HomeMy WebLinkAboutEMAIL - Read Before Packet - 11/23/2021 - EMAIL FROM PATHS FOCO RE: HUGHES ACQUISITION, FINANCING AND OUTREACH PROCESS1
Heather Walls
From:Rita Knoll
Sent:Tuesday, November 23, 2021 4:06 PM
To:Heather Walls
Subject:FW: [EXTERNAL] Hughes Acquisition, Financing and Outreach Process
From: PATHS FoCo <pathsfoco@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2021 4:01 PM
To: City Leaders <CityLeaders@fcgov.com>; City Clerk Office <cityclerk@fcgov.com>; Kelly DiMartino
<KDIMARTINO@fcgov.com>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Hughes Acquisition, Financing and Outreach Process
Please add this email and attached letter to the record for Work Session Item #02 of the November 23, 2021 Council
work session.
Letter to City Council
HUGHES STADIUM LAND UPDATE
Dear City Council Members,
The members and volunteers of Planning Action to Transform Hughes Sustainably (PATHS) are writing to you today to
provide input on agenda item Number 02 scheduled for tonight’s council work session:
Hughes Stadium Land Update
o https://citydocs.fcgov.com/?cmd=convert&vid=72&docid=3525487&dt=AGENDA+ITEM&doc_download
_date=NOV‐23‐2021&ITEM_NUMBER=02
By now it should be clear to you how deeply Fort Collins’ residents care about protecting and preserving Hughes for our
community, for future generations, and for our local wildlife that is faced with shrinking and fragmented habitat ‐ a sad
reality that has resulted in widespread wildlife injury and death. We strongly believe that few other parcels of land
within the City limits of Fort Collins have as much conservation value as the Hughes parcel. Hughes’ legacy and history
before CSU controlled the land is as native tribal land, and more recently the Maxwell family property and farmland, and
it deserves to be protected for posterity. Furthermore, Hughes is situated between two of our most popular and most
visited Natural Areas in the Fort Collins Natural Areas system: Pineridge and Maxwell Natural Areas. On any given day,
the parking lots, trail heads, and trails of these two designated Natural Areas are crowded and packed with recreators.
We are loving our natural areas to death. We should be doing all we can to EXPAND and EXTEND and CONNECT our
open spaces and designated Natural Areas. It is extremely rare that a parcel like Hughes becomes available to do just
that, EXTEND, EXPAND, and CONNECT currently‐existing Natural Areas and open space. We cannot think of a better use
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of our City’s General Fund dollars and other sales tax revenue, and our fellow Fort Collins residents have said as much
over and over again.
After reviewing the staff recommendations for the Hughes acquisition funding options, we would like to offer our
STRONG support for the HYBRID funding option. This is a creative and fair funding strategy, and will ensure that the
spirit and vision of LAND CONSERVATION and PRESERVATION inherent in the citizens’ ordinance is honored and
fulfilled. We would like to thank the City staff for proposing and recommending this option.
As you consider how best to move forward with the acquisition of Hughes and the future public engagement process,
please know that the PATHS organization intends to remain actively engaged to ensure that the spirit and vision of
the citizen‐initiated ballot measure, and the will of the 69% of voters that voted in favor of the ballot measure, are
honored. We ask that you keep the following key elements of land conservation and wildlife preservation that were at
the heart of the citizens’ ordinance at the forefront of your mind during your discussion tonight:
Natural Areas:
We believe that the Hughes parcel at the base of the hogbacks, where the night sky is the darkest in town, is
appropriate and ideal for a Natural Area designation and protection to the
greatest extent possible
(at least ~50%). Importantly, we feel that the General Fund is the most appropriate source for the
majority
of acquisition funds, particularly because the acquisition is the result of a citizens’ ballot measure. Only very
limited Natural Areas dollars should be used for
acquisition,
so as not to strain the current reserve funds of the Natural Areas Department.
However, we stress that we would like to see a Hughes Natural
Area designation to the greatest extent possible, and we intend to stay actively engaged to this end.
Disc Golf Course and Sledding Hill:
The disc golf course currently serves as a recreational use (park) in what is actually a necessary stormwater
(utilities) detention pond. Therefore, the Utilities and the Parks departments should contribute a portion of the
cost of the Hughes’ acquisition,
as well as for future operations and maintenance, of this aspect of the parcel. There are so countless residents
that access and enjoy the disc golf course year‐round, and the sledding hill in the winter. These uses are
appropriate and welcomed recreational
uses for the stormwater detention pond area of the parcel, and these activities should also be protected for
future generations at no cost to users.
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Lease approximately five acres at Hughes for a
Wildlife Center for the Northern
Colorado Wildlife Center:
Rampant growth in Fort Collins has led
to serious wildlife impacts, injury, and death associated with shrinking and fragmented habitat. The NoCo
Wildlife Center has repeatedly asked Council for land to expand on its much‐needed wildlife rescue,
rehabilitation, and public education mission, and
the public has shown adamant support for this idea. The NoCo Wildlife Center has the expertise and resources
that our increasingly‐impacted and injured wildlife desperately need. As a City in which wildlife habitat is
becoming critically scarce, we need to
help our local wildlife rehabilitators succeed in achieving their mission of rescuing and rehabbing impacted
wildlife. As with other nonprofit organizations that lease property from the City of Fort Collins to fulfill their
mission and work, a land lease at
Hughes would provide an optimal place for wildlife rescue, rehab, release, and public education for the NoCo
Wildlife Center.
PATHS included a Wildlife Center as an
appropriate and desired land use in the citizens’ Ordinance for Hughes for this exact reason. We will continue
to advocate for leasing a portion of Hughes for the Northern Colorado Wildlife Center so the community has a
place to bring injured and orphaned
wildlife.
History of the Hughes Ballot Measure
The task of undertaking and organizing a citizens initiative is not easy at any given time, or by any stretch of the
imagination. It’s a full time operation. But one thing is for certain: you should never doubt the dedication that exists
when it comes to protecting this special and unique parcel. PATHS members and volunteers persevered through a
COVID‐19 pandemic, unpredictable weather, and exposure to the ever‐present hazardous smoke and ash pouring from
the largest wildfires in Colorado’s history. The keys to our success were the tidal wave of support we experienced from
our fellow Fort Collins residents, so many of whom indisputably want to see this land conserved, and the indefatigable
energy from our amazing and powerful army of volunteers. Our volunteers worked tirelessly to collect THOUSANDS of
signatures from Fort Collins voters, and voters went out of their way to find us at our locations which were announced
daily on social media and our website.
Despite the elements and challenges we faced, we collected well over 8,300 sufficient signatures; That’s more than 25%
of the total number of voters in the last Fort Collins city election (32,800), when we only needed 10%! We turned in
more than enough signatures to reach the magic number of 3,280 VALIDATED voter signatures to get the Hughes open
space ballot measure on the April 2021 ballot. No more can Hughes open space advocates be dismissed as “Paper
Tigers” or be made to feel diminutive by being called “just a vocal minority”. If the citizens’ petition shows you
anything, it’s that Fort Collins voters value PROTECTED open space, and they want Hughes to be conserved as such. To
further validate the importance of the protection of the Hughes parcel to the community, voters passed the citizen‐
initiated ballot measure by a landslide victory of 69% in the April 2021 election, which is undeniably a mandate for
the land conservation and protection of Hughes.
In closing, thank you to the City of Fort Collins, CSU, and especially PATHS volunteers, organizers, supporters, and Fort
Collins voters for making the protection of Hughes a reality. The PATHS organization, and its members and supporters,
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will remain actively engaged to ensure that the spirit and vision of the citizen‐initiated ballot measure, and the will of
the 69% of voters that voted in favor of the ballot measure, are honored. Please feel free to reach out with any
questions.
With Gratitude,
The Paths Organizing Team
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
The Paths Organizing Team
Website: https://HughesOpenSpacePetition.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PATHSFoCo/
Donate: https://HughesOpenSpacePetition.com/donate
Call/Text: (970) 658-0505