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Home My WebLink AboutCOUNCIL - AGENDA ITEM - 07/18/2017 - SECOND READING OF ORDINANCE NO. 089, 2017, AUTHORIAgenda Item 4 Item # 4 Page 1 AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY July 18, 2017 City Council STAFF Tawnya Ernst, Real Estate Specialist III SUBJECT Second Reading of Ordinance No. 089, 2017, Authorizing the Conveyance of an Amended Access Easement and a Utility Easement on City-Owned Property at Gustav Swanson Natural Area to Public Service Company of Colorado in Exchange for the Dedication of Land for Trail Purposes. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Ordinance, unanimously adopted on First Reading on July 5, 2017, authorizes conveyance of a utility easement and an amended access easement to Public Service Company on Gustav Swanson Natural Area. Public Service Company provides natural gas service to a large portion of Fort Collins residents from a downtown regulator station along the Poudre River. The City has asked Public Service to realign its access easement to the regulator station and formalize its utility easements as part of the pending Whitewater Park project. Public Service is also dedicating almost 2,000 square feet of land for trail purposes. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends adoption of the Ordinance on Second Reading. ATTACHMENTS 1. First Reading Agenda Item Summary, July 5, 2017 (w/o attachments) (PDF) 2. Ordinance No. 089, 2017 (PDF) Agenda Item 14 Item # 14 Page 1 AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY July 5, 2017 City Council STAFF Tawnya Ernst, Real Estate Specialist III SUBJECT First Reading of Ordinance No. 089, 2017, Authorizing the Conveyance of an Amended Access Easement and a Utility Easement on City-Owned Property at Gustav Swanson Natural Area to Public Service Company of Colorado in Exchange for the Dedication of Land for Trail Purposes. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The purpose of this item is to authorize conveyance of a utility easement and an amended access easement to Public Service Company on Gustav Swanson Natural Area. Public Service Company provides natural gas service to a large portion of Fort Collins residents from a downtown regulator station along the Poudre River. The City has asked Public Service to realign its access easement to the regulator station and formalize its utility easements as part of the pending Whitewater Park project. Public Service is also dedicating almost 2,000 square feet of land for trail purposes. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends adoption of the Ordinance on First Reading. BACKGROUND / DISCUSSION Parks and Real Estate Services staff has been engaged in acquiring fee title and easement interests along East Vine Drive for the Whitewater Park during the past three years. As part of the whitewater park project, the City asked Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), an Xcel Energy company, to realign an existing access easement, formalize two utility easements that cross Gustav Swanson Natural Area and dedicate land for trail purposes. PSCo owns an inholding, a regulator station, in the midst of the area slated for the Whitewater Park. (Note: this portion of the planned park is currently part of Gustav Swanson Natural Area.) PSCo holds an existing 15 foot- wide access easement across a gravel road from East Vine Drive to its regulator station (Book 825 Page 530, warranty deed recorded November 25, 1946). PSCo also owns an aboveground electric line and underground gas line that service the regulator station and run parallel to the access road. As designs for the Whitewater Park came together, Parks staff recognized a need to acquire a strip of the regulator station for the extension of the Poudre River trail on the River’s north bank. Staff also wants to realign the current access road to accommodate proposed emergency and public access from Vine Drive. The access road will be rerouted around a wetland and expanded from 15 feet to 20 feet to accommodate PSCo’s use, as well as public pedestrian and bicycle use and emergency services. Staff discovered during the Whitewater Park platting process that no formal recorded document exists specifically for either the electric line or gas line. However, the utility lines have been referenced in documents dating back to the 1940s. Discussions with PSCo have proven successful. PSCo is willing to dedicate the 1,929 square feet (0.044 acre) of land for the trail and is willing to relocate its access. In order to establish easements of record for the utility ATTACHMENT 1 Agenda Item 14 Item # 14 Page 2 lines, staff has proposed (and PSCo has been amenable to) conveyance of an easement that will document the utilities’ precise locations and uses. PSCo has been supportive of the Whitewater Park project and staff believes it is in the City’s best interests to proceed with the easements. CITY FINANCIAL IMPACTS Given PSCo’s willingness to convey the 1,929 square feet of land for the Whitewater Park and the existence of the access and utility lines for many decades, the access easement amendment and utility easement formalization will be granted to PSCo at no cost. BOARD / COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION At its June 14, 2017 meeting, the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board voted to recommend City Council authorize the access easement amendment and utility easements for PSCo across Gustav Swanson Natural Area. ATTACHMENTS 1. Project Location Map (PDF) 2. Easement Location Map (PDF) 3. Land Conservation & Stewardship Board minutes (excerpt), June 14, 2017 (draft) (PDF) -1- ORDINANCE NO. 089, 2017 OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS AUTHORIZING THE CONVEYANCE OF AN AMENDED ACCESS EASEMENT AND A UTILITY EASEMENT ON CITY-OWNED PROPERTY AT GUSTAV SWANSON NATURAL AREA TO PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF COLORADO IN EXCHANGE FOR THE DEDICATION OF LAND FOR TRAIL PURPOSES WHEREAS, the City is the owner of property located along East Vine Drive on the north side of the Poudre River known as Gustav Swanson Natural Area (the “City Property”); and WHEREAS, Public Service Company of Colorado (“PSCo”) owns a regulator station on a parcel of land surrounded by the City Property (the “PSCo Property”); and WHEREAS, former owners of the City Property conveyed the PSCo Property to PSCo in 1946 along with a fifteen-foot access easement across the City Property; and WHEREAS, PSCo also owns gas and electric lines that cross the City Property to serve the PSCo property, but no easement of record has been located for either utility line; and WHEREAS, the City is planning to construct a whitewater park on the north bank of the Poudre River, and the plans for the whitewater park call for creating a new twenty-foot access road for both public and emergency access that could also be used as access to the PSCo Property; and WHEREAS, City staff would also like to have a formal easement with PSCo for its utility lines; and WHEREAS, PSCo has agreed to amend its existing access easement to be along the new access road, and accept a new 50-foot utility easement for its utility lines; and WHEREAS, the proposed realigned access easement is more particularly described on Exhibit “A”, attached and incorporated herein by reference (the “Access Easement”); and WHEREAS, the location and width of the proposed utility easement is shown on Exhibit “B”, attached and incorporated herein by reference (the “Utility Easement”), and a legal description will be prepared prior to conveyance of the Utility Easement; and WHEREAS, City staff has recommended that the City not charge PSCo for either of the Easements because PSCo has agreed to dedicate to the City almost 2,000 square feet of the PSCo Property to be used for trail purposes as part of the whitewater park project; and WHEREAS, at its regular meeting on June 14, 2017, the Land Conservation and Stewardship Board voted to recommend granting the Easements to PSCo; and -2- WHEREAS, Section 23-111(a) of the City Code authorizes the City Council to sell, convey or otherwise dispose of any interest in real property owned by the City, provided that the City Council first finds, by ordinance, that such sale or other disposition is in the best interests of the City. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS as follows: Section 1. That the City Council hereby makes and adopts the determinations and findings contained in the recitals set forth above. Section 2. That the City Council hereby finds that the City’s conveyance of the Access Easement and Utility Easement to PSCo as provided herein is in the best interests of the City. Section 3. That the Mayor is hereby authorized to execute such documents as are necessary to convey the Easements to PSCo on terms and conditions consistent with this Ordinance, together with such additional terms and conditions as the City Manager, in consultation with the City Attorney, determines are necessary or appropriate to protect the interests of the City, including, but not limited to, any necessary changes to the legal description of the Easements, as long as such changes do not materially increase the size or change the character of the interest to be conveyed. Introduced, considered favorably on first reading, and ordered published this 5th day of July, A.D. 2017, and to be presented for final passage on the 18th day of July, A.D. 2017. __________________________________ Mayor ATTEST: _______________________________ City Clerk -3- Passed and adopted on final reading on the 18th day of July, A.D. 2017. __________________________________ Mayor ATTEST: _______________________________ City Clerk EXHIBIT % 650 E. Garden Drive | Windsor, Colorado 80550 phone: (970) 686-5011 | fax: (970) 686-5821 KING SURVEYORS email: contact@KingSurveyors.com