Geoff Baukol’s closing remarks at the end of his closing statement
There are people who are against this development. And I get it. Many of them are very, very well intentioned in fighting off what they feel is a threat to their community but, when they say they want you to vote no on Redtail Ridge, what they are also saying and also asking you to say is…
No, we don’t want Medtronic as a major employer and economic anchor in our community.
No, we don’t want the economic stability that they provide, and we don’t want to keep those that live here as our neighbors.
No, we don’t want Medtronic employees in our community to support our businesses.
No, we don’t want seniors in our community. We don’t want them to support our businesses.
No, we don’t want an option for our current residents to remain in their community as they age.
No, we don’t want to support our hospital Avista who’s also our number one employer.
No, we don’t want a park for our community….(Council took a 5 minute break)
Where I was, was:
The people who are against this development, what they are asking you to say is no to all these things and I won’t go through all the ones I mentioned previously.
But, No, we don’t want a park for our community; We don’t want multi-use fields.
We don’t want access to any of this land and we don’t want over 110 acres of private land to be dedicated to the public.
No, we don’t want our schools to be supported with millions of dollars each year, nor our fire department, nor our city, nor our county.
And no, we don’t want to improve the safety of the kids who attend our Monarch campus K through 12 our largest and most populated school.
And, no we don’t want to provide housing options for the nurses, for the school teachers, for the firefighters, for service providers of our community;
And no, we don’t want to provide any affordable housing for those who need it.
Now, we love Louisville. We really do. As we said from the beginning; We live here. This our community too. We want Louisville to succeed. Not just now, but for the long term.
And right now, things are tough. Kohls left in September. Hobby Lobby closed. Sam’s club closed and has been vacant for 10 years. There’s rumors of another retail big-box closing soon.
The Phillip’s 66 site, as I mentioned, is now designated as agricultural and is another million dollar a year hit in lost taxes. So, you combine this with the pandemic, which is destroying or threatening to destroy Louisville’s incredible small businesses. It’s not great.
And to quote Charles Darwin, “it is not strongest that survive nor the most intelligent but the most responsive to change.” And the question is, is it responsible to turn down what could be a huge economic boost for Louisville, a tremendous benefit to your community for the long term?
Now, the CAC and their followers who are against this project are trying to protect Louisville by opposing this development. And candidly, opposing any development within Louisville. And maybe that preserves their idea or vision of Louisville, but at what costs?
At what cost to Louisville? At what cost to the region, at what cost to the state of Colorado? And candidly, it’s a self-focused mindset. It’s protecting Louisville, which really means resistance to change, which becomes, unfortunately, Louisville against it’s neighboring communities. Louisville against the region. Louisville against the state.
But, the opportunity exists for it to be Louisville for it’s neighboring communities, Louisville for the region, Louisville for the State, and still be Louisville for Louisville.
So with that, on behalf of our collective team, we really do thank you and all of you for your time, your consideration, and we are asking you to please support this beneficial plan for your community. So Mayor Stoltzman, that concludes our presentation.