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FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Ever since CSU closed access to the land where Hughes Stadium once stood, there's been a curiosity as to what's coming next.
“Potentially everyone would like to see a great dog park area too, but yeah that’s really on the hopeful side,” nearby resident Adolf Zoch said.
The city always thought development was needed.
“It was always going to be zoned for something. There was no desire to keep this as open space or natural area. It has the footprint of a football stadium on it so it’s not a necessarily undeveloped land, it’s always been developed. The plan was always, how we would zone it or how we would develop the land,” Councilwoman Kristin Stephens said.
Two weeks ago, the city council voted to rezone part of the land for high density residential area.
Resident Nick Frey was at the council meeting and when he heard that both Mayor Wade Troxall and Councilwoman Kristin Stephens work at CSU, who is looking to sell the land to a developer, he filed a complaint with the ethics review board due to potential conflicts of interest.
“It didn’t think it was right. I said, 'this needs to be brought up in a formal process,'” Frey added.
“No, I would never vote on this issue if I thought I was making any kind of ethics violation or if I had a conflict of interest. I’ve recused myself before but I thought in this case I did not have a personal interest in this matter. I’m just trying to do what's best for my city,” Stephens said.
Once the zoning issue passes council, then it is up to CSU and the developer for what to do.
“CSU had expressed some desire to build some affordable housing and attainable housing in our community, so it’s in CSU’s court in a way,” Stephens said.
The second reading and vote is scheduled to take place Tuesday night.