CITY OF GRAND JUNCTION, COLORADO

RESOLUTION NO. 90-00

City Council of Grand Junction Statement Opposing Adoption of Amendment 24

The City Council opposes the adoption of Amendment 24 for the following reasons:

1.  The Amendment directly attacks the home rule powers of cities in Colorado. It forces on this City one way of addressing of growth, one way of evaluating growth and one way of deciding how growth and development can occur. This chosen method requiring “all growth” to be approved by the voters has some emotional appeal. However, to work it requires that every voter know everything there is to know about every development in order to be fair. In this day and age of information overload and lack of time for any one subject, it is wholly unrealistic, unfair and ultimately dangerous to require that level of information by all of us on every day-to-day management decision. Whether we like it or not, we must delegate those duties to our elected officials. As the City Council we are responsible to adopt the rules and hire the people to implement our community vision. In Grand Junction, this system works. We do not have run away growth. We do not have outrageous hidden costs of development. We have a plan to keep our quality of life high: a growth plan, city and county development codes, the Persigo Agreement and the area buffer agreements, to name a few.

2.  The United States Constitution, the Colorado Constitution and our home rule charter are the foundations of our representative form of government. Amendment 24 demolishes that foundation and , unless one of the exceptions applies, requires a direct referendum on every future subdivision and every single apartment building. While it may not be obvious initially, this is a direct assault on the Constitution and an undermining of the American system of government.

3.  Amendment 24 attempts to fix problems faced in some parts of Colorado by forcing a state wide “solution.” There are many other solutions which could address the concerns of too rapid growth, environmental problems, hidden costs and public subsidies. In fact, some communities desire, and need, appropriate growth.

This community has done the responsible thing by planning for growth and addressing enforcement solutions. This community will suffer with Amendment 24. This community will not gain since we have already made the hard choices.

4.  Amendment 24 will force cities and counties to revise budgets, dedicate staff and make spending decisions but will provide no funding. In this day when costs are rising and resources are diminishing, such a mandate is unfair. The amendment appears to be an unconstitutional mandate.

5.  It raises the price of development with no net gain. While the information required by the Amendment would help our citizens understand the costs and impacts of development, the method used to gain that information is expensive and insufficient to really educate. The result may be “data” that is a summary that is by its very nature not detailed enough to sufficiently educate.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GRAND JUNCTION:

That this City Council opposes Amendment 24. We urge Grand Junction voters to defeat it.

PASSED and ADOPTED this 20th day of September, 2000.

Attest:  /s/ Gene Kinsey      

         President of the Council

/s/ Stephanie Nye      

City Clerk