Lakewood Planning Commission unanimously recommends Bend at Lakewood urban renewal area complies with comprehensive plan

The Lakewood Planning Commission voted unanimously Jan. 22 to recommend that the Bend at Lakewood Urban Renewal Area be found in compliance with the City of Lakewood comprehensive plan.

The recommendation followed a presentation by Ann Ricker of Ricker Cunningham, comments from developer representatives with Lincoln Property and a staff recommendation. Planning staff asked the commission to forward the finding to city council.

The finding matters because an urban renewal designation enables tax-increment financing and other tools the Lakewood Reinvestment Authority may use to address conditions that the statute defines as blight and to support redevelopment. The commission’s vote does not itself create the urban renewal area; it forwards a recommendation to the City Council for final action.

Ann Ricker, principal and owner of Ricker Cunningham, told commissioners that an urban renewal plan functions largely as a financing document. “This is really almost more like a financing document,” she said, and described the statutory objectives that urban renewal tools must meet, including mitigating conditions of blight and advancing community goals. Ricker’s presentation said the consultants’ condition survey found nine of 11 statutory factors present on the roughly 59-acre site west of the Federal Center, and she explained that Colorado urban renewal plans typically…