Consolidated Lookout Mountain tower timeline
1889 — Lookout Mountain Park is proposed for top of Lookout Mountain. The land, which would eventually come to encompass hundreds of homes and the broadcast towers, was slated for a park that included boating lakes and a cog railway. An economic crash ended the ambitious recreation plans.
1913 — Construction begins on Lariat Trail Road up Lookout Mountain from Golden.
1917 — Denver creates Lookout Mountain park, one of the city’s first mountain parks.
1952 to 1954 — Denver TV and radio stations build transmission towers on Lookout Mountain.
1955 — Jefferson County passes zoning rules for the tower land.
1968 — Boettcher Family donates family mansion and surrounding land to county. Land near broadcast towers is preserved as open space. The site will become a public banquet facility, still known as the Boettcher Mansion, and the Lookout Mountain Nature Center.
1985 — County adopts telecommunications land-use plan, which defines where towers should be placed. The plan states most of the Lookout Mountain towers are “grandfathered” uses because they predated specific zoning regulations, but they cannot be changed significantly without public rezoning hearings. Also, at such rezoning hearings, applicants must prove they cannot use any other existing facility.
1993 — County changes zoning ordinance to limit changes on legal, non-conforming towers.
1997 — Denver TV stations with towers on Lookout Mountain form Lake Cedar Group LLC.
1998 — LCG files county zoning application to allow a consolidated tower to replace other towers and meet new federal requirements for digital TV broadcasts. The same year, opponents on and around Lookout Mountain form Canyon Area Residents for the Environment.
1999 — The Jefferson County commissioners unanimously deny LCG’s rezoning application for the new tower, despite recommendation to approve from planning commission. Later in the year, LCG appeals the decision to state court and petitions the Federal Communications Commission for pre-emption.
2000 — State Legislature passes resolution opposing FCC pre-emption. The National Association of Counties and other government organizations also oppose pre-emption attempt.
2002 — LCG, after backing off FCC pre-emption attempt, submits amended application for consolidated tower. The new application lowers the tower height, puts part of the building underground and adds ongoing independent radiation monitoring, among other changes.
2003 — Commissioners approve LCG’s second application, reversing the earlier decision and in contrast to a county zoning official’s finding that LCG did not adequately prove it could use no other sites. CARE and other opponents sue to block construction of new tower.
__March 26, 2004 — Judge Brooke Jackson asks the board to hold new hearings regarding evidence presented in LCG’s closing arguments, to which opponents did not have an opportunity to respond.
__Aug. 31, 2004 — Commissioners unanimously approve tower application again
November 2004 to February 2005 — All three commissioners who had voted in previous cases are replaced, two by term limits, one by resignation.
__May 4, 2005 — Jackson asks new commissioners to hear new testimony on the possibility of several towers falling and endangering nearby homes.
__August 29, 2005 — The City of Golden sends letter to LCG offering to purchase. proposed tower site. City also announces it is willing to use condemnation if LCG will not willingly sell. __
Sept. 27, 2005 — Commissioners vote 2 to 1 against LCG, arguing the group failed to prove multiple tower failure was not a safety threat.
Sept. 28, 2005 — City of Golden and several homeowners’ groups file motion to prevent LCG from building new tower, arguing “rezoning was arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion and beyond the jurisdiction” of the commissioners.
April 12, 2006 —City of Golden files a petition in Jefferson County District Court to condemn proposed tower land.
May 23, 2006 — Jackson sends the tower issue back to the commissioners for a third time. His ruling states LCG proved multiple towers would not fall and threaten homes, and that the opposition did not give competent evidence to the contrary. He asks the commissioners to confirm or deny the previous commissioners’ decision in 2004, but said they don’t need new hearings.
June 14, 2006 — Commissioners file an opinion with county court arguing against Golden’s right to condemn the Lookout Mountain site.
November 2006 to January 2007 — Commissioners are expected to confirm or deny the 2004 decision approving the LCG towers.
Sources: Richard Gardner, Lake Cedar Group, Canyon Area Residents for the Environment, Jefferson County, City of Golden