Béchamps, Collins win Lone Tree council seats in close election

Michelle Béchamps and Tara Meekma Collins won Lone Tree City Council seats in a close municipal election that will directly reshape how the city handles growth, spending and traffic in the months ahead. In a fast-growing city where land-use decisions can touch daily life, the two winners will replace Mayor Pro Tem Jay Carpenter and Councilmember Mike Anderson.

Béchamps won District 1 with 725 votes to Greg Jewell’s 573. Collins captured District 2 with 550 votes, edging Glenn Hertzler’s 545 and Chris Weir’s 306. Lone Tree’s unofficial results showed 2,704 ballots cast out of 11,512 registered voters, a turnout rate of 23.49 percent, with five undervotes.

The District 2 margin was close, but it did not meet Colorado’s automatic-recount threshold. State law requires a recount only when the difference between candidates is 0.5 percent or less of the top vote-getter’s total. The city is scheduled to certify the official results on May 15, and UOCAVA ballots and signature-cure ballots could still be counted if received or cured by May 13.

The election matters because Lone Tree’s governing structure gives the council real power over the city’s next steps. Lone Tree is a home-rule city with a council-manager form of government, meaning the mayor and four councilmembers set policy while the city manager carries it out. Councilmembers represent one of two districts, the mayor serves at-large, and the council meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at the Lone Tree Civic Center, 8527 Lone Tree Parkway.

That makes these two seats more than a routine turnover. Béchamps and Collins will join a council that is expected to keep wrestling with annexation, road planning, budgeting and city-center development. They will also enter the discussion as Lone Tree continues to manage RidgeGate, the city’s largest growth area, a 3,500-acre planned development south of Lincoln Avenue and east and west of Interstate 25.

The stakes are especially high in a city that says it has about 15,000 residents but a daytime population nearing 30,000. Meekma Collins campaigned around major decisions on RidgeGate East, Hillcamp and the Entertainment District, arguing that residents should have a central role in how the city grows. With Marissa Harmon serving as the city’s fourth mayor since taking office in May 2024, the addition of Béchamps and Collins gives Lone Tree a council that is newly aligned to weigh the next round of development and infrastructure decisions.