The Plan for This Corner at Drake & Taft Hill
Did you ever notice the tiny, abandoned house across the street from Pringle's? After driving by it probably hundreds of times, I hadn't, until I started making this part of my bicycling route. I love how you notice things more when you're not in a car.
So, a couple months ago, I noticed that old house was suddenly gone - the second one on Taft Hill Road in less than a year, yet probably for the better.
Something else I noticed via bike over a year ago, when I was taking my 6-year-old to a birthday party, was behind this old house, they were paving roads and starting a new neighborhood, right alongside several expansive ranches. You still wouldn't know about that unless you purposefully turned off Taft Hill onto this little road just south of that old house's former spot.
Days back I called the Fort Collins Planning and Zoning Board and spoke with Senior City Planner Pete Wray, who says a few months back there was a neighborhood meeting regarding the possibility of a multi-family, 20-unit apartment building in that spot.
Some questions and answers from the call:
- Would it be a low-income development? Not sure. The applicant is still assessing options for the price point.
- Will it be college housing? Maybe, maybe not. Wray stated he didn't get the idea it would be student housing, but there's a chance it could be for the CSU workforce.
- What other possibilities are there for this location as of now? None that we're aware of. Since the initial application for the purchase of the land for housing, no other applicants have stepped forward.
- When will we know more? A formal development application hasn't been submitted. We may see plans before this summer. At that time, the development review and hearing procedures could take three to four months. After approval, it's not out of the question we could see new development begin at the southwest corner of Drake and Taft before the end of 2018.
- Is there still a Ford Mustang still in front of the lot? Not that I'm aware of. Either way, those cars are classics and fun to look at.
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