Copied below is our full statement to the Coloradoan regarding the petition created by our neighbors who live along Country Club Road. It was a well written article, but not everything we shared could be printed. .
Healthy places grow, and Fort Collins is a very healthy place.
It is not a matter of if healthy places will grow, its only a matter of how. We have a wonderful opportunity to help Fort Collins and the surrounding community grow as desired and planned for 20 years. It can grow in a coordinated, beautifully designed, farm centric, transit oriented way; with schools, parks and other amenities placed exactly where they make the most sense. Growth will happen, one way or another, because healthy places grow.
Full Statement To The Coloradoan Regarding The Petition:
Yes we have met with neighbors in Nedra Acres and the surrounding community. If it weren’t for a couple of details, I would sign their petition myself. We completely understand and care about their concerns. We considered the challenges along Country Club Road for over 2 years, and have designed everything with them in mind. We have also encouraged the City and County to work together on these issues. There are relatively easy things that can be done to slow traffic by design. Country Club should not be expanded, which increases use. Rather traffic calming techniques should be built to slow traffic and encourage drivers to take other routes. Let’s fix this!
It’s more than just roads. The existing problems are exactly what the Mountain Vista Sub Area plan is designed to address. Currently all of NEFC is completely car dependent, otherwise known as “sprawl”. This has already occurred for over 2,000 homes. Montava creates the opportunity for a complete community, specifically to address this car dependency. It is walkable and bikeable, where people actually have something to walk and bike to. While it is easy to make Montava a target, the real question is about Northeast Fort Collins as a whole. Montava is less than half of that growth.
To their specific concerns, of course we will create a traffic plan that keeps construction traffic off Country Club Road. The grocery world is complex and changing dramatically, but it is very important to the life of the community. We are embracing this challenge and working with a national consulting firm that specializes in successful community owned CO-OP Food Store development. Montava’s agricultural foundation makes this is a natural fit. I agree we should consider not building the planned Country Club Road connection until this amenity exists. The ultimate East/West road connections are chicken and egg. It takes roads to make development work, and it takes development to pay for roads and many other things. We must all work together to solve this challenge; the city, county, current and future residents and developers.
We love this community, and from the day we began, have fully embraced the existing vision for Northeast Fort Collins.
As for residents around Country Club Road, you are our neighbors and friends. Community doesn’t stop at the city limits, it includes all of us. We are not building a neighborhood of car dependent houses, we are building a complete community together.