Nonprofit Polestar Village plans new urbanism development on west Fort Collins farm
Pat Ferrier
Fort Collins Coloradoan
5/5/22
A proposal that would build a community based on spirituality, new urbanism and education in west Fort Collins will be the subject of a neighborhood meeting next week.
Polestar Village, formerly based in Pahoa, Hawaii, has proposed building 136 homes — a combination of single-family detached homes, townhomes, condos and apartments — a community center, group home for elder care, community garden and temple near the intersection of South Overland Trail and West Elizabeth Street.
The 22-year-old entity says it is an educational nonprofit supporting the “physical, mental and spiritual development of students of all ages.” It decided in July to move operations to Fort Collins after lava from the Kilauea volcano burned down its main structure in Pahoa.
Polestar President Michael Gornik told the Coloradoan last year he has known Happy Heart Farm owners Dennis and Bailey Stenson for 40 years and they invited him to Fort Collins to take a look at their property as a potential site.
The 20-acre property includes four separate parcels. Polestar has closed on 9 acres that were once Happy Heart Farm and are in escrow for the remaining three pieces, Gornik said Wednesday.
The site will not include the 1909 single-family home that fronts on West Elizabeth Street. Plans include extending West Plum to the west and then curving north to intersect with an extension of Orchard Place. The site is one-quarter mile east of South Overland Trail in between West Elizabeth and Orchard Place.
Yoga and meditation are a large part of Polestar’s teaching focus, Gornik told the Coloradoan in a 2021 interview. He has spent most of his life in “intentional communities” — a planned residential community designed with a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork — where your neighbors are your friends, you share values and the community watches out for and mentors children.
A big priority is providing attainable housing, Gornik said, including a “fair number of (multifamily) rentals” that don’t require expensive, individual water and sewer tap fees.
Also included is an elder care facility that will be housed in the same building as a preschool so multiple generations can interact. “It’s a good way to keep the community connected and those with special needs helping each other,” Gornik said.
Gornik had hoped to have all approvals in place by now, “but everything takes longer than you think,” he said. He now hopes to have all the property entitlements in place by “this time next year,” but expects the project to develop over the next five to 10 years.
The Fort Collins Planning and Zoning Board will decide whether to approve the project. No hearing date has been scheduled yet.
Polestar can file formal plans no sooner than 10 days after the neighborhood meeting, which is one of the first steps in the city’s approval process.
https://www.coloradoan.com/story/money/2022/05/05/polestar-village-plans-new-urbanism-development-fort-collins-farm/9631238002/
