Dear Castle Pines North City Council,

You have been bestowed the trust of the community and the duty to set the course for our future. Please value that trust with a steadfast understanding of the significance of your decisions. You are entrusted with rigorously qualifying and comparing professional advice. You must meticulously investigate and consider not only the content of the advice but also probe the motivation.

At the center of Douglas County, The Canyons will be the heart beat of our region. The Canyons zoning decisions you are preparing to make will shape not only CPN but all of Douglas County. The current proposed zoning will fundamentally and eternally change the character of the I-25 corridor from Castle Rock to Lonetree and from the foothills to Parker. The gravity of your decisions are ominous and must be based on research beyond the opinions of those who line their pockets with population growth.

Douglas County was built and allowed to grow on a limited supply of water that is now reaching its limit. Simply stating that Parker will supply water to the Canyons is short-sighted as all communities in our region are depending on the same groundwater supply and the same regional solutions. Further straws in the aquifers will not only use up our water faster but will stress all neighboring wells as each will have to work harder to deliver their required flows. These effects shorten the length of time each neighboring community, including CPN, will have to buy surface water and build their delivery system. Judicious decisions about population increases and land use must be collaborative and consider the entire regions water supply and not simply CPN.

Communities in all of Colorado and the American West are in an aggressive race to acquire the last remaining drops of surface water available from the Rocky Mountains. Douglas County is in this race to replace the water our current population depends on while all other communities are seeking water for growth. Douglas County communities are geologically bonded in this competition - this is not a race we can afford to lose.

With the knowledge that all communities in Douglas County must convert to renewable water any new development must be required to be built on renewable water OR required to front the money necessary to convert to renewable water in the future. Anything less only adds those same burdens to the backs of the current homeowners.

The zoning of The Canyons can be the turning point that leads our region in sustainable land use decisions. You have an opportunity to make an enormous difference not only for CPN but for all of Douglas County. Please embrace the magnitude of your choices, rally the effort for scrupulous due diligence, and summon the courage make the right decision.

Stacie Sneider
CPN Homeowner