Residents demand vote on West Greeley Cascadia deal as council approves addition to COP property pool

Dozens of Greeley residents told the City Council on an August 2025 evening that the proposed West Greeley “Cascadia” development — also described by speakers as the Catalyst campus — should be decided by voters, while the council approved a resolution to add the Union Colony Civic Center to the city’s 2025 certificate of participation (COP) property pool.

The issue surfaced repeatedly during the citizen-input segment, when speakers cited project finance terms, a citizen petition and perceived risk to city-owned property. The council adopted a resolution (item 15 on the consent agenda) authorizing the addition of the Union Colony Civic Center to the property pool backing the COP 2025 series; the resolution passed 5–2 with Councilors Butler and Debuti voting nay.

Speakers said the Cascadia proposal would put city assets at risk and asked that the petition demanding a public vote be certified. “Heads, he wins. Tails, Greeley loses,” said Mary Metzger, a longtime resident, characterizing the financial terms she described as asymmetrical between the developer and the city. Metzger also told the council she had been told the city would mortgage “46 public buildings, including city hall, police and fire stations,” a claim she attributed to materials she and other speakers had reviewed.

Other speakers repeatedly asked the council to put the matter to a citywide vote. “The people deserve a say, and it deserves accountability,” Metzger said. William Gollard referred to the Greeley charter—“article 3, the council”—and urged that voters be allowed to decide whether public parks or other city assets should be used as collateral. “Why didn't the council ask the voters?” he asked.

Councilor John McDonald, during a reports segment earlier in the meeting, provided counts the council had on petition validation: he said 8,279 people signed the petition and that, after review, 5,538 signatures were valid. McDonald noted that figure equates to roughly 7% of the city’s approximately 71,447 registered voters and questioned whether the petition should stop project activity on that basis.

City staff and several council members have described the Cascadia/Catalyst project as a major economic development effort. Petition supporters and other speakers said they collected signatures as volunteer circulators and urged certification of the petition or a binding community benefit agreement. “Please listen to the voices of Greeley,” urged Tom Donkel, who told the council he supported the project but asked for unity in the process.

The consent-agenda resolution the council adopted relates to the financing vehicle the city is using: staff explained that the COP 2025 issuance required a property pool with sufficient collateral value to support the planned $115 million issuance. During the staff presentation, city finance staff said the property pool’s total value (as reported in the presentation materials) is approximately $138 million and that the Union Colony Civic Center was being added to reach the required coverage; staff said the UCCC was being included at a value of about $27 million.

Speakers cited a larger total project figure in public comment; multiple residents described the full Cascadia buildout as roughly $1.1 billion in total private/public investment. Those dollar figures were presented by speakers and circulate in public comment materials; the council action before it that evening was limited to the COP property-pool resolution and not the broader project approvals.

The council took no immediate formal action that certified or placed the citizen petition on the ballot during the meeting. Several public speakers requested an “off-ramp” or that the council stop project expenditures until the petition process and public review were resolved. Councilors and staff responded to questions later in the agenda rather than during citizen input; no ordinance or motion to certify the petition was recorded in the meeting minutes for that night.

Ending: The Cascadia/Catalyst project and related financing will return to council agendas. Petition proponents asked the council to certify the petition or negotiate a binding community benefit agreement; city staff and council members indicated the financing steps underway (including the COP amendment the council approved) are part of parallel processes to ready infrastructure and funding. The broader project remains the subject of ongoing public debate and planned future council and GID actions.