Buoyed by a unanimous Colorado Supreme Court decision in a Telluride case and the City of Greeley’s response, supporters of the proposed Catalyst entertainment district and Cascadia mixed-use developments are asking the Weld District Court to strike down voters’ Feb. 24 repeal of zoning for the projects in west Greeley as unconstitutional.
On the eve of the election, three entities controlled by project developer Martin Lind sued the City of Greeley and Greeley Demands Better, the issue committee that petitioned the repeal onto the municipal ballot, alleging that the issue should not have been placed before voters.
“The City admits that now, under the Colorado Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kavanaugh v. Telluride Locals Coalition Petitioners’ Committee, … Ballot Measure IA concerned an administrative matter,” the plaintiffs wrote in a 16-page motion filed Monday. “This means the measure is unconstitutional because under Kavanaugh, the voter powers of initiative and referendum cannot be used to invalidate administrative acts, which include site-specific PUD applications or agreements.”
Because “there are no material factual disputes precluding resolution of this matter,” they wrote, “plaintiffs respectfully request the Court enter judgment in their favor declaring Ballot Measure 1A unconstitutional and reinstating Ordinance No. 30,” the City Council’s September vote to approve the PUD zoning.
In a five-page response to the district court filed Thursday, the Greeley city attorney’s office acknowledged the factual claims in the Lind entities’ lawsuit but said the questions of constitutionality “call for legal conclusions.” Therefore, the response said, “Defendant City of Greeley respectfully requests that the Court determine the declaration sought by Plaintiffs is appropriate.”
Greeley Demands Better and its attorney have contended that the Telluride case does not affect the Greeley case because it only applied to an amendment to a PUD, not the zoning itself. The project opponents are likely to make that argument before Weld District Judge Shannon Lyons.
In a footnote, the plaintiffs wrote that “the City ‘recognizes that, while the facts in Kavanaugh v. Telluride Locals Coalition … were different, the Supreme Court’s rationale appears to support the conclusion that Ballot Issue 1A involved an administrative matter. There nevertheless remains a controversy because the City Clerk certified the ballot issue. Greeley looks forward to the Court’s determination of that issue so that the parties can proceed accordingly’.” Intervenor opposes the motion.”
Horizontal construction had already begun on the projects before the election.
The Catalyst entertainment district is proposed to include a hotel, water park and an ice arena that would house the Colorado Eagles minor-league hockey team owned by Lind. That city-owned tract would anchor Lind’s privately owned Cascadia residential and commercial project, a master-planned residential and commercial community that would surround it.
The City Council in May 2025 approved an ordinance outlining the financing plan for the entertainment district. That plan authorized the use of $115 million worth of certificates of participation to lease several high-profile city facilities as collateral to pay for the plan.
Lind and the city had structured the plan, he said before the election, so that “100% of Greeley’s investment is paid back to Greeley when we issue the bonds in June. The liability of this project leaves Greeley and it goes to the bondholders in June.”
But the election scuttled that plan.
Deputy City Manager Allena Portis told the council in April that proceeds from the certificates would have been reimbursed through the general improvement district, water and sewer fees, and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. That $115 million “would have been reduced to zero by 2027, and those buildings would no longer be used as collateral under this plan.”
Instead, she said, the city also has to deal with the rising estimated cost of the project, which has risen from more than $910.6 million in March 2025 to more than $959.4 million as of last February. She said the city is now $127 million short of being able to pay off the project’s total cost.
After six weeks of reviewing issues surrounding the projects, a city-appointed citizens’ oversight committee recommended to City Council members that the city keep looking for a potential financial partner and paused its work until the city finds one.
The case in Weld District Court is Trollco Inc., dba The Water Valley Co., Vima Partners LLC and Patriot Energy LLC v. City of Greeley, case No. 2026CV30225.
