Hi Poudre River Lovers! It's time to show up and speak out! At its Tuesday, Oct. 19th meeting, the City of Fort Collins is proposing to create new regulations -- called "1041 regulations" -- that would protect the City, the Poudre River, and City Natural Areas from huge destructive development projects like the Northern Integrated Supply Project ("NISP"). Recall, NISP would drain so much water out of the Poudre that the river would resemble a muddy stinking ditch in Fort Collins. Further, the NISP pipeline would eviscerate Fort Collins Natural Areas. We need you to show up and speak to the Fort Collins City Council at the Tuesday, Oct. 19th meeting. If you can't show up, we encourage you to send an email to the Council, and we created a quick Call2Action on our website that you can click through to send the Council an email, here: https://www.savethepoudre.org/take-action/send-action-alert-email/ Also, if you can't show up at City Hall, you can ZOOM into the meeting to speak during the comment period. Directions for ZOOM are here: https://www.fcgov.com/council/ Please read the Call2Action for talking points. Also, always feel free to tell the Council your own personal story of why the Poudre River is special to you and needs to be protected. Thank you for all you do! Save The Poudre
PRESS RELEASE: Save The Poudre Will Sue To Overturn Illegal Larimer County Permit For NISP
September 2, 2020
For Immediate Release
Contact: Gary Wockner, Save The Poudre, 970-218-8310
Save The Poudre Will Sue To Overturn Illegal Larimer County Permit For NISP
Fort Collins, CO: Tonight after 17 years, the Larimer County Commissioners voted 2 – 1 to “approve” the 1041 application for the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP). The Commissioners’ vote defies over 95% of public comments opposing NISP and requesting a denial, and defies all the science and scientists engaged around the Poudre River weighing in against NISP. Further and most importantly, the vote occurred under clear and compelling evidence that the application violated the Larimer County Land Use Code.
Further yet, the two Commissioners who voted for the project — Johnson and Donnelly — had already been asked to recuse themselves, and were sued when they refused to recuse themselves, because they had publicly and loudly supported the project for at least a decade while sitting as elected Larimer County Commissioners. (The court ruled that the lawsuit should take place after tonight’s vote.) Both the Larimer County Land Use Code and the Colorado Constitution require that County Commissioners sit in a “quasi-judicial” position (as judges) during 1041 permit process and are thus not allowed to publicly take a position about a project.
Commissioner John Kefalas voted to deny the permit.
“The Poudre River will be irrevocably damaged if NISP is built,” said Gary Wockner. “In addition, the Commissioners were given clear evidence that the NISP application violates the land use code, including several of the 12 criteria, and as such this application absolutely should have been denied.”
“Further,” continued Wockner, “it’s also clear that Commissioners Johnson and Donnelly should not have voted at all, because doing so violated the Colorado Constitution as well as the Larimer County Land Use Code, given their prejudice and bias in favor of the project over the past decade.”
“Finally, because it violates the land use code, this decision to throw the public, the science, and the Poudre River under the bus is subject to ‘judicial review’,” said Wockner, “and as such, we fully expect to challenge this illegal decision in state district court as soon as possible.”
This press release is posted here.
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-- Gary Wockner, PhD, Director Save The Poudre: Poudre Waterkeeper Author: "River Warrior: Fighting to Protect the World's Rivers" (2016) PO Box 20, Fort Collins, CO 80522 http://savethepoudre.org http://www.facebook.com/SaveThePoudre Tweets by SaveThePoudre 970-218-8310
