Community and Neighborhood Livability

Vision

A high quality built environment:

• A compact pattern of development within a well-defined community boundary.
  
• Adequate public facilities, services, and infrastructure to serve existing development and new growth.
  
• Opportunities for redevelopment, revitalization, and growth in targeted areas.
  
• Cohesive, distinct, vibrant, safe, and attractive neighborhoods.
  
• Vital and appealing activity centers and destinations throughout the city.
  
• Quality and accessible housing options for all household types and income levels.
  
• Preservation and enhancement of historic resources.
  
• Distinctive and attractive community image, design, and identity.
  
• Nature visible and accessible in the city.
  
  

KEY PRINCIPLES

Growth Management

• Containing city development with well-defined boundaries that will be managed using various tools, including utilization of a Growth Management Area boundary, community coordination, and Intergovernmental Agreements.
  
• Considering the annexation of new territory into the City limits when the annexation of such property conforms to the vision, goals, and policies of City Plan.
  
• Coordinating facilities and services with the timing and location of development, and ensure that development only occurs where it can be adequately served.
  
• Development providing and paying its share of the cost of providing needed public facilities and services concurrent with development.

Infill and Redevelopment

• Promoting redevelopment and infill in areas identified on the Targeted Infill and Redevelopment Areas Map.
  
• Ensuring that infill and redevelopment within residential areas is compatible with the established character of the neighborhood. Housing
  
• Making available a variety of housing types and densities for all income levels hroughout the Growth Management Area.
  
• Encouraging the creation and expansion of affordable housing opportunities and preservation of the existing affordable housing supply.
  
• Promoting resource conservation and efficiency in the construction of new houses as well as upgrades to existing houses.

Community Appearance and Design

• Designing the city’s streetscapes with consideration to the visual character and the experience of users and adjacent properties.
  
• Integrating public spaces, such as civic buildings, plazas, outdoor spaces, and parks throughout the community and designing them to be functional, accessible, attractive, safe, and comfortable.
  
• Factoring in security and crime prevention in urban design.
  
• Recognizing gateways as important locations to draw attention to and convey the character of the surrounding district.
  
• Requiring quality and ecologically sound landscape design practices for all public and private development projects throughout the community.
  
• Designing corporate franchises and chain stores to contribute to Fort Collins’ distinct visual quality and uniqueness while remaining vital and recognizable.

Historic Preservation

• Enhancing quality of life in Fort Collins by preserving of historic resources and including heritage in the daily life and development of the community.
  
• Valuing, preserving, and enhancing historically and architecturally significant buildings Downtown and throughout the community.

Noise Pollution

• Reducing noise disturbances and pollution through enforceable, measurable, and realistic noise standards, and careful consideration of potential noise impacts.

City Structure Plan Map and Themes

The City Structure Plan Map establishes the desired development pattern for the City, serving as a blueprint for the community’s desired future. Key themes of the Structure Plan Map include:

• Focus on a Compact Development Pattern
  
• Provide an Interconnected Transit System
  
• Accommodate Multiple Means of Travel
  
• Provide Transit-Oriented Activity Centers
  
• Provide an Interconnected System of Open Lands
  
• Reduce Carbon Emissions

Components of the City Structure Plan Map
The City Structure Plan Map diagrams a future city made up of four types of places: Neighborhoods, Districts, Corridors, and Edges. The organization of these places – their “structure” –provides meaning and form to the community’s vision. Note that City Plan contains specific principles and policies for each of these types of places. |

Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods will serve as the primary building blocks of the community’s built environment. Neighborhoods will be walkable and connected, and will include a mix of housing types. Neighborhoods will include destinations within walking distance such as schools, parks, neighborhood shopping, places of work, and civic uses.

Districts
Districts are larger areas of activity, more general in nature, and are not intended to precisely correspond to existing or future zoning districts. As the community’s primary commercial district, Downtown will be supported by other districts with unique or specialized uses and activities, such as Industrial, Employment, and larger neighborhood areas. Redevelopment of existing districts, such as the Downtown, Midtown, Campus West, and North College, will provide opportunities over time for more choices in housing, land use and transportation, as well as the establishment of a more walkable and distinct environment.

Corridors
Corridors provide a connection between different areas or destinations. The primary corridors are travel corridors and “green” corridors. Corridors are not just about more streets and open space in our City – they are about a network of travel routes, choices for how we move throughout the City, reducing our need for vehicle trips, linking pockets of green space, and maximizing every positive feature that these corridors can contribute to Fort Collins. Major transportation corridors link our destinations and activities and make it easier to move around the City using various modes of travel. Among these are enhanced travel corridors, multi-modal corridors supported by complementary land uses that link key areas of the city together and link with regional connections. Other corridors such as the Poudre River, streams, drainage ways, and trails collectively create a network that links open lands to areas of the city where residents live and work.

Edges
Edges form the boundaries of our community, both inside and outside of the Growth Management Area. Fort Collins will have different types of edges. In some cases, our edges will be our adjoining communities. The City will recognize the planning efforts within the growth management and planning areas of the adjacent communities of La Porte, Wellington, Timnath, Windsor, and Loveland. In other cases, edges should reflect a transition from the developed areas of our City to the rural character of Larimer County. These edges will take on many forms including open lands and natural areas, foothills, agricultural/rural lands, and urban estate development.

PRIORITY ACTIONS

The following is a partial list of implementation actions identified as priorities in the Action Plan. Please refer to the Action Plan for a complete list of implementation actions.

Near Term (2011-2012)

• Leverage the Urban Renewal team (existing) o address cross cutting redevelopment and infill challenges and explore new means of addressing the challenges inherent in this type of development
  
• Develop the Harmony Travel Corridor Master Plan and update the Harmony Corridor Plan and Standards
  
• Update the Downtown Parking Plan
  
• Evaluate providing additional multiple-family architectural design and variation standards
  
• Complete Growth Management Area adjustments east of Interstate 25 in accordance with the Fort Collins-Timnath Intergovernmental Agreement
  
• Develop a student housing plan in coordination with Colorado State University, Front Range Community College, and others
  
• Amend the land use code to address infill compatibility, barriers to infill development and redevelopment, Transit Oriented Development (TOD) overlay zone standards in the Midtown area, landscaping and “nature in the city” amenities, and design standards for the River Downtown Redevelopment zoning district.

Longer Term (2013 and beyond)

• Develop design standards for three Interstate 25 interchange gateways (Prospect, Mulberry, and Mountain Vista)
  
• Complete Phase 4 of the Southwest Enclave Annexation
  
• Investigate long-term funding sources to maintain affordable housing programs

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