WHEREAS 12 neighborhoods in northeast Longmont are adjacent to the Ute Creek Golf Course including: Fairways at Ute Creek, Provenance, Sundance at Ute Creek, Clubhouse Terrace, The Reserve at Ute Creek, The Greens at Ute Creek, Wyndemere, Sonoma Village at Ute Creek, Pleasant Valley, Spring Valley, Spring Valley Golf Estates, and The Villas at Ute Creek; and

WHEREAS on August 21, 2020, the City of Longmont Recreation Services submitted a proposal to the City of Longmont Planning Department to re-locate and build a new 2-acre maintenance facility for the Ute Creek Golf Course; and

WHEREAS the current maintenance facility has been located along highway 66 for 25 years as per the original Ute Creek Golf Course layout professionally designed by Robert Trent Jones II Golf Architects; and

WHEREAS the City applicant has a $1.4M budget to update the Ute Creek Golf Course maintenance facility and claims they cannot afford infrastructure at the current unobtrusive highway 66 location; and

WHEREAS the two "new maintenance buildings and service yard with outdoor storage" will be located east of the Club House parking lot, south of the practice driving range and chipping green, west of the 6th hole tee-box and north of homes on Lochmore Drive, and will replace a current naturally landscaped berm; and

WHEREAS the City’s 2002 non-public administrative approval to move the Ute Creek Golf Course maintenance yard to the Club House location expired one year after project inactivity, making the posted sign announcing the location change invalid, misleading and false; and

WHEREAS the application includes a 5,500 sq. ft. Maintenance Building which will also house staff offices, meeting space, and an employee break room, a 4,800 sq. ft. Storage Building, and “a concrete structure erected to provide separate and contained open air storage bins for bulk landscaping materials...such as sand, gravel, earth, etc.”; and

WHEREAS the design of proposed Maintenance and Storage buildings includes “approximately 11,000 sq. ft. of conditioned and unconditioned space”, shows pre-finish metal panels with largely uninterrupted roof lines and exterior wall lines, and includes no 4-sided architecture to enhance the back of the buildings that will be seen by the public; and

WHEREAS the City applicant, in addition to centrally re-locating the maintenance yard, is not holding itself accountable to City standards by "requesting variances from fencing, non-residential design and residential compatibility standards" which exempt the City applicant from meeting building standards for design and compatibility with surrounding residential neighborhoods; and

WHEREAS the City applicant is justifying holding itself to a lesser design and residential compatibility standard by citing development cost savings, following “form follows function” building design, and maximizing "economy of structure of metal building"; and

WHEREAS all homes along the 18-hole Ute Creek Golf Course may not see the "two buildings, material storage bins, and a central maintenance yard to support daily operations of the golf course", homeowners will be impacted by this centrally located eyesore that will dominate the golf course entry-way, devalue the golf course itself, and depreciate the value of homes throughout the Ute Creek Golf Course neighborhoods;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED the City’s decision to re-locate the maintenance facilities and service yard to the Club House location, and the City’s request for variances, modifications, and exceptions, is a cost-based, short sighted plan that will negatively impact the golf course ambiance and branding for years to come.

The signers of this petition object to 1. the re-location of the Ute Creek Golf Course maintenance facilities and storage areas adjacent to the Club House parking lot, and 2. approval of variances, modifications and/or exceptions to fencing, non-residential design and residential compatibility standards that allow the City to build a highly visible, centrally located maintenance yard not compatible with the “premier” golf course in Longmont.