Article Contributed on: 12/7/2006 11:29:00 AM
A
Canadian development company,
Carma, is spending thousands to support a Referendum in Lakewood, CO to ask voters to endorse a trade of public donor-restricted parkland.
Carma, a Canadian development corporation headed byUSoperations manager
Tom Morton and Vice President
Mike Partheymuller, is spending thousands in support of a campaign called "Vote For Rooney Valley Open Space." With the help ofa PR company (
Peak PR based out of Littleton,
www.peakpr.com), a political lobbyist group (
The Kenney Group based out of Denver,
www.thekenneygroup.com ), and backed by the elected political powers of the City of Lakewood, Carma is investing heavily in propagating literature to all Lakewood residents to encourage the land exchange.
The exchange that Carma proposes involes almost 22 total acres of a City park called Forsberg's Iron Spring. The park was donated to the City of Lakewood in 1974 by multiple landowner familieswith the expressed intent and deed restriction that the land be held perpetually in the public trust.
A recent decision by council conveyed this land to the Carma development corporation, the City receiving in return 22 acres of the developer's private land on the eastern boundary of the newly proposed residential subdivision.
"As viable land becomes increasingly difficult to acquire and residential development becomes increasingly capital intensive, the competitive landscape is certain to change," says Carma's president Allan Norris in on the corporation's website (
www.carma.ca).
In September, the City ofLakewood was presented with a petition, signed by over 4,000 residents, asking Council to save the City park or submit the decision to a vote of the registered electors. The petitionpassed in terms of sufficiencyand suspended the ordinance until Lakewood voters hadthe opportunity to vote onthe measure.
Despite the weight of the City's power,thefinancialforces of amulti-billion dollar development corporation, and the lobbying/PR power ofhired firms, thecitizens of Lakewood formed an issue committee opposing the land exchange, garnering the support of local media and community activists along the way.
"We're definitely the underdogs in this fight," said Rob Eadie, a resident who's lot sits on the parkin question, "But we're right, and the arguments standalone, with or without the political spin that has beenpropagated by this developer and thevested parties inLakewoodcity politics. We're not going to lose our park."
December 12 marks the date that both issue committee submit their donations and expenses to the Secretary of State via the City Clerk's office. These records are made availablefor public inspection.
City of Lakewood Mayor Steve Burkholder, term-limited in 2007, and City Manager Mike Rock, have publicly endorsed the swap of the public land toCarma, claiming that theexchange supports a City planning document from over 10 years agoto create abuffer zone for adjacent residents to the new subdivision. This planning process had the input of 150 residents, most of whom resided along theeastern boundary of the developer's land. Thisinput representsroughly 1/2% of theCity's currenty population,approximately 150,000 residents in determining the fate of a public park.