While the proposal had significant support from Denver residents and affordable-living advocates and scored an 11-2 vote from council, it also faced significant — and vocal — opposition.
Opponents, who coalesced into an advocacy group called Safe and Sound Denver last summer, argued that the proposed ordinance would decrease public safety, chip away at the neighborhood character of certain parts of Denver, and lead to overcrowding. Safe and Sound Denver also claimed that Community Planning and Development's work was a results-oriented process that had pre-determined outcomes.
Mayl is the former president of Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation Denver, an organization founded to represent the interests of the city's registered neighborhood organizations. But in signing on to the campaign against the new ordinance, he says, he's operating as an individual. (The four other people who signed on to be petitioner committee members — Samuel Hargraves, Jennifer Qualteri, Richard Saiz and Thricosia Burdine — did not return calls from