An Outfront Media billboard at 1450 7th St., on the Auraria campus. (BusinessDen file)
A cluster of college campuses just west of downtown claims that the City of Denver has no authority to tell it where, or even whether, to construct billboards.
The Auraria Higher Education Center, which is an entity of state government, is asking a Denver judge to reject a lawsuit accusing it and the billboard company Outfront Media of openly violating the city’s zoning laws. That lawsuit seeks a court order removing two billboards.
“Removing the Champa Street and 7th Street Billboards would mean the loss of that revenue and therefore harm AHEC and the thousands of students that call the campus home,” lawyers from the Colorado Attorney General’s Office wrote in a mid-December motion.
Denver sued AHEC, its board of directors and Outfront in August, accusing them of ignoring the city’s cap on billboards and its zoning laws barring billboards in educational areas by erecting them along Speer Boulevard and at 1450 7th St. over the past 13 months.
But AHEC said the city contradicted itself one week after filing the lawsuit, when its planning department told the Denver City Council on Sept. 5 that a view plane over Ball Arena’s parking lots was obsolete because Auraria buildings already block mountain views there. Senior City Planner Tony Lechuga made an identical point in July, as BusinessDen reported then.
“As a state enterprise, Auraria is not obligated to follow our zoning rules,” he told a design board. “They chose to promote density closer to downtown, closer to the intersection of the Speer area, and as a result we have seen that this view plane is effectively obsolete.”
Auraria considers that to be an admission that Denver cannot enforce zoning rules on campus.
An Outfront Media billboard at 1133 Champa St. on the Auraria campus. BusinessDen file)
“Regulation of state-owned property is not a local or municipal matter,” state attorneys wrote in last month’s motion to dismiss. “Therefore, the city lacks regulatory authority.”
Auraria points to a 1957 opinion by the Attorney General’s Office that concluded city permits were not needed for a state office building at Colfax Avenue and Sherman Street. No Colorado court has decided whether city rules apply to state buildings, the AG’s Office said.
Judge Andrew Luxen hasn’t decided whether to dismiss the city’s lawsuit or signaled when he might make that decision. Meanwhile, Auraria said that it “generates significant revenues” from the two Outfront billboards on its campus, but has not disclosed a dollar amount.
