Denver Planning Board Steamrolls Opposition in Rezoning Controversy

Joe Vaccarelli reports on a rezoning controversy of local significance to the University Park neighborhood in Denver. The question: whether to rezone land “near the intersection of South University Boulevard and Harvard Street on the east side, where the landowner — Nodef Colorado, a subsidiary of Tessler Developments — had applied to rezone to allow five-story structures for residential development with retail on the ground floor. The current zoning allows for three stories.”

The community council unanimously opposed the rezoning, and public opinion was estimated at 80 percent opposed to the proposal. Questions centered around whether the rezoning was necessary to enable the redevelopment and whether the neighborhood had changed enough to warrant the rezoning dominated the discussion.

So what do you think? Is this a case of top-down planning gone awry or a case of planner-knows-best?