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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 05/11/2015 - City Manager’s Office 300 LaPorte Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS FUTURES COMMITTEE MEETING Date: May 11, 2015 Location: CIC Room, City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave Time: 4:00–6:00pm Committee Members Present: Committee Members Absent: Wade Troxell, Chair Gino Campana Darin Atteberry Kristin Stephens City Staff: Jeff Mihelich, Deputy City Manager Dianne Tjalkens, Admin/Board Support Laurie Kadrich, Community Development and Neighborhood Services Director Cameron Gloss, Planning Manager Sam Houghteling, Industry Cluster Coordinator Kelly DiMartino, Assistant City manager Invited Guests: Community Members: Kevin Jones, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce Alan Curtis, Innosphere/citizen Dale Adamy, citizen Wade Troxell called meeting to order at 4:08pm Approval of Minutes: Gino moved to approve the February minutes as presented. Kristen seconded. Motion passed unanimously, 4-0-0. Chairman Comments: None. Future Agendas Discussion: None. Think Tank Item 4-2015: East Mulberry Corridor—Laurie Kadrich and Cameron Gloss Mulberry Corridor is primarily County territory. The City worked with County and other involved districts to create a zoning plan about 10 years ago. Little has happened thus far. If City property entirely surrounds the County territory for 3 years, it creates an enclave and the City can annex without permission of property owners. The City is getting closer to being able to achieve annexation. The area includes commercial, mobile home park, single family homes, and room for additional residential growth. North Fort Collins main enclave is east Mulberry. Some portions extend onto Vine. Steps to annexation: 1. Create enclave: staged approach to obtain right of way from railroad, and annexation of westerly strip of property at Cloverleaf mobile home park 2. City Plan update: Fold the new vision of the enclave into City Plan. 3. Fiscal impact assessment: fees for development, sales tax, but also costs. Major infrastructure needs. 4. Mulberry Corridor Plan update and property owner coordination 5. Annexation: potential for phasing How does Mulberry fit into bigger picture of Fort Collins? What could be different? City Plan update could re-look at the corridor. There is much redevelopable and vacant land. Many buildings are in poor condition. Flaws the County hasn’t taken care of such as drainage. CDOT is also thinking about how landscaping is done, frontage roads, etc. This is a state highway. People are buying on Mulberry now expecting imminent annexation and rising property values. With infrastructure needs of the area, we will work in a phased approach. Many improvements are needed. Costs for Police Services, transportation, light and power, stormwater, parks services, administrative services, etc. Stormwater needs are great. Create amendment to East Mulberry corridor plan: co-create with property owners. Property owners want to know how they will be impacted in terms of costs and how they do business. Understand fears and opportunities. Need additional resources to do this. Resistance in the area. Needs to be consultant help. Very complex. Need constant communication with property owners and representatives from community engaged in the process. Even if enclave is closed, soonest can act is 3 years; however, no requirement to act at 3 years. Can be done in a systematic way. Comments/Q & A: • Cloverleaf property? o Want to secure 40 foot easement of Cloverleaf. Cloverleaf is currently in Fort Collins GMA, but could select Timnath instead. If move to Timnath, City gets 40 foot easement. • More expensive to develop in Fort Collins than Timnath (fees), turn out time for development review is potentially longer in Fort Collins. Don’t want to annex for taxing issues such as sales tax. Primary property owner has expressed will cost significantly more to develop in Fort Collins. o Some businesses will not go to Mulberry due to lack of investment in the area. We want development to come in under City standards. o People entering Fort Collins at Mulberry do not understand why the area does not have the same standards as the City. If the City initiates, it can better control development quality. • Is there data to suggest that Fort Collins property has higher value than Timnath? Also, change in franchise agreements for dealerships need specific acreage. What can those projects be redeveloped as if they move? How do we keep those businesses in our tax base? o Economic value of car dealership to city is service and sales tax on service. Vehicle sales tax is based on where you live, not on where you buy. Doesn’t have 2 as much economic value as expected. Does create jobs. In discussion with dealerships to discuss relocation. • Is there an organized group that represents this area? o Used to be 5-10 business/property owners that were loosely organized. o A few very vocal business owners. Liquor store owner in particular. • Many costs associated with annexation. What are conversations with the County? o The City has been actively seeking to form the enclave. Has always been in the GMA. Phasing is an option. However, not the only way to do it. One important decision is whether to phase or not, which requires fiscal impact assessment. This is a key gateway into the city. As compared to Harmony and Prospect there are clear differences in infrastructure and visual standards: signage, sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaping standards, etc. Should not talk about sharing resources from the mall with the County until we discuss costs of the Mulberry Corridor. Revenues and costs. URA will be a critical tool to realize the vision for Mulberry. There is blight. • Is Cloverleaf in GMA? o When got into discussions with Timnath agreed to come back for Council consideration. • Servicing area would require 22 more police officers? At current population? o That number was from a previous study, 10 years ago, which was based on call volume in the area at the time. o Need to determine how many officers needed at build out. o Look at shifts as well. 1-2 Sheriffs now. o Active area now. • Tool to help with infrastructure gaps will be needed. Public-private partnership. Conscious, deliberate look at costs and revenues. Lot of opportunity for revenue growth. Southwest annexation was not financial benefit to city, but made sense for GMA. This area has more future potential. • Do hotels pay into lodging tax into Visit Fort Collins? o Voluntarily, yes. o No sales tax to the City. • Timeline? o Six months to 1 year, create the enclave. City Plan update in 2 years. Parallel process to do fiscal impact assessment. Corridor plan update and working with property owners, then decide about annexation. As early as 5 years. o Railroad more challenging than Cloverleaf. Rick Richter has been in discussions for over a year. o Have subdivisions in the area that have requested annexation into the city for better services, increase of property values. When bought property believed they would be in Fort Collins. • Zoned industrial is key area: opportunity for land inventory and employment. Otherwise restricted. o Squeezing light manufacturing, assembly, and industrial out of Fort Collins as not affordable. Valuable incubator space. DO: Next Steps • Staff must get the enclave first. • URA passed state level with some amendments. Details are not all worked out, but will affect URAs. 3 o CML plans to request a veto. o Mike Beckstead and Darin will talk to Council about special districts at a later date. • Staff will need assistance with BFO. Last offers were not funded. Will present more offers in the next cycle. o City Plan BFO offer will come for 2016-17. Focusing on Downtown Plan this cycle. Think Tank Item 3-2015: City Districts—Laurie Kadrich and Cameron Gloss Neighborhood Districts. How do we break the GMA into subarea plans? How do we engage our neighborhoods in a more systematic way? Historic preservation, subarea plans, City Plan—how they all work together. Definition of a neighborhood has changed: used to be 5 minute walk, connected to a school, interconnected streets, drive to services, etc. More currently, 10 minute walk, bounded by major streets or natural barriers, shared elementary schools, services and shopping at the edge. 14 subarea plans (does not cover all of city), 188 listed neighborhoods, 3000+ subdivisions, 197 neighborhoods signed up for Next Door services. Very little vacant land, subdivisions are built out. Require different communication tools for redevelopment, infill, and turnover. Staff has been researching other communities on how to best deliver a district model. Case study: Salem, OR—similar population and size—has 2 full time neighborhood liaisons. Benefits of neighborhood districts and outreach programs include building capacity to address local concerns, and citizens gain better understanding of local government. Neighborhoods self-identify, then train leaders within the groups, build internal connection and capacity. Neighborhoods have different concerns and preferred communication methods. Want a variety of models. Neighborhoods can then initiate plans based on their own needs and the City can support their initiatives. Best practices include engagement studies, associations are component of plan, capacity building, civic leadership training, participatory decision making (ex: prioritizing projects), and build on relationships, services, and structures. Maslow’s Hierarchy: must meet basic needs (water, shelter, security, safety, etc.), before can move toward engagement in development review and visioning. Mapping self-identified neighborhoods to use as starting point for districts. Would like to begin informal boundary and district discussion, continue leadership training, develop a broader employee committee, form a neighborhood advisory group, do public outreach, and create a neighborhood toolkit. Next year do final public engagement study using Vancouver as a model. Comments/Q & A: • Does Neighborhood Services have liaisons? o One staff member in that type of capacity. o Liaison model gives neighborhood association direct contact with City personnel (mid-level manager). Gets citizens engaged and builds comradery. • Provide City structure to engage neighborhoods effectively. o Staying engaged in basic Council districts. Then have neighborhoods self- identify. Some will be geographic. Train leaders within the groups, build internal connection and capacity. Ex: Some neighborhoods prefer email, others reach out to specific staff members. Variety of models. • Engagement needs to be more than just another meeting to attend. o See this in cycle of declining interest in HOAs as well. o Bucking Horse development included community coordinator in budget to maintain engagement. 4 • Engagement will be very different in various neighborhoods. Those worried about more basic needs are not going to be civically engaged. o In affluent neighborhoods can still have disconnect. Many neighborhoods don’t feel they are part of Fort Collins. Students attend Thompson schools; don’t have buy-in to Fort Collins. Basic needs met, but no engagement. o Neighborhood-community relationship. Relationships are built on what you can affect. Art of Neighboring adds a dimension. Do you know your neighbors? o Fort Collins Church Network has 28 churches do 5-week series on art of neighboring. Author will be speaking. o School district connection is big. o Geographical disconnect with far south neighborhoods. Thet don’t feel what they say matters. • Stadium and neighborhoods impacted—are they using Next Door? Is there a place to start on that issue? o West Central Area Plan: those neighborhoods are organized and staff has regular contact. If pilot self-identified district, they are good candidate. • Are they structured in a way to take on complex urban issues? Had the City had the neighborhood structure we are discussing, it would have been helpful in this situation. Interest in enriching engagement at neighborhood level throughout all districts. o Citizen engagement plays into boards and commissions discussions as well. o It’s On Us campaign: capturing process of building the campaign in a workbook. As prototype neighborhoods, might think about creating an organizer to initiate a district. • Can you tie into leadership opportunities that are already occurring? Multiple small groups with similar missions. Bring them together? People do want to get engaged, but don’t know how. o Our community has a lot of people who want to get engaged, but want to move the dial and have impact or they lose interest. o Complacency could be because things are good. Be proactive rather than reactive. o If people have co-creation, have value to process. o Nonprofit community gardens, neighbors showed up to help. Want engagement, pride and ownership. DO: Next Steps • Council Retreat discussion about recommendations. Meeting adjourned at 5:50pm. 5