On January 25, 2010, the Denver City Council will hold a public hearing and vote on the proposed rezoning of Lowry Vista, a former Air Force landfill located in District 5. 

The 80 acre landfill is just across Alameda Avenue from the Windsor Gardens senior community. To its north, the Westerly Creek dam and its 100 acres of wetlands host diverse wildlife and amazing mountain views. Approximately 15 acres of land will be preserved as an open space “buffer zone” between the wetlands and the proposed development. Another 8 acres on the west side of the landfill is already zoned for apartment housing similar to the existing adjacent Amli apartments. 57 acres of the landfill is under consideration for CMU-20 zoning, which would allow for a mixture of commercial and residential uses.

In 1993, the Lowry Reuse Plan was developed as a visioning document for the former Lowry Air Force base. At that time, it was assumed that the existing golf course was going to incorporate the landfill. Landfills need to be capped to protect water run-off from leeching into the buried debris and entering the water supply. The golf course needed a cap sufficient to support a sprinkler system for turf. Unfortunately, the Air Force chose a less expensive method that would not allow any irrigation or penetration. 

In an effort to keep the landfill as open space, the City of Denver’s Parks & Recreation department was offered the land. But Parks could not legally accept the responsibility for monitoring and possibly remediating a landfill. Our City Charter protects taxpayers by preventing the City from acquiring unfunded liabilities – in this case, a landfill.

Eventually, IRG, with its prior involvement in Lowry’s clean up and its expertise in the development of brownfield sites, accepted the landfill and all its associated maintenance costs and environmental liabilities. Changes to the existing landfill can only happen with the final approval of the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE), which monitors all of the remediation activity that takes place at Lowry. 

Today, IRG owns the landfill, and they would like to create a development on the site with a mix of multi-unit housing, a grocery store, and some other smaller-scale retail shops.  Between late 2007 and today, the developer has held 11 widely publicized public meetings about this potential development have been held, in addition to numerous meetings with individual neighborhood groups in the region - including George Washington, Historic Montclair, Lighthouse, Lowry Community Master Association, Lowry United Neighbors, Park Forest, Pelican Point, Rangeview, and Windsor Gardens.

As a result of resident input, many changes have been made to the Lowry Vista proposal since the first community open house was held on November 11, 2007. Height restrictions, similar to those set by the Lowry Design Guidelines, have been put in place - 45 feet along Alameda and 60 feet interior to the site. The 13 acres that lie closest to the Westerly Creek dam wetlands will be preserved as open space. And, land near the intersection of Xenia and Alameda has been set aside to be deeded to the City for a new fire station.

The Denver Planning Board and the Community Planning & Development department have recommended that the City Council approve this rezoning. My colleagues and I have received numerous comments from East Denver residents – both for and against the development. It is now up to City Council to decide whether or not to approve this request to change the zoning of the landfill from Open Space to Commercial Mixed Use.