master plan for vast fort collins residential development project approved

A project that could see the eventual construction of nearly 4,000 new homes in a community-like setting has won the approval of the Fort Collins City Council.

What is being called Montava will be developed by the Fort Collins-based development company HF2M, going up on some 850 currently vacant and rural acres just to the west of the famous Anheuser-Busch production facility at 2531 Busch Drive.

Long in the talking and planning stage, the project is designed to respond to both the continuing population growth of northern Colorado, as well as the stated desires of homebuyers who put as much stock in the neighborhoods they are moving into as they do the houses they are buying.

Plans submitted to the Fort Collins council have shown a development with residential units of varying sizes on winding landscaped streets inside a community that will also include schools, retail space, a town center, and green space.

All of the homes, some 60 percent of which will be single-family with the rest multi-family, will be built to zero energy standards.

The developer has also agreed to the construction of just under 400 homes to be designated as affordable housing for residents earning at least 60 percent of the area median income.

An additional feature of the project, which is also being seen in more and more planned community developments in the West, will be the creation of a working farm.
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It is thought that it may cost as much as $300 million to totally build out Montava, working on a time frame that may not reach completion for another three decades.

​By Garry Boulard

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