Inside Arvada

Inside Arvada's Community and Economic Development Department with Jessica Garner

• City of Arvada • Season 1 • Episode 10

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How does a city balance preserving its historical charm with the pressing need for affordable housing? What is a comprehensive plan? And how is it different from the land development code? 

Join us as we engage with Jessica Garner, Arvada's Community and Economic Development Director, who explains the multifaceted role of her department. Jessica delves into the inner workings of the five key divisions she oversees: planning, housing, building, economic development, and systems and administration.

Discover how collaborative efforts across departments guide Arvada's strategic community growth and ensure cohesive development. Additional information on topics covered in the episode: 

Other news and events: 

Visit us at ArvadaCO.gov/Podcast or email us at podcast@arvada.org.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Inside Arvada, the City of Arvada's podcast, where we bring you conversations with the people who make Arvada a thriving community. Hear stories about the past, present and future of Arvada through the lens of the city team members who help make it all happen. Explore the complex topics impacting our community, from the roads you drive to the water you drink, the parks where you play to what your neighbors think. Join us as we take you Inside Arvada. Hello and welcome to our next episode of Inside Arvada, the city's official podcast. Today we have on the Community and Economic Development Director for the city, jessica Garner.

Speaker 1:

The Community and Economic Development Director for the city, jessica Garner. She began her role as the city's Director of Community and Economic Development in 2023. She provides leadership and direction for the city's community and economic development departments, which she'll talk about. Those include planning and zoning, building services, development and housing. She has 24 years of local, statewide and national land use planning, transportation and public health experience. Before joining the city, she was the community and economic development director for the town of Estes Park and, as we'll learn today in the episode, jessica actually began her career way back in 2001 as an intern for the city of Arvada. So pretty cool full circle. Stay tuned for the end of the interview to hear that full story. And today I am, as always, joined by my co-host, sean Starr. Hey, sean.

Speaker 2:

Hi Katie and thanks to all our listeners as a reminder. Appreciate you to subscribe and rate and review the show and I'm very excited about today's interview with Jessica. It was interesting for me to learn about how growth and development happens in the city over time. It's not just sort of like a random events. It's done very strategically and very thoughtful by a talented staff with input from the community, and so it was great to learn kind of more of the details of our planning and zoning departments, areas of work that I don't have in my daily scope, but great to always learn more about other parts of the city. So with that we will turn it over to our interview with Jessica. The city. So with that we will turn it over to our interview with Jessica. Hi Jessica, Thanks so much for joining us today.

Speaker 3:

Let's begin by telling us a little bit about yourself and what you do for the city. Hi, sean, it's great to be here. Thank you for having me. I'm Jessica Garner. I'm the Community and Economic Development Director for the city, and I've been here for almost a year now and spent a little bit of time up in Estes Park prior to this.

Speaker 1:

Nice. So can you give us a little bit of an overview of what is community and economic development? What are kind of the divisions in your department? What all do you do?

Speaker 3:

So community and economic development, we essentially have five divisions we have the planning division, we have housing, we have building, economic development and then systems and administration. And really the overall intention of our work system is to deliver and help the community to develop and build according to our comprehensive plan, according to our land development code and to the various building codes that we have to follow, according to our land development code and to the various building codes that we have to follow, but to hopefully help make that experience as painless as possible and then help to build the community that the folks in Arvada would like to see.

Speaker 2:

Speaking of a comprehensive plan, every jurisdiction, every city, every county is required to have a comprehensive plan. What exactly is a comprehensive plan and how does the city team use it?

Speaker 3:

Comprehensive plans are really interesting and it's actually something that has been around in this country since the 20s. Way back in the day it was determined that we needed to have comprehensive plans to help at the local level for jurisdictions to think about how do we create a broad, long-term vision for future land uses and the built environment of communities. So it really lays the foundation for zoning codes, which are the legal tool for implementing the vision of the future that's in a comprehensive plan, and the way I tend to see that type of planning is that it really is our long-term vision for how we see ourselves in the future 20 years and more and that's a really intensive process with our community so that they can help us to define that vision.

Speaker 1:

And we have a current comprehensive plan that was developed about 10 years ago or so and then looking toward the next iteration of that soon and we can link to the current one. One thing I think I find really interesting toward the beginning of that large document is a graphic about kind of like the history of comprehensive plans in Arvada and how they've changed over time. And so then now they include a lot of these like kind of smaller plans that we do kind of just on a different timeline I guess, like I know, we have a bike master plan and some of those. Can you speak a little bit to how those other plans are kind of like incorporated up into this big?

Speaker 3:

vision is really intended to be a product that the entire city plays a part in. So all the different departments and divisions within the city have a bit of a stake in those plans. So, for example, we'll have a transportation component of our comp plan and in that it may say things like hey, you need to be creating a master plan that's looking at our overall bike routes throughout the city, or we want to make sure that everybody has access to a park or an open space within a certain distance, or we want to make sure that there are commercial opportunities that are accessible and affordable to people. All of that stuff goes into a comprehensive plan and then essentially, it's up to those different departments to create these more detailed. You know, you might call it a master plan. It's basically just a more specific way of implementing that bigger, long-term vision that the comp plan sets out to create. So you'll often see that and there are many, many plans that are out there and the intention is is that they all weave back into that comprehensive plan and that bigger picture vision and they all need to be maintained. We need to implement those plans and then we also need to update them, just like the comp plan.

Speaker 3:

So you did mention that ours is about 10 years old. Typically, a comprehensive plan gets updated Ideally. If you can do it every 10 years, that's perfect. If you can do it every 10 years, that's perfect. We are very close to that date and if we get the funding in our budget this year, we will be updating our comprehensive plan next year. It'll take us about two years and the intention is that it'll set us in a good place. It will contain the new strategic plan that we have for the overall city and helps all these different departments to start anticipating and envisioning the kind of growth that we think is going to be coming and how do we manage that and how do we also bring that back to the community. So that's coming, hopefully very soon.

Speaker 1:

Thanks. Yeah, I'm thinking about someone who's maybe lived here 10 years or more, probably has seen a lot of things change since that last iteration, so that makes sense, and while you update it frequently?

Speaker 3:

is there a way? I know you have some what you're calling taste in talks. There's one planned for this year and they're kind of preempting, preparing you all for that. What are those? How can folks get involved, opportunities and touch points with the community to talk about a lot of different topics. We're calling them Taste and Talks and we are planning to have four of them that are spread throughout the city. The first one is going to be on September 24th at five o'clock and we'll have more details and more information about that soon, but it is going to be focused on economic development. So we're working internally to create a panel and to bring forward some local speakers and also have local food so that people can kind of taste things and have good conversation and learn about economic development in the city. And we'll have different topics that will come out for the remaining three, and more information about those will be coming out soon.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. I love that approach to how y'all are going about that kind of prior to doing the comp plan. So you talked a little bit about land development code as well. How is that different from the comp plan? And then, how is that kind of implied in our city?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's a really important distinction and it's also it gets really into the weeds, but essentially a comprehensive plan is laying out that vision.

Speaker 3:

But what zoning and what that zoning?

Speaker 3:

The land development code is essentially our zoning code and what that does is actually implement that vision of the future.

Speaker 3:

That's in the plan. So zoning is essentially it tells property owners how they can use their land, including dimensional standards such as how high your buildings can be, what the setbacks are between properties, where the right-of-way is, what uses are permitted parking, all of those things, architectural standards, landscaping all of that is within the land development code. They really help to dictate what types of properties can also coexist in a particular area to maintain the community's health and public safety. And so we take all the vision and then we put it into a regulatory framework and that's what our land development code is and which was also just updated in 2020, which is great. That was an internal process that our staff worked on and they made a lot of changes to really try to help balance the needs of our developers that are coming in to build in the city and also the needs and the requirements of our community and the things that we need to do to ensure that people can be good neighbors?

Speaker 2:

I think we were talking earlier and you said the land development code is what we have to do and the comprehensive plan is what we should be doing. Is that the way? The distinction there?

Speaker 3:

Pretty close. The way I've explained it in the past is a comprehensive plan really has all the shoulds, all the things we should be doing, and the land development code are all the shalls. So this is how we have to do it. Essentially, land use is quasi-judicial. These are laws that are put into place and so once we create those essential standards in the code, we have to hold everybody to those standards. It is a very democratic process, but there's not a lot of wiggle room once you get into those regulations.

Speaker 2:

And then we also have guiding documents called sub-area plans, and those are for specific parts of the city and I know I think we just kicked one off for the West 64th Avenue sub area plan what exactly is a sub area plan and how? Areas not a lot, but several areas throughout the city as mixed-use corridors.

Speaker 3:

And because there wasn't a lot of specificity about that and what it could contain, the decision at the time was that we would create a number of sub-area plans that basically take a deeper dive at particular areas, especially these corridors throughout the city, and figure out at a more granular level what was going to be happening there. And these are again additional conversations that we can have with the community. So we are, you're absolutely right. We just kicked off our 64th Avenue sub-area plan. That's going to be going on for the next probably about six months or so, that process. We've completed several of these within the last few years, actually since the Land Development Code was adopted.

Speaker 3:

We did the Square Lake sub-area plan. We did the share let's see, no, that Sheridan Station, I believe Sorry, I'm looking at my list. We also did the Newtown area, which is just south of Old Town, and we have a couple more that we need to work on. So we want to look at the Wadsworth Corridor. Areas are going to be changing over time, so I look forward to that. But I know we had a really great open house this past week on the sub area plan for 64th Avenue. We had lots and lots of turnout, which was just phenomenal. We're so excited to see that we continue to invite the community to share their thoughts with us, let us know what they're thinking um and be part of this process as we look at that area.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, I think those are um really interesting and it's the kind of micro nature of it to a specific neighborhood. I think is gets people to turn out because people know their own neighborhood best, even though you might travel throughout the city where you walk and maybe shop can be really important to people. So that's exciting. So another hot topic, very complex topic that comes up a lot and we hear in our community survey even is really important to our community, is around housing affordable housing, attainable housing. It's a really difficult topic, both regionally, nationally and, of course, here in Arvada. So what are some of the efforts that we as a city are working on around housing and the concerns and needs of our community?

Speaker 3:

We have a lot going on around affordable housing and it is absolutely, I would say, one of the biggest concerns that the community has and also one of the biggest priorities for our city council. So in the past year the city established a housing advisory committee and that housing advisory committee's first year of work was essentially tasked with creating a housing strategic plan, and what we wanted to do was to really assess the current conditions in Arvada, how much affordable housing we had, how much affordable housing we need, the different income levels that we need to be trying to meet so that, you know, folks of all ages and abilities, at all income levels have opportunities to live here. And this is something that's really near and dear to me and I'm really excited to see that the Housing Advisory Committee and the City Council were able to produce that housing strategic plan. It was just adopted in May or June of this year Sorry can't remember which date exactly and within the strategic plan we essentially laid out two different policy levers that we want to focus on and these are really just immediate focus that we have in the next five years. But the first policy lever is that we want to leverage financial assets we need to come up with and identify as many different funding sources and partnerships and land banking opportunities and opportunities for preservation as possible, as quickly as possible.

Speaker 3:

So we have a number of different strategies that we're working on, essentially six.

Speaker 3:

So looking at how we can continue our federal and state partnerships, how we continue to allocate existing land that the city may own, or partnerships that we can have with additional landowners to have properties where affordable housing development can happen.

Speaker 3:

We also have it's an emerging fund that our housing team has been developing and it's called the Arvada Affordable Housing Fund and we are really seeking to try to bolster what we have in there so that we have more opportunities to help out our developers with last minute costs that may come up with. You know, small loans that we can give out and just opportunities that we have to help them cover the gap so that they can get this housing built, which it is extremely expensive and, especially when you're talking about subsidizing, it's just a very different kind of development than a market rate development where basically people come in and if they can afford it, they buy it and a developer really utilizes the market to create that kind of project With affordable housing. We really have to do things that are above and beyond that things that are above and beyond that.

Speaker 1:

So really quick, before we get too far, I think it'd be helpful to just kind of talk like define affordable housing a little bit, because I think there are different types of affordable housing and like a lot of people go like straight to like section eight housing, and so I and then and sometimes I think there can be some like fear around, like what is affordable housing in my neighborhood, that sort of thing, and so could you maybe just explain a little bit what we're talking about.

Speaker 3:

I can, to the level that I'm able to. I know it's complicated, it is very complicated and we could actually spend an entire session on affordable housing which I think we should, and we can come back to it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely and I'd want to bring Carrie in because she's our manager and she really understands these laws. But essentially, affordable housing as defined by the federal government and by HUD, it creates different disability. You may be older, you may be taking care of a family member that has a disability and all of these things make it really difficult for you to be able to afford market rate housing. So, essentially, what any of us could look in the paper and find and make an offer on it is out of their control to be able to buy something at that level. It is out of their control to be able to buy something at that level. And so what we do is we try to work with different federal and state agencies to help lower the cost of housing, to essentially subsidize what people are paying every month so that they can get inside and be in a safe place so that they can continue to live their lives. But those are at different levels. It is very technical and we have different resources to essentially meet that.

Speaker 3:

So some of the some of what our focus is right now and what we really lack housing to support them. And then we lack essentially what we consider kind of workforce housing, that kind of moderate income housing where it's you know folks like you and me that we work government jobs. These could be people who fight fires. It could be people that these could be people who fight fires. It could be people that you know work in offices. It's really just kind of that. You know middle income earner that is also extremely difficult to find housing that can support them.

Speaker 3:

So we've identified different areas that we need to be focusing and we're actually making some really incredible progress, so we'll have more news to come about.

Speaker 3:

Some of our affordable housing development that's going to be coming out pretty quickly, but this is an effort that takes years and years to try and correct. It took us a long time to get here and it's going to take a long time to be able to try and create the housing that everybody can utilize. And I think that if people are concerned about you know housing in their neighborhood, we certainly encourage them to contact us to learn more about what affordable housing is and what it isn't, what affordable housing is and what it isn't, and also to read our housing strategic plan, because it really lays out how dire the situation is for many, many people that not only live in Arvada, but throughout the state of Colorado and the country that are really struggling to make ends meet. And it's because inflation, it's because our wages aren't keeping up, it's because the cost of living has gotten so expensive. There are just certain things that are out of people's control.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for explaining that a little more.

Speaker 2:

We do community engagement for a whole number of different projects throughout the city, and one that I'm doing right now is for our climate action and sustainability plan, and some feedback that we constantly hear is the desire for, or I guess not the desire for, like high density housing and affordable housing, that sort of thing. How do you balance, you know, I guess preserving the history of Nevada and kind of what people are used to with what we've just been talking about and making housing affordable and attainable for people? Is that a tough balance to strike?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, just a little bit. It's very tough and I think the important thing that we do is we utilize our comprehensive plan to try and determine really what is the community character. What is it that is, what are those things that are in Arvada that people want to preserve? You know, certain aspects that contribute to quality of life and I think we need to recognize that things are in constant change. So we have, you know, a lot of property owners that may be looking at what they currently have and they might want to do something different. And, based on our comprehensive plan and also based on our land development code, you look at different parts of the city where we are essentially looking to anticipate increased density. So, for example, anything that's essentially along our train line, along the G line, is where we have anticipated that we would like to see a lot of growth and the hope is is that folks can utilize the transportation network.

Speaker 3:

So if you are somebody that says I don't want to drive a car, everywhere I have to go, or if I work downtown and I want to just to be able to commute by train and I don't need my car every day, it's not an essential. I want to live in a place that might be a little bit more dense, where I've got closer access to things that I want to get to. I want to get immediate access back into the city. Being close to transit is great and that's not a choice for everybody, but what we are seeing is that low density development while we have a you know, the majority of Arvada is low density single family homes. Those are wonderful. Those neighborhoods have been established and we want to try to preserve that character as much as we can.

Speaker 3:

But there are areas of growth within Arvada that we have to focus on.

Speaker 3:

But there are areas of growth within Arvada that we have to focus on because, hey, we can't control that and people want to live here and people don't always want to live in single family homes and I think we have to really emphasize that.

Speaker 3:

The important thing is that we create choice and that we have opportunities for people to be able to decide what works best for them. And if they want to live in a condominium and they want to be close to transit and they want to be close to Old Town, great, let's create those opportunities. And if you want to live in a single family home, where you have, you know a different kind of community character and feel that's great too, and I think we've been able to cover those bases really well over time and we want to continue to talk to the community about the areas of change. So that's an important conversation we're going to have with our comprehensive plan as we start to look at land uses and also state legislation, which is having a huge impact on growth and density. That's going to be coming to Arvada and there's not a whole lot we can do about it, so we have to anticipate that.

Speaker 2:

Yep, and then, before we turn it over to lightning round, one final question that we like to ask a lot of our guests is maybe clearing up some misconceptions about the work you do, or just wanted to let folks know some things that we didn't touch on yet. You know we already talked about maybe having you on for a part two about housing, but what are some things you maybe wanted to clear up misconception wise, about CED and the work that you do?

Speaker 3:

work that you do. I'm always curious to hear what people might think we do in community and economic development. But you know primarily all of our staff. We work really hard to make sure that we support the regulations within our land development code and that bigger vision in our comprehensive plan. We don't make decisions that are arbitrary or based on our opinion of how things need to happen. It's really based on what does our code say and what is the criteria for development, and that is the information that we take forward to our planning commission so that they can make decisions, and then we take that information to our city council as well, and all of us are very much reliant upon our codes and that criteria. So I think you know, especially if the community has concerns about things.

Speaker 3:

What's important to focus on is that when we get opportunities to look at our land development code and changes that we're making, that that's a great time to get involved and to play a part and let us know what your concerns are. Sometimes we can help with that, sometimes we can't. But, um, I certainly don't get to uh tell people that they don't have to get a permit for something. You have to get a building permit if you want to build a structure, um, and you have to get often you have to get a planning permit in order to do certain things. But within, within the department itself, we have a lot of really, really creative people that we are constantly trying to help people navigate the codes, help them to get permits, help them to, you know, cross the barriers that sometimes a bureaucracy creates. And if people have any concerns about something that's happening in their neighborhood, I invite them please call me. Let's talk about it so that we can resolve those issues and hopefully resolve conflicts before they become really big.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're on your side and we're working for the people. It's a true democracy. It really is. I'll turn it over now to Katie for the lightning round.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So before we let you go, we're going to do some quick questions just for our listeners, to get to know you a little bit better. So first, what is your favorite thing about Arvada? It can be a place, a fact, a hidden gem, anything.

Speaker 3:

Well, I love all the parks in Arvada but I selfishly have to say my favorite place is Penzi Spices, because I love to bake and they have the best spices. So I love coming to Old Town and just loading up on all the really great stuff so I can go home and try to bake a pie.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I love that. What was your first, last or best concert?

Speaker 3:

I knew this was coming. Okay, I'm going to say Massive Attack. And I got to go see them in 2019 in San Francisco and it was the best concert I've ever been to.

Speaker 1:

Very cool. I was just talking the other day about wanting to go to San Francisco. I've never been there.

Speaker 3:

You should go see a concert there. You'd love it. Way cool. What brought you to the city of Arvada? Well, it's actually interesting. I actually started in Arvada as an intern when I was just getting started as a planner, so I was still in graduate school, and I worked here way back in 2001 as an intern in the planning division and I had always wanted to come back to Arvada. It's. It's always been a very special place to me. It's a great community. It's has a lot of incredible attributes and just the community itself. Um, I love being here. It's such a privilege to work here, so it was really great to be able to come back and be the director.

Speaker 1:

I love that Um what was your first job?

Speaker 3:

My first job if you don't count babysitting would be working at Pizza Hut. I was a waitress, it was super fun and I think I worked there all the way through high school and into college Great first job.

Speaker 1:

It's just a classic what is your favorite project you've done now that you've been here about a year?

Speaker 3:

There are so many fun things that are happening right now I would have to say my. I'm gonna have to say two, I can't just say one. The first thing is the housing strategic plan getting adopted. I am so excited about that, and the work that we're going to be able to do now that we have some agreements in place is really exciting. But I also have to say that the Old Town Strategic Reinvestment Plan was just adopted, right about the time that I started here, and that is also one that I am so excited to start implementing. So there's a number of things in there that we want to get busy with to help, you know, shine up Old Town how to bring more housing in there, how to create more uses that are vibrant and people want to come to, and how to make it a really friendly place for pedestrians, too. I'm really excited about that. So it's going to be fun to and how to make it a really friendly place for pedestrians, too. I'm really excited about that.

Speaker 1:

So it's going to be fun to see how we implement that in the coming years. Yeah, those are some great projects. Well, jessica, thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate your time and all of your knowledge that you got to share with us today. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Before we let you go today, we'll do our news and events segment of what's going on in the city, what's coming up soon. So, as a reminder, the final bulky item drop off event of the year is on August 10th, that's from nine to two. Nine to two, excuse me and we'll put a link to everything you should know before you go Proof of residency, bundle your branches, those sorts of things, reminders to make sure you're prepared for the event. And then the utilities department has also been starting conversations on water, sewer and stormwater rates for 2025. We do, as a city, have annual increases to those rates and fees that our customers, our sewer and stormwater customers pay, and so they began those conversations with city council in July and they're going to be continuing those conversations monthly to hear feedback from the council, get their questions answered. And so the next presentation is going to be on August 26th and then they'll have another in September, and then they will bring the ordinance to first reading and approval in October. And then, sean, what's going on with our summer events?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so Arvada's newest park, Serenity Ridge Park, is now open. It is a holistic, health-based park located right across the Red Rocks Community College Arvada campus there in the Arvada Ridge area of the city, so go ahead and check it out when you have a chance. There's a lot of cool, unique features of that park, such as a labyrinth and a reflexology path, and it also has some of the best views in all of Arvada. So check out our new park. And then our Movies Around Town event series continues on August 9th here in a couple days, with Back to the Future at Wolf Park there right off of Ralston Road.

Speaker 2:

And you still have a few more days left to vote in our final movie poll of the year or our final movie around town event of the year, where we'll be deciding that movie based on the movie poll. So go on, speak up, arvada, to cast your vote and help us decide what will be shown on September 6th at Woodrun Park, and then finally save the date for Arvada Days. It's coming up here in a few weeks, on Saturday, august 24th, it's our end of summer celebration at Clear Creek Valley Park. Tons of family-friendly activities there and it's all free for all the kiddos, including train rides, a Nerf zone, craft vendors, live music and more.

Speaker 1:

And if you missed our last episode, we talked about Arvada Days a little bit with Rachel Kuroiwa, because there's also some celebrations around the 120th anniversary of the city that'll be at that event as well.

Speaker 2:

So it'll be a good—. Yeah, that exact date marks the exact date.

Speaker 1:

Yes, 120 years on August 24th. I love that. We planned that very strategically. Yes, that was totally planned. Thank you again so much to our guest today, jessica Gardner. Be sure to listen to our next episode, where we will have Arvada Economic Development Association manager Iza Petrakowska on, and we're kind of sticking in our economic development vein, so she'll talk about a little bit more specifically some of the work that they do with. Aida is the acronym for Arvada Economic Development Association there. And then please stay in touch with us. Visit our website arvadacogov slash podcast.

Speaker 1:

You can subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts and send us an email at podcast at arvadaorg. Ask us a question. You can also text us right there in the show notes. There's a link to text us a question. Or show us what you're liking, what you're hearing, if you have questions about today's episode. We covered a lot of topics, but we didn't get to dig too deep into any of them, so we're happy to come back with more information around some of the complex topics we covered today. So thank you again. So much to our listeners. Please let your neighbors know, let your friends, let your family know about the show and don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Let your family know about the show and don't forget to subscribe. Rate and review.

Speaker 2:

Today's podcast was recorded by and edited by Arvada Media Services producer James Long, and today's fun fact is we talked about comprehensive plans with Jessica and, going back to the 1965 Arvada Comprehensive Plan included a goal for all residents of the city to live in a half mile of a park. We are very close to making that a reality, as 96% of residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park. Whoa.