As city officials begin building the road map for Cañon City’s next 20 years, technology is making it possible for citizens to take part in the process without ever having to ever leave homes.
The City of Cañon City and Houseal Lavigne Associates LLC hosted a visioning workshop Wednesday, where residents participated in person and virtually through Facebook Live and Zoom.
John Houseal, the principal and co-founder of Houseal Lavigne Associates, said comprehensive plans provide a community vision and are useful when attracting potential developers and trying to obtain grant funding.
The document also is used to guide city officials when considering projects to determine if they are consistent with the community’s vision and goals.
The consulting team already has met with a number of stakeholders and have read comments on the project’s website to learn about concerns and to garner information that was used to put together a series of questions and multiple choice answers for Wednesday’s event.
The questions and top answers are as follows:
- The biggest issues facing housing and neighborhoods are… lack of affordable housing followed by a lack of housing options/variety.
- The focus for economic development should be… business attraction/recruitment, followed by “becoming more business-friendly.”
- The focus for community culture and character should be… community image and reputation followed by character/appearance of commercial areas.
- The biggest issues facing vehicular transportation are… traffic congestion closely followed by not enough parking downtown.
- The biggest issues facing non-vehicular transportation are… an incomplete sidewalk network and lack of public transportation.
- The focus for infrastructure improvements should be… broadband followed by aging infrastructure.
- The type of residential development I want to see more of in the future is… affordable housing flowed by apartments/condominiums.
- The type of commercial development I want to see more of in the future is… downtown, followed by restaurant/retail.
- In one word, what is the best thing about Cañon City? Recreation, quality of life, lifestyle, climate, mountains.
- In one word, what is the worst thing about Cañon City? Division, drugs, poverty, attitude.
- In one word, what was the most important topic discussed tonight in regard to the Picture Cañon City 2040 Comprehensive Plan? Housing economic development, economy, workforce, overall image/attitude.
During a discussion about community image and reputation, Houseal said if a community doesn’t establish a brand or image and then own it, then someone else will define that community’s narrative and the community will be stuck with it.
“I think 15 years ago, people would have said we are known for prisons, but now it’s slowly changing,” said Beth Katchmar, the owner and operator of Pizza Madness and a member of the Fremont County Tourism Council.
She said the work that Fremont Adventure Recreation has done to change that whole image, combined with the branding by FCTC, people from outside the area now associate the area as the “Royal Gorge Region” rather than Cañon City or Fremont County.
“There are a lot of people now that focus on our mountain biking, our flyfishing and our camping, and they don’t say ‘prisons’ anymore,” she said. “I notice that a lot talking to people coming into my business.”
Transportation-related issues are identified by many cities, Houseal said, but they’re often the last issues ever solved.
“They are multi-jurisdictional, a lot of the decisions do not rest with the city, they rest with the state, and that’s frustrating,” he said. “The other thing is those improvements are really costly.”
The comprehensive plan has a dedicated website, http://picturecanoncity2040.com, where the public can keep up to date on the progress of the plan, complete a questionnaire or create a map of the issues and opportunities they see in the city. Community input throughout the process is critical, and the website includes pages where one can participate, receive project updates and review documents and plans as they are prepared.
An analysis report now will be developed and provided on the project website in about a month. It is expected to include a look at marketing, housing, land use, zoning, transportation, environment, recreation, arts and culture, and history.
The draft plan and zoning ordinance are expected to be presented to the city council for consideration in June 2021.
