It’s been four years since Gov. Jared Polis trumpeted the promise of the Global Energy Park near Golden as a future state-of-the-art laboratory — one that would position Colorado and Jefferson County as “leaders in the future of energy.”
But the hopes contained in those lofty words from his October 2021 announcement have dimmed as the 9.3-acre, state-owned parcel has continued to sit vacant. In recent months, the state instead has begun eyeing the site, which lies in the shadow of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab, for an apartment complex.
It’s a shift that vocal neighbors in the Pleasant View neighborhood on the edge of Golden are calling a “bait and switch.” They consider it an affront to residents who had reluctantly come to terms with a lab being built there — but not a busy residential building that could stand as tall as eight stories.
“An eight-story building is nothing like what we have in our neighborhood,” said Adrian Waller, the president of the Pleasant View Metropolitan District and a 31-year resident of the neighborhood. “It would have people 24/7 that would also be using the park.”
He was referring to Pleasant View Community Park, directly adjacent to the Globeville Energy Park site. Laura Cardon, who has lived in the neighborhood for five years, said it has served as a vital natural refuge in an increasingly busy part of the county.
“This is the only big area set aside for nature,” she said, pointing across a tangle of trails to a row of mature trees towering over Lena Gulch. “This is where my kid learned to ride his bike.”
Lu Cordova, who heads up the Global Energy Park in her role as Polis’ strategic planning and projects adviser, declined to respond to a number of questions sent to her by The Denver Post last week.
But in early August, she spoke to the Jefferson County commissioners as the housing plan at the Glo Park site first emerged.
The state, Cordova told the county leaders, still would like to pursue the Global Energy Park — which had commonly been referred to as “Glo Park” in shorthand — as a place where players in industry, government and academia come together, in partnership with NREL. The goal has been to establish and nurture a one-of-a-kind research and innovation campus.
But the arrival of the new Trump administration, which slashed 114 positions at NREL in Golden in May amid an aggressive effort to trim federal funding for renewable energy initiatives, prompted her office to explore “pivoting” away from the project.
Chris O’Keefe, Jefferson County’s planning director, put it more bluntly at that same meeting: “There’s a shift that’s taken place at the federal level that’s causing Lu and the state to look at this project differently.”
Also competing for attention, Cordova told the commissioners, is the governor’s long-standing zeal for increasing the availability of affordable housing in Colorado. The land near NREL could serve that purpose, she said.
“We also recognize that, right now, the demand for housing is reaching crisis proportions all over Colorado,” Cordova told Jeffco officials.
That didn’t mollify Pleasant View neighbors, like Nancy Pate, who attended that August meeting and beseeched the commissioners not to sign off on housing at the Glo Park site.
“Now we’re going to throw something else at you that completely doesn’t fit in your single-family and duplex residence kind of neighborhood,” Pate said. “My front yard would be apartments.”
Despite Cordova’s assurances to the county commissioners that the potential housing plan for the site was “so premature,” her office issued a Request for Qualifications from prospective developers. The deadline for submissions to the state was Oct. 1.
This week, Cordova told The Post that two of the submissions she received “have been shortlisted” and that those developers will be interviewed “for viability.”
Jefferson County’s planning and zoning department has not received an application for the site. But at the end of the day, it is not up to the county what goes in there, said county spokeswoman Cassie Pearce.
“While that application will be either approved or denied by the Planning Commission, the state has the authority to override that decision,” Pearce said. “Ultimately, the county does not have final say on how this land is used.”
However, the county’s understanding of a recent land swap involving the site “was based on the proposal that the land would be used for lab space by NREL or NREL partners,” she said.
The Glo Park site came into state ownership through a complex land swap executed a few years ago in an area known as Camp George West, which once served as the Colorado Army National Guard’s only permanent training facility. The area just off South Golden Road still hosts the Colorado State Patrol Academy and a former prison.
The long and short of the exchange was that Jefferson County ended up with 160 acres on and around South Table Mountain, while the state received the nearly 10-acre parcel it wanted for the Global Energy Park.
There was even a gathering at the governor’s mansion of government officials, business leaders and representatives of research institutions in spring 2023 to draw up a grand vision for what could happen at the Glo Park. Greg Venn, the CEO of Denver-based NexCore Group, said then that a groundbreaking could happen the following spring.
NexCore, the company tasked with developing the Global Energy Park, told The Post last week that it couldn’t comment on the situation.
A spokesman for NREL said the agency wouldn’t be able to respond to questions during the federal government shutdown, which began Oct. 1.
No final decisions have been made about the site, said Shelby Wieman, a spokeswoman for the governor’s office.
“The state is exploring a number of different options, including housing paired with park improvements, to best utilize this plot of land,” she said. “We look forward to continued conversations with community members on the best path forward.”
In the meantime, Pleasant View neighbors are gearing up for a fight.
Last month, 100 or so residents showed up for a community meeting, according to a website established to monitor the situation.
Cardon, who also serves on the Pleasant View Metro District’s board, takes particular issue with language in the state’s solicitation of developers that indicated its efforts at the site were “aimed at transforming underutilized State-owned land into a vibrant community.”
“It’s already a vibrant community in Camp George West,” Cardon said. “It’s a really nice eclectic mix of houses.”
And more are coming, Waller said. The metro district president said 600 housing units are in the pipeline for Pleasant View, on top of the 2,200 already there. Adding hundreds more in an apartment complex that he and others see as not fitting with the neighborhood’s existing housing stock — and which could strain the Pleasant View Fire Protection District’s ability to provide service — is not wise or wanted, he said.
“It’s high-density housing and we don’t have high-density housing,” Waller said.
Waller and his neighbors want the state to take a breather before making any final moves in the Pleasant View neighborhood. Maybe conditions will improve for building the Global Energy Park, he speculated.
“Be patient,” he said, expressing hope that the state would hold out until Polis’ original vision became viable again.
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our daily Your Morning Dozen email newsletter.