Lenard Larkin launches bid for Loveland City Council
‘We need new blood in there doing different things’
Lenard Larkin is nothing if not persistent. The lifelong Loveland resident has launched a fourth campaign for Loveland City Council in Ward 1, after losing efforts in 2017, 2019 and 2021.
Despite those losses, the self-described “contrarian” said that he is determined to bring a fresh perspective to city government that will prioritize serving the interests of Loveland residents rather than enriching big businesses or developers.
“Our City Council is stale,” Larkin said. “The same people get elected all the time, you’ve got the same donors donating to the same people. The whole point is that nobody has a vision past that … We need new blood in there doing different things.”
Larkin has several different things in mind if elected, and topping that list is reorienting Loveland’s development philosophy away from annexation and expansion to filling the empty spaces within its boundaries.
Rather than large subdivisions on the outskirts of Loveland, the candidate said that he would like to see the city encourage small or multifamily homes on vacant property, such as the grassy strip in the vicinity of 43rd Street and Duffield Avenue. Larkin further argued that such infill development will help alleviate the lack of affordable housing in Loveland and potentially slow the growth of homelessness by offering options to households on the margin.
“It is better to house 10 people now than try to wait years to develop a huge piece of land to house 100 people,” he said. “… It’s about helping people now in a simpler fashion instead of trying to make it overly complicated with a huge development.”
The second order of business for Larkin, if elected, will be improving the quality of life for Loveland residents by enhancing transit options and walkability around the city for those who cannot drive or want to reduce their automobile usage. He is a proponent of projects like the Heart Improvement Plan (HIP) streets program, a proposed revitalization of downtown’s Fourth Street that aims to improve the
pedestrian experience.
But, here, too, Larkin said he would like to see the Loveland leaders explore unconventional ideas like underground parking structures, or walkable commerce “centers” throughout the city with free transportation between them.
“Look at the Orchards shopping center,” he said, proposing it as one of the centers, along with downtown and another location on the north side of the city. “If you look at the parking lot out there, it’s a huge parking lot without a lot of people parking in it. That could be used better as retail space.”
When it comes to economic development, Larkin said that he is opposed to offering tax or tax-sharing incentives to large developers such as Mcwhinney Real Estate Services, saying that “business should be able to stand on its own.”
He also thinks that trying to bring large employers to Loveland is a futile pursuit, and that the city should leverage one of its best assets to attract remote and home-based employees.
“Councilman Fogle did an excellent job a few years ago, getting us Pulse in the city,” Larkin said. “That is a huge advantage for us. We have a bigger advantage than many major cities in this country with that fiber internet.”
And Larkin would know, after a long career in the telecommunications industry. The candidate went on to say that Pulse is the best thing to happen to Loveland in the past several years and he would like to see the state and federal governments do more to support it.
“There’s so much potential in Pulse because it does create a cleaner communication system,” he said.
Indeed, Larkin would like all of Loveland’s infrastructure to function as well as Pulse does, and, if elected, will push the city to invest in improvements to its aging infrastructure, which he called the “blood and guts” of the city.
Ultimately, Larkin said, the key to addressing Loveland’s challenges is changing the mentality of City Council from one that serves the supply side of the city with tax or development incentives, to one that serves the demand side of residents with community building and quality of life improvements. The easiest way to do that, he continued, is to elect someone who lives more like the typical Lovelander than the wealthy “business leaders” currently crowding the dais.
“I drive a 2008 Chevy Uplander,” he said. “And I think too many people in our government and in our City Council are driving Cadillacs, Porsches, and very expensive vehicles. And when you get down to brass tacks, just by looking at the car I drive, I think that I’m a better representation of most of the diversity of the people in Loveland.”
So far, Larkin is the only official candidate for the Ward 1 seat being vacated by Richard Ball, who is retiring after two terms. Attorney and former Loveland City Councilor Troy Krenning announced in June that he is considering entering the race, but he has yet to formally do so.
Larkin has until Aug. 28 to collect 25 valid signatures from Ward 1 residents in order to be added to the ballot in Loveland’s municipal election on Nov. 7.
For more information about Larkin’s candidacy, visit friendsoflenardlarkin. com or @lenard.larkin.3 on Facebook. For more information about Loveland’s upcoming election, visit lovgov.org/city-government/ city-clerk/elections.