Bow Mar, an affluent Denver suburb, is moving toward a controversial plan to gate its public streets. Supporters say the measure is needed to protect children from reckless drivers, while neighboring communities have condemned it as an exclusionary move.
The picturesque town, located about 12 miles south of Denver and known for its multimillion-dollar homes, has roughly 830 residents. Locals say drivers from surrounding cities routinely speed through Bow Mar to bypass busier main roads.
‘We just want to keep our kids safe,’ Dawn Fable, who has lived in Bow Mar for 10 years, told The New York Times. ‘They’re not able to play outside. Someone is going to die.’
Town officials had previously suggested placing gates at two entrances to Bow Mar and shutting down a third access point entirely.
On Monday, Bow Mar’s board of trustees unanimously approved moving ahead with an engineering firm to develop the project. The first gate could be in place by Thanksgiving, according to CBS Colorado.
The proposal has drawn sharp criticism. On 9News, local anchor Kyle Clark mocked the plan, saying the ‘fancy little town in the metro area doesn’t want us peasants driving through anymore.’
Littleton Mayor Kyle Schlachter said Bow Mar had rejected offers to add speed bumps or increase traffic enforcement, apparently choosing gated entrances instead.
‘It’s hurtful when your neighbor says, “You’re not welcome in our community,”‘ Schlachter told The Times.
Bow Mar, the Denver-area suburb, is advancing plans to restrict access to its streets after residents complained about drivers speeding through the town
A car discovered submerged in a Bow Mar lake last Wednesday renewed residents’ demands for stronger traffic-safety measures
Schlachter also called the plan inequitable, noting that Bow Mar residents rely on roads in neighboring communities when traveling beyond their small suburb.
‘They want to be able to use our roads, but they don’t want us to use their roads,’ Schlachter told the outlet. ‘Do we need to put up gates of our own?’
Despite the backlash, support for making Bow Mar a gated town intensified again this week after a vehicle was found underwater in Bowles Lake.
A South Metro Fire Rescue dive team searched the vehicle but found no one inside. The car was located near the 5200 block of Lakeshore Drive.
The Columbine Valley Police Department was investigating who owned the vehicle.
Liz Manning, a Bow Mar resident and town trustee, said the incident underscored the dangers she has been warning about.
‘The concerns I have is that, at some point, this is going to involve a pedestrian and not just the lake,’ Manning told CBS Colorado last Wednesday.
‘We’re trying to avoid a fatality,’ she added.
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A traffic study commissioned by Bow Mar found that approximately 2,000 vehicles entered the town on an average day last year. Most of those drivers are not believed to live there.
From the beginning of 2023 through this summer, police issued 1,260 traffic citations. Speeding accounted for about half of the violations.
Authorities had proposed installing two gates at entrances to Bow Mar, as well as closing a third entry point. For now, it seems like only one gate will be installed
Kyle Schlachter, the mayor of Littleton, said the proposals to have gates in Bow Mar was ‘hurtful’
Manning said the town had already tried multiple measures to address the driving concerns to no avail.
‘We have slowed our speed limit to 20 miles an hour,’ Manning said. ‘We have installed a multitude of speed bumps. We’ve narrowed our roads. We’ve increased enforcement, and we’re still having these issues.’
Authorities previously proposed installing gates at Sheridan Boulevard and Prospect Drive, as well as closing West Tufts Avenue.
Bow Mar residents would be given RFID tags for their vehicles to go through the gates.
For now, Bow Mar appears to only be pushing ahead with construction at the Sheridan entrance.
Town leaders said they would wait to see the impact of the first project before erecting any other gates.
Denver City Councilman Kevin Flynn has urged Bow Mar to work with its neighbors as opposed to keeping them out.
‘They haven’t tried cooperating with Denver and Littleton,’ Flynn told CBS Colorado. ‘That’s what they haven’t tried.’
Bow Mar, which has a population of roughly 830 people, is a quaint suburb 12 miles south of Denver
Flynn accused Bow Mar officials of wanting to ‘solve their traffic hazards on the backs of my residents by giving them the traffic hazards.’
‘How many of those crashes are Bow Mar residents?’ he said. ‘How do we know that the guy who crashed into the lake isn’t a Bow Mar resident?’
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has said the city would work with Bow Mar to ‘find a solution that works for everyone.’
‘Public roads belong to the public,’ Johnston’s office told Denver7 last month.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Bow Mar board of trustees and mayor for comment.