What Is It That They’re Building South of the Larimer County Landfill?

Driving or biking along Taft Hill Road, on the south side of Fort Collins, you become used to only seeing the landfill as you approach Trilby Road. That's changed.

When you don't get over to the west side of Fort Collins often enough, you're bound to see new things pop up now, and again. This one caught me by surprise, because it's next to the landfill and close to that "buffer zone" between Fort Collins and Loveland.

It was back in 1995, that Loveland, Fort Collins and Larimer County first came together to begin creating a zone between the two cities. Their initial plan had six goals:

• Maintain each community's unique identity.
• Preserve character of the area as predominantly rural.
• Maintain visual and physical separation of communities.
• Preserve significant open lands.
• Develop appropriate strategies to further the implementation of the plan.
• Include a transportation system that complements the area plan.

Clearly, this area, north of Trilby Road, falls outside of that buffer area, but a project like this does stand out.

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WHAT IS THE PROJECT?

It's the new Larimer County Behavioral Health Facility.

If you're like me, you may have said to yourself, 'I DO remember that, but I didn't know where it was going.'

It was ballot issue 1A for Larimer County residents in the November 2018 elections:

PROVIDING MENTAL HEALTH CARE SERVICES FOR RESIDENTS OF LARIMER COUNTY

Voters approved the .25% sales tax increase to build the 55,000-square-foot facility on 40 acres of land that was donated by Larimer County which was set to cost $35 million. The Coloradoan reports that costs have now risen to above $43 million

Among other objectives, the state-of-the-art facility (slated to be operational in 2023) will give authorities a better place to take those in crisis, as opposed to jail or the hospital.