WEEK OF JANUARY 30, 2025
VOLUME 104 | ISSUE 49
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Residents buy mobile home park in Littleton Meadowood Village purchase will help lock in affordable housing for decades to come BY NINA JOSS NJOSS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
that the murals will cover different periods of Englewood’s history.” The mural layouts will include the following: • a graphics wall which will be a collage of graphic elements including historic photos and imagery, as well as some illustration and text • an illustration wall which will be an entire wall with an illustration that will incorporate some additional illustrations into other walls • a timeline wall which will include a timeline of the history of Englewood, which could include some wall mounted framed photos and possibly a mounted television monitor with a slideshow of images. The contract specifies certain mural requirements, including that each mural must relate to a specific point in time in the city’s history. “As part of the expenses allocated for mural design and installation, Historic Englewood may choose to mount a television monitor on one of the walls with rotating displays relative to the
After almost a year of paperwork, grant applications and meetings, the residents of a mobile home park in Littleton are now the proud owners of the land beneath their homes. In purchasing the park, the residents of Meadowood Village have gained control of the property and have locked in affordable housing for at least 30 years, based on the terms of their loan agreements. Last spring, the residents received notice of a corporation’s intent to buy the park, which is located on the west side of Santa Fe Drive, just north of Breckenridge Brewery. Since then, the residents, who are mostly over the age of 55, have worked together to achieve ownership of their mobile home park. Because a Colorado law offers mobile home park residents 120 days after notice of a potential sale to make their own offer, the residents of Meadowood Village worked to become a cooperative. They made an offer on the park, secured financing, conducted inspections and, on Jan. 10, officially became the owners of the land beneath their homes. “It’s ours now,” Meadowood Cooperative President Sandy Cook said. “That’s the important part. That’s what our goal has been for the last year, is to make the park ours.” When notice of the corporate intent to purchase came in, Cook and her neighbors were concerned that the potential new corporate owners would have raised rents on the land beneath their homes. They feared this would lead to the displacement of many residents who relied on their mobile homes as a form of affordable housing in an expensive market. With housing that’s affordable hard to come by throughout the metro area, including Littleton, mobile homes are often a catch-all for those who otherwise have few alternatives to be homeowners. Also known as manufactured homes, these structures are often considered the largest source of unsubsidized housing that is affordable in the nation.
SEE MURALS, P14
SEE MEADOWOOD, P8
From left, Matt Crabtree, Doug Cohn and Carl Adams work on figuring out a credit card processor at the grand opening of the Historic Englewood Museum on June 22, 2024. Historic Englewood has been awarded funds for murals depicting Englewood history that will be installed outside the museum in the second-floor lobby of the Englewood Civic Center. PHOTO BY SCOTT GILBERT
City council amends contract with Historic Englewood to create murals BY ELISABETH SLAY ESLAY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
The Englewood City Council approved an amendment of its contract with Historic Englewood so that the organization can develop and implement murals in the Englewood Civic Center. During the Jan. 21 meeting, council members approved additional funding for Historic Englewood, the nonprofit also known as Englewood Historic Preservation Society, to create and display murals related to the city’s history on the second floor of the civic center. This amendment stipulates that the city will provide up to $30,000 from the city’s cultural arts fund to Historic Englewood for the installation of the murals, though both entities would like the project to be under $24,000. “This is in addition to a one-time grant of $50,000 that was provided to Historic Englewood as part of the original contract to provide seed funds for the development and launch of the museum,” city documents show. This is the second amendment to an agreement the city and Historic
Englewood made in July 2023 in which the city provided space in the civic center for Historic Englewood to open a museum. The first amendment made in November 2023 provided the organization additional time to open its museum and a mechanism to provide grant funding. “The museum opened in the spring of 2024, with a successful first exhibit focused on the history of Cinderella City,” city documents show. “Historic Englewood and the city discussed additional opportunities for collaboration, including increased activation of the Englewood Civic Center and increased access to information about the history of Englewood outside of museum hours and events.” The murals will be placed on four walls, including one column adjacent to a wall, in the open lobby area on the second floor of the civic center. “Final mural proposals developed by Historic Englewood will be reviewed and approved by city staff and the Cultural Arts Commission,” city documents show. “While designs are still being developed, Historic Englewood and the city desire
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