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Arvada more than doubled in size during the 1960’s and 70’s. A lot of sewer and water pipe was installed in that growth period. The pipes and valves have an average service life of about fifty years, which means we’re close to the time when this in-ground infrastructure will need to be replaced. We also have a significant percentage of Arvada streets that need repair. It isn’t nearly as glamorous or popular to repair a bridge as it is to create a new one, but it is certainly necessary. As a city government, Arvada needs to make maintenance of the existing city its priority for the near future. There is much discussion and ferment about completing the 470 beltway around Denver with the stretch from Broomfield to Lakewood being the last piece. It is said the road is critical for moving traffic around the city without overburdening neighborhood arterials. I have seen surveys of citizens saying they don’t want congestion on their streets, and I have seen projections of what the traffic on streets such as Indiana will be in 2030, but I haven’t seen studies of actual traffic right now on E470 between I25 and State Highway 36. The Candelas development is underway smack in the middle of the proposed corridor, a development of over 1,000 acres that has been called “Arvada’s Interlocken”. Building the Jefferson Parkway as a precursor to the beltway would accelerate that development considerably. My question is, would we be wiser to build the road to speed development of Candelas, or do we let Candelas grow organically and respond to actual need when it becomes measurably apparent by then building the Jefferson Parkway and/or widening highways 128 and 93? The nation’s economy is in bad shape. That impacts all of us, state and municipal governments as well. I would concentrate on keeping our existing city healthy before I would expend public resources developing a large project to the north that will inevitably pull population and businesses away from Arvada’s current residential and commercial center. Let’s move into another expansion phase after the economy recovers. I want to be sure that as a city, we have a solid infrastructure so that anyone looking to move here can be confident in the city’s ability to provide all the resources necessary for success. Years ago, a friend of mine told me “I can win any game if you just show me all the rules.” What he was saying was that a business can find a way to flourish if it knows where the pitfalls and traps are as well as the opportunities. Government cannot create jobs. Every tax dollar spent on a government created job is one that could not be spent on a private sector job. Arvada needs to create a regulatory environment that is fair, predictable, and transparent. That way everyone can know all the rules, and everyone can have an equal shot at winning. I’m going to seek to weed out unproductive regulations and ordinances. Laws cannot favor one group over another. Crony capitalism has no place in Arvada. A stable, well run, well maintained and attractive city is a magnet to business and families. Let’s not forget schools. Schools are a critical factor in deciding where to locate. The importance of a high achieving public education system where students and teachers alike experience well-being can not be overstated. School success is a critical predictor of community prosperity and the vibrancy of neighborhoods. I would study successful schools, be they public, charter, or private in the metro area, seeking to isolate the variables that make them stand out. For example, Meiklejohn Elementary, a public school in Jeffco, and Crown Pointe Academy, a charter school in Adams 50, are both academically successful with student populations of diverse characteristics. Why? Let all stakeholders in our city’s educational system work to identify the policies and elements that make successful schools work, and then seek to introduce them into the schools in Arvada that are not performing well. Money is only a piece of the solution. We have much we can learn from schools that everyone agrees work well. Marc Williams has served 12 years on the Arvada city council. If he is elected mayor, he has the potential to serve another 12 years. Are the people really best served by leaders who only change out every quarter of a century? Mr. Williams has said that he decided a year ago that he was going to run for mayor. His campaign signs began to blanket the arterial streets of Arvada early this past summer. It was an overwhelming presence, perhaps strategically so. To me, there was no evidence that Arvadans would have the opportunity to choose between two qualified candidates. Sure, you could vote but the outcome was pre-determined. It seemed like a hollow exercise of democracy. I came to believe that someone, and I saw no one, needed to stand up as a candidate so the people would have a choice. If our democratic republic dies at the roots, the whole tree withers. I have been fortunate to have spent half my life working for others and half working for myself. It is a complete perspective. I know how to work, and I know how to work with others, for others and how to lead others. In high school I started working as a bagger for Albertsons in Laramie, Wyoming. By the time I graduated from the University of Wyoming with a B.S. in Economics, I was also assistant grocery manager. I spent the next 11 years running my own retail custom photo lab and photographic supply business, The Darkroom in Laramie. I came to Arvada 22 years ago to marry my wife Cheri and started working for Robert Waxman Camera in their Insurance Replacement division. By the time I left six years later, as Waxman’s was being sold to Wolf Camera, I was the buyer for the Advanced Photo and Industrial Sales divisions of the company. I then returned to my entrepreneurial bent, starting a web design firm, WORDGraphics, which I continue to own and run. We made that decision in order to spend as much time as possible with the two beautiful daughters we brought home from China. Free enterprise built this country, and the principles of a free market and a constrained government have given immense opportunities to those fortunate enough to live and work in such a system. I want that for my children and for your children, and I will work hard to maximize those kinds of opportunities in the city I love to call home, Arvada. From what I have read, there isn’t enough traffic to warrant construction of the road. I am enough of a free market believer that I would not seek an ordinance to stop the road. I would expect the developers to find the money on the open market, and buy the land needed without eminent domain powers of the city. If they can buy the land and develop the road with no government support, bless their hearts. I don’t think they can, but that is the free market. I think we can widen US 93 and Indiana if and when we need more traffic capacity as a better solution to getting folks around the metropolitan area. I see this as a real estate developer’s project and don’t condemn it out of hand. It meets the legal requirements for annexation to the city. Again, I see Arvada as a facilitator and a cheerleader for development, but not the banker. I don’t think Arvada should provide tax inducements or loans or bonds to bring this about. The cost of splicing the water, sewer, and power connections from this project to the city grid should be borne by the developers, not Arvada. A study in 2008 estimated the need for jobs and housing for Arvada by 2030 to be lower than the projections used to justify the Candelas project. This study said development along the Gold Line would attract the resources to create jobs and housing along the track route. This may or may not be true, but either way I think that the free market should pick the winners and losers, not the City Council of Arvada. I see their job as planning in general terms for urban growth, keeping in mind their primary responsibilities for adequate clean, safe water supplies, responsible treatment of wastewater and storm runoff and safe communities with adequate police and fire coverage. Projects that come along that meet healthy growth criteria and can support themselves without tax dollars can be welcomed. Like you, I have read and heard for years that Rocky Flats was too hot for development. I can believe that the buildings where the Plutonium triggers were re-manufactured would have been too hot, but I haven’t seen the documentation concerning the surrounding grounds. Soil samples taken by disinterested parties should be sent to competent labs with number ID’s to maintain anonymity of the samples to get a true reading of how radioactive the ground itself is in the areas where people want to build houses and roads. If it is unsafe, we should not disturb the soil. It may be a case similar to The Rocky Mountain Arsenal, the expansion of Stapleton, the subsequent annexation of land to the City and County of Denver for the building of DIA. The reasoning starts from a presumption held by most people which then provides the momentum for an agenda that serves public and private partnerships in a political way. Truth is always a good place to start. I believe the city has a responsibility to plan for growth. It is the same logic I would use to plan what I would do to finish off my basement. Development should be consistent with an overall vision for the city that integrates into the existing city infrastructure. An area of particular concern is infill redevelopment. For years, large cities have had problems with rings of blight, surrounded with new development because new is easier to create – repeat the cycle. Creating a new development inside the existing city is a trickier project. The city has to pull together a large enough contiguous piece of land to attract developers, but also be sensitive to the neighborhoods and existing businesses that would be affected by a redevelopment plan. Remember, our Historic Olde Town is primarily a section of town that has became fashionable because of its age, history and location. I saw the same thing recently in Georgetown, north of Washington, D.C. The only difference between the tony section and the next region out was that inside Georgetown the buildings had been refurbished with new commercial development. Redevelopment does not always have to look like Arvada Ridge. There are many paths and some are more clever than others, dependent on the conditions and circumstances of the redevelopment vision. |
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