Public Comments

I am a resident and business owner in Paonia. Placing Paonia in one legislative district while Hotchkiss is in another district will severely and negatively affect our representation. In fact, the map looks quite gerrymandered, which usually affects communities negatively. There is no specific, geographical reason for the gerrymander, such as a watershed or mountain range, it serves no purpose. We have common needs in the North Fork Valley and we should be together when we are represented in the statehouse. Common issues are water, organic farms, school districts, park districts and tourism. If you split the region, our political power in these areas with be diluted and our voices diminished. Please group Paonia and the North Fork with House 54 and Senate 34.

I have lived in Littleton CO for 35 years. Being a part of CD6 has brought closer connections to other constituents in Centennial, Aurora, Englewood, and Sheridan particularly in the areas of healthcare and education. I taught in Littleton Public Schools for 20 years and I applaud the school districts in the rest of Arapahoe County working on being more cohesive throughout the county - sharing what works and what doesn't. I've listened in on calls from Tri-County Health Department with the superintendents of those districts when they were hashing out what to do during the COVID pandemic. And the cities in the county have similar rates of vaccinations. Cooperation is key during good times and bad and keeping Arapahoe County whole will benefit us all moving forward, especially as the county receives federal funding including COVID relief funds, opioid settlement funds, etc. Our representation in Congress should reflect these shared values.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on redistricting. My comments pertain to the Paonia, CO and what is known as the "North Fork of the Gunnison" AKA North Fork population. I have lived in the area for just 3 years, but there are clear distinctions of this area from Delta County. 1) emphasis on wholistic lifestyles including organic gardening, active lifestyle, community activities 2) active older population, 3) well educated and actively engaged population. Reviewing the 2019 Census Data, it shows over 52% of the population have a BA or higher degree, about 79% of the population is over 21 years of age (with almost half of that over 45 years), and almost 24% is engaged in agriculture related activities. According to ColoradoBiz, the North Fork tops the state of CO in organic farms per capita. Median household income is about $48,000. The current proposal to lump Paonia and the North Fork into House District 55 and Senate District 6 does not make much sense in terms of topics of concern or lifestyle. While there are overlaps in characteristics with other towns, such as Palisade and Fruita, the disparities are notable: lower education rates, lower numbers of older people, and fewer people in agriculture related employment. There are more commonalities with House 54 and Senate 34. For example, looking at Gunnison, CO, there are comparable median incomes, rates of educational attainment, and population characteristics with a higher percentage of older people. In addition to this, many of the other communities in these two proposed districts have similar lifestyle emphases. Much of the organic produce goes to farmer's markets in nearby towns in these district and there are relationships built around the food and other goods. Many of the towns are reliant on tourism to help their economies, consider skiing, hiking, etc. just as Paonia and the North Fork rely on these as well. Please group Paonia and the North Fork with House 54 and Senate 34. This will provide our communities with better representation and common interests to focus on. Thank you for your consideration, Charlotte Minor

Dear Redistricting Committee Members, I have heard that the committee drew well balanced maps and would like to commend you for that and to make them permanent if they have not be altered for the following reasons. First and foremost rural agricultural and recreational land go together with similar interests, values, and economies. Routt and Moffat counties should never be separated in northwest colorado and should remain together and added to as needed for redistricting numbers in districts with contiguous surrounding Jackson, Grand, Eagle, and Rio Blanco (for smaller political state districts) and with the entire west slope for congressional ones. These counties and their communities all share very similar issues which added to the above commonalities mentioned are water rights and storage, geographical features (mountains, rivers, lots of public lands, ranching, skiing and other recreation (camping, hiking, mountain biking, River sports, fossil fuels (which were the number one economic driver in Routt county for sure in last century as well as Moffat and Rio Blanco probably), and housing issues. Housing issues are primarily driven by bad public policies that take private land and private land options away from property owners, drive up costs and basic economics of supply and demand. Here in Steamboat there are a lot of rules and regulations on property and development which drive up costs here in the city and all costs get transferred to the buyer. Most new subdivisions have been repeatedly - some even after public votes in favor of them - denied and tiny homes and higher density residential projects are not easy to get through planning and approval cost effectively. The state mandated decades ago no subdivision of rural land less than 35 acres (I believe that is correct number of acres) making small ranchettes here like Elk River Estates outside of town impossible. Owning rural land outside of and near Steamboat is mostly a rich man’s reality unless your family still is able to hold onto their land to pass on and have enough to subdivide. The housing costs in Steamboat are high because of these things, our world class ski resort and a wish list of things driving up costs and taxes in the city that 1/2 of Routt has zero interest in paying for. This is why 15% of our workforce drives in from Moffat where costs are way lower than metropolitan front range cities which have nothing in common with our communities and should never be placed within our districts! The last thing the rest of a Routt County needs are Steamboat or Denver home prices! Our agriculture is virtually the same in all the high country with very little elevation changes in upper River valleys across the western slope and Colorado River upper basins. Our cows are exactly the same, just the high country grasses are a little more nutritional than lower, but in big picture insignificant. I heard decades ago that only Russia had similar nutritional grasses. Ag is ag! I would bet that 1/2 of this county is very concerned about the loss of our coal industry solely because of government laws and regulations amd not because it is the most economical and reliable source of energy in the country. We all need to not forget what happened in Texas and other affected electric associations last winter. Moffat and Rio Blanco are very concerned just like Routt. Nothing that has been proposed can come close to replacing the number and quality of those jobs here and the tax base loss will be devastating. These counties must remain together as this issue is addressed. Thank you so very much for the opportunity to express our concerns and ideas. Thanking you in advance for keeping like minded communities and areas intact similar to what they have been so that our rural county voices can be heard, issues resolved by us and not the large cities, and our common ground, interests, and values protected. Sincerely yours, Heather DeVos

I want to focus on US Congressional Redistricting, particularly the already identified community of interest that’s been named “Mountain Communities.” I want to expand on previous comments you’ve received about it. The most commonly listed counties in this community of interest are Routt, Grand, Eagle, Pitkin, and our own Summit County. I think it’s very important for Lake, Park and Clear Creek Counties to be included in this community of interest. A large number of people who work in Summit County live in Lake, Park, and Clear Creek counties, because Summit County’s housing costs are so high. These three counties already share a lot of transportation, trail, health and social systems, and should stay together in a Congressional District. I also think Chaffee and Gunnison counties should be included in this community of interest, not only because they each contain a ski area, but also because they contain extensive National Forests, which leads to my second point. That second point is that the focus of the “Mountain Communities” community of interest is not just on ski area tourism, but on general outdoor recreation tourism, which includes boating and fishing on rivers and lakes, hiking and biking on trails and more. Thus, our livelihoods depend on protecting our natural environment. And, a vast majority of that natural environment is in National Forests and Rocky Mountain National Park, which are managed by the Federal Government. So, we need a congressperson who will strongly advocate for climate change mitigation, forest health, and wildfire protection funding at the national level to protect our jobs and homes. Lastly, I think the “Mountain Communities” community of interest shares very few interests with the agriculture-based counties in the western and southern parts of Colorado. If I was to pick a county that shares outdoor recreation tourism interests with the counties I’ve already listed, it would be Boulder County. That’s not only because of the Eldora ski area and the portions of Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Rocky Mountain National Park within its boundaries, but also because the city of Boulder is a magnet for outdoor recreation tourism. To accomplish this, you could do the following: Push Gilpin County (about 6500 people) and more of western Boulder County (include the county’s District 1 (Boulder, Nederland, Ward, Jamestown, 100,000+ people) and the west side of District 2 – not many people, don’t include Lyons or Longmont) out of District 2 and into District 3. Then move Archuleta (about 14,600 people), Teller (about 26,000 people) & Fremont (about 47,600 people) counties out of District 3 and into District 4. Then move the rest of Larimer County (about 9200 people) and some of southwest Weld county (that’s currently in District 8 – replace with some of Adams county) into District 2. These changes put most of the communities (Lafayette, Longmont, Loveland, Fort Collins, etc) in the I-25 corridor in northern Colorado together, puts Archuleta, Teller, & Fremont counties with other nearby agricultural-interest and plains-based vs mountains-based counties, and brings Gilpin county and western Boulder county into the mountain communities area of interest, where they have numerous ties.

Our community of interests in Grand County are: 1. Tourism and not agricultural We have a tourist based economy for both winter and summer recreation activities, 5 ski areas, miles of hiking and biking trails, tourist towns, and businesses that are completely tourist based. 2. We share borders with Larimer and Boulder counties in Rocky Mountain National Park. The wildfires areas in these counties last year are working together to mitigate, cleanup, and rebuild. We need each other’s support and the legislation that is currently in District 2 to help with all of these problems and solutions. 3. We have no communities of interest with District 3 and 58% of our county is not Republican which disputes what our Republicans County Commissioners stated in our local paper. Please leave Grand County in District 2.

My name is Kerry Wilson and I live in the current district 3 area of Ridgway CO. I am a Colorado native as I was born in Colorado Springs and went to school in Boulder. I now live on the Western Slope since 2005 and i am well aware that OUR issues are so SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT from the front range and urban areas.! We are a rural community that depends COMPLETELY on our climate and water shed for agriculture, jobs, outdoor recreation and Natural beauty. I believe that the new proposals for congressional district changes should remove Park, Teller and Fremont communities as they rely on front range urban employment, and some act as bedroom communities for the larger urban cities. They are not involved in agriculture, skiing, or outdoor recreation as their primary concerns like the Western Slope . I believe that the San Luis Valley which has been in district 3 for many years would not benefit from exclusion from CD3 at all! Separating it from other Hispanic/Latin X communities would divide their voting power and eliminate years of community based grassroots groups. I also believe that Gilpin County and the western parts of Larimer and Boulder County should also be included in a new CD3 as by law, shared interests must be represented by the district. As we approach the devastating climate change, temperature elevation and drought continuation on the western slope, we need to preserve our Colorado River watershed, public lands and seek mutual solutions for the problems of wild fires and demands for water by the front range when our needs are not completely met! We need to have a strong force as the western slope and not be infiltrated by urban interests and desires. Finally, it is required by law to create a competitive district where Democrat and Republican voters are fairly balanced. This newly proposed redistricting appears to allow an eight point margin given to Republican voters which would be against the law! I worked for Diane Mitch Bush’s campaign both going door to door in Delta County and by placing phone calls to undecided and independent voters. I agree that it is a very large district but we all share important mutual interests, based on our shared love of the natural world represented in our natural parks, state parks, river basins, snow pack, cattle, sheep and llama ranches and abundant orchards and hay and vegetable producers. Please DO NOT CONTINUE with a re-districting proposal that does not link Hispanic communities or Western Slope Agricultural and Outdoor Recreational Community Interests. It would be against the law to propose such an unbalanced and unfair district that gerrymandered such an uneven margin between the Democrat and Republican voters in your current proposal. Thank you for your time and please, DO THE RIGHT THINGS for the Western Slope for years to come!! Sincerely, Kerry Wilson Ridgway CO

I am resident of Wind Crest retirement community in Highlands Ranch. In the most recent preliminary legislative district map, it appears Wind Crest will be split between two districts; District 22 and District 33. Since Wind Crest is a single community with common activities, communications, and meeting auditorium, it will be very confusing to be in two different districts. Please consider keeping Wind Crest in one single district. Thank you.

Hi. I am commenting on your proposed map that separates Broomfield from Boulder County. This is of significant concern because Broomfield identifies more with Boulder County than with any of the other surrounding areas. This identity crosses geographic and ethnic focal areas. Similarly, there is a strong social connection with Broomfield identifying closely with many environmental, social, and identity-based groups within Boulder County. Broomfield even has several schools in the Boulder Valley School District. To sever the long-standing connection between Broomfield and Boulder County would tear us apart from a geographic center and erase years of progress in making and strengthening that connection. Broomfield must remain in the 2nd Congressional District. Thank you.

This comment was delivered to the Commission in person at the July 31 meeting in Frisco, CO. Submitted here at the request of the Commissioners. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Jess Hoover, and I’m the Climate Action Director for the High Country Conservation Center. We are an environmental non-profit that serves the entire Summit County community. Our programs help residents recycle and compost, save water, increase energy efficiency and take action on climate change. It’s climate change that I’d like to talk about tonight. HC3 collaborates with our local government partners to implement the Summit Community Climate Action Plan. Like many communities, we have a goal of reducing countywide greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050. And, like many communities, our emissions come from two main sources – energy use in buildings and transportation. Over 99% of our community receives electricity from Xcel Energy. From a district perspective, it makes sense for us to remain aligned with Front Range communities like Boulder and Jefferson Counties, because we share not only electrical transmission infrastructure but also 100% renewable energy goals. Moreover, we have aggressive electric vehicle adoption goals. The EV transition will require substantial federal involvement for supporting EV sales and fostering development and installation EV-related technologies...especially along the I-70 corridor. Because of the substantial travel that occurs between the Front Range and Summit County, the electrification initiatives in communities like Boulder and Jefferson Counties will have an impact in Summit County – and vice versa. Although we’re smaller than Boulder and Jefferson Counties, Summit County is a leader in climate action in Colorado. We have a shared interest in achieving the emissions’ reductions we need to slow climate change, and that’s why it’s in our community’s best interest to continue coordinating efforts with our Front Range neighbors.