Citizen raises concerns about $140 million ‘project downtown’; council liaison updates missing-middle postponement, appointment and infrastructure plan

A Littleton resident urged the city and boards to consider lower‑risk alternatives to a proposed downtown redevelopment and to prioritize preservations along Littleton Boulevard.

Pam Chaparney introduced herself as a resident and said the city is proposing a downtown project with a $140 million price tag that would require city debt. She recommended creating an overlay historic district for commercial mid‑century modern buildings on Littleton Boulevard and suggested a low‑cost circulator bus along the boulevard as an alternative to large-scale debt. “The city is proposing project downtown. It's a hundred and $40,000,000, which the city has to go into debt for,” Pam Chaparney said, and she called the option of putting city assets up as collateral “an unacceptable risk.”

The board’s council liaison, Robert, provided a longer update from recent City Council meetings. He said the council voted on Jan. 7 to postpone the missing‑middle zoning ordinance indefinitely; council members later asked the city manager to return with proposals and options about next steps, including potential focus on duplexes. At a later meeting the liaison said staff recommended postponing the missing‑middle discussion until next year and that the majority of council members accepted that recommendation.

Robert reported that the council appointed Joel Zink to fill a vacancy; he described the selection process as competitive and said the appointment occurred after interviews with multiple candidates. He said Joel Zink has begun orientation activities, including a ride‑along with police and tours of city facilities.

On other council matters, Robert said the police presented several emerging technologies: radar enforcement tools, license‑plate recognition services (which the chief recommended not adopting at this time), and the idea of drones used as first‑responder reconnaissance in certain situations. He described a vendor service that offers AI tools to process and draft initial police reports from stored camera footage; the police department intends to test that capability.

Robert also briefed the board on a regional waste hauler discussion: Littleton currently has many private haulers and the city is investigating whether consolidating haulers could expand services such as composting; attendees at a recent trash summit noted roughly half of household waste is compostable.

On Project Downtown, Robert said the council agreed to proceed with a Phase 1 scope that staff conservatively estimated at $30 million; the council discussed covering roughly $25 million of that cost with debt and is weighing two financing mechanisms: general obligation bonds (which would require voter approval) and certificates of participation, which use assets or revenue streams as collateral and do not require a direct voter bond question. Robert said council will continue presentations and public discussions about debt options.