The City Council took a significant step Monday, July 9, in giving Lakewood a say in future development at the Denver Federal Center. The Council annexed the 700-acre Federal Center at West Alameda Avenue and Kipling Street. Annexation brings the property into the City boundaries and gives the City the power to review any development proposals on any parcels sold off by the federal government.

The council also zoned 65 acres on the center to allow St. Anthony Hospital to relocate to the site and RTD to build a light rail station there as well. The new hospital will be Lakewood's first and is expected to open in late 2009 or early 2010. Known as St. Anthony West, the new hospital will reduce emergency response times for medical calls and will be a state-of-the-art facility that hospital officials envision as the "Johns Hopkins" of the West. The hospital is expected to create an estimated 2,400 jobs in the city and bring millions of dollars to the local economy.

The hospital will pay for street improvements at Second Place and Union Boulevard, the main entrance to the hospital, to handle the traffic. At a secondary entrance on West Alameda Avenue, traffic medians will be built to prevent traffic flowing into nearby neighborhoods. In an effort to minimize flights over residential areas, Flight for Life helicopters coming to the hospital will fly mostly along West Sixth Avenue and Union Boulevard.

Mayor Steve Burkholder said annexing the Federal Center and allowing the hospital and RTD to locate there was a "momentous" decision in Lakewood's history. He also said, "We are plotting a course for the remainder of the 21st century."

Information posted July 12, 2007