Latest Fort Collins land-use code faces new repeal drive

FORT COLLINS – “Same stuff, different day,” said Ross Cunniff.

The former Fort Collins City Council member and leader of the Preserve Fort Collins citizens group whose successful petition drive forced the council in January to repeal the massive change to the city’s land-use code it had approved a year ago to increase housing density in the city, told BizWest on Friday that his group got approval from the city clerk on Wednesday to launch another petition drive to repeal the rewrite of the code that the council passed 5-1 in October.

Opponents said the council’s first try at rewriting the code in a quest to add more diversity and attainability to Fort Collins’ housing stock virtually abolished single-family zoning. When that petition drive succeeded, the council could have placed the question on the municipal ballot but instead repealed the changes itself, vowing to better engage citizens in crafting a new one.

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However, Cunniff said Friday that his group 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 said. “It was just a sales job, and it didn’t take questions or comments.”

The rewrite of the code isn’t much different from the last one either, he said.

“They’re still proposing a 52% increase in residential density, and last year it was 53%,” Cunniff said. “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 group will need to collect 4,228 signatures of registered Fort Collins voters by Nov. 28 to put the repeal on the municipal ballot. “For normal ballot issues, we’d have 90 days,” he said, “but to repeal an ordinance, we have just 21 days – including the day we got the petition approved.”

If his drive is again successful, the council could again choose to repeal its action instead of putting it on the ballot, but Cunniff said “we’re going to be pushing more vocally for a public vote this time.

“Our basic aim is to not allow dramatic changes to existing neighborhoods,” he said. “Undeveloped parcels? Yeah, go to town – literally.”

Members of the public who spoke in support of the changes at the October City Council meeting included representatives of both the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce and the Democratic Socialists of Colorado. Prefacing their remarks by calling themselves “one voice for housing,” they ranged from providers of affordable housing to members of advocacy group YIMBY Fort Collins.

Not changing in the newly passed code are review procedures, non-residential uses, historic preservation, occupancy limits and landscaping rules.

In general, the new code would increase housing types and number of units allowed in residential, mixed-use and commercial zones; reduces parking requirements for studio, one-, and two-bedroom units in multi-unit developments and affordable-housing developments with seven or more units; requires parking for additional dwelling units; allows ADUs in all residential and mixed-use zones with some requirements; creates a menu of building types with zone-specific standards; and clarifies language related to homeowners’ associations and private covenants. Under the new code, HOAs would be prohibited from limiting the number and type of units permitted on a property, but could regulate aesthetics and determine whether ADUs are internal or external.

If Cunniff again is successful in raising the needed number of signatures, those changes, which were to take effect Jan. 1, would be put on hold until either the next municipal election or another council repeal.