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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/20/2025 - Active Modes Advisory Board - AGENDA - REGULAR MEETINGActive Modes Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING October 20, 2025 – 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. 281 N. College Ave., Fort Collins, CO 80521 Zoom – See Link Below 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. ROLL CALL 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION (3 min per participant) 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Land Use Code Memo | Lauren Nagle (20 min) (ACTION) Participation for this Active Modes Advisory Board Meeting will be in person at 281 N. College Ave., Fort Collins, CO 20521 You may also join online via Zoom, using this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88164942985?pwd=6ITv5XeAgdPAlt2Xb3K4zJEXbebgrG.1 Online Public Participation: The meeting will be available to join beginning at 5:55 p.m ., October 20, 2025. Participants should try to sign in prior to the 6:00 p .m. meeting start time, if possible. For public comments, the Chair will ask participants to click the “Raise Hand” button to indicate you would like to speak at that time. Staff will moderate the Zoom session to ensure all participants have an opportunity to address the Board or Commission. To Participate: • Use a laptop, computer, or internet-enabled smartphone. (Using earphones with a microphone will greatly improve your audio). • You need to have access to the internet. • Keep yourself on muted status. Provide Comments Via Email Individuals who are uncomfortable or unable to access the Zoom platform or participate by phone are encouraged to participate by emailing comments to lnagle@fcgov.com at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. If your comments are specific to any of the discussion items on the agenda, please indicate that in the subject line of your email. Staff will ensure your comments are provided to the Active Modes Advisory Board. Active Modes Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Accelerator Grant Program Memo | Rachel Ruhlen (25 min) (ACTION) b. 2026 Workplan | Lauren Nagle (45 min) (INFORM) c. Joint TBOARD Meeting | Bruce Henderson (15 min) (ACTION ) 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS 9. STAFF LIASON REPORT a. Council Six Month Agenda Planning Calendar b. Updates: Change from Zoom to Teams, board member terms ending c. Brighten the Night bike light giveaway , October 30, 4-7 p.m. 10. ADJOURNMENT ACTIVE MODES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING –REGULAR August 18, 2025, 6:00 p.m. Online via Zoom or In Person at 626 Linden Street 9 /1 5 /202 5 – MINUTES Page 1 FOR REFERENCE: 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Henderson called the meeting to order at 6:00 PM. 2. ROLL CALL Bruce Henderson, Chair Kat Steele, Vice Chair Wallace Jacobson Tim Han Jared Hanson Kristina Vrouwenvelder Humphrey Costello (arrived late) CITY STAFF PRESENT: Lauren Nagle Clay Frickey James Reed ABSENT: Cameron Phillips PUBLIC PRESENT: None 3. AGENDA REVIEW Chair Henderson outlined the published agenda. 4. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION None. ACTIVE MODES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 9/15 /202 5 – MINUTES Page 2 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – AUGUST Vice Chair Steele made a motion, seconded by Hanson, to approve the August minutes as presented. The motion was adopted unanimously. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Land Use Code Updates – Clay Frickey Clay Frickey, Planning Manager, stated a draft of the Land Use Code is now available for public review; however, it is not the final version that will go to Council. He noted the Board could either take action based on the draft version or wait until its October meeting to make a recommendation. Frickey stated this round of Land Use Code updates is focused on commercial corridors and centers to help better align the Code with adopted policy plans, including City Plan, the Housing Strategic Plan, and the 15-Minute City concept, among others. He outlined the guiding principles for the update, including enabling housing closer to transit, creating commercial centers that are more adaptable over time, creating more clear building and site design standards, and ensuring the Land Use Code is easy to use and understand, particularly for small business owners. Frickey highlighted some of the major proposed changes, including changes to the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) overlay zone allowed uses and parking requirements, changes to the Employment and Harmony Corridor zones to allow more housing, adding new clarity and building types for commercial buildings, consolidating standards in Article 5 to make them more clear and less subjective, and changing some development review processes that impact small business owners. Frickey detailed the proposed TOD changes. Vice Chair Steele asked about the reasoning behind the prohibition of gas stations within 1,000 feet of MAX stations. Frickey replied gas stations are auto- focused, have large curb cuts, and provide barriers to pedestrian comfort, which is also true for the prohibition of boat sales. Krause asked about auto sales in the corridor. Frickey replied that is a more difficult issue as there are many car dealerships in the corridor that are considered to be local, small businesses. He stated there is not likely an appetite to remove that use from the TOD right now. ACTIVE MODES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 9/15 /202 5 – MINUTES Page 3 Hanson expressed concern about allowing 5-story standalone residential in the General Commercial zone due to possible predatory development and real estate practices. Frickey clarified the 5-story allowance would not be in residential areas. Hanson expressed concern that units will be built without any type of affordable housing guarantee and could potentially displace people. Costello asked how much housing will be added by increasing the height limit to five stories. Frickey replied the number of units will increase by about 25%. He noted going from three to four stories requires a concrete foundation and elevators, making the projects more expensive and less feasible; however, going from four to five stories adds more units to help recover some of those increased costs. Going over six stories increases construction costs by requiring steel frame construction, and those projects are not typically financially feasible until buildings are twelve stories. Additionally, Frickey stated increasing the building height allowed to five stories should lead to more projects in the corridor with associated increased MAX ridership. Frickey detailed the proposed Harmony Corridor and Employment zone changes, including a 50:50 primary/secondary use split, allowing standalone residential to replace existing parking lots which would not count toward the ratio, allowing primary use exceptions for mixed-use buildings in certain instances, allowing residential buildings to be a maximum of six stories in the Harmony Corridor, and allowing affordable housing projects to be exempt from the primary/secondary use split. Frickey detailed the proposed change of use process changes and outlined the timeline and next steps. Members discussed the timing options for providing a recommendation to Council. Krause expressed support for the proposed changes, particularly as related to limiting surface parking and allowing more housing near transit. Other members concurred and it was noted that increased density and less parking will improve walkability and safety. Krause made a motion, seconded by Vrouwenvelder, to support drafting a letter to Council for the Board to review at its October 20th meeting, including some language related to future Land Use Code updates helping to improve walkability. The motion was adopted unanimously. ACTIVE MODES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 9/15 /202 5 – MINUTES Page 4 b. Traffic Operations Overview – James Reed James Reed, Interim Traffic Director, outlined the role of Traffic Operations, which is traffic signal operations and signs and pavement markings primarily. He stated there are 192 signals and 30,000 signs and pavement markings in the city. Han asked about signal triggering for bicycles. Reed replied there are fully actuated, semi-actuated, and free signals and signals without detection are timed. Reed discussed work area traffic control and noted all associated information is available at FCTrip. Additionally, he discussed the traffic engineering and analysis group which looks at traffic counts, setting speed limits, congestion and delay evaluation, and development review. He noted Bluetooth data from cell phones is used to measure delay by corridor. Reed discussed overall roadway safety and Vision Zero noting the overall societal cost of crashes in 2024 was $211 million with 3,036 crashes and 82 significant injury crashes. He noted Fort Collins is at an average of 6.2 fatal crashes per year per 100,000 people over the past five years. He also clarified that Traffic Operations deals with all modes of transportation, not solely cars. Reed outlined the other work efforts of Traffic Operations, including bike lane painting and striping, neighborhood traffic mitigation, school zone signalization, and Vision Zero. Additionally, Traffic Operations supports other departments in terms of capital projects, planning efforts, signal systems for MAX, special events, and snow operations. He noted Traffic Operations has a staff of about 25 individuals. c. Traffic Operations Center Tour – James Reed Reed showed a map of the city’s traffic signals and noted Traffic Operations runs its own fiber and its own servers. He discussed and showed examples of various hardware components, including the detection cameras and traffic signals. Additionally, he discussed traffic signal timing and the system that allows emergency vehicles to go through signalized intersections without stopping. Reed discussed the cameras that are located throughout the city and noted the recordings are held by Police Services, not Traffic Operations. Reed discussed the Timberline and Mulberry intersection and its signal timing, which changes throughout the day based on traffic patterns. He discussed the coordinated efforts that are used to make traffic flow more smoothly across corridors. Krause asked if counts of different types of infractions can be gathered to determine whether they might be related to signal timing. Reed replied that data is collected and, to the extent possible, adjustments are made to minimize ACTIVE MODES ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 9/15 /202 5 – MINUTES Page 5 infractions. Krause asked what consideration has been given to eliminating right turn on red movements. Reed replied a great deal of consideration has been given to that change, and a traffic engineer will likely be brought in to start evaluating where those locations should be in the city. Vice Chair Steele commented on the Board’s interest in items that are not solely related to vehicular traffic and noted the Vision Zero Super Issues meeting discussion often involved statements related to safety improvements not being able to be made due to vehicular traffic impacts. Members viewed a street sweeper outside the building and Steve Varnell, Streets Department Manager, discussed the street sweeping fleet and the way in which they use the fleet to sweep protected bike lanes in the city. Nagle asked if there is a priority level for the protected bike lanes in terms of snow plowing. Varnell replied the protected bike lanes cannot be cleared until plows are off arterials, though they are cleared as soon thereafter as possible and are considered to be at the end of priority one. Vice Chair Steele asked why residential streets are not typically plowed. Varnell replied the streets are typically melted off within a day or two; however, if those streets are not drivable, plows will go in per direction from the City Manager. Additionally, cost and personnel are considerations. Varnell commented on concerns with freeze back creating black ice issues in protected bike lanes. He also noted staff will take visitors in snowplows for 30- minute rides. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Board member reports were not recorded due to a technical issue. 9. STAFF LIAISON REPORT Staff liaison report was not recorded due to a technical issue. 10. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned by unanimous consent at 8:20 p.m. DRAFT MEMORANDUM Date: October 20, 2025 To: Mayor and City Councilmembers Through: Clay Frickey, Senior Manager, City Planning From: Active Modes Advisory Board Subject: Commercial Land Use Code Updates BOTTOM LINE The Active Modes Advisory Board (AMAB) supports the proposed Land Use Code updates and appreciates the focus on making it easier and safer for people to walk, bike, take transit, and use other active ways of getting around. The updates connect land use and transportation in ways that support the goals of the Active Modes Plan, Vision Zero Action Plan, Our Climate Future, and 15- Minute City objectives. The Board also encourages continued progress, especially around bicycle parking, so that active travel remains safe, convenient, and accessible for everyone. BACKGROUND Land use shapes how people move through the community. The proposed updates make the Land Use Code clearer and better aligned with the City’s goals for safe, sustainable, and connected transportation options. Key elements relevant to active modes include: • Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Overlay Updates: Removing parking minimums and adding parking maximums near transit reduces auto dependence and supports walking, biking, and transit use. Limiting new gas stations and other auto-focused uses in these areas will help create mixed-use, people-friendly places. • Zoning Flexibility to Support Mixed-Use and Residential Density: Allowing more homes near jobs, services, and transit, especially in the Harmony Corridor, Employment, and General Commercial areas, makes it easier for people to live close to where they work and shop, reducing the need to drive. • Form-Based Building Types: Adding new Shopfront and General Building Types encourages buildings that are active at the street level and designed for people, helping create more vibrant and walkable corridors. • Alignment with Adopted City Plans: Updates to Article 1 strengthen the link between the Land Use Code and City plans, ensuring that new development supports safer streets, better transportation choices, and the City’s climate goals. Collectively, these updates bring Fort Collins closer to realizing a 15-minute city framework that emphasizes complete neighborhoods, mixed land uses, and equitable access to daily needs without relying on single-occupancy vehicles. NEXT STEPS The Active Modes Advisory Board recommends that City Council approve the proposed Land Use Code updates and continue to improve code sections that support active transportation, especially: Bicycle Parking Improvements: Future amendments should update bicycle parking standards to reflect current best practices in design, location, and security. Standards should also expand long-term, covered, and e-bike-friendly options and ensure that reductions in vehicle parking are matched with proportional increases in bike parking. Ongoing Policy Integration: Continue connecting land use decisions to transportation goals in the Active Modes Plan and Vision Zero Action Plan, building a community that supports safe, connected, and climate-friendly travel options for everyone. Sincerely, Bruce M. Henderson & Kat Steele Chair & Vice Chair, Active Modes Advisory Board DRAFT LETTER OF SUPPORT Date: October 20, 2025 To: Colorado Energy Office Through: Rachel Ruhlen, Transportation Planner, FC Moves, City of Fort Collins From: Active Modes Advisory Board Subject: Support for the 2025 Local IMPACT Accelerator Grant Application BOTTOM LINE The Active Modes Advisory Board (AMAB) strongly supports the City of Fort Collins’ 2025 Local IMPACT Accelerator Grant Program application. The proposed grant would help Fort Collins advance safer, more sustainable, and more consistent transportation design by: • Adopting the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) design guidance into City engineering standards; and • Demonstrating NACTO design elements through a pilot project on Laurel Street. These efforts will help Fort Collins continue leading as a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community and align with the City’s broader goals for safety, connectivity, and multimodal transportation. BACKGROUND Fort Collins’ commitment to safe and accessible transportation is reflected in its extensive trail network and state-of-the-art on-street bicycle and pedestrian facilities. As an active member of NACTO, City staff have contributed to the organization’s national design guides, which promote designs such as protected intersections. Although Fort Collins is a national leader in active transportation, it does not yet have any protected intersections. Adopting NACTO design guidance into City standards will: • Support installation of protected intersections in future projects; • Encourage consistency in design across new developments and capital improvements; and • Expand eligibility of projects using NACTO design standards for federal funding opportunities. The Laurel Street corridor (College Avenue to Shields Street) provides an ideal opportunity to demonstrate NACTO design guidance in action. Laurel Street is a vital connector for the Colorado State University (CSU) community, linking the Centre Bikeway and Mason Bikeway to campus. The Active Modes Plan recommends separated bike lanes on this corridor, and the Safer Streets Northwest study includes recommendations for protected intersections consistent with NACTO standards. Because Laurel Street is scheduled for repaving in 2027, the demonstration project would align with planned work, allowing for cost savings and efficient implementation. NEXT STEPS Through this grant, the City will: • Train City staff in the application of NACTO design guidance; • Incorporate NACTO guidance into City engineering and design standards; and • Pilot protected intersections using NACTO design guidance on Laurel Street. The Active Modes Advisory Board respectfully requests that the Colorado Energy Office consider funding the City of Fort Collins’ proposal under the 2025 Local IMPACT Accelerator Grant Program. This project will serve as both a policy advancement and a practical demonstration of safer, more connected streets for all users. Sincerely, Bruce M. Henderson & Kat Steele Chair & Vice Chair, Active Modes Advisory Board Work Plan City of Fort Collins Active Modes Advisory Board 2025 Work Plan Purpose The purpose of the Active Modes Advisory Board (AMAB) is to address issues related to active modes of transportation and to seek guidance from active modes-focused stakeholders to achieve the City’s climate, mode shift, safety, and equity goals. Active modes of transportation include walking, biking, micromobility (such as scooters and skateboards), and wheelchair use. Active modes may also include human-powered and small electric devices. Objectives 1. Work Plan Development: Create and approve 2026 work plan as appropriate. A. Conduct annual review of AMAB Work Plan, Objectives, and operational procedures. 2. Boards and Commissions Coordination: A. Share active modes information with other city Boards, as part of their Public Participation at regular Board meetings. Unless there is a prior vote by the AMAB, each AMAB member should state they are not representing the AMAB in this meeting. B. Hold collaborative meetings with other City Boards when appropriate. 3. City of Fort Collins Support: Advise City Council and Staff in the following areas by reviewing progress and providing feedback as needed. Encourage the inclusion of active modes for these areas. A. City plans and studies such as the Active Modes Plan, Pedestrian Needs Assessment, 15-minute City Analysis, Vision Zero Action Plan, Strategic Trails Plan, Our Climate Future, Shift Your Ride Travel Options Plan, Transportation Master Plan, and Master Street Plan. Leverage these plans in advising City Council and Staff on Active Modes. B. City active modes programs such as Safe Routes to School, adult education and outreach, shared micro mobility, asphalt art, neighborhood traffic mitigation, traffic safety education and enforcement, and the Shift Your Ride Travel Options program. C. City departments and programs such as (but not limited to) capital projects, street improvements, trails, traffic signal projects, parking facilities, parks, and recreation programs. 4. Community Coordination: Consult with other organizations that have a role in supporting active modes of transportation in Fort Collins such as the Colorado Department of Transportation, North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization, Larimer County, Colorado State University, Poudre School District, Downtown Development Authority, and active-modes advocacy organizations such as Bike Fort Collins, the FC Bike Co-Op, Overland Mountain Bike Association, Launch, and others as appropriate. A. The AMAB will be a resource to hear residents’ opinions regarding active modes of transportation. As a voice for the community, these needs, issues, and concerns should be communicated to City of Fort Collins staff and Council by the AMAB. 5. Policy Opportunities: Define AMAB priorities and action items as needed, or on an annual basis. For example: A. Review progress and provide support for the 50% mode share goal as part of the Active Modes Plan. B. Provide support for the Vision Zero program through participation and integration with city plans. C. Promote equitable community wide access for all active modes of transportation in support of the Active Modes Plan, giving consideration to related council priorities, such as safe routes to schools, as determined by the board. D. Support recreational facilities and infrastructure for active modes to help community members, including youth and historically excluded groups, develop skills and confidence, and build a culture of support for utilizing active modes to achieve mode share goals. E. Consider innovative ways to draw visitor and community member attention to the City's focus on and prioritization of active modes that help define community expectations in support of safety and access for everyone. 6. Experiential Opportunities: Facilitate tours and site visits for the AMAB to experience the active modes system as a group and on an individual level. A. AMAB members should be a conduit for community feedback through data-informed recommendations and experiential learning.