Survey Says: We Want It, And Want It For Free

The Times Call describes some of the results from a Longmont citizen survey today, with a headline caveat of people wanting all sorts of things, until asked to pay. I found the reference to the noise from train horns interesting given our earlier FasTracks discussion: Forty-six percent said the horns are not a problem; 54 percent said they were a minor-to-major issue. Regardless, three-quarters said they would not be willing to increase the city’s streets sales tax to pay for $6 million in crossing improvements to eliminate train horns.

So, we can presume those closest to the rail corridors will demand Council pay for at-grade retrofits at crossings, and Council will have to determine the 1) number of people that truly aggravates and 2) their collective political weight. There's plenty of other places $6million could go to benefit a larger percentage of the city's population. Or it could help pay for LifeBridge infrastructure...

Power of Petition

I love it - the LifeBridge annexation is going to the voters after the Longmont City Council was forced to consider that option or repeal their earlier approval because of a successful citizen petition process.

As Councilor Doug Brown, a supporter of the annexation says in the Times Call: “More accurate and better information will get out there.”

We've debated this topic here and here. Plus check out www.whatsinitforlongmont.com. I will be interested to see the political marketing that happens now that the decision will move out of planning and council meetings and into the wild wild west of public propaganda. The soonest an election will happen is January - lots of fun over the holidays...

LifeBridge In Limbo

Longmont City Clerk Valeria Skitt has verified enough signatures have been submitted to force the Longmont City Council to either overturn their approval of LifeBridge Christian Church’s project or send the issue to the voters.

We've chatted about this on the blog here, here and here.

Interestingly, Doug Brown also withdrew from the Mayoral race yesterday; he was one of the Councilors who voted to approve LifeBridge. Perhaps pro-LifeBridge is not a great vote to have on record as an incumbent candidate...

The anti-LifeBridge site What's In It For Longmont provides an exhaustive rationale, and the 4000+ signatures needed show its not a small group of people that are offended at the projects special terms.

Wondering About Wards

The Times Call described various campaign efforts of the Longmont City Council candidates yesterday. The comments are broken out by Ward and at-large candidates. Louisville does this too; should Lafayette look into this option? What is the tipping point at which you have enough people that either 1) parts of town are so dissimilar they need more specific representation or 2)you have enough people that practically speaking there's no way a at-large rep could ever really represent a distinguishable majority of opinion?

I guess "small town feel" precludes wards. Why break up the city into competing districts?

Does Old = Blight?

Longmont City Council voted this week to spend $6,000 on a study of the Twin Peaks Mall to determine if it meets at least 4 of 11 metrics for blight. This would make the area qualified for tax-financed redevelopment. The new property owner is definitely psyched about that potential.

Any chance they will not find blight? I haven't been in that mall since early this year, and it is nothing special, however I don't recall anything blatant enough to consider the whole area that run down. But my impression doesn't mean anything; just skip to the urban renewal designation and say it now: we want a better performing economic development here, we're willing to fund current improvements off of future sales. Period. The blight designation is a semantic step, we all know where this is going.

What's more interesting is that Longmont declared the entire city an Urban Renewal Authority earlier this year, as opposed to, for example, Louisville's downtown/Hwy 42 revitalization district which has more limited boundaries (with its own interesting gerrymandering...) . So Longmont City Council acts as the Urban Renewal Authority Board and takes taxes from the entire city to fund projects in specific places.

Actually seems to make the most sense practically, so long as you agree with the mindset of the sitting Council.

East BoCo Candidate Forums

Here are details to various candidate forums I've found for East Bock:

Louisville:
The League of Women Voters sponsored a forum on Saturday, September 29, it will be televised live on Cable Channel 8, and rebroadcast throughout the weeks leading up to the election.

Lafayette:
The Lafayette Youth Advisory Committee held a forum on Saturday Sept. 29 at Canon Mine Coffee; hopefully they'll be some coverage Wednesday in the Lafayette News.

Council Candidates have been invited to participate in a forum sponsored by the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County and the Human Service Alliance on Friday October 5, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM at the Lafayette Public Library, 775 West Baseline Road, Lafayette, CO 80026.

On Thursday, October 18 the League of Women Voters will sponsor a Candidates Night at City Hall in the Council Chambers at 6:30 pm. Candidates will have an opportunity to answer questions and share their opinions. This event is open to the public and will also be televised on Government Access Cable Channel 8 and will repeat throughout the weeks leading up to the election.

Longmont:
(From the TimesCall)The Longmont Area Democrats organization is devoting its monthly meeting to a candidates and issues forum from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday October 3 at the City Public Works Building, 375 Airport Road.

At 6:30 p.m. Oct. 11, voters can meet St. Vrain Valley school board and Longmont City Council and mayoral candidates at the 2007 Longmont Candidates Forum in the Albert E. James Auditorium at Longmont High School, 1040 Sunset St.

The mayoral and council candidates also have been invited to discuss their views on the Longmont area’s nonprofit organizations, and how local government can support such groups, during a Thursday luncheon sponsored by the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County. That 11:30 a.m.-to-1:30 p.m. Thursday forum will be at the Longmont Museum & Cultural Center’s museum classroom, 400 Quail Road.

What do you think of forums?What is the best format? My dealings with the 22-person/seven seat race in Boulder leads me to believe we need much higher signature thresholds to get on the ballot.

Trouble In WalMart Land

WalMart's gentleman's agreement in Longmont to build a Sam's Club along with a new SuperCenter is reported in the Times Call to be off the table, making city planners a bit anxious and threatening hardball.

The Sam's Club part of the deal struck in March is said to have been the sweetener that made the deal fly. Now WalMart corporate refuses to commit to the Sam's Club component, leaving Longmont in the position of refusing to fund public improvements as punishment. Too bad the city's agreement with them wasn't all or nothing. Meaning, too bad they don't have veto power over the SuperCenter given the apparent flipping off WalMart corporate is sending in lieu of the Sam's Club.

Lifebridge Debate On The Radio

Last week Longmont's Lifebridge annexation was the subject on Colorado Public Radio’s Colorado Matters program. Longmont Mayor Julia Pirnack describes the project and why she voted for it, and she makes it clear she believes the development will “pay what’s required in terms of taxes”. She perceives a long-term net positive benefit to the city. Resident Jen Gartner who is leading the petition to challenge the annexation is interviewed as well. Interesting public policy themes addressed here – check it out online, it’s about ten minutes long.

Longmont Won't Pay To Study Sharing

I had this one in the back pocket for comment, as it came down right before the Labor Day holiday. Longmont City Councilor Mary Blue switched her vote from and earlier informal tally in August regarding Longmont's participation in a regional revenue sharing study. All the other east BoCo communities and Boulder and the County are chipping in $7000 each to determine if there's any "there" there. The Councilor's rationale was that there wasn't enough money to participate, which really means the money we have doesn't need to go towards this. An especially easy decision when everyone else is paying and the study will go forward regardless.

The discussions on this before don't lead me to believe there is any there there, however I respect the vision of the rest of the groups to at least vet the idea a bit more deeply before succumbing to pessimism. Longmont's dismissal shows how deeply the city distrusts anything championed by Boulder and Boulder County; perhaps they're more afraid of the answers that will be presented.

The version in the Times Call.

Longmonters Stirring Up Action

As has been referenced in comments earlier, there is a website called What's In It For Longmont? that focuses on the whole Lifebridge annexation issue. Details go back to April 2007. That one issue can provide the energy for so much rebuttal by one source is worthy of a story itself. Some fans of planning issues would likely be intrigued at the concurrency request of the developers - approve all exemptions in a sweeping decision, instead of individual vetting as issues came forward. Asking Longmont to pay for their $5 million firehouse? Exemptions from affordable housing requirements? What IS in it for Longmont?

That's not all that's happening in the realm of activists Longmonters.

Paul Tiger, a candidate for Longmont has recently written an article extolling the necessary virtue of recognizing you can vote, registering to vote and then actually voting. Plus his passionate challenging of a construction flagger made the Camera's editorial page, highlighting his more libertarian views regarding handgun possesion. (Update: felony menacing charges dropped; misdemeanor is the plea.)

The site Wrongmont.com continues to flare up with comments about both local and national issues. (You may have noticed occasional postings by Wrongmont on the East BoCo blog, here's the most recent.) The details to topics have become more and more pertinent and interesting, such as the Longmont 2007 election info and its subsequent link to another Longmonter's website, and his overview of the candidates in Longmont.

In today's Times Call the outgoing Mayor Julia Pirnack is on the front page describing her need to step away and "regain her faith in the public process and in people." (But holy cow I loathe sending anyone to that website...)

What else, Longmonters? Where is is the debate alive on the internet? Who you going to vote for?

LifeBridge Petition Challenge

From the Denver Post:

A group of Longmont residents begin today to try to block a massive church-sponsored housing and retail development they claim will tarnish the city for generations. They hope to collect 4,021 valid signatures in 21 days in an effort to overturn the LifeBridge Christian Church's 348-acre Union project. The City Council approved the annexation and development of Union on Aug. 14.

But if enough credible signatures are presented to the council by the end of September, council members must either repeal its earlier approval or put the church's plan before voters in a special election. "Longmont has never really had a successful referendum, but at the least, we are hoping the City Council notes what we're doing here," said Jen Gartner, a petition-drive organizer.

If this is on the Times-Call's website, I couldn't find it in the sea of multi-colored/sized/shaped ads they've chosen to be the focus of their recently revamped online presence.

Primary Jobs Analysis

A good long weekend off. I hope you all were able to get outside too. Daily computer visits can rot your brain!

I found the overview of Longmont's economic vision described in the Times Call to be very prompting to look at other East BoCo communities' methods of economic planning. I have found the notion of "primary employers" to be lost on most people - not always as much on employees of primary employers, but certainly on employees and even owners of non-primary employers. Worse, I've found the notion to be foreign to members of Planning Boards and Councils.

The idea of maintaining a certain ratio of such jobs in a town as a way to have a sustainable local economy is fascinating. There are so many variables, so many macro economic factors at play and yet local efforts - fee waivers, tax rebates, incentives and just plain personal rapport and interest - can make a huge difference.

Longmont has had a request to research the impact of "underemployment"; the people making wages too low t be able to easily afford living in that city. That deserves another post; I'll save that one for later.

Tonight, Louisville's City Council will review and vote on various Business Assistance packages for certain developments. In Lafayette, the deals to retain WalMart are well known; the failed re-location of the Cheese Importers here shows how tenuous such deals can be. Erie is debating how much it should charge in impact fees with a mini-uprising of dissent on that front.

All these discussion are great because they tend to jar even the most barely aware citizen out of their fog and they start to ask questions about where "the money" comes from and how it is prioitized to be spent. Just like they do at home. And having that awareness is a big step towards having a viable community. Look for the given candidates in each Council race to show some level of understanding of this concept- otherwise, you'll vote in "one-hit wonders" with an agenda and a short list of interests.

Looking WAY Long Term for Open Space in Longmont

Okay, you all know I support open space. As I said before, since 1988 I haven't voted against funding it yet, whether in Boulder , Lafayette or at the County level. Five years working for BCPOS and my spot on LOSAC, those times pulling knapweed, Walker Ranch events, etc. - fun fun fun. So I'm not coming from a pro-development, anti-open space point of view on this one.

Longmont will have on the ballot this November a request to extend an open space tax until 2034. The current tax they wish to extend runs until 2020.

Now, the point of a sunset on a tax is to allow everyone to step back, take a breath, evaluate and debate the merits of the tax's implementation. Since the new tax wouldn't raise more money now (directly), this leap-frogging of the pertinent analysis is a bit over-reaching. Either ask for a new additional tax now and defend the merits, or just hold on a second and let the current tax play out for at least another decade. If this one passes it will demonstrate a generic support for all things open space I never perceived in Longmont before.

And They're Off - The EastBoCo Races Officially Begin

Here are the candidates for various East BoCo races:

Lafayette has four open seats on the seven-member council, all at-large. The three top vote-getters will serve a four-year term, and the fourth will serve a two-year term.

• Kerry Bensman (incumbent)
  Robert Brown
  Brian Herzfeld
  Stacia Lupberger
  Melinda Medrick-Nye
  Laura Oster
  G. Scott Penfield
  Frank Phillips, (incumbent)
  Jay Ruggeri, (incumbent)
  Alex Schatz

Louisville has four open seats on the seven-member council - one for each Ward in the city, plus the Mayor's spot.
Mayor's seat
Chuck Sisk, (incumbent mayor)
Randy Luallin
Ward I seat
David Clabots, (incumbent)
Annie Hughes
Ward II seat
Sheri Marsella (incumbent)
Ward III seat
Matthew Jones
Hank Dalton

Longmont has four open seats on the seven-member council - including the Mayor's spot.
Mayor's seat
Karen Benker (incumbent)
Doug Brown (incumbent)
Roger Lange (incumbent)
Ward I seat
James De Vore
Brian Hansen
Aaron Rawlins.
Ward III seat
Bonnie Finley
Sean Patrick McCoy
At-large seat
Sarah Levison
Gabe Santos
Paul Tiger

Longmont Is A Special Island, Says Times Call

Erie's Board of Trustees has voted to chip $7,000 towards the cost of hiring a consultant tasked with identifying and developing methodologies related to regional revenue sharing among Boulder County municipalities. This effort is coordinated by the Boulder County Consortium of Cities, and the Times Call had supportive, cautious endorsement of the program yesterday that revealed the persistent resentment at Boulder's proclivity to champion - and force cooperation - with its ideals.

The editorial ends with the dig on not letting Boulder run the show, but also describes the melting of southeast BoCo communities into each other as being more likely to benefit from revenue sharing than Longmont ever could. Longmont is "relatively isolated from other cities in Boulder County" and anyway, more revenue isn't worth it if Boulder's telling us what to do.

The seeds of discontent are already being sown...

By the way, Broomfield's been asked to join in and hasn't answered yet.

At Least they Did Their Job

Longmont City Council approved the LifeBridge annexation last night, 6-1, with the opposing vote wanting to send the issue to the ballot. I am glad to see the Councilors took their role seriously enough to make a decision, although the article in the Camera doesn't provide much in the way of rationale. When $200 million of the $610 million total land value is approved for tax-exempt development, they must have solid reasons for making such a concession. If a majority of Longmonters feel this was inaccurate representation, they'll vote them out of office.

Of those voting in support, Doug Brown's Ward 1 term expires in November and he has filed to run for Mayor. He can answer why he supported this during his campaign; the four open seats (including Mayor) will bring out at least a dozen candidates and this decision should be revisited as a campaign forum question each time.

The Big Annexation In Longmont: Will They Or Won't They?

I love this kind of public policy, land use and community vision decision Longmont has on tap for Tuesday night. The City Council will make a decision (hopefully) on the Lifebridge Church's proposal for a huge mixed use development that either will or will not be annexed into the city. An interesting aspect of staff's documentation to Council is a reference to Lafayette's agreement with Exempla Hospital for a payment in lieu of tax-exempt development.

See, they did it over there! We should do it too! Any fallout from the Exempla agreement they should know about?

I wonder if they will punt and put it to the voters - a lame move that denies their rightful role as representatives. A political campaign vs a thoughtful, contextual decision on land use - what will a politician choose?

My gut leads me to believe that the hard-nosed business sensibilities of those pushing for this development are still just a layer of values on top of even deeper religious values, and that this entire development does not envision itself as a truly integrated new neighborhood of Longmont. There are vested interests at work to ultimately have a development that meets various deeply-held standards, and that's fine, I just don't think a secular government needs to be an enabler.

I was intrigued to read a letter to the city from Richard Yale (see p. 13 in the PDF) that challenges the city's right to only consider financial implications of the annexation (straw man?): "The amount of wealth for the city a project creates is not a Constitutional reason to vet an application.." He goes on to blame "secular progressive pressure" is convincing the Council to deny the application because it has been brought forward by a religious organization. Darn separation of church and state getting in the way again...

On balance, what does Longmont stand to gain compared to the financial responsibilities it takes on? That is for the Council to decide and justify their decision against. Plus this all happens in the beginning stages of a November Council election. The issue will be re-hashed for voters no matter how it goes. Fun fun fun. I'm fascinated watching the process unfold.

Longmont's Call On Revenue Sharing

Tonight the Longmont City Council votes on whether or not to contribute $7000 to a study on the feasibility, the concepts really, of regional revenue sharing. Lafayette, Louisville, Boulder, Superior and Boulder County have all said okay; Longmont is next and Erie considers this next week.

We debated this topic before (52 comments actually!) and I'm wondering if Longmont will go for it. Actually, Erie may be the holdout with so much of their community outside of Boulder County.

If Boulder County competed as a huge economic entity with cheap transit an housing options funded by the sharing, there appears to be a perfect world" potential. But, with peak oil, open space driving property values and plain old pride in the mix, the study may articulate the impractical aspects of the notion. But hey, lets check it out - more information can't be bad. Creative solutions may hit the table.

Shop Local Launches In Longmont

The Longmont Small Business Association is kicking off a buy local campaign. The usual benefits are trumpeted - local businesses keep their dollars in town and variations on that theme. I support the concept and feel some group in town should get out that message, but it misses the positive impacts of larger employers in town, the obvious desire by the marketplace for the consistency/pricing/offerings of franchises and chains, and the fact that mom& pops rarely make the huge donations to local charities that a national corporation does.

What prompted me to comment on this was my difficulty finding any studies supporting the veracity of such efforts. It makes sense at first glance - and has a feel good message to boot - to champion locally owned businesses. It just appears any long-range analysis of the premise's impact on a community's economic vitality is lacking.

I shop local when I get better service, or very consciously to avoid patronizing certain stores for philosophical reasons. My choices feel good to me, but I don't know if in aggregate they create a better economy for my town. Plus if my town doesn't have what I need, I go next door. Until we have $15/gallon gas, that will always happen.

REALLY Mixed Use - What To Do?

So Longmont's City Council has decided they need more time before they approve the massive LifeBridge Church's annexation. Should a church be the main player behind a huge development including housing and retail? More pointedly, should they be tax-exempt in their activities? Isn't their asking the question a slap to the community? This isn't a blurred line, its a blatant distinction that this is a capitalist venture and should be treated and regulated as such. That the church is playing games with their definition and status re: taxes, indeed their true identity, is plain awful. Be a church, or be a developer. Don't be both.