THE LAND USE LANTERN
NEWSLETTER OF THE LAND
USE COALITION
"To enhance the quality of life in Boulder County, and protect people's opportunity to own, use, and enjoy their property by promoting environmentally sound, fair and consistent land use decisions." -- Land Use Coalition Mission Statement
Winter 2002
WHEN: DEC. 12 (THURSDAY
), 7:00 PMWHERE: CASA ALVAREZ, 30TH & WALNUT,BOULDER
WHO: LUC MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS SPOUSES AND FRIENDS
We’re going to celebrate the holidays, wallow in our many accomplishments and pat ourselves on the back for all our hard work. Join us for the party! Dinner provided. Cash bar. New Directions for the Coalition
A New Reader Comments
Open Space Forum a Great Success!
County Found in Bad Faith
Televised Hearings for Commissioner's Meetings
Dues & Donations
The Coalition's Tax Status
Final Comments
Greetings landowners and LUC members!
Well, we have another successful year to celebrate, and an exciting one to look forward to.
This past year saw the departure of Jana Mendez because of term limits and her rejection in the primaries, successful advancement of the recommendations of the Zucker Report, a successful "Our Common Ground" Forum, success in our call for televising Commissioner hearings, development of a powerful presence down at the Legislature as advocates for property rights related legislation, advancement of property rights to the center stage in the Commissioners race, formation of the continuing "Our Common Ground" steering committee, and a very visible public display of opposition to Neighborhood Conservation Overlay Districts (NCODs). All of this took hundreds of hours expended by dedicated volunteers in the LUC! Let me personally say, "THANK YOU ONE AND ALL!"
The coming year should be as eventful. We plan to have an even stronger educational presence at the Legislature now that we can expect better treatment by the Senate. We will be once again pursuing retraction of the involuntary "merging" process, election of Commissioners by district, limitations on government imposed "gag orders" on legal settlements, limitations on the imposition of NCODs on unsuspecting neighbors, and partial takings legislation, just to mention a few . We also plan on sponsoring additional public meetings on land use related topics using the OCG Forum as a model. Topics under consideration include: the real impact of trails on wildlife and habitats, the real economics of open space and growth, proper open space stewardship practices, and others.
Note that our agenda for the coming year is less ambitious than in years past. This is due in part to our need for new blood in our active volunteer team. The successes of past years have been through the efforts of a small regular corps of workers, but THEY CAN NOT DO IT ALL! If you share our vision of fair and just land use policies in Boulder County, I encourage you to become an active member of the LUC volunteer team!
A good way to meet the team is to attend our Annual Meeting and Holiday Party scheduled for December 12th. Please come and join in! We want to meet you, and need your help.
Thanks!
Kevin Probst
President
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR THE COALITION
Since the election, we’re eagerly looking forward to working with our newly elected state senators and representatives in the legislature in the upcoming legislative season. As you probably already know, the demographics of the Senate has shifted, giving a 2 vote advantage to Republicans, whereas last year the Democrats had a one vote majority.
We’ve always had some Democrat support for certain property rights and open space bills that the Coalition has supported in the past. However, due to political maneuvering behind the scene on the part of Senate leadership, one bill (prohibiting the merger of landowners’ separate lots without due process protections) was prevented from passage when its supporters were unable to get the bill onto the floor for the vote, when we knew there were enough votes to pass it! The merger policies of Boulder County have been nothing short of devastating for many families.
Another bill, again supported by members of both parties (allowing Counties to elect Commissioners from districts), was lost in committee when the vote was re-scheduled for a time when one supportive Senator was unable to attend.
The Coalition will support the passage of these two bills again this year at the capitol. You will probably be hearing from us when the time is right to contact your representatives in the legislature. We are cautiously optimistic that there will be fewer manipulations designed to frustrate the passage of these much-needed land use reforms. We also plan to join forces with other property rights groups from other regions in Colorado who may be grappling with the same issues we face in Boulder, for a more organized effort to educate legislators.
We recently had a phone call from a landowner who wanted to remodel his home. He said he doesn’t need any help with Site Plan Review because he was able to avoid that arduous process by spending over $100,000 more than necessary narrowing the scope of the modifications. This expense was in addition to the cost of the remodel, but worth it to the landowner because the comparative cost of SPR would have taken too long and cost him much more. This way he was able to get exactly what he wanted.
Maybe the claim that only the rich can live in Boulder isn’t as far off the mark as some thought.
OPEN SPACE FORUM A GREAT SUCCESS!
ON COMMON GROUND, a half- day forum initiated by and co-sponsored by the LUC along with several entities, organizations and individuals, was held in September and attracted an energetic crowd of over 150 citizens. Barbara Taylor and her steering committee put together a panel of experts, including users, preservationists and managers of open space. Ken Salazar was the keynote speaker, and two facilitators mediated small group discussions attempting to define the problems, if any, and to recommend steps to be taken to improve our understanding and agreements as they relate to how Open Space should be used and managed.
The steering committee has written a summary of what took place at the conference, and it will be available on the Coalition web site. We also videotaped the first 2 hours, which is the opening speech of Salazar, followed by the Panel Discussion, and then Q & A.
The Committee was diverse, including bicycle riders, Horse Association, FIDO’s, hikers, representatives from local government as well as the Land Use Coalition.
As a result, a committee -- the Common Ground Committee -- has been following up on the conference’s mission statement, which was to continue the dialogue
among diverse user groups, land managers and preservationists in a way that would increase the exchange of views, citizen participation in the resolution of differing interests and facilitate compromise when needed. We plan to present our recommendations to as many advisory boards and planners as we can in January.
The LUC is proud to be among the organizers of this important first step in promoting more widespread citizen involvement in government decision-making with respect to issues of open space use and management.
"THE ROAD CASE"
You’ve already heard the facts in the Nancy Mine Road case a few times: A mountain homeowner improves portions of an already existing 100 year old mining road located on his own property, a road that was already serving as secondary access to his residence and sole access to other properties located alongside the road.
Maintenance of an already existing dirt road has always been the right of a homeowner in the County, and is not even addressed in the Land Use Code. Aware of this the County nevertheless sued the homeowner and three neighboring property owners with land served by the Road, knowing that none of the neighbors had any involvement in any kind of grading activity and little or no grading was done on their property.
After nearly a year of hardball litigation, they were dismissed from the case, and asked the Court to award their attorney fees. It took over three years before the Court ordered that the County was liable for all the attorney fees incurred by the neighbors due to the conduct of the County.
In a 48 page ruling, the Court found that the County acted in bad faith by filing suit against the neighbors with no basis for any finding of liability on the part of the neighboring property owners; for maintaining the suit even when they had knowledge that it was baseless, ignoring evidence in their possession and ignoring its own regulations that made it clear the neighbors were not liable.
The whole of the judge’s opinion can be found on our website, or we can e-mail it to you.
TELEVISED HEARINGS FOR COMMISSIONER MEETINGS
We were happy to see the Camera article November 20th about televising Commissioner hearings. Looks like the Coalition once again had an idea whose time has come. The County Commissioners have invited bids for videotaping their hearings to be shown on cable TV and on the internet. The Coalition has strongly supported such a move for years. In fact, the Commissioners are almost alone in not having government in action on cable TV in Boulder County.
We agree with Commissioner Stewart who was quoted as saying; "It’s a cost-effective way of making all of our meetings more accessible to the public." And he went on to say that the County would be looking to award a bid sometime in December. This is good news for people with day jobs who cannot take time off work to attend meetings.
The Commissioners only meet during daytime. It will also benefit those who, for whatever reason, are unable to get around town, and gives them an opportunity to observe their government at work on TV or computer.
We believe that government should do all it can do to increase citizen participation and input Into the process. An educated and informed electorate will promote better decisions for all the citizens of Boulder County.
A regular membership for inclusion on the mailing list is $25, annually, due each January. We always encourage a bigger donation if you can afford it, and this is a great time to send us your contribution. Our treasury has a little over $12,000, and we’ve also spent some on the co-sponsorship of the "Common Ground Forum". As a result of our continuing efforts to keep land use matters in the forefront, and raise public awareness, we have been able to establish a real presence in Boulder County. Help us keep up the pace.
We finally did it! The Land Use Coalition has been granted its nonprofit 501(c)(4) status – an education committee --- by the Federal government. We’ve been a Colorado nonprofit since we first organized, with Articles and Bylaws. The federal application process was slower and much more complicated. Kevin, you did a great job, you stayed on top of it, and got it done.
Hooray for Kevin’s tenacity!
We haven’t had a chance to analyze the election returns yet, but it seems clear that individual’s property rights are not a high enough priority for the electorate to want to change leadership in Boulder County. On the bright side, however, many of the Coalition’s worst gripes have been resolved with smoother handling of landowners by a "kinder, gentler" County Commission and Land Use Department. Many of these reforms were initiated and kept in the limelight due directly to the Land Use Coalition’s efforts.
We’re optimistic that the newest face on the Commission, Tom Mayer, will scrutinize land use issues with an eye toward reducing abuses in the system. He pledged to do as much during the campaign.
We were able to keep the issue of land use, property rights and allocation of one of our finest resources -- open space (once relegated to the back pages of party platforms) in the forefront throughout the campaign. Promoting a dialogue on controversial subjects encourages people to think creatively and find solutions that may be out of the ordinary.
Finally, early next year we anticipate a change in the leadership of the LUC. Kevin Probst will be stepping down as President. We are actively seeking folks who are interested in taking on the challenge of leading this dynamic organization in 2003. If you want to make a difference in Boulder County, and are willing to take on a role in the LUC, now is the time to step up to the plate.
The Land Use Coalition
P.O. BOX 20265 Boulder, CO 80308
303-666-7903
http://landusecoalition.org
contactus@landusecoalition.org
For more information contact the Land Use Coalition at contactus@landusecoalition.org or call 303-666-7903.
Last updated October 27, 2003.
URL: http://landusecoalition.org/feb02_newsletter.htm
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