Loveland planners to eye Schmer Farm annexation

LOVELAND — The Loveland Planning Commission will consider its second development proposal for the city’s eastern edge in five days on Monday when it considers the 122-acre Schmer Farm annexation and zoning application.

The tract, on the southwest corner of East Eisenhower Boulevard and Interstate 25, is immediately east of a 150-acre parcel of the Centerra South development, for which planners voted 6-1 on Wednesday to allow McWhinney Real Estate Services Inc. to add up to 2,277 housing units.

“The Schmer Farm and Centerra South properties may benefit from one another in terms of proposed land use and infrastructure needs,” according to a staff report that planners will consider on Monday. “From a land-use perspective, future development on both sites could create more of a master-planned area with supporting uses. For example, a proposed grocery store such as King Soopers {on the Schmer Farm site} would provide convenient shopping to future residences proposed on Centerra South. Centerra South also contemplates employment uses that would benefit from having nearby commercial options available, whether in Centerra South or on the Schmer Farm sites.”

The Schmer Farm First Addition has been an active farm since about 1906, raising crops such as alfalfa, corn, winter wheat, barley, triticale, vegetables and nursery varieties. “As a result, irrigation and the operation/storage of agricultural and farming equipment is common to the daily operations,” the staff report said. “The housing and raising of farm animals have also been a component to the farm.” The original farmhouse and several associated accessory buildings exist on the site’s northeast corner.

One of the two applicants, Schmer Family Farm Inc., intends that farming continue on approximately 90 acres, and requests zoning as “Developing Resource.” The other, Evergreen Devco Inc., requests “Developing Business” zoning for a 30-acre site for future commercial development, which could include the King Soopers grocery store, as well as an associated gas station and other pad sites.

The request does not include the existing Best Western Plus Loveland Inn and the gas station and convenience store along the Eisenhower Boulevard frontage.

The role of the Planning Commission is to conduct a public hearing and forward a recommendation to the City Council for final action. The council is scheduled to hear this application on Feb. 18.

The annexation petition includes a special provision that allows the petitioners to withdraw their signatures before the City Council acts. This provision was included primarily to protect the interest of the Schmer Family for continuation of the farm.

The staff report acknowledges that development of the site will exacerbate traffic congestion along Eisenhower and other area roads — a cause for debate on Wednesday when the commission approved the Centerra South application, which is to include a specialty grocer on that development’s northeast corner in addition to the major grocer planned for the Schmer Farm property just to the east.

City engineer Nicole Hahn told the commission that when completed, the Centerra South project could add up to 22,000 trips a day to Eisenhower, which also is designated as U.S. Highway 34, for a total of 76,000 trips a day in 20 years.

Those traffic counts, as well as pedestrian safety and other concerns, led commissioner David Herrera to cast the lone vote in opposition to the Centerra South application. However, other commissioners cited the need for more housing and endorsements of the project from the Loveland Chamber of Commerce and Loveland Housing Authority.

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