Ethics complaint delays Fort Collins decision on Hughes Stadium rezoning

Jacy Marmaduke | The Coloradoan

Show Caption Hide Caption Fly over Hughes Stadium's demolition in this drone video Take a flight over the former Hughes Stadium site in this drone video taken May 28 by Kyle Blach.

Fort Collins City Council will hold off on its final vote to rezone the former Hughes Stadium site until a city board has decided how to proceed with a related ethics complaint.

Council was set to vote on the matter on second reading Tuesday, which would’ve finalized the 165-acre site’s zoning as half lower density and half higher density, barring any change of heart among council members. They previously voted 4-3 in favor of the split zoning, but council planned to discuss the issue again and accept more public comment because the vote wasn’t unanimous.

Mayor Wade Troxell asked to postpone the second reading until Jan. 21, about three weeks after the ethics review board’s deadline for reviewing the complaint. Council unanimously agreed.

The complaint, filed by Nicolas Frey and Mary Satterfield Grant, argues Troxell and Mayor pro-t Kristin Stephens should’ve recused themselves from the Nov. 5 vote on the zoning issue because they’re both Colorado State University employees. CSU is under contract to sell the former Hughes Stadium site for $10 million to developer Lennar Homes, which seeks to build hundreds of housing units at the site off Overland Trail at the edge of the foothills.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: No guarantees that Hughes will include workforce housing

Troxell and Stephens were part of the majority that voted on first reading to split the zoning on the site. Without their votes, the rezoning would have failed 3-2.

A large community group called PATHS, or Planning Action to Transform Hughes, has been pushing for the site to be converted to open space or zoned at the lowest density possible.

The purchase-and-sale agreement between CSU and Lennar includes a “feasibility period,” during which Lennar can back out of the purchase. The feasibility period has been extended four times and now expires Dec. 16, but it could be extended again.

Fort Collins’ Ethics Review Board has until Dec. 30 to screen the ethics complaint and determine whether it should be formally investigated. City Council will then review the recommendation and decide whether to adopt it.

The three-member ethics review board includes Stephens and council members Julie Pignataro and Ken Summers, with Troxell as an alternate, but Stephens and Troxell can’t be involved in the review because they’re named in the complaint. In accordance with city code, the other five council members will serve as the review board for this complaint.

City code directs council members to recuse themselves from voting on issues where they have personal or financial conflicts of interest. Personal interest is defined as "any interest (other than a financial interest) by reason of which an officer or employee, or a relative of such officer or employee, would, in the judgment of a reasonably prudent person, realize or experience some direct and substantial benefit or detriment different in kind from that experienced by the general public."

Troxell is an associate professor of mechanical engineering at CSU, and Stephens is a program assistant in the school's Department of Statistics. Both disclosed their employment in advance of the Nov. 5 vote but said they had no financial or personal interest in the outcome. Troxell added at the time that he has no involvement with CSU at the system level, which is responsible for decisions such as land sales.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Opposition group fights development on Hughes Stadium land

He said he asked the ethics review board to advise him on the possibility of a conflict of interest in 2015, when council accepted an intergovernmental agreement with CSU for what's now Canvas Stadium. The board advised Troxell that his employment at CSU didn't present a conflict of interest.

Explaining his motivation to postpone the Hughes vote, Troxell said he wants to promote transparency in local government.

"There’s a lot of emotion around this particular item, and (I don't want) to compound it more with the uncertainty of the ethics complaint," he said.

Frey and Grant told council they're grateful for the postponement. Frey said he wants to "make sure our community has faith in its government and its ability to police itself."

"I personally believe that people who are employees of a corporation that’s looking to develop land for a sum of eight figures have an inherent conflict of interest, even if it's not financial," he said. "I don’t have to go to work tomorrow and tell my colleagues that I voted one way or the other, either positive or negative, for the people that employ us, but both of you do."

This story includes corrections: An earlier version of this story misspelled Nicolas Frey's first name and didn't correctly explain Fort Collins' procedure for reviewing ethics complaints that involve two members of the Ethics Review Board.

Reporter Pat Ferrier contributed to this report.

Jacy Marmaduke covers government accountability for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter @jacymarmaduke. Support stories like this one with a digital subscription to the Coloradoan.