Denver Real Estate Blog

The plan for the Sunnyside Light Rail Station area.

Many of the buyers that I work with in Northwest Denver start their search at Highlands Square - makes sense, after all, who wouldn’t want to live a couple of blocks from one of Denver’s most popular and hip neighborhood centers? 

But, for first-time homebuyers, the prices in West Highlands can be a bit out of reach.  Go a few blocks north or east, though, and there are opportunities to get a little more square footage, a bigger yard, or better finishes for the money - and the neighborhoods surrounding West Highlands are growing, thriving, and appreciating in value.

A perfect example is the Sunnyside/Chaffee Park area.  Many buyers, especially when searching the MLS or other online home listings, cut off their search at 38th Ave and won’t go further north, or at Federal and won’t go East, but the majority of the northern and eastern streets are totally quaint, tree-lined, quiet, and perfectly located between Lower Highland (LoHi), West Highlands, and Downtown Denver.  Home prices are typically at least 10-20 percent lower once you cross 38th or Federal, but these areas are perfectly situated for both future growth and appreciation.

And even further proof for where this neighborhood is headed?  Check it out:

The City and County of Denver has begun a process to plan for change in the areas surrounding future transit stations. In 2006, the city completed a Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Strategic Plan that identified a need for land use planning for the 38th and Inca station area on RTD’s future Gold Line commuter rail corridor.  Over the past year, RTD examined the station location as part of the Gold Line Environmental Impact Statement.  As a result of this process, RTD is recommending the station be located at approximately 41st and Fox streets on the east side of the Union Pacific Railroad. Over the past two years, the City and County of Denver worked with community members to develop a station area plan for the half-mile area surrounding the future 41st and Fox station.  

Plan Goals: 

• Improve pedestrian connections to the station, between neighborhoods, and along major corridors
• Create opportunities to add more housing, jobs and services to the station area
• Incorporate plazas, parks and open space into redevelopment areas
• Capitalize on the station area’s proximity to Downtown and location on the Gold Line and Northwest Rail corridors
• Balance the needs of new development and existing uses

Plan Elements

• Development of a high intensity activity node close to the station on the east side
• Creation of a pedestrian shopping corridor along Fox Street
• Mixed-use redevelopment of the former Denver Post site
• Linked park and open space improvements to enhance neighborhood livability by providing positive orientation, buffering, aesthetics, recreational amenities, and storm water management
• Capture partnership benefits with Regency Student Housing by encouraging ties between academic institutions, student populations, and incubator employment uses
• Respect existing housing west of the station by redeveloping along the edges of the Sunnyside neighborhood leading to Inca Street and in a mixed-use node at 38th and Navajo
• Incorporate historically significant structures by drawing design inspiration from the area’s historic, industrial character
• Promote pedestrian and bicycle connectivity with improvements to Navajo, 38th, Elati, 41st, 44th, Fox, Inca and other streets
• Promote structured RTD parking that is shared with adjacent development
• Capture views of Downtown and buffer the station area by locating taller structures along I-25 and I-70
• Support for sustainable development, green building practices, housing affordability and healthy, walkable communities 

To check out the entire development plan, please click here.  If you would like to look at property on the market in Sunnyside, or anywhere in the Denver Metro area, contact me!

Tags: denver, Denver city council, light rail, sunnyside

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 17th, 2010 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Denver Real Estate, Quick Hits, Real Estate News, Urban Development, What's going on?!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.