Public Comments

I would like to comment on the preliminary State House Districts map, and primarily the Boulder County portion of the map. I live in North Boulder, just a few blocks from the mountains. I moved to Colorado in 1976, and lived in Nederland for more than 10 years before moving down to Boulder. I built a house in Nederland, and still have many connections there. I worked in Boulder for my entire career, commuting down Boulder Canyon every day when I lived in the mountains. Many of my friends from Nederland also commute down to Boulder to work and shop and for healthcare. I see Nederland, and the other Boulder County mountain communities as much more connected to each other and to the city of Boulder than to, for instance, the suburbs east of Boulder or mountain communities further north in the state. It does not make sense to divide the western part of Boulder County into THREE separate legislative districts. Where I live now, in North Boulder, I share many of the concerns of the mountain communities to the west. We are in the urban/wild interface, as are the mountain communities. We must be concerned about bears, mountain lions, fires and floods. These are issues of less direct concern to residents of the eastern part of Boulder. Our house in Boulder has been very close to an evacuation zone twice, due to mountain wildfires that came close to the city. Our house in Nederland has also been threatened by wildfire. Both our house in Boulder and our house in Nederland were impacted by the flood of 2013. We had to repair basements in both houses. Boulder’s watershed (owned by the city of Boulder) is in the western part of Boulder County, and much of Boulder’s water supply comes from Barker Reservoir. This is another reason that including the entire western part of Boulder County with the western portion of the city of Boulder as one legislative district would make a lot of sense Because one of the criteria for drawing legislative district maps is to “preserve whole communities of interest”, I feel that it would make more sense to draw the line at Broadway and include the western part of the city of Boulder with the mountain communities to the west: Nederland, Ward, Gold Hill, Sugarloaf, etc. This would also allow the eastern part of Boulder to connect with the business, industrial and residential communities of Gunbarrel and Niwot, which would seem to be a natural community of interest. I feel it is important to preserve these distinct communities of interest, instead of simply drawing a line around the city of Boulder. The current proposal disrupts existing communities of interest and will weaken their representation in the legislature. The other thing that concerns me about the overall drawing of the new legislative map is that it has not protected minority communities of interest. It would have been possible, for instance, to draw the map differently for the Denver area and other regions, to preserve some “majority minority” districts of largely Latino residents. Latinx people make up nearly 25% of Colorado’s population. They deserve proportional representation in the state house and senate. Their voices should be heard. I don’t know exactly how the maps should be redrawn to accomplish this, but I know that there are groups working on this, and I hope that the commission will seriously consider the options that they present. I hope that these maps will be redrawn to provide the best representation to all the citizens of Colorado, and that they can be a model for the country of how a thoughtful, non-partisan commission can do this more fairly than political groups can. I applaud you for the hard work you are putting into this project.

Hello, my name is Brandon Bell and I am a resident in Weld County in Erie, and I am also a member of the Board of Trustees in Erie. I have heard several complaints from my constituents in Erie on the Weld County side about the proposed redistricting. Erie's growth boundaries on the Boulder County side have pretty much capped out, while we have a number of new projects on the Weld County side. The realigning of proposed HD 38 into Boulder County puts at risk high value development in Erie on the I25 corridor, due to the complications of dealing with plug and abandon well and active oil and gas operations in the area. We have seen too much in Boulder County that is a no compromise policy against development near oil and gas, that does not align with the benefits of Erie or our neighbors to the east. Whoever represents the new HD 38 must be a strong proponent for ensuring economic viability along the I25 corridor and I do not believe Boulder County shares those interests. For many of the same reasons I am extremely concerned about the proposed SD32, and I would imagine that our neighbors in Dacono, Frederick and Firestone are also concerned about this proposal. Again aligning that Senate District with areas of Boulder County that do not share our common development goals puts all development on the I-25 corridor at risk. Areas of East Boulder County have taken a strict no-oil and gas approach that will not work along that I-25 corridor. We have projects that must move forward and must balance new development with oil and gas operations in the area. I do not see a reason that more than two Senate Districts should exist in Weld County, and I think you should reconsider those boundaries. Finally for U.S. House I would propose that Weld County remain in only two congressional districts and that none of Weld County is included in the proposed District 2 which as I mentioned above has areas that does not reflect the goals and values of those of us living along the I25 corridor in Weld. The I25 communities including the Weld portion of Erie could be contained in the proposed CD8 and the rest of I25 could be could be placed in CD4. Thank you for allowing my input into this matter.

Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the proposed redistricting. I am a County Commissioner for Archuleta County and as such I have a very vested interest in the continuity of operations within my county and those connecting counties we share physical boundaries with and counties of similar developmental challenges, demographics and size. In my experience, Archuleta County and for that matter, the majority of counties on the Wester Slope of Colorado differ greatly from the Eastern Slope counties. The Western Slope counties are separated by significant mountain ranges, water ways and other geographical boundaries which has required we be fiercely independent, but at the same time reliant on one another and to have a willing to lend a hand. This is how we came to develop and establish our mutual aid agreements, our economic regions, our conservancy districts, our medical districts and our tourism industries. Southwest Colorado needs to remain Southwest Colorado. The idea that we share commonalities with densely populated communities in other parts of Colorado is absurd. We want and need representation at every level that accurately represents our geographical areas, our way of lives and our respective communities. Thank you for your consideration, Warren Brown Archuleta County Commissioner District 1

As a retired resident of rural South Routt County, I believe it is in the best interest of all Routt County to remain in the same District as Eagle County for the following reasons: 1) Economically, the county is mostly dependent on the recreation and tourism (R&T) industries; 2) Culturally, most people are dependent on R&T or they live here because of those industries; 3) Geographically, Routt County is in the Rocky Mountains as is Eagle County; 4) Climatologically and Hydrologically, Routt County is a water producer, Moffat and Rio Blanco are water receivers; 5) Demographically, people young and old, move to Routt and Eagle County to live in the mountains; 6) Routt County is blue and Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties are red.

Hello I’m Riley Strand. I’m a 4th generation farmer in Washington County. I would first like to thank you for your work on the redistricting maps for the state legislature and congress. I appreciate your sincere approach at keeping two primarily rural and agricultural congressional seats. Agriculture is a large part of Colorado and having representation for the 2nd largest industry in the state is huge. I’m definitely in favor of the direction this current redistricting map is drawn and would personally like to thank each and everyone on the commission for their hard work and time. Sincerely Riley Strand

I believe any redistricting of the mountain communities from District 2 into District 3 is a mistake. Jamestown ,Ward, Nederland and Allenspark are fully within any logical mapping of a Front Range District. To be included in the District 3 boundaries is an obvious attempt at GERRYMANDERING to the benefit of the worst representative in recent Colorado history. Leave the front range mountain communities associated to Boulder County in the same area that contains their livliehood and schools, where we earn and spend our money and TAXES (remember those devices that pay your salaries ?) Leave us OUT of District 3! How should we feel a part of a District that would require a road trip of hours to be physically within the boundaries as they currently exist ? Let us continue to vote in the district where we spend our time and money.

As a resident of the mountains in southwest Boulder County, it is upsetting to me that there is a consideration to move part of our peak to peak region to a congressional district that is far away and lacks many of the same shared interests as our community. The mountain region from Gilpin County to Larimer County share so many similar concerns, public policies, collaborative health and human services resources, and joint projects and initiatives, it would be a shame to end the unified momentum towards a safe and healthy community. Please don't redistrict any portion of our mountain region into Congressional District 3. Thank you, Karen Gerrity

I am a resident of CD3. I am concerned that our districts, as redrawn, becomes a “safe” Republican district. Indeed many of your districts are drawn to be safe. Instead, Colorado should live up to its purple state heritage and draw districts that are closely balanced between Democrats and Republicans. This will drive candidates towards centrist positions - which is what most Coloradans want and what an increasingly polarized Congress desperately needs, and will ensure competitive races where voters have a real choice and the best candidate prevails. Additionally, voters in mountainous regions have common interests around environmental protection, housing, agriculture, infrastructure, tourism, mining, tourism and economic development. It would be good if CD3 had more mountain and foothill communities so that our representative was more likely to represent these interests. Thank you for your consideration of these comments.

My name is Donna Werner and I live at 80304 zip code in north-west Boulder. (My comments are directed towards the state legislature.) I have lived here since 1986, taught public school for many years and own a family business also since 1989. I am deeply connected to my neighborhood and to greater Boulder through my work, my volunteering with local philanthropic organizations, my synagogue and my leadership of an Indivisible group. I greatly appreciate your efforts to make sure Colorado maps are drawn and redrawn to best represent its citizens and our needs in a non-partisan manner. I have two main areas of concern to share. One is the criteria for preserving communities of interest. This certainly seems to apply to the importance to include the area west of Broadway in Boulder with our mountain neighbors of Nederland, Eldorado Springs, Gold Hill, Sugarloaf, etc. This week’s health concerns due to fires thousands of miles away point to our communities’ commonality regarding fire danger, flooding, pollution, and climate concerns. In the past ten years West Boulder and our western foothill & mountain towns faced the same evacuation concerns due to fire. Our water supply from Barker Dam and Nederland Reservoir also highlight the importance of our shared interests. Our mountain residing children also attend our schools in West Boulder, another critical community of interest, especially as we see how COVID has affected their educational experience in the past 2 years. On the “flip” side, if you will, the eastern portion of Boulder has its community of interest with the area of current House district 10 including Gunbarrel and the areas that have a more affordable housing, business and industrial park commonality. (east of Broadway) Modifying the preliminary maps would mean dividing Boulder (map#36) north to south and splitting the City of Boulder (map#37) west of Broadway to include mountain communities mentioned above. My other comment is one that I am not a resident of or an expert in, but I do want to highlight the importance making sure in communities such as Denver, Pueblo, and Montezuma that citizens in the African American and Latino and rural communities have fair representation and are not diluted in their majority voices with Senate and House representation . I would like to see this issue also addressed as Boulder County is remapped, especially with the large Latino population in Longmont , Lafayette and eastern Boulder. A recent article from the Colorado Sun highlights this issue: Latinos want Colorado’s new congressional and legislative maps to give them influence reflecting their growing numbers https://coloradosun.com/2021/08/12/latinos-colorado-new-redistricting-influence/ Latino leaders are worried that Colorado’s once-in-a-decade redistricting process will continue to give them the short shrift at the state Capitol and in Congress, even as their community’s share of the population grows to nearly a quarter. The current class of elected state lawmakers includes the largest number of Latino lawmakers in the General Assembly’s history, 14 of 100 lawmakers, while the state’s Congressional delegation doesn’t include a Latino representative. “There should be 22 to 25 of us (in the state legislature) depending on what the percentage of Latinos in the state that will be coming out with this new census,” state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Thornton Democrat, said earlier this month. Thank you.

At last nights meeting, so many people spoke about the Peak to Peak (P2P) communities belonging in CD2. Why not move Gilpin County to CD3 and Ward, Jamestown & Nederland to CD2. The P2P towns are as much "Boulder" as any other place in CO in every aspect of a community.