FORT COLLINS — A $15 million affordable housing project for seniors that will overlook the Cache la Poudre has won city council approval after having run into stiff resistance from environmentalists.

The Legacy Senior Residences project is the second this year proposed for the River Downtown Redevelopment district, an area north of Old Town Fort Collins marked off by the city as an area ripe for redevelopment. Developments within the district are exempt from a 300-foot river development buffer imposed in most of the rest of the city as an incentive to build there.

The four-story building will feature 72 apartments for seniors who earn between 30 and 60 percent of the area median income. This translates to a range of $18,650 to $37,320 per year for a household of two.

Omaha, Neb.-based developer Cornerstone Associates plans to build the structure on a nearly two-acre site next to the Poudre River Trail, between Linden and Pine streets.

On the other side of the Poudre River Trail, of course, flows the Poudre river, one of Fort Collins' most popular recreational draws, and a waterway that Save the Poudre works fiercely to protect.

The proximity of the project to the river, combined with