Did Lakewood overgrow Academy Park?

Addenbrooke Classical Academy Executive Director Ric Netzor made a public plea for help to the City of Lakewood, November 28, 2022.

“We need your help. There is a bar that prohibits our people from entering and exiting our campuses other than from one street and that is from up Teller St. The bar is put there because of fire requirements and it is actually owned by the City and County of Denver.”

Netzor continues, “I am asking that Lakewood, since I believe Addenbrooke to be a star in your crown so to speak, I ask that you step in and assist us in this area.”

Addenbrooke is like many schools with car line problems. However, it does have complicating factors with Denver Christian School next door, who already had a long car line on the same street before Addenbrooke. On top of that, Addenbrooke is across from Windsor at Pinehurst Apartments that are still adding new units.

Mr. Netzor states:

“The City and County of Denver has said that the City of Lakewood should have never allowed this portion of the Academy Park area to grow to the extent that it has but we find ourselves there.”

Looking at the area map once again, readers may notice that there is a dense development on one only side of Pierce (marked in red).

The west side of Pierce St marks the boundary with Denver. DENVER planned for development to the edges of their constituency and put a road in there. Did Lakewood assume Denver would allow use of its streets?

Common use for streets may normally be a reasonable assumption but it’s still an assumption the city has a duty to check. Furthermore, parents of Addenbrooke students have heard that Denver constituents in Colorado Academy and Pinehurst Country Club have made pleas to Denver to keep traffic off Pierce. One father relates trying to skip the line by dropping off on Pierce and being yelled at from what appeared to a parent from Colorado Academy, lending credence to the theory.

So the solution may appear to be as easy as convincing Denver to let Lakewood businesses use its streets, but this is an example of Lakewood planning not anticipating development issues and being absent from helping to solve problems of their making. What could LAKEWOOD do to solve this problem, without throwing blame on Denver, who is looking out for their own constituents?

At the end of public comment, Mayor Paul commented on the issue, “We certainly understand the problem of Addenbrooke area with all the schools and the frustrating issue with our partners in Denver not being able to open a gate so we will certainly continue to try and work that out.”

No statement of Lakewood accountability was made. No assurances that Lakewood would not grow an area beyond its infrastructure were made.