood.
“We believe his request for a delay is unreasonable and is just calculated to buy time for Hope to either put more political pressure on city officials or to start relocating the Carolton Arms residents, demolish historic buildings and start construction in the hope that they can beat the limits of the new overlay district,” Benington said.
Because neighborhood residents have asked him about the income levels of the people in affordable housing, Bates said he suspects there’s a certain amount of NIMBYism, or Not In My Back Yard, involved.
Nothing could be further from the truth, Benington said, noting that San Rafael has one of the highest concentrations of affordable housing of any Denver neighorhood.
“What we don’t want in our backyard is the type of inappropriate height and bulk that we have seen in City Park West and other parts of Capitol Hill,” Benington said in an e-mail, after voicing the same concerns in a phone interview.
“Brad (Bates) does not appear to appreciate that preserving the historic character of San Rafael is more important than his proposed redevelopment.
“When you look at the entire neighborhood, there is not such a need for additional affordable-housing units to justify inappropriate height and bulk that threatens the historic character of the neighborhood.
“Hope can increase its service to its population at the Carolton Arms property within the limits of the overlay district. Brad just wants more.”