City of Greeley Certifies Zoning Referendum

Greeley Demands Better to start collecting petition signatures immediately; signatures due by October 16

October 2, 2025 (Greeley, Colo.)

Last week, Greeley Demands Better, a bipartisan grassroots campaign that is pressing the City of Greeley to find a new solution for the billion-dollar ice arena in Greeley, filed a request for referendum on the project’s zoning measure, which was approved approximately two weeks ago. The City of Greeley approved the referendum.

“While that first repeal effort is stuck in litigation with the city, we are pursuing a fail-safe — a suspension of the zoning ordinance,” noted Suzanne Taheri, legal counsel for the organization. “It's what's known as a veto referendum, and it's something the city cannot interfere with or play games with to deny citizens’ voice.”

The organization began collecting signatures to put the referendum before voters.

“We are gratified the City of Greeley approved our petition; although, we have to ask, ‘what took so long? This is an hour of work at the most,’” said Taheri. “This seems like another attempt by the City to prevent citizens from having a say in this matter by running out the clock. Greeley Deserves Better volunteers from across city gathered a record-breaking number of signatures, and we anticipate that we will be able to do it again even with this shortened timeline. What’s most important here is that Greeley residents get a vote on this project, which puts many critical Greeley-owned buildings at risk. It is frustrating that the City is forcing its residents to collect basically the same signatures twice. It’s the City’s latest example of disenfranchisement.”

While the request was submitted by Greeley Deserves Better, the new issue must be carried forward by a new issue committee, Greeley Demands Better. The request was submitted on behalf of its two proponents: Brandon Wark, a conservative candidate for Greeley City Council in Ward II; and Rhonda Solis, former Greeley Evans School Board member and former Board of Education member from Congressional District 8, a liberal.

“Cascadia is a cool project. The pictures are beautiful. But this is a bad deal for Greeley residents. Bankrolling developers is simply not an appropriate function of local government. The financing would collateralize city properties, including police and fire stations, to finance what boils down to a new theme park and hockey arena,” said Wark. “The way this is financed puts all the risk on Greeley taxpayers instead of the developer. It’s heads the developer wins, tails the city loses.”

Solis, who is known for her community engagement in Greeley, particularly around education, also finds the financing of this project problematic, albeit for different reasons.

“I fought hard to provide additional funds for Greeley’s kids to attend college. Proposing to spend a billion dollars to benefit one developer is absurd. Spend that money to meet our citizens’ basic needs. There are families in the 8th Congressional District who are desperate for a hand up. Blowing $1B on a hockey rink – without serious accountability measures in place – threatens the financial stability of the community programs that Greeley residents rely upon.”

Greeley Deserves Better, the committee that was pursuing a ballot measure to overturn the project’s financing by the City Council via Ordinance 2025-15, remains committed to its original effort. That effort is stuck in litigation, specifically awaiting a hearing in District Court.

Greeley Demands Better will have 30 days to collect the requisite number of signatures from the date the ordinance was passed, with the deadline set for October 16, 2025.