Congratulations to six members of the Longmont City Council. They showed Colorado how to keep oil and gas operations away from homes and schools.

As explained in the Longmont Daily Times-Call, the council voted 6-1 on Tuesday on an agreement with TOP Operating and Cub Creek Energy. The contract ends operations from surfaces within city limits. It also prevents oil and gas production on city-owned properties east of Longmont.

City officials in a variety of Front Range cities have long tried exerting force of local government to stop oil and gas production. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled against Greeley’s ban of oil and gas operations in the early 1990s. The court overturned Longmont’s voter-approved fracking ban in 2016.

A variety of court rulings have left communities to wonder if they have any options to control the location of energy wells.

State and federal courts will continue telling voters and politicians they cannot outlaw reasonable operations to extract energy from the ground. Sub-surface minerals are typically private property, or public property intermingling with private property. Drilling pads are also typically private.

Our state and federal constitutions protect the right to make reasonable use of private property, without regard for mass public sentiment about noise, aesthetics, or environmental agendas. Despite the public’s high view of democratic process, communities cannot commandeer property by plebiscite.

The day courts fail to uphold property rights is the day no one remains secure in a home or business. It is the day no one will invest in the future, as doing so requires enforcement of laws that protect property from thievery, government confiscation, and mob rule.

Having failed to control that which government does not own, Longmont’s city leaders finally decided to seek outcomes in a civilized manner the law allows.

Tuesday’s agreement pays millions in return for agreements by private parties to abandon surface drilling sites. In return for the money, TOP Operating will plug and abandon eight active wells.

As the Times-Call explains, TOP will relinquish 11 future drilling sites, abandon 80 potential well permits, amend lease holdings to include a no-surface disturb provision, and never drill in Longmont.

Cub Creek will relinquish rights to drill inside city limits or on city-owned property, conditional upon state approval of a proposed well in Weld County. Cub Creek will end all efforts to “force pool” the city’s oil and gas mineral rights under city open space east of Union Reservoir.

The agreement reminds us of Monument’s decision to stop the opening of a methadone dispensary, allowed by the town’s code, by paying the company to leave. Monument’s agreement, like Longmont’s, partially compensated the company for lost investment money and potential future revenues. Nothing was achieved through force, and an agreement satisfied each side of the conflict.

The Longmont agreement involves a variety of complex details, all designed to reduce losses incurred by ending oil and gas operations considered objectionable by residents.

This is a win-win. It is the only way any individual, group, community, or government should stop lawful efforts to use another entity’s assets.

To obtain control of property in a free society, pay for the privilege. It is no more complicated than that.

Longmont’s agreement shows the rest of Colorado a legitimate, fair and lawful means of stopping oil and gas operations. It is not about local control. It’s about cooperation, negotiation, and a fair market price.