THORNTON

street parking space for ADUs. e new bill would nix that.

Middle housing

Middle housing, de ned in the bill as a structure with 2-6 separate dwelling units, would be a use byright for all single-family detached zoning districts. It would also allow bigger buildings and lot coverage on single-family detached zone areas for the middle housing.

For middle housing, it would not require new o -street parking requirements.

“All of the requirements and processes for the development of this type of housing would need to be objective, so we wouldn’t be able to add any requirements that state that the architecture or scale would need to be in character with the existing neighborhood,” he said.

Mayor Jan Kulmann asked whether the middle housing would be allowed in any single-family zoned neighborhood, and Wahab said it would be allowed in any zoning district that allows single-family detached by right.

Transit-oriented areas e bill would also a ect properties that are within a half mile from xed rail transit stations, and orton has three. ese areas would on social media. at was among the rst cases pursued by federal authorities as they tried to protect election o cials and workers across the country from a rise in threats stoked by former President Donald Trump’s false and baseless claims that he won the 2020 election.

Wertz was tried under a state law passed in 2021 that made it a crime to threaten elected o cials.

Griswold told jurors that she received few threatening messages before the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. She said that event “changed the atmosphere for election workers and secretaries of state.” require multifamily housing to be a use by right with a maximum gross density of no less than 40 units per acre or 60 units per acre for mixedincome multifamily.

“ e onslaught of threats toward me happened in the summer of 2021,” Griswold said.

It will throw out requirements for new o -street parking requirements for any uses within transit-oriented areas.

In ornton, Wahab said zoning varies in these areas. Some of the zoning designations already allow multifamily, but only one has 40 dwelling units per acre, which is the Crossing Pointe development on 104th and Colorado.

For multifamily zoning, ornton requires one parking space for every 500 square feet of oor area, with a maximum of three spaces per dwelling unit. One guest space is required for every ve dwelling unit.

Kulmann asked if the plan includes funding for RTD, and Wahab said he didn’t think so.

Key Corridors

Another portion of the bill includes key corridors, which Wahab said is vague. He said the bill de nes them as frequent transit service areas as mapped by DOLA at a later date.

As well, it includes any parcel that’s zoned for commercial uses.

“A lot of the reason why this key corridor concept is so vague is that the bill requires that the standards must be created by DOLA no later than June 30th, 2025. So we really don’t know the scope of what a key

At the time, she had enacted a rule prohibiting third-party audits of election results or equipment. e prohibition was aimed at preventing rogue actors from following through with demands for audits from Trump supporters.

“Congresswoman Lauren Boebert tweeted out falsely that I was stopping all audits,” Griswold said. “ at was retweeted by (U.S. Sen.) Ted Cruz and the threats started to come in. It was really scary. I was receiving 10 threats a day.”

Griswold has been outspoken against election deniers, often posting to social media and speaking out on cable TV news shows about the safety and security of Colorado’s elections. She is chair of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of corridor is,” Wahab said.

In these corridors, multifamily housing would be required use by right. At this time, minimum densities are undetermined.

No parking requirements would be allowed, either.

Additional restrictions

Whitney said that the municipality can not enact or enforce codes or policies that would create unreasonable cost or delay, make permitting, sitting or construction infeasible, or interfere with the intent of the statute is story is from e Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. For more, and to support e Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com. e Colorado Sun is a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy, owner of Colorado Community Media. ose who voted in favor of Bedolla on January 2020 were Kulmann, City Councilor Adam Matkowsky, Mayor Pro Tem Jessica Sandgren and City Councilor David Acunto. Bedolla then ran for the Ward 4 seat on the council in 2021 and lost to Bigelow. Bedolla has said she is planning to run again this year, now in her new ward, Ward 2.

“ is could create issues with public improvements that we generally require developments to build,” she said.

She also said the bill doesn’t take into account the city’s water supply and infrastructure.

State, a political organization. is isn’t the rst time the 2021 law has been used in Colorado courts.

A Colorado man accused of making numerous calls to U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Lafayette, and his staff in January pleaded guilty to threatening an elected official. A Denver man was also arrested last week for threatening Neguse over the congressman’s support for gun control.

City Councilor Karen Bigelow asked if the bill tells cities what to build, and Whitney said that it tells cities what they have to allow.

Whitney said that she’s been struggling with whether water availability will be subjective or objective within the bill. She said determining adequate water does involve some subjective determinations.

Kulmann pointed out that the public is involved with the city’s current housing process. e bill would change that.

Henson said that with many housing projects, public input comes too late. Kulmann disagreed and pointed to a project the council turned down based on public input.

“ e fact is that we have the option now, we have discretion in place that we will be losing in this bill,” Kulmann said.

Makowsky in Ward 4? Yes. I believe that’s why they did it,” she said. Bedolla served on the city council previously. She lled the Ward 4 vacancy left by Kulmann after Kulmann won the seat for mayor in 2019.

Commission recommendation

City Council approved the new boundaries at the Nov. 29 city council meeting by a 7-1 vote. It was a decision that went against the election commission’s recommendation for redistricting the wards in ornton. City Councilor Julia Marvin was the dissenting vote.

“ e map that we have in front of us to approve tonight is not the map the (election commission) recommended to us either time, so it feels like it’s undermining what the goal and intent of what their directives were,” Marvin said.

Both Bedolla and Adam Matkowsky lived in Ward 4 before the map was changed. Matkowsky started on the city council in 2015 and has reached the limit for the number of terms he can serve. His wife Nicole is planning to run to take his place in this November’s vote.

Kulmann also said that Bedolla is a “good friend of mine.” Kulmann’s husband, Dave Kulmann, is also Bedolla’s listed registered agent on her ling. He’s also listed as Jan Kulmann’s registered agent.

When asked if there was any talk between them about Bedolla running for the election prior to when she led, Jan Kulmann said no.

Dave Kulmann is not listed as Nicole Matkowsky’s registered agent, but Mayor Jan Kulmann said that Dave Kulmann is helping her with nance reporting.

“To be clear, my husband is not running their campaigns. He’s helping them on the nance reporting. at’s what the Registered Agent does,” she said.

Woodglen neighborhood

But Mayor Kulmann said her intention was to unite the neighborhood into Ward 2 because it was split between two di erent wards. In

The old and current ward map for the City of Thornton. The newest map, on the right, was adopted in November 2022.

COURTESY IMAGE an interview, Kulmann said her bottom line was to keep the Woodglen neighborhood together.

“I want to be clear, we asked for Woodglen to be together, and there was not a push to put (Bedolla) in a new ward,” Kulmann said.

Bigelow understands the decions to move the ward boundary but doubts the timing. She thinks Woodglen should have been in Ward 2 since the beginning.

“It never made sense in Ward 4, so I did not argue it because I didn’t care if it was Nicole Matkowsky or Angie Bedolla running this year,” she said. “But was it apparent why they wanted to do it? Yes, because Adam was the one that brought it up.”

Adam Matkowsky declined requests for an interview. However, during the election commission meetings, he said that residents in Woodglen had mentioned the split of the neighborhood as an issue. So did Kulmann.

Bigelow said she’s never heard those concerns.

“I’ve never had a single resident ever, ever mention it to me. I have a hard time believing they would go to Adam and not me, considering every single time I have a resident contact me, they say ‘Adam has never returned my email or my phone call’,” Bigelow said.

Bigelow said she “heavily door knocked” Woodglen and no one voiced concerns about the split of the ward.

“Most people don’t know what ward they’re in. e majority of people, not only do they not know, they don’t care. ey know they live in the city of ornton,” Bigelow said.

Kulmann said it di erently.

“When I was knocking on doors (in Woodglen) for my rst two elections, as well as for the mayor’s election, and even for the congressional race, that neighborhood was very confused about who was representing them because one side of the street would be one person, the other side of the street would be another,” she said in an interview.

Kulmann also said it was tricky for her when she was knocking on doors, needing to look at a map when a resident would ask which ward they were in. at played into her concern about the split of the neighborhood.

Kulmann said she didn’t know the change would a ect which ward Bedolla lived in, but said that by the end of the process, she knew that Bedolla was in a new ward.

“ e way it ended up, yes, I knew she was moving to a new district. But the way the ask was to keep the neighborhood together, so it could have just easily stayed in Ward 4,”

Kulmann said.

Bigelow did vote for the new election map that put Woodglen into Ward 2. She also ran against Bedolla in 2021 and beat her by 139 votes, according to Records Program Administrator Reese Evenson.

When asked if that victory margin played a role in her vote for the new election map, she said no. Bedolla did not respond to an interview request about her candidacy sent to her campaign email on March 28.

The election commission e election commission was made up of City Clerk Kristen Rosenbaum and four registered electors that began working to update the city’s ward boundaries after the 2020 census. ornton’s ward boundaries were last changed in 2012. e commission worked to draw up new boundaries based on keeping each ward’s population roughly equal, not diluting minority voting blocks and not changing council member wards. e commission also worked to design wards that were compact, contiguous, preserved County precinct boundaries and preserved “communities of interest” such as special districts and homeowners associations. e commission began its work in Feb. 2022 and gave the council an update on the process and objective considerations for their process by June 2022. e council eventually came to a consensus with a di erent map. City Councilor Jessica Sandgren asked if the new map split any neighborhoods and Kolstad said yes. Kulmann chimed in and said the neighborhood in question is currently split today.

In June of 2022, the council had the opportunity to provide any additional objective considerations, according to the Oct. 4, 2022 planning session meeting documents.

“ e City Council did not have any additional considerations for the Election Commission,” the documents read.

Councilors reviewed the commission’s work during an Oct. 4 planning session. According to planning session meeting documents, resident Karin Baker asked for the “little nger in Ward 4” south of 120th Avenue to be moved into Ward 2. at “little nger” includes the Woodglen neighborhood.

Deputy City Manager Robb Kolstad said this option was considered but made the populations between the wards too di erent. Instead, the commission recommended shifting the boundaries slightly around Wards 1, 2 and 3.

Ward 4 City Councilor Adam Matkowsky, the rst to speak at the meeting, didn’t approve of the recommendation, saying it divided a community of interest.

“I recently went down there and it splits a community,” he said.

Matkowsky asked if splitting the precinct to keep that community in one ward was possible, but Kolstad said splitting precincts is against the guidelines.

Councilors asked commission members to review other options and took up the matter again at the Nov. 1 meeting. e commission reviewed eight other options but still recommended the map they presented Oct. 4.

Thu 4/20

Birthday Celebration (Apr)

@ 7pm

Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

Colorado Rapids vs. St. Louis City SC @ 7:30pm / $25-$999

DICK'S Sporting Goods Park, 6000 Victory Way, Commerce City

Dave Mensch - Floodstage Ale Works - Brighton, CO @ 8pm

Flood Stage Ale Works, 170 S Main St, Brighton

Damn Yankees @ 7:30pm Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada

Fri 4/21

Nerf War @ 12:30am

Apr 21st - Apr 20th

Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

Little Nature Creators @ 7pm Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

Sat 4/22

Sun 4/23

RMRR Spring Marathon Training Series - 2023 #2 @ 8am / $15-$25

Platte River TrailHead Park, 88th and Col‐orado, Thornton

John Brewster Music: Cristos Coffee Boutique Roastery & Cafe (Solo) @ 11am

Cristos Coffee Boutique Roastery & Cafe, 149 S Briggs St, Erie

Dinner Out "The Post" (4/24) @ 10pm Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

Tue 4/25

Spring Stroll Series Sand Creek Trail @ 4pm Offsite, 6060 E Parkway Drive, Commerce City. 303-289-3760

Ryan Hutchens at Bar AC @ 6pm Bar AC, 750 15th St, Denver Hiking Program- Mount Falcon @ 7pm Offsite, 6060 E Parkway Drive, Commerce City. 303-289-3760

Wed 4/26

Wild Love Tigress @ Odde's Music Grill

@ 8pm

Odde's Music Grill, 9975 Wadsworth Pkwy, Westminster

100 Things to Do Before You're 12 @ 11pm

Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

2023 Great Global Cleanup @ 8am

Westminster City Park Recreation Center, 10455 Sheridan Boulevard, Westminster. pwright@cityofwest minster.us, 303-658-2389

Colorado Symphony Orchestra @ 1pm

Boettcher Hall, 1000 14th Street, Denver

Mon 4/24

Food Chain Pollution with Lincoln Hills Cares @ 3pm Anythink Huron Street, 9417 Huron Street, Thornton. swhitelonis@any thinklibraries.org, 303-452-7534 Coors Brewery Tour (4/26) @ 4pm Eagle Pointe Recreation Center, 6060 E. Parkway Dr., Commerce City. 303-2893760

Keith Hicks @ 7pm Woods Boss Brewing, 2210 California St, Denver

Riding Carpets @ 8pm Lost Lake Lounge, 3602 E Colfax Ave, Denver

Thu 4/27

Earth Day: Habitat for Pollinators @ 9am

Standley Lake Regional Park & Wildlife Refuge, 11610 West 100th Avenue, Westminster. prl@city ofwestminster.us, 303-658-2794

Bird Conservancy Bird Walk - April @ 9am / Free Bird Conservancy's Environmental Learn‐ing Center, 14500 Lark Bunting Lane, Brighton. 303-659-4348 ext. 53

Pollinator Gardens with CSU Extension @ 5:30pm

Anythink Brighton, 327 East Bridge Street, Brighton. rbowman @anythinklibraries.org, 303-4053230

DnD Adventure Club- The Moldy Library @ 8pm Bison Ridge Recreation Center, 13905 E. 112th Avenue, Commerce City. 303-2893760

Justin Garber Live at Odde's Music Grill @ 6pm Odde's Music Grill, 9975 Wadsworth Pkwy, Westminster