Public Comments

It is totally wrong to have Jackson County in with Boulder who controls the vote over Jackson, Grand , and Clear Creek. WE share nothing in common which has been proven in the past ten years. The law says that no county should be divided to create districts.

I am pleased to be able to submit my comment to the Colorado Independent Redistricting Committees. I am familiar with the legislative process as a former U.S. Congressional staff member. I also testified, as an Administration official, before committees and subcommittees of the U.S. Congress more than 30 times. Many but not all -- as you might imagine -- were useful and informative sessions, and I got a good understanding of how Members of the Congress approach their jobs and achieve favorable outcomes for their citizens. I found that the Members of the U.S. Congress whose districts had a single, strong economic focus were most effective in making arguments and achieving results for their districts. This was true whether military installations, agricultural products, or industries and technology. Where I live in Routt County, we offer some of the best resort and recreational facilities anywhere, with access to National Forests, Wilderness Areas and free-flowing rivers. Our grand resort facilities take advantage of federal lands. This is our strength, and we need representation that would be effective advocates at both state and national levels. It makes sense that we should share districts with other counties with similar interests. For us, by far the best state and Congressional districting outcomes would be to continue the linkage in state representation between Routt and Eagle counties and expand the linkage in the U.S. Congress by grouping Routt, Eagle and Summit counties in the same Congressional district. These three counties are home to world-class natural resources, outdoor recreation and healthy. The alignment of state and Congressional representation would be wonderful for the citizens and businesses of these three counties and good for Colorado as a whole.

This Country was founded on the principals of local representation. To redistrict Congressional District 3 would be an injustice to our concerns in rural representation. To assimilate the issues of rural and urban would be an injustice to both. It would place the issues directly into politics verses the public need and commonsense. Please us commonsense when it comes to providing communities and cities with representation that serves the people. Please do not force our Representatives into a position that would require them to be unjust in their duties to their constituents.

The western slop of Colorado has very little in common with the front range of Colorado. If the western slop is to have any voice at all in Colorado political it needs to remain in a rural district. Our economy base is tourism, agriculture, coal, gas, oil, which the front range does not respect when making decisions. With a very small population Time and time again we no voice. Please do not redistrict us with the front range. Thanks Curt Weiss

My name is Anne. I am a third generation Coloradan born and raised on a cattle ranch in Routt County. We live in Mesa county currently, but still own our ranch in Routt county. Our kids are also living in Colorado; we hope they are able to stay here and raise their kids here as well. To do that they need representation that truly reflects our rural, agriculture based values. I am an advocate of CD 3 being entirely made up of the western slope, including the counties with ski areas and large tourist based economies. These counties are still rural and have large numbers of ranchers, farmers and miners, who provide the historical framework for each county. Pueblo should be in another district. We should not be aligned with any front range county. Do not move Routt County to CD2. We are not just Steamboat.

As you debate the location of Colorado’s new 8th Congressional district, we encourage you to include the fast-growing areas of Adams County in that district. We live and/or work in the communities of Thornton and Brighton, which have seen the explosive development over the past decade and expect that such growth will continue. Cities in our area have been among the fastest growing cities in America. A 2020 report by WalletHub (https://wallethub.com/edu/fastest-growing-cities/7010) identified Thornton 67th in growth among all mid-size cities (100,000 to 300,000 people), with the fastest growing mid-size city in Colorado being Greeley (at 30th in the nation). According to census data, Brighton and Thornton have nearly doubled in population since 2000. Experts do not expect this growth to stop. By 2025, the city of Brighton anticipates growing by roughly 20 percent (https://www.brightonco.gov/166/Community). In the coming years, Thornton officials expect their city to grow by 250,000 (https://businessinthornton.com/find-location/data/). The Colorado Demographers Office agrees and projects that our area will continue to see population growth over the next few decades as demonstrated by this 2018 map (attached). This growth has affected many parts of our communities, and we see it prominently in our schools. In Brighton, School District 27J expects to see a 40% increase in student enrollment by 2028. School officials already are planning on eight schools being over capacity next year (https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/our-colorado/27j-schools-expect-to-be-over-capacity-because-of-growth-in-student-enrollment). Those schools include Brighton High School, Overland Trail Middle School, Quist Middle School, Stuart Middle School, Reunion Elementary, Second Creek Elementary, Brantner Elementary, and West Ridge Elementary. In Thornton, increased development will also drive increased student populations. Not surprisingly, then, a vibrant U.S. Department of Education that understands these needs and a member of Congress who pushes for the funding that can help propel our programs is essential if our kids are to compete on an increasingly uneven playing field when it comes to quality K-12 education. Our city is planning for a lot of new development. From the nearly 300 new homes that will replace former farmland at East 104th Avenue and Steele Street to recent actions by Thornton City Council to annex 357 acres for new development and approving an 800 acre new development. Our schools will see more even new faces in the coming years. (https://www.denverpost.com/2020/02/07/new-homes-neighborhood-thornton-n-line-train/; https://northglenn-thorntonsentinel.com/stories/thornton-annexes-357-acres-for-new-development,375435?; https://northglenn-thorntonsentinel.com/stories/better-with-age-800-acre-development-clears-big-hurdle,372606?) These burgeoning communities need major highways that work well to help shuttle residents and people doing business in our area to and from the region. If our member of Congress isn’t in the forefront, fighting for I-25 dollars, we have no hope of making this growth work. We believe that our area deserves to have a place in the new 8th Congressional district. We hope you will strongly consider including our communities in that new district. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Yvonne Bradford Thornton, CO Paula Dickerson Thornton, CO Barbara Haggerty Brighton, CO Sharyl Kay Lawson Brighton, CO Kathey Ruybal Brighton, CO Ean Sablich Frederick, CO

I live in rural Routt County and I am a rancher. Please do not put us with any front range Colorado ideas in redistricting. We are rural and want to be grouped as such for our representation. I would also like to stay out of the I-70 corridor if possible. As for CD-3 Please get us back in western counties. Thanks

In consideration of redistributing I am absolutely opposed to any combination of Route County with front range metropolis areas. Our communities have nothing in common. Tourism, ranching, mining drive our economies and it is already obvious that the heavy population of the metropolis areas are trying to destroy everything we stand for. Including us in their left leaning cultures will bury our voice in this state and be the biggest violation of gerrymandering in existence. Sincerely, Mary Weiss

As a former legislator (57th District) I am concerned about tightening the definition of “communities of interest” too much. For example, economic bases can be an obvious community of interest, like the consumptive industries of oil, gas and coal—but economic diversity is essential to our overall ability to recover in economic slumps. It can help us see solutions when traditional pathways can’t work. That diverse community of interest is also important to help a legislator make a tough decision that is unlikely to be made when there is a singular focus and narrow viewpoint. Narrowed focus often leads us to hyper, partisan conflict. I would hope the commission understands the importance of the necessary diversification of districts that for years have been much too safe for either party ensuring only one party has an opportunity to hold that particular seat. That entitled protection had led us to gridlock in DC and lack of empathy for minority concerns not just in urban centers but in rural districts as well. I lived through redistricting in 1982 when the legislature was responsible for the initial drawing of the boundaries. I distinctly remember calls from congressional representatives who were very concerned their safe districts were going to be redrawn into more competitive seats. I was appalled at their entitlement. Too tightly defined communities of interests gives us bloviating zealots in power where they don’t belong. Please do not perpetuate that horribly low standard of conduct.

I am very concerned that fair redistricting is at stake in light of the current events around the country. I trust that Colorado will not favor the Republican suppressive avenue. Democracy is at stake and all people of our country have an equal right to representation.