Two Longmont developers are suing the city over how the new water fee has been implemented.
Continental 510 Fund LLC and Continental 659 Fund LLC, who are developing the Springs at Longmont in the southeast corner of the city, filed a lawsuit in mid-April in Weld County District Court against the city and City Attorney Eugene Mei.
According to documents filed by the developers, after conveying all historical water rights associated with the land to the city, it was determined that the 212-unit multifamily community would still be in deficit of meeting the city’s raw water requirements.
In June 2020, the city’s water board set a cash-in-lieu rate per acre-foot of water, though the developers say they were never provided notice of the total amount.
In March 2022, the Longmont City Council passed a resolution increasing the water fee per acre-foot and the methodology of how the fee was to be calculated. According to court documents, this increased the developers’ cash-in-lieu fees by over $2 million.
The lawsuit argues that the new fee structure should only apply to new applications and not those that are pending. The lawsuit quotes Mei clarifying to the council at a March meeting, “You apply the rules that were in effect at the time of your application.”
Mei said later in the meeting, after the resolution passed, that the resolution would apply to any party that “was not at final plat yet” and had not paid the fee, according to the court document. The developers argue that this contradicts his statement made prior to the council vote.
When the final plat was approved in the summer of 2022, the lawsuit claims that the developers were not asked to pay the raw water deficit. They were notified in February of the additional $2 million fee, according to court documents.
The developers asked for judgment that the new fee would not apply to developments at work when the resolution passed.
A spokesperson for the city said that the parties are working toward a resolution and/or settlement of the issue. The attorney representing the developers did not respond to an email from the Longmont Leader.
