Uptown on the Hill Association

Costs Low, Stakes High �

Mar 18, 1999

While many of us may cringe at the steeply escalating property values in our neighborhood, the fact is that land in Uptown - whether vacant or developed - continues to be one of the metro area's "best buys," from the point of view of developers.

Uptown's proximity to downtown, parks, museums, the Denver Zoo, and other amenities makes the prospect of developing new housing in the neighborhood highly
profitable, particularly when land can be acquired at "bargain basement" prices.

Of course, inexpensive land can translate into poor design, or speculative development calculated to extract maximum profit through excessive density. This was illustrated last autumn, when neighbors on the 1600 block of Humboldt Street partnered with Uptown on the Hill and other organizations to block the construction of a 46 foothigh, 87 foot-wide behemoth on only three city lots.

Residents of the area genuinely wanted to see the land developed, but bristled at the thought of 15 households being established on a plot of land that ordinarily would accommodate no more than four families. Recently, a new proposal, lower in both height and density, has been embraced by Humboldt Street residents.