Broomfield officials oppose new homes near oil well

BROOMFIELD — A plan to build about a dozen, large, single-family homes on agricultural land in Broomfield hit a speedbump Monday evening as members of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission declared the proposed community too close to a shut-in oil well. 

Developers of the would-be Frank Varra Estates neighborhood have put forward plans to create 11 new residential lots, each of which would be larger than one acre, for large, custom homes on a 50-acre parcel on the north side of the Northwest Parkway, east of South 96th Street.

Planning officials voted unanimously to recommend denial of the project.

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The issue for the developer, Frank Varra Farm LLC, is that some of the homes would be as close as 200 feet to a shut-in but still active Extraction Oil and Gas Inc. (Nasdaq: XOG) well. 

While oil and gas operators have often fought against set-back requirements, an Extraction attorney argued that Frank Varra Estate’s reverse set-backs — the space between an existing well and proposed new development — are too close for comfort. 

“Although Extraction emphasizes that its facilities have safely operated for years and are capable of continued safe operation now and in the future, Extraction submits that this plan should be recommended for denial,” Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP lawyer Julia Rhine told planning leaders.

Well maintenance “may cause disturbance to the proposed neighborhood,” she said. “… Right now it’s shut in but capable of producing, and Extraction may want that optionality in the future.” 

The Denver-based oil and gas operator “believes that this plat’s 200-foot reverse setback is inconsistent with the spirit” of Broomfield’s citizen task force in charge of advising on new local oil and gas regulations, Rhine said. That group recommends reverse setbacks of at least 1,320 feet.

Extraction has no plans to decommission the well, she said. The company offered to plug the well in exchange for a monetary consideration from the land owner, but that deal was never consummated. Rhine said Extraction is willing to renegotiate.

“It appears the majority of the commission feels that the site development plan is too near to the current oil and gas infrastructure on the property,” Planning and Zoning Commissioner Jake Carias said. 

After the seven-member board’s unanimous decision, plans for Frank Varra Estates could now go before the Broomfield City Council for a final decision, or the application could be pulled back and amended. 

“Go back and take another look at the project and hopefully come back with some better design criteria,” said Commissioner Tom Silvers

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