FORT COLLINS – “Same stuff, different day,” stated Ross Cunniff.
The former Fort Collins City Council member and chief of the Preserve Fort Collins electorate team whose a hit petition drive compelled the council in January to repeal the huge trade to town’s land-use code it had authorized a yr in the past to extend housing density within the town, instructed BizWest on Friday that his team were given approval from town clerk on Wednesday to release every other petition drive to repeal the rewrite of the code that the council handed 5-1 in October.
Opponents stated the council’s first take a look at at rewriting the code in a quest so as to add extra range and attainability to Fort Collins’ housing inventory nearly abolished single-family zoning. When that petition drive succeeded, the council will have positioned the query at the municipal poll however as an alternative repealed the adjustments itself, vowing to raised have interaction electorate in crafting a new one.
However, Cunniff stated Friday that his team felt the City Council didn’t get the message.
“We feel the city’s outreach from January to September was not nearly as effective as it said it was,” he stated. “It was just a sales job, and it didn’t take questions or comments.”
The rewrite of the code isn’t a lot other from the final one both, he stated.
“They’re still proposing a 52% increase in residential density, and last year it was 53%,” Cunniff stated. “It’s not a very efficient way of governance to barely chip away at things and keep coming back with the same stuff. Parts of this new one are fine, but they approved it as a giant omnibus, so we have to petition to repeal the entire thing.”
Cunniff’s team will want to acquire 4,228 signatures of registered Fort Collins electorate through Nov. 28 to position the repeal at the municipal poll. “For normal ballot issues, we’d have 90 days,” he stated, “but to repeal an ordinance, we have just 21 days – including the day we got the petition approved.”
If his drive is once more a hit, the council may once more select to repeal its motion as an alternative of striking it at the poll, however Cunniff stated “we’re going to be pushing extra vocally for a public vote this time.
“Our basic aim is to not allow dramatic changes to existing neighborhoods,” he stated. “Undeveloped parcels? Yeah, go to town – literally.”
Members of the general public who spoke in make stronger of the adjustments on the October City Council assembly integrated representatives of each the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce and the Democratic Socialists of Colorado. Prefacing their remarks through calling themselves “one voice for housing,” they ranged from suppliers of reasonably priced housing to individuals of advocacy team YIMBY Fort Collins.
Not converting within the newly handed code are overview procedures, non-residential makes use of, ancient preservation, occupancy limits and landscaping laws.
In common, the new code would building up housing sorts and collection of gadgets allowed in residential, mixed-use and industrial zones; reduces parking necessities for studio, one-, and two-bedroom gadgets in multi-unit tendencies and affordable-housing tendencies with seven or extra gadgets; calls for parking for added residing gadgets; permits ADUs in all residential and mixed-use zones with some necessities; creates a menu of creating sorts with zone-specific requirements; and clarifies language associated with householders’ associations and personal covenants. Under the new code, HOAs could be prohibited from restricting the quantity and form of gadgets accepted on a belongings, however may keep watch over aesthetics and decide whether or not ADUs are inside or exterior.
If Cunniff once more is a hit in elevating the wanted collection of signatures, the ones adjustments, which have been to take impact Jan. 1, could be placed on dangle till both the following municipal election or every other council repeal.
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