Location: Loveland, CO, December 2024
We had a church that was trying to rezone their property from a split zone Residential & Business parcel (very old property with a building that was expanded on bridging the different zones, but still a single ownership parcel of land) into a Planned Unit Development specifically for a 24/7 Resource Center + Homeless Shelter and also for a religious gathering space. This was the method that the city staff had advised for Homeless Shelter zoning as there was no specific land use yet for that type of property. All public meetings were held, there was a big groundswell of anti-homeless people. When the application was heard before the Planning Commission, it was voted down 1 for, 7 against. However, as it was a PUD zone, the City Council was the final arbiter of the decision. The date for the hearing before City Council came, and the meeting started with one of the Councilors making a motion to Postpone to a Date Uncertain the agenda item so an “impact study” could be done to determine the ways the potential land use would impact the surrounding neighborhood and the city (housing values, crime, etc). 5 Councilors voted for the motion, 4 against. No impact study was ever commissioned or asked for. The church, feeling like they were slighted, and that there was going to be no progress, pulled their application in February of this year. The wrinkle that I have recently found, is that Colorado has state laws regulating PUDs, and specifically, CO Rev Stat ยง 24-67-105.5 (2024) (3) states that “Any continuation of a public hearing shall be to a date certain.”
Now my question is, am I reading this law correctly? The City Council seems to have the attitude of just ignoring that it ever happened. I am a lowly computer nerd who was passionate about this project, not a part of the applicant, and not rich. Would a lawsuit accomplish anything substantive at this point given that at least half of the Council appears hostile to the project?
At the very least, thanks for the eyes/ears to dump my legal question on.
Comments
>Now my question is, am I reading this law correctly?
No. Probably not. It sounds like you got your public hearing and your vote and you lost. And that then there was an additional city council part that they pushed.
But more importantly …
>Would a lawsuit accomplish anything substantive at this point
If you’re right, or if you stretch the law to seem or feel right, you force city council to say “no.” How much are you willing to spend on that? This isn’t a situation where forcing a vote would seem to help.