Editorial: Greeley petition reflects new era of citizen activism

It remains to be seen whether enough Greeley voters will sign a petition to repeal an ordinance creating a funding mechanism for a new arena, hotel and waterpark, part of the massive, $1.1 billion Cascadia project in west Greeley.

Backers — operating under the name “Greeley Deserves Better” — began circulating a petition at the end of June to put the measure on the November ballot.

Whether one supports Cascadia — and the city’s participation in the project — or not, the petition campaign represents just the latest example of citizens taking matters into their own hands, potentially overturning the actions of a governmental body.

Consider these recent examples, collected in part by BizWest’s Dallas Heltzell: 

• Residents in Fort Collins in 2021 forced the city to purchase the former Hughes Stadium site, which Colorado State University had intended to sell for housing. Signatures are now being collected to designate the site as a natural area, preventing any development on the site including a proposed bike park. 
• A pair of successful citizen initiatives twice forced the Fort Collins City Council to repeal massive changes to the city’s land-use code it had approved, including the virtual abolition of single-family residential zoning.
• A citizens group in Timnath successfully led a petition drive in 2023 to keep a Topgolf golf and entertainment center out of the proposed Ladera development.
• Voters in Loveland in 2023, incensed by how their City Council had handled the Centerra South development, soundly approved a measure that gives voters the final say on urban-renewal plans.
• One citizen-led petition drive that failed at the ballot box was a 2022 effort that aimed to repeal Boulder’s annexation agreement with the University of Colorado for the CU South property. When 54% of voters rejected the measure, it meant that the CU South property remained within Boulder’s city limits, and the city’s flood-protection project at the site, along with other aspects of the annexation agreement, could move forward.
• Windsor voters in 2023 overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that created a permanent parking zone downtown, over the objections of the property owner and town government, which planned to redevelop the area for apartments, commercial and restaurant uses.
• Voters in Louisville, in an April 2022 special election, repealed the City Council’s previous approval of the Redtail Ridge redevelopment project.

This sort of activism isn’t new, but the number of these actions seems unusual.

And although elected officials are voted into office to make sometimes tough decisions, the fact that most of these measures have succeeded should put them on notice: Their votes, while important, may not necessarily be the final word.

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