Pot companies, developers taking sides in contentious Lakewood election

Lakewood’s municipal election is awash in developer and marijuana money — two issues that voters in Colorado’s fifth-largest city have already taken positions on at the ballot box. That has some wondering if it’s an attempt to pack the Lakewood City Council with members favorable to the cannabis industry and more robust development in this city of 155,000 on Denver’s western edge. In 2014, voters rejected a measure that would have legalized recreational pot sales in the city. And this past summer, voters approved a limit on new residential construction in Lakewood. “What concerns me is there are efforts to circumvent the will of the people,” said Anita Springsteen, an 11-year resident of Lakewood who helped spearhead slow-growth measure Question 200, which became law in July. She is running for a council seat in Ward 3 in the Nov. 5 election. In addition, four other council positions and the mayor’s seat are up for grabs in Lakewood. Two independent expenditure committees, which are not permitted to coordinate with candidates, collected $72,139 over a three-day period this month from nearly a dozen marijuana companies and developer interests, including the Apartment Association of Metro Denver and Ascend Cannabis. RELATED: Denver Post voter guide…

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Source : Denver Post
Link to original : Pot companies, developers taking sides in contentious Lakewood election
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