In the News & Updates
NoRezone Update - October 28, 2023
NEWS: REZONE at 6th & DOUGLAS OFFICIALLY DEAD
FROM the 6th & Douglas COMMITTEE
It’s an excellent day, West Endies.
The City officially stuck a fork in the 6th & Douglas rezone with a memo released by City Manager Steve Adams advising in bold font, “all city action for this project has concluded.” [See link to memo above from CM Steve Adams to City Council, October 26, 2023].
Adams’ memo said the owner of the vacant medical office on Oct. 18 “expressed a continued interest in developing his property for memory care.”
A year later and still no actual plan, no actual contract.
In any case, whatever the owner decides to pursue, he will be required to follow the normal process, through the normal channels, offering a plan for review.
The announcement came on the one-year anniversary of the City’s neighborhood meeting to inform us of its intent to rezone to high-density at 6th & Douglas. It was lost on no one that this brings us full circle. The decisions announced by Adams are precisely what the neighborhood has insisted from the very start:
- Make the owner follow normal process, with a plan that comports with existing R1e zoning that everyone else bought under.
- Stop with the City wasting tax dollars and resources leading the charge for a few owners against hundreds of others who have a legally-recognized expectation of stability in the zoning they bought into.
The City wasted a year of our time, great gobs of tax dollars and resources, and many thousands of our own dollars. It broke rezoning precedent in Loveland; violated the City’s own development process; flouted Colorado law; disregarded the relatively new Comprehensive Plan and the UDC; and cruelly trampled the peace of mind and fundamental rights of hundreds of property owners.
We were never fighting against individual property owners. We were never trying to keep a vacant building empty. This neighborhood has been very clear in stating any development cannot be R3e or High Density. We are not against affordable housing. We are against the zoning density in this neighborhood changing from 5 units per acres to 20. That has always been the concern.
At City Council on Oct. 17, the City Attorney engaged in disturbing misdirection that thwarted a motion brought by Ward II Councilor Dana Foley to direct Adams to “cease and desist” the activity at 6th & Douglas. But the City Attorney snookered the Council into believing they didn’t have that power, which they absolutely do.
We called out the City Attorney’s bad advice in a letter to Councilor McFall (see letter below in the last West Endies update dated Ocober 23, 2023). Councilor Foley took it from there, and Adams released his hand-signed memo to the public.
Adams’ memo also promises that the results of the disputed, flawed survey online will not be used and the City’s efforts to turn us into a “project” are ended.
Going forward we hope the city adheres to its own UDC and Comprehensive Plan and Colorado State law. And we hope the vacant medical office owner goes through the regular process to find a use that also adheres to those considerations listed above.
For the neighborhood, it’s over now. The City has made promises and we will sleep with one eye open to ensure that they keep them.
Don’t toss your yard signs. If you don’t want to keep them then drop them off by the garage at 935 West 4th St.
Thank you to every person in our neighborhood and throughout the city and state who aided in this fight.
NoRezone Update - October 23, 2023
It grieves us to say this, but our long ordeal is not over yet. Despite what looked like some relief over 6th & Douglas, the City isn’t backing off one inch. They are simply doing again what they’ve done at every stage of this rezone battle. They just reset the goal posts, come up with a new story, and dig their knuckles in harder. Just like they did at Council on Oct. 17. Distort, confuse, reframe, plow on.
Councilors on Oct. 17 stepped up to our defense three different times during that meeting and they spoke in unambiguous terms about directing the City Manager to cease and desist at 6th & Douglas and make the owner go through the normal development process without the city doing it.
The day after that meeting Oct. 17, we emailed the city to ask when that botched survey and project webpage that were causing confusion were coming down, given the council action the night before. The City Manager’s Office (CMO), council, Development Services (part of the CMO team) and other relevant sorts were on that email.
For some reason, not one single official on that thread replied except City Councilor Pat McFall. He said he was writing to clear up our confusion. Here is his email:
Pat
While we appreciate that Councilor McFall actually responded to a direct question that the CMO or the city attorney should have answered, we vigorously disagree with McFall’s confident stance. The video and transcript reveal a much more layered set of actions occurred Oct. 17 that sowed confusion across the board. The deliberative process was disrupted at the expense of the 6th & Douglas neighborhood. We explain it all in our reply to Councilor McFall, with the whole cast cc’d. You can read it below.
The good news, West Endies, is that the remedy is simple. Any councilor can come back with a motion and finish what they tried to accomplish for the neighborhood on Oct. 17, but were thwarted from doing because of unfortunate misdirection that worked against the integrity of the process.
Keep your signs out. Email the council. We know how exhausting this is for everyone. We’ve been subjected to a year of the city’s strategy of distort, confuse, reframe, plow on. We saw it in action again on Oct. 17.
We press on.
Here is our letter to McFall:
Read Letter Online ↓
NoRezone Update - October 11, 2023
Put Your Signs Back Up!
Rezoning Disguised as High-Density Overlays is Still Rezoning
When we last left off, the City had withdrawn its 6th & Douglas Rezone application after Planning Commission voted it down and the City Council on June 20th arrived at a solution that would give the medical building’s owner, Mr. Floyd, his permissions for memory care without rezoning to high-density. Everyone left assuming the planners understood their mandate.
If you haven’t read your latest email from the City, then pour yourself a tall one because it is a doozy. They directed us to a website dedicated to something they are calling the “West End Neighborhood Project” with a hot mess of a “survey” that reintroduces the original rezone map of a year ago (nearly seven acres), and questions that zero in on high-density solutions, possibly on all that acreage.
In response to the City’s announcement, several of us spoke out during public comment at City Council. This afternoon we sent this letter to the City requesting that City Council take direct action, which is their prerogative. The West End deserves closure to enjoy our neighborhood in peace.
9 October 2023
Mayor Jacki Marsh
Mayor Pro Tem Don Overcash
Councilor Richard Ball
Councilor John Fogle
Councilor Dana Foley
Councilor Jon Mallo
Councilor Patrick McFall
Councilor Steven Olson
Councilor Andrea Samson
RE: Request for Council-Directed Cessation of 6th & Douglas Matter and Withdrawal of West
End Project online Survey
Dear Mayor Marsh, Mayor Pro Tem Overcash, and members of City Council:
As you know, in July, after nine months of shifting efforts from Development Services and
overwhelming opposition from West End property owners, the City withdrew its application
(PZ#22-154) to inject an island of high-density into the midst of a solidly low-density sea of
homes.
On April 24, the Planning Commission rejected the proposal 5-2 in favor of the neighborhood.
At least 650 residents in the signed No Rezone petitions.
Later, during an hours-long first reading at City Council June 20th, the Council engaged the
planners and neighbors in a back and forth to find an equitable solution that would avoid
rezoning to high-density R3e but fulfill the wish of property owner Barry Floyd to convert his
vacant medical building to a memory care facility. Floyd reiterated what planners had earlier said
at Planning Commission April 24 that he had a letter of intent to sell his property if it could be
used as memory care. Councilor Steve Olson quizzed neighbors who spoke and received positive
reactions to the building’s use as memory care.
Councilor Dana Foley deftly led a line of questioning to suss out options. [2:39:26] He asked
Senior Planner Kerri Burchett if Council could have a more direct role in deciding use issues.
Foley: “Can Council direct special use and zones and change the U.D.C. for those specific
reasons? ….I think Council can pretty much make up how they feel it needs to be set. Am I
correct with that?”
Burchett: “So, yes, as a code amendment, Council could look at any zone district and allow uses
to occur; they could change standards of the uses, for sure, you could look at some of the R1
zone districts for instance, and say that, well we think that memory care should be allowed in R1
districts and that can be a change that Council does.”
The 6th & Douglas rezone proposal never made it to a second Council reading. The first reading
ran out of time with public comment still not finished, and it was expected to continue in July.
But before that could happen, Development Services withdrew the rezone application. Based
upon the Planning Commission’s decision, the considerable discussion at the June Council
hearing, and Senior Planner Burchett’s testimony, it was the reasonable assumption that
Development Services was taking a step back to resolve the problem with tools already available
to them:
- Amending the UDC to allow memory care as a conditional use in R1 zoning districts; or
- Granting a variance specifically to allow memory care for Mr. Floyd’s property.1
On Oct. 2, however, neighbors received an email from the City, not to announce that a happy
solution for Mr. Floyd had been finalized, but rather to direct us to a webpage dedicated to
something called the “West End Neighborhood Project”. The site informed us that this “project”
involves deploying “overlays” in the West End. Neighbors were asked to take an online Survey
that Development Services Director Brett Limbaugh the next day told Council would serve as
“an in-depth look at not just the memory care, but is there something else we’re missing.”
In June, the mandate seemed to be memory care for Mr. Floyd’s property, not expanding the
mission for uses and acreage.
Nonetheless, Planning has rolled out this “project” with a website and a Survey that raises major
concerns about its integrity and methodology. Specifically:
This issue only affects the West End, but anyone can take the Survey, not just our neighborhood.
While respondents are asked to provide an address, how can Planning certify that the anonymous
person online taking the Survey actually lives at the West End address supplied?
The Survey asks age, years of residence, and ownership status, which suggests built-in bias.
Protecting the overall quality of life for the West End applies to all who live here, whether
owners or renters, young or old, long-time residents or those recent to the City.
The Survey is a push-poll that skews in favor of R3e high-density uses that go well beyond what
was ever considered during the year-long effort to rezone at 6th & Douglas. It starts from the
assumption of deploying high-density overlays.
If a respondent says “No” to overlays in the neighborhood, then the Survey does not allow them
to finish the Survey or submit it, preventing a true and accurate reflection of neighborhood
opinion.
Only those who agree to overlays can proceed with the Survey. And when they do, they are
presented with questions exclusively focused on high-density. Choices offered include every
single high-density R3e use possible – and even some commercial and retail uses that have never
been contemplated for 6th & Douglas.
The Survey even reintroduces the original seven acres of the rezoning map from a year ago.
Strong opposition -- including from properties and single-family homes within the seven acres –
forced that map down to 1.6 acres last January. But now this new project puts all the acreage
back into play once again. Why is the City doing this?
As of today, Oct. 9, all elements of our concern detailed above still exist with the Survey online,
despite our mention of them at Council a week ago.
This new initiative from Planning appears to be an attempt at an end run around the West End
residents, the Comprehensive Plan, the UDC, Colorado Supreme Court law, the Planning
Commission, and City Council. It also hints at a strategy to frustrate, wear down, and exhaust
property owners just trying to uphold their fundamental rights. This is alarming.
When neighbors brought up this new development at Council on Oct. 3, Councilor Olson showed
the same surprise as the neighbors when he said, “I understood that staff was working with Barry
to accomplish the memory care unit, and so it sounds like there’s some confusion.”
Development Services Director Limbaugh assured Councilor Olson that Planning had “heard
memory care loud and clear.” But, he added, “there’s still some other items on the table to
explore.” He then mentioned a possible PUD for Mr. Floyd.
How can a neighborhood negotiate in good faith if the City will not take yes for an answer?
Memory care is what Planning and Mr. Floyd told the Planning Commission and the City
Council that they wanted. They have the tools available right now to make that happen without
rezoning to high-density. Yet instead of following through as everyone expected, Planning
simply doubled down on its efforts to inject high-density that the neighborhood and the Planning
Commission have already resoundingly rejected.
This latest development continues a pattern over the past year of moving the goal posts and
keeping neighbors in a constant state of uncertainty and anxiety. All the winning arguments that
sunk the 6th & Douglas rezone apply to a PUD and high-density overlays.
Many appealing uses for that vacant medical building have always existed under current R1e
zoning. But the City and Mr. Floyd have, throughout this process, only focused on high-density
options that simply are not allowed in an R1e residential neighborhood. It is fair for the
neighbors to ask why.
The City of Loveland has never before allowed upzoning within a solidly low-density R1e
residential neighborhood. Nor has the City ever before permitted an overlay in a solidly lowdensity
R1e residential neighborhood. But it now seeks to break those long precedents through
either a 6th & Douglas rezone or this West End Project of high-density overlays.
As has been previously pointed out to Council by neighbors’ legal counsel2, it is unlawful for the
City to engage in contract zoning for a property owner against the wider public interest. We
believe the West End Neighborhood Project is simply a rebranding of the 6th & Douglas Rezone
ambitions. Rezoning by any other name is still rezoning.
At the first reading on June 20, Councilor Olson judiciously found a path of consensus that
would give Mr. Floyd what he asked for, memory care. Councilor Foley perceptively found the
path to a swift solution.
Therefore, we respectfully request that the Council exercise its prerogative, as confirmed
by Senior Planner Burchett, and direct the City Manager to direct Development Services to
either:
- Amend the UDC to allow memory care as a conditional use in R1 districts; or
- Grant a variance specifically to allow memory care on Mr. Floyd’s property.3
Such action would bring this matter to a close, respecting the owner’s request for memory
care and freeing up valuable City resources and tax dollars for other matters. The UDC
amendment approach would, as well, offer flexibility for other areas that might want
memory care.
We also ask that the City immediately withdraw the Survey. It is causing great confusion
and anxiety in a neighborhood that has already been put through enough.
As you saw and heard last June, neighbors are eager for the owner to find new life for his vacant
medical building and for the neighborhood to be able to move on. Fortunately, Council has the
tools in hand to bring this to a conclusion now.
Sincerely,
Cindy and Doug Van Slambrouck & Gail Randall and Bill Aspinwall
cc: City Manager Steve Adams
Development Services Director Brett Limbaugh
Current Planning Manager Robert Paulsen
Senior Planner Kerri Burchett
1 Letter dated June 15, 2023 from legal counsel, Mike Foote, to the Mayor and City Council Members: “A review of applicable
Loveland Unified Development Codes indicates there is no legal impediment preventing the owner of the vacant medical
building from applying for a variance. Under UDC § 18.17.15.07, “[t]he Zoning Board of Adjustment may grant a variance only
when the applicant demonstrates that there are unusual and exceptional circumstances creating an undue hardship, applicable
only to the property involved, which do not generally apply to the other land areas within the same zone.”
When attempting to change the use of a property in a well-established, historical neighborhood like the West End, it is much
more appropriate to address the issue narrowly in ways that will still preserve the property rights of everyone.
2 Letter to the Mayor and City Council Members from Mike Foote dated June 15, 2023.
3 Refer to footnote 1.
What you can do:
- Email City Council
- Speak out for 3 minutes at the next Council meeting Oct 17th
- Put your No Rezone signs back out
Got questions or need H-stands for NO REZONE signs (a year takes a beating on those stands), call 832.605.6033
Summary of June 20 City Council Meeting
It’s Not Over – meeting continued to July 18, 6 pm
We had a great showing at the city council meeting on June 20. Our opposition was strong and many West Enders spoke during the public comment period to voice their continuing opposition to this rezoning. The meeting went well into the night and council adjourned at 11:00pm. The meeting will be continued on July 18 at 6 pm, when the council will take up where it left off, and vote on the rezone on first reading. A second reading and final vote will be held sometime in August.
We made the case that this high-density rezoning is not in character with our low-density neighborhood and will trample our property rights. We bought our homes, our single most valuable investment, assuming long-standing single-family zoning.
We argued the city is ignoring our concerns while providing a blank check to the few owners who will benefit the most from rezoning to R3e.
We argued those few owners have the same property rights today as when they purchased their properties. They have options to develop under current zoning and we suggested that the city work with them to exercise those rights and find a solution that does not involve drastic upzoning in the midst of the West End.
The Planning Commission decided in our favor, against rezoning, on April 24th. At the request of council, the Chair of the Planning Commission, Lori Goebel, explained some of the reasons why the Commission decided against the rezone. Stuck in her memory, she said, was the image of the island of high-density in a sea of low-density homes.
What’s Next?
Please continue to show your opposition by emailing city council at
July 18 will be a continuation of public comment that began on June 20. So only those who did not speak on June 20th will be allowed to speak their minds at this hearing.
Please come out Tuesday, July 18 at 6 pm, 500 East 3rd St (First floor). Speak to council or simply show up in support of our wonderful old West End neighborhood.
A second reading and final vote by city council will be held in August. Details to follow.
In August, it will have been over 10 months of worry and stress, nine months of calling, writing letters to the city, petitioning, posting signs, meetings, and spreading the word about the City-led 6th & Douglas Rezone.
We are on the right side of this issue. Let’s finish strong. Come and show your opposition to this unwarranted and unprecedented overreach.
Anatomy of a Rezone
some questions & answers
Not Over Yet! March Update on 6th & Douglas Rezone
We are now approaching five months since the City first announced its plan to rezone to high-density within our historic West End, and we want to update you. The Planning Commission hearing that had been set for March 27th has now been bumped to April 24th. This, of course, could change at any time, and so we will keep you updated.
Neighbors have thought that we won the battle with the city because the signs have been removed from the three properties we are contesting. NOPE! We have not won, the date of the hearing changed.
It’s been a long and difficult road, with many sleepless nights and frustrating days, but this neighborhood remains strong in our opposition.
Click on titles below to read
There simply is no defensible justification for the 6th & Douglas Rezone.
This City-led rezone to high-density is inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan – so inconsistent that the City is now trying to amend the Comprehensive Plan to fit their upzoning scheme. The Comprehensive Plan and other long-range planning guidance never called for high-density in this classic old area of Loveland.
This City-led rezone is not required or commanded under the current Uniform Development Code, as planners originally told the neighborhood. Only one property has non-compliance issues, and it the medical building that has sat vacant for a decade. Penalizing the entire neighborhood to help out one or three properties is like the tail wagging the dog.
This City-led rezone benefits only a few property owners – of the vacant medical building, the 4-plex, and The Courtyard.
This City-led rezone does not benefit the surrounding neighborhood, and, in fact, will diminish the historic West End’s quality of life, property values, and fire safety. Firefighting researchers who studied the devastating Marshall fire specifically blamed ‘high-density’ housing as a major accelerant in that destructive conflagration.
This City-led rezone disregards the City’s past assurances to conserve and respect historic areas long-term. They are not making neighborhoods like ours anymore. And so we insist that the City keep its promises to its older neighborhoods and to the many taxpayers who invested long-term in R1e low-density residential zoning
We are not opposed to development, and current zoning does not prevent it. The owner of the vacant medical building can take advantage of development options under the existing R1e zoning, without dragging down the entire neighborhood in the process.
More than 550 have signed the NO REZONE petitions and hundreds have posted NO REZONE signs in their yards. Many have expressed their concerns to City planners and leaders.
READ OUR NEIGHBOR'S LETTERS THEY HAVE SENT TO THE REPORTER-HERALD AND THE CITY LEADERSHIP BELOW. ↓
The City’s current rezone map is a mere shadow of its original size – having shrunk nearly 75% because owners refused to join the scheme. What’s left is just a 1.6-acre sliver of land under three buildings. Yet the City – and Barry Floyd, who started this ball rolling -- refuse to pull the plug.
Discussing the rezone initiative with the City’s planning heads last month, one neighbor asked: With such strong public resistance and such flimsy reasons to proceed, why not just kill this bad idea in committee, so to speak, and everyone goes away unscathed? Current Planning Manager Bob Paulsen said they couldn’t do that because they’ve made “commitments” to the few property owners within the rezone initiative map.
The question was put to the planners when, precisely, they will commit to the many hundreds of other property owners who stand to lose if high-density is unleashed in our neighborhood. The planners went silent. The City has painted itself into a corner. As a result, this neighborhood is forced to continue through this hell.
Something to think about: The City Manager, whose office is directing this rezone, has had many opportunities along the way to do the right thing by this neighborhood and stop this.
If you have already signed the petition, then no need to do it again.
Every household member of voting age can sign.
Tell City planners and key leadership you oppose the 6th & Douglas rezone. Here’s your blast list:
Write a Letter to the Editor
Loveland Reporter-Herald, 300 words max.
Letters to the City and Reporter-Herald
Overview
The City of Loveland has proposed to rezone 3 properties at 1.6 acres (reduced from the original proposal of 9 properties at 6.93 acres), in the vicinity of W. 6th Street & Douglas Ave. from R1e low density residential (single family) to R3e high density residential. Note: this rezoning proposal does not include a formal plan for development.
Rezoning a part of the neighborhood to R3 would effectively remove our rights to notification and participation in the following property types:
- Infill Multifamily
- Commercial spaces: general office and personal services
- Multi-plexes
- Domestic violence/abuse shelter
- Group homes
- Live-work units
- Boarding houses
- Day care facilities (adult and child)
- Under R3 zoning, these property types would be allowed to proceed with only administrative review.
Many neighbors are concerned that high-density zoning could open the neighborhood to development that is not consistent with the character and history of this residential part of Loveland, leading to increased traffic, noise, pollution, light pollution, fire hazard, and more.
Rezoning such a large area may serve as an invitation to an assemblage, where one developer buys up multiple lots for a larger project.
According to the City’s Unified Development Code (UDC), the existing properties (except the empty medical office building) can make improvements and continue to operate under the current zoning. There is no reason to rezone these properties.
The former medical office property has redevelopment options under the current zoning OR the option to pursue rezoning in conjunction with a specific development plan with transparency to the neighborhood.
We are not against redevelopment, however, we do oppose THIS rezoning proposal because it will only benefit three property owners and does not match the Comprehensive Plan.
This rezoning could have a great impact on much of the West Endies, not just the people near the rezoning area.