Can you take literally - just two minutes - to send the email below?  

Despite 3+ years of public requests for the Meadowlark Open Space, Boulder City Council seems hell bent on approving the University of Colorado building in a floodplain.  

One of our last hopes is that the citizen board - the Water Resources Advisory Board (WRAB) will require City Council to do a study on the benefits of using Open Space Wetlands based flood control.

**The Board meets tomorrow night - Monday April 20th.  

Thank you for sending the urgent email below.  Feel free to add your own words or make other updates. 

Thank you deeply,

Ken J. Beitel
Chair of Wilderness Conversation
proposed Meadowlark Open Space
web:  www.MeadowlarkOpenSpace.org
e.  meadowlarkopenspace@gmail.com
m. 720 436 2465

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Subject:  Request for Upstream-Open Space Based Flood Control Study

To: WRAB@bouldercolorado.gov, OSBT-Web@bouldercolorado.gov, meadowlarkopenspace@gmail.com 

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Honorable Water Resources Advisory Board  Commissioners Kirk Vincent, Ted Rose, Trisha Oeth, Gordon McCurry, and John Berggren:

I am writing to request your help in having Boulder City Council listen to the community input they have received but not listened to over the last two years.  

As a member of the public I am deeply concerned that Boulder City Council has refused to listen to public comment and I deeply share the concerns on the front page of the Daily Camera:  
https://www.dailycamera.com/2018/08/02/public-comment-on-planning-board-centers-on-cus-say-over-flood-mitigation-plan-in-south-boulder/

Now at the request of the University of Colorado, who wants to maximize buildable land, it seems like Boulder City Council is giving up on 500 year flood protection and is willing sacrifice the health and safety of Frasier Meadows residents and settle for 100 year flood protection. 

While this weak level of 100 year flood protection has an enormous price tag to Boulder City Taxpayers of $66 million, it does little if anything to protect from catastrophic flooding.  In the last five years, Houston has experienced THREE five hundred year flood events.

If the City of Boulder taxpayer is going to invest in flood control - it must provide 500 year flood level protection to protect the community.

For years, the Boulder Community at almost every public meeting on the topic has requested that Boulder City Council study flood control protection based on an upstream or Open Space option.  The only response we Below is the only plan studied to date.

In writing, in October 2019, the Open Space Board of Trustees requested Boulder City Council provide cost and engineering and habitat data for an upstream/ecosystem based flood control option to allow for a cost benefit analysis. The Board has requested this study so they can cast an informed a vote.

5 months has passed and City Council has taken no action to honor the Open Space Board request. The Open Space Board of Trustees is the custodian of the Boulder Open Space System and represents Boulder communities to City Council.  Their request and the request of the community should NOT be denied.

During the next two months of meetings, all decision makers including City Council, must have this requested engineering, cost and habitat data to make effective and informed decisions.

Now is the time for WRAB to powerfully recommend that  City Council listen to its boards and the public and take action.

I hereby am respectfully requesting WRAB ask the City of Boulder to fund an Upstream Open Space Flood Control study on par and as rigorous as previous multi-million dollar, multi-month studies.  

Previous studies were flawed in that pro-development council members mandated that  protection of CU buildings had to be a requirement. Now we need a study that reflects the high level of public comment of the last two+ years.

To allow informed votes to take place at upcoming meetings, the Upstream Open Space Flood Control study will have the following project parameters:

Parameter 1: A proposed land swap to provide for CU North has occurred and the City has acquired the 308 acre CU South property in exchange.

Parameter 2: The land swap has removed the requirement for City of Boulder taxpayers to protect University of Colorado buildings in the CU South floodplain.

Parameter 3: To allow for safer, faster to build and lower cost flood control, a City of Boulder Open Space has been created on the 308 acres of city property.  The Open Space will be used for flood control by providing wetlands retention, along with upstream detention ponds.  City land west of highway #93 may also be used for for flood protection.

The six guiding principles of the South Boulder Upstream Open Space Flood Control (UOS-FC) study will be to:

• Provide a cost and high level engineering design based on Open Space flood control protection for 500 year options for flood control for downstream neighborhoods that will be used for decision making in spring/summer 2020.
• Achieve flood control protection utilizing water retention ability of wetlands habitat, a series of wetlands retention ponds and low earthen berms.
• Utilize an engineering design that will restore wetlands and expand  habitat for federally protected species including the rare Preble's Jumping Mouse and Ute's Ladies Tresses Orchids
• Enact flood control measures that will facilitate nature based recreational activities like hiking, interpretive nature trails, cycling, bird watching and grade school based wetlands science programs.
• Why should this study taken when other studies have been done?
  
  The community safety, cost effectiveness and time to build benefits of the Upstream Open Space Flood Control Option are compelling.
• The ability to create a win-win for the community and the University of Colorado are compelling.
• Cost of not doing this study: 
  
  This study request has been made repeatedly by the pubic for the last two years at public meetings.  The cost to safety and tax payers is high if City Council rejects this public request for this study.
• Rejection of this request to study will confirm the City of Boulder is only listening to the University of Colorado.
• The options studied so far violate the federally protected habitat of the South Boulder Creek State Natural Area.
  
  Rejecting this request to study will validate vigorous public and potential legal opposition to the concrete dam plan for years to come. 
• The City of Boulder and the University of Colorado will experience a national public relations nightmare scenario for attempting to develop on Colorado wetlands home to federally protected species.
• Benefits of doing this study:
  
  This Open Space Flood Control study will evaluate if 500 flood protection for downstream Boulder communities can be cost effectively achieved at a low cost.  This is worth looking at.
• The Upstream Open Space Flood Control Option will have full community support and be quickly built.
• This flood control option will allow restoration of wetlands habitat and expansion of habitat for the federally protected wildlife and plant species.   

In closing, please fund and implement this requested study immediately so evidence based votes can be made.

And as guardians of public safety, Honorable WRAB Commissioners, thank you for requesting a Upstream Open Space Flood Control study that does not value the protection of CU buildings over the lives of Boulder communities.

Best Regards,

(insert your name here)