Climate change is shrinking Rocky Mountain National Park glaciers and is threatening Colorado’s water supply, reports The Coloradoan in Fort Collins. “For decades, Mother Nature has protected them from unfavorable conditions, but as the park’s temperatures climb and the promise of heavy winter snowfall grows more uncertain, the park’s glaciers and glacierlike features have slowly and unsteadily started to shrink,” the according the paper. “A single decade of prolonged drought and warm summers could spell the beginning of the end for RMNP’s glaciers, according to one park ecologist. It’s already happened in California, where about a decade of drought and warming temperatures have pushed Yosemite National Park’s glaciers to near extinction.”
Denver’s city council approved its first affordable housing fund, reports The Denver Post. “An affordable housing proposal aimed at raising more than $150 million in the next decade from property taxes and new development impact fees prompted drawn-out debate in recent months.”
“Garfield County will not ask Colorado regulators for a hearing on the siting of a potential wastewater injection well that was included in a state permit for a natural gas pad in Battlement Mesa,” reports The Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. “Instead, county commissioners, while sharing some uneasy feelings about the idea of injection wells in general, unanimously decided to rely on the local permitting process needed for the operator, Ursa Resources, to actually drill the injection well. Citizen groups opposed to Ursa’s drilling plans in the residential community of more than 4,000 people asked the county commissioners to request a public hearing before the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on Ursa’s BMC B pad, which was approved Sept. 10.”
Proposed development in Longmont is being hemmed in by school density rules, according to The Longmont Times-Call. “Longmont-based Developer Ken Spencer, partner and manager of BHP Meadow View Estates LLC, said the company has been trying to build 22 single-family home lots on 9.77 acres in southwest Longmont.”
Grand Junction’s 2017 budget likely will include a position for someone who has been a “champion” for the homeless, reports The Daily Sentinel. “The idea is one of several recommendations and goals proposed by the Vagrancy Committee, a group of Grand Junction city officials who are dedicated to finding solutions to curb homelessness in the city. The Vagrancy Committee estimated the part-time position might cost $26,000 a year with $21,000 for a salary and $5,000 for supplies.”
Owners of an apartment complex in Boulder have been charged with 184 counts of subdividing rooms, which could cost them $184,000, according to today’s edition of The Daily Camera. “The city is accusing the owners of installing movable bookshelves to illegally subdivide 92 two-bedroom apartments.”
The Cañon City Daily Record put an ode to Fremont County Community College on its front page this morning.
The city of Colorado Springs has ordered nine cannabis clubs to cease and desist, The Gazette reports. “The clubs sprang up after Amendment 64 was passed in 2012 legalizing adult use and sales of recreational marijuana but banning public consumption. The clubs gave people a place to use cannabis and socialize in private. Colorado Springs outlawed sales of recreational marijuana in the city, but the clubs got around the sales ban by providing pot to their patrons on a “reimbursement model:” they could either “trade” cannabis for memberships or sign affidavits saying the club was growing the customer’s legally allowed six marijuana plants for them.”
Nothing could possibly be further from the truth.