Deep diving at 287 and Arapahoe!

Boarding the Wayback Machine

Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash

Since the potential development at the southwest corner of 287 and Arapahoe interests many people in Lafayette, Erie, and Boulder County I thought some background might be useful. Let’s start with some history of this area because it plays a role and might give you more insight. I’ll be back to tell you how the Lafayette Marketplace project has changed since it was first unveiled to gasps of horror from many (raises hand and waves).

WAYBACK MACHINE SET TO 1994, DESTINATION: ERIE AND LAFAYETTE

Local historian Doug Conarroe told me that an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) “was made by former Erie mayor Vic Smith and former Lafayette mayor (the late) Mike Romero after both municipalities sued the bejesus out of each other.” The Conarroe family owned the Lafayette News at this time so Doug was watching as all this came about. I lived here but had not yet jumped into doing anything city related, later I started to find and save documents, among other things. (Narrator’s voice: among other things? ha ha ha)

WHAT’S THIS IGA STUFF KAREN?

IGAs are agreements between municipalities and can be used for many land use issues including creating buffers and boundaries, revenue sharing, and open space purchases and management. Boulder County’s website has a list. The Willoughby Corner housing project is an IGA between Lafayette and Boulder County. We have a 1996 buffer IGA with Louisville extended in 2016 until 2036. IGAs can also be useful for sharing study costs or authorizing joint projects like an e-bike program.

LAFAYETTE AND ERIE’S AGREEMENT, DEC 21, 1994

The IGA that Doug refers to was called the East Central Boulder County Comprehensive Development Plan (“ECBC IGA”), which included Lafayette, Erie, and Boulder County, and had a 20-year lifespan. Its purpose was to establish some boundaries to stop the entities from suing each other over annexations, end the lawsuits, and determine what municipality would gain annexations should they occur. It established “areas of influence” for Lafayette and Erie in unincorporated Boulder County while also designating rural preservation areas as buffers between the communities and to maintain the area’s character.

SIDESTEP TO THE BIGGER PICTURE

My late husband Toby and I moved to Lafayette around 1987. At that time 287 came right through Old Town on Public Rd. and zipped west up Baseline. We had no grocery store to speak of, there was a warehouse-type store called Alco on S. Boulder Rd (I think it was where the bowling alley is now) that soon closed. Eventually, we got an Albertsons across the street from city hall (built on what had once been Gus Waneka’s farm), later Walmart built a store next to it and after a few years expanded the store’s footprint. Those buildings are now the Flatirons Community Church.

Walmart began making noise about leaving Lafayette wanting a more prominent location after 287 was rerouted away from Public Rd. Petitions were circulated to get them to stay ( they were now contributing a large portion to the city’s bank account via sales taxes) Mayor Buchholz made a trek to Arkansas to plead the case to stay but was told no. Gary Klaphake was hired as our new city administrator and he convinced Walmart to move to the current location on 287. (By this time I was “doing city stuff” and attended the meet and greet for the applicants) This cemented his role in Lafayette saving the city from major budget cuts. He stayed for 20 years. I’ll come back to Walmart, hang on.

“Ron Stewart: Legacy of a Visionary Leader”

A 2016 piece about Ron Stewart written by Tina Nielsen on the Boulder County Parks and Open Space website is worth a read if you value the character of Boulder County. I learned a lot! (Remember his name, it will come up in a future post I have in mind) Elected to the State Senate in 1976 he joined Boulder County’s Parks and Open Space Committee in 1978 where he served with some names that might be familiar to anyone who has lived here for a while, Ruth Wright, Janet Roberts, Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, Carolyn Holmberg, Anne U. White, and JoAnn Dufty. Tina writes “The Parks and Open Space Department was in its infancy; these energetic visionaries worked hard to promote a county-wide funding mechanism for land conservation and helped formulate the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan, adopted in 1978. The comp plan provides the vision and policy foundation for compact development and preservation of Boulder County’s rural character. Years later JoAnn Dufty would say, ‘In the beginning, people thought we were either crazy or dreamers…we were a little of both.’"

In 1984 Ron was elected as a Boulder County Commissioner. The commissioners started downzoning 30,000 acres of Boulder County land to agricultural and forestry districts with minimum lot sizes of 35 acres. This was controversial and he and fellow commissioner Josie Heath faced a recall campaign which faded out. Later he served dual roles as county commissioner and head of Boulder County’s open space department but only took the salary for one of the positions.

After three attempts to pass a county open space tax, the voters said yes in 1993.

The article then brings us to the Lafayette Erie IGA where I learned something new that I should have expected, Ron negotiated it. Of course, he did. Tina tells us “At about the same time the open space tax passed, an annexation dispute erupted between Erie and Lafayette. Ron facilitated an effort that led to an intergovernmental agreement establishing growth boundaries and rural preservation areas for the two cities. This successful collaboration started a broader effort to bring cities and towns to the table to work through their differences and pursue a common vision for growth and preservation. By 2000, the county had intergovernmental agreements with nearly all the communities in the county.”

A SUPER IGA!

I was now fully into this whole city stuff and watched as Ron negotiated a 20-year Super IGA in 2003. Boulder, Lafayette, Longmont, Erie, Louisville, Jamestown, Lyons, Nederland, Superior, and Boulder County were included. It established an agreement between all the signors to respect specific boundaries, regulate land use, protect the environment, create community buffers, and honor all the IGAs. in 2016 Tina Neilsen said it was the only voluntary growth boundary agreement for an entire county in the country. Lafayette's joining was touch and go for a while, but ultimately the council voted yes.

WALMART AND THE SUPER IGA

As part of the Super IGA Lafayette proposed a revenue-sharing agreement to Erie for some of the land along the western side of 287. City Administrator Gary Klaphake was willing to share revenue from Walmart (our largest sales tax producer) with Erie in exchange for keeping the remaining areas undeveloped, including the southeast corner of Arapahoe and 287, now Nine Mile Corner which he pointed out was designated as rural preservation in the Super IGA. However, Erie said no to the offer, more than once.

REVENUE SHARING, IT’S A GOOD THING

This is a great way to keep major corporations and some landowners from playing neighboring cities and towns against each other. Widgets R Us can say to Happyville, “look bub I can go across the street to Pleasantville and build there if you don’t give me what I want” before handing over a long list of things that will save them money. Happyville stands to miss out on the sales taxes it needs to pay for services so they bend to the demands from Widgets R Us. But if Happyville and Pleasantville agree to share the sales taxes, it doesn’t matter which town gets a widget store, it takes away some of the power from the corporation and eliminates some of the expenses the city is asked to carry.

A STEP BACK TO LOOK AT THE GROWTH PICTURE: LAFAYETTE AND ERIE

OR WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO WATCH LOCAL GOVERNMENT!

LAFAYETTE

Due to massive growth in Lafayette, in 1995 some residents took action in an attempt to slow the actions by those at city hall. They wrote a managed growth amendment to our ruling charter document, got it on the ballot, and gained voters’ approval. At that time Lafayette was in the top five fastest-growing cities in Colorado, possibly the top three. A Daily Camera chart showed Lafayette grew by 59% from 1990 to 2000. I wrote a history of the amendment.

ERIE

When we moved to Lafayette in 1987 Erie was a small old town with dirt streets. We liked it and thought about moving there but with no bus service, I wouldn’t be able to get to work.

Jump to 2015 and the headline of a Daily Camera article said “$100M in debt and hoping to fit up to 75K people, Erie scrambling for revenue” Erie’s former town administrator had some choice words. ‘Whether boards of years past were right or wrong to put Erie on the fast-track to growth without an adequate revenue stream’, Krieger said, the town ‘can’t turn our back’ now.

‘The dirty little secret here is that we have to grow,’ he said. ‘Many, many decisions have been made for us … I’ve lay awake the last couple nights trying to figure out 75,000 people. Maybe it’s 65,000, maybe it’s 62,000, but how do we serve 60,000-plus people?’ ‘The answer isn’t just as simple as, ‘Well, we won’t.’ "

At that time Erie had $83 million sunk into water-related infrastructure and facilities and was trying to grow their number of rooftops to attract sales tax producing companies. But big box stores don’t look at how many people are in a particular city, they draw a circle on a map and look at how many people are within the circle which could overlap numerous communities, then find a spot in the middle. And as I continue to point out, rooftops don’t pay for themselves so while they might have received money from building permits those are one-time fees. But at that point, the die was cast and the town board was dealing with decisions made by previous trustees.

BACK TO ARAPAHOE AND 287

During that annexation war in the 90’s Erie annexed south to Arapahoe and the Safeway shopping center was built.

Until 2003 Prince Lake 1 existed at what is now Nine Mile Corner. Long-timers will no doubt remember how awesome it was with a variety of ducks bobbing about. Erie said it was part of their water storage and began to dig it up for expansion. Some wetlands were destroyed and the federal government fined them $150,000. The court decree stated the fine was reasonable because of “Erie’s status as a small municipality that needs to expand its capacity during a drought”. Erie later decided to drain the reservoir and Nine Mile Corner entered the picture. Lafayette objected to the Department of Justice stating it was undermining the stated purpose of the decree. Nothing came of this.

Erie has their version of LURA our urban renewal authority, called the Town of Erie Urban Renewal Authority (TOEURA). Erie’s Town Council also serves as TOEURA members. Lafayette’s council served as LURA members when it was created but eventually changed to a group appointed by our mayor.

In 2012 TOEURA began purchasing properties adjacent to Lafayette’s Beacon Hill. Erie said TOEURA was not bound by the Super IGA although Erie funds were used to buy the properties. Lafayette raised questions about the legality of this action and maintained that TOEURA did not adopt an Urban Renewal Plan to authorize the purchases but had no standing in the matter. This area was designated rural preservation in the Super IGA. Blight was found on the properties and that’s what urban renewal authorities are charged with mitigating. So the mitigating began.

2013 GOODBYE TO THE SUPER IGA

On July 1, 2013, Erie withdrew from the Super IGA. The Erie/Lafayette/Boulder County IGA would expire in 2014. Not wanting to be bound by the Super IGA if Erie was not, Lafayette withdrew on July 9. It came to light that both municipalities had engaged in annexation discussions with Boulder County landowners on the west side of 287. Annexation would be required to develop their properties. Those properties were Weems, now called Silo, and Tebo.

KING SOOPERS RUMORS

In 2016 rumors began circulating that King Soopers employees were telling customers the store was planning to move.

A Daily Camera article appears

“Despite rumors, King Soopers says Lafayette store staying put. Kroger: Store on U.S. 287 not closing, moving to Erie

by Whitney Bryen

POSTED:   02/23/2016 06:25:47 PM MST

King Soopers insists its store on U.S. 287 near Baseline Road in Lafayette is staying put, contrary to rampant rumors on social media that the grocer is closing or moving.

Kelli McGannon, Colorado representative for King Soopers' owner Kroger, said there are no plans to shut down or move the store at 480 U.S. 287.”

Gary Klaphake brokered an economic development agreement with King Soopers in 2004 to facilitate the Lafayette store. He approached Krogers with options for expansion in other locations should they be interested.

LAFAYETTE CONDEMNS 22 ACRES

On July 14, 2016, to protect the Beacon Hill neighborhood Lafayette condemned 22 acres south of Prince Lake 1 via eminent domain for an open space community buffer between the Town of Erie and Lafayette. This left 23 acres for development. Erie said Lafayette’s lawsuit was to prevent the King Soopers’ move but in February King Soopers said there was no move planned. Of course, this ended up in court. I was there for both days. Erie filed a motion to dismiss and the judge granted it preventing Lafayette’s condemnation petition. Lafayette went to the Court of Appeals and in June 2018 they ruled in favor of Erie.

In the first court appearance, Erie showed the plans for Nine Mile Corner and King Soopers was one of the big boxes, along with Lowe’s.

I spent countless hours talking to Gary over 20 years and watching what interested him. Probably a surprise to some but he lit up the most when talking about open space and historic preservation. He loved showing the city map that highlighted our open spaces many of which were obtained under his watch.

PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING?

Now what? Both communities are ticked off, where to go from here?

Gary Klaphake retired in early 2019. Fritz Sprague was hired as Lafayette’s new city administrator effective February 1, 2019. On January 8, 2019, Malcolm Fleming was hired as Erie’s new town manager.

Lafayette and Erie now had new administrators who happened to know each other, could they broker a new relationship? Never forget that elected councilors and trustees come and go and with that can come new attitudes and vision. We might not know what that looks like when we vote but it happens nevertheless. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes not so I encourage you to watch what’s happening in your city hall because that’s where decisions are made that affect your life daily.

WHAT NOW? A CLIFF HANGER?

And now dear readers I must ask you to wait until the next edition to learn what happened next because this is already a long read! (and a long write too) I’ll fill you in on all the details and then you will be up to speed. I’ll get back to the nitty gritty of the Lafayette Marketplace as well.

Want to offer more support? Awesome!