Public Comments

Please do not put Lakewood into the Adams County Congressional District. We, the People of Lakewood are Jefferson County and have nothing in common with Adams County. Nice attempt at Gerrymandering, GOP. Nice try. Please don't let this happen.

Dear Commissioners, Thank you for your service on the Independent Congressional Redistricting Commission. Please consider my public comment on the Congressional redistricting maps. My name is Dakota Serviente and I am a resident of Aurora, Colorado. Redistricting will be critical to addressing the needs of our communities in Colorado and Aurora has a number of unique demographics that have been underserved and overlooked for far too long. Aurora is one of the most culturally and racially diverse cities in the entire country and because of this, the city and the district have a responsibility to work to address the specific needs of these neighborhoods. Our city is home to many vibrant and rich immigrant communities, many of which are unable to access or receive much needed resources to help them be successful and safe. Additionally Aurora is home to a large African American population that has historically been neglected and under represented by our city and politicians. The needs of these critical demographics will not be well served by further expanding the CD6. For example including Parker will take focus away from the needs of communities of color and immigrant communities in Aurora and instead prioritize the needs of more affluent, less racially and culturally diverse neighborhoods. This could actually do harm to the residents of Aurora and therefore undermine the safety and success of the district. Issues like police reform, financial stability, access to healthcare, food insecurity, quality of education, and investments in community services are all vital to a equitable and brighter future for Aurora. Please consider these points and concerns when you draw out plans for redistricting. Thank you for your time and consideration. Dakota Serviente Resident of Aurora, CO (submitted by email 6/12/2021)

Dear Congressional Commission; Thank you so much for your time and commitment to redistricting. We are overdue for a review and truly appreciate your work. This project is a high priority for myself and my husband, who both were interested in serving on the commission. We are in the Roaring Fork Valley side of Eagle County and understand too well the importance of aligning districts to support communities of interest. I served as Basalt Mayor the past eight years and on council another 8 years. Basalt is a town that is bifurcated into Eagle and Pitkin Counties. This has not served us well so we are in hopes that your decisions will address the important connections of other mountain and resort areas. Best luck in your decisions. Thank you. Jacque Whitsitt (submitted by email 6/12/2021)

Both Colorado Redistricting Commissions, My name is Judy Carnick. I live in Manitou Springs which, for me, is just about as close to heaven as you can live. Sitting on the western edge of Colorado Springs, we have the best of a small town community living against the front range and the cultural opportunities of Colorado Springs. El Paso county is huge both geographically and population wise. The people in this county are varied. They live in cities and out in the range lands. They are of all ethnic groups. We are fortunate to have the same mix here in Manitou. We create great art, music, we have a wonderful school system with very strong community support and we are very tight knit as a community. We are small enough to act on our beliefs regarding zoning, water and conservation. We share common goals and fairly nimble which means we are effective as a community. I am hoping that you will make sure the magic that is Manitou is not diluted by the current redistricting process. Thanks for taking the time to read my comments about Manitou Springs. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments. Judy Carnick Colorado Springs, Colorado 80829 (submitted by email 6/12/2021)

Lakewood is more like Arvada and Wheat Ridge. We have similar businesses, education and health services. Please do no redraw district lines! Lakewood does not belong with Douglas!

Lakewood does not belong with Douglas country, it shares much more with other cities in Jefferson County, such as Arvada or Wheat Ridge. Let us stay in Jefferson county, please.

Dear Congressional Redistricting Committee: The following map is a good map for Colorado. This map has a few splits to cities that can not be whole based on their population. The Amendments call for competitive districts and districts 6 and 8 are very competitive. Districts 1 and 4 have minority influenced districts. District 4 is almost 36% Hispanic. Of these proposed districts, 2 of the districts are almost entirely rural, with Greeley and Pueblo being the the4th and Grand Junction anchoring the 3rd.The Western Slope is kept whole which is an important consideration for that community of interest. Southern Colorado is kept whole with the eastern plains. I would like to Thank You for your time and consideration of this map. This map makes sense for all of Colorado. Sincerely Darren Garcia https://davesredistricting.org/join/c6558bab-bfb3-4891-96de-e3563f9f0fa8 (submitted by email 6/12/2021)

Honorable Commission As a resident of a Mountain Community that depends on issues far different from those in Urban and farming areas, I encourage you to consider our needs. it is important to appreciate the value we represent to the Colorado economy. I hope you will keep Mountain Communities separate as you make your redistricting plans. Respectfully, Eliot Brown Telluride, CO (submitted by email 6/12/2021)

Dear Redistricting Commissioners, Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the redrawing of Colorado's Congressional districts. My name is Jane Ard-Smith and I am a 25-year resident of El Paso County. I write today as an advocate for the environment, as well as someone concerned about our community's water supplies and needs. With those concerns in mind, I am writing to ask that you keep El Paso County wholly within one congressional district. While our county stretches from the plains to the mountains, we are connected through our watershed. The decisions made in Congress with respect to that watershed have similar impacts on all El Paso County residents. We share a common interest in ensuring the health and vitality of that watershed. Moreover, as inhabitants of a semi-arid region, El Paso County residents share a common interest in our water supplies. While we have multiple water districts, as well as residents who are solely supplied by groundwater, we are all on some level dependent on water that is imported from outside our watershed – the water districts import the majority of their water supplies, and those residents on groundwater depend on the recharge that the imported water supplies to ensure continued availability in the long-term. Therefore, Congressional decisions related to inter-basin transfers, funding, etc., similarly impact all El Paso county residents. El Paso County residents also share common concerns when facing drought and water scarcity – and the fire danger that accompanies them. As the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires demonstrated a few years ago, we are one community when facing a devastating wildfire. Residents who were evacuated took refuge in other parts of the county. All county residents were impacted on some level – whether it be sheltering those impacted, dealing with the health impacts from the smoke and ash, or marshaling resources to help those fighting the fires and those impacted. The response to those wildfires required a county-wide (and beyond) effort. And we share a common goal of ensuring that we plan for and are prepared to deal with the next wildfire. Sincerely, Jane Ard-Smith Colorado Springs, CO 80903 (submitted by email 6/12/2021)

To the Members of the Congressional Redistricting Commission: I want to pose a question to you as you consider competing arguments about so-called communities of interest for our new congressional districts. Because our future depends on renewable fuels and no industry has spawned jobs and energy security quite like the wind energy, where are the wind turbines and the related being produced? The answer is: right here in Colorado. In 2019, Colorado State University and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory studies the economic impact of the wind industry in a study I recommend you read, “Economic Impacts from Wind Energy in Colorado Case Study: Rush Creek Wind Farm.” It is readily accessible to you on the internet: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy19osti/73659.pdf (“NREL Study”). Even though it closed its Brighton plant during the pandemic, Vestas Wind Energy builds wind energy towers in Colorado. The plants are in Windsor (in the north, producing the blades and the turbines that produce energy) and Pueblo (in the south, manufacturing the towers themselves). Those two plants employ hundreds of people and are regional economic generators. But Vestas’s decision to locate manufacturing facilities here give rise to spin-off economic activity. “Internal component suppliers, such as Aluwind, Hexcel, and Creative Foam, opened operations in Colorado to co-locate near Vestas, supporting more jobs and industry in the state.” NREL Study at 5. Hexcel is a composite manufacturer in Windsor, having located near the Vestas plant. Aluwind is in Castle Rock, about midway between the two Vestas operations mentioned above. Alwind produces aluminum structural internal components for wind tower and nacelle internals. While not nearly as large as Vestas, Aluwind’s aluminum component production is critical to the workings of a wind turbine, and besides its direct employment, Aluwind creates secondary employment through the contractors it uses and the general economic activity it generates. NREL Study at 31. Why is this important? NREL has the answer which is that these plants drive the economic benefit of the wind energy industry to the State of Colorado. [L]ocal manufacturing (is) the single largest driver of jobs and economic output in wind development. The economic multiplier effect in Colorado is larger than is typical during wind development because the in-state production andinstallation of wind turbines supports jobs and economic activity in the manufacturing and supply chain as well as induced impacts, with plant workers living and spending earnings in their nearby communities. NREL Study at 5. The wind farms are almost exclusively in the Eastern Plains counties of Colorado. Key manufacturing facilities that make wind energy possible here are also located in the band of counties making up what has been proposed by the Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as the 4th Congressional District – counties from Weld to Douglas to Pueblo. But don’t think that the benefits of wind farms are limited to the operational and manufacturing aspects of this industry. One wind farm (in the NREL study, Rush Creek Wind Farm) creates almost 3,000 jobs (2,970 to be precise). About 25% of these jobs are “induced” supportive jobs in places like motels and restaurants. About 10% of these jobs deal with on-site operations once a wind farm is up and running. Which means that 65% of the jobs are “manufacturing and supply chain worker for turbines and construction.” NREL Study at 19-20. In other words, it’s companies like Vestas, Hexcel, and Aluwind that create the bulk of the direct economic benefit (besides payments to farmers for using their land as sites for turbines) to Colorado. This is truly a three-dimensional industry. The industry’s existence and growth depends on federal legislation and agency financial involvement. There are investment tax credits (most notably, the so-called Production Tax Credit which was unfortunately reduced in the last Congress) and related advantageous Internal Revenue Code treatment of these facilities. There have been Department of Energy loan guarantees as well as NREL studies of how best to convert this technology to economic, broadly employed uses. The point here is that there is a wide assortment of ways that the federal government can help Coloradans expand wind energy. The district map submitted by the Hispanic Chamber contains a district that encompasses the wind energy centers of Colorado. The person who represents the district that contains these facilities and the wind farms along the Eastern Plains could be a great advocate for renewable energy. I urge you to adopt the 4thas set forth here. Yours truly, Pat Kiovsky Johnstown CO 80534 (submitted by email 6/12/2021)