The cost of converting the landfill into something pretty has also been a point of contention between the LRA and the Base Conversion Agency. Air Force consultants have put the price tag of "capping" the landfill for recreational use at somewhere between $10 million and $16 million. In his letter to the Air Force, Meadows says the LRA has brought forth proven technology that can develop a cap to withstand irrigation for $7 million to $8 million.
Air Force personnel working at Lowry say that they're just doing their job, however long that might take. "Our mission is to look out for the public's health and safety," says Nevling, "and that very often doesn't go along with the efforts of the redevelopers."
Jeff Edson of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which is also overseeing the cleanup at Lowry, agrees with Nevling. "The [redevelopers'] idea is to sell the property quickly to get money," says Edson. "In order to do that, there's got to be teamwork between the sellers and the cleaners, and because there's not, it's caused a lot of tension.
"It's like if you were moving out of your apartment and you wanted to get your security deposit back. But the new renters are moving in while you're still cleaning up and tracking mud all over the place. We're not going to let anyone occupy Lowry until the cleanup is complete."
Estimates as to when the Air Force will actually clean up any of the contaminated Lowry land vary, but the most optimistic date for any parcel of polluted land is two years from now. Pollution isn't an issue when it comes to Sunset Village, so the residents of Mayfair Park hope to have a resolution to their neighborhood's dilemma sooner than that. And they're willing to concede on some sticky points to make it happen.
In a recent LRA meeting, Paul Dougherty and two other members of the CAC subcommittee working as negotiators on the Sunset Village deal laid out Mayfair Park's treaty offer. In the meeting, Dougherty described Mayfair Park as being "like an enemy that is surrendering. There's a lot of face involved."
In the plan laid out by the subcommittee, Mayfair residents agreed to three major points: They would keep thirty homeless units as well as thirty entry-level homes. They also agreed to the re-use of seven duplexes as long as the rest were torn down. However, Dr. David Franklin, a member of Dougherty's group, said that in return the LRA had to agree that the homes to be built in Sunset Village would all be privately owned and occupied by families (preferably with children), using a mix of developers, and that all units must have garages so the streets would be clear of cars.
Although Jennifer Moulton stated that she was encouraged by the peace offering from Mayfair Park, she and Meadows both felt that razing the duplexes was unreasonable.
"I like the movement," Meadows said. "I like the attitude. There's positive direction. But it's still one step at a time. This is not going to happen quickly. We feel strongly about the duplexes and their value."
Dougherty says that the LRA has to give up something. "Allowing that number of [homeless] units was a major concession on the part of Mayfair Park," he says. "The duplexes are going to be the thing that needs to be truly negotiated. The neighborhood's main concern is aesthetics. They don't want military, right-angle housing in their neighborhood. But there's many ways to skin a cat. The LRA is really going to have to sell them on keeping more of the duplexes."
Dougherty says that what's really hampering an agreement between Mayfair Park and the LRA is history. "Meadows would like to see a plaque out at Lowry that reads 'Jim Meadows Built This,'" says Dougherty. "That's being threatened by people like Debbie James, who's been waging a guerrilla war in public against the LRA. On the other hand, you have a neighborhood which feels like it's been pushed around and painted as unreasonable bigots, which they most certainly are not. This is not about facts. This is a visceral thing."
However, with Meadows resigning from the LRA in a little more than a month to take over the Presidio redevelopment, some people think the door could be opened for an agreement based on facts, not feelings.
At a meeting earlier this week, the two sides reached what Dougherty terms a "tentative understanding" about the re-use plan for Sunset Village. The fact that Meadows is leaving certainly didn't hurt the negotiations.
"This leadership change could really be beneficial," says an LRA boardmember. "Especially in regard to relationships with certain neighborhoods that have clashed repeatedly with Jim."
Some say they'll miss Meadows's aggressiveness. Bonfils's Tom Puckett worries that without Meadows hounding the Air Force, he may have to wait even longer for the deed to his building. "I haven't seen [Meadows's replacement] Tom Markham in the political arena," he says. "Can he stand up to the Undersecretary of Defense and talk to him like Jim does? I don't know. Jim was very good at lighting fires under people.
