Planning and Zoning approves one-year extension for Brickstone Apartments vested rights

FORT COLLINS — The Fort Collins Planning and Zoning Commission voted 3-2 on Feb. 20 to grant a one-year extension of vested development rights for the Brickstone Apartments on Harmony, a project originally approved in 2017.

The commission’s approval preserves the project’s existing approvals while the developer continues to pursue financing and resolve off-site public-improvement requirements. Arlo (city staff) told the commission the request "complies with the applicable procedural and administrative requirements of article 6 of the land use code," and staff recommended approval.

The project was approved in December 2017 and would build 116 residential units with 197 off-street parking spaces, according to the applicant’s presentation. Sam Coutts, a land planner and landscape architect with Ripley Design representing the owner, said the updated foundational land use code does not change the project’s compliance. “The project does comply with all of the new updated land use code,” Coutts said.

Coutts and developer Ben Massimino described the principal constraint as a functioning irrigation ditch and associated stormwater infrastructure along the site’s Harmony Road frontage. They said extending the culvert, building a right-turn lane into the site, a bus pad, off-site ADA ramps and other work would require substantial public-infrastructure investment and must be completed in a limited seasonal window for ditch construction (the applicant cited an October 15–April 1 window). Coutts said a contractor’s bid for the culvert extension and a stormwater treatment facility exceeded $700,000.

Opposition from a neighboring homeowners’ association focused on the project’s long delay. David Ramsey, president of the Fairway Estates Property Owners Association, said the owner has marketed alternate uses and asked the commission to deny another extension: “I respectfully request that the PNC commission not grant the extension — how many extensions are enough?” Ramsey said.

Commission discussion ranged from concern about creating a precedent for indefinite extensions to sympathy for the applicant’s financing and sequencing difficulties. Commissioner Shepherd and Chair Julie Stackhouse ultimately voted with Commissioner York to approve a single-year extension; Commissioners Saas and Pugh voted no. The vote followed an earlier failed motion to deny the extension.

Coutts told the commission the developer has been in discussion with a potential buyer that may use the site as 55+ age-restricted multifamily housing (still a multifamily use, Coutts said), and that buyer indicated the vested rights would need to remain in place to proceed. The land use code allows the commission to grant extensions when projects meet code standards and when completing required engineering improvements would cause "unusual and exceptional practical difficulties or undue hardship" unique to the property; the commission found those conditions met for one additional year.

Action taken: the commission approved a 1-year extension of the vested rights for Brickstone Apartments on Harmony (FDP 17 00006 as cited in the staff packet). The decision adopted staff findings and conditions in the staff report and was based on the materials presented at the hearing and the commission’s deliberations.

Looking ahead: staff and commissioners encouraged the applicant to pursue a path to start the project or move it to an alternative buyer quickly so the site does not remain unresolved indefinitely.