Fort Collins, Timnath talks tackle turf battle

By Dan MacArthur
Fossil Creek Current

Timnath has put on hold a proposal for expanding its growth management area into the territory claimed by Fort Collins, pending discussions to settle the turf battle between the communities.

While neither characterizes them as negotiations, officials from both sides confirmed that talks are ongoing to resolve mutual issues and develop an agreement governing relations with each other.

Timnath has long objected to Fort Collins' purchase of open space separators in the area the town has designated for development. Recently, Timnath turned the tables, moving to assert control over valuable sales-tax producing properties at the Interstate 25 interchanges with Harmony and Prospect roads long identified as being within the Fort Collins' growth management area.

In October, both Fort Collins city manager Darin Atteberry and Timnath town administrator Becky Davidson said they are taking a regional approach in working toward establishing an intergovernmental agreement between the two.

IGAs are aimed at reducing annexation conflicts and encouraging rational development by identifying the area each community expects to eventually annex. Timnath Mayor Donna Benson said the town, which also is considering extension of its growth management area a mile east into Weld County, already has an agreement with Windsor recognizing each others' growth management areas and is discussing one with Severance.

"Our concern is we don't want to see Fort Collins or anyone else buying land within Timnath's planning area," said Davidson. "We want our GMA respected."

"Timnath's GMA has clearly been violated a number of times," Benson said.

Atteberry said Fort Collins has its own concerns. Chief among them is Timnath's consideration of leaping west across the interstate to annex a 100-acre property at the southwest corner of Harmony Road. The high-profile parcel is slated to eventually become a high-end development with shops, offices, housing and possibly a hotel and conference center. It would generate big revenues for whatever community it is located in.

The area has long been included in Fort Collins' growth management area, Atteberry noted. "We have an IGA with Larimer County that has been in effect many years," he said. "Our boundaries are well established."

Atteberry said he has a good working relationship with Davidson, and the town has put its proposed comprehensive plan revisions on hold while the talks continue. "We're sitting down and trying to determine each others' differences," he said.

But should Timnath proceed, Atteberry said, the city certainly would have a response. "I suspect the county would have issues," he added.

Those issues were spelled out in Larimer County's reply to Timnath's proposed expansion of its growth management area. In it, planning director Larry Timm maintained that Timnath's GMA would not be recognized by the county without an intergovernmental agreement in place between the county and the town.

"The GMA doesn't mean anything unless the county recognizes it," elaborated county manager Frank Lancaster. Without one, he said, the county could still approve development surrounding the town incompatible with what the town wants. "There would be no way for them to stop that," he said.

Further, Timm noted, the county would not accept an IGA with Timnath that calls for expansion of its GMA to the Prospect and Harmony road properties. "Both of these areas are in the Fort Collins GMA per the long-standing intergovernmental agreement between Larimer County and the city of Fort Collins," he stated.

Despite all the conflicts and complexities, however, Atteberry said, "I'm going to be the perpetual optimist dealing with these regional issues."