Greeley City Council approves Poudre Heights Metro District

GREELEY — The city council voted 6-1Tuesday night to approve the creation of Poudre Heights Metropolitan Districts Nos. 1-5, paving the way to develop a potential 292-acre, master-planned community in northwest Greeley. 

The southern boundary of the Poudre Heights metro district is West 10th Street. It extends north well past Fourth Street. On the east, it’s bounded by 101st Avenue.

The preliminary planned unit development for the metro district calls for a variety of zones, including about 35 acres of open space, 40 acres of low-density residential, 85 acres of medium-density residential, 25 acres of mixed-use, 35 acres of commercial and 70 acres of low-intensity industrial. It would feature about 1 million square feet of commercial and industrial space and about 1,200 residential units. The development would occur in phases between 2022 and 2026.

As a metro district, Poudre Heights’ infrastructure and other needs would be financed by the district’s residents. The current plan calls for that to come from a levy of 60 mills, plus district facility fees.

Councilman Tommy Butler, who voiced concerns about the lack of earmarked affordable housing in the district, was the lone dissenting vote.

“I’m still not sure how I feel about metro districts if we’re not getting more affordable housing out of them,” he said. 

Todd Johnson, president of real estate and development services company Terra Forma Solutions said that, although the development plan doesn’t include affordable housing, it would encourage growth in Greeley and keep the city competitive with its neighbors.

“That translates to attainable housing,” Johnson said.

Poudre Heights could be just the start of Greeley’s push to create more metro districts. Proposals for two more are currently being reviewed. The Ash metro district, located south of East Eighth Street in east Greeley, proposes 245 units and 263,000 square feet of commercial space on 461 acres. And the 817-acre Delantero metro district in west Greeley aims to add about 4,100 homes and 921,000 square feet of commercial space.

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