East Colfax, Aurora Neighbors Protest Luxury Condos Coming to Area

"Many cultures, one voice," residents chanted in English, Spanish, Burmese and Karen on October 15 at a demonstration at New Freedom Park that then moved through the East Colfax neighborhood. That area and parts of northwest Aurora are populated by a community of lower-income people, refugees and immigrants who rely on affordable housing.

The residents were protesting a condominium development called the Ambience that is slated to begin construction soon at the southeast corner of Yosemite Street and East 14th Avenue, on the edge of Aurora. The project calls for 44 luxury condos with prices starting at $600,000...and no affordable housing.

The project was presented to the Aurora Planning and Zoning Commission on April 13 by developer Aman Kochhar, who lives in Aurora, and Paul Brady of Godden/Sudik architects. Many residents spoke in opposition at the meeting, though, saying they were worried about the property harming the character of the neighborhood and leading to gentrification. Even so, Commissioner Robert Gaiser made a motion to approve the plan, which passed unanimously. Gaiser "has worked on housing authorities for fifteen years," the meeting minutes state, "and supports affordable housing but clarified that it is not the responsibility of the Planning and Zoning Commission to set policy for affordable housing."

Since the board approved the project, organizations like the East Colfax Community Collective and the East Colfax Neighborhood Association have been meeting with the Planning and Zoning Commission to get a better understanding of the approval process and to see what their options might be; they designed the October 15 demonstration to draw attention to their position.

"I came to the United States on September 20, 2007, and I have been living in East Colfax for fifteen years," Say Ra Sein, a refugee who came to Denver from Thailand, said in Karen at the event. "Right now, with developers who build the big buildings, I am afraid for how my future will look and afraid for my people."

Since Ambience will be right in front of her home, she's worried that her rent will increase. Over the past few years, her rent had stayed around $900, but it has been rising. The average rent in East Colfax right now is $1,110.

Ah Nyo, another refugee who came from Thailand in 2008, said that even now her rent is not affordable, and that she often applies for assistance through different organizations. She enjoys the community in East Colfax and how everyone is willing to help each other out, she added; she fears that development might end that.

"All of the people that live in this neighborhood already struggle with the rent prices as they are," said
Bruno Tapia, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. "We want to let the Aurora planning commission and developer Aman Kochhar know that we are against the development in our neighborhood. The community was not taken into consideration when planning this development, and this is not the first or the last that they’re gonna hear of us."
Kelsey Medina, the program manager with Jesus on Colfax, a volunteer organization that unites people in prayer by knocking on doors around Colfax, said that the residents of the area want Aurora city officials to work with developers to follow the Aurora Housing Strategy plan, which is designed to help underserved residents.

On December 21, 2020, Aurora City Council approved policy recommendations for the plan, including piloting more projects to meet the housing needs of the community and preserving the already existing affordable housing so that people can stay in their homes. But residents of the area feel that the city is now ignoring those recommendations.

While Michael Brannen, senior media relations strategist for Aurora, says that city staffers cannot comment on the project outside of public meetings, the protesters had no such restrictions.

"It seems obvious that our city does not have a clear executable plan for north Aurora's housing crisis, but rather shows their carelessness for others' livelihoods through camping bans, gentrification, displacement and approval of overpriced luxury units against the community's needs," Medina said at the demonstration.

"I think that people have been drawn to Aurora because it is a multicultural center where people can have a community with people from their homelands, where you can find others that speak your language, and because for a long time it has been more affordable than Denver," Tapia added. "While obviously there are problems that are not great in the community — there’s crime and there’s definitely issues with dilapidation — that’s from a lack of the city investing in the community, that’s not from a lack of luxury development.

"Luxury development is not going to fix the issues that this community faces," he concluded. "Only people-centered development is going to fix that."