ZONING CHANGES, NEW TRANSIT CENTER ON AGENDA
A Colorado Springs-based ice cream shop could be coming to downtown Loveland, if its targeted property is admitted to the General Improvement District No. 1 (GID). On Tuesday, Loveland City Council will consider a petition for inclusion from the property owners, who are seeking the district’s parking waivers.
Council will also consider a zoning amendment that will allow for development of the Green Valley Ranch addition, an 89-acre parcel in north Loveland that was originally annexed in 2002. At the time, the property was zoned Planned Unit Development (PUD), but the owner’s development plans did not materialize. The current property owner is now seeking rezoning to move forward with a new residential development.
Also on Tuesday’s agenda is a second vote on funding for a new city transit center, as well as another round of funding for the Larimer Humane Society. Councilor Andrea Samson is also slated to introduce a new business item on the “pink tax” and the taxing of menstrual products.
501 N. Cleveland Ave.
Loveland’s GID was established in 1967 to boost the availability of public parking downtown. Though the boundaries have fluctuated since then, the district roughly comprises downtown’s historic blocks, between Second and Seventh streets on the south and north, and Washington and Garfield avenues on the west and east.
Properties included in the district can forgo on-site parking requirements in the city’s land use code in exchange for an annual tax that is used by the city to maintain public parking lots.
Owners of the building on the northwest corner of East Fifth Street and North Cleveland Avenue are now seeking to be added to the district, ahead of plans to redevelop the property. According to materials in the agenda packet, they are currently in lease negotiations with Josh & John’s Ice Cream to bring its fifth statewide location to the corner.
To develop the property for the shop, the owners want to eliminate the site’s three existing on-site parking spots and replace them with a large outdoor seating area. This will help “activate” the corner and create a “vibrant energy” downtown, their district application states.
Eliminating the spaces also will reduce dangers to pedestrians and other motorists on Cleveland Avenue, from drivers attempting to access the spots or back out of them across the sidewalk and into the busy street.
Green Valley Ranch Addition
For the second time in two meetings, Loveland City Council will be voting on future residential development on the north side of the city.
This time, it’s a request to amend a zoning document for the proposed Green Valley Ranch subdivision, located on the east side of North Wilson Avenue between West 57th and West 50th streets.
Plans for a development on the parcel area go back more than two decades. In 2002, City Council voted to annex a total of 149 acres for a combination commercial and residential neighborhood that would also include an elementary school.
However, the property has remained vacant in the intervening years, and all of the previous PUD entitlements on it have lapsed. In 2018, the city purchased 60 acres of the parcel for a future park.
The new owner of the remaining 90 acres is now proposing a residential development on the site, without any commercial or governmental use. That will require a amendment to the original zoning document, which has since become outdated.
If approved, the future development could bring 405 single-family or townhouse units to the site, with a maximum of five units per acre. It will also have 4.5 acres of open space and more than 10 acres of landscape buffers.
The city’s Planning Commission gave conditional approval to the rezoning request in November.
How to participate
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers at the Municipal Building, 500 E. Third St.
Comments from members of the public will be accepted in person as well as over Zoom.
Those wishing to join by Zoom can use the ID 975 3779 6504 with a passcode of 829866, according to the meeting agenda.
The meeting will be broadcast on Comcast Channel 16/880, Pulse TV channel 16 and streamed through the city’s website at lovgov.org/tv.
Tuesday’s agenda packet can be found through the Loveland City Council’s website at lovgov.org or at cilovelandco.civicweb.net.