Loveland planners enter executive session over High Country Farms extension

The Loveland Planning Commission entered executive session Oct. 12 to seek legal advice on a proposed High Country Farms development deadline extension. A City Council public hearing on the amendment is listed for Nov. 4 in the city's staff report.

The staff report says the agreement expired July 31; a retroactive extension would keep the general development plan valid without a sketch plat or plan. It describes an extension to July 31, 2032. A draft attached to the applicant's March 2 letter, however, would keep the plan valid until July 31, 2034. Without an extension, the report says, the approved plan would become invalid, leaving a planned unit development zone without standards and requiring rezoning before development.

The staff report calls High Country Farms and South Village mutually dependent because extending water, sanitary sewer, storm sewer and roads south past Highway 402 is cost-prohibitive for one development. Bravada Partners' application says South Village would provide infrastructure connections and rely on High Country Farms for soil fill, with neither project realistically able to be fully developed alone. A report on the neighborhood meeting cites slow progress at South Village and housing-market challenges as reasons for the extension request.

A commissioner asked whether the proceeding was quasi-judicial, legislative or administrative, saying the classification would affect what commissioners could consider. The member understood Colorado case law to treat annexation as legislative and contract amendments as generally administrative, and sought legal guidance on the commission's discussion. A legal adviser declined to classify the proceeding publicly, saying the distinction could affect appeal rights and expose the city to liability; the adviser recommended executive session. Another commissioner questioned the need for executive session: “From what I can see, we are voting on moving a deadline.”

High Country Farms is undeveloped agricultural land in Loveland's south-central quadrant, east of U.S. Highway 287 and about a mile south of Colorado State Highway 402. Its approved general development plan proposes four to eight dwelling units per acre, for 298 to 490 units. It includes low- and medium-density residential areas and potential commercial pad sites.

Two residents who owned the smaller Parcel I remained concerned about development after the applicant explained the proposal at an Aug. 20 neighborhood meeting. The staff report says Parcel I was sold to C & H Acres LLC in 2010 and its owner requested exclusion; Bravada Partners, LLC, owns the larger Parcel II. The amendment would exclude Parcel I from the agreement and let its planned unit development zoning lapse, leaving shell zoning that requires rezoning before development. The report says the plan includes no development on Parcel I, and the owners were told even a single-family home would require rezoning.