DENVER — The River Mile project won crucial approvals of the Denver City Council with votes on Monday night that drew a broad portrait of the district-sized redevelopment plan.
The council approved a development agreement and a rezoning for the 58-acre property, which is currently home to the Elitch Gardens amusement park.
The change gives developer Rhys Duggan high-level approvals for a plan to build roughly 8,000 residential units and some of the city’s tallest buildings along the South Platte River.
City planners say they’re trying to encourage a “human scale” development for a new urban center. They’ve created new zoning types — or sets of development rules — for River Mile.
“Really, the goal of these is to make sure that even though we’re allowing taller buildings, we want to make sure we protect access to the sun, sky,” said city planner Kristofer Johnson. “We want to limit the shadows and impacts along the streets and really help to break down those larger buildings to a more human scale.”
Read the full story at denverpost.com.