Twin Acres Fundraising

Dear Twin Acres Supporters:

In the past 14 months, you generously donated $21,300 to oppose Twin Acres. We just received our Attorneys bill for the month of March, and it wiped out what was left of our Twin Acres (and the KMOHR) war chest. About $22,000. 

Dozens of us have worked diligently to prevent the commercialization of Missouri Heights, as proposed in the Special Use Application for the Twin Acres Riding and Boarding Stables. Our challenges have led to the Applicant rescheduling their hearing with the Board of County Commissioners for the fifth time. The hearing is now scheduled for June 18th.  

During each delay we uncovered more and more concerns with the Application, which we in turn have raised with the County and referral agencies. Many of these concerns were laboriously discovered through informal communications and what have now become weekly submittals to the County using the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) to request that the County provide us all applicable new project communications. 

Simultaneously, several neighbors individually retained water and land-use legal and engineering counsel, and we have continued to raise funds to hire additional counsel to represent the entire community.  Given that the Application continues to drag on and it is so multifaceted – land use, water use, hydrology, environmental impacts, traffic, equestrian operations, and community compatibility, we have exhausted these funds and need your support to continue the challenge.

BUT.... your donations allowed us to have impact! We had so much impact that the Applicant cited our public comments as one reason to postpone the hearing. Here are a few examples. There are more.

Water

We have:

• monitored water court progress, 

• obtained the final water decree, and 

• provided that to the County before the Applicant. 

In delivering the water decree, our attorneys questioned the adequacy of those newly acquired water rights. 

AVLT

After we tenaciously informed AVLT of negative impacts on the 80 acres, AVLT updated their referral comments and warned that an emergency egress road across the 80 acre agricultural parcel (required by the fire department) cannot be built, and voiced concerns about the intensity of use negatively impacting wildlife. 

Traffic

Our traffic engineer has introduced new traffic numbers that the County is still reviewing. 

Fire Protection

We have had many conversations with the fire department who is now pressing the Applicant on water storage and other fire issues. Literally dozens of letters were sent to the County showing how the proposed development is incompatible with the surrounding community. We could go on.

Attorneys

All of this work was done under the advice of our land use attorneys! We used the entirety of our donated funds towards administrative costs and attorney bills (about $22K). The remainder was paid with limited KMOHR administrative funds (intended for buying stamps, printing costs, etc.). 

Among many other services, the attorneys: 

• Wrote two detailed letters of opposition to present at the March 26th hearing (one to be referenced at the site visit)

• Provided review, counseling, met with us multiple times in preparing for March 26th hearing 

• Reviewed and coordinated our participation at the March 26 Tabling Hearing

• Read and became deeply familiar with the Application and Staff Report

• Multiple contacts with water court and obtained most recent documentation (three times)

• Multiple contacts with Applicant’s attorneys and County Attorneys

• Attended BOCC tabling sessions (via ECTV)

We had an arsenal of speakers assembled for the Public Comment session of the March 26th hearing which was subsequently tabled.

• 26 prepared speakers, plus 20 pre-arranged time ceders ready to participate

• Experts to speak, including two water attorneys, a land-use attorney, environmental engineers, traffic engineer, and more

• over 800 pages of public comments

• over 300 local signatures on the petition

We feel like we got a lot of "bang for our buck!". But we can't stop now!