Development

Guest post by Alex… Lakewood government, for over a decade, has been leading the city down the path of economic and environmental peril due to a seemingly intentional disregard for true economic development. This became painfully obvious at the city council meeting on the 7th of November, 2022.  An in-depth presentation by Elizabeth Garner from the Department of Local Affairs showed just how poorly positioned Lakewood has become from the perspective of generating local, well-paying jobs and attracting a vibrant pool of talent to fill them.  Of course, the council majority wasted no time in boiling everything down to “well, it’s the old people’s fault for not shopping more and we need more housing.” Around 28:30 mark, an interesting point comes to the fore – not only are there no well-paying jobs in Lakewood (i.e. $100,000+) in significant numbers, but even for the jobs that are here, there is not enough local talent to fill those jobs. Furthermore, younger, skilled people that do live in Lakewood are forced to join the tens of thousands of other residents who drive OUT of Lakewood on daily basis to DTC, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Aurora and other municipalities that wisely invested in massive, high-tech, quality, job creation for decades.  This amounts to hundreds of hours per person, per year, instead of spending that time exercising, taking care of choirs and spending time with loved ones.  Plus, the additional pollution. This is not a surprise as Lakewood government has conflated economic development with haphazard development and sales tax revenue instead of working on attracting world-class companies and guiding the build-out of well-planned middle housing which would attract and help the younger generation. Enter the Propaganda The city publishes “Looking@Lakewood”, in which the city is never shy to twist the narrative in order to mask its failures.  But even in the propaganda, the truth slips through. Looking at the November 2022 issue of “Looking@Lakewood” further confirms the decline of the city: 4.2% loss in the number of jobs from 2010-2020, while the city had added over 10,000 people.  How is it possible that during a decade of robust economic growth around the state and in the neighboring communities, Lakewood has actually lost jobs? According to a presentation by Mr. Robert Smith (Director of Lakewood Office of Economic Development), on November 5th, 2002, at the Ward 5 meeting, there are about 71,000 jobs in Lakewood, with tens of thousands driving every day in and out of Lakewood for work.  That would imply that Lakewood has actually lost about 2,900 jobs in the last decade.  While the neighboring communities have added thousands of localized, well-paying jobs.  During the same presentation, it became quickly obvious that Lakewood has no world-class companies present as the primary drivers of the economic activity in the city. Another worrying sign is the slowing in the growth of the younger generation.  This bodes poorly for the future workforce, which is vital to keeping the local economy vibrant.  Combined with the city’s failure to establish a robust local high-tech economy, what few younger people are around will be apt to leave the area in the coming years, further intensifying the economic death spiral of the city. The Affordable Housing Lie $400/month.  $4,800/year.  Is the amount of metro district fees paid by a citizen in Solterra as was testified by a citizen at a Lakewood City council meeting a few years ago.  That is in addition to what they already pay in property taxes.  How does this make the housing in Lakewood more affordable? $1,600-$2,000/month.  Is the cost of a one-bedroom rental in Lakewood.  So much for “affordable” housing.  Forcing more and more people into rental-only dwellings puts them on the path to financial servitude instead of providing an inventory of middle housing which would be an asset in attracting younger, well-educated potential talent in technical fields, thereby creating an incentive for high-tech world-class companies to consider Lakewood as a potential location for their offices. So not only is the Lakewood city government destroying the economic potential of the city, they are also making sure that the housing is less and less attainable for people of all socio-economic levels. Destroying the Economic Potential in Rooney Valley in the early 2000s. 1,000,000+.  That is how many square feet of commercially designated space was wiped away by the vote of the joint Lakewood-Morrison committee in 2018 in the Red Rocks Ranch.  300+ acres that were originally planned to support the generation of thousands of well-paying, localized jobs – gone.  And a representative from the JeffCo EDO spoke in support of this, while the Lakewood EDO was nowhere to be found.   Take a guess how many well-paying, localized jobs are in Red Rocks Ranch now? Here are some video captures of the joint Lakewood-Morrison commission voting to wipe away any chance of real economic development in Red Rocks Ranch: and The same commission (and the town of Morrison) were presented with a document, by the developer, which clearly stated that: “The cost of servicing residents for most Colorado communities exceeds the revenues those residents generate.” (Memo RE: The Economic and Fiscal Impacts of the Red Rocks Ranch Development – Page 7) Yet, Lakewood government wanted to push through an annexation of the same area, to saddle the already economically struggling city with more municipal expenses.  Even the former city, attorney, Tim Cox, clearly stated that residential units are an expense to the city: 59 acres.  Is the amount of space adjacent to the Federal Center which could’ve been used, over a decade ago, to entice world-class companies, such as Google, Amazon/AWS, Arrow Electronics, Charles Schwab to locate hundreds, if not thousands of jobs which would’ve served as an economic engine of its own.  Instead, the city manager and some on the city council have been tripping over themselves to provide a sweet-heart deal to those looking to make a short-term profit instead of creating an economic engine for the city. It is not as if some of us

On October 1 there was a Lakewood townhall meeting on affordable housing. Ward 5 Councilors Janssen and Strom hosted the meeting but representatives of all wards were present. Speakers at the meeting were representatives from Metro West Housing Solutions (MWHS). MWHS is a developer active in Lakewood since 2008, before that they were active in the market by a different name since 1974. They work to develop and manage properties for households with income that is 30-60% of the median household income level (ie <30% of the population). The question was asked, what about affordable housing for residents that don’t meet the income requirements. The answer was that it’s a question for Lakewood City Council and they are looking into options. Options for what any government can do to intercede in market pricing has many precedents, but few working solutions. Rent control and price fixing are failed examples of government intervention. Metro West Housing Solutions provide modern-day examples of problems with trying to be affordable. Example 1: MWHS only rents property. By their own admission, they could not sell properties they develop because even at cost the price would not be affordable. If they do sell the property to one entity, that entity can (and does) sell the property at a higher price because that’s what the market will bear. Example 2: One of the target demographics for MWHS is seniors on Social Security income, income which is often not enough to afford to move out of their large houses into a more manageable-sized unit. Allowing a senior to move into MWHS property may result in a larger home being sold. For affordable rates? Generally not, since said senior will have to get the most out of the property they can. Government favoring low-income, or affordable, housing is sometimes done by allowing developers who include affordable housing to build more than others. This is called inclusionary zoning. Once again, there is enough data to show that these policies have not worked in the past. Bigger picture, the city meeting did not and could not address the problem for those people who do not qualify for affordable housing. Most rents and mortgages will remain the same and those rates are rising. The reason for this is easy: Colorado is a desirable place to live and Lakewood is a prime location for work and recreation alike. The solution to high prices is generally to increase supply. In this case, build more homes. Since rental units are exempt from the Strategic Growth Initiative, building more apartments is an easy answer. That is good for the individual but is it good for the community? High residential communities have an increased burden of infrastructure, including traffic and police. Without the increased sales taxes from retail and commercial properties, high-density residential can have a hard time paying for increased infrastructure. For example, when asked about crime, a Sergeant from the Community Action Team said that low-income housing does not have more crime than other units, but that any place that has a large parking lot was a target. However, no solution has been offered on how to provide enough security so that people feel safe. There were also conflicting stories offered on how new high-density growth will affect surrounding home prices. MHWS representatives claim that studies show home prices in the area go up. A local resident that was present argued she personally knew people whose home prices went down drastically after high-density apartments were built in place of the originally planned strip mall. The meeting had some ideas for the future, including adding MWHS as a line item to the city budget and holding a future meeting on economic development.