The Boulder County District Court has granted residents challenging the CU South flood project a four-week extension to respond to the city’s request for attorneys’ fees. The court’s decision to grant the extension could further prolong a case the city has argued will increase the cost of the flood project, which has been in the works for decades.
Earlier this month, the City of Boulder asked the court to make the residents pay its legal fees, arguing their lawsuit is a baseless attempt to delay the $66 million South Boulder Creek flood mitigation project. The plaintiffs said they need more time to prepare a “measured and time-consuming” response, including hiring an expert to evaluate whether the city’s fee request is appropriate. They also said they want to address the “chilling effect” such requests for attorneys’ fees have on the rights of residents to challenge the government. The judge gave them until at least Aug. 19 to file their response.
Ironically, the city’s motion for fees appeared intended in part to discourage the residents from extending the case or appealing it further. The city had hoped to begin construction earlier this year. However, it still required several permits as of earlier this month.
The lawsuit, filed by the group Save South Boulder, argues the city’s stormwater utility fees require voter approval under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. It also challenges city council’s approval of an ordinance authorizing $66 million in bonds to help fund the project. The flood mitigation effort includes building a concrete spillway along U.S. 36 and creating a detention pond to protect about 2,300 residents in the 100-year South Boulder Creek floodplain.
Unfortunately the CU South flood plan does little to address what really flooded Fraser Meadows – ground water in the gravels. (Gee it was a gravel pit and so was Frazer Meadows) Many properties in Table Mesa that had little or no water in the streets on 9/13 but had 12″ to 18″ of water in their basements. (the creeks followed paths created long before Table Mesa) This plan does not even consider the real way Fraser meadows was flooded on 9/13. They need to not look at the surface but look where the real problem is, the gravels that connect CU south with Fraser Meadows under US 36. CU South should be what it was intended to be riparian space, Fraser Meadows needed to understand the subsurface before it dug its parking structure. 2013 happened, 1908 happened, 1909 happened and many times before then. Just the houses and buildings are new.