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The Denver Housing Authority is planning an ambitious $26.4 million renovation of Quigg Newton Homes, the city’s largest housing project, but northwest Denver community leaders say the DHA has been secretive and has left them in the dark.
Leaders of Sunnyside United Neighbors angrily accuse the housing authority of excluding them from the planning effort, which may produce a cluster of retail shops in the neighborhood. Some of the conflict in Sunnyside may be a culture clash. The turn-of-the-century homes and large trees in Sunnyside, which lies east of Federal Boulevard and north of 38th Avenue, are attracting more upscale residents, some of whom are uncomfortable with the housing project down the street.
“The neighborhood is changing,” says Toni Eisele, president of the neighborhood group. “There are a lot more people moving in with the benefit of a couple years of college. There’s a lot of people interested in public affairs, and there are people asking questions.”
Some in the DHA are suspicious of the neighbors’ complaints, believing what the Sunnyside group really wants is fewer poor neighbors. But Eisele insists her group does not want to exclude Quigg Newton tenants, it just wants to have a voice in the agency’s planning.
“DHA has shut us out of the process,” she says. “When they first proposed this, they said it was a benefit to all of the community and requested our participation. We thought they were sincere in wanting our input.”
Since then, according to Eisele and others, the DHA has denied their requests for information and dodged invitations to neighborhood meetings.
“It’s a lot of tax money to spend in one corner of the neighborhood,” says Diane Irvin, a longtime Sunnyside activist. “We’ve been trying to get hold of the site plan since January. We have vague and inconclusive information on what they’re doing.”
While everyone agrees Quigg Newton is due for a makeover, the federal grant also allows the DHA to spend 20 percent of the funds on programs that would benefit residents of the project. The housing authority has considered building a new retail center, known as the Mercado, on West 46th Avenue (from Navajo to Pecos streets) with that money. The idea is to provide jobs to Quigg Newton’s 1,400 residents, many of whom have little work experience.
Irvin says the DHA hasn’t talked with the neighborhood about the impact of a new retail development, even though area residents would be key customers there.
“They want us in there to make the cash registers ring, but they don’t want to ask us what we want there,” she says. “Any kid with a lemonade stand knows you don’t antagonize the people doing business with you.”
DHA commissioner Nita Gonzales, who lives in northwest Denver, insists that the agency hasn’t intentionally excluded the neighborhood from planning. She says the Sunnyside group may be under the mistaken impression that grant funds could be used for the neighborhood.
“The misconception is that this is neighborhood money,” she says. “It’s for the residents of Quigg Newton. I think people from the Sunnyside organization feel like they should decide where the money goes.”
Gonzales says some of the Sunnyside neighbors don’t seem to think public-housing tenants are capable of planning the future of Quigg Newton. She suspects the neighbors would rather not have any public housing in the area.
“I won’t support people who come to meetings and say [Quigg Newton] residents aren’t capable of making decisions,” she says.
Gonzales says that the DHA held public meetings on the renovation of Quigg Newton in February and that it has made conceptual drawings available. She says the agency might not have done as good a job communicating with the neighborhood as it could have.
“The DHA is a huge place–there may be things we don’t do well,” she says.
Plans for the Mercado are now on the back burner, as Quigg Newton tenants debate what type of businesses they’d like to launch. Gonzales says the Mercado is just an idea at this point and may never come to pass.
“The [Quigg Newton] residents decided they wanted the Mercado idea suspended until further notice,” she says.
Cathy Chin of the Denver planning office says her department is trying to bring the Sunnyside residents and the DHA together.
“I think there’s been a communication problem,” she says. “It’s something we hope to work on over the next couple of months. The problem is, the DHA isn’t ready yet to submit a definitive plan. Everything they have now is conceptual.”
Sunnyside residents spent several years working on a neighborhood plan that is supposed to guide development in the area. That plan doesn’t call for new retail on West 46th Avenue, but Chin says that won’t preclude the DHA from possibly developing the Mercado.
“We’d like economic development in that neighborhood,” she says. “It’s not an unreasonable place for that.”
Neighborhood activists have invited DHA officials to a public meeting on the Quigg Newton project this week. They’re hoping to finally start getting some answers.
“If this is a democracy, then people have a right to ask questions,” Eisele says.
