Richmark making second-run at apartment project in Greeley
GREELEY — Richmark Real Estate Partners LLC, a family-owned business in Greeley, on Friday said it will resubmit a request to rezone the southwest corner of 50th Avenue and 20th Street, where it wants to build Alpine Flats, a luxury apartment complex that has been in the planning stages since 2015.
A meeting with the Greeley Planning Commission, which denied Richmark’s request to rezone the property from commercial to residential use in 2015, is set for 1:15 p.m., Tuesday, July 25.
Richmark said it has made changes to plans for the apartments that it pulled in 2015 in response to concerns raised by the commission and nearby neighbors in the Highlands Hills subdivision.
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Currently, the 10 acres of land is zoned for commercial high intensity and residential low density. The request, if approved, would allow for residential high density, including apartments, townhomes, condos or retirement living.
According to a statement released Friday by Richmark, the current zoning “means a portion of the property could be used for a high-traffic commercial business creating greater traffic, waste, parking, longer hours of operation and higher noise levels.”
Richmark said rezoning the land to residential high density would bring “a 70 percent reduction in traffic volumes” compared with the property being developed for commercial uses.
Changes to the plans include decreasing the number of units by 17 percent and increasing landscape buffers and no-build zones on portions of the southern boundary line, according to the statement.
On Friday, Tyler Richardson, a principal of Richmark, declined to answer a request from BizWest to expand on details of the changes to the project.
A spokeswoman with the Greeley Planning Department said the original plan was for 240 units and now 200 units are planned.
“After years of consideration, it is obvious R-H zoning is the best option for this property,” Richardson said in the prepared statement. “A residential unit will have the least impact on the environment and to surrounding neighborhoods relative to its current commercial high intensity zoning. This is an option that offers lower traffic volume and is a much-needed housing alternative for our city’s rapidly growing area that currently has less than a 2 percent multifamily vacancy rate.”
Richardson said in the statement that people underestimate the positive economic impact from new multifamily development.
“This development will offer many benefits to the Greeley community such as much-needed housing, an attraction for employee relocation to Greeley, as well as supporting the value of surrounding neighborhoods.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated July 21, 2017, to reflect the number of units planned.
