City forges forward with southwest annexation

By Dan MacArthur
Fossil Creek Current

A fierce insurrection including efforts to secure legislative intervention was not enough to deter Fort Collins' determination to proceed with the city's largest single annexation ever.

Despite last-minute protests, the Fort Collins City Council on July 18 voted unanimously to initiate annexation of the so-called southwest enclave. The nearly three-square-mile area contains some 3,100 residents and more than 100 businesses.

It is generally bordered on the north by Harmony Road, on the south by Trilby Road, on the west by Taft Hill Road, and extends east about a quarter mile beyond College Avenue. The area in 2001 became an enclave subject to involuntary annexation when it was surrounded by the city following annexation of the Cathy Fromme and Coyote Ridge open spaces. Under the terms of a 1980 intergovernmental agreement with Larimer County, Fort Collins is obligated to annex such enclaves.

The annexation will be phased with the Kel Mar strip along South College being brought in first.

While the fervent opponents couldn't keep the city away, they did win a number of concessions. Fort Collins agreed to the following:

• Form an enclave annexation transition committee to "serve as an information conduit between the city and enclave residents." The committee will be composed of five residents, property owners or business operators within the area and two staff members from both the city and the county. They will be appointed by the city manager.
• Use utility reserve funds to pay all but 5 percent of the 25 percent service rights fee the city must pay to the Poudre Valley REA for the next 10 years. As a result, the former PVREA will pay the same or less for city electric services than they are paying now, according to the city.
• Phase-in stormwater utility fees over five years.
• Allow barbed wire and electrically charged fences for containing livestock in the urban estate and rural lands zoning districts.
• Change licensing requirements allowing flea market owners to be licensed as secondhand dealers rather than requiring licensing of the individual booth operators.