Inform Firestone

From the Times-Call

Firestone voters to decide on Union

By Scott Rochat
Longmont Times-Call

FIRESTONE — Firestone voters will get to decide whether their town annexes the 350-acre Union property east of Longmont.

Firestone’s board of trustees voted 5-0 on Thursday to put the issue to a town election, which will be held Sept. 30. The town board approved the annexation in May, but a petition afterward by the group InformFirestone required the trustees to either kill the annexation or send it to the voters.

“I welcome the motion, whatever it may be,” Trustee Charlie Thomas said before the board voted. “I think we’ve spent a lot of time on this, and ultimately, we have a lot of other matters we need to address.”

This marks the second time that a referendum has been proposed on the Union property owned by LifeBridge Christian Church. A question on whether Longmont would annex the property was originally slated for a Jan. 29 vote, but LifeBridge withdrew its annexation request before then.

Setting the election this time proved challenging. Since the petition was ruled valid July 11, the vote had to come on a Tuesday sometime between Sept. 9 and Dec. 8. However, another state law says that a special election can’t be held 32 days before or after a primary or another election.

That left the board with just four choices: Sept. 16, Sept. 23, Sept. 30 and the general Election Day itself, Nov. 4. Town attorney Sam Light said the first two dates would mean a very tight schedule but that a general election might cause the issue to get lost in the shuffle.

“Typically, municipal items get buried,” Light said.

“People come in and they vote for the president and some state offices,” Trustee Butch Walb agreed. “Some of the local items don’t even get voted on. It’s a Firestone issue, and I think we need to keep the focus on Firestone in this election.”

The board voted 4-1 for the Sept. 30 date. The lone holdout was Trustee Matt Holcomb, who wanted it placed on the general election ballot.

“I’d like to save the community some money,” he said. “And I like the convenience of having it all at once.”

No formal cost figures were available Thursday, but town manager Cheri Andersen said a special election would likely cost the town about $10,000, which was the bill for Firestone’s April election. She estimated that merging it with the general election might save $2,000.

Dan Sanger of InformFirestone said he had hoped for a November vote, to allow more time for an informed discussion. That time frame could get even tighter, because Andersen still has to draw up the ballot language and time has to be allowed for a hearing if anyone objects to the wording.

“We’re into getting the information and getting it out there,” Sanger said. “I guess we’ve got a pretty short time frame to do it. But I guess that’s what we’re going to do.”

Sanger asked the board if it would make information on the annexation available, including some background that was originally on Firestone’s Web site. Light said the town had to tread carefully — it could supply factual information with pro and con arguments, but the board couldn’t take sides except to vote on a resolution supporting or opposing the measure. Individual board members, though, can participate in the election.

Light said it’s been at least a decade since Firestone had a local issue come to the ballot by petition. In fact, no official in the room could remember the last time it had happened.

“I think this is a very exciting time for Firestone,” Holcomb said. “Whatever happens … a group organized themselves, got in front of our citizens and put it to us. That’s exciting whatever happens. It’s government in action.”

Several other trustees agreed. But they also continued to support the annexation.

“My personal belief is that this is the right thing for the community,” Trustee Greg Foster said before the board’s vote. “It may not happen tomorrow, but as our children grow up, there’s an opportunity there to help the town of Firestone.”

“It is Firestone’s future,” Walb said.

Trustee Paul Sorensen, a member of LifeBridge, removed himself from the discussion and did not vote.

The town board also held a closed-door session later in the evening to get legal advice on its annexation dispute with Longmont. The Longmont City Council has been trying to annex land that would keep Firestone away from Longmont’s city limits, a move that could cut Firestone off from both the Union development and the Firelight Park development along Colo. Highway 119.

Scott Rochat can be reached at 303-684-5220 or srochat@times-call.com.

From the Times-Call

LifeBridge project likely to go to Firestone voters

By Scott Rochat
Longmont Times-Call

FIRESTONE — The Union annexation may soon head to the ballot box.

Tonight, Firestone’s board of trustees will decide whether to kill the 350-acre annexation east of Longmont or put it to the town’s voters. And at this point, both opponents and supporters of the project expect an election.

“I can’t imagine there’s going to be a repeal (by the board),” said Dan Sanger of InformFirestone, a group that petitioned against the Union development and for a public vote. “That doesn’t sound like it’s in the cards at this point.”

“My best guess is we’re going to uphold the (annexation) ordinances and that we’re probably looking at a special election,” agreed Mayor Chad Auer, who favors taking the development into the town.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the town hall, 151 Grant Ave.

It’s been a long wait for both sides. The board voted in May to take in the Union land, which is owned by LifeBridge Christian Church. InformFirestone shot back in June with two petitions calling for a referendum, petitions that were ruled valid July 11.

That’s where things have sat for about a month. In fact, InformFirestone prepared a letter asking when everything would start moving again — only to see the issue placed on the agenda just after the letter was released.

Auer said the delay was so that city staff could review the issue and lay out the board’s options.

“It’s a pretty lengthy packet this week,” he said.

And while an election may seem almost certain at this point, the date of that election is less clear. State law says it has to be sometime between 60 and 150 days after the petition was recognized, putting it somewhere between mid-September and mid-December.

That opens the possibility that the issue could be put on November’s general election ballot, one with several high-profile races, including the presidential election. From Sanger’s perspective, that would be ideal, since it would guarantee higher voter turnout.

“Our intent was not to make it so that only 300 people would decide on something that affects the whole community,” Sanger said.

The other option is to set a special election, where the annexation would stand alone on the ballot. That might be desirable, Auer said, to keep the focus local.

“This is a Firestone issue,” he said. “Obviously, it has a regional impact, but I think it principally is Firestone’s. I think people could make a case that we should have a special election.”

Either way, there’s a lot of preparation to do. Sanger said he’d like to see Firestone restore its “Union link” on the town’s Web site, which included information on the annexation.

“We’ll be asking tonight … where is it that we can find the information we need to make a responsible decision?” Sanger said.

Meanwhile, Auer noted all the planning that had gone into the annexation and said he thought the town would back the board.

“When I talk to constituents and to people around town, it sounds like it’s got community support,” he said.

Ultimately, he said, it’s the community that will make the call.

“If they say yes, we move ahead,” Auer said. “If they say no, we go back to square one and support the vote of the people.”

Scott Rochat can be reached at 303-684-5220 or srochat@times-call.com.

From the Times-Call

Union petition certified
Annexation must be reconsidered or put on ballot

By Kacia Munshaw
Longmont Times-Call

FIRESTONE — For the second time in a year, LifeBridge Christian Church’s Union project will face reconsideration or go to the vote of the people.

“I think it’s great that we’ve taken that first step, and now I hope the board sees the democratic process and gets it on the ballot,” said Tom Ward, a member of InformFirestone.

After the Firestone Board of Trustees on May 8 approved annexation of the 350-acre Union project, a group of residents known as InformFirestone started getting signatures on petitions asking for the town board to reconsider the annexation or take it to the vote of Firestone residents.

Longmont residents last August successfully petitioned the Longmont City Council to either reconsider the city’s annexation of Union or put it on the ballot. The council set a special election in January, but 4C, LifeBridge’s business organization, withdrew its annexation request before the election.

The same choice now goes to Firestone officials.

“I understand and agree with the petition process,” said Firestone Mayor Chad Auer. “However, we approved the annexation based on all of the information that we had presented by town staff and the applicant, and we stand by that decision.”

Town clerk Judy Hegwood said both petitions turned in on June 13 — InformFirestone circulated two petitions because the Union annexation involved two tracts of land — had more than the 250 signatures needed. One petition had 285 valid signatures, and the other had 274, she said.

Now, InformFirestone members have more work to do, group member Dan Sanger said.

“We didn’t want to do this with the notion of ‘Let’s put this on the ballot and then go away’ — that doesn’t really accomplish the goal,” he said. “Now we need to get some really solid answers and get that information out there.”

The group might host forums where residents can discuss the project, he said.

The town board will look at the annexation again at an upcoming meeting. The earliest it could appear on a town board agenda is July 24 meeting, but Hegwood said it has not been scheduled.

“We will get to this as soon as we possibly can,” Auer said. “We are working hard on all of the things we have to vote on, and this will be no exception.”

If the board decides not to reconsider the annexation, it will have to put the issue to a vote of residents.

Martin Dickey, chief operating officer for 4C, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Kacia Munshaw can be reached at 303-684-5334 or kmunshaw@times-call.com.

From the Times-Call

Is bigger better?

Union project is 4 times larger in Firestone than it was in Longmont

By Rachel Carter and Kacia Munshaw
Longmont Times-Call

LONGMONT — Union grew fourfold when it went to Firestone.

LifeBridge Christian Church pulled its 350-acre Union project out of Longmont and took it to Firestone this spring, where the scope of the mixed-use development increased more than 400 percent, according to numbers from both Longmont and Firestone’s planning departments.

Longmont approved 317 residential units for the project, a mix of single-family homes, townhomes, duplexes, lofts and condos.

Firestone is allowing a maximum of 1,623 residential units in Union, although town officials expect that only 1,217 of those will be built.

The commercial square footage remained the same: a maximum of 680,000 square feet of mixed-use commercial space and an additional 565,500 square feet for an assisted-living center.

Firestone also is allowing more civic and religious development, nearly 1.5 million square feet, as opposed to the maximum of 1 million square feet that Longmont set.

Overall, the density of the project increased by about four times.

That’s what some people were afraid of.

“When it leaves (your) jurisdiction, you just don’t have any idea what’s going to happen down the road,” Longmont Mayor Roger Lange said Thursday. “You just lose control.”

Last fall, after the Longmont City Council voted to annex LifeBridge’s land into city limits and approved Union’s preliminary development plans, residents who opposed the project passed a referendum to overturn the council’s vote.

That forced the project to a public vote during a special election, but that election never happened because LifeBridge and the church’s business arm, 4C, withdrew plans to develop in Longmont and instead took them to Firestone.

During the Longmont debate, residents questioned the cost of providing services to Union, as well as the environmental effects and whether the church’s tax-exempt status would affect what taxes would be paid.

Supporters argued that LifeBridge’s Union project would develop — in either Weld County or a neighboring town — so it would be better for Longmont to have control over that development.

Lange said Firestone’s approved plans do “not sound like a positive direction as far as we’re concerned.”

Residents who helped pass the referendum, and were hoping to give Longmont residents a chance to vote on the project, don’t regret how things are playing out.

“Longmont dodged a big bullet, as far as I’m concerned,” Longmont resident Kaye Fissinger said Friday.

Both she and Richard Juday, who helped pass the referendum to overturn Union’s annexation into the city, said the project would have been a financial burden to Longmont, and both suspect it will be an even bigger burden to Firestone.

And if Union’s plans are more dense than before, they both said, the development will be even more damaging to wildlife habitat there.

“Most of the problems I had with the annexation still stand, only it will be Firestone having to deal with those problems instead of Longmont,” Juday said.

He added, “I’m a Longmont resident. My loyalties are to Longmont.”

Firestone Mayor Chad Auer said the town Board of Trustees did its homework, and he is confident the board made a good decision when it approved the Union plans.

When a developer comes to Firestone asking to annex into town limits, town planners review the application to ensure the plans jibe with town regulations and requirements, Firestone town manager Cheri Andersen said.

And, both Andersen and Auer said, 4C’s Union plans do.

“If a person were to drive through Firestone, they would see we have nice neighborhoods with parks and trails, and we are in control right down to what the fences look like,” Auer said. “We want to make sure that development is done well, with smart growth.”

Union plans, which trustees approved May 8, are an outline of what the project could look like when completed in 15 or 20 years, Auer said.

He also said Firestone officials will be involved in every step of the process.

But as they were approving the Union project, Auer said, Firestone leaders had to look into the future.

“It is important that people understand that we are going through the long-term vision process,” Auer said. “This doesn’t mean by the fall that there is going to be thousands of homes. This is a big process that we are working through.”

In June, a group of Firestone residents known as InformFirestone circulated a referendum petition that could ultimately take the Union annexation to a vote of the people.

The Firestone town clerk has until Tuesday to certify the petition, which has about 350 signatures.

InformFirestone member Dan Sanger said the group was concerned that such a huge project was approved in only six weeks, and that they believe town officials and residents need to spend more time making sure all questions regarding the development are answered before it becomes a part of Firestone.

Rachel Carter can be reached at 303-684-5216 or rcarter@times-call.com.

From the Times-Call

Firestone OKs new Union height limit

Buildings can now be up to 75 feet tall

By Kacia Munshaw
Longmont Times-Call

FIRESTONE — Firestone leaders unanimously approved a plan for the Union development Thursday night that would allow a building as tall as 75 feet on the site.

That’s 20 feet taller than the tallest building approved by the Longmont City Council last year when it was considering LifeBridge Christian Church’s request to annex into the city.

This has caused some concern for residents in neighborhoods surrounding the development, many of whom have spoken at public hearings held when developers were seeking approval from Weld County and Longmont.

“I don’t understand why you have to have such a tall building,” said Duane Leise, an Elms at Meadow Vale homeowner, a neighborhood that borders the Union development. “Is a bigger building going to help the poor or help the sick?”

The annexation, zoning and outline development plan for the Union development — proposed by LifeBridge’s business arm, 4C — calls for about 1,200 residential units, a commercial front, a senior living center and a religious civic center. The religious area would be the tallest section of the plan, with a height of 60 feet and the possibility to go up to 75 feet

“In terms of the building-height issue, what’s next or what the whole development will look like, there’s more steps in the process,” Firestone Mayor Chad Auer said.

During Thursday’s Firestone Town Board meeting, concerns regarding the height did come up, he said.

However, Auer said town staff is working closely with the developers and will work to make the project acceptable to Firestone residents as well as Union’s neighbors.

“I’m comfortable with where they are heading,” Auer said. “It is going very well and very smooth.”

The plan also calls for a strip of residential buildings that are 45 feet tall and could extend to 55 feet.

When Union’s developers sought approval to annex into Longmont city limits, neighbors asked for building heights that would fit in with surrounding buildings and would not obstruct their views.

“There’s a lot of people out there who have this as their No. 1 issue,” Leise said. “We’ve had an appraiser out here who said it could bring a 15 percent decrease of our home values.”

This consideration was taken seriously when working on approving the plan, said Brad Schol, director of planning and development for Longmont.

“The height concerns were really examined closely,” he said. “We had very limited areas with the maximum height.”

The highest building structures outlined in the plan with Longmont were 45 to 55 feet, Schol said.

4C worked for two years to annex into Longmont before withdrawing the application in January. The group submitted an annexation application to Firestone in March, and it was approved May 8.

That doesn’t mean 4C will be breaking ground any time soon. Firestone and Longmont are both trying to annex right of way along Colo. Highway 119 and Weld County Road 26 — Longmont to maintain a buffer around the city and Firestone to annex Union and the nearby Firelight Park property.

Kacia Munshaw can be reached at 303-684-5334 or kmunshaw@times-call.com.

From the Times-Call

Publish Date: 6/14/2008

Group still taking signatures to get Union on Nov. ballot

By Kacia Munshaw
Longmont Times-Call

FIRESTONE — InformFirestone members on Friday gave the town clerk petitions asking officials to put the annexation of the Union property on the ballot.

But the group is still trying to get more signatures, which they’ll turn in Monday.

“We will still be collecting signatures this weekend,” InformFirestone member Dan Sanger said Friday. “We want to give everyone the chance to have their voices heard.”

The group and town staff disagreed on the petition’s deadline.

The town said it was due Friday, and the group said it should be due Monday.

Sam Light, town attorney, cautioned the group to turn the petition in both days, until the dispute can be resolved.

When residents choose to petition a decision made by the town board, they have 30 days from when the ordinance is published in the newspaper to get an application approved and collect signatures from 5 percent of registered voters.

The board’s decision to annex the Union project was published May 15, so the official due date for the petition is Sunday.

“As we read it, we should have until Monday to turn it in,” Sanger said. “We have been advised by the town attorney to turn it in both days, so that’s what we are doing.”

Since June 4, InformFirestone members have been walking door to door and setting up posts outside of King Soopers and the Firestone Post Office to collect the needed 250 signatures.

Sanger said the response has been overwhelming.

“It’s a scary thing because you don’t know how people are going to react to you, but it has been a very positive experience,” he said.

The Firestone town clerk, Judy Hegwood, said she expects to determine if the petition is valid by the middle of next week.

“I have to verify all of the signatures, so it will take some time,” she said Friday.

If the group is successful, the board will be asked to reconsider its decision to annex the Union development into town limits or put the issue on the ballot.

This is the second time a group of residents have asked that the development go to a vote.

Longmont residents petitioned against the city’s annexation of Union last August and it was scheduled to go to a special vote in January.

4C, LifeBridge Christian Church’s business organization, pulled its application to annex into Longmont before the election date.

Kacia Munshaw can be reached at 303-684-5334 or kmunshaw@times-call.com.

From the Greeley Tribune:

Life Bridge church development in dispute again, this time with Firestone residents

Christopher Ortiz
cortiz@greeleytribune.com

The decision to let a megachurch build its massive religious complex in Firestone should be one made by voters, according to one group.

InformFirestone is leading a campaign to collect enough signatures to ask voters if LifeBridge Christian Church should be allowed to build its Union development project in their town.

Dan Sanger, one of the founders of InformFirestone, said it’s not an issue that LifeBridge is a church. Rather, the issue is if the town board rushed its decision to annex land for the project and had all the information it needed before giving the go ahead.

Read the rest of this entry »

Group seeks to get 250 signatures to overturn Union development decision

By Kacia Munshaw
Longmont Times-Call

FIRESTONE — A group of Firestone residents has begun collecting the 250 signatures it needs to overturn the town board’s decision to annex the 350-acre Union development into Firestone town limits.If InformFirestone collects enough signatures, the annexation could go to a vote of the people.

“The crux of the issue is that there need to be some more questions answered,” said Dan Sanger, a member of InformFirestone.

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Firestone group wants annexation on ballot

By Kacia Munshaw
Longmont Times-Call

FIRESTONE — For the second time in less than a year, LifeBridge Christian Church’s attempt to annex its Union development into a municipality has prompted a petition drive.

Last August, Longmont residents gathered enough signatures to force the City Council to either reconsider its annexation of Union or put it to the vote of residents.
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The official petitions have been approved and circulation has begun.

If no circulator is present when you visit King Soopers or the Firestone Post Office, email InformFirestone at informfirestone@gmail.com. We will be happy to have someone visit you to enable you to sign the petitions.