Vision Fountain Hills co-chair Jerry Butler spoke during the May 19 Town Council meeting, giving an update on the recent community survey and the day-long workshop that followed.

Butler reiterated that the information utilized for the workshop was provided by nearly 2,000 participants in a recent community survey to determine where Fountain Hills is, where it’s going and how it should get there.

From there, more than 100 community members took part in the May 7 workshop, working in small groups to tackle the many issues and items being discussed.

Workshop participants addressed the top five strategic priorities for the town as determined by the survey.

Butler also included a word of warning that many participants were concerned that similar processes have been conducted in the past with little to know follow-through. He urged the Council to continue working with the Vision Fountain Hills group to find actionable solutions in the coming months and years, stating that, otherwise, they might as well not bother continuing the five-year cycle of surveys.

Growth

The top strategic priority was that the community invest in the town’s long-term economic growth.

Challenges included part-time property owner and seasonal renters causing the population to drop through part of the year, as well as a very limited marketing budget for the town.

Participants were in support of several potential solutions, with the highest support given to the development of a “community brand/vision,” as well as a focus on recruiting on available spaces and possible shared environments, business incubators and entrepreneurial activities.

Additional ideas were circulated to support this initiative, including leveraging the medical/healthcare market for support services, establishing a CEO-type conference center for annual meetings or encouraging the development of microbreweries.

Residents

The second priority was attracting new families, working professionals and full-time residents.

Fountain Hills’ median age in 2015 was estimated at 55.9 years, meaning only half of the residents are under the age of 56. It was also noted that only one in every four households has children and that, in the past decade, the largest growth has been in residents 65 years of age and older.

Receiving the most support as possible solutions were improving communications and including the local school district’s strengths in marketing he community, as well as establishing a collaborative effort between the town and business leaders to promote the town as friendly to families.

Additional ideas conceived at the workshop included having realtors take a leadership role in promoting the town as family-friendly, aggressively using social media to extend focus across the US and cleaning up search engine results tied to Fountain Hills.

FHUSD

Third priority was given to expanding the enrollment and quality of the Fountain Hills Unified School District.

Hindrances to this area included declining enrollment, school funding restrictions and a lack of affordable housing options for families and staff.

One potential solution received 100 percent support from the workshop, exploring options for selling or leasing unused school buildings. The next top option was mobilizing local efforts to lobby state leaders for education funding.

Additional ideas were also brought up during the workshop, including upgrading the district’s website to tout successes, the consideration of an EVIT satellite, merit pay for teachers and being more aggressive in promoting tax credit programs.

Infrastructure

The fourth priority from the survey was ensuring maintenance of the town’s infrastructure. Only one challenge was listed for this item, that being that the annual maintenance budget for the town’s infrastructure has been trimmed by $5.2 million dollars per year and, in many cases, has been accomplished by deferring maintenance.

The top area suggested to receive additional support to achieve goals in this area was “streets,” including the restoration of the residential pavement management program to a five-year cycle or creating improvement districts and letting each area decide on timing with cost borne by each district. Maintenance of the Fountain received the second highest priority for solutions.

For revenue sources, the implementation of a primary property tax received the support of 94 percent of participants. The increase of parks and building user fees was also backed.

Additional ideas brought up during the session included having the Sanitary District take over Fountain maintenance, reducing Fountain operating times and exploring private partnerships/name rights for selected structures.

Services

The fifth priority determined by the community survey went to preserving the financial sustainability of town services.

Challenges included the $5.9 million dollar operations deficit forecast to occur in the next five years and the fact that the town’s main financial source for capital improvement is bonds and that the reserve funds paid by developers are diminishing.

Workshop participants were asked what services should be reduced to overcome the budget deficit, with 100 percent support going to making no reductions to development services including engineering, planning, building safety, code enforcement and environmental.

The vast majority also supported making no reduction to general government, community services or public safety.

On the other hand, 91 percent of participants supported implementing a primary property tax to generate revenue in this area, with 63 percent in favor of a public safety fee.

Ideas created during the workshop included instituting a property rental tax, reevaluating the cost of police services, increasing park usage fees, adopting a parcel fee and having retail/businesses pay for fire protection.