Eco-Friendly Holidays

Is it OK to recycle metallic wrapping paper? What do you do with cooking oil after deep-frying a turkey? Where can Christmas trees be recycled? Check out the City's easy-to-use Holiday Recycling Guide for tips and strategies to recycle and reduce waste at the holidays.

Economic Health Strategic Plan Update

The City's Economic Health Office is updating its Strategic Plan, first adopted in 2012, to reflect integration with the City's Departments of Social Sustainability and Environmental Services – the other two legs of the triple-bottom-line three-legged stool.

The plan is intended to consider several emerging challenges facing the City of Fort Collins economy including:

Climate change;
Community build-out;
Pace of innovation or disruptive technologies; and
Workforce demographic shifts.

City Council is scheduled to provide direction on the plan at a work session December 6.

Climate Action – Need Your Thoughts December 3

Despite an increase in population since 2005, carbon emissions have largely declined in Fort Collins, and residents here divert nearly 65 percent of their trash from the landfill.

So what's next? The public is invited to a series of public meetings starting December 3 to help the City define its energy future for the next 20 to 30 years with an update to the Climate Action Plan. The first public open house on the Climate Action Plan update will be 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, December 3 at the Fort Collins Senior Center, 1200 Raintree Drive.

Full Circle

Have you seen the City's Sustainability TV program, Full Circle? Every month, the brief, 25-minute program features a topic related to sustainability efforts at the City whether that's in the Sustainability Services area or in other service areas across the City. The City is committed to integrating the triple bottom line – Economic, Social and Environmental – into programs and services across the City organization. See Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Social Sustainability Specialist, and Rebecca Everette, Planner, talk about the City's Housing Affordability Policy Study in the November episode.

More on Housing Affordability

Typically, housing costs are most households' largest monthly expense. As rental rates and home sales prices continue to inch upward, folks wonder if Fort Collins will always be a family friendly community with good housing choices for all income levels at all stages and ages. This past January, the City commissioned a Housing Affordability Policy Study (HAPS) to look more closely at this question. City Council discussed the plan at a work session on November 25.

Among the triggers for this study were a general increased interest in understanding the current housing market, concerns over lack of rental inventory and an extremely low vacancy rate, high rent prices, and perceptions of escalation in home sales prices.

Housing affordability policy is best established when predicated on an analysis of local and regional economic conditions. The study first uses data to characterize trends in population, employment, incomes, commuting, housing market conditions and pricing to identify and characterize the magnitude of need. Below, the study's findings are summarized:

Local employment growth has outpaced regional growth, while incomes have barely kept up with the cost of living.
Housing prices have risen faster than incomes, widening the affordability gap for median-income households.
Most of the increase in housing costs is attributable to the rise in labor, materials, and land.
In-commuting into Fort Collins has increased while out-commuting has remained flat.
Demand for rental housing is tightening the market, but also stimulating construction.
Multifamily residential dwellings account for a majority of recent and proposed construction activity.
The threat of construction defect claims has had a detrimental impact on multifamily for-sale housing development.
Approximately 1,000 ownership households are cost-burdened—that is, the amount they pay for housing doesn't allow them adequate income to sufficiently cover the rest of their basic needs.
Between 1,250 and 2,400 renter households in Fort Collins are cost-burdened.

The HAPS study is available online.

Small Business Corner: Bangkok Asian Market

Sara Zhao loves Asian foods. She loves them so much in fact, that one day three years ago, she happened to be in an Asian market store in Fort Collins and learned the owner was looking to retire. She couldn't imagine a Fort Collins without access to some of her favorite Asian foods, so she bought the market.

Bangkok Asian Market attracts all sorts of nationalities by offering flours, spices, rice products, concentrates, teas, fruits and veggies, noodles, fish-balls, sauces, and even Asian newspapers. Products and customers from Thailand, Vietnam, Korea and Japan and more are often found in the store.

Zhao runs her shop with one other employee, and she gets a kick out of introducing curious first-timers and return customers who are unfamiliar with some of the fruits and vegetables, such as durian fruit and lychee. Passionate about promoting healthier foods and cooking, Zhao is pleased to offer Fort Collins residents an establishment with products that are healthy. "We also carry a lot of gluten-free products," she says. "I like to educate our customers about foods they may not be so familiar with but that are really good for them."

Bangkok Asian Market is located at 1107 W. Drake Road or at www.bamfc.com

Etc.

Applications will be accepted as of December 1 for the Blue Ocean Challenge business pitch competition at Colorado State University, which debuted in 2014. Once again, the City of Fort Collins is a major sponsor of the competition, to be held during Fort Collins Startup Week May 26-30. As part of that week, the City will host its annual Business Appreciation Breakfast on May 27. Details to come!