The Future of Commercial Corridors and Centers: Land Use Code Updates

Hi Joe! We can confirm these are not being considered as a part of the current phase of Land Use Code project. City Council did not include these topics in their directive for this project, and we would not initiate changes in this area without further direction from Council.

If you have specific inquiries related to marijuana land use and zoning, contact our Zoning Inspector, Rob Bianchetto, who can provide more detailed assistance. You can reach Rob at rbianchetto@fcgov.com(External link).

ncoffman, thanks for your comment! We appreciate your feedback about the focus of our neighborhood visits. We selected one commercial center within each City Council District. We did our best to select places in different areas of Fort Collins, but realize that the size and diversity of the commercial centers across Council districts (especially Council District 1, on the northeast side of town) is challenging. That's why we'll be hosting an additional event at the beginning of November in Old Town, held at a more accessible location and open to everyone. Stay tuned for details! In the meantime, we encourage you to use our interactive map tool here on the webpage to share your thoughts on the commercial zones across the city. We’re particularly interested in your feedback on aspects like street access, walkability, bikeability, landscaping and the physical layout of these areas. You can access the map HERE.

The City partners with non-profits like Habitat for Humanity(External link) and Elevation Community Land Trust (External link)to provide restricted for-sale homes. Many of these homes are in a community land trust model, meaning they will be affordable to generations of low-wage homeowners. In this model, the homeowner buys the home and rents the land for a nominal fee. Upon sale, the appreciation in the home is split with some of it staying in the home as equity to keep the home affordable for the next buyer. Habitat for Humanity is currently building condos (hard to find in this market), as well as single family and duplex homes. Elevation Community Land Trust purchased scattered public rental housing sites from the city’s Housing Authority, Housing Catalyst(External link), is renovating them and offering them for sale. They also have new townhomes for sale at Birdwhistle Townhomes built on a City Land Bank parcel. For more information on affordable homes for sale in Fort Collins visit: elevationclt.org(External link).

Hello - thank you for your question! For Land Use Code: Phase 2 we're hosting one neighborhood visit per City council district, plus a dedicated visit for business owners that has yet to be announced.

Downtown is a part of Council District 6; Neighborhood Visit 6 (info in the sidebar of this webpage) will be held in District 6 on Oct. 14 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cedarwood Plaza Shopping Center at Taft Hill and W. Elizabeth.

We'll announce details about the dedicated visit for business owners soon, on this webpage. You can subscribe to this webpage for updates if you'd like!

Hi CD! Thanks for reaching out. That's an interesting question that you pose and while we've performed a lot of analysis on commuting patterns, we haven't studied where people work as part of the 15-minute city analysis. The general concept of the 15-minute city analysis has focused more on people’s opportunity to reach daily destinations, like being within a 15-minute walk of a school or grocery store. The 15-Minute City is a concept of City Planning that aims to provide the structural support (land use code, infrastructure, etc) to enable cities to develop in such a way that allows citizens to have walkable access to their most common amenities (food, healthcare, entertainment, schools, potential employment, etc), reducing vehicle miles traveled and increasing localized, walkable neighborhoods - and is a concept that's typically adopted to change existing development or commuting patterns in order to enable long-term change, not in reaction to existing development or commuting patterns. While it would be great for more people in Fort Collins to be able to access their place of employment within a 15-minute walk or ride, people tend to select their job by other factors such as qualifications, salary, benefits, profession, etc. as opposed to solely location - therefore the ability to reach other types of daily destinations is where more of our analysis has focused.

We've performed a Fort Collins Travel Diary Study that found the average commute trip for Fort Collins commuters was 6.5 miles. The City uses 3 miles as the average distance that a person can cover on bike or another micromobility device within 15 minutes.

Here's a link to that study if you're interested: https://www.fcgov.com/fcmoves/files/fort_collins_travel_diary_report_2022_final.pdf?1697133832(External link)