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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCITY STRUCTURE PLAN AMENDS TO GMA, FOSSIL CREEK COOP. PLAN. AREA - 19-04 - CORRESPONDENCE - (4)annexation into Fort Collins would only place their properties under what they perceive as the City's "no growth" philosophy. • Questions on the timing and the need to complete the amendment in the immediate future The owners are concerned about the timing of the amendment. The owners want more time to discuss their issues and concerns. Of course, the requested delay could be a ruse to allow the owners to have more time to work with other jurisdictions about annexation and convince Larimer County to abandon the IGA requirement for annexation into Fort Collins. Fossil Creek CPA should be annexed into Fort Collins. Staff also knows that Loveland has expressed some interest, but at this point, seems to be willing to honor the intergovernmental agreements. From the landowner's perspective, annexation into Fort Collins would provide them no benefits and would only make development of their properties more difficult. Their opposition is based on the following issues and concerns: • City Land Use Code Natural Area/Wet Land Set Back Requirements The owners believe the City's LUC requirements are unreasonable, especially regarding some wet lands that were caused by inadequate drainage systems that were put in place when roads were constructed (i.e., culverts were installed that were too small to allow water pass through eventually leading to back ups that created a "wet land") versus natural wet lands that are part of a stream corridor. There is also the belief that the ability to propose modifications to City standards is too limited and/or the mitigation requirements are too strict and expensive. The owners were told the City's Natural Resources Department was going to investigate and analyze wet lands to see if certain differentiations were warranted and possibly make changes to the standards within the LUC. However, the project is not on an immediate work plan for the Department. The property -owners apparently believe they would fare better with their development plans if they were to annex into another jurisdiction. • City's policy not to financially participate in needed I-25 interchange improvements The Carpenter Road and State Highway 392 interchange on I-25 needs to be upgraded. Without a new interchange, further development at the intersection is severely limited if not outright prohibited. The City's policy not to participate financially in any interstate interchange improvement is of concern to the owners, but perhaps of greater concern is the City's possible opposition to the establishment of other potential funding mechanisms, such as a special improvement or metro districts, the use of tax increment financing, etc. The property -owners apparently believe they would fare better with their development plans if they were to annex into another jurisdiction. • Fear that annexation would not be a step toward development but a step towards delaying development Again, the property -owners apparently believe they would fare better with their development plans if they were to annex into another jurisdiction. The owners fear that The proposed boundary amendment will require updating the map (Exhibit 1 in the IGA) showing the new GMA boundary as per the Fossil Creek CPA amendment. In order to become an official amendment to the IGA the boundary change must be approved by both the City Council and the Larimer County Board of Commissioners. PLANNING AND ZONING BOARD RECOMMENDATION At their regular monthly meeting on June 17, 2004, the Planning and Zoning Board voted 5-0 to recommend approval of the Fossil Creek CPA GMA boundary amendment. During public input at the June 17 meeting, two property owners within the Fossil Creek CPA indicated their properties were divided by the GMA boundary as proposed by staff. In one case (the Van Cleave property), the proposed GMA boundary divided the ownership into a 35+ acre (in) portion and a 5 acre (out) portion; while in the other case (the Lemaster, Wortley, Skogan property), the proposed GMA boundary divided the ownership into a 40 acre (in) portion and an 80 acre (out) portion. It was not the intent of the staff s proposed GMA boundary to divide properties under single ownership. The Planning and Zoning Board's recommendation was to include the 5 acres, along with the balance of 35+ acres, of the Van Cleave property within the GMA boundary and to exclude the 40 acres, along with the balance of 80 acres, of the Lemaster, Wortley, Skogan property from the GMA boundary amendment. Staff supported the Board's recommendation. FORT COLLINS CITY COUNCIL At their regular meeting on March 15, 2005, the Fort Collins City Council voted unanimously to approve of the Fossil Creek CPA GMA boundary amendment, authorized the Mayor to sign a revised IGA with Larimer County, and forward the issue to the County for their decision. The Council also directed staff to work with property -owners and developers regarding appropriate uses of land in the expansion area. Staff has started meeting with the interested parties. The eventual results of these meeting may be amendments to the land use designations on the City's Structure Plan map. Property Owner Opposition The property owners within the Fossil Creek CPA appear entrenched in their position that they do not want to be included in the GMA and eventually annexed into Fort Collins. These property -owners apparently believe they would fare better with their development plans if they were to annex into another jurisdiction, with Loveland or Windsor being the obvious options. Staff has learned that some owners have contacted Loveland regarding potential annexation and they have approached Larimer County to see what the County's position would be about such annexation in relationship to the IGA which indicates the District. In fact, the sanitation district's wastewater treatment plant is located within the CPA adjacent to Fossil Creek Reservoir. The current I-25/SH 392/Carpenter Road interchange has serious capacity problems; staff is not sure how the lack of capacity at the interchange would affect the County's review of future development proposals in and around the interchange. This is a significant issue for Windsor, which has annexed all properties located east of the interchange and has permitted commercial development in the area. The updates to City Plan and the Master Transportation Plan contain Policy T-1.9 that indicates that the City of Fort Collins will encourage partnerships among CDOT, the Federal Highway Administration, and private interests to improve existing interchanges (the policy does not commit the City to financially participate). Windsor is aggressively exploring ways to convince the North Front Range MPO and the Colorado Department of Highways (CDOT) to elevate the "Windsor interchange" in capital improvement program rankings for funding. CDOT is also exploring with the City and County the transfer of Carpenter Road as a Regionally Significant Corridor to the State system which may help elevate the State and regionally priority of needed improvements to both the roadway and the interchange. Carpenter Road is designated as a future 6-lane arterial on the City's Master Street Plan, but is built to 2-lane County road standards. If annexed, development along Carpenter Road will be required dedicate additional right-of-way, improve the street, and pay impact fees for additional widening. The proposed amendment would offer a desirable new "edge" to the community. As anticipated in the Fossil Creek Reservoir Area Plan's implementation strategies, extending the GMA to include the CPA would create a desirable edge to the community. The existing boundary to be extended is contiguous to existing developed areas of the City of Fort Collins. The proposed amendment would contribute to the compact urban form of the city. The Fossil Creek CPA is contiguous to existing development in the city limits, according to Section 3.7.2 Contiguity of the City's Land Use Code. According to Section 3.7.2, contiguity to existing development is not affected by publicly owned open space or a lake/reservoir. The CPA is thus adjacent to developments, such as Westchase, located north of Fossil Creek Reservoir. IGA Amendments In 1980, the City of Fort Collins and Larimer County entered into an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for the Fort Collins Urban Growth Area (UGA). The agreement established a united, cooperative planning effort towards development goals and policies for the effective management of development in the Fort Collins urban area. The last time the IGA was amended occurred in November 2000. As a result of the proposed GMA boundary amendment the following change to the agreement need to be made. The proposed amendment is necessary to accommodate an activity that cannot be reasonably accommodated on lands within the existing GMA boundary. There are five entry corridors into Fort Collins from I-25. From north to south they are: Mountain Vista Drive, Mulberry Street, Prospect Road, Harmony Road, and Carpenter Road. The Structure Plan designates three of them for commercial development: Mulberry, Prospect, and Carpenter. One is almost fully developed (Mulberry), leaving two (Prospect and Carpenter) remaining available for future commercial development. The I-25 Subarea Plan, an element of City Plan, identifies the Prospect interchange as an "activity center" which will be encouraged to develop with a mix of uses, including residential. While Prospect will also likely be the location for some highway oriented commercial development, outside of Mulberry, the community does not have an area that can offer location attributes to serve the regional retail market and traveling public on I- 25. Thus, staff recommends the CPA area should be added to the GMA to provide for certain types of commercial uses that cannot be accommodate, nor perhaps should not be accommodated, in other parts of the GMA. The land proposed for inclusion in the GMA contains environmental resources or hazard constraints that make it unsuitable for its proposed use. The properties immediately surrounding Fossil Creek Reservoir are a very important environmental resource for the community. Maintaining a separation of the Fort Collins and Loveland urban areas is also a very high priority of the two communities and the County. The City and County have acquired, or otherwise preserved, a significant portion of the open space and natural areas within the CPA. Additional public purchases/preservations are likely in the future. There are also some important wetlands that will remain privately owned, for example, on the west end of the horse farm property on the southwest corner of the I-25 interchange. One reason for amending the GMA boundary for the CPA is to set the stage for eventual annexation of property into Fort Collins. This would allow the City to apply to the remaining privately owned properties its specific environmental protection development regulations contained in the Land Use Code. Development will eventually happen in the CPA. Applying City regulations will protect the natural environment. There are no specific environmental or hazard constraints that would prohibit development of the area. The proposed amendment would result in a logical change to the GMA. Factors to be included in making this determination will include, but not be limited to, the following: The proposed amendment would allow for the logical, incremental extension of urban services. Water service is available throughout the CPA from the Loveland -Fort Collins Water District, and sanitary sewer service is available from the South Fort Collins Sanitation Staff is convinced that it is just a matter time before commercial development occurs adjacent to the I-25/SH 392/Carpenter Road interchange. Since development will likely be "urban" in nature, Larimer County staff has indicated they would like the area to develop inside of a city's jurisdiction. Therefore, staff believes the main issue becomes not one of "if' development occurs, but one of "when, where, and how" such development takes place, either in Fort Collins, or in Windsor or Loveland. Amending the GMA boundary to include the CPA at this time would solidify the City's claim to and control of the area as initially established in the Fossil Creek Reservoir Area Plan and subsequent intergovernmental agreements. The Structure Plan's land use designations for the Fossil Creek CPA include approximately 40 acres of Employment District and approximately 90 acres of Commercial Corridor District adjacent to I-25. These areas would be zoned E, Employment, and C, Commercial, respectively upon annexation into the City. The balance of the area contains City and County open space/parks and a portion of the Fort Collins -Loveland Community Separator. The privately -owned properties in the separator would be placed into the RR, Rural Residential District upon annexation. The publicly owned properties would be placed into the POL, Public Open Lands District upon annexation. Annexation of this area into the City would allow the City to apply its street standards, including right-of-way dedications, as well as collecting the full range of City impact fees. Staff does not have exact figures, but intuitively would expect the approximately 40 acres of Employment District and approximately 90 acres of Commercial Corridor District to generate impact fees and tax revenues to more than adequately cover the costs of necessary public services and facilities to those employment and commercial uses and the very low density residential development that is likely to happen in the CPA. Included in the City services to be provided to the area after annexation are police and road maintenance services. Water and wastewater utilities will be provided by the Loveland - Fort Collins Water District and the South Fort Collins Sanitation District respectively. The Police Department has a standard that indicates 400 housing units generate the need for an additional police officer. Assuming all of the parcels designated as Rural Lands and Community Separator available for residential development in the CPA develop as residential clusters with a density of 1 unit per 2.29 acres, the area would produce about 160 units, or about the need for .4 of a police officer. Certain commercial uses, such as bars, create a higher demand for police services than other commercial uses. While the future commercial and employment uses will add to the need for additional police services, staff finds they would not be of the types that would create the high demands for those services. Therefore, staff concludes the CPA GMA boundary amendment would have a positive net fiscal benefit to the community. The expansion area, when annexed, will be subjected all of the urban service provision requirements of the "Adequate Public Facilities (APF)" criteria contained in the City's Land Use Code. Water service is available throughout the expansion area from the Loveland -Fort Collins Water District, and sanitary sewer service is available from the South Fort Collins Sanitation District. The current I-25/SH 392/Carpenter Road interchange has serious capacity problems. This is a significant issue for Windsor, which has annexed all properties located east of the interchange and has permitted commercial development in the area. Windsor is aggressively exploring ways to convince the North Front Range MPO and the Colorado Department of Highways (CDOT) to elevate the "Windsor interchange" in capital improvement program rankings for funding. CDOT is also exploring with the City and County the transfer of Carpenter Road as a Regionally Significant Corridor to the State system which may help elevate the State and regionally priority of needed improvements to both the roadway and the interchange. Carpenter Road is designated as a future 6-lane arterial on the City's Master Street Plan, but is built to 2-lane County road standards. If annexed, development along Carpenter Road will be required dedicate additional right- of-way, improve the street, and pay impact fees for additional widening in the future. Other urban services (police, parks, etc.) will be provided typically through the payment of impact fees and developed according to the City's mater plans for such services and facilities. Fire protection will be provided by the Poudre Fire Authority. City of Fort Collins GMA Amendment Criteria City Plan Policy GM-1.2 of City Plan establishes a set of criteria to be considered in reviewing proposed GMA amendments. These criteria are presented below along with a City staff analysis addressing each criterion. The proposed amendment is consistent with community goals, principles, and policies as expressed in City Plan. The initial version of City Plan (1997) contained the policy basis for establishing CPAs. The Fossil Creek Reservoir Area Plan's Policy FC-1-6 established the concept for this CPA as an area beyond the GMA which could conceivably be annexed into Fort Collins. One key principle for the CPA was to avoid "annexation wars" between Fort Collins and the other surrounding communities. Staff believes adding the Fossil Creek CPA into the GMA boundary would complete the fulfillment of policies and intergovernmental agreements initiated in the Fossil Creek Reservoir Area Plan. The CPA is designated for a mix of commercial, rural lands, public open lands, and community separators on the City's Structure Plan. Inclusion of the area in the GMA and its eventual annexation will provide the City with much greater assurance that City Plan's vision for the area is successful. The proposed amendment has a positive net fiscal benefit to the community. a. There is an intergovernmental agreement with the adjacent municipality pertaining to a growth management area and the GMA district is intended to implement the agreement; As indicated above, in 1999, the City of Fort Collins and Larimer County signed an Intergovernmental Agreement establishing the Fossil Creek Cooperative Planning Area (CPA). The objective of the CPA was to preserve opportunities to expand the supply of buildable land for urban purposes within the city through eventual annexation. Also, in 1999, a series of Intergovernmental Agreements involving the Cities of Fort Collins and Loveland, the Town of Windsor, and Larimer County formally agreed to recognize the Fossil Creek CPA as being a logical extension of the Fort Collins GMA boundary and leading to eventual annexation of the area into Fort Collins. b. The area within the GMA district boundary is expected, by the parties, to be annexed within the time frame anticipated by the municipality's comprehensive plan; Fort Collins' City Plan, the City's Comprehensive Plan, recently updated in May 2004, anticipates the annexation of the areas within the GMA. The County will be the key player in the City's annexation of property within the expansion area by not accepting development proposals on properties that have contiguity to the Fort Collins city limits. The City can not just unilaterally start annexing property in the expansion area. There have been discussions between City and County staff regarding the annexation of the County's Regional Park south of Fossil Creek Reservoir in order to create contiguity with many properties in the expansion area and, thus, set the stage for annexation. But, even the annexation of the regional park will not provide contiguity to all properties in the area. So, some properties may want to try to develop before the City has the necessary contiguity that would make the County require annexation. c. The municipality's comprehensive plan provides the county and property owners with clear guidance regarding the types and intensities of land uses intended for each parcel within the GMA district boundary. One of the major changes made in the update to City Plan in 2004, was the refinement of land use depictions on the City Structure Plan map (future land use map). Deleted from the former map were the "dots," "semi -circles" and other similar vague geometric shapes for the potential location of future land uses. These were replaced with more definitive shapes that corresponded better with roads, property boundaries, section lines, etc. Staff believes the Structure Plan now gives clear guidance regarding the types and intensities of land uses intended for each parcel on the map. d. The area within the GMA district can and will be served with urban level services, including, but not limited to, public sewer, public water, urban streets and urban fire protection. (2) establishment of the Fossil Creek Cooperative Planning Area (CPA) as a future GMA boundary amendment area. The GMA boundary amendment to include all land north of Fossil Creek Reservoir and west of I-25 was approved by both the City and County in 1999 and contained approximately 5 square miles, not counting the area covered by Fossil Creek Reservoir. An additional 2 and %2 square miles was included in the CPA. The objective of the CPA was to preserve opportunities to expand the supply of buildable land for urban purposes within the city through eventual annexation. In 1999, a series of Intergovernmental Agreements involving the Cities of Fort Collins and Loveland, the Town of Windsor, and Larimer County formally extended the GMA boundary to include the area north of Fossil Creek Reservoir and west of I-25 and established the CPA. Some key components to these agreements were the establishment of future annexation areas. Fort Collins agreed not to annex east of I-25, Windsor agreed not to annex west of I-25, and Loveland agreed not to annex north of County Road 30. All parties agreed to recognize the Fossil Creek CPA as being a logical extension of the Fort Collins GMA boundary and leading to eventual annexation of the area into Fort Collins. Since the establishment of the IGAs between the City, the surrounding communities, and Larimer County, there has been increased development pressure on the properties adjacent to the I-25/SH 392/Carpenter Road interchange. Also, City staff understands that the South Fort Collins Sanitation District may eventually sell for development a 160 acre parcel directly south of their wastewater treatment plant on the south side of Carpenter Road. The area south of Carpenter Road is located in the County's AP, Airport Zoning District. The AP district could allow uses by Special Review which would be incompatible with the uses called for in The Region Between Fort Collins and Loveland Open Space Corridor Plan and the Community Separator designation on the City's Structure Plan. North of Carpenter Road, adjacent to I-25, County zoning is a mix of zones, including the C, Commercial and T, Tourist zones, and the R1, Residential district. The area is, thus, primed for development. No formal applications have been made, but both the City and County planning staffs believe that it is a matter of just a short time before someone submits a development application to the County. This adds a sense of urgency to expanding the GMA and annexing the area into the City of Fort Collins. Larimer County GMA Amendment Criteria Section 4.2.1. of the Larimer County Land Use Code contains the County's regulations regarding the Growth Management Area Overlay Zone District. This section states that. the County Commissioners may establish or enlarge a GMA district if an established set of review criteria are met. These criteria are presented below along with a staff analysis addressing each criterion. May 3, 2005 Memorandum TO: Board of County Commissioners Larimer County Planning Commission FM: Ken Waido, Chief Planner City of Fort Collins Advance Planning Department RE: Amending the Fort Collins Growth Management Area (GMA) Boundary to Include the Fossil Creek Cooperative Planning Area (CPA). On May 11, the Board of County Commissioners and the Larimer County Planning Commission will conduct a joint study session and discuss a request to amend the Fort Collins Growth Management Area (GMA) boundary to include the Fossil Creek Cooperative Planning Area (CPA), an area of approximately 2 and '/a square miles (see attached map). This memorandum presents some background information on the boundary amendment request. Fossil Creek Cooperative Planning Area (CPA) History In March 1998, the City of Fort Collins and Larimer County concluded a joint planning effort with the adoption of the Fossil Creek Reservoir Area Plan. The Plan was adopted as an element of City Plan, the City's Comprehensive Plan, and the Latimer County Master Plan. The Plan contained the following chapters/topics: 1. land use framework 2. transportation 3. natural areas and open lands 4. parks schools, and other community facilities 5. implementation Regarding the Growth Management Area (GMA) boundary, the Plan's implementation section called for two significant actions: (1) amendment of the GMA boundary to include all land north of Fossil Creek Reservoir and west of I-25, and