Growing Denver
The Smart Way
The best way to smartly grow
a rapidly expanding metropolitan city for everyone
Our Solution
Through researching, reframing and reviewing we came up with a solution to help grow Denver in a smarter way.
After we researched what Denver's urbanization and growth problems are, we discovered that Denver is growing rapidly and the city is falling behind in their current city plan and growth strategy.
Through reframing the problem, we saw that certain neighborhoods were more developed than others, making some areas of the city desirable and others not so much, leading to inequalities in housing prices, traffic and more.
To better growth, we reviewed the different neighborhoods and saw where we could help fix the issues and came up with our solution.
What is the solution?
Our solution is to incorporate the idea of a 15 minute city.
A 15 minute city incorporates the needs of a citizen within a 15 minute bike ride or walk from their home.
The Basics:
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Easy access to goods and services, especially groceries, fresh food and healthcare
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Variety of housing, including affordability, size and types
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Incorporates green spaces that are inviting, open and enjoyable
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Multi-use space, usable for work, fun and entertainment
To help grow Denver & fix the problems of urbanization, we want to implement in distinctive and planned neighborhoods:
Increase Walkability & Biking
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Close down underutilized streets for walking and biking purposes only
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Implement superblocks
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Remove unnecessary extra parking
Change Zoning
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Implement multi-use zoning to include more multi-use buildings, emphasizing first floor retail
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Flexible use buildings to be used for day-to-night purposes
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Zone for multiple income housing
Integrate Goods, Services & Quality of Life
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Grocery stores - healthy, fresh food
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Healthcare - general practice, dentists, pharmacy
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Retail - shops, restaurants, coffee shops
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Office Space - co-working spaces, multi-use spaces
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Green Space - parks, open space to sit, walk, play and enjoy
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We believe that our solution to help fix the issues that Denver's growth faces will work because it takes into account all of the stakeholders who could be affected. The idea of a 15 minute city was thought up using New Urbanism principles. As early as the 1900s and to today city planners use this solution to help remedy the problems their city faces. Most recently, Paris' Mayor Anne Hidalgo started to promote this solution for Paris. Other cities who have started to implement this solution include Melbourne, Detroit, Portland, and Ottawa.
We think that by using the principles of a 15 minute city and tailoring them to fit Denver's specific needs, our solution will help to reduce traffic, increase walkability, include more housing, inspire small business and promote a better quality of life.
Next Steps for Denver
1. Create Community Engagement
Part of the principles was to have the community stakeholders be a part of the design and planning process. This group of stakeholders are the ones that are impacted the most, and their input is the most important.
3. Re-zone for Businesses
After finding optimal roads to utilize for walking and biking, the zoning for small businesses needs to change. When neighborhoods have businesses and areas to walk to, people will. If there is nowhere to walk to, there is no point. The zoning changes will focus on first floor retail to encourage business and start to create neighborhood centers.
5. Re-zone for Housing
Zoning changes to housing will come after, to implement more low- and middle-income housing. In doing so, it creates a community where members can have local jobs and still live close by. They don't need to travel far to get to work which also helps reduce traffic, increase walkability and create a better sense of community.
2. Start Research
Start researching underutilized streets and areas of neighborhoods where we can start to implement more walking and biking access. This will help to reduce traffic and encourage other modes of transportation. This step is important because finding the right roads and access points can be difficult. We plan on doing this through measuring car traffic in specific neighborhoods and using maps to figure out the optimal walking and bike paths in those different neighborhoods.
4. Reduce Underutilized Parking
At the same time, taking away parking that is underutilized and implementing seating, bike parking and more greenery will not just create more encouragement to walk, but increase the beauty of neighborhood centers.
6. Implement Neighborhood Amenities
Lastly, will be the amenities portion of the plan, which includes adding in extra parks, community centers or flexible use buildings, increased outdoor seating, and more to finalize a sense of community focused on its people, instead of cars.
Solution Timeline
We will start by selecting a few neighborhoods to implement these changes in first. We will choose neighborhoods that are fairly walkable now but can use improvements. Our first targets will likely be the DU neighborhood, Platt Park, and Congress Park. These are popular neighborhoods in Denver, but they are not yet a “15 Minute City.”
January 2021
Implement community meetings educating the citizens on the changes coming to the communities
February 2021
Choose one main street in each neighborhood - make it car free.
Start zoning changes. First phase will emphasize first floor retail shops.
April 2021
Remove unnecessary extra parking. We want to limit parking spaces in this neighborhood.
Start zoning for multiple income housing. In these neighborhoods, that will likely mean incorporating more low income and middle income housing.
June 2021
Open an additional park in each community.
Add more outdoor seating areas along streets.
Implement flexible use buildings.
By the middle of year 2022, we plan on implementing all these plans throughout more neighborhoods in the Denver Metro Area.
What are the risks?
If Denver doesn't move forward with our solution...
The problems that Denver is facing with urbanization, walkability, increasing housing costs, traffic, pollution and more will continue to surge. The neighborhoods that are already desirable will become more expensive and unobtainable for a majority of citizens. We have seen the recent influx of people moving to Denver and if Denver is going to continue to grow, it needs to adapt and grow in the smartest way possible.
What could go wrong with our solution...
Every new concept is going to have flaws and drawbacks. Failures in our solution could be misuse in zoning, unintentional alienation of different income groups, failure to capture specific neighborhood needs, or a combination of these. To combat these failures, we will integrate a measurement system of the success that the solution is having and to make sure that if a failure is starting, we can have the foresight to stop it before it gets too big.
Who is impacted by our solution?
From exploring different strategies and city designs and planning, we learned about the fifteen minute cities and all the benefits they bring to stakeholders. It brings a course of action that promotes walking and biking, and creating a thread of habits that incorporate businesses and essential aspects into a close radius. Additionally, adjusting zoning will help businesses in retail spaces and housing areas as well. It will help bring about more accessible opportunities of living and working to community members. This will bring about many benefits for stakeholders of all angles.
Community Members
The most noticeable impact of our action plan will be to the community members. These members that make up the many neighborhoods throughout Denver will receive green open space that will promote a healthy active lifestyle. Additionally, the green space will provide more walkability and a safer community feel. The added walkability is also a benefit to increase opportunities to commute to transportation. Creating less car traffic will help make a safer environment for community members of all ages. The community members will also feel a sense of belonging by having more community meetings. The issues can be identified directly by the citizens who live there and endure them, and benefits will be added and implemented more smoothly. These aspects will increase neighborhood popularity, and the stakeholders will feel a direct change in the environment created. They will bring a new value and perspective to the city of Denver.
The developers and investors will be able to implement creative aspects that allow them to plan a more cohesive flow throughout Denver. Including new city designs that are more basic futuristic concepts that force them to use sustainable attributes that make their company move towards more progressive movement to benefit them in the long run. The legal stakeholders in the new implemented action plan will be responsible for making change for the better of the community in helping with zoning. Creating more opportunities for housing and businesses will nurture a thriving community.
Developers & Investors
How do we know it's working?
Our measurement plans
1. Parking
One thing we will specifically measure is parking using the Denver Regional Council of Governments. We hope to eliminate parking spaces in the middle regions of the neighborhood. We will use their parking data map to monitor this measurement. One year after we start the project, we hope to eliminate 50% of parking spaces in the middle of the selected neighborhoods.
2. Transportation
Another metric we will use is how many people walk to work. Denver’s city metrics on people who bike or walk to work are shared each year. This past year, people who walk to work in Denver consist of 6.9% of all commuters. After a year of our plans being implemented in these three neighborhoods, we would like to see this number increase to 12%. After implementing our plan into more neighborhoods, we would want to see this number at 18% to start.
3. Traffic
Lastly, we will measure traffic congestion in these specific neighborhoods. The goal is to eliminate traffic so we will be tracking this metric of regional traffic counts through Denver Regional Council of Governments. We do not have set metrics but will measure the traffic congestion to confirm it is decreasing.
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