Now that a massive project is headed for the Denver City Council, opponents are scrambling to figure out how to push for changes after the planning board approved the rezoning of the west end of Cherry Creek Shopping Center for the giant development. 

Of particular concern to neighbors and other groups is the scale of the project.  

Cherry Creek West by East West Partners is on track to bring seven office and apartment buildings — some to 13 stories high — to the site where the old Bed Bath & Beyond store now overlooks University Boulevard.

The 1.6 million-square-foot project, estimated to be 45% larger than the shopping center itself, left a variety of neighborhood groups upset with the board’s approval, saying it failed to better define the potential size of development.

Those groups, as well as the developer, all concur that the planned urban development (PUD) documents comprising the rezoning plan do not set limits on the project’s scale — even on the final numbers of buildings involved and their heights.

One avenue for opponents is to try and reach an agreement with the developer. Another route is to persuade members of the City Council, notably the official representing Cherry Creek, to listen to their arguments.

Councilmember Amanda Sawyer, whose district includes Cherry Creek, and Denver Mayor Mike Johnston did not return a request for comment.  

“It’s hard to understand how the planning board could just pass it,” Cherry Creek resident Bill Tanner told The Denver Gazette following the board’s vote on Wednesday.

Tanner, who was among a number of citizens who testified to the hearing about the lack of specific limits in the proposal, leads a planning committee for the Cherry Creek East Association, one of the groups that came together to seek changes and delay its approval. 

In its brief discussion on the rezoning,  Denver Planning Board did not address the concern over potential limits.

“It’s sort of disturbing when you have a powerful city entity having no willingness to address issues that are central to residents,” Tanner said.

Lou Raders, who chairs the Cherry Creek Steering Committee comprised of several surrounding neighborhoods, appealed to planners to define the scope of the project before sending it on to council. Her comments were among other concerns that neighbors voiced, including about growing traffic congestion on boulevards bordering the site, where commuters pass through a gauntlet of intersections en route to downtown.

Following the session, Amy Cara, managing partner at East West Partners, developer of Cherry Creek West, told The Denver Gazette that she is pleased the project is moving on to the next phase.

Cara’s office sent The Denver Gazette a statement Thursday, noting that East West is continuing conversations with the community about the unresolved issues.

“We have been in conversation with the Cherry Creek Steering Committee on a variety of their concerns,” the developer said. “When the design guidelines are complete and we can design (the) buildings, the site development plan process will inform the specifics of what gets built. We believe this will resemble what has been shown in our concept plan.”

In some 90 meetings with neighbors and organizations, East West has envisioned a mix of seven apartment and office buildings averaging 10.5 stories in height, with some reaching 13 stories.

The blend will likely be popular with the market, where brokers say that Cherry Creek West’s 600,000 feet of offices could command top dollar at a moment when companies, some of them relocating from three miles northwest in downtown Denver, are anxious to lure employees back to the office in more attractive surroundings.

It’s precisely that draw that leads some to worry about the project’s impact on the city’s efforts to revitalize downtown Denver — arguing that limited resources such as money for transportation infrastructure, is better allocated to struggling areas — not to Cherry Creek.

Notably, the Johnston administration has outlined an aggressive campaign to revitalize downtown Denver, which has struggled following the pandemic and further disruptions by 16th Street Mall’s drawn-out renovation construction project. The latter has led to closures and nearly a third of ground-floor shops sitting empty.

And the city is looking for all kinds of funding mechanisms to pay for that campaign. 

The mayor has committed to spend $58 million this year on revitalizing downtown, with a significant emphasis on getting homeless people out of downtown’s streets and into housing.

The mayor is also eying tax-increment financing or TIF — in which the net, new tax revenues expected within a geographical area is used to finance future projects — and proposing to vastly expand the Downtown Development Authority, the taxing authority that financed projects for Union Station using TIF.  

Some have argued that any money for Cherry Creek development should instead go toward downtown Denver.     

As the Cherry Creek development heads for approval, city officials are pressing for tax hikes to generate nearly $200 million in revenue for housing and for Denver Health. If approved at the ballot box, they would make Denver the highest-taxed city in the metro area, rivaling only Colorado’s mountain resort towns.

Cherry Creek, community leaders noted, is a potent source of tax revenue for a city strapped for cash — generating more than $112 million in taxes during last year alone.

The planning board also heard from numbers of project supporters, many of whom advocated for greater “density” as a means to supporting public transportation, and who expressed support for the affordable housing component included in the project. Some 12% of the apartments to be created at Cherry Creek West would be mandated as meeting affordability requirements of renters earning up to 60% of the area median income.

One resident who phoned in her comments told the meeting that she doesn’t care if buildings rose to 20 stories, as long as the project delivered new apartments.

The idea of increased density has been trumpeted by city planners and supporters in support of Cherry Creek West. Their reasoning is encompassed in the “15-minute city” idea — widely quoted in support — envisioning a community where employers, shops, schools, medical care, and recreation all lie within a 15-minute walk, bike or bus ride from where residents live.

Opponents are skeptical about “density” as a cure-all, and about rapid transit as a means to enable that.

Patrick Williams, president of the Alamo Placita Neighbors Association, sent the board a letter questioning the logic, warning that neighbors could see a continued deterioration of the traffic situation in Cherry Creek.

His and other messaging from neighborhood groups cited a report issued earlier this spring by former Councilman Wayne New and developer David Steel of Western Development Group, critical of the potential traffic impacts of Cherry Creek West.

Steel, who was among the developers who created some 8.5 million feet of offices, hotels and residential buildings that arrived north across First in the Cherry Creek North shopping district since 2014, earlier said the city could end up “tripping over its own feet,” as the project impacts the area.

“We’re very successful here in Cherry Creek North, but we’re going to trip over our own success,” Steel told the board, adding there are “traffic problems and so much construction going on.”

“It has to be done in a different fashion. Otherwise, we’re going to kill the golden goose,” he said. “All the phone calls we get are from people wanting to vacate downtown — (that) doesn’t bode well for the mayor wanting to turn that thing around in downtown.”

“There’s traffic and congestion today, and whether you like it or not, it’s a quality of life issue,” he said. 

Over a projected buildout that could span a decade, Cherry Creek West’s 1.6 million square feet of offices and apartments would span the gap from the Cherry Creek North shopping district, south to the Cherry Creek Trail. The project would be virtually entirely served by underground parking. East West has committed to improve the Cherry Creek Trail’s link to the shopping area during the course of development.

Raders, Tanner and other leaders who have questioned the rezoning all noted that they are generally pleased with developer’s work to stay in touch on the project.

However, Tanner told The Denver Gazette that the board’s rapid approval, which Tanner said reflects Mayor Mike Johnston’s priority for creating affordable housing, nevertheless speaks poorly for how the city grasps neighborhood concerns about development and growth.

“I have pointed out to council reps in the past that the process is skewed toward developers (and) what they want, and it would behoove the city to take the temperature of citizens and voters,” he said.

“It reveals a lot about the process of getting buildings approved in Denver,” he continued.

Tanner said that he believes Denver is losing its reputation as a city renowned for its park space, as a consequence of that bias. According to the Trust for Public Land, Tanner noted, Denver has now slipped to the 49th percentile in rankings of city park space.

“It’s not pretty,” Tanner added.