CONCERNED about financing continuing flood recovery and possible post-recovery enhancements? This article from last week’s Redstone shows that there are plenty of options available to the community. We will need the assistance of outside experts to utilize some of them. ……………………… From Recovery to Renaissance? Two friends of mine, and probably of yours, were talking about the terrible flood damage they suffered. Comparing their losses, one observed “BUT – a disaster is a terrible thing to waste.” He said the recovery process brings opportunity. As we rebuild we can resolve to think larger and do more and do better. The FEMA Working Groups provide initial guidance to the next stage of recovery. They seemed to agree. Among the 60 projects they proposed to town officials and stakeholders, several focused on enhancements and upgrades in addition to disaster recovery. With recovery well underway for most of our community, it might be time wonder if our current progress could evolve beyond recovery into a Lyons Renaissance. Can the community’s evolving agenda also include enhancements to our wonderful quality of life? Can we begin to talk seriously about items on the community’s wish list? How about a community swimming pool? A community center? A functional town hall? Adequate downtown parking? A modern library building? Transfer of the skateboard facility and recycling center out of the commercial district? How about a Lyons Renaissance? Some of these upgrades are realistic goals. Financing is surely an issue. It may not be a barrier! Responding to adversity that churned down the canyons, our community coalesced and began pulling itself by our collective bootstraps. So, why not make bootstrap-pulling easier by using standard municipal financing tools? There are no wheels to invent. Communities throughout the nation use tools that are available to Lyons - tools that might help flood recovery evolve into a Lyons Renaissance Following is a layperson’s list of techniques used by municipalities large and small. I only scratch the surface here. This is a field for experts. What if those experts pulled on their own boots began to help Lyons learn how to turn our disaster into our opportunity? Couldn’t they help us use tools like the following? US Department of Agriculture: The USDA has nearly two dozen funding programs that can be used in Lyons. (At an economic development conference in Steamboat in the 1980s I was stunned to learn that the government and businesses and citizens’ groups in that ski town participated in nearly all of them.) One example: a Lyons official told the Library Steering Committee that the USDA can finance construction of a new library building at incredibly favorable terms once the property tax is established. Another example: a town official pointed out that a USDA block grant might make the community center project possible. (The conversation was about developing a multi-use community center with savings achieved by combining the library, town hall and other facilities.) Colorado Funding Mechanisms: Under state law, tools to finance specific projects and activities include Building Authorities, Downtown Development Authorities, Business Improvement Districts, Marketing Districts, Tax Allocation Bonds and several others. These are used, sometimes in combination, throughout Colorado to foster economic development, to fund municipal buildings, to underwrite projects such as public art – and much more. Sales Tax:. A revenue stream generated by a small sales tax increase, paid mostly by visitors, could support a construction bond of surprising size. Perhaps this could help pay for an item on the town’s wish list such as a swimming pool or a municipal parking lot or rehabilitation of our parks. Private Philanthropy: There are 75,000 philanthropic foundations in the country. They make annual grants of $40 billion. Grants from these foundations fund economic development projects, children’s activities, community beautification, health and welfare needs, programs for the elderly, capital construction, recreation programs, cultural activities and much more. Nearly 350 sizable foundations are located in Colorado. In one year total donations from the Colorado group ranged from $122,000 (The Elizabeth Foundation) to $43,000,000 (Daniels Fund). The good news is that the people of Lyons don’t need to rely solely on Colorado foundations. Thousands of foundations make grants nationally. Many fund projects we might want to undertake as part of a Lyons Renaissance. For example, the Carnegie Foundation built 300 public libraries in communities throughout the nation. Beyond the foundation world, an examination of Private Philanthropy must surely acknowledge the enormous generosity of the more prosperous of our neighbors. Who knows how much these neighbors might contribute to support a grand vision of post-flood Lyons? I pause here to restate the purpose of this summary. Common sentiment seems to be asking this question: as we rebuild, can we make our community better than it was before? My goal is to give friends and neighbors confidence in the answer to this question. By continuing the incredible collaboration that arose with the flood water AND by using long-established financial tools, we can do more and become more and enjoy more. The items listed above are a start. Additional tools are mentioned below. Urban Renewal: This is a basic economic engine, a near-universal technique to finance projects and upgrades. Some communities misused Urban Renewal, but our town’s cohesion and remarkable leadership will prevent the mistakes they made. Public/Private Partnerships: The public/private partnership is a basic Win/Win collaboration to achieve what the participating public or private party could not achieve on its own. Town leaders, lenders, local developers and local contractors, only by working together, can put some well-tested techniques to use on behalf of our community. Public/Public Partnerships: We have an example right in the middle of Lyons. The local Post Office was built through a Federal/Town partnership. It is owned by the town, mortgaged by the town and profitably leased to the federal government. Remembering the old cramped, inefficient Post Office, thankfully replaced by a public/public partnership, I wonder if public/public partnerships are possible with Longmont or with the Saint Vrain School District or with other units of government. Land Swap: The flood changed the value and the best use of some land owned by the town. It may be time to sell some of those underused parcels to finance projects that rank high on the community’s Wish List. (In fact, a sale like this might be the seed of a Public/Private Partnership.) …………………………. In closing this summary I want to urge the community to be patient. Sure, available funding mechanisms should give us confidence about achieving an even better future. However, for good or ill, the restoration or the replacement or the construction of one public facility or infrastructure project is likely to impact other projects and other facilities, both current and future. So there is a serious need to integrate various projects and the financing tools that make them possible. Integration and planning will take time. We are engaging in a multi-year process. As elected and appointed town officials manage the community’s affairs with financial prudence and administrative wisdom, we must allow them time and freedom to harness every professional resource and to explore all available financing tools. With enough time, with enough community support and with tools like those mentioned here, in time we may look back and say this was our finest hour – the time when we worked together to recover…… and then we turned our momentum into creating the Lyons Renaissance. Few communities could ever aspire to this goal. For Lyons, it may just be the next chapter. Commentary by John Burke
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 17:27:38 +0000
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