Reprieved Sugar Creek gets first-reading OK

LOVELAND – Despite again hearing speaker after speaker from nearby neighborhoods plead for its rejection, the Loveland City Council late Tuesday night gave first-reading approval to a developer’s plan to add up to 1,100 single- and multi-family housing units to vacant land north of the city.

Sugar Creek, a 171-acre property that would include a variety of housing types including some that could be considered attainable, would be built on a cluster of properties east of U.S. Highway 287 and south of Larimer County Road 30, also known as 71st Street. Part of the property at one time was envisioned for a new Loveland High School, but the Thompson School District backed off that plan and has put the property back on the market.

The city’s planning commission had unanimously approved the development, but a 4-4 tie on the city council on Dec. 5 denied the annexation and rezoning necessary for the subdivision.

However, Black Timber Builders LLC petitioned the council to let it make some changes to address neighbors’ concerns about traffic, the safety of schoolchildren and the rural character of the area, and on Dec. 19 the council gave the developer a second chance – but with conditions.

Council members asked Black Timber for more detailed development plans, a commitment to stick with those plans through to buildout of the project, a plan for more safety upgrades and improvements to County Road 30, which would be annexed into the city, and a plan to deal with the Louden Ditch running alongside it.

In response, Black Timber asked for a variance to locate bicycle lanes and a sidewalk on the south side of County Road 30 on a multi-use path south of the ditch.

On Tuesday night, Loveland senior planner Troy Bliss joined Russell Baker, one of Black Timber’s owners, and Kristin Turner, a planner for TB Group, to outline the other changes the developer had offered to address in response to what they’d heard from neighbors in the Vista View Estates, Horseshoe Estates and Bruns subdivisions.

Baker committed to a maximum density of 1,110 units, or 6.5 dwelling units per acre, which council member Steve Olson pointed out was down from the 10 units per acre originally proposed. Black Timber committed that in respect for the rural character of the area, only single-family homes would be located around the project’s perimeters adjacent to Horseshoe and Vista View subdivisions. The single-family homes adjacent to County Road 30 would be larger suburban lots 80 feet wide as opposed to the customary 40- to 50-foot-wide lots. It would make a financial contribution toward the improvement of Monroe Avenue, a pedestrian-crossing light, a roundabout on County Road 30 and other traffic-calming features.

Further, Black Timber waived any opportunity to push through minor amendments after approval, committing to take any changes back to the city council for public scrutiny.

Turner noted that there would be an open-space buffer around the entire perimeter, with parks, pocket parks and a design “that allows for a really robust trail system and trail connections.”

Baker said the project would include eight different residence types, making for a more affordable product through builders’ competition and offering “a segmented product that hits people at all income levels.”

Many of the more than two dozen members of the public who spoke in opposition to the plan contended that the improvements along County Road 30 were inadequate for their children’s safety. One read a letter from Craig Secher, executive director and co-founder of Fort Collins-based nonprofit Realities for Children, who wrote that the increased traffic noise would adversely affect troubled youths at a nearby facility the nonprofit manages, and another protested that the city’s planning staff seemed to be acting as “the marketing agent for a developer.”

However, six people spoke in favor of Sugar Creek, including Evan Hyatt, president of Pathways Hospice, and Jammie Sabin, co-owner of Aspen Homes, both of whom spotlighted the area’s need for more worker housing.

Council member Andrea Samson asked Baker whether cutting off access from Sugar Creek to County Road 30 might lessen some of the traffic impacts on that east-west artery, but Baker responded that there could be “unintended consequences” on streets in nearby developments, Council member Jon Mallo, responding to the public’s complaints about the project’s traffic plan, noted that “we don’t have a traffic plan on every development,” and Patrick McFall, addressing contentions that Sugar Creek’s requested variances didn’t conform to the city’s comprehensive plan, stated that “a comprehensive plan is not the holy grail of land development.”

Council member Troy Krenning expressed the most reluctance about approving Sugar Creek, especially the developer’s intention to finance it through a metro taxing district. However, he added that “concerns of citizens matter, but having a developer who follows the rules matters as well.”

Sugar Creek will be up for second reading and final approval at the council’s March 5 regular meeting.

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