Dear Members of Council,

 

I am writing to voice my opposition to the proposed zoning change requested by National Jewish Hospital, (NJH)which appears on the Council agenda tonight. I have attended several of the meetings hosted by the Colorado Hospital District, Congress Park Neighbors, and the City and County of Denver’s Community Development office. Nothing I have heard to date addresses the many concerns that residents have regarding traffic, noise, congestion, parking, and decreases in property values, to name just a few of them. National Jewish will not tell us exactly what they plan to do to address our concerns nor how many employees they plan to add. We have heard estimates of 800 or more new employees to the already 1,100 on site now.  

 

Based on the current traffic patterns in our neighborhood, we cannot handle any more traffic where our children walk to school each day. Teller Elementary is only two blocks from one of National Jewish's surface parking lots. Although residents have complained to various city agencies, including Public Works, Police Department, and Community Development, about excessive traffic and speed issues, we were told that speed bumps, dips, or raised sidewalks are not an option.  How then will we address 700 or 800 additional cars using our neighborhood streets, such as Ash, Bellaire, Jackson, Harrison, and Garfield, to access NJ’s parking structures. Undoubtedly, more traffic will continue to spill over from Colorado Boulevard and 13^th and 14^th Avenues.

 

In the process of attending these meetings, residents have expressed the feeling that National Jewish has not been a good neighbor to residents living in the Bellevue-Hale or Congress Park. In fact, residents complained about NJH's internal policy of a smoke-free campus encourages their employees to walk across the street and stand in front of our homes as their official smoking lounge while littering the area with cigarette butts. That is just one example of how a good policy for National Jewish creates a negative impact to the surrounding neighborhoods. Although this has been pointed to officials at National Jewish, I have yet to see a change in the behaviors of their employees.  What is also troubling for residents is the lack of a master plan that details anything that is proposed other than NJH's ability to add high-rise structures, thereby significantly increasing the population density and character of our neighborhood.

 

National Jewish decided to shortcut the process by asking for a zoning change without providing a master plan addressing design, structure, and infrastructure needed to accommodate all of the new employees. This does not appear to be the norm and has lead to much anxiety for residents in the area. 

 

I hope that you will consider having National Jewish Hospital provide a detailed master plan prior to approving this zoning chnage, set this issue for a public hearing, or vote “no” on this bill. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

 

Sincerely,

 

Jeff Harbaugh