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Colorado Community Media sta wins 8 awards
COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA








Colorado Community Media sta netted eight awards during the annual Top of the Rockies contest hosted by the Society for Professional Journalists, or SPJ, in downtown Denver on April 22.

With 24 newspapers across the














Front Range, CCM reporters competed in the “Large Newsroom” category, which included larger publications and outlets from Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. CCM had two rst-place honors. Evergreen reporter Deb Hurley Brobst took the top honors in the category of Obit Reporting for her article on Mandi Evans, who “gave more to the community than great food.”
South Metro Editor elma Grimes took rst place in the Mental Health writing category for a series she and two high school interns wrote in 2022. e “Need to Succeed” series broke down how the combination of college costs, social media and parent and societal expectations is costing kids their childhoods.
Several CCM sta members won second-place honors.
Luke Zarzecki took second place in the Feature: Long Form category for his story titled, “Uprooting the American dream: Opinions changing about lush lawns.”
For general reporting in a series or package, several south metro sta members combined for a secondplace award. Former reporters
Jessica Gibbs and Elliott Wenzler along with Grimes and current CCM reporter McKenna Harford took an extensive look throughout 2022 at termination of former superintendent Corey Wise. make up roughly 95% of multifamily units built since 2010.
In Enterprise Reporting, former Littleton reporter Robert Tann won for his in-depth look at police chases that span over Douglas and Arapahoe counties.
Arvada Reporter Rylee Dunn won third place for her in-depth look at parents in the Je erson County School District. Dunn’s article, “Inside Je co Kids First, and Ganahl’s furor over students,” won in the Education: News category.

For extended coverage, CCM’s Digital Editor Deborah Grigsby won third-place honors for her coverage of mobile home legislation in 2022. In design, CCM’s Tom Fildey won third place for Single Page Design where he featured a photo page of a wild re impacting bighorn sheep.
Current and former members of the Colorado Community Media sta celebrate eight awards at the annual Top of the Rockies event hosted by the Society of Professional Journalists. The competition includes submissions from professionals in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.



“ e imbalance is a result of developers’ concerns about potential construction defects litigation and related insurance costs of for-sale condominiums,” according to the Business Economic Outlook.
In a previous interview with Colorado Community Media, Ted Leighty — the CEO of the Colorado Association of Home Builders — explained the importance of condominiums, as they provide places for young professionals and families to achieve homeownership and for empty nesters to downsize.
Multifamily for-sale condominiums went from roughly 20% of the market, going into the recession, to about 2% of the market by 2017, Leighty said. By 2019, it rose to about 12% of the market, but then the pandemic hit.
“We made it really, really easy to sue for what they call ‘construction defects’ on multifamily for-sale condominiums,” Leighty said. “ at product has been absolutely missed in this marketplace and it has certainly contributed to our inability to keep up with demand.”
Centennial’s sta report said that even though Colorado enacted modi cations to the construction defect laws in 2017, “increased costs and risk of development have not changed su ciently for developers to construct those projects.”
According to the approved resolution, Centennial “opposes the construction defect laws and strongly urges its legislators to bring legislation to modify these laws so that for-sale condominium development can be made available to the city’s current and future residents.”
Construction defect laws and Senate Bill 23-213
Centennial’s resolution noted the state legislature is currently considering Colorado Senate Bill 23-213, which is a land-use bill that aims to address Colorado’s housing issues by increasing residential density.
According to authors of the bill, a primary goal is stopping communities from exclusionary zoning that prohibits the construction of multifamily housing.
Exclusionary zoning laws place restrictions on the types of homes that can be built in a neighborhood. Oftentimes, these laws prohibit multifamily homes and set limits on building heights.
Numerous municipalities oppose the proposed state legislation, including Centennial, Lone Tree, Westminster, Castle Rock, Englewood and Broom eld, with many citing concerns about the preemption of local control.
In its resolution opposing construction defect laws, Centennial said it is “wholly inconsistent for the Colorado State Legislature to mandate compliance with stateimposed housing requirements and to preempt local government land use authority without also addressing the state-created construction defects laws and the impact of such laws on local housing diversity and a ordability.”
“ e people I’ve talked to that are in support of Senate Bill 23-213 seem to be in denial of the fact that condominiums are not being built on any large scale anywhere in the state of Colorado. And I think we need to be bold. We need to be resolute,” said Councilmember Mike Sutherland.
Centennial’s opposition to Senate Bill 23-213
Centennial City Council unanimously passed a resolution earlier this month opposing Senate Bill 23213 and urging its legislators to vote against “this unprecedented and irresponsible preemption of local powers,” as the resolution states.
In its resolution, the city said, in part, that “collaboration, cooperation, and local empowerment — not top-down statewide mandates and giveaways to special interests — are the solution to Colorado’s a ordable housing problem.” e resolution listed ways Centennial believes the bill “undermines and harms” its local land-use interests, including ignoring the city’s local housing e orts — such as its housing study, which is partially funded by the Colorado Department of Local A airs.

Centennial Mayor Stephanie Piko and Sweetland testi ed April 6 before the Senate Committee on Local Government and Housing, explaining their opposition to the bill.
During the April 18 meeting, Piko said the bill includes a lot of case studies from across the country to support its proposals.
“Part of my testimony was to say they missed the largest case study of all, and that was construction defects and how it had negatively impact housing in the state of Colorado,” Piko said. “ is is obviously something that we think the legislature needs to address immediately, if not sooner.”
‘The founding principle of it is wrong’
In an interview with Colorado Community Media regarding the proposed state legislation, Piko highlighted the principle of home rule.
Home rule is a form of governing that is “de ned by the citizens of a municipality or county that allows for more control over matters of
SEE COUNCIL, P5 local signi cance,” according to the Legislative Council Sta , the nonpartisan research and support service agency for the Colorado General Assembly.
Voters in a municipality can decide to adopt home rule and detail the structure and powers of the local government, per the Legislative Council Sta .
“ e underlying principle of preemption is where the state … has overstepped,” Piko said about the senate bill. “If they’re going after preemption of local control, especially when it’s constitutionally protected, they’re going to run into issues with … municipalities.”
In an interview earlier this month, Rep. Steven Woodrow, who co-authored the proposed legislation, said the reason the state is taking steps to intervene in local control is because of the excessive use of exclusionary zoning by some Colorado communities.
Woodrow said while some communities have done an “exemplary” job at addressing a ordability, others have not and state intervention is required to stop the growing crisis where housing costs are at an all-time high and availability is at an all-time low.
When asked for her response to this type of reasoning, Piko said, “You can go community to community and make the argument for them to change their policy.”
“Just because another municipality isn’t doing what you would do doesn’t mean that they’re doing the wrong thing,” she said.
If a community is not happy with the decisions its local o cials are making, then the community has the power to put in new local o cials, she said, adding that, “it’s not that hard to get rid of us.”
Leighty previously told Colorado Community Media that some local elected o cials have expressed concerns that if they approve denser housing units, they could be recalled.

In Centennial, however, Piko said she cannot think of a time that the council turned down an increase in density since she has been on council.
“Every resident is … understanding that we have a housing problem, and that they understand that housing has become una ordable,” she said. “Based on our — what information I have from our housing study, I think what we need is entrylevel homeownership.”


Piko explained she does not foresee any amendments changing her position on the bill.
“ e founding principle of it is wrong — it’s still preemption, no matter how much they amend it,” she said. “ ey have good intentions. ey’re doing it the wrong way.”
When asked what she wants Centennial residents to know about the bill and her stance on it, Piko said, “I think it’s important for them to know that our city council appreciates the involvement of our citizens in landuse decisions. And now, what we’re gonna do is ensure that their voice is not taken away.
“Doesn’t mean they’re always going to be happy, doesn’t mean they’re always going to agree,” she added. “But … they are heard and they can understand the direction that the city might have to take.”
To inform residents of the city’s stance on the bill, Centennial launched a webpage, centennialco. gov/Government/Home-Rule. Residents can also reach out to members of the council by nding their contact information online at centennialco.gov/Government/ Mayor-Council/Elected-O cials.
South Metro Editor elma Grimes contributed to this article.

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