The Growing Pains Of Short-Term Rentals In Denver

by Mark Smiley | Oct 28, 2019 | Travel

by Chris DeGusto

The methodology dedicated to handling Denver’s short-term rental (STR) industry is fairly new, as the governing structures used today are from a 2016 city ordinance. Ongoing efforts to find a perfect solution in an imperfect situation — one that makes everyone happy — have been difficult to find. Denver is faced with rapid growth, and this expansion has fallen upon current and future residents to placate.

Almost anyone who has heard of STRs has an opinion about them due to a personal experience of some kind. Yet, multiple people in the Mile-High City have declined to tell their story, and most who elected to share spoke in hushed, prudent tones with lowered eyes. They shot frequent glances around and recounted their anecdotes incompletely.

“I was told not to [speak on the record],” said Rebecca after a pause. “I was told that there could be retaliation. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know, I just think this is much bigger than it appears.”

Rebecca declined to provide her last name. She chose not to elaborate on her remarks, define what she believed retaliation would entail or from whom it could come. A large portion of those who spoke to the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle would not divulge any information at all but acknowledged they were affected in some way.

Denver’s STR conversation has many sides. The business side has provided crucial financial benefits for some. Others have lost faith in their neighborhood’s economic value. But a report released in April by the Denver’s Economic Development and Opportunity Department exhibited that STRs have not had a significant impact on the cost of housing. According to the report, only one percent of Denver’s housing supply is an STR, and revealed weak correlation to local rent increases.

Still, like Rebecca, some are more concerned with how STRs affect daily life in their community.

Sophi told the Chronicle that people have mistakenly tried to enter her home in the middle of the night on multiple occasions, as recently as this month. Intruders on her property were supposed to be at the STR next door where they were staying.

“The dogs woke up and were barking and trying to figure out what was happening — I thought somebody was breaking in,” said Sophi. “I am often alone in the house. It’s not a great feeling to be next to a really drunk [group of] guys or to have people trying our door. I think once you get that many people together who are not all with it, that’s a safety issue.”

Others have expressed similar safety concerns but declined quotation.

Rebecca and Sophi share a home in Denver’s Washington Park neighborhood next to a “mega-mansion” of roughly 2,000 square feet. According to Sophi, the property has often hosted bachelor parties where the guests’ goal is to “drink as much as they can and smoke as much as they can.”

As an STR property manager, David Pardo’s “bread and butter” are “big and noisy parties.” Pardo, who has been an STR host for over five years, has managed a combination of properties ranging from one-bedroom apartments to larger townhouses. In an interview with the Chronicle, he said that over 1,600 groups of guests have utilized his properties. Some of these sites have specifically catered to events such as bachelor and bachelorette parties, and Pardo estimated that he has hosted over 100 of these gatherings. These homes are located in areas of commercial use where local zoning laws do not prohibit the operation of business, and downtown, where noise is already generated from local bars and nightlife.

According to Pardo, the vast majority of his guests have not broken any rules established by both the hosting platform and himself. Most of the harm Pardo has experienced caused him personal logistics problems but hasn’t affected close-by residents in any fashion.

“All the neighbors of my properties know exactly what’s going on. They have all the contact info,” said Pardo. “We’ve got all the noise awareness systems, sensors, cameras — we know what’s going on because we don’t want our guests to have a [negative] impact. We build that into our system. That’s not a requirement that the city has. That’s a requirement that I have for myself. It’s personal practice for the sake of my business.”

Not all STRs are in stride with legality. Denver’s 2016 rules state that an STR can only be operated from a primary residence. In June a couple was charged with felonies for running an STR outside of their primary residence.

Denver’s Office of Excise and Licenses spokesman Eric Escudero said in a recent email correspondence with the Chronicle that Denver is not anti-STR and explained how the city has investigated potentially illegal STRs.

“After collecting evidence that shows people are operating an STR that is not their primary residence, Denver frequently sends out an affidavit to suspected illegal STR operators giving them one last opportunity to come clean,” according to Escudero. “If they lie on the affidavit attesting their STR is their primary residence, they could be charged with the crime of influencing a public servant.”

To mediate the STR conversation and push the industry in Denver toward more effective operation, Denver’s Short-Term Rental Advisory Committee (STRAC) has orchestrated the rollout of a dual-phased plan. The first section is focused on updating current language and defining terms such as “primary residence” in a clearer fashion as 2019 concludes.

The Committee’s mission is to “provide guidance and recommendations to Excise and Licenses policies pertaining to the STR licensing program.” They have hosted meetings that encouraged public comment, and members of the Committee include STR hosts, industry stakeholders, residents of the neighborhood and elected city officials.

Hosts of STRs must also obtain licensure to operate lawfully. Denver currently has a 78.3 percent compliance rate, one of the highest in the nation according to the most recent data from the Office of Excise and Licenses. In the same data set is the compliance rate of other major cities: Nashville, 59 percent; New Orleans, 58 percent; San Francisco, 42 percent; Austin, 18 percent.

And while complaints about STRs are the most common to the Office of Excise and Licenses, this data has shown that Denver has displayed positive trends. STRAC provided data at their October meeting as well; complaints about STRs to the 311-information hotline have gone down from 92 in 2018, to 72 as of October 2019.

Phase two of STRAC’s plan is set to roll out as 2020 hits its second quarter. Their proposed plans included finding the best practices and legal parameters for property management requirements, as well as working with other cities to draft effective new language centered around platform accountability.

Industries that have thrived due to STRs have taken a hit. Joyful Soul Cleaning’s owner Kayla Darling has operated her business within STRs. She has been able to create jobs for many others in part due to rental properties and joined the conversation with the hopes of changing peoples’ hearts and minds but told the Chronicle that she has lost business due to the decrease in rental properties.

“It’s definitely important to me that our voices are heard, so that we can say, hey we want to work with the city, we want to work with the communities to make [the STR business] a positive experience for everyone that we can,” said Darling. “But then also, we don’t want half of to go away.”

According to the Office of Excise and Licenses, the number of unique property listings has dropped 21 percent since last October, and 158 applications for licensure withdrawn since April. Additionally, the total number of active licenses has gone up 24 percent. This provides evidence that more residents have looked to follow compliance rules, but less have listed their homes as an STR.

One thing is clear: the growing pains of Denver’s STR industry can only be cured with efforts from all sides.

“Please, in all of this just consider that there’s a very large portion of [STR] hosts that want to help,” said Joe (who declined to give his last name). “I’m trying to assume some of the responsibilities, and some of it is — we simply don’t even know [about complaints]. I’ll tell you this. There’s change coming from the host community. We’re taking more responsibility, we’re stepping up.”

Redirecting The Waste Stream: Seven Ways Denver Residents Can Strengthen Their Role In Recycling

by Regan Bervar | Sep 23, 2019 | Travel

by Luke Schmaltz

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

 — Albert Einstein

The importance of recycling seems, to some degree, to have taken a back seat to the divisive nature of the global warming argument. Yet, regardless of how you choose to process scientific evidence about carbon emissions and the rising temperature of the planet, the fact remains that civilization is producing massive amounts of trash. Further, some (not all) of the elements which end up in the landfill do so unnecessarily, and can better serve the greater economic good by being redirected back into the consumer commodities market.

Understand The Economics

Recycling is a bipartisan-friendly notion. From a purely fiscal standpoint, there are significant, trackable levels of energy savings that occur with specific types of materials such as aluminum and paper. The Reynolds Metal Company reports that making aluminum cans from their recycled counterparts takes 95 percent less energy than manufacturing them from raw aluminum bauxite. Meanwhile, the American Forest and Paper Association reports that recycling one ton of paper saves 7,000 gallons of water and enough energy to power the everyday household for six months.

Consider The Environmental Angle

From an anti-pollution approach, according to denvergov.org, the average family can lower greenhouse gas emissions by 340 pounds of carbon equivalent per year by simply recycling all of its mixed plastic waste. Also, the Glass Packaging Institute offers further eco-friendly evidence by reporting that glass recycling can reduce water pollution by 20% and air pollution by 50%. These stats are backed by the National Recycling Coalition, which reports that eight to 10 major types of water and air pollutants can be reduced through recycling. Plus, less garbage means less land that must be allocated for landfills.

Choose Your Facts And Act

The key to reducing the financial and environmental burden of unnecessary waste lies in the average citizen adopting a mindset of cyclic thinking in exchange for cause-and-effect behavior. This means integrating recycling into your long-term habits and routines rather than practicing it as an afterthought once the trash has already been produced. Whether you are driven by economic practicality or eco-friendly concern, here are seven ways you can do your part to expand the effort to reduce waste that is unnecessarily dumped into the ground.

Buy Recycled

Purchasing products that are made from or packaged in recycled materials helps increase the demand within this segment of the consumer product market. These can be paper goods, building materials made from recycled plastic and steel, refilled printer cartridges, activewear, smartphone covers and tote bags — just to name a few.

BYOB (Bring Your Own Bags)

Speaking of bags, you can greatly reduce paper and plastic waste by supplying your own means of getting your groceries home. The Recycling pages on denvergov.org repeatedly state that plastic bags cannot be recycled because they jam up the materials sorting machinery. That’s right — all plastic bags, even though you can reuse them once or twice around the house — eventually end up in the landfill. If everyone stopped relying on them, demand for landfill space could be systematically reduced.

Decontaminate Containers

Food containers that are placed in the recycle bin without first being rinsed out introduce contaminants into the process as the organic material begins to decompose. You can reduce the amount of items which end up in the landfill because they are full of food residue by giving items such as yogurt cartons, jelly jars, tin cans and juice bottles a sufficient rinse before recycling. This scenario includes the ever-present and confounding pizza box. While the box bottom, if covered in grease and residue, cannot be recycled — it can be composted by cutting it into small pieces and placing it in your backyard facility. Meanwhile, the box lid, as long as it is grease-free, can always be recycled.

Purchase Less Packaging

Your shopping protocol can involve a “buy less packaging” approach by making a plan ahead of time to curtail old habits in the produce section. Specifically, by choosing to not place fruits and vegetables which you plan to wash anyway into plastic bags as you pick them off the shelf. You can also choose products in compostable packaging (as indicated on the label) and you can buy items you consume regularly in bulk.

Donate Don’t Discard

Unwanted goods such as furniture, household items, cooking utensils and clothing do not have to be thrown away — especially if they are still functional or can be easily repaired. By taking them to your local thrift store, they can be reappropriated by someone who needs them instead of winding up in the landfill while still having value.

Maximize Organic Matter

According to the EPA, 30% of everything people throw away is comprised of food and yard waste. Grasscycling and composting are excellent ways of reducing the amount of plastic bags and fuel needed to haul away grass clippings and uneaten scraps. In turn, you are helping to save landfill space by placing organic matter in your own backyard — which enriches the soil, reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers and lowers your carbon footprint by decreasing methane emission from the landfill.

Go Out Of Your Way

If you’re already a proactive Denver recycler, you may have more items than can fit in your purple recycle bin. If this is the case, you can access the Cherry Creek Recycling Drop-off facility for overflow items that do not belong in the landfill as well as compostable materials such as food scraps and yard clippings. This is a service for Denver residents only, not for commercial entities.

In the realm of environmental issues, there are some areas where opinions are not unanimous. When it comes to recycling, however, any way you look at it (especially not facing downward into the landfill) makes practical, economic, eco-friendly sense.

CHUN Celebrates 50 Years With Wine Tasting Event At Botanic Gardens

by Mark Smiley | Aug 23, 2019 | Travel

By Mark Smiley

Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods (CHUN) has played a vital role in shaping neighborhoods by providing a unified voice to the City of Denver and Colorado state governments since 1969. Those who are not familiar with this organization need look no further than the trees that are planted along 13th and 14th Avenue. CHUN was instrumental IN having those planted.

To commemorate 50 years in the community, CHUN will host a fundraising event at Denver Botanic Gardens to celebrate its half century. The 50th Anniversary Celebration and Wine Tasting is open to the public and its members and residents of the Capitol Hill community on Wednesday, September 18, 2019, 5:30-9 p.m.

In addition to an evening with Denver leaders and neighborhood advocates, the event will feature a wine tasting, light hors d’oeuvres from local restaurants, and a silent auction, showcasing goods and services from local businesses. CHUN is seeking help from local businesses to sponsor the event WITH silent auction donations, underwriting support, and other in-kind goods or services.

Fifty years ago, CHUN was founded to take on the most pressing issues facing Denver and its neighborhoods. Since then, the organization has evolved into one of the Mile High City’s largest registered neighborhood organizations (RNO) dedicated to strengthening and elevating the voices of residents and neighbors.

The Board is comprised of members of 10 different RNOs, including Congress Park, Cherry Creek North, Country Club, Cheesman Park and Uptown. The boundaries of CHUN are 22nd Avenue to 1st Avenue, and Colorado Blvd. to Broadway.

“I’ve served on a lot of boards,” said Bruce Caughey, CHUN Board Member. “There is more commitment to this board than almost any board I’ve ever been on in terms of participation and expressing opinions. It’s really a great opportunity if you want to get involved in your neighborhood and make a difference. That’s what CHUN represents.”

This board is rolling up its sleeves to come up with a plan for the Tears-McFarlane House, a 120-year-old mansion that was gifted to CHUN by the City of Denver a few years ago. The building requires some restoration and ongoing upkeep,” said Travis Leiker, President, Board of Delegates for Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods, Inc. “We tapped the experts in this work to help us revitalize this property. We’ve done focus groups, surveys on the park, and engaged the community to help us reconceptualize and visualize what can be done with this space. We just released the results of that research which indicates that most people want this to remain a community gathering space but with additional amenities. The next phase of this will be how we revamp this property to both fuel CHUN’s operations as a community group, but also activate portions of the property for the betterment of the community.”

CHUN advocates for smart zoning and land use, innovative transportation systems, the protection of historic landmarks, promoting community safety and championing city beautification. As Denver moves further into the 21st century, this organization is committed to being collaborative and solution oriented, by building strong relationships with community stakeholders and serving as a go-to resource for Denver citizens.

Membership to CHUN is $75/year per household, $180/year per business, and $30/year for individuals. For a list of benefits, visit www.chundenver.org/membership. For more information on the 50th Anniversary event visit www.chundenver.org/chun50.

Culture Coming As Overhaul Begins On Inn At Cherry Creek

by Mark Smiley | Jul 26, 2019 | Travel

Czar Of Cherry Creek’s Conversion Into A NY Village Plans To Create $30 Million 18-Hour-A-Day Nightlife Hub

When Peter Weber built the Inn At Cherry Creek 15 years ago, it was the district’s boutique hotel. It opened on Clayton St. at about the same time the JW Marriott Denver at Cherry Creek opened a block south at 150 Clayton Lane. That was when Cherry Creek North was still home to mostly independently-owned boutique outdoor retail stores and dining destinations.

Then in 2014 the Denver City Council passed new zoning rules for the district that reduced parking requirements, lifted restrictions on building heights and allowed hotels in for the first time. Now most of the independent retailers and dining destinations are gone, replaced by expensive high-rise apartments and high-end New York retailers and restaurateurs. Three new hotels — the Halcyon, Moxy and Jacquard — have been added. Matt Joblon — CEO of BMC Investments and czar of the continuing massive Cherry Creek makeover — built the Halcyon and Moxy and has a 99-year ground lease on the Inn at Cherry Creek. The Halcyon and Moxy are both within half a mile of the Inn at Cherry Creek. BMC has developed or is in the process of developing more than $500 million in projects, all in Cherry Creek North.

The Inn at Cherry Creek continued to operate for a year, but Joblon has now begun a year-long renovation or more accurately a makeover and repositioning of the boutique site at 233 Clayton St. The existing building — a four-story property with 37 hotel rooms, three residences and three commercial spaces — is being gutted and 15,000-20,000-sq.-ft. of space added at an estimated cost of $30 million. The MBC project is a collaboration with hospitality and development industry veterans Aparium Hotel Group and CHMWarnick.

Adding Fifth Floor

The renovation is expected to include a partial fifth floor to the four-story hotel. The new space will be rebranded but fewer than a half-dozen rooms are expected to be added.

The Inn’s original restaurant — The Weber Grill — was shuttered by Joblon almost immediately after signing the 99-year lease. In its place Joblon has promised “a great new space” that will be much larger, serving three meals a day.

Joblon also plans to expand the hotel’s retail space. To do that he is bringing in a third party to do an “experimental type of retail that does not currently exist in Cherry Creek.” He has often referred to this pro-posed space as an “upscale bazaar” similar to the Denver Central Market. Or maybe something like the Greenwich Village Abingdon Square Greenmarket.

Getting Party Going

You may think that Cherry Creek nightlife is dead but don’t be fooled, Joblon plans to get the party going again at the renovated space. In fact he wants to transform the hotel and the street from an “eight-hour-a-day to an 18-hour-a-day community.”

That means the hotel will feature music, food and other amenities. “We want to do a project that is focused around the cultural part of Cherry Creek to really grow and expand that part of it … for both locals and people coming out and visiting,” Joblon says.

The renovated hotel’s nightlife — cocktail bars, music, entertainment and art — will be inside so the neighborhood won’t complain. Joblon originally planned for live music on the rooftop terrace at the Halcyon Hotel but the neighborhood association squashed the notion because of the hotel’s proximity to condos.

Culture Epicenter

He wants the new Inn at Cherry Creek to become its own thriving, diverse community. Meeting rooms and community areas are being designed into the hotel’s expansion. “The core of our vision is to create a place that becomes the cultural epicenter for this neighborhood.”

Think New York’s Greenwich Village or as New Yorkers call it, “The Village.” He wants the hotel and Clayton Street to become Cherry Creek’s bohemian capital, a spot with places like Greenwich Village’s Fat Cat and Café Wha? He dreams of the Clayton block becoming an updated and stylish version of Greenwich’s MacDougal St., where throngs flock to enjoy drinks, live music and meet up with friends.

He believes the hotel has incredible potential to be a destination in and of itself and thus help the neighborhood to thrive. He aims for the hotel to draw all types of people with all kinds of stories. “That’s what I think is going to make this place really special. Not to mention very, very different.”

Marriage Of Money

The 30-something Joblon grew up in the Boston area — his family owns Brittany Global Technologies — and moved to LA to work for an individual real estate investor. That’s where he met his future wife Alissa Alpert, daughter of Lee Alpert who has developed more than 44,000 acres of Denver real estate. Joblon moved here in 2010, married Alissa and met Darren Everett who at the time was VP of Operations for the Alpert Companies. Everett is a founding partner of BMC Investments and President of BMC’s property management affiliate, BLDG Management.

Soon after moving here — Joblon lives in Cherry Hills Village but has offices in a Cherry Creek building he built at 2nd Ave. and Detroit — he began building a relationship with the Inn at Cherry Creek owner Peter Weber. He says he wanted to make sure that another party didn’t beat BMC to the deal and create a brand that would compete with his nearby hotels. Earlier this year, of course, BMC sold the Halcyon Hotel to Ohio-based Rockbridge Capital for $93 million.

The rebranded Inn at Cherry Creek will still face the same problems as the other two hotels: attracting hospitality and retail workers! Why? Cherry Creek North’s expensive parking and relative lack of public transportation.

Fur Real: Valley Citizens Are Cat-N-Round Town This Summer

by Mark Smiley | Jun 21, 2019 | Travel

Feline Fans Hit The Mat With Cats, Paws For Beer; Watch Acro-Cats Purrform, Then Hang At Cool Cat Café

Ooh yeah, yeah, yeah the city’s cool cats are hanging out in straw hats and stealing the limelight this summer.

The cat’s out of the bag: Denver residents are starting summer by getting their paws on beer at the Dumb Friends League Catwalk. Then they’re headed to the fourth annual Cats on Mats yoga series pairing people practicing yoga with homeless cats and kittens at the Denver Animal Shelter.

Ooh the cool cats continue coming on strong, tapping on the toe with a new hat as Denver dances with the Amazing Acro-cats at the Bug Theatre. It’s a two-hour long purrformance featuring domesticated house cats. After speeding too fast having fun with cats they cool down at the Denver Cat Company, one of the country’s first cat cafes. A feline lounge-about, this cat-themed café serves coffee and pastries.

Paws For A Beer

Whether you’re a cat person or not it’s been proven that there are numerous health benefits to owning or simply being around felines. Cats are known to reduce a person’s stress and anxiety, can help lower blood pressure, boost our immune systems and have an overall calming effect on humans. So it just makes sense that this summer area non-profit organizations are finding ways to bring more and more people together with adoptable cats while raising money to support their causes.

Beer, cats and fun, all for a great cause — the Dumb Friends League Catwalk returns Saturday, July 13. Pet-lovers are invited to celebrate cats and kittens by sampling craft beer from 10 local breweries, while learning about programs that benefit feline friends and viewing adorable adoptable cats. General admission tickets include beer tastings from 10 local breweries from 7 to 9 p.m. Food from local food trucks and cat merchandise, including Catwalk T-shirts, will be available for purchase. The Hill’s Science Diet booth is offering a Tito’s vodka cocktail and free cat food samples.

The Catwalk takes place at the Dumb Friends League Quebec Street Shelter at 2080 S. Quebec St. The event’s feline friends request that you leave your canine companions at home for this event. Guests will receive a “pawport,” which includes information about the locations of the various beer samplings and cat information stations. Pawports stamped at every booth will be entered to win a prize. Information: ddfl.org/catwalk.

Cats On Mats

If you love yoga and kittens, this event is for you! Denver Animal Protection is hosting its fourth annual “Cats on Mats” yoga series at the Denver Animal Shelter through August. The hour-long yoga classes are taught by professional, certified yoga instructors and are “supervised” by a team of adorable, adoptable, free-roaming cats and kittens.

Classes are offered every Wednesday in July and August from 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Denver Animal Shelter located at 1241 W. Bayaud Ave. Space is limited, and many of the classes sold-out last year.

Participants should wear comfortable clothing and bring their own yoga mat as well as a $20 donation to support the shelter. Cats on Mats helps to socialize cats that are ready for adoption, and participants who connect with a special cat are encouraged to begin the adoption process. Information: 720-337-1782.

Cat Band At Bug

Cat lovers are always suggesting that cats are entertaining and this month Valley residents are getting their first opportunity to see for themselves. A troupe of touring, performing house cats known as The Amazing Acro-cats — the only all cat band in the world — is bringing its act to the Bug Theatre on Navajo St., July 5-14.

This one-of-a-kind, two-hour long purrformance features talented house cats that roll on balls, ride skateboards and jump through hoops. The current band lineup features Nola on guitar, Asti on drums, Nue on keyboard, plus some brand-new members. They are Ahi on woodblocks, Albacore on cowbell, Buggles on trumpet and Oz on Saxophone. There is even a chicken — Chuck Norris — rockin’ the tambourine!

Using the magic of clicker training, cat lover Samantha Martin — and a few other humans — travel with more than 15 cats and kittens as they educate and entertain audiences that cats can actually be trained. Currently recovering from stage-three cancer, she tenaciously continues to save the lives of cats and kittens through rescue, foster and adoption. The event is suitable for cat lovers of all ages. Information: 303-477-9988.

Cool Cat Cafe

Denver’s first cat café and only the third in the country, friends of felines flock to the Denver Cat Cafe year-round to sip on Solar Roast coffee plus teas and an assortment of other beverages. Located on Tennyson St. in the Berkeley neighborhood, the charming spot draws customers seeking to relax with cats and get some work done.

Due to the health code, the tabletop spot isn’t a full-service café but offers an assortment of prepackaged snacks. At any given time, patrons can expect to find around 15 cats at the café, all of whom are fully vetted and ready to go home with you after completing the adoption process. The café has facilitated the adoption of more than 700 cats since opening in 2014.

The café was founded by Leila Qari — a former attorney — who was captivated by the concept of cat cafés popular in Japan and Europe. She used her own funds to open the café, painted every wall and hand-picked and designed the furnishings and decor. Her book-hoarding tendencies resulted in a small library in the back portion of the cafe, adding another dimension to the space and providing patrons with reading material while customers relax with the kitties. She also hires and trains the staff and still picks up shifts every week in order to stay connected with the business and the community. Hours are 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Mon.-Thur., Fri.-Sun. until 8 p.m. Information: 303-433-3422.

Street Fight

by Mark Smiley | May 25, 2019 | Travel

Prominent Neighborhoods Fuming Over Public Works’ Vision Zero Plan Affluent, Angry Homeowners Say Public Works Is A Divisive Bureaucratic Power And The Plan Should Be Scrapped

by Glen Richardson

Denver Public Works is once again under public scrutiny. This time the department responsible for the design and construction of city streets is in the crosshairs of community activists in three of Denver’s most prominent neighborhoods — Polo Club, Belcaro and Wash Park.

Already making headlines for the Colorado Convention Center scandal plus the City Auditor hinting of improper bidding (May Chronicle), residents in these mega-mansion neighborhoods of curvy, tree-lined streets say the department’s ill-conceived Vision Zero Plan was prepared without sufficient review by the parties most affected by it, the homeowners and workers in the immediate neighborhoods. Moreover they believe the proposal will “totally destroy the residential character, visual pleasantness and smooth traffic flow that currently exists.”

It is with implementation of the proposed plan, where it would narrow traffic lanes at Steele St. and Alameda Ave. along this pricey corridor that homeowners say would significantly impact traffic into and out of the Polo Club and Belcaro neighborhoods.

Traffic from Colorado Blvd. on the east and University Blvd. on the west traverse through these neighborhoods daily via Alameda, Steele St. and Cherry Creek South Dr. Additionally the plan would add a bike lane along Alameda Ave. and reshape some parking from parallel to angle back-in only parking. The result, neighborhood groups say, would be disastrous traffic backups in both directions.

Area Buildings Curse

Furthermore the ingress and egress to vehicles at the Citadel Office Building — a 370-suite building with 310 subterranean parking spaces at 3200 E. Cherry Creek South Dr. and at the Polo Club Condominiums — a 21-story, 146-unit building with 300 underground parking spaces at 3131 E. Alameda Ave. would be significantly hindered.

Delayed entrance and exit from those buildings would not only further delay traffic but substantially increase the likelihood of vehicle and pedestrian accidents. The plan would also restrict or block the Citadel Office Building’s loading dock located on Steele St. while also restricting turns and reducing the number and configuration of business parking spaces along Steele.

“It saddens me that no one from Denver reached out to the stakeholders who were most adversely impacted by this proposed project for their input,” says 20-year Polo Club resident Carol Anderson. She should know since she worked alongside the transportation planners at the city, county, state and federal levels on transportation projects for the past two decades. “This was not how Denver used to be. And the irony is that Denver’s website touts their transparency in governing when that is not at all what happened on the Steele Street Multimodal Safety project,” she adds.

New Arranges Meeting

Residents at the Polo Club Condominiums first learned of the plan in late April and contacted City Councilman Wayne New. New — who has tangled with Denver Public Works over construction management in Cherry Creek North — arranged a meeting for the condo owners with Public Work’s Sam Piper and Ashley Grace on May 8. More than 100 residents attended along with homeowner neighbors in the area. Besides feedback from the audience. the pair was presented with a petition containing 150 signatures asking that the project be stopped. Reportedly the project was presented to the Miller Park Neighborhood Assn. two years ago and they fought the plan and thought the project had died.

“It was quickly apparent that the statistics presented were not for this intersection and they were not able to prove any justification. The one accident they were able to cite was caused by a sun angle and would not be affected by their proposed changes,” Condominium Board Member Sue Stock told the Chronicle.

Condo resident Scott Lancelot is even more adamant, “The biased presentation of information suggests, at worst, that DPW is engaging in a deliberate lie, or at best, misrepresented and mischaracterized facts, evaded or omitted important information and drew fallacious conclusions in order to get the results they wanted.”

Bikeway Dispute

The focus of their plan Lancelot explains is to eliminate pedestrian-biker fatalities city-wide in the next 10 years. They propose to accomplish this with improvements and investments in High Injury Network (HIN) corridors, build out the pedestrian network and enhance the bikeway network. But he points out that while bike traffic increased by 81% from 2008-2012, the crash rate decreased by 34%. Nearly half (114) were caused by failure of bikers to stop or yield at a sign. Another 34% occurred while riding in a crosswalk or sidewalk.

Their own study, Lancelot continues, identified the top crash intersections and corridors as North Broadway, North and South Federal and West Colfax. A total of 510 crashes occurred along these 22 miles of roads.

His point: At no time was the Alameda Ave. corridor identified as a HIN or High Injury Network!

Modest Modifications

Lancelot, along with his neighbors living along the Alameda-Steele St. corridor, says that if the city wants to improve conditions it can be done with much less expensive modifications which would benefit both pedestrians and bikers without restricting vehicular traffic and making it unnecessary to narrow lanes

Their suggestions are to leave lanes on Alameda and Steele as is. Paint vivid crossing walks on Steele and Alameda (there are currently none). In place of or in addition to the flashing pedestrian crossings on Alameda, install push signals similar to the one at Cherry Creek South which alerts drivers to yield to pedestrians and bikers. A four-way stop sign would not be beneficial at the intersection since it would impact ingress and egress at the Citadel and Polo Club Condo buildings. Should speed become an issue, Alameda could have audible tire grooves cut about 100-ft. from the intersection to warn drivers .

Do not change parking styles or directions on Steele because it would create more traffic congestion. Furthermore, residents say bike lanes are not necessary if the street width is maintained. Restricting turns from Steele onto Alameda is not necessary. “It would be a hindrance not an enhancement to smoothing vehicular traffic.” Finally, homeowners and those that travel through the neighborhood say a stoplight could be installed on Alameda between University and Steele to regularly stop traffic at peak hours to allow pedestrian and cars to cross or enter Alameda, similar to the light at 8th and High Street in Cheesman Park.