It's a good thing because what we do is mostly work quietly but diligently to keep this great neighborhood great while you go about your life. We are NOT an HOA. There are no dues. We are a volunteer, grassroots, advocacy group for the neighborhood that's been around for 40+ years. We're a registered non-profit with a 12-member board that's elected at our annual meetings and meets quarterly. If you live here - here being between Colfax & 6th Ave, Simms and Indiana (see map) - you are welcome to participate...or not. Owner or renter, we don't care. You are our neighbor.

Here's what would be here if DWNA hadn't been here to stop it.

• Not once, but twice - in 2013 & 2015 - Jefferson County tried to build a correctional facility housing 250 convicted felons on work release in or next to our neighborhood. Not kidding. Committees were formed, meetings were held, 1000+ volunteer hours were spent, and scores of our neighbors turned out to testify at a Lakewood hearing that started at 6 pm and didn't end until 1:30 am. And we stopped it!!!
• A developer tried to build a five-building, 72-room memory care campus in the middle of our neighborhood in 2015. Memory care facilities are greatly needed, and we have some in small group homes in our neighborhood. But a huge commercial operation with a lighted 20-car parking lot with staff coming and going 24/7 - not to mention emergency vehicles at all hours - surrounded by single-family homes and two blocks from an elementary school? We stopped that too.
• Add to that a large, round-the-clock bar/pool hall at the entrance to our neighborhood at Colfax and Wide Acres (2006), and four attempts in the past decade at massive residential developments on the big lot across Wide Acres from the Daniels Park basketball courts that never happened. Developing that lot is fine, but keep it office, size it right and put the hundreds of cars each day onto Colfax, not Wide Acres.

We want to be clear about this...we are NOT anti-development. We fully respect property rights. There's been lots of developments in our neighborhood over the past 40 years that we supported or stayed out of because they were right for our neighborhood and made it better. A correctional facility would have forever changed the character and safety of our neighborhood. We always want to work cooperatively with developers to make their proposals fit in our neighborhood and usually succeed. Of course, we would have preferred to keep it that vast, beautiful, serene horse pasture that it once was. But, when Colorado Mills was proposed on that property, we worked with the developer in friendly negotiations to minimize the impacts. But some development needs to be stopped because the people who live here should be allowed to enjoy their homes and maintain its value. They have rights too.

We are a neighborhood of 2,000 households. Perhaps the greatest thing about the Daniels Welchester neighborhood is that we have always come together when needed to defend it. If we can get you and many of our other neighbors in those 2,000 households to give what they can, we can easily raise the $20,000 we need from the neighborhood for this fight. Whatever amount you can give helps and would be greatly appreciated. You'd be helping keep this great neighborhood great for everyone living here now and in the future. And donations are tax-deductible. Even if you don't live close to the development, your neighbors who do need your help, and they will be there for you if there's a future fight closer to your home. If we lose this fight, those two commissioners will continue to approve inappropriate, high-density housing elsewhere in our neighborhood and around the County where it doesn't belong. This fight is for all of us. Please donate what you can. THANK YOU!

For more information on the townhomes and the appeal, click here.