GVCA Journal for 03/13/05
Summary:

Lots o' meetings coming up this week -- and other events on the horizon as
well.

To start:

1) City council candidates
    Petitions could be taken out for the first day on Friday, and five
people have already picked them up: Rick Miller, Joy Hart, Jim Pike, Perry
Anderson and Ellen Harriman.

2) Fiscal Impact Study
    The study is available on-line, and the folks from Civic Economics will
be before city council and planning commission on Tuesday at 7 p.m. for
their only live presentation of the information.  This meeting deserves a
great turn-out.

3) Design Standards Review
    The process continues on Wednesday, with an early start of 5:30 p.m. The
Times had a great set of photos of some of the commissioners that well
expressed the lengthy, involved process this has been.

4) Joint planning meeting
    Planning commissioners from both the city and the county will meet
jointly at the Blackstock building, noon to 1:30 or 2, on Friday.

5) Western State College
    In all the discussion of the economic drivers of our town and county,
this one goes continually overlooked -- and numbers as well as funding are
both down.

6) Organization Get-Together
    Reta Calkins is seeking support for a monthly inter-group meeting among
several civic-minded organizations, including ours.

Details on these topics:

Details:


1) City council candidates

    As you can see from the list, we have Ellen out there by herself.  (And
as of Sunday afternoon, she needed 10 more signatures of registered city
voters for her petition.) Narcissa Channell has offered to host a meeting
for potential candidates to take a look at the issues and devise some
strategies. This meeting will probably take place not this week, but next.
Anyone interested in putting some time and effort toward the campaign, and
especially anyone interested in running, is welcome.

The impacts from a planning perspective could be quite consequential. Rick
Miller has already stated publicly that the planning commisison is focused
on all the wrong issues, and that the city should crawl to Wal-Mart and beg
it  to stay in the city at any cost. Perry Anderson's track record on
development was prominently displayed for the last four years at the county.
A lot of hard, good work by a lot of people could quickly be undone.


2)  Fiscal Impact Study

    Since this issue speaks directly to Wal-Mart, those of you interested in
this topic would be advised to either turn out or tune in for Tuesday's
presentation by Civic Economics. The report is available at
http://www.civiceconomics.com/Gunnison/Gunnison_Impact_Study.pdf
but it's almost impossible to retrieve if you don't have high-speed
internet. Vikki has a copy of the file and can provide a hard copy for
anyone interested. Or I can get a copy on disk to you, since it's 82 pages
long.

    We are hopeful that the council, which usually tends not to seek public
input at its meetings, will allow questions from the floor. Otherwise, we
will submit some written questions and hope that someone on the council will
ask at least some of them of the consultants. This study, which really
hasn't turned up results much different from what our previous research had
indicated, was budgeted for $25,000 of taxpayer money. That's a large
investment, so hopefully taxpayers will be allowed to ask for clarification
on a few items.

We did also devote some of Sunday's meeting time to a discussion of
encouraging a Wal-Mart supercenter, if one absolutely had to build here, to
locate along Highway 50 rather than on 135. The fiscal report really doesn't
address the long-term status of other grocery stores, other than to say that
jobs and higher wages will be lost, but that might be a means of offering
City Market some hope of survival, if it can serve as the stop-off for
people bound for CB. Woody Duncan perpetually reminds us that Wal-Mart has
been a good corporate citizen for 14 years, and we need to look out for
them, but City Market has been another corporate member in good standing of
this community -- for 30 years. I have no idea what City
Market's average wage or employee count is, but those folks ought to be
entitled to the same consideration we're giving Wal-Mart employees.

We also devoted discussion time to the hope (many of us feel it is faint)
that the EDC's efforts might be redirected to a primary task of offering
assistance to existing businesses, in an effort to build up sales and thus
perhaps leading to more employment opportunities and a wider array of goods
offered for sale.


3)  Design Standards Review

    Yet another copy of the design standards is available from the community
development office. Ths one has incorporated PUD language and waivers, but I
don't know if any of us have had time to take a look at it to see if it
ensures that choosing a PUD option still adheres to the intent of the design
standards.

    The goal of the planning commission is to take this to public hearing by
April 9, with a second public hearing set after that before city council.

    However, we want to make sure that the fiscal impact study is at least
thoroughly discussed, since it offers both con and pro for supersizing
Wal-Mart, before the moratorium comes to an end. Thomas Smits has already
asked the city attorney for his opinion that the moratorium will end once a
decision is made (one way or the other) on design standards. And yet, if
this community decides the disadvantages of having a supercenter outweigh
the pluses, some sort of legislation (perhaps a building cap of something
like 70,000 square feet -- which does not preclude Wal-Mart from building
one of its Neighborhood Markets near an expanded new building) would need to
go into place before the moratorium ends. We need to make sure all angles,
not just design standards, get looked at.

  
4) Joint meeting
   
    If we could get a couple of volunteers to attend this workday meeting of
the planning commissions, that would be good. I'm not sure what, exactly, is
on the agenda, but perhaps Ellen can fill us in. Don't forget too that Rep.
Kathleen Curry will be in town in early April. I want to ask her -- even
though it's an expense the state probably doesn't have money for -- if every
taxpayer receiving their TABOR refund this year could also get a piece of
paper explaining what percentage of refund money has gone to what special
interests, since I understand very little of the overall tax refund actually
makes it back to the taxpayers.


5)  Western State College

    Just a reminder to everyone, because I heard it again today while I was
working at the airport: our economy is not only tourist-driven, but it is
well-supported by Western State College. However, through TABOR and vouchers
and who knows what else, Western State -- like most other colleges in the
state -- is struggling. As a community, we need to recognize this economic
engine's value, particularly since these are higher-paying primary jobs, the
kind every community should covet. But although they're primary jobs, many
of the folks up there haven't had raises in several years, and sometimes
candidates who itnerview there look at the salary offer, and the housing
costs, and go elsewhere.

    The college needs the support of this entire valley, and whenever the
subject turns to economics and things we can do to diversify our economy, we
need to add Western State to the list of considerations.


6)  Organization Get-Together

    Reta Calkins is seeking to generate community discussion by bringing
several community groups, many of whom receive public funding at least in
part, to the same table once a month, akin to the mayors/managers meeting
held monthly, hosted each month by a different participant.

    She did not have her list of community groups at hand when she stopped
by, but the GVCA is on her list. At our Sunday meeting we agreed we would
participate in such a group, but it will be up to Reta or someone else to
try to put the group together.



That's the report for this week.  We have several other projects either in
the works or in the wings, and we'll bring you news of them when we've got
something more concrete.

In the meantime, if you see a city planning commissioner, thank him or her
for the horrendous hours that have been put in in trying to craft a clear
vision for our community.

TL