Inform Firestone

From the Greeley Tribune:

Life Bridge church development in dispute again, this time with Firestone residents

Christopher Ortiz
cortiz@greeleytribune.com

The decision to let a megachurch build its massive religious complex in Firestone should be one made by voters, according to one group.

InformFirestone is leading a campaign to collect enough signatures to ask voters if LifeBridge Christian Church should be allowed to build its Union development project in their town.

Dan Sanger, one of the founders of InformFirestone, said it’s not an issue that LifeBridge is a church. Rather, the issue is if the town board rushed its decision to annex land for the project and had all the information it needed before giving the go ahead.

“It’s not a question of who’s developing,” said Sanger. “It’s not really question should LifeBridge develop. It comes down to timing.”

Sanger argues the town board made its decision only days after receiving the annexation proposal and gave their preliminary approval just before the town’s elections in April.

Though he stands by the town board’s decision, Mayor Chad Auer said he respects InformFirestone’s right of due process to go forward with its ballot initiative.

“We had all the information and we are acting in the best interest of the town,” said Auer. “I get what they want to do. I think it’s legitimate.”

Church officials are still working through the red tape. They’ve finished the annexation part and are now going through the development plan with the city.

The church’s spokesman did not returns calls seeking comments for this story.

Controversy has followed the church and its search for a home for its Union development.

The megachurch officials envision a project with 300 apartments, condominiums, single-family homes, 40 acres of office, commercial and retail space and 57 acres of religious and civic space.

The church had sought to build the project on Longmont but pulled out after public outcry prompted city officials to withdraw their support.

Sanger said the fight Firestone is different than the one that took place in Longmont.

“We are haunted a little by what happened in Longmont and people are going to make a comparison,” he said. “A lot of hard feelings were based around the church issue in Longmont and that is too bad. I don’t think people should base their opinion on something because a church is doing it.”

InformFirestone hopes to submit enough signatures — they need about 250 — by Friday to take the issue to voters. But when is still up in the air.

The group is too late to get it on the primary election ballot but the general election in November seems possible. A special election also is a possibility.

Though InformFirestone was formed out of the LifeBridge issue, Sanger said he plans for it to not be a single-issue group.

“What we are really about is trying to make people aware of what is going on in their community,” he said. “I think the town government does a good job but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for other people to bring awareness.”

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.