Your Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce has made it a priority to be a Voice for Business. The Chamber is represented at every meeting of the Fort Collins City Council. Additionally, the Chamber monitors the activities of many official City Boards and Commissions.
Stay informed. The Fort Collins City Council meets once a week on Tuesday nights. The Chamber will provide members with an overview of the most recent meeting.
The Fort Collins City Council met in a Regular Meeting on the evening of Tuesday, May 6, 2008 from 6 p.m. until 9:55 p.m. Council Member Wade Troxell was absent.
Citizen Participation
The Council devotes the first 30 minutes of meetings to hear comments from the public. The most prominent remarks were those from CSU students asking the Council to review the boarding house portion of the housing occupancy ordinance and to establish a procedure to review the ordinance every two years.
Consent Calendar
The Council adopts routine, non-controversial items under one motion. There were 12 items on Consent and they passed 6-0.
Economic Development Revenue Bonds for Custom Blending
In a non-controversial 5-minute discussion the Council approved by a vote of 6-0 Variable Rate Economic Development Revenue Bonds in an amount not to exceed $5 million for a Fort Collins company, Custom Blending.
Newsracks
Downtown property owners and businesses have been pressing the City for tighter regulation of newsracks. In a final resolution of the matter, the Council passed an ordinance on Second Reading that requires the installation of publication ‘condominiums’ but expanded the number of locations from nine to 16. Twelve of the locations will go in right away with the others to be added later. The locations will be reviewed every two years. The measure passed 5-1 with Council Member David Roy voting ‘no’ largely due to regulation of the media.
Use of Reserve Dollars to Fund Study of a Study
The Army Corps of Engineers issued its draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP). The major water project included in NISP is the construction of the Glade Reservoir northwest of Fort Collins. The Council was being asked to spend $225,000 from reserves to do an analysis of the EIS. So far the City has spent $350,000. In addition to the above amounts, they are spending $135,000 from utilities and $50,000 from Natural Areas for a total cost of $760,000. The measure passed 6-0 with Diggs Brown as the only Council Member asking hard questions and raising concerns.
Lease Portion of Running Deer Natural Area
A company known as Hageman Earth Cycle leases 15-acres of land on the edge of the city’s Running Deer Natural Area near I-25 and Prospect. They take in organic material and process it for resale. Consequently, they divert approximately one-third of organic materials that otherwise would go into the landfill. According to the business owner, once they were unable to buy the land from the city, they have worked hard to find a suitable location. Ironically, most such locations have been purchased by the city’s open lands program. Eventually the Council voted 6-0 on First Reading to approve the lease.
Changes to International Building and Energy Conservation Codes
The Council made sweeping changes to the building code including adding extensive costs for mandatory radon mitigation. The new codes will be effective July 1.
The next meeting of the Council is
