Lakewood Reinvestment Authority recommends Bend at Lakewood urban renewal plan to City Council

The Lakewood Reinvestment Authority on April 28 recommended City Council adopt the Bend at Lakewood Urban Renewal Plan and authorized intergovernmental agreements with taxing entities tied to tax-increment financing (TIF).

The recommendation came after staff and the applicant described an early-stage, transit-oriented redevelopment concept for a roughly 59-acre site sold last year by the federal government at the western edge of the Federal Center, adjacent to the Federal Center Light Rail Station. Travis Parker of Sustainability and Community Development told the authority that “this plan includes a conditions survey of this property,” and that the consultant found multiple criteria that led to a blight determination used to qualify the area for an urban renewal plan.

Why it matters: adopting the plan would allow capture of future property-tax increment from the site for up to 25 years to pay for public improvements on the site — roads, utilities, environmental remediation and cultural amenities — and to secure bonding against that increment. Staff said the captured increment is intended to fund public horizontal infrastructure that supports the private, mixed‑use development.

Key facts and commitments - Site and concept: Staff described the plan area as about 59 acres bordering Highway 6 to the north, Union Avenue to the west, an RTD parking lot to the south and the remainder of the Federal Center to the…