Gov. Bill Owens has ousted a Colorado Land Board member who has been an outspoken critic of the way that agency is deciding who will develop one of the state’s most valuable pieces of real estate – the former Lowry Bombing Range.
Pat Teegarden was asked to resign May 31 after suggesting that the secretive bidding process be more transparent, deliberate and possibly extended until a new governor replaces Owens in January.
Owens’ administration cites poor attendance and potential conflicts of interest for seeking the resignation of the Democratic lawyer and lobbyist two months after lawmakers confirmed his second term at the Republican governor’s urging.
But Teegarden and several environmental activists question the timing of his ouster, which comes as the Land Board is considering bids from three companies seeking to build thousands of homes on the land southeast of Denver. They say the state is rushing the process, and they cast doubt on the competence of the land commission and its staff to decide who should oversee a project that ultimately could be five times the size of Denver’s Stapleton redevelopment.
“This isn’t about Pat Teegarden. This is about whether the state of Colorado wants to do this right,” Teegarden said.
The military used the Lowry Range 15 miles southeast of Denver for bombing and gunnery training from 1942 to 1963. Some 40 square miles – roughly the size of Lakewood – now are owned by the state Land Board, which is constitutionally charged both with preserving it as conservation land and maximizing its value. Proceeds of the sale go to public schools.
The parcel is believed to be the largest piece of undeveloped metropolitan property under one ownership in the U.S.
Experts say its development could generate billions of dollars for K-12 education and huge profits for whichever company the board picks as its partner.
Three bidders are vying to develop an initial 2,880-acre parcel, just part of the overall property.
They include Canadian Carma Developers LP, which has built two smaller projects in Colorado, and Lend Lease Corp., Australia’s biggest property developer.
Also bidding is LRPG, a coalition of Colorado businessmen whose identities the company refuses to reveal.
State records show its managers are developer Lee Alpert and Pat Hamill, owner and founder of Oakwood Homes. Sources close to the company say banker Donald Sturm also is involved, but Sturm did not return calls seeking comment.
LRPG officials have hired Denver powerbrokers Steve Farber, Ted Trimpa, Maria Garcia Berry, Deana Perlmutter and Sean Tonner to work on the bid.
Perlmutter is the wife of 7th Congressional District Democratic candidate Ed Perlmutter.
Tonner is Owens’ former campaign manager and recipient of a $480,000 contract to do political work for the governor. Cinamon Watson – daughter of sitting Land Board Commissioner Shirley Watson – worked with Tonner’s company, Phase Line Strategies.
Owens’ office said it asked Teegarden to resign at the urging of state Land Board director Britt Weygandt, the governor’s former chief counsel.
Weygandt said Teegarden missed about half the board’s meetings so far this year. She also said his job as a vice president for AIMCO, a real estate developer, presented the “potential for actual or perceived problems.”
Teegarden acknowledges that he missed about half the board’s meetings this year, but he pointed out that he had a poor attendance record long before Owens chose to reappoint him.
He also counters there’s no conflict because his company doesn’t deal with the Land Board.
The board’s ethics policy requires only that outside employment be disclosed to the governor and that the job not present a conflict of interest in board duties.
Some environmental advocates say Teegarden – former policy director for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment – was the only of five commissioners with a conservation background. Ousting him, especially during the bidding process, they say, looks suspicious.
“It’s fishy that the only person with environmental protection experience is being removed at this time,” said Environment Colorado director Matt Baker. “Many people on this board have conflicts.”
Commissioner Holly Propst is executive vice president of Policy Communications Inc., which advises construction companies, among others.
Shirley Watson is “regularly recognized as one of the top Realtors in Colorado,” according to the Land Board, and serves as an adviser to Centennial Bank of the West.
“Those backgrounds have never presented an issue for the land board,” Weygandt said.
Owens, who has not yet appointed Teegarden’s successor, leaves office in January and sees developing the Lowry Range as part of his legacy. His appointees launched the bidding process in October – years earlier than many state and local officials expected.
Bids were submitted in April. Weygandt said she hopes the board will pick a development partner by the fall.
Meanwhile, questions remain about:
Whether the federal government will clean up the tens of thousands of live munitions believed to pock the land.
Who would supply water to the massive project.
Whether, as a state conservation trust property that lies outside Denver’s urban growth boundary, the land will be approved for development at all.
“There’s a lot of unknowns on a lot of levels,” said Ron Hovland, planning program manager in Arapahoe County.
A 2004 Urban Land Institute report said the state would have maximized the land’s value by addressing those problems before soliciting bids.
“Without a thorough investigation and analysis of these questions and issues, the result would be a mediocre development at best and an unmitigated disaster at worst,” it read.
Staff writer Susan Greene can be reached at 303-820-1589 or sgreene@denverpost.com.
