Issues and Alerts
Neighborhood Conservation District
Nancy Mine Road Decision
Our Common Ground
Easement Alert -
BLM, July 2001
Regulatory Alert - IGA, Nederland. June 2001
Site Plan Review Survey. Fall 1999
Boulder County brought a lawsuit against
Chris Mygatt and his neighbors for road work on the Nancy Mine Road. The
Court determined that the County knew and had existing information in its
files that three of the neighbors had no interest in the property where
road work had been done. Even so, the County continued litigation
against these three and increased the legal costs unnecessarily over a
period of two years. Boulder County taxpayers are paying the lawyers
fees for this useless litigation against property owners.
The Full text of this decision can be downloaded here.
(pdf,1.7Mb)
This free Public Forum on acquisition, management and use of public open space in Boulder County, sponsored by diverse local organizations and citizen activists was held September 21, 2002.
A glut of recent opinion letters, editorials and guest editorials have appeared in local newspapers expressing many different -- and sometimes opposing -- points of view, reflecting that management and use of open space keenly affects the residents of Boulder County.
Questions put to the panelists by audience members included the following
- Should the purchase of open space be used for public uses or as a tool to prevent growth?
- Why should open Space be closed to the public?
- What is the responsibility of each of us to define "common ground" with respect to open space?
- How much open space do we need? How much more is available, and at what cost? Is there a master plan for future acquisitions?
- Multiple uses and users how do we prioritize and balance?
- Should one user group (i.e. bikers, Native Americans) have preference in certain areas?
Prominent representatives of user groups, public managers of open space and preservation groups put the issues on the table, gave their positions and points of view, followed by Q & A. Interactive breakout sessions followed for more input, assisted by professional facilitators designed to generate creative solutions to the problems posed by panel participants.
The organizers are preparing a report.
Article in the Boulder Camera about the Forum.
Neighborhood
Conservation Overlay District
This is the latest set of regulations to be imposed on Boulder County
Property Owners. The new regulations were heard by the County
Commissioners on May 9,2002, in the Boulder County Courthouse
Commissioners' hearing room.
NCOD regulations passed ... See the Summer 2002 newsletter for a brief summary.
SUMMARY - Why you should be concerned.
The proposed Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District regulations, drawn up by the Land Use Dept., could have more impact on your property than any other single zoning and land use regulation on the books. It will allow a majority of your neighbors, educated designers and planners or not, to pass stringent covenants in your neighborhood that will greatly affect your property rights. Committees would be empowered to dictate their own ideas of what they think is good architecture and land planning. This is what else they could do
* Create a whole class of non-conforming structures. Homes in these districts which are non-compliant, will become difficult to alter, update, finance or resell.
* Discourage diversity in architecture and land use. Whatever appeals to the neighbors becomes law.
* Pits neighbor against neighbor. You may have to sue your neighbors to alter your own home.
* Take substantial value from your property. If you can't renovate or expand, your home loses substantial resale value.
Click here for the text of the regulations. (This is the Land Use Department Web site and the document is in PDF format.) You can also telephone the Land Use Department for a copy - 303-441-3900.
July 2001 - This alert applies to foothills property owners who have existing road access that traverses in whole or in part over BLM (public domain) lands or Forest Service (reserved from public domain) lands, and the land owner does NOT have a documented easement authorization from the appropriate agency. [Full Text]
- LUC endorses plan to acquire BLM land. November 12, 1999.
- LUC position statement on BLM purchase plan.
Regulatory Alert - IGA, Nederland
June 2001 - This IGA (Inter-governmental Agreement) is scheduled on the Commissioner's docket on Tuesday, June 5 for a "decision". It appears that drastic restrictions on building in this Plan area may result from this Agreement between Boulder County and Nederland, with very little public input, and on short notice. Please read the summary by attorney Steve Lawson, who has done a good job of condensing the contents, read the Agreement, and take some action, especially if you own land in the area designated by the plan as "Rural Preservation". No one is sure what effect that designation has, but it's similar to an Overlay, which requires a whole new set of review if you're building a house on your property and another way they can obstruct or deny your plans -- almost like a rezoning, but without the normal processes.
Several attorneys have predicted that this Agreement would not
withstand a constitutional challenge. We've also included a letter
notice that the Land Use Dept. says was sent to the 1500 parcels in the
designated area. If you don't get these attachments, or cannot open
them, the Land Use Department's web page has a map and the IGA (with no
explanation) on there. The URL address is: http://www.co.boulder.co.us/lu/
. We'd like to hear from you if
you are able to obtain any information.
IGA Agreement
Letter from Graham Billingsley to
Landowners
Memo from Attorney Steve Larson summarizing
effects of the agreement.
Fall 1999 - The Land Use Coalition of Boulder, Colorado conducted a survey regarding the Site Plan Review (SPR) process. The goal was to assess the positive and negative aspects of the SPR process, and its impact on individuals involved in building a home in Boulder County. This report provides a summary of the findings of the survey. [Full Text]
To contact the Land Use Coalition please visit the Contact Us page, or send email to info@landusecoalition.org. To learn more about our organization please visit the About Us page.
Please check back often for expanding coverage of legislation effecting Boulder County and other Colorado property owners, as well as new resources to assist the community in dealing with property rights issues.
For more information contact the Land Use Coalition at director of the Center for the American Dream in Golden, and author of The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths or call 303-666-7903.
Last updated
January 06, 2008.
URL: http://landusecoalition.org/index2.htm
Page created by Patrick and Patty Baker
http://home.earthlink.net/~patrickmbaker
Maintained by Betty Gibbs