From discussion this morning during the Ward 4 meeting with City Council persons Bark Franks and Dave Skilling.
And thank you again to Barb and Dave for making the extra effort to open these kinds of issues to more robust discussion than is permitted during the city council meetings. Regardless of positions taken, the opportunity to be heard is critically important – especially during these times.
Update:
The resolution and addendum the city council will vote on essentially does three things (see original documents in preceding post which is also linked below):
1. Guarantees that Big Sky will be able to build as many homes as they want to when they want to – without any restriction at all based upon the citizen initiative passed by the residents to limit growth in Lakewood.
In other words, the Strategic Growth Initiative 1% cap does not apply to Big Sky if this resolution is voted on and passed. If the City votes to pass this resolution, Big Sky will be exempt from the law limiting the rate of growth in Lakewood.
2. The only “limitation” is that the 1% growth cap will apply to all the other developers, not Big Sky.
In other words, Big Sky grabs all the allocations it wants FIRST and that amount is then subtracted from what the other developers can get. The 1% cap limits what the other developers can do, not Big Sky.
Note this will also necessarily concentrate the development in Big Sky’s area – potentially more concentration of development there than in the rest of the city.
3. This preferential favored status treatment for Big Sky will become a law.
(Note, that this also means a decision by the City Council can be overturned through a citizens petition for a Referendum within 30 days of the vote.)
When questioned why we are dong this now, the response was . . . because Big Sky asked – they want it – and it was an opportunity to clarify the issue – again, because Big Sky asked. In other words, if they hadn’t asked, we wouldn’t be talking about it. Preferential treatment.
SO, AS CITIZENS, HOW ABOUT WE “ASK” THAT THE RESOLUTION BE TABLED.
As noted in the preceding post,
1. There is no issue or problem yet, because Big Sky is years away from building any homes. They don’t have sewer and they aren’t doing anything about building until they have sewer. It will be at least two – five years before the Big Sky IGA Sanitation District litigation is resolved after all the appeals.
2. The issue is being pushed now only so Tom Morton/Big Sky/CDN can make more money now selling the land to the waiting buyer. There is no good reason for us – Lakewood – to make decisions before the issue is ripe – just to make an exception and lots of profit for Tom Morton and the three Canadian CDN investors.
3. There is no reason to believe right now that Big Sky/CDN will not be able to comply with the 1% growth cap. We aren’t there yet. And falsely claiming that they have spent over $6 million on improvements to Big Sky while they threaten to sue us – severely compromises the integrity of their application.
My recommendation is that the City Council table this issue until Big Sky begins to build and requests permits. It is premature to address the issue now.
So, contact your Lakewood City Council members and let them know what you think about rushing to make, yet another, special exception to make lots more profit for this handful of special people.
David Skilling <dskilling@lakewood.org>,Barb Franks <BFranks@lakewood.org>,Ramey Johnson <rjohnson@lakewood.org>,Charley Able <cable@lakewood.org>,Anita Springsteenlaw <anita@springsteenlaw.com>,Mike Bieda <mbieda@lakewood.org>,Karen Harrison <kharrison@lakewood.org>,Dana Gutwein <dgutwein@lakewood.org>,Jacob LaBure <jlabure@lakewood.org>,Sharon Vincent <SVincent@lakewood.org>,Adam Paul <apaul@lakewood.org>
John Henderson
Please table the discussion on the Big Sky development exception until Big Sky starts to build.
Please fight Big Sky, we voted for controlled growth because that is want we need to save our community. Nothing else needs to be said the voters spoke now honer it.