Residents fighting a proposed five-story apartment building at the edge of a popular park in the middle of Lakewood have hit some roadblocks in recent weeks — most notably with a judge’s order stopping the city from enforcing a new land-use measure that could upend the project.
Jefferson County District Judge Jason Carrithers in mid-January granted a preliminary injunction against Lakewood. The ruling will keep the city from requiring developer Kairoi Properties LLC to set aside a certain amount of parkland as part of a mandatory open space dedication for its 411-unit residential project at 777 S. Yarrow St.
The judge found that the new ordinance, which the Lakewood City Council adopted in November after opponents threatened to place it on the ballot, “poses a danger of real, immediate, and irreparable injury because the Initiative would affect Plaintiffs’ interests in real property, including loss of property …”
Kairoi, which sued the city in December over the new regulations, claims Lakewood’s new open space mandates not only make its project next to Belmar Park unviable but also run afoul of a recent state law. That law requires municipalities to let developers pay a fee in lieu of setting aside open space as part of a larger effort to encourage homebuilding in Colorado.
Jason Dunn, an attorney representing Kairoi, said his client was “pleased” with the judge’s ruling.
Cathy Kentner, a representative for Save Open Space Lakewood, said the Jan. 14 ruling didn’t surprise her, given that “the city offered no opposition to the developer’s desire for an injunction.”
“The only voices heard by the court were the applicant and that of a compliant city hall,” Kentner told The Denver Post Friday.
Save Open Space Lakewood, the group that sought the ballot measure, says Kairoi’s apartment building threatens to despoil the park, which it considers a precious and peaceful city resource on which thousands of migratory birds depend. Opponents of the project are attempting to intervene in the case, which would allow them to file motions with the court.
In a Jan. 3 filing with the court, Lakewood said it decided not to oppose the developer’s injunction request so as to “obtain a speedy resolution to this matter” and “with the understanding that it does not admit or concede any of the underlying legal arguments on the merits.”
Just this last week, Lakewood successfully asked the court to allow it more time to respond to the lawsuit.
Attorneys for Lakewood wrote in their motion for an extension that they expected the ordinance would “be the subject of considerable editing and redrafting over at least the next two weeks, and potentially four weeks,” with a final version ready for adoption at the end of February.
The council is set to begin looking at possible amendments to the land-use ordinance during a workshop on Monday. Kentner said all the delays and legal maneuvers by the developer and the city have done nothing but blow fresh life into the project.
“I am very concerned that during this time Kairoi will be issued a building permit, effectively mooting the issues before the court,” she said. “It will be interesting to see if the council chooses to stand up for the thousands of people who petitioned them, or if they will continue to sidle up to development at any and every cost to our environment.”
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