Yet Another Annexation? And Commissioners to Revisit Minimum Wage Mandate

29 September 2025

Hello everyone, and happy Fall!   This issue of the newsletter gives a quick update on a few things previously mentioned, and one new item. 

Important Dates Ahead  

• October 2 (Thursday):  Open public comment session, Boulder County Commissioners, 9:00 am at the County Courthouse in Boulder.  Any issue not on the Commissioners' regular agenda may be addressed in 3-minute oral comments.  Sign up here to comment in person. For virtual attendance and comment, sign up here.  Public comments and applicable attachments can always be emailed to the commissioners (commissioners@bouldercounty.gov).

• October 22 (Wednesday): Deadline for comments, the County's public input survey on the update to the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan.  This is an important opportunity for you to provide your input about the future of development, preservation, and other issues in the Boulder Valley, which includes the City of Boulder and some areas of unincorporated Boulder County.

• October 28 (Tuesday):  Public hearing, the Commissioners will discuss and revisit their minimum wage mandate. The tentative time is 1 pm. Please check the County's meeting portal for updates on the time and links for this and other meetings.  Farmers and businesses in unincorporated Boulder County seek the public's attendance and support at this important hearing. When the meeting is posted on the portal, the link will lead you to the signups for speaking either in person or virtually.  (No signup is needed to simply attend the hearing in person, but you have to register for the webinar if you want to attend virtually.)

  
  

Here's What Has Happened Since Our August Newsletter

• Hot Topic #1:   Farmers, unincorporated business owners and farmers continue to communicate with the Commissioners concerning the ordinance that creates an uneven implementation of minimum wage increases.  

  • Several community members spoke at the Commissioners' open public comment session on September 2.  Additionally, they have met one-on-one with commissioners in September.

  • Community members have advanced several ideas for changing the current path, including eliminating the ordinance entirely; "pausing" the ordinance at current levels; reverting to the current minimum wage in the City of Boulder; and reverting to the state minimum wage (which is followed by all municipalities in the County except for the City of Boulder).

  • ACTION:  The Commissioners have agreed to a public hearing on Tuesday October 28, tentatively set for 1 pm.  This is great progress!  The farmers and business owners seek your attendance and support at this hearing. Sign up here to comment in person. For virtual attendance and comment, sign up here.

  • Here is recent press coverage of this issue: Rocky Mountain PBS   Colorado Hometown Weekly

  • ACTION:  Please write a letter to the Commissioners, before the October 28 hearing if possible. Here is a message from the Community Farmers Alliance (COFA), a group that represents Boulder County farmers:

    
    

You may have seen the recent coverage in the Daily Camera and Longmont Times-Call — our movement to save local farms is gaining real momentum. But we need your voice to keep it going.

Here’s the truth: if Boulder County loses its local farms, they won’t come back. The land might remain, but the farmers, the equipment, and the community that connects it all will be gone. Your favorite farmers will be gone.

That’s the future we face if the County’s minimum wage ordinance moves forward without agricultural adjustments. We’re not asking to avoid fair pay. We’re asking for a solution that protects both workers and farms, so agriculture in our community can survive.

Your voice can make the difference between farms thriving or disappearing.

Send an email to the Boulder County Commissioners today:  commissioners@bouldercounty.gov

It only takes 30 seconds — but the impact is enormous. Every letter shows the Commissioners that our community cares deeply about protecting fair wages and the future of local food.

Please don’t wait. Every season we lose farms, we lose a piece of Boulder County forever.

Background info on the minimum wage issue (described in our previous newsletter)

• A 2023 ruling by the Commissioners to increase the minimum wage in unincorporated Boulder County is drawing the opposition of Boulder County farmers and businesses in the areas affected.  The increase began taking effect in January 2025.

• At issue:  The wage increase is not County-wide, and none of the incorporated municipalities (Boulder, Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette, Lyons...) have opted to sign onto the Commissioners' plan. 

• The result is that all of Boulder County's farmers, as well as businesses in ~20 unincorporated towns such as Niwot, Hygiene, Gold Hill, and Allenspark, are being forced to pay a higher minimum wage than exists for the County's larger municipalities.

• The farmers and business owners have banded together to communicate about the fairness issues created by the uneven implementation of the accelerated minimum wage scale.  See their website, Keep Boulder County Farms and Jobs.

• As of January 2025, the minimum wage now stands at $16.57/hour in unincorporated Boulder County but is $14.92/hr in the State of Colorado and most Boulder County municipalities. The County minimum wage is $1  higher than the City of Boulder's minimum wage. 

• The Commissioners' decision ramps up the minimum wage to $25/hr by 2030, and the current ~11% disparity will increase to a ~40% difference in 2030:

• Farmers have stressed that the increases would put Boulder County farmers out of business, ending the availability of local agricultural produce at farm stands, farmers markets, and stores in the County.

  
  

The Pro-RURAL Alliance is concerned about this issue because of its potential to devastate farming in Boulder County.  We are also concerned about small business owners in the County's unincorporated historic townships.

• Hot Topic #2:  Does Boulder County have a case of Annexation Mania?? 

  
  

We're seeing so many annexation/development efforts, we've now decided to collect them as a Hot Topic.  In our previous newsletter, we told you about four annexations of land in unincorporated Boulder County now under discussion (one in Longmont, and three in Lafayette).  We've since learned of another one, in Lafayette!   Here's a list of what we're now calling a general issue, "Annexation Mania."  Although the proposed development numbers are not known for some of these, it is likely that these proposals represent a combined increase of over 1,000 housing units. 

• NEW:  Proposed Lafayette annexation and development of 35 acres at 8600 Baseline Road:  This proposal would bring 186 units of mostly multifamily, higher density development to a rural horse property.  The property is currently in unincorporated Boulder County but the owner and developer are seeking annexation into Lafayette. Residents are organizing to oppose this proposal, with concerns about safety (two new access points on Baseline are proposed) and the incompatibility with the surrounding area, which is predominantly rural properties and single-family residential.  Residents have created a website showing the proposal. They are seeking the public's engagement and help in opposing this development. (You can sign up for updates on their website.)

  

  The 8600 Baseline parcel and proposal concept for annexation and development

See our previous newsletter (posted as a blog on the bottom of our home page) for more information on these 4 other annexations:

• Longmont annexation/Quail Road development proposal for 310 apartments, with fractions of the 310 under discussion as possible for-sale units: This is a 17-acre site at the northeast corner of Clover Basin Drive and Airport Road in Longmont (it is a County "enclave" within Longmont). 

  
  

• The Lafayette eastern "Gateway" annexation of 78 acres (Baseline Rd and 119th Street):  Community members of Preserve Lafayette advocate for these parcels to become Open Space, and the mayor of Erie has supported that idea.

  
  

• Two other proposed Lafayette annexations:  (1) Annexation and development is proposed for 19.5 acres located at 9850 and 9776 Arapahoe Road, just west of City of Lafayette boundaries.  (2) Another proposal for annexation and development, known as "The Range at Lafayette", is also on Arapahoe Road, just a half mile away at the intersection of Hwy 287.

Still Pending on the Rural Radar

Potential land swap deal to develop a composting facility for Boulder County. Issue tabled by Longmont City Council: 

This issue is in limbo while the Longmont City Council considers legal issues. It was tabled by the Council on July 29 and there are no further updates on the City's timeline.  Read about this in news coverage here.  The Council meeting, including vigorous public comments that occurred, can be viewed in the video posted here.  Additional media coverage by the Boulder Reporting Lab is linked here.

BACKGROUND:  It would be great to have a composting facility in Boulder County, and the Commissioners have noted that it aligns with the County's environmental and sustainability goals.  But is this land the best place for it?  Even composting advocates have doubts. 

• There have been many letters to the Longmont Times-Call newspaper, calling out wildlife and contamination concerns and objecting to the "repurposing" of a current Longmont-owned open space parcel (the "Distel" property) to become an industrial composting facility operated by Boulder County. In exchange, a portion of the nearby "Tull" property would become open space.

• Both properties are in Weld County but are owned by the City of Longmont and managed by different City departments (Distel by Open Space, and Tull by Utilities and Public Works). 

• Read about this potential Longmont/Boulder County partnership and the associated issues in news coverage here, and visit the County's website about this issue and the City of Longmont website about this issue.

• Former Commissioner Ron Stewart has commented that the proposal violates the trust of the public, who have repeatedly supported open space taxes and expect permanent protection of purchased open space lands. [link to Times-Call story, possible paywall]

• The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, when requested by the City of Longmont for their recommendation, met on June 23 and rejected the proposal as submitted, citing lack of evidence showing net benefit to open space.

• It next was to go to the City on July 22nd, but the City postponed that first reading and public hearing, and instead went into executive session about legalities.  This led to the July 29 Council decision to table the issue for now.

• Read more news coverage here (Times-Call, possible paywall) and here (Longmont Leader story). 

• The Council is expected to take up the issue of the land swap when the legal issues are resolved.  It would then consider the issue involving a composting facility in a subsequent hearing and vote.

  
  

Kanemoto Conservation Easement:  We continue to await the ruling from the Colorado Court of Appeals.  This ruling is not expected until at least mid-November.  We will keep you posted on the outcome.  As we've previously described, this issue concerns the citizens' legal opposition to the County's conditional termination of the conservation easement and the proposed subsequent annexation into the City of Longmont and possible development of over 400 units on the 40 acres.  The Kanemoto conservation easement is near Airport Road and Diagonal Highway.

Enjoy our splendid Fall weather!  And as always, thanks for reading!