CREJ - Building Dialogue - March 2017
Denver sits at a crossroads of opportunity, and its future depends on the decisions that are made by its people, its elected officials, and its real estate and development communities. Much has been promised about making our city a world-class city, but it should also be our hope that we can make it an enduring city. Development is important to the growth of our city and its residents, but it does not have to come at the expense of poor design, improper zoning, loss of urban design or the loss of important historic structures that bring increased value to our city and society alike. To the contrary, our city should be creating intermediary zones that allow for sensible transitions of building forms, bolstering our core residential communities, and we should create mixed-use higher-density development in areas where it makes the most sense to support the expansion of stable communities. And when it comes to the preservation of truly historic structures, they should be used to maintain the city’s identity and our history by incorporating them into modern Denver developments. Not every development company or individual sees things in a holistic or altruistic way, and at times it is necessary to protect our collective investment by challenging operators with regard only for themselves. To this point, recently, a few self-interested developers capitalizing on our white-hot market have raised concerns around our landmark ordinance that thoughtfully and with strong deference to property owners allows individuals to act when demolition requests are made for merited structures in Denver. What the cynical messaging of the media campaigns fails to disclose is that the developers financing the public relations effort are compelling empathic property owners to act as puppets through conditional contracts. The result is genius in its malevolence. City Council is positioned to decide whether to protect a property with compelling history or a property owner with sympathetic story, without knowing that that the real beneficiary of the demolition rights is a development firm too cowardly to make the case as a property owner itself, and too manipulative to pay the owner for the value added once the demo rights are secured. When these tactics are used, the issue it is further exacerbated by questionable conduct between developer and broker/listing agent, who have been placing priority on the developer’s offer by requiring unrealistic terms for counter offers to be considered and denying access to generate offers. Furthermore, the campaign has also claimed that unless the landmark ordinance is changed, nonowner designation will become a frequent occurrence, which isn’t true and not borne out by reality. But for this small group with “alternative facts,” even once is too much. Applications for nonowner-designated landmark status are a rare statistical anomaly. To illustrate, since the law was changed in 2012 to increase the application fee, only one nonowner application has resulted in designation, the Beth Eden Church, which was successfully rehabilitated and now is a brewery in northwest Denver. Since I was sworn into office 18 months ago, there have been 197 requests for the right to demolish a potential landmark structure citywide. Of the 197, almost half, 86, have been in my northwest Denver district, which is just one of 11 districts. In that time, for the entire city, only two applications have been filed and come before City Council for a vote – neither of which was designated as a landmark structure. The current ordinance, like zoning and pedestrian right-of-way, is not an affront to property rights, but is instead an integral part of the rights each of us are afforded when we purchase property in the city and county of Denver, intended to protect the common good. Our ordinances and policies, when combined, give us the tools to shape an ever-changing city that is strengthened by its past, with intact communities, and development that is durable, has character and promotes prosperity for all who inhabit Denver. I would ask that the real estate community serve Denver property owners by helping them understand laws that apply to the properties they are purchasing and, when working with someone trying to effect change, help them seek win-win solutions that make our future better, just as our past made this wonderful present.