In just a few hours, Fort Collins City Council gained a mayor and three other new council members, got a new mayor pro-tem and freed up Tuesday nights for four council members who’d amassed a cumulative 26 years at the dais.
Mayor Jeni Arndt and new council members Tricia Canonico, Kelly Ohlson and Shirley Peel were sworn in Tuesday night at City Council’s first in-person meeting in months. Council member Susan Gutowsky was also sworn in for her second term. Shortly after, the new council unanimously named Emily Gorgol as mayor pro-tem. The mayor pro-tem attends weekly leadership meetings with the mayor and staff leaders and runs council meetings in the mayor’s absence.
Fort Collins City Council approved a new policy for metro districts, potentially bringing some clarity to a development discussion that has been a source of disagreement for the last two years.
Metro districts allow developers to increase property taxes of a development’s eventual residents to help fund infrastructure costs. The approach is controversial because, left unchecked, poorly managed metro districts can lead to significant tax burdens on residents.
Proponents of metro districts say the funding lowers the barrier to entry for development, which has grown increasingly expensive, and presents the city with an opportunity to incentivize things like affordable housing, energy and water efficiency, and neighborhood livability.
Jeni Arndt will be Fort Collins next mayor.
Arndt won with about 63% of the vote, or 23,778 of nearly 38,000 votes cast, according to unofficial results from the City Clerk s Office released after 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Candidate Molly Skold came in second with 25% of the vote, or 9,541 votes.
Candidate Gerry Horak came in third with 12% of the vote, or 4,593 votes.
Arndt s blowout victory was a decisive finale for an unusually competitive mayoral race. Though the race is officially nonpartisan, the results also represent a political departure for Fort Collins: The city hasn t had a registered Democrat as mayor since the 1990s.
The turnout in this year s election, which topped 41,000 ballots, was the highest turnout the city has seen in a municipal election since at least 1999. Voters returned 41,236 of 112,686 ballots sent, according to turnout figures released Wednesday morning. The turnout easily bested the last municipal election in 2019, which drew 32,799 ballots. Th
Live coverage: More than 40,000 ballots returned in Fort Collins election Eric Larsen and Jacy Marmaduke, Fort Collins Coloradoan
2021 Fort Collins election: What s on your ballot
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It s Election Day 2021 in Fort Collins time to decide on a new mayor, the future of the former Hughes Stadium property and whether paper or plastic will become a relic of past shopping trips.
Between those races and four City Council seats up for grabs, there s plenty to be decided once polls close at 7 p.m. The Coloradoan will have fresh stories once results are posted tonight. Until then, let s wait together.