Boulder County commissioners voted Thursday to extend the existing Lyons Planning Area Comprehensive Development Plan intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to Aug. 29, 2025, to allow more time for negotiations on a long-term replacement.

The extension preserves the current IGA’s protections while the town of Lyons and county staff continue talks and community engagement. Hannah Hippley, long-range planning division manager at Community Planning & Permitting, told the board, “The request is to extend the current IGA until 08/29/2025 to allow additional time to negotiate and adopt a long term updated and revised intergovernmental agreement.”

Why it matters: the 2012 IGA governs shared planning for the Lyons planning area, and staff said allowing the agreement to remain in force prevents a lapse in the benefits the document provides while a revised agreement is negotiated. Hippley told commissioners the town organized a task force and provided edits to the county on May 8; county staff replied on May 19 but had not yet had time to sit down and negotiate before the prior June 30 deadline.

County and town work to date and next steps
County staff said a draft replacement IGA was circulated in February and that Lyons took time to review that draft with its community and a trustees’ task force. Hippley said the town provided edits on May 8 and the county sent comments on May 19, but the parties lacked time to meet before the earlier June 30 expiration date. Staff recommended extending the current agreement to Aug. 29, 2025, “so that we can continue to work with the Town [] with the existing IGA still in place,” Hippley said.

Commissioner discussion focused on process and wording. Commissioners noted that much of the IGA’s substantive language is unchanged and that the extension before the board is chiefly a date change to allow additional negotiation time. County staff said attorneys had reviewed the draft and did not identify legal issues with the language; staff also said they would confirm the provenance of a long whereas clause that appeared in the current draft.

Outcome and vote
The board voted to approve the extension. The motion approved the county’s staff recommendation to extend the Lyons planning-area CDP IGA until Aug. 29, 2025; the motion passed with the commissioners present voting in favor. Commissioner Levy was excused.

What was not decided
No long-term changes to the IGA’s substantive provisions were adopted; commissioners approved only the time extension to keep the existing agreement in effect while staff and town representatives continue negotiating a replacement.