Measure 2H: Intentionally Greenwashing, Gaslighting, & Confusing Fort Collins Voters about the Future of Hughes
This (misleading) logo and committee name belongs to the pro-development special interests for whom ballot measure 2H was written. Measure 2H is City Council’s slice-dice-and-develop plan for Hughes that will see Hughes commercialized by a vocal and aggressive recreation lobby and their cronies.
The logo above appears downright idyllic, like an advertisement for country-side living. But, Hughes will NOT look anything like that in reality if measure 2H passes. This misrepresentation of reality is meant to greenwash, gaslight, and confuse you, the Fort Collins voter, and according to recent questions and comments, their plan is working.
Here’s the truth: the number of Natural Areas acres proposed by Council’s “Multiuse” development measure is 0 to 60. That’s right…ZERO to 60 acres…which also means Fort Collins residents could end up with ZERO Natural Areas acres at Hughes. If the City intends for measure 2H to actually designate some acres of Natural Areas at Hughes, then WHY is there no minimum number of acres for a Natural Area at Hughes in measure 2H? This is simple political maneuvering. Will the community and wildlife get ANY meaningful protected Natural Areas land at Hughes open space at all if 2H passes, or will the City continue to spend most of Fort Collins Natural Area taxpayer funds on land near the Wyoming border and Estes Park?
The TRUTH is CLEAR: The only guaranteed way to get ANY PROTECTED Natural Area acres at all at Hughes is to vote FOR Measure 303 (the community’s ballot measure to PROTECT Hughes) and AGAINST Measure 2H (the City Council’s ballot measure to DEVELOP Hughes).
Measure 2H is designed to DEVELOP Hughes for a massive bike park and a zoo-like “Nature Campus” with permanent buildings and administrative offices that would restrict public access and possibly charge admission fees (per the Coloradoan), plain and simple.
BELOW: IMAGES OF VALMONT BIKE PARK IN BOULDER
A vocal HIGH-impact recreation lobby want to commercialize Hughes Open Space with a “large scale” “world class” niche BMX/MTB bike skills park, like Boulder’s Valmont bike skills park.
Images of Valmont Bike Park from Valmont Bike Park Twitter: https://twitter.com/bikevalmont;
Last photo of map is from https://www.bouldercoloradousa.com/outdoors/biking/bike-park/
Ballot Measure 2H: Design Mockups, Plans and Examples of the Proposed Land-Consuming Uses at Hughes Open Space
The Development plans shown below represent some of the slice-and-dice components of the high-Impact “Multi-Use” Hughes proposals, as considered by the City’s “Civic Assembly” (a 19-person focus group said to represent 170K residents of Fort Collins). (See screenshots below). This is what the City Council and their select bike park and wildlife orgs have presented to the public themselves, and now placed on the ballot, as measure 2H for the publicly-owned Hughes open space. It should also be noted that the Raptor Center and Bird Conservancy have stated several times publicly that they will only develop and “restore” the land at Hughes if they can own their carve out. They have backpedaled from that statement, but we have very good reason to believe that a transfer of publicly-owned Hughes land to those private organizations is still the overall plan. We will strongly oppose any effort to transfer ownership of any part of Hughes from the public trust to private interests.
The only guaranteed way to get ANY PROTECTED Natural Areas acres at all at Hughes is to vote FOR Measure 303 (the community’s ballot measure to PROTECT Hughes) and AGAINST Measure 2H (the City Council’s ballot measure to DEVELOP Hughes).
The 3 Steps to Save Hughes:
1.ZONE (2021) ✅ 2.ACQUIRE (2023)✅ 3.PROTECT (2025)! (VOTE YES ON 303 ! **AND** NO on 2H !