Longmont council rejects amendment to narrow open-space disposition rules

Mayor Peck, Mayor Pro Tem Hidalgo Faring and two council members sparred over how strictly the city should define “public purpose” for disposition of open space at the Longmont City Council study session on Sept. 2, 2025, and a proposed amendment to the city’s open-space disposition rules failed on a 3–4 vote. Mayor Pro Tem Hidalgo Faring introduced the measure, asking the council to revise Section 14.52.032, Process A, Section 1 to state what cannot be considered in disposition of open space, including industrial uses, housing and transfers to private entities.

The measure would have changed the ordinance’s wording from a permissive “means and includes but is not limited to” test for public purpose to a definition that explicitly excludes certain uses. “What I’m hearing is that you want to close that gap,” Hidalgo Faring said as she framed the motion, adding she meant to “put guardrails” around how council interprets a ‘net benefit’ for the open-space program.

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