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Lessons from Boulder

Regional cooperation key to future, Boulder tells Lexington

By Michelle Ku
MKU@HERALD-LEADER.COM

Recreational bicycle paths and walking trails were a hot topic during Commerce Lexington's leadership visit to Boulder, Colo., last week.

But the other major idea that Lexington leaders left Boulder with is the importance of working together with regional neighbors.

"I hope we'll commit to embracing the Bluegrass as a neighbor and embracing our neighbors as our friends and not as our foes," Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry said when he addressed trip attendees last Friday.

Forming good relationships with Lexington's Central Kentucky neighbors will take years, "but it will be worth the effort because the strength of this region is much greater than the strength of any one part of the region, including Lexington," Newberry said.

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Limiting growth has created severe housing woes for Boulder

In addition to learning about Boulder's best qualities last week, Lexington leaders also learned about some of Boulder's problems.

When Boulder decided to limit growth in an attempt to keep the size of its population under or around 100,000, it created some unintended consequences, said Richard Foy, a founding partner of Communication Arts, a Boulder-based, multi-disciplinary design firm.

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Boulder Trip: Day three schedule

Friday is the final day of Commerce Lexington's leadership trip to Boulder.

The day will kick off with a discussion about healthy lifestyles. The featured speakers are Seth Goldman, president and CEO of YMCA of Boulder Valley; Urban County Councilman Jay McChord; and Mark Streety, vice president of service excellence and network with Saint Joseph Healthcare. Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry is also scheduled to speak to the group in a session titled "Good to Great."

Following some closing remarks by Guy Huguelet, president of Adecco Central Kentucky and chairman of Commerce Lexington, Reed Polk, a commentator with WYKT, will reflect on the past few days in Boulder. Then it's off to Denver International Airport.

The schedule is a light one because the group will head to Denver in two staggered groups starting at 11:15 a.m. MST to help expedite a check-in processs for a 2:30 pm. MST flight back to Lexington. The charter flight is expected back in Lexington around 7:15 p.m. EST.

- Michelle Ku

Boulder trip: Riding around town on a loaner bike

In 1997, Boulder launched its Green Bike program. More than 150 bright green loaner bikes are left around town for people to use for free.

People can hop onto a bike, ride it to wherever they are going and then leave the bike behind for someone else to use.

Recently, there have been discussions about starting a free loaner bike program in the city of Lexington.

The University of Kentucky already has a similar program. UK has had Wildcat Wheels Bicycle Library since the fall of 2004. The bikes, which are painted yellow, can be checked out by any UK student, faculty or staff member with a valid ID for a 48-hour period. Last October, Wildcat Wheels started the Departmental Blue Bike program, which provides free blue loaner bikes for university departments.

Wildcat Wheels currently has a fleet of 35 yellow bikes and 20 departmental blue bikes, said Shane Tedder, founder of Wildcat Wheels.

Wildcat Wheels has only purchased one new bike, Tedder said. The rest were either donated or abandoned bikes that were surplus property of the university.

Wildcat Wheels is very popular, Tedder said. “Pretty much every bike is checked out all the time,” he said.

The program is in the process of expanding, Tedder said. The university received a $100,000 congestion mitigation air quality grant from the state Transportation Cabinet for bicycling, and $18,000 of it will go to Wildcat Wheels, he said. The rest of the money will be used to implement the first set of recommendations from UK’s campus bike plan.

Michelle Ku

Boulder trip: Day two schedule

Discussion topics on the second day in Boulder will be focused on a number of topics including education, regionalism, and elective sessions.

The first speaker of the day will be Jared Polis from The Jared Polis Foundation who will speak on the topic of education.

Dr. Dennis P. Jones, president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) , and Aims C. McGuinness Jr., senior associate of NCHEMS will then discuss the role of the University of Kentucky ten years after higher education reform.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor will discuss regional thinking.

After lunch, attendees can choose from a number of elective sessions, including a tour of the Colorado Chautauqua Historic District & Park, a visit to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, two different downtown development tours, a trip to the Twenty Ninth Street, Boulder’s new retail district, sessions on branding and civic involvement among young professionals, a bike tour and a trip to a Green Building which is a building designed and constructed to promote economic health and well being of family, community and the environment.

The day will be capped off with the Bank Reception & Dinner at the Flagstaff House Restaurant which was originally a cabin built in 1929.

- Michelle Ku

Boulder trip: Regionalism No. 1 priority

Regionalism is a large part of Boulder and the rest of the Denver metropolitan area.

“In a seven county area, every community, every mayor talks about regionalism,” said Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation and Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Seven counties pulled together to build Invesco Field at Mile High and Coors Field and to create an arts and cultural district, Clark said.

The area also has a nine county economic district which is first committed to selling the Denver metropolitan area to companies before selling the individual communities, Clark said.

The Metro Mayors Caucus, an alliance of 37 mayors in the Denver metro area, unanimously supported the passage of a November 2004 ballot issue to increase the sales tax for the eight county Denver Regional Transportation District from .6 percent to 1 percent to fund a $4.7 billion initiative to build at least six new rail lines in the Denver area over the next 12 years. The measure passed 58 percent to 42 and the sales was raised on Jan. 1, 2005.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor will discuss regional thinking with leadership visit attendees on Thursday morning.

Compared to the Denver metropolitan area, regional cooperation is just beginning in Lexington.

Last Friday, more than 40 mayors, county judges and state legislators from 17 Bluegrass counties met at Keeneland for the first ever regional government summit. The leaders identified several top issues including education, water supply, economic development, transportation and dilapidated storm water and sanitary sewers.

- Michelle Ku

Boulder trip: PDR began here

The birth of Lexington's farmland preservation program has its roots in Boulder.

In 1967, Boulder became the first city in the United States to establish a program to purchase land to preserve it from rapid development.

Citizens were so interested in preserving land that residents approved a tax to raise the money needed to acquire, manage and maintain the open space.

On the drive in from Denver International Airport, members on the Commerce Lexington trip probably noticed all of the open space and then all of a sudden you dropped into Boulder, said Boulder Mayor Mark Ruzzin.

Boulder has acquired 40,000 acres of open space, which is more acreage than there is in the incorporated city, Ruzzin said.

Lexington's farmland preservation program, which is also known as the Purchase of Development Rights program, doesn't purchase any actual land. Instead, the city acquires agricultural conservation easements

As of January, Lexington has purchased conservation easements on 17,653 acres on 151 farms.

- Michelle Ku

Boulder trip: Bikes, feet are big priority

Don’t be surprised if Lexington leaders return from Boulder with big ideas about bike lanes and walking trails.

Those on the Commerce Lexington Leadership Visit quickly got a taste for how bike- and pedestrian-oriented Boulder is. There are dedicated bike and pedestrian lanes throughout the city.

Shortly after arriving in Boulder, the Lexingtonians broke up into three tour groups: One viewed the city on foot, another on bikes, the third by bus.

Among the information supplied on one walking tour: Colorado has a state law that pedestrians have the right of way.

Guy Huguelet, president and CEO of Adecco of Central Kentucky and chairman of Commerce Lexington, said he got a first-hand view of the city’s take on pedestrians. He got separated from his walking tour and found himself at a busy intersection. He said he stood on the corner and waited for traffic to clear. Instead, cars started honking at him, urging him to cross. He and others said this shows how committed Boulder is to making foot traffic a priority.

Boulder is also working to construct 50 pedestrian and bike underpasses so walkers and cyclists don’t have to mix as much with automobile and truck traffic.

Another stat thrown out by David Lord, president of the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau: A quarter of Boulder’s population bikes to work.

- Michelle Ku

Boulder trip: Day one schedule

Attendees of Commerce Lexington’s trip to Boulder will hit the ground running as soon as they arrive Wednesday morning.

The charter airplane is scheduled to land at Denver International Airport at 9:15 a.m. (MST).

Attendees will begin to get a feel for Boulder — the eight-largest city in Colorado with a population of 103,673 — during the bus ride to the city.

The first session, “Live It,” will give everyone the opportunity to experience Boulder by bike, foot or bus.

There are five different walking tours and two different bus tours scheduled. Mayor Jim Newberry is one of 40 people signed up for a bike tour.

In the afternoon, attendees will hear from Guy Huguelet, president and CEO of Adecco of Central Kentucky and chairman of Commerce Lexington; Mark Ruzzin, the mayor of Boulder; Tom Clark, executive vice president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation and Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

There is also an optional innovation session at the Boulder Innovation Center which was established in 2005 to suport Boulder’s entrepreneurs.

The opening night reception is at Rembrandt Yard, an art facility in downtown Boulder with more than 7,000-square-feet of gallery space on two floors.

- Michelle Ku

Boulder trip: Gray flying separately

When attendees of Commerce Lexington’s trip to Boulder settled into their seats on the charter plane this morning, Vice Mayor Jim Gray wasn’t among the group.

Gray, who is heading to Boulder, gave up his seat on the charter plane at the request of Mayor Jim Newberry. Instead of the charter, Gray is taking a commercial flight out of Blue Grass Airport.

After looking at the preliminary list of trip attendees, Newberry noticed that 13 of the 15 Urban County Council members were going, Newberry said. “It struck me as though we needed to make some kind of arrangements for local government to continue in the unlikely event that something happened to the airplane.”

So during a council work session, Newberry passed a note to Gray, Councilwoman Linda Gorton and Councilman Chuck Ellinger II that said one of the four of them needed to travel separately.

“I asked them if any of them had any particular preference,” Newberry said. “Jim agreed to do it. So when he agreed, that was the end of the conversation.”

Asking someone to fly separately was simply a precautionary measure, Newberry said. “I don’t like to think about it, but I appreciated his willingness to travel separately.”

- Michelle Ku

Boulder trip: How much is it costing the city?

Most of the 18 city officials who will be in Boulder for Commerce Lexington’s leadership visit will be there on the city’s dime.

In all, the city is spending $22,225 on the trips of 15 city officials. That total does not include other incidentals, such as parking at Blue Grass Airport and meals that aren’t included as part of the trip.

The city is paying $1,575 a person for Mayor Jim Newberry, Chief of Staff Shaye Rabold, Economic Development Director Joe Kelly, and police Chief Anthany Beatty to go to Boulder. The cost covers a single room and airfare on the private charter.

The cost of General Services Commissioner Kimra Cole’s trip is $1,350, which covers a double room and airfare on the private charter.

The trips of Urban County Councilmen Julian Beard, Don Blevins Jr., Dick DeCamp, Chuck Ellinger II, Jay McChord, David Stevens and Kevin Stinnett are costing the city $1,575 each for a single room and airfare on the private charter.

The city is paying $1,350 each for the trips of Councilwomen Linda Gorton and Andrea James. The cost covers a double room and airfare on the private charter.
Councilman George Myers is also going to be in Boulder, at a cost of $850 for a double room without airfare.

Vice Mayor Jim Gray and Councilmen Tom Blues and Richard Moloney’s trips to Boulder are either being paid for by the companies they work for or by themselves.

- Michelle Ku