AURORA | City officials Wednesday morning narrowly moved forward with a plan to keep proposed “congregate living” facilities away from schools and hospitals.
By a 2-1 vote, members of the city’s Planning and Economic Development Policy Committee forwarded the proposal — which clarifies definitions for some living, sleeping or sanitation facilities in the city’s zoning code and requires they be kept at arm’s length from major educational and healthcare hubs —onto a forthcoming city council study session.
City Councilwoman Sally Mounier voted against the measure, saying she doesn’t support the proposed sanctions on so-called congregate living facilities.
But council members Marsha Berzins and Francoise Bergan, who serve as the chair and vice chair of the committee, respectively, agreed to move the proposal forward to a study session.
First raised by Councilwoman Renie Peterson at a previous planning committee meeting, the proposal calls to keep group-living facilities that house niche demographics — such as single mothers —at least 1,000-feet from schools and commercial daycare centers and 500 feet away from hospitals.
Peterson did not attend the June 7 meeting.
Dan Money, assistant city attorney, suggested council could consider adding an additional buffer requirement from the two dozen retail marijuana shops in the city. He said other cities that have enacted similar stipulations have added the additional prong for marijuana.
The issue of congregate living in Aurora has become linked to a proposed live/work program that has been attempting to solidify a new space in the city. Bridge House, a Boulder-based nonprofit organization that provides an array of homeless services, has proposed developing a new residential facility in Aurora for enrollees of its Ready to Work program, which the company started in its home city about five years ago, according to Isabel McDevitt, executive director of Bridge House. The project pushes participants to look for full-time jobs after nine months in the network and full-time housing after living in the residential space for one year. McDevitt signed a purchase contract in February for a 13,000-square-foot former bingo hall at 16000 E. Colfax Ave.
McDevitt has said the space would provide a home base for about 44 homeless people who would be heavily vetted before gaining admittance to the program. Ready to Work caters to people facing substance abuse issues, she said.
Last month, McDevitt said that if the congregate living amendment were to be enacted with the additional distance regulations, her tentative East Colfax location would no longer be an eligible location. The former Aces Bingo Hall is in close proximity to several schools, including Laredo Elementary School.
The new amendment would make congregate living spaces a conditional use, meaning they would have to undergo a public hearing to be approved, according to Jason Batchelor, deputy city manager. Without the change — as is currently the case — the projects are zoned as multi-family and can move forward without additional oversight from council. Batchelor said the need for the change has continued to bubble up in conversations with developers in the past 18 months, and the city has not been able to give particularly straight answers or recommendations for how certain facilities should be zoned.
More than 1,000 residents in the neighborhoods surrounding the derelict East Colfax lot have railed against the proposed location, arguing the project would plop potentially undesirable residents near young school children.
Duane Senn, head of a neighborhood association near the proposed development, said after the meeting Wednesday he supports the additional distance regulations and is pleased council decided to move the measure forward.
“That’s really the best we could have hoped for at this point,” Senn said. “They got the setbacks in and hopefully they keep them in. The study session is going to determine where this thing is going.”
Mounier, who oversees the city’s northwestern Ward I, said she voted against the proposal because she wants the project to move to her ward, where she believes residents won’t have an issue with the program. Specifically, she said she’d like the Ready to Work program to slide into the defunct Afrikmall space, currently managed by Northstar Commercial Partners, on East Colfax Avenue.
The proposed regulatory setbacks would preclude Afrikmall from serving as an eligible location for the Ready to Work development, she said.
“I think Ready To Work needs to be in Ward I at the Afrikmall,” Mounier said. “So, I can’t support this.”
Another entertainment venture, known as The Soul Center, briefly operated in the former Afrikmall space last year. The operation has since been shuttered after Tony “Leon” Burroughs, founder of the Soul Center, was arrested in early March on an outstanding warrant issued by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, according to Aurora Police Sgt. Chris Amsler, a spokesman for the department.