{"id":1311508,"date":"2019-06-17T19:48:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T01:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/rifle-looking-to-build-momentum-from-growing-local-economy-2\/"},"modified":"2019-06-17T19:48:01","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T01:48:01","slug":"rifle-looking-to-build-momentum-from-growing-local-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/rifle-looking-to-build-momentum-from-growing-local-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Rifle looking to build momentum from growing local economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A Dunkin Donut employee serves up some coffee during the grand opening of the Rifle location last Friday.<\/strong>
Natuza Olen \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

With new businesses popping up throughout town as well as plans for major infrastructure improvements soon to take shape, Rifle\u2019s economic development continues to build momentum in 2019.<\/p>\n

Rifle Mayor Barbara Clifton highlighted plans to improve Rifle\u2019s gateway, which has been discussed for years but is finally coming to fruition this summer and will revamp the entrance to downtown.<\/p>\n

As part of the opening of Wendy\u2019s, which is being constructed on the site of the old gas stations on Railroad Avenue, the city is also working on installing underground power lines; paving the alley behind the restaurant site; gutter and sidewalk work along Railroad Avenue, Centennial Parkway and West Avenue; as well as landscaping and other work to improve the look of Rifle\u2019s entrance to town. Work is expected to be completed this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll that will make an improvement as you drive to town,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The entrance to town had been a priority for the city for a long time, but it was the improvement to public infrastructure while securing a private investment that really attracted the city at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really excited with the businesses coming to town for a couple of reasons,\u201d Clifton said. \u201cIt gives citizens more variety, but it also creates sales tax for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the sales tax could then be used to make further improvements becoming something of a cycle to keep making Rifle a better place to live.<\/p>\n

When Rifle City Manager Scott Hahn started last August, he spoke to how important it was to get off to a fast start after months of stagnation between city managers.<\/p>\n

He credited Rifle\u2019s revitalization as the vision of the planning department, City Council and other city officials\u2019 vision taking shape as residents are beginning to see the improvements firsthand.<\/p>\n

This spring alone has seen Rifle open a new coworking space, as well as several new restaurants, franchises and other businesses in town including Dunkin\u2019 Donuts and Baskin Robbins last week with more on the way, including Wendy\u2019s and likely Culver\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s obvious the town has been on the right path for development,\u201d Hahn added. \u201cWe\u2019ve been getting this up for a long time, and it seems to be really taking off. Our flexibility is opening the town more to businesses to come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

He spoke to the fact that Rifle recently opened up the possibility of waiving development fees for housing projects, which isn\u2019t necessarily bringing businesses into town directly, he said, but rather shows Rifle is business-friendly and open to accommodating developers.<\/p>\n

Planning Director Nathan Lindquist reiterated that development fee waivers are for residential housing developments only. However, he said that also seems to have picked up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re expecting quite a bit of new housing from the development fee waiver,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that the number of building inspections the city has completed is up 30 percent in 2019, showing there has been a clear uptick in business development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve picked up a lot of momentum in 2019, and these projects will start to build off one another as the city and community are doing a lot of different things,\u201d he added. \u201cRifle is starting to show its best face. This phase is all about improving the quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

azorn@citzentelegram.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Dunkin Donut employee serves up some coffee during the grand opening of the Rifle location last Friday.Natuza Olen \/ Post Independent With new businesses popping up throughout town as well as plans for major infrastructure improvements soon to take shape, Rifle\u2019s economic development continues to build momentum in 2019. Rifle Mayor Barbara Clifton highlighted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1311508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-19 06:13:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1311508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1311508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1311508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1311508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}