In February, Matthew worked with our staff to reopen the St. Vrain Greenway Trail while construction was paused, allowing residents to enjoy 4 full months of complete trail access through spring for the first time in years.

In September, Matthew secured City Council support to have the city develop a comprehensive strategy for safely managing the growing use of e-bikes, e-micromobility, and other "toy vehicles" in Longmont. This includes, but is not limited to, rules, code updates, incentives, enforcement strategies, signage, and/or educational programs. The goal is to help Longmont more smoothly and safely integrate these new technologies into our community. The City will be aiming for Spring 2026 to implement and will likely consider input from public safety, parks, transportation, senior center, and children, youth, and families—among some departments and advisory boards.

In August, Matthew secured unanimous City Council support to add 17 new acres of land to our Open Space program, just like Sandstone Ranch. He also opposes the Distel-Tull land swap because it jeopardized public trust in how we protect our taxpayer-funded Open Space.

Even little things make our community better. Matthew has directly helped add new crosswalks, repair malfunctioning traffic lights, fix broken sprinklers, clean up overgrown shrubs impacting trail visibility, and bring attention to roads that need updated speed controls, traffic counts, and lanes restriped. It’s not sexy but it’s necessary.

In May, Matthew led the effort to create an “urban renewal innovation zone” to prioritize redevelopment where future growth makes sense. This will reduce red tape and make it easier for quality developers to invest in Longmont’s more complicated industrial sites — like the Sugar Mill and lower downtown.

Matthew listened to residents and opposed the Quail Road proposal when it was only apartments. Then, he led City Council’s efforts on short notice to support reforms to Colorado’s Construction Defects Law. This policy, passed by the state in May 2025, lowers risks to developers and makes it easier to build new, for-sale housing. In June, he referred an updated Quail Road proposal with specific commitments to affordable, for-sale housing with Habitat for Humanity into the annexation process to give the developer and community the chance to see if a more balanced proposal with multiple for-sale housing options could be achieved.

Upon seeing clear gaps in how our airport communicates both our voluntary noise abatement program and safety alerts for pilots and the public, Matthew secured City Council support in May to improve how effectively Longmont’s airport communicates on our voluntary noise abatement program and during public safety incidents. An immediate result from this is that the city created an airport emergency plan, which had not previously existed. In September, he secured unanimous City Council support to develop a ‘saturated pattern policy’ that would limit the number of touch-and-go operations when a certain number of aircraft are in the air traffic pattern to ensure safe operations. 

More flexible housing increases options for residents, so Matthew directly helped amend our accessory dwelling units (ADU) policy to make it easier for Longmont-based property owners to build ADUs. This also enables local property owners to generate more passive income during a time of greater economic uncertainty and keep more rental revenue in Longmont - not in the bank accounts of large corporations.

In July, Matthew brought direct insights from an electric plane demo at Centennial Airport back to the city and Airport Advisory Board, including charging and infrastructure specifications as well as a near-term grant opportunity for Longmont Power & Communications. This has directly helped inform planning efforts between our airport and LPC.

In July, Matthew secured City Council support to allow daycare and childcare centers in more parts of the city, specifically proposing to allow in residential areas—similar to how schools are already allowed in these areas. This simple change enables more options, though any proposed facility in a single-family or rural neighborhood would need to go through a conditional permit review process to ensure it makes sense for the neighborhood.

In both February and September, Matthew led the push to annex 2 existing dispensaries already operating within Longmont boundaries but technically in County jurisdiction. As a result, the City has not been receiving tax revenue from these businesses despite benefiting from city infrastructure and public safety services. This also would allow all operating dispensaries to compete on a level playing field.

In June, Matthew also successfully blocked implementation of marijuana hospitality licenses that would have allowed indoor smoking in businesses. This does not affect personal choices in private. This was a solution in search of a problem that risked creating more problems (secondhand smoke, secondhand highs, and impaired driving with no enforcement approach). I listened to residents, Boulder County Public Health, and the American Lung Association.