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The priority list, to be formally adopted at an upcoming meeting, will influence the next two city budgets (2022 and 2023-24) and steer council s policymaking focus for the next two years. Council members narrowed down the priorities at a follow-up to their semi-annual retreat Tuesday night at Innosphere Ventures.
About half of the priorities are environment-related: Improve air quality, aid bird species recovery, get a municipal composting program off the ground, protect and enhance river flows and improve the Transfort network so community members can get anywhere in the city by bus within an hour, among others.
Other priorities include considering a realignment of the municipal election from April to November so voters can participate in the school board and city elections simultaneously, eliminating the sales tax on menstrual products, raising the minimum wage and making child care more affordable and accessible.
Fresh faces, progressive vision distinguish Fort Collins new woman-majority city council Jacy Marmaduke, Fort Collins Coloradoan
Get to know your Fort Collins City Council members
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Welcome to a new era for Fort Collins City Council.
If it seems like more new faces than usual, you’re right. If it seems like more women than we’re accustomed to at the upper echelons of municipal government, bingo. And if it seems like a more progressive lineup than the city had before the election wow, you’re really good at this game.
Let’s get introductions out of the way. The new council will be doing the same on April 27, when the council swearing-in ceremony will provide the first opportunity for them all to be in a room together.
Now, how to spend it?
Fort Collins leaders are pursuing a 15/85 model for the American Rescue Plan money, which will total about $28.12 million. That will mean 15% (about $4.2 million) going to address immediate needs, in a staff-directed process similar to how the city spent CARES Act money in 2020. The other 85% (about $23.9 million) will go toward a longer-term Fort Collins Recovery Plan that is being developed now and will involve more community input.
Fort Collins City Council and city staff discussed the funding at a Tuesday work session.
We’ll know more about the short-term funding this summer, as the city plans to start distributing it as soon as July. As for the rest of the funding, staff is working to develop the recovery plan now and will present it to council and the community this fall. The city will seek public input throughout that process.
The owner of the north Fort Collins mobile home park, 400 Hickory St., agreed in March to sell the park to a corporation for about $23 million. Residents of the 205-unit park are working with nonprofit Thistle to secure financing for a counter-offer on the park.
The goal of resident-owned communities (ROCs) is to give park residents more agency in their communities. ROCs form community cooperatives where each resident owns an equal share of the land under their homes, giving them more control over lot rent and park upkeep and preventing unwarranted evictions.
The residents offer will need to compete with the corporate offer of $23 million. They have until June 1 to submit their offer before the park owner is legally allowed to accept the corporate offer. That s in accordance with a state-mandated minimum 90-day window for mobile home park residents to assemble their own offer if their park is being sold.