Transcript

0:00:20Commissioners, are you ready? Yes, we are. Thank you so much. And we're recording. Thank you. We will call to order the meeting of Thursday, April 30th, 2026 of the Boulder County Commissioners. We are here this afternoon for a public hearing on the City of Boulder season extending agricultural structures. Commissioner Lochman Installsman are present, Commissioner Levy is excused. We are going to hear about these agricultural structures from our staff and this presentation. It'll take about 20 minutes or less than the applicant will have a chance to tell us their perspective and anything they'd like to add and have about 20 minutes. Then we'll go to public comment on the topic throughout the hearing commissioners may have questions to clarify things. And so we'll take those questions and then we'll come back to staff for any closing remarks. And finally, you'll have the final word as the applicant with any closing remarks you'd like to make. We'll close the public hearing and then the commissioners will deliberate before we get started. I'll ask commissioners if there are any disclosures. Thank you, Chair. Well, I guess chair at the moment, Vice Chair. I just want to disclose, as I started reading the pack, I was like, oh, I know this property. I've been there previous, but more recently on May 3rd of this year. I got an opportunity

0:01:31to join the Environmental Affinity Group Community Foundation and some folks from front range and others to go and walk through the property. So I just wanted to share my impressions and if the other questions from stuff, let me know. But just really from an impression standpoint that the property is being actively used in a really unique way for agriculture here in Boulder County. And so I just wanted to make sure that I disclose that, but I also do feel like I can be impartial and use code to address this docket. Thank you, that's wonderful. And I have no disclosures. And so with that, we'll turn it over to Pete for a presentation. Good afternoon, Commissioners Pete Larange, Community Planning and Permitting staff. This is DocketLU - 26 - 003 City of Boulder Season Extending Agricultural Structures at 8975 Valmont Road. The applicant is the City of Boulder Boulder. It is owned agricultural. The parcel and total is about 90 acres, excuse me. There's an existing residence as well as some existing agfloor area. And 12, 789 square feet of existing season extending agricultural structures. This is a limited impact special review request for total floor area exceeding 25, 000 square feet. On the parcel, the applicants are proposing to add another 15, 400 square feet of additional season extending egg structures. Here's the location map.

0:02:56You can see it's on the north side of Elmont Road, just a little west of 95th. Aerial photograph. Comprehensive plan map. Most of the activities on the parcel and in specific, these structures are on the very southern end that are in the rare plant area and the aglands of significance. Floodplain, again, showing the subject parcel, the kind of red and blue hashed is the Floodway. The light blue is the 100 - year floodplain and the orange is the 500 - year flood plane. Again, the activities for this are taking place on the south end of the parcel. Public lands, this is a city boulder open space in mountain parks property. There's also County Conservation Easement properties in the vicinity, kind of surrounding it. And then zoning agricultural. There is a supplemental 90 - foot setback from the center line of Valmont Road. But no conflicts with that. This is an excerpt from the narrative submitted by the applicant, but pretty much they are looking to install some more season extending agricultural structures in two different sizes to help extend the agricultural operations on the property.

0:04:18This is the site plan against by the applicant on the left is the full site plan. And then on the right is the zoomed in detail. Fact sheets submitted by the applicants. They are proposing four of the season extending structures that are 11 feet in height. And then the elevations for those. So again, seeing the 11 foot tall ones with 16 feet wide, four of them, and two that are 14 by 30. Sight photos, so this is on Valmont looking into the subject parcel. And then looking east along Valmont. This is a little bit further up looking down into the field where these would be located. You can see one of the existing season extending structures. And then to the adjacent parcel. This is down in the middle of the existing buildings. You can see one of the other structures in the background there. And then moving along towards the field where they will be located. Just get another view of that. And then a view of the one view of the existing season extending egg structure. This is in the same location looking back towards Val Monteza looking south. And then, uh, a picture of the existing structure to kind of give you an idea of what they're actually going to look like on the ground. And then looking west Lung Velmont south. And

0:05:49again, east towards the trailhead. This application was referred out via the standard procedures. Staff received referral responses from the agency's listed there. And those are summarized in the staff packet. Snap also received response of no comment or no concern from a bunch of agencies listed there. Steph did not receive any response from, uh, the agency's listed here. And then notice was mailed to 16 nearby property owners. Staff did receive two comments from one member of the public. The first with general questions. And then the second stating that they supported the proposal. And that's in the stat packet as well. Looking at the LU criteria, just looking at the most applicable, uh, one, except as otherwise noted, the use comply with minimum zoning requirements. Uh, in this case, uh, any parcel with a floor area over 25, 000 square feet, all of which is part of an agricultural use, which is the case here, is allowed in the agricultural zoning district through the limited impact review.

0:06:48Um, total, they are proposing to come up to 33, 277 square feet of floor area between the existing structures and the proposed. The code states under 4102 FEB2 that season extending ag structure shall be excluded from the square footage counter towards the provision, the 25, 000 square foot provision. Uh, on a property, um. Uh, on a property, that should be unless the threshold, uh, is identified in four 802 A15. That Threshold in 802 A15 is if there's more than 5, 000 square feet cumulative of season and extending structures on Parcel's five acres or larger or more than 12 feet in height. In this case, obviously the more than 5, 000 square feet cumulative. And there are structures proposed at more than 12 feet in height. Therefore, staff found it did not meet the threshold to be exempted from the 25, 000 square foot threshold for LU. Hence why we're here. But with that understanding, Steph did find that the proposed structures do meet the minimum zoning requirements. Uh, so Steph, on this criterion was met.

0:08:02Going to number two, the use will be compatible with the surrounding area. Uh, in reviewing its staff, determine that these do support ongoing, uh, agricultural operations on an agricultural parcel. We did look at other parcels in the area and their floor areas. Those range typically between about 3, 300 and 30, 000 of non - residential floor area. The total floor area and then the non - residential ranges between 376 and 27, 000. So this would be the largest floor area in the defined neighborhood in terms of total floor area. However, it is clustered with other development on the parcel. And it is a very common sight for ag operations. So staff found that it was still in character with the surrounding area and found that this criterion was met. Going to number nine, the use of we adequately buffed for your screen to mitigate any undue visual impacts. In this case, obviously they will be visible from Valmont Road. But again, they are very common site for agricultural properties. There's no lighting proposed for these.

0:09:03Uh, additionally, Valmont Road at this location is approximately 14 feet higher than ground level where these would be located. So the peak of the tallest ones would be essentially at ground level if you're standing on Valmont. Staffos, uh, the applicants of stated they didn't have crops between this structures and the roadway that will additionally screened them. Uh, and these are type of structure that could be very easily removed in the future. Uh, with no lasting impact, unlike a more traditional stick built or concrete building, uh, so staff found that, uh, you know, there would be no permanent visual impact on the landscape. And therefore, Staffon that there was not an undue visual impact and that this criterion was met. And with that staff recommends conditional approval of LU - 263, City of Boulder Seasoning Ag Structures subject to the conditions and the staff recommendation. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Questions from commissioners. I don't have any questions. Pete, thank you for the information. I also don't have any questions. Thank you so much. So we'll turn over to the applicant for any material you would like to present to us today.

0:10:09Thank you. I do have a slideshow here. I don't know how it gets. It's magic. It will just happen in a moment. Amazing. Um, well first of all, I just wanted to say thank you to staff for making those recommendations. I really appreciate that perspective. Um, and going into it. And so I want to greet the commissioners here and say thank you for having me and giving me this opportunity to, uh, to talk a little bit about season extension agricultural structures and how important they are for, uh, small farm business viability really. They're an essential part of the small farm infrastructure package. You can see right here, um, this is our existing footprint of, of field tunnels. I will say that the, uh, the pictures from, uh, from staff were taken in the wintertime. So you don't get the full glory of these, uh, structures in context, uh, you'll see a little bit of that in my presentation here. Um, the way these, uh, these structures work, they're really nested in amongst gardens, um, both annual and perennial that give us an opportunity to really, um, pursue our relationship with, uh, plants. There's many planets as possible that are edible. This is a culinary garden that we're growing here for, uh, the chefs in the region. And so we've really just, um, looked to explore

0:11:43all the possible plant relationships that we can have on the land here. And then, um, bring that out into the community through our local restaurants, um, and give diners the opportunity to experience what Colorado Cuisine really can be. I apologize for the interruption. This is Brianna Barber Commissioner's office staff. Were you able to please state your first and last name in organization on the record? A proper introduction. Um, my name is Mark Derspenus and my, my farm is Esoteric Colinary Garden. We are tenants on this beautiful property, um, owned by City Boulder, Open Space, the Mountain Parks. Wire season extension agricultural structures or field tunnels so essential for small farms in Boulder County. Let's answer that question. Well, season extension, um, really brings crops in line with the felt season. One challenge that we've had working with our restaurants is that here we are in, you know, in a beautiful April day. And it feels like spring. But in reality, the bit of a lag in when the first radishes and the first carrots and the first turnips come in from the field. And so these tunnels have allowed us to plant some of these crops earlier and harvest them earlier. So then we have true spring veg. Traditionally the restaurants would be going to California to start their season off. The last month or

0:13:14so of the spring season, for example, they would buy locally, but we can really kind of meet them where they're at and develop spring menus in earlier in March and April. And that's just one of the seasons every season has this same advantage. Um, I marked here. So allowing for early start in vertical growing during the summer season. That's extremely important. Um, you know, some of our field tomatoes because of what we're located might not come in until like late September is the reality. And so, um, by that time people started transition rate of fall menus. So the real problem in trying to execute farm to table when you don't have crops coming in in a way that aligns with people's expectations for that seasonal produce. So these tunnels help us to meet those expectations and really just, um, kind of buffer that, um, otherwise pretty restricted seasonality of certain crops. Um, vertical growing is also extremely important. It's part of why these, um, these tunnels can be so much more productive than, uh, than field growing. Um, it also provides protection from the elements for workers and plants in the cold season. We have successfully achieved a year - round production model. For seasonally appropriate crops. We're not talking about growing tomatoes in December.

0:14:41I don't think that's, that's not my mission at least. What we're trying to do is to still provide, um, a beautiful salad mix straight through the winter and delicious and diversely flavored herbs for our chefs. Um, and so I could show you here, this is a winter salad. You can see there's maybe 14 or 15 different varieties of, uh, of greens in that salad. And that's just such a beautiful thing to be able to harvest in January or February. Um, and I put this chamomile leaf here because we're discovering using these spaces a different plant families that really thrive just with a very basic protection. We're talking a single layer of plastic, no utilities, no heat, no fossil fuel, nothing except for the single layer of plastic which provides passive solar, warms the soil and allows these crops to survive even the most extreme of winter temperatures. Um, once I measured in a negative 20 degree day night, we under our secondary cover in these greenhouses, it stayed in the high teens. So it's almost a 40 degree temperature differential. Just because of the way the soil can hold the temperature that it accumulates or the heat that it accumulates during the day when the sun's shining. Oh, my love, the sculptural quality of that chamomile leaf too. Delicious as well. Um, here's an example.

0:16:14I mean, we pulled this radish out in probably the first week of March, this beautiful, and when everyone's just yearning for signs of spring after the long winter, which usually we have, um, this, um, it really is a site for sore eyes and something that really celebrate. Um, and so together we're kind of experiencing this celebration of what the land can provide here with just these really basic modifications. Lexi's holding a, um, a cell tos plant right there. Um, similarly harvested and I think it was the last week of April last year, that that came through. And I was like, this big, beautiful vegetable, um, that is really fun, fun to work with fun for my chefs. Um, who've now kind of come to expect it to the point where this is the reason why we're coming to you for permission for these more tunnels is because the demand has gotten so high that, um, just are looking to increase space so that we can meet that demand. So this, um, the utilization of these tunnels year round and the accompanying production models has allowed me to develop, um. Um, the resources to retain key employees. And I really look at my farm as an opportunity for, for people who really want to operate at a high level in this like small no - till

0:17:48farming model. Which I'm really excited about. Love having the opportunity to educate people. And pay them well and keep them employed year round. Um, and so, uh, not only with the season extension, we are able to start earlier with our team and keep them on longer. Generally my seasonal employees will stay on until Thanksgiving and or Christmas. We sort of pull back depending on the season. But my managers, um, are able to be with me year round. And this would have been impossible. I thought about putting an image of the bell curve in the slideshow because it's just as so challenging to run a business when all of your revenue comes in in the summertime. And so you end up with this bell curve where on the shoulder season, the revenue at all. And so from a cash flow perspective, it's extremely challenging, um, to maintain payroll through the winter months as well as, um, all of the early season expenses, uh, associated with operating a farm business. Um, so these tunnels have really allowed us to kind of flatten that curve and to maintain a consistent, uh, cash flow or modicum of consistency throughout the winter months as well. Um, this gives you a sense here. I mean, P's are really. Great example. Like the first P is at the farmers market might come

0:19:24in third week of May, maybe. By that time everyone's thinking about summer crops. Like in terms of like our restaurant menus. And so we, we bring that. Two, three weeks earlier in our tunnels and really like we get to explore the full, um, seasonality. For peace. Um, outside you could see here the tunnels are closed off. We have early crops in the field. Meanwhile much more mature fruiting crops like this P are coming out of the tunnels at the same time. See those beautiful purple peas there. And then this bed on the right is actually, uh, it's a fall bed of escrol and carrots. So the other side of this, we're talking about the spring a lot, but on the other side of this, you have going into the fall. And what happens when you get that. 10 degrees on November 1. Right? Which happens.

0:20:23Well, not of every three or four years, you know. Um, or we had a, um. I don't use the word on the farm, but we had a hailstorm in early October. Three years ago. And it basically took out, uh, huge portion of our field crops for the fall. And there really wasn't time for them to recover. Um, when I was smaller, like maybe the stakes were a little lower for events like that. But now that I've got, you know, an extensive staff and payroll obligations and customers who were really relying on product, like the impact of that is pretty significant. Um, so these tunnels allow us here in early November might even be snow on the side of that tunnel there. I don't know. But, um, yeah, it looks like it is. Yeah. But, um, this can give us that ability to kind of go even into the deepfall and early winter. With crops already established that as they get harvested out, we just go ahead and we plant. The greens in there. Again for the deep winter. Or early spring. So it allows for this continued photo synthesis, which, um, beneficial for the soil and really helps to make this operation viable. Customer attention is a really big thing. When I, when I started, the kind of painful point when you had to kind

0:21:49of say, sorry guys, I don't have anything. I don't have anything left. And that might happen in November. It might happen in December. But then. You know, a relationship with those customers kind of goes dark. And they have to go back to the truck. As you say, which usually means, um, one of the. Distributors that brings produce in from, from generally from the West Coast. And, you know, I think that's, and I found it's not really, it wasn't really in alignment. With their values as a restaurant. They wanted to continue to. Work with local. Uh, producers, but they're just was not the supply. And so we, then we'd suffer from having to build up the relationship again, kind of wa. Up. The relationship. And so utiliz. The structures that we currently have, we've been able to now take. The 50 restaurants that we work with in the summer. 25 of those are best ones. We're able to maintain relationships with them straight through the winter.

0:22:57And then together we celebrate all these treasures that we can harvest even in the depths of winter. When the snow on the ground. Chef Ian there from Frasca's holding a Rosa de Guerritia. This is a beautiful forest chickery that's a treasure of. Northeastern. Italy. And that's just one of the products that utilizes protected space, um, were able to, uh, to, to, to bring to our customers. And we're really looking for as much diversity as possible. When it comes down to it. That's one of the, one. Of the examples. So let's see. A beautiful site. This is speaking more about that, uh, fall garden and going into winter. We have a full tunnel of Mom - HUM Carrots here. This is on November 15. So these were for harvest. Once we harvested the last of our field carrots. And so carrots are major crop for us.

0:23:57Um, we grow this special Mom - Gum carrot that is not commercially produced because it has what's called a brittle top. So it can't be harvested by a machine. Every carrot that's in the grocery store is harvested by this big machine that goes and grabs the greens and pulls it out, six on a conveyor belt, tops it. And then. Uh, et cetera. But these ones, since they have brittle top, they can't be grown commercially. Um, they are bred for flavor. And they are. Incredibly sweet and tender. Um, and. Uh, we call. Them by name. Welcome carrots. Um, and we grew. Over 10, 000 pounds of these carrots last year alone. And it. Wouldn't do me any good. To have 10, 000 pounds of these carrots at any one point in time. But, um. Instead we worked to match kind of the demand. So that might be three to 500 pounds a week. Of these carrots.

0:24:53In order to achieve that, it's quite a feat. Um, we plant them over. 60 times over the course of the year. Um, and this. Is one of our. Last plantings. Um. The first plantings of the year happened on January 1st. And, uh, we are really proud to be the first ones to harvest carrots in the state of Colorado as far as I know. This week are sending about 350 pounds. Out into the world. You can see them here. Really beautiful. And. Those were from a January planting in the. Tunnel. So that gets us a month early. And it sure is a wonderful thing. To have, uh, fresh carrots this time of year. Um, I personally think the aesthetics of these tunnels is pretty stunning. Um, whether they're covered in snow or kind of shining in the moonlight. Or underneath one of our beautiful. Sunset skies.

0:25:56And I think they're not, it's not quite that kind of industrial feel that I think could rub people the wrong way. Um, especially when they're. Uh, surrounded by beautiful plants growing. Um, as you can see a little bit here, I don't have a good like. Overhead view for some. Well, because the field we're about to. Put these structures up in was occupied by prairie dogs for many. Years. And, um. We're in the process of restoring that field. To. Something similar to what you see on the, uh, west side of the road there. So providing a connection to plants and the land for community members, we hosted many people at the farm for tours. And part of the mission of the farm is to be essentially a culinary pilgrimage site where people have the opportunity to connect to plants and to the process of growth. For their food. So that's no longer just a commodity or something. That. Unknown entity in your life.

0:29:02Your eating product. So yeah, I think that kind of brings it to a quote. I appreciate taking your time to listen. And understand why this could be important. For farms here. And look forward to the resolution the process and getting on with growing. Thank you. Any questions from commissioners? I don't have any questions. I just wanted to clarify, not for you specifically, Mark, but I saw that Lauren Kolb was online, and so I didn't know if Laura's expecting to speak. So I just wanted to ask, since she's been looking at us from the site on the screen. Oh, no, I was just, I'm home six today, but I just wanted to be there to support Mark, but I knew Mark was going to talk, so I didn't say anything, but thank you for checking in.

0:29:50And if you don't mind just standing your name since I got you speaking on the record, please. Sure, of course. My name is Lauren Kolb and I'm an agricultural program manager for the Stateholders Open Space and Mountain Parks Department. Thank you. Thanks, I have just one question. So do you have any objection to the staff recommendation. No. Thank you. All right, with that, we'll take public comment on this docket this afternoon. And then signed up in person or virtually, so we will close the public hearing and we'll turn back to staff for any closing comments. Pete Larange Community Planning and Permitting. No other comments from staff, but if there are any last minute questions, I'm happy to answer. Thank you very much. And I don't have any Commissioner Luchamine? I don't either, thank you. Thank you very much. And so we will turn over to the applicant for any closing remarket you'd like to make today. I don't think I really have any closing remarks that I'd like to make. I've said a lot of stuff. Thank you, Fat. It's just fine. We appreciate it.

0:30:50Thank you so much. Any other questions that we have before we close the public hearing? I don't have any questions for the applicant. Thank you. Thank you. I don't either. And so what that will close the public hearing and we'll turn it over to the Commissioners for deliberation. Sure. Yeah, I'm happy to get us started on Docket LU - 26 - 003. I appreciate the information in the packet. And I was listening in your presentation, but I sort of read through some of the comments that you were talking about in regards to the public, caught my attention, then saw the whole thread and just in regards to their approval, or I guess kind of recommendation support as well in regards to the different criteria specifically. I agreed with your analysis in regards to the character being in line with the surrounding community and that community.

0:31:35And like I said, it actually was a great benefit of not having done a formal site visit for this docket, but having been out there to look at the property and just even drive a long Balmont in that area to have a better understanding of this docket. And I also, I thought the Vandus criteria nine that the fact that there is no lighting was another way of just interpreting the mitigation factors being part of that that tends to come up inlandy's dockets. So I was in agreement with the analysis that stuff hasn't, I'm happy to take the recommendation. Thank you. I concur. I think that the applicant has put together a very good project. And I think as conditioned by staff, it meets our land use criteria. And I appreciate your extra comments about the lighting. I think that's really relevant. I hadn't thought of that. But that makes a lot of sense to me as well. Great, thank you. I will move approval on item to A, which is Community Plotting and Permitting Department Docketlu - 26 - 003 City Boulder Season Extending Agricultural Structures Limited Impact Special Review for Total Flow Area. And so I would move that for approval with the conditions as written and presented by staff today. Thank you all second that. All those in favor. Aye. Any opposed? And

0:32:49so the motion carries unanimously. Thank you so much. And that concludes our business for this afternoon.