A developer might pay $2.3 million to the Boulder County Open Space Fund to end the conservation easement on Kanemoto Estates.
The legal representation for Keep Airport Road Environmental and Safe — a coalition of Longmont residents against the development in southwest Longmont also known as KARES — obtained the draft agreement between the owner and Boulder County to end the conservation easement through an open records request.
The agreement as it stands is not binding unless approved by the Boulder County commissioners following a public hearing.
The applicant and owner of the conservation easement, Lefthand Ranch LLC, is proposing to annex the 40 acres into Longmont. While the 40-year-old conservation easement carries the Kanemoto name, the family has had nothing to do with this parcel since they sold it in 2020.
The land in question sits on unincorporated Boulder County land, straddling Longmont’s city bounds, about a half mile north of the Colo. 119 and Airport Road intersection. The development is being proposed as a mixed residential community known as Somerset Village, with anywhere from 300 to 426 units, that the developer wants to annex into Longmont.
To be annexed, the county would have to end the regulatory conservation easement on the property. While conservation easements typically designates an area to be open space in perpetuity, this easement included language to allow for termination should the county later decide that the development of the property would be appropriate with the comprehensive plan.
County staff told the Boulder County Planning Commission in March that this easement was not intended to be perpetual, as it was a regulatory requirement rather than a land purchase or donation to the county. This area of Longmont had a few other parcels that were originally county easements that had similar termination language as this agreement and are now developed.
The draft agreement specifies that the $2.32 million is the market equivalent of 29 transferable development rights certificates issued by the Boulder County Land Use Department, which is how the total amount was determined.
Randall Weiner, whose office represents KARES, requested the records and appealed their release to successfully see the draft contract.
“The public is entitled to know what the developer is paying/contributing in relation to this benefit so that it can exercise its Constitutional rights and speak to this matter during the weeks preceding the upcoming county commission meeting,” Weiner said in his records appeal.
As per the agreement with the county, the easement would not be released until Longmont approved the annexation of the land into the city. The Boulder County Board of Commissioners has a public hearing on whether to terminate the conservation easement scheduled for 1 p.m. on July 6.
