Public Comments

I live in Beulah, Pueblo County. During the last redistricting, they moved us to Alamosa district which then didn't allow us to vote for Representatives from our County, Pueblo. I would like to see our town moved back into Pueblo County not a county that is 2 hours away.

Chaffee County has >80% public lands, low population density, and significant considerations for the increasing development and environmental pressures we're facing. Right now, we are grouped in CD5 with El Paso County, a densely urban community and county >33x our size. 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. Thank you for reconsidering.

I am a Boulder resident. I am concerned about COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST and COUNTY BOUNDARIES. I think redistricting based on Communities of Interest will make for a better redistricting map than a map based on county boundaries. The closest example is Erie, CO where some residents are in Weld County and others are in Boulder County. Their primary COMMUNITY OF INTEREST is their city, not county. There are a number of such towns/cities that have grown across county boundaries since they were created well over a hundred years ago. Other examples of COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST are the eastern plains and western slope. These are now pretty well kept together. However the mountain towns (including Nederland in Boulder County) are split between CD2, CD3, and CD5. Perhaps they would be better represented by being included in one Congressional District. In summary, I hope that you will consider COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST as being MORE IMPORTANT than maintaining current COUNTY BOUNDARIES.

we need to beware of political forces seeking to eliminate any opposing views by gerrymandering. One party rule is for Communists.

When redistricting any district you need to understand that there are/can be serious differences in concerns between rural and urban areas and districts need to reflect this differences and not allow the urban areas to dominate the opinions and concerns of the rural areas as they do now. Thank you

Dear COIRC, I previously commented on Congressional redistricting. I am a Longmont resident in the Northwestern portion of the city, and have been here since ~2006. Senate District 17 is basically ideal as it is. The communities of 287 not only share the highway but also share a specific relationship to Boulder that the rest of the county does not. It is not as mountainous or outdoors focused, but still strongly values open space and the environment. We have more of a small-business, middle-class ethic, whereas many of the communities in Senate District 18 are mountainous. While both communities are strongly similar, the split as it is now almost perfectly represents the two forms of Boulder County. Please keep these two districts as close to the same as possible. House Districts 11 and 12 are good as they are, but I feel they can be improved. Now they split Longmont and include many other communities. While Longmont has many similarities to other cities (A mashup of Boulder, Ft. Collins and Louisville is a decent way to think about it), it is its own unique place. A place like Lyons does not have more similarity to Longmont than Boulder. While HD11 and HD12 are acceptable, as these communities are related, I would prefer that HD11 be entirely contained within Longmont, and the remaining ~10,000 Longmonters be included in a district with Southeastern Weld towns. The very Easternmost portions of Longmont have a composition which is more Hispanic, more conservative, more economically challenged, and more business-friendly. These areas fit well with Firestone, Frederick, Mead etc. if they can't fit with the rest of Longmont. I have also attached a map which splits Boulder County between five districts. One for Longmont (HD11), one for Southeastern Boulder cities (Louisville, Lafyatte, Superior, etc.) (HD12), one for most of Boulder itself (HD10), one for the mountain areas in and around Boulder County (HD13), and one for Easternmost Longmont and Southeastern Weld towns (HD63?). I generally believe cities would prefer to be 80-90% whole rather than split down the middle. Thank you for your consideration, Bheema

I am a resident of Parker, CO where I've lived since 2015. Prior to that I was active duty in the military and my voting address was my parent's home in northern El Paso County. I am currently mobilized in the Reserves and stationed at the Pentagon and last year was stationed in Tampa, FL. My home and family are still in Parker which is where I vote. In countless moves in my military career since 2000 I have had the opportunity to live in and be part of many local communities as well as the military community. I believe our diversity as a nation is important, and I worry that to many people are becoming hyper-localized and fail to have the benefit of exposure to people with other lived experiences. This is too often reflected in the gerrymandered congressional districts that pervade our country where crazy lines are drawn in an effort to protect partisan hegemony rather that natural borders based on geography or existing political (city/county) lines. I urge this commission to ensure that partisan reasons are not used to create new districts at the congressional or legislative level. Doing so will only further fracture us as a nation. I would ask that the commission seek natural districts which, to the best extent possible, reflect the diversity of our state's communities and peoples. Districts with both rural and urban centers and which are naturally aligned geographically. Do not create so-called "safe" republican or democrat districts. Colorado generally is a purpose state. Its districts should also be predominantly purple. Hopefully avoiding partisian based districts will ensure our leaders and the communities they serve recognize the value in diversity of ideas which will better reflect our Colorado values.

Howdy, I've been fortunate to live for the past 12 years in the original Green Valley Ranch subdivision of Denver -- between 48th Avenue on the North, Piccadilly Road on the East, 38th Avenue on the South, and Tower Road on the West. The Highline Canal trail runs through our mostly suburban housing stock, connecting many parks, playgrounds and paved paths all the way out to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge (where you can watch deer, bison and prairie dogs play :-) The GVR brand is very successful and unites our unique, rapidly growing community of interest. In point of fact, the various developers in the area are applying the well-liked GVR label to everything between 56th Avenue on the North, E470 on the East, 38th Avenue on the South, and Peña Boulevard on the West (so currently covering both Denver and Aurora!) Folks and developers' signs are now starting to use sub-labels eg. GVR South, GVR North, GVR West, GVR Aurora, GVR OG, etc. The GVR (South) HOA is already one of the largest in the state and many members help organize Farmers' Markets, concerts, and movie nights throughout the summer (that often take place in GVR North yet bring in many people from the other new developments surrounding GVR, including Painted Prairie and the Aurora Highlands.) The close proximity to the airport brings many job opportunities and new immigrants to our community. It is the nicest, most diverse, and most affordable community for working families around the metro area -- and the people are generally some of the least concerned about politics, unlike so much of the rest of Denver. For example, the GVR Metro District is almost always looking to fill at least one or two vacancies on the Board of Directors, and their website at https://gvrmetrodistrict.com/ doesn't even work (see attachment of screen print today.) Unfortunately, the recent government pandemic shutdowns wreaked havoc on the local economy, crushing large swaths of the travel and tourism industry in GVR; which was fortunately offset to some degree by the huge increase in shipping and receiving jobs due to our area's many new storage and distribution centers. Although residential houses and warehouses are still being built, I'm concerned that without better representation to defend our freedom and liberty in the future against the overreach of paranoid mad-scientist epidemiologists, the community might not rebound on its own. Such representation is not to be found in trying to lump in GVR with the rest of Denver. Many maps of Denver already leave off the far northeast corners of GVR and DIA. The Denver visitors' bureau doesn't even try to include GVR -- their website at https://www.denver.org/about-denver/neighborhood-guides/ lists the likes of Olde Town Arvada and Lakewood instead, despite the areas in and around GVR getting new hotels every few months eg. Gaylord Rockies with 1,500+ rooms, and a population rapidly nearing 50,000 residents in just the 80249 zip code. In conclusion, please consider carving out everything east of Peña Boulevard into a new Congressional District centered around the heavily-federally-regulated Denver International Airport and nearby Colorado Air and Space Port, that would help keep my friends and neighbors working in the air flying planes (and, soon, rockets) and on the ground driving trucks, cabs, ride shares and rental car buses. Thank you for your time and consideration. Kind Regards, Chris Maj Green Valley Rancher

Good Morning, I am concerned over Redistricting 2021. I live in Routt County. Agriculture, oil and gas, and tourism are hugely important to those of us living in the rural areas of the Western Slope. We think and live our lives completely differently from the residents in the cities of Colorado. For this reason I’m urging you to not combine our congressional and senatorial districts with the heavily populated areas. 2 of the examples I provide are the reintroduction of wolves, voted on primarily by residents in Colorados cities, and the oil and gas measures that have strangled our production here in the West. Tourism is one of 2 drivers of our economy in Routt and that will not flourish if we don’t keep our individualism. Thank you for considering these thoughts. Donna Russo

Keep CO3 the way it is! There is NO need to tinker with! And WHY would you want to change it? You your benefit? And "Independent" groups are always leftist. STOP with your communist agenda!