May 22, 2014 Jefferson County, Colorado | Volume 90, Issue 40 A publication of
lakewoodsentinel.com council debates e-cigs, marijuana rules During the May 19 study session, city council received an update on the W Rail Line Neighborhood Transportation Study and directed staff to move forward on ordinances relating to e-cigarettes and retail marijuana.
W Rail study
Lakewood Mayor Bob Murphy recognizes former city manager Mike Rock’s efforts in bringing Belmar to life at a celebration of the development’s 10th anniversary on May 15. Photos by Clarke Reader
A decade of change Belmar marks 10 year anniverary By Clarke Reader
creader@colorado communitymedia.com Numerous awards and national recognition aren’t the best ways to measure the success of Belmar in the 10 years since its opening. For that, one need only take a walk around the development. “The results of what we’ve accomplished are everywhere — the sound of construction, the views around us and the people walking around,” Linda Kaboth, vice president of national division with GF Real Estate Group, told the small crowd who gathered on May 15, to celebrate the anniversary of Belmar’s first decade. Belmar — whose name is a combination of May Bonfils-Stanton’s mother (Belle) and the abbreviation of her namesake, Mary — was an attempt by the city of Lakewood, Continuum Partners developers and many other partners to reinvent the suburbs, according to Continuum’s founder and CEO, Mark Falcone. “This is a very exciting day, and you are all here because in some way you were all involved in this project,” Falcone said. “After 10 years this is a wonderful chance for us to reflect on what we’ve accomplished in 10 years.” The development has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade. When Belmar first opened on May 14, 2004, there were 24 shops and two restaurants, with Galyan’s as the main anchor. The retail square footage was around 90,000 square feet and no residents in Belmar. Currently, there are 76 shops and 21 restaurants, with Whole Foods, Nordstrom Rack, Best Buy, Target, Dick’s
Former Lakewood Mayor Steve Burkholder and current mayor Bob Murphy reminisce about the road to Belmar’s birth during a celebration of its 10th anniversary. Sporting Goods and Century 16 Belmar all serving as anchors. Retail square footage has increase to 851,829 square feet and there are now 2,030 residents living in the district, with 4,200 residents in walking distance. All of this seemed unimaginable in the late 1990s when the only thing at the location was the run down Villa Italia mall, but lead by Falcone, then city manager Mike Rock and other elected officials, as well as community members, Belmar developed in just a handful of years into the heartbeat of Lakewood’s downtown. Falcone said that Rock is the one person without whom the project would not have been finished, and mayor Bob Murphy added that Belmar is Rock’s legacy for the city. “I am humbled by the opportunity I had to work with people that I both like and trust — when that happens every-
thing else is easier,” Rock said. “When we were working on this other cities would ask if they could do something similar and I said no — they could only do a cheap imitation. You need this particular group of people to do this.” Murphy said Belmar has become a source of community pride for Lakewood, and former mayor Steve Burkholder commended the city council’s courageousness in leading the way on the Belmar project. “Belmar will not be the same in 10 years and that’s important,” Burkholder said. “Lakewood is not afraid to change as the community does.” Belmar continues to grow and with six new residential projects coming, it appears to be fulfilling the role that was always envisioned for it. “When we first started Belmar, we didn’t want it to just be a project,” Falcone said. “We wanted it to be a neighborhood.”
Jay Hutchison, director of public works, gave an update on a study that focused on the effects of the W Rail in the areas around the Two Creeks and Eiber neighborhoods. Hutchison said there has been a lot of data collection in the area, particularly during the opening weekend of the line. Some of the areas focused on in the study are travel along 13th Avenue, pedestrian and bicycle facilities and lighting. “People in the neighborhood had concerns about motor vehicle volume which we have seen has remained essentially unchanged and speeds have stayed low at around 25 MPH,” he said. Sidewalks are also of concern to residents in the area and Hutchison said the city is looking into working with developers to add sidewalks as part of their redevelopment projects. There are also funded projects in the works for some bike and street intersections like at Kipling Street and the Pike View Street Underpass. “The community has done a great job and we’ve made good progress so far,” Hutchison said. “It’s an ongoing process and there is still a lot to do.”
E-cigarettes
Bob Doyle, executive director of the Colorado Tobacco Education and Prevention Alliance, and Janet Young, police legal adviser, presented council with information about the dangers of e-cigarettes and vaporizers, especially in regards to young people. “We’re seeing a perfect storm here with the development of these products,” Doyle said. “One of the most dangerous things about these devices is it’s so difficult to know what is actually being vaporized in them.” Doyle said that the use of these devices seems to be aimed and young people, and since ads for e-cigarettes are currently allowed on television, it is reaching an audience that cigarettes haven’t been able to in decades. Young said that so far there isn’t a lot of legislation on a national or state level regarding these devices — she said three states have passed legislation to ban ecigarettes where smoking is banned and there are 180 municipalities nationwide who have enacted similar legislation. In Colorado Durango and Edgewater have passed these kinds of rules, and Fort Collins is discussing it. Council reached a consensus to direct staff to create an amendment to the city regulations that would ban these devices in the same places where smoking is prohibited.
Retail marijuana
City Attorney Tim Cox lead the discussion about retail marijuana in the city, and focused on the business side of the issue, looking at four areas — marijuana cultivation facilities, manufacturing facilities, testing facilities and retail shops. “You really have three options as a council — you can legislatively decide to permit any of these four areas, you can decide to legislatively ban all of them Council continues on Page 17
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