Boulder County – Stand With Our St Vrain Creek

DELAYED: City Council Meeting: Distel-Tull Land Swap

Due to negotiations with Holcim, City Council voted to delay the vote on the land swap until further notice.

City Council will be reviewing and voting on whether or not to approve the Distel-Tull land swap on Tuesday, August 12th at 7pm.

Please consider attending for the public invited to be heard portion of the meeting (at the beginning of the meeting) and wearing green to show support for our Open Spaces.

If you are unable to attend, or would like to take action in addition to attending the City Council meeting, please contact our City Council members and tell them your thoughts. This only takes 5 minutes. You can be short and sweet. https://longmontcityxm.gov1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4PEnCSjZVVwit8i

Letters: Remove Distel from any/all future development plans

Published in the Times Call July 29, 2025

In January Longmont City Council directed staff to pursue a partnership with Boulder County who wants to build a large-scale composting operation, but use [Longmont] land. Longmont Public Works staff proposed a land exchange where land purchased by Open Space tax dollars (Distel) would be exchanged for land owned by Public Works (Tull). The proposal at Distel carves out just 8 acres for
Boulder County’s compost infrastructure and 57 acres for City of Longmont infrastructure.

Public Works staff has been merchandising this proposal as a solution for the real need for compost infrastructure. Only 12% of the Distel Open Space property is appropriated for compost and 88% for city infrastructure; including relocating the fire training center and building a driving range for city vehicles. This proposal presents as a bait and switch for the City to build industrial infrastructure on
land designated as Open Space.

I’m a member of Longmont Friends of Open Space (standwithourstvraincreek.com) We are residents committed to preserving St. Vrain Creek and all our Open Spaces. We initiated and campaigned for the extension of our Open Space tax ballot measure last November (passed with 74% approval). Voters supported taxing ourselves in perpetuity because we want our Open Space lands respected, protected and not developed. That includes not being bartered or traded for development. If you’re one of those voters, please contact City Council and suggest they remove Distel open space property from any/all development considerations of any kind.

We support partnering with Boulder County for regional compost infrastructure. I personally have advocated for decades for regional compost infrastructure. City Council’s initial direction was well intentioned. It’s unfortunate city staff opportunistically used green washing sales tactics and used Open Space as a commodity. Council has lost a lot of public trust. Removing Distel from this hot mess
would help repair some of that.

Shari Malloy, Longmont

Letters: Distel property not suitable for city uses

Published in the Times Call on 7/25/25

It is very short sighted to see the currently blighted east Longmont Distel property as simply an industrial zone. While significant remediation of this site is needed, it will remain an unsuitable site for compost, fire training and other city maintenance facilities.

Rock gravel and sand deposits desired by quarry companies occur as deposits of ancient river beds. They are thus generally near groundwater aquifers and modern day floodways. This property is located between the St Vrain River and Boulder Creek and close to their confluence. The Boulder County floodplain map, which extends out into Weld County (where this property is located), seems to indicate that at least part of this property is in the actual FEMA floodway. Extra effort would need to be made to isolate the compost piles such that, during processing, potential contaminants did not spread into the local environment. Contaminants could include microbiota, microplastics, heavy metals, persistent pesticides, herbicides and their potentially toxic breakdown products. The compost leachate could also be carriers of any unremediated pollutants from past industrial use of this property.

If the Distel property is properly restored, it can join our premium local open space portfolio along with Golden Ponds, Walden Pond and Pella Crossing, which were originally quarries and are now highly regarded assets for both wildlife and human activities.

Of special concern is the difficulty many such facilities are having in keeping inappropriate materials out of the compost stream and then in distributing the finished compost. For example, online reports indicate that Chula Vista, California, one of the places visited by Longmont officials and touted as a shining example of composting, is not able to distribute the bulk of the compost materials produced.

Composting is a great idea, but one that requires much careful planning.

Gaythia Weis, Longmont

Letters: Criteria are clear on how open space should be used

Published in the Times Call on 7/24/25

At the April 9, 2024 regular session meeting, City Council approved a motion by Mayor Peck, directing staff “to engage in conversations Boulder County is having on a regional composting facility.” It was an ambiguously worded motion, but it would have far reaching consequences for our open space program, because it set the stage for an unprecedented proposal of disposing open space property for development.

Six months prior to the mayor’s motion, in a Oct. 12, 2023 email (Subject: Open Space Parcel for Composting Facility), the mayor and Public Works staff discussed requirements outlined in the municipal code “to remove the Distel property out from the Open Space program (and move the Tull property in) for the purpose of building a compost facility.” There was no mention in the email that Distel would be difficult to ecologically restore, an excuse that the city would later conjure up to justify the land swap. There was also no discussion in the email about the potential environmental risks of a composting facility on bald eagles and people living near Distel. The focus was finding a location for Boulder County’s composting facility.

In January 2025, the city publicly revealed the Distel Tull land swap plan, which included the composting facility and multiple city development projects at Distel.

It’s a violation of the public trust for the city to manipulate our open space program to serve its development aspirations. Our open space goals and criteria are clear on how our open space should be used. It unquestionably doesn’t include siting a composting facility on these properties. For the sake of defending the integrity of our open space program, City Council should strongly and soundly reject the land swap deal.

Ruby Bowman, Longmont

Letter: Just Say No to Open Space Land Swap

Published in the Longmont Leader 7/14/2025

In January, Longmont City Council directed staff to pursue a partnership with Boulder County who wants to build a large-scale composting operation and does not want to use Boulder County land. Nor does the county want to go through their own stringent Land Use process. Longmont Public Works staff proposed a land exchange where land purchased by Open Space tax dollars (Distel) would be exchanged for land owned by Public Works (Tull). The proposal at Distel carves out just 8 acres for Boulder County’s compost infrastructure and 57 acres for City of Longmont infrastructure.

I’m a member of Longmont Friends of Open Space (standwithourstvraincreek.com) We are residents committed to preserving St. Vrain Creek and all our Open Spaces. We initiated and campaigned for the extension of our Open Space tax ballot measure last November (passed with 74% approval). Voters supported taxing ourselves in perpetuity because we want our Open Space lands respected, protected and not developed. That includes not being bartered or traded for development. If you’re one of those voters, please contact City Council and attend the July 22 City Council meeting. Just Say NO.

We support partnering with Boulder County for regional compost infrastructure. City Council’s initial direction was well intentioned. It’s unfortunate city staff opportunistically used green washing sales tactics to mislead City Council and use Open Space as a commodity. This violates the spirit of the Open Space ordinance, public trust and sets a terrible precedent.

Sincerely,

Shari Malloy

Appeal Hearing for Martin Marietta Material Permit

In 1998, Boulder County approved a special use permit to allow gravel mining on 881 acres of property owned by Western Mobile in the St. Vrain River Valley east of Lyons. River valleys are often targeted for gravel mining due to the accumulation of gravel and other sediments that build up in floodplains.

In 2011, the land was sold to Martin Marietta Materials Inc., which is now seeking to continue gravel mining operations on the property. Included with the mines, they’re also planning to build a number of accessory structures within the 100 year flood plain of St. Vrain Creek.

The special use permit included a clause that the permit will lapse if no activity authorized under the permit has been conducted for a continuous period of 5 years or more. On April 11, 2018, Boulder County ruled that the permit is still valid. However, prior to the onset of mining operations, the Boulder County Board of Adjustment must hold public hearings on the proposal.

The first of such public hearings is scheduled for Wednesday, June 6, 2018. The appeal hearing begins at 4:00 PM at the Commissioner’s Hearing Room, 1325 Pearl St., Boulder, CO 80302.

You can find more information about the public hearing here.

Gravel mining on St. Vrain Creek upstream of Longmont would likely increase the risk of flooding, both within the city and in surrounding areas downstream, which would completely defeat the purpose of the Resilient St. Vrain flood mitigation project that Longmont is currently undertaking. This 2014 conference paper by Anthony R. Ladson and Dean A. Judd explains the short and long-term risks of floodplain gravel mining, particularly the likelihood that such mining may alter the flow of flood water and change river channels. As stated in the paper:

A literature review found 37 examples where rivers had broken into gravel mines and the resulting river response had led to bed and bank erosion and threats to infrastructure.

A river is likely to jump tracks into a gravel pond because water follows the path of least resistance. When this happens, it increases the likelihood of damage. In 2013, this was perfectly illustrated when St. Vrain Creek diverted through the former gravel pits at Pella Crossing Open Space in Hygiene as described in this Times Call letter to the editor by Richard Cargill.

Please consider attending the public hearing on Wednesday, June 6 to voice your concerns regarding Martin Marietta’s gravel mining operation.

February Nature Almanac: River otters resurge in Boulder County – Boulder Daily Camera

The river otter is a Colorado state threatened species that looks to be making a comeback in Boulder County, including in St. Vrain Creek.

A sleek brown body surged through the water. A broad head turned, and curious eyes surveyed the astounded onlookers. A muskrat? A mink? No, a river-otter! After an absence of almost half a century, they are coming back.

Source: February Nature Almanac: River otters resurge in Boulder County – Boulder Daily Camera