Public Comments

The First Staff Plan is just... awful. Fort Collins does share interests and concerns with the entire eastern half of Colorado. Having student-heavy populations in Fort Collins and Boulder makes that keeping those areas in the same district makes a lot more sense. I heard a lot of comments from people in the new District 4 that made it sound like the needs and interests of young adults do not matter because they don't stay in the same place for long, but these communities deserve to have a voice. The fact that young adults tend to move around a lot more means that their needs aren't taken as seriously as more permanent residents. This map further silences the voices of young people who will need to live with the consequences of legislation made through the maps as drawn longer than those who don't think that young people matter. I am not a student, but I share more interests with people in Boulder than with people in the rural parts of eastern Colorado. The preliminary map had it's issues, but it was much better than this first staff plan.

Fort Collins and towns on the eastern slope definitely don't share any common interests and arent even located near each other. The June map seemed more balanced and the districting made more sense. It is admirable to create competitive districts but this map definitely doesn't seem to achieve that.

I am a resident of Fort Collins and I do not think we should be moved from District 2 and combined with Weld county. This could be devastating for Fort Collins.

Putting Fort Collins in District 4 (away from the rest of Larimer County) makes no sense. Fort Collins is the seat of the county and needs to be in the same congressional district. Also, residents of Fort Collins are MUCH different than folks in Greeley and the residents in the Northeastern part of the state. Please reconsider this map and keep Fort Collins with the rest of Larimer County!

As a native Fort Collins resident and a member of the larger Larimer County community I adamantly appose this purposed redistricting. District CD4 as a whole does not represent the values, priorities, and voting record of the Fort Collins Community. This change will by default dishonor the voice of the voters of Fort Collins by altering the representation that this community chose and voted for. The map itself shows a blatant effort to disenfranchise the voters of Fort Collins and divide us from our greater community by using the denser population of Fort Collins to drastically impact the outcome of both district’s legislation outcomes. We, Fort Collins, are Larimer county; we are not an island on to ourselves. We share common interests and goals by voting with our neighbors, our county, our community. The idea of separating our city from its county is ridiculous and is not supported by the greater Fort Collins and Larimer Co. communities.

The new district lines put Fort Collins into district 4 and separated from the rest of Larimer County as well as cities with similar issues/beliefs such as Boulder. I don't think this is best for Fort Collins and will hurt us in the long term. Weld County is a very different set of people, with different issues (more rural/agricultural/factory) vs Larimer County. I don't think they belong in the same district.

I am writing in regards to the 4th Congressional District in the proposed map released on September 3, 2021. Fort Collins and the SE corner of the state are distinctly different areas with distinctly different needs. Separating the county seat of the 6th most populous county from the remainder of its constituents, and then placing it in a district that traverses all the way to the Oklahoma border creates an unwieldy and potentially unmanageable district. By distance, Fort Collins is 300+ miles from Springfield, CO, and is just as far way in its disparate needs and challenges. I strongly encourage the committee to reconsider the 4th district. Large districts (by area) are obviously a fact of life, but placing the 4th largest Colorado city (in the far northern part of the state) in a district with the southeast corner of the state does not make sense. PS - To the committee, thanks for all your effort. We do appreciate the quality of your work and the transparency of the process.

Summit County has been split on the preliminary map and that is a mistake. There are multiple ski resorts in Summit County and they greatly depend on each other by splitting keystone and Silverthorne from the rest of the community unnecessary division will be created we are a small county as is and deserve to be represented as an entire community. People might go to ski in Breck but they also spend time and money in Silverthorne. It’s important that Summit County remains in one district.

As many comments have stated before me, the newest proposal would devastate the voters of Fort Collins. Our communities needs and interests have nothing in common with communities in eastern and southeastern Colorado. This is clearly not a map made by an impartial commission, indeed the purpose seems solely to dilute the votes of Fort Collins and is disgustingly partisan. I cannot stress enough how this proposal only hurt our community. I see no benefits of doing this, other than a partisan advantage. Surely there is no way this could ever be a “competitive” district. Our votes would undoubtedly be overridden and meaningless. Now it would sound like what was mentioned above constitutes mentioned above are signs of gerrymandering, would it not? The voters of Colorado specifically chose an impartial commission in an attempt to see districts that actually catered to the needs of different communities, but clearly that is not something that is being prioritized. I do not know if someone will read this comment. And if they do, I have no idea if they will understand the urgency in my statement, how important it is to me and my community that we are represented and not, as the current plan shows, have our votes overridden by a group of people who have little in common with our needs and interests as a community. I can only hope that the sheer volume of comments showing dissatisfaction convinced you to reconsider you ridiculous proposal.

I really like the map released Sept. 3, it's nice and clean, easy to understand what district you're in and addresses both urban and rural needs. While I understand the southern district 3 concerns, I think all in all it's very workable, all of these counties have similar needs and concerns (water, transportation, agriculture). Hope this map is what we end up with. Thank you for all of the hard work, not an easy job at all.