HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Commission - Minutes - 12/20/20171 | Page
MINUTES
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
Date: Wednesday, December 20, 2017
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
Rebecca Hicklin, Minutes 416-4349
Commission Members Present Commission Members Absent
Sam Solt, Chair
Ted Settle
Connor Barry
Denny Otsuga
John Parks
Ann Hutchison
Linda Stanley
Craig Mueller
Aric Light
Staff Present
Rebecca Hicklin, Admin/Board Support
Josh Birks, Economic Health and Redevelopment Director
Guests:
Dale Ademy, citizen
Meeting called to order at 1:04
Public Comment— Dale Ademy—Public comment about planning process for City Plan—Landbank.
Represents Fort Collins Parity. Downtown plan missed the mark on social aspects. Several cities on West
Coast have declared an emergency based on homelessness. He wants to bring TBL into the plan where
social is valued as much as environmental and economic. Homelessness is an issue that needs to be
addressed. Dale will try to come up with his own City Plan through Local Parity. Recommendation is to
incorporate Sustainability Assessment tool into City Plan and as it relates to TBL. Landbank is focusing
on housing affordability. Recommendation is to incorporate Sustainability tool into City Plan. Postpone
any Landbank decisions so they can appear in any policies. Landbank is focusing on housing
affordability. Can there be some comments/feedback from the board when a community citizen gets up
and speaks/gives public comment?
Review and Approval of Minutes:
November minutes approved as presented.
Agenda Review—No changes.
Commission Member/Staff Updates
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Ann: No update
Craig Mueller will do the Industry Cluster Review—He will be out of town beginning February 10, 2017
until end of month. Is there an alternate now? Formal process to look at around 25 grant applicants
applying for $180,000 in grant money. Chief Sustainability officer makes the final call. It takes around
10-15 hours to review the applications for a total of 20 hours in the total review process. There is also a
daylong activity that the individual will participate in as well. There may be a dialogue between Josh,
Jackie and applicant about possibly offering a portion of the request if full amount cannot be awarded.
The date is not set yet for the review process due to staffing shortage.
John will be alternate. Connor will be the alternate to the alternate.
Connor—would like this group to put forth a recommendation to Council regarding Broadband and Net
Neutrality. This will be a potential future agenda item.
Linda—would like to meet with Dale to discuss his comments on City Plan.
Sam—meeting with Project Manager with City Plan—Cameron, Blue Ocean, CSU, Major developers,
(Les Kaplan). Cameron spoke of previous City Plan and how things had evolved differently. What were
the reasons? How do we re-deploy some of our resources? There is a lot of pressure in certain areas of
Downtown.
Josh—series of focus groups that are going to be engaging on these areas. The topic area—Is the
employment and industrial land sufficient for future growth? Market trends? How much land needs to be
dedicated? Do employers need/want big campus style developments?
Sam—It was poking at the formal first position for original City Plan dated back to 1997. It was
intriguing to see what they planned for 20 years ago.
Ted: Question: Where do you see this going?
Ann—Follow on item. NOCO Housing Now hired EPS to identify whether we have enough property
zoned for housing in N. Colorado (FC, Loveland, Greeley and Windsor). Study will be released January
26. Meeting will be @ 10:30 at Budweiser Event Center. Punchline—No, we don’t have enough land. It’s
built as a system and can be used to test other towns in our area. Housing will be a regional conversation.
Josh—EPS is also looking at the Employment and Land use issue as well.
John—PRPA will close Rawhide power plant 10 years earlier than expected. (prediction from article)
Denny—FC company--Voltex Watch. Taking old pocket watches. Considered for investment from
Rockies Venture Club and its relationship with FC. Josh and group were instrumental in bringing this
about.
AGENDA ITEM 1— City Plan Update
• Josh gave time to Sam to discuss the meeting that took place with Cameron and others regarding
City Plan.
AGENDA ITEM 2— Update on Airport Activities—Sean Keithly-- Business Development Specialist
with FC/LV Airport—Employee of both Cities. Airport is trying to get a more sustainable revenue
structure.
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Airport:
Total area—1100 acres, jointly owned by FC & Loveland.
Overseen by 7-member committee.
Steadily increasing growth.
Serve corporate aircraft, charter, general aviation, corporate, emergency services, fire-fighting, military,
aircraft testing and development, Flight for Life.
Hope to attract Commercial air service once again.
Remote tower—FAA and CDOT is sponsoring first of its kind. Should be up and running in next 6-8
months, test for a year and available for use after that, then test for a year. Tower is next to terminal
building. Working on construction and technology. Will help with various types of aircraft, the pilots did
it before in air with Unicom System (not very well) with no tower. Control room will be right next to
terminal building.
Airport Guiding Documents-
Airport Master Plan
Airport Strategic Plan
Target Market analysis
Revenue sources—Mostly from City Contributions—both cities contribute $170,000. They may see
return of Commercial service.
Bye Aerospace experimental solar/aircraft
Manufacturing—new corporate hangar
CO Fire Rescue—building.
South Airport is where most of building is taking place.
North Airport—approximately 67 acres available.
Non-Aeronautical Development—all land is available for lease on a fee-simple basis. FAA must approve
Potential police training campus and any other businesses on site.
Target Market Analysis—Identify highest/best/most suitable uses of Airport Real Estate. Light
industrial/flex will provide most favorable income.
Next Steps—2018 Airport Master plan update.
Sam—What about property to north of Airport?
Sean--No agreement at this point
Old airport area is mostly light industrial, but with others coming in that are driving up rents.
Denny--What are the benefits to FC if the airport is in LV?
Sean—It benefits the entire region.
Josh—We don’t have a revenue sharing agreement. Property taxes go to LV. There has been talk about
coming up with this agreement. There is an economic component to this—part of the regional economic
engine. We are supplementing general operations money that will benefit joint partners.
Ted—we would like to have you come back.
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Ted—met with multiple individuals—agreed to proceed with experiment. (TBL and working with
multiple Boards/Commissions). The task is to write a memo to Council with proposal. We will proceed in
early January. General sense—Boards and Commissions can find better ways to be effective.
Maybe we should open up to other boards and commissions? The boundary is SSA for this purpose
Requested that Council Priorities be used as topics to consider.
Experiment will still be in 2018 year.
TBL tool will be looked at collectively. Jackie would like for someone to present that here in January.
Jackie will meet with all 5 commissions. We need someone to make a motion to move ahead with
Proposal.
Linda—I propose that we move ahead with Proposal. Ann seconded the motion. All in favor say
“aye.” All in favor. Proposal passed.
AGENDA ITEM 3— Business Assistance Criteria
On-going look @ business Criteria. Break into 2 groups for 4. Each group needs to pick one of the 12
categories. Then Report out. Comments can be found as additional documents in the EAC documents
folder and available upon request.
Questions:
1. How Might a business relocation or expansion in FC impact this aspect of Quality of Place?
2. How might staff and Council evaluate the potential impacts described in questions #1 above?
3. Do any specific metrics come to mind that can help to quantify the potential impact?
Meeting adjourned—1:05.