I am pleased to announce that I am running for my third and final 2-year term as the elected Mayor of Cherry Hills Village.
Our Council, Commissions, Committees, and Boards are committed to preserving our history and tradition as a semi-rural oasis of repose. Our job is to continue to preserve its unique character – a pleasant, single family residential community inside a vibrant Denver metropolis. Our Village has been rated by the Wall Street Journal as the best suburb to live in America, and deservedly so.
Cherry Hills Village is almost entirely residential and depends on property and limited sales taxes to pay for services, maintenance, and improvements. Preserving the City’s sound financial condition while negotiating intergovernmental agreements, public/private partnerships, and grant funding possibilities, poses substantial challenges and opportunities to preserve, protect, and improve the best place to live in America.
We have achieved much these past four years, including:
Stopping construction of a roundabout at Quincy and Colorado Boulevard; returning property taken from Kent Denver School without just compensation;
Undergrounding overhead power lines along Quincy Avenue from Happy Canyon to Holly;
Negotiating and signing a High Line Collaborative Agreement with 13 different cities and stakeholders;
Updating the 2008 Cherry Hills Village Master Plan, a year-long process spearheaded by the Planning and Zoning Commission and a Citizens Advisory Taskforce, along with multiple public meetings and surveys;
Inaugurating the new John Meade Park;
Celebrating our Village's 75+ year birthday;
Completing and opening the Hampden/High Line Canal underpass;
Consolidating Village owned sanitary sewers lines;
Completing a wholesale reorganization of the City Development Code Code, moving information into easy to read tables to provide a clear guidance that will enhance our property values;
Issuing a record number of building permits in 2021 despite the challenges of COVID-19;
Installing the traffic signal at Glenmoor Drive and Steele Street; partnering with Greenwood Village to construct the Belleview Avenue median improvements;
Signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Cherry Hills Land Preserve to provide fundraising, volunteers, and programming for Quincy Farm;
Approving a comfort station for the Cherry Farms HOA;
Restriping the left turn lane at University Boulevard and Huntwick Lane;
Striping the left-out lane from the Buell subdivision to University;
Prohibiting commercial lawn mowing concerns from working on Sundays and holidays;
Installing video equipment to livestream and archive City Council meetings,
Tracking and arresting the burglars who shot officer Cory Sack during a 2018 home invasion, and securing a 64 year conviction;
Placing the nexus/lexis community crime map on the Village website showing locations of criminal acting in the Village and surrounding areas;
Securing grants for body cameras and new video recording systems to enhance safety and enable our police force to continue our record as the safest suburban municipality in Colorado;
Live-streaming and recording all City Council sessions for our residents; and
Filling key staff positions including Chris Cramer, City Manager; Jason Lyons, Chief of Police; and Doug Farmen, Director of Finance; all of whom have outstanding qualifications, experience, energy and commitment to lead the Village in the next decade.
Another post on this blog contains my resume listing my past and current roles with in the Village government and my work with other regional and state municipal organizations. I am the first Cherry Hills Village Mayor to be elected to the Executive Board of the Colorado Municipal League, I serve on the Executive Committee of the Metro Mayors' Caucus, and I chair the Arapahoe County Open Space and Trails Advisory Board.
A third post contains an index and active links to four years of my monthly Mayor's reports published in the Cherry Hills Village Crier. I invite you to browse the index for my thoughts and discussion of current issues. As always, you are welcome to visit me at City Hall during my Mayor's hours on Mondays from 9-11, or other times by appointment. 303-607-3688.
Russell Stewart
Mayor