June 20, 2019
Town Board Approves Water Deal
Firestone’s Town Board approved a resolution on June 12 that will allow developers to satisfy their water dedication requirements west of Interstate 25. Because of the limited availability of Colorado-Big Thompson (CBT) water shares, there hasn’t been development west of I-25 on vacant property annexed into the Town.
The new agreement is similar to an agreement the Town already has with the Little Thompson Water District, which led to the development of Barefoot Lakes, and will allow Left Hand Water District (LHWD) to be the retail provider of water to developers. With this agreement, the Town will not bear the cost of water service; it will be paid for by the developer and then the customers receiving service from LHWD.
According to Christopher Smith, the Manager for LHWD, the ability to transfer the units between users anywhere within Northern Water’s multi-county service territory without going to water court gives Colorado-Big Thompson water its investment value in booming building markets like the Front Range has experienced in recent years. In an article in the Times-Call, Smith said that once Northern Water’s Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP), is built, providers may routinely transfer water shares available to support development when a town has a proposal before it but has no available water to let a developer pay cash in lieu of dedicating new shares.
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