Own some real estate? – or some unreal estate? That’s when you didn’t read what you were buying and see that the “monstrosity” just built next door is—gulp—legally allowed. Why do people not check the details before they write the check? Hundreds of residents have realized (What!?) their zoning allows a long house, solid from front to alley, to be built next door to their house with detached garage and nice back yard. Eek! They “realized” it because someone DID IT. Just because you looked at the area and saw the houses were like yours, doesn’t mean they have to be that way. These folks hope city councilperson can help “fix” the situation. City says a long house is un-neighborly but this is “border area” where more ”variety” might be needed. Zoning is not secret code—if you need help on any sort of zoning, from adding a cabana to a cupola, a garage to a granny flat, ask a city planner. Stay tuned—and read your zoning!
Sometimes you think the zoning is as your Neighborhood Plan wanted. You’ve contributed your opinion loudly to why it should allow three stories, not six, behind small homes ( f’rinstance), and then you find out the city changed the plan—“density needed’—and there goeth your sun & sunsets. Kick yourself for not, somehow, knowing the city made the change, or be philosophical about the fun it will be to look at a half-block long apartment being constructed, ever higher. Hi Neighbors! Your kitchen window may be your entertainment center. (And a chance for HIgh Neighbors to watch you cook supper! Hey Hon, looks like fish tonight,)
Balustrades! We hear they’re the best architectural feature for beauty, artistry, calm. Apartments should put them over the “Juliette balconies.” How delightful! Let’s all get some for our porches, a bit of classical class! Kids peer through them, you sit there with Casual Aplomb! And oh that long Meximerican Fence!
Mid pleasures and pup tents—there’s no place like home. Many folks don’t have real estate. Or any estate. Or home. Needed: affordable housing, so here’s a savvy idea from, er, someone: Move, say, the legislators out of the Balustraded! State Capitol and turn it into affordable housing. Government people can work on handheld devices from anywhere—Civic Center, the banks of the Platte. The rallying tune, of course, “Home on the Range:”
O give me a home, ‘neath the Capitol Dome
Now converted to housing that’s cheap
Females in the House, then,—it’s the Senate for men
For families an office to keep
The Rotunda’s Day Care, and the Library’s where
You can read up on laws till you droop
Cafeteria’s got lots of coffee that’s hot
And maybe a nice pot of soup …
HOUSING ALERT! Often “affordable” housing (schools, playfields) is planned/built way too close to highways, interstates, dense pollution. Denver’s Comprehensive Plan must address sustainability, climate change issues (air, water, open space, health, etc.). Ask your councilperson for contacts.
CORRECTION: Last month—It’s Colorado Seminary, not Denver Seminary!
