On Thursday night City Council formally adopted priorities for 2011. This is generally a continuation of the priorities we established last year, but it’s worth formally identifying them to help us stay focused and help keep the community informed about what we are focused on.
We adopted five major priorities:
1) Protecting the city’s financial health and sustaining the community’s economic vitality.
2) Supporting and strengthening our neighborhoods (“The Year of the Neighborhood”), including implementing our new neighborhood grant program, completing pending neighborhood plans, and considering all of the policy recommendations in the adopted ones.
3) Maintaining our aggressive efforts to keep the beltway out of Golden and working to protect Golden from the impacts of growing regional through the Golden Plan or similar improvements.
4) Updating the Comprehensive Plan and revamping/updating the land use process to give neighborhoods a stronger voice in shaping their own future and to make the process less adversarial and combative.
5) Revisiting and updating the city’s long-term streets plan.
Other 2011 priorities include:
1) Making sure Golden is ready for light rail in 2013, including our own community bus.
2) Adopting a preliminary strategic transportation plan (in advance of preparing a thorough one in 2012).
3) Finalize our new performance evaluation system for the city and city manager, including performance metrics
4) Review and update the long-term plans for the city’s major recreational facilities.
5) Update the city’s economic development tools, structures, and strategies. This may extend into 2012.
6) Support the Quiznos Pro Challenge Professional Bicycle Race.
And some additional 2011 projects:
1) CSM Master Plan (although the timing is up to Colorado School of Mines).
2) Clear Creek Master Plan.
3) Evaluate and consider sewer/waterline insurance. DONE – Council decided to educate community members about the value of having this insurance but not to enter into a special agreement with any specific insurance providers.
4) Consider adjusting the cost of special use permits for chickens. DONE – Council reduced the special use permit fee for keeping up to six hens.
5) Evaluate and potentially update the strategy for managing amplified outdoor music.
6) Evaluate and consider updating traffic fine schedule.
7) Evaluate and consider updating leash laws.
Initiate long-term city financial health evaluation.
9) Evaluate and update medical marijuana regulations.
10) Update noise mitigation priorities.
11) Complete the City of Golden web site revamp.
12) Further development, testing, and training on the new Emergency Operations Plan (primarily staff).
13) Plan for major software updates (finance, planning, police, fire, courts) (primarily
14) Major public works projects: South Reservoir and office building reconstruction (primarily staff).
15) East Downtown Vision and Plan (potentially).
Initiate long-term city financial health evaluation.