Department of Utilities
Reference: Approving Leases of Water Rights and Land Owned by the City of Brighton
To: Mayor Gregory Mills and Members of City Council
Through: Jane Bais DiSessa, City Manager
Prepared By: Austin Creswell, PE - Water Resources Engineer
Through: Brett Sherman, PE - Director of Utilities
Date Prepared: August 5, 2021
PURPOSE
To consider the approval of ordinances for the leasing of water rights and land owned by the City of Brighton.
BACKGROUND
For water rights, Brighton has traditionally acquired shares in the Fulton Ditch and FRICO system. With the increasing difficulty and expense of acquiring shares in these systems, Brighton has expanded into other geographic areas for the acquisition of water rights. In 2018, Brighton started acquiring water rights along Turkey Creek and Bear Creek in Jefferson County. In 2020, Brighton started acquiring shares in the Lupton system in Weld County. Some of these acquisitions have been made through direct purchase by the City and some have been made through water dedications from developers.
In order to operate these Lupton system water rights, Brighton will need to build some infrastructure for storage, infiltration, and augmentation. So in addition to water rights, land has been acquired in the area that will be used in the future for that infrastructure.
Recent acquisitions in the Lupton system include the following:
* 75 shares Lupton Meadows (Gee Trust Property)
* 70 shares Lupton Meadows (Coufal Property)
* 1.25 shares Lupton Bottom (Coufal Property)
* 68.36 acres of land (for planned infrastructure, Coufal Property)
* 80 shares of Lupton Meadows (Sarchet Property)
These water right shares will need to go through a Water Court decreed change of use, and consistency in historic use and location is important in water right change of use cases. Until these water rights can be changed and put to use in the City's system, it would be useful to keep them active in irrigation to keep the ...
Click here for full text