Greeley approves annexation, recreation district to fund new park

GREELEY — Richmark Real Estate Partners LLC, a catalyst in redevelopment of the downtown urban core of Greeley, is embarking on another project near downtown that it hopes will eventually spur more commercial development on the east side of the city.

The Greeley City Council showed its support for the idea Tuesday night when it approved on 6-1 votes Richmark’s annexation request for 120 acres of land east of Sixth Avenue, west of the U.S. Highway 85 bypass, and north of Fifth Street — almost all of it within the Cache la Poudre floodplain. It asked to have the newly annexed land zoned H-A, or holding agriculture, and the council concurred. It had been zoned industrial and residential.

Nobody lives on the land, and the only commercial activities are oil and gas operations and tank farms.

Richmark then asked to have the property — called the Wake Annexations — designated as a special recreation district subject to additional taxes to pay for development of outdoor recreational amenities.

Adam Frazier, president of Richmark, wrote in an email to the city that the project is an intentional move to spur redevelopment in east Greeley.

“Richmark believes the eastern side of Greeley is home to some of our community’s greatest assets. This annexation bridges a gap, bridges U.S. 85, setting up for future expansion and development across what otherwise is undevelopable land, due to low lying conditions,” he wrote.

The recreational district designation, and accompanying service plan for that district, will be used to finance a regional park “with unique and diverse public activities not currently in Greeley.”

Planned is a 75,000-square-foot recreation building, outdoor courts and turf activities, two miles of ATV trails, a half-mile mountain bike trail, extensions of the Poudre Trail, a whitewater park and “a river regeneration project to restore the historic river banks.”

“Richmark believes the amenities will spur employers, developers and industry to look at Greeley for their next home,” he wrote.

In comments to the council Tuesday, Frazier said the land “has a lot of problems” given its place in the floodplain. But he said the planned outdoor amenities are those that “people in this town love.”

The annexation was actually a series of three annexations, with one enabling the next in order to meet adjacency requirements.

Of the 120 acres annexed, 99 would be designated for the recreation district. The Wake Park & Recreation District service plan would permit incurring debt up to $35 million. Cost to build the amenities in the district was forecast to be $59.77 million. Revenues from oil and gas operations on the site as well as special levies of 50 mills for capital improvements and 10 mills for operations would be applied to the taxable valuation of the property in order to finance the improvements.

In response to a question from council member Tommy Butler about “why now,” Frazier said that the oil and gas revenue will be key to developing the park, and he described that revenue as a depleting resource.

The plan received support from most of the council, but Butler, who admitted he might end up using the park once built, disagreed with creating a special district to fund it, even though only Richmark properties would be taxed to build it.

The votes on all the annexation, zoning and special district motions were 6-1 with Butler in opposition.

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