Developers of a proposed 212-unit housing project north of Laporte Avenue and west of Taft Hill Road have until May 27 to move forward on their decade-old proposal or start over.
Under the city's land use code, if a project development plan is inactive for 180 days, the application lapses and the developer must start the development review process all over again. By some accounts, that deadline expired April 16.
Solitaire Homes has faced neighborhood opposition, appeals and lawsuits since it first proposed the Sanctuary on the Green project more than a decade ago. In July, a Larimer District Court judge ordered the project go back to the city for approval after ruling the hearing officer failed to consider the city's Northwest Subarea Plan, which lays out a vision for the area. His decision ordered the city's land use code and Northwest Subarea Plan be considered and evaluated in a new hearing.
Since then, three hearings have been rescheduled, once by the hearing officer and twice by the developer.
Solitaire submitted two new documents on Oct. 19, which would have put the lapse deadline in mid-April. The city's attorney, however, said a Nov. 29 email is "evidence the developer was diligently pursuing project approval," said city Planning Manager Clay Frickey. That means "the project is still active and will lapse if they don't take further action by May 27."
The Sanctuary Field Neighborhood Network, a group of residents opposed to the project, has been awaiting a new hearing since the court decision.
The judge did not weigh in on the merits of the development but determined the hearing officer applied the wrong legal standard and abused his discretion in failing to consider the subarea plan as well as the city's land use code, the two documents at the heart of Sanctuary Field Neighborhood Network's argument.
The group of neighbors who formed the nonprofit Sanctuary Field Neighborhood Network has been fighting the 41-acre development proposal for more than a decade, challenging each approval as it has come.
It appealed the hearing officer's May 2023 approval to City Council, alleging he conducted an unfair hearing, was biased and misinterpreted city zoning codes. Council upheld the decision in a 5-2 vote in August, finding no evidence of an unfair or biased hearing, which led Sanctuary Field Neighborhood Network to sue the city.
The group and member Miranda Spindel — listed separately in the lawsuit — claimed in court documents that City Council lacked the authority to hear their appeal, exceeded its jurisdiction and/or abused its discretion by appointing the hearing officer, interpreting the land use code and approving the developer's amended plan.
The neighbors say the project should have been decided by the city's Planning and Zoning Commission from the start based on the city's land use code. The commission did hear the case last year, but developers Bill Veio and David Pretzler pulled the project when it appeared commissioners were leaning toward a "no" vote.
Two of the four commissioners indicated they would reject the project that included 87 condominiums because it did not properly conform to the city's Northwest Subarea Plan or sections of the land use code.
Developers came back with a plan that eliminated multifamily housing from the proposal, which kicked the decision to a hearing officer instead. Under city code, a Planning and Zoning Commission review is triggered by any project that includes multifamily dwellings with more than eight units per building or more than 50 dwelling units.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Deadline looms for Sanctuary on the Green developers to move forward or start over
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