A limited liability company (LLC) has been formed by others to monetize the community support for Save Belmar Park. To be clear, although this LLC decided to use the same name as the title of this website, this website is not affiliated with that LLC or with their fund raising effort.
Even though the names are confusingly similar, we receive no money from their fund raising campaign.
Therefore, anyone who was under the false understanding that we receive money when you donate, please do not donate on that basis.
We also think it is appropriate to explain further why we are not asking for your money. Let’s start with the question, how would we use the money?
Let’s consider a few scenarios that we might hypothetically ask for money:
- Perhaps the money could be used to halt the Belmar Park West project via litigation so that it never gets built. However, we are not aware of any legal theory anyone has shared that would accomplish that goal. One of the LLC directors has even expressed the view that the project cannot be permanently halted. Many readers may agree with that view. If that were our strategy, we would say so clearly. Since litigation including appeals can be too expensive to be feasible, we do not support that option.
- Possibly the money could be used to delay the approval of the project. But if that can only delay the inevitable, is it worth the cost? If that is the strategy, how much money is needed? Again, if that were our strategy, we would clearly state that it is and would certainly want to determine the cost. We do not view a temporary delay as a viable fund raising goal.
- We do not support and will not participate in any action using Colorado Rule 106(a)(4). Such actions are typically only delaying actions which we do not support. Anyone bringing such actions may also be liable for opposing side attorney’s fees.
- The money could be used to mitigate the project. In other words, to reduce the negative impacts such as on wildlife and the habitat zone. While mitigation efforts might be useful, we would want a clear statement of what constitutes mitigation and the cost.
- What about asking for money as a blank check with no clear statement of how the money would be used? We do not support that approach as a fund raising goal.
- Why not use the money to develop and maintain a website? It is true that a website can be expensive. However, we are providing this website at no cost to any community members which potentially saves thousands of dollars, eliminating the need to raise money.
- What about purchasing the property? Problems: The property is not for sale and the hypothetical purchase price could be at least $5 million so it is not a feasible fund raising goal.
If we did have a reason to ask for your money, we would try to make clear why we need money from you.
None of the scenarios just described seem appropriate to us to justify asking for your money.
For now we are not asking for your money!
UPDATE: We have received email accusing us of not telling the truth about this. But we are telling the truth. We have not received even a penny from the gofundme fund raising for Save Belmar Park. If you donated money believing we would benefit, that is very unfortunate, but we have no control over the fund raisers.
A bit of history, when they started the fund raising, we actually displayed their fund raising button on this website for free. In fact, thousands of fund raising dollars happened while we were displaying their donate button at no charge. If you donated during that time period, you might easily think we benefited since their button was displayed here. But we did not benefit in any way. You’re welcome!
However, rather than use this free method of displaying their donate button, they decided to use your donation money to fund another website and to also pay any website recurring fees for their additional website out of your donations. Now you know!
