Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Jeffco Schools unanimously voted to sell Emory with barely a stall in the consent agenda on November 13, 2025. Statements made at that time and also at the November 5 study session indicate that Jeffco School Board and staff were heavily influenced by one-sided propaganda. No other ideas were considered and the propaganda was passed along without fully informing the public.
The October 27, 2025 City Council meeting demonstrated how determined Council is to approve the Emory sale and Action Center purchase. That date was the first opportunity to approve the multiple transaction after the new zoning was passed – zoning which was required for the new operations. Despite having an injunction in place to stall the vote, Council did everything possible except the actual vote itself. They claimed everything was known, disclosed and proper. They laughed and smiled as if the injunction was a joke. However, despite their claims, below is a list of over 70 lingering questions.
The votes on Emory have been delayed from October 27 to October 29 and now until November 3 while Council desperately tries to vote as soon as possible even while the case is in court and under injunction. The difficulty lies in how to restore trust and enable a public process to answer questions that have been handled behind the scenes for two years.
Lakewood’s shell game to buy Emory for the Action Center has shone a light on deals made before the public has a chance to weigh in. City leaders tell residents they can speak at the public comment period that was months away, and then they use the time before public comment to cement their plans away from public eye. More proof? An upcoming event taking place at Emory Elementary, hosted by Kaiser Permanente to benefit the Action Center. Chances are good that this was originally planned to be a celebration event for the Action Center that has now devolved into an event “with nonprofit partner.”
This is not just a regular Canstruction event. This is special for the Action Center at Emory.
Anita Springsteen, former Lakewood City Council Member and attorney, has won an injunction filed against Lakewood. The injunction will pause two upcoming votes on Emory, wherein Lakewood is acting as an agent for the Action Center. It is unclear what, if any, benefit Lakewood will gain through this deal, but it is very clear the city will lose millions. At the same time, the Action Center will gain millions of dollars of property that it could not get without the special privileges of the government middleman. The injunction will pause the vote until after the previously scheduled October 28, 2025, court date.
Jeffco Schools is not disclosing how much the district will lose on the Emory Elementary deal. And curiously, no one knows when the Board met or voted on selling the closed school.
Lakewood Informer reached out to school officials and could find NOTHING. How is Lakewood selling the property when the purchase has not been completed through Jeffco? Has it been completed and everyone missed it?
An article by Jimmy Sengenberger on Lakewood’s deal for Emory Elementary gets reinforced by residents on nextdoor.com
From Jimmy Sengengberger at the Denver Gazette:
“In Jefferson County, local democracy dies in darkness.
“That’s the inescapable conclusion from the shady business between Jefferson County Schools, Lakewood and a homeless-services nonprofit.
“This April, Lakewood authorized City Manager Kathy Hodgson to negotiate a $4 million below-market purchase of the shuttered 17-acre Emory Elementary. The plan? Flip 10 acres to the Jeffco Action Center for just $1 million — a sweetheart deal costing taxpayers $3 million.
“Here’s the scheme: In January 2024, Jeffco Schools quietly gave municipalities first dibs on closed schools through a new “Municipal Interest” process, dodging competitive bidding. A consultant told the board they could skip community feedback using this path.
“The Action Center can’t open this municipal backdoor itself, so Lakewood did it for them
Emory Not Purchased Yet but is Already Scheduled to Sell The sale of Emory has already been scheduled for October 27, the same day Lakewood will authorize buying the current Action Center for more homeless services. There is no mention of when Lakewood will complete the purchase of Emory, but Lakewood must be confident since it is already scheduled for sale. There is no update on the Jeffco website and calls for comment have not been returned. No evidence of a public meeting with Jeffco schools can be found. Lakewood has consistently told residents that the purchase and sale of Emory Elementary was not a “done deal” and that the community would have plenty of opportunity to weigh in. But so far, that hasn’t been the case. While there have been many meetings where the Action Center has explained their plans, there has been no opposing views presented. Resident concerns have been brushed aside. The only real discussion about Lakewood’s homeless policy was during a Council workshop at which no votes were taken and public comment allowed. The sale date of October 27th is the day before the District Court trial involving Lakewood’s alleged violations of the Open Meetings Law. Former Lakewood Councilor and attorney Anita Springsteen filed three lawsuits against improper notice of executive sessions for Emory purchase discussions. Losing Money Jeffco will not disclose the market valuation of Emory, claiming negotiation privilege. However, the discussion from the Action Center presentations suggests: the property is worth around $10 million Lakewood will purchase the building for $4 million. Lakewood will then sell the building to the Action Center for $1 million. If true, that’s a $9 million loss to the taxpayers. Add in the cost for Lakewood to buy the current Action Center property and the cost goes up. Meanwhile, Jeffco has been cutting costs elsewhere — including reducing school resource officer coverage. Residents can’t help but connect these decisions to recent tragedies like the Evergreen school shooting, which happened when the SRO was off duty and a replacement had been “deprioritized”. Biased Presentations The Action Center has sponsored a couple of one-sided presentation meetings. Ward 2 residents expecting a zoning discussion on September 13 were instead met with a surprise Action Center presentation. The Action Center meeting scheduled for September 17 has turned into a Ward 3 meeting. It is scheduled for 5:30 at Emory Elementary. What’s missing is any balanced discussion of: The real taxpayer costs The impact on nearby neighborhoods Program effectiveness Whether these programs can stand financially without ongoing government support Expanding Homeless Services City Manager Kathy Hodgson previewed this direction back in December 2023, saying “… we are talking about a partnership with the Action Center to move them to one of the schools that’s been closed…. then Lakewood would have a presence in the existing two buildings of the Action Center to complete the navigation concept and allow for more housing for our homeless population….“ Since the City Manager made that comment, the Navigation Center has proven to be more expensive than anticipated and has drawn criticism as a magnet for the homeless. Even Governor Jared Polis recently questioned “Housing First” strategies like Lakewood’s. In a September 12 interview with CPR, Polis said Denver’s model hasn’t worked and shouldn’t be emulated. Instead, he pointed to Colorado Springs and Aurora, which emphasize mental health and individualized approaches over housing alone. (See Lakewood Informer news article for a comparison) From CPR interview with Governor Polis, 12 September 2025 Zoning Changes on a Fast Track Lakewood’s City Council is expected to vote on the final zoning changes, including the Emory site, on October 13. The move would “spot change” Emory’s zoning without the typical public hearing process. All of this is scheduled to be finalized before the next election, effectively locking in the decision before residents can have their say at the ballot box. The Bigger Picture Lakewood’s leadership continues to move forward without presenting residents with a full picture of costs, tradeoffs, or alternative models. Governor Polis himself has warned against relying on “Housing First” — yet Lakewood is doubling down on that very approach. The new zoning enables this approach while bypassing normal public hearings on controversial site changes.
New Resident Group Opposes Action Center at Emory LakewoodCoConcerned is a new resident group that looks like it opposes the Action Center moving into Emory Elementary. No contact information is available so that’s all we know for now. Meanwhile, The Action Center is planning on moving in. They are having another meeting at Emory on September 17, 2025. Again, the latest information we have is that both Lakewood and Jeffco will be losing millions of dollars giving this closed school away while blocking out any better offer. The following email is from the Action Center (thank you Lakewood Informer readers for sending this) Scroll to the bottom to see how this circle of funding works – they hold lobbying events for elected officials and the elected officials provide government funding. This event is sold out
Lakewood is adding a new word to the dictionary — an innocuous move that covers up a dedicated zoning change for the Emory-Action Center swap while also shutting down future resident protests. Lakewood is planning on adding a new “Community Resource Facility” use to the zoning code to enable an “Amazon” warehouse-type low-income distribution center to operate anywhere in Lakewood. This new use is necessary for changes to the Emory Elementary property that Lakewood proposes to sell or exchange with the Action Center, which will convert it into a “Community Resource Facility”. That swap is not mentioned in the May 19th meeting on the zoning code change, even though the swap is what prompted the change in the first place. To listen to that meeting, one would think that there has just been a glaring oversight for the past 50 years, and no non-profits have been able to operate food pantries. Taken in isolation, residents could be forgiven for thinking that Lakewood didn’t have the ability to allow what is clearly already allowed in multiple places. Therefore, once again, residents must dig deeper to understand what is going on. In this case, allowing high populations of low-income support services in every zone in the city, including those previously reserved for schools. (For background, read Lakewood news at https://lakewoodinformer.com/springsteen-files-injunction-regarding-emory/) Travis Parker, Chief of Planning and Community Development, says Lakewood hasn’t had a request for something like this during his time with Lakewood, which may give residents an idea of the scale of the facility that is envisioned. The Action Center currently operates in a commercial area and sometimes has customers lined up down the block. The new “Facility” will be much larger. Envision the difference between the local retail shop and the Amazon warehouse. Are residents prepared for the warehouse of low-income services anywhere in the city? *Another word game warning: since places like the Action Center and Recovery Works are paid for by donations, Lakewood claims they are different from commercial activities, so they use the word “guests” instead of “customers”. They say this is a “distribution of goods and services” instead of commercial activity. The medium of exchange might be different, but the underlying intent is the same. The new code discriminates against for-profit businesses that are not eligible to operate everywhere in the city. Lakewood is a government, not a charity, and this type of special treatment drives out other commercial businesses who cannot compete with special favors granted by the government. It also discriminates against smaller non-profits that currently operate throughout the city but are not getting financial favors from the city to host a “facility” — like the one envisioned by Lakewood for the Action Center. In a city where small businesses are closing everywhere, why give special treatment to organizations that don’t pay taxes? When a City Council member asked how existing operations were allowed, the answer was that they were in a mixed-use zone, but it was unknown under what technical use definition. Historical precedence seems to be pertinent to the discussion. Is it possible the man in charge doesn’t know how this could have been accomplished in the past? Or is the change specific to something that could be pertinent only to the Emory property swap Councilor Isabel Cruz asked what this change would look like outside of the school disposition process. Her question suggests an understanding that the change is driven specifically by the Action Center swap, even if that is not communicated directly. Councilor I. Cruz asks about smaller non-profits, but they are already allowed under existing rules. This change is necessary only to allow the Action Center’s mega-warehouse tied to land swap. Lakewood is making changes behind the scenes to preempt resident objections. Under current zoning, residents would have a chance to protest the Emory Elementary use change later. Adding this definition makes the change happen now, without specific public notice.
Former Lakewood City Councilor and attorney Anita Springsteen is no stranger to Lakewood’s backroom dealing and use of executive sessions. Springsteen has filed two lawsuits against the city for using “negotiations” as the context for an executive session. Allegedly, those meetings were open meetings violations because they didn’t provide enough detail on the “negotiations” involved. Those allegations are playing out about the purchase of Emory school. Even residents living next to Emory had no idea the city was trying to purchase the school for the Action Center. Springsteen filed an injunction to prevent the city from voting on the property purchase April 28 but Springsteen says “the Court held that the issue was moot when Council held the vote despite being on notice of the request for injunction.” She plans to refile the motion to prevent further actions by the city. She is also communicating with the Jefferson County Schools so they are on notice of breach of fiduciary duty. Councilor Mayott-Guerrero asked for an attorney to explain why residents have not seen open conversations about purchasing Emory before. The attorney for the city said negotiations are protected by executive sessions so there has been no public notice until now. The April 28 meeting, during which this conversation and vote took place, was duly noticed, he advised. Unfortunately, that still left many residents in Lakewood feeling like they were unprepared, not informed and left in the dark. Which is entirely reasonable since, as Lakewood just admitted, they did not tell residents they were working on this until now. Lakewood did not put the address of the property on which they were negotiating in the notice for executive sessions. City Council and staff were very clear that this was only the first step and that the city needed to proceed in this matter so they could progress to formal negotiations. But then what were they doing in previous executive sessions? Lakewood could have been transparent and told residents in September of 2023 that they were interested in buying the school on behalf of the Action Center, as documents show. Instead of fully explaining the plans for Emory, Lakewood cried “misinformation” and only addressed limited misunderstandings. There are also allegations that Jeffco was hiding talks because they were involved in negotiations to sell the property four months before it was officially disposed of. Council and staff still say that no decisions have been made and that they will listen to resident input at future meetings. Of course, that’s a variation of what they have said for the past year and a half while decisions were being made. There is no indication that plans will change based on resident input at the city level but that may be different at the school district level. There is also the possibility that the expanded interests of the Action Center will persuade people that this is the best use of Emory. The purchase of Emory for the Action Center was a priority for Lakewood since the school’s closing. It was the first and only one on the municipal option list to begin in January of 2024. Springsteen was one of four Councilors who demanded transparency before allowing an executive session to proceed. The session involved the City Manager’s contract renegotiation. The four Councilors calling for transparency prevented a super majority vote, which is required for an Executive Session to proceed. This forced the contract renewal to take place at a public meeting so that the public could see who voted to renew the City Manager’s contract, which increased her benefits. Springsteen has filed three lawsuits regarding open meetings violations, two of which pertain to property negotiations. Springsteen says “the third case was for an Executive Session involving ‘legal advice’ on a CCU issue that had already been resolved upon appeal a year prior, which calls into question the purpose of the meeting.”
