City of Aurora looks to develop area along East Colfax Avenue
There's a new opportunity for development along East Colfax Avenue in Aurora.
The project will update the Fitzsimons-Colfax and 13th Avenue Station area plan and prepare a new urban renewal plan.
The current plan for the area was adopted in 2009 and a lot has changed since then. The city wants to address current needs like transportation and housing.
In a decades-old neighborhood off E. Colfax Avenue and Sable Boulevard sits hundreds of homes and generations of families. Resident Patricia Saavedra said family is what keeps her there, despite the problems she said plagues her community, from unsanitary streets to unsafe conditions.
"It makes the place not look so nice," she shared.
The city has plans for over 100 acres near 225 and Colfax. It's blighted and there could be residential development coming to the RTD lot. However, the people who already live nearby wonder what these changes could mean for them.
The mobile home park is in the zone of a proposed $8 million urban renewal plan. Neighbors said they want improvement without being pushed out.
"They're scared," said Saavedra. "Elderly people like my parents that live here, and I think they just, that's where they just want to stay.
Jennifer Orozco is with the city's planning department, and said, "We hope that nothing will happen to those homes."
She said mobile homes are affordable housing, which is what they're trying to build.
"We have no desire to disturb that," said Orozco. "And to the extent that we can avoid impacting them, we will."
The city's vision for residential development here hinges on solving access and infrastructure challenges. There's a lot of potential and a lot of problems.
"No one's done it because they can't afford to. No developer has been willing to take that on. And so, the city has taken the position that 'Okay, we'll be the movers,'" said Orozco.
They're in the process of designating this land as blighted so they can win grants to make necessary changes, like adding more access to meet safety codes.
Orozco said connecting these sites will help solve the problem. The city must construct a bridge over Toll Gate Creek. Once it's built, it will catalyze more development.
"We're looking at 900 new homes. So that's a whole new neighborhood for the city," explained Orozco.
The old neighborhood is still concerned they won't be here to see it.
"I just hope they don't come to this area," said Saavedra.
