A Denver committee postponed a push to rezone a property located within but separate from the proposed Kroenke redevelopment of the Ball Arena parking lot after a council member sharply criticized the applicant and the property owner.

The properties, located at 500, 501 and 551 Wewatta Street, are currently occupied by a two-story office building, although current zoning allows for a mixed-use building of up to eight stories and has two soccer fields on the site. It is surrounded by the vast 70-acre Ball Arena parking lot.

Property owner Landon Scott said the properties have been in his family since the 1970s and there are no development plans if the zoning change is approved. Options from student housing to office space were considered, Scott said, adding that the city encouraged him to consider rezoning as the Kroenke Sports Entertainment (KSE) group began moving forward with its plans.

“When we at Kroenke Sports Entertainment talked about their rezoning, we were encouraged by the city to look at it from a continuity standpoint and thought it would be a good idea to rezone (our properties),” Scott said. “There was no plan of attack, but the city encouraged us to consider rezoning as part of KSE’s actions with their property.”

Scott said he is part of the KSE Community Benefit Agreement and is “somewhat involved,” but not nearly as involved due to the size differences between the areas

Council President Amanda Sandoval — who represents District One, not Seven, where the property is located — appeared unhappy with the presentation and the request. She spent several minutes lecturing Scott about how he could have taken the time to “be a leader” by engaging with the community before the proposed rezoning.

Scott’s discussion of the property sizes seemed to anger Sandoval, who said the difference in size was a “fallacy.”

“In terms of land and acreage, it is a smaller property compared to Kroenke… As far as height and density are concerned, that is a fallacy, that is not correct,” she said. “You have the opportunity to build a point tower form on this site, and that’s why. The only place we can have that form is in Denver.”

A spire is a tall and slender building. An example is the 432 Park Avenue skyscraper in New York City. However, Scott’s requested rezoning only applies to one tower, which can be a maximum of five stories or 70 feet tall – although using city incentives for affordable housing, there is no height limit.

As part of the renovation of the Ball Arena parking lot area, many more large and tall structures will be built in the area, according to KSE’s presentation of the completed project.

These concessions to Scott, particularly to Point Tower, appeared to be at the core of Sandoval’s protests. Point towers cannot be built in parts of her district because they would be “inappropriate,” she said. Still, some areas of her district — including the Central Platte Valley — have towers taller than five stories on similarly sized properties.

Additionally, Point Tower was one of three construction options city officials presented to the committee. And Scott has no concrete plans to redevelop the properties, although he has asked surrounding neighborhood organizations for support.

What he got.

However, this still wasn’t enough for Sandoval.

“I’m tired of rezonings coming before the City Council and saying, ‘Oh, we don’t have any plans, but we’re going to rezone it,'” she said. “I am absolutely frustrated that this has come to pass because I have attended meetings for the (Kroenke redevelopment) since I was first elected in 2019… I have spent five years talking about this site.”

“I’m disappointed you’re coming at the last minute,” she added.

That statement prompted a community planning and development official to say the plans were not last-minute. He said the owners had contacted registered neighborhood organizations in the area, adding that they would like to make further contacts in other areas.

What is crucial is that the Auraria Higher Education Center, which represents the Auraria Campus area, supports the measure.

That wasn’t enough for Sandoval, she said she didn’t accept that as an answer. She said there could be an independent community benefits agreement, separate from the one with KSE.

Sandoval asked the committee to delay voting on the measure until December.

The article will be presented again to the South Platte River Committee on December 11th.