We will be at the City Council Meeting tomorrow (10/14/24) at 7pm and need your support and strength in numbers! There will be an opportunity to provide public comment for anyone interested. Address: 480 S. Allison Parkway, Lakewood
The City of Lakewood’s Housing Authority, dba Metro West Housing Solutions (“developer”), has submitted their 5th revision to the major site plans for the development at 1515 Whippoorwill (Williams Pointe Apartments) and the City has provided their redlines back on the revised site plans. Despite multiple City of Lakewood Planning Commissioners concerns on the lack of connectivity for this development and the Vice Chair of the Planning Commission’s plea to the developer and the City of Lakewood’s Planning and Engineering Departments to revise the major site plans for the safety of the intersection and the driveway redesign during the subdivision appeal, the developer did NOT submit any changes in their 5th revision of the Major Site Plans that would improve the safety or connectivity for this development and the surrounding community.
The City Planning Department has provided their redlines on this 5th version of the major site plans and is NOT requiring the developer to address any of these safety or connectivity issues. Major Site Plans do not have to go before the Planning Commission and are approved by the Director of Planning. Please ask City Council to recommend that the plans be turned over to the Planning Commission for review given the amount of public concern surrounding safety and connectivity. A formal request will be submitted to the City Attorney by Monday.
Major concerns still exist surrounding the development at 1515 Whippoorwill that Metro West Housing Solutions and the City are not addressing:
The safety/grade of the intersection of W. 15th Place & Youngfield St, which has had numerous serious accidents and vehicles already have challenges getting up W. 15th Pl in the winter. Access for the development through this intersection will compound an already existing issue by adding 300 more car trips per day through this intersection and the proposed “city improvements” is to “narrow W. 15th Place” to make it a more perpendicular designed intersection. This will route all vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles through the steepest section of W. 15th Pl, with no sidewalks and does not address the steep grade of W. 15th Place. This video is one car- what happens with 300 cars? City’s solution: when cars are stuck, call the police.
No Connectivity/no sidewalks for residents to be able to safely get to/from public transportation, school bus stops, and/or employment. The development will have 7 ADA accessible apartments and the target demographic for the apartments are families. The lack of connectivity poses a significant safety risk for everyone, but especially those with ADA accessibility needs and/or families with young children. City of Lakewood did not require an ADA referral and this makes Williams Pointe 100% car dependent for those with ADA needs. Not acceptable.
The safety of accessing our driveway as the developer with the help of the City is proposing to redesign the steep, north facing driveway and put a turn in the middle of it to accommodate the expansion of the dirt road next to our house as the only access point to the development
Please join us tomorrow and voice your concerns and /or show up to show support!
We will also be attending the Planning Commission Meeting on Wednesday in which Metro West Housing is requesting to rezone a Single-Family Residential lot to Multi-Family Residential. This is along Alameda and adjacent to 2 additional apartment complexes. Unlike 1515 Whippoorwill, this seems to be a much more logical location for apartments given that it is adjacent to public transportation routes, employment opportunities and would be between two apartment complexes.
Lakewood City Council stopped efforts by city staff to put up signs that would discourage panhandling or window washing. In July, Lakewood City Manager Kathy Hodgson proposed draft language that would ask residents not to give money to panhandlers. After getting feedback from Council Members in August, all efforts were put on hold. City Council apparently would not support putting such signs up. An online community discussion, summarized below, shows Lakewood residents are frustrated with Lakewood’s lack of action. Lakewood implies permission by continuing to deny action against it.
The proposed signs would not be a solution by itself. In fact, it would have blamed the givers rather than addressing the panhandlers. Other cities post signs similar to those below. Douglas County has claimed to have “nearly eradicated its own unhoused population with a simple message to its citizens: “Handouts Don’t Help.””
Examples of signs used by other cities. Lakewood did not have public drafts.
A recent discussion on nextdoor.com started with one Lakewood resident wishing that Lakewood would follow Arvada’s example by posting signs discouraging window washers. From the discussion, it is clear that most residents are frustrated with the presence of window washers in Lakewood. The key sentiments include:
Safety Concerns: Many residents express concerns about the dangers window washers pose to themselves and drivers by running through traffic, potentially causing accidents, and creating legal liability issues.
Aggressiveness and Intimidation: Several participants feel uncomfortable and even intimidated by the aggressive behavior of some window washers, especially when they continue to wash windows despite being told “no.” Women, in particular, report feeling harassed in these situations.
Policy and Law Enforcement: There is widespread frustration with Lakewood officials for allowing this activity to continue, contrasting with neighboring Arvada, where police reportedly prevent it. Residents feel that Lakewood is not enforcing existing laws and is not taking action to protect them.
Mixed Views on the Washers’ Intentions: While a few participants argue that window washers are trying to earn an honest living, most residents perceive it as an unwanted and intrusive form of begging, with some even equating it to harassment.
Desire for a Ban: A large number of residents would prefer that Lakewood implement a similar policy to Arvada, banning window washers from medians and intersections.
Overall, the general consensus leans toward a desire for stricter regulation or a complete ban on window washing at intersections, driven by safety concerns and the negative experiences of many residents. (Note: discussion summary and conclusion by ChatGPT)
Lakewood Police Department continues to try to reduce crime through methods other than increased law enforcement. Crime reduction is not mentioned as an expectation or result-benefit to any department goal in the 2025 Budget Book. For example, to meet the goal of “preserving a safe and peaceful community“, the police department will “encourage residents to use alternative reporting options for non-emergency incidents“. This will allow police to respond to emergencies faster, but does not increase response time to all calls or increase number of calls responded to overall. Average response time and number of calls were not given. Lakewood Police have been critiqued for not responding to calls in Lakewood news. Presumably crime reduction will follow some of these initiatives.
Other goals include “enhancing the public’s perception of safety“. For this goal, the police department will work with Human Resources to make sure police employees meet diversity standards, and ensure prompt completion of internal affairs cases. This assumes the public is aware of the results of internal affairs cases.
To “provide the highest possible level of customer service to the citizens of Lakewood” the police will disperse grant funds in low- and moderate-income areas for code enforcement.
There is no mention of enforcement targets, statistics, or crime enforcement priorities. For example, will drug use continue to be de-prioritized? Recently enacted new speed limits and traffic cameras are not mentioned.
Lakewood Police are not asking for additional staff in 2025. Instead, they will take advantage of Artificial Intelligence to streamline police report writing by using new software from Axon called Draft One. Some initial reviews of the software are very positive while others call out controversial points.
“One of the most pressing concerns is the well-documented propensity of AI models, particularly those based on large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4, to “hallucinate” facts and perpetuate biases present in their training data. In the context of police reports, which carry significant weight in the criminal justice system, even minor inaccuracies or biases could have devastating consequences for individuals’ lives and liberties.” –Felipe Chavarro, Tech Ethicist
The money for new pallet homes, or transitional housing units, will come from Lakewood’s Economic Development fund. The 2025 budget also shows the city expects to spend $9.5 million on land purchases for unspecific purposes, also from the Economic Development Fund. Lakewood is waiting to start the transitional housing program until land can be purchased somewhere. The city budgets $300,000 for pallet homes. These homes will be a new program that Lakewood will provide funding and support for, but may be owned and run by an outside organization with limited oversight. The Economic Development Fund has traditionally been used to develop economic opportunities in Lakewood, but in 2023, Lakewood re-interpreted the ordinance to include safety and general upkeep of the city. Previous discussion on the transitional housing program did not include a business analysis of any economic growth potential this program would provide.
The $9.5 million for land purchases could be used for transitional housing land (for pallet homes), in whole or in part. By approving the budget, the city will have funds to allocate for purchases as it prioritizes.
State of the Economy
The budget presentation shows that median household income rose by 10% but the Jeffco employment rate is down by 1%, marking the need for more economic opportunities.
Lakewood will vote on a property tax increase on Monday. This will be done through the normal budget appropriation and mill levy certification. It is not called a tax increase anywhere. However, the 2025 Budget Book, page 62, explains that a temporary reduction in the mill levy rate will lapse in 2025. As a result, Lakewood residents will pay 6% more property taxes and Lakewood will collect an extra $15.5 million in 2025.
Property tax revenue and % change for 2025 (from page 62 of the 2025 Budget Book)
In 2023, former Councilor Mary Janssen fought to get Lakewood to comply with the Lakewood City Charter and only collect revenues that are legally allowed. That equated to a property mill levy rate of 3.85%. Lakewood Charter has a revenue cap, not a tax rate cap, to protect its residents from windfall taxes, like abrupt property assessment increases. City Council did not agree to Janssen’s original proposal, but they did lower the mill levy to 4.28 mills.
For one year.
Now that year is up.
On Monday, the Council will vote to approve the full mill levy of 4.711 mills, thereby increasing the rate by 0.431 mills from 2024.
Your property taxes will go up again this year.
“Natalie Menten, board director with the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) Foundation, emphasized the importance of TABOR’s protections: ‘According to paragraph 7(c), the maximum annual percentage change in each district’s property tax revenue equals inflation in the prior calendar year plus annual local growth (new construction). That safety cap protects taxpayers and gives very sufficient additional revenue to government agencies. Voters shouldn’t waive any tax revenue cap unless it comes with the 4-year sunset prescribed in TABOR.”
In 2023, then-Councilor Janssen found out Lakewood revenue from property tax was increasing 12.87%. The City Charter only allows for a 7% increase in revenue growth (see City Charter 12.12)
“Growth from projected 2023 to projected 2024 Property Tax Revenue is 12.87%”- Holly Björklund, Chief Financial Officer, Lakewood, 2023
Lakewood will increase property tax revenues over the amount permitted in charter, as they have in previous years, while advocating to keep your TABOR refunds.
Explanation of Overcharging from Bob Adams
Every two years (odd numbered years), Colorado requires all real estate to be reappraised. This was done in 2023 and resulted in a huge increase in property valuations. This reappraisal applied to property taxes paid in 2024. The Assessor uses the newly appraised county real estate inventory to prepare a report of the assessed value which is provided to all county tax authorities. Based on that report, the tax authorities are supposed to calculate the overall mill levy needed to provide services (pay their budget) for the following year. The approved mill levy is then used to calculate individual tax bills.
As published by the Colorado Division of Property Taxation:
“Each year county commissioners, city councils, school boards, governing boards of special districts, and other taxing authorities determine the revenue needed and allowed under the law to provide services for the following year. [In other words, prepare a budget]
Each taxing authority calculates a tax rate based on the revenue needed from property tax and the total assessed value of real and personal property located within their boundaries. The tax rate is often expressed as a mill levy.”
If the law was followed properly, there would be only a minimal tax increase.
However, Jefferson County and nearly all county tax authorities, including Lakewood, failed to adjust the mill levies downward to equal their budgets. Even Governor Polis sent a letter to all tax districts urging them to reduce mill levies. Most refused. Instead, nearly all kept a higher mill levy which resulted in property owners being overcharged and the districts received a huge windfall in increased tax revenue. Now, of course, the city and county have introduced ballot measures to allow them to keep and spend the overcollected tax revenue this year, next year and every future year. and eliminate all other revenue caps so they can freely raise taxes without a vote of the people now required by TABOR.
This is the cause of how tax revenues were overcharged and overcollected.
Zikr Dance Ensemble’s 2024 Fall Season is entitled “Secrets”. Highlighted on the program will be the world premiere of David Taylor’s “Liturgies” and a newly expanded version of the stunning “Ripples In The Sand”. Set to the electrifying Dune film score by Hans Zimmer, Ripples will feature new costumes and choreography and a breathtaking fabric canopy covering the entire stage. Also featured will be a reprise of audience favorite “Mobile”, the iconic miniature masterpiece by former Ballet West and San Francisco Ballet choreographer Tomm Ruud. Rounding out this mesmerizing evening of contemporary, multi-media dance will be Taylor’s “Altar”, and “Oracle”, a journey into the mysterious world of the ancient Greek Oracle of Delphi.
Sponsors: SCFD; Denver Ballet Guild; National Endowment for the Arts; Colorado Creative Industries; Community Foundation Boulder County; Colorado Gives Foundation; Denver Ballet Theatre Academy; Ouray County Performing Arts Guild; Highlands Ranch Community Association; Danah Fayman Performing Arts Fund; The Ute Events Center; Premier School of Dance
Zikr Dance Ensemble is a contemporary ballet company located on Colorado’s Front Range. Currently celebrating its 15thAnniversary Season under the direction of Artistic Director and principal choreographer David Taylor, Zikr offers a spectrum of works that pay homage to transcendent dance rituals and metaphysical concepts from many different ancient world cultures throughout history. The company’s original contemporary dance/theatre realizations are both dramatically engaging and educational and by exploring numerous ancient esoteric ideas through dance from all over the world, Zikr also promotes spiritual tolerance and multi-cultural understanding for the entire community. Zikr’s international roster is comprised of world class dancers from all over the globe selected through two highly competitive annual auditions. The dances in performance are supplemented by stunning slide projections and visual effects, completing a multi-media experience that audiences and presenters alike have found to be both visually and artistically stunning as well as intellectually captivating and spiritually uplifting.
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
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?
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 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.
