As a long-time Green Mountain resident, and supporter of Jefferson County's Open Space program, I have more than a casual interest in the proposed Rooney Valley Open Space land swap that will soon be on the ballot for Lakewood voters. I signed the petition to put the question to the voters to ensure that all the facts are considered when the decision is made.

I was surprised to view the photograph representing the 22 acres of land that would be received by the city (Rooney Valley Open Space) in exchange for 22 acres from Forsberg/Iron Springs Park presented on the website, lakewoodvoter.com. This website starts with the headline: "Don't trade this"(with an arrow pointing to a photograph labeled "Iron Spring Park") "for this" (with an arrow pointing to a photograph viewing down the center of a gully, labeled "developer's ditch"). I have made frequent visits to this corridor (50 or more in the past year alone), and did not recognize this "developer's ditch" as the area with which I thought I was familiar.

As a result of my suspicions about this photograph, I decided to become more familiar with the Rooney Valley Open Space corridor. Armed with a map of the area, and the picture labeled "developer's ditch," I walked the entire length (about 1700 feet) along its western edge (it varies in width from about 150 to 450 feet). The dominant character of the land is flat grassland, sloping gently towards the south, with a gully, approximately 30 feet wide by 20 feet deep that meanders roughly along the western edge. At frequent intervals, I paced the distance from the edge of the gully to the private homes on the eastern edge of the proposed open space corridor. For most of its length, the gully is located on the edge of the proposed Rooney Valley Open Space with some of it on the developer's side and some on the proposed open space side of the boundary. The area of the gully entirely within the proposed open space is small and actually provides a pleasant character to the land.

In conclusion, I was unable to pinpoint the location depicted on the photograph labeled "developer's ditch," but It was easy to conclude that this photograph is a gross misrepresentation of the nature of the land known as Rooney Valley Open Space. It is not wasteland, and the developer will have no trouble building upon it if Lakewood Referendum 1 should fail. If the referendum passes, this land, in my opinion, will be put to its best use-open space for the enjoyment of future generations.

I strongly recommend that all Lakewood residents who intend to vote on this issue personally visit this parcel and make their own decisions rather than be influenced by a photograph that is claimed to be representative of the topography of the land.