Lakewood News from Karen, Author at Lakewood Informer

Lakewood greenlights Kairoi to introduce invasive plants to BelmarPark

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on March 31, 2025. Leave a Comment

Photo by Regina Hopkins

In case you are wondering, the Irongate Complex at 777 S Yarrow Street has been converted to rubble by the demolition crew. Large piles of concrete rubble await removal.

Moving on to the topic of the day, a portion of Belmar Park is designated for grading on the developer’s grading plan. We estimate the area of the park to be graded amounts to thousands of square feet assuming the grading plan mentioned does not change.

However, Lakewood’s Planning Department states the opposite: “The proposed development of this property does not involve or include any parkland…”

Obviously, any area of the park destroyed by heavy equipment activities related to the Kairoi market-priced housing project will have to be fully restored to original or better condition, right? Wrong again.

According to the Erosion Control Report submitted to Lakewood by Kairoi’s civil engineers, only 70% of a restored area needs to be restored with ‘vegetation visible’ according to p.22. There is no requirement that the park be fully restored to original or better condition!

Let’s say someone crashed into your parked car and does significant damage. After body shop repairs, only 70% of the damage is repaired. Are you OK with that? If you are, apply for a job at the City of Lakewood where that level of completion is apparently acceptable when it comes to requiring developers to do the right thing.

Once an area has been graded, the developer will usually attempt to restore the area.

Read the entire newsletter…

Flight for Life helicopter from CommonSpirit Health website

Enstrom: Pink helicopters coming to Flight For Life

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on March 30, 2025. Leave a Comment

As of August 2024, St. Anthony’s Hospital is managed by CommonSpirit Health instead of Centura Health. Rick Enstrom, Lakewood resident and Board Trustee for St. Anthony’s, was on the Jeff and Bill Show, to talk about one major change Lakewood residents will notice. The color of the Flight for Life helicopters will be changed from the iconic orange to pink.

The color change is an expensive proposition for the health care industry. Enstrom says, “Right now, hospitals in Colorado, across the board, to a fault, are in financial difficulty. … If that’s a priority for this health care system, to spend a couple million bucks to repaint six helicopters, when we have all these needs and all of this growth in Colorado, is a travesty.”

Listen to the whole show on 710 KNUS on 3/21/25, 9 am, starting around 12 minute mark.

See the original story on 9news.com

Photo credit from CommonSpirit

Cruz and Furman Win Special Election

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on March 26, 2025. Leave a Comment

Picture of master site plan for The Bend

Site Plan for the Ex-Superfund Landfill

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on March 24, 2025. Leave a Comment

Thanks to a Lakewood Informer reader and local resident, the site plan for The Bend has been revealed! Contrary to previous reporting, plans have indeed been laid but when discussed in public meetings, those plans were “punted” till later. The north half was not a focus for the City because the planning department granted the developer a phased development status since remediation plans have not been set.

Our reader supplied a full list of instructions to access this information online, which were not provided with Lakewood’s CORA response. To view the plans, the public must register with the eTRAKiT site and login.

The address associated with the project is 11601 W 2^nd Pl. In eTRAKiT, search for the following project numbers:

FI24-0012 (final plat)
SP24-0006 (site plan)
ZP24-0005 (preplanning letter)
MD24-0001(metro district)

The master plan reveals the area north of 4^th Ave that is currently labeled “do not disturb” will eventually have more residential housing than the south end, totaling about 2000, rather than 2000 only on the south end.

There is currently no public plan for remediation or start times while the developer, Lincoln Properties, works to secure the pieces necessary to get a metropolitan district approved. The metro district will be used as a funding mechanism, rather than a service mechanism, and nothing can proceed without funding.

The difference between a funding mechanism and service mechanism is important because metropolitan districts are granted government privileges based on providing public services.

To get any kind of infrastructure built on the landfill, the site will need remediation. The safety of the future residents would dictate that full site remediation be completed before building. It’s possible the profits from the south side will be used to fund the north side, or be used to repay developer investment before moving on to the more costly north side.

A bank or private investors might demand remediation first since the success and cost of remediation will dictate overall project success. Federal grants are available to assist, which in this case is only right since the federal government caused the contamination. State grants are also available, many of which are pass-through for federal funds.

Much of the rest of the funding will come through Lakewood’s Urban Renewal financing and metro district bonds. With Lakewood-approved, government-backed guarantees through metro districts, the developer can privatize the benefits while socializing the risks. The benefit to the public will be the ability to live on this revitalized land.

In this case, there is no public living there and asking for a democratic vote on public services. Those future residents are depending on the city to represent their interests. There is no direct representation for taxation.

Brighter Futures Lakewood IEC

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on March 24, 2025. Leave a Comment

Brighter Futures Lakewood is an Independent Expenditure Committee (IEC) registered in Lakewood to advocate for Ken Cruz and Bill Furman for Lakewood City Council. According to committee reports, the IEC registered March 11, just two weeks before the election.

See their website at https://brightcoloradofutures.com/

Brighter Futures filed two special reports for expenditures over $500. Both expenditures were for Google ads, totaling $8,000.

Smaller contributions and expenditures would be reported on the regular report, which was due Friday, for spending 2/22-3/15. That report has an incorrect link that has been reported to the city and should be corrected 3/24 for transparency.

The incorrect link was noted on nextdoor.com by Natalie Menten, who points out “IECs are used to reduce transparency and create layers in campaign finance. Also, used to exceed the limited campaign $$ donation rules dictating how much a candidate can take directly. With 48-hours left before the ballot boxes close, there could be some larger spending coming up.”

Additionally, Ken Cruz has raised about $10,000 so far and Bill Furman has raised about $6,000. The candidate with the next highest contribution value is Pete Roybal at about $1,200. Candidates Patrick Flaherty, Desiree Gonzales, Nicholas Munden and Diane Rhodes, have smaller contributions, if any.

If Lakewood elections go to the highest spenders, Cruz and Furman will be the next City Councilors.

The media company Brighter Futures used is Kabza, which claims to be for “designing Democratic victories”. This company was used by Democrats throughout the state, including local US Rep. Brittany Pettersen, Colorado Rep. Rebekah Stewart, Jeffco Commissioner Tracey Kraft-Tharp and three Jeffco School Board Members. This is not direct party support but shows the Democrat machine has chosen their candidates, even though City Council is technically non-partisan.

Notice for city that this is not an endorsement of any candidate nor authorized by any candidate or committee. Paid for by the Lakewood Informer although this communication did not cost anything extra but someone will ask.

Update: Manager’s Salary Even Higher

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on March 23, 2025. Leave a Comment

Lakewood resident Bob Adams brings receipts! Lakewood Informer news stated that City Manager Cathy Hodgson made a base salary of $280,000, as stated during the December 19, 2022 City Council meeting.

Mr. Adams made an open records request to find out that the City Manager’s 2024 annual base salary was $335,949. This does not include benefits.

The adjustment could be year-over-year increases, which would be a 20% increase over two years. It could also be that the original $280,000 stated during council meetings was incorrect, if so, my apologies.

Many City Councilors justify this high salary based on Manager Hodgson’s 15 years of experience. There is, understandably, no public discussion on personnel matters. However, the review used to be tied to a metric like resident satisfaction. With declining satisfaction, the resident survey came out with less frequency and is no longer a performance metric.

From Bob Adams, 2023, open records request from Lakewood:

Screenshot of excel sheet showing salary

Screenshot of the Kim Monson Show podcast

Ramey Johnson on Kim Monson Show

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on March 21, 2025.

Lakewood’s own Ramey Johnson was on the Kim Monson Show, KLZ 560 AM, Wednesday, March 19, to discuss several statewide bills that could cost taxpayers money.

As members of the Colorado Union of Taxpayers (CUT), Monson and Johnson discuss House Bills 25-1211 and 25-1297.

Regarding HB25-1211, Monson said, “I think this House Bill 25-1211, tap fees imposed by special districts, this is big government and politicians, to me, it looks like getting in bed together.”

Johnson replies, “Yes, it is, Kim. But more than that, this one is a gift to the developers. It’s a developer’s dream come true”

HB25-1211 is Rep. Rebekah Stewart’s bill that tries to force special districts to lower fees to accomplish her surplus housing strategy, as reported by Lakewood Informer news

HB25-1297 is for a Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise. Monson said, “Whenever you see the word enterprise, that means they’re trying to take money out from the calculations for the TABOR refunds, your money coming back to you.” The bill talks about new fees.

Johnson responds, “There’s no such thing as fees. That means a tax.” She explains that the bill authorizes an increase in health insurance affordability fee.

Listen to the whole interview, starting around the 18-minute mark.

Kentner on Mandy Connell for Belmar

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on March 21, 2025.

From Mandy Connell’s blog

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN GOVERNMENT WON’T LISTEN? That is the situation that many Lakewood residents find themselves in when it comes to the conflict over green space vs. development. This time it’s Belmar Park, where developers want to build right up the boundaries and pay dispensation money instead of actually honoring green space that is required. I’ve got Cathy Kentner with Save Belmar Park on at 1 to chat about it. Find out more about their cause by clicking here.

Lakewood’s Cathy Kentner did a great job of explaining how this goes beyond growth arguments and into honoring plans to maintain community standards.

Thank you Cathy and Mandy for highlighting this issue!

Listen to the interview here

New zoning rules propose to take Lakewood back to “bedroom” community concept

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on March 20, 2025.

Repost from Dave Weichman

On top of everything else going on these days, the Lakewood establishment is planning to change the city’s comprehensive plan and zoning codes to allow for more population density and cheaper housing. As usual there is way too much devil in the details to wrap one’s head around.

However, there is one area that gives me a deja vu. Back when I was on City Council (in 2012) there was a major change in zoning. One of the innovations was the concept of “mixed-use” zones.

We on Council bought into the idea there could be buildings with multiple uses. The example we were sold on was a vision where the first floor of the building could have commercial uses like restaurants or shops. The second floor could be offices for businesses. The third and fourth floors could be apartments or condos for residential use.

Therefore there could be three different types of uses within the same building. This would reduce the need for traveling to different zones for a range of uses – i.e. one could work, shop, play and live all within a single building. So city zoning was changed to create “mixed-use” zones that would allow for several different types of uses within the same structure.

However, when it came time to actually build this type of zoning ALL these buildings were 100% housing. Commercial uses and offices remained located in other parts of the metro area. The City argued mixed-use did not mean there actually had to be more than one use going on in a building but rather there was a range of possible uses to choose from. According to this line of reasoning, the builder could choose to either build all housing, or all commercial or all offices.

When voters complained about this bait and switch tactic, there was an effort to require that mixed-use buildings actually have more than one use going on. There was a major City Council effort led by Ward 4’s David Skilling to change the zoning rules for properties in Mixed-Use Employment (MU-E) districts.

Mr. Skilling was able to pass an ordinance that changed MU-E zones to prohibit more than 50% of the building being used for housing. However, since developers never had any intention of building mixed use projects but rather were just interested in finding a way to build housing in zones previously limited to commercial or office use, not a single project was eventually build using this model.

After these zoning rules went into effect, developers with properties zoned as MU-Employment came back to the city and requested permission to re-zone these properties into a category that would allow them to build 100% housing.

Fast forward to 2025. The current proposed “reform” of the City’s zoning codes seeks to just get rid of the 50% limit on housing in MU-E zones. That way developers could continue to just focus on building more housing. As for commercial and office uses, the proposed zoning would go back to the old scheme of making Lakewood the “bedroom” community for metro Denver.

So this new zoning is essentially a GOING BACK to the glory days of multi-family residential housing and riding the train into Denver for work or shopping.

Screenshot of the Dec 19, 2022 City Council meeting

City Manager’s Annual Review

Written by Lakewood News from Karen on March 20, 2025.

By Lenore Herskovitz

On Monday, March 24 the City Council will hold the first of 2 Special Meetings regarding the Annual Review of the City Manager, Kathy Hodgson. Residents are not privy to the standards or metrics that are used to evaluate the job performance of our most powerful and most highly compensated city officials. At one time, the City of Lakewood Community Survey was issued every 2 to 3 years which included approval ratings for the city’s performance. In 2010, when Kathy Hodgson took office this approval rating was 67%. By 2022, this had dropped to 38%. Since then, this survey has not circulated. Until 2022 these survey results were included in the evaluation process (See Lakewood Informer news report from 2022). On Dec. 19, 2022, the City Council met to amend the City Manager’s 2014 Employment Agreement and establish the 2022 Employment Agreement. This was supposed to be discussed on Dec. 5 in an Executive session but 4 Councillors (Able, Springsteen, Olver, and Janssen) opposed the session because they felt they had not been provided enough information in advance of the meeting.

At the Dec. 19 meeting there was confusion about whether the representatives were voting solely on the amendments or on the new contract because the packet that was presented only included a staff memo and the resolution containing the proposed amendments. There was no redlined version showing what had been removed from the 2014 contract or any copy of what the new contract would be in its entirety. One thing that had been eliminated was any use of the community survey results when determining the City Manager’s compensation. Only City Council would make that determination moving forward. In spite of the fact that no complete copy of the 2022 contract was provided, the majority of council members voted to pass it. Those voting in favor included our present mayor then Councilor Strom, Mayor Pro Tem (then Councilor) Shahrezaei, and Councilor Mayott-Guerrero. Those opposed were the same 4 who voted against the Dec. 5 executive session which forced the public hearing on the 19th. As a result, the determination regarding the City Manager’s review and compensation rests in the hands of our elected council members. How often do these individuals hold the City Manager accountable? Is there really any oversight when department heads fail to comply with city codes or ordinances? For example, when the previous Director of Community Resources failed to evaluate fees-in-lieu on an annual basis from 2018 to 2023 as required by ordinance, were there any consequences? The City Manager appoints this and other directorial positions and is responsible for supervising them. Recently, it was discovered that perhaps the Chief of Sustainability and Community Development and his staff had not been following the 2018 Parkland Dedication ordinance, which can be seen in a letter dated October 23, 2024 on page 2 of this document under Item 11 Parkland Dedication, the developer, who had not yet been issued a building permit, was being charged the old fee of $254,545 an acre as opposed to the $432,727 fee that went into effect on June 1, 2024.

PLANNING COMMENTS V4_SP22-0020 Download

Are ordinances mere suggestions rather than laws to be followed under this City Manager? Is discretion to reinterpret the law acceptable now? Who, if anyone, is providing oversight and accountability from department heads, or do mistakes just get scapegoated or buried altogether?

After years of complaints, meetings are still posted on the wrong site. There still is no consolidated, easily accessible City Directory to identify employees by department and their city contact information. At the annual planning session, councilors have requested better communication between themselves and staff. The City Manager was supposed to provide in-person quarterly updates on goals set at the retreat. Instead, there are updates on the city dashboard in addition to a workshop that was held in person (with no recording available to the public who couldn’t attend). For years, City Council has seemed willing to overlook these shortfalls.

If you wish to share your views about the City Manager’s performance feel free to contact: CityCouncilMembers@Lakewood.org
You can also contact your individual councilors through the link provided (https://www.lakewood.org/Government/City-Council/City-Council-Members)

Author: Lakewood News from Karen