An Update on the Rezoning Request at 1520 Grape St.

Last month’s Greater Park Hill News detailed a proposed zoning change at the apartment building at 1520 Grape St.

Subsequently In July, several GPHC board members, along with GPHC Executive Director Rebecca Born, attended a mediation with the apartment building developer, Jim Hartman of Hartman|Ely Investments. The mediation was also attended by Kyle Dalton of Community Planning and Development and Brande Micheau from Denver Councilman Brooks  office.

 Hartman is pursuing a rezoning of the property so that he may excavate and add basement (garden) level apartments. The lot is currently zoned U-TU-C and he is pursuing U-MS-3.

Hartman agreed to the following concessions to appease the concerns of the GPHC board, including what the U-MS-3 zoning would allow and increased parking demands:

• Deed restrictions for the property to remain multi-unit residential only and two story (existing two story).

• Adding on-site parking. The site plan shows 21 on-site spaces. There are 17 existing units total on 1st and 2nd floors. The garden level plan shows 9 units. This is a total of 26 units. Zoning requires 1 parking space per unit, however, there is an exception for U-MS-3 zoning that allows only parking 75% of the units. So, by code, that would be 19.5 (20) parking spaces. He is showing 5 street parking spaces in front of the building, but those are in the ROW and cannot be assigned to the building or count towards the zoning required parking.

• Landscaping between the north property line and new one way drive to buffer against the adjacent duplexes.

• Developing a construction plan with adjacent neighbors to minimize impact during construction.

The GPHC Board will take a new vote on this rezoning at its Aug. 7 community meeting, based upon the results/concessions offered by Hartman|Ely via the mediation. The community meeting, which is open to the public, begins at 6:30 p.m., at the GPHC office, 2823 Fairfax St.

Read the July GPHN story online at greaterparkhill.org/2014/07/01/main-street-blues/