A Lakewood property owner who has been told his land is needed for the West Corridor light-rail project demanded Tuesday night that RTD officials assure him high-density commercial development will not end up on his property.
RTD General Manager Cal Marsella told Galen Foster that the transit agency could not make that promise.
Foster and his wife, Kim Snyder, have a home and auto-detailing business at the corner of Wadsworth Boulevard and West 14th Avenue, a block from the planned Wadsworth train station.
RTD plans to build a 1,000-space parking structure next to the station on land that includes the couple’s property. If a developer wants to acquire the “air rights” to put commercial businesses above the parking, “it’s possible” that could occur, Marsella said.
RTD plans to seek public-private partnerships for construction of parking garages at the West rail line’s Wadsworth and Sheridan stations.
At an RTD board of directors study session, an emotional Foster told RTD officials that the agency will not get his property.
“I’m willing to fight for it; I’m willing to die for it,” he said.
Marla Lien, RTD’s top lawyer, said Colorado law “authorizes commercial and retail development at RTD transfer facilities.”
The law says such sites are allowed if they offer “convenience to transit customers and shall not be conducted in a manner that encourages automobile traffic from nontransit users.”
Federal guidelines on development around transit facilities allow such “incidental” uses as a coffee shop in a parking garage, Lien said.
But Snyder said the “dirty little secret” is Lakewood and RTD are “colluding” to oust small-property owners like her and promote high-density development at the transit stations.
RTD is overstepping by promoting private development at stations, said Evergreen attorney Robert Hoban, who represents a property owner near the planned Federal station.
