Student Housing: Student housing plan going before board
BY PAT FERRIER for Coloradoan.com
The Fort Collins Planning & Zoning board tonight will decide the fate of a 624-bed student housing project on the southwest corner of Centre Avenue and Rolland Moore Drive.
Campus Crest, a North Carolina-based student housing developer, plans to build 224 two- and three-bedroom units in 12 buildings on land owned by the CSU Research Foundation, or CSURF.
Campus Crest has an agreement to lease the land for 40 years, according to Kathleen Henry, president and chief executive officer of CSURF.
Colorado State University has owned the land, south of The Gardens on Spring Creek and west of the Natural Resources Research Center on Centre Avenue, for decades and has been holding on to it for future campus growth, Henry said.
When Campus Crest’s lease is up in 2050, CSU can determine whether to renew the lease for another 40 years or develop the land.
“CSU doesn’t need the land now for more academic buildings or lab space, but who knows where we might be in 30, 40 or 50 years,” she said.
Developing housing to accommodate about 600 students is a university priority, said Stuart MacMillan, a
real estate executive with CSURF’s real estate office.
The city’s three-unrelated rule, which restricts the number of unrelated people living in one home or apartment, “is driving the need for more student housing,” MacMillan said. “If it can be close to campus and we can have some good students housing, I think that is a good thing.”
All freshmen are required to live on campus and this year CSU has 841 non-freshmen living in the halls including resident assistants, according to CSU.
The project, called The Grove, has its critics, particularly among neighbors living in the Rolland Moore neighborhood.
The project calls for the extension of Rolland Moore Drive east to connect with Centre Avenue, providing access to the housing development.
Some have criticized Campus Crest as a company that builds cheap housing.
Elaine Minor, whose property backs up to the Campus Crest site, said the “quality of the product is undesirable for the city of Fort Collins.”
