If you go
What: Broomfield Community Forum on oil and gas
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21
Where: 1stBank Center, 11450 Broomfield Lane
More info: An oil and gas development tab at broomfield.org
Comp Plan committee deadline:
Applications are due by Friday, Feb. 17.
Application, and a copy of the recently passed resolution, can be found at broomfield.org
Broomfield City Council took two strides toward addressing oil and gas development at Tuesday night’s meeting. The first was agreeing to form a committee that will draft language to add oil and gas development to the 20-year Comprehensive Plan. That plan was adopted in November without a section on energy.
The second was to work on shaping the agenda for next week’s public forum on oil and gas that will take place at 6 p.m Feb. 21 at the 1stBank Center.
So far, 13 people have applied to serve on the Comprehensive Planning Update Committee. There are 12 positions available on the committee.
Council continued to make changes to the already-revised resolution to add an energy section to the Comp Plan, and an updated version will be posted to the Broomfield website as it becomes available this week.
Around noon Tuesday, Extraction Oil & Gas, Inc. filed a letter with Broomfield and outlined possible Comp Plan revisions to a resolution drafted by Mayor Pro Tem Stokes and Councilwoman Sharon Tessier.
Stokes said he took suggestions from residents, Extraction and council members to update the resolution.
Anne Carto, community outreach manager with the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, also applauded Broomfield for “working diligently” and showing throughout the past months that they are willing to work with everyone involved to come up with a solution.
Broomfield’s commitment to collaboration can be seen in the resolution, she said, but she asked for a better timeline for the completion of the committee’s process.
Tessier said setting a deadline on something council hasn’t done before is like “putting the cart before the horse.”
“We’re working every day and we’re not slowing down any time soon,” she said. “We need to know more before we can put a timeline (or deadline) on it.”
She suggested the task force come up with a timeline for their work.
Councilman Kevin Kreeger said while council may want the job done in six months, they cannot be sure what experts the team will want to call on, when those experts will be available or if they need to write a report, how long that process will take.
Several council members agreed that they owe a more clearly defined timeline to residents and to Extraction, and proposed language that suggests targeting a six month period — a time frame that has been suggested before.
Councilman David Beacom introduced the idea that the task force report back every 60 days to give council an update on their progress, an idea backed by other council members.
Broomfield will request all oil and gas operators provide — based on their current business plan as of the date of the request — a “good faith estimate of the number of wells the operator intends to drill in Broomfield in the next five years” in the city and county, according to the resolution.
“Broomfield will request that the operator voluntarily provide it with wells that would be drilled if the price of oil and natural gas returned to prices at Dec. 31, 2014,” the resolution reads. “This is an effort to plan for the maximum number of wells that may be drilled if oil and gas prices increase to historic levels.”
The resolution also requests a map showing the location of well sites and related facilities; sites approved for drilling and spacing orders, or sites the operator has submitted applications for, and sites the operators has identified for development on its current drilling schedule for which it has not yet submitted application for Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission permits.
The resolution includes intentions to reach out to neighboring jurisdictions, such as Boulder, Adams and Weld counties, and Westminster, Thornton, Dacono, Northglenn and Erie, requesting that they make similar requests. Once all that information is collected, the update committee will prepare a comprehensive map of the potential future well sites.
On that map, the committee will identify sites it considers compatible with the current and planned future uses of the area, sites where it anticipates minor issues to be resolved by negotiations with the oil and gas operator, and sites where it anticipates “significant conflicts,” which may include concerns over health, safety, traffic and noise.
If the committee identifies something more than “minor concerns” over any of the pads, including the concentration of drilling on any site, committee members will work with the operator to identify other potential drilling sites and, along with the company, evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of the operation moving those sites.
In doing so, the committee, with approval from City Council, will consult with experts — including experts in oil and gas — and experts to help identify and quantify health and safety concerns over proposed sites, according to the resolution.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Broomfield resident and attorney Ann Marie Byers thanked council for their hard work on this issue and offered a few suggestions for the committee.
She asked that Broomfield look into an alternative site analysis that Extraction reportedly has, but that she has not seen.
Byers also suggested Broomfield’s legal team begin working on legal documents that would make it possible for the committee to have access to Extraction’s proprietary information in order to fulfill their duties.
There was council discussion on some resolution language and how it could read that the committee could be called upon in the future to work with oil and gas operators.
Council agreed they group would draft the addition to the comprehensive plan, and because of the timeliness of Extraction’s plans work with the company, but would consider passing on that responsibility to a new committee, or to Broomfield staff, in the future.
Oil and gas forum
A community forum on oil and gas development issues will take place at 6 p.m. Feb. 21, at the 1stBank Center.
The forum is intended to provide residents an opportunity to hear from Extraction Oil & Gas, Inc. about its most recent plans and for residents to learn more from academic and regulatory experts about oil and gas development in the area.
It also will serve as a resource and starting point for the update committee, according to the resolution.
Council reviewed two drafts of an agenda for forum and ultimately decided to go with the more concise version.
The longer resolution included University of Colorado speakers who told Broomfield they would prefer to act as resources for the update committee rather than be part of the forum. Extraction experts agreed, Ozaki said.
The agenda includes an introduction from Broomfield Mayor Randy Ahrens, Deputy City and County Manager Kevin Standbridge, an update from Extraction and an equal amount of time for neighborhood representatives and several state officials including Matt Lepore, director for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Mike VanDyke, chief of Environmental Epidemiology Occupational Health and Toxicology Branch of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Jonathan Bartsch will act as the moderator for the forum, which will also include a 90 minute session of questions from the audience. Questions can be sent electronically beforehand or during the forum or be written on paper that will be available that evening.
Broomfield residents will get priority seating at the forum, Ozaki said.
Questions collected before hand will be coalesced to reduce redundancy. Bartsch will be able to announce how many people asked a particular question.
After much conversation about how neighborhood representatives will be selected, it was decided that residents can submit their own names or nominate a speaker along with a biography and what they’d like to speak about. Broomfield will take those names to home owners associations to let them know that they were submitted to represent that neighborhood.
Ozaki said the HOA would be able to provide input if they liked, but the decision wouldn’t come down to a vote by the association.
Jennifer Rios: 303-473-1361, riosj@broomfieldenterprise.com or Twitter.com/Jennifer_Rios
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