Author: Ripley Design

Ripley Design is a Landscape architecture firm which takes a holistic approach to design. From concept to construction, overlaying factors of environment, economics, and politics are bonded together with the client's goals ensuring a successful project. Above all, we believe communication is the most important factor of any project. With over 28 years of extensive experience in Colorado and beyond, Ripley Design has the skillfulness to overcome any project challenge.

New Branding, New Website, and Leadership Changes

Posted on May 28, 2020March 7, 2023 by Ripley Design

At Ripley Design Landscape Architecture and Land Planning, we’ve updated our branding, launched a new easy-to-use website, and have made some important leadership changes to go along with our new online presence.

We Bring Creativity to All of Our Services

The branding and website were updated to better reflect our creativity and highlight our services to include:

Landscape Architecture
Development services
Zoning and entitlement approvals
Community Planning

Ripley Design, Inc. has over 30 years of experience in creating beautiful spaces that make communities fall in love with where they live. The goal of their customized design process is to minimize risk and provide a hassle-free experience their clients will love as much as their new space.

We provide comprehensive design and development services including: land planning, landscape architecture, urban design, and entitlement coordination to clients across Northern Colorado, Denver, Wyoming, and beyond. Because every project comes with its own unique set of challenges, opportunities, stressors, pleasures, risks, and fears, they identify obstacles early on, and carefully craft a strategy to gracefully navigate you through the journey.

Leadership for Now and the Future

To lead the helm in Ripley’s next phase of growth, Russell Lee has been named president, and Sam Coutts as vice president of operations. Company founder Linda Ripley will continue to contribute guidance from her 30-plus years of experience as a designer and mentor.

“As president of the company for the past year, Russ Lee has proven that he is an exceptional leader with the skills and talent to take Ripley Design into the future,” says Ripley. “He understands the importance of providing top-notch service along with exceptional design work. He also knows the value of creating a company culture that inspires hard work and dedication as well as mutual respect and fun.”

Ripley also has high praise for Coutts. “In the years since joining Ripley Design, Sam Coutts has become a professional in every sense of the word. In addition to being a creative designer, Sam has become an organizational leader in the company using his education and experience to manage schedules and workloads efficiently. As Vice President of Operations, he will ensure that the office continues to develop and implement efficient and cost-effective systems to meet current and future needs of the company.”

She’s also grateful for her clients and her employees that have helped Ripley Designs become such a success. “As I transition to the next phase of my life, I’m filled with gratitude for the many clients who have shared their visions and allowed Ripley Design to help bring them to fruition. Equally important are all the employees, past and present, that have applied their individual energy and talents to create places we are all proud of.”

The talented design team at Ripley Design Inc. is committed to creative problem solving, design excellence, and above all client satisfaction. By applying our core values of excellence, innovation, and responsiveness to every project, we are able to provide cutting edge yet practical design solutions. The firm is committed to stewardship of the environment through maintaining and encouraging green practices in the office, striving to incorporate eco-friendly design solutions into projects, and by being community leaders in understanding and promoting environmentally responsible practices.

So you want to develop in Fort Collins?

Posted on January 5, 2020March 7, 2023 by Ripley Design

So you want to develop in NOCO?

No problem. First, schedule a CR or a PDR to find out if you need to complete a MA, ODP, or PUD.

But make sure you know whether you are in the GC, LMN, or I, zone district. Check the LUC standards for DUs and ROWs.

Have you checked for APFs and whether your project is an APU? Don’t forget the overlays and subarea plans: is the property in the TOD or the FCRAP?

Then set up your DRT to meet PFA and PSD. Make sure CDOT and the LPC are informed.

Now, you may need to hire an EE, but MEP can wait till building permit. For your first submittal you will need a TIA, APO list, ECS and TDR Fees.

Find out if you go to P&Z then turn in the FDPs. Don’t forget the DA.

After a few reviews, congratulations, you can turn in mylars!

Straight forward? Usually not.

Our team is here to interpret the LUC (land use code) for you and accomplish your vision to the highest and best use.

Most land owners don’t realize that they can’t build on their land without City or County approvals. To make matters worse, each city, town, and county have its own separate land use codes, rules, and processes. Most people don’t have time to learn what all the rules mean and which ones apply or don’t apply.

That is where we come in.

We stand with you as an ally through what can be a complicated process.

We’ll start with the Conceptual Review (CR) or Preapplication Meeting (Pre-Ap), in which you meet with municipality for the first time to discuss your project. We can create a site plan for you and graphics of what you are wanting to accomplish.

If your project is in Fort Collins, we’ll explain alternative options, such as a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) — a meeting in which you can request to more feedback than a simple conceptual review.

We’ll explain whether you need a Minor or Major Amendment (MA) to an existing project, whether you need an Overall Development Plan (ODP) due to phasing, or whether your development is large enough to qualify for a Planned Unit Development (PUD)—in which the development basically can write its own rules to allow for design flexibility.

We’ll make sure that your project fits within the standards for the different zone districts (the GC, LMN, I, etc.)—including the standards for maximum Dwelling Units (DU) and dimensions of Right of Way (ROWs). (Remember, developers are responsible for building the streets and sidewalks that the City will own and maintain.)

You’ll need to include Adequate Public Facilities (APF) for all necessary utilities and street access. We’ll also work through the Addition of Permitted Use (APU) process for any uses that you want to add that aren’t otherwise allowed in the underlying zone district.

In addition to zone districts, most people don’t remember to look for overlays and subarea plans such as the Transit-oriented Development Overlay Zone (TOD) or the Fossil Ridge Reservoir Area Plan (FCRAP).

We’ll organize and work through the meetings with the Poudre Fire Authority (PFA) and the Poudre School District (PSD). We’ll loop in the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), which oversees highways that cross municipalities, and the Landmark Preservation Committee (LPC), which is potentially involved with any project involving buildings at least 50 years old.

We’ll let you know when to bring in the Electrical Engineer (EE), to complete the photometric plan that shows proposed light levels. We’ll also give you advise on when to begin Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) deisgn.

At your first submittal, we’ll make sure that you are ready with your Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA); your list of Affected Property Owners (APO); your Environmental Characterization Study (ECS) of the natural features on your site; and all the Transportation Development Review (TDR) fees that you have to pay for the city engineers just to review your drawings.

We will see your development through the approval process by the Planning & Zoning (P&Z) boards, commissions or committees, and we’ll help finalize your Development Agreement (DA), the legal document that describes what public improvements you will be building, and submit your Final Development Plans (FDP)—one copy of which will be printed to special paper called mylar for the City’s records.)

Our staff has the experience and knowledge to not only interpret the City and County acronyms, but also to make suggestions of the smoothest course of action. Often there are multiple ways to accomplish your goals, and when you let us help navigate the process, we can help you save time and money.

Affordable Housing Challenges

Posted on December 12, 2019March 7, 2023 by Ripley Design

With its high standards in health care, education, technology, government efficiency, and access to leisure, Colorado leads the nation in terms of overall quality of life … but too often only for those residents who can afford to live in the resulting upside-down housing market.

With home prices continuing to soar higher than even their pre-recession peak, more and more areas of Colorado are experiencing the unfortunate pairing of high livability rankings and unaffordable home prices. In Fort Collins, where the population has grown by 17.1 percent over the past decade, the housing situation has reached crisis proportions.

If our city and state leaders want to keep Colorado’s economy growing—and if they want to reduce the environmental impact of lengthy commutes—they need to focus on expanding the current levels of permanent supportive housing, specialized-needs housing, and affordable homeownership.

These goals can be met most effectively through the creative use of “Affordable Housing” as a key tool for development. The staff of Ripley Design Inc. understands both the challenges and opportunities that come from using this tool when considering entitlement and land planning.

For developments in Fort Collins, we can explain how to navigate:

The cost of land and water fees.
The subjective and shifting nature of the Development Review Process.
The complete list of development fees, so there are no mid-project surprises.
The process of transforming neighboring property owners from NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) to vocal supporters.

By making use of Affordable Housing options, Ripley Design can help developers:

Use the City Plan Principles and Policies to apply successfully for needed Land Use Code modifications.
Create a robust strategic plan to be used as guiding principles.
Develop underutilized lots and infill areas.
Work with a City Council that is supportive of affordable housing needs.
Imagine and forge new private and for-profit partnerships.

All developments face challenges, but Affordable Housing can offers advantages to the broader community as well as to the developer’s bottom line. Ripley Design stands ready to offer its knowledge of the land use code—along with its longstanding relationships with key decision-makers in the Fort Collins area—to help developments sail smoothly through the review process.

Navigating NIMBYs

Posted on November 22, 2019March 7, 2023 by Ripley Design

Picture forty acres of tall grass prairie just beyond your back fence. The birds chirping greet you in the morning. The frogs croaking lull you to sleep at night. The deer nibble your shrubs through the fence. It’s your little piece of paradise.

There is only one problem: Someone else owns it.

One day you see a yellow sign posted “Development Proposal Under Review for This Property.” For thirty years, you have walked your dog through the unmanicured cottonwood trees, and children have played within their shade. Now someone is threatening to take that away.

The fear sets in. Your mind flashes with images of pollution and pavement replacing your Truffula tree forest just so someone else can make Thneeds.

On the other side of town, a single mom and her two children are living in her friend’s basement. She is a school teacher making $42,000 per year. After daycare, health insurance, and groceries, she is left with $3,600 for rent for the entire year. Without help from her friends she would be without a home.

This woman dreams of owning a small two-bedroom condo where her boys could share a bedroom rather than a pull-out couch. But she lives in Fort Collins, where the median rent is over $1,300 per month. The thought of saving for a down payment is simply impossible.

She drifts off to sleep afraid that she will never have a place of their own.

What do these stories have to do with each another? Well, one potential solution for decreasing housing prices is more local supply to keep up with the demand, then competition increases and prices decrease.

But where should all that the new construction take place?

That’s the question the City of Fort Collins’ Planning Department works tirelessly to answer as it works to guide future development.

The planners work within the scope of the City’s growth management area, which provides a hard line of where the future City Limits will end. They turn to the City’s structure plan, which shows future housing densities and commercial areas. They look at the City’s zoning map, which shows current allowed density. They consider the subarea plans, which explain the big picture ideas of an area. They look up the parks and recreation and open space master plans.

All of these documents are guides for development to provide more predictability to the process. Neighbors can view these documents to see if the wide-open spaces near their home are going to stay open or are planned for development. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise when people see development plans … shouldn’t be, but change is never easy.

The long-term residents living next to a developable forty acres of open land typically are afraid of traffic, noise, light, and reduction of property values.

So, how do you mitigate these fears and help supply housing?

The first step is listening. Not just hearing people speak but actually listening to their concerns.

The second step is education. Educate the public on the planning process and governing rules of the land.

Third is compromise. The new housing development can provide a design that exceeds the Land Use Code rules to mitigate impacts on the existing homes with minimal cost implications.

A project’s outcome is always better when people can have constructive discussions and open lines of communication. I have never met a client who doesn’t honestly believe that their project will improve the lives of people.

In a perfect world, we can maintain the feel of the open spaces for the existing neighbors while providing much needed housing for those currently priced out of the neighborhood.