Petition drive seeks to overturn Southwest Annexation

By Dan MacArthur
Fossil Creek Current

Undeterred opponents of the Southwest Annexation are making a fevered last-minute effort to force a public vote on the issue before resorting to legal action.

They are attempting by Nov. 9 to secure enough petition signatures to place the measure on the April 3 municipal ballot if the Fort Collins City Council refuses to reverse its decision to annex.

Although the annexation most directly affects the nearly 3,100 residents and 100 businesses in the 2.75-square-mile unincorporated enclave, they can't take part in the petition-signing or potential vote. Instead the opponents must recruit registered voters in Fort Collins to provide the required 3,150 signatures.

Joann Malara, an owner of the A & J Antique Mall, said annexation opponents will be actively seeking signatures at grocery stores and other public venues if they are to meet the deadline to place the issue on the municipal ballot.

But she hopes it won't come to that. Instead, she hopes the city council would do the right thing when confronted by the petitions by overturning its decision rather than referring the issue to voters. In doing so, she believes it would show that the city was acting in good faith so it could make a fresh start in approaching the annexation later.

"If they could do it over again, they would do it in a better way," Malara said. "I think the city council has learned a lot in the process," She said Fort Collins unnecessarily stepped on a lot of toes and created a lot of animosity when it at first presented the annexation as a done deal.

"Some day it could be done right but not right now," said Malara.

If not, she said, opponents are prepared to proceed with what she acknowledges could be long and costly litigation challenging the legality of the methods Fort Collins used to surround the enclave and force involuntary annexation.

In an Oct. 13 "motion for reconsideration" of the annexation ordinance, Citizens Against Forced Annexation contend that Fort Collins acted improperly by using the Taft Hill Road right-of-way as a foundation for enclosing the enclave.

The group also contends that there's no provision in Colorado for phased annexation, as Fort Collins is pursuing in the Southwest Enclave. The city plans to annex the area, generally south and east of the intersection of Taft Hill and Harmony roads, in four phases over eight years.

Meanwhile, the annexation apparently is already taking a toll on one of the string of antique and secondhand stores drawing shoppers across the region to the South College commercial strip that Fort Collins annexed first.

"Basically we're tired, and we're tired of fighting the city," Charlene Hayes explained while checking out bargain hunters at the Sidekick Flea Market.

After working morning to night 362 days of each of the last 13 years, Hayes said, she and her family are shutting their business down when the lease expires. "Instead of a slow death, we thought we'd quit while the quitting's good," she said.

Hayes said the additional costs and regulations resulting from annexation certainly would have meant a raise in rent and served as "the last nail in the coffin."

"We don't make enough money to feed the city, too," she continued. "Basically, they don't care about the little guy. The only thing they listen to is 'Bye.'"