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VOLUME 120

Issue 17

WEEK OF APRIL 27, 2023

INCOMING

Brighton truck stop advances Loves project, started in 2015, gets map approval BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

reduces land-use requirements on resort communities, like Aspen and Vail. The Senate Local Government and Housing Committee approved the overhauled measure on a 4-3 vote, with all of the Democrats on the panel voting “yes” and all of the Republicans voting “no.” It was unclear whether the measure would have enough votes to advance and the committee hearing was delayed for hours while amendments were finalized and negotiated. Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno, a Commerce City Democrat and prime sponsor of the bill, warned that more changes were

Brighton is one step closer to the nine-year goal of developing a truck stop along Highway 85. Councilors voted unanimously to approve the final plat for the Loves Travel Stop development and surrounding residential uses on Brighton’s northwestern edge. The nearly 53-acre parcel is located at the southwest corner of State Highway 85 and Baseline Road/ 168th Avenue — just east of the South Platte River and west of Highway 85. For Councilor Tom Green, a series of road improvements planned as part of the project are some of the biggest selling points. “I’m just really impressed with the great agreements staff has come up with on this,” Green said. “The roadway improvements, these are just incredible. You put pencil to paper and really got things done and I’m really impressed with what you have here.” Loves is a national truck stop chain with more than 600 locations in 42 states, including 12 in Colorado. Developer Steve Walters said he expects work on the project to take up to nine months once work gets underway, with work kicking off next spring. Councilor Clint Blackhurst applauded both staff and the developer for sticking with the project. “This looks like a pretty straightforward, easy process,” Blackhurst said. “But I can tell you, it was anything but. It took a lot of work.” He said he’ll be happy to see improvement going into the site. “Most of us remember when you used to see that property with piles of white material, lime deposits. And that’s just the way it was. It looked like it belonged on the moon,” Blackhurst said. “It didn’t look like it

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Horizon’s Davis Wilkins delivers a pitch during the Hawks victory over Arvada West on Friday. The Hawks were unable to do the PHOTO BY JONATHAN MANESS same thing against Praire View April 20. See the story, Page 7.

Requirements dramatically pared back in governor’s “land-use” bill BY JESSE PAUL AND ELLIOTT WENZLER THE COLORADO SUN

Gov. Jared Polis and Democrats in the Colorado legislature significantly pared back their major landuse bill amid big questions about whether their signature affordable housing initiative at the Capitol this year can get enough support to pass. Colorado’s largest cities would no longer be required to let multifamily housing with up to six units be built in all residentially zoned areas under a major amendment made to Senate Bill 213. Instead, those cities — like Denver, Aurora, Boulder, Englewood, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Lakewood, Pueblo, Thorn-

ton and Westminster — would only have to let duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes be built in 30% of their land area currently zoned for singlefamily homes, concentrated around train and high-frequency bus corridors where applicable. The change, which came in midApril, shifts the legislation away from attempting to broadly increase housing density to a more limited approach linked to transit. Without the changes, it appeared the bill, which has received major opposition from cities and towns across the state, would lack enough support to clear its first committee. In all, there were 17 amendments made to the bill, totaling dozens of pages. One of the major changes

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SPORTS • ERA top scorer eyes future

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