Historic Uptown Updates

Board Member: Cheryl

• Historic Uptown Traffic Safety Study: Traffic Safety Working Group Meeting #3 on Friday, March 8, 2pm – 3pm.
• Neighborhood Street Signs – Traffic engineering will get pricing for irregular shapes.
• Neighborhood Monuments – Traffic engineering will investigate for Wahsatch.

• Colorado College Meeting: Cheryl, Dianne, and Mariah are meeting with Amber Brannigan, Associate Vice President, Campus Operations & Facilities Services of Colorado College on February 16. Does anyone have questions?
  • Discuss permit parking enforcement.
    • Retrospective meeting to be set with the campus police after graduation season.
  • Determine if they updated their strategic plan and if so, can we get a copy.
    • Project 2024 is their new 10-year strategic plan.
  • Ask how the neighborhood can support them and if they want more neighborhood engagement with their events.
    • They would like to have a 150-year anniversary block party to in conjunction with Historic Uptown.
  • Will Robson Arena have a neighborhood restaurant similar to Wooglins?
    • A Russian-style coffee shop and Mexican restaurant are in the works.
• Annual Historic Uptown Meeting: The Annual Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 28, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. at the McAllister Carriage House. Parking and access are off the alley on St. Vrain Street between Cascade and Tejon. Refreshments will be served. Tim Scanlon will do a presentation on the Historic Uptown Parkside District Properties and answer any questions about the historic preservation overlay designation process.
  • Flyer distribution is in progress and can be tracked using the 2024 Uptown Annual Meeting Flyer Distribution sheet.
  • Mariah is working on adding neighborhood business emails to the newsletter mailing list.

• Spring 2025 Tree Program: We didn’t discuss starting a tree program. Moved to the next monthly meeting.

Treasurer Updates

Board Member: Jeff

• Status of the 501(c)(3) application – delayed due to the IRS needing to do more investigating.

Communications Updates

Volunteer: Mariah

• Summer Party Planning – choose a date and get support from CONO.
  • Tentatively scheduled for Saturday, July 20, 2024.
  • Dianne is investigating the Acacia Park Bandshell availability.  We will need to start the planning process soon.
• Neighborhood Network – Historic Uptown is requesting to be a part of the 5A Neighborhood Network due to the similarity of the neighborhoods within 5A. Additionally, the Downtown doesn’t appear to be interested in creating a Neighborhood Network.

Historic Preservation

Board Member: Cheryl

• Parkside District Preservation: Finished distributing/sending packets to all the properties in the Parkside District.
  • 7: hand delivered
  • 5: mailed
  • 10: emailed
  • 3: gave to a neighbor to forward

Neighborhood Plan

Board Member: Dianne

• Dianne explained to the board what a Neighborhood Master Plan is. The board unanimously approved to start work on one.

What is Neighborhood Planning?

1. Identifies a vision for the neighborhood, addressing unique characteristics and needs.
2. Can address areas such as land use, built form/character, open spaces, transportation/mobility, and amenities.
3. Serves as a guide for evaluation of private development applications and informing City initiatives and priorities, language in the plan is key (shall vs. encourage)
4. People involved in the planning include city administration, residents, business owners, non-profits, etc.
5. The city is focused on community area plans, an extended program addressing 12 district areas across the city.
6. Individual neighborhoods can lead their own planning, following key parameters from city administration.
7. Peter Wysocki has offered to support Historic Uptown in the development of a neighborhood plan, starting with a Public Engagement Plan.

Greater Westside Community Plan Example

• Benefit from looking at multiple neighborhoods and the shared destinations between them.
• Include multiple inter-related topics:
  • Future land use
  • Built form and character
  • Multimodal mobility
  • Parks and open space
  • Amenities and services
  • Placemaking and programming
• Explore trade-offs and set priorities
• Establish an implementation strategy

Historic Uptown Neighborhood Planning

1. We think it wise for Historic Uptown to develop a Neighborhood Plan
2. Important we collectively define our vision and wants versus having someone else determine and influence it for us
3. We can define what we want to address in the plan and what is deemed “mandatory” versus “guidance”
4. To be adopted, the plan must be approved by Planning Commission and City Council
5. We would work closely with City Planning, Peter Wysocki in particular
6. As a board, we can decide if we want to do this
7. The board can be part of the steering committee, we should identify someone as the lead
8. This year our focus is on historic preservation
9. Perhaps this year we start the planning activities for the development of a neighborhood plan

2024 Annual Neighborhood Meeting Agenda for Neighborhood Planning

• Vision and needs for the neighborhood
• Addressing unique characteristics
• Identify what is important to you: problems, opportunities, goals, and priorities
• Can address areas such as safety, lighting, traffic, trees, character, open spaces, and amenities
• You can be part of this! Anyone in the neighborhood (owners, renters,
  and businesses). Others will include City administration, non-profits, etc.
• We are currently working on a plan. What to do, when with whom. How to reach out to you, communicate, etc.