The Longmont City Council has approved the annexation of 138 acres of open space.
Council unanimously approved both a resolution finding the parcel eligible for annexation and the annexation and zoning ordinance for the parcel known as Peschel Open Space and Quicksilver Road. The council made no comments on the annexation before approval at Tuesday’s meeting.
The parcel includes six acres of Quicksilver Road right-of-way in Boulder County and 132 acres of jointly-owned open space property, known as the Peschel Open Space, on the east side of County Line Road, south of Colo. 119 and St. Vrain Creek and north of Country Road 20.5 in unincorporated Weld County.
The Envision Longmont Comprehensive Plan lists the Peschel property as “protected lands outside the Longmont planning area,” but it is within the city’s coordinated planning area with Weld County.
Longmont kept the property zoned for agriculture and for use as public open space along the St. Vrain Greenway. The property has a conservation easement limiting its use to strictly open space and farming, and staff said it would be in the best interest of the city to annex.
Longmont and Boulder County filed a formal annexation application in October 2021. The planning and zoning commission recommended conditional approval of the annexation in a 6-1 vote.
City staff previously told the Longmont Leader that an even larger annexation — 368 acres of McIntosh Lake open space — is scheduled to be presented to the city council in May.
