Longmont Eyes $8.22 Million Farmland Purchase

LONGMONT, CO - If the Longmont City Council approves an $8.22 million dollar purchase this week, the 235-acre Newby Farms may become the next parcel of land protected under the city's Open Space program. The area is to the east of the city and offers agricultural land, water rights, and the potential for a recreational trail system, reported the Longmont Times-Call on Sunday. City Council is scheduled to vote on the purchase this Tuesday night at their regular meeting. The purchase would be paid for by voter-authorized bonds backed by a voter-authorized 0.2 percent city Open Space sales and use tax.

According to the Times-Call, Longmont's natural resources manager, David Bell, estimates that if the property were developed, "there potentially could have been up to 400 units of housing" there. There are currently four homes on the property that the city plans to sell, along with their small acre lots. The properties would be sold with a conservation easement protecting them from future development.

It should be noted that the purchase does not include the area's underlying mineral and natural gas rights, which had previously been separated from the land's surface rights. This severing of rights is common and has recently created a legal controversy about proposed drilling plans in a similar area of Boulder County this year.

Read the whole story from the Times-Call.

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Photo Credit: Mara Abbott