Denver’s Westwood Neighborhood Sees Major Investment, Great Changes Coming
Both 2014 and 2015 have been very significant years for the neighborhood of Westwood in southwest Denver. Good development seems in short supply these days, and when it does happen, it tends to take a while. Westwood is no exception—but years of hard work by residents and stakeholders in the community to attract socially responsible investment in their neighborhood are paying off big time.
Let’s start with infrastructure. A quick walk around the neighborhood will tell you that the place hasn’t had a streetscape makeover in a very, very long time. Sidewalks range from very narrow to non-existent on many roads, and, due to the utter lack of stop signs or stop lights on Morrison Road (arterial that cuts an awkward diagonal across the neighborhood), crossing north to south is incredibly unsafe for pedestrians (don’t try it). Morrison Road is so unsafe in fact, it has been the site of an ever increasing number of accidents involving pedestrians—some of which have been fatal.
Enter the Colorado Health Foundation (CHF) who is devoted to creating healthy, active communities across Colorado. Westwood Unidos (resident driven neighborhood organization) was able to win a $1,000,000 grant from CHF’s Healthy Places Initiative, to create opportunities in the built environment for the community to be more physical and active. One of the best ways to get people out and about is to create a safe environment for them to walk in, so the grant allocation team (made up of residents and community stakeholders) is investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in partnership with Public Works. Improvements planned in the next 2 years include: pedestrian friendly medians, bulb outs, and a new stoplight on Morrison Road.
Another impediment to those wanting to travel within, to, and from Westwood was the removal of the #4 bus from Morrison Road. However, firm and focused advocacy from the organization 9to5, with the support of hundreds of community members, encouraged RTD to reinstate the #4 bus. After months and months of engagement, the neighborhood celebrated as the #4 ran its first route on May 11, 2015. This new line will drastically improve resident’s access to jobs, health, education and services, saving many of them 40 minutes or more in transfers and walking time to get downtown.
To encourage more beneficial investment and encourage healthy development, the City of Denver is working with the community to update Westwood’s neighborhood plan (last update—1986). The first meetings have already taken place, and the city is set to work closely with the community over the next year to create a plan that supports neighborhood development in a way that promotes community culture and drives economic opportunity.
All of the increased focus from the city has also created opportunities for community-minded developers and nonprofits to make key investments for neighborhood improvements. Over $4M in grants from the Denver Office of Economic Development between 2014 and 2015 has resulted in the following development plans:
Westwood Crossing: developer McDermott Properties is building 98 units of affordable housing at the corner of West Alameda and South Irving Street.
Terraza Del Sol : developer Gorman & Company has partnered with the nonprofit Mi Casa to redevelop 56,000 ft of vacant property in into 42 units of affordable housing—with the entire bottom floor dedicated to MiCasa offices—at 3116 W. Alameda Avenue.
Westwood Food Cooperative: local nonprofit and longtime community stakeholder Re:Vision, acquired a 72,000 square foot site for a food hub that will enable its network of 200+ families from Westwood and surrounding neighborhoods sell extra produce from backyard gardens at a new market. The site will also have a greenhouse to help families start the growing seedlings earlier in the season as well as a commercial kitchen so local families can process (read “add value to”) their produce before they sell it. According to Re:Vision, the food cooperative will “create 30 local jobs for the community; generate $2.5 million in annual revenue to sustain operations; enable 20,000 residents to increase access to affordable and healthy foods; and provide 1,000+ co-op members ownership of the food hub”.
Thriftway: Abandoned in 2008, this .77 acre property (the site of an old grocery/carneceria and dry cleaner) had long blighted the Westwood neighborhood. Beyond being a simple eyesore, this property had become a haven for drug dealing, vandalism, and even murder. With support from Denver OED, Urban Land Conservancy bought the site, demolished the dangerous structure, and is soon constructing a new futsal court, space for play, shaded seating and community gardens for the community to enjoy. Permanent redevelopment will take place years from now, also incorporating neighborhood vision on how this future real estate will benefit Westwood.
St. Charles Town Company: St. Charles Town Company partnered with Denver OED to purchase the Shady Nook and Belmont mobile home parks on Morrison Road. They intend to relocate existing park residents to better living conditions, and redevelop the site to include 190 units of affordable housing.
In addition to all the exciting development coming to the neighborhood, Westwood has been and will continue be the site of a number of big community events. Extreme Community Makeover completed its 5th annual community cleanup day in April 2015. In terms of the sheer number of volunteers (500, over ½ of which were Westwood Residents), and number of projects successfully completed, ECM celebrated their largest community clean-up day in their history. Residents worked alongside members of various churches, nonprofit community stakeholders, and employees from the City of Denver. Projects included alley cleaning, fence painting, graffiti removal, streetscaping, community garden weeding and planting preparation. The old bus stops were also cleaned and improved in anticipation of the re-established #4 route opening. Stay tuned for other events coming up such as BuCu West’s Annual ChiliFest where thousands enjoy live music, a chile contest, cultural performances, futsal, and local art stands every September.