Make Longmont\'s Open Space and Use Sales Tax Permanent
Dear SpeakOut! user
We, the undersigned, urge Longmont Mayor and City Council members to protect Longmont’s important and sensitive current and future Open Space areas from the intrusion of damaging urban development. Specifically, we are asking Council to place a measure on our 2024 Longmont ballot asking residents to make our 0.2-cent Longmont Open Space sales and use tax permanent for the purpose of land acquisition as well as maintenance and enhancement of Open Space areas.
Make Longmont\'s Open Space and Use Sales Tax Permanent
Dear SpeakOut! user
We, the undersigned, urge Longmont Mayor and City Council members to protect Longmont’s important and sensitive current and future Open Space areas from the intrusion of damaging urban development. Specifically, we are asking Council to place a measure on our 2024 Longmont ballot asking residents to make our 0.2-cent Longmont Open Space sales and use tax permanent for the purpose of land acquisition as well as maintenance and enhancement of Open Space areas.
On Wednesday, February 27th, Longmont Political Revolution is sponsoring a presentation at the Longmont Public Library featuring Stand With Our St. Vrain Creek and Front Range Nesting Bald Eagle Studies.
Stand’s half of the presentation, titled “The Remarkable Riparian Zone: What’s Happening With Our St. Vrain Greenway?” will explain why a functioning riparian zone is crucial to a healthy river system and how it can help mitigate future floods. It will also detail some of the goings-on regarding the St. Vrain river corridor, including current construction.
Last year a member of Stand With Our St. Vrain Creek made us aware that the Osprey nest platform on N 75th Street was threatened by a new housing development. Construction equipment rolled by directly beneath the nest platform even after the birds had returned from migration, no doubt the cause of the nest’s failure last year.
Thanks to your efforts in contacting Boulder County’s commissioners and Longmont officials, the nest platform is being moved to a more suitable site!
Longmont’s Natural Resources Department is holding its first public meeting open house regarding the update to the City’s Wildlife Management Plan (WMP). The WMP was first adopted in 2006 and it’s due for an update.
This first meeting will focus on Land Development Code changes with regard to the new prairie dog policy, the work being done with the Resilient St. Vrain flood mitigation project, and riparian setbacks. Other meetings will follow.
We ask that you please attend this meeting if you are able. This meeting will help inform updates to the Land Development Code regarding the 150-foot riparian setback and how Longmont deals with wildlife in general.
The meeting will be held at the Sunset Campus (7 S. Sunset Street, Longmont, CO) on Thursday, March 7 from 6-8pm. Snacks will be provided.
If you need translation services or other special accommodations, contact 303-651-8416 or service-works@longmontcolorado.gov
For any questions, contact Dan Wolford at 303-774-4691 or dan.wolford@longmontcolorado.gov
A second meeting of an advisory panel to continue discussion of future development of the St. Vrain river corridor to meet goals B3 and B4 of the Longmont City Council’s workplan has been scheduled for Friday, February 15th from 8:30am to 11:30am at the Longmont Museum. The session is open to the public as observers and we are asking Longmont residents to attend if their schedule allows so that the process is as transparent as possible.
The Longmont City Council developed a workplan (available here) in 2018 to direct their actions and help them meet their goals for the city. Section B of the workplan contains the City Council’s goals for “Longmont’s places”:
In 20 years, Longmont will have a developed Main Street from Pike Road to Highway 66 and a river corridor that stretches from the sugar mill to the fairgrounds as a vibrant economic, residential, cultural and entertainment epicenter that is sustainable and respects the natural environment. This area will:
Goal B1: Have a diverse housing stock with higher densities and access to high quality public transportation, food and jobs
Goal B2: Protect and respect our natural public amenities as part of the development process
Goal B3: Become a nationally recognized geographic center of science, technology, engineering, education, arts, and entrepreneurism
Goal B4: Bring together private industry, local government, nonprofits, and institutions of higher education as well as the St. Vrain Valley School District to ensure the highest quality, best prepared workforce in the western United States
January 11 2019 first session of advisory panel notes.
On Friday, January 11th, City Council convened the first meeting of the advisory panel. The notes to the left were compiled from that meeting (click on picture to to see the full notes).
Although the first meeting was also open to the public, it wasn’t publicized very well. Therefore, Stand With Our St. Vrain Creek is seeking to publicize the second meeting to a wider audience. The agenda for the second meeting is below (click on the picture to view the full agenda).
Agenda for the February 15th advisory panel meeting.
Additional supporting documentation for the panel meeting is below:
On Tuesday, February 22nd, Longmont City Council settled on a timeline for the “second phase” of amendments to the Land Development Code (LDC). These amendments encompass not only that portion of the LDC dealing with riparian setbacks and wildlife protection, but also the timeframe for completing supporting tools/documents such as a sustainability system for evaluating development and that portion of the Wildlife Management Plan that deals with development along riparian corridors/near open space areas.
This timeframe indicates August 1, 2019 as the due date for such amendments. The timeframe was based off of a timeframe developed by City Staff (see below).
Timeline for second phase LDC amendments as proposed by City Staff. Except for the RSVP and Main Street Corridor, these pieces of the LDC have a deadline of 8/1/2019.
To view the full discussion of the Longmont Development Code amendment priority and timeline discussion, watch the following video, which has been cued up to the start of that discussion:
The City of Longmont’s Public Works and Natural Resources Department will be updating the City’s Wildlife Management Plan this year. The Wildlife Management Plan codifies the City’s policy toward wildlife, human-wildlife interaction, and wildlife habitat. The first public engagement meeting should be announced soon.
If you would like to be a part of this public process and have your voice heard, please contact Jim Krick via email at jim.krick@longmontcolorado.gov or by calling 303-651-8451.
We will post public meeting dates as soon as they are available.
Longmont City Council will be discussing the timing and priority of updates to the second phase of the Land Development Code (which includes the parts of the code dealing with habitat and riparian protections) during the Tuesday, January 22nd City Council meeting. The City Council meeting will be held at 7:00pm at the Civic Center. The City has contracted with Clarion Associates to make the development code updates.
Stand With Our St. Vrain Creek is asking that citizens concerned about our St. Vrain river corridor attend the January 22nd council meeting and to wear green. It is important that council prioritize changes to the development code that strengthen restrictions on development along the riparian corridor in order to protect this important resource.
In preparation for the meeting, City staff has provided the following documents. Click on the picture of each document to access the link to the full text.
Longmont’s Public Works and Natural Resources Office put together a Sustainability Evaluation System (SES) tool in order to evaluate the sustainability of projects in terms of social, environmental, and economic considerations. This is often referred to as the “three-legged stool” or “people, planet, profit.” In August of 2017, the SES tool was used to evaluate the St. Vrain Blueprint and come up with suggestions to make the Blueprint more sustainable.
This is a last minute notice, but Longmont is holding another City Council Open forum tonight at 7:00pm at the Civic Center (350 Kimbark Street) where residents can speak about any topic they desire. If you are able to attend, please consider doing so and speaking up in favor of greater riparian protections.
Since residents can speak about any topic for up to 5 minutes, it’s best to show up early to add your name to the speaker list.
City Council will be reviewing and scheduling the projects they want to pursue in 2019 at the January 22nd City Council meeting. One of the these projects is the revisions to the riparian section of the Land Development Code (LDC). Staff will ask council to prioritize the projects in the order they wish staff to work on them. Also council members will be asked to choose which recommendations of Stand With Our Saint Vrain Creek’s 4/1/2018 letter they wish to include in the LDC revisions.
We ask that you please attend this council meeting and consider speaking during public invited to be heard urging council members to prioritize revisions to the riparian section of the LDC to strengthen protections and to direct City staff to amend the LDC to reflect all recommendations in Stand With Our Saint Vrain Creek’s 4/1/2018 letter.
What: City Council meeting
When: Tuesday, January 22, 2019 at 7pm
Where: Longmont Civic Center 350 Kimbark Street, Longmont CO 80501
If you can’t attend the meeting, please consider contacting Longmont City Council at the following email addresses:
Last year a member of Stand With Our St. Vrain Creek made us aware that the Osprey nest platform on N 75th Street was threatened by a new housing development. Construction equipment rolled by directly beneath the nest platform even after the birds had returned from migration, no doubt the cause of the nest’s failure last year.
