On November 28, Lakewood City Council was asked to designate a property on S Wadsworth Blvd as blighted. Per Colorado Revised Statutes a “‘Blighted area’ means an area that… is a menace to the public health, safety, morals, or welfare”. This definition is included in statute as a way to target areas for urban renewal and perhaps increased funds. But not in Lakewood. “In your city, the purpose of a blight designation is to do housing” “In your city, the purpose of a blight designation is to do housing,” says independent, redevelopment specialist, Anne Ricker. Ricker’s firm, Ricker | Cunningham, was hired to evaluate blight at 1000 to 1090 S Wadsworth Blvd. This specialist was accustomed to evaluating blight as a first step towards urban renewal, but in this case, Lakewood is not using blight for renewal, just for regulating a certain type of growth. In other words, using blight as a way to allow increased high-density residential growth. City Council Member Able agrees with this assessment. He stated that the blight designation was used to get around Strategic Growth Initiative requirements that our community passed at the ballot box. So when the council is asked to approve blight in instances like this, what they are really doing is considering approval of over 40 units of high-density, residential units. To prove that we are talking about residential development, some Council Members talk about developing the existing commercial use. In response, the property owner responds that they really need all available...
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
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Guest post from Alex “The general formula is that it costs more to provide services to residential… Than [they] bring in tax revenue.” (15th of May, 2017, Mr. Tim Cox, former city attorney for Lakewood). (15th of May, 2017, Mr. Tim Cox, City of Lakewood meeting) Although Lakewood should know this basic planning fact, the city continues to replace commercially zoned properties with high-density residential development. The current administration is continuing down the route of seemingly intentional avoidance of doing real economic development. Real is the key here, since, to Lakewood “economic development” seems to mean car washes, pot shops, failing retail, and storage units. Not world-class companies and world-class education opportunities to ensure a supply of highly-skilled workers who would then have much better economic opportunities available to them within the community. Lakewood does not even bother to enforce the spirit of mixed use development. City administration has been doubling down on high-priced rentals and metro districts, while claiming “affordability” and that this, somehow, replaces actual economic development. Perhaps, they missed the recent story about a price fixing scheme by a company which advises the corporate rental owners (think, large scale apartments, such as the ones been built in Lakewood, instead of “middle” housing): https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/26/23479034/doj-investigating-rent-setting-software-company-realpage It is as if those talking about “affordability” actually want to ensure that more people are locked into perpetual financial servitude, instead of working on bringing in local, well-paying jobs into the city. More often, than not, Lakewood makes it in the news for...
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...
Guest post from Lenore Herskovitz In the August 2022 edition of Looking @ Lakewood Mayor Adam Paul commented on public input stating:” We offer many opportunities for you to engage and make your voice heard. Your participation, feedback, and ideas are critical”. While the opportunities may exist for volunteering or submitting information either in person or through Lakewoodspeaks, etc. the results of these efforts are usually ignored. In June 2017, as the citizens’ initiative regarding strategic growth was becoming a reality, our city manager began an all out campaign to try to prevent it from moving forward. Emails obtained through CORA indicate that she directed staff to craft talking points against the initiative. She also worked with the Mayor on adhering to scripted messaging. Keep in mind, this initiative began because the people were concerned about the direction the City was taking regarding growth. For two years, lawsuits prevented the issue from going to the ballot box. Over $300,000 was raised to fight the citizen’s initiative, but the voters spoke at the polls in July 2019 passing the SGI. Our city officials who proclaim they value public input, have spent the past few years doing everything in their power to circumvent that voter approved initiative. If public participation is so highly valued, why disband effective interactive programs such as the development dialogues. These meetings successfully addressed and offered solutions to various problems including housing, parking, etc. They provided a setting that allowed community members to interact with city staff and...
Read into public record: a FOIA request has been bounced around for 3 months, since August, 2022. Latest response requests renegotiation of data release by January 5, 2023. Reminder: This is the 59 acres recently sold at the corner of 6th and Union. Concerns center around potential environmental hazards
The battle over guns comes to Lakewood. At the Nov 28, 2022 Lakewood City Council meeting, proponents for and against new gun control measures made their arguments in public comment. This is now an issue for all local governments due to a new law in Colorado, https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb21-256. This law makes it possible for cities to pass their own laws, as long as they are more restrictive than state laws. Moms Demand Action has suggested the following new ordinances: City Council has not added these items to the agenda in any formal action but public comment on the issue lasted around 2 hours just considering the possibility. There were an estimated 11 comments in favor of new restrictions, and 20 comments against them (some comments were ambiguous) A VERY brief summary of comments in favor of the proposed regulations: A VERY brief summary of comments against the proposed restrictions:
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