Public Comments

INPUT FOR LEGISLATIVE REDISTRICTING COMMISSION Barbara Bailey, barbabailey@msn.com I am writing this for the Legislative Redistricting Commission. I have lived in northeastern Jefferson County for over 40 years. I have been an involved member of my community in a number of different ways as a volunteer, including Jeffco PTA and parent volunteer at Hackberry Elem. I worked as a school secretary for 13 years at Sheridan Green Elementary, which is in the Jeffco school district and the Jeffco portion of Westminster. I believe that I represent the concerns of the Arvada/Westminster area of Jeffco. I have experienced redistricting in this area 4 times. All four versions kept our State House and State Senate districts wholly within Jefferson County and included the portions of Arvada and Westminster that are in northeastern Jeffco, specifically east of Wadsworth Boulevard and west of Sheridan Boulevard, and north of 68th Avenue. We are truly a community of interest. The back yard of my home is almost literally the borderline between Arvada and Westminster. The elementary school where most of the kids on my block go or have gone is in Arvada, but the street in front of the school is in Westminster. I live in Arvada, but I have to drive through a portion of Westminster to get to the school. The entire area has been in the same State Senate and State House district as long as anyone can remember. I am sure that to accomplish the task of keeping the northeastern part of Jeffco together in the same House District, you would have to split up Arvada. I think that is entirely appropriate. The eastern part of Arvada, east of Kipling and especially east of Wadsworth, is different from the western part of Arvada. There are socio-economic differences – the eastern part has more affordable housing, for example, while the western part has more mansions. The eastern part is older, not only in the age of houses and other buildings, but also in the age of the residents. The southeastern part of Arvada east of Ward Road, and especially east of Kipling, has more in common with the Jeffco portion of Westminster than it does with the part of Arvada west of Ward Road. I ask that you redraw the legislative districts differently from the first version presented. When you do, please consider how your decisions affect people very locally. Attendance areas of schools are more a community than cities. We want our state legislators to be unconflicted when they represent us.

Dear Colorado Independent Redistricting Commission, My name is Sheila Lieder and I reside in unincorporated Jefferson County. The maps that I have seen that encompasses JEFFCO with DOUGCO (Douglas County), is truly not a cohesive match for community and demographics in general. These are the reasons why I believe that to be so: 1. Dealing with the COVID crises JEFFCO’s health department worked with all the municipalities health agencies. DOUGCO did NOT work with them and the County was quite rouge in their decision making, which in my opinion caused more severe outbreaks in their community. Where JEFFCO had a plan and had one of the highest vaccination rates, if not the highest. This alone speaks volume. 2. When I shop, I utilize BELMAR in the Lakewood area or Southwest Plaza in Littleton not DOUGCO. 3. When I have transportation needs, I utilize the Lakewood-Wadsworth Station. 4. When my son was in Boy scouts, they even utilized the APEX Recreation Center in Arvada, not a location in Douglas County. In addition, he attended schools in Jefferson County. 5. When I have employment question about resume writing, trainings or upcoming Job Fairs I utilize the Business & Workforce Center in Golden for my needs, NOT somewhere in a different County such as Douglas. 6. I believe DOUGCO has more in common with the agriculture areas on the Eastern Planes. These are the reasons why I believe unincorporated Jefferson County should not be with Douglas County. Thank you for your time and also the time you have spent thus far on this committee. Sincerely, Sheila Lieder Unincorporated Jefferson County Resident

Thank you for your work on creating new maps for a changing Colorado and for your consideration of my comments. As a resident of Lakewood, the preliminary congressional map published by the commission greatly concerns me. Although county lines are not always the best predictors of communities of interest across the state, Jefferson County is indeed a community of cities that are very interconnected and share resources. From affordable housing to sustainability to transportation, residents of the west side of the Denver metro area have similar policy interests and concerns related to our location between Denver and the mountains and how impacts of the rising cost of living and population growth manifest in our neighborhoods. Lakewood is certainly more interconnected with Arvada than Highlands Ranch, Centennial, and other Douglas County cities currently included in the preliminary map of CD7. Keeping suburban Jeffco together is integral to preserving our community of interest. Rather than grouping us with Douglas County and more southern localities that extend almost to Colorado Springs--who are far away in both geography and political priorities--please consider grouping us with areas with whom we have more in common, such as cities in western Arapahoe County. In addition to the community of interest in Jeffco established by shared priorities and resources, Lakewood also has a substantial and growing population of BIPOC and Latinx residents who could be negatively impacted by the current proposal. The population of Lakewood has been growing and becoming more diverse as the metro area continues to grow and BIPOC Coloradans, particularly Latinx families like mine, are priced out of urban areas. Lakewood is currently over 20% Latinx and this is projected to grow over time. Douglas County, on the other hand, is only 9% Latinx and has not been experiencing the same trends of diversification. Grouping Lakewood with more closely situated neighbors would also prevent as large a dilution of the growing Latinx electorate in Jeffco as would happen if the preliminary proposal moved forward, since cities like Littleton, Englewood, Thornton and others have larger Latinx populations than Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, and others in the current CD 7 proposal. I hope you will consider making significant changes to the preliminary proposal that will better preserve communities of interest and prevent the disenfranchisement of Latinx voters.

I am a Colorado ag producer with senior water rights and business owner in Steamboat Springs. I strongly request any redistricting for Routt County DOES NOT include any east slope counties. The intent to redistrict Routt County with any front range county is to manipulate the voting system by diluting the western slope vote. Sincerely, Ren

My name is Amy Cleveland and I’ve been living at my current address at Valley View Drive in Boulder for 30 years. I’m writing to express my concern about the proposed restricting of the current House Districts and particularly the cutting up of my House District 13. The proposed redistricting would separate my neighborhood from the district containing the foothills and mountain communities with which we share so many common issues and instead group us with central Boulder including the heart of our business community. Living at the base of the foothills we live with constant interaction with wildlife. Bears and mountain lions are not uncommon sightings. Some of our highest concerns are climate related with fire and flood. The 2013 flood came running down the foothills causing mudslides and extreme flooding in our neighborhood. We are under evacuation alert during all the wildfires that threaten the foothills. Some of the most heavily used recreation areas are in our back yard and decisions on recreation use directly impacts us. Our concerns are much more aligned with those of our neighbors in the foothills and mountain communities. We want a representative that will advocate for these concerns. With the new proposed redistricting the concerns of our representative would be extended to deal with the concerns of a densely populated urban environment. I think that you should look at shared geopolitical concerns of the citizens when choosing the redistricting lines so that we can be properly represented in the State Legislature. Please keep the western part of Boulder in the same district as the foothills.

The 3rd Congressional District has traditionally been a rural community. The current proposal appears to include counties that, while rural by definition, are not of the same mindset of those of us who are truly rural. Clear Creek County and Summit County align more with the metro Denver area than with those of us who have entirely different issues in Western Colorado. The current map of our district does a great job of representing our communities. Please do not change that just for the sake of change. Also, it is wrong to change the map for our district so drastically just to give Democrats a better chance of winning this district. We have been represented by Democrats as well as Republicans in the past. The current map is very balanced politically and needs to stay that way.

Mr. Chairman, Madam Chair, Commissioner members, Thank you for your time this evening. My name is Lisa Johnson and I have been a resident of Jefferson county for over a decade. I am here to makes sure "Community of interest" is upheld in Jeffco. Jeffco shares substantial interests with Arvada including but not limited to: composed of a reasonably proximate population, and thus should be considered for inclusion within a single district for purposes of ensuring its fair and effective representation. When considering the redistricting of Jefferson county, equal population and the voting rights act must be the way we draw county lines. I strongly disagree with splitting up Arvada into two state senate districts and three house state senate districts. I believe this would only break up a growing vibrant area of Jefferson County. Currently, Jeffco has approximately 550,000 people and the 2021 Congressional district is composed of approximately 700,000 residents. A way we could make up the 120-150,000 people would be to keep Jeffco whole by keeping*Westminster, Arvada, Broomfield as well as Gilpin in Jeffco. Jefferson county is in such close proximity to Denver county it affords Jeffco to grow and become more diverse every year. Arvada is a city that gives (minorities?) all Coloradans an avenue of growth outside the city of Denver. Allows the population to have more representation with the entire state of Colorado. I believe everyone in Colorado should have the choice and the opportunity to live in the city, the foothills or the more rural areas of Colorado. By keeping Arvada in Jefferson county, we have the opportunity to grow and be an example of how communities can come together as a county within the great state of Colorado. I would like you to consider keeping Jefferson county whole on the congressional map by keeping Arvada in Jefferson county. I believe that breaking up a single school district, a single public health system and a single safety system is a grave error when drawing county lines. Cutting out a large portion of the city of Arvada from Jeffco would be a miscalculation by this commission because the county would lose a large portion of the growing population and demographics in Jefferson. I strongly believe that Arvada should remain in the 7th CD. As a member of the LBGTQ community keeping Jefferson county whole is a huge concern of mine. I like to believe Jefferson county has continued to become safer and more family friendly to the LGBTQ community. There is an unmistakable contrast between Arvada and the demographics and Northwestern part of Douglas county when discussing the safety and inclusion of LQBTQ members. I do not want northwestern Douglas county to be included in the drawing of Jefferson county so I can continue to feel safe. Not only are we under represented the LBGTQ community face dissociation in Northwestern Douglas county. The city of Arvada and surrounding area our neighbors and we share the same values and resources. our school systems, infrastructure and our businesses rely on our strong relationships with each other. Northwestern Douglas county does not share the same trend in diversity and the area’s stance on inclusion compared to our northern neighbor’s. I believe the northwestern part of Douglas county should also not be included in Jefferson county because of its physical distance to Lakewood compared to Arvada. Northwestern Douglas county shares culture which is more aligned with more rural parts of the state and I do not believe including this area into Jefferson county would be the correct decision. Rural areas of Colorado have seen a population decrease for the last 10 years. I believe Northwestern Douglas county would be better served by leaving that area in Douglas county giving the area a chance to grow as a whole. The northwestern part of Douglas counties population is vastly smaller at 75,452 residents compared to Arvada which has a population of 106,433. It does not seem right to divide our county and bring in new areas that do not share our sense of community that makes the foothills of Jefferson county so special. I hope Jeffco continues to move forward together instead of going backwards and dividing us. If it is not too much to ask that the commission to keep my testimony this evening in mind when redrawing the Jeffco county lines and that Jefferson county remains a democracy defending institution.

You need to put boundary names on the maps. Ie: 10th St., I-25 etc. So people can figure them out better.

The community of Paonia is a rural community made up of agricultural and mining industries, with a large number of retired folks as well. I believe our interests are very different from city dwellers (not more or less important, but different). The current plans give disproportionate representation to the East Slope (city folks). The current plan will leave the Western Slope with virtually no voice in the legislature. I urge you to return to the pre 1960 system where each county had a senator with representatives based on county population. This system more closely resembles the Federal system, with counties the equivalent to states on the federal level. This, in my opinion, is the inspired system given to us by our founding fathers. It works well at the Federal level, and used to work very well at the State level. Thank you for your consideration. David J. Hurr Paonia, Colorado

We are rural in nature. We have been getting along great over the years. Please leave things alone.