1) New Pizza Restaurant Coming to Stapleton’s E. 29th Ave. Town Center
Pizzeria Locale, owned by Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. and Locale Boulder, is coming to the corner of E. 29th Place and Roslyn St, on the ground floor of The Mint Apartments. Notice is posted at 7505 E. 29th Place that Pizzeria Locale applied for a liquor license on June 21, 2019, and the hearing will take place August 5, 2019.
The restaurant has two other Denver locations, one on W. 32nd Ave. in the Highlands neighborhood and one at 550 Broadway. The menu offers individual red, white and build-your-own pizzas, along with salads, sides, wine, beer and other beverages. The website shows the hours for the other two Denver restaurants are 11am to 10pm daily and brunch is served Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 3pm.
2) New Italian Restaurant Coming to Stanley Marketplace
The space vacated by Sazza at Stanley Marketplace earlier this year will soon have a new look and menu with a yet-unnamed Italian eatery. Chef Paul Reilly, Aileen Reilly, and JP Taylor, JR, who are the owners and operators of several Denver businesses, including beast+bottle, Coperta, and Pizzeria Coperta, recently announced their newest venture. No official opening date is set, but the restaurant will offer a diverse menu with pasta, Roman-style pizza, salads, panini, and antipasti. They will also offer home chefs the opportunity to purchase pizza dough and sauces, and will include a full bar menu. “We’re incredibly excited to join a great community, along with all of the possibilities the space has to offer,” says Aileen Reilly.
Mason’s Dumplings Interior
3) New Chinese Dumpling Restaurant To Be Located on Montview in NW Aurora
Construction is underway on Mason’s Dumplings, which will bring hand-rolled dumplings to the corner of Montview and Dayton in Aurora. The 3000-sq. ft. property will be at the site of the former Del Norte Bar. Owner Ker Zhu says that he hopes to finish construction and open the first metro area location of his family’s dumpling business in December.
Mason’s Dumplings Exterior
Zhu’s family owns Luscious Dumplings, a Los Angeles favorite since 2001. Mason’s, named for Zhu’s 4-year-old son, will specialize in homemade dumplings, with a large variety of meat, vegetarian, and vegan options, as well as buns and rice dishes. The Aurora location will have a liquor license and a small bar. Its kitchen will eventually support two satellite locations.
“People want better food, and it’s a good time to introduce more diversity into the Denver area,” says Zhu, whose Denver family will manage the restaurant. “Dumplings are meant to be eaten on the spot, when they are fresh,” he says. Mason’s Dumplings is located at 9655 E. Montview.
4) Application for Medical Marijuana Cultivation near Stapleton
The Department of Excise and Licenses has notified Stapleton’s registered neighborhood organization (Stapleton United Neighbors) that a medical marijuana cultivation business has a pending application to operate within 200 feet of Stapleton’s boundaries. Vertical Investment Group LLC submitted the application for a business located at 5200 E. Smith Rd, Unit 100. If this application proceeds after initial review, a public hearing will be scheduled and SUN will be notified of the date and time. Any objections or comments to these types of applications must be presented in person at the scheduled public hearing. The Denver Revised Municipal Code does not require any kind of posting on the property for these types of businesses. The department will either approve or deny these types of applications based solely upon the ordinance criteria.
5) Nourish Co-op Dissolves
Nourish Co-op Members have voted to dissolve the venture and donate the funds that remain to the Denver Foundation. The Co-op, established in 2014, was unable to find a site for the proposed cooperative grocery store and lacked sufficient volunteers to serve on the board over the long process.
6) Park Hill Golf Course Sold to Developer
Clayton Early Learning, which has used revenue from a lease on the Park Hill Golf Course to support its program, determined they could best serve the needs of their program by selling the property. The sale to Westside Investment Partners closed July 11. That company says they will listen to stakeholders in the community about future use of the land. Mayor Hancock told the Front Porch: “The community had some discussions around this… I believe there was a consensus it would be a mixed use involving an appreciable percentage left for open space…we have the leverage to create or maintain some open space and we plan to do so.”
City/State Updates
Women’s Equality Day and Procession Aug. 26
Colorado women were the first in the nation to possess the right to vote after an 1893 referendum granted them that right; women in other states had to wait until 1920, when the 19th Amendment was passed. Colorado and the rest of the nation will celebrate 100 years of woman suffrage in 2020. History Colorado and the Center for Women’s History at Byers-Evans House invite community groups and individuals to honor the bold women who marched for suffrage with a Woman Suffrage Procession around the Colorado Capitol on August 26.
According to History Colorado, “This modern-day procession will be the kick-off to our national centennial of woman suffrage in 2020 where we not only aim to highlight Colorado’s suffrage contributions but how the movement is also a story about race, class, citizenship, gender, immigration, political identity, and values, and the intersections where those meet in our country’s history.” While celebrating women’s suffrage, the voting rights of other populations also merit consideration. Native Americans did not possess U.S. citizenship until 1924 and were therefore unable to vote; even after 1924, restrictive state laws disenfranchised many Native people. Likewise, African Americans confronted poll taxes, literacy tests, and violent threats that kept them from voting for generations. These practices only began to end with the 1965 passage of the Voting Rights Act.
To participate in the procession, gather between 8:30-9:30 am at the Center for Colorado Women’s History at Byers-Evans House, 1310 Bannock St., on Aug. 26th. Marchers will move to the Capitol and end at 11 am with a lecture, performances and more. For more information: https://www.historycolorado.org/2020-womens-vote-centennial-colorado
Look around Denver at the packed, cookie cutter, bland and soulless development. Have the courage to give future generations the gift of a beautiful park and open space where one can at least walk the planet and feel comforted by Nature. Your name will be attached to the decision you make. Preserve the conservation easement, think green.
The Mayor is quoted regarding the sale of Park Hill Golf Course saying “The community had some discussions around this… I believe there was a consensus it would be a mixed use involving an appreciable percentage left for open space…we have the leverage to create or maintain some open space and we plan to do so.” Hancock in the same breath goes from appreciable to some which is consistent with his philosophy in favor of development over the welfare of Denver’s residents. He says he is a green mayor and the National City Parks Alliance held there conference in Denver this July “We wanted to see what is happening in the city that is negatively impacting parks and the environment and the open spaces. Bring it attention,” said Jayne Miller, board chair of World Urban Parks.
Enough said about our mayor’s commitment to green space?
I could not agree more with Jessica and Kevin.
Dear Mayor Hancock, you said, “The community had some discussions around this… I believe there was a consensus it would be a mixed use involving an appreciable percentage left for open space…we have the leverage to create or maintain some open space and we plan to do so.”
I’d love to know where you got your consensus. Would you mind sharing? Because I believe any consensus from surrounding neighbors would have been to retain 100% of this as open space.
Does the mayor mean consensus was reached between him and the developer (Westside Development Partners)? Who just happens to be part of a group that donated $200K to Hancock’s campaign. Pay for play is alive and well here. If this conservation agreement is broke a full investigation should be conducted.
“ I believe there was a consensus it would be a mixed use involving an appreciable percentage left for open space…we have the leverage to create or maintain some open space and we plan to do so.”
Um excuse all 6,328 of us who live in this neighborhood and signed a petition asking city council to uphold the conservation easement. We are also responsible for the 2 million dollar payment made for that easement. There has NEVER been a consensus amongst the residents of Park Hill to develop any of the space. Not mixed use, not “appreciable percentage” not any.
The consensus has always been to retain the space, 100% as open space.
I was a member of the Clayton Citizens’ Visioning Committee about the future of the Park Hill Golf Course land (PCAC). I served faithfully for over a year, attending many hours of meetings. I take my responsibilities as a citizen who should participate in the life of my community seriously. The PCAC was not a serious attempt to engage citizens’ point of view, I’m sorry to say. How I wish I could report differently because I love my city and I want Denver to thrive, to be a model for finding creative, solid solutions to the threat of global warming and the need for affordable housing and much more. Ten members of the PCAC submitted a dissenting letter to Clayton’s Final Report on the PCAC findings. That’s because the Final Report was spin, not reflecting the consensus of the group at all. How much longer are citizens going to accept this way of running a city and dealing with our challenges? Who is running things, my friends? It’s not us.Please step forward. We are the taxpaying citizens who make the city run, after all. Raise your voice.
Hancock’s statement about the sale of Park Hill Golf Course indicating he believes there was a consensus from the community is FALSE. As the stakeholder representative for the community closest to PHGC and having attended all stakeholder meetings, I can assure readers and Hancock no consensus for mixed use was EVER obtained and no ball and bucket game can change that fact. The only consensus ever reached was that the perpetual conservation easement is in jeopardy and city council must reject any attempt to change the zoning.
Regarding the sale of Park Hill Golf Course — I’m not sure where Mayor Hancock got the impression that there is a consensus to sacrifice that open space for development, unless that was the gentleman’s agreement Wellington Webb warned about at the recent INC meeting where the resolution calling for preserving the conservation easement covering all 155 acres passed without any dissent. At the Park Hill community meeting I attended along with Andy Klein of Westside Investments a couple of weeks ago, the consensus was also to save all the land (hopefully as a public park). If Mayor Hancock has any doubts, he also should probably check with the 5 new council members who have repeatedly supported preserving the conservation easement, thus retaining 100% as open space/park.