Articles that refer to this letter:

• Alley between Iowa Street and First Street, Golden, Jefferson County, Colorado: 50190
• Field Notes: 20210301

Tom Schweich to City of Golden, 3/1/2021

420 Arapahoe Street

Golden, CO 80403

March 2, 2021

(via Email through Rick Muriby and Lauren Simmons)
Planning Commission
City of Golden

Re: PC21-02 510 Arapahoe St - Site Plan

Dear Commissioners,

I am writing with regard to the Site Plan for 510 Arapahoe Street, specifically regard to garage setback from the alley.

The Site Plan the neighborhood was shown February 2, 2021, showed that the garages would open onto the alley and the garages would be set back the minimum 5 feet.

I understand the 5-foot setback for auxiliary buildings. This is appropriate for sheds and similar buildings.

However, defining a garage with a door opening on the alley as an auxiliary building and allowing a 5 foot setback is shoving a parking problem out into the public alley right of way. We all know that garages in Colorado frequently fill up with kayaks, bicycles, rafts, and what not. (In fact, there is a raft frame on a trailer next to the garage associated with Vehicle 2.) So an occupant of one of these narrow duplexes sometimes has room to park only one vehicle in from of their home and one vehicle behind the garage.

Figure 1, below, is a photograph taken March 1, 2021 of the alley between Iowa Street and 1st Street. This photograph represents the typical parking situation in this alley.

• Vehicle 1. 603 Iowa St. This garage is set back 10 feet from the alley and a car is parked on the garage apron out of the alley right of way.
• Vehicle 2. 613 Iowa St. This is the problem I am writing about. The two duplexes at 609-615 Iowa Street were completed in 2020. There are four garages for the duplexes built with a 5 foot setback from the alley. At least one occupant routinely parks a truck that is partially inside the alley right of way. There is just no room to park a vehicle behind the garage without encroaching into the public right of way.
• Vehicle 3. 617 Iowa St. There is sufficient room behind the house to park a car outside the alley right of way.
• Vehicle 4. 705 Iowa St. This is an ADU built in 2020 and the garage is set back 10 feet from the alley, so there is room to park a car out of the alley right of way.
• Vehicle 5. 622 1st Street. I have no idea what is going on with this truck. I have not seen it previously. I suspect it was just parked there temporily.

At the Neighborhood Meeting for 510 Arapahoe Street, the sort of parking problem illustrated in Figure 1 was discussed and the applicant said they would take care of it.

However, the Site Plan for your March 3rd meeting shows no change from the Site Plan presented to the neighborhood on February 2, 2021. The garages are still shown with just 5 feet setback from the alley.

This is going to cause a problem for the neighbors and the applicant should be required to move the garages farther away from the alley.

Also recall that we are now considering very substantial changes to our Zoning Code. Many of the proposed Building Form Types place importance on alley access to the dwellings. This will increase the use of alleys and the need to preserve free and open alley access to all users.

I hope that the Planning Commission will be able to persuade the applicant to move the garages farther back from the alley, and preserve alley access for all the neighbors.

Yours truly,

Thomas A. Schweich

Locations: Goose Creek. Hankins Gulch.

Articles that refer to this letter:

• Field Notes: 20210524

Bob Lagier to Tom Schweich, 5/23/2021

Subject: Some of the Goose Creek plant IDs
From: Robert Lagier
Date:5/23/2021, 9:15 PM
To: Tom Schweich

Tom, if we follow the key, the Packera is wernerifolia which blows my mind. I’m used to that species at higher elevations where the leaves look a lot different. Al Schneider criticizes this species as perhaps being more than one single species. I’m at a bit of a loss on it. 

The Erigerons were vetensis and compositus. Pretty sure on those. I’m just unaccustomed to seeing vetensis that high, normally see it in the foothills. 

The mystery plant is puzzling me more and more, it’s hairy whereas Corydalis is glabrous, so that seems out now. The leaves look so APIACEAE to me but I can’t make headway beyond that. Flowers would help so much!

Clematis columbiana of course and Oxytropis multiceps. Antennaria looks like marginata on some specimens but I probably wanna mull that more. 

Good stuff at any rate, a fun and productive outing!

Cheers, bobl

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Date and time this article was prepared: 5/10/2024 11:12:10 AM