How an apartment building is now fighting for places

DENVER — Finding parking can be a nightmare for people who live in the East Cheesman neighborhood, surrounded by two popular spots, Cheesman Park and the Denver Botanic Gardens, and find that many visitors come to park on their streets.

“We have a garage behind our house, we’re very lucky, but any time we have friends, daughter, granddaughter, family, other families, tradesmen, it’s very, very difficult,” said Henry Dubroff, president of East Cheesman Neighbors. Association.

Since 1993, Dubroff has lived near Vine Street, seeing the surrounding area become more congested and full of cars. Dubroff said, “Parking is a nightmare, it’s gotten worse, and part of the reason is that this neighborhood has become extremely family friendly. Many of the older residents are being moved, young families have moved in, there are more children, there are children. the manner and impact of parking has affected the quality of family life in our neighborhood.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, Nancy Kuhn, provided details on the residential parking permit (RPP) program that is in effect when the Denver Botanic Garden hosts nighttime events, until now this program has been used for 10 days in the summer and will be in effect from Thanksgiving through the first week of January.

Jordan Ward

Kuhn referenced RPP rules for block zones where only residents of buildings with 20 units or less are eligible for residential parking permits. Last year, people who live in an apartment complex on Vine Street received letters in the mail about these new changes.

“The letter I received in the mail last year said that residents of buildings over a certain size were not eligible for parking permits because of a decision made by the city to try to balance the amount of permits they were issuing for the amount of street parking. was available and our building got the letter saying because of the size of our building we will no longer be getting permits,” said Stacey Orin, president of the Vine Street Arboretum Homeowners Association.

When Orin first moved to the Arboretum complex, he tried to buy a parking spot at her building.

“When we bought the building, there was an opportunity to bid for two tandem spaces. Back in the day, I bid what I thought was fair for $25,000 on two spaces, they sold for $40,000 to someone who still owns them now,” Orin said.

Since Orin didn’t get a parking spot in her apartment complex, she parked on the street instead, and has done so for the past 12 years. Now without a parking permit, she described how this affects not only her but others who live in the building.

“Not everyone has the luxury of a garage, those of us who live in this apartment, there’s a lot of families that live here and not all of us have the luxury of off-street parking, whether it’s surface, they have to park on the street Orin said.

According to Kuhn, the city is in communication with those residents and is exploring an option to remove residential parking permit restrictions on much of the 1100 block of Vine. Dubroff said, “My concern is that if they completely remove the restrictions, then people who like events at the gardens will just find out they can park on Vine and take up spots that should rightfully go to the neighborhood.”

There is a virtual town hall scheduled for October 3rd with DOTI where residents can voice their concerns. Now, along Vine Street, Orin has posted fliers encouraging his neighbors to participate. Registration for Zoom can be found here.