City Council adopted the East Area Plan in 2020, the culmination of three years of hard work by community members in South Park Hill, Hale, Montclair and East Colfax whose efforts and input resulted in a truly community-driven long-term vision for these neighborhoods.
Now in the implementation phase of the plan, Community Planning and Development is measuring and tracking outcomes related to the plan goals, policies, and strategies in the plan.
The Plan In Action: East Area Plan
Adaptive Reuse
Through the East and East Central neighborhood planning efforts, community members identified adaptive reuse as an important piece of their community vision and priorities, particularly for older commercial buildings along East Colfax. Reusing an existing building, rather than demolishing the building, can help keep tenant rents lower than in a brand-new building, is more sustainable for the environment, and helps retain a neighborhood’s look and feel. The East and East Central area plans emphasized the need for dedicated technical assistance, among other tools, to support future adaptive reuse projects along Colfax. In response to this public input, Community Planning and Development began budgeting for an adaptive reuse program in 2022.
The East Colfax Avenue Pilot Program targets the conversion of underutilized commercial buildings into a variety of new residential and commercial uses along Colfax from Broadway to Yosemite.
Learn more about adaptive reuse in Denver
Apply for the East Colfax Avenue Pilot Program
The plan addresses key neighborhood needs—helping local businesses remain and thrive, affordable housing, preserving the diversity of East Colfax Avenue as well as neighborhood architecture, trees and open spaces, and making it easier and safer to get around—by providing policy recommendations that will guide city decision-making over the next 20 years.
East Area Plan and appendices
Key plan recommendations
- Help current residents and small businesses stay in the community long-term by connecting them to resources and making more housing options available and affordable to families and individuals.
- Ensure the East area is an inclusive place in the future by increasing the amount of affordable housing using all available methods.
- Make Colfax Avenue a street that brings the East area’s diverse community together.
- Celebrate the architectural history of East Area neighborhoods by encouraging the preservation of existing homes and requiring complementary design of new housing.
- Preserve trees and landscaped areas. Create new parks and community-gathering spaces and use green approaches to storm-water management to make the East area safe from flooding, healthier, and more climate resilient.
- Save lives and reduce pollution by making streets safer, slowing down traffic, adding protected bike lanes, completing the sidewalk network, and improving bus connections and reliability.
From surveys and pop-up events to large community meetings and the formation of new neighborhood advocacy groups, East Area residents, business owners and advocates worked hard to make their voices heard, to bring more neighbors and stakeholders to the table and to lay a foundation for continued participation to ensure implementation includes the community’s voices. The result was a draft plan that reflects the ideas and vision of thousands of community members and honors what makes East Denver special to so many.
Background and Phases
The East Area Plan was the third plan adopted under the Neighborhood Planning Initiative (NPI), which was launched in 2017.
The Denver City Council adopted the East Area Plan on Monday, November 16, 2020, after a multi-year community engagement process that involved five planning phases:
- Summer 2017 - Summer 2018: Existing conditions research and community listening
- Spring - Fall 2018: Community input analysis, draft vision statements and community priorities
- Winter 2018 - Spring 2019: Confirm community vision and priorities
- Spring - Summer 2019: Share and gather community input on draft recommendations to achieve vision and priorities
- Summer 2019 - Winter 2020: Updates to draft recommendations based on community input
- Spring - Fall 2020: Community review of draft plan and legislative process
Read the East Area Plan Area Existing Conditions Briefing Book
Public Meetings and Engagement
- 9 community-wide workshops and open houses
- 17 focus group meetings with local subject matter experts on key issues, such as small business
- 11 online surveys and activities
- 24 steering committee meetings open to the public
- 49 RNO meetings, community group meetings, and targeted engagement where we shared information on the plan and gathered feedback
- 9 office-hours sessions
- 11 field surveys with community members
- 38 newsletters to the plan email list
- 4 informational items presented to the Denver Planning Board and broadcast on Denver 8
- Over 150 locations and pop-up events provided with flyers and other printed materials advertising how to get involved in the process
- An area-wide mailer to over 15,000 households and the additional distribution of flyers and posters to local schools, residences, and businesses by our community partners.
Ocer three years, planners sought to engage the community in each of the East Area neighborhoods in a way that offered multiple convenient and accessible avenues for participation—in person at traditional meetings, at events where community members congregate naturally, as well as online. We surveyed participants and conducted research to ensure we were reaching every corner of these neighborhoods in all their geographic and demographic diversity, and when we have noticed gaps, we took specific steps to address them. Spanish language interpretation, food and childcare were provided at every community workshop. During the planning process, several groups organized themselves to better advocate for neighborhood interests, and members of the planning team met with these groups regularly, responded to their feedback and questions at each step of the process and posted their input on the project website.
Planners also sought to be responsive to the substance of community concerns, adding an additional opportunity to review plan recommendations before they were incorporated into a draft plan. Additional time for community review and input was provided throughout the process, culminating in over 2,600 attendees at in-person and virtual events, over 4,000 participants in online surveys and emails, and more than 8,500 comments.