GLO Park Update: Commissioner's Meeting Recap

Thanks for your patience!

I know you all have been eager to hear how the commissioners meeting went this week, so thanks for your patience! This was of course a really busy work week for me as well (the Pleasant View board is a volunteer gig). Anyways, here are the highlights from public comment and the state’s presentation to the commissioners about the new project proposal for the GLO Park/Camp George West.

If this is your first time reading this newsletter, I am the Vice President of the Pleasant View Metro District Board of Directors. You can find out more about me on the “About” page of this Substack.

Public comment is normally only 15 minutes, but so many people showed up to talk about the GLO Park/Camp George West issue that the commissioners heard more than an hour of testimony!

All the commissioners genuinely listened and took notes. At the end, Commissioner Dahlkemper summarized the community concerns which definitely showed they were listening. This was the public hearing, which is the only section of the commissioners day that public comment is possible.

A HUGE thank you to all who showed up!! Several folks from the county came up to me afterward and were impressed with the community turn out, so thank you to everyone who took off work, faced your fears of public speaking, and took the time to be engaged! You can read my public comment here.

Two people gave a presentation about Camp George West to the commissioners during the next section of the day, the work session. One person is the Governor’s Advisor and the other is the Jeffco Planning Director. The work session section does not have public comment and the commissioners don’t vote on anything.

The state and county planning gave a different presentation then what was submitted ahead of time. This one used the below graphic:

The first step on the bottom of the page is “JeffCo approval of concept and L&E,” which refers to the Location and Extent process. This is the process we’ve been referring to as “fast-tracking” because it allows for faster processing of applications for state government buildings.

The commissioners were not interested in giving approval of the concept because the county attorney advised them it was not an appropriate use of commissioner’s power. The decision actually is under the planning commission, and can only be ruled on when a planning application is submitted. According to the above graphic, that application would be submitted in 2026.

First, the state would issue a Request for Quotation. This would be issued on the state’s bidding website in September 2025. The state also mentioned getting capital development committee (CDC) approval, which I need to look into more because the state legislature doesn’t reconvene until 2026. They are only in a special session now concerning the budget.

During their presentation, the state said the GLO Park was stalled because of the current presidential administration, so they were “exploring what’s out there” for a project that wouldn’t be held up by the federal government. For what it’s worth, my understanding of the GLO Park’s lack of progress was due to a lack of private funding for building the labs.

During the state’s presentation about the new GLO Park proposal, all three commissioners had really thoughtful questions and directly referenced the public comment from earlier in the day. I think our comments gave the commissioners important context that they really heard and reflected on.

The state asked the commissioners whether the new housing project proposal should continue moving forward. Like I said before, the commissioners were legally advised not to do that because at this point in the process the project needs to be evaluated by the county planning commission if and when a development application is received. The county commissioners would only vote on approval after the planning commission makes a formal recommendation. I took this as a good sign that the commissioners weren’t interested in preempting the work of the planning commission to fast-track the process.

So what’s next?

1. Let the Jefferson County Planning Director know how you feel about this potential project. You can email Chris O’Keefe at cokeefe@jeffco.us. I will email him the community survey results as well.

2. Edit August 31, 2025: Despite overwhelming community opposition, the state has decided to issue its RFQ to developers for the housing project. You can read it here. The state will decide whether to issue an RFQ - request for quotation. Developers will have to do all the planning and site research and submit ideas for development to the state to review. Pleasant View will be monitoring the state’s website to see if this happens.

3. Stay tuned! Pleasant View will keep monitoring the state's bidding website, the state capital development committee meeting agendas, and the county planning commission meeting agendas. We’ll let you know if GLO Park comes back to another meeting! The next community meeting is September 9 at 7 p.m. at Camp George West.

Quick note - if you asked someone from Pleasant View to get in touch with you when you filled out the community survey, please be patient! I honestly did not expect so many people to respond, and I have 45 people to reach out to. How cool!! I will start tackling that list this week! Thanks again for being patient.

Questions? Concerns? Feedback?

I’ll be a little slower to respond as a I catch up, but you can always reach me at lauraforpleasantview@gmail.com or 720-675-8093 (call or text). Thanks for being engaged!! Having more people reach out than I can keep up with is the *best* problem to have.