Tag: development

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: Longmont Distel-Tull swap

Published in the Times Call on July 31, 2025

I have been recycling and composting for many decades. I am firmly in favor of a community-based composting facility, but the proposed Distel-Tull property swap is not the right location for one.

Swapping open space land in this manner sets a very bad precedent. As a member of the public whose taxes help pay for open space purchases, I would consider such a land swap to be a huge violation of my trust!

Bald eagles nest along the confluence of St. Vrain and Boulder creeks, just west of the proposed composting site. The area is also a winter roosting spot for both bald and golden eagles, and it provides rare wintertime open water feeding grounds for migratory waterfowl, including trumpeter and tundra swans and many species of ducks. The presence of a big composting operation nearby would be disruptive to these birds and other wildlife.

Then, there is the risk of flooding. Years ago, my son’s Boy Scout troop planned a weekend camping trip close to the Distell and Tull properties. The boys packed up their gear, excited about a big group camp. This was July, monsoon season. On first morning of this camping trip, there were three funnel clouds over Longmont. We parents got an emergency call that we needed to go pick up our kids. Everyone woke up with 2 inches of water in their tents!

It was just a normal monsoon rain. Now, imagine that site during the floods of 2013! Imagine if it flooded again with a big composting facility on it. The risk of water contamination is unacceptable.

Again, I’m in favor of a community composting facility, but not at the risk of losing bird habitat, of disrupting birds and wildlife, of setting bad land use precedents, and not on a site prone to flooding.

Kat Bradley-Bennett, 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

Letters: Longmont City Council should say no to Tull/Distel plan

Published in the Times Call 7/23/25

The Longmont City Council should say no to the Tull/Distel land exchange and the idea of locating a compost facility in the Tull/Distel area. Some of the reasons:

• As a resident of Longmont since 1997, I have voted for every open space tax. The land exchange would violate the spirit of the open space program, and I might not have voted for 3A last fall if I had known this was coming.

• Neither the county nor the city have made a serious attempt to address concerns raised by wildlife advocates about the impact of a compost facility and other development on the nearby confluence bald eagle roost. My assumption is that they do not want to undertake a formal impact assessment because they expect it to be unfavorable to development in the area.

• The Tull property may be a “Plan B” location for proponents of the composting facility and other development. The only advantage to this idea is that it does not involve a land exchange with open space. There is still the same potential for harm to bald eagles and other wildlife. Add to that the fact that Tull is in the floodway and it becomes even more unsuitable.

• Boulder County’s compost facility feasibility study update of 7/7/2025 contains the following statements: “Phase 2 of the study includes site exploration … The feasibility study will primarily focus on the Distel site.” Clearly they have already decided that Distel is a feasible site, even though they have not completed the feasibility study and have not disclosed other sites under consideration. If Distel is taken off the table, I expect they will focus on Tull. So much for transparency.

We should give our neighbors in Weld County a break and find a composting site in Boulder County.

Chris Boardman, Longmont

Letter: Disposing of open space is a violation of the public trust

Published in the Longmont Leader on July 15, 2025

I’m writing to urge Longmont’s City Council to defeat the City staff’s proposal to allow industrial development on open space. Longmont residents voted to tax themselves for open space 25 years ago. And for 25 years there has been no development on land purchased as open space. There’s no reason to change that now.

When we passed the Longmont Open Space Tax, we voted to keep land free from development in perpetuity. We didn’t vote to keep land in reserve for future development. And the open space in question is in the middle of hundreds of acres of protect rural land. It includes: Farmland. River corridor. Wildlife habitat.

The current proposal sets a horrible precedent that it is okay to dispose of open space. And that precedent, I’m afraid, will be used in the future to further degrade the open space that we taxed ourselves to protect.

Disposing of open space is a violation of the public trust and the City Council should avoid that at all cost.

Please join me in telling the City Council NO to open space development!

Sincerely,

Jana Mendez
Former State Senator – 1983-1992
Former Boulder County Commissioner – 1993-2002

Letter: Longmont’s Open Space program is being compromised by Longmont Public Works and Utilities

Published in the Longmont Leader on 7/14/25

Longmont’s Open Space program is being compromised by Longmont Public Works and Utilities. Public Works has put forward a proposal for a land exchange involving property acquired with Open Space tax funds and land currently owned by the Public Works or Utilities Departments. This entire proposal is predicated on doing a partnership with Boulder County for regional compost infrastructure. In January 2025, Longmont City Council directed staff to pursue a compost partnership with Boulder County, which apparently included exploring city-owned properties. Boulder County wants to build a large-scale composting operation and do not want to use Boulder County land, nor do they want to go through their own stringent, 1041, Location and Extent, Land Use process. The proposal includes the Distel property, purchased with Open Space dollars, to be exchanged for the Tull property which was purchased with Public Works and Utility dollars.

The City purchased both properties from Aggregate in 2019. The Open Space program fully intended to purchase both properties for Open Space as was identified in the initial 2001 Integrated Reclamation Plan, which has been updates and support by six mayors and their councils, most recently in March of 2022 That plan was drawn up and approved by multiple City departments and these past City Councils to protect this entire riparian and wildlife movement corridor along our St. Vrain Creek and Boulder Creek corridor. A plan that is nearly 30 years in the making.

At the last minute of 2019, Public Works argued their department needed a portion of the Tull property for clean infill from development. Their needs prevailed and 139 acres of the Tull property went to Public Works. Public Works proceeded to modify the Tull reclamation plan to meet their needs, and now, just 6 years later, Public Works wants to swap these two properties so Boulder County and City development can happen on Distel.

Open Space knew that the Distel property included temporary industrial development that would go away with reclamation, now Public Works want to make the industrial development to be permanent with their operations.

Tull is in the floodway and not as readily suitable for development as Distel, due to Public Works negotiations to modify Holcim’s reclamation plan. The proposal for industrial development at Distel carves out multiple acres for Boulder County’s compost infrastructure as well as the balance for City of Longmont infrastructure such as moving the Fire Training Center, municipal training center pad for police, fire, snow vehicles and perhaps a warehouse.

Both properties are in Weld County and the neighbors are very unhappy with what was proposed to be Open Space and now to be a permanent industrial development, being incompatible with their rural homes, and bolstering volumes of traffic.

Development in this area will create an industrial large donut hole in the middle of open space and agriculture lands, creating additional fragmentation of wildlife habitat and cutting off wildlife movement corridors.

Open Space advocates support sustainability projects like composting, but not if it means sacrificing designated Open Space.
Our community’s green spaces are finite and precious. We must ensure that the total amount and quality of protected open space never diminishes.
This is about honoring our commitments and protecting the qualities of life that make Longmont unique. It’s about making clear choices that safeguard our community’s environment for generations to come.

Longmont’s Public Works Department owns 139 acres on the Tull property, this is where this development should take place, not on City Open Space. City Council…from a land preservation perspective, please “Just Say No!”

Sincerely,
Daniel Wolford

22.5 years as the Open Space Manager for the City of Longmont and previously 8 years as the Operations Manager for Boulder County Open Space
Current: Water Advisory Board Member for the City of Longmont
Previous Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Member

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.

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 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

Letter: Open Space Should Stay Open Indefinitely

PUBLISHED: July 10, 2025 at 6:02 AM MDT

Open space is of high value to the citizens of Longmont as demonstrated by the passage of Ballot Issue 3A last year that extends indefinitely the open space tax paid by Longmont citizens. That demonstrates the importance of open space to Longmont residents.

When open space has been acquired in the past, location is of primary consideration. To that point, once a location has been established, it is meant to be permanent and not a future candidate for relocation.

My opinion is that any consideration of moving or exchanging existing open space property is not what the voters of Longmont want. Longmont voters share a belief that existing open space should be left alone and not be a candidate for any future property exchange. I am one of those voters.

Roger Lange, Longmont