A petition being circulated by a group hoping that voters in November will get a chance to have their say on the Greeley City Council’s approval of the complex financing plan for a $1.1 billion sports and entertainment project on the city’s western edge has won the endorsement of the Greeley-Weld chapter of the League of Women Voters.
Collecting 4,518 valid signatures from registered voters residing in Greeley by Aug. 6 would put the issue on the ballot in November. If passed, it would invalidate the present funding arrangement and essentially pause, but not end, the project.
Ordinance 2025-15, approved May 6 by the Greeley City Council, authorizes the financing plan for an entertainment district on city-owned land near Weld County Road 17 and U.S. Highway 34 that would include an ice arena, hotel and water park and anchor Windsor-based developer Martin Lind’s proposed Cascadia mixed-use development.
“While the League of Women Voters does not take a position on Cascadia,” said a news release issued Tuesday by the League’s local chapter, “it has a longstanding tradition of supporting citizen involvement in government.”
“Democracy works best when the citizens participate,” chapter president Jeanne Lipman said in a prepared statement. “Slow the process down a little and let the people have a say.”
Lipman confirmed that neither she nor the League holds a position on the project, but added that “Greeley has grown a lot in the 50 years I’ve lived here, and this project, if it’s successful, would help it grow even more. Now is a good time to make sure we are all behind this kind of growth.
“Having such an expensive project go forward on the vote of just five people bypasses the will of the voters,” she said.
Petitions are being circulated by the citizens group Greeley Deserves Better at community events such as Friday Fest and the Arts Picnic, grocery stores, and coffee shops.
The plan authorized the city to mortgage 46 public buildings — including City Hall, the Police Department, City Center North, the Ice Haus and three fire stations — as collateral for the private development. The plan includes using $115 million worth of “certificates of participation” to lease those city facilities to Salt Lake City-based Zions Bancorp. as collateral to pay for the first phase of the core entertainment district dubbed “Catalyst.”
Reached Wednesday, Lind said no one from the opposition group has reached out to him, his development company or a group called Greeley Forward that is advocating for the project.
“We have vetted this to make it successful,” Lind said. “We know the project intimately and feel it’s amazingly defendable financially and a game-changer for Greeley that they won’t see for another five decades if they don’t get it.
“We don’t feel they’re asking questions, just giving opinions,” Lind said.
A statement issued Wednesday by Greeley Forward added that “this announcement by the League urging Greeley voters to disregard a supermajority vote by their democratically elected City Council is a terrible look and highly inconsistent with the League’s own democratic values.”
