Thursday, September 29, 2016

2 The Johnstown Breeze

2534: Laying the groundwork

By Zant Reyez
The Johnstown Breeze

Editors Note: This is the next

in a series of stories about development of the 2534 project
in northern Johnstown.
JOHNSTOWN Fifteen
minutes away from historic
downtown Johnstown, depending how liberal you are
with the gas pedal and traffic
conditions, sits new Johnstown, aka 2534.
A majority of those who
drive past it or shop there simply because of convenience
or because it just makes sense
geographically say theyre
in Loveland.
If events wouldve gone
differently nearly 20 years
ago, then yes, they might have
been right.
But after opposition by
Loveland failed to produce a
venture into the legal jungle,
after the wounds from the Battle of Berthoud healed a few
years ago, after recalling a
mayor that was one act in a
small town drama played out
for a few years before Y2K,
after all this time, 2534 is
Johnstown.
N o m a t t e r i f i t s c a l l e d
2534, Johnstown Plaza, or
new Johnstown, the area in the
southeastern corner of Interstate 25 and Colorado Highway 34 has established itself
as a fertile crescent of sorts
that has captured attention
from communities across the
Centennial State.
While attending a Colorado Municipal League
m e e t i n g o v e r t h e s u m m e r,
Johnstown Mayor Scott James
said after exchanging pleasantries and formalities, the
comments of envy rained on
him.
Were the talk of the state
with that development,
James said.
I know we did the right
thing, he said. Were building an economic engine up
there that will fuel and I
dont even want to call it
Johnstown Proper that will
fuel Johnstown South for
years to come. (Itll) fuel traditional Johnstown for years
to come.
But 2534 needed more fuel
than just former Mayor Tom
M a r t i n e z s v i s i o n t o h e a d
north, or a band of board
members that had a desire to
prove to doubters who scoffed
at Johnstowns pursuit of the
land wrong: It needed a
bedrock plan for how to serv-

ice and pay for it.

Guiding 2534
After the approval of annexation of 1,100 acres of
land owned by Gary Gerrard,
Joel Wiens and Dale Boehner,
also known as the WRFG annexation, in October of 2000,
Johnstown had to take the
next step: development.
But Johnstown didnt just
want any type of businesses
breaking ground there. We
were expecting better than
(what) everyone else was offering, Johnstown Councilmember Troy Mellon said.
The council wanted a
standard of quality, and the
developers at the time, their
experts, wanted a predictable
and short review process,
Johnstown Town Planner John
Franklin said.
On the totem pole of importance in the creation of the
area north of Old Johnstown,
the 2534 design guidelines
can be placed near or at the
top.
I think that was kind of
crucial, the design standards,
realtor and former Fort
Collins City Planner Tom Peterson stated.
Peterson, who brought together Gerrard, Wiens, Boehner and Johnstown to strike the
agreement, recalled telling
t o w n o ff i c i a l s t h a t i f t h e y
wanted to have pristine constructions in the area, they
needed to have design guidelines and an approval process
that was both developer and
town friendly.
Franklin said town officials
worked with the landowners
to develop a designation map
that showed tendencies of uses in areas, which commercial
and residential developments
could benefit from.
The guidelines as initially
approved provided the vision
and the standards, and the
mechanism manning those
standards, Franklin said.
One of the benefits of being in Johnstown is they (developers) can see the value of
having a design guideline that
covered the entire project,
Gerrard said.
These standards not only
provided an overall look for
the area, but it gave Johnstown something invaluable
when it came to attracting
businesses: time.
In the early stages of 2534,
Johnstown didnt have many
cards in its hand to play to attract developers, but the one it
did have trumped all others in
the deck. Mellon said time

was just as or more valuable

than actual money other municipalities could offer.
Expedition (of the approval process) was one of the
few cards we had to play,
Mellon explained. We couldnt offer money as an incentive. We couldnt go out and
drop one million or two million (dollars) to incentivize
somebody to come to town.
Our incentive was time. Time
is money.
N o w, y e a r s l a t e r, J o h n stown still has time on its side.
Theres a 45-day review
window for site development
plans submitted to the Johnstown design committee, comprised of Franklin and Town
Manager Roy Lauricello,
along with the 2534 design review committee members
made up of the landowners.
The process not only ensures
plans fit into the guidelines,
but also frees developers from
having to jump through hoops
or attend repeated council
meetings, because its expedited to a point that most projects
are approved at the staff level
in months.
Fate in a sewer
Throughout the history of
2534 there have been some
serendipitous events for Johnstown. But none might be bigger than the acquisition of the
Lowpoint wastewater treatment facility/sanitation district.
Located south of the I-25
and Highway 34 interchange,
the districts beginnings started when Martinez and former
To w n A d m i n i s t r a t o r Ve r n
Haefele made the deal for 35
acres of land and the waste
water permit attached to it for
the sanitation district for
$40,000 just before the year
2000.
One of the key points was
that we had to have a sewer
plant up there (in 2534), former Town Attorney Russ Anson said. One of things we
did, which was kind of a lucky
thing that happened, was the
Lowpoint (district).
A luxury Johnstown was
afforded with the acquisition
of the district was officials
didnt have to go through the
state process and paperwork
to get it; all they had to do was
submit plans for the physical
plant.
Its like a special district,
like a fire district, Mellon explained. That (district) was
big. Without that sanitation
See 2534 on page 6