HUGHES UPDATE: 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’s ruling on February 3, and the Judge ruled IN FAVOR OF PATHS, concluding that the citizens of Fort Collins ARE legally allowed to direct the City to both ZONE AND ACQUIRE the Hughes stadium green space if the ballot measure passes!! Recall that the City was attempting to strike from the ballot measure the ENTIRE section that directs the City to make good-faith efforts 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 instead ruled with the citizens of Fort Collins. YAY!!!! The City can decide how to pay for Hughes, and when to make the acquisition, but 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 our friends and neighbors about why Hughes should be open space in perpetuity, and to do that, WE NEED ALL HANDS ON DECK!
The hard work and tireless efforts of our members and volunteers 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 the significant legal fees we incurred to defend the citizens’ right to zone and acquire Hughes. 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 up the issue of the Hughes ballot language again on Tuesday, 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 5 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, even though 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 finally give us our 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 5 weeks to inform Fort Collins voters about WHY Hughes should be conserved and freely-available to ALL members of our community in perpetuity, and let’s GET OUT THE VOTE!!
With Gratitude,
The PATHS Organizing Team
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Donate To Keep Hughes Open Space:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-conserve-hughes-open-space
PLEASE HELP US CONSERVE HUGHES FOR OUR ENTIRE COMMUNITY AND FOR OUR LOCAL WILDLIFE!
BECAUSE ONCE IT’S GONE, IT’S GONE FOREVER.