My apologies for writing twice in one day. I failed to inform you about a meeting scheduled for 6PM tonight. The Jefferson County Housing Authority is considering redeveloping the area from Ford to Jackson north of 24th Street as 100% residential “mixed income” housing. This plan includes the same ground where a Chicago based developer wanted to build a 44-unit 3 story apartment building. The new plan includes 51 units, but also includes more land, so the overall approach shouldn’t be as dense. The U-shaped complex at 24th and Jackson is already low-income housing, and would be included in this redevelopment project.
The key issues for the neighborhood for the previous proposal were mass (they thought the building was way too big for the lot) and parking (they felt the development didn’t include enough parking for the residents and that the extra cars would park on the streets in the neighborhood). It will be interesting to see how this new proposal handles those issues.
The meeting takes place TONIGHT (Monday April 16th) at 6PM in the community room of the Lewis Court apartments, 2200 Jackson Street. This is a good choice of location for the meeting, in that Lewis Court is also low-income housing, includes plenty of parking, and is generally regarded to have been a good addition to the neighborhood. Here’s the letter describing tonight’s meeting.
I had an interesting discussion with a friend yesterday. I was encouraging him to go through the city spending exercise on GuidingGolden. I walked him through the options and explained things to the best of my ability. He had a bunch of questions I couldn’t answer, such as “what would they do in Grampsas park for $10.4 million?” “What would they do to Lions Park for $4.3 million?” “Where would the Clear Creek Pedestrian Bridge be built?” “Wouldn’t the Solar Garden be paid for by subscribers?” “What property do we want to buy as open space? Would it stay open, or would they build a park on it?” “What’s wrong with the current downtown streetscape? Downtown is crawling with people, so it must be working.” and “What is ‘the West Colfax Ave transportation project?'” My answer to all of those was “I don’t know.” In the end, he chose different projects than I had chosen when I took the survey, so we may have canceled out each other’s votes.
Here’s what the City is trying to do: over the years we’ve had a lot of public meetings and come up with a long list of things we want. Every one of the things on the list has value. Often, spending decisions are made on a piecemeal basis, based on what seems most important right now. The City is asking us to look at the entire list of wonderful ideas and decide which of them we want most. If we don’t make any choices, or say we want them ALL, then we need to raise taxes to pay for them. This is a big, complicated topic, and I think it’s laudable that the City is trying to get their arms around it, and ask people what they want.
TAKE THE SURVEY! I heard on Saturday that only 85 people had done it. Do you want 85 people (who aren’t you) to determine your future tax levels?
Click here and make your own choices! If nothing else, you can choose to NOT fund projects you DON’T support.
Unexpectedly, the city is asking people to take the survey even if they’ve already done it, because the survey has changed. So TAKE THE SURVEY!
The Downtown Development Authority meets tonight at 6:30 in City Council Chambers. They will consider a grant request to help finance a $3500 mural on a new yoga studio at 612 10th St. The Chamber of Commerce is requesting $8000 to help pay for First Friday celebrations this summer, including horse drawn carriage rides, the Golden Hayride, face painters, musicians, and other sidewalk entertainment. Foothills Art Center is requesting $7000 to cover marketing costs for a new event this summer: Artsweek Golden. Artsweek will run from July 16th-22nd and is a separate event from the Golden Fine Arts Festival, which happens August 18th & 19th.
In other news, City Staff is working with a consultant to improve “wayfinding” signage. DDA board members are interested in improvements to the downtown streetscape. City staff is reviewing the intersection at 14th and Ford Streets. Staff is evaluating the parking on Washington between 15th and 18th Streets. Engineering standards indicate that most of that parking is “unsafe” because the line of sight is not adequate.
As always, review the meeting packet to get the details on any of these issues.
Live Music Tonight:
The Fireside Pickers will start playing at 6PM at New Terrain Brewing.
Tomorrow Morning:
The Mothers of Preschoolers will meet from 9-11AM at the Baptist Church (map). Designed for mothers of children aged from birth to Kindergarten. Child care provided. Special topic speakers, fun, food & fellowship with other moms. Call 303-255-1780 or visit www.fbcgolden.org for more information.
The Directors Storytime and Craft happens tomorrow morning at 10 at the Railroad Museum (map). Join fellow young train enthusiasts, in collaboration with the Golden Public Library, for a morning of rail stories and make-and-take crafts. Recommended ages 4-6 years old. Free for Museum Members and $2 for nonmembers with general admission. Learn more….
