City of Denver rejects Park Hill petition to require supermajority vote for rezoning

DENVER — Town of Denver has rejected a petition from residents of the Park Hill neighborhood that might have required a supermajority vote of 10 council members to rezone the vacant Park Hill Golf Course, as builders and metropolis leaders eye the area for housing and industrial improvement.

The Denver Metropolis Council is ready to vote Monday night time on a number of objects associated to the venture, together with the removing of a conservation easement that at present limits how the land can be utilized.

Harry Doby, one of many neighborhood residents gathering assist for the petition, mentioned he and his spouse selected to dwell within the space due to the tight knit group and the truth that it surrounds the extensive open area.

“It’s only a great place,” Doby mentioned. “Park Hill is without doubt one of the strongest communities, I feel, within the metropolis. They’ve such an unimaginable, numerous identification.”

Doby mentioned he and his neighbors instantly started to mobilize once they discovered of the redevelopment prospects for the golf course. He argues {that a} false selection is being supplied between inexperienced area and reasonably priced housing, and desires to see extra building surrounding the open area, simply not inside it.

“We’re in a local weather disaster. We’ve got shrinking relative park area,” Doby mentioned. “We don’t have to sacrifice inexperienced area with the intention to meet our housing wants.”

READ MORE: Park Hill golf course redevelopment plans, rezoning request headed to Metropolis Council

Doby and 7 of his neighbors began gathering assist for a protest petition for the rezoning. It could have required a supermajority of 10 or extra metropolis council members to vote in favor of the rezoning with the intention to proceed, fairly than the standard easy majority of seven.

The protest petition course of is difficult. Quite than requiring a particular variety of signatures, it as an alternative requires signatures from sufficient property homeowners within the speedy neighborhood in order that the sum of their collective properties in sq. footage is no less than 20% of the land in query. Within the case of the Park Hill course, about 12 acres of owned property wanted to be represented by corresponding signatures.

Doby mentioned he and his neighbors adopted the foundations set forth by town’s Protest Petition Information, and exceed the signatures wanted. The group additionally submitted “Statements of Authority” for companies and LLCs represented within the petition, as set forth within the pointers.

Nonetheless, after they submitted their accomplished petition to town, it was despatched again with most of the signatures rejected. Within the reasonings given, town acknowledged that the statements of authority had been accomplished, however mentioned notarization and extra governing paperwork had been additionally required.

Per the Protest Petition Information, “board resolutions authorizing the signer, bylaws, a Assertion of Authority, or different relevant paperwork” are required for signatures from homeowners of company entities corresponding to LLCs. We requested a spokesperson for town for a response to the complaints from Doby and his neighbors, and had been pointed to the e-mail despatched to him responding to their submitted petition.

“Along with the Metropolis Legal professional’s Workplace, metropolis employees have accomplished our evaluation of the protest petition that was submitted on Tuesday, January 17,” Senior Metropolis Planner Libbie Adams mentioned within the e mail. “As you’re conscious, the Protest Petition Information delivered to you on December 15, 2022 explicitly states that for properties owned by an organization (e.g. LLC, LP, Residing Belief, and many others.), proof of authorization for a person to signal on behalf of the group is required. C.R.S. Sec. 38-30-172 establishes the minimal necessities for a press release of authority’s validity. Town doesn’t have the authority to waive this requirement.”

Doby mentioned he was blindsided by the response, and that it didn’t comport with ongoing conversations he and his neighbors had with metropolis officers all through the signature-gathering course of.

“It was like, the place did that come from? In all our emails, and in studying their directions, nowhere was that talked about,” Doby mentioned. “They invented this rule merely to cease our course of.”

The group was advised there was no course of to attraction the rejected petition.

With the Denver Metropolis Council set to vote with solely a simplemajority vote required, Doby mentioned they now plan to take their case on to the individuals of Denver, who might resolve the last word destiny of the Park Hill neighborhood by vote in April.

“We’re going to win,” Doby mentioned. “It’s only a matter of time. The Park Hill neighborhood, and Denver generally, know that it is a rotten deal. They’re being bought a invoice of products, and so they’re not going to face for it.”