AURORA | Lawmakers gave the final green light to the redevelopment of the East Bank Shopping Center in southwest Aurora this week, after the developer described plans to help impacted businesses.
The project would replace part of the shopping center with a 311-unit apartment complex and parking garage. In doing so, some existing tenants of the center — including Pet Palace, Casa Vallarta, EmNet Organics and others — would be displaced.
City Council members previously delayed by a month the hearing on the site plan and a variance from city code for building length to give developer Kimco more time to work with those businesses.
“Six weeks ago, when this came to us, councilmember (Steve) Sundberg and I were pretty harsh critics of this project but specifically Kimco,” councilmember Danielle Jurinsky said Monday. “I appreciate Kimco’s efforts to make small businesses in Aurora a priority. … I know this shopping center very well, and the worst thing we can do is do nothing.”
The hearing was called because a neighborhood group appealed the decision by the Planning and Zoning Commission to approve the plan and the variance. Neighbors also said they were worried about what would happen to businesses that had become staples in the community.
Marcus Pachner, a representative for the redevelopment team, said he was “ecstatic” to report that Pet Palace signed a 10-year extension of their lease and would be moving into the spot currently occupied by Second Chance Bicycle Shop.
“They, just like Casa Vallarta, will be at this center for another 11 years, which is pretty remarkable in this retail environment,” Pachner said.
Pachner said Second Chance would be able to remain in the space through October. He also said Second Chance would be given $20,000 for moving expenses and that Kimco and Pachner were “looking at other sites to find a location” for the bike store.
He said 80 parking spaces, including retail and residential spaces, were added to the original site plan, for a total of 433 spaces, and that $25,000 was being given to the nearby homeowners association to mitigate any impacts that new residents could have on green spaces.
Neighbors also presented Monday night, asking that the first floor of the apartments include space for restaurants and retail and that the plan be reconfigured to include a roadway between Parker Road and Atchison Way that would run through the middle of the project
The council voted 9-2 to approve the plan without those suggestions in place. Alison Coombs and Angela Lawson cast the two “no” votes, saying they were concerned about the impact that the apartments would have on traffic. Lawson also said she felt more could be done with the site and that not enough was being done to help service businesses specifically.
Parker road Is all ready a traffic nightmare, Adding the possibility of 600 more cars to the intersection Parker and Quincy is madness. Money always over rules logic.
Three RTD bus routes serve East Bank, with connections to light rail at Nine Mile. Parking for the new apartments should be “unbundled” from the rent (that means if you want a parking space, you pay extra for it). That will incentivize the new residents to give up a car (they’ll save money on rent if they don’t need a parking space) and minimize traffic impacts.
Did I miss the part about the number of units that would be affordable?