originally posted in May of 2008 by
Bob Komives,
with
response by Dan Gould, June 2008
Economic Strength Leads Fiscal Strength; Quality Lifestyle Trumps 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?
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.
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.
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 Gould
RE:
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.
.
.
Appendix compiled
by Dan Gould.
1.
http://www.portstoplainscorridor.com/
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."
