My sister-in-law came over the other day with a worried expression on her face - she needed to know if RTD could seize her condo through eminent domain. She lives in the Golden Ridge complex on Heritage Road and had received a letter telling her that RTD contended that her complex wasn't dense enough for the end of the West Line light rail line coming to Golden.
She also received a diagram showing that her complex was marked for redevelopment. Many of the residents were very concerned as a result of these documents. I thought that it didn't make sense. So I looked into it. Here are the facts:
(1) There IS a vacant parcel near the complex that may be considered for development, but farther east. There are no plans to redevelop the Golden Ridge Condos, or the trailer parks farther north on Heritage.
(2) The idea of condemning what is already high-density housing to build higher-density housing is simply ludicrous. RTD does not have the authority to do it. GURA does not have the millions of dollars to do it. No political figure has the suicidal will to do it.
(3) The letter was signed by
Marion Olson, the self-designated "voice" of Golden. She opposes RTD's current plan to bring light rail out to the Taj Mahal. After scaring the daylights out of the people of Golden Ridge with this tactic (which was accompanied by an envelope in a desperate attempt to raise money), she has published another edition of her fish wrap, repeating the eminent domain fiction, trying to scare Golden into voting for her three Marionettes:
Mary Weaver,
Frank Oldham, and
Steve Gallant. They would join one other Marionette on City Council to give Madame Vendetta control over city government.
(4) One of these candidates, Frank Oldham, lives in the Golden Ridge complex, and should know better. He worked as an attorney for the District Attorney's office, and knows what fraud is.
(5) This new "threat" is simply a scare tactic whipped up by Madame Vendetta to bend the will of the citizens of Golden to give her (and her alone) the control over our city's government. Vote for her three candidates, and you hand the keys to the city to a single individual who would like nothing more than to ruin our town in revenge for something that happened more than a decade ago.
There is one thing that I do agree with her on: It is up to everyone in Golden to VOTE. Exercise your precious right to VOTE - for anyone EXCEPT Madame Vendetta's Marionettes. Join me, and hundreds of other citizens with common sense, and give her a resounding defeat by rejecting her and her candidates.