The City Council of Lafayette, Colorado, held its regularly scheduled meeting on April 1, 2025, at 5:30 PM. The meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, roll call, and public input. The Council approved the consent agenda, received a presentation on the 2025 Capital Bond Exploration polling, adopted multiple proclamations, advanced the Gateway Lafayette annexation process, and passed the first reading of an ordinance amending the municipal court code. The meeting adjourned to three executive sessions at 7:05 PM.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I will call to order the Latvia City Council meeting for April first, twenty twenty-five. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands one nation under God with liberty and justice for all. All right. Clerk Beck, can we do a roll call, please? Mayor Monguette. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Wong. Hello, Councillor Barnes. Good evening. Councillor Friedland. Here. Councilor Gallegos. Good evening. Counselor Sanson. Good evening. And Councilor Tapia Vega. Here. Mayor, we have a quorum. Great, thank you so much. All right. We'll begin tonight's meeting with uh public input. Um, so if you wish to address the council at this time, uh please grab one of these white speaker forms that you can access through the glass doors in the back of the at the table. Uh complete it, and then you can pass it over to Clerk Beck here, and we can get you on the speaker list. Um you'll have five minutes to speak. Uh please state your name and address before you do so. And then uh you may also call in as well. Um, and so tonight we will begin with Karen Norbeck. Karen Norbeck, 800 East Genesis. Good evening. As a member of Preserve Lafayette, I am here tonight to speak about annexation of the two properties at baseline and one nineteenth. The developer held a neighborhood meeting on February 27th, attended by about 125 people. When the time came for members of the public to speak, I said, I'm from Preserve Lafayette. These properties are a top priority on the city's open space wish list and the missing piece to complete the incredible ecosystem at our Eastern Gateway. We support open space, and if this land is annexed for development, we will challenge the annexation at the ballot box. The room erupted in applause and cheers. Support has continued to build. We have an online petition with 634 votes at last count. The petition says we, the residents of Lafayette area in Boulder County ask our leaders to work as partners to preserve the 78 acres at the northwest and southwest corners of 119th and baseline as open space. For more than a century, Lafayette's Eastern Gateway has been rural land, reflecting our agricultural roots. In 2019, Lafayette, in partnership with Boulder County, took the first step to preserve that land by buying several parcels as open space. The remaining two parcels would join our existing open space lands together, creating a nature and wildlife ecosystem that stretches from Lafayette's Old Town Pond on the west to Powers Marsh on the east. That's why this land is a top priority in the city's parks and open space acquisition plan. These parcels are also designated as agricultural lands of natural import national importance in Boulder County's comprehensive plan. However, despite their ecological significance, these parcels are currently targeted for a dense development project. This will have major impacts on residents of Lafayette area in Boulder County. We oppose annexation and rezoning of this land for development and support acquisition of this land for open space to remain rural and undeveloped for centuries to come. Thank you. All right, thank you. Next up we have Kyla Robertson.