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Home My WebLink AboutMemo - Mail Packet - 03/11/2025 - Memorandum from Megan Keith re The Role of Subarea Plans Planning, Development & Transportation 281 N. College Ave Collins, CO 80522 www.fcgov.com MEMORANDUM Date: March 6, 2025 To: Mayor and City Councilmembers Through: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager Caryn Champine, Director, Planning, Development & Transportation From: Megan Keith, Senior Planner Subject: The Role of Subarea Plans BOTTOM LINE This memorandum was requested following a meeting about the City’s subarea plans with Councilmember Potyondy and Councilmember Francis that took place on December 17th, 2024. Subarea Plans supplement City Plan and provide geographically specific strategies for the neighborhoods within each subarea plan boundary. Per the request at the December 17th meeting, this memorandum elaborates on how subarea plans are managed and updated. As is stated within City Plan, in the event of a conflict between a policy or designation in City Plan and a subarea plan, the subarea plan shall prevail. Conflict between a subarea plan and City Plan is rare, but if conflict does arise, the guidance within the subarea plan supersedes. If there is conflict between a subarea plan and the Land Use Code, the Land Use Code prevails. BACKGROUND A subarea plan provides localized land use, policy, and transportation guidance for a specific neighborhood or area within the City. Subarea plans supplement City Plan but can provide more tailored guidance unique to that geography. Because subarea plans focus on specific boundaries, they can address each area’s identity, challenges, and opportunities in more depth than City Plan. The City’s subarea plans include goals or strategies, developed through community engagement, aimed at advancing priorities for each geography. The policy guidance provided in subarea plans is advisory and is used to inform the following types of primary decisions: Docusign Envelope ID: BAE26ED6-E377-4C16-ACA0-2D97446C8143 2 • Annexations and Rezonings: When considering an application for a rezoning or in the case of annexation and zoning new parcels into City limits, land use guidance within the applicable subarea plan is consulted to ensure compatibility and inform zoning designations. • Development Review Process: o Informing Character and Design: Subarea plans that have guidance about urban design, or even building design are consulted during development review. For example, the East Mulberry Plan includes multiple goals related to improving the aesthetic appearance of the Mulberry street frontage. This can help inform review of a project along East Mulberry Street and whether enhanced screening of outdoor storage is requested during review of project submittals. o Planning staff examine whether new development review applications and submittals are fulfilling the guidance provided with an applicable subarea plan and include this analysis within staff reports. Planning and Zoning Commission as well as City Council review these findings to make recommendations or determinations during hearings. o While subarea plans themselves are advisory, subarea plans frequently result in changes to our Land Use Code to codify important elements of subarea plans. Examples include the design standards in Downtown, Old Town, and the High Density Mixed-Use Neighborhood (HMN) zone district. • During a Change of Use Process: The Planning Director may waive certain eligible development standards if certain criteria are met, including a criteria stating that the conditions of the site satisfy the policies within a Council adopted subarea, corridor, or neighborhood plan. (See Land Use Code Section 6.3.10 Step 10: Amendments and Changes of Use) Existing Subarea Plans The City has developed multiple subarea plans, including the following: • East Mulberry Plan – 2023 Docusign Envelope ID: BAE26ED6-E377-4C16-ACA0-2D97446C8143 3 • Downtown Plan – 2017 • Old Town Neighborhoods Plan – 2017 • West Central Area Plan – 2015 • Mountain Vista Subarea Plan – 2009 • Northwest Subarea Plan – 2006 • Northside Neighborhoods Plan – 2005 Each subarea plan has a unique boundary with as little overlap with other plan boundaries as possible. This is to help ensure that guidance for each area does not differ between plan documents. The City also maintains a set of corridor plans, which are somewhat similar to subarea plans but focus more on outlining development strategies for a linear space, like certain segments of a roadway. Examples of the City’s corridor plans include the Lincoln Corridor Plan (2014) and the Midtown Plan (2013). A map of the City’s subarea and corridor plans is shown in Figure 1. The City’s subarea plans can be viewed on this website: https://www.fcgov.com/planning/plans Docusign Envelope ID: BAE26ED6-E377-4C16-ACA0-2D97446C8143 4 Figure 1: Subarea and Corridor Plans Docusign Envelope ID: BAE26ED6-E377-4C16-ACA0-2D97446C8143 5 MANAGEMENT OF SUBAREA PLANS Updating Subarea Plans The City does not have a set cadence for updating subarea plans, and determining when an update is needed can depend on a variety of factors. For example, if an area is experiencing rapid or catalytic change, an update to the subarea plan may be warranted to ensure that there is updated policy and land use guidance available. In cases where the area within a subarea plan boundary is stable and not experiencing significant change, an update to the plan may not be necessary. In these cases, the guidance in the current plan is still serving to guide land use and policy direction for the area. As previously described, subarea plans should supplement City Plan and there should be consistent guidance between all subarea plans and City Plan. When a subarea plan is updated, it is updated to ensure compliance with the most current version of City Plan. This relationship can also happen inversely. For example, through a subarea plan update process, sometimes new analysis or new engagement with the community initiates a change required to City Plan. This relationship was recently demonstrated through the East Mulberry Plan, which was adopted by City Council in December 2023. Following adoption of the plan, staff brought forward amendments to the Structure Plan map in City Plan which would make land use guidance consistent between the East Mulberry Plan and the Structure Plan. Currently, the City has no established system for sunsetting or retiring subarea plans. If the City were to investigate introducing such a system, planning staff would want to note the following considerations: • Staff would recommend evaluating each subarea plan with a consistent set of metrics and scoring criteria. Scoring criteria would then be used to determine whether a subarea plan could be a candidate for sunsetting. This would require staff time to determine appropriate evaluation criteria, scoring criteria, and then to perform an evaluation for all the existing subarea plans. • If the evaluation determined that a subarea plan could be sunset, additional community engagement would be recommended. Planning staff would want to ensure that the Docusign Envelope ID: BAE26ED6-E377-4C16-ACA0-2D97446C8143 6 community members within a subarea plan boundary understand the purpose of sunsetting a subarea plan. This engagement with the community would need to justify why a subarea plan was being considered to retire versus receiving an update. Planning staff would also want to articulate how other policy and land use direction would be applied to their neighborhoods in the future without a subarea plan in place. Subarea Plan Conflicts It is stated within City Plan that in the event of a conflict between a policy or designation in City Plan and a subarea plan, the subarea plan shall prevail. Conflict between a subarea plan and City Plan is rare, but if conflict does arise, the guidance within the subarea plan supersedes. If there is conflict between a subarea plan and the Land Use Code, the Land Use Code prevails. When Planning staff create or update a subarea plan, there is an intentional effort to ensure that the subarea plan is reflective of City Plan and the Land Use Code and that guidance across documents is not in conflict. Connection to Housing Goals Most subarea plans discuss housing in some way and discuss the balancing act between providing additional housing, while being mindful of the character or existing neighborhoods. Auditing and amending all of our adopted subarea plans for consistency with our housing goals would require significant effort and may not change the housing built in our community. Zoning, ultimately, dictates how our community develops. Updating our Land Use Code would have a higher potential for delivering more housing in Fort Collins. NEXT STEPS Planning staff will continue to communicate with the community, customers, and City Council to ensure clarity when subarea plan guidance is a consideration in decision making. Staff can provide additional information or expansion on any of the topics included within this memo if desired. CC: Lori Schwarz, Deputy Director, Planning, Development & Transportation Clay Frickey, Planning Manager Docusign Envelope ID: BAE26ED6-E377-4C16-ACA0-2D97446C8143