Erie board approves resolution to hire master planner for Gateway Development

Jennifer LeDuc, Daily Times-Call, Longmont, Colo.
·2 min read

Aug. 11—The Erie Board of Trustees approved a resolution Tuesday evening to enter into a $493,987 professional services agreement with Torti Gallas + Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based architectural and master planning firm, in preparation of the Erie Gateway Planned Development project.

The 4-1 vote followed several hours of presentation and discussion around the vision plan, created in 2018, and requires developer acquisition of property from 11 landowners adjacent to the town's parcel.

Trustee Andrew Sawusch expressed concern over approving the resolution for such a big-picture arrangement that included private property and yet-approved budgetary appropriation.

"I would want to make sure that we have the horse and then we actually move forward with the cart," Sawusch said.

"I would like to have those stakeholders discuss this with us because it is their property. They're going to have to have no qualms to sell their property to whoever it is — the town, to developers, to whoever it is," added Sawusch, who was the lone trustee to vote against the resolution. "That's what I'd like to see, where we actually have communication about this before we jump in to a half-million dollar consideration when we don't even have approval from the property owner, but we might, potentially, be able to get their approval."

According to Economic Development Director Julian Jacquin, 10 of the 11 landowners are agreeable to selling their property for the project, located at the northwest corner of I-25 and Erie Parkway.

Mayor Justin Brooks said it would be best to leave the negotiations and conversations to the development team assigned the task of designing something the current owners are agreeable to.

"We want to know how it goes and we want to make sure it happens," Brooks said. "But I don't know if we as the legislatures are the people to do that."

"If you wait too long, you have no control over what will happen in that section," Brooks added.

By advancing the project's development with the resolution approval, Brooks reiterated that the current landowner would be more financially incentivized to support the project development because it would "positively affect the value of land they've already considered selling."