Real estate group promotes clean environment, green jobs

 Andy Kabza found his stride when he began working on political campaigns in 2006, helping organize support for former State Rep. Angie Paccione’s unsuccessful but oh-so-close attempt to unseat incumbent U.S. Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave.

That experience prompted Kabza, 31, to lend his organizing skills to a political race in Texas in 2008. Since then, he’s put himself at the center of an effort to recruit Northern Colorado real estate professionals to evangelize for the passage of a bill in the U.S. Congress to modernize the nation’s hard-rock mining law.

Senate Bill 676, also called the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2009, is an update of the General Mining Act of 1872, which still generally governs hard-rock mining on public lands. The Senate is scheduled to take up the bill, which includes greater environmental protections and money for a cleanup fund, later this summer.

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Kabza said the Northern Colorado Home Ownership Alliance is an incipient group of green-minded real estate professionals who believe passage of the new law will help ensure a cleaner environment in which to live and sell property in Larimer and Weld counties. He said the group also wants to advocate for good-paying, green-collar jobs in the New Energy Economy promoted by Gov. Bill Ritter.

“They’re interested in these issues and feel that this federal legislation will have a direct effect on the quality of life in Northern Colorado,” Kabza said. “They’re uniquely positioned to connect the dots and see the relationship between this federal legislation and the area’s quality of life.”

Hollis Berendt, a real estate broker at Green Team Real Estate in Greeley, is one of the group’s founding members. “As residents and as business people directly involved in creating home ownership opportunities, we know that beautiful landscapes and clean water are essential to what makes this area attractive,” she said. “The condition of our surrounding environment is a direct determinant of the economic well-being of Northern Colorado.”

The NCHOA currently has fewer than a dozen members but Kabza said he hopes to double that by the end of summer. A 12-year resident of Northern Colorado with no real estate background of his own, Kabza said he realizes there are no active hard-rock mining projects in the region. In fact, most of the state’s hard-rock mining history and current mining activities have taken place on public lands on the Western Slope where streams generally run from east to west.

But that fact isn’t dampening Kabza’s or the group’s enthusiasm. “We’re at the center of green-collar job creation and the New Energy Economy in this state,” Kabza said, referring to Ritter’s focus on creating jobs in alternative energy technology sectors such as solar and wind.

“I know we’re looking at these federal issues, but we all have an environmental bent that we should be working toward keeping our water clean in Northern Colorado,´ said Berendt. “We’re local realtors and we have to look at what’s happening locally, in my opinion.”

When it comes to hard-rock mining on private lands, the group is taking a generally hands-off approach. And that may seem a bit ironic, given that the biggest mining proposal in Northern Colorado is the Centennial uranium project proposed by Canadian firm Powertech Corp. on private land near Nunn in Weld County.

“If it’s somebody’s private land, I can’t infringe on somebody’s rights,´ said Emily Elmore, a real estate broker with Keller Williams Realty in Fort Collins. “What more concerns me is the mentality behind mining. My hope would be there would be a transition from that kind of approach to something more sustainable that creates jobs.”

Kabza said the issue of mining on private land is one that each NCHOA member will work out on his or her own. “The group does not have a position on that,” he said. “Obviously, the realtors are acutely aware of the effect on property values of the extraction of minerals like uranium.”

For now, Kabza says the intent of NCHOA is to start a conversation about cleaner hard-rock mining and preserving Colorado’s natural beauty and attraction for future home buyers and green-focused employers.

“I think it’s about creating a conversation about conservation and a quality of life that is unique to our community and the dream of living here,” he said. “It’s about protecting that dream.” 

Steve Porter covers residential real estate for the Northern Colorado Business Report. He can be reached at 970-221-5400, ext. 225, or at sporter@ncbr.com.