Take Action: Business Voice & East Mulberry

Since 2018 the Fort Collins City Council has been exploring options in an area within the East Mulberry Corridor and updating the East Mulberry Subarea Plan originally adopted in 2002.  Due to urban growth, this unincorporated area within Larimer County is now surrounded by the City of Fort Collins and in need of services and infrastructure more associated with cities (urban) rather than counties (rural).

Take advantage of the current opportunity to have your voice heard.  The city is willing to speak with business groups, individual businesses, neighborhood groups and those outside the area with business ties and interests to the corridor.

Find out more at https://www.fcgov.com/planning/east-mulberry-plan and sign up for the East Mulberry Project Newsletter which provides upcoming engagement opportunities and meetings with City Council.

No decisions about annexation have been made by the City Council at this point.  City staff is currently working to engage both the business community and area residents in conversations to help inform the  planning strategies being modeled.

A Threshold Approach to annexation versus the more traditional Phased Approach is the current focus.  According to City staff the Threshold approach allows Council and staff to frequently revisit and consider thresholds as the area develops and to proactively plan for thresholds without the need to take on a specific one-size-fits-all annexation strategy.  In the Threshold model the East Mulberry Subarea Plan can serve as an implementation tool and resource rather than just high-level guidance.

Possible downsides to the Threshold Approach are its open-ended nature making timing less predictable for businesses and residents and it will require additional and ongoing coordination with Larimer County.  So not as clean of a break.  A short video explaining annexation thresholds can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clO1iJ5_qE4

The Fort Collins Chamber has a fourteen-member East Mulberry Annexation Task Group and is interested in your input as well.  Contact:

Kevin Jones, Business Advocacy Director
Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce
225 S Meldrum, Fort Collins CO 80521
970-482-3751
[email protected]

Source: Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce
April 2023