Our grassroots petition would give a voice to voters at the ballot box about whether Hughes should be preserved & protected as a City Natural Area.

🌲🌲🌲 Update: The Hughes Natural Area petition would simply allow voters to have a voice on the final step in the community's long-held vision to preserve & protect Hughes for ALL members of our community, and for our local wildlife that are increasingly encroached upon.

This is true Democracy in action, and it is why we are seeing high-impact “multiuse” (bike park) proponents desperately attempt to sow discord and vitriol on social media channels with a targeted digital smear campaign against us. Sadly, yet unsurprisingly, the civic assembly’s recommendation to Council will carve up Hughes and dole it out to many factions who see an opportunity to exploit the Hughes land in a “multiuse” (fragmented), consumptive manner for their own niche interests, not the larger community’s best interests.

71% of City Natural Areas acres exists outside of the Fort Collins City limits and generally require a car to visit. We already have dedicated tax dollars for land acquisition and restoration. Let’s make Hughes a new City Natural Area close to where our residents and taxpayers live, work, and play, and where our wildlife increasingly needs unfragmented habitat in the City.

Voters have successfully ZONED and ACQUIRED the Hughes land for publicly-owned open space. If you think voters should also have a say at the ballot box on the third and final step, the PROTECTION of Hughes as a Natural Area, no matter your stance on the issue, please sign the petition. Time is short. Thank you. 🌲🌲🌲

Where to Sign the Petition

Here are a few images of the multiuse designs and examples proposed by the groups who will develop Hughes.