SEPTEMBER 2016 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
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s bus and light-rail stations pop up along
the Denver metro and regional corridors,
demand among the city’s burgeoning pop-
ulation for affordable, mixed-use environ-
ments centered on transit is soaring. Yet it takes
vision to create a sustainable development frame-
work for the future with the right mix and scale of
retail, office, residential and public open space com-
ponents.
For the 51-acre Belleview Station development –
formerly the Mountain View golf course – now an-
chored to RTD’s light-rail stop on its southeast line,
Denver-based urban design and landscape architecture
firm Civitas provided the essential masterplan for Front
Range Land and Development’s mixed-use transit hub taking shape at
Interstate 25 and Belleview Avenue.
Because the Belleview Station site represents the last parcel of the
pioneering Bansbach family farm, the family’s development compa-
ny, Front Range Land and Development, is deeply committed to leav-
ing a lasting legacy. For well over a decade, we have worked with Front
Range Land and Development to imagine a place that would live in
the hearts and minds of the greater community as the urban center
of the Denver Tech Center and as the southern gateway to the city and
county of Denver. Even before conceiving the development master-
plan, we helped to define Denver’s first transit-oriented development
zone district. Known as T-MU-30, the zoning was written to “support
transit ridership” and allow denser, urban-scaled development proxi-
mate to mass transit, along with a compatible mix of uses – all within
a pedestrian-friendly environment. Aptly, Belleview Station became
the pioneer project for the TOD zone district. To complete the plan-
ning process, we authored a “General Development Plan” for the site
that covers the specific heights and densities for buildings, stipulates
street sections, setbacks and sizes, prescribes landscape types, and pro-
vides architectural guidelines and infrastructure requirements.
Instrumental over its more than 30-year history in the design of
such Denver jewels as Larimer Square, Commons Park and Stapleton’s
Mark Naylor,
RLA
Project
Director,
Civitas
