[BoulderCouncilHotline] Zan's Retreat Homework--Priorities for 2019 etc

[Jones, Suzanne]

Dear all—

First off, thanks to Jane and staff for the great written materials prepared for the retreat including the recap of 2018 accomplishments, update on our top priorities for this Council, and departmental workplans – good recommended reading for the public too!

I am sorry to be missing the January 8th preparatory meeting for our retreat, but below are my general thoughts, which I look forward to discussing in more detail with all of you at the retreat.

In general, in reviewing our collective priorities for this two-year Council, along with my personal priorities from a year ago, I am pleased by the progress we have made to date; along with our community, we have accomplished a great deal. While we still have a long to-do list and a full workplan for next year, it is in keeping with the robust priorities we established for ourselves a year ago—and will be well worth it when finished. To that end, I think our 14 work items are the right priorities for 2019, and only have three items that I would like to ensure are either a part of existing efforts or are considered for adding if not (discussed further below):  1) ensuring preservation of existing market-rate affordable housing; 2) Creating mechanisms or a program to preserve/create affordable commercial space and help stabilize small local businesses; and 3) teeing up redevelopment of Diagonal Plaza.

I also hope that we continue to make room for and celebrate the many small efforts that contribute to making Boulder a wonderful place to live and visit – like the community mural project, which I hope we can fund for a second round:

[A picture containing tree, building    Description generated with very high confidence]

Thanks also to the Retreat Committee and staff for organizing our retreat – I am looking forward to it!

Cheers,

Zan

HOMEWORK ITEM #1: Please review the above list of 14 work plan priorities for the 2018-19 council that we established at our last retreat and indicate the following:

A. Rank the work plan priorities in the order that you think is most important to least important for this council to complete before the end of October 2019.

Zan’s Priority Ranking & Brief Rationale

  1.  Use Tables and Site Review Criteria Updates: MAJOR 1ST TIER PROJECT FOR THIS COUNCIL
  2.  Community Benefit: MAJOR 1ST TIER PROJECT FOR THIS COUNCIL
  3.  Large Lots: MAJOR 1ST TIER PROJECT FOR THIS COUNCIL


  1.  Climate Commitment: ONGOING TOP PRIORITY
  2.  Boulder Electric Utility: ONGOING TOP PRIORITY


  1.  North Central Boulder Subcommunity Plan & Alpine-Balsam Area Plan: SIGNIFICANT PROJECT THAT WILL CONTINUE BEYOND THIS COUNCIL


  1.  Open Space Master Plan: IMPORTANT PROJECT TO COMPLETE THIS COUNCIL, IS WELL UNDERWAY
  2.  Manufactured Housing Strategy: IMPORTANT WORK ITEM FOR THIS COUNCIL, DO-ABLE ESPECIALLY WITH HAB TAKING LEAD
  3.  Shared Equity Middle Income Program: DO-ABLE PILOT PROJECT FOR THIS COUNCIL


  1.  Vision Zero: IMPORTANT ONGOING FOCUS, HAVE MADE A GOOD START
  2.  Transportation Master Plan: IMPORTANT PERENNIAL ISSUE BUT NOT LIMITED TO THIS COUNCIL
  3.  Broadband: IMPORTANT LONG-TERM PROJECT BUT NOT SPECIFIC TO THIS COUNCIL


  1.  Commercial Linkage Fees –DONE, EXCEPT FOR PUBLIC AND CIVIC USE FEES CATEGORY
  2.  Housing Advisory Board—DONE

B. If there are projects that are not on this list that you believe that this council should complete before the end of October 2019, state and briefly describe the new project. Also indicate which of the 14 previously-established priorities that you would remove from the 2018-19 work plan to accommodate the new project.

There are two areas discussed at our 2018 retreat that I think merit more attention, plus one additional project to tee up – although they may already be envisioned as part of the existing staff workplan:

  *   Prioritize Preservation of Existing Market-Rate Affordable Housing: Preservation of existing housing (e.g., existing apartment complexes) is something that unites all sides of the community and should continue be a top priority to avoid losing ground on housing affordability. My question of staff is whether we need to implement additional policies or financing tools to give the City/BHP the ability to accelerate and expand preservation efforts, e.g., a public financing mechanism to address the tax credit challenge with housing acquisition (as opposed to new construction), right of first refusal preference, etc. Certainly, we need to make this a priority within the Opportunity Zone. This is an issue I would like to review at our retreat.


  *   Mechanisms to preserve/create Affordable Commercial Space/Small Local Business stabilization: I think addressing the loss of long-time beloved Boulder business due to escalating rents and property taxes, and the challenges that new small local businesses face in getting established, is a growing issue of concern. While we have begun to require affordable commercial space in some of our new developments, I would like to know what else is needed to establish a more robust affordable commercial program and/or what policies we need to adopt to incentivize more broadly – e.g., requirements in new developments, potential space-sharing downtown, or other options. I don’t know if this is envisioned as an outcome of our pending retail study or what staff resources are needed to take next steps, but I would like to discuss this in more detail at our retreat.
  *   Area Plan for Diagonal Plaza: Even if it is just to set up the next Council, I think we need to come up with an action plan for how to eventually pursue redevelopment of Diagonal Plaza. Maybe our use table work under the Opportunity Zone moratorium will be sufficient next steps by this Council, but I would like to hear from staff and/or discuss at retreat what is needed to move this project forward in the next few years.

I think there are also several smaller 2nd-tier projects that are outlined in staff’s workplan that I would like to make sure this Council finishes, so am reminding us to leave time for these:

  *   Preservation of Longs Garden
  *   Enhancing existing ordinance to better address Bias Motivated Crimes
  *   Civic Use Pad
  *   CU South annexation plan will take some time

C. If you believe that two or more projects can be combined, please so indicate.

  *   Use table update, Opportunity Zone review, and Diagonal Plaza next steps
  *   Preserving existing housing efforts and increasing affordable housing goals per the Regional Housing Strategy
  *   Updating Transportation Master Plan and next steps in pursuing a community-wide Eco-Pass
  *   Rent stabilization for mobile home parks and our Mobile Home Strategy

HOMEWORK ITEM #2: If you believe that there are process changes or improvements that council should implement, please briefly describe the change and the reason for it.

In general, I think this Council has pretty good processes in place. Two things we could be even more deliberate about are:

  *   Utilize boards more to flesh out priority items:  I think we should use our existing boards and commissions even more to tee up future priorities before Council starts to address them, in order to pursue a more deliberate public process and to more efficiently use Council time.  We are doing this with the Planning Board on the use tables review and should give more deliberate direction to other boards on other projects, including:
     *   HAB could do most of the public process and policy crafting with staff for the Mobile Home Strategy
     *   TAB will be lead on the TMP update, including figuring out next steps with community-wide Eco-Pass
     *   Planning Board should take first crack at options and public process surrounding Community Benefit
     *   If we are going to further flesh out an Affordable Commercial program, we should figure out what board should shepherd that process
  *   Keep checklist of Council workplan:  In addition to our top priorities, I think we should keep a running checklist that includes 2nd tier efforts or key staff-driven projects that we hope to complete this Council. Not only is this useful for the public, but it will help us be more mindful as a Council in recognizing that there is only about 5-10% of our time available for emerging topics, no matter how laudable, unless we want to bump an existing item. (The same Council members that grumble about how much is on our workplan, also tend to be the ones adding additional items to that workplan!)

HOMEWORK ITEM #3:  Please indicate whether you would like any changes in your assignments to intergovernmental organizations, internal city committees, local boards or sister city committees.

I am thoroughly enjoying my current assignments. A couple go hand-in-hand with being mayor so aren’t really transferrable, and I am finally in a position of seniority to have more influence on several external committees such as at CML. So, for those reasons I hope to retain my current assignments:

  *   Metro Mayors Caucus
  *   US36 Mayors & Commissioners Coalition
     *   State Highway 7 coalition
     *   State Highway 119 coalition
  *   CO Municipal League Policy Committee
  *   City Council Legislative Committee

That said, I would be happy to have interested Council members join me at the SH7 and/or SH19 efforts if anyone is interested.
Suzanne Jones
Mayor, City of Boulder
(720) 633-7388
joness at bouldercolorado.gov

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