SAGUACHE — Commissioners informed town of Moffat Mayor Patty Riegel at their Tuesday meeting they will not reverse their decision regarding the vacation of County Road 59 and questioned the town’s motives for pursuing the “flagpole” annexation.
Moffat had proposed the county vacate the road to create the one-sixth contiguity necessary to satisfy state statutes in annexing the Potch LLC/Area 420 cannabis cultivation/sales development. Commissioners posed several questions to annexation proponents present at the meeting that went unanswered.
Commissioner Tim Lovato told Riegel that while the annexation may be beneficial to the town, he doesn’t see much benefit to the residents. He also reminded the mayor that the current operation of Potch LLC/Area 420 is not in compliance with 2017 county regulations regarding commercial and medical marijuana cultivation in subdivisions. Nor has the development even been properly subdivided according to these same regulations, he observed.
Lovato also pointed out that to date, the county has not even seen the town’s impact statement.
Commissioner Chair Jason Anderson said the annexation sounded like a “court issue.” He objected to the insinuation made by proponents of the annexation that the town doesn’t even have the right to keep its own road, and commented he is a “little concerned” the county is being told by Moffat it must give up a county-maintained road a school bus travels down.
J. Anderson asked Moffat attorneys, not present at the meeting, to present their legal grounds for overriding the county’s use of its own road. He requested Moffat try to put together an annexation plan that did not involve CR 59. And he further requested that managers for the cannabis development create a master plan for their project.
Commissioner Ken Anderson raised concerns about health and safety issues.
County Attorney Ben Gibbons said he had been contacted by Moffat attorneys only once, and he told them the county would not vacate the road, calling it “an issue of law.” Otherwise, he said, he had received no communications from them. The town is currently engaging three attorneys to accomplish the annexation.
Gibbons and commissioners noted that the county has not given up road rights of way in Center or Saguache, as Riegel claims. J. Anderson said the only roads the county vacates are abandoned roads, not county roads in use on a regular basis.
In response to J. Anderson’s request for a master plan, Potch LLC/Area 420 developer Whitney Justice commented some planning measures are in progress but said it wouldn’t matter if the annexation doesn’t go through. Regarding water issues, she told the board that the well already operating on the development could handle any water needs.
Justice’s associate Mike Biggio told commissioners that the town of Moffat is well-equipped to maintain CR 59 and could even improve the road. He claims many county roads are not well maintained and intimated the town of Moffat would do a better job of maintaining the road than the county.
Biggio also said he doesn’t want “bad blood” with the county but would like to work with commissioners, suggesting that the town and the county could arrive at a workable alternative regarding the annexation.
Justice informed commissioners that a Boulder attorney named Williamson and the other Moffat attorneys all agree that the county “has no legal premise for thwarting our position” regarding the annexation. Commissioners indicated the laws regarding annexation did not appear to support this and told Justice to be sure to provide case law to support her claim.