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Friends of the Foothills
Preserving the Scenic Foothills Highway Corridor
This scenic area, west of SH 93 - from Golden to the Boulder County line, has been identified as one of Colorado's remaining "Crown Jewel Open Lands" (Denver Post editorial, June 11, 2000) a priority for preservation. This is an important natural resource for the entire metropolitan area.
For some quick information on this issue, please watch our 2 minute film, "Keep it Rural":
Preserve the Scenic
Foothills Highway Corridor
Sign the PETITION
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Sign the Petition!
- Keep the scenic Foothills Highway Corridor (Hwy 93) in its current rural and natural state
- Stop funding and support that promotes urbanization of the scenic Foothills Highway Corridor
- Sign the "Keep it Rural" PETITION today!
Support for a 21st Century Plan
Below is an excerpt of a Friends of the Foothills letter to the Jefferson County Planning Commission, dated October 24, 2011:
"Our communities have been very clear in our support for making the scenic Foothills Highway Corridor (SH 93) from Golden north to Boulder a high natural resource value area - an area of special consideration for land use planning and decisions.
Our specific concerns/recommendations for this special character area:
- We suggest that urban development be defined as any office, office/commercial, commercial, industrial, retail use or residential development of a greater density than 1 du per 10 acres.
- That the character, of the corridor, as it appears at this time, be preserved. This means there is no urban development and that is what defines the character. To maintain this character, we recommend that there be a special use requirement for any future development which would preserve open space in acreage greater than the acreage being developed or subdivided.
- In the draft NPAP* Area 30 [Note: this is the Keller Farms land] is recommended to be an Activity Center, with uses which meet our definition of urban; this is an artifact from the 1980's planning which would create an urban island completely out of character with the surrounding landscape. Though not included in the 1998 Mountain Backdrop and Foreground Resolution, the character of Area 30 is consistent with adjacent lands which were included in the resolution. We recommend that the use be changed to open space or special use residential (see item 2).
- Areas 19, 20 and 24 are in a high value natural area adjacent to the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge. Several entities as well as our communities support making these areas a part of the Wildlife Refuge. They should be designated as open space."
* NPAP is the North Plains Area Plan
Click HERE to read the entire letter.
Update, 03/28/12: Keller Farms has Applied to Jefferson County for an Urban Zoning ChangeUrban Sprawl Threat at Keller FarmsIn a community meeting held at Fairmount Elementary School, Jeff Keller, President of Keller Farms and Asphalt Paving Company, announced that they were beginning the process to have Jefferson County rezone approximately 1200 acres of land bordering on the west side of State Highway 93 for commercial and residential development.
Of the approximately 40 citizens from the neighboring area who attended the meeting, a vast majority expressed concerns that the development was inappropriate for the Mountain Backdrop/ Foreground and would create additional problems for traffic, ground water, noise and be out of character with the rest of the corridor. Several of the attendees joined with Friends of the Foothills that evening and are working with us to prevent this proposed rezoning. This area has been identified as one of Colorado’s remaining Crown Jewel Open Lands (Denver Post editorial, June 11, 2000) a priority for preservation. This is an important natural resource for the entire metropolitan area. Here is the proposed urban zoning
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