HomeMy WebLinkAbout972742.tiffTo: the editor:
Farmer & Miner
10/14/97
LET GOVERNMENT COOPERATE, FOR THE GOOD OF ALL
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CLERK
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It is commendable that Firestone govemmen a �fa d
up to the reality that Frederick has annexed most of the land on both sides of WCR20 from l-
25 to WCR13 by amending the borders of its planning area to exclude those parcels. No legal
challenge or protests are going to change that fact. To further sensible growth in the area, the
next logical step would be for Firestone government to petition Frederick to annex WCR20
between the interstate and WCR13, so that the questions of road improvements and access
could be resolved directly between the adjacent land owners and Frederick, to which they have
annexed, without the interference of Firestone govemment. This would be a more substantial
gesture of reconciliation than changing some lines on a map. Of course, hopefully, Frederick
government would respond, to accommodate Firestone, by revising its planning area to 1/2
mile south of WCR22 to eliminate that conflict and then Firestone government would further
revise its planning area by eliminating the lands included south of WCR20 between WCR3-1/2
and WCR7, thus resolving the last of the terr&ial conflicts. Area growth could then proceed in
a more orderly fashion; the towns' effort ' concentrating on appropriate land use and
development standards .
There is one more player in this game; Weld County. The Muniqpal Annexation Act of 1965
calls for orderly growth of urban municipalities (31-12-102) by contiguous, that is, connected,
non -isolated, annexation of land to affect the most economical and efficient manner in
providing necessary services and simplified government structure to urbanized areas. For
many years the County supported this principle by advocating growth under municipality
auspices and seeking to protect the agricultural nature of lands in the county. Even though the
County is not prohibited from rezoning for the isolated, disconnected developments it has
permitted in the area, this policy defeats the the explicit objective of the statute for fostering
orderly growth by municipalities, in this case Firestone, Frederick and Longmont.
At the time the County government created the Mixed Use Development Plan [MUD] district for
the area which extends from Longmont to Firestone and Frederick, the need for a sanitation
district to serve the Del Camino businesses and the needed development incentives for future
growth to make it economically feasible, were understandable. However, a monster was
created, which by fragmenting land jurisdictions into a checkerboard, with the County
controlling a patch of land development here and Firestone, Frederick or Longmont patches of
land here and there, the sensible and statutory principle of contiguous growth for the benefits
listed above was defeated.
As growth patterns now stand, one could travel a short mile and be on a road successively
controlled by Weld County, the Town of Firestone and the Town of Frederick with no certainty
under which jurisdiction the land on either side of the road is governed. It needs to be said, in
passing, the practice of flagpoling annexations is another culprit in creating this situation, but
that's another story. We hear from the present county government that they inherited the MUD
district plans and they have to live with them, but what has been done on paper can be
undone or at least not aggressively pursued turning lines on maps and words on paper into
steel and concrete. We realize the pressures exerted by land owners, speculators and
developers who are interested the pecuniary benefits of developing lands at once that are not
adjacent to existing municpalities and where services cannot most economically be provided,
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972742
but in the long run the costs in money, benefits and a well structured, livable area will be high
for us all. It is a little scary to see no residents of the towns at town board meetings and no
local residents at the county commissioners meetings as if all is well and the decisions that aye
being made are in our best interests.
All this may seem remote in its effect on each one of us, now. Keeping a roof over our heads,
putting food on the table, raising our kids, recreation, etc. are highest priorities. However, the
conduct of local government does have consequences that we all shall feel in our pocket
books, our life style and the pleasantness of the area in which we live. Overlapping and
duplication of services are going to increase our tax bills; clogged, inadequate, uncoordinated
roads, affect our life style; and a jumble of commercial, industrial, mixed types of housing and
the disappearance of the area's agricultural heritage, to name a few impacts, will all negatively
,effect the attractiveness of the area we now enjoy.
Mike: if you chose to use this letter, please advis me of any changes in content or headline.
wcr20-1.doc
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