The fight over 2090 Wright Street continues.
City Council’s approval on June 25 of rezoning the 10-acre plot to accommodate construction of a new facility for the Rocky Mountain Deaf School is being contested by the 2090 Coalition as an illegal rezoning. The group is circulating a petition to bring the issue before Lakewood voters.
“We filed a rule 106 action on July 23 to contest and overturn the rezoning,” coalition spokesman Michael Davenport said. “The property is part of a planned community and covered by a development plan that makes what they did illegal, which is the backbone of our appeal.”
The coalition also states that despite the city’s claims that the land is zoned for a school, it was only zoned that way for eight years after 1977, when the land was first deeded to Jefferson County Schools. Since no school was built, that zoning has expired and the land belongs to the city.
Lakewood’s Planning Commission and City Council, have voted in support of the fact that the city never owned the land and that it belongs to Jefferson County, which has the right to sell the property to the Rocky Mountain Deaf School.
“The Jeffco School District R-1 owns the land, and proof of the school’s ownership has been recorded with the county and is readily available for public access at the Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder’s office,” Derek Sevier wrote in an email. Sevier is deaf and is the father of two deaf children. “The referendum is something we anticipated the opponents would do, so we were prepared for it. We are excited to have more people become aware of our school and volunteer as a result.”
For the issue to come before voters, the 2090 Coalition needs the signatures of 3 percent of registered voters, roughly 3,000 signatures, by Friday, Aug. 10. Coalition supporters have been stationing themselves at grocery stores, recreation centers and parks to get signatures.
“We have about 200 volunteers going out to get signatures,” Davenport said. “It’s been going well so far, and we’ve been getting signatures every day.”
Volunteers for the Rocky Mountain Deaf School have been going to the sites where signatures are being sought to give people additional information about the site, the rezoning and what signing the petition would mean. They say the 2090 Coalition is not giving out all the information when seeking signatures.
“According to our supporters, they (the 2090 Coalition) have been saying that the petition is to save open space, support teachers, support the Rocky Mountain Deaf School, keep out new taxes because Lakewood residents pay more for every student to attend and if they don’t want to pay $13 million in taxes to build the school,” Sevier wrote. “We want Lakewood residents to know they need to read the rezoning petition and understand it before they sign anything.”
The Rocky Mountain Deaf School plans to use grant money to build its facility and would not require any tax money from residents. Although the 10-acre plot is surrounded by open space, it has never been designated as open space.
Responding to the claim by supporters of the Deaf School, Davenport said volunteers are giving out all the information that applies.
“We believe very strongly the action was illegal and rezoned inappropriately,” he said. “We want citizens to have the choice, because we think the council railroaded this through and there’s a lot of misinformation.”
Deaf School supporters will continue to spread their information about the site as the deadline nears. Sevier wrote that people have the choice to sign the petition, but that they need to know the facts first.
For information from the city on the issue, go to www.lakewood.org/2090. The 2090 Coalition also has information on its website, www.2090coalition.com, and the Rocky Mountain Deaf School has posted information on its Facebook page, “Families for Rocky Mountain Deaf School,” and its website, www.2090coalitionfacts.com.
daBears25 posted at 11:10 am on Tue, Aug 14, 2012.
The land is owned by the Jeffco School district. Give it up 2090 coalition, your not in my backyard crusade has lost.
They are building a school for deaf children. this is not a chemical waste dump, garbage landfill, or airport..
No one really uses the open space. Take a walk across the parcel. you will find parts of old sod, discarded landscape materials, golf balls, and discarded tree limbs. The neighborhood does not treat the parcel like a park, it is treated like a dumping ground.
If they wanted to build a little league ball park, the same 2090 crowd would be complaining about the traffic and noise.
iLoveLakewoodMore posted at 12:57 pm on Fri, Aug 3, 2012.
If the rezoning was done illegally then the issue must be raised in the courts, where I believe a lawsuit was filed by the coalition. I don't agree with it but that is their right.
Moreover if the rezoning was done illegally then this is clearly not an issue that should be brought up with the voters. Asking the voters to be the jury in an illegality issue is not appropriate in my opinion. To me this cries out of petulance by the neighboring residents.
bfranks posted at 10:04 am on Fri, Aug 3, 2012.
Below is a link to commentary by Michael Davenport, titled:
Lakewood rezoning of 2090 S. Wright St. is illegal
http://yourhub.denverpost.com/lakewood/lakewood-rezoning-2090-s-wright-st-is-illegal/23DDJDPuskhsbT5iwhPdOK-ugc
bfranks posted at 8:26 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
2090 S. Wright Street Rezoning is Not Clear-Cut
The Lakewood City Council's decision to approve the rezoning request without sufficient regard to the long-term impact to the surrounding communities is quite troubling, and the fact that the vote was not unanimous demonstrates the issue is not clear-cut.
The matter deserves further discussion, and once people hear all the facts they are going to find this issue is far more complex than a school being built on land the City previously declared open space. The complexities involve land ownership and compatibility with surrounding uses. There have been broken promises. And, there are major concerns over the quasi-judicial process that favors the applicant and deprives citizens of their constitutional right to discuss public matters with their elected representatives.
I have been researching the issue for months, and there has been a staggering amount of information to digest. Despite the time I've invested, there are still many unanswered questions. Given the short amount of time the City Council had to review nearly 1,000 pages of submitted material, I am convinced that their analysis was incomplete and their vote premature.
There is a lot of thoroughly researched and independently verifiable information on www.2090coalition.com, so that’s a good starting point.
How we as a city accommodate growth while maintaining and improving the quality of life for all our citizens is paramount and requires careful consideration.
We deserve an opportunity for an in-depth discussion between all interested parties.
We need to come together to find a solution that is a win-win for everyone involved.
Citizens deserve to hear all the facts so they can be an informed, guiding force in the direction and future growth of our city.
Signing the circulating petition calling for a Referendum will make sure that happens.
iLoveLakewoodMore posted at 6:09 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
This is what I find most disturbing and it's a quote from a someone opposed to the school being built: "One very important fact overlooked is that we, the RESIDENTS of the community...will not receive any benefit from it". This says to me the local residents are more concerned with their own greedy needs than they are with the greater community. It makes me think if the school was built for the benefit of the neighbors, in other words a 400-student elementary school, then they would be in support of the school. But because the school is for the deaf and hard of hearing, and so few in the neighborhood are deaf or HoH then there is no benefit to themselves. It is rather disturbing the wealth and equity in their homes is that much more important than building a school that will bring recognition to the City of Lakewood.
Andrew posted at 6:04 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
I am glad that this article was well written and shared the voice of both sides... the issue at hand is the education of our future, namely those children who would benefit from an education at RMSD and it having a permanent home, thanks in part to a $10 million grant.
However I ask that we as a community needed to shape our future and keep the personal issues that we have surrounding this issue at bay. The future of the children who will one day attend Rocky Mountain School for the Deaf, like my nephew, is at stake.
If and when this does go to a vote for the Lakewood Community, i hope you remember that.
Tara Schupner posted at 5:12 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
This will be my last comment on this story. For further information on what I am "trying to say," others are welcome to read my column on www.deafecho.com.
I fully support in every way individuals' First Amendment rights to freedom of press, speech, assembly and petition. With one qualification: that citizens have a responsibility to each other to become as informed as possible about an issue before they speak or sign any petition. There is much at stake in this issue. In that vein, I laid out in my first column a number of factors in this situation that previously were not being revealed or discussed, and that I personally believe Lakewood voters should be aware of before making their decision whether to sign the petition. Even if 2090 Coalition believes all the information on its website is correct, it is only a fraction of the whole. My columns seek to supply another fraction.
I have never generalized about Lakewood residents or the neighborhood as a whole, like you are doing in your comments. My column specifically targeted 2090 Coalition and its arguments and included quotes from neighbors who support the rezoning and the deaf school. Those neighbors themselves have commented, using their own full names, on various news sites and Facebook, so those quotes are verifiable. Also verifiable is a letter from a Lakewood resident who overheard a
coalition supporter denigrating deaf people, including calling them stupid. He posted it on the coalition's own Facebook page and after speaking with him myself to verify his identity and that he has no connection to RMDS, I copied his post verbatim on www.deafecho.com, along with a video of a petition circulator lying to a Lakewood
resident about what the petition is for.
The coalition may have filed a harassment case against RMDS, but what you are not sharing is that coalition members several times attempted to represent their paperwork from that filing - which did not have any court stamps - as restraining orders in order to pressure the school's supporters into leaving. They also attempted to serve the papers to people whose names were not listed, including a minor. These members and petition circulators were warned several times by the police to cease these actions - which themselves raise the question of what exactly the coalition's motives for filing the harassment case really were. At the very minimum, BOTH sides have alleged each other of misconduct.
Last, but not least, I challenge you to reveal your identity. If you truly care about your cause and your integrity, you will stand up for them, as I have.
Ilovelakewood posted at 3:44 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
And I want to see Tara, your proof that Lakewood residents called deaf people "stupid." Will he testify in court to that? It doesn't make much sense that people trying to get this to a vote would even say that. It serves no purpose.
I heard that this organization filed a harassment case against RMDS and can substantiate all of the claims. Can you? This doesn't make me want to give our land to your school...
Ilovelakewood posted at 3:38 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
Tara, you say you want to exercise your first amendment right, but you do not want citizens to express their first amendment right to petition and vote?
None of the information on the 2090coalition.com site is untrue. This school is only telling people half of the facts. I don't really care if the neighbors needed to hire professionals to get this to a vote. I want it to go to a vote, so I applaud them for figuring out how to do it! That's the way ALL the petitions are run. And, I know they have several, if not hundreds of neighobrs out getting signatures too.
So what exactly are you saying and why are you trying to trash them?
Tara Schupner posted at 3:18 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
To "Ilovelakewood" ... I don't hide my identity. Therefore, my columns on www.deafecho.com are easily accessible via a google search for my name. I have nothing to hide, and your own statements are erroneous. I am not an editor, but a contributing writer. I backed up my research with documentation and links to original sources, as anyone who visits the website and reads my columns can see. I also interviewed sources, including city staff, to gather information as well as read the entire file from the Planning Committee meeting along with other extensive research. So, I took care to verify facts before I laid out my arguments and stated my opinion. I stand behind the accuracy of the facts I included, as well as the opinions I derived from them, which are mine alone and which I exercised my First Amendment rights to express.
If you believe specific facts I provided as comments to this article are wrong, please provide evidence for your arguments. I did not state anything one way or another in my two comments about the amount of support for one side or another. That is not verifiable at this point. I stated facts that are easily discoverable in the coalition's own financial disclosure report to the city as well as by a search of Craigslist that reveals six job ads posted within the past week for paid petitioners, offering to pay $1.25 per signature for "a local open space issue" in Lakewood.
Ilovelakewood posted at 2:56 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
This woman below is the editor of the deaf blog defaming neighbors.
Ilovelakewood posted at 2:55 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
My previous comments was removed by Denverpost. Why?
Ilovelakewood posted at 2:50 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
The woman who wrote the comments below is wrong. Many thousands of people in Lakewood are behind putting this to a vote.
This lady should also disclose t(I've found online) hat she is the "editor" of a blog for the deaf, and that she has written extremely defaming remarks about the Lakewood citizens and the citizen group spending their own hard earned money so that neighbors has the right to vote. Check your souces, Tara, before you slander people with statements you can't hold up.
I am glad this will be going to vote. The truth about this land deal needs to come out.
Tara Schupner posted at 1:29 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
Another piece of information this article neglects to mention is that the deadline to include this issue on the November ballot was two days ago. Because that deadline has passed, if this petition succeeds, it will cost the city and its taxpayers nearly a quarter of a million dollars to hold a special election, according to the city's website.
As for my previous comment, further information and evidence about the Coalition's use of paid petitioners can be found in the financial disclosure report it filed with the city yesterday.
You can download the report at:
http://www.lakewood.org/Documents/City_Clerk/Elections/Issue_Commtitee_Reports/2090_Issue_Committee/2090_Issue_Committee_Report_07-01-2012_thru_07-26-2012.aspx
It essentially states that the coalition has paid individuals - many of them not Lakewood residents - more than $2,200 to circulate its petition.
Tara Schupner posted at 12:07 pm on Thu, Aug 2, 2012.
I would like to point out a critical error in this article. Davenport claims he has 200 volunteers gathering signatures.
However, his coalition has posted several times on Craigslist recruiting petitioners and offering to pay $1 to $1.25 per signature.
Paid petitioners are not volunteers.