Preserve Fort Collins

05/05/2026

The Colorado Senate has finally pushed back against the House’s harmful Yimby crusade. This little victory for neighborhoods should be celebrated.  Let’s hear it for local control.

The Senate’s Local Government and Housing Committee voted in April to kill the proposals amid fierce resistance from local officials and some neighborhood groups

04/21/2026

"This was not just a simple repeal of ordinances. It was a referendum on how decisions are being made."

"A small, volunteer-driven grassroots effort just outperformed a well-funded, developer-backed campaign that poured more than $260,000 into shaping the outcome, backed by glossy mailers, paid TV commercials and endorsements from well-known political figures such as Brittany Pettersen and Ed Perlmutter, along with a range of councilmembers and organizations.

The materials circulated by the developer-backed campaign claimed the grassroots coalition was backed by dark money MAGA GOP groups, but that framing collapsed once people looked at the campaign finance reports. It read less like reality and more like a deflection, an attempt to shift attention away from where their funding was coming from — largely developer-backed money from outside Lakewood — while using national political rhetoric as a distraction from who was actually driving their side of the campaign.

What did hold up was a hard-fought grassroots effort, persistence and people paying attention. This was not the outcome anyone in the political or development playbook was counting on."

"This was not just a simple repeal of ordinances. It was a referendum on how decisions are being made."

04/09/2026

9News' Marshall Zelinger:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/961762213220774/?app=fbl

04/09/2026

"Lakewood voters strike down pro-density zoning as repeal campaign dominates"

Backers of the return to single-family zoning said they feared new rules would disrupt Lakewood's suburban character

04/09/2026

This is not just low, it’s historic.

Colorado snowpack is just 24% of normal statewide right now. The San Juans are at 14%, Gunnison 19%, and the South Platte (Denver water supply) 34%.

This is peak snowpack season and we’re nowhere close. Less snow now means less runoff and higher drought stress heading into summer.

What are you seeing where you live right now?

03/31/2026

Hmmm, we don't recall you being elected to eliminate public input, and make city government even less transparent than it already is.

Coloradoan:
Why Fort Collins will end public hearings on certain development

From the article:

---- Mayor Pro Tem Julie Pignataro and council member Chris Conway noted that council members were elected after being transparent about their desire to allow more housing to be built, including infill development.

"I don't see slow-playing density along transit as meeting any of our goals," Conway said.

Still, infill development shouldn't happen only in the College Avenue corridor, he said.

"I understand the reasons why we are putting a lot of density along busy arterial streets, but as much as we can push that into neighborhoods that are calm and farther away from noise and pollution, the more equitable we're going to be as community," Conway said. ----

---- Just know that transit centers, as defined by the legislation, aren't referring to physical bus stops. Instead, they are places near existing or future high-frequency transit lines: Think the MAX bus rapid transit route, Elizabeth Street west of Colorado State University or the Harmony Corridor. ----

---- What's next?
Council is set to take a vote April 7 on designating areas identified for Phase 1. ----

Read more at:

Fort Collins City Council members want to do more than the bare minimum on a new Colorado requirement focused on housing development.

11/06/2025

" As reported by The Gazette, the proposal, 3A on the Littleton ballot, was passing by a comfortable margin at press time Tuesday evening.

It’s a victory for the single-family home and a repudiation of the density-zoning dogma that is the hobby horse of urban planners and politicians — but the bane of rank-and-file residents.

Littleton’s uprising isn’t the only rejection of the governor’s density agenda."

Gov. Jared Polis has pushed a passel of laws through the legislature over the past couple of years that mandate sweeping revisions to local land-use rules. His attempt, essentially, to rezone Colorado’s metro areas micromanages matters ranging from the number of housing units per parcel to whether...

10/21/2025

We shared this story recently, and it is good to see that our local newspaper has published their own investigation of the matter. The article goes through the same details as our blog post but has the addition of commentary from the YIMBY participants. The biggest takeaway from the YIMBY interviews is that none of them think they did anything wrong. I think it is clear to anyone that reads this article that their behavior violated ethical norms as well as violated the rules of the organization. My second thought is that the article could further address the matter of how this is a recurring pattern throughout the country and it is obviously part of the national YIMBY playbook. What do you think?

10/19/2025

Thanks to Susan Gutowsky for sharing this article about the conflict between the urban tree canopy in Seattle and development. Long story short: trees lose. Indeed, the only thing YIMBYs aren't willing to sacrifice at the altar of housing development is developer profits. It's even worse than that just 'Seattle past a law making it easier to remove trees.' The article goes into detail about a recent city law that was sold on the idea that it would protect Seattle's urban canopy, but it has done just the opposite because it makes it easier for developers to cut down mature trees. Tree canopy here in Fort Collins is even more important to protect (and create) because out climate makes it much more difficult for trees to grow and thrive.

Mayor Harrell promised law would get Seattle “back on track,” but new street-tree planting data raises doubts

10/17/2025

The people of Fort Collins can learn a lot from people like this local woman who learned first hand, while living in Seattle, the impact of YIMBYism on a community. Hear her describe in this video how YIMBY-style densification displaced marginalized people while doing nothing for affordability. I hope you will listen to her story.