I used to live on the outskirts of a suburb of Denver, Colorado called Arvada. They're slogan is "Live-Work-Play", but I'll discuss it's irony later. I say used to live on the outskirts not because I've moved. Arvada has been my home for twenty-one years, and in that time I haven't moved once. My house has been where it's always been. What has moved is the City around my house, or more specifically, the sprawl around my house.
This article will no doubt offend certain people. That's not my aim. My aim is to merely express my frustrations with a broken, backwards-thinking system, one that thinks of short-term goals over long-term ones. There won't be name calling, curses, only the opinions of a very passionate writer.
I understand that development is inevitable. Cities grow and people move and couples have babies and where can all these people go if there's no housing? What I don't understand--or rather, what I don't agree with--is the idyllic fantasy of the "American Dream" where everyone has a loving spouse, two children, and a massive house with a picket fence and a fancy SUV and a large lawn in a gated community with a pool and tennis court, and that said person has a high-class job with an hour commute both ways.
The world is changing. Cities everywhere are shifting from a "sprawl" model of development to one that is more "mixed-use" oriented. In these models, commercial and residential land use zones are blended together, creating walk-able neighborhoods filled with both residences and businesses. Doing so is not only more sustainable, but more practical. Why drive far to work or to a movie or out to dinner when you can walk or ride your bike there instead?
So where does Arvada fall into this scheme of things?
It doesn't.
Arvada and their City Council are stuck in the mentality that the only way to get people into the City is to build houses, lots and lots of houses. Houses that are far away from businesses. Houses that are big and have lots of wide streets for lots of parking. Skewing the proportion of housing policy to business policy leaves the City with a surplus of homeowners who have to commute far to their jobs and to shopping. How can one fulfill the second part of Arvada's slogan "Work" when businesses are shuttering, and a good many that still run are low skill and low paying like fast food and big box companies? Moreso, how can anyone play in the outdoors, when our outdoor spaces are being snatched up for the profit of a few?
Arvada City Council had the opportunity to do something great last year by rejecting the plans for a Walmart Super Center in the heart of Olde Town in favor of a mixed-use redevelopment project. They failed, and in the next few years, a six-hundred parking space behemoth beige structure will be placed right near Olde Town Arvada, despite huge disapproval from people who wanted to maintain the charm of the City and make it more walk-able.
But I digress. Yes, I hate Arvada for those policies, but the biggest reasons I despise Arvada are for two specific policies, a policy regarding one road, Leyden; and one regarding another street, Indiana.
Leyden Road was by far the most beautiful drive--or in my case, bike ride--in all of Arvada. It has spectacular mountain views, and the two-lane road winds up and down through pastures and ends miles later near a gorgeous rock formation called Leyden Rock.
Note how I said was by far the most beautiful drive. Arvada policy has emaciated the landscape with not one but two massive suburb projects, ironically named after the landscapes' characteristics they're destroying: Leyden Rock and Leyden Ranch.
Carved out of the hillside are now wide roads leading up to houses that sprout like vile weeds. Don't get me wrong, the houses are pretty, but if I wanted to see houses, I'd ride my bike around my cul-de-sac. I wanted to see nature. They're taking that away from me, from us who appreciate the intrinsic beauty of nature, not just the instrumental value of it in terms of commodities.
Last spring, the City closed down Leyden Road while they did "improvements". When they reopened it during the summer, I rode up to the entrance of Leyden Rock, a 600 plat housing development, and burst into tears. The grasses and flowers on the hillside were gone, replaced by dirt, rock, and timber. Steamrollers and excavators loomed atop the hill. I turned around and rode home, muttering expletives at the project, the City of Arvada, and the City Council.
Leyden Rock boasts close proximity to nature, claiming 65 percent of the land in the project is designated open space. That's great, but did they realize that before their "project" 100 percent of the land was open space?
There was some slight hope that there'd at least be a bit of mixed use in the project, until the developer requested it be removed in lieu of more houses. City Council obliged. At the posting of this article, I was unable to find the City Council Agenda notes that detailed this fact.
I don't know much about Leyden Ranch, to be honest. Their website doesn't descriptively illustrate what the project entails. From the site plan, it looks like they're taking the entirety of Leyden Ranch and taking away all the "ranch" aspects of it, you know, fields for horses and cattle to graze upon.
There's one more project I'd like to discuss that equally unnerves me. It's the massive (and I mean MASSIVE) building project going on along a rural highway system (HWY 72 and Indiana Street) just northwest of where I live. It's called Candelas, and it's the future filming site of The Hills Have Eyes 3, as it's being built right next to Rocky Flats, one of the most polluted areas in Colorado.
Rocky Flats produced plutonium during times of war, and marred its workers and locals with horrendous health problems. If you're interested in learning more, I suggest you pick up a copy of "Full Body Burden" by Kristin Iverson. It's quite a scary read. Candelas even created a website to ensure people that living practically on top of plutonium is safe. I'm no scientist, but I'm fairly certain that plutonium doesn't have a half-life of ten years. In fact, according to the World Nuclear Association, the half-life of plutonium is 24,000 years.
Candelas is another farce. Much like Leyden Rock, they brag about great trails that wind through houses. They also brag that they utilize sustainable building practices. I believed them until I saw them take down four massive metal sign statues that said CANDELAS: LIVE FORWARD, replacing them with four new ones after they changed their slogan to "Life Wide Open." That doesn't seem very sustainable or practical to me.
Though, the most laughable proposal for Candelas is a six lane tollway, called the Jeffersonian Parkway, that skirts along Rocky Flats and dumps itself in the center of Downtown Golden. Many parties, including the City of Golden, are against the plan and have even sued to stop it.
The Jeffersonian Parkway Highway Authority, chaired by Arvada Mayor Marc Williams, claims that the tollway, which would connect the belt around Denver, is needed in order to reduce sprawl, though they don't explain how so. I believe it urges on expansion, as well as discourages transit-oriented development and mixed-use projects. Besides, forcing people to pay a toll will only push that traffic back onto side streets. Of course, the Northwest Parkway, a toll highway that the Jeffersonian Parkway would connect to eventually, is reason enough not to pursue another foreign sponsored private venture.
In no way am I anti-capitalist. I'm anti-stupid. There are much better ways to establish cities where people can truly work, live, and play, in concert with the environment and the animals and species that live alongside us. I tell myself every morning that God wants me to live a life of good servitude. I believe that includes serving our planet and those animals and plants that live on it with us. Call me an environmentalist, call me hippie, call me a tree hugger, call me a Boulderite.
I'll wear all those names with pride.
All photographs Copyright Brandon Figliolino, 2014.
Great read Brandon! I feel like Arvada could really benefit from a mixed-use development similar to Arista or Superior's new marketplace while leaving open space for trails & parks, something that seams to be lacking as you mentioned. Unfortunately that comes at a huge risk as housing is almost guaranteed profits where as zoning for commercial/residential can be hit or miss. Definitely a tough debate, one that should have more emphasis in future projects.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! I agree, it could be more risky to develop mixed-use, but I think it's a risk that more people should be willing to take, for the sake of our planet's health and well-being.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have seen something like Belmar or Arista in Arvada, and even wrote to City Council on the issue. We'll see if future developments can be geared more towards such policies, as they are currently working on the Comprehensive Plan.