Public Comments

Thank you for reading our comments. We moved to Green Mountain in Lakewood almost 5 years ago. I love our community, both as a city, and as a surrounding county. It's a community that spends lots of time outdoors and parks, playgrounds, and open spaces, libraries, and cultural spaces, and a community that is working to value diversity, and a community that is growing. As my children have gotten a little older, our bubble of activities has expanded and our "area" grown. Now we often spend time in Arvada and Wheatridge at their libraries or parks, doing programing through their recreation and nature centers, shopping at their grocery stores (including places that we don't have in Lakewood like Costco and the Tile store. We area all connected along the Foothills west of Denver and use the same open space for biking and running. When searching for a place to live, our family looked at Arvada, Wheatridge, and Lakewood (Golden, too, but it's gotten expensive). These communities are all growing concurrently and working through zoning and growth mandates and land use and have similar concerns about environmental issues. Considering this is public record, I should have done more research to represent myself better, but the truth is, when people move to Lakewood, Arvada, Golden, or Wheatridge, I say "Oh! That's where I live!" The same is not true for other parts of our wonderful state (other than Denver because it's big and people from out of the state know about it). Our community should be represented together with the people whom we "live with." Thank you, Katy

I live in Lakewood (Green Mountain) and share community and interests with neighboring communities in Jefferson County along the northwestern side of the Denver area, such as Arvada and Wheat Ridge. I live a very easy drive from Golden and my kids go to school there. Grouping Lakewood with Douglas County for Congressional redistributing makes little sense. Our community has developed alongside and shares much in common with the areas to the north and west of us, and very little in common with Douglas County. We are an urban community with very different needs in areas like education and transportation.

Please don’t break up Jefferson County. We have a single school district, and despite our large geographic footprint are more cohesive than many other counties.

I’ve been advised of an upcoming proposal to put the City of Lakewood with Douglas County. Having lived in Douglas County I feel the issues facing Lakewood compared to Douglas County are very different. Lakewood, like Arvada & Wheat Ridge, are long established communities, and thus have common demographics. These communities are also facing similar issues in redevelopment and aging infrastructure. My hope is that we can continue with shared representation as well. Thank you for your consideration.

I live in rural Colorado. It would really benefit our small towns to be in districts together, rather than in with the larger cities. We have very different needs from the front range cities. Health care access, low paying jobs, agriculture needs, tourism, transportation. Thank you for your time.

I reside in Lakewood. I have lived here for 11 years and have built many relationships, friendships, and alliances in this community during the course of that time. Although most of the bonds I have made are in Lakewood, many of them have been made with folks in Wheatridge and Arvada. It is to my chagrin to hear that Republican commissioners are trying to group Lakewood in a district in Douglas County. Lakewood shares nothing with Douglas county. The only purpose would be to try to turn a traditional blue district red. This is quite obvious. I ask for fairness and transparency. Thank you.

Lakewood does NOT belong in the same district as Douglas County! We are a diverse community who deserves to have our minority voices heard. Putting a demographic like Lakewood with such a homogeneous community at DougCo would silence minority voices. NO to lumping Lakewood in with DougCo!

Good evening, commissioners. As you begin contemplating the redistricting of our good state, it is my fervent hope that you will be mindful of the state ballot referendums’ intent to preserve “communities of interest”. Having lived both in Douglas and Jefferson counties, I can assure you that the counties are quite at odds politically. A merging of the two districts would likely create a disharmonious union that would be to the detriment of both. Given this, I and my family ask that you keep intact District 7’s boundaries as our communities within the district share far more in common with those found in District 6. Thank you very much for your time and service to our state.

I am absolutely against redistricting! We have nothing in common with Douglas County. Stop the madness! I'm a Colorado Native of Jefferson County and will not pretend that we disagree with our neighbors in Douglas County. Free to live how we must! Will only cause discord.

Lakewood shares little in common with Douglas County, and should stay in a district with Golden, Arvada and Wheat Ridge.