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BUCKLEY ANNEX Q&As Planning Process/General | Housing/Density | Traffic | Homeless Housing | Retail Open Space/Environmental What will happen to the berms on Buckley Annex? Aren’t they mandated by law to stay there? The Air Force and the George Washington Homeowners Association and the Crestmoor neighborhood, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding in 1974 when the DFAS building was constructed to mitigate visual and traffic issues associated with relocation of the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center (“AFAFC”) to Lowry Air Force Base. That agreement states “The AFAFC tract will be landscaped to avoid visual pollution. This will include, as a minimum, a heavily landscaped berm along Monaco Parkway of such construction that the building will be difficult to see and the parking area will be invisible from Monaco.” The agreement did not speak specifically to visual buffering along 1st Ave. The original purpose of the berm will be removed when that building is demolished as part of the Buckley Annex redevelopment. Moreover, the Air Force believes and the LRA concurs that the agreement does not “run with the land” and is not binding on a future developer. Therefore the berms could be removed. The Buckley Annex team extensively investigated the berms around the site. With the help of the task forces and community input, here are the berm conclusions in regard to the plan: • The berm on the corner of 1st Ave. and Monaco will remain. It will provide a nice buffer for the site at that corner. • The LRA will not make a firm recommendation to the developer to keep or remove the berms in the middle of 1st Ave. The landscaping on 1st Avenue is essentially a gently sloping plateau that extends to the south and essentially all the way to the DFAS building. This is a very different condition than exists on Monaco where the slope rises up from Monaco to a crest and then slopes back down on the east side. The berms on Monaco could be removed without having any “ripple effect” on grading across the site. In contrast, there is not enough information about how a future developer might need to grade the site from 1st Ave. to the south. Additionally, this is beyond the scope of what the Buckley Annex team can realistically determine at this point. Although there will be no firm recommendation on the 1st Ave. berms, the LRA will require the future developer to determine how to best massage the grading to meet these three goals per the desires of the neighborhoods: 1) keep the existing and mature landscaping to the extent possible, but also 2) link the two neighborhoods and 3) minimize shadowing on 1st Ave. to mitigate icing in winter. • The berms along Monaco Street will be partially removed. Please see the diagram below.
What will happen to the trees in the area? Many of the trees will remain on the site. A tree survey has been conducted by Steve Day, a registered consulting arborist #285 and a certified professional agronomist, tree and landscape appraiser. The study found that 43 percent of the trees are transplantable, and 129 trees have potential to remain in place with further study. Click here to view the tree study. Has an environmental condition report been conducted on the area? An environmental condition of property (ECP) report has been conducted by the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment. How many acres of open space are planned? The plan calls for approximately 13 acres of parks, open space, and storm water detention. How will drainage be accommodated? Drainage will be accommodated using a portion of the onsite open space to provide detention and water quality for the site. These water quality/detention areas will release storm runoff at a controlled rate to the existing City of Denver underground drainage system around the perimeter of the site. Will the detention ponds stay in the area? The detention pond on the west side of Buckley Annex will remain, but the east pond will be reconfigured. In the current plan, the detention basins are more frequent but smaller in size and capacity. What is the environmental status of the Buckley Annex? The following is a statement by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment: “In order for the Buckley Annex to be redeveloped, the Air Force needs to address the environmental issues on the property prior to transfer and redevelopment. This will require further investigation and mitigation/response as necessary. We are currently reviewing documents submitted by the Air Force regarding the environmental issues (the CERFA request, and related Environmental Condition of Property ("ECP) Report, and Environmental Baseline Survey ("EBS")). We are also awaiting a Supplement to these documents from the Air Force. After our review, we will notify the Air Force regarding the necessary response actions. Obviously, any future development can not be incompatible with protection of human health and the environment and therefore, the environmental issues must be addressed before this development can take place.”
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