Planning Commission - workshop

Well, good evening. It is Wednesday, June 24th, and you are here at the study session for Planning and Zoning Commission. So greetings all. And I believe we have a presentation from Daniel, who I am happy to see. We have not seen you for a bit. So it's always a joy to hear what you have to say. So by way of reminder for you and for Ms. Robbins, if you would be so kind as to make sure that we have ample time to answer questions. And I know that Commissioner Bush has really been looking forward to this presentation. So Daniel and Robin, take it away.

Sure. Thank you. I hope you all can see the slide deck because we're doing some things to show off. Good evening. I'm Daniel Krasinowski with the Long Range Planning Department. This presentation is going to be a joint effort between myself and Robin Fleischman, who is the manager of Urban Renewal. I don't know, Robin, if you want to introduce yourself. Sure.

I have a very long title, commissioners. I'm the manager of Urban Renewal and Redevelopment for the Aurora Urban Renewal Authority. And the reason I'm here is I used to work for the City of Golden. It was very experienced in running their downtown development authority. So I am helping internally to set up under Deputy City Manager Laura Parrott, the new DDA for the City of Aurora.

Great. Well, we'll get started. I'll be brief about the ancient history so we have plenty of time to talk about what came from this process and what's next. But I did really want to start at the beginning. This effort that we'll talk about tonight, the Colfax Community Vision and Action Plan, is as much sort of a planning effort as it is a community engagement and action effort. And so I wanted to give a little bit of an overview of the whole project, the whole 18 month process, talk about the groundwork that the city laid and engaging the community and leading to an action plan. That's the planning part. The engagement and the doing part is the Downtown Development Authority and CDC portions that are really a result of this effort and really will be where the rubber hits the road in terms of implementing that plan. The process kicked off in mid 2024. This was an effort that was sort of a long time in coming. I think this is something that's been discussed up in the COFAX Northwest Aurora Arts District for a little while. It's something that the city has interest in, that AURA helped fund the study and the consultant assistance. And I think the community was really ready for this type of effort. There's been a lot of change in that neighborhood. good and bad and just different. And I think there's a lot of momentum in the area and a lot of interest in doing something different to realize kind of the next phase of that historic community. And so we kicked off with really a three phase process. The first was a lot of learning. It's the city learning about the community, the community, engaging with themselves. I think that we did a lot of homework and research into communities like this and how these groups can organize some of the tools available to the community and to the city and what's been happening in the metro area. And so the first couple phases, we're really sort of orienting ourselves to the area with site tours. We did a very extensive panel of stakeholder interviews, data analysis, and really ended up forming a working group of community members. From that, we worked through a process, city and community jointly, to think about planning and to think about organization and some options that are available to the community in terms of organizing themselves around around action. And so we did some research and we'll talk a little bit about the options that were considered. In this, we were listening, taking stock of what's going on in the neighborhood and developing a draft plan outline, sort of a community plan, a state of what's important to the community, thinking about opportunities and needs. And that is what the Colfax Community Plan is. is really meant to capture. So that phase two, we drafted a plan, worked through boundaries and priorities, and I continued a lot of work with the community. And really then moving into phase three is we've got this draft plan in hand. How is this Going to take action and how is this going to be different than frankly, the many past efforts that have been done in the neighborhood? Is there something new that we can bring to bear in the community? Just briefly that phases 1 and 2, like I said, we did a lot of community work. There are. other cities in the area that are great models and great case studies for the kind of work and the kind of effort that we were looking into. We did a tour with the community over in Englewood on their South Broadway DDA, got a great tour of the things that they've done over there. If you've been over there, there's a lot of change happening there. But there's a number of other communities in the area and organizations in the area that really kind of served as an inspiration and maybe a model to what we were thinking about here in Aurora. Like I said, we did a lot of outreach in the Northwest Aurora community. I won't go into a lot of detail. Some of you all may have attended. We had town halls, big and small. We had interviews. We had a pretty robust websites and social media presence, and really spent a lot of time working with the community, sharing some information and ideas, but mostly listening to a really wide array of community stakeholders. The draft plan is really intended to be a high-level roadmap to revitalize the East Colfax Corridor and the surrounding area over the coming years. Putting together an actual tangible plan is not only a good idea, it's not only a great way to capture what the community desires, but it's an item that if we were to pursue, we did pursue the establishment of a downtown development authority. It's the plan of work. It's the plan of development that's legally required for this group to endorse and work on. And so it does really sort of double duty in capturing the community, but also serving as a basis for actions. We also looked into supporting the formation of a community development corporation, which is a different sort of organization. We'll talk a little bit about the pros and cons and how that organization does, but that's been part of the planning in the area. And another group that could use this community plan as sort of a work plan and some direction and priorities for the work that they will do. The plan touches on really sort of 6 goal areas. These may not be a surprise to folks who have worked in the area spent time in the area things like housing and neighborhood stability really rose to the top as a priority business support and maintaining really a robust local business community is a priority. This area does include the arts district and so advancing arts and culture, not only as sort of an item of city pride, but a real important parts and unique part to the local economy. Public safety and security was undoubtedly a priority that we heard quite a bit about as well as cleaning and maintenance and public space improvements. I won't go into all the details here. I touched on public safety, thinking about how the community can continue to work with APD or other organizations that are really meant to make people feel safe, make businesses feel secure. Business development and support, especially small businesses and community-owned businesses is a priority. housing, affordable housing, and not only developing new housing, but ensuring that people who live there can continue to live in the homes that their families have lived in for a while. Cleaning and maintenance, public space improvements, things like improvements to Fletcher Plaza, events, and outdoor amenities is important. And of course, the creative district, the arts district. We touched on organization a little bit, and this was really sort of really a critical and exciting part of this process. We have done plans in this area. The community has worked towards goals on housing and safety, et cetera. But one thing that has not been established in the area or Aurora is some of these very formal community-based, community-led organizations that can be champions, that can be funders, that can be sort of long-term partners entities and institutions to help carry through this vision to take action on this vision to be a place of sort of sustained effort. And there's two models that were considered in the process. The first was the establishment of a downtown development authority. Um, which is a special district, um, sort of in the, in the way that a metro district, or, um, uh, you know, or a parks districts, it's a formal, um, formally established district. that can focus on things like safety, infrastructure, business support. It has funding behind it, tax funding through a tax instrument financing. This is similar to the urban renewal program, those urban renewal areas. There's a portion of Tax growth that is funneled back into the local area. It works similarly with the downtown development authority. The portion of new tax increment, new tax revenue is funneled back into the community to help fund some of those programs around small business supports and housing and economic development. Community Development Corporation is sort of a different entity. It too is also a formal entity. It's a non-profit. It's not a sort of formal quasi-governmental organization, but it can be very powerful, it's able to fundraise, it's able to receive grants, philanthropy, own property, and its focus too is on housing, economic development, and other issues facing the area that it serves. And so we really were focused on not picking between the two, but seeing the benefits and the interaction that's possible by having two different entities that are funded in different ways Organized in different ways and focused on sort of a slightly different geography. Which brings us to boundaries. The downtown development authority is something that's defined in state law and has rules and regulations about how it could be set up where it can be set up and how. How it comes to be, and that's all sort of based in state law. And so it's. What it requires is a, an election of property owners in a specific area. If they choose to set up this district, it has taxing authority through TIF. And in that way also requires that there be a very formal boundary to this area. And so as part of this process, the city and the community looked at the corridor and started to sort of define what this district boundary might look like. why it might be drawn the way it is, the benefits, the pros and cons. And we looked at things like land use and zoning. We looked at business locations. We looked at public areas. We looked at, like I said, land use and where there's businesses and housing. And we really, in the end, came to the decision that we wanted to really focus this downtown development authority on that sort of business corridor along Colfax. This stretch of Colfax between Yosemite and almost up to Peoria, one block north and one block south of Colfax, is really the business commercial portion of the neighborhood. Most of the properties in this area are commercial or multifamily housing. There are exceptions to that, but we really tried to carve out sort of a very focused area, one to focus on where the improvements and where the services and where the the DDA will operate, but also try to have a very focused sort of electorate because it requires an election. There was a lot of work done by the community to speak in favor of that. And those electors who are in charge of electing to choose to join the DDA really have to be defined and really wanted to keep that very limited and focused. So this is what ended up being the DDA boundary. The CDC does not require a formal firm boundary. These organizations can work sort of in a more – sort of neighborhood-wide, community-wide focus because there's not an election, there's not an electorate that you're trying to focus on and drum up support from. And so a CDC could work both in the commercial corridor, but also in the surrounding neighborhood as well, as shown in this map. So it's really sort of a layered effect of a very focused DDA boundary. and then a CDC that serves those areas and beyond. At this point, I will turn it over to Robin, who can talk a little bit about the election, governance, and what's coming next.

So Daniel's running the slides, so would you please go to the next slide? Thank you. So voting in a DDA is limited to the people who live, work, or own property or lease property in the DDA. You have to be a registered voter. In the case of a business, they were able to submit a form designating who could vote on their behalf. There was a lot of outreach. And while the city provided and the community provided a lot of information, once it gets put on the ballot, the city does not advocate for or against it. Next slide, please. Next slide. So these are again laid out in the DDA statute, in the state statute, five to 11 members on the board. Members can be businesses, and in the case of a business, they would designate a manager, an agent, or an employee to be their representative. There can be a resident or it could be a property owner. The majority of board members must live or own property within the DDA. One member has to be a city council person, and that is a person who's already approved as council member. I just forgot who it was. I'm sorry, it's Jackson, Councilmember Jackson. And then the remainder are appointed by city council through the sort of process that is done to appoint all folks to commissions for the city. Next slide, please. So just bottom line, there was a lot of community engagement in education. I'm sure many of you went to those meetings, There was a review of the Vision and Action Plan, the Plan of Development, which is the legal name required by the statute. And last November 4th, the election was held and it was approved with 80% support. So that is really exciting. Next slide, please. So speaking of the timeline, Daniel did a bunch of the first part, then there's voted on November 4th, and then there's a star in the middle. So on Monday, the 22nd, council appointed most of the remaining board. The council just appointed nine members to the board in addition to council member Jackson, so that's up to 10. There can be one more person and that will come from the CDC to be formed. In terms of startup, now that the board has been appointed, the next step is to set up the first meeting and to set up a regular cadence of meetings. So there will be decisions on where public notices of meetings get posted, where the meetings are going to be, what the time of day and all of that, and the cadence likely once a month. And the most important thing that the DDA board will need to do is to approve the plan of development. And council also has to approve the plan of development. It was only with that approval that they can start actually engaging in activities. They also have to decide which activities they want to prioritize. They'll set up a schedule, but that is what allows them to get started. In addition, they have to adopt bylaws. They'll decide if there's going to be committees and they will also develop a annual work plan that is based on that plan of development and also an annual operating budget. Next slide, please. Additional background, a little bit more. Next slide. Okay, so this is just, again, a summary of what the DDA is that Daniel already explained. Next slide, please. And here are some other communities in the state of Colorado that have DDAs. This is not all of them, but this is a very robust group of them, and I've been to all of them. And maybe you have been, too, and they do a lot of really good work. Next slide, please. So again, here's a summary of what a CDC is. Daniel already went through that, so I won't read this to you, but it's a complementary organization that can work with and around a DDA, and that is what the community decided made sense for it. Next slide, please. And here's an example of Colorado Springs. They have four entities that are working in their downtown. There is the DDA on the bottom right doing all the things that Daniel already explained. There's a business improvement district, which works a lot, you know, Havana, what that one's like, works on marketing and events and so forth to bring people. There is a downtown ventures program in Colorado Springs that works a lot on arts and creative activities. And then there's a downtown partnership, which is businesses, nonprofits, individuals, everyone working together to have their downtown be successful. And different communities have different groups of organizations that makes sense for that specific community to enable their downtown to be successful. And I think that is the last slide. Is that correct, Daniel? So I guess we're open to questions now.

Thank you very, very much for your presentations, plural. Do we have questions from our commissioners? Yes, Commissioner Becker.

Thank you so much. Robin Fleischman and I actually, it's good to see you again from a past. And Daniel, this was a great presentation. Thank you so much for that. I had a quick question. This is really great. I didn't even know how many, growing up in Colorado Springs, I didn't realize how many programs they had for this type of work. It was crazy to see. My question is, Did you look at, like, when you were looking at these other DDAs, kind of like the, I don't want to say the failures, but like some of the struggles they had, and did you kind of incorporate that into this research as well and kind of tried to hedge against it?

Yeah, we did. We had looked at sort of led by the city and consultant team working with the community and bringing the community along. We had looked at some of these other models and some of these groups, Englewood, NUSED, CDC, Littleton, I think is recently sort of a recently formed DDA group. We're sort of at various stages of development. The new CDC is decades old over on Santa Fe. And so they've got a good long history. We took members of the community and met, spent an afternoon with their director, learning about sort of their journey from sort of growth, you know, birth to growth and all the different things that that organization has done over the years. But then we also went to Inglewood, which has got a fairly new DDA as well and met with their director, again, with the community to kind of see how they got set up and sort of what to expect in terms of setup and how quickly their organization can walk to run. And so that was another good experience and perspective as well. And so that's why we were looking at different case studies as they're all sort of unique and they're all sort of in different stages of development. And I think that was really useful in sort of understanding what happens day one, year one, year 10. It kind of shows the diversity of how these organizations can exist and grow and change. and that there really is kind of no one size fits all and certainly no one experience. So I hope that answers your question.

Yeah, thank you. Other questions?

I have a couple of questions.

Oh, I'm sorry, Commissioner Bush, my apologies.

Hi, Daniel. I have a question. The downtown Aurora is much different than any community in Colorado, period, because of all of the different nationalities, all of the, how can I say it, customs that has been developed, you know, like the Dayton Street where people stand around to try to get jobs and things like that, and then you go down further. But there's one developer that I met, I guess, almost 15 years ago who put up those apartments right across the street from the Fox. That seems to be like, man, you know, like you don't have to go to any other community to see a success because it's clean. It seems like it works. It's been operating for a long time. It has retail in it. What are we doing with the successes that we already have in the community?

Yeah, that's a great question. This effort didn't start. brand new fresh you know nothing has ever been done and there's been no momentum in the area there's certainly been a lot of development and growth and uh you know small businesses and people have have called uh this neighborhood home for for a long long time and all of that continues you know the city's interest and priority and seeing um improvement this in this area continues as it does and has and will in the future. I think what's different in looking at a CDC and DDA is that it adds capacity, that there's other entities also working towards these shared goals in the area. The establishment of these organizations doesn't absolve the city from working in these areas and trying to improve these areas and trying to build on the successes and providing infrastructure and safety and and development in these areas, but it basically adds capacity and adds focus through the CDC and the DDA in sort of a different way that hasn't been done in the past. These are organizations that are focused solely on the area This is 100% of their focus, as opposed to the city that is a huge, sprawling city. We have lots of competing interests and focuses and needs and stuff like that, but these organizations are really focused on the geography at hand. It's also run by people who work and own property and live in this area as well. These are those local residents, local business owners. And so that puts them in sort of a special place in focusing on this area. This is where they live and work. So we'll have a real affinity and dedication to the area. And I think these entities, the boards for the DDA and the CDC, you know, they should be as diverse as the people who live and work there as well. And so that's really sort of baked into the organization and the leadership of these organizations is such a focus on local issues identified by local individuals.

Okay. That sort of answers my questions. But, you know, you still have the people that are that are standing on the street looking for looking for jobs. I'm just saying, you know, have you have you kind of thought through where do we put these people? Well, you know, how do we, you know, just not change the neighborhood through a board that that is not made up of individuals who have gone through what those individuals go through with reference to coming to the United States, trying to find a job, all that kind of stuff. I just, you know, like, you know, shifting one group of people to one area so that another group of people feel better. You know, to me, it doesn't really resolve problems, you know, or issues. And I hear the police cars all the time, as you know, coming out of it. And shoots, so, you know, like, I know it's a, it's a high crime area. But what do you do with all that? You know, like, when you have a board that that really hasn't lived that life that doesn't know exactly. What to do with the people sure.

I guess. You know, I would say that, you know, like I said, the cities. Focus on crime prevention. on homelessness and the effects of people who are unhoused. That all continues. You know, the city has made efforts in that in the past. That will continue, CDC, DDD or not. You know, those are all priorities that are reflected in that plan of development, which is that sort of common and shared plan for the community, whether it's the city taking action and the DDA taking action and the CDC taking action. It's really meant to be sort of a shared playbook and a shared focus. The city will continue to work to address those issues. The CDC and the DDA just add focus, they add tools, they add funding, and they add, you know, opportunity to, continue to make progress in those really challenging topics.

I think that's the glory of the board being local to the downtown development area boundaries. All those folks live or work or own property in the DDA, so they know what's great about it. They know where it needs some additional help, and they will have and already do have great ideas on how to take this new structure, this new focus and ability to work with assisting partners to help the area prosper in all those different possible ways.

Okay. All right.

Other questions from the commissioners? Okay, my turn. I have several. The first one's easiest is Commissioner Jackson. Is she ex officio to this board or does she have a vote on the board? She has a vote. Okay.

So she's an equal partner with the other folks.

Yes. Secondly, just by way of reminder to me, because I do need the reminder on the TIF. So let's say your boundary area, just for simple math, is a million bucks, that that's their base, correct? So if in next year they get $1.2 million, then you have $2 million to either reinvest in that or use it for marketing or use it for provision of the unhoused, whatever this group wants to do. Is that correct? 200,000, not 2 million. Well, I thought you said 2 million. Yeah, no, no. So if you go 1.1 million the first year, 1.2 million the second year, then they have the 200,000. Is that correct? Yes. What happens if they only make 800,000?

What do you mean? If the next year's assessments, property tax assessments, add up to 800,000 and not a million? Yes. Correct. What happens if property valuations go down?

There would be no increment that year. Okay. Well, there would be, but that would also mean that they would have no funds. They don't get to bring funds or carry over or, you know, pigeonhole funds from the good years for the bad years. How does that work?

Yes, they do. So let's say they get in 2027, based on 2026, values because property taxes are paid in arrears. Let's say they get $200,000. They don't have to spend all of $200,000 in one year. They can choose to spend a portion of it depending on what types of programming they set up. And maybe they choose to spend $87,000, I don't know, and save some for some projects that they would like to do. And their staff will be watching values and it would make sense. They will have to decide on their budget, but it is Always good financial management to have a budget and have some reserves so that if a future year increment doesn't continue to go up or worst case goes down and there is no new funding coming in that year, then they have a reserve. This is all the types of questions, Commissioner Hogan, that they will have to decide once they approve the plan of development and set up their budget. And staff will work with them to understand how tax increment can work. I'd also like to point out, they will also get sales tax increment, property tax and sales tax. So again, a base will be established of the sales tax base. And if there's an increase in sales tax activity, they will get sales tax increment. And again, it can vary. So in the case of 2020 COVID, nearly every DDA didn't get sales tax increment because it is likely that there wasn't an incremental amount that each year, but again, They're having projections done. I don't have them with me about what the potential initial sales tax increment could be, property tax, and they will need to develop a budget that takes into, I assume, a conservative point of view that will have to decide so that what might they be able to receive, what should they spend it on, and what could a reserve be for years that were less flushed.

Other questions by commissioners? If not, I have one more question for you and I'm trying to remember right now what that question was, so I might have to think just a second for it. Oh, autonomy. How much autonomy do they have? Save from City Council. They are completely sorry. No, yes, go ahead. I think you're gonna answer my question.

Go ahead, Ms. Robin. The DDA is separate from city council. So other than the council appointing their members and approving the plan of development, the DDA will set its budget and it will decide on programs. They have to fit within laws and so forth, but if they decide to have a facade program Improvement program they will make those decisions on grant funding if they decide to enter into a tax increment financing Redevelopment project they will make that decision

And I would add the CDC is the same way. That board does not even need to be appointed by city council, but that's an independent board. They do fundraising, build a budget, an operating plan, and spend their funds as they see fit to meet their goals and their priorities.

Other questions? And then I promise this will be my last question. On the boundary, why didn't you just take it to Peoria? You have right there on the corner.

That is a good question. And the answer is there is an urban renewal district on that area that's carved out. And we could not have a DDA and an urban renewal area. authority area overlapping because they both use TIF. You can't be double dipping into the TIF.

Double down on 711. What was I thinking?

That's a good question, and that's why that little carve-out exists. Oh, that's right, Robin.

Well, I was going to say, so I wasn't working here then. There actually is an urban renewal area that overlaps the Downtown Development Authority, the Fletcher Plaza area, but it's really going to stop doing things. It's not that active right now. And any redevelopment activities that the Urban Renewal Authority could have done, the DDA will do. So it actually does exist. I'm guessing, I wasn't here, I'm guessing it was just thought, why overlap if you don't have to? But in the case of the main part of the DDA, there was this existing urban renewal area, and you would not want to carve out, I'm guessing, that section. Okay.

That's right. And I would add, speaking of boundaries, the boundaries can be expanded. Property owners can opt into joining into the DDA over time. With the boundary you see here is the boundary that was elected in November. But that's not set in stone for all of time. It's really just as it stands now.

All right, folks. Thank you so much, Daniel. And thank you, Robin, for joining us this evening. Commissioners, you have a little break until 610, of which our regular meeting will resume. So thanks a lot again.

Thank you all. You're welcome. Thank you so much.