County approves LaPorte development
By Ani S. Delmont
North Forty News
Larimer County Commissioners on Dec. 7 gave a conditional go-ahead on
a proposed 317-acre housing development on the former Holcim Inc. property
in LaPorte.
The Lake at Bighorn Conservation Development must still meet 19 stipulations
before construction can begin on the 31 single-family lots between Curtis
Lake and North Taft Hill Road, county officials said.
The developer needs to form a special district to manage the community
sewer system and include the plan in the final plat for review by the county
health department. The sewer system must be built at the same time as the
water mains, roads and other subdivision improvements, officials said.
Commissioners' main concern is that the land under12 proposed lots on Curtis
Lake is unsuitable for a conventional septic system, due to its high clay
content and the shallow groundwater, according to Doug Ryan, a planner
at the county's health and environment department. Developers want to use
a lift station to pump sewage from homeowners' septic tanks up to a leach
field on better quality soil, but a special management district would need
to provide oversight.
"Management is key to making a situation like this work," Ryan said.
He added that approval of this new management district will require an
additional hearing. "It generates a few hurdles, but these conditions are
the minimum necessary to comply with the land-use code," he said.
The scaled-down proposal devotes 20 percent of the development to one-
and two-acre residential lots. The rest would be set aside as open space
for homeowners' exclusive use. This could include a communal area for horses,
as the lots are too small to accommodate them, county planner Rob Helmick
said. "This will need further clarification in the next step in the process,"
he added.
Commissioner Kathay Rennels praised the project's downsized, more organized
form presented four years after the cement company sold 3,000 acres by
auction.
"The randomness of the auction was one of the scariest things I've ever
seen," she said.
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