NOREEN: Ivywild deal appears done — finally

Some of us look forward to the day we can savor another local IPA — perhaps an Ivywild Pale Ale.

It appears that local brewery owner Mike Bristol and his partners have a deal with the city’s Urban Renewal Authority, Colorado Springs School District 11 and importantly, the neighborhood near Ivywild Elementary School. It is a four-win deal.

(1)Proven local entrepreneurs create jobs, (2)the city helps its economic vitality, (3)D-11 gets needed cash for capital improvements and (4)the neighborhood is revitalized.

But it took too long.

The idea of turning the old school into a brewery-restaurant-community garden ( first became public in June 2010. It was in the public eye a full year before Mayor Steve Bach took office after campaigning on the following promises:

— “create stable, good-paying jobs by getting the economy going again -- and keeping it vibrant.”

— ‘‘cultivate goodwill with our existing primary employers.”

— “encourage our K-12 school districts, colleges and universities in their mission...”

— “achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness...”

The Ivywild deal didn’t reach a City Council agenda until November. Then it got punted to another agenda, and then another.

If this was an example of a new City Hall being leaner and meaner, streamlined, cutting the red tape, creating a good environment for small business — then we are all in a lot more trouble than we realized.

Ed Brady, who lives in the greater Ivywild neighborhood, said “When we heard about this plan we were excited. There was a lot to recommend it.”

Closing schools kills neighborhoods. The plan advanced by Bristol and restaurateur Joe Coleman amounted to a bone marrow transplant.

Brady said City Hall’s foot-dragging was “not good leadership or decision-making.”

City Councilwoman Lisa Czelatdko, whose district includes Ivywild, asked “I wonder where the accountability comes from? Are we being friendly with small businesses? We should have been rolling out the carpet. This is exactly what we need. If the Springs is going to say we’re going to help small businesses, we should.”

Bristol said “It was less about the mayor not liking the deal as it was about the mayor not liking the fee structure” established by the Urban Renewal Authority.

It’s classy of Bristol to try to take the heat off of Bach, but it’s clear the mayor could have done more to pressure the urban renewal panel to move. Compared with most urban renewal deals, this one was small.

If the city can’t do something like this much more quickly, Bach isn’t living up to his campaign promises.

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Listen to Barry Noreen on KRDO NewsRadio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:35 a.m. on Fridays. Look for blog updates at gazette.comblogs barrysblog and his videos at
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