At their scheduled meeting Tuesday night, the Fort Collins City Council authorized the Prospect Road and College Avenue Intersection Improvements Project to use eminent domain, if deemed necessary, to acquire commercial properties needed to construct improvements in 2017.

The Prospect Road and College Avenue Intersection Improvements Project is a collaboration between the City of Fort Collins and Colorado State University. CSU is putting $59 million into developing the northwest corner of this intersection for its new Medical Center Complex, which will require the construction of road improvements near the development and offers the City a chance to implement other changes they had hoped to make.

According to the City of Fort Collins website, the changes to the intersection are intended to improve safety concerns by adding, among other things, medians, islands and multi-use paths for cyclists and pedestrians. The preliminary design phase of this project is due to conclude this month, which will cede to right-of-way negotiations later in April and the final design phase, which will start in May.

Construction on the intersection is due to begin in March of 2017 and last until July of that year.

Though the ordinance only covers six commercial properties at the construction location, affiliates of the project plan to bring another case to Council at a later date concerning two additional residential properties at the east end of the construction site. 

City Council has appropriated $2.7 million for the design and construction of this project. The ordinance was presented to Council by Rick Richter, the director of Infrastructure Services for the City of Fort Collins Department of Planning, Development and Transportation.

Collegian Reporter Julia Rentsch can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @julia_rentsch.