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2026-05-13 - City Planning Commission

Summary

Built from the official minutes (Legistar status: Final). No video is posted.

  • All nine members present: Chair Hensler, Vice Chair Slattery and Commissioners Cecil, Robbins, Clements, Gigiano, Willoughby, Case and Engel.
  • Election: Hensler explained that former Chair Ken Casey had been appointed to City Council, making her Chair and leaving the Vice Chair seat vacant. Motion by Case, seconded by Willoughby, to nominate Slattery as Vice Chair (until August or until newly appointed commissioners are seated): passed 9-0.
  • Communications: Hensler said applications for open commissioner seats had closed and interviews would begin soon, with new voting and alternate members seated by summer. Kevin Walker, Planning Director, said a special Planning Commission meeting was tentatively set for June 17 to hear the data center project (see Project Taurus Data Center); he previewed Council items for May 26 (Elevate Downtown plan, a day care proposal, zoning changes, conditional use changes) and noted Council would not meet June 23.
  • Minutes of the April 8, 2026 meeting: postponed to June 10 on a motion by Robbins, seconded by Slattery, 7-0-2-0 (Cecil and Engel abstained).
  • Consent Calendar (Austin Bluffs Pump Station zone map amendment, Ordinance 26-27) approved 9-0 on a motion by Slattery, seconded by Willoughby.
  • Colorado Chronic conditional use for retail marijuana cultivation at 2926 Wood Avenue approved 9-0 with two conditions.
  • Briargate/Voyager: recommended approval of the rezoning of 7.93 acres at 1625 Springcrest Road to MX-M/AF-O 9-0, with conditions of record prohibiting listed uses, and recommended approval of the multi-family land use plan 8-1 (Robbins no), with the future development plan to return to the Commission. After more than two dozen speakers, mostly opposed.
  • Item 6.A (ZONE-26-0004, Ordinance 26-27): 5.24 acres at 4535 Marconi Heights from R-E/PF/HS-O and PDZ/PF/HS-O to PF/HS-O (Public Facilities with Hillside Overlay), Council District 1; presented by Allison Stocker and Walker. Approved on the single Consent Calendar motion, 9-0 (Hensler, Cecil, Slattery, Robbins, Clements, Gigiano, Willoughby, Case, Engel). The minutes label it a second reading and public hearing; Council's first reading came on June 9 (see that issue page).

Conditional use: Colorado Chronic Retail Cultivation Permit

  • Item 9.A (CUDP-25-0009): William Gray presented adding a retail marijuana cultivation license to a long-standing medical grow at 2926 Wood Avenue (MX-M zone) without any building expansion, new employees or more plants. Parking lot encroachments into the Wood Avenue right-of-way would need a revocable permit or restriping within 90 days. Advance public comments were opposed (odor, lighting, safety, traffic); no one spoke at the hearing.
  • Applicant Austin Edmondson described a boutique 500-plant operation with two employees, carbon filtration and no citations.
  • Questions: Cecil asked why the encroachment condition fell on the applicant rather than the owner (Gray: it is triggered by the land use action); Slattery asked whether it would ordinarily be a consent item (yes, if uncontroversial); Trevor Gloss of the City Attorney's Office said the conditional use attaches to the use by this business in this tenant space and an expansion would need a major modification; Robbins asked about odor (none added, per the applicant). Engel, Case, Willoughby and Hensler supported the request; Slattery supported it despite unease about the condition.
  • Motion by Willoughby, seconded by Robbins, to approve under City Code section 7.5.601.C.2 with conditions: (1) a revocable permit for the parking encroachment or restriping within 90 days; (2) a Land Use Statement note that no building utility changes are proposed. Passed 9-0.

Rezoning and land use plan: Briargate Voyager Multi-Family Rezone

  • Items 9.B (ZONE-25-0023, Ordinance 26-26) and 9.C (LUPL-25-0010): about 7.93 acres at 1625 Springcrest Road (Council District 2), from Business Park with Conditions of Record, High-Rise and Air Force Academy overlays to MX-M/AF-O, with a multi-family land use plan. Presented by Allison Stocker and Walker. Trevor Gloss clarified that the zoning motion is a recommendation to Council, while a denial would become an appeal to Council.
  • Staff: the current high-rise overlay allows 68 feet against 50 feet in MX-M; a development plan and replat would follow; required improvements include turn lane striping, right-in/right-out access on Voyager Parkway, right-of-way dedication, the Skyline Regional Trail extension and parkland and school fees in lieu. Outreach included mailed notices, a neighborhood meeting of about 70 people, many written comments and a petition of about 1,000 signatures. Staff found the request generally consistent with PlanCOS and the rezoning criteria.
  • Applicant: Jennifer Shagin (Kimley-Horn) and Andrew Ritter (Blackburn Communities); traffic engineer Jeff Plank (spelled Plank in the minutes). Maximum density under MX-M is 236 units (early concepts had 250); the nearest building was stepped down from five to four stories after feedback; 80 percent of morning trips go south toward I-25; returning residents would use the Voyager right-in/right-out. Ritter said balconies are planned on school-facing sides but drainage and sewer easements prevent reorienting buildings.
  • Supporters: Amanda DeMarco (Apartment Association of Southern Colorado) and Jill Gaebler (Pikes Peak Housing Network).
  • Opponents: roughly twenty adult speakers (several with ceded time) raised evacuation and the single exit from the neighborhood, traffic and cut-through on Otero Avenue, unsafe weaving at the Voyager right-in/right-out, an MX-M zone too intense for the area (MX-T or MX-N suggested), balconies and a four- or five-story building overlooking a school playground, construction dust, market oversupply and incompatibility with PlanCOS. Several elementary school students also spoke against the project; they are not named here.
  • Staff and agency answers: Todd Frisbie (Traffic Engineering) said a school queue of 21 cars on Springcrest fell to two after the school began double-stacking, crash history on Voyager shows one sideswipe in five years, and about 20 percent of project traffic goes north and 80 percent south; Fire Department's Steve Smith said at least one hydrant would likely be needed and, with two access points, the fire code is met (the code regulates access, not evacuation); Deputy Chief Doug Traynor said the area has low crime and CSPD could not conclude multifamily housing increases crime. Stocker confirmed marijuana businesses are barred within 1,000 feet of a school.
  • Commission discussion: Cecil could not support approval without conditions limiting incompatible uses; Slattery compared MX-M with the existing BP zoning (which permits gas stations, truck terminals and hazardous uses) and urged use restrictions and a return of the development plan to the Commission; Willoughby and Case agreed; Robbins said the area is constrained and the project imposes unreasonable burdens. Walker said requiring the development plan to return is allowed but may extend scheduling.
  • Rezoning motion by Slattery, seconded by Willoughby: recommend approval based on City Code section 7.5.704 with conditions of record prohibiting Marijuana-Related Services, Heavy Commercial, Storage and Industry subcategories, Industrial Hemp, Natural Medicine, adult retail and liquor sales. Passed 9-0.
  • Land use plan motion by Slattery, seconded by Willoughby: recommend approval under section 7.5.514 with a condition that the future development plan be reviewed and approved by the Planning Commission. Passed 8-1 (Robbins no).

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