PATHS WINS IN COURT!!!
Greetings Hughes Open Space Supporters!
We have excellent news regarding the City's lawsuit against half of the citizens ballot measure to conserve Hughes as open space!
We received the court ruling yesterday, and the Judge voted in favor of PATHS, ruling that we ARE legally allowed to direct the City to both ZONE AND ACQUIRE the Hughes stadium property if the ballot measure passes!! Recall that the City was attempting to strike from the ballot measure the entire section about the City having to acquire Hughes if the ballot measure passes. The City's claim that acquiring Hughes should NOT be on the ballot because the citizens do NOT have the legislative right to tell the City what to acquire FELL FLAT, and the Judge ruled with the citizens of Fort Collins. YAY!!!! The City can decide how to pay for Hughes, and when to make the acquisition, but again, the City will be court-ordered to both ZONE and ACQUIRE Hughes as open space for EVERYONE in our community to freely enjoy...IF THE BALLOT MEASURE PASSES. This means it is more important than ever to get our message out to the voters about why Hughes should be open space in perpetuity, and to do that, WE NEED ALL HANDS ON DECK!
All of your hard work and tireless efforts up to this point have created our best chance to save Hughes, so let's do this!!!
One last thing. We'd deeply appreciate donations to help offset legal fees to defend the citizens right to zone and acquire Hughes from the City's legal challenge. Our public interest/environmental attorneys did a tremendous job, and they need to be paid for their hard work on behalf of the citizens of Fort Collins.
The City council will take this issue up again on Feb 16, so please mark your calendars and tune in should we need to publicly comment with short notice!! It is VERY likely that we will get a chance to comment. This lawsuit may have hurt our campaign in that we are 6 weeks away from ballots going out, and we know most people vote in the first week of receiving their ballot. The City Clerk delayed posting our ballot language online because of the City's legal challenge, when we could have had the language posted back in November. So, now that we've won, let's make sure to tell City Council to stop this nonsense, give us our finalized ballot language, and allow the voters of Fort Collins to vote on this issue already!
Let's take this win and work as hard as we can for the next 6 weeks to inform Fort Collins about WHY Hughes should be conserved, and let's GET OUT THE VOTE!!
Warm Regards,
The PATHS Organizing Team
READ: COURT ORDER DENYING IN PART AND GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT #1
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DNySveUOokvBJKeno4OYNRRdoJ1R1cYC/view?usp=sharing
READ: COURT ORDER DENYING IN PART AND GRANTING IN PART MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT #2
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QLAWQGLCka7DA861QUTp9BvkBQ93b4C_/view?usp=sharing
***PATHS is a nonprofit group, and our attorneys are staunch advocates for grassroots citizens groups like us! They have been, and will continue to be, instrumental in our strategy and in drafting our legal positions as we proceed in this fight to Save Our Hughes Open Space. We need your help. Please donate now to help us pay our attorney fees and continue our grassroots fight to protect Hughes Open Space for all. ***
Thank you. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-conserve-hughes-open-space
