DENVER — Cerebral Brewing in Denver’s Congress Park was buzzing like usual on Thursday night. But customers noticed something different.
“We keep having people come in and be like, ‘What happened to the patio?’" Sean Buchan, Cerebral Brewing CEO and co-owner, told Denver7.
Buchan said the patio started in the business’s parking lot as a pandemic lifeline in 2020.
“Then after that, it maintained as just a community beacon,” he explained. “That's what our customers told us… It just became such a core part of our identity over the past five years.
“I’m fortunate that we were able to retain some of it.”
- View the changes to Cerebral Brewing's patio in the photo below
More than half of the space is now filled by four parking spots, including an ADA-accessible spot. The City of Denver required the change as it moves past its COVID-19-era zoning rules, where restaurants had great latitude to do what they needed to keep customers coming in.
According to city guidelines, Denver’s new, permanent Outdoor Places program “will build from the city’s pre-pandemic patio regulations, respond to lessons learned under the Emergency Program and draw inspiration from best practices research.”
“Under our current zoning rules, a certain number of parking spots are required,” said Ryan Huff, Denver Community Planning & Development communications director. “And in this particular case, there are three businesses that share that parking lot. They're also right next to a residential area. And so, in order to, you know, limit parking issues in the neighborhood and such, they're required to have parking including an ADA space.”
Buchan said it was a long and sometimes frustrating process working with the city to get into compliance and believes the move to cut patio space will end up hurting business.
“People wouldn't have been using that space anyway [in the cold weather], but we will feel that very immediately, as soon as the weather warms up,” he said.
Cerebral Brewing is just steps away from Colfax Avenue and construction on RTD’s rapid bus transit line. Buchan said that construction will likely hurt business as well.
“I’m going to be significantly impacted from a city decision to implement public transit on our street, but I get no benefit from that, and I still have to maintain car parking, which doesn't make any sense to me,” he said.
- Read the City of Denver's Outdoor Places Private Property Strategy below
Meanwhile, the City of Denver is considering a big change this year: removing parking minimums for new developments. Some areas are already exempt, but this would stretch that status citywide.
“There is a state law that will take effect this summer 2025 that says cities cannot have parking minimums in certain areas, including multi-family residential areas and near transit centers,” Huff explained. “We looked at that and said, 'Let's go a step farther.'”
Currently, the city’s parking minimums require one parking space for each unit or home.
“I still believe if this proposal is passed, developers will still build parking,” said Huff. “There just won't be the requirements and the numerous hours of city staff time and developer time to make these very complicated calculations when it comes to parking.”
Huff pointed to specific examples where developers still built more parking than was required:
- 1901 Lawrence Street, an office building that provided 633 parking spaces when zero were required
- 600 Park Avenue, a multi-unit dwelling with 230 units that provided 217 parking spaces when zero were required
- 1145 South Broadway, a multi-unit dwelling with 470 units that provided 691 parking spaces when 428 were required
Huff added that the proposal, if passed, “will increase the area where housing can go” in the city.
“We anticipate a vote by city council by this summer because that's when the state law goes into effect as well,” he added.
Some worry the idea of eliminating parking minimums would make streets more crowded. Buchan supports the proposal but wishes it would go farther.
“I think, you know, the unfortunate aspect of that is that that is not retroactive, so that will not impact existing businesses,” said Buchan. “It's only new businesses, new developers.”
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