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HomeMy WebLinkAbout7-24-23 Special Study Session Agenda PacketSPECIAL STUDY SESSION AGENDA CITY COUNCIL CITY OF WHEAT RIDGE, COLORADO 7500 W. 29th Ave. Wheat Ridge CO July 24, 2023 6:30 pm This meeting will be conducted as a virtual meeting, and in person, at 7500 West 29th Avenue, Municipal Building immediately following the regularly scheduled City Council Meeting. City Council members and City staff members will be physically present at the Municipal building for this meeting. The public may participate in these ways: 1. Attend the meeting in person at City Hall. Use the appropriate roster to sign up to speak upon arrival 2. Provide comment in advance at www.wheatridgespeaks.org (comment by noon on July 24, 2023) 3. Virtually attend and participate in the meeting through a device or phone: • Click here to join and provide public comment • Or call +1-669-900-6833 with Access Code: 870 8260 6470 Passcode: 929374 4. View the meeting live or later at www.wheatridgespeaks.org, Channel 8, or YouTube Live at https://www.ci.wheatridge.co.us/view Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to participate in all public meetings sponsored by the City of Wheat Ridge. Contact the Public Information Officer at 303-235-2877 or wrpio@ci.wheatridge.co.us with as much notice as possible if you are interested in participating in a meeting and need inclusion assistance. Public Comment on Agenda Items 1. Comprehensive Plan and Other Planning Efforts Update 2. Staff Report(s) 3. Elected Officials’ Report(s) Memorandum TO: Mayor and City Council THROUGH: Patrick Goff, City Manager Marianne Schilling, Assistant City Manager Lauren Mikulak, Community Development Director Karen O’Donnell, Parks & Recreation Director Maria D’Andrea, Director of Public Works FROM: Jeff Hirt, Senior Neighborhood Planner Steve Art, Economic Development Manager Jana Easley, Planning Manager DATE: July 14, 2023 (for July 24 study session) SUBJECT: Comprehensive Plan and Other Planning Efforts Update PURPOSE: The purpose of this item is to share information with City Council about the upcoming comprehensive plan update. Staff plans to bring a consultant contract award recommendation and comprehensive plan scope of work to council in fall 2023, with a project kickoff by the end of 2023. This memo previews the scope of work and the relationship of the comprehensive plan to other planning efforts. BACKGROUND: A comprehensive plan is one of the most important policy documents a community has, and the time has come to update Envision Wheat Ridge, the City’s current comprehensive plan which was adopted in October 2009. City Code Section 2-60 and Colorado Revised Statutes Section 23-206 require the City to adopt a comprehensive plan that establishes the community’s vision and values for the future on a wide range of topics like community character, land use, transportation, economic development, public facilities, and parks and open space. What is a Comprehensive Plan? A comprehensive plan is a long range policy document that typically has about a 20-year horizon. Each plan is unique and should reflect the community’s values. However, there are some common elements in most comprehensive plans. These common elements include but are not limited to: • An articulation of the community’s values related to physical development and community character (land use, development, transportation, etc.) that reflects community input with stated goals and policies across a range of topics; 2 • An integrated future land use and transportation mobility framework with descriptions and desired locations for land use categories (e.g., different types of residential areas and densities) and street types with desired future transportation connections; and • An action plan that prioritizes near and long term items the City should undertake to align with the values, goals, and policies of the comprehensive plan on topics like new City programs and policies, City Code changes, and capital improvements. A successful comprehensive plan process will result in an adopted document that reflects community values and acts as a foundation for future City decisions around all topics related to the physical development of the City for years to come. Envision Wheat Ridge Outcomes Envision Wheat Ridge (EWR) has served the community well since City Council adopted it in 2009. Some of the most significant City actions taken since then that are part of the community’s fabric today originate from the Envision Wheat Ridge document. This list reflects both the relevance of a comprehensive plan and how long it takes for big ideas to come to fruition. Some highlights include: • The 38th Avenue “main street” concept – EWR adopted goals and policies to promote 38th as a main street corridor with related priority actions. This led to adoption of a 38th Avenue Corridor Plan (2011) and updates to the City’s zoning and design standards, with a City-initiated rezoning process in 2012 to promote a main street development pattern that is still evolving today. • Subarea plans to address changing neighborhood conditions – EWR recommended more granular planning at select locations in the City including but not limited to the Ward Road Station area, Fruitdale neighborhood, and 38th Avenue “main street” area (noted above). In 2009, RTD’s G line was still years out from completion. EWR recommended an update to the Northwest Subarea Plan that City Council adopted in 2013 that has guided transit oriented development in this area. City Council adopted the 44th Avenue Subarea Plan in April 2023 that replaced the Fruitdale Subarea Plan from 2007. • Clear Creek Crossing – This site was undeveloped in 2009 and EWR prioritized the City developing a vision and supportive infrastructure for “high quality” land uses, site planning, and architectural design. Following EWR adoption, the City created an Urban Renewal Plan that includes this area (2009), created site-specific design standards in 2018, and facilitated numerous supportive infrastructure investments that are still evolving today. • City charter changes – EWR recommended that the City seek removal of City Charter restrictions on building height and density at select locations. In 2009, Wheat Ridge voters approved removal of these charter restrictions within designated urban renewal areas. This has enabled better land utilization for recent residential projects at Clear 3 Creek Crossing, along Wadsworth, and near the Ward Road RTD station that otherwise would not have been possible. • Other notable policy changes, programs, and investments with direct EWR origins include the Wadsworth corridor project under construction, hundreds of land use applications and zone changes reviewed against EWR policies, a new public art fund approved in 2011, zoning code changes to promote urban agriculture, programmatic guidance for Localworks (known as Wheat Ridge 2020 in 2009), and adoption of a Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan in 2017. Approach for the 2023-2025 Comprehensive Plan Update The goal of the plan update will be to articulate a community vision for Wheat Ridge in 2045. A specific focus will be to ensure robust community input and to create a plan that balances different values and tradeoffs that emerge from community conversations. The project will essentially be a continuation of the Let’s Talk Resident Engagement Program that has been conducting neighborhood listening for the past 2+ years. Instead of focusing on neighborhood-specific issues, the comprehensive plan will consider the City as a whole and fittingly be branded “Let’s Talk Wheat Ridge.” The Let’s Talk Program has over 1,500 registered users that have been sharing input with the City about neighborhood issues. It is a great foundation to build off with an active audience, and common themes heard across neighborhoods which will inform early steps in the comprehensive plan process. Integration with Other Planning Efforts The comprehensive plan update will be integrated with several other parallel City projects. Each of these projects will likely be on separate paths with checkpoints built in and coordinated across project teams to ensure they are aligned and consistent. A particular focus of the comprehensive plan update will be to coordinate community engagement with these other projects for a user-friendly engagement experience. This will be accomplished with strategies like joint community events, consolidated portals for online community input, and using the Let’s Talk “brand” to thematically organize engagement across these projects (e.g., Let’s Talk Transportation, Let’s Talk Parks, etc.). The comprehensive plan update will integrate with the following City projects which will also be active during the same timeframe from 2023 to 2025: • Parks and Recreation Master Plan – This plan was last updated in 2015, and the purpose of this update is to develop goals and strategies specifically related to City parks and recreation. It provides an inclusive framework for orderly and consistent planning; acquisition; development; and administration of the parks and recreation resources, programs, and facilities. Staff are planning to request a budget allocation for this project to start in early 4 2024, with a similar timeline to the comprehensive plan update. This project will include substantial community engagement, including a statistically valid survey. • Stormwater Master Plan – This plan was last updated in 1979 and an update is long overdue. The purpose of this plan is to assess the condition of existing stormwater infrastructure and to improve management of stormwater facilities including stormsewer, inlets, and detention facilities. Staff are planning to request a budget allocation for this project to start in 2024. • Economic Development Strategy – The purpose of this strategy is to evaluate the internal, external, and sustainability elements of the City’s current economic development and its effect on business attraction, retention, and expansion. The plan will evaluate the merits of the 2010 Economic Development Strategic Plan and create recommendations to meet the needs of business moving forward. This strategy is proposed to kick off in 2023, and in contrast to the comprehensive plan will focus more on businesses than residents. • Sustainability Action Plan – The purpose of this plan update is to build upon the existing plan, published in 2018, through the development of goals, action items, and policies to address sustainability objectives. Staff are currently defining this project’s scope of work and expect a community engagement component in late 2023/early 2024. The project’s estimated timeline from start to completion is about six months. • Residential Waste Engagement Strategy – The purpose of this strategy is to gain a better understanding of the public’s opinions regarding current waste management practices in the City and potential future changes to this system. This project recently kicked off and will span approximately 18 months, with extensive community engagement throughout 2024. Scope of Work The City will hire a consultant to complete the comprehensive plan update. Staff plans to bring a recommended consultant contract award to City Council in fall 2023. The scope of work will include the common elements noted above. The scope of work will also need to address the following important issues: • Community Engagement: Ensuring robust community input that reflects the range of stakeholder opinions, and developing a comprehensive plan that appropriately balances different community values. This will include an emphasis on raising community awareness of the comprehensive plan for at least a couple of months before the first opportunities for public input, so the most people have an opportunity to weigh in on early, essential, values-related questions. Leveraging the continuation of the Let’s Talk brand (“Let’s Talk Wheat Ridge”) will help with this. • Defining and Articulating Desired Community Character: Many Wheat Ridge residents highly value neighborhood character related to topics like building scale, density, design, and street features. These values also vary by neighborhood. The comprehensive plan update will focus early in the process on understanding what stakeholders really mean when they describe desired neighborhood character to inform development of goals, policies, and an action plan that addresses all types of Wheat Ridge neighborhoods. • Commercial Corridor Improvements: Evaluating the City’s commercial corridors and articulating related values, goals, policies, and action steps to align with community desires to improve the appearance, vitality, and livability of these corridors. This includes Wadsworth, Kipling, Youngfield, and 38th and 44th Avenues, among others. 5 • Neighborhood Commercial Area Improvements: Evaluating opportunities to foster embedded neighborhood-scale, neighborhood serving commercial areas in alignment with community desires. This includes, for example, 29th Avenue around Depew Street and portions of Harlan Street north of 38th Avenue. • Defining and Mapping Areas for Future Growth: City Council adopted the Affordable Housing Strategy in January 2023. The comprehensive plan will build off of this effort by evaluating areas that may be appropriate for residential density to address the City’s housing affordability issues. Growth pressure will continue to affect Wheat Ridge, and a community conversation is needed to inform how growth is shaped, placed, and harnessed. Any such evaluation will be coupled with an analysis of infrastructure capacity to handle any new growth (roads, water, etc.). The comprehensive plan’s future land use component will address this. • Transportation Mobility: The purpose of a mobility component is not to update the Bike and Pedestrian Master Plan, but rather to help ensure that land use plans and future transportation investments are aligned. Discussion will focus on long term CIP funding, high level goals and priorities, and affirming community support for multimodal investments. Other key topics the comprehensive plan update should address will emerge through early community conversations. These topics may include social equity and how the comprehensive plan can advance the Race and Equity Task Force’s recent recommendations, sustainability through the preservation of environmental resources, and natural hazard mitigation (flooding and wildfires). The comprehensive plan update will have a community stakeholder committee. City Council will have an opportunity to inform the role and makeup of this committee later in 2023 through communications from the project team once a consultant is hired. Comprehensive Plan Update Next Steps Staff are working toward a public launch of the comprehensive plan at the beginning of 2024, with the first committee meeting potentially occurring as early as late 2023. Specific next steps include: • Comprehensive plan consultant selection process (estimated August-September) • City Council award for City Plan consultant contract (estimated October) • Public communications to raise project awareness (late 2023/early 2024) • Comprehensive plan stakeholder committee kickoff (late 2023/early 2024) • Comprehensive plan public kickoff (estimated February 2024) Staff’s goal for City Council adoption of the comprehensive plan update is late summer or early fall 2025. CITY COUNCIL FEEDBACK REQUESTED Staff are sharing this topic as informational but would appreciate any City Council feedback that informs development of the consultant scope of work.