ARCHIVED: 2022 Citizen Referendum: Preserve our neighborhoods and communities for residents, not investors
Exercise your right to have your voice heard in Fort Collins’ housing and land use policy! Sign to support citizen-driven Direct Democracy. If we get the required number of signatures by December 18, the issue would be sent to the voters. Voters of Fort Collins would be asked (not told) whether we should REPEAL the NEW Land Development code. If the new Code were repealed, we could then have an open and transparent dialog about what we want for our City.
“With these land use code changes, developers could put up a tri-plex next to you with inadequate notification and no neighborhood meeting. The first time you would find out about it might be when the bulldozer shows up next door. And then it will be too late to do anything.“
—Ross Cunniff, former Fort Collins Council Member and Mayor Pro Tem
Our Fort Collins City Council did more than change the name of the Land Use Code to the Land ‘Development’ Code on November 1st: they also gutted citizen participation, prioritizing profits before people. Choosing expediency and old fashioned cronyism over transparency and good governance, our City Council voted quietly and quickly to turn most of Fort Collins into a free-for-all for housing developers and investors.
Council’s newly-adopted Land ‘Development’ Code will force neighborhoods to accept high-density housing, effectively eliminating single-family low-density zoning. Council also failed to protect historic Old Town, and instead, abandoned Old Town to the highest-bidding investors and developers. With or without an HOA, new high-density developments from developers and investors could be approved without any neighborhood meeting or public hearing.
Shamefully, the City Council did this as secretively as possible, blindsiding residents by not publishing the details on their agenda web site, and ignoring City staff recommendations and citizen requests to allow more time for public input.
To make matters worse, the new Land Development Code will NOT lead to any measurable improvement in housing affordability, as it does NOTHING to guarantee or mandate affordable housing, not even for those that need it the most. Affordability is important, and won’t be helped by encouraging out-of-state developers to build market-rate luxury housing, out-of-place investor-owned properties, and short-term rentals.
Sadly, this law will only accelerate gentrification and push workers, the middle class and renters further to the fringes, while enriching real estate developers and speculators.
Our first initiative will be to act swiftly to repeal Council’s ill-advised Ordinance through the City Charter’s Referendum process.
We cannot do this alone. Join Us to Preserve Fort Collins for ALL.
What Are The Problems With The Land Development Code?
On November 1st, City Council approved a new Land Development Code that changed residential zones in the entire city.
• Council’s stated goal is to increase housing density by 53% city-wide, impacting ALL neighborhoods, with or without HOAs. In fact, the new code supersedes HOA and neighborhood covenants with regard to housing types, density, building height, and occupancy.
• Council eliminated many standard neighborhood hearings when higher-density projects are reviewed. It will be too late to protest when the bulldozer shows up in your neighborhood.
• Council did this with the bare minimum public process required.
• Council adopted another 19 amendments on the 1st reading of the ordinance that few people saw before the agenda was published.
• Council rushed through two readings of the code in just two weeks, giving the public insufficient time to review the new 472 page “Land Development Code.”
• Established, single-family neighborhoods have NO vacant land. This means that existing houses can be demolished and replaced by multi-unit housing - nextdoor to you - all to achieve Council’s increased density goal.
• They claim this will help “affordable housing” but other cities have tried this experiment and failed at producing housing affordability.
• Few affordable units will be built; instead, the majority are likely to be large luxury townhomes. HERE IS THE PROOF!
• Higher density and more luxury housing stock do not equal affordability. We have $2 million condos downtown. Very dense, but not affordable.
• By replacing our current Land Use Code with the new Land Development Code, the main beneficiaries will be housing speculators and investors.
Your voice was NOT heard. We need to stop these drastic land-use changes.
In two steps, learn how the new Land ‘Development’ Code affects YOU.
“Fort Collins’ quality of life is at risk, under pressure from big-money interests and a government all too willing to go along with them. Together, we can turn this around.”