All the News About Denver’s Best Residential Community Since 1961 Volume 55, Issue No. 2
A Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. Publication
Divide & Build Plan Heats Up
February 2016
Montview Blvd. & Glencoe Street Property Rezone Request Highlights Potential For Area Of Instability
The owners of 5315 E. Montview, at the or rezoning/map amendment would not northeast corner of Montview Boulevard be allowed to render an existing structure and Glencoe Street, have submitted a preas non-compliant with zoning code reguapplication to the City of Denver Comlations – i.e. required setbacks, height, lot munity Planning and Development to split coverage, etc. their lot, requiring a Zone Map AmendThe neighbors directly to the north of ment. the proposed new lot/new home at 2028 The existing home, built in 1915, and the Glencoe St. have presented their argulot, are in the U-SU-H zone district along ment against the lot splitting/rezoning/ Montview Boulevard. This transmap amendment. The neighbors lates to Urban-Single Unit (single purchased their home five years family home) - 10,000 square foot ago. At that time, they inquired minimum lot size. The existing Bernadette Kelly as to whether the south adjacent lot is 125’ along Montview, by lot could be split, and they were 150’ along Glencoe, equaling 18,750 square informed that it could not. This informafeet. The owners wish to take the two northtion helped to inform their decision to buy ern most 25’ sections of the existing lot, split the home, knowing they would enjoy open them from the existing lot and create a new space and daylight on the south side of their 50’ wide x 125’ long lot and build a home home. there, for sale and profit. Neighborhood association voted to Per the 2010 Denver Zoning Code, in oppose the project order to split a lot without rezoning/map amendment within the U-SU-H zone disAt the Nov. 5 meeting of Greater Park Hill trict, a lot would need to be 20,000 square Community, Inc. (GPHC), the new owners feet or greater. The proposed rezoning/map of 5315 E. Montview presented their plans, amendment involves moving the existing requesting that the registered neighborboundary between the U-SU-C district and hood organization support their request U-SU-H district at the north property line for a lot split/rezoning/map amendment. and moving it to the south property line of the newly created lot. Also, any lot splitting continued on page 7
Z&P 500
James Chapman, AKA The Buttonman of Park Hill, was hawking his wares in Civic Center Park downtown during the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Marade on Jan. 18. Tens of thousands marched from City Park downtown to commemorate the slain civil rights leader’s 87th birthday, and also to protest against police violence. Chapman owns the Buttonman Gift Shop in the strip mall near 33rd and Hudson. See pages 8-9 for more photos of the 2016 Marade. Photo by Cara DeGette
McAuliffe To Expand At Smiley Campus Middle School To Grow To 1,080 Students Over The Next Three Years In December, Denver Public Schools held a series of meetings in Park Hill and Stapleton to discuss how the Smiley building at 26th and Holly could be used to address capacity issues in the middle school enrollment zone. The Greater Park Hill Stapleton Enrollment Zone is comprised of five middle schools: Bill Roberts, Denver Discovery School, DSST Conservatory Green, DSST Stapleton and McAuliffe. As has been detailed in these pages over the past year, students living within the zone’s enrollment boundary are guaranteed a seat at one of the five schools – but not necessarily the one they prefer. As schools were breaking up for the winter holiday, Denver Public Schools officials promised more meetings in January to hear what the community wanted. However, on Jan. 1, DPS released a letter stating it had decided to expand McAuliffe. A meeting was held five days later during which McAuliffe Principal Kurt Dennis explained how the school would grow from its current 832 students to a total of 1,080 over the next three years.
Introducing the “house” system
With such a huge number of students, Dennis plans to divide the school into six
It’s a car culture
For Park Hill residents, two questions hit closer to home: traffic and access to the school. An increase in the size of McAuliffe’s student body will result in an increase in car and school bus circulation near and around the school. Already plagued by poor circulation at the school’s start and end times, some people Lynn Kalinauskas expressed concern for the area’s GPHC Education Chair traffic congestion. “I would love to make Holly a one-way street,” Dennis said, referencing the residential street that runs in front of the school. “We’ve proposed this to the city series as an example. multiple times.” But, he noted, “We get lots House assignment will not be left to the of resistance.” That is perhaps because Holly machinations of a sorting hat, however. is an important north-south artery within Dennis said McAuliffe staff would purPark Hill, linking the neighborhood to the posefully assign students to create houses Hiawatha Davis Recreation Center, Boys & that are balanced by academic achievement, Girls Club, and public library. socio-economic and ethic lines. Dennis agreed that some of the traffic Parents in attendance asked a multitude problems might not go away: “When people of questions, ranging from the logistics of built these schools, people didn’t drive. It’s a lunch lines, teacher-student ratios, athletcar culture now.” ics and bus schedules. Although challenges lay ahead, Dennis’ plan seemed to resonate continued on page 6
schools Update
“houses” to create a small community feeling within a big school at the Smiley campus. There will be two houses of 180 students per grade. Each house will have eight teachers, an administrator and a counselor. The house system is an established model at both Harvard and Yale, where residential colleges or houses divide the student body into smaller, manageable groups. The model has been replicated in secondary schools elsewhere, and Dennis mentioned the fabled Hogwarts from the Harry Potter
Is European Travel Safe?
Page 12
I-70 Plan Anything But Normal
Page 11
Inside This Issue
Page 5
February 2016
positively with most. Current McAuliffe students will not be divided in houses, said Dennis.
Guide To Summer Camps
Next GPHC Meeting Thursday, Feb. 4 at 6:30 p.m. 2823 Fairfax St., Denver
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