After hearing concerns from neighbors about traffic, open space and more, the Longmont City Council moved the idea of putting affordable housing on the site of the former Rider Well along to an advisory board.
Rider Well history
The Rider Well was drilled in 1982 before the nearby Trail Ridge Middle School was built. Then, drill sites commonly used open pits to store wastewater. TOP bought it in 1986 and the school was built afterward about 350 feet away.
In 2006, Engle Homes discovered that the groundwater was highly contaminated with benzene, a chemical toxic to humans. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission ordered TOP to clean up the site and in 2015, found the well site to be in compliance.
However, the well and the groundwater contamination became a sort of poster child for a movement in Longmont to get oil and gas development away from homes and schools. That eventually led to an agreement between TOP and the city where TOP would plug and abandon the Rider Well, the city would buy the land and pay for TOP to extract the oil and gas under the land from farther away with a longer pipe.
Affordable housing
City staff proposed the idea of using about 19 acres of the 33-acre former site of the Rider Well for affordable housing.
If the idea came to fruition, there would be a 150-foot setback from the former well, Longmont general manager of public works and natural resources Dale Rademacher said.
Rademacher said that unlike other open space the city owns, the Rider Well property was never intended to stay open space because the city didn’t rezone it from residential to public property.
Additionally, the site is unique because it doesn’t have some of the advantages that other city-designated open space holds.
“It’s not along pristine riparian areas like the St. Vrain Creek and it’s not home to endangered species.” Rademacher said. “When you compare it to other open space lands the city has acquired, whether it’s out by Union Reservoir or along the St. Vrain Creek, this one has a lower open space value attached to it.”
Opposition
Residents from the neighborhood around the site came out to voice their opposition to putting affordable housing on what is now open space.
Tracy Frazee lives in the area and told the council during the public comment portion of the meeting that she had serious concerns about more housing bringing increased traffic to County Line Road and her home’s future value.
“I understand the shortage of housing in Boulder County and I’m sympathetic to that, but homeowners invested their good money in the city of Longmont and now this is being changed without notice,” Frazee said.
Councilman Brian Bagley was the lone dissenting vote to move the idea along to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
Bagley gave several reasons for his opposition — chief among them that he felt putting development on the site would put a gap in Longmont’s open space “moat” that stops other cities abutting Longmont and he had concerns about the plugged well.
“I don’t necessarily view open space as protecting species or building trails. I look at it as an opportunity to preserve the beauty of our surrounding acreage,” Bagley said. “I view it as if we decide not to have it as open space, we’re carving a piece out of the moat to put residences there.”
Support
The other six council members supported sending the idea to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board for additional public input and deliberation. The board will then make a recommendation to the council.
There were caveats, however.
Council members told Rademacher that there needs to be water quality and soil testing outside the 150-foot setback to ensure that no benzene is lingering.
Councilman Jeff Moore said he would like to see any affordable housing on the site revert to market-rate housing in 25 or 30 years.
Councilwoman Joan Peck wanted to know whether TOP Operating could hydraulically fracture the oil and gas deposits underneath the former Rider Well property from the new location with the longer pipe.
Peck also said she would rather see other types of housing rather than rentals on the site.
Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci
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