Public Comments

Please consider redistricting Grand county into the west slope, as ranchers and cattle producers our concerns about water, wildlife, agriculture are more related to all west slope of Colorado concerns, we need to be in the western Colorado district

The Western Slope as a community of interest should be kept whole as a Congressional District!! Colorado's 59th House District should be in the 4 Corners area as a community of interest. Difficulty in traversing the mountain passes should be considered for good communication for proper representation. Traveling through other legislative districts and over multiple mountain passes to get to all of the district does not make sense. I support the Club20 and Action22 proposals.

I hope Aurora and nearby neighborhoods will be kept in one district. My family is Armenian and having Aurora in one district is the only reason why our current Congressman (and the one before) listen to our concerns about our ancestral homeland, which was invaded by genocidal regimes last year

Dear Commissioners: Here on the Western Slope, my fellow Coloradans and I cherish, and are unified by, the rural life style. That includes open land, ranching, farming, forests and all joys and responsibilities that come with it. What is glaring on the current district map is how CD3 and CD4 are extended into urban areas. Those geographically small urban areas are large in population and therefore have undue influence over vast portions of the state. Portions of the state beyond their interest or concern. Those of us in the rural areas are deprived of our voice. CD3 should be western Colorado from Utah to the continental divide. That gives voice to a large geographic area with a diverse population - without dividing communities. The divide is a natural boundary that does not imply political maneuvering. Thank you.

“First and foremost, thank you for taking our comments. I am looking forward to having fair districts that each represent Colorado’s diverse interests. My name is Savannah Wolfson, and I live in [my town's name]. It is a small, mountainous town in [X] County. I have dairy goats, beehives, turkeys, and chickens. Being in an agricultural district is very important to me. In addition, it is important to [X] County’s tourist industry. Many tourists cite the surrounding beauty of ranchlands as a reason they prefer skiing here, as opposed to the surrounding “condolands” in other ski towns. I have heard that there are some who would divide Colorado horizontally or vertically. I fear the horizontal option-- I feel absolutely no kinship with the Front Range. When I drive East out of the mountains, a rare event, I feel like I am going to a different country. Ranchers and miners have very different interests and needs and voices than people living in the big cities and suburbs. The vertical option makes much more sense to me. We have a Western Slope, a Front Range, and an Eastern Plain. We Coloradans know these terms and use them naturally, because they are clear representations of our regions. We do not have any terms for a horizontal divide, because there is none. In South [X] County, we are Western Slope. The primary jobs people hold are in agriculture, mining, remote work from home, some marijuana, and tourist/resort industry work. Many who live here are big second amendment advocates and have a cowboy vibe. South [X] still holds rodeos in the middle of the road, with real cowboys and cowgirls. We also hold the [X] Mountains, over 235,000 acres of public land. People come from all over the world to hunt and recreate here, and the snow in the [X] is critical to the Colorado River. Thank you for considering the unique identity of each Colorado region. I look forward to seeing your finished work.”

My name is David Wolfson, and I live in Routt County. We moved here because we wanted a more rural, safer lifestyle, and our family raises some livestock. I am a software engineer and work remotely for a company based in California. We grocery shop in Moffat County and Eagle County, because Routt County's ski-town prices are not affordable. With ranches and the Flattop Mountain range all around us, water rights are a big issue here. We feel we're a part of the Western Slope, and that the Front range lifestyle is not for us. Thank you for your consideration.

Dear Commission, My name is Jeannine Walters and I would like you to consider my comments regarding redistricting. Chaffee County is over 80% public lands, we rely on outdoor tourism, and we are suffering a housing crisis because of second home ownership pricing out our residents. These are the same issues common in other mountain communities and the Western Slope. We should be represented at the federal level with counties that have a similar geography. Currently, we are in a district dominated by El Paso County, a county with drastically different needs and a dominating share of the population. We need to be in a district where our shared needs can overcome a lack of population strength due to the share of public land within a county. At the state level, we should be included with other counties with high tourism and outdoor recreation levels. From shared interests with CDOT projects to common concerns with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the economic lifeblood of our county has more in common with Gunnison, Lake, Pitkin, and Eagle than it does with Teller or Fremont. With the change in the census count regarding prisoners in Colorado, Chaffee no longer shares the same level of community interest with other portions of HD 60. I want Chaffee to be included in the Third Congressional District on the federal level, and on the state level, stay in a boundary similar to the current Senate District 5. For the statehouse, I believe our county should be in a district that looks more like HD61 than our current boundaries. Thank you so much for your time.

Dear Commission, Thank you so much for your time and energy on this project my name is Chris Swan and I would like you to consider my comments regarding redistricting. I request that we be included in the Third Congressional District (CD3) and within House District 61 (HD61) and remain in Senate District (SD5) boundaries. I want to ensure effective representation and advocacy for our local community needs and priorities, which are generally more connected to our neighboring rural, western, recreation-focused communities than is reflected in districting right now. We have much more in common with proximate mountain counties including Lake, Pitkin, Eagle, and Gunnison that share our core economic drivers like tourism, outdoor recreation, and production ag and also share our priority needs like affordable housing, greater healthcare and childcare options and equity, land conservation and stewardship-driven policy addressing forest and watershed issues, and infrastructure improvements like broadband and roads. CD3 & HD61 seem better aligned for us with communities of shared interests.

Dear Commission, Thank you so much for your time and energy on this project my name is Jennifer Swan and I would like you to consider my comments regarding redistricting. Chaffee County is over 80% public lands, we rely on outdoor recreation tourism, and we are suffering a housing crisis due to second home ownership pricing out our residents. These are the same issues common in other mountain communities and the Western Slope. We should be represented at the federal level with counties that have a similar geography. Currently, we are in a district dominated by El Paso County, a county with drastically different needs and a dominating share of the population. Currently, we don't even have a field office in our county for constituent services. We need to be in a district where our shared needs can overcome a lack of population strength due to the share of public land within a county. At the state level, we should be included with other counties with high tourism and outdoor recreation levels. From shared interests with CDOT projects to common concerns with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the economic lifeblood of our county has more in common with Gunnison, Lake, Pitkin, and Eagle than it does with Teller or Fremont. With the change in the census count regarding prisoners in Colorado, Chaffee no longer shares the same level of community interest with other portions of HD 60. I want Chaffee to be included in the Third Congressional District on the federal level, and on the state level, stay in a boundary similar to the current Senate District 5. For the statehouse, I believe our county should be in a district that looks more like HD61 than our current boundaries. Thank you for your time. Jennifer Swan

Our shared interests are with the western slope and water unites us more than any other issue. Grand County is headwaters to the Colorado River. We also have smaller populations located in a larger area. We are a small, rural, county, with about 70% public lands, intense recreation and tourism both summer and winter, including two ski areas. With that said, our interests are how to manage increasing use of public lands, how to deal with the increased tourism, and supporting our agricultural community and those associated lands. Classes in our schools are still small, less than thirty (30) graduates from West Grand High, and about eight (80) graduates from Middle Park High School. Our public policy concerns are again similar to the rest of the west slope - traffic on the weekends and holidays. Often during the week, we have little traffic, especially on the west end. We have two towns with no stoplights and two towns with 1 stoplight each. Of our 780 miles of roads, about 80 miles are paved, the rest are gravel. Geographic areas and features of importance are the Colorado River, the Fraser River, (actually ALL our streams, rivers and reservoirs) Grand Lake - the deepest natural lake in Colorado, Rollins Pass, Gore Pass and that entire range. We cannot forget Rocky Mountain National Park either. One thing that residents continually voice, is how very important it is for Grand County to maintain our rural agricultural character. Our towns are separated by fields filled with livestock and wildlife in the winter and hay in the summer. Hunting is a huge economic driver for our county. During the winter, we not only have the ski areas spoke of before, but Rabbit Ears Pass draws snowmobilers from all over as well. These are very important for Grand county. Grand County is truly a rural mountain community. Trans-mountain diversions channel about 80% of our water to the front range. The fact is that our basic interests are different than those of larger cities. Boulder County has almost 330,000 residents within 742 square miles equaling 439 people per square mile. Grand County has less than 16,000 people spread out over 1868 square miles - about 8 people per square mile. Our largest town is Granby, which has less than 2000 residents! Grand County and the Towns (not cities) within, allow snowmobiles and motorcycles, utility vehicles and ATV's on our local town roads. Horses are used for packing and hunting, however, on occasion, people still ride their horses to restaurants in Grand Lake and "the PI" in Parshall, tie them outside, and enjoy dinner. Please take notice that we are VERY DIFFERENT from the front range cities. Our county deserves to be in a district with similar rural issues and rural interests. I ask you to please adopt the map drawn by Club 20. Please give Grand County our voice with similar communities. Thank you for your work on this.