A developer recently razed an unregrettable building along Colfax and two historic if decrepit houses behind it in a neighborhood. The lots are zoned B3 and R4, which means that the floor-to-area ratio and other requirements would allow just about anything, like say an automobile dealership, an autobody shop, a chain restaurant, or just a nice crop of asphalt like that planted throughout much of Denver. Initial neighborhood resistance led the developer to consider instead a project zoned MS: where B and R are for business and residential, MS is for Main Street: more pedestrian friendly, less asphalt, street-level windows, specific setbacks, and other good things.
Problem is, the project is MS-2, which allows for taller and denser than the MS-1 that the city planners, and the two involved neighborhoods, intend for our stretch of Colfax to be. Attendees at last night's meeting could vote for the new MS-2 or continue B3-R4. That was the choice. Our vote is not binding in any way but only a factor the city council considers when deciding about the zoing.
The fear, and it's a reasonable concern except presented last night as a boogeyman, is that if this first project, whose planning began before the MS language became an option, is allowed to be MS-2 instead of -1 (MS-2 was intended for areas closer to downtown), that that will set a dangerous precedent.
I say, MS-2 is better than B3. It's not better than R4 alone, but those houses are gone, the developer elected not to buy and raze the third historic but decrepit house such that its survival preserves a sightline, and MS-2 is better than the B3/R4 combination.
I wish to the Climbing Tree that some of the people the most involved in the neighborhood would present themselves better, would act less like the boogeyman is after them, would whine just a soupçon the fuck less, and would obsess not at all about parking. It's a city: act like it. You do not own the spot in front of your house, and in this neighborhood you probably have a garage so put the car in there (I should talk), and let's encourage pedestrian and public transport!