Preservation main issue in Golden

Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 25, 2007 at midnight

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The sign arching over Washington Street, Golden's main drag, has long proclaimed, "Where the West Begins."

Preserving the Western heart of a town born during the 1859 gold rush - and still dominated by Victorian-era buildings - is the main issue among candidates in the Nov. 6 election.

"If we end up with a whole bunch of high-rises, that's not going to fit in at all," said Jacob Smith, a city council member running for mayor.

"A lot of it has been destroyed already," said Mary Weaver, also on the council and seeking the top job. "It's taking on the appearance of a little Boulder."

But Chuck Baroch, fighting for a second elected term as mayor, said the city is doing fine. New buildings are mostly compatible with the old architecture, Baroch said.

"I think downtown Golden is about built out anyhow," he adds.

In addition to mayor, voters in the town of 17,600 people will fill council seats in Districts 1 and 2.

Debate also centers on development around the light rail station that will open in 2012. Some residents fear development will affect - or even displace - modest homes in the area, a claim Baroch calls "not true."

Still hanging over the city after more than two decades is a proposal to wrap part of a metro-area beltway around the west side of Golden.

Throughout Golden, the beltway is about as popular as a toxic waste dump. All candidates vow to oppose it, with Baroch saying if the proposal goes forward, he will fight to have the road built as a parkway with a 45 mph speed limit and landscaping.

The passionate debate over the city's future is not new to Colorado's first territorial capitol, said former Golden Mayor Marv Kay.

"Everybody that's come here probably in the last 20 years has come here because they picked out Golden for its schools, for its location, for its community atmosphere, for the arts, recreation," said Kay, who was athletic director and football coach for 40 years at the Colorado School of Mines. "They're very proud of that and they want to protect it."

Here are the races and the candidates:

Mayor

The 12-mile light rail line from Denver will end near the county office building on the south side of town.

Undeveloped property just across U.S. 6 from the station will become ripe for development. Under discussion are housing, retail, light manufacturing and offices, all designed for ease of access to the station, probably by a bridge over U.S. 6.

Weaver, 62, said she will fight any plan that encroaches on affordable housing units in the area. Many residents are on fixed incomes, said Weaver.

"Are the people of Golden really willing to say,'We want those people out of there and we'll sit back and we'll let condemnation go in and we'll redevelop it?' " said Weaver, who owns a store that specializes in shoes for diabetics.

She said development should occur on the same side of U.S. 6 as the station on land owned by the county. She would not even fund the bridge linking the station with the land across U.S. 6.

Baroch, 75, the incumbent, counters that no one is talking about eliminating anything.

"There are people out there complaining that we've already got plans to tear down the Golden Ridge apartments as well as the manufactured-home park," said Baroch. "That is not true.

"We haven't even talked about how we're going to develop the south side of that, other than the possibility of putting a bridge from the train station on over to the other side of the road."

Baroch, a retired engineer, said the city staff and consultants should study the area and come up with a plan that will "get citizen buy-in."

Smith, 38, said everyone - residents, business owners, landowners - should be involved in planning projects that change neighborhoods, including the area near the station.

"We should empower all of those folks who are so directly affected by that to craft a vision that works for them," said Smith, the director of the Center for Native Ecology, an environmental group that helps preserve open space.

A win by Weaver or Smith will trigger a special election to fill their council seats.

District 1

Development around the light rail station is particularly controversial in this district, which includes the station.

Frank Oldham, 59, lives in one of the housing complexes that Weaver fears would be affected by development. And he, too, doesn't want a footbridge linking his neighborhood to the station.

"I'm not so sure there would be a lot of people that would walk (to the station)," said Oldham, a former Jefferson County prosecutor.

Oldham was a vocal opponent earlier this year of a massive mixed-use project proposed for the vacant land across U.S. 6 from the future train station.

That project was rejected by the city planning commission.

Marjorie Sloan, a member of the commission, shares Oldham's view of that project, which she said would have been bigger than the county office building.

"Planning commission was horrified by the size and the design of the proposal," Sloan said.

But unlike Oldham, Sloan, 63, believes the area would be appropriate for a smaller mixed-use development, including stores and residences. Sloan, an attorney, wants to see a broad community discussion of what to build.

Incumbent Lynne Timpeiro, 60, said the city should avoid allowing retail at the station that would take sales from downtown stores.

"We have three women's clothing stores here. So we would not want a retail development that would have a women's clothing store in there (near the station)," Timpeiro said.

"We just need to be very cautious in our land use in the development," said Timpeiro, who works with disabled seniors.

District 2

Don Parker, 54, says the city should be "picky" about the development it allows.

"We don't have to take all the development that comes our way," says Parker, a landlord and real estate investor. He was active in the late '90s with the group that prevented the construction of a Nike plant on the mesas that define the town.

He would seek high-tech businesses that fit in with the the School of Mines and the U.S. Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Steven Gallant, 38, said Golden should preserve its small-town character.

He doesn't like recent decisions allowing buildings that include storefronts at street level and condos on the upper stories.

"I think they (the existing council members) tend to see the downtown too much in terms of tax revenue generation instead of actually having that small town feel to it," said Gallant, who trades stocks online and is trying to market a novel.

"Those kinds of condo buildings, to me - they don't have that feel, and they seem more oriented to, 'How much revenue can we bring in?' "

Incumbent Karen Oxman, 64, said the new buildings have given Golden a "vibrant, lively downtown."

"It's just wonderful. You can go up and you can sit on Washington Avenue and you can have a cup of coffee and a sandwich and you can visit with people who walk by," Oxman said.

The tax revenue from downtown commerce has allowed the city to build recreation centers and other amenities, she noted.

"I don't think we're ever going to go back to dirt roads and the dead town that this was in 1974," Oxman said, referring to the year she moved to Golden. "Most of the residents in that community do not want it to go back to 1974."

morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303 954-5209

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