North Weld water district lifts moratorium; development reviews can resume

LUCERNE — Several towns in fast-growing Northern Colorado may soon be able to give the green light to projects and development reviews now that North Weld County Water District has officially lifted its 3-year-old moratorium on new taps.

Towns and developers got the news this week from the Lucerne-based water district, which in fall 2021 had issued the freeze on new taps, blaming uncertainty over potential project delays for a new pipeline stretching through parts of Fort Collins and Larimer County, as well as its own capacity to treat water to the region’s explosive growth.

North Weld’s move prompted a complete moratorium on building permits by Severance and an “effective moratorium” on building permits in Eaton. Other nearby communities also were affected.

“I think it’s good news for the water district, for sure, but we’re not ready to celebrate quite yet,” Severance mayor Matt Fries said on Friday. “We still need to negotiate our individual water-service agreements. That goes for us and every other municipality, such as Nunn, Pierce, Ault, Eaton and Windsor.

“It’s welcome news for our surrounding area,” Fries told BizWest, “but we’re not quite sure how that’s going to calculate into the ability to grow for Severance.”

The district recently completed a revised water-service agreement with the Town of Windsor, and said in a news release issued Thursday that it hopes to also finalize an amended agreement with the Town of Eaton soon. It said the district has also increased Severance’s capacity more than 40% in the last five years and sold additional water capacity to the town in 2022.

“We are helping our communities keep up with development and growth by providing safe and reliable water,” Tad Stout, the water district’s board chairman, said in a prepared statement. “This allows us to continue to plan for the future and deliver the highest quality water in our growing region for decades to come.

“The district looks forward to working with the development community and its leaders,” Stout said, “and we have already received many requests related to residential and commercial growth opportunities. We are also working with all of the municipalities that we serve on amended water-service agreements that will increase their existing capacity and ability to grow.”

Fries said the district “wanted to complete a master plan and study the infrastructure of the entire district, and I thought we were supposed to see that. As of today, we have not.

“My suspicion,” the mayor said, “is that their issues were not as substantial as they originally thought, which again is great news for all of us.”

The water district said its staff will begin accepting applications for development review under existing guidelines.

“This applies to all types of development, including single residential or commercial water taps, tap allocations, subdivisions and any projects requiring additional water resources,” Stout said, noting that as part of the review process, new water-service agreements will be required for projects that increase water demand and any agreements will need approval by the district’s board.

The district recently secured increased capacity at the Soldier Canyon Water Treatment Plant, located at 4424 Laporte Ave. on the west edge of Fort Collins.

“We are also working with the agricultural commercial sector on dedication of additional water supplies to their taps, in the hopes of minimizing losses in times of drought or curtailment,” Stout said.

When it imposed the moratorium three years ago, North Weld cited uncertainty over “1041” regulatory processes in Fort Collins and Larimer County over its planned NEWT III pipeline extending from North Timberline Road in Fort Collins 5.3 miles east into Larimer County.

Passed in 1974, Colorado House Bill 1041 gives local authority to local governments in cases in which governmental units are in conflict over developments, especially those of “statewide concern,” with one asserting authority over another.

When North Weld issued its moratorium on new taps, Severance was forced to impose its own. With a population of more than 8,000, the town includes two water service areas, one administered by the town and the other by North Weld. When the town had to impose its moratorium, 37 building permits that were in process had to be halted, with another 110 permits in the town’s service area subsequently affected along with the potential for hundreds more.

The moratorium had prompted Eagle View Farms LLC to sue the water district, claiming breach of contract. In July, the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s denial of governmental immunity in the lawsuit.

Eagle View Farms, which is developing a 24-lot residential community just west of Lucerne and north of Greeley at Colorado Highway 392 and Weld County Road 35, sued in February 2022 in Weld County District Court, alleging violations of a water-service agreement through which North Weld agreed to provide water service for the project. Eagle View claimed that it lost sales as a result of the moratorium. North Weld sought to have the case dismissed in March 2022, arguing that Eagle View knew about the moratorium when it contracted to sell one of the lots. A judge in June 2022 denied the motion to dismiss.

In March 2023, North Weld filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the court to find that the developer’s claims and damages sought “are barred by the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act,” according to a court filing. But a Weld County District Court judge ruled two months later that the act did not bar the developer’s claims, a ruling that North Weld unsuccessfully appealed.

A trial date in the Eagle View case has been set for Jan. 23.

on Facebook on LinkedIn