Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s office won’t conduct another community meeting following a Denver resident’s successful appeal, which disputed the “micro-community” zoning code for the Overland Park neighborhood and forced the city to resubmit the permit request.

Craig Arfsten, president and co-founder of Safe and Clean Denver, successfully persuaded the city’s appeals board that a zoning administrator technically erred in favoring the micro-community permit for the 621 W. Wesley Ave. “micro-community” site, where city officials expect to temporarily house homeless people next month.

Nearby residents fear the development will increase loitering, crime, drug use and decreases in local property values. They won’t get the chance to express those concerns at another community meeting.

“The city is not required to host another Community Information Meeting for this site,” a mayor’s office spokesperson told The Denver Gazette.

Arfsten said the new permit failed to address his original concerns.

“They papered over this stuff within 24 hours,” Arfsten told The Denver Gazette on Thursday. “They actually, in the second review, took out any concerns for the residents. They just rubber stamped the statement of the permit, and then it was back on track again.”

The zoning code states the city needs to document outreach efforts, including a written record of community meetings and a summary of follow-up plans with the community. The city “didn’t capture the concerns of the attendees” for a meeting in September, Arfsten said in his testimony before the zoning appeals board.

Ultimately, Arfsten argued, the zoning administrator failed to consider how the micro-community site would “interfere with the reasonable use and enjoyment of adjacent conforming properties, knowing the impact low barrier shelters have on other adjoining properties around the city.”

During the first three minutes of Tuesday’s hearing, a Denver official conceded the city failed to follow the technical procedure. The city then submitted a new permit.

Winning the appeal represents a symbolic victory for Arsften and Overland Park residents opposed to the “micro-community,” which already broke ground in October. The subject of the appeal is technical in nature, and the city’s refiling of the permit request would likely result in little or no changes to the schedule for opening the micro-community.       

A key part of the mayor’s strategy is identifying and building “micro-communities,” where the city intends to build “tiny homes” that would temporarily house homeless people following encampment sweeps.

Arfsten said holding another meeting would be the right thing to do, even if it isn’t required by the strict letter of the law. The Johnston administration is building the project in the middle of a “small, marginalized” community, he said, describing the area as an “island” isolated from the rest of the city and where the average household income is $41,300 a year.

The mayor’s office countered it held eight community meetings and one large community information meeting for the Wesley site, maintaining the Johnston administration “has done extensive outreach and engagement with the community,” a city spokesperson said.

The schedule to welcome homeless people into the micro-community – also known as the 2301 S. Santa Fe Dr. site – remains on track for March 6, according to the site’s operator, Colorado Village Collaborative.

District 7 Councilmember Flor Alvidrez told The Denver Gazette on Thursday she plans to host her own community meeting for the microsite, which she said is “to update Overland neighbors on what’s happening and I am hoping someone from the administration will join me.”