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Home My WebLink AboutMULBERRY LEMAY CROSSINGS, LOT ONE, FILING ONE - FINAL PUD - 36-96D - MEDIA - (18)-Shopping ,Continued from Page Al What's next? purposes of investigating the pro- priety and the legality of the The Fort Collins Planning and city's land development. review Zoning Board is scheduled to - d ct f I r view of the Mul- process as it applies to the Mul- ber{y Lemay Crossings project," con u a rna e berry-Lemay Cromr%'m 6:30 pin. Thursday. Tfle Ernst said. Fischbach said the city will go will be in the Council Cs at Cty,Hall, 300 La Pofa' ahead with a review of the pro For inforon, mati ject's final development plans. planr-eiTedShepard "We intend to follow the voters'. wishes," Fischbach said. A city staff report on the devel- will take the iiiatit art. t opment proposal advises the CARS spokesman Gary, Carnes board to accept the final plans for said his group will go to court the 375,000-square-foot project only after exhausting all adridth- because it meets all of the city's istrative remedies . �e land -use requirements. "We have the people. with Roy said his office has interpret- means (to fund a lawsuit)," Carnes ed last year's vote on preliminary said of the 200-member CARS plans for Mulberry-Lemsy Cross- Carnes said his major cone ings as a directive from the citizens about the Mulberry-Lemay Cro�s- to process the development plan. ings include a lack of infrastruc- "I'he city's position is this matter ture to handle traffic created by was properly submitted to the vot- the shopping center and the Oct ers, and'the city needs to respect that the project is going to be built the outcome of the voters' decision, inside the Poudre River floodplain. unless a court decides otherwise," `Where's more involved thAn Roy said. `To my knowledge, there sticking a Wal-Mart here," hasn't been any court action." _ Carnes said. "rm not against Ernst would not say if CARS Wal-Mart per se." Election 'J k Continued f b* Pa ga Al also overturn and reverse previ- • We:had a'll3t°'6?F 66ple who pound- ed the pavement, including my- self." `.. li they had outspent me and won ' I ` wouldn't be saying it was an ; unfair campaign,;,'„ Goldberg,. said. But more b6th&some *i ia;,; Carnes than the Iopsded cam- paign d M-S was.tb'e language of The teat," An ordinance approvaug,vi ix conditions pre- viouslyr]t , ended by city staff the pre P.U.D. for a com- munity "" shopping center, project orth Fort Collins `y which cl es a proposed Wal-' Mart Tanown as the Mulber- ry -Le sings preliminary PU.�i., *dch ordinance would a P ous decisions of the city's Planning and Zoning Board and City CorSir- cil denying the project, and make a finding that the project complies with all relevant provisions of the code and charter of the city." Carnes questioned how the av- erage citizen was familiar enough with the city's building codes and charter to determine the project was in compliance. o In defense of the election's opt - come, Goldberg said the majority of Choice City voters knew what the project involved and thouOt it was a good idea. "The issue was the issue audit is an absolute insult to say tyre people who voted on this is i-e couldn't make up their min&," Goldberg said. � to shopping site Group's lawyers Site of proposed Mulberry-Lemay say they will Crossings prevent final Buckingham Street P&Z review of Mulberry-Lemay „Lincoln Avenue Crossings By DAVID RUISARD I//S/00 The Coloradoan A' Boulder` -law firm re- tained by the Citizens Against Regional Shopping Centers has informed the city it intends to prevent the city's Planning and Zoning Board from conducting a fi- nal review of the Mulberry- Lemay Crossings project. Whether attorneys from Martin and Mehaffy will at- tend the project's public hearing Thursday is un- known. "Perhaps," said Christo- pher Ernst, . the attorney representing CARS. "I don't Link-N-Greens m 9� con Course > Mulberry Street 0 N 1/2 I-- - miles Kirk Albens/The Coloradcan know. Well see." Its also unclear what action the fir might take to prevent the meeting or review. In a December letter to the city, Ernst argued the citizen - initiated ordmanoe that over- threw the planning board's Nov. 5,1998, denial of the proj- ect - and the City Council's Nov. 13, 1998, vote upholding the board's position — is in- valid and "of no legal effect." The letter states that citi- zen initiatives may be ap- plied only to legislative is- , sues, such as the Human Rights Ordinance or the pro- posed Public Nuisance Ordi- nance, and not for quasi-ju- dicial decisions such as de- velopment review decisions. Ernst promised in the let- ter to CityAttorney Steve Roy, City Manager' Bolin Fisch- bach and Mayor Ray Mar- tinez that he will pursue "all available legal, and equitable remedies" to prevent the final review of the proposed shop- ping center, which would be anchored by a Wal-Mart Su- percenter. On Thursday, though, Ernst would not comment on what action his firm might take if the planning board moves for- ward with its final review. "My law firm has been re- tained by a group of con- cerned citizens just for the see SHOPPING, Page A2 Election didn't settle controversy By DAVID RUISARD iThe ColoradoanWhen Gary Carnes looks back to the April 6,1999, elec- tion on the controversial Mul- berry-Lemay Crossings shop- ping center, he can't help but question the political process. After campaigning hard to let stand the city's denial of the center, which would be anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter, Carnes' group Citizens Against Regional Shopping Centers lost the election 16,028-12,201. The Citizens for Good Plan- ning —which campaigned on behalf ofbuilding the 375,000- square-foot shopping center with its 192,00&6quare-foot Wal-Mart — was heavily fi nanced by Wal-Mart. The retail giant kicked in the majority of the Citizens for Good Planning's $79,564 campaign war chest. In comparison, CARS collected just $3,500 in donations. "We don't consider it a total- ly local initiative," Carnes said of the item placed on the ballot by citizens for Good Planning• "What we have is a pattern of intimidation and corporate democracy at its worst." The project's developer, Mark Goldberg, discounted Carnes' comments ' on the election as `ridiculous." "We had a lot of volunteers," Goldberg said. "We spent money to get our message out because we wanted to make sure the people of Fort Collins understood the issue. See ELECTION, Page A2