Optimistic Notes on Fort Collins
by Bob Komives,
originally posted in May of 2008
with response by Dan Gould, June 2008.
Economic Strengths Lead Fiscal Strengths Quality Lifestyles Trump Lifestyle Centers.History and pre-history show that no community can rest on its laurels. I say this to myself as I write a few thoughts behind my optimism for Fort Collins. I hear and read that the city has been out-flanked by commercial and residential development elsewhere in the region, that the city is in fiscal distress. My general responses to these comments are that spillover into other communities was inevitable, and Fort Collins is better set for the 21st Century than its neighbors. Fort Collins is best placed for quality of life and economy in the region for the decades ahead. I do not say continued success is guaranteed, but I do say that, despite doubts which come to my ears and eyes from both the pro-commerce and pro-quality factions of the community, I am optimistic -- very optimistic. My purpose in writing these notes is to get sporadic thoughts onto paper where they will less disrupt my gardening. My notes are provincial, local, so I supply a map in case a reader from outside the province needs a glimpse of provincial geography. Readers will find that some small items get too many words, some large items get too little thought, some important issues and places get nothing. I supply no data nor summary that could turn these notes into cogent argument. These limitations are compatible with my purpose; I hope they are tolerable to yours.
.I. Fort Collins Has a Solid Tax Base..Fort Collins has a core and several centers which support the breadth of the community: solid university and good schools, thriving downtown, developed high tech space and human capacity, growing county functions, and also commercial space that -- if struggling -- has infrastructure and locations to serve city-wide demand for quality of life.
.I see Fort Collins and our neighbor Loveland as mutually supportive rivals. Loveland has a fringe phenomenon, Centerra at the "corner" of Interstate 25 and Highway 34-a large, tax-bountiful commercial and mixed-use development. Loveland deserves to capture more of the region's sales that have been siphoning to Fort Collins. Its challenge now is to convert the money entering its coffers toward investment (private and public) in the rest of the city, especially its historic core. In that sense it is behind Fort Collins. As Loveland catches up and the cities argue as to which is better, life will be better in both cities. A healthy Loveland is good for Fort Collins.
.When we skim the fad and jargon off sustainable development and quality of life there remains a significant shift, just beginning, in how people wish to live and work.
.The center of gravity along the spectrum of lifestyle choices shifts toward what we are generally calling quality of life -- a good term. Along the northern Front Range Fort Collins is the community best set up for this shift.
.Some argue that the city, with its emphasis on building the cost of infrastructure and urban design into growth, has made development more costly than elsewhere in the region. If that is true, while results have not been perfect by anybody's standards, Fort Collins has less catching up to do than its neighbors and may claim to be on target or ahead with regard to many 21st century community needs. That is a great place to be today; it will be a great place to be when the struggling national economy takes off again and simultaneously the quality-of-life trend emerges as an every-day, parallel, dynamic phenomenon.
.The nation of late has found several ways to recognize Fort Collins as a great place to live and work. Who can say if we deserve less or more accolade? Certainly it is not all fad and myth.
.By some measures it must be true that people find here a quality of life that is better than what is readily available in many of the nation's cities.
.If, as a consequence, families and businesses pay a quality-of-life premium here (a point to be argued) this is strength, not weakness. The quality reputation is somewhat self-reinforcing. People and businesses who believe they are in a special place are likely to expect more of themselves in the time, thoughtfulness, effort and money they must contribute to their neighbors and repay to their community. Such quality-of-life premium is also the place margin in local sales, and place margin is taxable.
.Shops deliver supportive goods and services. In a closed economy their sales track well a community's wealth fluctuations. Thus, a general sales tax is a fairly good way to generate public income; it proportions taxes across the wealth spectrum of the citizens. In a web-global economy -- open to the region and the world with travel, delivery, and communication -- general sales work poorly as primary medium for taxation.
.If Fort Collins has fiscal problems because of our dependence on sales tax during a time when shops are blooming to the southeast of the city this situation may prove beneficial. This mild kick-in-the-butt can again induce Fort Collins to show leadership among cities. Fort Collins can lead in finding the local fiscal answer to the web-global marketplace.
.What a locality has most of is its locus. Fort Collins has neither less nor more locus, neither more nor less place than its regional neighbors, but many believe it has better place.
.A version of the prisoners' dilemma points out that my investment in a deteriorating house, neighborhood, or city becomes irrational when there is doubt that others will invest. Their neglect causes general property devaluation that more than offsets the value of my improvements. Alternately, when others are investing and values are holding I don't have to be brilliant to make money with my investment. A better place tends to move upward of its own inertia, a bad place tends to spiral downward absent outside intervention.
.In a web-global world, localities will best pay the cost of excellent maintenance and improvements if they tax the specific advantages of place rather than the generalities of sales.
.The better a community the more advantage-of-place (place margin) there is to tax. I don't pretend to know how it will sort out, but increased dependence on property tax would seem to be an obvious revision in local fiscal planning. The old reasons for this dependence have returned in a new form. Some sales, however, are also place specific. These sales do not readily transfer out into the web-global market nor to another community: an excellent meal in popular local setting, live entertainment, arts, exercise, sport, well-located lodging, status activity, convenience activity, aesthetic activity, nostalgia activity. The art in taxing these is to keep the tax level to a point where provider and consumer continue to feel the product is not readily transferable and that quality is enhanced by resultant public investment. This is the place margin in local sales; Fort Collins will find it has an excellent place-margin tax base.
. .II. Our Region Has Two Main Streets and One Alley.This is indeed a time for regional cooperation among the northern Front Range towns and counties. Recently we failed in an attempt to form a regional transportation authority. Arguments have flown back and forth as to what the authority would do and why it failed. As to who caused the failure, Fort Collins, of course -- if you want only to bring the most popular shoe out of closet and make it fit. But, what is our region and how does it tie together?
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.What I haven't heard or seen mentioned in my admittedly cursory monitoring of this process is what I see as the fundamental flaw that will make us glad for the failure. The proposed region makes no sense. How can Fort Collins pretend to be fully invested in regional transportation planning unless neighbors Ault and Wellington, as well as little Pierce and Nunn are at the table and into the coffers? If I may anthropomorphize present and future opportunities and problems, they do not give a damn for whatever excuses explain why Ault, Wellington, Pierce and Nunn are not members. Until these communities are invited in or hauled in, Fort Collins is a handicapped participant and Regional Transportation Authority is a misnomer. There may be similar issues in defining other fringes of the region; I don't know.
.A side note: I believe the failed regional transportation authority was also flawed because it tried to combine highway and transit in one organization. I see that as bad civics. Authorities can be efficient organizations to handle specific functions, however, the debate over how to split resources between transit and highway should be kept out in the open rather than behind the remote doors of an authority. We would be better served by a Transit Authority and a Highway Authority that are mandated in their charters to cooperate on joint projects. This arrangement will be more understandable and more accessible to the voting public.
.I-25 is such a massive piece of infrastructure in the region and it attracts so much development attention that one may think of it as the spine of the region. I did until recently. However, the northern Front Range region makes more sense, in history and future, when we see I-25 is the alley backing up two main streets. The main streets are: Union-Pacific-Highway-85 on the east, and Colorado-Southern (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) Highway-287 serving the west. The east-west connections to and across the alley between UP85 and CS287 are important, but they do not define the region. While they sound too much like isotopes, I am going to nickname our main streets UP85 and CS287....
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....It is Greeley and main street UP85 that make this point most clearly to me. The once-vital communities along that UP85 corridor are, by Colorado standards, depressed. These communities are neighbors in geography and history. Greeley is the northern hub. Its University of Northern Colorado is growing in importance and is becoming a nice parallel to Colorado State University of Fort Collins. When main street UP85 catches the wealth engine of the northern Front Range, Greeley will benefit far more than the distant Centerra node along the alley at the corners of I-25 and Highway 34. Greeley will out compete Centerra for the regional benefits from a rising UP85. It is too well placed not to. A healthy Greeley is good for Fort Collins.
.Rebirth of main street UP85 may happen slowly of its own inertia, but current depression along the corridor is a matter of statewide concern. The communities along UP85 will demand, deserve and receive helpful attention from the state. Federal interest will rise also as the battle between parties to represent the 4th congressional district gets more even with each election. Our delegation in Washington will increase pressure on federal agencies to help Greeley and the northern reach of main street UP85.
.To dip again into current jargon, it is through Greeley along main street UP85 that a sustainable-quality-of-life revival can happen. Centerra has had to start with bare earth at the interchange between Interstate 25 and Highway 34. Centerra is making a valiant attempt, but its planners and promoters cannot create 21st century quality of life at a loading zone along a mid-20th century alley.
.The early 20th century main streets will do so quite nicely--Fort Collins in the lead. Centerra serves main street CS287 better than UP85. Yet, as main street CS287 blossoms from Fort Collins, through Loveland, Campion, Berthoud and Longmont, Centerra will be outflanked on the west as well. Traditional and developing commercial areas (some off main street) in Fort Collins are proximate to housing. That is the key relationship in quality-of-life development and evolution. Why drive by these shopping opportunities to shop along the I-25 alley? For most people on most occasions it will not make sense to do so. It makes even less sense for people who prefer transit. For those who walk and bicycle on errands it becomes ridiculous. I believe Centerra and its I-25-Highway-34 alley node are well-enough designed to survive inevitable downturns. The I-25 alley should evolve and remain vital to the region. However, our main streets will be more vital and more important.
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.III. Add It Up; Fort Collins Has More and Better Space for 21st Century Development..Over the past couple of decades residential and commercial development jumped out of Fort Collins as our best bare-ground developable space filled up. Alas, we have sprawled and used up much of our logical room for expansive development. We have also put in place some inefficient tracts with too few amenities and tracts of too-large houses. Some of these will age well, others will suffer, decline, and eventually require suburban renewal. However, again, Fort Collins will likely face fewer such problems than its neighbors and perhaps be more able to focus attention on finding solutions. I am concerned about this legacy of sprawl, however in these notes I am more interested in the mixtures of land use that will define quality-of-life development in the decades ahead.
.As counter point to sprawl we have managed to reinforce and to put in place some intimate neighborhoods that include higher densities with better access to shopping, school and work than were typical in the late 20th century. These neighborhoods should evolve well in the decades ahead. When it comes to our potential to mix housing, schools, commerce, recreation and jobs into neighborhoods that efficiently enhance city life style and city budget Fort Collins is rich in opportunity. The result can be called growth; we are not going to eliminate the growth debate. Yet, I believe Fort Collins is primed for the kinds of change that can soften the debate between pro-commerce and pro-quality-of-life factions.
.Our quality priming can be ascribed to many actions, but there are two that stand out to me -- two decisions this community has made that will be beyond debate for their prescience and which will return dividends for generations to come. One is the rerouting of the Dry Creek flood way on the north of the City. The other is the Mason Street transit, recreational, and commercial corridor.
.The Dry Creek project recently came on line. Only hints of the Mason Street Corridor are visible today. Together these projects make several square miles of prime pre-developed land and infrastructure ripe for redevelopment. The size and quality of these prime areas will be difficult for other towns in the region to match-either with bare ground or redevelopment potential. Redevelopment is, of course, development. It can be less expensive than bare ground development, and, most importantly, it can be easier to fashion into the type of sustainable quality-of-life that will prosper in coming decades.
.Downtown Fort Collins is a good model. I believe downtown will remain our gem because the areas primed for redevelopment converge on downtown, enhancing it as focus of the city.
.While nobody I have talked to seems to remember Dry Creek being wet, let alone having a flood, it drains a huge basin from the north and has tremendous flash flood potential. The city has diverted this potential into the Cache la Poudre River west of the center of town. In this part of the country floods in one drainage often, if not usually, leave neighboring drainages with little more water than normal. This capriciousness in our weather and the fact that the Cache la Poudre River has a far greater capacity than Dry Creek mean that this diversion is not a matter of flooding-Poudre-to-keep-Paul-dry. The result of the diversion is to free North College, the old airport, the heart of East Mulberry Street, and areas between from the practical problems and disincentives for investment that burden a flood zone.
.The city and active business owners have been preparing under-utilized North College for redevelopment. This is the head of our CS287 main street. Now, out of the flood plain, it is set to mature and prosper. The "North Bank" will be an exciting place to live, shop, and work-a great complement to Old Town on the South Bank. I suspect the change will be more evolution than revolution, improving chances that the North Bank retain some its socio-economic and use diversity. If so, it will be a special place indeed.
.As the once-floodplain moves eastward it frees the historic residential neighborhood of Alta Vista from the threat of floods. Then it passes through the once-airport and the existing light industrial area. Here is a large piece of land ripe for intensive mixed-use development. The once-floodplain then crosses East Mulberry Street before joining the river near Timberline road. Current underdevelopment along East Mulberry is obvious as it runs three miles from the city's historic core to Interstate 25; it begs for change.
.Annexation by the city, removal of flood plain designation, and pending redevelopment of the once-airport make the East Mulberry corridor attractive for investment and rich in urban design opportunity. I tend to forget that the Cache la Poudre River is part of the corridor for a long stretch. The recreational, and open-space investments made by the city along this eastern reach of the river will become integral to mixed-use quality-of-life redevelopment of East Mulberry. The river will be rediscovered again and again, and we will marvel at the city's foresight.
.Somewhat magically, as the river becomes prominent the Mulberry corridor will change in image and function from an old, isolated commercial strip to become an obvious entry and annex to downtown.
.The Mason Street Corridor Project may prove to be the poster child for northern Front Range main-street renaissance. The corridor was born in the creative thinking of my friend Dan Gould. While the concept was temporarily shot down by opponents who portrayed it as a good-for-nothing transit project, the community has come to see Dan's original vision of a multi-use economic rebirth along the historic north-south spine of Fort Collins. The results will include housing, shopping, business and recreation. All will be served by an efficient transit system, a bicycle corridor, and pedestrian amenities. Existing 20th century developments along its way will benefit, as will recent private investment that did not wait for corridor improvements. Incentives to renew and diversify land uses on a 21st century model will increase rapidly when public improvements to the corridor are in place. Impacts will broaden to College Avenue and into the neighborhood of the Foothills Mall (not just the mall itself). The success of this corridor from downtown to Harmony Avenue will push the corridor's extension into Loveland--a benefit to both cities. This north-south success will lead to transit enhancement and increased diversity and amenity along perpendicular (east-west) corridors.
.Of course, we could blow the opportunities opened by the Dry Creek and Mason Corridor improvements. We could do mundane, isolated, unsustainable, politically divisive developments that detract from the old city core and from the river. But why expect such? Rather, let's expect and insist that public investment and private investment will be brilliant and sensitive as the areas merit.
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.OPTIMIZING OPTIMISM - THE NEXT STEPS -
Response: Dan GouldRE: Optimistic Notes on Fort Collins.. .
The "2 Main Streets and an Alley".This concept provides a strong basis for laying out a vision for a North Front Range Colorado Regional Plan. The notion of Main Street has been kidnapped, held hostage and defiled by the I-25 development marketers. Main Street needs to be liberated and restored to its original status as the organizing force for land use and transportation development. This natural process need to continue and be updated for 21st century needs. The Main streets (and Mainstreet Corridors) can accommodate mass transit, bicyclists, pedestrians and automobiles and still remain in compact, efficient development forms at a human scale. Compact development patterns can promote both high quality of life characteristics and efficient use of energy and natural resources.
.Interstate Highway System development has been an organizing force with many negative land-use outcomes. Such patterns lack human-scale qualities and are hostile to many basic human activities like strolling, conversation and congregating in community places. Bicycling and walking are precluded. Sprawling, wasteful land-use patterns result. Future energy and natural resource conservation needs will not be met with the Interstate Highway style development pattern.
..How to Brand Main Street - A Hard Job.The terms CS287 and UP85 capture the essence of the 2 organizing spines of the North Front Range Region. These terms, encompassing the names of each highway-railroad couplet, are accurate - but they lack soul. I'm not sure how to better capture the spirit and significance of our regional Main Streets, but here's a list of them by their present names. Each of these Main Streets are in close proximity to the corresponding CS or UP rail line and are either part of, or close to, the corresponding state highway..
.For CS287 we have: Cleveland Avenue (Wellington), College Avenue (Fort Collins), Cleveland Avenue (Loveland), Mountain Avenue (Berthoud), Main Street (Longmont).
.For UP85 we have: First Street (Pierce), First Avenue (Ault), Oak Avenue (Eaton), Elm Street (Lucerne), Eighth Avenue (Greeley), State Street (Evans), First Street (LaSalle), Ash and Railroad St. (Gilcrest), Grand Avenue (Platteville), North Denver Avenue (Fort Lupton), Main Street (Brighton).
.These names conjure up a vision of a good place - a place where people can stroll or chat or shop.
.I'm not sure how to capture the city/town nature of these corridors in a name.
.The Interstate Service Alley - An Essential 21st Century Facility for Freight Transportation
.Rail will be the preferred interstate and regional freight transportation mode of the future. Intermodal capability and fuel efficiency will be the key advantages. Trains can move a ton of freight 423 miles on a single gallon of fuel (CSX webpage). Rail can eventually be adapted to electric power supplied from non-fossil fuel sources. Short-haul trucks could run on biofuels and will be used to move freight from to and from rail facilities.
.Redeveloping I-25 into a modern freight alley corridor will achieve many advantages. One of the most important is the relocation of thru-freight train operations from the CS287 and UP85 urban zones to the Alley Zone. This will allow the development of passenger commuter rail in the urban zones and foster appropriate transit-oriented development. Major efficiencies of freight and passenger rail operations and maintenance can be gained from this switch.
.I-25 interchange and roadway capacity needs for trucking can be optimized. These will likely to involve serving intermodal short hauls between the Main Street urban zones and the Service Alley.
.Aviation Intermodal freight opportunities exist with present Interstate Highway connections to Denver International Airport and Fort Collins Loveland Municipal Airport.
.Land-use of the I-25 Alleyway should emphasize distribution logistics infrastructure, including associated activities like vehicle dealers and maintenance facilities. The Ports to Plains Corridor, under the auspices of departments of transportation of 4 states (Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Colorado), is intended to provide a transportation corridor between Mexico, the USA and Canada (see summary in the following Appendix). Extension of the Ports to Plains Corridor north from Denver along the North Front Range I-25 Alley would be advantageous.
. .A Regional Planning Process - Beyond RTA Gridlock -.I agree that transit and highway planning and funding should be considered separately. It would make more sense to settle on a 21st Century Vision of the Region in terms of land-use and transportation together. Then invent the tools needed to meet the various needs.
.It's notable that there seems to be a move to start a Regional Planning Process. See accompanying article in the appendix from the Reporter Herald describing a visioning process call "Embrace Colorado".
.The regional planning process should focus on the end-point of economic viability/sustainability. Even though land-use and transportation policy decisions underpin the planning outcomes, more citizen interest groups are likely to support the process if it is framed in economic viability/sustainability terms. An important part of the public process will be agreement on likely future scenarios for energy sources, carbon dioxide regulation, and agricultural trade patterns that will affect our economic viability/sustainability future.
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Appendix1. http://www.portstoplainscorridor.com/
.compiled by Dan Gould.
.The Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century (TEA-21) designated the Ports to Plains Corridor as one of 43 "High Priority Corridors" in the United States. The corridor begins at the Texas/Mexico border in Laredo and stretches through the Texas panhandle, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado to Denver. As with other "High Priority Corridors," the Ports to Plains Corridor is important because of its direct connection with the Mexico border and potential to attract and serve existing and future travel demands associated with NAFTA/international trade.
. .2. Regional planning - "Embrace Colorado"http://www.reporterherald.com/news_story.asp?id=16888 Publish Date: 5/20/2008
.Nonprofit Embrace Colorado seeks public input to mold future by Cara O'Brien, The Reporter-Herald
.It's time for the region's residents to take the future into their own hands, according to one Northern Colorado organization. And the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization is kicking off a new nonprofit to mold the future of the area.
."It's getting everybody to work together,"said John Daggett, planning manager for the organization.
"It's to maintain and protect, but also to create, a really, really special place.".The organization is launching Embrace Colorado, a nonprofit that, over the next 18 to 24 months, will work with the residents of Northern Colorado to craft a vision and then figure out how to make the vision real. The North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization is holding local meetings around the area to showcase results from the recent regional summit, as well as discuss Embrace Colorado.
.Daggett said the idea for Embrace Colorado came from the failed Regional Transportation Authority efforts, as well as the regional summit discussions from Gov. Bill Ritter and Sen. Ken Salazar.
."We have lots of things in common, and yet it's often our differences that keep us from succeeding,"Daggett said.
"Embrace Colorado is designed to help facilitate cooperation and collaboration between citizens in Northern Colorado on a variety of issues.".Over the next 18 to 24 months the organization, which does not yet have any funding, will hold around 250 public meetings.
.The public will be surveyed on its values, and people will be asked to map out the future of the region as they would like to see it.
.At the end of the process, the public will be asked to vote on a short list of scenarios for the future, choosing one to focus on.
.That scenario could include everything from the desire to make Northern Colorado a leader in the clean energy industry, to the desire for more trails or better roads.
."What it is about is learning to cooperate with one another and having a common vision about what we're headed towards and what we're trying to accomplish,"Daggett said.
.He said Embrace Colorado will also compile data on trends in the region, projecting out to 2050.
.Then the organization will analyze what the data mean. For example, what will it mean for the housing supply in the region if current trends in homebuilding continue?
.And what will the aging workforce mean for the future of employment in the region?
."You can go to the future and you can understand what it will be like based on some decisions that are being made today,"Daggett said. And despite the daunting nature of this task, Daggett said he believes it can be done. He said it has been done. Similar organizations in Sacramento, Calif., Orlando, Fla., and Austin, Texas, have had success.
."The real payoff is being able to have a future that most of us want. And figuring out ways to get there,"Daggett said.
"That may mean funding things or it may mean thinking about stuff ... or it may mean influencing the development community or our elected officials to help us realize that vision.".And while whatever decisions are made will need governmental buy-in, Daggett wants Embrace Colorado to be about as many people as possible, and not just elected officials.
"The goal at the end is that you can get a lot of things done,"he said,
"because you've involved a lot of people."
