Cascadia petition ruled ‘initially insufficient’

GREELEY — A referendum petition to overturn the zoning for the Cascadia project in west Greeley has been ruled “initially insufficient” by the Greeley city clerk, but referendum supporters will have five days in which to “cure” the insufficiency.

Greeley Demands Better, an issue committee, filed the petition with the city clerk on Sept. 29, seeking to overturn Greeley Ordinance 30-2025, which approved a planned unit development for the 833-acre Cascadia project, which would include the $1.1 billion Catalyst arena hotel and water park. The arena would serve as a new home for the Colorado Eagles minor-league hockey team.

Organizers needed 4,586 valid signatures — 10% of the votes cast in the 2024 general election — to force either a City Council repeal of the ordinance or a special election. The group submitted 7,763 signatures to the city clerk Oct. 16.

But, in a notice posted online Thursday, City Clerk Heidi Leatherwood deemed the petition initially insufficient due to invalid signatures:

• Voter not registered — 1,698.
• Address mismatch — 384.
• Incomplete information — 781.
• Illegible/not readable — 175.
• Duplicate: 171.

The result is 4,554 valid signatures, 32 short of the required number, the clerk said.

Suzanne Taheri, an attorney representing Greeley Demands Better, reacted angrily to the determination.

“The city rejected 41% of the signatures submitted for the petition,” Taheri said in a statement. “This is an irrationally high rejection rate. This continued conduct is unprecedented and a violation of our first amendment right to petition the government. The standard rejection rate in municipal and statewide petition efforts is 20%.  Notably, Greeley chooses not to follow the standards and best practices of the Secretary of State in verifying signatures. We plan to cure the signatures by Monday and are confident we can do so.”

Greeley Demands Better had requested an independent review of the signatures or an “election watcher” during the petition-signature validation process, but both requests were rejected, according to a press release sent on behalf of the group.

“This is unacceptable. The city and democracy failed us again. It has been a long, tough road to inform our neighbors about what was at stake in this deal – and they want a new plan. Still, city staff and these city leaders continue to fail us; but it’s not over yet,” Rhonda Solis, co-chair of Greeley Demands Better, said in a statement. “We just want a better solution to the zoning and financing of this project. It’s absurd that Greeley voters have been purposefully omitted from this process. This coming election is more important than ever. Greeley must elect city councilmembers who are not afraid to hold city staff accountable to the residents of Greeley.”

Greeley Demands Better co-chair Brandon Wark, a candidate for City Council, criticized the city’s action.

“Today, another roadblock has been placed in our path — the city rejected thousands of signatures but did not identify which signatures were of concern and why they were rejected. We will win the battle in our efforts to correct the wrongs and re-establish the veracity of the workings of our local government,” Wark said in a statement. “This is a shame and embarrassment for our City Council, City Manager and the developer.”

Bill Rigler, a spokesman for the pro-Cascadia group Greeley Forward, said the petition effort is harmful to the city of Greeley.

“Nearly $100,000 in reported ‘Dark Money’ contributions, plus tens of thousands of dollars in spending by outside interest groups currently under investigation by the Colorado Secretary of State, are trying to force a special election next year — at a cost to Greeley taxpayers of $250,000 or more,” Rigler said. “All of this appears to be an effort to stop the Eagles from coming to Greeley and keeping Greeley’s economy stuck in neutral. Every citizen should be asking who’s financing these plans, and what their motivation is — because it certainly isn’t coming from inside Greeley.”

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