FoCo in 15 Minutes | PSD Layoffs, I-25 Tolls Start, QuikTrip Debate & Flock Cameras

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We are live in Fort Collins and we are going to be talking to you out. Poudre School District potential layoffs as well as Big Brother watching over our shoulder in Fort Collins. Amongst all throughout Colorado and especially Northern Colorado and we'll get to that shortly is a city council work session recap specifically talking about flock cameras throughout Fort Collins. Now I had heard about this through I think Nine News and some information there. Now if you guys have any specific questions ask throughout the video. We will be about 15 minutes or so talking about things that are happening in Fort Collins City Council work session and things to do throughout the week including great plates in Fort Collins from March 1st to March 14th.

So exciting things happening and again if you're watching this on rerun comment below and I will be sure to respond to you. This evening at 7 o'clock Mountain Standard Time we are going to do a monthly market update. We're going to do a monthly market update 7 p.m. talking about Northern Colorado. Really excited to go deep on that. But jumping right into it we talked about Poudre School District layoffs. Again we are pretty much guaranteed an $8 million shortfall just due to declining enrollment. That's happening throughout the state public schools. Now there is something a little bit interesting that's not a part of this article but they're talking about how bringing charter schools back within kind of the purview of Poudre School District oversight.

So that's something that's to be discussed but there could be an additional $9 million through state funding that could also be lost equating to about a $17 million shortfall moving into the next year. Now the Poudre School District is required to give teachers information especially those I think that have been working there for three or more years. By June 1st of this year and they're hoping there's going to be some retirements, relocations, things of that nature so they don't have to do too much laying off but when about 85% I believe it is, 85% of a $440 million budget is personnel salaries there's going to have to be some changes there to accommodate that shortfall.

Now what's wild to think about and I'm having a hard time really trying to figure this out because we passed a mill levy I think about two years ago and it raised a significant amount of funds for the Poudre School District to kind of offset some of these challenges. Now that's I think there's a lot of different things that are happening here. We're going to have a shortfall next year but also we are going to start to see some school consolidations happening sooner than later and by May of this year they're going to have the criteria that they're going to determine what schools are going to be shut down.

There are going to be, there's just declining enrollment throughout Fort Collins in specific areas so you know me speaking probably out of turn I would have to imagine the schools with the fewest amount of students throughout are going to have to be on one of the highest points of the chopping block and there are parts of town, west, central parts of town that a lot of people are aging in place and so not enough new families or new development around the area are seeing students go to those schools whereas on the east side of Fort Collins, southeast side of Fort Collins, Timnath, Windsor where a lot of young families are moving to and relocating to because of new development you're seeing Timnath Middle High School like they might have to just become a high school because of the enrollment caps that they've seen.

A lot of things that are changing but they've got to make these really difficult decisions to make sure that we still are able to offer world-class services to our students. You know arts, music, PE, all of those different things rather than shrinking what is being offered so lots of tough decisions for a Poudre School District coming up. Really I was shocked a little bit shocked. I think it probably was I probably now looking back on it the writing was on the wall for the Greeley 1.1 billion dollar catalyst project because we are reached out to from some individuals from you know the catalyst project wanting to come on and kind of pitch their story saying hey this is why we should go forward with this and you know which tells me that maybe they saw their chances of this moving forward being slim not to none because it passed 54% to 46% so 54% of the voters in Greeley said we want to revert the zoning where this catalyst project is back to agriculture so it could be that this is just a year-long delay while they go through the review process again get formalized you know approval Martin Lin's companies has sued the city of Greeley for this process so man again now granted this is a development of an immense size 834 acres I think is what I read yeah 834 acres site it but it kind of goes to show like I'm a big believer and this might like like hit some some people the wrong way I think developers should make the money they make on new development because they take so much risk when it comes to this this through through a development I always I've been in I've been in residential property management commercial property management I've done fix and flips long-term investment both on the residential and commercial side I've been on the lending side of things I've done nearly everything you can do on the real estate side of things I have not invested in any syndicates large multifamily I mean everything except for development and I always talked about how there's no chance that I would get involved with development because of the high risk that they take and this is an example now granted granted again 834 acres 1.1 billion dollars this is a development of enormous size and there's very few individuals let alone private equity large equity you know developers that would take this project on because of the risk I mean I can't imagine the millions of dollars that have already been invested in this that might just go away and that's that's not obviously typical but like Montaba which is a massive development on the northeast side of Fort Collins they kind of started this ball rolling in 2017 and thought they would be vertical by now and they are still just getting dirts in the ground I drove by Mountain View Mountain Vista Road the other day and they've got a lot of infrastructure canals canals being worked on so I mean there's work being done there but Max Moss who's kind of the leader had suggested at one of the meetings for the city of Fort Collins how many millions of dollars they're already invested in this and he would have he said I would have never thought it would have taken this long to get going so you know maybe not a very common position to take but man developers they take a ton of risk and the money they make when it works out you know it from my perspective you know they deserve because on the backside they take these huge risks and sometimes they're millions of dollars more than they thought they were going to be and sometimes these projects never even get off the ground or could reach opposition like the 1.1 billion dollar catalyst project so that's why myself maybe one day in the very very distant future I take on small developments onesie twosies a development of six to eight homes that might not you know leave me belly up if I if I fail so anyways catalyst project is stalled there are definitely some very strong proponents for it that are going to continue to push this forward and we'll see how that that goes we talked about it last week the Fort Collins is going to increase mobile home parking oversight again I think that's a great thing 1,400 homes in Fort Collins there are only a handful of parks though and that is nine so there's nine private home mobile home parks that are gonna see oversight a thousand dollar fee annually $50 per lot additionally as far as certifications for the park managers so that will be happening and I believe beginning in 2027 taco stop moved out we don't have a ton of restaurants on South College Avenue between trilby and harmony we do have sums why brewing people loves why but as you get a little bit further south you don't start to see restaurants until you get down to Loveland really so we loved having taco stop right there but they moved into the scotch pines village area if you haven't been a taco stop go check them out great Mexican food it is Tuesday maybe I convinced my family to go do Taco Tuesday tonight but anyways three dragon Thai took over that restaurant space so we will have to go check that out and try it it opened up as of February 23rd another development this is another one on the south there's been actually two and I want to try to keep this as close to 50 15 minutes as possible I'm gonna but I'm kind of got on my soapbox a little bit there were two different developments and this is one of them on the southwest side of Drake and College and people are upset that there could be a potential gas station there but from my understanding there were some huge plans for this this site but they got shot down because the Sherwin's Williams paint building is a historically protected building and this is kind of where I'm like we gotta do better because there was a really cool development that were proposed here but because of some of the challenges that they are facing now we're gonna have a gas station and additionally Les Kaplan who owned the development on the southwest corner of College and Prospect was gonna put a six-story hotel there but that was a little bit different COVID happened he pulled back said let's not take the risk ultimately would have been a great investment and then they kind of put their facelift on that entire kind of development strip mall Chuck E. Cheese's which is now an auto zone but again you know if there are developers are ultimately a P&L focused does it pencil doesn't make sense and if it doesn't you know we got a pivot and people in the city sometimes aren't happy about a gas station that's going on a prime corner that what could have been a major multifamily retail multifamily operation there so multi-use excuse me so sometimes we do it to ourselves now there are some really cool developments that are taking place exciting developments but these are kind of ones are like hey listen they reached opposition there they still need to make they're invested in the land they're holding land paying property taxes they got to make something work here and this is a gas station that I guess fits the zoning because of the laws can be done and is somebody's willing to make the investment anyways moving on North I-25 express tolls starting in April we've had about two years of free toll lanes but starting April 7th we are going to see tolls on I-25 from prospect essentially to Johnstown and then once Johnstown to Bertha our mead is finished there will be tolling there too so if you're stuck in stuck in traffic range for if you have a prepaid express toll will be between one dollars and four dollars and seventy-five cents there if you don't have a prepaid pass and do a license plate toll essentially those tolls double here is kind of the main conversation for today flock cameras in Fort Collins now I I watched a 9 news I'm gonna share my screen I watched a 9 news and people weren't stoked about flock cameras apparently there's some some security access issues big brother concerns and the city of Fort Collins did a work session talking about hey we've been using these since 2025 I believe it was or maybe fall of 2024 but essentially for one year they've been in place there's 15 cameras throughout Fort Collins 14 of them are fixed so on my screen that I'm showing these little green dots are where all of the fixed cameras are and the idea here is they're on the kind of the outskirts of town because what they're trying to do and there is kind of a mesh network of sorts between communities like Windsor I think Loveland Denver that all use flock and essentially the way that the the police chief was talking about is like this is a tap on the shoulder saying hey we were looking for a red vehicle license plate number one two three XYZ hey it got pinged on you know mulberry as it was going out of i-25 on to i-25 hopefully helping people with like stolen vehicles properties crimes things of that nature but like the city of Denver apparently is changing the system they use from flock somewhere else I didn't do any background research but flock has has had somewhat of a PR nightmare some of the ways that they've responded to inquiries things of that nature I don't know I personally I'm a fan of security I like the idea of technology advancements leveraging it you know because this is essentially 15 stationary police officers with just cameras they can't do anything they are absolutely recording for 30 days they record for 30 days and then it removes that information that there are municipalities within Colorado that can access these cameras like Boulder I think it is Grand Junction they have to log in it's it tracks all that now obviously bad actors within the police departments will still have access to this and we'll do bad things hopefully there's not many of those if any and if they do they get off the force whatever so definitely interested know your thoughts on what you think about flock cameras in Fort Collins for me you know hey let the bad guys know we got cameras everywhere you're gonna get caught it's not something that's where you're you're not gonna get caught okay and then moving on to noises in Fort Collins you know ultimately our limits are between 50 to 60 I thought this was really interesting as far as the decibel levels we're just really intentional about how we want to keep our noise levels in Fort Collins and do we need to increase those just because overall I'm also interested to know your thoughts I live on a busy street my hope is with electric vehicles specifically as we continue to kind of push that way now I have heard some loud electrical vehicles but we live on a busy street I'm like hey listen maybe living on a busy street won't be as bad in the near future because we're gonna have just like little electric vehicles going by us and our decibel level living on the street is going to be lower but who knows in Fort Collins though I thought this was interesting as far as noises in Fort Collins the larger the blue dot the louder the noise levels are when rent when measured between April 20 and 25 and November a lot of the loud areas are downtown's heavy traffic corridors but you can see a lot of these residential areas you know they're actually pretty quiet so overall a very quiet area there are some loud areas within and throughout Fort Collins but Fort Collins continues to work on trying to make sure that everyone in Fort Collins can enjoy quiet the quiet enjoyment of Fort Collins finally starting in 2027 downtown Fort Collins is going to be a pain in the butt when it comes to traffic and converting driving down through downtown from Mulberry all the way to LaPorte they're gonna have to replace a four inch water main they're gonna divert traffic they're gonna be doing it from January to essentially June so pain in the butt but one thing that I thought was really interesting listening to the project they said these streets through downtown haven't been worked on in 17 years and like in Fort Collins that's a really long time I was like man a street having been worked on in 17 years doesn't seem like that long but they will replace the water main with a 12 inch water main they will do new paving they will do some street work and so it will ultimately be an upgrade for downtown Fort Collins but a pain in the butt during that time here's kind of the outline of the time so pre-construction but construction February through June of 2027 things to do this weekend we will get we will wrap up with things to do this weekend great plates go support there's plates for $15.25 $35.45 in the essential ideas it's a discounted plate from a lot of different restaurants throughout Fort Collins and operations bars and everything along those lines if they ask you hey if the if this dish would have typically cost you $70 and we're charging you at 45 take that extra $25 and put it towards the food bank and donate it as far as a tip goes all donations all tips go to the food bank so definitely something very exciting that Fort Collins does on an annual basis in those first two weeks of March 19 annual seed swap and giveaway Poudre River Public Library March 7th 10 a.m. first Friday food walk 6 p.m. this Friday there is a see here the foothills winters farmers market there's only a few Saturdays left go support local artisans craftsmen very cool at the foothills mall Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

a spring free spring concert put on by Colorado State University School of the Arts concert March 8th 4 p.m. to 5 30 p.m. the home and garden show and Greeley 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. March 6th through March 8th down and Greeley so those are some things to do I don't see any questions we're a little bit over that 15-minute mark but I appreciate you guys watching if you guys haven't listened to it we just released a podcast that had myself Jenny aren't Kurt bear of loco podcast and a local think tank and then Greg Rader of selling for Collins all talking deep for an hour long for questions that we dove deep about for Collins politics Colorado State University what makes Fort Collins Northern Colorado special go watch that otherwise I appreciate you guys watching have a great day and we'll see you tonight seven o'clock Mountain Standard Time discussing the real estate market