Public Comments

Commissioners: Please read the PDF document on " Is El Paso County an Island and Denver County is Not? " concerning comments made at the August 30 Commissioners meeting, and a plan for creating reasonable size Congressional District in Western, Southern, and Eastern Colorado while maintain of proper representative base throughout the Denver Metro Area. Thomas McKenna on behalf of the citizens of True Southern Colorado

Hello, I'm emailing regarding the redistricting summarized here: "State House Changes: In these proposed changes, the residences of South City Park are split into two sections. Residences from the west side of Steele to York will be in District 5 (green) and residences from the east side of Steele to Colorado Blvd will be in District 4 (purple). South City Park is currently in state House District 8." I do not believe that South City Park should be split into 2 different districts. As a small neighborhood that is heavily impacted by changes along main corridors, unhoused members of our community we should not lose our ability to vote with a strong voice and splitting the neighborhood in two diminishes the responsibility of each "new" district representative to fight for our collective needs. It's irresponsible and continues to promote a lack of care for our small neighborhood that often gets ignored. Please put all of south city park in ONE district.

My name is Rick Foster, and I have been politically active in Colorado for 33 years (1988 in Adams County, and 1989 to the present in Jefferson County). I have served as a precinct committeeperson, a district captain, a state House District Secretary, and as a state House District Vice-Chair. When the 2010 U.S. Census was conducted, my wife and I lived in Colorado House District 27. We moved from one part of Arvada to another part of Arvada in 2011, still thinking that we would remain in HD27 (where we had served for 22 years). After the previous redistricting occurred, we found ourselves in a completely different state house district (HD29). Even so, we have faithfully served in HD29 since the 2012 elections. Through these past several years in HD29, we have felt a bit left out since the vast majority of HD29 is within Westminster; those of us in HD29 who are in Arvada, seem to have not had the balanced interests of those of HD29 who live in Westminster. Having seen the preliminary maps for Colorado Hose & Senate districts, I am certainly pleased to see that our portion of Arvada is once again connected with the rest of Arvada within a new house district number. We are also pleased to see that we are in the same state Senate district as the rest of Arvada. We have more in common with our fellow citizens in Arvada than we do with the citizens of Westminster. During the course of the time we have lived in Arvada, we have been within two Colorado Congressional Districts (CD2, CD7). It wasn't our location moves within Arvada that had us in differing Congressional Districts; it was because we changed from CD2 to CD7 when Colorado gained its 7th Congressional District & redistricting placed us within the new CD7. Consequently, we are definitely not averse to being in a new Congressional District, and would be pleased to be within the new CD8. We would fervently request that all of Arvada be placed within the new CD8. Being in a new Congressional District provides all of us within CD8 with fresh opportunities to serve. Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to work on these redistricting activities. We greatly appreciate your efforts. Yours, Rick Foster

My name is Tina Foster. I reside in these current Colorado districts: Colorado State House District 29, Colorado State Senate District 19, and Colorado Congressional District 7. Thank you for taking the time to add me to your list of persons interested in the coming changes to the State House & Congressional Districts. I have been involved in being an election judge since 1988. I have been a Precinct Captain & now serve as a District Captain. I have enjoyed serving in Jefferson County for the past 32 years in Arvada. I have worked with candidates who represent Arvada's city political interests. I am in favor of keeping the various parts of Arvada together as shown in the preliminary maps for the upcoming Colorado State House & Senate districts, by not splitting up pieces of Arvada into other state assembly districts. These new maps promote the unity of interests for the citizens of Arvada. These two maps will be easier for Arvada to not inherit other area's problems & ballot issues in which I do not have any interest or vote. My choice is to have Arvada be put in the 8th Congressional District as drawn in the preliminary map. Thank you. Sincerely, Tina Foster

My wife and I have had a presence in Summit County since 1992. At that time we owned a small condo in Frisco, but our primary residence was in Denver. In 2005, when I retired as a Professor of periodontics at the University of Colorado School of Dentistry and my wife retired as a special ed teacher in Aurora, our primary residence became a house we built in Frisco. We continue to this day to have a small condo in Denver but spend at least 90% of our time in Frisco. As your Committee considers the best fit for Summit County in the new congressional districts that you are mapping, my wife and I would ask you to consider the makeup and needs of Summit County. In no way is it a typical Colorado rural community. It is a community whose economy is dependent on tourists. We are visited by not only by other Coloradans, but by people who travel to our area from around the US and from around the world. We are by any measure a cosmopolitan community. Our associations with the Front Range are paramount to our existence. The I 70 corridor, DIA, and Front Rang tourism are al crucial to our being. From our perspective it makes no sense for us to be represented by an individual whose primary constituency is made up of individuals who live in truly rural Colorado whose primary being depends on farming, ranching, hunting, fishing. and natural resources ( all important and worthy activities) but very different form those of Summit County. We respectfully ask your committee to either keep us in CD2 or to move us to CD7. Thanks in advance. Norm & Renee Stoller

Please see attached a letter from Kathleen Curry, Bill Hobbs, Mario Nicolais, Alan Philp, and Steve Tool, including proposed maps for the state senate and state house (via hyperlink). This maps have been submitted to provide the commission with an example of how multiple factors can be balanced constitutionally. In particular, we emphasized political subdivision integrity, competitive districts (with an emphasis on unaffiliated voter influence therein), and communities of interest (with an emphasis on Hispanic majority and influence districts). Please note that Alan Philp endorses these maps both personally and as a redistricting lobbyist for the Colorado Neighborhood Coalition. None of the other signers to this letter have been paid or compensated in any way related to the creation of these maps or any testimony or communications with the commission or its members.

Hello Members of the Colorado Independent Redistricting Commissions, Thank you for all the work you are doing on these redistricting questions and for welcoming public comment. As a resident of Jamestown, I DO NOT want our town and immediate areas to be changed from District 2 to District 3. We are detached in many ways that would make this change a gross disability for our town. We currently have many, many ties to other parts of Boulder County geographically, by emergency services, some new alliances around wildfire mitigation and protection, employment, where we get our groceries, where our children go to school, our electrical grid, medical care facilities, our watershed (since we're clear over on the other side of the Continental Divide!), road maintenance, and so many more ties to the Boulder/Longmont Front Range area. There is actually no all-weather road between our town and the current District 3. We would, by definition, be in an unfair minority about many, many issues overseen by District 3 representatives. This change in districting would effectively take away our right to fair representation. Thank you for reading my comment. Rose Harmos-Holder

Dear Commissioners: My name is Jonathan Knopf. I addressed you when you visited Summit County. I am a longtime resident of the County and Executive Director of Friends of the Lower Blue River (FOLBR). I support including Summit County in the same district as communities along the Front Range. We have so much more in common with Front Range communities, than we do with the Western Slope communities. My biggest concern is our environment. FOLBR is working very hard to preserve the natural beauty and integrity of the Lower Blue River Valley. We are about to embark on an initiative that will address climate change, safe soils and carbon capture. Many of the folks in CD3 are climate change deniers. I am not confident they share in our environmental commitment. Summit County is focused on recreation, tourism, and preserving our natural beauty. We are focused on preserving one of the jewels of our state. Many communities along the Front Range share our interest and commitment. Since we are so close to the Front Range and share residents who come and go from Summit County, we need to have common representation to addresses these important existential issues. We can’t move backwards! We must move forward to address the environmental needs of our state, our country and the world at large. I urge you to maintain our representation in CD2. Thank you for listening and thank you for your service. Regards, Jonathan Knopf

This is a strong objection to the proposed plan for redistricting in Colorado (Congressional District 8), it would put Platteville and Ft. Lupton at a severe disadvantage. Both communities are in rural northern Colorado, yet the proposed plan would lump them into very suburban, cities and counties including Thornton, Westminster, Arvada, Broomfield. The interests of our rural communities have absolutely NOTHING in common with those cities and overpopulated communities, thus our representation in congress would be ignored. We must have accurate representation in our state legislature and congress. Those living in larger, suburban communities have vastly different priorities and interests than we do in rural communities. Being in a smaller, less-populated, rural area, we have a difficult enough time as it is making our voices heard over the loud cacophony of the crying voices in larger cities. Our representation MUST reflect the residents here in northern, RURAL Weld County. DO NOT lump us together with those larger cities and counties south of us. Even the idea of this new district, as proposed, conjures up the exact feelings the early American colonists had when they said, "Taxation without representation is tyranny!" They understood that being taxed by the British crown (King George), they had nothing in common with across the Atlantic would make them only subjects of the crown, not citizens in their own right and that they needed their own representative government who lived in their community and knew their needs, interests and priorities. Any new district and its representation must only include rural communities in northern Colorado.

Hello, I’m writing to express my concerns about the preliminary congressional map and how my community, Summit County, is not currently grouped with communities of similar interest. Our interests do not align with western Colorado communities. No Summit County government entity is part of Club 20 (‘The Voice of the Western Slope’), because our issues and interest do not align with these western communities. We are economically and culturally aligned with the foothills and Front Range - we have similar interests and face similar issues to these close neighbors. From an economic and commerce perspective our businesses (from small independently owned to large businesses, across industries from restaurants to construction) look east for supplies, contractors and partnerships. Countless employees and owners travel east on I-70 on a regular basis. Also, Summit County consists of a large number of commuters. Nearly a third of our population commutes at least part-time towards the Front Range for work. Personally, I work for a consulting firm based in the County and my colleagues and I commute regularly to the Front Range for meetings. This is the case for many individuals in the county that have close business ties with the Front Range …and the rise of remote work has likely exacerbated this even more. Culturally, we are part of the broader metro-exurban/suburban area. Summit County communities have close social ties with our near neighbors in the foothills. It's pretty apparent that Front Range residents contribute a major part of our activity by visiting for recreational activities throughout the year, but it goes both ways - Summit County residents spend time regularly in the foothills and Front Range (outside of the work and commerce connections i previously mentioned) - We spend time there for recreation sports leagues and other social outlets; and for regular access to necessities like medical facilities, specialists and DIA. Outside of our strong economic and cultural ties, Summit County and the foothills share many important issues (environmental, public health, transportation/traffic, to name a few) that are impacting our communities. I want to urge the commission to group Summit County with communities of similar interest and with similar public policy concerns – specifically the communities east down I-70 towards the foothills. We need our voice to be represented by someone that understands our link with the Front Range. Thank you for your time and for considering our concerns in this redistricting process. Best, Carol Saade