Recent and Upcoming Events/Dates (find details in the Current Issues page)
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September 4: Open public comment session, Boulder County Commissioners, 9:00 am at the County Courthouse in Boulder. Any issue not on the Commissioners' regular agenda may be addressed in 3-minute oral comments. Some residents will be expressing their concerns about the minimum-wage provisions enacted by the Commissioners. See the Top 3 Issues below, and also see the Current Issues page.
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September 9: Public input events related to the update of the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. Check the website for details.
Top Issues on Our Rural Radar
"Annexation Mania" in
the County: 3 in Lafayette, 1 in Longmont
Status:
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In Longmont: 17 acres at Clover Basin Drive and Airport Road are proposed for annexation and development into 310 housing units, most as apartments and a small fraction as for-sale units
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Lafayette is considering a proposal to annex and develop 36 acres of privately owned County land at the southwest corner of Arapahoe Road and Hwy 287
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The associated “The Range at Lafayette” development would bring 343 apartments, 110 townhomes, and a mixture of retail including a big-box store to the land
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Lafayette is also considering an annexation and development proposal for 78 acres at the "eastern gateway" into Lafayette, at Baseline Road and N. 119th Street
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And a third one has arisen in Lafayette for 9776/9850 Arapahoe Road
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Residents have organized against these annexations, with concerns about density, overburdening water resources and schools, traffic, and the loss of open space and rural character in Lafayette
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Annexations are discretionary legislative actions and the City Councils can decide not to annex
Conditional Termination of Kanemoto Conservation Easement in Longmont / Possible 400+ Unit Development Proposal
Status:
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A December 30 press release announced that KARES and the plaintiffs will continue their fight to overturn Boulder County's decision to conditionally terminate the Kanemoto Conservation Easement
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The case now moves to the Colorado Court of Appeals
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For the legal fees, donations are sought through the non-profit Conservation Easement Preservation Society (CEPS)
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If annexed into Longmont, the proposal is to build over 400 units on the 40-acre property at Airport Road and the Diagonal Highway
Farmers, Unincorporated Business Owners Protest the Unfairness of the County's Minimum Wage Acceleration
Status:
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A 2023 ruling by the Commissioners to increase the minimum wage in unincorporated Boulder County, which began taking effect in January 2025, is drawing the opposition of Boulder County farmers and businesses in the areas affected
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At issue: The wage increase is not County-wide, and none of the incorporated municipalities (Boulder, Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette, Lyons...) have signed on to the Commissioners' plan
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The result is that all of Boulder County's farmers, as well as businesses in ~20 unincorporated towns such as Niwot, Hygiene, Gold Hill, and Allenspark, are being forced to pay a higher minimum wage than exists for the County's larger municipalities
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The current 11% disparity grows to over 40% by 2030
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The farmers and businesses have banded together tocommunicate about the fairness issues created by the uneven implementation of the accelerated minimum wage scale
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