West Colfax Lately: What’s Next from Mayor Adam Paul
Welcome to our digital release of the 7th Edition of West Colfax Lately! If you missed it in our prior newsletter, you can see the Cover HERE. We will be releasing the magazine content through this blog up until our print release in early October. Stay tuned for more! And please support our ADVERTISERS. They make our magazine possible!
While all five Wards and all 156,500 residents in our city are important in our policy and budgetary considerations, the West Colfax corridor, as our oldest commercial strip, holds a significant place in Lakewood’s history and culture and clearly plays an important role in our future along with our other commercial nodes.
West Colfax is simultaneously one of our greatest success stories and most daunting challenges. While we will cover milestones and accomplishments worthy of celebration in the subsequent paragraphs, we need to acknowledge that West Colfax suffers from many of the same problems as other neighboring cities (and society at large): Homelessness, mental illness, and addiction, and their very real impact on crime in our community. The city is not only dedicating resources to address these issues directly, but also rallying support from all the cities in the county to work in unison to develop new and better ways for community policing that will lead to more positive outcomes. Even our infrastructure issues acerbate this situation—but upgrades are in the works—including flood mitigation along North Dry Gulch and street and pedestrian improvements along the stretch of the avenue with highest incident of pedestrian-vehicle accidents. As our partners with Lakewood-West Colfax BID (the BID) indicate, there is still much to do along West Colfax, as is clearly stated in the recent community review of The West Colfax VISION 2040 Action Plan.
Mayor Paul (left) celebrates at the 2019 West Colfax Lately Luncheon with Roger Wadnal, a longtime advocate of West Colfax (and 2019 LEGEND Award Winner) who led the team at the city that secured the major CDOT grant for Lakewood.
A focus of the city is to continue to build on the success with our active partners—WCCA, 40 West Arts, the BID, and our neighborhood organizations to assist and continue the ongoing renaissance. Such is the case with West Colfax Safety Project in progress on the east end of West Colfax (from Teller to Sheridan). After years of collaboration among city departments and community stakeholders, the Denver Regional Council of Governments awarded a $10 million grant to the City of Lakewood to implement West Colfax Avenue safety and beautification improvements. Lakewood pledged $2+ million in matching funds, making this a $12.5 million investment in the future of this historic corridor. This project is one of 30 others funded in the metro area by $58.9 million in CDOT grants as part of State of Colorado’s Safer Main Streets Initiative.
While this is a major win for our community, we are not only focused on the two overarching goals of $12.5M West Colfax Safety Project: 1) to make this area of West Colfax Avenue a safer and more beautiful experience for residents, business patrons, and all users; and 2) to manage the construction process to minimize the disruption to local businesses and their patrons, (learn more at: https://www.lakewoodtogether.org/westcolfax), but we are also working to rejuvenate our westside along West Colfax and attract new businesses and amenities around RTD’s Oak Street Station and influence the revitalization of the Westland Center. We have also applied for funding from The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and these funds are earmarked for improvements further west along Colfax.
With strong local leadership in place, we are following a similar formula of planning, visioning, and productive engagement that was successful in the 40 West Art core. Speaking of the 40 West core, the 40 West Artline—the 4-mile walking and biking art experience that connect three area parks with 80+ art installations along the way—continues to be a major success—both as a free outdoor arts experience for locals and as an attraction to visitors, giving them a new reason to frequent West Colfax galleries, eateries, and other entertainments destinations. Our aim is to continue to enhance and grow this unique experience and attract further investment in mixed-use development in the 40 West core that supports our community objectives, as we build critical mass for Lakewood’s state-certified creative district and attract more creatives and more patrons to support our local businesses.
Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (RMCAD) and its historic campus, listed on The National Registry of Historic Places, is also within the 40 West Core. As with all our institutions of higher learning, we want to see them all grow and thrive as they prepare the next generation leaders for our community and the world.
Before I close, I would like to wish a Happy 10-year Anniversary to 40 West Arts District. What a remarkable achievement for our community . . . we look forward to the next 10 years of creativity!
I invite you to join in our community conversation. The city offers multiple ways for to participate in city government. Visit https://lakewoodspeaks.org/ to learn more.
