McWhinney Enterprises Gets Zoning Change Adding 850 Residential Units |
LovelandPolitics.com |
McWhinney Enterprises Proposed Steps Getting the Following Amendments to Agreements with City 1. Amend the Millennium GDP Zoning to include 850 Residential units on Parcel A-1 (Passed by City Council April 17) 2. Amend the MFA (Master Financing Agreement) to include the additional 850 residential units 3. Provide Approval for the proposed "Mixed Use" Zone and set standards for McWhinney's to approve future additions absent any further input from the City Council. |
Councilman Glenn Rousey (above), expressed the following concerns before voting no, "I have no problem with the 850 residences....I do have a problem adding an additional 850 additional residences especially after we went through hours and hours of debate and study and came-up with what we thought was an end solution for that area." Rousey suggested simply allowing McWhinney Enterprises to build any of the plus 2,000 residences already allowed in the area but still not constructed. He argued the plus-up would constitute a significant change in the ratios and needs to be considered against all the other assumptions for the project. |
Chad McWhiney (above) made a few comments to the Council regaridng the request before them at the April 17, 2007 Loveland Council meeting before handing the presentation over to his staff. |
McWhinney Enterprise employee and lobbyist, Robert Scott, admitted to the City Council that even after surpassing 3,000 residential units east of I-25, no specific location has been identified for police or fire services but said they will address that issue in the future. Councilman Walt Skowron, who voiced concern about the safety of the high density development asked if anything had been done to consider the need for emergency services east of I-25 which prompted Scott's vague answer, Skowron voted for the additional residences. |
One View of the "Grand Station" model Also known as "Downtown Centerra" where residential areas are proposed to be included in the downtown. |
Who Is Rocky Scott? Real name is Robert K. Scott but he uses the alias of "Rocky" Scott ran a business development group in Colorado Springs for 16 years before coming to Northern Colorado to work for the McWhinneys. According to the Rocky Mountain News, Scott was among the group of businessmen responsible for the defeat last November of Rep. Bob Beauprez for Governor. Weeks before the election, Scott told the Rocky Mountain News, "I hear an increasing number of Republicans say they'll either be on the sidelines or they're going to vote for Ritter," |
Councilman Gene Pielin (left), incorrectly argued the project would only increase the population East of I-25 by 850 people. This is incorrect. "The 850 people don't bother me" he said to his colleagues who raised concerns about having adequate public safety facilities to serve the more than 2,000 increase in residents. In fact, the proposal before the Council was to change the zoning to 850 additional RESIDENCES. The average occupancy of all residential units in Northern Colorado is approximately 2.75 people per unit. This makes the addition of people living in the area nearly three times what Councilor Pielin told his colleagues. Despite the error, no one corrected his apparent misunderstanding and he voted in favor of the additional 850 residences. Click here to see Councilor Pielin stating it is only for 850 additional people. |
"The 850 people don't bother me" Pielin stated. |