HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Commission - Minutes - 02/17/2016MINUTES
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Location: CIC Room, City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave.
Time: 11:00am–1:30pm
For Reference
Wade Troxell, Mayor & Council Liaison
Josh Birks, Staff Liaison 221-6324
Dianne Tjalkens, Minutes 221-6734
Commission Members Present Commission Members Absent
Sam Solt, Chair
Linda Stanley
Glen Colton
Denny Otsuga (via phone)
Ted Settle
Kristin Owens
Alan Curtis (11:35)
Ann Hutchison
Staff Present Staff Absent
Josh Birks, Economic Health Director
Dianne Tjalkens, Admin/Board Support
Cameron Gloss, Planning Manager
Guests
Dale Adamy
Craig Mueller
Ken Waido
Diane Jones
Meeting called to order at 11:09am
Review and Approval of Minutes:
Linda moved and Ted seconded a motion to approve the January minutes as presented.
Motion passed unanimously, 6-0-0. Alan arrived after vote.
Staff Update—There is one opening on the board, and one applicant. Members are encouraged to reach
out to interested persons.
Agenda Review—Tentative item on airport has been delayed.
Public Comment—None
Commission Member/Staff Updates—Ted attended innovation economy meeting. Major emphasis on
need for diversity.
• Diversity of what?
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o Race, and other factors. Diversity is central to having companies attract people to the
region and sponsoring a more innovative climate. Don’t see diversity here.
Want to drain brains of other countries so they can stay in poverty and we can
use them. We should have interest in people being educated, our own population
having economic health to be comfortable and survive. Policy to attract best and
brightest from other countries is objectionable. We don’t care what happens to
their home country. Same as we don’t care about impact on other countries of
climate change. Also diversity is awesome if people are made to feel
comfortable.
o What has happened is they come of own volition to study, then return to home country,
which we also find objectionable.
Wish they would return.
Immigration policy now discourages from staying.
o Had lots of innovation in this country when we had little diversity. Insulting to native
born Americans to say we don’t have enough smart people to be innovative. Don’t need
to bring people in from other countries. Have a lot of diversity here already. A lot of
diversity can cause cultural problems and clashes. Should not make it a focus.
• Concerns or issues should be addressed directly to the program.
AGENDA ITEM 1—Election of Officers
Linda nominated Sam as Chair. Sam is willing to continue for another year.
Linda moved and Ann seconded a motion to elect Sam as Chair of the
Economic Advisory Committee for 2016.
Motion passed unanimously, 6-0-0. Alan arrived after vote.
Kristin moved and Ann seconded a motion to elect Ted as Vice Chair of the
Economic Advisory Committee for 2016.
Motion passed unanimously, 6-0-0. Alan arrived after vote.
AGENDA ITEM 2— Growth in Fort Collins/Overview of City Plan—Cameron Gloss
Requesting budget for scoping a new City Plan in 2017/18. Have had tremendous growth. Difficult time
creating affordable housing, keeping up with transportation needs, etc. How big does Fort Collins get,
how fast, and what are implications? Staff maintains a buildable land inventory which is used to create
build-out analysis. Population last year was 158K in City. Will be over 160K in 2016. Two year growth
spurt (over 3% annually). Have been doing growth management for over 30 years. Started with 1979
Urban Service Area Study. Boundary created in IGA in 1980 includes most of current GMA. Amended in
2000 to include areas near Anheuser-Busch and parcels around Fossil Creek and foothills. In 2004 settled
on fixed boundary, with minor tweaks. Buildout Analysis is hypothetical study, using many
assumptions—infill, redevelopment, vacant, and netting out land to be conserved. Also used CSU’s
adopted master plan, approved/in-process projects, and densities similar to recent averages (developers
are not currently maxing out density—80%). 255K is population capacity based on the analysis. Have
been at about 2.3% growth average. If look at maximum development density with 3% growth will have
buildout by 2025. Rate of growth hard to calculate. This is just one estimate. Hearing from state
demographer that will continue to see higher rate of growth. Available land is around perimeter of
community. Only a few areas where will see significant growth—Mountain Vista and Mulberry corridor
(still county jurisdiction). Has been discussion of creating an enclave for annexation of Mulberry corridor,
but remains years out. Mountain Vista has greatest vacant undeveloped land. Have been discussing
development patterns—template to embrace urban ag., Nature in the City, etc. Ex: Bucking Horse/Jessup
Farm with trails, open space, and ag. production infused into new neighborhoods. Monday had
Vine/Lemay intersection meeting—preliminary grade-separated design. There is a lot of developer
interest in Mountain Vista. Many infrastructure issues, including transportation and cost of water (ELCO
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prices higher than City’s). Downtown/Midtown development will be infill/redevelopment. Housing
project at mall is approved and moving forward. Several parcels on Mason corridor may be redeveloped.
New Downtown Plan has had tremendous public outreach. Will have draft plan May/June. Regional
employment growth—a lot of potential employment growth along I-25 (will follow up with numbers). 25-
44 and 65+ age groups are growing. Residential growth will be in Mountain Vista and in the east. Land
and material costs are increasing significantly. More expensive to build. Interest rates are low and
developers feel need to move projects along quickly. Volume of developer applications is huge.
Commuting patterns—Fort Collins has done good job balancing jobs and housing. Potential to buy or rent
a home here. Greeley is not doing as well—more people out-commuting. Loveland, same thing. 2014
data: Fort Collins 55% of workers live in Fort Collins; Boulder 33.7% of workers live in city.
Looking at median sales price versus affordable purchase price 2000-2012, Boulder has become much
less affordable, Timnath prices have gone up significantly. Average rent in Fort Collins is $1300/mth.
Seeing drop in owner occupied homes, increase in rentals. Boulder current development is mostly
attached units. More single family units in Longmont. Net in-commuting to Fort Collins is about
4400/day. Doing well. Many people living in Wellington who work in Fort Collins. Harmony is funnel in
from Timnath and has more congestion.
Need to look at carbon emissions, CAP is robust, will be modelling emissions, whole Front Range is
experiencing growth. Need balance: jobs/housing, transportation, employment/services, etc. As scope
new City Plan will continue discussions on what to measure. Three legged stool of sustainability. Another
leg is cultural. What is character of community? Sense of place? What is essence of Fort Collins? How do
we measure it and how to get sense of what community values? Will be looking to community for input
over next 6-9 months.
Discussion/Q & A:
• Western boundary?
o Overland Trail, CSU foothills campus.
• Buildout doesn’t mean bigger footprint only?
o Correct. Also building up. Midtown, downtown, and other areas will start to see taller
buildings.
o Doesn’t affect GMA square footage, but density and population.
Under present regulations looking at maximum could be built to. But could
decide to intensify some areas, or decrease density in some areas. Maintaining
community character.
• What is Boulder’s rate of growth?
o Job rate of growth is higher than population growth. Less than 1%.
Importing workers.
US rate is 1%.
o Boulder has reached $1M average home price.
• Should be a natural restrictor to control the rate of growth. Council seems to want to make the
city bigger.
o The flip side is that developers are looking at time value of money. From staff standpoint
the pace is remarkable.
• Development fees always lag. Infrastructure replenishment is behind.
o Coloradoan editorial on Sunday blamed affordable housing problem on fees. This would
be good information to take to editorial board to show pressure of other costs due to
demand. Labor costs are not the City’s fault.
We try to provide accurate information. Land and hard costs are increasing. Soft
costs and fees will stay level. Rate of change in land cost is incredible right now.
Don’t have newer data readily available.
o City is getting ready to update the analysis to include “buckets” driven by policy
decisions. Example: In Fort Collins required to do soil amendments when build a home.
How much does that increase the cost of a home? What are the cost drivers beyond land?
Fuller story.
Recent land sales, prices are going up. Also hearing about concrete cost and labor
costs.
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• Painters are getting $75/hr.
• Everyone is in a rush right now.
• Need to remember that City Plan was to balance growth with protecting characteristics of the
community that we like. See more about pushing growth, without regard to character of
neighborhoods. Traffic is insane. Have been saying for years that when put foot down on
economic growth, having negative consequences. Costs go up, housing becomes unaffordable,
traffic, etc. Ridiculous to think we are going to buildout, hit a wall and stop growth. Need to take
foot off the gas so don’t grow as fast. Small town feel is gone. Must be careful. For Council to
want to grow at 6% or 10%, is that what we want as a community? Have never asked citizens
how many people we want. Have been ramping up economic growth and putting in
infrastructure—not surprised at the results.
• If City Council made decision that want to limit growth, what are the levers to use?
o Petaluma and Boulder have had allocation systems to restrict number of building permits.
Other growth management techniques, but that is most strict. Other ways to meter what
happens—infrastructure deficiencies.
Has anyone assessed impact of Boulder’s process on community, including
housing prices? What happens to other characteristics of the community?
• Studies have been done. A few years old.
Commission wants to look at what other communities have done and what the
impacts have been.
Would like to translate “small town feel” into metrics—community health
indicators. Quantifying feelings.
• That would be huge step to attain by end of year. Top ten metrics that
show health within this parameter.
• Social discussion of networks, friendships, neighborhoods. How do you
measure that?
• Boulder example of not many workers living there, must be good for tax base. Residential is more
expensive to serve than commercial.
o Will have fewer services, but their transportation system is getting a lot of wear and tear.
How to generate the balance.
Caution to suggest that office employment is a profit center—it does support
some retail. Some purchasing choices are made based on where a person lives,
some on where work, and some irrespective of either.
Different distribution of revenues/costs.
• Places that have seen increases in high tech primary jobs have worse affordability issues than Fort
Collins. Yet Boulder continued to grow primary jobs. A lot of our policies are based on providing
primary jobs, but create secondary jobs and those people can’t afford to live here anymore.
Giving incentives—employees are coming from outside, leading to more crowding, etc.
• People moving to Timnath are maybe looking for product type they can’t find in Fort Collins.
Median sales price is higher than Fort Collins.
o Anecdotally hearing that from developers.
o Average income of those living in Timnath is higher too.
• Some people may like the growth, while some are against it. How do you measure this? How do
you manage the rate of growth? Should be a rate of growth that matches how you mange
infrastructure.
• Was Jessup Farm format choice of developer or influence of City?
o Both. Developer did master plan and City staff pushed to do something more innovative.
Two farmsteads. City put foot down that needed to be preserved. Developer agreed, but
let fall into disrepair. Then recession hit. Change in ownership/new developer.
Consultants made suggestions, City did as well. Opportunity that new developer
embraced. Hearing comments on wanting to replicate. “Third Place”—where people
come together, aside from home and work. Southeast Fort Collins was lacking this. Has
good feeling. Walkable from surrounding neighborhoods. In original City Plan was
vision that this would happen in multiple places around the city.
• Astounding growth along Front Range. We can influence how we grow and what it looks like.
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o Hear comment that City is actively and directly soliciting developers and actively trying
to fill the city, but that is not what is happening. People like to come here. As city
changes, different people coming. Can’t change that, but commission and City can
manage how change happens. Example of City requiring preservation is good. Can’t
build a wall and reject people you don’t like. Not our role. Stay focused on areas we can
influence and be effective. Slide 16: most developers are getting contractors from
Denver. There are plumbers and tile and carpet—if use contractors and retailers in city
limit, could get discount or if use from outside get additional fees. Can the City do this?
Legal, enforceable?
Tough to administer. Fees have stayed stable. Can debate how much fees and
taxes contribute to overall cost.
• Planning is doing a great job. What kinds of planning models exist in Severance and other
communities? Do they play together?
o Smaller communities may not have planning department, so contract out. Some have one
planner who is also doing other jobs. Hard to be cutting edge. Has to be political will to
do level of analysis Fort Collins does. City does long range planning, high caliber staff.
• What has happened in Boulder is not all that bad. Some of the communities around Boulder are
pretty cool.
o Cameron was a planner in Boulder. They made some big decisions including limited
boundary. Boulder County is progressive. In 1979 had realization that would get out of
development business. Agreements with neighboring communities to have development
in communities, rather than sprawl. Tremendous job managing open space and focusing
growth in communities. However, with increase in jobs got a housing crisis. Beautiful
community with quality development. Design details/excellence. Carefully orchestrated.
o Cities should have ways to control development.
• More metrics to do new plan, to understand economic conditions, would be helpful. Scoping
project to see what can be done in-house and where will need consultants. Open to suggestions.
o Would like to see demographic change piece. Ethnicity, education, families, singles,
religious affiliation, etc. That snapshot of trends would be helpful.
On list already. See where trending. Where we are heading.
o Can get idea of what is possible within larger system. Look at tradeoffs that have been
made in other communities. Ex: Silicon Valley, Houston, etc.
Case studies. Trying to grasp ahold of work that has already been done. If come
across existing case study, that might be best. Take advantage of work already
done.
• Linda agreed to research.
• Discussion of values with visual preference survey. Look at what people wanted 20 years ago.
That isn’t asked very often.
o Have that study on file. Will be engaging community again in City Plan update. In 1996
was effort to do innovative public outreach. Have far surpassed these techniques. Have
digital 3D model of downtown, have more tools for public polling, paying attention to
different learning styles. Goal of getting tens of thousands involved in update.
o Affordability vs. wages—has been unaffordable since before 1980. Would like to see
data further back. Some think we can grow ourselves into affordability.
Several cases of people who come here from places much more expensive.
ACTION ITEMS: Josh will send updated agenda schedule.
Meeting Adjourned: 1:10pm
Next Meeting: March 16
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