FoCo in 15 Minutes | Flock Cameras Removed, Passenger Rail Advances, Target Opening & Summer Events

Auto-generated from the episode audio — may contain minor errors.

This is Living in Fort Collins, the podcast, and this week we've got a fun one ahead of us. You know, Fort Collins has over 45 miles of paved trails. Probably gonna be closer to 50 here soon because we got the Harmony Underpass that's gonna be coming on online here shortly. It's fun. I'm on the southeast side of Fort Collins and I drive by it on a daily basis and I actually just drove by the Southeast Community Center as well and they are moving dirt. They are rocking and rolling. I mean, the idea that that thing is gonna be opening up in 2028 is like, what? Let's get that thing in 2027. Let's go! But today we are talking about Target opening up at the Firestones City Center off of I-25. You know, growing up here in Fort Collins, it was interesting when I went down, when we drive down to Denver because, well, you know, you'd leave Fort Collins and you'd have the Berthoud Motorcross track on the west side of I-25 and then you'd have the Longmont exit and really from there, there wasn't too much from Longmont to Denver except for you start to look for the skyscrapers, you know, and you'd be like, oh, we are in Denver! And now when you drive from Fort Collins to Denver, you know, there is so much going on between, you know, the Loveland outlets, the shops at Sentara, 2534 with Shields. You've got Buc-ee's now. You've got a whole lot of stuff going on and Firestone and Frederick are not to be forgotten and there is a significant amount of growth there. But it's gonna be about a 128,000 square foot Target opening up potentially this this summer. 200 workers to staff the store. Talk about it all the time.

Jobs, jobs, jobs. That is what we need. We need strong jobs and employers like Target, Bass Pro Shops, that's gonna be opening up as well here soon. It's great to see. So, you know, for buyers that are looking at Firestone and Frederick and Mead, you know, this is the everyday convenience that you absolutely like to see and need. It's an anchor tenant and it's gonna be shortening the drive from the big-box essentials all over Fort Collins and Northern Colorado. Let's see here. The Fort Collins police settled a police pepper spray lawsuit for $397. Now, Chief Swoboda, he was, you know, they are not admitting fault but unfortunately because of the way the system works, it's better to settle than it is to go through the process and risk the full exposure of the lawsuit. So, there was an individual, I watched some of the video and, you know, it was late at night on an evening.

This happened, you know, back in 2021. So, you know, some of these lawsuits the, you know, the prosecutor doesn't really get a lot of that money because it goes to their doctors, their attorneys, they are paying their attorney, you know, some sort of, you know, retainer or settlement share and so what we've, what I've actually seen because I've been a part of these million-dollar lawsuits is the person that is bringing the lawsuit actually doesn't walk away with too much from that settlement. But $397,000 is quite a bit. The officer, Kevin Park, you know, he actually resigned from the Fort Collins Police Services in May of 2024. You know, this settlement was paid to from a basically a self-funded liability lawsuit from the city of Fort Collins and I'm not just not a fan of seeing it. You know, I watched the video. The individual refused to take a ticket, was put to the ground and then sprayed. Obviously, I would never like to be pepper sprayed but, you know, also at the same time, he was trespassing and the city police officers came and confronted him. Anyways, sad to see that that happens. Hopefully, that individual is okay but long story short, that settlement has been settled for $397,000. If you live on the southeast side of town like I do and take LeMay on a daily basis from south to north or north to south, you have found yourself kind of commuting to the east or west, east to Timberline or west to College Avenue to get around or take boardwalk and it has added some significant time to your drive time but that is just slated to be opened up around June 24th. Tomorrow, hopefully, all of that is done. They had to replace a 20-inch line, essentially the length between Harmony Road to Ticonderoga and that should all be repaved and opening up hopefully this week. Bike to Work Day as well. Tomorrow, our 38th annual Bike to Work Day in the summer. There are two time periods, 6 30 a.m. to 9 30 a.m. as well as 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. This is a really fun time. There are stations all over Fort Collins on Mason Trail, Spring Treet Trail, the Poudre River Trail. So I will say, if you have the ability and desire or if you just want to go explore what this means, go get on your bike tomorrow, ride around Fort Collins, explore what all of the stations are and the trails all over Fort Collins. This is a fun activity. We do a summer Bike to Work Day and a winter Bike to Work Day. I will say, I'm a fan of the summer Bike to Work Day. The winter one gets a little chilly. City of Fort Collins had a council meeting and work session. They voted six to one to immediately initiate termination of the city's contract with Flock Safety and removing the roughly 15 automated license plate reader cameras that are installed around Fort Collins. This has been a long, drawn-out, six months, packed with public comments and Fort Collins just joins a growing list including Denver and Longmont, stepping away from the license plate surveillance and they believe it, you know, I just am like, man, you're driving in the city of Fort Collins. This is a public place. I don't really see it as a big brother, you know, civil liberty issue. I'm just like, you know what, hey, protect me and my city. I like that. City Council also endorses the Front Range Passenger Rail Station at the Drake Station. This is huge.

Voting seven to zero, supporting the Front Range Passenger Rail Districts for a Fort Collins station near Drake and College and backing the rail service along the Front Range. You know, I think this is huge. I think Midtown, the Drake Station, is huge. I think this could be a massive spur of development and excited to see kind of how that moves forward. We've already talked about it, but the Housing Action Plan voted six to zero on a new transit-oriented plan and this will help get grants and funding from the Department of Local Affairs, DOLA. So that was kind of a good administrative thing to, you know, get passed so that we can get funding for these. And then again, like I talked about, the Southeast Community Center broke ground and they are moving a significant amount of dirt over there. So that is the City Council work session and meeting. Drake Station, flock cameras, you know, those, it does go to show if there is a issue that the City of Fort Collins doesn't like. And this is, I've been paying attention to City Council now for, you know, probably about five years and it's a great source of information. So I will say if you have the ability to watch those videos, read the minutes, you know, or listen to shows like this, I will give you a breakdown of what's going on. It gives you a rundown of what is happening in Fort Collins long before it happens. You know, this Southeast Community Center, we're just now seeing the dirt move but this has been in the making for over 11 years, since 2015. So if you were, you know, a long-term investor-buyer of a home on, let's say, on Sage Creek or Observatory Village and now you're gonna have a hundred million dollar facility next to you, you know, these are some important pieces of information for you to understand. But what I was gonna say is since I've been watching it, you know, we had a major land use code change and the City of Fort Collins did not like it. Preserve Fort Collins was a group. They got together about over 4,000 people, put together a petition and reversed the land development code, which ultimately became, you know, a very pared-down land use code change. And this is another one, you know, flock cameras. The City Council was kind of like, you know, we don't dislike them.

We think there could be some changes, some oversight, and the City of Fort Collins Police Chief, Chief Swoboda, was kind of saying, hey listen, these are great tools for us to use to help us become better, a better police station and enforcement. But the citizens of Fort Collins, whether they were allowed minority or allowed majority, it doesn't matter. They were loud enough to get the City Council to say, you know what, we don't care if we've already spent over $96,000 on this. We want them gone. And gone they are. So it just kind of goes to show, you know, stay informed, stay, you know, and City Council will meet, you know, and they will listen to you, especially if you get enough people to make a statement. As for things to do this week and weekend, Greeley Stampede opening up June 24th. I saw some pretty good names, Dirk Spently being one of them. So excited for Greeley Stampede to go on.

Summer Bike to Work Day tomorrow June 24th, 6 30 to 9 30 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. March 4th at Washington's Saturday, June 27th. Fort Collins Fox's baseball happening down kind of City Park area all summer long but there are games June 24th, June 27th and June 28th. The Makers Hive Market at the Foothills Mall, June 26th, 6 to 8 p.m. and so many other things. The Lagoon Concert Series on Wednesday nights, Thursday night Bohemian nights. There's so many activities and things to do. Tuesday night food truck rally. We really haven't even talked about that. Every Tuesday night the food truck rally. So go explore that. Go check out City Park, City Park pool. There's so many fun different things to go do but this is the live in Fort Collins.

This is the Living in Fort Collins podcast. Hopefully this information has been helpful. I appreciate you guys listening. If you know somebody who should be listening to this, send it to them. Get some subscribers up, get some information and if you're listening and watching this on a weekly basis leave a rating and review. It helps the channel. It helps me. You know I'm a small channel, small creator and just even one rating and review is very appreciated. I appreciate you guys listening and until next week have a great day.