Public Comments

Splitting Estes Park and western Larimer County from the 2nd district makes no sense. We are connected to Fort Collins and Loveland for county services, shopping, medical, etc. We have virtually nothing in common with the 3rd district. For much of the year, its a 3 hour drive to get over the Continental Divide which separates us from the current 3rd district. Its very likely that a congressional district office won't be located on the east side of the Divide which would further alienate us from our representative. Please reconsider.

Greetings Colorado Independent Redistricting Commission, The House District 24 proposal replacing our current HD25 assignment would be an unmitigated disaster for Conifer, Evergreen, and other mountain communities, as it attempts to meld two uniquely diverse communities: the front range urban suburbs of Superior and Louisville, and other rural foothills/mountain communities. The critical interests of government services, recreational facilities, traffic, transportation, public health, law enforcement, first responders, fire mitigation, forest fires, limited ingress/egress, water availability, zoning, land use, flooding, and conservation for the citizens living in the foothills/mountains around Conifer and Evergreen are vastly different than those living in the urban suburbs of Louisville and Superior. House District 24, as proposed, looks too much like gerrymandering to balance voters, which is forbidden in the Colorado Constitution, rather than a representative grouping of the foothills/mountain citizens with common interests and is in violation of the spirit if not the intent of the Colorado Constitution. The two distinct areas would both have more fair and effective representation if the eastern edge of House District 24 was Hwy C-470, W. 6th Ave/64th St, CO Hwy 93, bounded by CO Hwy 72 on the north and Deer Creek Canyon and Pleasant Park Roads on the south, with the proposed HD24 areas of Louisville & Superior being absorbed by surrounding House Districts that have like communities of interest. Rebalancing would be simpler by taking the proposed HD24 citizens in the Louisville & Superior areas and putting them in HD 25, 36, and 37 and then taking the people living in the far west sides of HD 13, 12, 10, and 23 and adding them to HD 24 to create a house district representing a community of common interests. This does not involve as many people as there are not that many people living in the lower foothills, with the possible exception of the lower elevation portions of Golden proper which could be carved out and left in HD12, which would actually make some sense. Please consider this before you make this decision. Respectfully, Chris Ketchum Evergreen, CO

What shared interests unite your community? · Western Slope and northwest Colorado communities have ranching, agriculture, fossil fuel energy, wilderness & forest and outdoor recreation industries in common. As we move away from fossil fuels and toward "green" energy, keeping our communities united to find alternative industries and jobs is of the utmost importance. Supporting the balance of wilderness and ranching is also critical. · What are your community’s public policy concerns? · Western Slope and northwest Colorado public policy concerns include affordable housing, ranching and agricultural concerns, wilderness and forestry concerns, quality public education, healthcare, climate change and energy, and local and state taxes. Routt county residence need affordable housing and representation that will understand how our rural communities can leverage opportunities that will bring down the cost of housing, utilities, and transportation to support middle and lower income families within and beyond Routt County. Routt county needs to be aligned w other ranching counties with similar land, water, and economic needs. We must also remain aligned w rural counties to ensure proper representation to maintain available, quality healthcare for our residents. Remaining aligned w rural counties helps to keep the all the threads of rural, ranching, wilderness, and outdoor recreation in balance. There really is nothing urban about Routt county. · What geographic areas or features are important to your community? · Western Slope and northwest Colorado geographic features include the Rocky Mountains west of the Continental Divide, abundant river valleys, vast farming and ranching pastures, some of the best producing hay fields in the country and wide semi-arid basins and plateaus. These are important because they are the resources for our main industries. Much of this land is owned by the federal government and must be managed appropriately to continue supporting the livelihoods of our citizens as well as the environment. We must have proper representation to ensure our forests are responsibly managed to reduce the growing wildfire hazards and conservation of our fragile ecosystems. We must also have representation to help manage our water supply as our communities grow and local demand rises to support our industries and communities. · What else should the commissions know about your community? · Routt County is part of the Western Slope and northwest Colorado. Our needs are different than those of the Front Range or even Eagle or Pitkin counties. These communities and counties are urban in nature and have entirely different community interests, cultural and economic needs than those of our rural Routt county. Being included in urban or non-ranching counties would diminish our representation in Denver and in Washington, D.C.

Commissioners, You have separated Arvada from Jefferson County and this is not acceptable. We have no relationship and nothing in common with our northern neighbers. Please don’t screw with us just to make the numbers come out. This is not fair. Undoubtably there will be lawsuits if this current situation stands. Please, keep us with our own. This is the right thing to do. Bill Hineser (submitted by email 7/22/21)

I am writing to express my support for ending the practice of prison gerrymandering. It makes sense and is more equitable for persons who temporarily live in prisons or jails be allowed to vote in their home districts, rather than constitute part of the district where the institution is located. (submitted by email 7/22/21)

All of Delta County must be kept in one district and included with Mesa County for both the Senate and House seats. This will be better represent us in the State Legislature for the next ten years. The last 10 years have been terrible for Delta County as the current arrangement has done little positive for Delta County residents. Additionally the Western Slope Must stay intact in order to make our voices heard. Joining up our various communities with the Eastern regions simply does not make representative sense. Maybe its logical giving a gain of one parties power to slice and paste our small towns in with other counties and districts that fit that purpose. This is not the reason we redistrict every ten years after the national census is taken. Our population vs. location numbers have not changed that much to cause your commission to bounce our small towns to build numbers in neighboring districts for influence. Mesa County and Delta County should be kept together as our population visits our mutual cities for shopping, medical care and social activities being we are all within a 50 mile circle. Our communities perform the similar agricultural farming products, recreation products and interests in care for our part of Colorado. Please put all of Mesa and all of Delta counties in one district. I wouldn't overlook joining Montrose down to Montezuma counties in this new far western district.

Thanks for the opportunity to address the commission on Wednesday evening in Englewood. Amanda Crosby, Carrie Warren-Gully, and I would like to thank you for considering moving House District 9 in the Preliminary Staff map to adhere more closely to the Littleton Public School District lines. This district is unique among its neighbors in size and the type of student population they serve and needs a clear voice in the legislature around funding and education policy issues. Attached is an electronic version of the letter. The last two pages of the letter include illustrations of how the House map in that area could work, following the constitutional direction for this commission.

• What shared interests unite your community? • Western Slope and northwest Colorado communities have agriculture, fossil fuel energy, and outdoor recreation industries in common. As our government drives us away from fossil fuels and toward "green" energy, we must keep our communities united to find alternative industries and jobs for those who will be impacted. Additionally, we have many people who live outside of Routt County who support the outdoor recreation industry largely centered in Steamboat Springs. These people must remain represented by the same officials where the live and where they earn their living. • What are your community’s public policy concerns? • Western Slope and northwest Colorado public policy concerns include affordable housing, quality public education, healthcare, climate change and energy, and local and state taxes. Residents of Routt County need affordable housing and representation that will understand how our communities can leverage opportunities to bring down the cost of housing, utilities, and transportation to support middle and lower income families within and beyond Routt County. We must also remain intact to ensure proper representation to maintain available, quality healthcare for our rural residents. Ensuring energy workers are able to maintain good jobs and standards of living is critical as the state and federal government replace the industry. We must also remain intact to ensure climate change and "green" energy initiatives are represented properly to ensure least impact on the cost of living for middle and lower income families in our communities. Our public education must also remain properly represented to ensure focus remains on educating our children and not indoctrinating them in "social justice" ideology that represents communities in the more urban Front Range and resort counties like Summit, Eagle, and Pitkin. • What geographic areas or features are important to your community? • Western Slope and northwest Colorado geographic features include the Rocky Mountains west of the Continental Divide, abundant river valleys, vast farming and ranching pastures, and wide semi-arid basins and plateaus. These are important because they are the resources for our main industries. Much of this land is owned by the federal government and must be managed appropriately to continue supporting the livelihoods of our citizens. We must have proper representation to ensure our forests are responsibly managed to reduce the growing wildfire hazards and conservation of our fragile ecosystems. We must also have representation to help manage our water supply as our communities grow and local demand rises to support our industries and communities. • What else should the commissions know about your community? • Routt County is part of the Western Slope and northwest Colorado. We are not part of the Front Range where communities are urban in nature and have entirely different community interests and cultural and economic needs. We must avoid being included in Front Range counties that would diminish our representation in Denver and in Washington, D.C.

I want to remind the commission that the voters in Colorado voted overwhelmingly to create an unbiased process to allocate congressional and legislative districts and the only way to fully honor the will of the people is to count incarcerated people in their home districts. Counting them in the districts where the prisons are located gives unfair weight to those mostly less populated areas, while at the same time diminishing the representation of the home communities of the people in the prisons.

I just want to briefly state my support for NOT including prison-populations at their prison addresses. This totally skews the actual, real, voluntary, logical population of any given district. Just like people in rehab, hospitals (for mental or physical treatments), educational facilities, etc.....prisoners are NOT active 'residents' when they are incarcerated. All humans should be counted at 'regular' residential addresses. An additional aspect of the prison population is that they are NOT in prison facilities 'voluntarily' (yes, one could argue that when one breaks the law and gets caught that is an aspect of voluntary, but this is not straightforward. These people did not actively choose to live en masse in a involuntarily locked up situation). Please consider these as you hammer out these maps. Democracy truly rests on a few pillars, and one of these is drawing boundaries for districts of voters with fair and logical intentions. Thank you for your time and effort and integrity in this endeavor.