Hudson Board signs off on settlement with Lochbuie

HUDSON & LOCHBUIE —The Hudson Town Board on Wednesday approved a settlement agreement that will put an end to litigation involving annexations related to the planned BNSF Railway Co. intermodal facility and logistics park.

The Hudson Town Board voted unanimously to approve the agreement. None of the members said anything in the meeting about the agreement, which the Lochbuie Town Board approved on Tuesday.

The agreement calls for joint and cooperative planning as well as delineating which town is entitled to which annexations to collect tax revenue off the planned BNSF Railway Co. intermodal facility and logistics park.

While the intermodal facility will be annexed into Lochbuie, the two towns will share the cost of annual street maintenance, and Lochbuie will pay Hudson up to a $250,000 one-time fee once BNSF pays $1 million in taxes to Lochbuie “for the adverse impacts caused by the BNSF project.” The agreement also calls for an annual 50-50 cost-sharing on the maintenance of a traffic signal at Weld County Roads 8 and 45.

BNSF’s planned intermodal facility will allow for transfer of freight between trucks and railroad cars, as well as an adjacent logistics park that could accommodate 20 million square feet of development on a total of 2,400 acres off Interstate 76 between Hudson and Lochbuie, northeast of Denver. The railroad has an existing relationship with Hudson over the separate Logistics Center Hudson, a 430-acre development on Hudson’s north side.

BNSF applied to Lochbuie for annexation of the intermodal facility, and Hudson and Lochbuie both initiated annexation proceedings for other parcels around the planned development. Some of the annexations overlapped in terms of rights of way, leading to annexation litigation for the past several months.

Part of the agreement dictates dropping some annexations, as well as the ongoing litigation.

Hudson town administrator Bryce Lange declined to comment about the agreement.