Residents voice opinions on Englewood Plaza development proposal – Colorado Community

Englewood residents expressed their opinions about a development project proposed for Englewood Plaza during a public hearing at the Feb. 3 Englewood City Council meeting.

The public hearing covered Kimco Development’s proposed project for the 6.24-acre site at 401 Englewood Parkway. The project would include apartments, parking and possibly a hotel. Currently, the property is a shopping center that housed Hobby Lobby until 2023, and still hosts smaller businesses such as a daycare and a liquor store.

The city council is expected to vote on whether to approve the planned unit development zoning for the project on Feb. 18.

The property is bounded by West Floyd Avenue, South Elati Street, Englewood Parkway and South Cherokee Street.

On Feb. 3, the main issues people voiced their concerns or support about were density, affordability and parking.

Density

The application submitted for the public hearing seeks consideration to rezone the property from MU-B-1, which is the central business district, to Englewood Plaza Planned Unit Development. The property is in the Englewood Transit Station Area Overlay District, and this would also be removed with the proposed rezone for the planned development.

“The proposed planned unit development would allow for a lower density multifamily development project than what is allowed in the transit station overlay district,” city documents state. “The planned unit development application includes 260 residential units in a four-to-five story structure, a separate parking structure and a site for a potential hotel, or an additional 140 residential units in a separate structure.”

City documents show that developments in the transit station overlay require residential uses to be constructed at a minimum of 75 dwelling units per acre with a maximum of 125 dwelling units per acre. That means, without the requested rezoning, the project would need to contain 465-775 residential units.

According to the Denver-metro Apartment Association’s fourth-quarter vacancy and rent report for the greater Denver metro area, there were 2,229 new apartments added to the market in the last quarter of 2024, which was less than the preceding quarter.

The report also shows the vacancy rate for Arapahoe County was 7.2% and the average rent was $1,746.

“While the trailing 12-month addition of new apartments to the market is also lower than last quarter, it remains a very large 19,910 units,” the report states. “This equates to a huge 4.8% increase in the entire rental inventory in a single year.”

Affordability

Englewood also requires projects in the transit station overlay zone to provide diverse and affordable housing.

“With the work of the Affordable Housing Task Force ongoing during this proposal’s review, (Kimco) has indicated that the project determining an exact level of affordability and unit mix was difficult,” city documents say.

Therefore, Englewood city staff proposed that city council only approve the application if it meets all of the council’s requirements, which are based on the task force’s recommendations.

When city council members asked about affordability, Kimco’s attorney Carolynne White said the company is aware of the discussions that the city is engaged in with the Affordable Housing Task Force, and that the developer would follow affordability requirements only if they are codified in an ordinance prior to the issuance of a building permit.

“We have heard the discussion around it and you’ll notice that the condition that actually ended up getting written, in that regard, says that the ‘applicant will be pleased to deliver whatever is required by an ordinance that city council has adopted at the time of building permit,’ meaning that whatever you adopt citywide, we understand that we would have to comply with at building permit,” White said. “We think that’s really the fairest way to do that rather than to try to negotiate some kind of custom thing just for this project.”

Parking

District 4 Councilmember Steve Ward requested clarity on Kimco’s plan for parking on the property, should it include both the residential units and the proposed hotel.

Kimco agreed to plan for one parking space per apartment unit and .75 space per hotel room.

City staff pointed out that the site does have issues during the meeting. These include a 40-foot-wide drainage easement that runs diagonally through the entire property, from the northwest corner to the southeast corner. This easement contains a large active stormwater pipe, and part of the existing structure is constructed on top of this easement.

‘We’re going to be displaced’

Dave and Brittani Allen, owners of Englewood’s Ritual Haunted House at 301 Englewood Parkway, said they weren’t made aware of the proposed project until recently, and its impact to their business will be immense.

“I think that businesses are needed in the area, and as someone who grew up in Englewood, as a teenager, one of the things that we didn’t have is a lot of things to do,” Brittani Allen said. “So my husband and I decided to bring our business to Englewood so that we could give the residents something to do. And now we’re going to be displaced and put somewhere else.”

She asked Kimco to meet business owners somewhere in the middle — continue their plan of developing additional housing, but also include local businesses in their plans.

Others spoke in support of the project, citing that it would be good for the city to make effective use of property in the City Center area.

“In general, I am for development … in favor of getting more neighbors and redeveloping some of this sea of parking and dead retail,” resident Andrew Forlines said.

Forlines did express concerns for sustainability, but that Kimco was being “forward thinking with energy use, whether or not solar captures solar panels would be incorporated in the build, whether or not they would be looking at using heat pumps as opposed to fossil fuel burning heat sources” and more.

For more information on the project, updates and the PUD process, contact Englewood’s community development department at commdev@englewoodco.gov or 303-762-2347.

This article was originally published by a coloradocommunitymedia.com . Read the Original article here. .