Headlines — September 27, 2022

September 27, 2022

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Denver Funds Hotel To Fund Homeless Shelter

Denver’s Department of Housing Stability is planning to purchase a former La Quinta Inn and convert it into a homeless shelter.  

The former motel has provided 103 rooms of non-congregate shelter to un-housed people since the start of the pandemic in April 2020. Denver officials announced Monday the city will use five million dollars of funding it received from the American Rescue Plan Act to finance the purchase. Current plans call for transitional housing through at least 2024, with a vision to redevelop the site to 200 supportive housing units. 

Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock stated in a press release, “Leveraging hotel sites like this is paramount to creating more housing for our unhoused neighbors.” This redevelopment is part of a five-year strategic plan to produce more than 900 units in the coming years to house people without homes.

Colorado Groups Petition Leaders to Halt Suncor Line 1 Pipeline

Environmental groups are calling on state and federal leaders to halt the Suncor Line 1 Rocky Mountain Pipeline Project, citing concerns about increased air and water pollution and impacts on communities of color.

More than 40 environmental groups are urging federal regulators and Colorado’s Congressional delegation to put a pause on a pipeline project under way in Weld County, called Line 1, that would nearly triple the current capacity to deliver crude oil to the Suncor refinery in Commerce City. Patricia Garcia-Nelson with the group Green Latinos says if officials allow the extension of Line 1 to continue, they essentially will be rewarding bad behavior.

Last week, the groups sent formal petitions to federal regulators warning that the project will increase greenhouse-gas emissions and the toxic burden on an already heavily polluted community living near the refinery. The pipeline will cross the South Platte River, which supplies water for Eastern Colorado and downstream states, and a 100-year floodplain. Suncor says it has no plans to increase capacity with the new pipeline, and argues it will reduce emissions from trucks carrying crude.

Garcia-Nelson argues the project will undermine Colorado’s efforts to meet climate targets and realize goals in the Colorado Environmental Justice Act passed by lawmakers last year. She notes that in the United States, more than 17 million people currently live near oil and gas facilities.Because Line 1 replaces an existing pipeline, the project is going forward without public input on its potential impacts on communities, air and water quality, and climate change. But Garcia-Nelson says that won’t stop her group and others from trying to stop it.

Mobile Home Resident Protections Start Oct. 1st

A new law meant to expand protections for mobile home residents will take effect on October 1st. HB22-1287 passed in late May, but only after a veto threat from Gov. Jared Polis forced sponsors to remove a critical provision to cap rent hikes on mobile home lots. 

The law builds on previous protections on mobile home legislation and gives residents 90 to 180 days to pool resources to buy parks from landlords interested in selling their land. The law also adds more responsibility to landlords to maintain their parks and liability for damage caused to a home. 

Many housing activists criticized the governor’s veto threat, given his rhetorical support for affordable housing. According to Colorado Newsline, about 100,000 mobile homes in Colorado are spread across the state. 

30th and Colorado Intersection Partially Reopens 

In Boulder, the intersection of 30th and Colorado has reopened. It closed for two weeks as work crews constructed an underground bike lane and pedestrian walkways. The construction, which started in March of 2021, is part of a 16 million dollar project designed to improve connections on sidewalks and bike lanes in high traffic areas.

Information regarding the death of an Arvada Police Officer surface

More information has come out regarding the death of an Arvada Police Officer who was killed earlier this month while responding to a dispute between a man and woman. Police were called after the argument over the custody of the couple’s mutual children turned violent. Shortly after officer Dillon Vakoff arrived on the scene, the assailant, Sunny Thomas Almanza III, allegedly shot Vakoff in the head. Almanza reportedly argued he was unaware that Vakoff was a police officer. Police say Almanza also fired another shot that wounded his partner’s sister in the leg. Almanza faces 11 felony counts, including two counts of first-degree murder and second-degree assault.

CDOT Begins Repairs After Deadly I-25 Crash

The Colorado Department of Transportation is beginning repairs of an overpass near Meade where a truck carrying an excavator crashed into a bridge and caused the death of a woman who was passing by in her vehicle last month. . 

The family of the deceased woman is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against Import Towing and Recovery, the Fort Collins based towing company who owned the truck. According to the investigation, the lawsuit alleges that the trucking company  did not adequately secure the excavator on the truck or  ensure it met  proper height requirements before it collided with the Mead overpass.

The attorneys family, Michael Kane said to CBS Colorado that “To disregard that most basic safety regulation, and go on a crowded interstate and have their load strike a bridge such that it kills somebody, we believe, as the lawsuit says, that conduct goes beyond negligence, and it is reckless.” 

CBS Colorado reached out to the trucking company for comment but did not respond.

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