The good folks up in Longmont are still working to establish open space on their eastern boarder as well as make sure the 4C/LifeBridge development doesn't cost their taxpayers millions of dollars.

From the Longmont Times-Call:

LONGMONT — Firestone and Longmont leaders might be ready to start negotiating an end to their border war.

Firestone Mayor Chad Auer gave a letter to Longmont Mayor Roger Lange on Tuesday pitching a possible deal that could end two months of wrangling over land on Longmont’s eastern boundary.

In the letter, Auer outlines a plan to allow Firestone to annex LifeBridge Christian Church’s Union property but still allow Longmont to keep a buffer between Firestone and Longmont.

It’s our best work to date. I really feel like it has a lot of win-wins in there,” Auer said Wednesday.

LifeBridge’s business organization, 4C, is willing to negotiate with Longmont to sell the church’s 120-acre parcel — land that surrounds the former Concepts Direct building on the northwest corner of Colo. Highway 119 and Fairview Street — to the city as open space, Auer wrote.

If the city buys that land from LifeBridge, then Dale Bruns and the six other owners of the Firelight Park parcel across the street — on the northeast corner — would be willing to negotiate to sell their 74 acres to Longmont, Auer said.

And if Longmont buys Firelight Park, the current owners also would be willing to drop their plans to annex into Firestone, Auer wrote.

But Longmont would need to halt its current efforts to annex right of way along Colo. 119 and Weld County Road 26, Auer wrote, “and agree not to pursue any further annexations or actions that will hinder the ability of the Union property to potentially be annexed or developed within Firestone.”

The owners of Firelight Park applied in February to annex into Firestone. LifeBridge’s application to annex its planned 350-acre Union development into Firestone followed within weeks.

Longmont leaders in turn took steps to keep Firestone town limits from reaching Longmont’s eastern edge.

...read the rest here.

LifeBridge will develop its Union project in Weld County
By Rachel Carter Longmont Times-Call

LONGMONT — LifeBridge Christian Church won’t be in Longmont city limits.

A big article in today's Sunday Denver Post on the Longmont LifeBridge Union annexation issue.

From the Denver Post:

Church as developer inspires skeptics
On the back cover of Rick Rusaw's book "The Externally Focused Church," a sentence in bold type asks: "How Can Your Church Get the Attention of Your Community?"

His own church, LifeBridge Christian, has gotten the attention of just about everybody in its hometown of Longmont, although not in the ways Rusaw and his co-author had in mind.

LifeBridge's proposal to build a high-end residential and retail community - on land the city was eyeing for open space - has upended Longmont's leadership and spawned a vote to halt the development's annexation.

In the process, the project has ignited a fight that has strayed well beyond the usual not-in-my-backyard angst into the uneasy territory of religious beliefs and beliefs about religion... (snip)

..."Blind faith" in a development proposal lacking in specifics is one of the main reasons Jen Gartner says she undertook what became the petition drive to let voters decide the annexation question. "

I'm not sure if they're putting more trust in this developer because it's religious-based, but to me, they are still a developer," Gartner said.

And to remind us of that, here's a good column in the Yellow Scene (a fairly new magazine for all things relating to north metro areas).

Jim Spencer (yes, that Jim Spencer, formerly of the Denver Post) does a good job of articulating the issue.  Here's a smidge to get you started.  But it's worth a full read, especially if you're new to the issue.

Separation of Church and Real Estate
However you describe LifeBridge Church's Union project, never call it the city of Longmont versus the Lord. The battle over a giant planned unit development on the outskirts of the city is not about the Almighty. It's about the almighty dollar. So when you look at the 348 acres near the intersection of Weld County roads 26 and 3 1/2, don't think separation of church and state.

Think separation of church and real estate. For good measure, toss in a city council's comeuppance from its constituents.
The LifeBridge PUD, with its 300 to 700 homes, 680,000-square-foot commercial development, 150,000-square-foot sports center, and million square feet of religious and civic use, may yet be built on what are now hay and corn fields bounded by dirt roads. But if this project is built as part of Longmont, it'll be constructed on the people's terms, not the dictates of politicians or the desires of a mega-church's development arm.

Jen Gartner and Doug Wray saw to that.

The special election in Longmont is set for January 29, 2008.  It's a mail ballot election.  If you are interested in helping on the campaign, please join our Longmont/LifeBrige group here.  Lots of important issues facing the community on this one! 

Thanks for commiting to helping us gather signatures to repeal the
LifeBridge Union annexation! We now have signing stations available.
Please contact Joan Peck (720-352-2067 or joan.peck@gmail.com) to
select your signing station location, date, and time.

A full list of signing stations is available at:
http://www.whatsinitforlongmont.org/wp/petition-signing-locations

Some stations include:

KING SOOPERS- Hover St.
Wednesdays, Sept. 5, 12, 19 & 26th, 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Saturday -Sept. 8 - 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

KING SOOPERS - Main St.
Mondays - Sept. 10, 17 & 24 - 3:00 to 7:00

FARMER'S MARKET - Fair Grounds
Saturday - Sept. 8th - 7:30 am to 1:00 pm (staffed)
Saturday - Sept. 15th & 22nd - 7:30 am to 1:00 pm

TASTE OF THERAPY WELLNESS FAIR - Isaac Walton Park
Saturday - Sept. 8 -10:00 am to 1:00 pm

Please contact Joan or Jen if you have any questions.  We can always
use more volunteers, so please forward this to friends, family, and
neighbors!  Thanks again for giving a voice to Longmont residents!

Cheers,

Jen

Dear Longmont resident,

We are contacting you because you were one of the 900+ citizens of Longmont who signed the petition asking the City Council to send the LifeBridge Union annexation to a vote of the people.  Unfortunately, the City Council chose to ignore our concerns.  We hope that you’ll join us in signing a petition that the Council cannot ignore – a citizen referendum.

The referendum petition - which is ready to go as soon as the City Clerk approves it – will force the City Council to overturn their irresponsible annexation decision or send the decision to a vote.  We’ll need to act quickly and with determination.  We must collect at least 4,021 valid signatures within 21 days (so we probably need 6,500 total signatures).  You can help by committing to one of the following options, which will be available as soon as the referendum petition is approved:   

1. Pick up a petition for circulation. We have two petition sizes available – one with two signature pages and the other with four signature pages. The more signatures you can get the better…but it’s ok to turn in incomplete petitions. You will need to have the petition notarized before returning it to us (this can be done at your bank for no charge).
   
   
2. Host a house party. Gather a group of friends and neighbors at your home and we’ll send a petition circulator to you. We would like to have a minimum of 10 Longmont registered voters at each house party.
   
   
3. Sign the referendum petition at a given location. We will set up signing stations throughout the city (sites and times are TBD).
   
   
4. Staff a petition signing station. We will staff stations in shifts.
   

Please let us know your commitment as soon as possible so that we’re ready to move quickly.  

Click here to sign up!

http://ProgressNowAction.org/LifeBridgeCommitment 

Let’s remind the City Council that they answer to us, the citizens of Longmont, and not to some developer or corporation.  Longmont has never seen a successful citizens’ referendum…so let’s make history together!

Thank you again for your support.

Best wishes,
Jen Gartner
jgartner@law.gwu.edu

Doreen Petersen
Doreen.Petersen@colorado.edu 

PS.  If you would like to stay informed on the latest developments on this issue, please join our online group for emails, event notifications and blog postings.  Just click the link:  www.ProgressNowAction.org/LongmontLifeBridge

Last week ProgressNow member Jen Gartner delivered nearly 900 petitions to the Longmont City Council asking them to vote no on the annexation of the LifeBridge/4C development. They voted 6-1 for annexation anyway.

Last night she helped organize a meeting of folks in Longmont who are organizing a citizen's initiative to get this issue on the ballot.

The Longmont Times Call wrote a very good article about this fight.

Petition started to block Union:  4,021 signatures will put measure to overturn council on ballot 

A group of Longmont residents is taking steps to overturn the Longmont City Council’s recent approval of LifeBridge Christian Church’s 348-acre Union development.

Longmont resident and attorney Jen Gartner met with about a dozen other residents Tuesday night to discuss plans to block the council’s approval of Union. 

Gartner and others from the group hope to gather enough signatures on a referendum petition to force the City Council to overturn its Aug. 14 approval or put the church’s development before voters during a special election.

The group would have to collect signatures from at least 4,021 registered Longmont voters to pass the referendum.

“The City Council did a great disservice to the whole community by potentially not understanding what they’re getting into and not getting clarity before moving forward with the annexation,” Gartner said.