LAND USE COALITION

We're not against open space

I am responding to two forum letters that have questioned the integrity of The Land Use Coalition, (a letter from a Gunbarrel resident, Mr. Pinchuk on July 21 and a letter from Joan Soper on Aug. 1). These letters suggest that the LUC is a group of people who are not interested in preserving open space or promoting quality of life. Ms. Soper suggests that the LUC is not to be trusted.

The Land Use Coalition is a grassroots organization dedicated to protecting property owner's rights from government regulations that would render their land unbuildable and valueless. Does this equate to being AGAINST open space? I do not think so. To my knowledge, the Land Use Coalition has never taken a position on being for or against open space. The LUC was created to monitor unfair land use practices and regulations.

The LUC is a diverse group of people (over 1000 members) with differing opinions about many issues including open space. The one thing that we all agree on is that the County Commissioners are increasingly making it more and more difficult for land owners to build upon their properties and the Site Plan Review process has gotten out of hand in how it arbitrarily interprets and adopts Land Use Regulations. Contrary to what Ms. Soper thinks, the recently proposed slope regulations based on supposed "safety hazards and unstable soils in Boulder County" were proven to be totally false and would have rendered almost all existing vacant land unbuildable. Do we consider this to be fair, credible, and trustworthy?

For the LUC to endorse a "special" taxing district for only mountain home and landowners as Mr. Pinchuk suggests, does not fit with the goals of this group. I believe the LUC is trying to represent the majority of landowners, and it is not clear that the majority of mountain property owners would be in favor of such a special tax. To separate out one certain group of people and tax only that group in order to purchase land used by everyone, is not, in my opinion, fair and just.

Why do people think the Land Use Coalition is against Open Space? We are simply a group bound together to defend individual landowner rights against unfounded government regulations and to protect people's right to own, use, and enjoy their property by promoting environmentally sound, fair, and consistent land use decisions.

JEANNE WHITE
Mountain resident