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VOLUME 22, NUMBER 8
LYONS, COLORADO
RESIDENT / OCCUPANT PRSRT STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID LYONS, CO PERMIT No 2053 $.50
SEPTEMBER 15 / OCTOBER 13, 2021
B •R •I •E •F •S Lyons Spooktacular Halloween LYONS – Mark your calendars Lyons. Saturday, October 30. Town staff is working to plan a safe, outdoor family friendly (and Covid aware) Lyons Spooktacular Parade and events. Look for updates via email in October.
Improvements involving closure slated for State Highway 7 LYONS – In September, CDOT and its contractor Kiewet Infrastructure will begin the state’s final flood recovery project in Boulder County. This permanent repair project requires a full closure of State Highway 7 between miles 23 and 29.5 from September, 2021 through May, 2022, with morning and evening scheduled openings. The road will be open daily from 6 to 8 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. with pilot cars leading alternative one-way travel. Drivers should be prepared for delays.
Limb and slash drop-off event LYONS – Saturday and Sunday September 18 and 19 from 8 a.m. until noon, for residential use only, the town of Lyons, Boulder County, and Wildfire Task Force are hosting a fire mitigation and fuels reduction drop-off. This drop-off service is for residents with property located within the Lyons Fire Protection District boundary and is not for any commercial thinning operations. It will be held at 4687 Ute Hwy., just east of the tiny house builder in front of the town’s public works facility. Self-service unload (you unload your vehicle); limbs and logs are ok, no general compost will be accepted. No yard waste, grass, pine needles, pine cones, tree stumps, flood debris, dirt, rocks, construction materials, lumber or trash will be accepted. The drop-off is for residential use only. Volunteers from Lyons Fire Protection and other service organizations will ensure materials meet the requirements. No commercial drop-off will be accepted. Please share this information with your neighbors. We want to decrease our fuel loads and wildfire risk for everyone that lives in our area. Continue Briefs on Page 4
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I •N •D •E •X LYONS
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MAYOR’S CORNER
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INTEREST
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OPTIONS
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OPPORTUNITY
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INSIGHT
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CORNERSTONE
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A&E
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Lyons artist, Ryan Sohlden, is shown here painting a utility box in LaVern M. Johnson Park as part of the Creative Outlets program. He researched his subject at the Lyons Redstone Museum to determine the exact train that came into Lyons, and the look of the tickets. Sohlden put the name and birthdate of Edward Lyons on the train ticket. PHOTO BY CATHY RIVERS
COVID cases increase, Crown Castle installs new tower, Black Bear Hole will have new parking By Susan de Castro McCann Redstone Review Editor LYONS – At the Lyons substation, Bill Crist, the Lyons Police Chief, as he is referred to, from Boulder County Sheriff’s Dept., applied for and was granted another year to serve in Lyons. This is always good news for Lyons when the town can keep the Sheriff’s Dept. staff in place for a while longer after residents have come to know the popular police chief. The town board wrote a glowing letter of support for Chief Crist asking for an extension of his stay in Lyons. In other areas Town Administrator Victoria Simonsen reported on Covid-19 at the Sept. 7 town board meeting saying that Lyons is now in the high transmission category according to Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “This the highest we have been I think, since the pandemic started,” she said. The new mandate from the state is that everyone must wear a mask indoors unless everyone in the building has been vaccinated. Increasing numbers of cases are expected in the next six weeks, so Colorado is trying to stay ahead of the curve. “We are at 147 cases per 100,000 which is up from last week,” Simonsen said. She offered some Covid-19 statistics for Boulder County: Currently over 237,000 Boulder County residents have received at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose; 81.7 percent of eligible population, and 72.5 percent overall have received a full course of the Covid-19 vaccine. Over 80 percent of the Boulder County population aged 30+ years has received at least a partial course of a Covid-19 vaccine, ranging from 85.0 percent of 40 to 49 year olds to 100.0 percent of 70+ year olds.
In other news, Town Attorney Brandon Dittman reported on the Crown Castle cell towers installation going in along U.S. Hwy. 36 and specifically the tower installed near the Eagle Canyon subdivision. He said that Crown Castle asked him about the permitting process to install a tower and he told them last April that they had to go through the land use process and go before the town board to get permits the same as anyone else. Then he was told in May by Crown Castle that they were not going through any permitting process because they were building the cell tower on the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) right-of-way along Hwy. 36. Crown said that under Title 43 of state law, CDOT was part owner of the tower and no permits were necessary. Attorney Dittman said he found that hard to believe so he met with CDOT and was told that in fact it was true. The cell tower on CDOT property needs no local permits from the town of Lyons. Dittman asked for the town to be informed when construction would begin and for home owners in Eagle Canyon to be notified before construction began. None of that happened and now the tower is up and sitting there like an ugly monolith. See story on page 6 by Ken Singer. On other issues the trustees passed Ordinance 1108 to approve the rezoning of 3 lots at 431 4th Ave. from Commercial Zone to General Industrial Zoning District. The property owner, Steve McCain, requested the rezoning because he was notified that he was in violation of the Commercial Zone District with his heavy equipment for his excavation business on the property. The property was zoned medium density residential when he
bought the property and McCain requested and received approval from the town for a rezoning to Commercial Zoning in 2006. Now he is in non-compliance with his current zoning and was told to apply for rezoning to General Industrial Zone. The Planning and Community Development Commission (PCDC) along with town staff and Interim Town Planner Philip Strom all recommended a resounding denial of the request. Strom pointed out that the proposed rezoning request is not in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan. Strom’s written report to the board said: “The area requested for rezoning has not changed use since the property was purchased in 2003 and rezoning to GI would not encourage development or redevelopment of the area. Also, as discussed earlier in criteria #3, rezoning would be inconsistent with the goals and policies of the Comprehensive Plan.” Strom further pointed out legal issues in his report: “Risk of spot zoning, which defined by Anderson’s American Law of Zoning is the process of singling out a small parcel of land for a use classification totally different from that of the surrounding area for the benefit of the owner of such property and to the detriment of other owners. A claim of spot zoning would need to be brought against the town and the courts would determine whether the challenged zoning is spot zoning.” More than ten residents provided letters of support for McCain’s request for rezoning and a number of residents spoke out at the Zoom meeting in support for the rezoning request. In the end six of the seven board members voted in favor of the rezoning request and the ordinance was passed with Trustee Mark Continue Town on Page 14
