Marsh appoints Erin Black to LURA board - Reporter-Herald
Thomas Clayton
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Mayor Marsh appoints Erin Black to Loveland Urban Renewal Authority Board
Black: ‘I am ready to serve’
One week after announcing the resignation of at-large member Steve Johnson from the Loveland Urban Renewal Authority (LURA) board, Mayor Jacki Marsh announced on Tuesday that she has appointed his replacement. Loveland resident Erin Black, a candidate for City Council in Ward 3, has accepted Marsh’s invitation to join the 13-member panel and looks forward to making a contribution.
“I am honored that the mayor has confidence in me,” Black said of her appointment. “I am ready to serve.”
The LURA was formed in 2002 to manage the financing for downtown revitalization projects. In the years since, it has also managed the original Centerra urban renewal plan.
Erin BlackWith the new Centerra South urban renewal plan approved earlier this year, the board was expanded from nine to 13 members in order to add representatives from the other local taxing districts, which include Larimer County, Thompson School District, Thompson Valley Health Services District and Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. As the at-large member, Black does not represent any single entity.
A longtime family and mental health volunteer, Black previously served on Loveland’s Community Trust Commission, a citizens group formed by City Council in 2021 to recommend ways to restore trust after the Karen Garner arrest. Black is also a graduate of the Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI), a civic education organization that trains participants on public policy issues related to families, health and social programs.
She readily admitted that she has less urban renewal experience than her predecessor Johnson, who frequently worked on urban renewal law and procedures during his 30-year career as a state legislator and county commissioner. But she hopes to make up for it in her long experience working with advisory boards and commissions and her willingness to keep an open mind on what has historically been a contested topic in Loveland.
“There are successful examples of your URAs with clear public purposes, and so I am for urban renewal authorities as they were set forth to be used,” Black said. “So that’s my goal. What comes before me, I will base my decisions on the merits of the proposal.”
Those were the two qualities Marsh was looking for in a replacement for Johnson, whose expertise she said was “ignored” by other members of LURA board during the Centerra South urban renewal deliberations earlier this year.
“You don’t need an expert in the field if they’re just going to dismiss it,” she said.
The mayor was also impressed by Black’s willingness to learn about issues she is not familiar with and listen to a wide variety of viewpoints.
“She is a person that does her research,” Marsh said. “She doesn’t just rely on what somebody told her. URAs and metro districts and master finance agreements are very complex, and you need the personality type that is going to dig in until they understand.”
The LURA board has not met since approving the Centerra South master finance agreement on May 16, and currently has no pending business. However, LURA chair Dana Foley hopes to arrange a meeting to formalize the board’s rules and procedures sometime in the coming weeks.
Foley declined to offer an opinion about the mayor’s appointment of Black, but said that he will make sure that the newest board member has everything she needs to “get up to speed” with the other 12.
 | Tom Clayton Communication and Media Specialist, Public Affairs |
| Commissioners' Office 200 W Oak St, Fort Collins, 80522 | 2nd Floor W: (970) 498-7005 tcla...@larimer.org | www.larimer.org |