LONGMONT, Colo. — The Longmont City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to move forward on a deal with two oil and gas companies to stop operations within city limits.
As part of the deal, the city would pay out $3 million in future mineral rights royalties to the two companies.
In return, drilling would stop at eight active wells and plans would end at 11 future drilling sites. The companies would also discontinue the pursuit of 80 potential well permits.
Early in the meeting, after hearing public comments that were overwhelmingly against the plan, city council decided to remove the issue from the consent agenda.
It was after some members of the public left when the city council brought the issue back to the table, discussed it and eventually voted unanimously to move forward with the agreement.
The initial tabling led to some confusion, but the discussion started again about 15 minutes after pulling the measure in order to move ahead with other business on the schedule. That is normal protocol, as the council agenda states that consent items will be revisited if they are removed.
Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to show the process by which the city council passed the measure. Denver7 initially wrongly reported the council had "flipped" after tabling the measure, but it was only briefly tabled while other matters were discussed so as to move the meeting forward.