Sterling City Council approves Sugar Commons 54-unit permit in 5-2 vote

The Sterling City Council approved a conditional‑use permit for Sugar Commons, a 54‑unit multi‑family development planned for the former Sykes building at 777 N. Fourth Street, in a 5-2 vote on March 3, 2026. The developer identified in project materials is Volker Development (styled Völker in some documents), and the permit clears a major regulatory hurdle for the project.

Sugar Commons is proposed as one-, two- and three‑bedroom apartments with affordability targeted for households earning 30 to 70 percent of area median income. Project metrics submitted by the developer list a site area of 91,575 square feet (2.10 acres), a density of 25.7 dwelling units per acre, and an estimated completion in 2027. The developer packet also cites a solar garden program and frames the project as “Affordable Workforce Housing for Families in Rural Colorado.”

The application’s path to approval was contested and episodic. The council first failed to approve the conditional‑use permit at its Oct. 28, 2025 meeting — the vote then “fell short of the required four votes,” with councilmembers Kellan Raffaeli and Megan Wolf absent and Albert Delgado and Dean Haynes voting against the motion. The request was later delayed at the Nov. 18, 2025 meeting due to a shortage of council members. The Planning Commission recommended approval before the March 3 vote, and Planning Commission chair Kristi Knowles publicly criticized the earlier no votes while citing a December 2024 city resolution committing Sterling to increase affordable housing under Proposition 123.

Financial figures supplied with the project are inconsistent across documents. Design and developer materials list a construction estimate of $16 million, while a separate description of the proposal states the development “would cost over $22 million.” The documents do not reconcile whether one figure refers to hard construction costs and the other to total development costs; the developer package lists Lauren Schevetts as Managing Director of Development for Völker with contact 720‑308‑8253 and email l.schevetts@volker.co for further clarification.

The developer has indicated a willingness to seek a zoning change once the purchase of the land is finalized; city filings note multi‑family housing is an allowable conditional use on the property, and any rezoning would be a subsequent step. Sterling’s recent council business has included other regulatory decisions and permits, and at a recent meeting City Manager John Sheldon publicly thanked outgoing Mayor Matt Foos and councilmembers Delgado and Janes for their service.

The permit vote on March 3 produces a clear next phase for Sugar Commons: finalize land purchase, reconcile financing and cost estimates, secure any rezoning if pursued, and move toward construction with an estimated completion in 2027. For developer inquiries and project details, the contact listed in project materials is Lauren Schevetts, 720‑308‑8253, l.schevetts@volker.co.