With much of Colorado embroiled in a debate about the Second Amendment, one county has decided to ruffle feathers over the First.

Adams County commissioners this week adopted a “no protesting” rule for all grounds, parking lots and sidewalks leading to county buildings.

Citizens wishing to protest county policies, wave signs or gather signatures on petitions must do so in a 945-square foot rectangle of space designated as a “free speech zone.”

They may also utilize so-called external sidewalks that line the streets around the county buildings.

The new policy was adopted in response to a vocal group of citizens who have been protesting a stormwater fee on residences and businesses meant to repair storm-drains.

The fee has been fraught with errors, with the Denver Post reporting as much as a 34 percent rate of inaccurate assessments and bills as high as $700 for one household and $4,300 for at least one business.

As of mid-May, residents had gathered more than 20,000 signatures demanding that the fee be repealed until problems with the assessment system could be fixed, but the county is standing firm. It has hired more workers to address the billing problems.

But residents’ groups have continued to agitate for a repeal, staging protests outside the county building that commissioners said disrupted other business. The protest restrictions and the “free speech zone” — located far from the building’s entrance — are a direct response to the stormwater protest, commissioner Eva Henry told the Post.

“It’s the stormwater group,” Henry is quoted as saying. “They were basically disrupting people trying to go in for other business. The last time they had a large group, it got to the point where it was too much.”

The commissioners also approved on second reading a $10 charge to listen to recordings of their public study sessions.

The American Civil Liberties Union has called the protest restrictions akin to designating “almost their entire property as no speech or citizen-silencing zone,” said ACLU lawyer Mark Silverstein.

One of the stormwater group’s organizers also said the new rules were unfair.

“I find it very concerning and troubling the commissioners would target a specific group of individuals based on their opposing views and create public policy to limit their right to assemble and free speech,” the Post quotes Stan Martin, president of the Stop Stormwater Utility Association as saying.

“Regardless of your political or religious beliefs, all persons should have equal opportunity to be heard,” he said.

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