Examining zoning structures. This step focuses on ensuring that clustering and incentives for sensitive place preservation are present in our regulations.

Examining referral and support structures. This is step focuses on support for traditional rural uses of land and incentives/disincentives for that continued use.

Compiling regional social economic data analysis. The Sonoran Institute is providing software (it is public domain software developed by the BLM) to generate specific profiles of the economic trends in the Roaring Fork Valley.

Developing a regional build out scenario. Eagle County has already been working on this effort and expects to complete it in a few months. The regional effort can also build on the preliminary work done by HMC/ Basalt/ Otak-Rock Creek Studio in 1998.

Conducting a Cost of Community Services Study. COCS studies are a snapshot in time of costs vs. revenues for each land use. These types of studies can explain some of the costs associated with growth from a public expenditure / tax perspective.

Creating a Fiscal and Value Analysis of Alternative Growth Scenarios. The data and analysis from the previous steps will be collected in such a way that it used by the CommunityViz software. We can then use Community Viz to generate alternative growth scenarios.

Planners & Managers Roundtable News & Information on Planning in the Roaring Fork & Colorado River Valleys	May 14, 2002

******Next Roundtable**** May 31, 2002 2-5pm Glenwood Springs Community Center Agenda Topics § Community and agency updates § Deborah Lebow, EPA Denver (Tentative) § NACo / Sonoran Institute Stewardship Workshop Results/ Roaring Fork Watershed Collaborative -------------------------------------------- March 1 Meeting Bullets -------------------------------------------- 1. The Roaring Fork Transit Authority (RFTA) is starting commuter service from Rifle April 15. This marks the first time the communities of the Colorado River / I-70 corridor will be connected via transit. Contact mile Davis for more information davism@rfta.com. 2. Aspen Wilderness workshop is reconvening a taskforce to help implement Watershed Planning for Conservation. Contact Jamie Sidel for more information aww@sopris.net 3. The Roaring Fork Conservancy (www.roaringfork.org) is working with schools on wetland and riparian education and has established a water-quality monitoring program throughout the Roaring Fork watershed. Testing is on a monthly basis and involves 40-60 adult volunteers. Special projects underway include a stormwater analysis with the City of Glenwood Springs (after just completed a similar study for the Town of Basalt) and a two-year study of the affects of Ruedi Dam operations on the fisheries and visitors of the Frying Pan/Roaring Fork. Finally, the Conservancy is in the process of developing an education center site with satellite classrooms throughout the region. Contact Jeanne Beaudry for more information director@roaringfork.org. 4. The Town of Carbondale is in the middle of several important decisions about the community’s future including: the possible re-zoning of the North Face property on the south edge of town for medium density residential; the review of the Crystal River Martketplace along Hwy 133; and the consideration of code amendments concerning size limitations, impact analysis and fees relating to new commercial development. Contact Janet Buck for the latest developments in these areas jbuck@carbondaleco.net. 5. The City of Glenwood Springs continues its efforts to gather information to use CommunityViz in its planning efforts. City staff will attend a training in March. There is increased concern about development up 4-mile road, specifically watershed and traffic impacts. Staff is interested in translating traffic information (18,000 average daily traffic) into things people can directly relate to better (like how long a traffic increase will increase the wait for a left hand turn). The River Commission is looking into the possibility of a Kayak Park on the Colorado. Contact Mike Pelletier for updates on these issues mpelletier@ci.glenwood-springs.co.us. 6. Healthy Mountain Communities reported on a few project including its work to create a Colorado Smart Growth Scorecard, which will be will be a community self-assessment tool to help citizens and citizen planners identify the drivers of sprawling land use patterns as well as assess their community's readiness and ability to foster smart growth. HMC is also beginning work on a project (managed by the Office of Community Services at Ft. Lewis College) to learn from people who live and work in Western Colorado about wildfire and fire management. The results of the research will assist public lands managers (Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and others) improve their fire management and public education programs. Finally, the effort to create a regional housing authority Initiative is underway with the governments from Basalt to Glenwood Springs working to develop the organizational capacity to administer local affordable housing programs at a regional level. Contact HMC at Colin claird@hmccolorado.org or 963-5502 for more information on any of these efforts. 7. Pitkin County reports that it is in the process of updating its land use code (which includes upzoning lands near urban areas and downzoning lands in rural areas) and working on the Crystal Valley Master Plan. In collaboration with the Town of Basalt, the county received grant for the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments to develop a transfer of development rights (TDR) program between Basalt and Pitkin County. Contact Ellen Sassano for more current information ellens@co.pitkin.co.us. 8. Garfield County budgeted $70,000 for the first year of a two-year transportation planning effort. Early activity will be getting a current traffic count baseline and system inventory. Randy Russell is assembling the Technical Advisory Team for it and has CDOT, Glenwood Springs, Rifle and RFTA volunteers to date. He's looking for the other towns and Eagle County representatives for participation to help with consultant selection, infrequent meetings and some materials review in draft stages. Contact Randy Russell (rrussell@garfield-county.com) for more information. All volunteers and information welcome. -------------------------------------------- News Briefs -------------------------------------------- Listserv begins exponential growth planners worry if it is sustainable The Planners and Managers Roundtable List Serv increased over 100% last month prompting concern from planners in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valleys. "Anytime something grows that rapidly you have to start asking questions," said Garfield County Planner Randy Russell. Healthy Mountain Communities Director Colin Laird is currently meeting with local government to pursue a grant to study the issue. "Trend is certainly not destiny," he said, " but we could be heading toward a tragedy of the commons. That's what why we are pursuing this grant." Seriously, the general mailing list for the Roundtable now exceeds 100, but the listserv is only about 15. This means most folks receiving this newsletter are not taking advantage of the ability to easily send a message about a meeting, event, or opportunity to 100 peers with one simple email, and you would otherwise have to hope the timing is right for inclusion in this newsletter (which has no deadline or certain frequency). Here are the instructions: To join the list serve: Send an email to plannersroundtable-subscribe@topica.com To send an announcement, question, or comment to the group: Send an email to plannersroundtable@topica.com Rural Resort Region Releases Child Care Needs Assessment The Rural Resort Region Child Care Project and Consolidated Project have recently completed their analysis of the current system of child care services in the five county rural region, which includes Eagle, Garfield, Lake, Pitkin and Summit counties. The Rural Resort Region Child Care Needs Assessment provides a picture of the challenges and opportunities to improving and expanding child care (opportunities delete this) in the region. The report includes results of the data collected from written surveys, telephone interviews and focus groups with parents, child-care centers, family child care providers, and employers. The report is available on-line at www.hmccolordo.org. The next meeting of the Child Care Project is on May 29 at noon at the Garfield County Courthouse. The focus of the meeting is to address the lack of child care options for government employees in our area. All are welcome to attend. Contact Carrie Podl at, RRRCHILDCARE@aol.com or 970-963-6080 for more info, or to be added to an email list. Lower Valley Trail becoming a nonprofit The Lower Valley Trail Group is working on becoming a non-profit agency. Greenway planning efforts are also progressing well. L.O.V.A is currently in the process of doing outreach to target landowner and user groups. The first public meetings to be held are expected to occur in the next 8 weeks. LOVA needs volunteers to tend information booths. Anyone who would like to volunteer or receive regular updates should contact Tod at TodT@bloch-lbr.com to be added to an email list or, call Brian at 876-0133 for more information. They have fun meetings and serve food. Fryingpan River Valley studies almost complete During the last 18 months, the Roaring Fork Conservancy has been studying the socio-economic environment and the aquatic ecosystem within the Fryingpan River Valley. In partnership with the Colorado River Water Conservation District and Ruedi Water and Power Authority, the Conservancy has implemented an economic study to document the impacts of recreation activities on the Fryingpan River and Ruedi Reservoir to the local and regional economy. The Conservancy is also coordinating a two-year study assessing the health of the fishery in the lower Fryingpan River and Roaring Fork River below Basalt. These studies will provide critical information for decisions relating to the management of Ruedi Reservoir. This work comes at a perfect time. The fishery study is taking place during one of the lowest flow winters on the Fryingpan River in the last 15 years. The economic study results are being provided to the Bureau of Reclamation, which is soliciting comments on its proposal to obtain a multi-year lease (through the year 2012) to secure Ruedi water for the Endangered Fish Recovery Program on the Colorado River. The economic study will be completed at the end of May 2002. If you are interested in obtaining the final report or learning more about the fishery study (which will be finished at the end of the year), please contact Kristine Crandall or Jeanne Beaudry at the Roaring Fork Conservancy (927-1290; birke@rof.net). Gunnison County receives Colorado Conservation Trust Grant Gunnison County has received a grant from the Colorado Conservation Trust to assist the County in an on-going Master Plan effort. The Long Range Planning/GIS Department of Gunnison County, the Colorado Conservation Trust, the Orton Family Foundation, and the Sonoran Institute have formed a partnership to integrate the use of a creative public process with the visualization tool of Community Viz. The County will be sponsoring a wide variety of public forums to develop a series of development scenarios based on different development assumptions. These alternatives will then be modeled and depicted, and a Cost of Community Services Analysis will be undertaken for each alternative to allow for the community to understand the visual and fiscal implications of different futures for Gunnison County. Contact Dave Michaelson, Director of Long Range Planning at GIS, 970.641.7620 or dmichaelson@co.gunnison.co.us for more information. Eagle County considers new affordable housing regulations Eagle County Commissioners are considering proposed amendments to the Eagle County Land use Regulations to help it reach its affordable/local resident housing goals. The proposed amendments include an inclusionary housing requirement of 30%for all new residential development; a residential employee/linkage program; and a nonresidential employee/linkage program. For more information contact Rebecca Leonard at 970.328.8730 or rleonard@eagle-county.com. Garfield County Updates Comp. Plan revisions for Study Areas Four and Five pass first test Garfield County's Comp. Plan revisions for Study Areas Four and Five were adopted by the County Planning Commission April 24th. The approved, edited versions will be on the county website in a few weeks. The county appreciates the comments received from area agencies and local governments. Aggregate Resources inventory completed Garfield County is receiving an Aggregate Resources inventory on the Colorado River and surrounding terraces to the Mesa County line, undertaken by the state Mineral Resources Division. That report is due to be presented May 20th to the BOCC and includes GIS map layers which the county should have resident and accessible within a few weeks after receiving the data. Transportation Planning process underway Garfield County's Transportation Planning process is just underway, and they are assembling current traffic counts now. Randy Russell (rrussell@garfield-county.com) will be in touch with some of you he hasn't roped into being on the Technical Advisory Committee for that yet, as it goes into the projections and consultant hiring stages this fall. The county is counting over a dozen traffic points weekly, so anyone needing current ADT information should have it by September for almost all key roads, and call Randy if you need specific locations as they may be already done or can be scheduled. Watershed Team developing work items and larger regional partnership** A regional a team of participants (with representatives from Garfield County, Eagle County, the White River Forest, Glenwood Springs, the Roaring Fork Conservancy, and Healthy Mountain Communities) attended a National Association of Counties (NACo) / Sonoran Institute Stewardship Workshop in Estes Park April 12-14. Participation at the workshop was by competitive application, which Garfield County and HMC jointly submitted. Eight county groups were accepted from the intermountain west. The team membership was structured to represent the larger watershed as much as possible with a commitment to expand the team on return among land management agencies, local governments and all interested parties The workshop focused on helping rapidly growing western counties better understand the trends affecting growth in the western U.S. as well as tools they can use to shape growth to maintain rural and community values. As part of the workshop, the team developed a preliminary action plan to promote greater regional cooperation and integrated planning in the Roaring Fork Valley. The effort is tentatively called the Roaring Fork Watershed Collaborative. Components of this effort include: Examining zoning structures. This step focuses on ensuring that clustering and incentives for sensitive place preservation are present in our regulations. Examining referral and support structures. This is step focuses on support for traditional rural uses of land and incentives/disincentives for that continued use. Compiling regional social economic data analysis. The Sonoran Institute is providing software (it is public domain software developed by the BLM) to generate specific profiles of the economic trends in the Roaring Fork Valley. Developing a regional build out scenario. Eagle County has already been working on this effort and expects to complete it in a few months. The regional effort can also build on the preliminary work done by HMC/ Basalt/ Otak-Rock Creek Studio in 1998. Conducting a Cost of Community Services Study. COCS studies are a snapshot in time of costs vs. revenues for each land use. These types of studies can explain some of the costs associated with growth from a public expenditure / tax perspective. Creating a Fiscal and Value Analysis of Alternative Growth Scenarios. The data and analysis from the previous steps will be collected in such a way that it used by the CommunityViz software. We can then use Community Viz to generate alternative growth scenarios. (Please note that to the extent that we can share assumptions on a watershed basis, the above analysis should be helpful to all agencies and entities that might not be able to undertake such analysis by themselves, or, may want to modify assumptions and results within a common regional framework.) The Sonoran Institute will provide limited consulting and financial assistance (approx. $5,000) over the course of 12 to 18 months to help the team implement this developing action plan. They may even be able to help the team and region raise additional resources for the project. Contact Randy Russell (rrussell@garfield-county.com) or Rebecca Leonard rleonard@eagle-county.com for more information. -------------------------------------------- Conferences & Events -------------------------------------------- Forest Health Tour A forest health tour with the Governor and other State officials will take place on May 23 and May 24. The tour will start at the Holy Cross Ranger District (970-827-5715). Roaring Fork Region Sustainable Business Forum - May 30, 2002 / Carbondale Town Hall Business owners, government officials, planners and the public are invited to participate in the first annual Roaring Fork Region Sustainable Business Forum. At this event will examine the following issues: How businesses and government agencies can improve their bottom lines while reducing their environmental impacts. How businesses involved with sustainable designs or sustainable technologies can work together for mutual benefit. How local governments, chambers of commerce, developers and others can work together to help foster conditions in which environmentally friendly businesses thrive. The purpose of this forum is twofold: to provide education on the topic of sustainability and to bring together individuals in the region that are working on similar issues so they can network and form partnerships for future collaboration. The forum is organized by the Stepstone Center . Contact Scott Chaplin chaplin@sopris.net or 963.3483 for more information. Colorado APA Conference in Grand Junction, September 19-20 / Two Rivers Convention Center Grand Junction and Mesa County are hosting the state APA convention this fall at the newly renovated Two Rivers Convention Center (www.apacolorado.org). The conference theme is “monument planning.” Conference organizers are looking for good presentation and panel options, and would appreciate any ideas or suggestions. The submittal deadline is past but you can send an email to Dale Case at daclu@co.boulder.co.us to check if they still have room in the agenda. Contact either planning department if you have a display or an area of interest or issue you'd like to see on the agenda. Specific questions about the conference can be directed to Dana Raugh draugh@co.mesa.co.us. Colorado’s Future: How Can We Meet the Needs of a Changing State? Sept. 27, 2002 / University of Colorado at Colorado Springs campus The Center for Colorado Policy Studies at UCCS is hosting a broad ranging conference on quality of life issues in Colorado (http://web.uccs.edu/ccps/) Sessions include: Information vs. Privacy Preserving Quality of Life in Colorado Changing Demographics of Colorado Some of the conference speakers include: Tim Foster, Exec. Director, CCHE and former House Majority Leader; Rutt Bridges, President, Bighorn Institute, and former Pres. Intl. Society of Geophysicists; Wade Buchanan, Exec. Director, the Bell Policy Group and former Chief of Staff to Gov. Roy Romer; Dr. Pamela Shockley, Interim Chancellor, CU-Colorado Springs. A peer-reviewed conference volume with the full papers of presenters, abstracts of poster sessions, and contact information for all participants and attendees will be produced. A modest honorarium will be awarded to presenters in key sessions. There will be a $35 charge to other conference attendees to cover luncheon, reception, and the conference volume. Please submit proposals by June 1, 2002 to: Prof. Steve Jennings, Program Committee University of Colorado at Colorado Springs P. O. Box 7150 Colorado Springs, Co. 80933-7150 sjenning@uccs.edu The Center for Colorado Policy Studies applies economic principles and research results to critical policy issues at the state and local level. The Center has programs on Growth Issues, Education policy, and Tax policy. The Center has a number of interesting resources on its website http://web.uccs.edu/ccps/ -------------------------------------------- Web Resources -------------------------------------------- Civilizing Downtown Highways Do you wonder why streets are so big and nasty? Do you want to do something about it? Civilizing Downtown Highways shows you how. While this publication focuses on case studies in California, many of the lessons and techniques discussed can be applied to any state's highway system. The publications is roughly 100 pages ($29.95). Order on-line at the Congress for the New Urbanism www.cnu.org American Metropolitics: A Comparative National Study of Social Separation and Sprawl This new book by Myron Orfield provides an eye-opening analysis of the economic, racial, environmental, and political trends of the 25 largest metropolitan regions in the United States. Using detailed maps and case studies, Orfield demonstrates how sprawling development is negatively impacting the social fabric, fiscal health, and livability of communities across the U.S. You can view the introduction and/or purchase the book ($29.95) at http://www.brook.edu/dybdocroot/press/books/american_metropolitics.htm Colorado Index Released The Colorado Center for Healthy Communities and Healthy Mountain Communities (www.hmccolorado.org) have just released the Colorado Index. The report pieces together a range of indicators to paint a picture of quality of life in Colorado. The report builds on the numerous indicators throughout the U.S. and Colorado. The printed report is available for $20.00 (includes postage and handling). Please contact the Center at calling 970.963.1194 or by email to info@coloradocenter.org. A PDF version of the report is available at www.coloradocenter.org.	Planning Links Local Eagle County www.eagle-county.com Garfield County www.garfield-county.com Gunnison County www.co.gunnison.co.us Pitkin County www.pitkingov.com City of Aspen www.aspengov.com Town of Basalt www.basalt.net Town of Carbondale City of Glenwood Springs www.ci.glenwood-springs.co.us Town of New Castle Town of Parachute City of Rifle www.rifleco.org Town of Silt www.townofsilt.org Town of Snowmass Village www.tosv.com Roaring Fork Transportation Authority www.rfta.com Healthy Mountain Communities www.hmccolorado.org Roaring Fork Conservancy http://www.roaringfork.org/ Northwest Colorado Council of Governments www.nwc.cog.co.us Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado email: jwhitt@rifle.net League for Economic Assistance & Planning - Region 10 www.Region10.Net Colorado Mountain College www.coloradomtn.edu State State Homepage www.state.co.us Dept. of Local Affairs www.dola.state.co.us Dept. of Natural Resources www.dnr.state.co.us Dept. of Transportation www.dot.state.co.us Colorado Counties, Inc. www.ccionline.org Colorado Municipal League www.cml.org Colorado APA www.apacolorado.org Colorado SBDC www.coloradosbdc.com Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics www.bls.gov Bureau of Land Management www.blm.gov US Forest Service White River Forest www.fs.fed.us US Census www.census.gov Roundtable Resources Newsletter archives Resource Reports Sample Codes Roundtable Contacts Randy Russell Garfield County Building & Planning rrussell@garfield-county.com 970.945.8212 Colin Laird Healthy Mountain Communities claird@hmccolorado.org 970.963.5502
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