COVID Updates
Appointments to Get the COVID Vaccine (Eligibility)
State of Colorado’s Find Out Where You Can Get Vaccinated page
Safeway | King Soopers | Lutheran Medical Center
Jefferson County has a vaccination clinic in Arvada, which is open to those who are 70 or older. Learn more….
Educators and people 65+ will be eligible for vaccines starting Monday, February 8th. Learn more….
The state has a new hotline to answer questions, including location of vaccine providers: 1-877-268-2926. It is staffed 24 hours a day.
Jefferson County Case Summary:
Cases in Jeffco – Mon: 34,755| Tues: 34,816 (+61)
Deaths in Jeffco – Mon: 714 | Tues: 716 (+2)
Currently Hospitalized in Jeffco – Mon: 31| Tues: 32 (+1)
Known Cases in Golden – Thurs: 1314 | Mon: 1344
Recovered – Mon: 32,817 | Tues: 32,980 (+163)
Public Health References
Mines COVID Testing | Jeffco Fairgrounds COVID Testing | School of Mines COVID-19 case page. | Sign up for exposure notifications | CDC | Colorado | Jefferson County | City of Golden | Jefferson County is at Level Orange, “High Risk.”
Virtual Events
9AM Golden Walks
8:30-9:30AM Virtual Power Training
10:15AM Baby Time with the Library
3-5PM Hard Times Writing Workshop
9:30AM Crazy Quilt Embellishment
10AM TriceraTOTs – Valentine Dino
11:30AM-1PM Community Development Committee meeting
6-7:30PM GYP Book Club
6-7PM Know Your Housing Rights-People with Disabilities
6:30PM Planning Commission Meeting
The Planning Commission will continue their discussion of a new apartment complex at 1100, 1400 and 1700 New Star Way (map). This is the third time the project has come before the Commission.
On December 2nd, the project was presented as 150 apartments. It did not meet zoning, parking, or density standards, so the Commission was asked to approve a Special Use Permit (to allow 100% residential in a commercial zone), a parking variance (because it didn’t provide as much parking as required by code for that many residences) and a density variance (too little open space for the amount of land). They also wanted permission to start construction early, before collecting enough growth allocations under our 1% growth limit. Such “early start” plans are permitted for affordable housing, but there was doubt as to whether this qualified as “affordable.” The builders were committing to price some of the apartments for middle-income earners, designated as $84K for a single person or $96K for a couple.
Planning Commission allowed the Special Use Permit but was disinclined to approve the other requests. The case was continued to the January meeting, so the developer could reconsider the proposal.
On January 6th, the project returned with 129 apartments instead of 150. This meant they had enough parking spaces, so they no longer needed the parking variance. They still needed the density variance. Planning Commission considered whether the project involved a hardship that would justify a variance. They concluded there wasn’t a hardship so they voted against the density variance. They also spent quite a bit of time discussing whether these apartments qualified as “affordable housing” and how they would determine that the residents qualified to get affordable housing.
Tonight, the builders are proposing 104 apartments. They will provide a higher ratio of open space to construction, so they no longer need the density variance. They are no longer committing to keep the rent affordable to middle income people–the apartments will go for market rate. So the remaining issues are approval of the site plan and approval of an allocations banking plan.
This project has generated quite a few public comments all three times it has come before the Commission. To see the most recent comments, view tonight’s meeting packet. If you want to submit public comment, send an email to planningcommission@cityofgolden.net. The meeting will be shown live via the agenda page.
Golden History Moment
67 Years Ago
The February 4, 1954 Colorado Transcript celebrated Fred Schwartzwalder’s discovery of a significant uranium deposit a few miles north of Golden. There was a big uranium boom in the 1950s, driven largely by the cold war and the push to build nuclear weapons.
Mr. Schwartzwalder lived at 207 Boyd Street (map) and was employed as a janitor at Golden High School. He spent his weekends prospecting in the hills around Golden, bringing home rock samples and storing them in his backyard. After several years of this, he acquired a Geiger counter and learned that one of his backyard specimens was radioactive. He couldn’t remember where he had found that particular rock, and it took a few months to re-locate the source. The uranium deposit was located on the Paul White ranch, so Schwartzwalder leased the mineral rights.
Most of that ranch is now White Ranch Open Space, but the mine was not part of the land sale. You can see the location on Google Maps, labeled Schwartzwalder Heliport.
Many thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts and to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!
