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During the May 28, 2019 Longmont City Council, Council member Tim Waters suggested that the Ordinance 2019-01 concerning the methods of removing prairie dogs be brought back to council on a future agenda.
Waters mentioned that after speaking with several residents in Ward 1, that an "unintended consequence" of the ordinance has arisen.
Residents are seeing a new generation of prairie dog pups migrating onto their personal property. Under the ordinance, these residents are required to get a permit and post their intention to remove the prairie dogs for 14 days.
In many cases, the presence of the prairie dogs is forcing residents to keep their children indoors during the waiting period, according to Waters.
Additionally, Waters notes that this same problem is being experienced by day care centers who find prairie dogs on their playgrounds.
Waters asked for a possible exemption to be made in these situations.
Discussion on the topic of prairie dogs and how the ordinance is defined began.
Rather than have a long debate on the topic of prairie dogs, which has in the past lasted several hours at former council meetings, Mayor Brian Bagley exercised his mayoral privilege and asked city staff to add the topic to a future city council agenda.
As of right now there is no word on when this topic will appear again before council.
