County approves Fowler-Abusi boundary line adjustment after review, adds wildfire-maintenance condition

Boulder County commissioners voted to approve Docket SE25-0003, a boundary line adjustment that transfers roughly 25 acres from 5503 J Road to 5501 J Road, creating a new ~3-acre residential lot and a ~27-acre parcel centered on Jewell Lake. The board approved the adjustment with conditions including documentation tying an existing agricultural barn to the continued agricultural use and a recorded maintenance agreement addressing wildfire mitigation for a narrow strip of land adjoining the White Rock Ditch.

The county planner, Sam Walker of Community Planning and Permitting, summarized staff review and said both parcels have legal access, existing water supplies and the ability to install septic systems, and that no new physical development was reviewed as part of the boundary change. Walker told commissioners the site plan review (SPR) for a residence and a barn on the larger parcel had already been approved earlier in 2025 and staff added a condition asking for documentation that the barn would continue to support agricultural operations across the parcels or that the parcels remain under shared control.

Applicants Chris and Gary Abusi and owner Barbara Fowler told the board the family has treated the two legal parcels as a single farm since 1966 and described the proposal as a workable acreage swap that preserves the lake and agricultural operations in family holdings while allowing the applicants to build a nearby home. Chris Abusi said the proposed 3-acre house site “keeps development out of the riparian areas and away from the ditch” and preserves the access road used for haying and lake maintenance. Attorney Harmon Zuckerman confirmed the family’s willingness to record a binding maintenance instrument.

Commissioner Stoltzmann asked whether a building envelope or other restriction should be recorded to limit future development and to prevent future conflicts between property owners. Walker and applicants said future development would still require site-plan review and that the SPR approval for the house and barn was issued for the larger configuration; staff noted the land-use code requires accessory agricultural structures to be sized to the agricultural use they support. Commissioners and the applicants negotiated an additional condition requiring a recorded instrument that ensures necessary wildfire mitigation of the arm of land north of the new 3-acre parcel and allows the owner of the larger parcel to perform mitigation if it is not otherwise completed.

Neighbors and family members who testified in support told commissioners the family has maintained the lake and surrounding land and that the change would not alter public access agreed with neighbors. After deliberation, Commissioner Stoltzmann moved approval and the board voted unanimously to approve the boundary line adjustment with the staff-recommended conditions plus the newly agreed maintenance/recordation condition. The board directed staff to include the final condition language in the post-approval deeds and to verify recordation before the deeds are finalized.

The approval does not authorize new building beyond the previously approved SPR; any future development beyond the SPR approval would be subject to applicable land-use review.