Fort Collins tax measure deserves community support

Those who question the path that Fort Collins has taken in its most recent decades of development have but to make one decision in the next several weeks that could change this community forever – and for the better.

Fort Collins voters will decide April 8 – and before that for mail-in ballots – whether to support the proposed $124 million Building Community Choices capital-improvement program. We believe they should.

A business newspaper does not take issues of taxation lightly, nor do we support public-works projects for their own sake. Our endorsement of Building Community Choices, rather, comes only after careful consideration of the projects, their merits and the impact they will have on succeeding generations.

“Twenty years from now, when visitors pick up brochures about our town, they will look at pictures of the very things we are about to build, and read how we consider those things to be vital to our continuing quality of life.”
With those words, Fort Collins radio personality and co-chair of Citizens Building Community Choices Phil Walker urged local residents to support the measure. He is right. From much-needed improvements to Prospect Road, Taft Hill Road and Shields Street to land acquisition and initial design for a new main library, the Building Community Choices ballot measure is laden with projects that will make Fort Collins a better place in which to live and work.
No less than $27 million is earmarked for natural-areas acquisition, with additional funds to go toward parks, trails and a horticulture center. Another $1.6 million is slated to be spent on land acquisition and/or initial design for a new performing-arts center. Other projects are just as worthy.
This ballot measure offers the chance for Fort Collins voters to leave a legacy that goes beyond tract housing, shopping centers and traffic. We urge a resounding “YES!”
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