Brighton, CO

A $9 million acquisition will preserve a historic farm in Brighton. What makes the farm so unique? Its location and its water rights.

The Wagner-Mayhew farm is located in the Historic Splendid Valley.

"Originally when the pioneers first came out to Brighton, they called this the Splendid Valley. This feeds off of the Platte River valley," said Kyle Sylvester, Assistant Director of Parks and Open Space for Brighton.

A mile and a half from Brighton city hall, it's one of Colorado's few remaining urban agricultural areas.

"It's ideal for farming, it has really good drainage, really good soil content," Sylvester said.

As Brighton grows, the land has been eyed by developers.

"There are developers that would like to develop this. They buy the land, they dry it up, it loses its water rights, and then we lose our farming heritage by not having the farm ground," said Travis Haines, director of parks and recreation for Brighton.

But the city wants to preserve its roots, and its water.

"The water is tied to this property, it will not ever be dried up and it stays with this property," Haines said.

With the help of the Conservation Fund, Brighton acquired the 116-acre farm, and its 115 shares of water rights, from the Mayhew family, who purchased the farm in the 1960s.

Of the $9 million sale, $2 million comes from the city of Brighton, and the rest from Adams County Open Space and Great Outdoors Colorado grants.

"A lot of the metro area was all farming communities years ago, and as were getting bigger and bigger, as Denver does, that gets less and less, and it's important to preserve these areas now," Sylvester said.

Brighton finalized the sale this spring, and will now lease the property out to local farmers, hoping to boost the agricultural economy, and provide local produce to residents.

"We have several farmers markets that are close that provide that and we're hoping to get our branding to a point where you can go to King Soopers or any other grocery store and find that Splendid Valley label so you know it's Colorado but it's also locally grown," Sylvester said.

The acquisition comes with a conservation easement, meaning the land will be remain farmland forever.

Brighton is working on acquiring and conserving several other properties in the Historic Splendid Valley.

Olivia Young

Olivia Young is a reporter at CBS News Colorado. Read her latest reports or check out her bio and send her an email.

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Brighton City Council has unanimously approved new summer water use restrictions, with stricter fines for residents who don't comply.

"Brighton is one of the last especially in the metro Denver area to pass legislation like this," said City Manager Michael Martinez, "basically we're trying to conserve water."

The new restrictions aim to reduce water use by 20% this summer. Martinez says Brighton uses 13 million gallons of water per day at the peak of it's watering season. He hopes the restrictions will save 2 million to 2.5 million gallons a day.

"Our customers will water three days a week, staggered," said Martinez.

Take a look at your address if you live in Brighton. If it's an even number, you will only be able to water your lawn Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays starting May 1. If it's odd, you can water Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. No watering is allowed between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

"In the summer when it's hot a lot of the water that you put on your lawn just evaporates anyway so it's a complete misuse of water," said Martinez.

The restrictions will run from May to September.

Brighton resident Sandra Wilson feels the restrictions are reasonable.

"I do believe that we should all do our part sharing water and limiting what resources we're using," Wilson said. But she isn't a fan of the penalties.

First and second violations will result in a written notice, a third results in a fine of $125 for most homeowners and up to $1,500 for large commercial taps. A fourth violation will result in a court summons.

"The fines are one thing but having to go to court might be a bit too excessive," said Wilson.

Martinez says the actions are necessary to protect a shrinking resource in a growing city.

"Water being such a finite resource we have to do everything we can to protect it for our residents," said Martinez.

Martinez says cold weather turf laws like the one Aurora implemented in 2022 may be considered in the future.

Reporter Olivia Young

Olivia Young covers news in Adams County. Share your story ideas with her.

The proposed Amprius facility is part of a federal push to build more clean energy in the United States, but neighbors fear the implications of a factory next door.

BRIGHTON, Colo — On Tuesday night, the Brighton City Council voted 4-3 to advance a measure regarding the creation of a lithium-ion factory in the city.

The council voted after an hours-long public meeting that was crowded enough to require the conversion of the city hall lobby into an overflow room.

The proposed creation of the lithium-ion factory in a former K-Mart distribution center was applauded by Colorado's Democratic Governor Jared Polis as part of the clean energy future, but some neighbors said they did not want the factory to move in next door.

"By all means come on into Brighton," said Jessie Williams, who lives nearby. "But coming into the middle of a neighborhood is completely unacceptable."

Others, including representatives of local business groups and the chamber of commerce, voiced support for the plant - citing job creation, clean energy and the redevelopment of a largely unused site.

The proposed facility near Southern Street and South 40th Avenue in Brighton would be located in an existing 1.3 million square foot facility, but required city approval to re-zone it to allow for a transition from warehouse and distribution uses to allow industrial uses, including manufacturing with hazardous materials.

At the meeting Tuesday, city staff recommended approval of the project and said it evaluated the Amprius facility to be safe. The company said in a statement that it is committed to building and operating a safe facility that protects employees, the community and the environment.

In a fact sheet published by Amprius, the company said its practices, policies and technologies are designed to minimize environmental impact and promote sustainability. Amprius got millions of dollars in federal funding as part of a push to build more batteries in the United States.

But the fear of fires, explosions and hazardous materials two blocks from home is what concerns Williams and several other neighbors who rallied outside the city council meeting Tuesday night. "We’re fine with the technology, we’re fine with going green with moving forward and doing all initiatives that we need to do -- however it needs to be in appropriate locations."

Williams is now running for city council and said the debate over the battery factory encouraged her to get more involved in local politics.

If approved, Amprius said it could begin construction by the end of the year with production beginning in 2025.

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BRIGHTON, Colo. — A county planting flowers or doing landscaping for the public good isn’t anything new. A county planting an entire field of sunflowers just to be featured on social media as a somewhat distraction? That might be a first.

“We planted the sunflowers to kind of bring a piece of the prairie and the beauty that we have out east on the plains here in the town,” Jennifer Tucker, the agricultural district coordinator for Adams County, told Denver7.

The other reason isn’t as selfless. The field is a solution to a problem that started a few years ago.

Tucker said local farmers with sunflower fields started seeing more and more people show up unannounced to take photos. Some of them trespassed on private property. The most extreme cases trampled crops or even drove into the fields themselves.

“One of our producers had to hire county sheriffs to come in and basically patrol against trespass,” Tucker said.

So the county decided to divert the attention to something they could control, in the form of their own sunflower field in Brighton. County commissioners worked with Colorado State University Extension, to plant their own plot on a piece of public property next to the Riverdale Regional Animal Shelter.

“The big key of it is you're not trespassing. We're encouraging you to come out and enjoy it,” Tucker said.

You could call it a sunflower diversion program — the opportunity to take the same photos, with similar flowers, in a legal and safe way.

“It’s wide open for everybody to use as long as we use it with respect,” Tucker added.

The county is already looking at growing the idea. Next year, they are "plotting" to plant seven to ten small sets of sunflowers on public land for the community to enjoy.

Your tiny house fantasies and van life blueprints have the chance to come to life at this year’s Colorado Tiny House Festival in Brighton this weekend.

This year’s festival will be the sixth annual event and will bring in various builders, seasoned tiny house-livers and those interested in the lifestyle.

“One of the things we’ve seen is an uptick in the request for more affordable housing,” said Art Laubach, one of the event coordinators.

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“Some people’s property taxes nearly doubled last year because of their property value going up, so it has become much less attainable for certain people — like younger people who just may be entering the workforce — to become homeowners.”

The trend of tiny houses and van life has grown in visibility in recent years due to social media platforms where people can share their tips and tricks for the lifestyle. But the clientele of the Colorado Tiny House Festival isn’t just young people.

“The other half of the people who come would probably be folks who are coming into retirement,” Laubach said.

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“We see a lot of old people wanting to have less home space to take care of or maybe want to live on their family’s farmland when they retire, so they’ll build a tiny house.”

Some attendees even visit to learn more about the industry and how to potentially start an Airbnb business with a tiny house. To aid with the different demographics and interests, the Tiny House Festival will host speaking sessions on Saturday and Sunday to inform others of the lifestyle.

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“Those speakers usually have a role in the industry or an important message in the tiny house world,” Laubach said.

“We’ve got a couple of folks that make their money from YouTube and talk about how they gained freedom through this lifestyle. We’ll also have speakers who will discuss things like building trends and manufacturing.”

In between house visits, attendees will be surrounded by various food and drink vendors as well as companies specializing in equipment such as solar panels, hot tubs and specialized cell service packages.

“We’ll have something for everybody,” Laubach said.