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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Board - Minutes - 01/19/2022 ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR January 19, 2022 4:00 - 6:00 pm via Zoom 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER 4:00pm 2. ROLL CALL  List of Board Members Present o John Parks o Renee Walkup o Thierry Dossou o Blake Naughton o Denny Coleman o Aric Light o Mistene Nugent o Jeff Havens o Braulio Rojas  List of Board Members Absent – Excused or Unexcused, if no contact with Chair has been made.  List of Staff Members Present o Josh Birks o Molly Saylor o Meaghan Overton o Noah Beels (briefly) 3. AGENDA REVIEW  Ultimately no changes 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION  N/A 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES  No changes 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS  N/A 7. NEW BUSINESS ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 2 a. Introducing the Chair and Vice Chair  John Parks – Vice Chair  John used to be a language educator and is now a student finishing a master’s degree in Political Science at CSU. He loves that Fort Collins has a focus on sustainability and the triple bottom line.  Renee Walkup – Chair  Has been the Chair for six months and has been on the board for four years. She recently transitioned from being an international speaker/trainer to a 3d mosaic artist. She loves the vibe of the city, the friends, the sustainability focus, and the downtown area. b. Introducing New Members  Mistene Nugent  Mistene is a commercial-real-estate broker with CBRE. Previously she was a business owner in town and worked at HP before. She’s lived in FC since 1990 (originally from Iowa), loves the access to the outdoors, and how the business community is engaged and vibrant. She loves how everyone (business, city, and chamber) works together - particularly during covid.  Blake Naughton  Blake is the vice president for engagement and extension and a professor of human development at CSU. His background is in education and workforce development policy. Has been at CSU for 2 years. He moved here with wife and two daughters from Missouri right before Covid. He feels that the intergenerational mix is great rather than a separation between “turfs” where different age groups hang out.  Terry Dossou  Senior program manager at Microsoft – currently driving some security initiatives across the company. Before Microsoft he worked for HP here in town. CSU alumnus in Computer Engineering & Computer Science. He loves the outdoors, the food, and the community/people in FC. Moving from Denver to FC, he thought the area looked boring; however, he people and community really made the place home. He is passionate about diversity, inclusion, and bringing & keeping talent in Fort Collins.  Braulio Rojas  Originally from the Dominican Republic – moved here in 2013. He has ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 3 been serving on this board for three years. He tries to be involved in all the community aspects. He likes FC because there is a good balance between environmental enjoyment, retirement communities, and student communities. There is a harmony. His academic background is finance and business. He has been working for the last 4 years in financial services department at Nutrien Ag solutions.  Denny Coleman  Moved here recently with wife to be closer to his kids. He had vacationed out here several times when he lived in Saint Louis. He went to school at University of Wisconsin Madison studying Urban and Regional Planning. He worked at a not-for-profit housing organization, then moved to community development banking, followed by work at the City of St. Louis as the Director of Economic Development. Finally, he worked as the Director of Economic Development at the County of St. Louis. There, they built a job training center in an impoverished community, worked in real estate development, business development, and lots of entrepreneurial activities. He likes the proximity and accessibility to open space that FC offers.  Jeff Havens  High school English teacher then standup comedian. He is currently a keynote speaker. His company does online business development. He and his family moved to FC from Michigan, and he additionally appreciates the organization of the city, where everything is 15 minutes from anything. In Michigan, he was on the board for affordable housing – an issue that is top of mind for him.  Aric Light  Lived in FC for 10 years. Got his undergraduate and graduate degrees from CSU. Hopes to lend academic insight to applied work done on the board. Is currently a financial analyst at Merryl-Lynch. He likes the proximity to outdoor activities that Fort Collins offers. c. Staff Introduction  Josh Birks  Economic Health and Development Director – leads up department responsible for business support entrepreneurial innovation and urban renewal. Been with the office for 13 years – director for 10 of those years. He acts as staff liaison for the EAB who makes sure that everyone gets packet materials, helps navigate the position, provides ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 4 advice, and runs things behind the scenes. d. Closing remarks: We serve for the pleasure of City Council - everything we do goes as a suggestion to Council. e. Housing Strategic Plan Update – Land Use Code Updates Phase I  Presentation – Meaghan Overton – 10 minutes  Meaghan Overton – City’s Housing Manager.  Goal is to get everyone up to speed on Land Use Code update. Information included in packets.  Project involves revamping land use codes, which dictates what can be built where, and the process that it needs to go through to be built. The first phase of this work is focused on housing, and phase two will tackle industrial and commercial uses. The purpose of this project is to align the policies already set in place by various city plans (city plan, transit master plan, our climate future plan, etc.). The plan began with an audit done in 2020.  Quick history of Fort Collins: The first zoning code served from 1920’s to mid-1950’s. Old Town is the historic core of the city. It’s walkable, mixed use, has trees and alleys. At the end of this era, the chamber of commerce adopted a mantra: “Fort Collins Expands.”  The late-1950’s to the 1980’s involved growing out from the core; the city expanded outward. 27% of the city was built between 1960 and 1980. A lot of expansion was done via annexation of unincorporated parts of Larimer County. In the 1980’s and 1990’s auto-dependence became more pronounced, and a lot of work was done in construction of single, detached houses. In 1997, the code was updated, and many values from the core came back: trees, staying connected, and biking/walking opportunities. We also see a lot more multi-unit development.  The plan is now to accommodate the future vision. We want more mobility, more diversity in the kinds of houses we have available, and more focus on sustainability.  5 guiding principles shape the current work: o (1) Increase overall housing capacity. o (2) Enable more affordability. o (3) Allow for more diverse housing choices. ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 5 o (4) Make the code easier to understand. o (5) Improve predictability of the development permit review process.  Discussion – 20 minutes – Board  Comment (Jeff): A flood in Michigan town gave city an opportunity to restructure downtown. Many complaints came from residents when a reduction of 20 parking spaces was suggested. The city advertised that, when visiting a city, no one remembers how great the parking is. Supports removal of parking.  Comment (Denny) Suggests that there is always a percentage of the population who believes that if they cannot park right in front of a store whenever they want - they think there’s not enough parking.  Q (Denny) His experience with affordable housing is that it’s best if there’s a percentage of the affordable housing is sold at market rate. Does FC have plans to provide something like that. o A (Meaghan) Inclusionary policy is not required in Fort Collins (and wasn’t allowed in rental housing until last year). They continue to look at inclusionary policy as a potential option, but it would need to be carefully designed to work with whatever densities are allowed in code. Expect more conversation about this after code changes.  Q (Denny) In SL, historic preservation was important. What’s the feeling on historic districts, particularly in old town? o A (Meaghan) There are a few historic districts in FC (primarily in Old Town area), and Housing works closely with historic preservation staff to balance affordability and historic preservation concerns. Example: use of an existing house is more sustainable than building a new one, but the existing houses wouldn’t be as energy efficient.  Q (Jeff) Asks if there any conversation regarding incentivizing individual property owners (of small apartment complexes or of individual houses) to provide affordable housing. o A (Meaghan) That’s a subject that falls in the Housing Plan, though not the Land Use Code project. The Housing Plan is on a much slower timeline and looks at occupancy, rental licensing, and small landlord incentives. Most of the housing ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 6 that will be available in FC has already been built since there is not enough capacity to build enough to match what already exists. Work needs to be done with what we have and can’t necessarily “build our way out of it.”  Q (John) FC, and the rest of the country, have a history of redlining and exclusionary practices. Is the commitment to equity tied into some of what you guys are looking at? o A (Meaghan) The housing plan delves into the history beyond what was mentioned today (e.g., a plan that only allowed certain races or incomes to buy housing). There was also an equity and opportunity assessment that looked at displacement, gentrification, and access to different kinds of opportunity in the community geographically. This allows identification of the most vulnerable communities are located, and where neighborhood change and gentrification are occurring.  Q (John) The City has recently adopted higher efficiency code and wonders whether that’s tied in with the Land Use Code, the sustainability, and the cost aspects of new builds. o A (Meaghan) The city is also updating the building code on February 15th. Energy and sustainability compliance will be dealt with through the building code, not the Land Use Code.  Q (Renee) Since the pandemic, have the numbers of people who are moving in adjust – is there new data on that. And second, has the funding changed for affordable housing? o A (Meaghan) A lot of the trends that existed before the pandemic are pretty similar to current trends. There is a rapidly growing older population, smaller family sizes, and people doubling up on housing. The city invests 1.5 – 3 million dollars in affordable housing; based on production goals, the required amount is closer to 10-11.5 million dollars per year. There are recovery funds that are beginning to be allocated to projects across the city, so she expects housing to be one of the top priorities. Money from the City is focused towards the lowest- income groups. The city is also getting 2.6 million towards housing from ARPA.  Q (Renee) Developers said that they’re not getting incentives to build affordable housing. Have any adjustments been made to that? ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 7 o A (Noah Beals – Development Review Manager for the City) We are only one piece of the puzzle, and we are teeing up that conversation for the future, but we’re not incorporating it in our current work. o A (Meaghan) We also have credits that are only for those hard- to-develop units (30% median income or below). It’s a flat rate that developers can apply to their fees, but it’s a limited program because of funding. With more funding, more money could be applied there. Some additional funding went there in the first round of ARPA.  Meaghan: Draft is expected to come out around April. She and Noah would love to come back and share the details of the draft, then. f. Plastic Bag Update  Presentation – Molly Saylor – 10 minutes  Working on plastic pollution is a city council priority and is in our city’s strategic plan. The program is funded by bag fee revenue of about $120k in 2022. This strategy also supports an Our Climate Future alignment as a move towards zero waste.  In developing Our Climate Future, we learned that more renewing, recycling, and composting was one of the big priorities of our BIPOC community in FC. So, we know that this is an important place to be working, especially working within equity.  This work specifically is centering community and equity. It centers community by making the plastic bag fee revenue available for things that the community might want to lead or co-lead with our city. We are also centering equity by partnering with historically underrepresented groups including people living with a disability.  The Bag Ordinance was passed by City Council in February 2021 and was affirmed by voters in April 2021. It will become effective on May 1, 2022, and ban plastic bags at large grocers (over 10k square feet). Paper bags will then be available for purchase for 12 cents. Half of the 12-cent fee will go to the grocers, and the other half will go to the city. The fee that goes to the city will go to waste reduction measures. Note that participants of federal, state, and local income-qualified programs will be exempt from this fee if they can present a current benefit card.  Since Council adoption and voter approval, we’ve seen: ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 8 o The Colorado Plastic Pollution Reduction Act passed. o Engagement and collaboration with grocers and disproportionately impacted groups. o A lead sustainability specialist hired to manage this ordinance as well as the programs that it generates via the applied fees. o Just sent out first wave of reusable bags to 1,300 low and moderate-income households, including some tips on how else folks can start getting ready for the change in May. More households will be receiving bags this winter and spring.  Had opportunity to get deep engagement with stakeholders including all 15 large grocers, several disproportionately affected communities (seniors, low-moderate income, disabilities). Largely, people are ready to go. Some have expressed support, but need some tips, guidance, or information before they’re “ready to go.” Grocers fit into these first two categories. There are some concerns, though. These took the form of dislike of the regulation or aspects of it, such as the fee, or imposition of new barriers on people with disabilities or other types of hardships (like chronic long-term illnesses). Some community members are unable to shop in stores, so they would have no choice but to pay that reusable bag fee. o These stories are considered in plans for materials that are given out before the ordinance, into the communication planning, storyboarding, and into recommendations to City Council about how to adapt the ordinance. o Engagement will be ongoing rather than “dip in, dip out.” They will continue to check in with people as time goes on since people can’t predict how things will go.  The Colorado Plastic Pollution Reduction Act Timeline o 2023 - All retailers to charge 10-cents per plastic or paper bag (with some exemptions). 60-40 City-grocer split. o 2024 – Plastic bags banned (fee on paper bags maintained); Styrofoam food containers banned at retail food establishments.  Staff Recommended Changes o Timeline - Maintain the timeline. By tackling the grocers where most of the plastic bags are coming from, we can learn a lot of lessons to help the rest of the community transition over as the ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 9 state’s bill comes into effect. o Fees -- Adopt the state’s fee (10 cents) and split (60-40 City- grocer). This is the same revenue from the city perspective. Grocers support this decision so the State can be aligned. o Exemptions - Maintain the exemption for all income-qualified programs (State is more focused on food-based assistance programs. FC will keep the broader exemption) but allow administrative rules for all other exceptions (if we encounter disproportionate barriers, we want to be able to act on opportunities to remove them). o Definitions – Align to State definitions and clean up other non- substantive elements, as identified by Staff.  Next Steps & Timeline o Planning details of the roll-out with grocers and community members. Goal is to make everything clear and as easy as possible for everyone who shops. o Based on Council feedback, we may bring back an updated ordinance draft. The new draft would require council consideration. o March and April will be about community-wide communications and outreach. o Ordinance goes into effect on May 1st, and we will continue checking in with grocers and disproportionately impacted stakeholders.  Discussion – 20 minutes – Board  Q (Renee) Notes that someone buying few items will automatically be given a bag and that employee-packers will pack inefficiently and overuse bags. What is the training plan that sees that the stores will implement these plans? What is the communication plan at the stores? Will there be signage reminding people to bring their bags in? o A (Molly) State language requires that grocers provide signage alerting customers will be charged for paper bags. Additionally, grocers will also be required to create a Fee Revenue Plan (fee revenue cannot be treated as general revenue) that applies to either recovering fees attributed to this ordinance or towards further reducing plastic waste/ increase recycling. A ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 10 recommended application of this income is additional signage in parking lot (if they own it) to remind customers to take in their bags.  An additional step in getting grocers prepared has been a series of conversations with grocery store employees on how to work together to make sure everyone has what they need. A major concern was that cashiers are the “front line” of enforcing this mandate and take most of the heat from unhappy customers. QR being created for customers to scan and send feedback to us. o We are working on the training element. There are some lines where we’re city staff and it’s not our business, but customer feedback to baggers when customers are responsible for paying for the bags will likely correct those wasteful bagging behaviors. Some grocers will also allow pick-up customers to choose whether they’d like their groceries bagged or not.  Q (Jeff) If the State is planning on making all plastic bags banned in the upcoming years, why aren’t we taking steps towards doing the same thing now? You’re doing a lot of work for 15 locations now, and next year you’ll have to do the same work for 100 locations. Why not prepare everyone now? o A (Molly) Grocers is where most bags come from, so tackling this now will get us most of the way there. This is also a great learning opportunity to test and see what works and understand how to message this to the community and we’ll be better poised for a smooth transition in the future. o Comment (Thierry) A good strategy here is “nail it and scale it.” Since this is state-wide policy, the success is really the communication. Reach out to a group of people, work with them, and learn what worked and what didn’t work, then apply to other stores sounds like a great strategy to me.  Comment (Braulio) Thinks this is a great project and overdue. This will be difficult because we are changing people’s behaviors. We all grew up without thinking about bags because they were always available. People change behaviors when there’s a financial impact. I don’t see another way to do it but to charge for their behavior.  Q (Braulio)Another element that people can include is a third option to buy a bag that is non-plastic for a little bit more money. Maybe the City ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 11 could create bags as a non-profit project. o A (Molly) We are doing something like that. Plastic will be outright banned, but we will be making paper bags available for 10 cents. We still want to discourage paper because, while better for the environment than plastic, still has it’s own cost to the climate (greenhouse gas). We are also giving other options such as, put items directly into cart and take cart out to car.  Comment (Braulio) Notes that this could provide an incentive for store owners to profit from people forgetting their bags and having to buy them.  Comment (Jeff) Some stores also offer reusable bags for sale at checkout so customers can pay a few dollars for a reusable bag rather than 10 cents for a paper bag that they’ll never use again.  Q (John) Recalls a previous presentation stated that 15 stores create 10 million bags in a year. That must be a big impact when it goes from a net cost to a net revenue source. Mentions that Ireland in the early 2000 had a nation-wide plastic bag removal and had a huge positive messaging campaign “keep Ireland green” that had the whole public behind it. Encourages Fort Collins to follow suit with a positive campaign in advance of the ordinance (e.g. “we’re keeping FC green.” or “we are keeping 10 million bags out of landfills.”) Suggests avoiding negative connotation. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS  Q (Blake) What is a board member report  A(Renee) Someone on the board might have a comment or topic that they might want to bring up.  (John) We will be having elections coming up in the next few months [March] for the positions of Chair and Vice Chair. This gives you time to see what EAB is about and maybe throw hats in the ring.  (Renee) Typically we’ve voted for board elections in January when no one knows anyone. So now new members can get to know people and fulfill a position.  Q (Mistene) Can you clarify the meeting cadence.  A (Renee) Third Wednesday of every month. Next month we will discuss having a hybrid option.  Q (John) Noted that dates on EAB page is citing starting date for members ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 01/19/2022 – AGENDA Page 12 rather than termination dates.  A (Josh) Board term length has been staggered. Some people are appointed for one year, some appointed for two years, and others for three years. He will confer with clerk to verify that dates are correct.  Q (Braulio) Wants to confirm that in-person meetings will cover dinner costs.  A(John) confirms. 9. OTHER BUSINESS 10. ADJOURNMENT  5:59pm UPCOMING TOPICS  Economic Health Strategic Plan Update [February; Re-occurring]  Revisit Meeting In-Person [February]  East Mulberry Corridor Annexation Feasibility [Q1, 2022]  Our Climate Future – ClimateWise Update [TBD]