At the most recent meeting of the Berthoud Board of Trustees, the board voted by a thin 4-3 margin, with Mayor Will Karspeck and Trustees Maureen Dower, Tim Hardy and May Soricelli in the majority, to reject the amended service plan for the Turion Metropolitan District, formerly known as Wilson Ranch. The results of the board’s decision have the potential to be far-reaching in terms of revenue to the town as well as well for growth.

For background, the proposed 1,600-acre Turion development, which is located on the southeastern corner of I-25 and Highway 56, calls for the construction of over 4,000 homes and roughly 5.1 million square feet of commercial space to be built out over a period of 30-plus years in over 30 phases of construction, according to development plans presented.

The developer is operating under the name of Front Range Investment Holdings, LLC., and, as has been reported, Microsoft co-founder and former chairman Bill Gates is an investor in the proposed project.

According to Town Administrator Chris Kirk, who spoke with the Surveyor in respect to this story, Front Range Investment Holdings already had in place a Planned Unit Development (PUD) with a comprehensive development manual, basically rough draft plans for the site. The agreement dates back to Feb. 24, 2004, when the then Berthoud Board of Trustees unanimously approved the plan following a lengthy legal battle to annex the parcel into town limits.

The original service plan for the now-named Turion development allowed only a limited amount of debt to be issued; the developers approached the board asking for an increase in the debt limit.

“The development has changed significantly since it was originally approved. There is a high infrastructure demand, the costs have obviously skyrocketed for everything over the last 20 years and so they were asking, knowing it’s a 30-year project and things are only going to continue to get more expensive, so they asked for an increase in the debt they could issue and a majority of the board said no to that service plan amendment,” Kirk explained.

“The big sticking point, as I heard the discussion, was that the developers were asking for an increase in their ability to issue debt in the future,” Kirk said. The developer was asking for a lower mil levy for the commercial portion of the project, at least in part due to the repeal of the Gallagher Amendment in 2020 election.

Despite the Berthoud board’s rejection of the amended service plan, “They can continue to move forward with the project, it changes their financial models, obviously,” Kirk said. “I’m not sure what they’ll do.”

There exists the potential for the developers to fight the town in response to the rejection of the service plan or to ask for the land to be de-annexed whereby, it is assumed, that neighboring Johnstown or Mead, the latter town’s board approved a similar agreement that was put before the Berthoud board a week earlier. The town of Berthoud has reaped enormous financial benefits from growth; the town coffers rake in five-figures for every building permit issued and there are additional funds generated by sales tax revenue and the like.

In other issues related to town business, Kirk explained the town has plans for increased pickle ball space at the Waggener Farm Park development that includes the new Berthoud rec center. There were concerns expressed by some residents regarding the decision by the board to remove the pickle ball courts from the new Town Park design concepts. Kirk stated that “six to eight” new pickle ball courts and “at least one new tennis court” could be quickly added to Waggener in the area adjacent to the currently in-place playground and basketball court area, and paid for with cash, should the board opt to prioritize the new tennis and pickle ball courts.

On the Town Park design concepts, Kirk explained that due to the need for ballfield space for town recreation programming, that, if the board approves the new design, that the western side of the park will be completed first and the current ballfields left intact. When the board approves and the town can construct the new Richardson Park – located north of Loveland Reservoir directly west of Berthoud Parkway – with initial design concepts including substantial ballfield space, the current ballfields on 5^th street near Ivy Stockwell can be replaced in accordance with the park design concept plans.

The town is developing plans to complete the Spartan Ave. extension that will eventually intersect at First St. but is waiting on approval from the BNSF railroad line, as a rail crossing will be needed, and have other engineering and design work to complete. Said Kirk, “I think we’re still 18 months out, minimum, for the start of construction there.”

Kirk said, “membership response has been outstanding,” at the new Berthoud rec center with “roughly 2,000” memberships purchased and “substantially more” daily users than the town projected and budgeted for in revenue forecasts.

Lastly, Kirk stated that interest in further commercial development in approved areas has been robust. The commercial development at the intersection of Berthoud Parkway and Highway 287 is progressing as planned and the businesses – Kum & Go, Starbucks, McDonald’s and Taco Bell – will be completed this year with vertical construction beginning in the next 60 days, weather permitting.