HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 7/28/2020 - Information From Mayor Wade Troxell Re: Letter From Mayor Wade Troxell And City Manager Darin Atteberry To City Of Loveland Councilmembers And City Manager Regarding Behavioral Health Facility And Was1
Sarah Kane
From:Wade Troxell
Sent:Monday, July 20, 2020 6:13 PM
To:City Leaders
Subject:Fwd: Letter from Darin Atteberry and Mayor Troxell to City of Loveland
Attachments:2020 07 20 City of Loveland.pdf; ATT00001.htm
Council:
Please see the letter Darin and I sent to the Loveland mayor and city council.
Regards,
Wade
Mayor Wade Troxell
City of Fort Collins, Colorado
2017 Malcolm Baldrige Award - City of Fort Collins recognized for “an unceasing drive for radical innovation,
thoughtful leadership, and operational excellence.”
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Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Sarah Kane <SKane@fcgov.com>
Date: July 20, 2020 at 5:04:38 PM MDT
To: Steve Adams <Steve.Adams@cityofloveland.org>, Jacki Marsh - Mayor
<Jacki.Marsh@cityofloveland.org>
Cc: "Jenell Cheever (Jenell.Cheever@cityofloveland.org)" <Jenell.Cheever@cityofloveland.org>, Darin
Atteberry <DATTEBERRY@fcgov.com>, Wade Troxell <WTroxell@fcgov.com>, Tyler Marr
<tmarr@fcgov.com>
Subject: Letter from Darin Atteberry and Mayor Troxell to City of Loveland
Hello Mayor Marsh and City Manager Adams,
Please find an attached letter from Mayor Troxell and City Manager Atteberry. If you could distribute to
Loveland City Council, that would be most appreciated.
Thank you for your time,
Sarah Kane
2
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sarah Kane
Supervisor, Administration
Executive Administrative Assistant to Mayor Wade Troxell
City Manager’s Office
City of Fort Collins
PO Box 580
300 Laporte Avenue, Building A
970-416-2447 office
skane@fcgov.com
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acknowledge the role of local government in helping create systems of oppression and racism and are
committed to dismantling those same systems in pursuit of racial justice. Learn more.”
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Mayor
City Hall
300 LaPorte Ave.
PO Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522
970.416.2154
970.224.6107 - fax
fcgov.com
July 20, 2020
Office of Mayor Jacki Marsh and City Councilmembers
City Manager Steve Adams
City of Loveland
500 East Third Street, Suite 330
Loveland, CO 80537
Honorable Mayor Marsh, Members of Loveland City Council, and City Manager Adams:
The City of Fort Collins became aware of and watched with great interest the joint meeting between
the Loveland City Council and the Larimer County Board of County Commissioners last Thursday
evening. We are concerned about the tone of the meeting in regards to how the City of Fort Collins
and our concerns about the current co-location of the Behavioral Health Facility and the regional
wasteshed facilities were represented.
We have been expressing our concerns to Larimer County for over a year. After a joint meeting
between our Council and the Commissioners in late June where these concerns were reiterated, the
County responded, inviting us to undertake a search for alternative sites in conjunction with other
municipalities.
While observing the meeting last Thursday, we were taken aback by the tone of the discussion and
the lack of information informing the discussion about the repurposing of the landfill site. As an
example, the ballot language said nothing about the location of the Behavioral Health Facility at the
current landfill site. We want to be clear - there are no political games at work. The community of
Fort Collins offered its overwhelming support in both votes for the Behavioral Health Facility to be
built. Our motivation in both the Behavioral Health and regional wasteshed facility conversations
is to ensure we are asking the right questions to ensure the best long-term decisions for our
communities.
The City is grateful for subsequent conversations over the last few days that have taken place between
us, City Manager Adams, and some Councilmembers offering additional context and aligning our
mutual understanding.
Our two cities have a rich history of collaboration, problem solving, and of productive, mutually
beneficial relationships. As such, Fort Collins is hoping to offer some clarity around our concerns
with the existing site of the Behavioral Health Facility and our reason for undertaking a process to
identify potential alternatives.
We directed our staff to look at this site like we would with any other major development and
important facility within our community – which involves asking difficult questions regarding what
will best serve our communities 50 years or more into the future. Our concerns include:
Proximity to solid waste infrastructure (transfer station, construction and demolition
resources recovery site, and industrial compost processing facility) and additional industrial
impacts such as truck traffic from a large number of semi-truck trips per day, beeps emitted from
heavy equipment, odor concerns, etc.;
Social justice for Behavioral Health Facility users having to go to the former landfill being
repurposed as an industrial waste facility;
Transportation concerns including lack of public transportation to the site;
Environmental concerns including levels of methane and other volatile gasses that exceed
regulatory standards and the recommendation to complete a Phase 1 environmental site
assessment;
Limits to future growth for either facility, given the close proximity of the Behavioral
Health Facility to the regional wasteshed facility.
When Fort Collins and other municipalities bring our recommendation for alternative sites to the
County on August 3, we expect the County to honor and address our findings in good faith. We are
grateful to have Kelly Jones from Loveland on this multi-jurisdictional team as she has added value
to the deliberations and the process so far.
We remain grateful for our many ongoing partnerships between our two communities and are
optimistic that by working together, we can realize the kind of facilities that both our communities
expect.
Sincerely,
Wade Troxell Darin Atteberry
Mayor City Manager
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