Construction of a new Love’s RV Park slated to begin this year likely will be pushed into 2023 after some late-coming input from the Colorado Department of Transportation. Local officials, however, are doing everything within their power to continue to push the project to the finish line.
The nearly 52-acre lot located at the eastern entrance to Cañon City is slated to include an RV park, hotel and travel plaza. There are several phases that must gain approval from the city, and the city requests input during each phase from various agencies, including water, sewer, utilities, fire and CDOT.
CDOT was late to give input, according to local officials.
"They have been invited to provide comments on numerous occasions, four different occasions, and there is a time limit the city gives to provide those comments," said Rob Brown, the executive director of Fremont Economic Development Corp., who also is the project representative. "If you don't provide comments, it is an indication as your agency that you don't have comments or that the project meets your needs."
The city had all of the permits ready to go when CDOT came in with their comments.
"The comments that they had aren't particularly challenging in the grand scheme of things, had they been done in context with the rest of the development," Brown said. "But when they are very near the permit stage, then it becomes a bigger challenge."
Because the comments are in ongoing negation, Brown isn't able to discuss the specifics at this time, but he said they mainly are things related to traffic flow.
He said the city, Love's and CDOT will go through a process to discuss these requests.
"It's not an issue to cause the project to stop or to not go forward," Brown said. "What it is is an issue that will cause the project to slow down and could potentially push the project well into 2023 as opposed to something that could be starting right away."
This affects local vendors and contractors, and from the city’s perspective, the sooner the project gets completed, the sooner the advantages associated with having a major retailer in the area will start to happen, including collecting sales tax and attracting tourists.
"Everyone, myself included and FEDC, is working really hard to come up with a solution to resolve these issues," Brown said. "Everybody, especially Love's, wants this to be a positive, safe project."
During Monday's regular city council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem John Hamrick expressed his displeasure with CDOT coming to the table so late in the process.
"CDOT is truly an agency out of control," he said. "They came in after the comment period expired with comments that were kind of a 'Christmas a wish list.' That is not what a responsible agency does; it appears to be pretty individualized comments as opposed to agency-type comments. It makes it very difficult with regulated entities to have to deal with such a horrendous regulatory structure."
He said Love's is doing their best and he will do everything that he can to help them.
"When you're up against CDOT, sometimes the deck is stacked against you," he said.
Mayor Ashley Smith said everyone in the city, including staff, has done their best to be good business partners for Love's.
"We wish them the best and if we need to go to bat, then we will go to bat," she said. “... We are here to help them as much as we can.”
Brown said Hamrick is right, that officials need to stay on top of these issues and that there is room for improvement with CDOT’s processes.
"This could have been resolved virtually a year ago if CDOT would have responded like the other agencies did," Brown said. "All of the other agencies have done an exceptional job of staying on top of the issue and providing their comments and being creative and being malleable so that we could get this all figured out"
City Administrator Ryan Stevens said that based on feedback from Love's, they have been 'very happy' with how quickly they moved through the city's process.
"From start to end, it took about six or seven months," he said. "In other communities, they see that same process go anywhere from 12 to 18 months and sometimes longer."
Love's has been a good partner for the community, Brown said, and has worked hard and cleared every hurdle that has been put in front of them.
"We all should be appreciative of how Love's has responded," he said. "The City of Cañon City has been very responsive, and they've done a good job of managing the project from beginning to end. ... Love’s impression of the project is all positive."
Love's is paying for the public infrastructure, including changes in turn lanes, the creation of a new road and new sewer and water lines that have to be brought in and then will be given to the city for future maintenance.
The first phase of the project will include earthwork to accommodate the components of the development and the first physical construction will be the underground gas, water and sewer lines. After that, the travel stop will go up, which will include a convenience store and gas and diesel pumps that will accommodate light-duty cars and trucks and RVs.
The second phase of the overall project will be the RV park.
"Love's is a very conservative, successful organization; they don’t do things haphazardly," Brown said. "They do things that will assure their success and that is what I really admire about them - their professionalism and their dedication to the details. Everyone in the community can rest assured that as they move forward, this is going to be a premium effort."
