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Stand With Our St. Vrain Creek, a citizen action group based in Longmont and dedicated to protecting our riparian areas from damaging development, is hosting 2 Save Our Swallows events at Roger’s Grove Nature Area in Longmont on Sunday, July 24th from 9am to 11am and Sunday, September 4th from 9am to 11am.

Join us at the picnic pavilion next to the bathrooms to learn more about Bank Swallows, specifically those nesting at Roger’s Grove, the only nesting colony on Longmont-protected land. We’ll also have spotting scopes available for anyone who’d like to make the short walk to view the birds before they migrate south for the winter.

Bank Swallows have very specific nesting habitat requirements. Mainly due to loss of that habitat as a result of erosion and flood control projects, they are a rare and declining species nation-wide. There are only a handful of known colonies within Boulder County and the City of Longmont lists them as a species of concern in its Wildlife Management Plan.

Stand is concerned about the future of the Roger’s Grove colony because preliminary plans for the portion of Longmont’s Resilient St. Vrain flood mitigation project (RSVP) in the vicinity of Roger’s Grove call for construction of a split flow channel through the swallows’ nesting bank. Thankfully, these plans have not yet been finalized and funding for that stretch of the St. Vrain has not yet been secured, meaning there’s still time for these plans to be changed.

To show community support for protecting the Bank Swallows, we will also have postcards available at the pavilion for people to sign asking the City to to bypass the swallows’ nesting area. Stand will be presenting all of the postcards we receive to City Council within the next couple of months.

If you’d like to sign a postcard, but are unable to attend either event, contact Shari Malloy at standwithstvraincreek@gmail.com

Stand With Our St. Vrain Creek is hosting a bird walk at Roger’s Grove Nature Area the evening of April 24th! Sign up today for this short, guided walk around this important piece of Longmont open space. Earth Day walk flyer

Letter to the editor_ Shari Malloy_ Concerns about the Rivertown development annexation proposal - The Longmont Leader

Jamie Simo of Stand With Our St. Vrain Creek sat down with Maeve Conran at KGNU Community radio to talk about what’s happening with the St. Vrain corridor in Longmont. The interview will air between 8:15 and 8:30am on February 25th in anticipation of Stand’s Remarkable Riparian Zone presentation on Wednesday, February 27th.

Please attend this second meeting of an advisory panel to continue discussion of future development of the St. Vrain river corridor so that the process is as transparent as possible. The meeting is scheduled for Friday, February 15th from 8:30am to 11:30am at the Longmont Museum. 

The agenda is below:

Agenda

8:30 Opening remarks (Council Member Waters)
 Reminder of why we are here – create a transformational vision for the St. Vrain Corridor
 Where we left off last time
 For today’s meeting – look at your ideas in a visual representation, provide feedback and create narratives on specific sections
 For the process – second of three meetings (first was brainstorming), second is the graphic representation of the brainstorming session and narrative writing, third meeting is action planning (online platform congruent)

9:00 Present Visual Representation of Brainstorming from 1/11/19
Daniel Tal, DHM Designs
 What elements do you love?
 What do we need to know to be successful?

10:15 Where we are going (small group narrative writing)
At your tables, consider what you have heard today, and discuss what is possible for the future. Write a brief narrative statement on the assigned graphic corridor.
Consider:
 What are the greatest possibilities as we continue river restoration and envision future development along the river corridor?
 How do we preserve the natural beauty and important environmental qualities of the river?
 How do we attract a stronger presence of higher education in Longmont along the river corridor?
 What opportunities do we not want to miss given the Opportunity Zone in which part of this corridor sits?

11:00 Share narrative of ideas and next steps
Meeting #3 – Action planning – what is it going to take from Longmont to realize it? What does the
Council need to do to open the gates? What would it take for you to commit to making this happen?
Parallel Community Involvement Process – take graphic to community for comment (Cinco de Mayo,
Rhythm on the River, online engagement)

Amendment 74 is the most dangerous ballot issue in decades. It would require compensation of property owners for any reduction in their property value as a result of government regulation. If it passes, Colorado will completely lose the ability to protect the environment and public health. Proponents always claim that such measures protect private property rights. In actuality, however, they elevate one class of property over all others.

Environmental regulations are nearly always among the first targeted by this kind of action, because compliance with a regulation costs money. Any money an industry must spend to protect the environment is a direct reduction in profit margin, thus a reduction in “fair market value.” Amendment 74 would allow industry to claim payment for its loss from the government involved (ie. from us). In order to enact or enforce any regulation protecting public health and the environment, government would have to pay the polluter or developer to comply. Since no level of government – state, county, municipal – operates at a surplus, they wouldn’t have the funds to pay polluters, thus the only option they have is to eliminate regulations.

Some examples:
Land use regulations requiring buffer zones and green space for wildlife? Gone.
Requirements for companies to reclaim land they have mined? Gone.
Scrubbers on smokestacks to reduce acid rain and snow? Gone.
Regulations requiring berms around construction sites to prevent sedimentation of streams? Gone.
Regulations to protect water quality from discharges by mines, breweries, drycleaners, construction sites, feedlots or agricultural facilities? Gone.

Amendment 74, however, isn’t specific to just environmental regulation. It targets ALL regulations. Restaurant health regulations cost money, so those would be eliminated. Zoning regulations that limit certain uses in close proximity to others would also be off the table. We could see adult book stores or pot shops next to schools, oil and gas operations next to hospitals and schools.

Lastly, it’s important to remember that the amendment only applies to private property owners, which in itself increases costs to the public. Governments themselves would still need to meet standards and in fact could face significantly higher costs to do so. For example, federal drinking water standards and wastewater standards would still apply to public water providers; so Denver Water and others would need to provide a safe product. The water flowing into their facilities, however, would be significantly more impaired as a result of the lack of regulations on upstream industries. Guess who will have to pay the increased costs of water treatment to a safe standard? You, the consumer, once again!!

In its purest essence, Amendment 74 requires the people of Colorado to pay industry not to pollute the environment or poison the citizens of the State. Given the extreme threat to public health, our air, water, lands and wildlife, Amendment 74 is the most damaging issue to appear on the ballot in over 20 years. It’s imperative to defeat it in November. Vote NO on Amendment 74.