It’s a busy political ballot in Lakewood, where 12 candidates are vying for five City Council seats and two council members square off in the mayoral race.
Two of the five City Council wards are being contested by three candidates, and none of the seats are unopposed.
Hot local issues have fueled candidate participation as well as voter interests. They include talk about a single trash-hauling company for Lakewood, the city’s passage last year of a and a grassroots coalition’s to keep an open-space parcel from being developed.
Add in massive possible in the wake of RTD’s W light-rail line and high-density along Union Boulevard and West Sixth Avenue, and the city’s potential for political skirmishing is palpable.
Joe Margotte is a long-time Lakewood resident and owner of the eatery Chicago Style Beef & Dogs on West Colfax. He boils down the city’s upcoming election to growth vs. anti-growth interests. Or, as current candidate language is likely to chime: “smart growth” vs. “overdevelopment.”
“It’s the future that most residents are worried about,” Margotte said. “The future of Lakewood is growth. The future of everything is growth.”
Margotte, a former West Metro Fire Rescue board member, said there’s a current lack of housing in Lakewood, and high-density projects along Colfax and Union would benefit the city.
“We can’t be stagnant,” he said.
Carl Worster, a Green Mountain-area resident for 42 years, has seen a lot of change, growth and development over four decades.
His hometown of 147,000 people is now the fifth-most-populous in the state.
While Worster is not necessarily opposed to development, he is concerned about future traffic issues on Union Boulevard and along West Alameda Avenue, especially spillover traffic into his neighborhood.
“If it happens and when it happens, traffic on Union is going to be considerably increased,” Worster said of the proposed Federal Center property sale to the city and the prospect of a 60-acre high-density development.
More high-density housing in the area — two high-rise apartment buildings already are going up nearby — would be palatable, Worster said, if the units are affordable.
“Where are people going to live affordably?” Worster asked. “I think it’s a necessity from a practical standpoint.”
Worster, a retiree, said that he and his wife, Charlotte, had not yet decided on who to vote for in their Ward 4 race or the mayoral race, but “certainly we will look at their platforms very carefully. What their view of the future is will certainly be a major part of our consideration.”
Candidates for office in Lakewood are sharing their views on a variety of issues. The and the city published
Residents soon will cast their vote, perhaps in record-setting numbers.
In the city’s 2009 election, 23,981 residents voted, according to the city clerk’s office. In 2011 the number of voters rose to 29,621. In the last election, 2013, the number of voters leaped to 42,208.
Lakewood ballots will go out in the mail to residents starting Oct. 12. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or @kierannicholson
Lakewood candidates
Lakewood mayor
Adam Paul
Ramey Kandice Johnson
City Council Ward 1
Jeffrey Charles Yeager
Charley Able
Ty Hull
City Council Ward 2
Richard C. Bryant
Sharon Ann Vincent
Steven Ly
City Council Ward 3
Pedro R. Roybal
Gary Harty
City Council Ward 4
Michael C. Coughlin
Barbara Franks
City Council Ward 5
Dana Gutwein
Jessica Skimel
