Boulder County’s planning commission has taken the first step to allow a conservation easement to become a dense neighborhood in southwest Longmont.
On Wednesday, the county planning commission unanimously agreed that the termination of the Kanemoto Estates Conservation Easement aligns with the county’s comprehensive plan. The land in question sits on unincorporated Boulder County land, straddling Longmont’s city bounds, about a half mile north of the Colo. 119 and Airport Road intersection.
The applicant and owner of the conservation easement, Lefthand Ranch LLC, is proposing to annex the 40 acres into Longmont. While the conservation easement carries the Kanemoto name, the family has had nothing to do with this parcel since they sold it in 2020.
The development is being proposed as a mixed residential community known as Somerset Village to include single family and paired homes, four-plexes and flats along with community amenities. However, the developer wants to annex the land into Longmont, so the city would take over the development review process for the specifics.
Jack Bestall of Bestall Collaborative represents the owner of the property. He said the number of units on the property has not yet been finalized, but ranges from 300-426.
Bestall also noted that the high density is necessary to keep the homes in the affordable and attainable prices ranges, with the development aiming to serve residents in the 50-120% area median income.
For the property to be annexed into Longmont, the county needs to end the regulatory conservation easement on the property. While conservation easements typically designates an area to be open space in perpetuity, this easement included language to allow for termination should the county later decide that the development of the property would be appropriate with the comprehensive plan.
Janis Whisman, real estate division manager for Boulder County Parks and Open Space, explained Tuesday that this easement was not intended to be perpetual, as it was a regulatory requirement rather than a land purchase or donation to the county. She added that this area of Longmont had a few other parcels that were originally county easements that had similar termination language as this agreement and are now developed.
“It’s certainly infrequent and, as I mentioned before, not something that we typically look to do,” Whisman said. “We actually look to do the very opposite. Boulder County takes its conservation easement responsibility very seriously. We uphold the terms of the conservation easement.”
Roughly a dozen members of the public spoke in opposition to terminating the conservation easement and against the proposed development in general. Many raised concerns about the environment, the loss of open space and the safety impacts of a dense development in the area.
“To demonstrate full compliance with the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan and to demonstrate to the thousands of Boulder County residents that walk, bicycle, run and drive along the Kanemoto Estates Conservation Easement, (we ask) that in this instance Boulder County will choose to ethically practice environmentalism right here along the Front Range cities of Boulder County by refusing to terminate the (easement),” said Joe Stasiak, a resident near the easement and member of Keep Airport Road Environmental and Safe — a coalition of Longmont residents against the development.
Only David Emerson, who also lives near the development and works as the executive director of Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley, spoke in favor of ending the conservation easement, noting the need to provide those who work in Longmont a place to own a home.
Planning Commission Chair Mark Bloomfield noted that while public input at the meeting overwhelmingly opposed ending the conservation easement, he felt that there was another perspective to consider during their deliberations.
“I really want to represent the people that are not able to participate in a five-and-a-half hour meeting, and a lot of those people are the people that this kind of housing would actually benefit,” he said. “They’re the people that have to work two jobs; they have kids.”
The planning commissioners agreed that ending the conservation easement aligns with Boulder County’s long term planning goals, which includes focusing growth in the cities. They also believed it best to let Longmont decide the specifics of this development through its local processes.
As per the agreement with the county, the easement would not be released until Longmont approved the annexation of the land into the city. The Boulder County Board of Commissioners will next take up the discussion about this conservation easement, which will include a yet undisclosed sum of money paid to Boulder County Parks and Open Space by the developer in exchange for terminating this easement.
