Planning board gives final nod to LaPorte plan

By JoAn Bjarko
North Forty News

A handful of LaPorte area residents in January witnessed the culmination of two years of effort to update a local land use plan.

On Jan. 21, the Larimer County Planning Commission on a 6-0 vote gave the final approval needed to put the LaPorte Area Plan in force. The new guidelines for future development replaced a plan adopted in 1992, but not without some last-minute questioning.

Planning commissioners had to assure one citizen that the plan does not change zoning and that it gives LaPorte property owners more options, not fewer choices.

"This is not zoning," said senior planner Jill Bennett. "It guides new development."

"What is there has a vested interest that cannot be tampered with," said commission chairman Mark Korb. "Successors (in ownership) have the same right."

The plan received the county commissioners' approval on Dec. 8 and a positive recommendation from the LaPorte Area Planning Advisory Committee on Nov. 18.

LaPorte's first area plan was approved in 1980. It is unusual for unincorporated communities such as LaPorte to have an individual area plan. The county commissioners, however, still make final development decisions.

The revised plan will serve as a guide to county officials considering requests for rezoning, special review applications, land divisions and other types of development applications.

The overriding community sentiment expressed at public meetings while the plan was being revised was to "keep the existing character" of LaPorte. While much of the area will remain low-density residential, higher density neighborhoods can be located near the core of the community. No new multi-family residential areas are included in the plan.

Bennett noted that a new sewer line built under the Poudre River at Taft Hill Road to reach property north of Fort Collins will provide the potential for more development in that area. The revised plan designates a neighborhood business center and commercial-light industrial area at the intersection of Taft Hill Road and County Road 54G. The plan also offers ways to prevent strip commercial development along CR 54G between Taft Hill Road and Overland Trail.

As LAPAC and citizens worked out land use ideas, the county also updated the transportation and drainage plans for the area.

According to census figures used in the plan, the area has about 3,300 residents living in 1,350 homes. For planning purposes, the area includes both Fort Collins and LaPorte addresses.

Planning commissioner Roger Morgan noted that the plan is based on what the community wants for its future. "The plan is supposed to get people thinking and looking at alternatives," he said.

Loui terMeer, another planning commissioner, said she opposes upzoning, which the LaPorte plan seems to encourage. Nevertheless, she voted to adopt the plan.