Conservation Corner
Boulder Reservoir
The wetlands adjoining the access road to Boulder Reservoir are ecologically important for a number of reasons. Notably, they host the only remaining nesting sites in Boulder County for once-common Northern Harriers, as well as nesting sites for American Bitterns.
Significant disturbances would have been caused by the proposed licensing of a restaurant with a liquor license and proposed sound system to operate seven days a week blasting music until midnight—Coney Island on the Rez. This proposal seems mercifully to have died.
Composting Facility
In February, the County Public Works department made an ill-conceived and disastrously prepared application for a special use permit for an industrial-scale composting facility on county open space at the site of the former Rainbow Tree Nursery Site, east of US 287 and north of Lookout Road. This is clearly not an acceptable use of open space, and it rapidly became clear that the proposed composting process had not been well thought out. No local agricultural operations, for example, were willing to accept compost produced in the ways described at the time. The county commissioners have wisely directed staff to go back to the drawing boards.
CU-South
This situation has a long and complicated history and it encompasses many complex community priorities, from flood control to open space. A full discussion would require far more space than this column. The immediate problems are that the city utilities staff are proceeding with a South Boulder Creek flood mitigation design that may be poorly conceived and that the University is using its ownership of property needed for flood mitigation as leverage to force Boulder City Council to annex the land without appropriate agreements in place.
CU wants the annexation to obtain city services—water and utilities—to allow it to develop the property. Normally, Boulder will not annex property without a well-defined site plan, describing what will be built in detail. Since CU is a state entity, it does not have to follow any city ordinances, zoning requirements, or planning processes unless they are specified in the annexation agreement. Thus, the current rush to annexation without an adequate agreement is a very bad idea.
As a result, several local groups (PLAN-Boulder County and Save South Boulder) are working on a ballot initiative that would require a citizen vote to approve any annexation. Stay tuned.
Proposed Eldorado Canyon-Walker Ranch Trail
A feasibility study for such a trail was jointly issued by Boulder County, Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks (OSMP), and the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife (CPW) in 2018. The route described would have had completely unacceptable impacts on the Boulder Mountain Park State Natural Area. At this point, CPW put the entire proposal on hold until it had completed a Visitor Use Master Plan (VUMP) for Eldorado Canyon State Park. The VUMP was scheduled to be released in late 2020, however, it has not yet been released and not updated release date is available.