Serving the community since 1903
WEEK OF FEBRUARY 13, 2025
VOLUME 122 | ISSUE 7
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King Soopers takes steps to handle strike Grocer hires temp workers to keep stores open BY TAMARA CHUANG THE COLORADO SUN
A Google Earth view of East Bromley Lane at about S. 45th Avenue looking to the northeast. The Adams County Courts complex is on the bottom right of the photo and the Peters Annexation, former site of Happy Belly Farms, is the small collection of buildings north of E. Bromley Lane on the bottom left, across from Judicial Center Drive. Courtesy Google Earth
Brighton City Council approves rezoning for former non-profit Happy Belly farm Owner Williams Peters gets OK for new uses BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLORE@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A nearly three-acre parcel near the Adams County Judicial Center along East Bromley Lane was cleared for retail development, Brighton City Councilors agreed at their Feb. 4 meeting. Councilors gave their final approval to the annexation and rezoning of the former site of Happy Belly Farms. The parcel, on the north side of East Bromley Lane and across from Judicial Center Drive, was zoned for
small agriculture uses based on Adams County zoning. After multiple meetings in the past months and three items on the Feb. 4 agenda, Brighton councilors voted unanimously to annex the 2.9-acre parcel — called the Peters Annexation on the agenda — from Adams County and rezone it for general retail and services. According to the agreement, property owner Bill Peters will extend South 45th Avenue north from Bromley Lane. South 45th Avenue from Bridge Street, Colorado Highway 7,
VOICES: PAGE 6 | CULTURE: PAGE 8 | BRIEFS: PAGE 12
down to Southern Avenue. This annexation adds a new collector road along Peters’ eastern property boundary from Bromley Lane north. “More specifically, the developer will dedicate and construct S. 45th Avenue to a collector street section along the entire eastern property boundary,” Brighton Senior Planner Summer McCann said. It also means the Peters will pay for upgrading the traffic signals at the new intersection and for utility lines on the property and upgrade street lights and water and sewer lines. Peters operated Happy Belly Farms on the land beginning in
2010, using it to grow chemicalfree vegetables that were donated to food banks, homeless shelters and area non-profits. By 2013, the farm produced an estimated 12 tons of produce and about 10 dozen eggs per week, all donated to area nonprofits. McCann said the new development won’t be required to pay into the city’s parks and open space program since it is considered a retail development. “If it is ever developed as residential, the developer will pay the appropriate dedication or fee in lieu for parks and open space,” McCann said.
As day one of a planned twoweek walkout began on Feb. 6, about a dozen King Soopers employees were up before dawn, pacing in front of their store in Centennial. Some walked the perimeter on the sidewalks as cars passed by. All carried white signs with red lettering asking customers to not patronize their employer. Their union representative with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 forbade them to speak to a reporter, even as one employee questioned why not? Why aren’t they allowed to tell the people why they are outside the store instead of inside? Union officials said they would talk during a news conference later in the day. According to the union, more than 10,000 King Soopers employees in the Front Range are protesting unfair labor practices, which allege surveilling and disrupting discussions between workers and union reps. A “last best and final offer” from the company was rejected in mid-January and plans to strike began. As of 9 a.m. Feb. 6, no strikers were in front of the two King Soopers in Brighton, nor at the grocery chain’s location at 120th and Colorado Boulevard in Thornton. SEE STRIKE, P2
2025
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