Don't Overdevelop Denver

Denver and its neighborhoods are undergoing a very rapid transition. Zoning laws dictate what can or can't be built on a given lot. Historic Denver determines what buildings are historically significant and therefore cannot be demolished.

But what about the effect on the city and its neighborhoods when demolition and new development happen at a pace more rapid than the city can keep up with? What about the effects on traffic, crowding, parking, and overall quality of life? When the new zoning code was put into place, it clearly didn't take into account the effects of mass demolition and new construction happening on multiple sites, all at the same time. It also didn't effectively ask for input from the everyday residents of these neighborhoods. The face of our Denver neighborhoods is changing at such a rapid pace that the traffic and quality of life are already deteriorating, renters and homeowners are being pushed out, and yet there is more demolition and development in the works.

Determining the historical significance of a building doesn't take into account the bigger picture. Many current residents of these old Denver neighborhoods chose this area because of the reverence for Denver's history, older structures and character. Many of those structures do not fall under protection from Historic Denver. What will be the impact to a neighborhood when so many structures, historically significant or not, are gone? In many cases houses are not being demolished here and there, one at a time, but rather developers are buying up and leveling entire blocks of houses to make way for luxury housing, replacing a block that had history and character with buildings whose character and design add nothing aesthetically and will soon enough be outdated, much like the many structures which followed a similar trend in the 1960's and 1970's.

The Mayor of Denver and Denver City Council must take a more active role in this process, and include Denver residents as well. It is not enough to say that because the zoning code and historical designation say a block of homes can be demolished and built on, that the demolition and development is therefore inevitable. It is still their job to ensure that the change and development that affect current tax paying citizens happens in a way that ensures it is done responsibly and retains the quality of life that brought us to these neighborhoods in the first place. If demolition and development happen too rapidly, it is a detriment to all. The luxury apartment bandwagon is pushing more and more renters out. Demolitions are forcing many homeowners out of their homes. In addition, too many luxury apartments combined with limited options for home ownership allows less personal investment by individuals and creates a more temporary attitude for the area. Once the market becomes oversaturated, and/or the high cost rents of these "luxury" apartments have excluded enough of the population, there won't be enough renters to fill these buildings. There is a lot of outside money being used for speculation on our neighborhoods. There is no personal investment there.

Secondly, putting too many people in an area whose roads are not built to handle the volume will decrease quality of life for all. One of the many example of this is in the area south of downtown Denver: there are already major traffic bottlenecks in areas along Speer, Broadway, and 6th and 8th Avenues, and it is now pouring over onto side streets that cannot handle the volume. It is not enough to encourage car shares, bike rentals, and a mass transit system that is already struggling. The reality is that in Colorado most people still own and rely on a car to reach parts of Colorado that the alternatives don't, and they need a place to park that car. And to insist that everyone will simply never drive around town if other transportation modes are encouraged is totally unrealistic. The fact is that our current mass transit system is not built to support this.