East Greeley area plan not pushing new development

GREELEY – Westward expansion in Greeley certainly isn’t over, but city and Weld County planners are taking a look at the town’s less-active east side to see if it needs a new set of guidelines and regulations for potential future development.

The East Greeley/Weld County Comprehensive Plan is a joint effort by the city and county to inventory and evaluate what lies within the study area and determine how the two entities can better coordinate development in it.

“Right now we’re at the stage of evaluating the state of the existing conditions and doing an inventory of all the sites and structures,´ said Greg Flebbe, Greeley senior planner.

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“We wanted to look for opportunities for better cooperation and coordination,” added Hannah Hippeley, Weld County planner, explaining the county’s interest in the effort, which she is careful to point out is “actually a study” and not really a plan.

While the combined effort by the two entities might seem on the surface to be aimed at guiding and regulating the area’s development, Hippeley said an open house held Aug. 30 at Bella Romero Elementary School showed landowners and residents within the study area liked it just the way it is – at least those who currently live just outside city limits.

“We learned the folks in the county do like the place they live in and don’t want to be urbanized,” she said. “They made it clear they don’t want to be annexed into Greeley.”

Low-density use

Flebbe said the city, for its part, has no intention of pushing development in the area. “I think we want to examine what the potential is and get feedback from property owners,” he said. “Certainly, there is a real strong sentiment to keep it a rural environment with low-density land use.”

Flebbe said the area is constrained from development because of a lack of sewer lines and unresolved floodplain issues. The far eastern portion of the area lies at the confluence of the two rivers.

“There’s lots of limitations in the area that suggest what’s there may be the best use,” he said. “We don’t have any designs on the area, but we want to have a thoughtful review.”

Flebbe said that doesn’t rule out future development in east Greeley. “It may develop out at some point in the future, but at this point we’re just looking at what kind of services might be needed.”

Becky Safarik, Greeley’s Community Development Director, said while the area has not seen enormous development in recent years, it has been growing. “From 2000 to 2005, a third of the building permits have been in that area,” she said. “Since 2005, it’s been slow everywhere.”

Airport in plan area

Two major players in the study area are the Greeley-Weld County Airport and the aging Western Sugar Cooperative factory. Michael Reisman, airport manager, said he’s among those who would like to see the area retain its rural atmosphere because of air traffic issues.

“I don’t know that it’s the airport’s position to say if it should develop or not,” he said. “But hopefully development will be done with smart growth in mind so the airport doesn’t have a negative impact and that any development doesn’t have a negative impact on the airport.”

Reisman said he will be watching as the planning process continues. “As that proceeds, certainly the influence that the airport has on the planning area should have an impact on the planners,” he said. “But we want to make sure that whatever the plan identifies is compatible and can peacefully co-exist with the airport.”

Ken Wimmer, director of shareholder relations for Denver-based Western Sugar, said he’s aware of the planning process but unsure how it might affect the cooperative’s Greeley facility.

Wimmer said the facility is little-used these days. “We use that as a terminal, shipping sugar in there and out to our customers,” he said.

Responding to rumors that the facility may be about to close, Wimmer acknowledged it is for sale. “That property is for sale but right now we’re continuing to use it. Every year we re-evaluate it.”

Wimmer said he couldn’t say what the site might be used for if sold but the likelihood of it continuing as a sugar-processing facility was “extremely remote.”

Flebbe said the Western Sugar site is of interest to the city.

“Certainly, it’s a major facility and one of the larger single major tracts with rail access. Given all the development of rail access in the Windsor area, we’d like to see it put to productive use.”    

Ultimate goal unclear

Hippeley said the ultimate goal of the joint planning process remains somewhat hazy. “Perhaps we’ll have a resulting intergovernmental agreement but at this point that’s not concrete,” she said.

Flebbe said the east Greeley effort is really a subarea plan of the city’s overall 2020 Comprehensive Plan that’s due to wrap up next year.

“The city of Greeley is going through an update of its 2020 Plan and Weld County is also going through an update of its comprehensive plan,” he said. “We hope to be able to incorporate this subarea plan into both the Greeley and Weld County comp plans.”

Hippeley said the main thing she expects to come out of the joint planning process is improved cooperation between the county and city as the area develops.

“I think what we’re interested in seeing is whether there’s some better level of cooperation about what is happening and what should be happening in terms of development,” she said. “And what should be happening might be absolutely nothing.”