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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 02/24/2021 -1 MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS FUTURES COMMITTEE MEETING Date: February 24, 2021 Location: Zoom Webinar Time: 4:00-6:00pm Committee Members present: Mayor Wade Troxell Emily Gorgol Julie Pignataro Additional Council members present: Susan Gutowsky City Staff: Jackie Kozak-Thiel, (Staff Liaison) Darin Atteberry, City Manager Presenter: Jeff Risom, The Gehl Group Additional Staff present: Kyle Stannert, City Manager’s Office Kelly Di Martino, City Manager’s Office Tyler Marr, City Manager’s Office Colman Keane, Connexion Sarah Hite, Environmental Services Cameron Gloss, CDNS Caryn Champine, PDT Dean Klingner, PDT Teresa Roche, Human Resources Greg Yeager, Police Services Nina Bodenhamer, CityGive Drew Brooks, Transfort Lindsay Ex, Sustainability Services Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Social Sustainability Victoria Shaw, Sustainability Services Brittany Depew, Social Sustainability Community members: Diane Jones Max Moss Michele Betsill Kevin Jones, Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce Susan McFaddin Bill Becker, Energy Board Meeting called to order at 8:03am Approval of Minutes: 2 Julie Pignataro moved to approve January 11 minutes. Emily Gorgol seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 3-0-0. Chairman Comments: None Summary • Jeff Risom, Chief Innovation Officer for the Gehl group connected various conversations that we have had at Futures including Housing, Streets and Food o Jeff touched on council priorities and topics that touch on current planning processes such as Our Climate Future (OCF) and the Housing Strategic Plan (HSP) ▪ Examples include smart cities, a well-tempered city, and the soft city framing and the continued focus on human scale, community building and community design • Livability is woven into much of the work that is done at the City • There is an opportunity to learn from cities that are “postcards for the future” o Jeff compares and contrasts Copenhagen and Fort Collins o While Fort Collins should not strive to be Copenhagen, we can learn from their history and the changes they have made over the last 40 years, use these lessons learned to see how to plan for future livability in Fort Collins • Continue to consider density and how density can be beneficial o As the Housing Strategic Plan moves from adoption to implementation, density will continue to be explored as housing options are developed across the whole housing spectrum including missing middle • Community building and design utilizing triple bottom line thinking support non-car development and can be connected to recent plans such as OCF and the HSP o Consider how to redesign our streets for connectivity • City as a Platform was explored and developed as place for innovation, connection and change. Consider how we can continue to utilize this. • Our infrastructure and streets are some of our greatest assets to reach community goals. • Consider how to support our local food systems—OCF explores the expanded role for thinking about food • Explore how cultural change in the community for community members and housing builders and developers and shift how our city is built out o How do we create platforms for yes? • The Futures committee is able to zoom out and consider the mental models that we need to challenge and evolve Think Tank Item 2-2021: The Future of Housing Livable Cities: Integrating Housing Streets and Food • Introduction to the Gehl group which studies human behavior and shapes conditions for people to thrive • Discuss Livability in 3 chapters • Chapter 1: Housing and Density—moving from smart city to a soft city o In Colorado, there has been historically a limited choice for housing o A Soft City is a city that is adaptable, flexible at the human scale accommodating safe o Recognize that density can come in many different shapes and sizes, in the U.S. only seeing a fraction of the options ▪ Compare and contrast Copenhagen and Fort Collins via a map right next to each other—see differences in housing types and how nature is integrated into the city o Benefits of density include proximity to transit, and community buildings o Challenges with development in Colorado include: ▪ Building transit (hard to justify cost when further away) 3 ▪ Neighborhoods are less permeable when they are spread out ▪ Density makes it easier to achieve sustainability goals o Diversity in housing types leads to greater economic diversity ▪ In Soft Cities it is easier to convert buildings into different uses o It is impossible for Cities that have large goals related to sustainability, housing, safety and equity without incorporating density. • Chapter 2: Streets and Mobility o Streets are our most precious urban public resource and are 80% of our open space o There is a need to create a culture that values our streets more. o Discusses the National Street Service collaboration with Ford motors ▪ Streets are run by rules, but these rules are based on core beliefs about streets (i.e. dangerous, need core flows) ▪ Rewrite rules to increase quality of streets to empower communities to say what kind of environment they want • Redesign for vision of community to flourish and prosper. • Recognize that cars are not going away and value other things as well. ▪ Rules come from beliefs • Apply principles for social movements to change our ideas about streets o Tools to shift culture around streets: ▪ Think about space in different ways—i.e. could we grow food in a parking space? ▪ Listen to a story about a street ▪ Boise Idaho—welcome mats next to parked cars that say welcome to walking o There continues to be many policies that support “green cars” those policies reflect well intentions but narrow visions. Consider how to connect different types of policies to reduce car use ▪ Connect more green cars to limiting the fleet in your city ▪ New proposed development without parking for private vehicles ▪ Vulnerable communities more reliant on cars need to prioritize access for more green cars to these groups as well. • Chapter 3: Equity, Health, Climate Action o There is a need to understand the lived experience of community members and use this as evidence to make bold decisions o Measure what we care about and frame data in a way that elected officials and community understand o Food and Healthy neighborhoods ▪ Data key—i.e. in London found that increase in childhood obesity was tied to transport ▪ Climate targets can be reached by shifting eating habits Comments/Q&A: • Chapter 1: Housing and Density o Discussion about how redevelopment can support density o Question about how to balance open space and density—Jeff asks the committee to be critical of the belief that more open space is better ▪ Think about the setting for open space and how to connect to it ▪ Be thoughtful about the thoughtful about location, access and climate—less open space can actually be more useful. o Discussion about the very real challenges with changing culture around open space and values around housing o Interesting tradeoff between open space and density 4 ▪ Spaces we have are far away from amenities, ▪ Argue that building denser can give you more access to nature ▪ Culture of people and place can be challenging—but it can be changed over time. o Recognize that Fort Collins is dedicated to sustainability and reducing cars, but our housing and the way we build our city doesn’t support that. What is the role of builders and developers and how do we bring community members along in these decisions? ▪ In thinking about livability—best transportation policy a city adopt is to change housing density policy. ▪ To get support from builders and developers can adopt policies that support different housing types. Also recognize that cultural changes need to happen among builders and developers ▪ o Question about the kind of building standards does Copenhagen have ▪ Jeff shares that there are few building standards in Copenhagen. ▪ Market is Peer Driven—build efficient homes because that is what people demand o Question about how to address pressing need for the missing middle in housing types ▪ The biggest barrier to varied housing is NIMBYism-have to create platforms for yes—people who want the changes have a platform for change. • Chapter 2: Streets and Mobility o Recognize that it is difficult to implement green policy o Utilize City as a Platform to engage community to envision a different future for their streets and how vision can be achieved if they are willing to make tradeoffs o Think about how to have community pushing with you versus against you o Mention of the Open Streets program and how to leverage and expand upon that program o Mention of Linden street project that allows for multi-use of the street—hope is that the visibility of this project will help to create paradigm shifts o Question if there a universal framework that can be applied toward evaluating mobility? ▪ There is not a universal framework because different places have different needs • Chapter 3: Equity, Health, Climate Action o Important to think about how we value food has changed over time and the tradeoff between convenience and food quality —tradeoff between convenience and food quality o Community gardens as a way to keep food needs local o Learn from the youth—where are they going? This can help us redesign and build healthier • Recognize that Fort Collins is a city that both builds and plans. Moving forward, need to do more to ensure that community is building and planning with us • Consider both how to be intentional about building a soft city and how to dismantle hard edges Bloomberg updates from the Mayor • Mayor discusses a Bloomberg proposal focused on wellness, equity and the urban tree canopy. Additional Discussion: None Meeting adjourned by Mayor Troxell at 9:36am