DENVER — A plan to install new bike lanes on a busy street near Sloan's Lake is moving forward but with significant changes that now affect homeowners.
Initially, the 29th Avenue Safer and Slower Street with Bikeway Project proposal would have impacted small businesses by eliminating parking, but now, it will remove nearly all street parking for homeowners along the stretch. Residents who will be affected say this means parking a block away from their homes.
Construction of the bike lanes will begin at the end of October, removing parking on W. 29th Avenue from Wolff Street to King Street. The city said the plan was adjusted after gathering community feedback through a July open house and a survey with over 200 respondents.
“Before this situation, I did not think I would be fighting to park close to my house,” said Alicia Wilkinson, a homeowner affected by the changes. She believes the city did not fully consider the concerns of impacted homeowners in its decision.
The city has framed the bike lane project as part of a broader plan to improve safety in the area, which they say has a higher volume of serious crashes. However, according to the city’s crash data dashboard, there have been no bike or pedestrian-related crashes in the area since 2016.
“That’s what every single resident is asking themself like why this is being pushed when all of the residents are bringing concern and there isn't any data to back up the need for it?” said Wilkinson. She noted that she, her husband, and their son often bike to school, but still questioned the necessity of the plan.
Wilkinson explained that her home, built in the 1940s, doesn’t have a long driveway or a garage that can accommodate a car, a situation shared by many of her neighbors. Some homes lack driveways or garages altogether, forcing residents to park on the street in front of their homes.
With the new bike lane, they’ll need to park on side streets. The nearest one to Wilkinson is a block away from her home.
“We’ve heard, ‘It’s just a block, it’s not that big of a deal,’ but walking this block with a child or groceries on a daily basis… it just seems unreasonable,” said Wilkinson, who has lived in her home for 12 years. She added that the side streets are already crowded with parked cars, and moving more vehicles there will create congestion. “Taking away the parking on 29th and putting it on these side streets is an unfair burden for all residents in this neighborhood.”
Wilkinson and other neighbors have a meeting scheduled with officials from the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) next week to discuss potential compromises. However, they say they were inadvertently CC’ed on an internal email between city officials that revealed DOTI had already drafted a letter indicating no changes to the plan would be made after the meeting.
The email containing the draft letter began with, "Please find below the (hopefully) final response to the latest round of constituents emailing us."
In the exchange, DOTI officials responded with their plan to send the letter after the meeting, saying: "It’s a great letter and appreciate all of the work on it. Let’s do this… set the last conversation sometime early next week. And then we can work this letter out after that."
“Getting that email was defeating,” said Wilkinson. “Our future meeting where we were hoping to bring up concerns and maybe come to a compromise, we have the draft of the communication that they were going to send us after that meeting indicating that no compromise has been made.”
Despite this, Wilkinson said she and her neighbors still plan to attend the meeting in hopes of changing the city’s stance.
“I still have hope that they will listen to the people in this community who are being affected,” she said.
The city said the bike lane installation will begin at the end of October now that the repaving of 29th Avenue is complete. Along with the bike lane, other safety improvements include reducing the speed limit from 30 to 25 mph, installing speed cushions, adding more rectangular rapid flash beacons, and making changes to signalized intersections to enhance pedestrian safety.
Wilkinson emphasized that safety improvements shouldn’t come at the cost of the community.
“This doesn’t need to be a polarizing issue. We all want the same thing—safe streets in this community—and I think there’s a way to get there with compromise,” said Wilkinson.
Two commercial areas, from Sheridan to Wolff Street and Utica Street to Tennyson Street, will retain existing on-street parking and bike lanes. However, parking will be removed entirely on W. 29th Avenue from Wolff to King Street, with limited on-street parking between King and Zuni Streets.