HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrdinance No. 199, 2025- 1 -
ORDINANCE NO. 199, 2025
OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS
AUTHORIZING A TRANSFER OF APPROPRIATED MATCHING
GRANT FUNDS FOR THE COLORADO PARKS AND WILDLIFE
GRANT RELATED TO THE SOAPSTONE PRAIRIE
HEADWATERS RESTORATION PROJECT
A. The City’s Natural Areas Department (“Natural Areas Department”) is
implementing the Soapstone Prairie Headwaters Restoration Project (the “Project”) to
restore ecological function and improve habitat within a one -mile reach of stream and
wetland complex at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area.
B. On September 2, 2025, the City Council adopted Ordinance No. 131, 2025,
which appropriated $25,000 in grant funds awarded by Colorado Parks and Wildlife
(“CPW”) through the Wetlands for Wildlife program to support the project’s final adaptive-
management phase.
C. The CPW grant requires a matching contribution of $47,253 in in-kind
personnel costs. These personnel costs are currently budgeted within a lapsing project
budget in the Natural Areas Fund but must be re-appropriated into a non-lapsing
matching-grant budget in the same fund to comply with the grant’s requirements.
D. Appropriating and reassigning these in-kind matching funds will allow the
Natural Areas Department to complete the Project, including wetland delineation, pool-
depth monitoring, and preparation of as-built drawings, and to fulfill all final monitoring
and reporting obligations under the CPW grant.
E. This appropriation benefits the public health, safety, and welfare of the
residents of Fort Collins and serves the public purpose of enhancing wetland and riparian
ecosystems; improving habitat for the Northern Leopard Frog, a Species of Greatest
Conservation Need; supporting climate-resilient restoration; and engaging local and
Indigenous community partners in stewardship of public natural areas.
F. Article V, Section 10 of the City Charter authorizes the City Council, upon
recommendation by the City Manager, to transfer by ordinance any unexpended and
unencumbered appropriated amount or portion thereof from one fund or capital project to
another fund or capital project, provided that the purpose for which the transferred funds
are to be expended remains unchanged, the purpose for which the funds were initially
appropriated no longer exists, or the proposed transfer is from a fund or capital project in
which the amount appropriated exceeds the amount needed to accomplish the purpose
specified in the appropriation ordinance.
G. The City Manager has recommended the transfer of $47,253 from a lapsing
account in the Natural Areas Fund to a non-lapsing account within the Natural Areas Fund
and determined that the purpose for which the transferred funds are to be expended
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remains unchanged, and that this appropriation will not cause the total amount
appropriated in that fund to exceed the current estimate of actual and anticipated
revenues for the fiscal year.
H. Article V, Section 11 of the City Charter authorizes the City Council to
designate in the ordinance when appropriating funds for a federal, state or private grant
or donation, that such appropriation shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal year in which
the appropriation is made, but continue until the earlier of the expiration of the federal,
state or private grant or donation or the City’s expenditure of all funds received from such
grant or donation.
I. The City Council wishes to designate the appropriation herein for matching
grant funds for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife grant related to the Project as an
appropriation that shall not lapse until the earlier of t he expiration of the grant or the City’s
expenditure of all funds received from such grant.
In light of the foregoing recitals, which the Council hereby makes and adopts as
determinations and findings, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
FORT COLLINS as follows:
Section 1. The unexpended and unencumbered appropriated amount of
FORTY-SEVEN THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED FIFTY-THREE DOLLARS ($47,253) is
authorized for transfer from the lapsing capital project account in the Natural Areas Fund
to the non-lapsing capital project account in the Natural Areas Fund and appropriated
therein to be expended as match funds for Colorado Parks and Wildlife for the Project.
Section 2. The appropriation herein for Colorado Parks and Wildlife for the
Project is hereby designated, as authorized in Article V, Section 11 of the City Charter,
as an appropriation that shall not lapse at the end of this fiscal year but continue until the
earlier of the expiration of the grant or the City’s expenditure of all funds received from
such grant.
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Introduced, considered favorably on first reading on December 2, 2025, and
approved on second reading for final passage on December 16, 2025.
______________________________
Mayor
ATTEST:
______________________________
City Clerk
Effective Date: December 26, 2025
Approving Attorney: April Silva
Exhibit: None