Boulder County issued “temporary delay” after lawsuit and widespread community uproar over plans to develop industrial-scale factory on protected Open Space! Until the Conservation Easement is reinstated on the land, there is no delay and there is not resting!

Boulder County is so committed to transparency it issued “Public Notice” to ONLY 12 property owners announcing a public meeting and initial comment deadlines on 40-acre, $10MM commercial development on protected Open Space.

The Announcement

On November 10, 2020 a dozen Boulder County property owners received the barely-legible postcard pictured above. Buried in the legalese and boilerplate is a notification all comments regarding Boulder County’s plan to develop an industrial-scale waste processing facility on protected Open Space must be received on or before December, 11.

Lack of Transparency

Despite the magnitude of Boulder County’s proposed 40-acre industrial process facility and the far-reaching implications of its precedent altering move to disregard a decades-old conservation easement and the sanctity of protected Open Space lands, Boulder County chose to only notify ONLY 12 HOMEOWNERS. The map to the right, blown up from their postcard, shows how few people the County has shared its plans with.

Flawed Process

From the outset on October 6, 2020, the County has operated with a troubling lack of transparency and appears to be taking every possible measure to fast-track, conceal, and misrepresent its intentions and full plans to avoid public scrutiny.

At the first meeting with members of the public on October 6, 2020, Boulder County Spokesman, Andrew Barth assured neighbors the County was only in the earliest stages of evaluation and consideration of using the Rainbow Open Space lands for a 40-acre facility to receive and process human sewage solids, animal manure and the region’s discarded food waste. Despite Barth’s video-taped assurances, only 5-days later, an architect hired by the County submitted to the County a 235-page, highly-detailed Special Use Application to permit construction of the industrial facility.

Barth made similar assurances in an October 5, 2020 interview with the Longmont Times Call, when he stated, “it’s all conceptual.” The scale of the County’s proposal is so massive it has been promoted nationally in industry publications such as, Waste Today. Despite being worthy of national coverage, Boulder County appears to be doing its best to prevent its plans to override conservation easements and clear-cut 40-acres of forested Open Space from becoming known to the public.

Spread the Word

Please forward this page to your friends, contacts and to all who care about the protection of Colorado and Boulder County’s Open Space lands. If Boulder County goes unchallenged in its attempt to wipe away a perpetual conservation easement and to intensely develop Open Space, then it will set a new precedent in the State. The County should be held to the same standard as ANY landowner and it should NOT be allowed to selectively obey binding legal commitments.

Speak Up!!

Please take a moment to write to the County and let them know how you feel about their abuse of public Open Space lands and about their plans to process human sewage, animal manure and rotting food waste in the heart of Boulder County. You can email the County by clicking on this address: planner@bouldercounty.org or call them at: (303)441-3930. You can also visit the County’s webpage about the project at: http://www.boco.org/SU-20-0006-SE-20-0010