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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Commission - Minutes - 03/15/20171 | Page MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION Date: Wednesday, March15, 2016 Location: Colorado River Room, 222 Laporte Ave. Time: 11:00am–1:00pm 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 (via phone) Alan Curtis Ted Settle Connor Barry Denny Otsuga John Parks Ann Hutchison Linda Stanley Craig Mueller Staff Present Dianne Tjalkens, Admin/Board Support Patrick Rowe, Redevelopment Coordinator Jackson Brockway, Graduate Management Assistant Sean Carpenter, Climate Economy Advisory Guests: Mike Prusnick, citizen Vera Prusnick, citizen Meeting called to order at 11:05am Public Comment—Mike Prusnick: City sustainability greenhouse gas report card—since 2012 carbon emissions have increased—getting negative results. Open house for NISP learned about 15% economic detriment on community, but this slide was left out of presentation to Council. Talks will only move NISP forward—concerned that councilmembers are forwarding something that is detrimental to community. Tiny houses can have solar and water that allow people to live without a job—insulated from recession. Alternative transportation—not a fan of busses since routes change and can only go where government decides. Alternatives such as Segways, golf carts, etc. Wider sidewalks needed for these would benefit disabled persons in wheelchairs as well. Could also be a leader in dispelling myths around Islam by showing similarities between Fort Collins and Lebanon, Beirut. Review and Approval of Minutes: February minutes approved as presented. Agenda Review—No changes. Commission Member/Staff Updates— 2 | Page • Denny: Startup week was a great success with high number of attendees and venues—getting innovation economy going. FC Mesh held a number of events. Hope to continue to have City support for startup week in the future. Group of Japanese university and corporate groups that visited during that week—impressed by event and collaboration. Will share article when it is published. Rocky Mountain Venture Club provided several free sessions and received joint proposal for a cluster grant to provide more free educational opportunities for entrepreneurs and angel investors. • Patrick: RFP process for City Plan—scheduling interviews this week, will make selection by early next week. Contract execution, fleshing out scope. o Ted thought he would be reviewing the proposals—has been working with Martin Carcasson and wanted him in the process—he has been engaged directly by the City. Ted will talk to him to ensure the EAC’s concerns about growth will be addressed. • Patrick: OEDIT (Office of Economic Development and International Trade) meeting to be scheduled, including Josh and Darin. o Issue in Fort Collins of Comcast being awarded large incentive by the state to move to Fort Collins. State did not involve City in conversation. Will use this as example to discuss how to engage with communities appropriately. • Craig: Participated in cluster grant review. First time citizen has been involved. Positive experience. Reviewed all proposals, scored, conversation about relative merits of each proposal. Recommendations went to staff. AGENDA ITEM 1— Officer Elections Sam and Ted are willing to continue in their roles, but are also willing to step aside for new persons to participate. Discussion/Q & A: • Will Sam’s travel keep him away from meeting? o Not planning any more travel in next two years. • Role of Chair and Vice Chair? o Preparation for monthly meeting—meet with Josh to discuss and link to Council agenda. Gain relevancy for EAC—one thing to review and comment on presentations, another to drive relevancy on current matters. Ex: City Plan—spent a lot of time getting traction on providing input into that process. Personal side—bringing faces in front of Mayor, Council, and staff regarding commitment to EAC charter. Haven’t completed vision for this board. o What hasn’t been completed?  Snafu with EAC and City Plan—a lot of effort has been put in, but miscommunication with staff members, so incomplete effort. Also, making commentary and involving Mayor (Council liaison) to get his support for ideas. EAC can make contributions to discussions/decisions around growth in northern Colorado. Ex: support for Avago expansion. • Appreciate time Ted and Sam have put into this outside the board time. o More efficient and useful meeting due to work put in beforehand. • Ted’s background in economic development is exceptional. Linda moved and Craig seconded a motion to elect Sam as Chair of the Economic Advisory Commission for 2017. Motion passed unanimously, 6-0-0. Linda moved and Ann seconded a motion to elect Ted as Vice Chair of the Economic Advisory Commission for 2017. Motion passed unanimously, 6-0-0. ACTION ITEMS: Provide election results to City Clerk’s Office. AGENDA ITEM 2— Industry Cluster Grant Update—Jackson Brockway Geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, specialized suppliers, service providers, etc. Grants assist with coordination, capacity building, and staff support. 2017 challenge is that received 3 | Page $450K in requests and only had $200K to allocate. 12 industry cluster and support organizations received funding this year. Also discussing three additional applicants to try to fund through sponsorships. Funded clusters/support orgs include food, biotech, health, manufacturing, book festival, music and video, 3D printing, capital formation, entrepreneur education, innovation, water, and “Innovation After Hours.” Helping to continue momentum of startup week. Handmade Bike Cluster, Compass High School, and Downtown Fort Collins Creative District are three additional organizations trying to fund with sponsorships. Applications were reviewed by interdepartmental team and citizen member. Scoring criteria included funding matches, partnerships, ability to meet community need (workforce development, behavioral health, etc.), triple bottom line, contribution to the cluster/community impact, demonstrated success, support of cluster goals and Economic Health Office (EHO) strategic plan. Recipients were interviewed to determine priorities and funding floor, which helped decide final grant amounts. Funding to be delivered to recipients by end of April. Discussion/Q & A: • Innovation After Hours was not scored. o Funded every year by City—transitioning to cluster grant application rather than ongoing cost. o Transferring from EHO budget to another?  Good question for Josh. Innovation After Hours has been receiving funding for a number of years. Hoping it will become more self-sufficient. o Better fit for these programming dollars. Sounds like Innovation After Hours fits well with industry cluster programs and should compete with other clusters rather than being regular part of EHO budget. o Troublesome—shifting off City budget to grant application item without any oversight doesn’t seem right. There was no application. A fund like this should be applied for.  The $200K for this grant comes from the EHO budget as well. In the past, could have just assigned money.  Need more information from Josh on this topic. Assume there was an evaluation process, and unfortunate that the full vetting team wasn’t a part of the process. o Innovation After Hours is a networking event, once a month, done through Innosphere.  There is an innovation presentation/conversation at every event. Inspiring the innovation space. • Allocated $178,600 of $200K. Rest of dollars? o Holding until determine best ways to support other three initiatives. • How many are fully funded by this grant? o None. Many applicants asked for $40K (full amount can ask for). Once selected groups to receive funding, had interviews to determine priorities—wanted to ensure could fund enough to be meaningful. • What was most valuable aspect of having EAC member, Craig, on the committee? o More directly engaged in private sector. Taking conversation beyond “City talk.” Additional perspective. o Veteran clusters were able to show how they have used the funds in the past. Showing the way for newer clusters. Brought critical thinking and knowledge of grantee perspective. ACTION ITEMS: Get more information on Innovation After Hours funding decision from Josh. AGENDA ITEM 3— Climate Economy Overview—Sean Carpenter Have history of proactive investments for benefit of local economy. Hope more green businesses can start here, or relocate here. Intentional partnerships with University can develop jobs here. City cannot do what is needed to green our community alone—catalyze types of investments that can be made in our economy. Woodwards and Otterboxes have people and resources to invest in climate economy and resiliency, and benefit from innovations. Small businesses don’t have time, resources, bandwidth to make these types of investments. Helping small businesses mitigate and benefit from resiliency investment. Current population of ~160K, expect ~250K in next 30 years. Anticipating tremendous growth along whole Front Range. Need to think about jobs and economy for those 100K new residents. Have youthful and well educated community. Have low unemployment rate, and high participation in job market. About 40K people commute in to Larimer County daily, about 45K commute out to external jobs. Want an economy where people can live and work in Fort Collins. Desire to deliver good, sustainable jobs, and 4 | Page superior quality of life. Enhance activities that encourage clean energy investment and green job creation. Green jobs outnumber oil and gas jobs 10-1 in Colorado. Ex: Solar installation is a job with a good living wage. Have advantage of Spirae, PosEn, FC Mesh, CSU, Powerhouse, etc. Enhance community and business resiliency to climate change. Can become an engine for economic growth in our community. TBL principles—have to focus on all three as they are mutually reinforcing. EHO is looking at economic health of community—not just focused on development, but holistic look. Triple Helix includes private sector businesses, university and City. Leveraging existing talent. Also exploring City as a Platform— way to open City assets to businesses for innovation development. Ex: Could City’s water testing lab be opened to business for water testing solutions? Can this be done to catalyze business development and innovation in Fort Collins without burdening City resources? Interviewing other cities to learn best practices. A lot of new opportunity for funding and financing—a lot of capital available. City can take role of creating an enabling environment for private investment. Vocational education will be important facet of climate economy plan. Discussion/Q & A: • How are businesses categorized as green? o Don’t consume resources that cannot be replenished. Can send report on jobs. • Saw presentation on Fortify Fort Collins at Superboard meeting. Input from attendees was that need to keep word climate in the name to continue to address climate issues. See same issue with this draft definition of Climate Economy. o Tension around language that shuts people down. Want to use language that gets people engaged. Want to execute job creation that benefits the entire community. Fortify Fort Collins includes climate action as well as other initiatives. o Using climate as an adjective in front of economy makes it unclear. • Examples of what businesses would fit into category of climate economy? o Local contractors getting certified to do PACE projects could double their business. Currently have split incentive for landlords to do efficiency upgrades—not cost effective when renter pays utilities. PACE takes away split incentive. PACE is property assessed clean energy finance—allows building owner to upgrade building. Ex: paying $800 in utilities, with PACE project upgrades reduce to $300 utilities and only $400 loan payment with zero down. Positive cash flow. Money comes from private banks. In Colorado any accredited bank can become a PACE lender. Loan payment is made through a special assessment on property taxes—need County and assessors to agree. Expect County to be interested after educational process. Legislation allows for residential PACE, expect that program to start in next couple of years. • Solar industry growth/size—residential vs. commercial? o Don’t know answer, but can try to get that information to the board. AGENDA ITEM 3— Downtown Plan Recommendation Discussion/Q & A: • Supportive of adopting the plan as drafted. • Can do much better in terms of parking. It is a big issue to people; they don’t want to pay for it, but they will get used to it quickly. Ex: Can do first half hour free. Can use the funds to pay for parking garages. Need to figure out how to fund those. Also take to heart Dale Adamy’s comments on how it does not address the social issues. Someone is going to have to do that work. • Agree with that sentiment. Sit-lie bans, homelessness issues. Not looking at solutions to underlying issues that create homelessness. Understand problems with disruptiveness. Can’t penalize people without any solutions. Other cities have community gardens where homeless people can work/get food, etc. This plan doesn’t address at all. • Agree—Addressing needs of homeless, development at site of Jefferson Park. There has been a proposal for mental health detox facility at county level that has failed. Time for the City to take this on. Would like to see this taken on in Downtown Plan or City Plan. Also haven’t done good job outlining what street outreach would do. How often are they out? Could there be interactive kiosks for information on facilities and resources? Something that isn’t so dependent on human resources. • Does EAC focus on market and economy sections and then comment on parking and lack of social lens? Hesitant to recommend adoption of whole plan. 5 | Page • Economic matters include triple bottom line. • Need strategic plan for economically viable solutions to parking challenges. o Businesses would like to build more structures, but cannot do it alone, and the City doesn’t have the funding to help. • What is tradeoff between level of detail and ability to make changes down the road? o Perhaps have the plan addressed more frequently, or have a plan to make modifications at intervals. o Balance level of detail with need for flexibility over term of implementation. • Concerns about setbacks and building height. Have Uncommon building 4 stories without setbacks. Seems inappropriate. In Canyon Avenue district. Would that project be approved under the new plan? o Building has setbacks on upper levels and has been broken into separate buildings. o Plan protects core historic area, and increases density in other parts, which is necessary for economic vitality. • This document relates directly to development and land use. o Plan does talk about more housing, and that mixed-use can be a path toward more affordable housing. • Members provided edits to the draft recommendation. Patrick recorded changes. Linda moved to adopt the following recommendation. Connor seconded. The Economic Advisory Commission feels that the Downtown Plan reflects the priorities of the board and recommends that City Council adopt the plan after addressing the following needs: - Social issues, including mental health, homeless and transient impacts and needs, and affordable housing. - More aggressive implementation of long term economically viable solutions to parking. - Balance the need for detail with flexibility over the long term for implementation. Motion passed unanimously, 6-0-0. Meeting Adjourned: 1:06pm Next Meeting: April 19