Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Lakewood resident Suzanne Gould is supporting Denver’s Black Santa Project by providing a porch drop-off for unwrapped toys and gifts for infants through teens for the west metro area. This annual event is all-inclusive and serves children of all races. Donations are also accepted on the Black Santa website. Checks can be made payable to The Center For Advancing Black Excellence in Education. Unwrapped toys can be dropped off at 2397 S Eldridge Ct, 80228 through December 16.
From Anita Springsteen, Esq. Attorney and former Lakewood City Councilor Anita Springsteen, Esq. filed three lawsuits against the City of Lakewood this week regarding its violation of the Colorado Open Meetings Law (COML) during three Executive Sessions in a row on August 26th, September 9th, and September 19th. The cases are all filed in Jefferson County District Court. The first lawsuit (24CV31555) is on behalf of a citizen, Lenore Herskovitz. The City did not give proper notice or record the August 26th Executive Session, stating only that is was with regard to “legal advice” for an appeal the City won against Colorado Christian University an entire year prior to the meeting. As Ms. Herskovitz was an intervenor in that case (City of Lakewood v. CCU, 22CA1202 and 2021CV30629) – she had a right to know the purpose of the Executive Session and why there would be “legal advice” for a case the City won. The other two lawsuits (24CV31588 and 24CV31574) on behalf of Ms. Springsteen, pro se, are with regard to Executive Sessions held on September 9th and 19th, only referencing “negotiations” to buy undisclosed property. No specific topic was given in violation of COML. However, citizens suspect the meetings involved the purchase of Jeffco school property – a controversial topic of great public interest. Citizens feel that concealing the topic was both in bad faith, and illegal. (Note: These meetings are not archived online. They were executive sessions which are not available for the public. An example agenda...
From Applewood Heights Community Organization Despite a 5 1/2 hour Subdivision Public Hearing on 8/21, regarding the development site and both the community and the Planning Commission sharing the same concerns surrounding the safety of the access through W. 15th Place, lack of street connectivity, and making our driveway unsafe to access/unusable in winter, the developer (Metro West Housing Solutions) submitted their 5th rendition to the major site plans to the City without addressing the safety concerns that the community and the Planning Commission had. The City has returned their redlines to the developer without addressing the concerns of the Planning Commission or the Community. On October 14th, we filed a formal request with the City Attorney to have the Major Site Plan review to be turned over by the planning commission as today the City doesn’t have a public hearing for major site plans and it does not go before the Planning Commission. Site plans are simply approved by the Director of Planning. Attached is the letter that was sent by our attorney to Travis Parker via the City Attorney. We are still waiting to hear back from Travis Parker to see if it will be approved to go before the Planning Commission. We will keep pressing on this as we feel that with this being a complex site location, this should be put in front of the Planning Commission. We also attended the City Council meeting which helped us to gain some traction with the Mayor and City Council. After the meeting, the Mayor...
From Save Open Space – Lakewood At a 9/4 meeting, Lakewood City Council spoke with its usual forked tongue, voting for a citizen led green initiative to expedite delegitimizing it Monday, November 11, 2024—-At the November 4 Lakewood City Council meeting, residents witnessed the culmination of more than a year’s intensive effort by hundreds of volunteers to hold their city accountable to its progressive environmental ordinances. The only item in the hearing was a petition, created by Save Open Space – Lakewood (SOS – L) and signed by more than 6000 voters, which, if approved, would eliminate the option given developers to pay a fee to the city and instead require them to provide the full, current standard of 10.5 acres of parkland for every 1,000 occupants. For over ten years, the predominantly pro-development Lakewood City Council has allowed all developers to pay the city a fee in lieu of donating land for parks and open spaces. This has led to monstrous, soul-less apartment buildings with no green space that remind observers of Russia, not Lakewood. More than half of those who spoke extolled the benefits of open space and their concerns about the impending mammoth luxury apartment building adjacent to Belmar Park. By law, the council either had to vote for the petition at the meeting, or send it to a special election. Following three hours of resident testimony and council deliberation, eight out of 11 councilors declared the initiative to be in conflict with state statutes. By voting to approve it, they said they could expedite a legal challenge. They added...
Lakewood residents voted to give up their TABOR refunds forever. The measure started with Lakewood encouragement, used tax dollars to see what words messaged the best, and raised over $50,000 from people who benefit from city dollars. The money will be used for basic city services like parks and public safety, freeing up money for other city pet projects such as electrification and homeless initiatives. The final vote tally came out 61.7% in favor, 38.2% against. The first campaign committee report showed that a majority of city council members donated to the committee including Councilors Sinks, Low, Shahrezaei, Rein, LaBure, Nystrom and Mayor Strom. Greg Stevinson also donated $10,000. Stevinson just had more land annexed by Lakewood in May, 2023. The second report shows the Lakewood Police Union and Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 21 each made $10,000 donations. An interesting note is the $5,000 donation from the Colorado Gives Foundation. In 2024, Lakewood started a partnership with the foundation, appropriating $500,000 to give them* to develop more affordable housing (see budget book pg 23). *Correction 13 Nov – Lakewood appropriated the money to spend on Colorado Gives affordable housing projects but is not giving the money directly to Colorado gives. This circular relationship shows that the TABOR refunds will not just affect parks and potholes, as sold by Lakewood. Ironically, a day before the election, Councilor Roger Low went on a rant during the City Council meeting, expressing outrage that a resident petition was not honest with the residents...
Information provided by Lakewood resident Anthony Farr. Thank you! Jefferson County School Property Disposition Advisory Committee recommends selling Glennon Heights Elementary to Jacob Academy, a private daycare facility. Jacob Academy hopes to serve 205 children at this location. Lakewood did not offer to buy this for community parkland like it did for Vivian Elementary. Many Lakewood council members feel Ward 4, where Glennon Heights is located, has more than its fair share of parks already. However, the property will utilize the existing school building and space for the new daycare. The final sale approval will be made November 14. There will be no other public involvement. One developer did not pursue buying the property after discussing the situation with Lakewood. The recommended bid came in under appraised value. Newly constructed homes near Glennon Heights at West Exposition Ave and South Oak St remain mostly empty, with steady price drops since they were made available for rent in February, 2024. Those units were not available for sale. The school board briefly discussed whether this daycare would be a direct competitor for state education dollars, since preschool is now a subsidized, guaranteed business model. More research will be presented at the next school board meeting but due to buliding restrictions, such as safety doors, the public schools do not expect to expand preschool at this time. Glennon Heights sale contract details from school board presentation:
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