DENVER — Vacant buildings and for lease signs fill Blake Street by the newly renovated 16th Street. Now, some businesses in the area are left without signage after they say the city recently cited the block to enforce the zoning code.
A flag that once greeted customers outside Jovanina’s Broken Italian is now taken down. It had been up for the past five years, with the owner, Jake Linzinmeir, explaining it helped with the busy construction in the area and brought awareness to the restaurant.
“Flag was up. No problem. No comment. All of a sudden, we got cited, all of our neighbors got cited for the signage to various degrees, and we were told that we needed to take everything down,” Linzinmeir said.
Ryan Huff, communications director for the City of Denver community planning and development, explained flags are not allowed under the city’s zoning code, and their enforcement is “primarily complaint-based.” While the flag had been up for several years, Huff said they did not want to ticket during the pandemic…