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Warren Unsicker: Hello, and thank you for joining me today. My name is Warren Unsicker. And I'm the Director of Economic Development for the City of Farmington, New Mexico. And I'm excited to talk with you today about being a part of your community and the importance of it and what it brings, not only to your community, but also to you, and being engaged in some of the public input and the opportunities to engage with long-term planning for your community.

My role at the city is really to attract and create jobs and businesses to the community, as well as working with outdoor recreation events and programming as well as downtown development. And so, I engage not only with businesses, but with the community on a regular basis and get a chance to see how and what kind of input we can get from them to guide the future of what we're trying to plan for the city of Farmington.

One of the biggest things that you get by being engaged with your community is you get to learn a lot more about it. I know having gone through even things like Leadership San Juan, which is a great way to kind of get a high level overview of all the things going on in the community, that so many people just don't know all that goes on within our city and in the areas around it. And so, it's really great to be able to kind of get the inside look and behind the scenes of all the things that are going on. And there's numerous different ways that you can get engaged on that level between volunteering, the Mayor's Volunteer Program is a great way to have opportunities to go and engage at the senior center or at the parks or with cleanup programs. But if you're looking to get more engaged in kind of long-term planning for what you want to see the community be, there's lots of ways to do that, be it through public input sessions for various different programs or attending or even joining commissions that advise the city council on what they're planning and doing long-term or even just attending city council meetings. You have opportunities to speak at the end of those meetings if you've seen or heard something that you are passionate about and want to have some input on.

But on a regular basis, the City of Farmington is doing various different projects and various different things to help push forward the next steps of our community. We just recently completed the 2040 Comp Plan. That was a long input process. We had public input sessions. We hosted tables at various different events. We are currently in the process of doing a housing study to determine what opportunities there are there to expand housing in the community. There's also an MPO Transportation Plan that's working on bike paths and micro-mobility and various different other things.

But one thing that I'm engaged in right now is what's called the Animas Action Plan. And this is specifically around part of what's called the Metropolitan Redevelopment Area, that's just south of downtown. The Animas and Healthcare Hubs are these two regions that have very different personalities, but lots of opportunities for growth. And so, we've been doing numerous public outreach, programs, be it through surveys as well as through public listening sessions and public input sessions, where community members and stakeholders especially in those areas have come and shared what they'd like to see moving forward in that area. And that's gone anywhere from adding new sidewalks, creating entertainment and retail opportunities to traffic calming, expanding parks and programming down there. And, you know, even with the hospital district, creating more housing for employees, especially those that are contract or coming in for a short period to be able to have housing nearby, so they're not having to drive as far and likewise so they can have access to all the amenities that have come in the downtown core.

And so, there's a lot that goes into those planning processes. And in the end, we get these beautiful plans that visualize and tell a story of what the future of the community looks like. And that can be really rewarding to be a part of. You get to see some of your input come to life potentially. You also get to have an inside look at what goes in to creating these future plans. Because so often, things just kind of in the view of the public happen. Downtown is a prime example of that. That had been a plan in the making for 20 some odd years. But it came to a head specifically when some funding came available. And to the public eye, it was a pretty whirlwind adventure to bringing about this transformative streetscaping in downtown that cost over $12 billion and brought traffic-calming roundabouts, speakers, beautification, landscaping. And all of those things took years to vision and come up with a concrete plan that finally got implemented.

And so, it can be a really exciting thing to do. And plus, it helps you build community. You get to connect with people of like mind. You get to have conversations that you wouldn't necessarily have an opportunity to have. And likewise, it's been shown that volunteering and engaging can have health benefits, reduces stress, increases positive emotions and even relaxes you. And so, there's a lot that you get out of the process of giving back and being engaged in your community. And so, I can't stress enough how important it is, not only for you, but also for us as a community that we have your input because we don't want to do anything in a vacuum. We want the input of the community and the public to be able to craft and vision the community they want to see in the future.

And so, I can't stress enough how important it is for us and for you, but also how much fun it can be. And if you're interested in things like this, feel free to reach out to the city. We have again, numerous points of entry for volunteering, especially through our Mayor's Volunteer Program and, again, numerous commissions that work on things from zoning to the MRA District to the Parks and Recreation and Cultural Affairs Division.

And so if you have an interest, there's bound to be something that we can engage you in and get you opportunities to be a part of. And so, thank you for your time. And we look forward to seeing you hopefully in the future at any of our planning and commission opportunities, in particular the Animas District Plan that we're working on, where it's going to be additional opportunities to take a look at that and give input. You'll see us with a booth at the River Reach Riverfest Program coming up in May. And so, we hope to see you there. Come by the booth and give some input. Put some stickers on some designs, and see what the future holds for the Animas District. Thank you and have a wonderful day.