Does Denver have too many gas stations? City Council pushes new limits to save space for affordable housing.

Paul Kashmann says he’s not trying to shut off the gas pumps in Denver altogether.

In fact, the service-minded Denver City Council member is still driving a gas car himself, and he doesn’t like high prices or long drives to stations any more than the next person. 

But he is part of a City Council movement that sees construction of new affordable housing as more important for Denver right now than an additional place to gas up and grab a bag of chips. Kashmann and some colleagues are bringing a proposed ordinance for a 2024 committee green-light that would build buffers between proposed new gas stations, mass transit stops and residential housing. 

“I have never gotten a call from anyone saying, ‘Hey, councilman, I need to fill up my tank and I can’t find anywhere to do it,’” said Kashmann, who represents southeast Denver’s District 6. Instead, he gets call after call from citizens who say, “Why are they building another gas station on East Evans?” His colleagues in the south and north stretches of Denver get the same calls. 

“Why do we need four, five, six, eight gas stations on Evans between Colorado and Quebec?” asked Kashmann, a nine-year council member. 

The rules currently under draft would bar a new gas station closer than a quarter-mile from existing pumps, a quarter-mile buffer from an existing light rail station, and 300 feet to the nearest residence. Still in play in the negotiations, Kashmann said, is a provision allowing gas pumps combined with a new grocery store if it is serving a “food desert” that lacks healthy food retailers.

That exception, he added, must include definitions of a true food desert, and what constitutes healthy food for a neighborhood — cigarettes and soda alone won’t cut it, he said. 

Like any other big city, Denver has lots of zoning ordinances that steer development in ways that are good for the community as a whole, Kashmann said. 

“The big need in the city and county of Denver is for housing, and we’re a landlocked city,” Kashmann said. “The places where gas stations tend to site are along our major transportation corridors, which is exactly where we’re told it’s best to site denser housing.”

The restrictions on new building have been met so far with surprisingly amicable negotiations with the gas station trade leaders. They have pushed back on some provisions, but say Denver’s approach has been far more cooperative with business interests than gas station zoning in other cities. 

“I think it’s going to move forward in a way that we can implement it … without unduly burdening the marketplace,” said Grier Bailey, executive director of Colorado Wyoming Petroleum Marketers. 

Gas station developers believe there are still parts of Denver that might need new pumps, including the growing housing developments at Green Valley Ranch, and the varied businesses growing up in the Denver International Airport complex, rapidly becoming a city unto itself. Owners also want to make sure they can make renovations to existing stations or comply with environmental regulations demanding replacement of older underground storage tanks without triggering a no-building ordinance, Bailey said. 

That’s where Denver’s other zoning desires can come into play, Kashmann said. Communities with only convenience stores instead of true full-service groceries might be willing to see a new gas station if it also sold produce and healthy foods, he said. 

For their part, gas station developers know their market is changing rapidly, with more electric vehicles on the road and gasoline cars growing more efficient. A new station must accommodate not only EV chargers, but also the potential for hydrogen filling pumps or other technologies, Bailey said. 

Almost every new gas station is already designed to be certified for taking electronic benefits for healthy foods purchased using benefits from programs like Women, Infants and Children, Bailey said. “We don’t build six pumps and a garage; we build small grocery stores,” he said.

Moreover, the industry is used to so-called “setbacks” zoning, which regulates any business where cigarettes and liquor are sold. New alcohol retailers in Colorado, for example, must be a certain distance from existing stores. 

“The council is trying to strike the balance and we appreciate being included in the conversation,” Bailey said. “It’s not uniform support” from the industry, “but it has been collaborative.”

Kashmann said drafts of the ordinance may continue to change, with a target for a council committee passage later this year, and a full council vote in early 2025. In the meantime, he said, Denver will still have plenty of gasoline. 

“God bless those who are delivering us our petroleum gas, because most of us still need it,” he said. (Full battery-electric and plug-in electric hybrids currently account for about 20% of new vehicle sales in Colorado.)

“I do hope we get to a world someday where we’re not burning up dinosaurs to get around,” said Kashmann, who is in his third and final allowed term on council. “But it looks like it’s going to be a good long way down the pike.”