Title
Ordinance No. 16-31 creating a new infill and redevelopment chapter within the existing City of Colorado Springs Comprehensive Plan in accord with Section 7.1.107.B of the Code of the City of Colorado Springs, 2001, as amended.
(Legislative)
Presenter:
Peter Wysocki, Director, Planning and Community Development
Carl Schueler, Comprehensive Planning Manager, Planning and Community Development
Body
Summary:
Approval by ordinance of a new Infill Comprehensive Plan Supplement (“Chapter”) within the existing City of Colorado Springs Comprehensive Plan. Both the Chapter and an associated Action Plan have been created, reviewed and endorsed by the City’s Infill Steering Committee, and are unanimously recommended for approval by the Planning Commission.
Previous Council Action:
This item was introduced and presented at the February 22, 2016 City Council work session. An additional work session was held on the morning March 8, 2016, to further review the Chapter and Action Plan in more detail. This item was approved on First Reading at the March 8 City Council hearing.
City Council adopted the current Comprehensive Plan in 2001 and has subsequently approved new or amended referenced documents as well as annual updates of the corresponding 2020 Land Use Map.
Background:
1. Infill and redevelopment have been identified as important strategic and land use goals of City Council and the Mayor’s office, particularly during the past 5 years. Although the current 2001 City of Colorado Springs Comprehensive Plan addresses this topic, there has been an identified need for additional visioning, prioritization policy direction and strategy development in order to make the Comprehensive Plan more useful, relevant and actionable for this topic.
2. It has been determined and recommended that the best approach at this time is to prepare a separate and essentially stand-alone chapter of the 2001 Comprehensive Plan addressing this topic from a more targeted and current policy perspective. As stated in the recommended new Chapter, it is intended to be used in conjunction with the balance of the Comprehensive Plan and its referenced elements. However, for infill-related projects and activities, the expectation is that this document will provide an initial and primary source of policy guidance.
3. The Chapter itself (Attachment 2) is deliberately brief, visionary and high level. Among other things it establishes a vision, justification, importance, and broad goals for the support and encouragement of infill and redevelopment throughout the City. It also provides a broad framework for identifying geographic areas and activities for prioritization and emphasis. Within this context this Chapter is intended to be used as a policy document both to generally direct City-initiated actions and to evaluate applicable privately initiated development plans for Comprehensive Plan consistency. However, this Chapter stops short of providing detailed recommendations, strategies or implementation steps. These more specific strategies and actions are addressed in a separate Action Plan which is intended to support this Chapter, but not be formally adopted as part of the Comprehensive Plan (see below).
4. The Chapter recommends the ongoing and adaptive use of an Infill Action Plan (Attachment 3) in order to focus, direct and make progress on City-initiatives pertaining to infill. The numerous recommendations in the current Action Plan all result from Infill Steering Committee input and are supported by at least a majority of that Committee. Recommendations in the Action Plan vary substantially in specificity and timeframe. Some have already been largely accomplished, while others have yet to be initiated and could take several years (and considerable resources) to fully accomplish. Part of the rationale for not formally adopting the Action Plan as part of the Comprehensive Plan, is because it is understood that it will rapidly become outdated and not fully relevant unless it is periodically updated. Updates will address status changes, ongoing decisions, and new circumstances and ideas. The expectation for the Action Plan is that it will be regularly managed and updated by staff, and periodically brought back to Planning Commission and City Council for substantive updates. It is recommended that it be “endorsed” by separate resolution with direction to staff to maintain an implement it in a dynamic, adaptable fashion. (Refer to the immediately following item on this agenda)
5. Beginning in 2016, a two+ year program is in place to comprehensively update the Comprehensive Plan via a consultant process. Therefore, it can be logically anticipated that this Infill Chapter may only remain formally in place as part of the Comprehensive Plan for a few years. However, there is also the presumption that a substantial portion of this vision and these principles policies and recommended actions, will be carried forward and reflected in that comprehensive update.
This item supports all of the City’s strategic goals including building community and collaborative relationships
Financial Implications:
There are no direct financial impacts of these actions in terms of required financial obligations. These are advisory documents. However, some of the associated recommendations contained in the Infill Action Plan could have the potential for future financial implications, depending on implementation choices.
Board/Commission Recommendation:
Both the Infill Comprehensive Plan Supplement and the associated Infill Action Plan were unanimously recommended for approval by the Planning Commission at their January 21, 2016 meeting. Both documents have also been recommended for approval by the Council and Mayor- endorsed Infill Steering Committee most recently at their final January 19, 2016 meeting On February 11, 2016, the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Board unanimously approved a motion to support adoption of these documents.
The draft minutes and record of decision of the January 21, 2016 PC hearing are included as Attachment 4.
Stakeholder Process:
The stakeholders process for this Infill Plan Supplement and Infill Action Plan has substantial and encompassing. The primary focusing vehicle for stakeholder input has been the Infill Steering Committee which was broadly representative. Attachment 5 includes a listing of Committee members. The City also maintained a web-site throughout the process. A community workshop was held in April of 2015 with about 80 total attendees. More recently, about 100 previously involved stakeholders were provided with e-mail notification of this pending adoption process. In late December of last year and this year, presentations were made to several groups including the Utilities Policy Advisory Committee (UPAC), the Council of Neighbors and Organizations (CONO) board, Citizen's Transportation Advisory Board (CTAB), Parks Board and the Housing and Building Association Policy Committee.
The Infill Chapter and Action Plan is broadly supported, with the understanding that the implementation strategies recommended in the Action Plan will be facilitated through future stakeholder processes.
Alternatives:
City Council could choose to approve, deny or modify the proposed ordinance and resolution.
Recommended Action
Proposed Motion:
Move approval of an ordinance creating a new Infill and Redevelopment Chapter within the existing City of Colorado Springs Comprehensive Plan in accord with Section 7.1.107.B of the Code of the City of Colorado Springs, 2001, as amended.
Summary of Ordinance Language
An Ordinance creating a new infill and redevelopment chapter within the existing City of Colorado Springs Comprehensive Plan in accord with Section 7.1.107.B of the Code of the City of Colorado Springs, 2001, as amended.