Public Comments

We need to stay 1 Broomfield!

Broomfield is a community that has made strides to develop itself as a united community, this is even evidenced by the creation of the City and County of Broomfield. This is a small community that would be easily encompassed into the same district, rather than splitting the city and diluting the voters and interests.

My community of Fruita, Colorado needs to remain in the current legislative and congressional districts. I do not support redrawing these districts, as it smacks of gerrymandering. My community is a part of Mesa county and we are more conservative and rural in this city, yet only 11 miles from Grand Junction. I conduct business in GJ and I work in GJ. My child attends school in District 51. It makes no sense to redraw these districts in a way that would isolate my community from the larger community of Grand Junction.

Please keep the community of Broomfield together and not divided.

Please do not put Fremont County in CD7. Fremont County is a rural agricultural county and has nothing in common with a highly urban area. We wish to be represented in Congress, not totally ignored. Thank you. A dedicated voter.

TO: Colorado Independent Redistricting Commissioners, Thank you for listening to my/our recent concerns and testimony regarding Colorado Redistricting, and thank you for your continued engaging in this important decision-making endeavor. The new District 3 map demonstrates to me that you have truly listened and absorbed some of my/our comments from the many who live on the Western Slope, people who rely on and trust you, and testified regarding the Club 20 map with the issues associated with the important issues of consistent Water Management for the Western Slope of Colorado. However, there still remains a strategic issue to address in this communication. As discussed in my/our earlier testimony, the final issue to be resolved encompasses the Colorado River Water. The new CD3 map separates the River from its source in Grand County. To protect Western Slope Water, it is imperative that Grand and Eagle Counties be included in CD3. By essentially following the Colorado River drainage from Grand County and the Club 20 map, you will have accomplished this goal. Please be assured you efforts are appreciated. We are grateful for your efforts. William C Kennedy Montrose, Colorado September 20, 2021

Broomfield is one community of interest that should NOT be divided.

Broomfield is one community of interest and should not be divided.

Dear Commissioners, I am writing today to support a Congressional Redistricting map that keeps Larimer County whole. I testified previously in support of a Congressional map that grouped all of Larimer County with Boulder County in CD 2. This was a configuration that made sense to me as Boulder County and Larimer County share many similar values and policy objectives including climate action, multi modal transportation, federal research facilities, wildfire mitigation, and equity and diversity issues. The latest map pulls our county's second and third largest municipalities, Loveland and Wellington, away from the rest of Larimer County and groups them with many smaller, rural counties with whom we have little in common. I know that one of your criteria is to preserve whole communities of interest and whole political divisions. Removing Loveland and Wellington from the rest of the county goes against this stated goal. As a county, we are committed to working on our transportation needs, including developing more county wide transit and multi modal options to decrease greenhouse gases, reduce our ozone noncompliance. and help our residents commute more easily. In addition, Fort Collins and Loveland share ownership of our regional airport with the nation's first FAA sanctioned and funded remote tower. At this same airport, our two cities also share a newly built Police Training Facility, which trains police officers across the county. In addition, Wellington has become an affordable option for many families in our county who work in Fort Collins, and we are working on ways to better connect these two municipalities. Being in one Congressional District would make it easier for us to advocate for funding for our many transportation goals. Our geography is also so much different than Eastern counties. Areas west of Loveland have wildland fire concerns. In this part of the county, we work on watershed and forest mitigation issues which affect our whole county; issues that do not affect our neighbors to the east. We also work together as a county on mutual aid agreements so that we can help each other with fires, flash floods, debris flow, and search and rescue in our foothills and mountainous areas. Emergencies look very different in the foothills than they do in the Eastern plains. We share so many public policy concerns that can be addressed by being in the same Congressional District; I urge you to reconsider this map in favor of a map that keeps Larimer County whole. Loveland and Wellington should not be torn away from the rest of the county and we should be grouped with counties that are geographically closer and have similar issues and needs. Thank you for your consideration. Best wishes, Kristin Stephens Larimer County Commissioner

Thank you for the hard work you are doing here. It can only be extremely challenging trying to balance all individual comments and concerns, population distributions and ethnic distributions. Nonetheless,, I was disappointed to see the latest iteration of the Congressional Map. It returns to the east vs. west distribution of districts. First, we had a sprawling CD4. Now we have a sprawling CD3 that represents two thirds of the state in terms of land distribution. In between was a map that better took into account the cultural and community differences by proposing a mostly southern district. Thank God (i.e. your committee) that each of these iterations has the six counties of the San Luis Valley (I live in Saguache County) represented as a contiguous area. The southern half of the state is as distinct as it can be from the rest of the state, culturally, ethnically, environmentally and economically. It deserves it’s own representation on the national level. This third map dilutes our voice as much as the first map did. We need to be heard. What happened? Go back. #2 wasn’t great, but it was better than #1 or #3. I encourage you to return to your mandate to secure contiguous representation for communities of interest, and focus less on party representation. If community members don’t like the direction their government is heading, it’s up to them to talk to their neighbors and come to some consensus that expresses their desires thru the voting process. I, in Saguache County, am going to have an very hard time meeting, much less understanding the needs of someone in Moffat or Routt Counties. That’s not to mention how it stretches the ability of a Congressperson to represent the will of such a large and diverse District. Thank you again. Chuck Tidd, Chair Saguache County DEMS 719-221-8433