• Historic Preservation Funding at Risk 
  
  • The National Park Service distributes more than $150 million to support historic preservation work every year through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF). Established in 1977 and financed by off-shore oil and gas leases, the HPF provides money for grant programs and the daily work of State Historic Preservation Offices (SHPOs) and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (THPOs). Although Congress appropriated funds for the 2025 Fiscal Year in March, the money has not yet been released, placing historic sites and work on historic preservation projects at risk. In addition, the proposed 2026 budget plans to cut funding for the HPF almost entirely. Learn more about the Historic Preservation Fund from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. 
• Historic Larimer County Lincoln Park Tour - Sunday, July 13
  
  • Join Historic Larimer County on a tour of Lincoln Park, commonly known as Library Park, and the historic cabins in the Heritage Courtyard on Sunday, July 13 at 1 p.m. The tour is an opportunity to learn about several important Fort Collins Landmarks. More information and RSVP at the Historic Larimer County website.

Are you a historic property owner?

Contact Historic Preservation Services (preservation@fcgov.com; 970-224-6078) to learn more about financial support programs for qualifying rehabilitation work, like our Landmark Rehab Loan Program, and to learn about requirements for review of exterior alterations to your property. Not sure if your property is designated? Check out the Historic Resources Map!

Do you own a non-designated historic building? All owners of historic properties, regardless of designation, are currently eligible for our Design Assistance Program, which offers mini grants for project planning and connects you with expert consultants specializing in historic buildings. Contact staff for details at preservation@fcgov.com!

Last Month's Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) Decisions

Meeting Date: June 18, 2025

• Consent Agenda (APPROVED 7-0)
  • Minutes of May 21, 2025
• Discussion Agenda: 
  • Staff Activity Report
  • Commercial Corridor and Parking Minimum Code Changes (Acknowledged, no action taken)
  • Advisory Letter to City Council - Recommend Eliminating Parking Minimums (APPROVED 7-0)
  • Conceptual Development Review - 360 Linden Street (Comments Provided, no action taken)
  • Education and Training in honor of Juneteenth - Charlie Clay Family History by Meg Dunn 

Headed to City Park for July 4? Say Hello to This Landmark

City Park is one of those places that matter to a lot of people. Kids play soccer on the park's open fields. The trails around the park offer a soothing stroll with best friends (people and puppies). The baseball fields have been where Fort Collins residents can catch a game, but also where people began to break down some of our community’s deepest racial divisions. The trees, growing there for over a century, provide shade during the summers for folks to sit, play, and picnic under. And the playground is a great place for kids to just have fun…

…and if you’ve been to the playground, you probably noticed the cannon. And perhaps wondered, “Why is there a cannon in City Park?”

The City Park Cannon is a City Landmark, designated by City Council in 1997. This 5,000 pound cannon has been in the park since 1932, when the American Legion (George Beach Post #4) presented it to the City of Fort Collins as a memorial to Fort Collins residents who fought and died in the First World War. The meaning of the cannon has been debated by city residents over time, some finding it a fitting reminder of those military veterans who are no longer with us, and some viewing it as an unwelcome celebration of violence and warfare. Like many City Landmarks, it can mean different things to different people, but it has become a regular part of the City Park landscape.

If you’re visiting City Park this summer, walk or roll over to the playgrounds off West Oak Street and visit the cannon.

The City Park Cannon is just one of many monuments around Fort Collins, old and new. Whether it’s the newly rededicated Veterans Plaza in Spring Canyon Park, or the memorial to Annie the Railroad Dog in Library Park, monuments can give us an opportunity for reflection about ourselves and our perspectives of the world around us. Next time you walk or roll past a monument, what thoughts come to mind for you?

July 2025 is the kickoff month for a historic preservation code revision process that will extend into 2026. The code requirements that guide historic preservation work in Fort Collins were last updated in March 2019—in the meantime trends, best practices and local conditions have continued to evolve, and it is also time for another cycle of alignment with our broader citywide strategic goals.

Preservation code requirements govern the identification and designation of landmark properties, exterior alterations to landmark properties, and the treatment of cultural and historic resources on or adjacent to development sites. While some of the identified code revisions are simple cleanup measures to correct errors or clarify language and intent, certain topics will require public engagement and careful consideration by City Council. Staff has organized those into seven general categories, as follows:

• Simplify and Optimize Historic Survey (Identification of Historic Resources): This category includes an examination of existing historic survey requirements that are a pre-submittal step for Development Review applications.
• Treatment of Historic Resources in Redevelopment/Adaptive Reuse Scenarios: Revisions would provide more clarity and early certainty about options that will successfully comply with code requirements when development sites contain historic resources.
• Demolition Review and Noticing: Addition of this code section would optimize and codify the demolition review and noticing process, which is currently an administrative process not reflected or appropriately connected to related processes in the code.
• Determinations of Landmark Eligibility: A review and potential revisions to the current process for appeals of official determinations of eligibility.
• Landmark Nominations: Consideration of this topic will address recent concerns about the process for non-owner-initiated landmark nominations.
• Update Landmark Eligibility Standards: Council may wish to consider the addition of the cultural significance of a property as a fifth option that would support an argument for landmark eligibility.
• Clarify processes related to archeological resources: Review and update code language to align with expectations about archeological resource management and tribal consultation.

In the coming months, the community will have opportunities to guide the revisions process through feedback at public events, online comments and participation in a focus group. We will provide monthly updates on this project in this newsletter to keep the community involved and up to date, while anticipating adoption of proposed code changes in the second quarter of 2026.

On Saturday June 14, Historic Preservation Services spent the day at the 1883 Waterworks for Poudre Landmark Foundation's Big Splash event. The Waterworks was one of Fort Collins' first City Landmarks, designated in 1971. We asked attendees about their favorite local landmarks and to suggest future new landmarks. Here's what people said: 

Designated Landmarks:

• Avery House (328 W. Mountain Ave.)
• Avery Block (100-124 N. College Ave.)
• Fort Collins Trolley (landmarked as Birney Streetcar #21)

Suggested Future Landmarks:

• 1957 City Hall (300 Laporte Ave.)
• Old Town Square 
• Ralph Parshall Home (926 Akin Ave.)
• Trilby Schoolhouse (6605 S. College Ave.)

July HPC Meetings Cancelled: The HPC's July 9, 2025, work session and July 16, 2025, regular meeting are cancelled due to lack of agenda items.

Next Work Session: August 13, 2025, at 5:30 p.m., in person at City Hall (300 Laporte Ave., CIC Room). Public may attend, but no public participation occurs at work sessions.

Next Regular Meeting: August 20, 2025, at 5:30 p.m., in person at City Hall (300 Laporte Ave., Council Chambers) or virtually via Zoom. Public may attend and provide comment.

Agenda:

• Consent Agenda
  • Minutes of June 18, 2025
• Discussion Agenda: 
  • Staff Activity Report
  • Conceptual Development Review - 1000 W. Prospect, Claude and Clara Coffin Property (Landmark eligible; proposed on-site relocation and site densification with multi-story housing)
  • Other Items TBD

Surveys in Progress:
We are currently researching the following properties to determine if they are eligible to be Fort Collins Landmarks in association with a current development review application. Determinations of eligibility are based on the best available information today and are valid for five years. Members of the public with information regarding the history of these properties should contact Historic Preservation Services asap at preservation@fcgov.com.

• 1215 S. Shields St. - 1914 single-unit dwelling - Development Review - demolition proposed to accommodate multi-unit building
• 1211 S. Shields St. - 1923 single-unit dwelling - Development Review - demolition proposed to accommodate multi-unit building
• 1207 S. Shields St. - 1949 single-unit dwelling - Development Review - demolition proposed to accommodate multi-unit building
• 1185 Westward Dr. - 1960 single-unit dwelling - Development Review - demolition proposed to accommodate multi-unit building
• 1000 W. Prospect Rd. - 1930 single-unit dwelling - Development Review - potential site densification or relocation proposed
• 1501 S. Lemay Ave. - 1973 office building - Development Review - rooftop cell tower proposed

Recent Survey Results: 

• 1402 Peterson St. - 1925 single-unit dwelling - potential Landmark nomination; Landmark Eligible
• 139 Pearl St. - c. 1910 single-unit dwelling - potential Landmark nomination; Landmark Eligible 
• 616 E. Laurel St. - c. 1956 duplex - Permit Planning - Exterior Alteration; Not Landmark Eligible 
• 2839 S. College Ave. - c. 1970 commercial building - Development Review - Demolition proposed to accommodate grocery store; Not Landmark Eligible

The City of Fort Collins requires public notification prior to the demolition of single-unit residences over 50 years of age. These notifications occur to inform neighbors of a potential change coming to their neighborhood and because certain groups can nominate a property for Landmark designation against the wishes of a property owner under Municipal Code Sec. 14-31 (the HPC by motion, a City Councilmember by written request, or three residents together by petition). Public noticing is considered complete the day after the HPC meeting for which it is noticed. Written public comments can be submitted to preservation@fcgov.com up to 48 hours prior to the HPC meeting for inclusion with the meeting packet. These notifications appear on the commission's discussion agenda, and an opportunity for spoken public comment will also be provided at the meeting. Visit the recently updated Single-Unit Dwelling Demolition Notification webpage for more detailed information on this process.

Active Demolition Notices:

• No active notifications

Recently Completed Demolition Notices:

• 408 N. Loomis Ave., built c. 1906; (no public comment at 5/21/2025 HPC Meeting; no action taken by HPC)
• 121 N. Whitcomb St., built c. 1895; (no public comment at 5/21/2025 HPC Meeting; no action taken by HPC)
• 712 Scenic Dr., built 1975; (no public comment at 4/16/2025 HPC meeting; no action taken by HPC)
• 125 W. Trilby Rd., built 1963; (no public comment at 4/16/2025 HPC meeting; no action taken by HPC)
• 616 W. Olive St., built 1924; (no public comment at 4/16/2025 HPC meeting; no action taken by HPC)

Horsetooth Reservoir was dedicated 74 years ago on July 21, 1951!

The reservoir is one small part of the Bureau of Reclamation's Colorado-Big Thompson (CBT) project which moves water under the continental divide from the Colorado River Basin to the Front Range. Begun in 1938, CBT is a complex system of reservoirs, pumps, tunnels, pipelines and power plants that provides drinking water, irrigation water, and energy to more than 900,000 people across parts of eight Colorado counties. The CBT Project Administration Building in Estes Park, constructed in 1939 and now an American Legion Hall, is our state’s best surviving example of Depression-era, Bureau of Reclamation Colonial Revival design and is listed on the Colorado Register of Historic Properties.

Horsetooth Reservoir covers more than 1,800 acres, took three years to build, and cost more than $12 million. More than 500 people turned out to see the first Colorado River water enter the reservoir in 1951. 

Not only a great spot for boating, fishing and swimming, Horsetooth Reservoir is an important part of the federal government's investment in Fort Collins' past, present and future!