Southmoreland Neighborhood Association

updated!

Neighborhood Backgrounder: Cleaver TIF 3. The Big Picture.
A view of the current 46th Street streetscape.

There are very significant development projects currently underway and anticipated that will act together to significantly alter our neighborhood. Forever. No one has considered the collective impact of this development intensity on our neighborhood. Below is a view of the Cleaver apartments and the area immediately north (click to enlarge in a separate browser window):
Click to enlarge
Below is the same view, with known development activity noted in red squares. We're looking at well over $300M of development (including potentially $85M in TIF public subsidies) literally within a city block. (Click to enlarge the picture in a separate browser window.)
Click to enlarge.
You’ll notice the 45 th Street TIF development project on the north. This is an approx. $220M development with $69M in TIF public subsidies for multi-level underground parking. Below is a Main Street view of the 45th Street TIF and the planned 12-story office tower that was initially approved by the TIF Commission. There is a Holiday Inn on the property currently. This design will be changing, and will actually be improved upon by the new owners that recently purchased the from the original TIF developer last summer. We'll have more info on this TIF development later in our discussion. Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
Unfortunately the 30,000 sq ft grocery store was removed from the project after the TIF was approved. The current developer has not given up on the possibility of a much smaller grocery concept, but we're not optimistic. The building design could be strongly influenced by the anchor tenant, once one has been identified. Again we’ll note that a preliminary look at some design changes indicates the new developer may be improving the design significantly. Below is a view of the same development, from the north which depicts the luxury hotel that is also planned. The proposed luxury hotel at this location is highlighted in the picture by a gray box. Note that this is not the proposed Cleaver TIF hotel, which is planned half a block away. Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
And here’s a close up of the planned hotel. Remember the actual look –and size - of the hotel will be influenced by the hotel operator (frequently referred to as the hotel “flag”). A hotel operator has not been identified, and the hotel will not be built until the 12-story office tower is developed. Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
The picture below is a summary of the development in this small area. This is the same picture we started off with. Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.
The traffic implications for the immediate and surrounding neighborhood are significant. The impacts of the development intensity, combined with our existing development will have significant impacts we need to understand much better. A Slightly Bigger, and Busier Picture Now let's expand our view of the neighborhood by just a few blocks, and look at the additional planned development that we know of. To get your bearings, look at the map below, click to enlarge. The picture is framed by the Nelson on the east side (note the Bloch building addition), Main Street on the west, and Cleaver Blvd. on the south.
Click to enlarge.
The map below depicts the known development projects that are either planned or possible. Note that these are only the projects we know of at this time. There are other development projects planned that we’re not aware of. And given our location we anticipate significant future development activity. Areas surrounded by a dotted lines (with no labels) depict areas where historical housing already has been demolished or used for museum or other insitutional uses.
Click to enlarge.
There is clearly a trend here.
	Residential housing density, historical housing and important residential amenities are being replaced by commercial and institutional land uses.

	This development trend is, to one degree or another, working against the identity of our neighborhood, and it’s value to our city as a very distinct residential arts district on the east side of the plaza.

Obviously there are other impacts as well. Impacts that that we need to understand in order to evaluate development proposals. What's the plan? We also need to be aware of the current plans that apply to our neighborhood. There is only one plan approved by the city that governs land use on this property – and it’s the Main Street Corridor Land Use and Development Plan adopted by City Council on Jan 9, 2003.

This comprehensive plan identifies medium-density residential for the Cleaver apartments property. The page below depicts the stipulated land use. The light brown/tan area at the very bottom depicts the Cleaver apartments as, per the key on the upper right, "medium-density residential".
Click to enlarge the page.
You can also view the entire Main Street Corridor Plan on the city website here, but it will much easier for you to look at the whole document by clicking on this .pdf file. The Plaza Plan (The Plaza Urban Design & Development Plan) The Plaza Plan is a guideline and does not have enforceable provisions for land use. However, it can be a useful guide. The Plaza Plan clearly calls for the Cleaver apartments to be preserved, or redeveloped in a manner consistent with its current use.

"This plan recommends the continued upkeep and maintenance of the existing brick apartment buildings along Brush Creek Boulevard and along 46th Street."
	- Page 42, Planning Recommendations, The Plaza Plan

Page 83 of the Plaza plan indicates that the Cleaver apartment property is also designated as a potential "redevelopment area". But the Plaza Plan has a clear bias towards residential and historical preservation, and preserving the existing residential character of that property. You can view the Plaza Plan on the City's web site here.

Short take away here: we need to make sure we really know and accept the combined impacts of all development as we consider individual development projects. We need to know what’s happening to our neighborhood, do our homework, and make sure everything makes sense.

To go back to the Cleaver TIF main page, click here. To go to the next issue, click here. Or blog. To get on our email list for this issue click here.