Open Space Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2021 03 10

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February 10, 2021 Minutes Continued: Citizen Comments Re: Redtail Ridge From: cindy Bedell Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2021 10:57 PM To: Ember Brignull Subject: Redtail Ridge Agenda Item for 2.10.21 2/9/21 Dear Members of the Louisville Open Space Advisory Board, I see on the agenda that you will be hearing a presentation tomorrow (2/10/21) about the 6th GDP submittal of the proposed Redtail Ridge development, situated on over 390 acres at our Southeast Gateway. I hope that you will not vote to approve the requested Redtail Ridge public land dedication tomorrow night. Although the developer may pressure you for your endorsement, it is far too early in the process. Was this last large expanse of land replete with natural flora and fauna previously discussed as an open space priority? It was not purchased by the City, and now we are in a position of possibly losing our last opportunity to preserve large contiguous wildlife habitat, our SE Gateway viewshed, and open space buffers between rapidly urbanizing Broomfield. There are three points I'd like to make about this: 1.) The Redtail Ridge proposed development plan carves up the entire site into developable parcels. There is no clustering to preserve important habitat and contiguous natural areas. There is no plan to save the majority of the prairie dog colonies from extermination — other than the already protected Broomfield conservation area and perhaps a small, lightly used prairie dog town in the NW of the property. That's 110 acres of poisoned or gassed prairie dogs. Picture that. By the way, the prairie dog studies were done in 2018, so there could actually be more prairie dogs now - more than the 142 acres acres of prairie dog towns previously discovered. 2.) The sustainability features of this proposed development are very limited. It needs better design guidelines, such as dark night sky features that would benefit the raptors and other wildlife that reside on the site or use the site for hunting. It needs less expanses of concrete surface parking, more alternative transportation planning, and reduction of the 20,000+ projected daily vehicle trips. It needs more than rooftops that can allow solar panels. 3.) There is a creative option available. President Biden has set a national 30% conservation commitment goal. Louisville could be a municipal leader in setting aside at least 30% of this development for land, wildlife, buffers, and viewshed preservation! This could be done by the City of Louisville purchasing about 100 contiguous acres or more, in addition to the public land dedication from the developer. One vision I have, perhaps shared by you and others, is to site the new commercial development on the old Storage Tech footprint. Purchase at least 100 acres of open space in the undisturbed areas, strategically located to provide large contiguous wildlife corridors. Then if the City of Louisville wishes to put a small park for active recreation near the Monarch campus, we could have a balance of active recreation, protected open space, and the commercial development to provide the tax base some want. Alternately or in addition, the developer/owner of the land could put 30% of their land in a conservation easement for immediate tax benefit. Thank you for your time and consideration, Cindy Bedell 662 W. Willow St 11 of 77