At a site on the south side of West Mineral Avenue in Littleton, excavators and other machines are surrounded by piles of dirt and building materials.
The site — which formerly housed an office and call center for Lumen Technologies — is on its way to becoming a mixed-use property called Mineral Place. The property will include a 370-unit multifamily residential complex, a Costco Wholesale store and fuel facility and a handful of other retail sites that are yet to be determined, according to the city’s website.
The commercial developer, Republic Investment Group (RIG) Mineral LLC, has begun site demolition to prepare the land for the new development.
This process has caused a stir from residents, who have expressed anger and sadness about the removal of approximately 41 mature trees from the site.
“You cut down every tree,” community member Greg Sullivan said during a Jan. 7 Littleton City Council meeting. “You clear-cut every tree on the swale.”
A swale is a depression, similar to a ditch, that conveys stormwater, said Jerad Chipman, the city’s planning manager. The trees the developer removed from the commercial site were mostly located on the higher banks of the swale so as to not impede stormwater flows, Chipman said.
He said the developer’s plans include a new stormwater management system that will use a pipe instead of the swale for drainage.
According to the city’s website, the additional transportation infrastructure required by the project — such as turn lanes, buffered bike lanes and wider sidewalks — encroached on the location of the existing trees.
Sullivan, who has spoken repeatedly about the trees at city council meetings since August, asked the city council to intervene to make the developers keep the trees for their environmental benefits and preserve the swales as green space.
He said the trees being removed “just reinforces the need to bring awareness to the citizens of Littleton that trees are important, and they can serve an important function to mitigate (carbon dioxide).”
In his efforts to “save the swale,” Sullivan said he placed nearly 2,000 flyers at homes in the area and gathered about 200 signatures from people who want “a change in the environmental direction of Mineral Place.”
According to the city’s website, “the buyer has the right to develop the property as they wish as long as the development meets the requirements of the city’s Unified Land Use Code.”
Chipman said nearly all the trees removed as part of the development were on the developer’s private property. A small number were in the city’s right-of-way and will be replaced by new trees as the right-of-way is reconfigured, Chipman said.
“The City of Littleton’s Unified Land Use Code requires ‘tree mitigation’ for large developments, meaning the developer must pay a fee earmarked for future tree planting elsewhere in the city,” Chipman added. “Plans for the site also include more than 950 trees, resulting in a net tree gain of 670, even with the removal of the existing trees.”
Chipman added that many of the trees that were removed were ash trees, which are “highly susceptible to the emerald ash borer invasive species.”
“The newly-planted trees will be less vulnerable to specific diseases and more appropriate for urban environments,” he said.
During a December city council meeting, Sullivan said he is concerned that the extra trees planted will still not make up for the amount of pollution that will be caused by cars visiting Mineral Place. He also told the Littleton Independent that he is concerned because the new, smaller trees will not mitigate as much carbon dioxide as the mature trees that were removed.
According to the project description, the developers plan to “conserve energy and other natural resources” on the property by using native species vegetation and drip irrigation systems to reduce potable water consumption, recycling construction waste when possible and taking other steps.
Sullivan said he is also concerned about the green space the developer is eliminating to build parking spots and gas pumps.
Sullivan said he believed the city should have had a say in what the developer did with the trees and the green space because of the city’s relationship with the developer through an economic partnership incentive agreement. This means the city will share back 50% of the sales tax collected at the entire retail portion of the site, up to a total reimbursement of $29.5 million or until 10 years have passed, whichever occurs first.
According to the city’s website, city staff and its consultant determined that “the developer’s request for share-back funds was justified because of the high land acquisition costs — about five times greater per square-foot than other similar Costco-anchored developments in the state — and sitework costs for the project.”
City Manager Jim Becklenberg said the city is “very limited in its authority to legally impose design requirements beyond those which are required in the municipal code for all projects.”
In January, after the trees were cut down, Sullivan suggested the city start a “Littleton tree trust” with money from the site’s sales tax revenue to go towards more trees on the property and across the city. He also urged the city to take other measures to hold the developer to higher environmental standards and to not award exceptions to green space and setback requirements.
Becklenberg said funding for cultivation and maintenance of the city’s tree canopy and ecology are important, and the city has grown its forestry and tree planting maintenance budget about tenfold over the last four years.
“I believe it will continue to grow thanks to the revenue generated by the Mineral Place retail center,” he said.
The 370-unit multi-family residential development, which is being developed by Embrey Partners LLC, has been approved, Chipman said, and building permits are under review.
As for other retailers, a pre-application meeting was held for Portillo’s Hot Dogs LLC, but a complete application had not yet been filed with the city as of Feb. 6. The restaurant would be a drive-thru and in-store location offering Italian beef, hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs, pasta, pizza, shakes and more, according to city documents.
The agreement between the city and the commercial developer estimates that Costco will be ready to open in 2026, according to the city’s website.