Arvada Proposed Apartment Complex Back In Play

ARVADA, CO -- This article has been updated to include responses from City Council member John Marriott (Mayor Pro-Tem) and David Chandler from Arvada For All the People.

A proposed 256-unit apartment building rejected by the Arvada City Council in January has been tweaked by the developer and will be resubmitted as soon as March, the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority said. The city council shot down in a 4-3 vote developer Trammell Crow's request for several zoning variances for the Olde Town Residence apartments. Council members complained it was too tall, too dense and didn't have enough parking spots.

Critics have called the project the "$30 Land Deal" because AURA signed an agreement to sell a 9-acre weed-filled RTD surface parking lot parcel, allegedly worth $6 million, to Trammell Crow for $30. The city's urban renewal board then added $13.5 million in tax subsidies and infrastructure promised.

The developer's new proposal addresses the concerns of some of the city council members. Changes include reducing the total number of bedrooms in the project by 30 units and increasing parking by 15 spaces. The new proposal would also include a 17-foot setback on the sixth story of the building, AURA said.

“Trammell Crow took the feedback from City Council and city staff and the comments from the public hearing to make several modifications to the number of bedrooms, parking and the setback on the top floor of the Olde Town Residence project,” said Maureen Phair, AURA’s executive director in a statement. “The city’s resubmission ordinance provides a fair process for Trammell Crow to address these concerns and then decide to continue with its PDP application. AURA is looking forward to staff’s review of the resubmission and the public hearing process.”

The project has been 10 years in the making 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. As part of the city's Transit Framework Plan, the city wanted to build higher-density housing around the long-awaited G-Line rail.

But the number of units and proposed density meant Trammell Crow had to build a structure higher and with smaller setbacks than zoning allowed, said Bill Mosher, one of the company's principals, at the Jan. 22 Arvada city council meeting. Public comment for and against the proposal dragged the meeting on for more than six hours.

Council member John Marriott suggested that parking for the original proposal was insufficient, based on his personal experience with Arvada's Park Place apartment complex. Marriott proposed an amendment asking the developers to consider reducing the number of bedrooms in the proposal by 15 and adding 25 parking spaces. That amendment was not accepted by the city council.

"Because Trammell Crow has resubmitted their application, this is still a quasi-judicial matter, and as such I can not discuss or pre-judge [the new application]," Marriott said in an email to Patch. "But, I will tell you that I was very specific in my comments at the previous public hearing, and I assume Trammell Crow will address all of the issues they can. I assure you, I will fairly judge this new submittal at the next public hearing," he added.

Critics of the project have said that they object to AURA's making land deals that gave away taxpayer dollars to developers with no public input or accountability. But Phair said that over ten years, the public has had many opportunities to weigh in at hearings and stakeholder meetings. Phair has defended the $30 development and disposition agreement with Trammell Crow because the parcel has flaws, such as a hill and a sewer culvert that crosses the property.

Even if Trammell Crow agreed to pay for the property, or agreed to reduce the $13 million in tax rebates and infrastructure improvements proposed by AURA, some critics still would not like the proposed building.

"[The complex] does not suit the character of Olde Town and the design does not agree with the [zoning] law," said Arvada resident Caitlin Reusch-Zerr.

"Without the heavy-hand of Arvada Urban Renewal, Trammell Crow would not be asking for the height exception, a parking spaces exception, a lot coverage exception, etc.," David Chandler of the Avada For All the People Group wrote in response to a Patch request. "A project that went through the normal city planning process would subsequently be more site appropriate and would have to be compatible with the Olde Town area (as required by the Arvada Land Development Code). The sad fact for Arvada taxpayers is that without the land giveaway and the government subsidy, no respectable developer would or could shoehorn into this site what Arvada Urban Renewal is demanding," Chandler wrote.

This article has been updated to include responses from City Council member John Marriott (Mayor Pro-Tem) and David Chandler from Arvada For All the People.

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Arvada City Council Votes 4-3 Against New Development

Image via AURA