The 2025 budget presentation included a sales pitch to keep your TABOR refunds. Each department made note of which projects would be funded by TABOR and made a simple statement along the lines of “Without the additional TABOR revenues, the city will have less revenue.” Lakewood’s Chief Financial Officer, Holly Bjorklund, dedicated extra slides detailing how TABOR retained tax funds were used, by the specific project and by the department, to make an impressive list of accomplishments. Staff did not note which projects would go away if sales tax revenue decreased. There was no note detailing ways to increase sales tax revenues through economic development. No Council Member asked to spend less.
TABOR retained funds accounts for 1.23% of all funds. In contrast, sales tax is the biggest source of revenue at 41%. Sales tax is also used for parks and police and all other city functions. It would be normal to focus on the bigger percentage of funds to present a clear budget picture. Instead, Lakewood focused on the single-digit, smaller source of funds. Coincidentally, Lakewood initiated a ballot vote to retain these funds permanently into the future.
TABOR is the most mentioned fund but among the least significant.
All this focus on TABOR by the city is to influence the upcoming vote that the city sponsored. If you have any doubts about Lakewood influencing your vote, see the list of TABOR-funded projects that the city has thoughtfully provided on its website.
There would be no need to focus on one, little, over-collected fund if the city would:
Spend within budget limits
Maintain a balance between residential service expenditures and incoming revenues
Maintain business growth to residential growth proportions
Note the jump in retained TABOR fund in 2017, coincident with the city’s ability to retain. “Through the ballot measure in 2018, Lakewood voters approved lifting the TABOR limits on the city’s budget from 2017 through 2025” – Lakewood 2025 Budget Book
Lakewood City Council Members used resident concerns about speeding to pursue their climate change goals. They did this by lowering speed limits to increase walkable neighborhoods. The plan is to cause people to be uncomfortable driving and therefore reduce driving or increase walking. Monday night’s vote started with a discussion of public safety, but the final discussion points highlighted the walkability agenda, perhaps because there has never been an analysis of how many accidents were caused by speeding as opposed to other causes. There were a lot of assumptions made that speeding was the cause of every accident. Several Council Members and residents referred to the need to reduce or eliminate driving in order to make the city more walkable. In other words, if only there were lower speed limits, residents would feel safe enough to bike or walk. All Lakewood residential streets will now be at school zone speeds. Council positions are below.
Walkable cities use planning, design, and density to maximize walking and minimize driving. Emissions decrease as pedestrians take the place of cars. – Climatedesigners.org
Despite multiple claims by Council Members that their vote was “data driven”, there was no data presented on key facts:
How many accidents were caused solely by speeding on affected streets?
Do lower speed limits influence how many people walk to work?
How many residential streets are already posted with 25 mph limits? (a significant number are)
How can Lakewood lower the number of fatalities below zero?
Council Members seemed to focus on an unsourced graph showing the likelihood of surviving an accident at different speeds. The injury data had no basis compared to other Lakewood statistics. For example, the statistic is that 25% of people will die when involved in an accident at 25 mph. However, the Lakewood data show 936 accidents on streets up to 40 mph with a total of 66 fatalities. If the statistics that most Councilors referenced was accurate, there should be more like 234 fatalities.
There is at least a 3.5x data exaggeration in the number of potential fatalities
The data exaggeration is proved by Lakewood data. But the reason the data may not really matter is because lowering the speed limit pushes the city along Council’s climate change goals, regardless of any safety motive.
Council Positions:
Shahrezaei: She says the issue is safety and less injuries (referring to the slide with exaggerated numbers). She says we want complete streets and less car-centric streets. Offers amendment to lower all the way to 20 mph. She encourages school zone signs to remain.
Olver: Demonstrates how lower speed limits will not change the number of people driving extremely fast. He says this isn’t data driven because there are no fatalities on residential streets so we can’t reduce the number of fatalities. There are no statistics on auto-pedestrian fatalities as to who is at fault or why. So there are no data-driven advantages to this.
Mayott-Guerrero: Is concerned about injuries caused by 25 mph. She says 20 mph is lifesaving. She “gently reminds” Olver that he is wrong about speeds. She says this lower speed limit is a community-building technique. She is interested in additional traffic calming measures.
LaBure: Says this is not just for the safety aspect but for the cultural aspect. “We want to be a walkable community that is safe and inviting.” Interested in more traffic calming measures.
Sinks: Asks about how long 25 mph would last before moving to 20 mph, if ever. (point became moot when Council voted for 20 mph but answer was 5-10 years)
Stewart: Says she likes 20 mph because most of the injuries are in ward 3. Says this will reduce injury and death. (Note: Councilor Stewart may be referring to a slide that showed only 7 out of the 67 accidents occurred on residential streets. Those occurred over a four year period, from Wadsworth to Sheridan. The point of this demonstration was to show that no stretch was really a hotspot and none of the residential streets had unexpected amounts of accidents. Most of the injuries occur along Colfax, not a residential street at all.)
Cruz: Ask about data specifics including potential detriments to walking, like high-speed limits. Says one of the goals of Lakewood is to reduce miles driven so increasing bicycle usage will help that. Asks about the speed cushion process with relation to emergency vehicles.
Rein: Reiterates question on staff opinion about going to 25 mph or 20 mph. Rein supports 20 mph only after a period of 25 mph.
Low: He says he did his own research and found lowering speed limits actually works. He supports going to 20 mph. He says Lakewood has a lot of people who want to do more biking, more walking and we need safer streets.
Strom: Comments that we have a lot more cars so there is a lot more conflict. Asks for yard signs for residents to remind people of the lower speed limits.
We all rely on our elected officials, both paid and volunteer to do the right thing, work together, and make the best decisions possible for the city, county, and school system. When they aren’t talking, community amenities are put at risk. Our neighborhood, in the north end of Ward 1, is in a position to lose many amenities that can isolate a neighborhood. We are being handed “plans”, then input is received and largely ignored, with a concession here and there. Here are the example of what we are experiencing:
Graham Park & Graham House:
The Graham House and Park were donated to the city for a park with house for meetings and education. Last Autumn, a small group of neighbors and HOAs (in a largely non-HOA neighborhood) were notified of “improvements” to this park. The plan included the demolition of the Graham House. The reason for the demolition plan was the cost of fixing up the building as event rentals had decreased, largely for the reason that the building had not been maintained. According to counts of the responses on at the initial community meeting and on https://www.lakewoodtogether.org/grahamparkimprovements , community members want to keep the building, yet this request was ignored. The new plan after community involvement, is to demolish the building. An open records request response said that there is no record of a legal review by the City Attorney whether or not demolishing the building in respect to our city charter is legal, section 14.3, page 40. Today, I requested of all our city council members a legal review of the plan to demolish the Graham House within Graham Park. If there is an objective lawyer out there reading this who would like to give a pro bono opinion to the community, please do.
Vivian Elementary School:
JJeffCo School District decided to close Vivian Elementary School. The school exists on a parcel of land donated in 1953 by the Larsen family, who farmed the land. The family of the Larsens have indicated they would like the property to remain public. Since the school closed in the Fall of 2023, neighbors say we are not receiving the priority #2 snow plowing around the school, making it more difficult to get out of the neighborhood onto priority #1 streets.
In April 2024, JeffCo Schools held a community meeting at the local library. They were overwhelmed by the number of people from our community who were interested, so many that monitors were set up outside of the room for overflow. Representatives from the school district told the community that the City of Lakewood had turned down the opportunity to purchase the land and building. This municipal process was posted on the JeffCo Schools Disposition web site for how the process was supposed to go. The first step of the process is to meet with city officials, yet no record of this meeting exists.
At the library meeting, the community gave clear feedback that a park was the best use of this land and indicated that the school district should go back to the city and ask again. Instead, Jeffco Schools went ahead with their next steps in the process to sell the land, which could result in up to 70 homes being built on the property. Community members came forward in force with requests of the city to purchase this land for a park and possibly using the building for a recreation or learning center of some kind.
On September 13th at 12:00 noon, the City Council of Lakewood and the Jeffco School Board and Superintendent held a meeting. The only topic discussed was the school disposition process and more specifically, Emory and Vivian Elementary Schools. While the Jeffco School Disposition process has a community notification system in place for anyone interested in one or all of the schools, a notification did not go out about this meeting. The meeting was mostly about how the process didn’t work and Jeffco Schools admittedly said that the municipal process needed to be more “formal”, and that the city would be given more time in the future to respond on whether or not a property was desired for purchase. The additional time would allow the city to discuss plans with the community before giving a formal response on a property.
So, there are now direct negotiations for the city to purchase 3 acres from Jeffco Schools and Jeffco has asked developers to include that in their final plans.
A community group met with one of the developers at their request to look at their plan and give feedback. The development plan was for the ballfields, basketball court, playground, picnic areas, parking lot, and school building to be demolished. The plan showed 37 houses leaving 3 acres of park space. Unfortunately, this is the 3 acres on the easement under which a very large Denver Water pipe lies. Likely, homes could not be built on most of this space anyway. We lose our amenities, we gain an easement.
We would like to have a discussion with the city before all the amenities are gone.
10850 20th Street/Quail Street Park:
City Council approved the purchase of this land from Denver Water in the Autumn of 2023. The city website says they have purchased it and will ask for community involvement after the purchase is complete. The portion on which Quail Street Park with a playground sits is a lease held by the city through 2028.
The Assessor’s office shows the owner is still Denver Water. I asked the city for clarification and was told negotiations are ongoing. City Council members have described this land as “passive park space”, which denotes no ball field or space for organized sports.
Removal of 20th and Oak Pedestrian Light:
In addition to these properties, a pedestrian traffic light at 20th and Oak was being reviewed for decommissioning. Kids used it to get to Vivian Elementary School. Neighbors responded to the request for input, saying this light connects the neighborhood blocks, slows traffic on 20th, and was good for the community. The light was removed.
A neighborhood at risk of isolation:
A micro look at each of these decisions and the manner in which they were executed, taken individually, is certainly not palatable. And when looked at from a macro level, they indicate government entities not working together and in doing so, isolating a community from amenities which have been at the center of this community’s mental and physical health.
The City of Lakewood’s own research identified Ward 1 as the ward with the least amount of city park and green space per population. How is more infill acceptable?
We’ve lost a school, the center of community connection. We’ve lost a pedestrian light that assured the safety of community members walking our part of the city. We are losing a second community building through what seems to be intentional neglect with intention to demolish. Now we’re at risk for losing ball fields, picnic areas, and a playground with no assurances to replace these amenities.
With all the focus on mental and physical health, why remove those amenities that keep us mentally and physically strong, placing those budgets and efforts instead on fixing those things later at a higher cost?
Store grand opening event will feature tire installation, fun, food & prizes
Press Release
Easterseals Colorado’s vehicle will get some top-notch new tires at the two-day grand opening celebration of Lakewood’s new Les Schwab Tires store. Les Schwab is donating the tires as part of its Tires for Purpose program and will install them during the festivities on Sept. 27. The West Metro Chamber of Commerce will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 28. More details can be found below.
Easterseals Colorado helps people with disabilities, their families and caregivers all have the opportunity to thrive in our communities through programs and services. New tires on their vehicle will help advance the organization’s mission by enabling staff members to help people move around and transport supplies.
The community is invited to join the grand opening celebration at the 11,961-square-foot Les Schwab Tires store at 2165 S Webster St.,featuring the tire installation at 11 a.m. on Sept. 27. Visitors will enjoy food, snacks and a chance to win prizes, gift cards and more. Come by for a free brake check and pre-trip safety check, as well as a visual inspection of the most important parts of your vehicle.
In addition to welcoming a new community supporter, with the opening of the Lakewood Les Schwab Tires store residents now have a new option for one-stop shopping to ensure their vehicles are equipped to safely transport them wherever they need to go. Les Schwab’s offerings include brake services, alignment, shocks and more – a more robust range of services than those available from other tire shops that simply sell tires.
WHEN: Friday, Sept. 27, 2024
8 am-6 pm: Food and snacks, spin the prize wheel for a chance to win prizes, gift cards and more (while supplies last)
11:00 am: Tires for Purpose donated tire installation for Easterseals Colorado
1:00 pm-3:00 pm: KXKL 105.1 to attend
Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024
8 am-5 pm: Food and snacks, spin the prize wheel for a chance to win prizes, gift cards and more (while supplies last)
10:00 am: Ribbon cutting hosted by the West Metro Chamber of Commerce
WHAT: Media tours, video opportunities
Spin to win prizes and services
Free treats and food for tire center visitors
WHO: Reporters will have access to store leadership for interviews, video and photos.
Aaron Wheeler, Les Schwab’s Lakewood Store Manager
As Mayor, you and the City Council are asking us (in the November ballot measure) to allow you to permanently keep and spend all the extra tax dollars you over collected, not just this year, but next year and every year after that, as well as asking blanket permission to raise taxes anytime without a vote of the people. We know these extra tax dollars were not an accident, but deliberately over collected – in anticipation of your ballot measure.
How are our tax dollars being spent? As a taxpayer, I was shocked to learn we pay Lakewood City Manager, Kathy Hodgson, $368,137 in base salary per year – nearly as much as the President of the United States at $400,000 and much more than the vice president and governor. This seems really high for a town the size of Lakewood. The city Manager in Ft. Collins (slightly larger) is paid $97,232 and Colorado Springs (much larger), $104,517. Please advise and explain the total compensation package currently being paid to the city manager. Please include additional fringe benefits, any bonus amounts paid, deferred compensation, expense accounts, retirement benefits and any other benefits. As you know, all of this is public information.
Thank you in advance. This information will help us evaluate your Ballot Measure.
Sincerely,
Bob Adams
Lakewood.
Further information: As an addendum, I’ve just learned that our Lakewood city manager also has a deputy city manager who is paid $207,000.
This letter was sent to the Mayor by email. If I receive a response from her or the Council, I’ll share it here.
The video below, recorded in early February 2024, discusses Jefferson County’s plans to invest millions of dollars in taxpayer funds on Navigation Center(s) and outlines their expectations.
In particular, I recommend watching the discussion at the 15:30 mark, where Commissioner Andy Kerr shares his position that public funds should be spent on individuals regardless of where they’re from or legal status. The response from Jeffco staff highlights that, depending on the funding source and any restrictions, their approach is essentially “the more, the merrier.”
The opening section of the video touches on Proposition 123, which may be confusing for some viewers. For context, Prop 123 was narrowly approved by voters in 2022 and reallocates TABOR refunds to support government-managed, taxpayer-subsidized housing and homelessness initiatives. The video explores three main revenue streams: federal ARPA funds, Prop 123 allocations, and county public funds, which are currently capped under TABOR but could be uncapped if voters pass Measure 1A in the 2024 election.
Two major developments, in addition to schools, are being considered for government purchase. These include the Aspen Heights building at 13th & Wadsworth, which is stalled due to financing issues, and the Colorado DMV campus at Pierce & Colfax, where former State Representative Chris deGruy Kennedy is negotiating a deal to convert the property into subsidized housing.
Editor’s Note: Financing issues on the Aspen Heights property are on the developer side, not any potential deal with a government.
Lakewood closed on the purchase of the Navigation Center property on Wednesday, September 18, 2024. Travis Parker, Chief of the Sustainability and Community Development Department, made the announcement on Monday, Sept 16, during the budget presentation. The property has been leased until now. He added that Lakewood is working on an Intergovernmental Agreement to fund operations, which may include Arvada’s new navigation center as well. Such an agreement would allow other cities to contribute some funds while Lakewood takes on the long-term burden of caring for the unhoused. Lakewood will begin property renovations as soon as possible. The property has never been granted a shelter permit, which is the only opportunity for public input. Instead it has operated for years on an emergency basis and will continue to do so. The increased crime surrounding the area has been ignored by the city, as has the increase in homeless in Lakewood. City officials seem intent on providing more free to low-income housing despite these problems. Lakewood is also looking for properties to host transitional housing, like pallet homes, particularly along Colfax. Lakewood donated $500,000 to affordable housing projects this year.
The Colorado Department of Local Affairs published a press release regarding the development going in near Whippoorwill Dr, to showcase the positive impact of this housing funding locally. As a follow up, Lakewood Informer asked if DOLA was aware of the resident concerns or the dangerous interestion involved. There has been no response at this time.
Williams Pointe: Housing Authority of the City of Lakewood, Colorado dba Metro West Housing Solutions (MWHS), was awarded a DOH loan of $4.4 million and a grant for $2.2 million to assist with new construction of Williams Pointe, a 44-unit apartment building in Lakewood.
The owners of Lakewood affordable housing are plagued by crime that is ruining their business and driving residents away. A piece of their property was taken by Lakewood in 2022 through eminent domain to be used as a bike path. Now that bike path, along RTD tracks, is home to so much illegal activity that the people living nearby are leaving their affordable housing to go elsewhere. Property owners made another plea to City Council on August 26 asking for police enforcement. Property owners met with RTD on September 9 and city representatives accepted the invitation to attend. However, no new actions or greater enforcement was promised. Property owners were urged to keep calling but their calls will remain a low priority since Lakewood does not prioritize drug use or vagrancy.
“We have Section 8 people who do not want to live at our property and are moving out. We have higher turnover and vacancy costs. We are being put out of business by the issues going on across the street. Our business is to help and provide affordable housing.” – Property owner
The owners have made hundreds of calls to police in the last years. The police are involved in several incidents but say their hands are tied so they try and disperse the people loitering, who then return and continue their activities, leaving evidence of drug use and drug deals on the property.
City Council defends programs of selective enforcement or non-enforcement. These programs nullify the law, leaving people like these owners to watch their affordable housing become uninhabitable. Council has chosen to keep laws on the books that the city will not enforce.
The Zephyr property used to have a valuable amenity, being on a quiet, dead-end street near the lightrail. That has changed.
“…now it’s drugs and illegal activity. This isn’t watching people smoking weed. This is watching people doing hard drugs and bad things. All day every day.” – Property owner
Image from public comment presentation showing someone passed out, and people loitering.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time these property owners have had to come before City Council. They came a year ago to plea for help and came once before that. They have been ignored for years. Points West still operates out of Lakewood to provide safe drug use material with county funding. (Read more about these complaints in Lakewood Informer news)
Lakewood police told property owners that calls on infractions involving illicit drug use and vagrancy are a low priority call. On the day of the RTD meeting, RTD and Lakewood officials came to the property to find the remains of a campfire that vagrants had set the night before. Lakewood considers the space a park and allows people to stay. RTD also allows people to stay as long as needed.
Lakewood does not prioritize drug use or vagrancy. – Policy of Lakewood Police as explained to property owners
We’re the owners and managers of 1320, 1330 Zephyr Street. We’re a family-owned business that was started in 1991. Over the last 10 years we’ve produced a portfolio of apartments, mostly in West Denver and in Lakewood. We currently own more than 300 units in Lakewood, and multiple properties along the light rail station. We take pride in providing safe, clean, affordable housing, and we are committed community partners, striving to make a positive impact. In the community we operate.
More than a third of our tenants are on Section 8 housing vouchers.
Our main focus today is the challenges of the transit population along Wadsworth Station specifically, that is affecting Zephyr Street and multiple properties along the light rail station. We purchased the Zephyr apartments in 2016. We improved the property investing in the units, common area, and had a stable, quiet property, um, that families enjoyed living in.
In 2022, the City of Lakewood came and took part of the property via eminent domain to create a larger public walkway and bike path, and they took valuable parking from our residents. Since then, we’ve had ongoing issues with the transit population along the light rail that was once a valuable amenity to our tenants. Here’s our property, highlighted in green, the Wadsworth station is one block to the east of the picture, highlighted in yellow is the section that was eminent domain from our property.
Here is the southeast, southwest corner of our property, looking to the east of the light rail station is 2 blocks um past our property, um, and this shows the area that was eminent domain.
I’m gonna just talk about some of the safety concerns and issues that we have since the property was taken this larger walkway, um, sits behind a chain link fence from our property and our tenants no longer feel safe. This is a place that was a nice area. The street dead ends there. And so a nice public space and it’s now drugs and illegal activity. This isn’t watching people smoking weed. This is watching people doing hard drugs and bad things. All day every day. People don’t want their kids to use the bike path. Tenants don’t feel comfortable going and using the public transportation and light rail.
What was once an amenity is now a nuisance.
We’ve constant trespassing and public intoxication. So we have people that come onto our side and they come on people’s balconies, they break into our property in common area. We’ve had theft of our property of our tenant’s property and vehicles. With people using the bathroom out of the bathroom. People doing Schedule One drugs and doing other things that nobody wants to see all day every day at their apartment. It’s a health and safety concern. They’re creating trash constantly, so the trash gets in between this fence and is littered onto our property. So WE have to go pick up needles and, and spend time and money, to make a safe place for our tenants in our community, which is our goal as a landlord.
The unauthorized vehicle access.
We have limited parking spaces in our property and now people literally come and park illegally at our property to sell drugs at this location.
The conduct is that we have cars that are left and abandoned there. We do have the police involved and they’ve come and made some arrests and done some things, but they really, if you talk to the police, their hands are tied and they tell people to kind of move along and people are back shortly thereafter. People continue to enter our property, the criminal activity and drug use is consistent, and I mean, these are pictures of this is a guy on our property passed out. I mean, literally needs help. This is just showing from a car the quantity of people that gather here. Some of these are videos that you play, but you guys get the idea. I mean, there is a constant stream of people here and as landlords on the other side of the fence. We can’t, there’s only so much that we can do. We’ve called the police 100 times in the last year, more than I think, 45 times since April. You can’t see these police reports, but there’s all the things happening at the property, fireworks, drugs, breaking and entering, theft.
You know, as a property owner, we think we have a responsibility, and our tenants have a responsibility to the public space. Um, they need to take care of the public space. They shouldn’t endanger the life of people around the area. They shouldn’t conduct property damage or destruction, or they shouldn’t materially harm or threaten people or properties, health, safety and welfare. And this happens every single day to the tenants at our property, from the people who are right there on the other side of the fence, and,
We feel like the city has a responsibility to uphold the same standards that we would want to uphold as a landlord in our private property on your private property, and it’s just not being done today.
We want to be a good neighbor. We want to help out, but there’s a situation right now where it’s. We can’t go and arrest people on the other side of the fence like we could play, you know, Hansen bop like and we put up bigger lights. They just have a nighttime party now, like I mean, we, we’re as a landlord, spending time and money, we’ve installed lighting, cameras. We’ve hired security that comes, we constantly contact you guys. This is my first time speaking with you guys. I believe this is Elon’s 3rd time. We’ve reached out to RTD. We actually have a meeting set up with RTD.
But we have a request for action. We want to be able to use our walking and bike path and our public transportation, and it shouldn’t be a place that people can do illegal activities, camp and have vagrancy. It makes it difficult for people to ride their bikes around town, to go and use mass transit. And so how do we move people in a safe and, and respectful way.
The Action Center is a quarter of a mile from our property. Involving the action center and getting these people real help. Installation of signs that just say no loitering camping or noise violations maybe creating a quiet hours where after certain times, people can’t congregate in these areas.
We would ask the city, it’s your fence, not our fence to just install a cover or barrier like you’d have at a construction site. So people don’t have to watch people doing bad things all day every day with their families and their kids, I think an increased police and security presence and we’re in Ward 2.
I know that we’ve messaged, I know there’s things happening on your guys’ side, you know. We’re,
We want to be a team player. We’ll donate our time and effort to help. We’ll donate our money. We want to make this a place that people want to live and stay, be with their families.
We have Section 8 people who do not want to live at our property and are moving out. We have higher turnover and vacancy costs. We are being put out of business by the issues going on across the street. Our business is to help and provide affordable housing.
We need action. I know Elon’s come three times. I don’t know what has to happen. I know this is not just in this area of the city, it’s in a lot of areas of the city, but in these areas that are specifically right by where mass transit is, that people should be using to take to work should be a predominant focus of the city, of what we can do and what we can help.
In a city council it’s great to have ideas and meetings, but we need action to solve the problems and issues in front of us. So thank, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time. We have tons of pictures and all kinds of really terrible stuff. I, I don’t think the videos are playing, but at the end of the day, I think you guys get the idea, you don’t need to see the pictures and videos we have, but they are everything and it’s sad to see it happen to the community in the area and we’d like to invite you out to the meeting with RTD. If you would like to attend, please let us know. We’re meeting the Deputy Chief Stephen, I’m forgetting his name, of RTD on September 9th at 10 a.m. and so we welcome anybody to come and see the issue and what’s going on there, um. And uh and talk about solutions and problems that we can take as, uh, private and public partners to help the issue. Thank you.
Correction 9/21/24: There is no single commercial applicant currently under consideration for the Vivian property. This month, following a pre-qualification process, several applicants were invited to submit final proposals which are due in October.
Correction 9/26/24: Paula Reed represents District 2, not District 1. District 2 includes Green Mountain and Lakewood High Schools . Erin Kenworthy is District 4 which has Alameda High School and the now closed Emory Elementary. Three Board Members are up for election this year: Danielle Varda – District 1, Paula Reed – District 2 and Mary Parker – District 5
Thank you readers for your corrections and information!
An untested process caused misunderstandings and hiccups resulting in delays to Lakewood purchasing shuttered Jeffco schools. Lakewood is now negotiating to buy 3 acres of Vivian Elementary School. They are also still asking about acquiring Emory Elementary for use by the Action Center. At a meeting on September 13, 2024, City Councilors and Jeffco School Board Members were able to get a lot of their positions stated for the record; however, this remains a closed process with both managers negotiating on a staff level. There has been no presentation to the public of a plan for school properties. School district documents show that the district must approve the use designation. That means that Lakewood must have presented their plans for the Action Center months ago, during the same time Lakewood Mayor and City Manager were calling the stories “misinformation”.
City officials appeared united in their efforts to buy school property at less than market-rate for city use or for general community sustainability. They cited multiple reasons for deserving a price break:
Due to the trauma of the school closures, giving the property to a deserving party for less than market-rate would be healing
The school board has a history of giving property away for community use so they should stand by that precedent (two examples cited including a property sold to Gold Crown for $1)
Non-profits like the Action Center do a great community service and there should be an equivalent value included in the decision-making process
School District officials were divided in their response. Although everyone from both organizations signaled their willingness to work together, officials are making hard decisions.
Danielle Varda acknowledged the many great ideas they have received for using each building but said there is no way the district can give away all those properties because constituents expect proper fiscal management of public dollars.
“What I’ve been concerned about since day one is that we have a fair process that’s very public, that all people follow and there’s no backdoor deals, no handshakes.” – Daniella Varda
Paula Reed encouraged a new metric to be added to the evaluation process so that properties could be utilized for other uses, not necessarily getting market-rate. She said that Board Members have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that all assets are used for student education but there are lots of ways to contribute to that, including community sustainability. Reed represents School Board District 1, which covers Lakewood schools
School Board President Mary Parker pointed out that every time they would make a deal with one city, another city would expect the same. Indeed, City Council Member Mayott-Guerrero already brought up Mulholm Elementary in her ward, which is not up for disposition yet, but would be of interest to residents there.
Purchase proceedings were held up not only by price but by parcel size. Lakewood seems to be asking for 3 of the 9.9 acres of Vivian Elementary School property, which will be used as a park. One of the initial guiding principles of the School Board was that the property not be subdivided, which contributed to Lakewood’s delayed offer. Under the old rules, Lakewood could not buy just three acres.
Now the school board is rethinking its decision and will allow subdivision. Lakewood is in active negotiation for the 3 acres of Vivian. The rest of the land is being considered by Cardel Homes (among others) for development. There was no Council discussion about Vivian’s purchase but the residents there have mounted intense public pressure to preserve the land and it has been discussed in ward meetings, indicating some Council Members knew of the plan. Apparently, a new purchase option was issued to show the 3 acres as separate but Lakewood Informer cannot readily find that information.
Lakewood has already met once in a mysterious executive session that did not include a specific reason, contrary to Colorado Open Meetings Law. However, at the end of Monday’s study session, Council agreed to another executive session on September 19 to confirm negotiations on a school property. That meeting agenda also does not state the specific property or use they are negotiating for.
The case for Emory Elementary is less clear. Council Member Shahrezaei asked the hard question about whether Lakewood could get the property in exchange for community use. There were no easy answers to that question and no apparent change to Lakewood’s plan to purchase the entire property and let the Action Center use it.
Lakewood may have the same dilemma as the school district if they start giving any non-profit preferential deals, especially if there are multiple properties purchased.
The Municipal Option for school property purchases seems to be in flux as Jeffco schools test the process on Lakewood. According to the posted process (below), Lakewood and Jeffco Schools should have a joint public session after negotiations have concluded. At this point on Sept 18, it is all being handled by privately by staff.
Municipal Process provided by Jefferson County School District
School district officials seem willing to engage in a public discussion about property use but it’s a fast-moving process. Lakewood is finalizing negotiations on Thursday morning. As of Tuesday night the district website does not show an updated status for the school properties.
