Public Comments

My name is Carol Cure and I’m a registered voter in HD59 in La Plata County. My comments concern the First Staff Plan for HD59 and HD58. I submitted prior comments asking the Commission to combine La Plata County with Gunnison, Hinsdale, San Juan and Archuleta Counties to best recognize and protect our local mountain resort counties as an important community of interest and to keep Fort Lewis College in Durango in the same House District as Western Colorado University in Gunnison. Both are major four-year colleges similarly situated in mountain resort areas, emphasizing their outdoor recreation, mountain sports and wilderness pursuits, with world-class skiing in their backyards at Crested Butte and Purgatory Ski Resorts. Keeping these two similar higher education institutions together in the same House District would be better than what is now being proposed. Both Gunnison and La Plata, as well as the contiguous counties of Hinsdale, San Juan and Archuleta share many common policy concerns. All are tourist and outdoor recreation destinations supported by small business, tourism, public lands, and outdoor recreation. Hinsdale County contains multiple “fourteeners,” the 14,000-foot mountains that people from all over come to Colorado to climb. Archuleta County is home to Pagosa Springs, where you can find the world’s deepest geothermal hot springs and well as many other tourist attractions, including nearby Wolf Creek ski resort with some of the best snow depths in the area. All are experiencing the devasting effects of the climate crisis, leading to drought, a reduction in snow and rainfall, and an increase in wildfires and their severity, negatively affecting both winter and summer outdoor recreation tourism in all. I still believe this would be the best plan. If, however, Montezuma County must be divided, with a portion being placed in HD59, the First Staff Plan should be revised to include the town of Dolores in the northeastern part of Montezuma County with HD59, and the northwest quadrant of Montezuma County should be moved into HD58 to achieve the population requirements while keeping important communities of interest together. This configuration, shown in the attached map, would better recognize and protect the local communities of interest of both house districts. La Plata, San Juan and Archuleta counties do share interests with Montezuma County’s major towns of Cortez, Mancos and Dolores, including tourism, small business, arts, and outdoor recreation industries. The residents of Dolores do much of their shopping in Cortez and even come to Durango to shop, dine, and engage in other activities, as the transportation corridors support this. Conversely, the northwest quadrant of Montezuma County, which is primarily agricultural, shares few community interests or policy concerns with HD59. Instead, that portion of Montezuma County would be best combined with HD58, which shares its rural agricultural concerns. HD59’s common interests with Dolores, Mancos and Cortez include outdoor recreation. Durango has the annual Iron Horse bicycle race from Durango to Silverton, connecting La Plata and San Juan counties, while Dolores has great mountain biking in Boggy Draw and Cortez has Phil’s World mountain bike trail, all big draws for both locals and tourists. Mancos has a terrific arts scene like Durango and to a slightly lesser extent, Dolores, Silverton and Pagosa. Dolores and Durango share river rafting and kayaking, as well as fishing and boating at McPhee near Dolores and the many lakes near Durango. San Juan County’s county seat of Silverton is the destination for the Durango to Silverton train, helping to support the tourism economy of the entire area, and all of these areas share access to the San Juan National Forest’s public lands. The configuration I am suggesting would better meet the requirements of Article V of the Colorado Constitution and would enhance the fair and effective representation of the respective residents of both HD58 and HD59. As an aside, during the public hearing on Saturday morning/afternoon, one of the commissioners favorably referenced the Montezuma GIS group’s recently submitted map. From what I can tell of this unmarked map, it appears to combine all of San Juan and Montezuma Counties, as well as portions of San Miguel and Montrose with La Plata County. Archuleta County, however, appears to be missing from this grouping. If this is accurate, I along with many others in La Plata and Archuleta Counties, would be strongly opposed to this configuration. Archuleta County has a long history with La Plata County and they share many community interests including hiking, backpacking, skiing, fire suppression, and tourism. Archuleta County is on our side of Wolf Creek Pass, a high mountain pass at an elevation of 10,857 feet, located in Mineral County. The road features a challenging series of hairpin curves on the west side of the summit with 200-foot dropoffs on the other side of the curves. It is said to be one of the most dangerous roads in Colorado. The road is often snow-packed and icy in the winter months, sometimes closed due to weather, and occasionally snow falls on the pass even in the summer months. Archuleta would frequently be cut off from the counties to the east.. Further, Archuleta has little in common with the rural agricultural counties on the east side of the pass. Doing anything with this map in the redistricting effort would be contrary to all of the redistricting mandates of the Constitution. In addition, La Plata and San Juan Counties have nothing in common with either San Miguel or Montrose Counties. I urge the Commissioners not to even consider that map. Carol Cure 747 Oak Drive Durango, CO 81301 carolcure@gmail.com Cell: 602-402-2424 Home: 970-382-8286 Attachment on Next Page: Suggested HD59 Map if Montezuma County is included in HD59.

To the Honorable Colorado Redistricting Commission, As a 30 year Gilpin County resident I am requesting that you do NOT change the Gilpin county districting lines. We are aligned with Boulder, Clear Creek and Jefferson Counties for our shopping, social activities and schools. We share core values with these counties. Half of the children in Gilpin County go to Boulder Valley Schools. We need to be represented by and vote for people who reflect us and where we reside and live our lives. Please keep our district as it stands now. Our county and our children deserve fair and appropriate representation. Sincerely, Leonard Romano

It is absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible to even consider splitting-up Broomfield as part of the congressional redistricting plan. We are one city with common goals and we deserve to vote as a city and be represented as one city/county. It would be senseless to keep us united under one city and county government and at the same time divide us amongst different congressional districts.

My family has lived in the Longmont since 1998. My daughters graduated from Skyline HS. My law practice is located in Longmont. My wife is a pastor who served churches in the Longmont area. I believe I have the experience in this area to comment on the differences in communities of interest affected by the proposed map. The specific area I'm concerned about is the area east of 75th, north of 17th (Hygiene Road), south of Hwy 66, and west of Francis Street. This is an area on the northwest side of Longmont. The neighborhoods in this area have been in Longmont for 40 to 50 years or more, helped build Longmont, and have strong ties to the city of Longmont, not to District 13. This is in contrast to the area west of Airport Road and south of Nelson Road. This SW area of Longmont is less than 20 years old, does not have the same long-term ties with Longmont, is much closer to Boulder, and has a larger contingent of commuters who work in Boulder and other areas south of Longmont. Another significant consideration is McIntosh Lake. The proposed plan divides the lake into two districts. This affects long-term water delivery to Longmont. The lake is a water storage site of which Longmont owns 58% of the shares. It is important to keep the lake in the same district with Longmont as the state moves forward with implementation of the Colorado Water Plan (written in 2016 to plan for the future of water) and as the General Assembly considers funding for any parts of the plan that may affect Longmont and its water supply. Finally, I think ten years under the proposed plan will isolate the neighborhoods in the northwest area and weaken their long-term ties with Longmont. The balance of community damage to the northwest neighborhoods significantly outweighs the community damage to the southwest neighborhoods. The change I am asking for is simple and preserves communities of interest. The plan proposed by Mike Butler deals with similar concerns and is aligned with my concerns. Thank you for the opportunity to provide these comments.

It does not make sense to separate Loveland from the rest of the west of I-25 communities of Ft. Collins, Berthoud, Longmont, Boulder. All of these communities along Highway 287 share common resources including job pools, health care/hospitals, schools, roads, neighborhood services, and social connections. There are shared public policy concerns along this corridor. Loveland's challenges and legislative needs are much more aligned with the front range corridor (District 2) than with the rest of rural eastern Colorado in District 4. It makes no sense. Please reconsider this.

Simply stating...why redistricting and dividing a town/city? I moved here because of the appeal of still the small town feel. Having one area will make this a stronger community. Hasn't there been enough division in history happening? Stronger as one

All of Broomfield County should remain in one Congressional District. Feel that the business and growth interests are better aligned with those represented by the other communities in CD8 as described in the Second Staff Plan and so the rest of Broomfield should be placed in that district.

Please don’t cut me off from the rest of Broomfield. I live just east of Lowell Boulevard in Broomfield and the map shows me to be separated from my Broomfield friends and neighbors. This is absolutely unfair. Why didn’t you keep the dividing line down I-25 and keep my city intact?

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

We are “one” and do NOT want to be divided. This should be a decision made by the people who live here., not by others.