Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Fort Collins Connection

Rumblings in the community about an increasingly interesting relationship between the City of Bainbridge Island and the City of Fort Collins, CO have reached an audible pitch following recent developments at City Hall.

As Tristan “the press is back in town” Baurick noted in the Bainbridge Islander last week (and more pointedly on the Islander's blog), two of the five finalists in the City’s search for a new City Administrator have served previously as City Manager for Fort Collins. An interesting coincidence as Fort Collins is a relatively small town not exactly a stone’s throw away. But what really makes the coincidence worth noting is that these are just two of an increasing number of links between the two cities.

The most prominent connection to Fort Collins thus far has been, of course, our current Planning Director Greg Byrne. Byrne served as Director of Planning in Fort Collins prior to taking his current position at the City of Bainbridge Island last year. During his tenure at Fort Collins, Director Byrne helped to craft City Plan, a Winslow Tomorrow-esque comprehensive plan to guide city planning through 2025. Among the consultants participating in the creation the plan was the Fort Collins office of EDAW, former and current employer of ex-Winslow Tomorrow project manager Sandy Fischer. Not to say that Fischer was involved in the Fort Collins plan. At that time, Ms. Fischer was the owner of an architecture firm in Montana where she ultimately played a major role in the redevelopment of downtown Billings, including a prominent streetscape project paid for largely by the benefiting private property owners and grant money (imagine that). She was hired by the Seattle office of EDAW in 2002.

The real “hmmm” moment came last week with the hiring of Clarion Associates for the overhaul of the Bainbridge Island Municipal Code. Those who watched the February 13th Council meeting may recall planning director Greg Byrne explaining the fair and thorough process used to evaluate the candidates for the $200,000 contract that resulted in the unanimous decision to recommend Clarion. A quick Internet search finds that Clarion Consultants, a national firm, has an office in Fort Collins. A few more clicks of the mouse and we find that not only has Director Byrne worked closely with Clarion on a number of occasions over at least the last 10 years, including the creation of City Plan, but, as Clarion boasts on it’s website, it was also hired to draft “an innovative new zoning code that … guided implementation of City Plan”.

We could do worse when it comes to intriguing relationships – apparently Fort Collins was Money magazine’s number one best place to live in 2006. Although, if we’re going to draw heavily (solely?) on the talent of one particular geographical location, it could be argued that a coastal or island locale might be a more suitable training ground than one located in the land locked high desert.

So what exactly is the significance of these connections to Fort Collins, CO? Who knows. Perhaps it’s evidence of an elaborate conspiracy related to the redevelopment of Winslow, or perhaps it’s just another case of I-know-a-guy hiring practices. Either way it’s probably worth keeping our eyes out for more visitors from “the FC”.

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