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HomeMy WebLinkAboutConstituent Letter - Mail Packet - 11/21/2023 - Letter From Mayor Jeni Arndt To Economic Advisory Board Re: East Mulberry Plan Mayor City Hall 300 LaPorte Ave. PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.416.2154 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com November 16, 2023 Economic Advisory Board c/o Jilian Fresa, Staff Liaison PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 Dear Chair Rojas, Vice-Chair Gray and Board Members: On behalf of City Council, thank you for providing us with the November 16, 2023 memorandum regarding the East Mulberry Corridor Plan and your thoughts regarding a vision statement, the physical appearance of East Mulberry itself, an expeditious timeframe, and demonstrating sensitivity to existing businesses and residences. As you know, Council will be discussing this on Tuesday, November 21 during the regular Council meeting. We encourage you to view the proceedings at City Hall that night, starting at 6:00 p.m., or view the meeting online at fcgov.com/fctv. We do appreciate the expertise and perspectives that you bring to the Board and sharing them with City Council. Best Regards, Jeni Arndt Mayor /sek cc: City Council Members Kelly DiMartino, City Manager Davina Lau, Boards and Commissions Coordinator Economic Health Office 300 LaPorte Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 – fax fcgov.com MEMORANDUM DATE: November 16, 2023 TO: Mayor and Councilmembers CC: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager; Tyler Marr, Deputy City Manager; SeonAh Kendall, Economic Health Director; Jillian Fresa, Economic Health Manager FROM: Braulio Rojas, Chair – Economic Advisory Board; Erin Gray, Vice-Chair – Economic Advisory Board; and Members, Economic Advisory Board for 2023 RE: East Mulberry Corridor Plan Thank you for your interest in receiving input from the Economic Advisory Board on key issues facing the City of Fort Collins. Recently, we had an excellent presentation and question and answer session on the current status of the above plan from Sylvia Tatman-Burruss, Megan Keith, and Michael Bussman. We would like to offer our input on this plan at this time. First of all, we noticed that there is a lack of a vision statement that we feel should guide this effort. We realize the difficulty in developing a vision statement for such a multifaceted plan, but we still believe it would be important to incorporate one at the beginning of the plan. As an example, we believe something along the lines of the following could be helpful: To enhance and preserve the human, business and environmental assets of the planning area while significantly improving the quality of the aesthetics of this important entranceway into our city and region. The physical appearance of E Mulberry itself is quite unattractive and a detriment to the image of our entranceway to our downtown, Colorado State University, Old Town and the area as a whole. While some businesses along this roadway are attractive and well maintained, many are not. In addition, many properties are undeveloped or underdeveloped. This provides an opportunity to increase housing, job development and tax revenue. The roadway itself needs significant upgrades to enhance its visual appeal and the traffic flow. Early in the plan, it is stated that it should be developed slowly and deliberately. While we do believe that the plan should be developed thoughtfully with all appropriate citizen and business input (including minority and female-owned businesses and other populations that were not included in early survey efforts), we believe this effort should proceed as expeditiously as possible. We understand that a prior annexation effort by the city led to a degree of misunderstanding on the community’s part as to how fast the plan could be implemented. However, we believe that better communications about a realistic timeframe for implementation here is the key. Past communications issues should not lead to a delay in developing and implementing the E Mulberry plan. In addition, we believe that an expeditious timeframe is critical for another important reason: the potential availability of federal funding to significantly assist in the payment of infrastructure Economic Health Office 300 LaPorte Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 – fax fcgov.com funding. Currently the federal pool of funds for infrastructure is greater than it has been for many decades. In addition to the technical need for the funds, we have the critical political alignment to help secure those infrastructure dollars. This is an opportunity that could be used to support modernization and climate-friendly infrastructure like green stormwater infrastructure, bike lanes and public transportation, and electric vehicle infrastructure. . Thus, the reason to act as quickly as feasible. Many of us on the EAB have been involved in community and economic development and business activities for many years and we all understand that lapsed time can kill opportunities. While moving as quickly as possible to develop and implement the plan is key, we believe that sensitivity to existing businesses and residences is very important. There are valuable businesses and employers in this area that rely on affordable real estate to enable ongoing viability of their companies. It is critical that the city carefully consider the plan’s impact on these businesses and ensure any changes are taken into consideration to avoid losing these key economic drivers in our community. The city should develop funds for low interest loans and/or grants for businesses that will want to, or be required to, make improvements to their properties. Sensitivity to existing residents and adjoining environmental assets, along with ensuring development is aligned with the “Our Climate Future” plan, must be taken into consideration as well. To summarize, we believe that East Mulberry Plan should: ● Include a vision statement. ● Stress to provide an attractive entranceway to our city. ● Move forward as quickly as possible. ● Utilize existing political alignment for funding infrastructure. ● Include support for existing businesses and residences. ● Provide for housing, job and tax revenue enhancement. ● Adopt principles of wellbeing, equity, and sustainability as the main development goals. The EAB recommends favorable consideration of the East Mulberry Corridor Plan. This board recognizes the potential benefits of this initiative, and considers that it could become a valuable asset to our community.