Neighborhood group demands halt to new truck-heavy distribution centers in Jefferson County

Two years after an Arvada neighborhood rose up to stop retail giant Amazon from building a distribution center in its midst, another set of neighbors a mile away is hoping for a similar outcome in their battle to derail a proposed 512,000-square-foot warehouse complex.

But success is far from assured for McIntyre Neighbors United, a group of 18 homeowner associations that calls for residents to stand “shoulder to shoulder” against the development at 5950 McIntyre St. The developer is different, the project is different and the local government jurisdiction is different.

Whereas Amazon had to go to Arvada City Council with an ultimately unsuccessful request to rezone the land where it sought to build a 112,000-square-foot warehouse, along with a 1,500-space parking lot for its delivery vans, there is no need for such approval from the county on the McIntyre project.

Even so, neighbors took to the steps of the Jefferson County Government Center in Golden this week to demand that the county commissioners impose a moratorium on the construction of any “large-scale industrial developments” within 3,000 feet of a home anywhere in the county until land use regulations can be updated to reflect population growth in the county of more than 40,000 over the last decade.

“This isn’t a matter of ‘not in my backyard,’” said Anne Laffoon, who lives near Hyatt Lake, just east of the site. “This heavy logistics center shouldn’t be in anyone’s backyard.”

Laffoon and her neighbors fear around-the-clock heavy truck traffic and befouled air from the project, which is proposed as a three-warehouse operation on 32 acres surrounded by thousands of homes. It will utilize McIntyre Street, a once-sleepy rural road that has seen explosive residential growth in recent years, prompting its expansion into a four-lane thoroughfare.

The battle shaping up in Jefferson County resembles dozens of other standoffs nationwide, as the burgeoning online delivery economy — with its need for ever more sorting and distribution hubs — has sped up goods shipments to a breakneck pace. The Wall Street Journal last year documented many of the coast-to-coast conflicts over the warehouse boom, as more than 1.6 billion square feet of new industrial space was stood up in the five years leading up to 2022.

Gina Hallisey, who led the fight against Amazon in Arvada’s Maple Valley neighborhood in 2021, gave the small crowd gathered in front of Jefferson County’s imposing government building a cautionary message Tuesday.

“Once an incompatible use is approved, there is no turning back,” she said.

But Scott Carlson, whose firm Carlson Associates owns the parcel, said the project on McIntyre Street isn’t incompatible with the surrounding area. It will be located on land that has long been zoned for industrial use, he said, and it won’t be a 24-hour facility.

“It’s not a logistics center. It’s not an Amazon-type facility or a last-mile delivery system,” Carlson said. “It’s standard light industrial warehouse space. This would be more business oriented — showroom space, light assembly work.”

The project would resemble the dozens of industrial flex facilities dotted throughout the metro area, many of them near neighborhoods, he said. While there could be close to a thousand vehicle trips a day associated with the warehouses, Carlson said that’s fewer than what a 200-home neighborhood would produce.

He is planning to sell the land to Constellation Real Estate Partners, a Texas-based firm with experience in building logistics centers for industrial customers. The company is awaiting a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to re-route a canal on the property to free up a few more acres for the project.

Carlson expects a decision from federal officials in a few months, with hopes to break ground this fall.

Scott Alexander, a partner with Constellation, said the purposes the company is pursuing at the site are “not a good fit for heavy truck users like Amazon.”

“Heavy truck users require trailer storage which we don’t have,” Alexander said. “Instead, we have designed the project to attract different user types, like research and development, high-tech and… HVAC companies.”

He said it’s normal “for neighbors to have questions about how development will fit into their community” and said Constellation’s design approach includes “thoughtful screening” that blocks a view of truck docks and assures that “dock doors (are) not visible from the road.”

Jefferson County Commissioner Tracy Kraft-Tharp said she and her colleagues will consult with county staff next week as to whether they should vote on a moratorium. Right now, she said, the county only has a pre-application from Constellation, which is subject to change.

“Once we know what it is, we can see whether it fits into the current zoning,” she said. “I think the neighbors are getting antsy, and I don’t blame them.”