Issuu

STANDARD BLADE B R I G H T O N

SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1903

75cI

VOLUME 119

Issue 47

WEEK OF NOVEMBER 24, 2022

Early-season snow off to good start in high country Thousands fewer metro area property owners are challenging assessments But homeowners could protest more in 2023 as market fluctuates BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Nevertheless, it’s better to have snow on the ground than not, he said. “Every little bit helps. Just like a field goal early in the first quarter,” he wrote. “But it needs to be followed up with a lot more scoring.” Given the challenges facing the Colorado River, water managers across the region will be watching the snowpack especially closely this year. More than 40 million people rely on the snow that accumulates high up in the mountains in the Colorado River Basin and then flows into the river and its tributaries. The water is also used to irrigate millions of acres of farmland. However, a series of subpar snow years and dry soil conditions paired with sustained water use has drained the country’s two

As home prices in the counties around Denver shot up over the last decade, tens of thousands of residents argued officials incorrectly estimated the values of homes and other properties. They demanded their taxes be reduced. But that trend, practically a rite in some regions, reversed in recent years. Challenges filed with county assessors declined as homeowners apparently acknowledged the rising cost of real estate. “People today understand that values have been going up dramatically,” said Scot Kersgaard, the Jefferson County assessor. “Day after day, week after week, it’s been in the newspaper constantly.” The news is also on websites, like Zillow, Redfin and Trulia, which track the value of homes. But the last word on the value of those homes, as far as the government is concerned, belongs to Kersgaard’s office. His office determines how much homeowners will owe government entities in taxes. For years, rises in those taxes have led to lines at county offices and stacks of filings as property owners submit protests against assessors’ valuations. In 2013, Jefferson County saw about 5,700 protests. That number reached about 11,200 in 2017, but fell to 7,200 in 2021. Acceptance of the realities of

SEE SNOW, P15

SEE PROTEST, P10

A fox ventures through the snow on Conifer’s Shadow Mountain.

Too soon to get excited, but snowpack is 140% of average BY CHRIS OUTCALT THE COLORADO SUN

Snowpack on the Western Slope is off to a good start, but experts caution it’s difficult to draw many meaningful conclusions from snow-covered, high-country peaks this early in the season. “It’s kind of like leading a football game by a field goal halfway through the first quarter,” Jeff Lukas, an independent climate researcher, wrote in an email. As of early November, the statewide snowpack was 140% of the median from 1991 to 2020, and 142% in the Colorado River headwaters

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area specifically, according to SNOTEL data compiled by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The averages were slightly higher elsewhere on the Western Slope. Still, there’s a long way to go. Typically, on Nov. 9, Colorado is about 8% of the way to achieving statewide median snowpack, Lukas said. Right now, the state is about 12% of the way there, he said. But, Lukas cautioned that there’s very little correlation between mountain precipitation in October and early November and the final totals across an entire snow season. In about a third of the past 35 years, early-season snow totals looked something like they do so far this year, Lukas said. The season-ending snowpack across those 12 years, however, runs the gamut, from a handful of average years to a very good 1995 and a dismal 2012.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DEBBIE FORD

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