HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL - COMPLETE AGENDA - 11/14/2023Fort Collins City Council
Work Session Agenda
6:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Colorado Room, 222 Laporte Avenue, Fort Collins, CO 80521
NOTICE:
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the Colorado Room of the 222 Building. Meetings are conducted in a hybrid format, however
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Upon request, the City of Fort Collins will provide language access services for individuals who have
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City services, programs and activities. Contact 970.221.6515 (V/TDD: Dial 711 for Relay Colorado) for
assistance. Please provide 48 hours’ advance notice when possible.
A solicitud, la Ciudad de Fort Collins proporcionará servicios de acceso a idiomas para personas que
no dominan el idioma inglés, o ayudas y servicios auxiliares para personas con discapacidad, para
que puedan acceder a los servicios, programas y actividades de la Ciudad. Para asistencia, llame al
970.221.6515 (V/TDD: Marque 711 para Relay Colorado). Por favor proporcione 48 horas de aviso
previo cuando sea posible.
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mail comments about any item on the agenda to
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City of Fort Collins Page 1 of 1
City Council
Work Session Agenda
November 14, 2023 at 6:00 PM
Jeni Arndt, Mayor
Emily Francis, District 6, Mayor Pro Tem
Susan Gutowsky, District 1
Julie Pignataro, District 2
Tricia Canonico, District 3
Shirley Peel, District 4
Kelly Ohlson, District 5
Colorado River Community Room
222 Laporte Avenue, Fort Collins
Cablecast on FCTV
Channel 14 on Connexion
Channel 14 and 881 on Comcast
Carrie Daggett Kelly DiMartino Anissa Hollingshead
City Attorney City Manager City Clerk
CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION
6:00 PM
A) CALL MEETING TO ORDER
B) ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION
1. City Recovery Plan Update.
The purpose of this item is to provide an update on the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF).
2. Process for Council Appeals to Quasi-Judicial Decisions.
The purpose of this item is to review issues and considerations that have been identified in the
process for Council appeals to quasi-judicial decisions, and to seek Councilmember feedback on
potential solutions or improvements.
3. Economic Health Strategic Plan.
The purpose of this item is to provide Councilmembers with an update on the proposed Economic
Health Strategic Plan with consideration by Council on December 5, 2023.
C) ANNOUNCEMENTS
D) ADJOURNMENT
Upon request, the City of Fort Collins will provide language access services for individuals who have limited English
proficiency, or auxiliary aids and services for individuals with disabilities, to access City services, programs and
activities. Contact 970.221.6515 (V/TDD: Dial 711 for Relay Colorado) for assistance. Please provide advance notice.
Requests for interpretation at a meeting should be made by noon the day before.
A solicitud, la Ciudad de Fort Collins proporcionará servicios de acceso a idiomas para personas que no dominan el
idioma inglés, o ayudas y servicios auxiliares para personas con discapacidad, para que puedan acceder a los
servicios, programas y actividad es de la Ciudad. Para asistencia, llame al 970.221.6515 (V/TDD: Marque 711 para
Relay Colorado). Por favor proporcione aviso previo. Las solicitudes de interpretación en una reunión deben
realizarse antes del mediodía del día anterior.
Page 1
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 1 of 1
November 14, 2023
WORK SESSION AGENDA
ITEM SUMMARY
City Council
STAFF
Dean Klingner, Community Services Director
Blaine Dunn, Accounting Director
Jo Cech, Fiscal Recovery Manager
Ted Hewitt, Assistant City Attorney
SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION
City Recovery Plan Update.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this item is to provide an update on the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) State
and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF).
GENERAL DIRECTION SOUGHT AND SPECIFIC QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED
1. Does Council have any questions or concerns?
BACKGROUND / DISCUSSION
Currently, 50 ARPA-funded programs are open and operating, eight have closed and seven are in the
process of closing. Through Q3 2023, $10.4M, or 37% of the total ARPA SLFRF funding of $28.1M has
been spent. Most programs will complete their spending by December 31, 2024, but a small number will
continue to spend into 2025 before completing their programs.
Additional information on the recovery programs is attached including spending by year and spending by
recovery theme. Cultural Services will provide an update on their ARPA-funded programs supporting artists
and residents’ access to cultural enrichment.
NEXT STEPS
The 2023 Annual Resilient Recovery Report will be issued in March 2024.
In Q1 2024, Council will be asked to consider a resolution obligating the use of remaining ARPA funds, to
ensure ARPA funding may continue to be spent until the December 12, 2026 deadline.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Summary of Recovery Programs
2. ARPA Project Ties
3. Presentation
Page 2
Item 1.
Attachment 1
Summary of Recovery Programs
Below is a summary of all ARPA-funded Recovery Programs. Each project summary includes program status, allocation amount, a program
description and key outcomes and impacts. Programs highlighted in green also fall into the category of revenue replacement.
Additional program outcomes and impacts are shared on the Recovery Dashboard (fcgov.com/RecoveryDashboard) and in annual Recovery Plan
Implementation Reports (2023 report will be issued in March 2024).
Project
Name
Status Allocation
Amount
Program Description Key Outcomes / Impacts
HEALTH
Poudre Fire
Authority
TecGen PPE
Gear
Complete $137,946
Funds for purchase of TecGen51 PPE
(Personal Protective Equipment) that
protects firefighters from exposure to
bodily fluids, chemicals, COVID-19
variants, and other illnesses.
All PFA firefighters have been outfitted with TecGen
Gear.
Social Services
Recovery
In
Progress $500,364
Additional grant funding for human
services nonprofits and other local
organizations supporting vulnerable
community members.
8,788+ people served since program launch
SSD Recovery
Specialist Complete $147,923
Position to manage Social Services
Recovery grants, Learning Loss grants
and Childcare grants, as well as grants
related to homelessness services.
Position supports Social Services Recovery,
Homelessness Services and Learning Loss
programs.
Parks Lawn and
Garden
Equipment
Replacement
In
Progress $70,000
Funds to purchase electric handheld lawn
and garden equipment for use in parks
and cemeteries.
Program awarded additional funding through a state
ARPA grant.
Mental Health
Response Team
In
Progress $660,412
ARPA funds accelerated the build out of
the co-response team, consisting of
Police officers and UC Health clinicians.
Funds also being used for equipment,
engagement and training.
444+ individuals diverted from jail and/or
emergency department
Team coverage expanded 7 days / week
110+ community engagement presentations
Municipal Court
– Mental Health,
Addiction &
Teen Diversion
Services
In
Progress $75,000
Funds for traffic diversion program for
teens and young adults, and competency
evaluations for defendants with mental
illness and/or substance use disorders in
the City’s Municipal Court.
96+ teens and young adults diverted to
Restorative Traffic Circle Program
o 79+ traffic complaints dismissed
28 competency evaluation clients
o 80+ charges dismissed
Page 3
Item 1.
Attachment 1
Cultural
Services Access
Fund for Low-
Income
Residents
In
Progress
$485,000
Provides qualifying community members
with access to enriching cultural
experiences at City of Fort Collins cultural
facilities including the Lincoln Center, Fort
Collins Museum of Discovery and
Gardens on Spring Creek.
2023 outcomes will be included in the 2023
annual report.
In 2022, an estimated 3,800 of the 33,741
community members who benefited from the
access program were supported by ARPA
dollars.
Reduced Fee
Scholarship
Funding
Increase
In
Progress $300,000
Provides low-income, vulnerable and
underserved community members access
to recreation facilities, recreation
programs and childcare services.
2023 outcomes will be included in the 2023 annual
report.
EQUITY & COMMUNITY RESILIENCE
Cultural
Services
Community
Programs
Manager &
Program
Support
In
Progress
$468,394
Program integrates arts and cultural
experiences throughout the community to
foster a sense of diversity, connection
and belonging.
5,800+ community members have attended
programming
More than 140 individual events held
240+ hours of programming
Support for
Creatives in the
Community (Art
to Live)
In
Progress $170,000
Grants for local creatives (artists,
designers, musicians, etc.) significantly
impacted by the pandemic. Funds provide
assistance to artists to create art to be
shared with the community.
22 grants awarded in 2023
Additional 24 grants will be awarded in 2024
Special Events
Recovery Grant
In
Progress $125,000
Grants to help cover security and safety-
related costs at local events working to
return after the pandemic.
46 grants awarded to local events
Total attendance at these events exceeds
59,000
Native American
Community
Relations
Specialist
In
Progress $313,217
Position works directly with the Fort
Collins Native American community and
local Native-serving nonprofits to build
relationships, conduct community
engagement, and support community-led
initiatives.
Native Nations Community Advisory Panel
established to assist with creation of Land
Acknowledgement
Ongoing tribal consultation for City projects
Support for local events including Indigenous
Peoples’ Day Celebration
Equity Grant
Fund
In
Progress $400,000
Grant fund for individuals, nonprofits and
community partners to support
community-led work that assists those
impacted by the pandemic.
20 grants awarded in 2023
Impacts of these grants will be shared in the
2023 annual report
Page 4
Item 1.
Attachment 1
Diversity, Equity
and Inclusion
Professional
Services
Complete $33,266
Funding to support the establishment and
expansion of Equity and Inclusion Office
in the City.
Office partnered with dozens of community
partners to host 14 local events including
Northern Colorado Intertribal Powwow, Pride
Proclamation, Latinx Resource Fair and Equity
Indicators Community Forums
Language
Access Services
for Council
Meetings and
High Priority
Civic
Engagement
Events
In
Progress $26,294
Funding for Spanish interpretation at City
Council meetings and other high-priority
civic engagement events.
35 events supported with Spanish interpretation,
including Council Meetings, community
conversations and focus groups
Translation of high-priority documents including
the City’s Equity Plan
Expanded
Community
Outreach and
Engagement
In
Progress
$55,000
Funding to expand, systematize and
enhance engagement with diverse
groups, including those who have been
historically underserved and most
impacted by the pandemic.
Updated Public Engagement Guidelines being
drafted for use across the organization
Draft guidelines will be reviewed by community
partners to ensure they reflect resident needs
Neighborhood
Resilience
Projects
In
Progress $40,000
Support for Adopt a Neighbor volunteer
program updates and placemaking
opportunities through Asphalt Art projects.
Adopt a Neighbor matching system was
upgraded to more efficiently pair volunteers with
those in need
Three traffic-calming asphalt art installations that
brought 100+ residents together to create
Eviction Legal
Fund
In
Progress $640,000
This program provides eviction prevention
education, training, and resources for
both renters and landlords.
57 landlords directly served
637+ renters directly served
Training for Mediation and Restorative Justice
staff and volunteers about how to better handle
eviction-related cases.
Affordable
Housing Fee
Credit Fund
Complete $350,000
Subsidies to developers building
affordable housing projects within Fort
Collins, increasing the amount of
affordable housing available.
20 new affordable apartments established
Affordable
Housing Land
Bank Expansion
In
Progress $1,000,000
This program provides funds to support
the City’s Land Bank.
With these funds, staff anticipate purchasing 5 acres
to build at least 100 homes.
Heartside Hill In
Progress $1,100,000
Funding for the development of the
Heartside Hill project. This development
is being funded in partnership with local,
regional and state partners.
Project anticipated to create 71 new units of
affordable rental housing
Page 5
Item 1.
Attachment 1
Homelessness
Services
In
Progress $3,462,000
Funding for programming proven to
reduce the likelihood of prolonged or
chronic homelessness, including
Outreach Fort Colins, case management
and resource navigation, 24/7 shelter,
seasonal overflow shelter and rapid
rehousing.
2,780 individuals served in shelters
194 clients moved into housing after accessing
case management and resource navigation
35 families, and 10 individuals housed through
Rapid Rehousing
[Note only 2 of the 7 programs under Homelessness
Services are revenue replacement offers]
Utilities
Pandemic
Assistance
Complete $458,233
Direct financial assistance to Fort Collins
Utilities customers struggling to pay bills
due to the pandemic.
2,052 residential and commercial customers
provided assistance
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Economic
Strategic Plan
In
Progress $100,000
Funds to develop an updated Economic
Health Office (EHO) strategic plan that
reflects shifted post-pandemic priorities.
Draft will be presented to Council November 14,
2023
Expanded
Technical
Assistance for
Small
Businesses
In
Progress
$354,511
Enhanced and expanded technical
assistance to businesses and individuals
navigating the development review
process with the City.
14 grants awarded to small businesses and
nonprofits
Advancing
Accessible
Permitting
In
Progress $158,000
Funds are being used to update the City’s
permitting systems and technology, so
they are more accessible and efficient for
customers and staff.
Will be included in the 2023 annual report
For Fort Collins In
Progress $190,000
For Fort Collins encourages community
members to support local businesses and
connects businesses to useful resources.
22,500 total website visits
~5,000 new website visitors in 2023
Seasonal “support local” campaign during
holiday season
Multicultural
Business and
Entrepreneur
Center (MBEC)
In
Progress
$1,336,006
MBEC provides support, training and
resources for local businesses and
entrepreneurs of all sizes, with a specific
focus on providing support for historically
underserved community members.
363 appointments held with more than 206
different businesses
78 new businesses established with support
from MBEC
15+ grants to businesses
Small Business
Grants
In
Progress $1,060,000
Grants for businesses impacted by the
pandemic to support stabilization,
workforce and talent acquisition and
technical assistance.
161 small businesses awarded grants
Page 6
Item 1.
Attachment 1
Land Use Code
Update
In
Progress $670,000 Funding for code changes, professional
services and public engagement efforts.
Public engagement efforts, including deliberative
forum events, Spanish translation and marketing
Capital Project
Business
Liaison
In
Progress
$275,000
This provides support to businesses
affected by City construction projects,
ensuring they have the information,
resources and support they need.
45+ grants awarded to businesses impacted by
construction, totaling more than $92,000
Learning Loss
Mitigation
In
Progress
$400,000
Grants to local partners working to
mitigate learning lost impacts suffered by
students during the pandemic.
2,300+ students served across programs
Eight organizations granted funding
Multiple reports that programs supported by
grant funding improved student performance
Childcare Space
Modifications at
Northside Aztlan
Community
Center
In
Progress
$421,932
Upgrades to Northside Aztlan Community
Center to allow additional children to be
served through onsite youth programs.
Estimated project completion in mid-November
Childcare
System Support
In
Progress
$1,146,123
Grants to community partners to increase
access to affordable, reliable childcare
locally.
1,036 individuals served
10 organizations granted funding
Funds supported childcare scholarships, respite
care, behavioral health support for children and
training for childcare workers
ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE
Building HVAC
Electrification &
Efficiency
Replacements
In
Progress
$2,437,653
Upgrades to HVAC systems in several
City facilities that will reduce the carbon
footprint of buildings and increase
efficiency.
Design and installation work moving forward for all
retrofits
Lincoln Center
Converting
Stage Lighting
to LED
In
Progress
$227,278
Upgrades to lighting on stages at the
Lincoln Center to significantly reduce the
carbon footprint of the events center and
increase building efficiency.
Installation complete
Contractual
Mobile Home
Park Code
Compliance &
Building
Evaluation
In
Progress
$344,000
Enhanced engagement, support and code
compliance for mobile home park
communities. Program includes funding
for home energy upgrades within units at
mobile home parks.
Outreach events at mobile home parks hosted
by Code Compliance and Building Inspection
Ongoing assessment of energy efficiency needs
in mobile home parks
Collaboration with park residents on 2024
programming
Page 7
Item 1.
Attachment 1
GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS
Recovery
Administration
In
Progress
$840,289
Staff and administrative costs for the
implementation of the Resilient Recovery
Plan, including deployment and
monitoring of ARPA funds.
Staff support for 65 ARPA-funded programs
$10.4M of City’s $28.1M of ARPA SLFRF
funding spent
Recovery
Communications Complete $50,000
Funds were used to support ongoing
pandemic communications, as well as the
public outreach and engagement for
the development of the Resilient
Recovery Plan.
Timely pandemic updates to community in 2021
and 2022
Thousands of community members engaged
during development of Resilient Recovery Plan
Senior Buyer In
Progress $172,424
Additional Purchasing staff to handle
ARPA-funded purchases and service
agreements which must adhere to
stringent federal purchasing rules.
Position filled
Parking
Structure Critical
Preventative
Repairs
In
Progress $1,348,617
Critical repairs to downtown parking
structures to prolong their lifespans and
increase structural integrity.
Repairs underway
Municipal Court
Technology
In
Progress $225,000 Funds to update Municipal Court case
management technology.
Will be included in the 2023 annual report
Crisis
Communications
Plan
In
Progress
$130,000
Funds to support the development of a
comprehensive emergency
communications plan for the City that can
be applied to a variety of different
emergency events.
Plan anticipated to be complete by end of 2023
Training and implementation of the plan will
occur in 2024
HR Staff Support In
Progress $839,089
Additional staff and funding to support
hiring and workforce management within
the City’s HR Department.
Team fully staffed
Upgraded access to hiring platforms to enhance
recruitment efforts
COVID-Related
Hybrid Meeting
Spaces and
Community Wi-
Fi
In
Progress
$1,500,000
Updates to spaces within the City to
support secure hybrid work environments
along with improvements to wi-fi at
Cultural Services and Recreation
facilities.
90% of wi-fi upgrades complete
Upgrades to City work spaces underway
50+ pieces of equipment donated to Poudre
Library for digital literacy program, including
laptops, webcams, 3D printer and power banks
Cyber Risk /
Risk
Management
In
Progress
$375,000
Funds for cybersecurity updates to
safeguard all City devices and users in a
post-pandemic hybrid work environment.
Multifactor authentication (MFA) rolled out
throughout the City organization
Local Match In
Progress $2,500,000
Matching funds to support regional
community-focused projects related to
recovery.
Will be included in the 2023 annual report
Page 8
Item 1.
Attachment 2
ARPA Project Ties to Recovery Themes and Outcomes
Adopted Resilient Recovery Plan Themes and Outcomes
Recovery Themes Recovery Outcomes
1. Health
1a. Support clear and effective communication of public health orders.
1b. Enhance efforts to ensure basic needs are met in the community.
1c. Mental and physical health is valued as necessary, and prevention based.
2. Equity and Community Resilience
2a. Foster a sense of belonging and community trust.
2b. Accelerate the City’s Housing Strategic Plan’s vision that “everyone has healthy,
stable housing they can afford.”
2c. Expand and leverage existing partnerships to quickly connect people
experiencing homelessness (PEH) to resources and services.
3. Economic Recovery
3a. Small businesses, creatives and nonprofits have the resources they need to
thrive.
3b. Safe and stable employment, current and future.
3c. Equitable and affordable childcare is accessible.
4. Environmental Resilience
4a. Commit to environmental justice and resilience in pursuit of our climate, zero
waste, energy, water and other sustainability goals.
4b. Resilient infrastructure is reliable and affordable.
4c. Open space, natural amenities and healthy ecosystems are resilient, protected
and accessible.
Government Operations
Government Operations captures administrative costs, infrastructure improvements,
and workforce needs for the City to implement recovery-related programming.
Page 10
Item 1.
Attachment 2
Projects Related to Council Priorities
All programs funded with ARPA dollars tie directly to the Resilient Recovery Plan, which was created at the direction of Council’s #26 Priority:
Create a targeted, specific plan for community recovery. Many programs also tie to other Council Priorities and are listed below.
NOTE: Some projects relate to multiple priorities and are listed multiple times.
Council Priority ARPA-Funded Program
#2. Juvenile Diversion Municipal Court Services – Mental Health, Addiction and Teen Diversion
Services
#5. Advance Regionalism Heartside Hill
Local Match
#8. Attract and Retain Competitive and Diverse Talent
HR Staff Support
#17. Improved Air Quality Building HVAC Electrification & Efficiency Replacements
Parks Lawn & Garden Equipment Replacement
#23. Develop a Circular Economy Plan
Economic Health Strategic Plan
#25. Affordable, Quality and Accessible Childcare
Infrastructure
Childcare System Support
Childcare Space Modifications at the Northside Aztlan Center
#27. Access Funding for Parks (O&M, refresh, new
parks)
Parks Lawn & Garden Equipment Replacement
#31. Homelessness Initiatives 24/7 Shelter at Fort Collins Rescue Mission
Homelessness Initiatives Recovery & Stabilization
Homelessness Initiatives and Support Services
Homelessness Initiatives Increase
Homelessness Initiatives and Program Increase
Homelessness Initiatives & Programs: Ongoing City Support
Rapid Rehousing
Page 11
Item 1.
Attachment 2
Projects by Type
ARPA-funded programs fall into three general types:
Programs addressing pandemic-related needs and ongoing services
Programs that break new ground
Government operations programs
Each of these program type support recovery work in slightly different ways. Programs addressing pandemic-related needs and ongoing services
support recovery work by providing additional resources to address increased or shifting needs from the pandemic. T his category includes projects
like social services recovery grants and recreation reduced fee scholarships. While many of these programs were in place pre-pandemic, the need
for them increased due to the impacts from COVID-19.
Programs Addressing Pandemic-Related Needs and Ongoing Services
PFA TecGen PPE
Homelessness Programs & Rapid Rehousing
Social Services Recovery Grants and Recovery Specialist
Childcare System Support
Childcare Space Modifications at North Aztlan Center
Utilities Payment Assistance for Customers
Affordable Housing Fee Credit Fund
Recreation Reduced Fee Scholarships
Cultural Services Access Programs
Special Events Recovery Grants
For Fort Collins
Small Business Grants
EHO Strategic Plan
Neighborhood Resilience Projects
Lincoln Center Lighting
Parks Lawn & Garden Equipment Replacements
Land Use Code
Building HVAC and Efficiency Replacements
Page 12
Item 1.
Attachment 2
Projects by Type (continued)
Other programs break new ground and demonstrate new ways the City is collaborating with the community to support recovery, inclusivity and
resilience. This category includes programs like the Multicultural Business and Entrepreneur Center (MBEC), which fills a need in the business
community that was not previously addressed by the City.
Programs that Break New Ground
Mental Health Response Team (MHRT)
Municipal Court—Mental Health, Addiction, and Teen Diversion Services
Cultural Services Community Programs
Native American Community Relations Specialist
Capital Project Business Liaison
Multicultural Business and Entrepreneur Center (MBEC)
Learning Loss Mitigation
Crisis Communications Plan
Eviction Legal Fund
Expanded Community Outreach and Engagement
DEI Professional Services
Language Access Services for Council Meetings and High Priority Civic Events
Expanded Technical Assistance for Small Business
Heartside Hill (affordable housing)
Equity Grant Fund
Art to Live
Affordable Housing Land Bank Expansion
Mobile Home Park Code Compliance
Advancing Accessible Permitting
Local Match- To be used as matching funds to support regional community-focused projects and other critical needs
Government operations programs are also critical for recovery, as they cover administrative costs, infrastructure improvements and technology
upgrades needed to implement recovery-related programming.
Government Operations Programs
Parking Structure Critical Repairs and Maintenance
HR Staff Support
COVID-Related Hybrid Meeting Spaces and Community Wifi
Cyber Risk Management / Risk Management
Recovery Administration
Recovery Communications
Municipal Court Technology
Senior Buyer
Page 13
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes Here
Fiscal Recovery Manager
Jo Cech
Accounting Director
Blaine Dunn
Recovery Update
11 -14-2023
Community Services Director
Dean Klingner
Page 14
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes Here
2
Question for Council
Any questions on the materials provided in packets?
Page 15
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes Here
3
Recovery-Related Grants
$36.1M
$35.1M
$28.1M
CARES FUNDING
•$16.9M Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) -Northern
Colorado Regional Airport
•$9.0M Coronavirus Relief Fund (CVRF)
•$8.7M Federal Transportation Agency (FTA) -Used for ongoing
operations and offset contributions from General Fund in 2020
•$1.4M Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
•$0.1M Department of Justice (DOJ) –Used for Police Overtime
and Personal Protective Equipment
OTHER RECOVERY-RELATED GRANTS
Examples include Shuttered Venue Operators Grants, Colorado Arts
Relief Fund, Carnegie Center Grant, RAISE Grant and Workforce
Innovation Grants
ARPA SLFRF
$28.1M used for implementation of programs related to the Resilient
Recovery Plan.
TOTAL: $99.3MPage 16
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes Here
4
Recovery Spending
•$10.4M spent (as of Q3 2023)
•10+2 Forecast for 2023: $7.5M
•Forecast for total spend through
2023: $12.4M
Government
Operations
$3,016,064
Economic
Health
$2,936,696
Equity &
Community
Resilience
$2,663,254
Health
$1,526,811
Environmental Resilience
$293,873
ARPA
Spend
Across
Themes
Page 17
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes Here
5
Resolution for Continued Spending
•Some programs anticipated to spend into 2025
•Resolution will be brought forward obligating use
of remaining ARPA funds to ensure spending can
continue until December 2026 deadline
Anticipated timeline of ask –
Q1 2024
Page 18
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes HereProgram Highlights
6
MUNICIPAL COURT PROGRAMS
$75,000
•Launched in Dec. 2021
•96+ teens/young adults diverted to Restorative Traffic
Circle Program
•79+ traffic complaints dismissed
•28 competency evaluation clients
•80+ charges dismissed
EVICTION LEGAL FUND
$640,000
•Launched in 2020
•Funded with CARES & ARPA
•Eviction prevention education, training and resources
•637+ renters & 57 landlords directly servedPage 19
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes HereProgram Highlights (continued)
7
CHILDCARE SYSTEM SUPPORT
$1,146,123
•Launched in 2022, additional funding for ‘23 & ‘24
•1,036 individuals served
•Childcare scholarships, respite care, behavioral
health support, training for childcare workers
MOBILE HOME PARK CODE COMPLIANCE &
BUILDING EVALUATION
$344,000
•Outreach events at mobile home communities
•Ongoing assessment of energy efficiency needs
•Collaboration with residents for 2024 programmingPage 20
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes Here
ARPA & Art Programs
8
Page 21
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes Here
Art to LiveCultural Services Access FundCultural Community Programs
ARPA-Funded Art Programs
9
$468,394
Launched in 2022
•Integrate arts & culture
experiences into community
•5,800+ community members
attended programming
•240+ hours of programming
$170,000
Launched in 2023
•Grants for local creatives
impacted by pandemic
•Art supported by grant shared
with community
•22 artists awarded in 2023
•Additional 24 artists will be
awarded in 2024
$485,000
ARPA Funded 2022, 2023-2024
•Subsidized visits and
transportation for students
•Reduced admission programs &
scholarships
•Advertise opportunities through
partner organizations Page 22
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes Here
10
Art and Culture Access Programs
ARPA FUNDED
Art to Live
Cultural
Community
Programs
Cultural
Services
Access
Fund
Art in Public
Places Fort Fund
EXPANDED WITH
ARPA ONGOING PROGRAMS
Page 23
Item 1.
Headline Copy Goes Here
11
Question for Council
Any questions on the materials provided in packets?
Page 24
Item 1.
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 1 of 6
November 14, 2023
WORK SESSION AGENDA
ITEM SUMMARY
City Council
STAFF
Paul Sizemore, Community Development & Neighborhood Services Director
Brad Yatabe, Senior Assistant City Attorney
SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION
Process for Council Appeals to Quasi-Judicial Decisions.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this item is to review issues and considerations that have been identified in the process
for Council appeals to quasi-judicial decisions, and to seek Councilmember feedback on potential
solutions or improvements.
GENERAL DIRECTION SOUGHT AND SPECIFIC QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED
1. Does Council have feedback on the list of identified issues and considerations in the appeals process?
2. Are there other issues or considerations that have not yet been identified?
3. Are there solutions or improvements that Council would like to see staff further develop and bring
forward for consideration?
BACKGROUND / DISCUSSION
One of Council’s current roles under the Municipal Code is to hear appeals to quasi-judicial decisions made
by Commissions and Administrative Hearing Officers. Council has expressed a desire to discuss issues
and considerations associated with the appeal process and to potentially explore solutions to problems or
improvements that could make the process run more predictably and smoothly.
In the City appeals process, decisions made by a Quasi-judicial Commission or Hearing Officer are subject
to appeal, and these appeals are brought before the Council. Similarly, administrative decisions can be
appealed to a specific Commission, such as the Planning and Zoning (P&Z) or the Historic Preservation
Commission (HPC). It is important to note that the definition of a "party in interest" is broadly defined, and
this designation determines who has the right to appeal a decision. Appeals can be made on two primary
grounds: first, if there is a belief that the decision did not result from a fair hearing, and second, if there is
a claim that the Code was not properly interpreted and applied. To initiate an appeal, it must be submitted
within a strict timeframe of 14 days.
The Council has the option to conduct a pre-hearing site visit to better understand the circumstances
involved. During the actual hearing, the allocated time for presenting arguments i s divided among those
Page 25
Item 2.
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 2 of 6
both in favor and opposed to the appeal, ensuring a fair and balanced discussion. The Council carefully
reviews the record of the case and listens to testimony from involved parties. Following this deliberation,
the Council reaches a decision, and in the subsequent meeting, a resolution is adopted, clearly stating the
findings of fact that support their determination. This process aims to ensure that decisions at the local
level are made fairly, and the appeal process provides a crucial mechanism for citizens to have their
concerns heard and addressed.
Appeals Data
Over the four-year period from 2020 to 2023, the data on appeals heard by the Council provides several
insights. The average number of appeals considered by the Council during this time was just under 3 per
year.
It is worth noting that some appeals were filed towards the end of a calendar year and were subsequently
heard in the following year. In total, the Council heard 11 appeals during this period, with each appeal
accounting for approximately 9% of the total.
Most of these appeals were related to Project Development Plans, comprising 37% of the cases, followed
closely by appeals of Historic Designation Determinations at 27%. These appeals came from various
sources, but the largest number were decisions made by the Historic Preservation Commission, with the
Planning and Zoning Commission following closely behind.
Page 26
Item 2.
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 3 of 6
In terms of outcomes, the Council upheld the original decision in most of the appeals, with a 55% rate of
affirming the initial rulings.
Interestingly, an equal number of decisions were either overturned or remanded back to the decision
maker, each accounting for 18% of the total cases. One exceptional case involved an appeal where it was
determined that the appellant did not have standing. Additionally, one Council decision, specifically the
decision to uphold, was further appealed to court and subsequently remanded to the original decision
maker. This data underscores the complexity of the appeal process and the various outcomes that can
arise during Council review of such cases.
Due Process Requirements
State and federal law entitle an applicant in a quasi-judicial hearing to procedural and substantive due
process. Because any hearing process implemented by the City must adhere to these principles of due
process, there are certain clear boundaries around potential changes or solutions. Due process rules
require:
The adopted procedures for hearings must be followed.
Affected persons must be afforded a “fair hearing” with reasonable opportunity to speak and for
rebuttal.
The decision maker must be “impartial” and “unbiased.”
The decision must be based “on the record” (only on information that is a part of the hearing).
The decision maker must apply the proper standards and criteria in making its decision.
Issues and Considerations
In preparation for this item, staff compiled several issues and considerations from previous Council appeals
and conversations as well as staff observations. For this work session, staff is seeking feedback from
Page 27
Item 2.
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 4 of 6
Council on whether we have accurately captured the key issues and whether there are any additional
issues that we have not included in this inventory. The list of issues and considerations includes:
Does the Councilmember appeal process work?
It is difficult to avoid and discourage ex parte communication from members of the public.
Limitations on discussion make it difficult for Councilmembers to prepare for an appeal hearing.
Participants in appeal hearings have difficulty understanding the process.
Unpredictable set of participants leads to unpredictable hearing dynamics (time allocation, etc.).
Evidentiary issues raised during the hearing can be complicated, inefficient, and difficult to resolve
fairly during the hearing.
Are the right decisions being appealed at the right stage of the process and the right level of detail for
review by Council?
Data from Other Jurisdictions
In preparation for this work session, staff evaluated the process for appeals to land use decisions in other
front range communities. The table below summarizes how these jurisdictions handle appeals. Some
important takeaways include:
All jurisdictions except for Denver provide for appeals of land use decisions to Council.
Jurisdictions are about evenly split between those who conduct appeals only on the record (without
admission of new evidence) and those who allow new evidence.
A significant majority do not allow appeals to be brought forward by Council, although a few do allow
this.
There are many unique features and nuances present in the approaches that reflect community
preferences.
Page 28
Item 2.
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 5 of 6
Potential Solutions and Improvements-Structure Based
To help inform Council’s discussion about potential solutions and improvements, staff has developed
options that fall into two main categories: structural and process. Structural improvements include
substantial changes to the way appeals are heard, i.e., changing what can be appealed and/or what body
hears appeals. Process-based solutions capture options that are procedural in nature and do not involve
major role changes or the creation of new review bodies.
The potential structure-based solutions and improvements identified by staff include:
1. Provide for no appeal from the decision-making Commissions or Hearing Officers. Under this
approach, an interested party would need to file a lawsuit to challenge the decision.
2. Give Council the role of reviewing underlying decisions based on the record without the addition
of new evidence .
3. Give Council the role of making a new decision on appeals by conducting an entirely new hearing.
This is called “de novo” review. Council becomes the decision maker under this model and must reach
its own independent decision based on the information presented to Council.
4. Give Council the role of initial decision maker on certain applications.
5. Create a separate body, like a “Board of Appeals” or a hearing officer, to consider appeals rather
than Council.
6. Create an option for no presentation of oral arguments, just submittal of written argument.
Potential Solutions and Improvements- Process Based
Process-based solutions can be implemented on their own, or in combination with any of the larger
structural changes identified above. Possible process solutions identified by staff include:
1. Change eligibility to file an appeal to those who participated and/or have a possessory interest in
the property in the process for the appealed decision (not providing standing for everyone who receives
notice).
2. Narrow the grounds for appeal to eliminate appeal based on bias by decision maker or consideration
of false or misleading evidence.
3. Narrow or clarify new evidence rules and procedures.
4. Change participation in the appeal hearing to the applicant and appellant. If the applicant is the
appellant, require opposers to file an entry of appearance by a deadline to participate in the appeal.
5. Eliminate the organized site visit.
6. Allow Councilmembers to make written requests for information from staff in advance of the
hearing so long as the requests and responsive information are available to participants in the appeal.
7. Adopt standard times for presentation by hearing participants (to avoid case-by-case uncertainty)
allowing for Mayor/Council to make exceptions determined appropriate.
8. Consider whether written exchanges by Council with staff may be allowed in advance of the
hearing if they are documented and included in the record.
Page 29
Item 2.
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 6 of 6
9. Make a distinction between the appealability of different application types (for example, a PDP
vs an ODP).
10. Create a mandatory pre-hearing conference that overviews the process and rules with all
participants.
11. Allow submittal of written pre-hearing arguments to Council.
12. Allow staff to review notices of appeal for obvious defects (example: standing).
NEXT STEPS
Depending on Council conversation at work session, staff is prepared to research any additional issues or
considerations identified by Councilmembers, and/or further develop solutions or improvements that
Councilmembers would like to explore more thoroughly. Possible next steps could include another work
session with more detailed research and solutions, or the development of code amendments for Council
consideration in 2024.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Presentation
Page 30
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes Here
Paul Sizemore, CDNS
Director
Brad Yatabe, Senior
Assistant City Attorney
Process for Council
Appeals to Quasi-
Judicial Decisions
11 -14-23
Page 31
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes HerePresentation Outline
2
1.Current Appeals
Process
2.Historical Data
3.Due Process
Requirements
4.Issues and
Considerations
5.Potential Solutions and
Improvements
Page 32
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes HereQuestions for Council
•Do Councilmembers have feedback on the list of identified issues and
considerations in the appeals process?
•Are there other issues or considerations that have not yet been
identified?
•Are there solutions or improvements that Councilmembers would like
to see staff further develop and bring forward for consideration?
Page 33
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes HereCurrent Appeal Process-A Broad Overview
4
•Quasi-judicial Commission or Hearing Officer
decisions may be appealed to Council
•Appeals of administrative decisions go to a
Commission (e.g., P&Z or HPC)
•“Party in interest” is broadly defined-this determines
who can appeal a decision
•Appeal can be on the basis of a failure to provide a
fair hearing, or failure to properly interpret and apply
the Code
•Appeal must be submitted within 14 days
•Council has the option of a pre-hearing site visit
•Time to present during a hearing is divided among
those in favor and opposed to the appeal
•Council reviews record and hears testimony
•Following Council’s decision, a resolution stating
findings of fact is adopted at next meeting
Page 34
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes HereHistorical Data: Fours Years of Appeals Heard by Council
5
•Data reflects year the
appeal was heard by
Council
•Average number of
appeals is just under 3
per year
•Some appeals were filed
near the end of the
calendar year and were
heard in the following
year
0
1
2
3
4
5
2020 2021 2022 2023
Appeals
Page 35
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes HereHistorical Data: Types of Appeals
6
•During the past 4 years,
at total of 11 appeals
have been heard by
Council (1 appeal= 9%)
•The greatest number of
appeals were of Project
Development Plans
(37%)
•The second greatest was
appeal of a Historic
Designation
Determination (27%)
9%
9%
37%
9%
27%
9%
TYPE
Modification of Standard Standing Determination
Project Development Plan Major Amendment
Historic Designation Historic Review
Page 36
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes HereDecision Maker Being Appealed
7
•The largest number of
appeals heard by Council
were decisions by the
Historic Preservation
Commission
•This was followed closely
by the Planning and
Zoning Commission
•Only 18% of appeals
were to a Hearing Officer
decision
36%
18%
46%
Decision Maker Being Appealed
Planning and Zoning
Commission
Hearing Officer
Historic
Preservation
Commission
Page 37
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes HereOutcome of Appeals
8
•Council upheld the decision in
a majority of the appeals
(55%)
•An equal number of decisions
were either overturned or
remanded to the decision
maker (18% each)
•One appeal was resolved by
determining the appellant did
not have standing
•One Council decision (to
uphold) was appealed to
court and then remanded to
the original decision maker
55%
18%
18%
9%
RESULT
Upheld Overturned Remanded No Standing
Page 38
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes Here
9
Due Process Requirements
•State and federal law entitle an applicant in a quasi -judicial hearing to
procedural and substantive due process. This means:
•The adopted procedures for hearings must be followed
•Affected persons must be afforded a “fair hearing” with reasonable
opportunity to speak and for rebuttal
•The decision maker must be “impartial” and “unbiased”
•The decision must be based “on the record” (only on information that
is a part of the hearing)
•The decision maker must apply the proper standards and criteria in
making its decision
Page 39
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes HereIssues and Considerations
10
•Does the Councilmember appeal process work?
•It is difficult to avoid and discourage ex parte communication from
members of the public
•Limitations on discussion make it difficult for Councilmembers to
prepare for an appeal hearing
•Participants in appeals hearings have difficulty understanding the
process
•Unpredictable set of participants leads to unpredictable hearing
dynamics (time allocation, etc.)
•Evidentiary issues raised during the hearing can be complicated,
inefficient, and difficult to resolve fairly during the hearing
•Are the right decisions being appealed at the right stage of the
process and the right level of detail for review by Council?Page 40
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes HerePractices in Other Jurisdictions
11
Quasi-
Judicial
Land Use
Appeals to
Council
Appeal Only On the
Record, No New
Evidence
Council
Can
Initiate
Appeal
Notable Features
Arvada Yes Yes No No appeals to Council of items appealed to Planning Commission
Boulder Yes No, may consider new
evidence + record
Yes
Centennial Yes Yes No Basis for appeal must be specific; Council must affirm unless decision was abuse of
discretion or unsupported by record
Colorado
Springs
Yes No, may consider new
evidence + record
No Council may preliminarily determine if notice of appeal meets application requirements and
dismiss if not; Council may hear appeal de novo or limit to issues raised on appeal
Denver No n/a No Appeals principally heard by Board of Adjustment
Golden Yes Yes No Council appeal decisions subject to appeal to municipal court
Greeley Yes Yes No Council gives deference to decision on appeal; appeals may be filed by any department
director or referral agency that provided comments
Longmont Yes No, may consider new
evidence + record
No For major development applications, any resident, the Planning Director, and City Manager
have standing to appeal; for minor and administrative applications, City Manager has
standing
Loveland Yes Yes No Staff may dismiss appeal if lacks standing or sufficient detail to put City on notice of the
appeal’s legal basis; no appeals to Council of items appealed to Planning Commission
Thornton Yes No, de novo hearings Yes
Westminster Yes No, de novo hearings Yes Four Councilmembers must appeal matter, City Manager may also appeal
Page 41
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes Here
12
Potential Solutions-Structure Based
1.Provide for no appeal from the decision-making Commissions or Hearing Officers.
2.Give Council the role of reviewing underlying decisions based on the record
3.Give Council the role of making a new decision on appeals
4.Give Council the role of initial decision maker on certain applications.
5.Create a separate body, like a “Board of Appeals”
6.Create an option for no presentation of oral arguments
Page 42
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes Here
13
Potential Solutions and Improvements -Process Based
1.Change eligibility to file an appeal
2.Narrow the grounds for appeal
3.Narrow or clarify new evidence rules and procedures.
4.Change participation in the appeal hearing to the applicant and appellant.
5.Eliminate the organized site visit.
6.Allow Councilmembers to make written requests for information
Page 43
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes Here
14
Potential Solutions and Improvements-Process Based
7.Adopt standard times for presentation by hearing participants
8.Consider whether written exchanges by Council with City staff may be allowed
9.Make a distinction between the appealability of different application types
10.Create a mandatory pre-hearing conference
11.Allow submittal of written pre-hearing arguments to Council.
12.Allow City staff to review notices of appeal for obvious defects
Page 44
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes HereQuestions for Council
•Do Councilmembers have feedback on the list of identified issues and
considerations in the appeals process?
•Are there other issues or considerations that have not yet been
identified?
•Are there solutions or improvements that Councilmembers would like
to see staff further develop and bring forward for consideration?
Page 45
Item 2.
Headline Copy Goes Here
16
Page 46
Item 2.
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 1 of 4
November 14, 2023
WORK SESSION AGENDA
ITEM SUMMARY
City Council
STAFF
SeonAh Kendall, Economic Health Director
Shannon Hein, Economic Health Manager
Jillian Fresa, Economic Health Manager
SUBJECT FOR DISCUSSION
Economic Health Strategic Plan.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this item is to provide Councilmembers with an update on the proposed Economic Health
Strategic Plan with consideration by Council on December 5, 2023.
GENERAL DIRECTION SOUGHT AND SPECIFIC QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED
1. What feedback does Council have on the proposed elements of the Economic Health Strategic Plan?
2. Does Council agree with moving forward with the adoption of the Economic Health Strategic Plan on
December 5?
BACKGROUND / DISCUSSION
Background
On March 14, 2023, staff presented the general overview and direction of the Economic Health Strategic
Plan, along with insights into the Circular Economy. Council members offered valuable feedback and
expressed a strong interest in broadening and diversifying the engagement process. Subsequently, staff
conducted further community engagement and integrated Council's feedback and concepts into the current
plan.
Council provided positive and comprehensive feedback and guidance on the Circular Economy portion.
Therefore, during the November 14, 2023 work session, staff will focus on the updated Economic Health
Strategic Plan instead of discussing details of the Circular Economy Work Plan. The presentation will
demonstrate how the Circular Economy is embedded into the overall Strategic Plan. Again, it is worth
noting that the Circular Economy Work Plan has been incorporated throughout the overarching Economic
Health Strategic Plan.
Page 47
Item 3.
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 2 of 4
Discussion
Fort Collins is undergoing a crucial transformation, necessitating a proactive economic strategy to address
population growth, income disparities, and other challenges like climate change, COVID-19, political
divisions, and racial injustice. A pragmatic, people-centered approach focusing on economic
competitiveness, racial equity, and climate action is essential for sustained growth and resilience. This
strategy must consider the impacts of affordable housing, childcare, air quality, and climate emergency.
Prioritizing strategic, smart growth is vital to prevent population and infrastructure decline.
Although this plan cannot address every economic challenge facing Fort Collins, by leading with a people-
centered approach, it can position Fort Collins residents, businesses, and community for a more resilient
and prosperous future. The triple bottom line (TBL) model creates innovative opportunities, forging
comprehensive solutions to boost community resilience where people, planet, and prosperity converge. Its
focus remains on fostering positive impact and empowering the community.
The updated Economic Health Strategic Plan aims to:
Redesign economic health to positively address environmental, social, and economic resilience within
Fort Collins.
Evaluate and develop a “both/and” approach to supporting Main Street businesses (locally owned that
provide goods and services in Fort Collins) and Primary Employers (businesses that generate over half
their revenue from outside the City and bring new dollars into the community).
Assist in the development, access, and resilience of specific programs to support historically
underserved businesses in the community (minority, women, low - income, and veteran - owned).
Redefine the City’s role in supporting workforce development that supports divers e job opportunities
for the community.
Reaffirm the City’s commitment to equity and inclusion leading with race and applying it to economic
resilience.
Champion the role of innovation in designing and scaling solutions to address local and global
challenges and opportunities in climate and life sciences.
Vision Statement
Fort Collins is a healthy, equitable, and resilient community where people and businesses can thrive.
Guiding Principles
The guiding principles play a vital role throughout the plan, ensuring alignment with values and vision,
aiding decision making, and maintaining consistency and accountability. Each of the outcome areas in the
plan is directly linked to one of the guiding principles, establishing them as the plan’s foundation. This
approach ensures that all actions and direction taken are purposeful, consistent, and in line with long-term
success.
Sustainability - Enhance the social, economic, and environmental resiliency of our community, and
the City organization, for present and future generations, where everyone can afford to live and work
in Fort Collins, ensuring good quality jobs, education for the future, and housing affordability.
Community Belonging - Create a sense of belonging and inclusion, integrating principles of diversity,
equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) to support the retention of diverse talent, as well as small
businesses that make our community uniquely Fort Collins.
Adaptation - Ability to learn, prepare for uncertainties, act responsively and move forward with
resilience toward recovery and renewal.
Page 48
Item 3.
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 3 of 4
Five-Year SMART Goals
People success and business success is community success, there is not either/or in this scenario. We
envision a place where our community has economic choice for upward mobility and wealth generation to
create a resilient, sustainable future. With these factors in mind, we have identified four goals.
These goals serve as the plan’s fundamental, overarching outcomes the Economic Health Strategic Plan
hopes to achieve. All focus areas in the plan are designed to contribute to the achievement of these central
goals. In essence, the focus areas are like the building blocks that collectively work towards realizing these
four fundamental goals:
Goal 1: Increase business owner representation to match Fort Collins MSA demographics.
Goal 2: Increase overall business survivability longer than five years from 45% to 50%.
Goal 3: Add 1,800 new jobs in targeted sectors (life science and climate technology).
Goal 4: Increase representation in employment within targeted sectors.
Focus Areas
Each outcome tied to these objectives has significance in ensuring a healthy, equitable, and resilient Fort
Collins economy:
Approach Business Retention, Expansion and Attraction Thoughtfully, helping targeted Primary
Employers stay and grow in Fort Collins while ensuring community-wide economic stability and
employment opportunities;
Ensure Small Businesses Thrive, supporting our vital “Main Street” businesses that contribute to
both the character and economic resilience of Fort Collins;
Support Talent and Workforce, ensuring all businesses have access to good talent and people, while
community members have access to good jobs and employers; and
Re-position Innovation, fostering the life science and climate tech cluster ecosystems while
championing sustainable businesses and a local circular economy.
The four focus areas exist because a healthy economy is interconnected and cannot be achieved in a silo.
Uniquely Fort Collins Main Street (including small and local) businesses need Primary Employer
companies to bring new dollars into a community, to employ locally and spend disposable income with
them. Primary employers need main street businesses, not only for their local consumer goods and
services, but also for the culture of community it creates. A community is built on sales and property tax
dollars that fund local amenities in the natural and built environment, which becomes part of the Fort Collins
brag book to help recruit and retain a strong community and workforce. The cycle cannot be robust if the
focus is one over the other; Main Street and Primary Employer businesses working together enhances the
local community.
The full ecosystem of a healthy economy includes a healthy mix of Primary Employer and Main Street
businesses, no matter the size. It is not just about the dollars and cents that business contribute to the
local economy (through property and sales tax, payroll, and contributions to nonprofits) but the character
and sense of belonging to a community. Oftentimes, local businesses are the “front door“ to our community
that not only build connections and relationships, but also share pieces of their culture, talent, and
themselves.
The Economic Health Strategic Plan’s emphasis on prioritizing people in the work underscores its
commitment to fostering a healthy, equitable, and resilient community where all can thrive. However, the
recognition of inherent tensions and tradeoffs for our community is crucial for ensuring its effectiveness.
For instance, addressing issues such as job growth outpacing housing development or the disparity
Page 49
Item 3.
City Council Work Session Agenda Item Summary – City of Fort Collins Page 4 of 4
between housing costs and wages will be integral in achieving long-term economic stability. By
acknowledging such challenges, the plan can be adapted to better balance the needs of the individual,
businesses, and the community.
NEXT STEPS
Based on Council feedback, Economic Health Office propose the Economic Health Strategic Plan be
brought forth for consideration by Council at the December 5, 2023 Council meeting.
ATTACHMENTS
1. Economic Health Strategic Plan
2. Circular Economy Work Plan
3. Engagement Report
4. Presentation
Page 50
Item 3.
Introduction
Fort Collins is at a time of transformation and can no longer rest on our laurels and take for granted
the unique reasons people choose to live and/or work here . In recent decades, Fort Collins has
experienced steady population growth, while business and household income growth lagged. Strategic
plans are meant to be forward looking, while also underpinning resiliency. Fort Collins has not been
immune to impacts from climate change, COVID-19, political divide, and racial injustice.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and as we look to the future, Fort Collins’ economic health
strategy must be a pragmatic, people-centered approach grounded in economic competitiveness, racial
equity, and climate action. We will NOT achieve racial and social equity or climate action goals without
economic inclusion and growth. AND that growth will be neither as robust nor as durable without
understanding the impacts of affordable housing, childcare, air quality, and climat e emergency on our
community. Strategic, smart growth that is economically prosperous, socially equitable, and
environmentally sustainable must happen to avoid population and infrastructure decline.
Although this plan cannot address every economic challenge facing Fort Collins, by leading with a
people-centered approach, it can position Fort Collins residents and businesses for a more resilient and
prosperous future.
Language matters. The importance of language is critical when discussing race, ethnicity, gender, sexual
orientation, and gender identity. In this context, the usage of the terms like “BIPOC” (Black, Indigenous,
and People of Color) is more descriptive than people of color while also acknowledging that people of
color face varying types of discrimination and prejudice. Although terms like “marginalized” and
“minority” might be factually correct, it lacks the people-first approach, while also carrying a suggestion
of being “less than.” A “people-first” approach acknowledges that every individual and community is
unique, diverse, and with different lived experiences that contribute to our community. Our intention is
not to be exclusionary or label but to acknowledge the disparities, systemic racism, and prejudices that
BIPOC and women have historically endured.
The updated Economic Health Strategic Plan aims to:
1. Redesign economic health to positively address environmental, social, and economic resilience
within Fort Collins.
2. Evaluate and develop a “both/and” approach to supporting Main Street businesses (locally
owned that provides goods and services in Fort Collins) and Primary Employers (businesses that
generate over half their revenue from outside the City and bring new dollars into the
community).
3. Assist in the development, access, and resilience of specific programs to support, historically
underserved businesses in the community (minority, women, low - income, and veteran -
owned).
4. Redefine the City’s role in supporting workforce development that supports diverse job
opportunities for the community.
5. Reaffirm the City’s commitment to equity and inclusion leading with race and applying it to
economic resilience.
6. Champion the role of innovation in designing and scaling solutions to address local and global
challenges and opportunities in climate and life sciences.
Page 51
Item 3.
Vision Statement:
Fort Collins is a healthy, equitable, and resilient community where people and businesses can thrive.
Guiding Principles:
The guiding principles play a vital role throughout the plan, ensuring alignment with values and vision,
aiding decision making, and maintaining consistency and accountability. Each of the outcome areas in
the plan is directly linked to one of the guiding principles, establishing them as the plan’s foundation.
This approach ensures that all actions and direction taken are purposeful, consistent, and in line with
long-term success.
• Sustainability - Enhance the social, economic and environmental resiliency of our community,
and the City organization, for present and future generations. Where everyone can afford to live
and work in Fort Collins, ensuring good quality jobs, education for the future, and housing
affordability.
• Community Belonging - Create a sense of belonging and inclusion, integrating principles of
diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) to support the retention of diverse talent, as well
as small businesses that make our community uniquely Fort Collins.
• Adaptation - Ability to learn, prepare for uncertainties, act responsively and move forward with
resilience toward recovery and renewal.
FIVE-YEAR SMART GOALS
People success and business success is community success, there is not either/or in this scenario. We
envision a place where our community has economic choice for upward mobility and wealth generation
to create a resilient, sustainable future. With these factors in mind, we have identified fundamental
goals.
These goals serve as the plan’s fundamental, overarching outcomes the Economic Health Strategic Plan
hopes to achieve. All focus areas in the plan are designed to contribute to the achievement of these
central goals. In essence, the focus areas are like the building blocks that collectively work towards
realizing these four fundamental goals:
Goal 1: Increase business owner representation to match Fort Collins MSA demographics.
Goal 2: Increase overall business survivability longer than five years from 45% to 50%.
Goal 3: Add 1,800 new jobs in targeted, traded sectors (e.g. life science and climate technology).
Goal 4: Increase representation in employment within targeted , traded sectors.
BACKGROUND
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The Economic Health Strategic Plan intersects with and takes inspiration from existing City of Fort Collins
community plans:
• Resilient Recovery Plan – a community plan to guide long-term response and rebuilding from
the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Fort Collins City Plan – comprehensive plan that guides how the community will grow and travel
in the next 10-20 years.
• Our Climate Future – a plan to simultaneously address climate, energy, and waste goals while
improving our community’s equity and resilience.
• Housing Strategic Plan – a vision that everyone in Fort Collins has healthy, stable, housing they
can afford.
• Equity and Inclusion Plan - a plan to address and further embed equity and inclusion into City
processes and projects.
[DEFINITION BOX]: Resiliency – The Our Climate Future Plan defines resiliency as the capacity to prepare
our human and natural systems to respond and adapt to changes and disruptions of various scales that
affect our ability to thrive. Taking that one step further for this body of work, the Economic Development
Administration defines economic resilience as the ability to bounce back from shock, disruption, or stress.
FOCUS AREAS:
Each outcome tied to these objectives has significance in ensuring a healthy, equitable, and resilient Fort
Collins economy:
• Approach Business Retention, Expansion and Attraction Thoughtfully , helping targeted Primary
Employers stay and grow in Fort Collins while ensuring community-wide economic stability and
employment opportunities;
• Ensure Small Businesses Thrive, supporting our vital “Main Street” businesses contribute to
both the character and economic resilience of Fort Collins;
• Support Talent and Workforce, ensuring all businesses have access to good talent and people,
while community members have access to good jobs and employers; and
• Re-position Innovation, fostering the life science and climate tech cluster ecosystems while
championing sustainable businesses and a local circular economy.
These four objectives exist because a healthy economy is interconnected and cannot be achieved in a
silo. Uniquely Fort Collins Main Street businesses need Primary Employer companies to bring new
dollars into a community, to employ locally and spend disposable income with them. Primary employers
need main street businesses, not only for their local consumer goods and services, but also for the
culture of community it creates. A community is built on sales and property tax dollars that fund local
amenities in the natural and built environment, which becomes part of the Fort Collins brag book to help
recruit and retain a strong community and workforce. The cycle cannot be robust if the focus is one over
the other; Main Street and Primary Employer businesses working together enhances the local
community.
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The full ecosystem of a healthy economy includes a healthy mix of Primary Employer and Main Street
businesses, no matter the size.
Entrepreneurship, business ownership, and home ownership have a direct link to wealth creation and
generational wealth distribution. With recent growth causing more apparent housing insecurity,
homeownership slips further out of reach, causing the opportunity for wealth building through
homeownership to also slip further away. This leads us to look to entrepreneurship and business
ownership as a viable opportunity for community members to build generational wealth.
[DEFINTION BOX] Generational wealth – any kind of asset that is passed down from one generation to
the next. This includes cash, investments such as stocks, bonds, real estate, and businesses.
With that said, many business owners, especially BIPOC and women business owners, personally finance
their endeavors. With little to start with in the first place, launching a business can be harder than for
white entrepreneurs in our community. The typical white family has eight times the wealth of the
typical Black family and five times the wealth of the typical Hispanic family. i The aggregate low levels of
wealth among Black and Hispanic populations not only diminished their ability to self-invest but limited
their appeal to funders.ii. Additionally, even with the passing of the Women’s Business Ownership Act of
1988, obtaining funding can be challenging for women entrepreneurs. They are lower credit risks than
man, yet typically are approved for smaller amounts and charged more.
These acknowledgements help guide economic development in Fort Collins to the holistic approach
including identifying systematic barriers such as access to resources (information, funding, human and
social capital, etc.).
Engagement Summary
*See the full engagement report and SWOT analysis here
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Methodology
Over seven months, the Economic Health Office and its consultant, Hickey Global conducted Interviews,
small group discussions, launched an online questionnaire, and engaged community members at two
large public events.
• Interviews: Conducted by both Hickey Global and the Economic Health Office. These consisted
of 1-on-1 interviews with business proprietors and leaders in Fort Collins, involving individuals
who spoke both, English and Spanish.
• Small Group Discussions: Three virtual events featuring small businesses, employers,
solopreneurs, and business partner organizations.
• Questionnaire: 54 responses
• Community Events: The Economic Health Office hosted an outreach table at the Lagoon Concert
Series and Bike-to-Work Day. In total, Economic Health spoke with 265 event attendees.
It is also important to note that two other plans were taken into consideration that also saw heavy
outreach and engagement in the last two years. The Economic Recovery Strategy from Reignite
Northern Colorado in 2021 and the City of Fort Collins Resilient Recovery Plan 2022 both garnered a
large amount of engagement from both businesses and community members that are referenced to
understand the needs of the community to improve the economic health of Fort Collins.
The Fort Collins Economic Health Office is appreciative of the time and consideration provided by all the
stakeholders who participated in the engagement process. Through these engagement efforts city staff
gathered input from:
• Community members and leaders
• Business leaders representing a broad range of economic sectors
• Employees and managers working at Fort Collins businesses
• Public sector officials from local, county, and state governments
• Educational leaders from K-12 through postsecondary institutions
• Small business owners and employers
• Artists and art advocates
• Nonprofit organizational leaders
• C-Suite executives and national experts in economic development
• Hospitality and tourism experts
SWOT THEMES
The following SWOT results have been updated to consider both the engagement conducted by Hickey
Global as well as the second phase of engagement.
Strengths Weaknesses
• Educated workforce and strong educational
institutions
• Cost of housing
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• Beautiful community assets and amenities
• Quality of place
• Diversity of economy
• Lack of affordable commercial space and site-
ready land
• Insufficient workforce size
• Lack of diversity
Opportunities Threats
• Upskill and reskill programs
• Retaining talent
• Branding and messaging consistency – City-
wide and regionally
• Industry support of quality jobs within Chips
Zone, life and bio science, and climate
tech/circular economy
• Perception that Fort Collins is not business
friendly
• Fees and policies to build, expand, or open a
business (cost of doing business)
• Not embracing or supporting diversity in our
community and workforce
FOCUS 1: APPROACH BUSINESS RETENTION, EXPANSION & ATTRACTION
OF PRIMARY EMPLOYER BUSINESSES THOUGHTFULLY
Fort Collins is strengthened by diversity of industries. Industry diversity is a measure of how evenly
employment is distributed between 11 industry clusters found in the typical metropolitan statistical area
(MSA). Markets with high diversity are considered to be more resilient in the face of adversity such as
recessions and layoffs. Fort Collins has above-average Industry Diversity (ranked 150 out of the 384
Metro MSAs). The top identified clusters include Food & Beverage Manufacturing, Machinery
Manufacturing & Production Technology, Information Technology, Life Sciences, Metal s, Plastics,
Mineral Product & Chemicals, Professional Services & Distribution, and E-Commerce. - Lightcast
Focusing business retention, expansion, and attraction efforts on these targeted industries supports the
growth of Fort Collins’ economic base. This growth creates jobs and imports new money more and
income into the community. In turn, these new dollars support small businesses and provide people
more opportunities to thrive. Figure 1: Primary Employers and Small Business Contribution
Outcome 1.1: Policy and structural shifts create a good business environment.
Example Initiatives:
• Engage in intentional and sustained coordination and alignment between City departments
and partners at the city, county, and state level to bolster business resilience and growth
through programs and policies that are interconnected impacts of housing, land use, and
transportation on Fort Collins business environment.
o Deploying economic impact analysis for City policy changes and new programs that
impact businesses and employment opportunities.
• Support and align City of Fort Collins assistance for businesses – including financing, and
technical programs (from development to accessibility) to assist Fort Collins entrepreneurs;
navigation of city processes, including permitting, accessing financial resources and grants; and
engaging in policy.
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o Engage and support process improvements such as development and conceptual
reviews.
Outcome 1.2: Strategic business retention, expansion, and attraction (BREA) efforts
strengthen and diversify opportunities and economic resilience.
Example Initiatives:
• Establish a sustainable, data-driven program to respond to the needs of existing employers and
industries to create a feedback loop for the City and private industry. Work with business and
institutional partners to maintain and grow a database of existing businesses in Fort Collins with
ongoing data collection and analysis mechanisms to keep a pulse on the vitality of local
businesses.
o Structure business visits to develop a strong understanding of the overall needs of local
businesses, their challenges to operate successfully, and their potential to remain
and/or expand in Fort Collins.
• Target recruitment of companies that can help the City further its economic, social, and
environmental goals. Examples of companies would include those that can help advance a
circular economy, provide high-quality employment opportunities, and many others.
• Build the region’s target supply chain through specialized industry research aimed at focused
recruitment efforts on Fort Collins’ target industries such as circular economy manufacturing,
life sciences, and climate tech.
• Leverage and market Fort Collins and the region as a leader in the life science and clean tech
sectors. Strengthen through data, research, and convening those that lead the industry
already.
Outcome 1.3: Attract circular economy business sectors for a more resilient community.
Example Initiatives:
• Develop internal infrastructure and establish standardized practices to effectively transition Fort
Collins towards a circular economy through:
o Creating an asset map of existing circular ecosystems, their gaps, and potential new
ecosystems.
o Defining measurable goals and metrics that will enable tracking Fort Collins’ progress in
transitioning to a more circular economy.
• Focus business development efforts to business supply chain companies within the value chain
to support existing Fort Collins businesses, current and future, recirculate and rethink products
and processes to eliminate and reduce waste (alignment with Outcome 1.2)
• Leverage the City's leadership role to grow the Fort Collins' circular economy and encourage
others to drive the circular economy forward.
o Review purchasing policies to support circular activities through its sustainability
practice.
FOCUS 2: ENSURE SMALL BUSINESSES THRIVE
Small businesses, defined as 50 employees or less, comprise 98% of Fort Collins businesses. These
businesses face significant challenges, with a 20% failure rate within the first two years, 45% within five
years, and 65% within ten years. To ensure their survival and growth, it is crucial to provide early
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support and ongoing assistance.xii Small businesses were impacted the most by the pandemic, and at
the time of this plan, may still be in recovery mode and made a priority in the Recovery Plan.
Local, unique, and creative businesses (also known as Main Street Businesses) nurture the vibrant and
artistic atmosphere that makes Fort Collins so appealing to residents and visitors alike. Supporting and
retaining these imaginative originators, innovative problem solvers, and resourceful local entrepreneurs
is vital to community resiliency and critical for talent recruitment and retention.
Entrepreneurs thrive when they have access to resources such as new business incubators, existing
business accelerators, and networks that expand their knowledge and skills. These drivers, alongside
capital or finance programs, are critical for developing and retaining innovative problem solvers.
Nurturing environments like these are instrumental in helping entrepreneurs refine their ideation,
develop robust business models, and gain the skills necessary to thrive in competitive markets.
Meeting the needs of a broad spectrum of businesses increases the potential for significant positive
outcomes in community growth and development. This could include programming for an aspiring
solopreneur whose primary language is not English or working with existing industries to re-shore
manufacturing production through national programs, and everything in between. The enormity of
impact is directly proportional to the range of representation.
Outcome 2.1: Small Businesses Have Access to Tools and Resources Needed to Succeed.
Example Initiatives:
• Support access to capital - Access to capital continues to show up as one of the largest barriers
to entrepreneurship.
o Re-launch of a revolving loan fund product, providing access to capital for businesses,
giving Main Street Businesses (including childcare) the ability to grow while also
preparing for conventional loans in the future.
o Leverage the City’s Urban Renewal Authority (URA) tools to support not only the
business being redeveloped, but all businesses within the district for greater alignment
and success opportunities.
• One-stop shop hubs located throughout the City with liaisons trained in multiple departments
needs that can walk businesses through the process of Sales Tax/Business License, development
and building review, Utilities, resources, and more.
o Streamline the development and redevelopment process t o provide greater
transparency.
o Having locations outside traditional City buildings provides accessibility and
transparency, making the processes more human-focused and easier to navigate.
• Ongoing Support and Partner Local campaign to include communication and opportunities to
pivot customer behavior to support local retailers, artisans, creatives, and service providers.
Outcome 2.2: Fort Collins Businesses Are Resilient Ready.
Example Initiatives:
• Identify resiliency resources and gaps, to assist businesses prepare for man-made or natural
economic downturn or disaster.
o Example resources include the Multicultural Business and Entrepreneur Center,
Sustainable Business Program, and the Green Business Tracker.
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o Develop programs with partners such as a Legacy Business Program, a Business
Emergency Plan, and a Business Climate Adaptation Plan to support businesses
proactively identify threats and solutions to ensure resiliency.
• Improve access and education to certifications and programs for underrepresented businesses
to increase procurement and funding opportunities for local business owners.
Outcome 2.3: The Creative Sector is Celebrated and Supported for Their Contribution to
the Fort Collins Community.
Example Initiatives:
• Collaborate and support Cultural Services programming to strengthen the creative sector
through capacity building, business acumen, and education (storytelling the value
proposition).
o Connect entrepreneurs in the creative sector with the Multicultural Business and
Entrepreneur Center for additional support and access to resources.
o In partnership with Cultural Services, Sales Tax, and Colorado State University, analyze
and share the economic impact of the creative industries in Fort Collins, as a premiere
cultural destination.
o With community partners, create space to incubate or strengthen existing retail, food,
or creative business, allowing them to test concepts, conduct market research, and get
feedback on their products or ideas.
FOCUS 3: SUPPORT TALENT AND WORKFORCE
Fort Collins is home to a highly educated and skilled workforce. Sixty-eight percent of the Fort Collins
population aged 25 and older have a post-secondary education, compared to 54.2% in Colorado and
45.9% nationally.
The Colorado Workforce Development Council developed the Colorado Job Quality Framework, in which
they encourage communities to attract and grow a variety of businesses committed to job quality to
improve the economic well-being and quality of life for their community.”
We recognize the multitude of barriers preventing people from obtaining education and accessing
employment opportunities. These include opportunity awareness, transportation, housing affordability,
and childcare affordability and availability. Fort Collins must maintain a competitive inventory of quality
jobs for community members to live, work and play in their own community. A shorter commute time
means enhanced workforce efficiency, better attraction and retention of talent, economic inclusivity
and mobility, infrastructure efficiency, and the reduction of environmental externalities.
Why are Quality Jobs important to have in Fort Collins?
It’s clear that job quality impacts employees’ financial health. Additionally, quality jobs give workers
economic choice: allowing for other community contributions such as social support, a sense of
community, economic mobility, physical and mental health, and climate resiliency.
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[POP-OUT BOX]: Colorado ranks as one of states with the largest cost burden for childcare for married
couples with children after factoring both the price of care and median income in each state, and this is
exacerbated for single parent households.
[POP-OUT BOX]: The mean travel time to work is 20.6 minutes. Travel commute times are indicative of
certain aspects of local economic health including availability of job opportunities , housing affordability
and accessibility, transportation challenges, economic disparities, and environmental impact.
Outcome 3.1: Accessible career pathways meet needs of employers and employees,
today and in the future.
Example Initiatives:
• Leverage opportunities and partnerships to advance strategic workforce programs aimed at
enhancing and future-proofing the workforce’s resilience in an evolving economy.
o Support the dynamic landscape which includes the progress of AI technology and the
shifting nature of occupations due to the emergence of new technologies.
o Continue to support and advance NoCo Works, a regional collaboration for workforce
and talent development in northern Colorado, spanning Larimer and Weld Counties.
Outcome 3.2: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) is Good Business.
Example Initiatives:
• Leverage existing and emerging work by industry and community to foster an inclusive
community (within the business and/or organization, as well as throughout the community).
• Develop a platform that matches underrepresented and underserved students to internship or
apprenticeship opportunities throughout the city and region’s leading innovative companies.
o Provide valuable experiential learning opportunities and connections to both the
student and local businesses creates talent retention possibilities, as well as breeds
innovation.
• Encourage and support continuous learning for civil conversations and dialogue around DEIA
and lived experiences.
FOCUS 4: REPOSITION INNOVATION
To stay competitive in a post-pandemic economy, certain industries must be elevated and supported to
continue the resiliency and strength of the community. The life sciences and climate technology (climate
tech) industries, including manufacturing activities are vital components of any thriving economy.
[DEFINITION BOX] Life sciences includes the research and development, tech transfer, and
commercialization of biological sciences, such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, and
others. Climate tech is recognized as new business models and technologies that mitigate the impacts
and key drivers of global greenhouse gas emissions that attribute to climate change. While cleantech is
described as new business models or technologies that increases the performance, productivity or
efficiency of production while minimizing impacts on the environment.
Fort Collins is equipped with the right talent coming from our local educational institutions, including a
major land-grant university, Colorado State University. This brain trust in the northern Colorado region
can help solve large global issues in the fields of health and climate. Fort Collins produces the highest
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percentage of awarded degrees in Biological and Biomedical Sciences and overall, most awarded
degrees in Agricultural, Animal, Plant, and Veterinary Science compared to its peer communities.
Outcome 4.1: Targeted Clusters Spurs Innovative Solutions to Meet Community Goals.
Example Initiatives:
• Promote the development and tech transfer of clean technology happening locally with
institutional partners such as Colorado State University’s Powerhouse and Innosphere Ventures
to meet Our Climate Future (OCF) goals.
• Leverage opportunities to innovate and support local semiconductor manufacturers, including
efforts towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions operations that align with City OCF
and the company’s sustainability goals.
Outcome 4.2: Leverage and Engage the Regional Assets that Drive Innovation.
Example Initiatives:
• Map regional assets such as wet laboratory (wet lab) space that drives innovation for bio- and
life sciences, as many companies seek to locate near Tier 1 Research universities and institutions
(such as Federal laboratories).
[DEFINITION BOX] Wet lab space are laboratories where chemicals, drugs, or other material or biological
matter are tested and analyzed requiring water, direct ventilation, and specialized piped utilities. The
inventory of physical wet lab space is significant because these specially designed and controlled
laboratories must meet certain criteria for life science activities to properly occur.]
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Fort Collins Circular Economy Workplan
Introduction: What is Circular Economy?
In the traditional linear economy, materials follow the chain of “take, make, waste” where raw materials
are taken from an environment, made into a product, and once that product has reached the end of its
life, it is sent to the waste stream. In a circular economy, products come with only what is needed, last
longer, are repairable, and, when they can’t be used anymore, are easily and safely recycled. A circular
economy aims to eliminate waste by focusing on the reduction, recycling and reuse of materials,
lowering the number of raw materials taken from our natural environment, designing products for
longevity, and creating new business models that promote a sharing economy. For Fort Collins, the
circular economy is about rethinking current processes to effectively utilize natural resources to
increase supply chain stability, create sustainable employment opportunities and ensure the
resilience of our natural and built environment.
Circular Economy Concept - A Circular Ecosystem.
A circular ecosystem functions similarly to a natural ecosystem in that a given material can be handled by
a variety of different players throughout its lifecycle. Recyclers, producers, consumers, repair services,
thrift, and remanufacturers – all impact whether a material is kept in circulation or heads to a landfill.
When systems keep materials moving in a loop, the results are circular products that are created with
little to no raw materials, and its end of life in mind.
An example of a circular ecosystem in Fort Collins is around food. In Fort Collins, many grocers have
ambitious goals to reduce food waste and hunger by the end of this decade. These goals work in synergy
with a City regulation that grocers must donate or compost their food waste. Donated food goes to local
non-profits like the Food Bank for Larimer County and Vindeket Foods. At these non-profits, food is
“rescued” and distributed to community members who support the ecosystem by being okay with the
occasional bruised piece of fruit or day-old baguette. Food that can’t be rescued is composted and used
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to grow new food or build soil in local landscapes, closing the loop.
Connecting to other City plans.
Several existing City plans have incorporated circular economy strategies, including Our Climate Future,
Municipal Sustainability and Adaptation Plan, and the updated Economic Health Strategic Plan. This
Circular Economy Workplan aims to work alongside and propel existing strategies while also filling gaps
left by these plans.
Our Climate Future - achieving zero waste.
Moving toward an economy that keeps materials circulating is significant to reaching the community’s
goal to landfill zero waste by 2030 and the transformational outcomes outlined in the Our Climate Future
plan (Zero Waste Neighborhoods and Zero Waste Economy). While achieving zero waste will involve
familiar strategies like recycling more types of materials and improving recycling behavior, around 15%-
20% of the community’s waste is made up of consumer products that aren’t designed to be recyclable or
are hazardous wastes that require specialized disposal. The circular economy can fill that gap by
innovating new ways to keep these materials in use and recycle them.
Read the Climate Action Plan here.
Connecting to climate action. Fort Collins’ Our Climate Future Plan identifies “Healthy Local
Economy and Jobs” and “Zero Waste Economy” as two Big Moves for an equitable, carbon
neutral, and resilient Fort Collins.
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The Economic Health Strategic Plan – supporting a healthy economy.
The circular economy elements of the Economic Health Strategic Plan seek to support manufacturers ,
life science, and climate tech sectors, as well as entrepreneurs, while taking the broader view of the
ecosystem and considering how all parts of our local circular economy work together. While the City has
already integrated circular strategies into some of its environmental plans, the Economic Health
Strategic Plan offers a significant opportunity to advance Fort Collins’ climate and equity goals, as well as
close planning gaps such as:
• Economic health dimensions of the circular economy (cluster support, wealth generation, skills
and training, business attraction, etc.).
• Cluster sector strategic gaps.
o Other plans have focused primarily on individuals, small businesses, institutions, and the
construction and demolition sector.
o The manufacturing, life science, and climate tech sectors have the greatest opportunity
for innovation.
• Non-regulatory strategies that support businesses transitioning to circular business models.
Read the Economic Health Strategic plan here.
Why is circular economy important to Fort Collins and its
businesses?
Climate change is present in all facets of our lives with significant impact on people, places, businesses,
and entire economies and these impacts are only expected to grow. The changing climate also brings
new opportunities for innovation to our local economy. Opportunities include developing new products,
more efficient processes and services, and creating new jobs all while building a more resilient and
equitable community.
How a changing climate may impact Fort Collins businesses .
Climate risks. Each sector is faced with their own climate challenges and at varying impacts; in response,
businesses must adapt and have their own sustainable goals and practices. Most sectors will see some
disruption within their business models and value chains such as:
• Increased scarcity and increased costs of natural resources
• Supply chain shortages
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• Regulatory changes and unpredictability
• Increased inflation and cost of doing business
• Rising costs for resiliency and redundancy measures, capital, and insurance
• Suppliers, partners, and governments requiring the use of sustainable or reusable materials and
processes
• Changing consumer preferences and behaviors that move towards sustainability
Climate opportunities. Becoming more circular can benefit businesses by:
• Lowering costs, improving efficiencies and competitiveness
• Strengthening supply chain systems
• Creating more opportunities for innovation and progress towards sustainability
• Strengthening workforce, while taking advantage of workforce opportunities for job training
• Attracting top talent with company’s sustainability character and commitment to sustainability
• Strengthening resiliency and adaption in times of uncertainty
• Creating new partnerships with other businesses and industries
• Leverage local assets (institutional and technological assets) to strengthen industry ecosystems
• Influence of shareholder and employee values and expectations
How a shift to a circular economy may impact the workforce.
The shift towards a more adept circular economy presents new opportunities for workforce training and
workforce mobility. The circular economy offers innovative approaches to develop an inclusive economy
through the creation of new jobs, as well as the reskilling, upskilling, and new skilling (RUN) of workers.
The interconnected nature of a circular economy means it involves many different types of high-skilled
jobs – requiring technical work as well as jobs in engineering, science, design, and other areas of
innovation. The circular economy model allows the opportunity to improve the quality of employment
for our community by promoting inclusive and diverse jobs that continually provide new skills and
training opportunities. This is necessary in an evolving, dynamic economy that promotes innovation.
How do we get to a circular economy?
Transitioning to a circular economy requires ambitious and deliberate efforts to create new processes
and expand knowledge and infrastructure. It requires many different players working together to create
a successful circular ecosystem. Institutions, like government and universities, have a role to play in this
system, as do community members and business leaders.
The City’s role.
Government can play a crucial role in advancing the circular economy through legislation, creating and
developing programs and services, and as a large employer and organization through its own informed
decisions around internal operations. The City is in the unique position that can propel the demand for
circular products and influence the way organizations operate while leading by example through internal
processes and policies.
Industry as a key partner.
Industrial activities, including private and public firms, (see call-out box for more details) are responsible
for around 68,000 tons of landfilled waste each year. Because of this, industry is recognized as a partner
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to driving a strong, effective circular economy. Industry partners can transform the traditional linear
model into a more sustainable and regenerative system. Increasing circularity in local and regional
industries not only support Fort Collins’ goal to become zero waste, it also reduces pollution, greenhouse
gas emissions, and waste globally.
While 66% of industrial waste is already recycled, the circular economy is a way to get the rest of the way
to 100% and reduce residential waste too.
What’s in our industrial waste?
Fort Collins industrial waste comes from a variety of industrial activities. Some of the biggest sources
include:
• Construction of roads and infrastructure
• Construction of buildings
• Manufacturing
What’s made in Fort Collins?
• Food and beverages
• Computers and electronic products
• Machinery
• Plastics and rubber products
Circular Strategies.
Most people know the adage “reduce, reuse, recycle” but there are many more “R-strategies” that can
have a big impact on creating a more circular community. Many Fort Collins manufacturers, retail
businesses, institutions and community groups are already leading the way by applying other “r-
strategies” like refusing, reducing, redesigning and more. See the figure for examples and a few
highlighted local leaders. The higher up the “R” hierarchy, the better the environmental impact.
In order to cultivate an environment where “r-strategies” are not only more accessible but a common
practice, a shift in culture and way of life must occur. This workplan identifies four key objectives to
get us started.
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Objectives for a Circular Fort Collins
The strategies and actions detailed in this plan combine with existing efforts (Our Climate Future, the
Municipal Sustainability and Adaptation Plan, and many community efforts) to jumpstart the circular
economy in Fort Collins. These strategies are to:
1. Lay the groundwork
Develop internal infrastructure and common practices that will prepare Fort Collins for the shift to
support a circular economy.
2. Lead by example
Leverage the City’s leadership role to grow the Fort Collins’ circular economy and encourage others to
participate.
3. Develop circular businesses
Focus business development efforts to support businesses interested in implementing circular strategy.
4. Innovate
Partner with local stakeholders to test innovative circular practices and concepts in Fort Collins and
collaborate with other communities to help scale the circular economy globally.
Objective 1. Lay the groundwork: Develop internal infrastructure and establish standardized
practices to effectively transition Fort Collins towards a circular economy.
Key Initiatives:
• Create an asset map of existing circular ecosystems, their gaps, and potential new ecosystems.
Create an asset map of Fort Collins’ existing circular ecosystems, identify any gaps, and explore
opportunities for new ecosystems. This comprehensive map should encompass the existing initiatives
and work undertaken by local institutions, organizations, industry partners, and other community
groups. By understanding and leveraging the work of others will lead to better collaboration and the
acceleration of a circular community.
Work with a consultant to help identify and categorize the existing circular ecosystems, which could
include sectors like waste management, recycling facilities, sustainable product design, and
remanufacturing. For each ecosystem, identify the key players, their roles, and the resources they
contribute. Link each ecosystem, gap, and potential opportunity to specific goals and strategies.
A comprehensive asset map serves as a dynamic tool for stakeholders to understand the current circular
economy landscape, strategically plan interventions, and catalyze the formation of new ecosystems that
drive sustainable and circular practices.
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• Define measurable goals and metrics that will enable tracking Fort Collins’ progress in
transitioning to a more circular economy.
Establish concrete and measurable benchmarks and performance indicators to effectively monitor and
evaluate the strides made by Fort Collins, in its transition towards a more circular economy. This involves
crafting specific goals that can be easily tracked and quantified through key metrics that will provide a
comprehensive view of the city's progress. This will also provide better transparency in circular strategy
and ensure stakeholder participation.
Metrics could encompass various aspects of the circular economy such as those that track waste
diversion, the percentage of businesses adopting and implementing circular principles and strategies are
indicators that can provide insights into the city's circular economy transition. Other economic indicators
such as the growth of circular economy-related industries, job creation in sustainable sectors, and
investments in circular initiatives, can shed light on the economic benefits derived from this transition.
The inclusion of quantifiable objectives and well-defined metrics will enable stakeholders to
comprehensively track and analyze Fort Collins' journey towards a more circular economy, allowing for
informed decision-making and effective resource allocation.
Objective 2. Lead by example: Leverage the City’s leadership role to grow the Fort Collins’ circular
economy and encourage others to participate.
Key Initiatives:
• Update City purchasing policy to support more City purchases of locally manufactured
(circular) products.
The City can enhance its purchasing policies to increase the procurement of both local and circular
products. The City as a large organization holds influence in establishing stronger local procurement
opportunities for all industry to utilize. The City's purchasing power is significant and could create
demand for certain types of products and even positively impact market conditions for recycled
products. Supporting local procurement practices additionally supports circular start -ups and
entrepreneurs to meet local demands. Local procurement also plays an important role in supporting a
circular economy by reducing waste streams and transportation impacts, supporting resource
conservation, and strengthening supply chains, as well as promotes local economic resilience.
• Identify and make City spaces and land available for circular initiatives and meeting spaces for
circular-focused manufacturers, start-ups, and community groups.
The City is a significant land holder in Fort Collins, a community with increasing costs to rent or purchase
land or commercial space, especially for start-ups and entrepreneurs. By making its real estate assets
available for circular economy projects, the City could reduce a significant barrier to innovative initiatives
and start-ups.
This would entail working with the City's Real Estate Services Department to integrate circularity as a
priority criterion for requests that end up in their review process. Additionally, it would look to
proactively advertise un- or under-utilized spaces for life sciences and climate tech start-ups and
entrepreneurs and other companies or organizations with circular initiatives.
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• Increase advocacy at different levels of government to ensure circular business goals and
needs are met, including green investment funds, business -supportive policies, and recycled
material availability.
This strategy is one of the greatest levers the City can pull to advance the circular economy both within
and beyond Fort Collins' borders. Where alignment exists with Fort Collins Council's Legislative Policy
Agenda, the City can increase its advocacy for policies that support circularity and the circularity goals of
Fort Collins businesses through member organizations like Colorado Communities for Climate Action
(CC4CA), Recycle Colorado, and Colorado Municipal League. These same avenues are opportunities to
ensure other barriers to circularity are reduced for all Colorado businesses, for example consistent
regulatory frameworks across the State, stronger regional recycling markets, and more consistent access
to capital for circular projects.
Objective 3. Develop circular businesses: Focus business and workforce development efforts to
support businesses and community members interested in implementing circular strategy.
Key Initiatives:
• Attract circular-focused businesses and those motivated to implement circular strategies,
especially those that can close an eco-system gap.
Circular-driven businesses, particularly tech start-ups, are critical to support and enhance local circular
economy eco-systems and other areas of innovation. Additionally, the City seeks to engage other
essential support industries such as plastics, composting, etc., or suppliers that can help bridge specific
gaps within clusters. Furthermore, the City aims to attract businesses that share the community's values
of the triple bottom line, working towards their sustainability goals as an organization.
• Leverage existing relationships with industry leaders, networks, and other business
development efforts to foster the growth of more circular strategy among industry leaders.
Utilize existing convenings and networks of manufacturers to discuss circularity opportunities together,
which would encourage collaborative problem-solving, knowledge sharing, and networking. By engaging
industry leaders, this can help create meaningful dialogue and shared insights. This collective effort
empowers manufacturers, who already hold the collective expertise and knowledge within the industry,
to collectively examine the vast array of opportunities and advantages offered by adopting circular
practices.
Another important component in supporting industry in the circular space is to compile, elevate, and
regularly share local circular manufacturing case studies. Providing real-world examples helps
demonstrates how adopting circular practices can benefit businesses, including improved efficiencies
and competitiveness, strengthened supply chains, workforce opportunities, and many more.
Furthermore, there is an opportunity to explore how leading circular businesses can be compensated for
their teaching role around circular economy.
• Provide tailored support to help businesses and entrepreneurs navigate government systems
and connect to start-up funding.
Provide support to community organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs to understand how to
navigate government systems and connect to startup funding for circular innovation. This support will
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Item 3.
involve understanding their specific needs and barriers. Then guiding them through government systems
and facilitating connections to various startup funding opportunities, including green financing, start -up
and research grants, and other essential resources.
• Promote the development of accessible career pathways that create a strong talent pipeline
reflective of a local circular economy.
By forging strategic partnerships and developing specialized programs, Fort Collins seeks to meet the
evolving needs of the local workforce as well as needs of industry while supporting sustainable economic
growth. The City will continue to elevate and explore new programs including training and development
programs, certifications, and other post-secondary education that promote circular employment,
including those that are directly involved or indirectly supports circular economy :
• Core circular jobs that ensure the closure of raw material cycles (e.g., jobs in repair, renewable
energy, waste management).
• Enabling circular jobs that intend to remove barriers for core circular activities to occur (e.g., jobs
in education, design, digital technology).
• Indirect circular jobs that work within other sectors and adopt circular strategies (e.g., jobs that
provide services to circular strategies such as logistics, financial institutions, farmers,
manufacturers).
Objective 4. Innovate: Partner with local stakeholders to test innovative circular practices and
concepts in Fort Collins and collaborate with other communities to help scale the circular economy
globally.
Key Initiatives:
• Research and prioritize opportunities for co -location of material producers and users,
underutilized spaces, ideas, recycling, sharing, and reuse services.
This strategy involves collaborating with a consulting firm to conduct spatial and qualitative analyses,
aimed at identifying potential opportunities for co-location in Fort Collins. This will help us to understand
how the physical locations of materials within the community impact their circulation, and whether they
end up in landfills. By conducting a spatial analysis of materials and circular opportunities in Fort Collins,
the City can prioritize their implementation, capitalize on early opportunities, and plan for potential
transitions in City policies in the long term.
• Identify and collaborate on demonstration projects that have visibility in both the business
community and the larger community.
In the early-adoption phase of new concepts, it's important to have tangible examples that can be
experienced first-hand in the community. Demonstration projects, such as the Colorado State University
Fashion and Circular Economy Symposium, help tell the story of circularity and lets businesses test new
and innovative concepts in a way that lets others benefit from lessons learned. Examples from other
communities include co-locating coffee shops with mushroom growers, creating circular office parks that
house public meeting spaces and circular start-ups, or having local shops sell products made from
rescued food waste (e.g., beer brewed from old bread).
• Support the development of circular ecosystems using an innovation lab approach with
meaningful implementation funding.
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Materials circulate within a system of users and stakeholders, ranging from recyclers, to producers,
consumers, repair services, thrift, and remanufacturers. Institutions like government and academia have
a role in the system too. When these systems close the materials loop to become circular, they function
almost like an eco-system.
What each eco-system needs is unique and related to the specific products it produces, for example
what the local beer industry needs to function as a circular ecosystem is likely very different than what
the tech industry needs. By convening these industry ecosystems individually, the group can work
together to set relevant goals, identify barriers and needs, and advance strategies collectively. One
method to convene eco-systems towards a bigger goal is the innovation lab approach.
Through this Circular Economy Workplan, the City of Fort Collins aims to help the business community
foster sustainable progress, while also helping businesses take advantage of new opportunities. The
actions in this workplan can guide Fort Collins forward in the pursuit of a more equitable and sustainable
economy and create a more inclusive environment. This requires a collaborative effort of all partners,
including government, local industries, community organizations and residents. As a main hub in
Northern Colorado, Fort Collins has the potential to propel the circular economy and build a more
sustainable environment and economy locally, regionally, and globally.
Local Examples
HP recycles devices responsibly:
Here’s what local tech leader HP says about their contribution to the circular economy:
“We’re committed to reducing the e-waste, carbon emissions, and energy consumption – and we know
you are, too. You can reduce your organization’s environmental impact when you return your devices to
HP for restoration, reuse, or responsible recycling.
When our products reach end-of-use status, our regulation-compliant programs support responsible
collection and processing to cover as much material as possible – reducing negative effects on the
ecosystems and human health.
HP contributes to a circular economy by actively growing the supply chain and market for recycled
materials, as well as by empowering communities with a better quality of life and economic opportunity.”
Hoffman Mills supports circular construction
The construction and demolition industries deal with a lot of materials, which means they have a lot of
circular economy potential. The City of Fort Collins crushing facility and its construction company
customers do a lot to make Fort Collins circular! The facility reprocesses and stores construction
materials like asphalt and concrete until they are needed for a new building project.
New Belgium cycles
New Belgium Brewing is known for supporting a culture of bicycling but that’s not the only type of cycle
they invest in. New Belgium is a local leader in circular economy and regularly partners on advocacy
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efforts that bring more circular opportunities to keep materials cycling in all of Colorado’s industries.
Here’s how the City of Fort Collins can support their efforts!
“It’s great when cities are tuned into state and federal programs which benefit decarbonization and
circularity goals.”
Next Steps
Progressing forward with the Circular Economy Plan involves several crucial next steps:
1. Council adoption and implementation: Having received approval from the Fort Collins City
Council solidifies the City’s commitment and provides the necessary mandate to proceed with
the outlined strategies.
2. Stakeholder alignment: Securing the support and engagement of local stakeholders is critical.
Collaborating with businesses, community organizations, and community members will ensure a
unified effort in achieving our circular economy objectives. Industry must be involved so the
system supports them as they move towards circular practices.
3. Resource allocation: To effectively drive this initiative forward, the City must commit to
allocating appropriate resources, including staff and budget. These resources are vital to
facilitate the implementation, monitoring, and continual refinement of a local circular economy.
Resources necessary to move the circular economy plan will be proposed in the next the City
Budget For Outcomes (BFO) cycle.
4. Progress enablers: To move this plan forward, we need a combination of factors, including
effective communication strategies, engagement programs, industry and community buy-in,
regular performance assessments, and built-in flexibility to adapt to evolving circumstances.
With these strategic steps, we are well-prepared to advance a circular economy plan, fostering a
resilient and thriving economy and community.
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Fort Collins Economic Health Strategic Plan Engagement Report
Stakeholder engagement is a critical building block for Fort Collins’ economic health strategy—the
success of any community and economic strategy is directly dependent on active engagement from a
broad range of Fort Collins stakeholders, including public and private sectors; community members;
regional and civic institutions.
Understanding where the community stands currently in terms of the economic health of Fort Collins
provides the basis for identifying assets that need to be treasured and strengthened; weaknesses that
need to be minimized; opportunities that will enhance the community’s livability and economic health,
and internal and external threats that need to be factored into all facets of the City’s strategic planning.
Background
The consulting team of Hickey Global and IO.INC was selected to conduct community engagement for
the Economic Health Strategic Plan. Beginning in winter 2022, IO.INC began community engagement for
the economic health strategic framework. They conducted one-on-one interviews, engaging various
representatives of the Fort Collins public, private, and civic communities, regional leaders, and external
industry experts. Each of the stakeholders represented a broad, far-reaching collection of community
members, groups, and communities that hold diverse perspectives and backgrounds.
The results of the one-on-one interviews conducted by Hickey Global formed the SWOT (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis and engagement report that was presented at a
Council Work Session on March 14, 2023. Council asked the Economic Health Office for additional
engagement to create a broader picture from the community.
In partnership with the Communications and Public Involvement Office, the Economic Health Office
conducted further community engagement.
Methodology
The second phase of engagement included:
• An online questionnaire on the OurCity engagement page
• Outreach at community events such as the CSU Lagoon Concert Series and Bike to Work Day
• Three virtual small group discussions
• Multiple one-on-one conversations through ongoing business visits
• Consideration of the ongoing regional business survey
This effort added over 350 additional inputs to the Economic Health Strategic Plan from community
members.
The EHO staff also reviewed and considered feedback that was provided for two recent plans:
• The 2021 Reignite Northern Colorado
• The 2022 City of Fort Collins Recovery Plan
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Through these engagement efforts city staff gathered input from:
• Community members and leaders
• Business leaders representing a broad range of economic sectors
• Employees and managers working at Fort Collins businesses
• Public sector officials from local, county, and state governments
• Educational leaders from K-12 through postsecondary institutions
• Small business owners and employers
• Artists and art advocates
• Nonprofit organizational leaders
• C-Suite executives and national experts in economic development
• Hospitality and tourism experts
Results
• Interviews conducted by both Hickey Global and EHO: 22 individual interviews
• Small Group Discussion: Three virtual group discussions
• Online questionnaire: 54 responses
• Community Events: 265 community members engaged at the Colorado State University Lagoon
Concert and Bike to Work Day
The following SWOT results have been updated to consider both the engagement conducted by Hickey
Global as well as the second phase of engagement.
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats) Themes
Strengths Weaknesses
• Educated workforce and strong educational
institutions
• Beautiful community assets and amenities
• Quality of place
• Diversity of economy
• Cost of housing
• Lack of affordable commercial space and site-
ready land
• Insufficient workforce size
• Lack of diversity
Opportunities Threats
• Upskill and reskill programs
• Retaining talent
• Branding and messaging consistency – City-
wide and regionally
• Industry support of quality jobs within CHIPS
Zone, life and bio science, and climate
tech/circular economy
• Perception that Fort Collins is not business
friendly
• Fees and policies to build, expand, or open a
business (cost of doing business)
• Not embracing or supporting diversity in our
community and workforce
Additional SWOT Results:
Strengths:
• Highly educated workforce
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• Community assets and amenities that contribute to a good quality of life to live, work, and raise
a family in Fort Collins
• Beautiful, safe, and friendly quality of place
• Proximity and access to large metropolitan areas
• Strong educational institutions, including public school district and higher education such as
Colorado State University
• People know how to start a business in Fort Collins
• Post-Covid programs and resources and the American Rescue Plan Act dollars that have gone
into the community.
• Economic Health Office is very open and accessible to businesses, community members, and
people interested in doing business in Fort Collins
• New roles and work in the Economic Health Office:
o Multicultural Business and Entrepreneur Center support and the Business Connectors
o Capital Projects Business Liaison and the additional business support there
o The Economic Health Office is skilled up for what is needed – staff can support both
small businesses and primary employers
• Arts initiatives like Art in Public Places and the Fort Collins Mural Project
• Connexion, broadband access
• Bilingual business support
• Vibrant Downtown with many amenities, including historic “Old Town” areas
• Zoning for home childcare is in a helpful place
• City’s willingness to engage on multiple topics and including community and organizations in the
process
• City’s support of staff to understand their own childcare needs as one of our largest employers
• City feels more inclusive in how they advertise jobs, who they are hiring, and intentions in
expanding diversity
• Diversity of economy with many major employers across multiple sectors
Weaknesses:
• Insufficient workforce size to keep up with the demand for qualified workers
• Insufficient housing affordability which impacts housing for employees (especially recent college
graduates, young professionals, essential workers). This also contributes to the lack of workers
for industry to hire in the region
• Limited site-ready land and space for business growth, including affordability of commercial
space and land especially for start-ups and entrepreneurs
• Lack of identifiable site-ready sites that could accommodate a larger employer that would bring
immense value-add to the community, including quality job opportunities (one that is desirable
and compatible to the community)
• Escalating cost of doing business in Fort Collins which is believed to be brought on by City’s
attitudes, policies, and regulations
• Perceived community resistance to change (e.g. population, business growth, infrastructure)
• Predominantly white community with lack of diversity in the population
• City not favorable toward growth, economic development or business
• Lack of available funding for female founders and women in tech startups
• Old published economic data, unsure where new data lives
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• Lack of collaborative space for entrepreneurship collisions. Galvanize on Linden was a great
space but the business model needs subsidies from the City of Fort Collins to be successful.
• We have no messaging to encourage supporting local business and cannot compete with online
retailers
• Development review process is tough for businesses to go through
• Too many regulations to support a business-friendly environment
• Sustainable waste management solutions
• Information sharing for businesses is not consistent and hard to find. The City website is hard to
navigate.
• Fort Collins Loveland Airport is not providing the services our region needs
• Other City plans do not incorporate economic health factors, while other City priorities factor
into the economic health plan.
• 1041 regulations and water adequacy
• Integration between City departments
• DEI work doesn’t feel as encouraged or celebrated within businesses right now. For example,
businesses are afraid to showcase Pride Month based on the news and political climate.
• Lack of consistent business survey tells the community the City doesn’t care as much about the
business perspective
• Cell phone service, especially in SE Fort Collins is a challenge.
• Lack of good and affordable transportation to Denver International Airport
• Council’s indecision to approve any taxes or to move forward around childcare support
• Not seeing investments in the improvements of childcare support in our community
• Business owners that have an ITIN vs a social security number are treated differently and can’t
retain the same business to business contracts.
Opportunities:
• Define Fort Collins’ brand, as a community decide what we’re striving to be?
• Encourage start-ups and recruit new business for innovation, products, and services while
utilizing Fort Collins’ young talent
• Build up mentorship program for aspiring entrepreneurs
• Increase engagement with large employers in order to encourage greater presence in the
community
• Commit to a philosophy and practice of business recruitment, focusing on high value-added
sectors and companies
• Champion more diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across the community and make Fort
Collins more welcoming to diverse individuals and families
• Plan for and actualize the development of sites and spaces for business growth
• The arrival of new businesses to Fort Collins, means increasing the job opportunities for
community members and increases retention of talent, including graduates from Colorado State
University
• Collaborative messaging and communication strategies among partners in the region to help
brag about big economic wins, entrepreneurial support, regional assets, etc. This applies to all
partners but specifically CSU and City can work together better in this space.
• Clearer pathways between City of Fort Collins Economic Health Office, Larimer Small Business
Development Center, and Colorado State University Institute for Entrepreneurship and how
each one best supports our community and eco-system.
• Talent readiness, upskilling, micro-credentialing, and partnerships with higher education.
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• Change City codes to allow more access to business data in order to help
• Share with the business community and partners what data is available to us
• City staff, leadership, and elected officials can be more sensitive to business constraints and
understand how they operate
• Life sciences and climate tech are our best economic opportunity right now. Those businesses
should be in Fort Collins.
• Business to business sharing, making connections among business owners to increase social
capital
• Business loan programs, access to capital
• Economic incentive/development zone for North and South College to create better access to
infrastructure, food.
• Improve public transportation and MAX access from lower cost of living to higher density
employment areas
• Incentives and programs for commercial space like good landlord incentives, help small
businesses purchase buildings, and commercial rent control.
• Analysis of economic impact of any new policy or ordinance
• Analysis of DEI of any new policy or ordinance. For example, the plastic bag ban on disabled
community members.
• Support the relationship with Poudre River Power Authority and Utilities
• Business support for businesses who fall in the middle of Innosphere and Larimer SBDC needs.
• Expand business information into additional languages, not just Spanish.
• Skilled trade schools in Fort Collins
• Chips Act and Chips Zone to help create quality jobs
• City needs to define what it means by equity. Is it equal opportunity or equal outcomes?
• Work in partnership with Economic Health office to share data around childcare and its
economic impacts and opportunities
• Employers that offer flexible benefits including four-day work weeks, parental leave, childcare
support.
• Funding for homeless/affordable living strategies through a program similar to Art in Public
Places
• More support for immigration and entrepreneurship
• Financial literacy education for business owners
• Specific trainings, support, and business paths for owners with an ITIN
Threats:
• Increasing water scarcity in Colorado and the costs associated with securing this resource
• Escalating cost of living and doing business in Fort Collins believed to be in large measure due to
City government policies
• The City perceived as not willing to adopt policies, make plans and encourage investment in
more attainable housing across the spectrum of income-earners
• Outflow of young, college educated talent in search of more accessible housing and
employment opportunities
• Potential anti-growth sentiment growing in community
• Getting in our own way as an entrepreneurial eco-system. Many of the same folks have been
around for a long time. This is a strength, but the eco-system partners could be more open-
minded to new partners, ideas.
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• Rent and housing costs
• Talent shortages
• CSU is trying to increase student enrollment but not working to house these students
• Overall increased regulations on businesses from all levels of government.
• Downtown employment base is not supporting downtown businesses like it used to when folks
work from home.
• Our regional airport is underutilized and not working as the asset it could be.
• U+2 regulations
• Commercial lease rates
• Access to childcare
• Members of City Council create friction between businesses and the organization.
• City Council not understanding their role impacts the ability of EHO to do their job.
• Businesses choosing not to open in Fort Collins because of the arduous development review
process and cost of fees
• Council comments in meetings such as “evil landlords” can have negative impacts
• Large corporations are driving out small business
• Short-term rentals eat up housing inventory
• Rental registration program
• Cost of doing business and upcoming requirements around sustainable food packaging
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Item 3.
Economic Health Strategic Plan
11 -14-2023
SeonAh Kendall, Economic Health Director
Shannon Hein, Economic Health Manager
Jillian Fresa, Economic Health Manager
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Item 3.
•What feedback does Council have on the proposed
elements of the Economic Health Strategic Plan?
•Does Council agree with moving forward with the
adoption of the Economic Health Strategic Plan on
December 5?
2Questions
Questions for Council
Heritage & Bloom
Los ComalesPage 81
Item 3.
3Introduction to Economic Health Strategic Plan
Vision
Sustainability Community Belonging Adaptation
Fort Collins is a healthy, equitable, and resilient community where people and businesses can thrive.
Fort Collins is a healthy, equitable, and resilient community where people and businesses can thrive.
Fort Collins is a healthy,
equitable, and resilient
community where people and
businesses can thrive.
Studio Q Fitness
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Item 3.
Why is the Economic Health of a
community so important?
A strong economic foundation is critical for a
people-centered approach.In order to meet
social and environmental goals,we must have a
healthy,inclusive economy and vice versa.
A strong economic health includes:
o Housing Affordability
o Climate Action Goals
o Small Business and Primary Employers
o Diverse workforce and job opportunities
4Economic Health
RedDrop Dx
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5A Resilient Economy
Project Pizza
Page 84
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6Goals
People Success + Business Success
=Community Success
•Goal 1:Increase business owner representation to match
the Fort Collins MSA demographics.
•Goal 2:Increase overall business survivability longer than
five years from 45%to 50%.
•Goal 3:Add 1,800 new jobs in targeted traded sectors.
•Goal 4:Increase representation in employment within
targeted traded sectors.
Konjo CoffeePage 85
Item 3.
7Engagement Summary
Engagement Methods
Other engagement plans referenced:
•Interviews conducted by both Hickey Global and EHO
•Small Group Discussions
•Online questionnaire
•Community events: CSU Lagoon Concert and Bike-to-Work Day
•Plus, ongoing business visits and surveys
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Item 3.
•Support industry in achieving their sustainability goals
•Recruitment of new employers to Fort Collins
•Access to capital/financial resources to start or grow a business
8Community Feedback
Identify three areas or ways in which you think Fort Collins can
strengthen, expand, or diversify its economy.
What do you see as the biggest challenges facing Fort Collins businesses?
•Cost of doing business
•Workforce and talent
•Competing against national companies/brands (online shopping)
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9Strategic Focus
Approach Business
Retention, Expansion &
Attraction Thoughtfully
•Policy & structural shifts create a good
business environment.
•Strategic BREA efforts strengthen and
diversify economic opportunities and
vibrancy.
•Attract circular economy business
sectors for a more resilient community.
Ensure Small Businesses
Thrive
•Small businesses have access to tools
and resources they need to succeed.
•Mitigate negative impacts to small
business operations through proactive
collaboration.
•Fort Collins businesses are resilient
ready.
•The creative sector is celebrated and
supported for their contributions to the
Fort Collins community
Support Talent & Workforce
Today and Tomorrow
•Accessible career pathways meet
needs of employers and employees,
today and in the future.
•Diversity, equity, inclusion, and access
(DEIA) is good business (for the
individual business and community as
a whole).
Reposition Fort Collins as
an Innovation Leader
•Targeted clusters spur innovative
solutions to meet community goals.
•Leverage and engage the regional
assets that drive innovation.
VISION: Fort Collins is a healthy, equitable, and resilient community where people and businesses can thrive
Sustainability Community Belonging AdaptationPage 88
Item 3.
10
FOCUS #1: Approach Business Retention, Expansion
& Attraction Thoughtfully
Sustainability Community Belonging Adaptation
Outcome 1.1:Policy and structural shifts create a good business
environment.
Outcome 1.2:Strategic business retention,expansion,and attraction
efforts strengthen and diversify economic opportunities and
resilience.
Outcome 1.3:Attract circular economy business sectors for a more
resilient community.
HP Inc
HP Inc
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Item 3.
11FOCUS #2: Ensure Small Businesses Thrive
Sustainability Community Belonging Adaptation
Outcome 2.1:Small businesses have access to tools and
resources to succeed.
Outcome 2.2:Mitigate negative impacts to small business
operations through proactive collaboration.
Outcome 2.3:Fort Collins businesses are resilient ready.
Outcome 2.4:The creative sector is celebrated and supported for
their contribution to the Fort Collins community.
Heritage & Bloom
Page 90
Item 3.
12FOCUS #3: Support Talent & Workforce, Today and Tomorrow
Sustainability Community Belonging Adaptation
Outcome 3.1:Accessible career pathways meet needs
of employers and employees,today and in the future.
Outcome 3.2:Diversity,equity,inclusion,and access is
good business (for the individual,business,and
community as a whole).
DEIA Talent Network
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Item 3.
13FOCUS #4: Reposition Fort Collins as an Innovation Leader
Sustainability Community Belonging Adaptation
Outcome 4.1:Targeted clusters spur innovative solutions
to meet community goals.
Outcome 4.2:Leverage and engage the regional assets
that drive innovation.
Motherlove Herbal Company
Page 92
Item 3.
14HOW IT ALL TIES TOGETHER
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Item 3.
15
•What feedback does Council have on
the proposed elements of the Economic
Health Strategic Plan?
•Does Council agree with moving forward
with the adoption of the Economic Health
Strategic Plan on December 5?
Frida Azul
Questions for Council
Page 94
Item 3.
Thank you!
Urban Monk Studios
Page 95
Item 3.
172023 For Fort Collins Business Stories
ForFortCollins.com
El Pueblito BT Green & Gold TilT
The Fox Den Burst Diagnostics RedDropPage 96
Item 3.
18SWOT Summary
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Analysis
Strengths:
•Educated workforce and strong educational
institutions
•Beautiful community assets and amenities
•Quality of place
•Diversity of economy
Weaknesses:
•Cost of housing
•Lack of affordable commercial space and
site-ready land
•Insufficient workforce size
•Lack of diversity
Opportunities:
•Upskill and reskill programs
•Retaining talent
•Branding and messaging consistency –
City-wide and regionally
•Industry support of quality jobs within
CHIPS Zone, life and bio science, and
climate tech/circular economy
Threats:
•Perception that Fort Collins is not business
friendly
•Fees and policies to build, expand, or open
a business (cost of doing business)
•Not embracing or supporting diversity in our
community and workforce Page 97
Item 3.
19
FOCUS #1: Approach Business Retention, Expansion
& Attraction Thoughtfully
Sustainability Community Belonging Adaptation
Outcome 1.1:Policy and structural shifts create a good business
environment.
•Coordination and alignment between City departments and partners at the
city,county,and state level to bolster businesses.
•Support and align assistance for business.
Outcome 1.2:Strategic business retention,expansion,and attraction efforts
strengthen and diversify economic opportunities and resilience.
•Data-driven programs to respond and understand the needs of existing
businesses.
•Target recruitment of businesses that further community goals.
•Market Fort Collins and the region as a leader in life science,clean tech,and
climate solutions sectors.
Outcome 1.3:Attract circular economy business sectors for a more resilient
community.
•Map and define goals to understand existing businesses within the circular
economy ecosystem.
•Target recruitment of businesses within the circular economy supply chain.
•Leverage City’s leadership role to encourage others to drive circular economy
forward.HP Inc
HP Inc
Page 98
Item 3.
20FOCUS #2: Ensure Small Businesses Thrive
Sustainability Community Belonging Adaptation
Outcome 2.1:Small businesses have access to tools and resources to
succeed.
•Access to capital.
•Streamline support such as one-stop shop hubs throughout the City.
•Ongoing support and partner local campaign.
Outcome 2.2:Mitigate negative impacts to small business operations through
proactive collaboration.
•Capital Projects Business Liaison position
Outcome 2.3:Fort Collins businesses are resilient ready.
•Identify and develop resilience resources and gaps to assist businesses
prepare for man-made or natural economic downturns and disasters.
•Improve access and education to certifications and programs for
underrepresented businesses to increase procurement and funding
opportunities.
Outcome 2.4:The creative sector is celebrated and supported for their
contribution to the Fort Collins community.
•Collaborate and strengthen the creative sector through capacity building,
business acumen,and education of the sector’s value proposition to the
overall community.Heritage & Bloom
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Item 3.
21FOCUS #3: Support Talent & Workforce, Today and Tomorrow
Sustainability Community Belonging Adaptation
Outcome 3.1:Accessible career pathways meet needs of employers and
employees,today and in the future.
•Support opportunities and partnerships (such as NoCo Works)to advance,
enhance,and future-proof workforce resilience in an evolving economy.
Outcome 3.2:Diversity,equity,inclusion,and access is good business (for
the individual,business,and community as a whole).
•Leverage existing and emerging work to foster an inclusive community.
•Encourage the development of a platform to match underrepresented and
underserved students to internships and apprenticeships with local
companies.
•Continue to encourage and support continuous learning through civil
conversations and dialogue around DEIA and lived experiences.DEIA Talent Network
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Item 3.
22FOCUS #4: Reposition Fort Collins as an Innovation Leader
Sustainability Community Belonging Adaptation
Outcome 4.1:Targeted clusters spur innovative solutions to meet community
goals.
•Partner and/or promote the development of technology transfer of clean tech
and life science discoveries to meet Our Climate Future (OCF)and health
goals.
•Partner with innovative local manufacturers to identify efforts towards
reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that aligns with City and the local
businesses’sustainability goals.
Outcome 4.2:Leverage and engage the regional assets that drive
innovation.
•Map regional assets such as wet laboratory space that drives innovation in
bio-and life sciences,as many companies seek to locate near Tier 1 research
universities and institutions.
•Market and support agriculture tech,clean tech,and life science pilots and
innovation that happens regionally.
Motherlove Herbal Company
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Item 3.