The Fort Collins City Council’s plans for a moratorium on new development will damage private developers more than it will help the city planning process.

City officials proposed the 10-week moratorium in order to make the transition to the new City Plan, which will guide the city’s development for the next 20 years. At press time, the City Council had not yet voted on whether to implement the moratorium. But it has already received preliminary approval.

While we support — enthusiastically — much of what City Plan envisions, i.e., higher densities and mixed-use neighborhoods, the idea of a moratorium to get there is disturbing.

Obviously, there needs to be some cutoff from the old system to the new. But to take projects that have already been approved through the existing city planning process and then make those developers go back to the drawing boards to comply with an entirely new system is disingenuous at best and unlawful at worst.

City officials would do well to take heed of those developers who threatened the city with lawsuits should the moratorium go forward in its present form.

And they would do well to remember the results of a lawsuit filed by Denver developer Jim Sullivan over his ill-fated attempt to build a grocery store on Harmony Road. The city paid big-time for its intransigence.

City officials instead should set a cutoff date after which all projects would be subject to the new comprehensive plan. That way, developers now and in the future would be on a level playing field.

And they should meet with developers of all stripes to help them make the transition, not beat them over the heads with a moratorium.