4 Fort Collins policies made just for CSU students
Colorado State University students are a major part of this college town the City has certainly acknowledged it through the introduction, leverage, and enforcement of certain laws.
1. RP3 (aka The Parking Dominoes)
It’s not insurance, it’s not gas, it’s not traffic: the most consistently frustrating thing about having a car is, by far, finding a place to park it.
And that’s why, in lieu of paying for a now annual $600 on-campus parking pass which still doesn’t guarantee you a place to park, many students take to parking in the neighborhoods near the campus.
In 2013, the neighborhoods near campus responded with the Residential Permit Parking Program. The program allowed neighborhoods to opt-in to a City-enforced permit program. Those without permits can only park on-street for two hours at all times of day in the RP3 zones.
But college kids are nothing if not flexible.
According to program developers, students now simply park in the next non-permitted neighborhood over. Some even bring their skateboards and bikes to cover the extra few blocks.
And so, as RP3 continues to grow, parking continues to be an insolvent headache for everyone involved.
2. U+2 (aka no sitcom-style roommate shenanigans for you)
They don’t say it’s for students, but it’s about students.
Let’s be real — the 1960s occupancy law may have been created with the intention of inhibiting poor immigrants, but the contemporary enforcement now affects Colorado State University students at a far more irritating rate than other populations.
After CSU’s growth spurt in the early 2000’s and in the midst of the City’s housing price jump, it only made sense for students to start rooming together to afford the thousand dollar rents. Rowdy young adult households, however, drew a local response not unlike that of RP3; this time, reigniting enforcement of the freshly rebranded housing law, U+2.
U+2 prohibits more than three non-family members from living together in a single housing. Luckily for students, the offense was demoted from a criminal to a civil one in 2005, but hundreds of tickets have been issued since enforcement restarted in 2007, and students have been waging war against it ever since.
3. Obligation to Assist Police
OK, this one isn’t specifically targeted to students but as we’re all adults here, who are possibly more prone to encountering police-like situations *cough* *cough* it’s worth pointing out, if an officer asks you to help out, it’s legally offensive not to.
Section 17–65 under Article IV: Offenses Against Public Authority reads:
No person eighteen (18) years of age or older shall refuse to assist any police officer in making any arrest or quelling any disturbance when requested to do so by such officer.
Talk about community outreach.
4. BIG HOUSES (or more formally: the High Density Mixed-Use Neighborhood District)
The basics of city zoning come down to this: one building type built for one purpose in one area.
CSU students have encouraged their own little zone within Fort Collins, a fact which personally makes me feel all fuzzy and special inside.
It’s called the High Density Mixed-Use Neighborhood District and it is meant to be a setting for higher density multi-family housing and group quarter residential uses. The caveat is that all developments are both closely associated with and in close proximity to the CSU main campus.
Unlike in other areas of the City, the H-D-M-N district encourages multistory buildings, with a maximum of a whopping five stories. Developers have gone to town with this potential and, paired with the demand for affordable housing, has led to developments like the schmancy new Union on Elizabeth.
So the next time you see some local residents complaining about those “ugly, high-rise monstrosities” filling up downtown, take a moment to revel in the sacrifices the City has made for us.