With hopes of getting re-elected to represent District 2 on the Centennial City Council, incumbent candidate Christine Sweetland said she has loved serving as a council member.
“I’ve always been a volunteer and helped in the community. And this just feels like a bigger extension of that,” Sweetland said. “I have an important voice in the future of the city. And I want to continue to make that happen.”
Sweetland is running for the District 2 seat against candidate Rick Rome and write-in candidate Priscilla Rutledge.
She worked in telecommunications for about 15 years, working in different roles such as marketing and customer service, before switching her career to being a real estate appraiser, she said.
“Every role I had in my telecommunications jobs really helped me figure out how to run my business,” she said. “I love being a small business owner.”
Sweetland said being an appraiser helps with addressing issues on city council, especially when it comes to housing.
Some of her priorities include addressing housing issues, ensuring people feel safe in the community and focusing on what multimodal micromobility could look like in Centennial.
“I truly am passionate about the changes and growth that is happening, and … I want to have a strong voice in what our city’s gonna look like in the next 10, 15, 20 years,” she said. “I truly want what’s best for our city.”
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Housing is an issue where the decisions the council makes today will be really impactful in five to 10 years, Sweetland said.
“I think we’re a lot more open to exploring different housing opportunities than we ever have been in the past,” she said. “I think we’re a lot more open to looking at, like, maybe a Habitat for Humanity or some similar nonprofit-type housing solution.”
The council has been studying and discussing potential strategies it could adopt to address housing affordability and accessibility issues in Centennial.
Some of those strategies include an inclusionary zoning program, permitting accessory dwelling units, implementing a land banking program and having an expedited review process.
Inclusionary zoning is defined as policies that require and/or incentivize residential developers to include affordable units in their development or pay a fee-in-lieu of building affordable units.
Sweetland said she supports an inclusionary zoning ordinance and would want Centennial’s to be similar to Littleton’s ordinance.
“I think if we do adopt an inclusionary zoning policy, that we have to be open to the fact that we’re gonna be looking at it often to make changes to meet the needs of the community — the changing needs of the community,” she said.
Sweetland said she was not a fan of accessory dwelling units initially.
“But, during the housing study, it did get a lot of support from our community,” she said. “And so, I think if it’s right for, you know, certain areas, and the community supports it, I think that, you know, we’re going to do that.”
Land banking refers to when local governments buy, acquire and hold land for later development as affordable housing.
“I think everybody’s very supportive of land banking, just because it’s more of a market-driven solution,” she said. “That’s something we’re gonna have to partner with somebody.”
She said she cannot imagine Centennial ever standing up its own housing authority, but she believes there are enough partners in that space for the city to work with.
Sweetland said expedited review means looking at the city’s procedures to make sure that when people want to do developments in Centennial, they can get the structure they need to go forward before they put in a lot of money.
“Expedited review, now that we kind of have a better grasp on that, I think that’s a really good one,” she said.
Sweetland said she would also like to see more live-work units developed in the city, saying she thinks it is an untapped solution to an affordability issue.
Sweetland said the city has a great partnership with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
“They did ask us for more deputies. And I think that’s going to be really helpful, because people want to see that there are officers available if they need it,” she said.
During a Sept. 12 city council work session, the sheriff’s office presented a 2024 budget request for Centennial that included adding five staff — two patrol deputies, two traffic safety deputies and one investigator.
Sweetland said about half of the city’s budget goes toward the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
She said she likes that the sheriff’s office has a co-responder program to help people who are experiencing a mental health crisis.
“I think that’s really important,” she said. “Public safety takes different forms, and so, I would like to see if we can, you know, expand that.”
A lot of residents worry about the issue of homelessness, Sweetland said.
The city recently worked with Arapahoe County to create a new position — a Centennial homeless outreach liaison who works with people facing homelessness and refers them to resources or programs.
Sweetland said she thinks having an outreach liaison helps a lot.
“We’ve done some really great programs. And, you know, I would like to see that continue,” she said.
Sweetland said she would like to see the city do more multimodal projects, such as the project happening on Colorado Boulevard.
Centennial needs to figure out better connections so that people feel comfortable taking shorter trips, such as 1-3 miles, by walking, biking, or using an electric scooter rather than taking a car, she said.
“I just think that we need to kind of focus a little bit more on what that multimodal micromobility looks like,” she said.
Sweetland said many Centennial residents are proud that the city has no debt.
“Even when interest rates were so low, it was almost like, are we hurting ourselves?” she said. “Because we’re … waiting to save this money in order to do these projects, when we could take basically a zero interest rate loan, but it’s, you know, people in our city really appreciate that.”
“I’m committed to keeping that when it makes, you know, sense to do it — it just means that projects take a little longer in Centennial,” she continued.
Sweetland said she sometimes has to explain to residents that although the city’s reserves look really high, all the money is earmarked for future uses.
In the city’s budget, she thinks the city should prioritize funding the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, funding for public works to invest in having good streets and sidewalks, as well as prioritizing open space, parks and trails.
“In our city, we have a lot of already defined parks and open space,” she said. “But I want to make sure that we have the connections so that if we do build more neighborhoods, that they have the same access to those amenities as everybody else.”
When it comes to voting on controversial issues, Sweetland said she believes that in most decisions, it is possible to find common ground.
“The other thing we have to remember is that decisions that we make aren’t set in stone,” she said. “We can always change it.”
She said she tries to always explain why she is voting a certain way when she sits on the council chamber dais.
Sweetland likes to go to events and educational opportunities to learn more about issues, she said.
“I have to be willing to listen to other viewpoints before I make a decision,” she said.
When it comes to supporting local businesses, Sweetland expressed pride in how the council spent its COVID-19 relief funds.
According to a city report, Centennial received more than $10.39 million through an agreement with Arapahoe County. Of that, about $9.2 million went to small business assistance.
Sweetland said the city started with a grant program for brick-and-mortar businesses, such as restaurants.
“But what I’m most proud of is that we still had money left over, and I asked that we also open it up to, you know, our small businesses that are home-based businesses — to, you know, the hairdressers, the massage therapists,” she said.
She said she also suggested that the city open up grant money to nonprofits.
Looking at how the city can continue to invest in local businesses, Sweetland said she supports the city’s program, Spark Centennial.
She also would like for Centennial to look at doing similar campaigns as she has seen Aurora and Littleton do where they help promote local businesses.
“I’d like to see us do some more of those types of things where we’re really focusing on some of those local unique Centennial businesses that people don’t even know exist,” she said.
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