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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 01/13/2020 -1 MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS FUTURES COMMITTEE MEETING Date: January 13,2020 Location: CIC Room, City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave. Time: 4:00–5:30pm Committee Members Present: Mayor Wade Troxell Julie Pignataro Emily Gorgol City Staff: Jeff Mihelich, Deputy City Manager Jackie Kozak-Thiel, (Staff Liaison) Presenters: Josie Plaut, Associate Director for the Institute of the Built Environment Additional Staff Present: Kevin Gertig Katy McLaren Nina Bodenhamer Chief Swodoba Community Members: Dale Adamy Kevin Jones, Fort Collins Chamber Diane Jones, Formation group Meeting called to order at 4:05 pm Approval of Minutes: Julie moved to approve December 9 minutes. Emily seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 3-0- 0. Chairman Comments: None Summary • Kick-off 2020 Futures with what is the City of Fort Collins becoming? o Many themes from this meeting will continue to resurface • Defined regeneration and how it differs from sustainability • Discussed the importance of Story of Place and elements that make up the Essence of Fort Collins o Sheltering Intersections o Pragmatic Innovating 2 o Transformative Reinvesting • Discussion about how to take learnings from Future meetings and apply them to the work that is currently being done o Need to connect with the Reimagining Engagement team and continue to discuss how we continue to build authentic community and civic capabilities o Need to consider what it means for all community members to have the opportunity to regenerate Think Tank Item 6-2019: Becoming Fort Collins: Regenerative Approaches for Our Future Josie Plaut • Josie begins the discussion by pointing out that the City of Fort Collins is “doing” and “being” a lot of different things. • Big Question is what are we as a City “Becoming”? How do we think of Fort Collins on the path of becoming? • Considering our community over the next 10, 20 and 50 years, Josie asks the committee to consider who the City of Fort Collins becomes in the face of change o Discussion of how in 50 years, City will reach capacity at 250,000 ▪ City will be livable, lovable place, setting the example of how to bring all these elements together o City tends to be aspirational and pragmatic ▪ Consider how this dualism will allow the City to continue to accommodate the needs of the community while also be accepting of change ▪ City is one of the more mature municipalities in Northern Colorado, which is part of why it is pragmatic speaks to pragmatic piece as • What is required of the City to step-up to the new challenges we are facing? o Communication: continue to learn on the best ways to engage with the community o Connecting: currently the separation between the “have” and “have nots” is widening. City needs to step into a connecting role to move away from this division o Continue to be a community that is always curious: consider how we can be a learning community at its core and model what a mature community can look at o Love unconditionally: City needs to show up in real authentic relationships with the community and care about community growing for a place where people want to be o Move from talking about the Future of the community in the abstract to creating tangible outcomes ▪ Consider how we move forward with specific programs ▪ How do we develop capability to where the rubber meets the road and move beyond the abstract? • How do we have that conversation in a way that evolves and lets us move forward? • Being curious can help build capability • Regeneration is about how to evolve and bring new and vigorous life 3 o Differs from sustainability because sustainability is about the ability to maintain or sustain something which is the way to stay on a forward path. o Regeneration asks the following questions: ▪ How do we evolve? ▪ How do we become increasingly relevant to our community members? • Presents the Spectrum of Sustainability practices as it relates to regeneration o City has different leverage points for when to enter the system—end of it is how are we actually improving things? o Regeneration as a leverage point is about the co-evolution with the community. This involves growing capacity to have hard conversations, to be reflective. ▪ Implied in this work is being dynamic—we often approach issues as static—reframe can be important—expanding vigorous notion as a part of the future ▪ Engineering view of the world versus lived systems • Introduction to Story of Place— o The Story of Place is not a single truth, or historical analysis— rather it is looking at the patterns that repeat in a place. In other words, what is unique about Fort Collins? • Three main themes make up Fort Collins story o Sheltering Intersections ▪ Fort Collins has edge eco-systems that make it a fruitful place to live Culturally, the Innosphere is an example of an edge eco-system. o Transformative Reinvesting—pattern of reinvesting in the future ▪ Examples of transformative reinvesting include ecological, how mountains used to be 22,000 feet tall, over the millennia they have eroded and created aquifers and soil conditions and high abundance of water in this area—created soil ▪ Fort Collins is innovative in preserving land and investing in land banks and the Climate Action plan o Pragmatic Innovating ▪ Down to earth and innovative • Lambing capital in the world in the early 1900s—made lambs fat by feeding them sugar beet tops ▪ Irrigation developed at CSU, also had a role in founding the Peace Corps ▪ Role in founding the Peace Corps ▪ of Fort Collins has a history of planning, having an engaged plan for future and building that plan • Legacy of engaged planning • The more we progress, the better we get at planning • Vocation of City of Fort Collins is Learning Broadcaster o World time broadcasted just north of town o If we can do it here, it can be done in other places—share this out with the world • Sheltering intersections, transformative reinvesting and pragmatic innovating come together to form the essence of Fort Collins o As we see these many challenges, we can draw from this understanding to inform how we respond. 4 • The questions are just as important or more important than the problem o Framing questions are important so that we work on the right things o We want to avoid spending a lot of time working on the wrong question o Three is a need to continuously evolve to become the City we want to be ▪ Focus so much on what we are doing, regeneration asks us “how are we thinking” “what is the quality of thinking to bring to wicked problems” • Examples of Regeneration in Action o Commonwealth of Nations—regenerative approach to address Climate Change ▪ Island nations facing disappearance of homes—how do we survive as community and culture if we no longer have our place o IBE Projects o Regenerative agriculture—how do we regenerate viability and vitality of soil o Regenerative Economics—capital institute—create an economy that is in service to life ▪ Kate Hayworth • Regenerative work increases our ability to matter in the world Comments/Q&A: • Too often, we think about choices in the form of binaries. Need to be thinking about more creative approaches to solving problems that people can get behind. • Discussion about big council priorities such as diversity and inclusion. There is no doubt that it can be prioritized, just need to explore creative solutions. o Affordability also continues to be a difficult subject, but group discussed having confidence in the ability to work on these wicked problems. • Lots of knowledge and risk associated with regenerative approaches. It is important to recognize that the process is not linear o We will continue to see fits of innovation o Important to recognize that what may feel like failure and setbacks can help us as a community move forward • Disruption spurs growth and regrowth—faced with disruption is when we most often step up—necessary ingredient for growth—potential to take us upwards o Resilience is about ability to maintain, to rebound and get back to threshold—not necessarily about becoming more capable because of disruption • Discussion Additional Discussion: None Meeting adjourned by Wade Troxell at 5:20.