Image from City Street Investors
As the Edgewater community undergoes major redevelopments along three of the main arteries through the city, these projects are bound to bump up against City of Edgewater zoning ordinances. This is the case with the Edgewater Town Square redevelopment at 25th and Gray. Joe Vostrejs of City Street Investors sent Edgewater Mayor Laura Keegan and the rest of the Edgewater City Council a letter explaining perceived zoning ordinances that are keeping them from redeveloping the properties according to the goals that came out of their engagement with the Edgewater community.
The first perceived zoning roadblock involves using the former Edgewater Police building at 5901 25th Avenue as an ice cream production facility. City Street states in the letter that they heard community members say that an ice cream shop was their number one request in the redevelopment. They perceive that the City of Edgewater zoning for that site does not allow for the production of ice cream for off premises sales at Sloan’s Bar and Grill and the proposed building use across the street at 5843 25th Avenue.
City Street Investors also requested changes to the parking requirements to allow them to create a neighborhood gathering place across from Sloan’s Bar and Grill on the land that once held the Edgewater Library and Edgewater Fire Department buildings. The City ordinances for the proposed full-service restaurant and bar of 17 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet keep City Street from fully developing their vision of this neighborhood gathering space. In their letter, City Street explains that they envision the redevelopment best enjoyed as a pedestrian and have strategies for encouraging other modes of transportation besides the car.
The letter closes with an explanation of how the proposed changes would also help current and future Edgewater businesses, “Not only will these changes permit our project to move forward with the uses and characteristics that the citizens of the City strongly desire, we believe making them will also permit more businesses to locate in the City and current businesses to invest in significant improvements, all of which will contribute to an increase in vibrancy and livability.”
The business community is important to the City of Edgewater because their sales taxes provide the backbone for City services and improvements. Edgewater residents do not pay property taxes to the City of Edgewater so sales taxes are the main source of income for the City of Edgewater.
These concerns are on the agenda for the Edgewater City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 5.
Joel has been a resident of Edgewater, Colorado with his family since 2012. He is the Executive Director of local education nonprofit Edgewater Collective and Editor of the Edgewater Echo.
We definitely need more parking, especially “handicapped” in that area. I thought the old police station was going to be turned into a parking lot. Some of us can’t walk around Edgewater but that never seems to be a priority.