Rezoning would close Denver Meadows park
Petra Bennett pets a neighbor’s dog as she walks her own at Denver Meadows Mobile Home and RV Park in Aurora. Seth McConnell, The Denver Post
aurora» Directly under an overpass that carries East 17th Avenue over Interstate 225, between Toll Gate Creek and Potomac Street, is Petra Bennett’s home.
“When I moved in here, it was just dirt out front and dirt out back,” said Bennett, 48. “But now I’ve got a pond and a garden and I planted trees in the back and I have a swing out there. … This is my home, not just a place to live.”
Bennett has lived in Denver Meadows, a combination recreational vehicle and mobile home community in north Aurora, for 15 years. But a potential zoning change set to go before the City Council could force Bennett and approximately 100 other residents to move so that the land can be redeveloped.
The move is definitely going to happen,” Bennett said. “They want to go ahead and rebuild this area to better serve the veteran’s hospital and the light rail, so us vacating the land is definitely going to happen. … They made it clear.”
A 20-acre site north of Colfax Avenue and east of the incoming Regional Transportation District’s R-Line light-rail track alongside the Anschutz Medical Campus is targeted for rezoning to transit-oriented development. That move would depose Denver Meadows to make way for a redevelopment that could include high-rise apartments, commercial, mixed-used residential and retail or hotels.
“There are currently no plans for development, just renderings showing conceptually what is contemplated in the future if the property is rezoned to TOD,” said Stephen Rodriguez, senior planner with Aurora.
But many residents in Denver Meadows are already upset.
“Basically, they’re coming out of nowhere and trying to kick us out of our home. It’s pretty unfair,” said Shawny Olivas, 23, who moved in with her husband and 3year-old daughter a year ago.
More than 100 residents of Denver Meadows showed up to a zoning commission hearing two weeks ago to speak against or hear about the issue, Rodriguez said. The commission voted 3-2 against the change, but the City Council gets the final decision. The zoning change is not scheduled for council yet.
But Shawn Lustigman, who has owned Denver Meadows for 27 years, said he is confident the zoning change will go through once it’s in front of the City Council.
“I don’t know why it wouldn’t go through; it would be good for the city,” Lustigman, 69, said. “It’s a run-down park, it isn’t very attractive, and I think the city will welcome a change in zoning so that it can be redeveloped.”