“As construction stretched outward along Welton Street, following the light rail line from downtown into Five Points, Tim Oldham eagerly anticipated the growth that would bring vibrant density and commercial amenities to the neighborhood.
In the meantime, he and his wife, Kelly, could sit on their second-floor deck and gaze past the surface parking lot behind their house to marvel at Rocky Mountain sunsets, scan the distant ridge line and set their internal compass to the west.
But as a building rose from the former parking lot — and rose, and rose, to its final eight-story profile — they charted the trade-off for growth by their vanishing vista. Oldham likened it to the frog in the pot of slowly boiling water, measuring its demise by degrees.
“As the building got incrementally bigger, the sunsets went away,” says the 47-year-old landscaper. “It’s just been stacking up on top of us. Our view of the mountains is kind of like … well, it’s a big part of why we’re here.”
Mountain views and other iconic, geographic sight lines can be vulnerable to the surge of development sweeping Denver and the Front Range, underscoring their cherished place in the Colorado ethos. Some of those Denver views are preserved in the municipal code by a tool called a view plane, while other municipalities rely on height restrictions and strategic green space to maintain locals’ connection to natural panoramas and cityscapes alike.”
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Simpson, Kevin. Denver Post 16 March 2018.