After overcoming many legal battles, the city of Greeley broke ground on the Cascadia project, which is described to be the future “hub of Northern Colorado” by those involved in the project. However, right after city leaders and investors completed a ceremonial turning of dirt, those looking to derail the project filed a motion with the city to block the rezoning of the property.
“This is a historic moment of breaking ground for a transformational project for the city of Greeley and really Northern Colorado,” said Raymond Lee, City Manager for Greeley.
Cascadia
For generations the property in question, located on the border of Windsor and U.S. 34, has been a mixture of farmland and other industrial uses. However, it has largely remained an empty field. That is something developer Martin Lind is looking to change.
“When you bring water to this fertile soil, it just comes to life,” Lind said.
Lind said they plan to fill the property with waterfalls and other water features like a water show similar to that at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Lind is one of the primary investors in the project, announcing his minor league hockey team will move to the property after a stadium is built. The Colorado Eagles plan to have their ice arena built at Cascadia with hotels, a conference center, water park and other businesses around it.
“This project is one of the biggest projects the community has ever taken on,” Lee said. “No longer is Greeley sitting down and letting the market dictate what happens to Greeley, but Greeley is dictating to the market what it wants to see happen overall.”
However, those with the group “Greeley Deserves Better” are hoping to once again derail the project. Their original efforts to block Cascadia with a voter initiative was blocked. Now, the group is hoping to stop the project by taking the rezoning of the land to a vote of the people.
“Put simply, the (Cascadia) project is contingent on zoning. Once the petition is turned in and found sufficient, the zoning ordinance cannot go into effect until voters decide, halting any forward motion of this deal,” attorney Suzanne Taheri said via statement.
Greeley Deserves Better filed a request for the referendum, something the city confirmed they received.
At the groundbreaking event, which happened prior to the referendum being submitted, Lee said he was aware of some residents attempting to block the project. However, he said the city was working in the best interest of the constituents.
“We hear our citizens when it relates to wanting to take this to a vote. With a project like this it has no tax increases to the everyday citizen, which would have caused it to go to a vote. That is the main reason we don’t have to take it to a vote of the citizens,” Lee said, referring to the original effort to have taxpayers vote on the project.
Lee said the Cascadia project is self sustaining and is a way for Greeley to compete with other regional competitors like Loveland, Johnstown and Fort Collins.
“Is there risk associated with this project? Yes. Is there a great opportunity also associated with this project? Absolutely without a doubt,” Lee said.
Lind said he believes the opposition to the project is fueled by those who are afraid of change. He said he has seen the legal challenges the project has faced as a way to win competitions.
“I’m a bit competitive, I like winning championships. To me, getting all the legal hurdles and referendum hurdles out of the way was like winning a championship for Greeley,” Lind said.
