Background
Bill Myers has provided legal services to the community for over 28 years.
Mr. Myers’ commitment, however, has transcended general practice by providing services to the community to promote better health, stronger communities, improved outdoor recreational opportunities for disadvantaged youth, housing that is affordable for everyone, transportation that emphasizes mobility, less sprawl, improved air quality, more parks and open space, cleaner water, a more sustainable society, enabling wildlife to be rehabilitated and returned to its rainforest origins and other community improvement projects.
On health and air quality issues, Mr. Myers was a multiyear advocate during the Blueprint for Cleaner Air planning process, which examined existing and projected pollution in metropolitan Denver to develop strategies to control air pollution. One outcome of this process was a $210 million voluntary particulate and NOx reduction plan that Xcel instituted at its power plants in the 1990s.
Mr. Myers works with the Inner City Outings program to enable underprivileged youngsters in Colorado (primarily Denver and Boulder) to visit the outdoors, go cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hike, backpack, camp, and river raft, when they would otherwise be unable to afford to do so.
On housing issues, Mr. Myers has served as a member of the Colorado Housing Investment Fund (CHIF). CHIF has sought a permanent source of funding to provide housing for all individuals in Colorado for the past 7 years.
On transportation issues, Mr. Myers has promoted transportation alternatives, extension of the southwest rail line into Highlands Ranch as part of the FasTracks program, and serves as the alternate representing Environmental Interests on the Denver Regional
Council of Governments Transportation Planning Committee.
Mr. Myers was one of the co-authors of the Responsible Growth Amendment (which failed at the polls) that would have required communities to plan for future growth in an orderly fashion.
Other air quality work that Mr. Myers has been involved with concerned his statewide position as Chair of the Air Quality Committee of the Sierra Club, when it successfully settled two power plant pollution cleanup matters: the Hayden and Craig power plants near Steamboat Springs. Pollution controls were installed and the air quality has significantly improved in the Yampa River valley as a result of the hard work of our counsel, Reed Zars, Esq. in the case.
To protect against water pollution Mr. Myers did the original spadework on preventing further pollution of Pikes Peak from the eroding gravel Pikes Peak Highway, provided comments on municipal separate storm sewer system overflows, and works with water quality monitoring efforts in the South Platte River basin.
On parks issues, Mr. Myers was a founding member of Great Outdoors – Denver, a citizens’ based effort to provide a consistent source of funding for additional parks and open space in Denver. Additionally, Mr. Myers has provided legal representation for groups fighting development of Jefferson Center, the mesas in Golden, development in Paonia, and Green Mountain, among other places.
Mr. Myers was actively involved in the formalization of the Colorado Sustainability Project, which merged into the Sustainable Futures Society, working to create a more sustainable Colorado society.
In June 2007, because wildlife also needs a place to roam, Mr. Myers and his youngest daughter went to Guatemala to assist with the rehabilitation of poached rainforest wildlife in Guatemala. Located at the edge of the Peten rainforest, ARCAS (Associacion de Rescate y Conservacion de vidas Silvestre) rehabilitates approximately 200 different wildlife species from parrots (loros) to jaguars to crocodiles to toucans to monkeys for eventual return to the wild. ARCAS runs a separate facility for sea turtle conservation near the Guatemalan/El Salvadoran border.
It is because of Mr. Myers’s commitment to these different areas that the commitment to support these projects arises. If you’re unwilling to walk the walk, don’t bother talking the talk!
