Letter to the Editor (01-02-19)

To The Editor:

I read with interest the letter from Niwot commercial property owners on the bias shown by Boulder County land use staff on the 2nd Avenue development moratorium.  They might also have questioned the seeming disinterest of County Commissioners in guiding the outcome.

Niwot is subject to the whim and caprice of non-elected land use staff, many new on the scene due to high turnover. I have to laugh recalling a meeting at the Grange with Land Use Director Dale Case on the proposed local marijuana shop. Despite the County’s Special Use permit discretion, Mr. Case told the crowd such businesses were allowable in that zoning and the free market would decide whether the pot shop was a good idea or not.  That governance philosophy obviously stands in sharp contrast to that driving the moratorium.

I’m surprised by none of this. We Niwotians have two choices.  Either incorporate and take control of local land use decisions, or accept that County staff will continue to have a dominant role in shaping what happens here.

Steve Romano, Niwot