Arvada City Council Votes 4-3 Against New Development

ARVADA, CO -- The Arvada City Council on Monday voted four-to-three against a proposed $70 million, 256-unit apartment complex which was criticized this summer as a sweetheart deal between the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority and a developer. AURA signed an agreement to sell a 9-acre weed-filled RTD surface parking lot parcel, allegedly worth $6 million, to developers Trammell Crow for $30. The city's urban renewal board then added $13.5 million in tax subsidies and infrastructure promised, earning the project the nickname "the $30 land deal."

At Monday's six-hour meeting, principals of developer Trammell Crow introduced the Olde Town Residences project, which has been in the works for five years as part of a transit-oriented development near the RTD hub on the north side of 56th Avenue between Vance Avenue and the Wadsworth Bypass. The developer requested a handful of zoning variances, including raising the height of the building to six stories and 78 feet high, from a zoning maximum of 35 feet. Trammell Crow also asked to reduce the number of parking spaces to 1.37 per unit, or 334 reserved spaces for a building with 350 bedrooms.

Council members John Mariott, Nancy Ford, Bob Fifer and David Jones voted against the preliminary development plan, while Mayor Marc Williams, Mark McGoff and Dot Miller voted in favor. Williams is also on the board of AURA, and said he had received campaign contributions from Trammell Crow Senior Managing Director Bill Mosher, but said no conflict of interest existed between his role as city council member and AURA member.

The reduced parking ratio and increased hight drew negative comments from some citizens. They complained that the six-story building would block the "grand view" from Grandview Road. Others said the reduced number of parking spaces made little sense because the project had tried and failed to attract a grocery store, which would mean residents would be unlikely to give up their cars. But supporters of the project said younger millennials were less-connected to cars.

The project was dogged with the nickname "the $30 land deal" in the months before the city council elections when frustration with AURA's autonomy to make deals with developers grew to a fever pitch.

"We don't think AURA is very transparent. The mayor has appointed himself to the board twice and every single other member of the board," said David Chandler of Arvada For All the People. Chandler was beaten by Williams in the 2015 contest for mayor.

The citizen group criticized the urban renewal board as working secretively to make land deals that gave away taxpayer dollars to developers with no public input or accountability. The group sought to put a citizens initiative on the ballot for "urban renewal reform."

"This project wasn't really about growth, because it was a planned transit oriented development," Chandler said. "But when we were asking for signatures for the citizen's initiative, we heard a lot of people's frustration about growth." They dropped the citizen's initiative after a similar city code amendment voted in in Nov. 2015 in Wheat Ridge was thrown out by a Jefferson County district judge.

Maureen Phair, executive director of AURA, told the city council the TOD project had gone through a number of public hearings and stakeholder meetings. Phair defended the Dec., 2015 development and disposition agreement with Trammell Crow in the Denver Post, saying it was appropriate to give the developer incentives because the property was tricky and had issues: These included a large hill on the property that would require excavation as well as several retaining walls. There is also a diagonal six-foot storm sewer culvert on the property that would possibly have to be moved or built around. Without surface parking, the proposed project included a two-story parking garage that pushed the height of the total project to more than twice the height allowed in the zoning code. The project could generate a "community benefit" of $43 million in sales and property taxes by 2034, according to the AURA website.

The project began in 2007 when RTD, AURA and the city created the Transit Framework Plan with a request for proposals sent to 260 developers. Only 10 responded, and Phair told the Denver Post, Trammell Crow, which had built the RTD Hub parking garage, was clearly the best choice. “(Trammell Crow) is a top-notch developer and it was an absolute coup for this executive oversight committee to get someone of that quality,” Phair said. The plan also was influenced by the city's comprehensive plan and the Arvada Olde Town Design Plan.

At Monday's city council meeting, council member John Marriott suggested the developer find 25 new parking places or decrease the number of bedrooms by 15 as compared with Arvada's Park Place development. That idea was voted down. Then Nancy Ford and Bob Fifer objected to the variance for height, and David Jones said the project didn't mesh well with Olde Town across the tracks.

The council did not give Trammill Crow any direction about bringing the proposal back with changes, and it was unclear Tuesday what any next steps would be.

"I think Urban Renewal got carried away with wanting to make the G-Line such a success that they lost sight of the bigger picture," Chandler said.

Image: Rendering of proposed 276-unit Olde Town Residences via Village of Arvada