Longmont City Council approved the annexation of a proposed 22-unit property in southern Longmont on Tuesday.
Council voted in favor of the ordinance for annexation, concept plan and zoning as residential single-family unanimously. Conditions for approval include landscape buffering and privacy fencing.
The 7.6 acre annexation, known as Westview Acres, is on the west side of Airport Road between Pike Road and Highway 119. The parcel would include 22 lots for single family detached residences, including two existing residences on the property.
The Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed the annexation and zoning agreement on Aug. 17 and voted 4-1 to recommend conditional approval. Conditions included drainage concerns and providing a landscape buffer and privacy fencing along the north, west and south sides of the property including fencing being installed prior to construction.
Don Burchett, planning manager for Longmont, outlined neighborhood concerns with the proposed annexation. Namely, compatibility was raised with nearby homeowners worried about the smaller lot sizes, home sizes, prices, quality and density of the properties. Traffic impacts were also raised.
A few residents expressed concerns about the annexation, raising many of these issues.
“I still don’t believe that the plan is compatible with the homes in the surrounding neighborhood,” said Carolyn Rothschild, who lives next to the proposed development. “The lot sizes are small. It results in a lot of density … It would be almost three times the density of the established neighborhoods on all three sides.”
Jack Bestall, the principal of developer Bestall Collaborative, emphasized his work to assuage many of these concerns, such as reducing the density from 24 to 22 units.
“We can’t go any lower than that because it won’t pay its way,” he said. “It won’t be sustainable in terms of taxes and services.”
The developer’s preliminary plat, which will be the official buildout plan, will go through the planning and zoning commission for final approval.
