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Contents
Local and State
National
Resources
and Tools
Conferences
and Events
Local and State
Roaring Fork Valley health plan unveiled
A 10-year effort to bring affordable health insurance coverage to the Roaring Fork Valley finally paid off
with the unveiling of an experimental program unparalleled in the country.
A nonprofit organization called the Roaring Fork Valley Community Health Plan
signed a contract with regional insurer PacifiCare to provide "competitive" coverage for employees of valley businesses. The contract is good for three years and can be extended.
The Community Health Plan is essentially an insurance cooperative that is open to any business in the valley, from major corporations to mom-and-pop operations and self-employed individuals operating as a business. However, individuals without affiliation with a business cannot join. Health care providers such as the hospitals in Aspen and Glenwood Springs and physician groups have agreed to participate in the program.
The program is intended to be an antidote to the health insurance crisis facing
western Colorado and rural areas in general. Many small businesses cannot help employees pay for coverage while others cannot offer insurance at all.
Information about the new community health plan is available at www.RFCHP.com
or by calling 704-9421 or e-mailing info@rfchp.com.
See full article by Scott Condon, www.aspentimes.com,
6.20.2003
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'Burbs prepare for foot traffic
The movement to create pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods in places where residents usually have to hop in a car for even simple errands, is being driven by a coalition of health experts, senior-citizen advocates and champions of "smart growth."
Some experts predict this movement will continue to spread throughout the Front Range as baby boomers start to retire over the next 10 years. Those empty-nesters are expected to embrace neighborhoods where they will not need a car as much, neighborhoods reminiscent of where many grew up. The movement is getting a major boost, too, from health care professionals who say living in the suburbs may make you fatter because many must forgo walking and use the car.
And the movement has spread beyond old areas of cities, including Englewood and Lakewood, that are transforming long-vacant shopping centers or blight into pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. Englewood is transforming the former Cinderella City mall into apartments, offices and shops. Lakewood is turning the former Villa Italia into a similar community.
Indeed, the demand to live in such neighborhoods that mirror classic central Denver areas is rapidly growing. One national study predicts that 30 percent to 55 percent of those who want new homes in this decade will want to live in "dense, walkable neighborhoods." That's up from 15 percent in the 1990s.
A 2001 report by the Congress for the New Urbanism, a California-based group that champions pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, noted that people ages 55-64 are the fastest-growing segment of those who desire to live in a neighborhood they can walk around.
These new neighborhoods are designed so residents can get to work, the grocery store, the pharmacy and the bookstore simply by walking through their
neighborhood. Doing so means people walk more and slim down, doctors say.
"Smart growth" experts also hope such communities mean two-car families can cut back to one. Developers, experts say, are looking at successful new urban infill neighborhoods, such as those at Stapleton and Lowry in Denver, and find that the demand is there.
So, instead of a sea of rooftops, more and more developments might start looking like Belle Creek, a new Commerce City development praised by Gov. Bill Owens for being a smart-growth mixed-use development.
See full article by Trent Seibert, www.denverpost.com,
7.21.2003
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Rockies targeted for drilling
The Bush administration on Thursday ordered federal land managers across the Rockies to look for ways to remove or reduce environmental restrictions on federal lands in order to make way for gas drilling.
The new rules issued by Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke
represent a ramping up of the administration's push to develop several key natural gas fields in the Rocky Mountain West. They order BLM officials to review environmental restrictions, speed up energy projects, streamline environmental restoration and maintain ties with industry.
The basins cover nearly all of Colorado's Western Slope and also include areas in Montana, Utah and Wyoming. They are the Paradox/San Juan Basin in the Four Corners area, the Uinta/Piceance Basin in west-central Colorado, the Greater Green River Basin in southwestern Wyoming and northwestern Colorado, the Montana Thrust Belt, which includes the Rocky Mountain Front, and the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana.
See full article by Mike Soraghan, www.denverpost.com,
7.2??1.2003
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Small business gives lift to sagging state economy
Small business continues to be a bright spot in an otherwise dismal Colorado
economy, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Small Business
Administration.
And that's a darned good thing because small businesses - defined as establishments with a storefront and fewer than 500 employees - make up a whopping 97.5 percent of the state's commercial base, SBA spokesman Chris Chavez said. In 2002, the number of established small businesses in Colorado jumped to 140,704, a 1.7 percent gain over the previous year, according to the report.
Women continue to leave the corporate trenches at an aggressive pace to start their own ventures. Chavez said statistics gleaned from the Center for Women's Business Research show that women last year operated roughly 140,000 privately held firms - large and small - in Colorado, a 20 percent increase since 1997.
See full article by Christine Tatum, www.denverpost.com,
8.20.2003
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Williams gets OK for 500
more gas wells
Williams Production received formal approval Monday from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to significantly increase its natural gas production in Garfield County.
The approval clears the way for the company to drill up to 500 wells on 16,000 acres of land using existing and pre-approved well sites. This can be done by using directional drilling to drill multiple wells from one well pad.
"It could mean up to 500 wells over a period of five to 12 years," said
Williams' Parachute district manager Steve Soyche Soychak. "Depending on the assumption of prices, that could mean over $100 million in ad valorem, or property taxes, to the county." He also said the additional wells could create 200 new jobs in the oil patch.
The new wells will be drilled in three of Williams' major producing fields — Rulison, Parachute and Grand Valley. All are located north of the Colorado River and Interstate
70. Drilling on the new wells is slated to start in 2004, following environmental assessments that are part of the permitting process.
See full article by Greg Massé, www.postindependent.com,
8.21.2003
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Three plans will map
Durango's future growth
Durango will grow, and the next six months will be vital in deciding where the houses will be built. The city is about to embark on a major review of the city's
comprehensive plan – a blueprint and guide of where the city should grow and in what fashion.
Two other studies are also being completed: an area plan for the Grandview corridor and another for Ewing Mesa. All three projects should be completed either late this year or early next year.
There are three major potential area for growth, and the city is in the process of reviewing all of them. First, there's River Trails Ranch – a controversial proposal on the site formerly known as Kroeger Ranch. The proposal calls for between 383 and 694 housing units on 242 acres, and it does fit into the density recommendations from the city's 1997 Comprehensive Plan.
The Ewing Mesa proposal dwarfs River Trails Ranch. The development is still in the early stages, but the proposal calls for 1,700 housing units, two major commercial centers and a 27-hole golf course, among other amenities, to be developed over 20 years.
The Grandview and Southfork areas east of Durango on U.S. Highway 160 are also getting an area plan. The area plan will encompass Highway 160 out to Elmore's Corner and north to Artesian Valley. There has already been an annexation request for the Southfork area, which has been the speculated site for Target and Home Depot, but the urgency associated with the two big-box stores has relaxed.
Beyond the three major areas prime for development, the comprehensive plan will revisit affordable-housing policies, environmental policies and water-quality issues, among other aspects of growth.
See full article by
K.W. Harp, www.durangoherald.com,
7.23.2003
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Gas-well rules wow neighbors
At least two Colorado counties are eyeing La Plata County's gas-well rules, and
apparently they like what they see. Archuleta and Las Animas counties have
considered adopting portions of the county's rules for themselves, hoping that La Plata County's hard-fought legal precedents will protect them as they try to manage their own gas development.
Adam Keller, a La Plata County planner, said Thursday that the county's plan is being held up as a model partly because it is the first to implement such a detailed plan. Two sections of the La Plata County Land Use Code – the natural resources section and the land use and development permit section – include regulations governing the placement and drilling of gas and oil wells.
One advantage is that La Plata County rules have withstood challenges in court. Although District Court Judge David Dickinson in March disallowed some aspects of surface owner participation in determining well location, he allowed much of the county's code to stand. For instance, he said the county could determine its own standards about where wells can be located.
See full article by June Santon, www.durangoherald.com,
7.22.2003
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Low density, high cost
A Colorado State University study says the cost of providing government services to low-density residential developments in rural areas exceeds the tax revenue the homes produce.
In Mesa County, the presence of one average-size home on a rural, 35-acre parcel of former agricultural land requires $1.77 in government services for every dollar of new tax revenue the home produces, the study said. The study calculated a cost of $1.21 in Delta County, $1.23 in Garfield County and $1.42 in Montrose County. Statewide, the average cost of such rural development is $1.65 per dollar of new revenue, according to the study.
"Most of these results indicate that new residents going out on 35 acres are being subsidized by current residents," said Andy Seidl, an associate professor of agriculture and resource economics at CSU who co-authored the study with Roger Coupal, an associate professor in the Department of Agriculture at the University of Wyoming.
The researchers analyzed the cost of government services in each Colorado county and calculated the financial cost and benefit of replacing 35 acres of agricultural land with one new rural household. In most counties, the researchers concluded, the cost of providing services to new, low-density rural developments outweighed the taxes generated by those developments.
See full article by Bob Kretschman, www.dailysentinel.com,
08.25.03
An executive summary and full report, Rural Land Use and Your Taxes: The Fiscal Impact of Rural Residential Development in Colorado, is available at
http://dare.agsci.colostate.edu/extension/pubs.html
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Steamboat Council will look at CDC changes
The City of Steamboat Springs has a list of proposed revisions to its Community Development Code. The proposed changes, which will be brought before the Steamboat Springs City Council in large chunks over the next two to 18 months, are intended to make the code more clear and the city review process more efficient.
City Planning Director Steve Stamey identified more than 70 areas in the code that need revision or to be examined. Those areas range from adding a definition and criteria for a real estate office to looking at the procedures for administrative permits and appeals of administrative decisions.
Stamey proposes expanding its administrative approval process. The change would mean the City Council and planning commission would no longer be notified for minor or technical administrative permits such as uses with criteria, final plats or lot line eliminations.
The proposal would reduce the number of applications reviewed by the council and designate the planning commission as the decision-making authority for an appeal. Stamey estimates that substantive, policy oriented amendments that are highly complex would take eight to 18 months to draft and bring to the planning commission.
See full article by Christine Metz, www.steamboatpilot.com,
8.25.2003
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Summit Housing Authority secures short-term future
The towns of Silverthorne, Breckenridge and Frisco have joined with Summit County to keep the Summit Housing Authority afloat for the next three years. Beyond that, however, nothing is certain.
"It's very tenuous at this point," Commissioner Gary Lindstrom said. "We're not
going to do this unless everyone is on board."
Citing a report written by consultant Gary Suiter, SHA board chair Doug Sullivan reinforced Lindstrom's viewpoint, saying the towns' support was crucial and that the organization needed to hire an executive director in addition to securing a permanent funding source.
County Commissioner Bill Wallace pointed to a ballot measure to fund the
organization that failed last year and said cooperation among all the entities involved is crucial if any similar future proposal is to succeed.
"I think if they all supported it that there would be a better chance that it would
pass," Wallace said of a new measure. "None of the towns or the county wants the IGA to come up in another three years. We're all hoping a permanent funding source can be found."
See full article by Aidan Leonard, www.summitdaily.com,
8.26.2003
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National
Once beloved shopping malls are evolving
Once the darling of the retail industry, the beloved shopping mall is approaching dinosaur status as developers look toward smaller formats to satisfy shoppers' tastes.
It's a transformation driven by consumers as time constraints and suburban sprawl reshape shopping habits. These days a trek to cruise the corridors of the big mall is considered a luxury among the grab-and-go crowd. Providing shoppers quick access has developers busy building power centers or lifestyle centers instead of traditional shopping malls.
A power center, or what some call a glorified strip center, typically consists of a
cluster of buildings, each home to one or more big-box retailers.
Lifestyle centers, on the other hand, tend to mimic downtown retail districts and can feature a "main street" where shoppers can park their car in front of their favorite store and dash in.
Neither approach embraces the traditional regional mall format of having two or more department stores anchor the project. Instead, the big draws are home improvement warehouses, grocery stores and discounters.
"More and more of the design is open air," said Yaromir Steiner, chief executive officer of Steiner & Associates, a mall developer in Columbus, Ohio. "You don't see six department stores
with a hallway anymore."
But malls are not going away. There are a number of reasons -- they are climate-controlled and it's a different kind of experience. You are not going to go see Santa or the Easter Bunny at a strip center.
See full article by Tribune staff, Salt Lake
Tribune, 7.3.2003
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Transportation second
highest cost for America's Families
A new report shows that transportation costs are taking an even bigger bite out of the family pocketbook, with America's families now spending more than 19 cents out of every dollar earned on transportation, an expense second only to housing and greater than food and health care combined.
The report says that the nation's poorest families are especially hard hit, spending more than 40 percent of their take home pay just to get around, an expenditure that that has risen 25 percent since 1992 and is making it all the more difficult for lower income families to afford housing, health care, and other critical services.
The report, authored by the Surface Transportation Policy Project and titled
Transportation Costs and the American Dream: Why a Lack of Transportation
Choices Strains the Family Budget and Hinders Homeownership, uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to rank metro areas according to the portion of household expenditures devoted to transportation. Transportation costs are highest in sprawling areas such as Tampa, Phoenix and Dallas, due to spread out development patterns, the lack of transportation choices and the absence of convenient neighborhoods within walking distance of shops and schools. For many low and middle income families, the costs of owning and maintaining several vehicles may even be prohibiting their ability to own a home, one of the most reliable forms of wealth creation.
The full report is available online at www.transact.org
See full STPP press
release, 7.22.2003
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Where Nature Is an Amenity
Deep in the Santa Rosa Mountains near Rancho Mirage, Calif., dozens of endangered peninsular bighorn sheep graze freely among native mountain lions, coyotes and bobcats, munching on creosote bushes and encelia shrubs. Area residents boast that the spot is one of the most scenic in the West, with the San Jacinto Mountains to the west, the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the north and Joshua Tree National Park to the northeast.
Smack in the middle of this wildlife-rich area is the Mirada Resort development, 109 multimillion-dollar houses and building lots surrounding a hotel, spa and community center — and a 1,500-acre swath of open space that Mirada's developer, MCO Properties, has promised to leave untouched.
This land preserve is not only for the sheep; it also shields Mirada residents from any threat that strip malls and tract housing might intrude on their privacy or their views. Sure, golf courses and tennis courts are great. But these days the ultimate second-home amenity is a slice of wilderness. And with a push in the past decade from increased environmental regulation and land-use laws, many developers are providing it, giving up large tracts of land to lure buyers
and sometimes to obtain a permit or get a tax break.
"In some areas of the country, said John Shepard, associate director of the Sonoran Institute in Tucson, which helps developers plan for open space, "there are virtually no development plans on the books without open-space considerations."
But how environmentally friendly are these projects? They appear to offer benefits for developers, homeowners and the public. But development, no matter how much open space is contained within it, still has dire consequences for natural habitats, environmentalists say. And in many of these developments, the preserved land cannot be enjoyed by those who do not live there. Open space may not mean public space.
The model for many of today's open-space developments comes from Chaffin/Light Associates, a company that has built several of what it calls conservation-based resorts, including Spring Island and the Roaring Fork resort near Aspen, Colo., and was one of the first successful marketers of environmentally friendly developments. Chaffin/Light is known for keeping the land it sets aside in good condition.
"It's clear that government and nonprofits cannot by themselves conserve and
manage all the open space they would like to preserve," said James J. Chaffin Jr., a founder of Chaffin/Light. "If we can do more private-public partnerships where homeowners begin to feel they are the stewards of their environments, then there might be a formula here to conserve more land."
On Spring Island, for example, Chaffin/Light maintains its 1,000-acre preserve
through an annual homeowners' fee and an assessment equal to 1 percent to 2
percent of the price every time a property is sold. The money also pays for a private nature center with three naturalists who help educate residents and provide programs for schoolchildren and nature lovers.
Mr. Chaffin conceded that tax breaks were a benefit to such projects. Developers who relinquish the development rights to their property by donating it to a government or nonprofit group may qualify for a federal tax deduction that is generally equal to the value of the development that is given up, said Stephen J. Small, a lawyer who specializes in protected-land projects. Mr. Chaffin said he did not take advantage of this arrangement, called a conservation easement, when his company developed Spring Island 13 years ago, but he has sought the deduction for other projects.
See full article by Walecia Konrad, www.nytimes.com,
8.1.2003
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RMI hopes blackout will be a wake-up call
Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Institute, one of the world's leading energy think tanks, believes the blackout that affected 50 million people in the United States Aug. 14 should be a wake-up call for the country to fundamentally change how it designs its electricity production and delivery system.
"The grid is about as reliable as it's going to get," said Joel Swisher, energy
researcher in RMI’s Boulder office. Therefore, adding to that grid to meet growing demand isn't a good long-term solution. The core problems will still exist — it's a centralized system with relatively few power sources. Those sources are interconnected, so a major problem in one place can trigger problems with the broader system. That's what happened earlier this month when millions were left without electricity in New York and other parts of the East and Midwest.
Swisher and his colleagues contend that instead of adding to a vulnerable system, which will continue to face the same problems it faces today, the country should invest in alternative power sources like fuel cells, combined heat and power, solar panels and micro-turbines. They can provide power at lower cost and greater reliability than the centralized power grid.
Kyle Datta, managing director of RMI's consulting practice, compared our current grid to a centralized computer mainframe with limited access points. The World Wide Web, on the other hand, distributes computing power, and by its dispersed nature means information is at much less risk.
"The grid should exist, but it should complement electricity storing and generating devices on our office buildings, our homes, roofs, in our basements, and ultimately in our fuel-cell driven automobiles. Putting all our eggs in one basket is a predictable catastrophe waiting to happen," he said.
RMI co-founder Amory Lovins warned about the weakness of the grid 21 years ago in his book Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security. Lovins then described the electrical grid as a disaster waiting to happen. "The United States has for decades been undermining the foundations of its own strength," he wrote. "It has gradually built up an energy system prone to sudden massive failures with catastrophic consequences."
Brittle Power is available www.rmi.org/sitepages/art7095.php
See full article by Scott Condon, www.aspentimes.com,
8.25.2003
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Resources
and Tools
Promoting Active Living Communities. A Guide to Marketing and Communication
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is pleased to announce the availability of a guide to promoting Active Living Communities. The guide is designed to help integrate communication strategies as you promote the value of active living. This toolkit can be applied to promoting active living on numerous levels - whether you're encouraging individuals to adopt an active lifestyle, facilitate changes in the social environment, or advocate for policy change by changing attitudes on a community-wide basis. The guide offers:
- A step-by-step approach to planning marketing and communication programs.
- Insights into motivating, influencing, and persuading your audience.
- Examples from other communication programs.
- Tools and resources to help you apply the contents and learn more.
A PDF of the guide can be downloaded in its entirety at
www.activelivingbydesign.org/resources/communications.htm
Hard copies (binders) can also be ordered free of charge while supplies last by
contacting Ms. Bobbi Williams at 202-973-3656 or bwilliams@porternovelli.com. Please include your mailing address and telephone number in your request.
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Smart Growth Zoning
Codes: A Resource Guide
Communities throughout North America are
calling for development that creates human-scale neighborhoods and not
"garage-scape" subdivisions. Unfortunately, many local governments'
zoning codes are actually standing in the way of the type of development that
residents want.
Based on the Local Government Commission's research of more than 150 "smart
growth" zoning codes from across the nation, this guidebook will help
planners design a zoning code that encourages the construction of walkable,
mixed use neighborhoods and the revitalization of existing places.
Each chapter analyzes a critical issue – such as design, streets and parking
– and highlights exemplary codes from across the country. The
guidebook comes with a CD-ROM that contains copies of some of the best zoning
codes in the United States and other resources.
Download an executive summary at www.lgc.org/bookstore/land_use/publications/sg_zoning_codes.html
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The
Artistic Dividend: The Art's Hidden Contribution to Regional Development
This study challenges an unfortunate and prevailing view of the
arts and its role in the regional economy -- the view of arts as a consequence
of, even a parasite on, a successful business economy. The Artistic
Dividend shows, on the contrary, that artistic activity is a major and
varied
contributor to economic vitality. Furthermore, it suggests that the productivity
of and earnings in a regional economy rise as the incidence of
artists within its boundaries increases, because artists' creativity
and specialized skills enhance the design, production and marketing
of products and services in other sectors.
Despite the importance of the arts to economic development, state and local
governments pour hundreds of millions of dollars into downtown revitalization,
new plant attraction and even big box retail developments in the suburbs. This
study suggests that support for the arts, and specifically artists,
deserves a more important role in any community economic development strategy.
Download the full report
at www.hhh.umn.edu/projects/prie/pub.htm
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Conferences
and Events
Colorado's Future
Center of Colorado Policy
Studies
September 26, CU- Colorado Springs
This conference brings together policymakers and researchers from
Colorado nonprofits and universities to:
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Increase the flow of
information to policymakers faced with today's challenges;
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Increase awareness of
resources for policy research in higher education;
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Encourage higher
education faculty to focus research on Colorado issues and to
present results that are accessible to policymakers and their staffs;
and,
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Discuss term limits,
right to work, smart growth, substance abuse, and water along with
medical marijuana, improved information systems and much more in the
poster session.
Registration is $45 before
Sept. 19 and $60 after. For more information visit
http://web.uccs.edu/ccps/
Rocky
Mountain Land Use Institute
12th Annual Land Use Conference
October 16-17, Denver Marriot Southeast Hotel
This Conference is designed to provide timely, informative sessions and
stimulating discussion on both urban and rural land development issues.
Keynote Speakers
include:
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Best-selling
Western mystery author and former National Park Ranger Nevada
Barr on The Thin Green Line: Development
and Public Lands in the West.
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Luther Propst,
Sonoran Institute Executive Director, on the challenges
associated with development in the face of drought, energy
shortages, security and terrorism threats, and other natural
resource limits.
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California water
guru Tony Rossmann, who will explain in plain English how the
Western plumbing system really works.
Registration information
is available at www.law.du.edu/rmlui/2003AnnualLandUseConference/GeneralInformation.htm
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