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LOOK FOR REDSTONE REVIEW AT ISSUU.COM / SDCMC VOLUME 18, NUMBER 10
LYONS, COLORADO
RESIDENT / OCCUPANT PRSRT STD ECRWSS US POSTAGE PAID LYONS, CO PERMIT No 2053 $.50
NOVEMBER 15 / DECEMBER 13, 2017
B •R •I •E •F •S Lyons Holiday Parade of Lights LYONS – The bright glow of the holidays arrives again in the Town of Lyons on Sat. Dec. 2. The weekend of holiday festivities will begin with the Lyons Holiday Craft Bazaar at Lyons Elementary on Dec. 2, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Dec. 3, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The other highlight of the weekend is sure to be the Holiday Parade of Lights on Sat. Dec. 2. The parade will start at 6:30 p.m. and will be filled with illuminated, colorful floats, many of which will be decorated in the theme of this year’s parade, “Peace on Earth.” Learn more and sign up today to enter the parade. Live music and entertainment will follow the parade at approximately 7:15 p.m. in Sandstone Park and on the Raul Vasquez Community Stage. Among those performing this year will be the Lyons High School and Elementary School Show Choirs. At 7:40 p.m. the sky will be illuminated by a fireworks display, thanks to the generous donations from the Lyons Community Foundation and other local supporters. The event will close with the parade Awards Ceremony after the fireworks show, awarding the outstanding parade entries of 2017. The ceremony will be held on the Raul Vasquez Community Stage in Sandstone Park. For more information, go to www.lyonscolorado.com/holidayparade.
Revegetation volunteers needed LYONS – The St. Vrain Creek Coalition is looking for volunteers for re-vegetation in Apple Valley South to help meet their matching funds. The next event, which includes willow staking, is scheduled for Sat. Nov. 18. Your participation helps to complete the projContinue Briefs on Page 4
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Gwynne Owen photographed this majestic wild turkey hen in Lyons. Ben Franklin, while in France during 1784, wrote a letter to his daughter Sally in Philadelphia expressing his opinion of the wild turkey vs the bald eagle: “For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America...”
Lyons BOT defers decisions on the five-acre rule, shooting range issues, and water for the library By Mark Browning Redstone Review LYONS – Plenty of talk, but no action was the theme of the day (and night) at the November 6 Lyons Board of Trustees meeting. Browning The trustees spent three and one-half hours, plus more than an hour at a workshop, reviewing some important issues – the “five-acre rule,” the new library, the 2018 budget, a shooting range, stormwater drainage – but final decisions on all those things are yet to come. The issue with probably the biggest longterm significance for Lyons and its surrounding area was the five-acre rule, a 1980 ordinance requiring annexations of more than five acres of non-Town owned land to go to voters for approval. The ordinance was adopted after voters approved an advisory citizens’ initiative to limit growth. With utilities extensions to the Eastern Corridor area on Highway 36/66 in the works and no large annexation requests in that area in the 17 years since the five-acre rule went into effect, BOT members seemed to generally agree modifying that rule is now
appropriate. But as to how to modify it, no consensus was apparent. Individual trustees’ opinions were literally all over the map during the workshop session on annexations. Even “directions to staff” to prepare draft ordinances for a December 4 continued public hearing on the five-acre rule reflected several options, none of which appeared to have majority support, much less a consensus. Trustee Barney Dreistadt suggested keeping things simple by just changing the fiveacre limit to ten acres for the Eastern Corridor. There are few parcels in that area larger than ten acres, he pointed out, allowing annexation without an election (but still review by future boards) for most tracts in the area, but still requiring a vote on larger properties with more impact on growth. He did not suggest changing the five-acre rule for other planning areas, including Apple Valley and the South St. Vrain Road area. Trustee Jim Kerr concurred that changes in the five-acre rule should be limited to the Eastern Corridor only, focusing on commercial development there. If things like housing in other planning areas are added, he said, people won’t vote for them. “I’d probably vote against it myself,” he said.
“Simple” does not accurately describe other concepts discussed. There was much talk of whether, and how, to craft an exception to the five-acre rule for developments that would include affordable housing, but the complexities of addressing that issue in an annexation ordinance may make it hard to do so. Mayor Connie Sullivan said that as important as affordable housing is to Lyons, she was skeptical that it could be tackled in the fiveacre rule ordinance. Trustee Wendy Miller, however, wanted to continue to work on an affordable housing exception to the rule. Other concepts discussed were modifying the rule to allow annexations without elections if the total developable area (as opposed to total property size) was less than five acres, or ten acres, or a percentage of total property area, or zoned for only for multi-family housing rather than single-family residential. The Town attorney was ultimately directed to draft proposed ordinances reflecting several varieties of those options for consideration at the December 4 meeting. There was more of a consensus on results of a recent “field trip” to explore a possible shooting range east of Lyons on Cemexowned property. Boulder County is considering that possibility, both to provide a training facility for law enforcement personnel and to address concerns with unauthorized shooting in open space areas. BOT members agreed that noise concerns relating to the proposed shooting range were minimal within town limits, based on observations from recent test firings at the range Continue Town on Page 15