Rebecca Powell, Fort Collins Coloradoan | Published 5:02 a.m. MT Jan. 31st, 2025
If you live in Fort Collins, you might receive a postcard inviting you to help figure out the future of the former Hughes Stadium site.
Colorado State University’s football team played its last game at the nearly 50-year-old Hughes Stadium eight years ago, and the new on-campus stadium opened in 2017.
The stadium was later demolished and the site sold to the city of Fort Collins upon the insistence of voters, who said they wanted the land to be limited to “parks, recreation, and open lands, natural areas, and wildlife rescue and restoration,” according to the ballot language.
This spring brings the public input process on what exactly to do with the land, and in the summer, City Council is expected to decide what to pursue.
To kick off that process, “lottery invitation” postcards will be sent through the mail randomly in February as part of an innovative form of public engagement called the “civic assembly.”
The idea is to gather a group that is demographically representative to consider neutrally prepared information in a deliberative way before making a final recommendation to city leadership.
A video created by the city says the civic assembly is “a fresh approach to solve complex issues.”
“Imagine a community brainstorm where residents from all walks of life come together to collaboratively tackle challenges and even potentially divisive topics and find common ground,” the video states.
Those ultimately chosen for the civic assembly will be paid and receive compensation for meals and child care during the gathering, in order to help overcome barriers to participation.
Here’s how the civic assembly selection process will work
In early February, 15,000 postcards will be sent out randomly to Fort Collins residents, inviting them to participate, according to information presented to City Council during a Jan. 28 work session.
Fort Collins residents age 16 and older who are not elected officials or members of a city board or commission can be considered to move on to the next step of the selection process.
These volunteers’ demographic information will then be analyzed to create groups that are representative of the city in key areas. These might be age, location of residence, income, languages spoken, educational attainment and housing status, Assistant City Manager Rupa Venkatesh told council.
From that pool, the participants in the civic assembly will then be randomly selected.
For example, if 20% of Fort Collins residents are age 18 to 24, then 20% of the civic assembly panel will be, too. But the individuals will be chosen randomly.
An information committee will compile information and viewpoints from different sources to present to the civic assembly, which will consider all options.
The civic assembly will be held during two weekends: April 12-13 and May 2-4.
The idea is to have the body deliberate thoughtfully, through conversation and collaboration.
When done, the civic assembly will make its recommendations to city leadership. A City Council vote is planned for summer, Venkatesh said.
The city is collaborating on the project with the Healthy Democracy Fund with help from The American Public Trust, CSU’s Center for Public Deliberation and Straayer Center for Public Service Leadership, and the Local Policy Lab.
The Center for Public Deliberation will recruit 26 “guides” who will be trained to gather information from the community to be presented neutrally to the civic assembly.These guides could be anyone with a specific interest in getting feedback from specific communities, such as Indigenous groups, the bicycling community and people who were involved in the Hughes ballot initiative, said Ginny Sawyer, project and policy manager in the city manager’s office.
The assembly’s large-group sessions will be open to the public, along with the gathering where the group makes recommendations, Venkatesh said, but not the small group deliberation sessions.
Other outreach also planned
Prior to the assembly, the city is planning to have a facilitated conversation with the Native community and a tribal government conversation. Information from both will be part of information presented at the civic assembly.
And there will still be traditional outreach. Anyone will be able to respond to a survey, and the city is also considering hosting a traditional town hall about the Hughes site, Sawyer said.
Will there be a bike park at Hughes?
Council members Susan Gutowsky and Melanie Potyondy said they’ve received emails indicating some residents are worried that a particular outcome is already a foregone conclusion because of a push by some residents to include bike recreation at the former Hughes site.
There’s a separate bike park feasibility study in the works now because of high community interest in having a facility, Sawyer said, and it will take a high-level look at potential bike park locations, size, amenities and other needs.”I feel like people think the bike park feasibility study has something to do with the civic assembly when it doesn’t,” Potyondy said. “It’s only part of the Hughes conversation because it’s one of many sites in which a bike park could potentially exist in our city.”
That study is meant to inform council as it works through the Hughes decision, said Dean Klinger, community services director.
When council makes a decision, likely in August, it will also have the recommendations from the civic assembly and community feedback from traditional outreach, Venkatesh said.
How to participate
Visit the Our City Fort Collins website for more information on the civic assembly, traditional outreach and how you can get involved. There’s also a community survey.
Read the full https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2025/01/31/what-should-fort-collins-do-with-hughes-stadium-land-process-begins/78026109007/post here.
