A decade of high-density development and population growth inside Denver is devouring breathing room: Open space per resident has shrunk to less than the national norm.
And people in the thick of it are chapped.
“It is a new asphalt jungle,” said Allen Clark, owner of Clark’s Downing Street Auto Body, which he founded in 1998 north of downtown, where multistory condo and retail complexes are replacing homes featuring porches and yards.
“We’re looking at areas where you can barely walk between the buildings,” Clark said. “They don’t even bother to put grass in front of them any more.”
The amount of open space per resident in Denver dwindled to less than a third of the space in neighboring Aurora and less than half the space in Colorado Springs, according to data provided by the Trust for Public Land, which promotes preservation of natural land.
The Gazette: Trump budget would boost Colorado Springs defense programs
The Pentagon on Tuesday released details on the Trump administration’s proposed $54 billion hike in defense spending, including proposals that boost programs in the Pikes Peak region.
The 2018 budget would increase spending for satellite programs, missile defense and the destruction of chemical weapons. The Air Force also would get an extra $2 billion to hire 4,000 more airmen.
The Trump budget would give a big increase to Air Force space programs, raising the budget to buy satellites, rockets and ground systems by more than $600 million, from $2.8 billion to $3.4 billion.
“Space continues to be an increasingly contested and congested environment as more commercial and government entities take advantage of space,” the Pentagon said in documents supporting its budget. “The Air Force remains committed to improving space situational awareness and its command and control advantage, while modernizing and recapitalizing key space capabilities central to the joint fight.”
NBC 9: 2 GOP lawmakers ask Trump to leave Colorado monument intact
Two Republican members of Congress from Colorado are asking the Trump administration not to change the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, one of more than two dozen monuments under review for possible modification.
Sen. Cory Gardner and Rep. Scott Tipton said Tuesday the southwestern Colorado monument preserves thousands of archaeological sites while allowing traditional uses of the land.
Their recommendation is likely to get a close hearing in the GOP administration.
President Donald Trump ordered Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on April 26 to review the monuments, accusing previous presidents of abusing their authority to establish them.
Denver Post: Shoddy condo construction lawsuits in Colorado just got harder to file
Declaring that the measure “will help make our housing more affordable,” Gov. John Hickenlooper on Tuesday signed into law one of the most hard-fought compromises of the 2017 session — a bill that will make it more difficult to sue builders for shoddy condo construction.
Business leaders for years have been seeking wholesale reforms to the state’s construction defects laws, blaming the state’s dormant condominium market on a legal environment that they say enables an excessive amount of lawsuits against developers. That, they argue, drives up insurance costs, leading developers to avoid building condos entirely in favor of rentals.
House Bill 1279, which took effect immediately when the governor signed it Tuesday, requires a majority of a condo complex’s unit owners — rather than just its homeowner association board — to consent to legal action against a developer for poor construction.
The scene at the Capitol was a celebratory one, with dozens on hand for the bill signing. Hickenlooper at one point remarked that it was the “most commotion” he’d ever seen for such an event. So many people wanted a ceremonial pen that Hickenlooper wrote one or two letters of his name at a time as he signed the bill.
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