DENVER — Denver City Council on Monday voted unanimously to postpone a decision on the future of the Olinger Moore Howard-Berkeley Park Funeral Chapel.
Historic Berkeley Regis — a group that advocates and educates for the preservation of the Berkeley neighborhood's historic resources — in July filed for landmark designation status for the chapel. The petition came after Denver-based Koelbel and Co. in May filed an application to demolish the chapel and replace it with three-story townhouses.
City council's vote Monday comes after a decision from The Landmark Preservation Commission last Tuesday in which they approved an agreement between Koelbel and the designation applicants to extend the review deadline so the parties could have additional time to consider a compromise.
Denver City Council will now take up the landmark designation vote on Tuesday, Nov. 12.
"The pause allows for other buyers to come forward and make an offer on the property," Historic Berkeley Regis wrote in a Facebook post. "We know of several interested parties with exciting adaptive reuse ideas."
The chapel, which stopped hosting services earlier this year, is located at West 46th Avenue and Tennyson Street across from the Berkeley Lake Park and next to Centennial: A School for Expeditionary Learning.
Koelbel's proposed development has not yet been approved.
Full development plans submitted to the city call for three-story townhomes in seven buildings that will be made up of six, eight or 10 units, for a total of 58 units.
The City of Denver on June 12 found that the Berkeley Park Chapel has potential for landmark designation.
Historic Berkeley Regis filed a landmark preservation application in July, and community members have previously voiced concerns about the development and whether it would be a detriment to children's safety or bring things like increased traffic and marijuana smoking.
The chapel is part of a the chain of Olinger funeral homes in Colorado owned by SCI Colorado Funeral Services LLC, a subsidiary of Houston-based Services Corporation International, according to Secretary of State business filings.
Denver's Community Planning and Development report from June 12 outlines the reasons for the funeral homes' potential for landmark designation:
Thomas and Loula Howard founded the Howard Mortuary, as the business was originally called, in 1917. It became a long-running family business, passed along from generation to generation. The building, initially housed at 1901 Colfax., moved to 1201 17th Ave. and expanded to its Berkeley location at 4345 W. 46th Ave. in May 1960.
The Berkeley neighborhood at the time was one of several growing Denver suburbs, and a newspaper advertisement at the time noted the communities of Wheat Ridge, Lakewood, Arvada, Westminster, Broomfield and Golden as "celebrating" the new location.
The ads also highlighted the architecture of the building, which was designed by J. Roger Musick, one of Denver's well-known mid-century architects.
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