Coaldale, AB vs. Kenmore, WA
Welcome to this first round match-up in the sixth annual Strongest Town Contest! In this round, 16 towns are facing off, and eight will advance to the next segment of the contest based on your votes. We invite you to read answers representatives from these two cities provided to our questions about economic resilience, citizen involvement, community response to the pandemic, and more. Then vote for the strongest at the bottom of this page.
Can’t decide? If you’re looking for inspiration, check out how we describe the Strong Towns approach, or take a look at our free ebook, The Local Leader’s Toolkit: A Strong Towns Response to the Pandemic.
You may vote once per match-up.
Round 1 voting closes at 12pm CDT on Thursday, March 18th.
For rules, and to follow along with the contest, visit the Strongest Town Contest page.
Note: All entries are lightly edited for clarity and readability.
A mosaic of tiles painted by community members for Coaldale's 100th birthday celebration. The mosaic now lives at the Coaldale Public Library.
COALDALE, AB
Entry submitted by: Spencer Croil, Leia Cathro, Melanie Messier, Cameron Mills
What is your favorite thing about your town?
Coaldale is a community coming into its own. It is moving from large small town, to small mid-sized town. The community's dedication to maintaining a sense of place while accommodating growth, is one aspect of Coaldale that makes it a great place.
How easy is it to live in your town without regular access to a car? What are some steps your town has taken—or is in the process of taking—to make it safer and easier to walk, bike, or use a wheelchair?
As a bedroom community, most of Coaldale's residents drive as their preferred mode of transportation. However, the Town has made several recent investments to expand the potential for active modes within the community.
The Town has added 3.3 km of new pathways to the already expansive trail network, connecting several neighborhoods, schools and amenities. Along the pathway networks, residents will also see new wayfinding signs installed to communicate walking times and points of accessibility to ease navigation and enhance the pedestrian and cyclist experience.
Wayfinding signs and business directories were also recently installed along Coaldale's historic Main Street, which recently underwent substantial redevelopment. Along with the much-needed upgrades to the aging sanitary infrastructure, the revitalization project has provided a number of enhancements to the pedestrian experience. One of the primary considerations that went into the redesign of Main Street was a commitment to create barrier-free access for all users of the space. The design facilitates inclusive travel by increasing the number of barrier-free parking stalls, introducing curb extensions and mid-block crosswalks to make foot-travel safer and shorter, and widening sidewalks enough to accommodate two people in wheelchairs comfortably passing each other.
All of these recent improvements to the built environment made Coaldale a clear contender to participate in the Healthy Communities by Design program in 2021, an initiative put forward by the provincial Alberta Health Services (AHS) to improve the wellbeing of town residents through incremental changes to policies and the built form.
What are some steps your town has taken—or is in the process of taking—to increase housing options and affordability?
The Town's recently updated Municipal Development Plan has several guiding principles that outline goals to support the development of diverse housing forms. The Town has taken significant steps to achieve this goal by encouraging developments that cater to people of diverse abilities that will ultimately make Coaldale a desirable location to age-in-place.
This year the Town has embarked on an unprecedented partnership with a developer interested in turning a large parcel of land into a variety of residential uses, including single-family homes, row houses, low-rise apartments and seniors housing. This range of housing will provide a variety of options to meet the varying needs of current and future residents, as well as support opportunities for residents to age in place and young adults to remain in the community.
The Town also aims to work towards an average residential density of 8.0 dwelling units per net acre, up from the current 5.1. Provincial guidance suggests that average densities in many of Alberta’s communities should increase over time to ensure long-term costs for property owners and municipalities are balanced and sustainable. The Town recognizes the importance of diversifying what the community has to offer to achieve a sustainable balance between maintaining community character and building for the future.
In the spirit of balanced and sustainable costs, the Town is also committed to supporting commercial development to achieve a tax ratio of 20% non-residential to 80% residential. By increasing the Town's revenue from non-residential taxes, the cost of living for residents will continue to be balanced and sustainable.
At Strong Towns, we believe that financial solvency is a prerequisite for long-term prosperity. What steps has your community taken to ensure its financial security? How do local leaders adequately do the math on new investments proposed in your town to ensure that they’ll be able to afford them now and afford their maintenance in the future?
Coaldale is known for taking innovative approaches to building sustainable amenities that ensure the Town's financial solvency. Many of the Town's recent ambitious capital investments are intended to facilitate economic growth, expand the commercial tax base and introduce new revenue streams into the budget. These projects have been planned within the most recent Council term (2017-2021) without raising residential municipal taxes over the past three years.
The first major project is the Recreation Centre, a multi-purpose facility designed to accommodate a variety of community programming. The facility is strategically designed to achieve maximum operational efficiency in terms of cost and use of space. Most importantly, the capital construction cost will not have an impact on future tax rates; costs will be offset through reallocating budget surpluses from other capital projects, grant funding, and revenue generated through private partnership agreements. The project is conservatively anticipated to see a full-cost recovery and even generate an operational surplus into the budget.
Another significant capital project the Town is undertaking is what’s locally known as Civic Square. This project will see $3.5 million of private investment into Coaldale’s downtown core and will serve as a location for new commercial office space, the Town of Coaldale’s administration office building and Council Chambers, and indoor and outdoor community gathering spaces.
At Strong Towns, we believe that local government is a platform for strong citizens to collaboratively build a prosperous place. How are residents in your town involved in shaping its future? How do residents’ experiences, struggles and concerns directly inform the projects undertaken by local government? Provide one or more examples.
Over the past year, the Town of Coaldale has taken enormous strides to enhance public engagement efforts, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. As a big step towards the ever-present goal of continuing to promote consistent, proactive and productive dialogue with the community, and to continue to do work that aligns with the Town’s public participation policy, a new community engagement website using the Bang the Table Engagement HQ platform was created for all things engagement-related in Coaldale. This is intended to provide a more robust type of community engagement that allows the Town to consolidate engagement tools used in the past into one convenient space for residents to learn about projects and initiatives, discuss important topics, provide feedback and contribute to the future of the community.
The Town has also been largely successful in the projects they’ve completed in collaboration with citizen working groups. Over the past Council term (2017-2021), Town Council members have approved five citizen working groups to directly influence decisions and outcomes in major projects in Coaldale. As a more recent example, the Town has joined forces with the Accessibility Working Group to identify aspects of Coaldale’s built environment that are problematic to those with lived disabilities. The group is preparing a checklist to evaluate public facilities, public spaces and local business centers to understand what areas demand the most immediate improvements. Once it is determined what areas need to be prioritized, the Town will incorporate improvements into already planned infrastructure projects. Using the same working group platform, a new mountain bike park will also be designed by citizens and a design/build consultant and added to the Town's amenities.
How is your town proactively making it possible for more people to get outdoors safely during the pandemic?
The Town of Coaldale has found creative ways to introduce community programming year-round that encourage residents to get outdoors safely during the pandemic. During the early days of COVID-19, Coaldale was one of the first communities in the area to eliminate local sports organization user fees for outdoor field space during the 2020 season to make sure there were no barriers to children and families accessing outdoor sports. In the summer, the Town was involved in crafting a series of outdoor community scavenger hunts to entertain families with children. Residents were given clues that led them to different locations around Coaldale where they were instructed to take and submit photos of their successes. Winner of the contest received a prize basket full of fun family activities.
Temperatures in Coaldale can drop to -30 degrees Celsius in the winter, so outdoor activities are challenging enough to plan without the onset of a pandemic to factor in. However, the Town was able to deliver an exceptional holiday lights display in one of our public parks, dubbed the Winter Walk-in-the-Park. While safely adhering to COVID-19 provincial guidelines, The Town successfully attracted 2500 visitors over 7 nights to safely enjoy the lights in the park.
This spring, the Town will be partnering with the Coaldale Public Library to create a Story Walk along Coaldale’s newly developed pathways. Children’s book pages will be placed in weather-proof displays and installed along the pathway network for families to enjoy reading on their walks in a COVID-safe environment.
How is your town proactively helping local businesses and entrepreneurs during the pandemic? Describe how you are providing flexibility for small businesses and entrepreneurs to adapt and innovate.
Throughout the pandemic, the Town has demonstrated commitment to innovative, business-focus initiatives intended to help ease the cashflow burden and to inject life back into the local economy. The Town deferred property taxes and utilities for three months and reduced non-payment penalties by 50% following the adjusted deadline to ease the immediate financial burdens felt by local businesses. Business license payments were also deferred for three months. The Town's emergency services department was also able to provide local business access to PPE as needed so they could continue to operate under new restrictions. Finally, the Town offered to purchase space in the local newspaper every week for businesses to advertise any operational changes free of charge.
Along with these new measures, Coaldale Town Council pledged their official support for members of the Town’s administration to participate in the Regional Economic Recovery Task Force, an organization that provides a wide range of small business services and business management tools for people wanting to start, expand, franchise or sell a business.
As a silver lining, the pandemic has presented the Town with an opportunity to create innovative policies to provide flexibility to small businesses in Coaldale and make it easier for business owners to adapt to changing restrictions. For instance, the Town is introducing a new patio policy to allow restaurants located downtown to build temporary patio space in allocated parking spots. This allows restaurants to expand their limited capacity during COVID restrictions.
How are you measuring success and progress during this pandemic? What metrics tell you that your community is thriving and what metrics have helped you see where people are struggling?
Unemployment rates
Land sales and business attraction rate
Development projects
The amount of uptake for billing payment deferrals and other offerings that are intended to support individuals and businesses during the pandemic
A ribbon-cutting in Kenmore for a mural created by some of the city’s co-creators.
KENMORE, WA
Entry submitted by: Debbie Bent, John Vicente, Nancy Ousley, Jennifer Gordon, Bryan Hampson, Leticia Salcido, Richard Sawyer, Brandon Moen, and many co-creators in the community.
What is your favorite thing about your town?
Our community's attitude of always being in a state of continuous improvement. Our service vision is: “Propelling Kenmore Upward: We create a thriving community where people love where they live.”
How easy is it to live in your town without regular access to a car? What are some steps your town has taken—or is in the process of taking—to make it safer and easier to walk, bike, or use a wheelchair?
Most of our residents still need to get in a car to meet their daily needs, but we are moving away from that trend as the City has worked with the residents and business community to incrementally make Kenmore more walkable and bikeable. Examples of steps taken:
Road Diet: Using paint, the City has reduced several miles of multi-lane arterials down to one lane in each direction and created bike lanes with the new-found real estate.
Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons: The City added RRFBs (approximately 18 in total) to all of its arterial crosswalks where there was no mainline stop control. These RRB's are solar powered and require little maintenance.
Sidewalk Gaps and ADA Curb Ramps: The City has filled in gaps in sidewalks in dozens of locations and the City has retrofitted many dozens of street corners with accessible curb ramps. Bus stops and paths to bus stops have also been upgraded to be compatible for wheelchairs.
Sidewalks on the City's Two Principal Arterials: We have constructed (or are in the process of constructing) new sidewalks along the City's main east-west and north-south arterials. Maintenance costs of these new sidewalks are accounted for in the Financial Sustainability Plan (see below).
Downtown Creation: The City catalyzed private development of nine acres of mostly vacant land in the "bullseye" of our downtown. Not master planned, this incremental development was market driven and resulted in over 300 new high-density residential units and commercial within two blocks of most daily needs, including bus lines to Seattle and the East Side (Microsoft, etc.). The City used proceeds from the the sale of the land to build a modest town square and a signature community building that serve as year-round gathering spaces. No new roads or sidewalks needed.
What are some steps your town has taken—or is in the process of taking—to increase housing options and affordability?
Also, last year the City adopted new regulations that make it easier to add ADUs, including no required parking, reducing setbacks, increasing size and height, allowing for attached or detached, and eliminating the owner-occupancy requirement (after six months).
The City recently reduced permitting requirements for affordable housing units, and this year the planning commission is tasked with the "missing middle" initiative to allow residential neighborhoods to evolve and change, including allowing more infill and more dense units—duplexes and triplexes.
The City also recently allowed for flexible re-use of tax-exempt or publicly-owned sites to create more affordable housing, and we're currently working with a church to do just that.
At Strong Towns, we believe that financial solvency is a prerequisite for long-term prosperity. What steps has your community taken to ensure its financial security? How do local leaders adequately do the math on new investments proposed in your town to ensure that they’ll be able to afford them now and afford their maintenance in the future?
In 2020, the City engaged the community to create a long-term financial sustainability plan (FSP). Using a task force of residents, interactive online tools, and different types of public meetings, the community identified ways to help the City stay on solid financial ground for years to come.
The FSP found efficiencies and areas to reduce the budget, and it also recognized and accounted the costs of depreciating assets (e.g. buildings, roads) and established a sinking fund to save up for facility replacement costs (in addition to the existing vehicle and equipment replacement fund). New revenues are also part of the equation, including photo traffic enforcement (implementation in 2022), the revenue from which will toward pavement and sidewalk preservation as well as traffic safety.
The FSP accounts for an increased budget for pavement preservation as well as maintenance of new sidewalks that are coming online from the new bond measure. In total, the new forecast conservatively projects a balanced long term operating budget for the City.
At Strong Towns, we believe that local government is a platform for strong citizens to collaboratively build a prosperous place. How are residents in your town involved in shaping its future? How do residents’ experiences, struggles and concerns directly inform the projects undertaken by local government? Provide one or more examples.
We use multiple communication channels to let our residents know what's going on and how they can participate and co-create our City. Online interactive tools, open houses, and town hall meeting formats are among our most frequently used tools. We have also held a series of listening sessions which surprisingly drew a new group of residents that we had not heard from before. Our information materials are routinely translated into Spanish.
When it comes to specific projects, we mail flyers to affected residents and businesses, and we hold open houses where people can drop in, learn about the project, review plans, and and have one-on-one conversations will policy makers and project managers. One example is our voter-approved sidewalk project on our main north-south arterial. We held many open houses and other forums to get as many people to come and tell us what they want to consider. As a result, many project modifications were made, and the end product will be much better!
How is your town proactively making it possible for more people to get outdoors safely during the pandemic?
Kenmore was the first City in Washington State to issue a mask directive, and we've promoted, purchased and handed out thousands of free masks to our residents. They can come by our community building and pick them up any time. We also co-sponsored a virtual fun run with our local Chamber to encourage people to get outside and post photos of their 5k run. We've kept all of our parks open while increasing cleaning and safety protocols.
How is your town proactively helping local businesses and entrepreneurs during the pandemic? Describe how you are providing flexibility for small businesses and entrepreneurs to adapt and innovate.
We have been working with local restaurant owners to provide outdoor seating with minimal red tape. We've also been promoting take out for restaurants on our social media channels, and we distributed federal financial assistance to dozens of local businesses.
We also declared an eviction moratorium for both commercial and residential. We have eased up on regulations—enforcement of sign codes, home occupation regs, etc. has been lessened during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, we actually stepped up our efforts to keep building permits and inspections moving without missing a beat. Unlike many cities, we did not stop processing permits or performing inspections. Early on in the pandemic, we used video conferencing to perform inspections, and now our inspectors go on site with necessary protections and distancing. Before the pandemic began, we were set up with the ability to process all permits electronically, so our permitting staff easily transitioned to working from home while keeping permits moving through the pipeline.
How are you measuring success and progress during this pandemic? What metrics tell you that your community is thriving and what metrics have helped you see where people are struggling?
We keep a close eye on regional and local economic indicators (jobless claims, fuel tax, sales tax, permitting activity, etc.). We rely on the state and the county to tell us about eviction rates, and we stay in one-on-one contact with many of our local businesses. We contract with and provide funding to human services agencies that are providing rental assistance, meals, and other necessities to our residents, and those agencies are reporting on the assistance they are providing and what they are observing in the community.