A proposed land exchange between two Longmont city-owned properties has received significant backlash for allegedly violating the terms of the open space agreement and for environmental concerns related to a proposed composting facility on industrial land. Through the proposed exchange, the city’s Utilities and Public Works department would exchange its Tull property with the city’s open space Distel property.
The city has been moving forward with this proposal since January and the Longmont City Council is set to make a decision during its meeting on August 12. The Distel property is being considered for a composting facility because the industrial disturbance made by the gravel processing operation would make it difficult to ecologically restore the land to use for open space.
Several Longmont residents have written to the Longmont Leader to say that they oppose the city’s move to develop land that is currently designated as open space. Resident Jamie Simo wrote, “This land swap sets a bad precedent. The most chilling statement by City staff at the last PRAB meeting was that this kind of exchange could and would become more common in the future. I know I didn’t vote to have my tax dollars go toward purchasing Open Space for development. Did you?”
Residents voted to extend the open space sales tax in November, and certain residents have stated that they feel as though the move to swap land with the Public Works Department is a violation of the public trust. “When we passed the Longmont Open Space Tax, we voted to keep land free from development in perpetuity,” wrote Jana Mendez, a former state senator and former Boulder County commissioner. “We didn't vote to keep land in reserve for future development. And the open space in question is in the middle of hundreds of acres of protected rural land. It includes: Farmland. River corridor. Wildlife habitat.”
Longmont Sustainability Advisory Board Member Ethan Augreen has also raised concerns regarding the use of a potentially-toxic industrial site for a composting facility. Augreen uncovered a Terracon geotechnical engineering report for the Distel property dated May 17, 2024 with an intended purpose of building a warehouse and office building on site. The report reveals a high water table and unstable soil.
The report states that “groundwater was observed in all borings at depths of approximately 2 to 9 feet below existing site grades while drilling.” The engineering report said the site would be appropriate for the intended warehouse project, but would require careful planning for the design and construction due to shallow groundwater levels and expansive soils.
“That means a few feet of dirt is all that separates the facility’s future operations — waste piles, leachate, trucks, machinery — from our region’s vulnerable groundwater table,” Augreen wrote in a Substack post.
Augreen said that while Terracon’s report didn’t address the needs of the proposed composting facility, the conclusions of the report can be extrapolated to the current proposal. “This combination — high groundwater + unstable soil — poses a serious engineering risk for any waste processing facility, especially one handling thousands of tons of moist organics in static aerated piles.”
Augreen also noted in a follow-up post that an Osprey nest was spotted directly adjacent to the proposed composting facility site, which raises legal challenges. City of Longmont staff is expected to discontinue work that is located in the area of a protected bird species and to provide a buffer zone. Colorado Parks and Wildlife requires 1320 feet or one-quarter mile between any osprey nest and human surface occupancy, “beyond that which has historically occurred in the area.”
“Once we build over Open Space, we can’t get it back,” Augreen wrote. “Once groundwater gets contaminated, it’s almost impossible to clean up. And once public trust is lost, it’s hard to restore. Let’s protect Longmont’s legacy of responsible stewardship by refusing to bury our values — and millions of dollars — in unstable ground.”
For now, the Longmont City Council will not be considering the potential use of the Distel site as a composting facility. The vote, scheduled for August 12, will only be regarding the proposed land exchange which would allow the city to develop this land that has been classified as open space.
“The Code requires consideration of whether the land is of equivalent value, the ecological value of the parcels, and whether the obtained parcel would better meet the purposes of Longmont’s Open Space Program,” the city’s webpage explains.
