Forest City has grown frustrated with the backlash regarding their announcement of King Soopers becoming the anchor to the Eastbridge Town Center. “Forest City has been working tirelessly to satisfy the residents of Stapleton,” said Stapleton President Phil Dargossi. “Their pushback and their tenacity to block progress has grown tiresome. At this point, the community needs to move forward. Essentially, they can have a King Soopers and a town center, or we can start to finally meet our quotas for socio-economic diversity and begin building some adobe units.”
Dargossi went on to say that those would be the only options, and residents need to make their decision by the end of August. “We need to get moving,” said Dargossi. There is money to be made on that land, and we are going to make it one way or the other.” Residents are extremely disappointed by Dargossi’s comments, but not surprised. “This is typical from Forest City,” said resident Mark Shannon. “They push their will on us, and pretend they want our feedback, but have no interest. My guess is, they already have this decision made, and are just pretending they are even giving us this final choice.” Most residents are not accepting the ultimatum. “We will talk to the Mayor, the governor, senators, councilman, whatever it takes,” says Stapleton activist Lisa Jepsen. “There is a right way to do things, and a wrong way, and Forest City is way over the line on this.”
Although plans have been released for the town center if it has a King Soopers, nothing has been drawn up if they go with the low-income adobe units. “First of all, the ultimatum is just bull,” said resident Steve Shelton. “Secondly, how are residents supposed to make a decision on this if we don’t even know how the units will look? Honestly, out of spite, without even seeing the plans, I would probably go with the low income adobe units.” Other residents agree. “I think they are bluffing,” says Matt Lewis. “So, yeah, Dargossi, build the adobe units.” Forest City says they have hired an independent research organization to conduct the study to determine what the community prefers for the Eastbridge town center. Residents, however, have vowed to block any efforts to begin either project.
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