The City of Fort Collins is developing a new Economic Health Strategic Plan that includes a familiar proposal: pushing for a conference center in downtown Fort Collins.

Such a center could bring increased tax revenues and employment to the city, the plan says. It also could help foster development in the area that surrounds it.

Though the economy is improving, whether the idea gains any momentum now is hardly a sure thing. Business interests have been pushing for a downtown conference center – either as a standalone project or as part of a hotel – for years.

The last economic development plan was produced in 2005, according to city Economic Health Director Josh Birks. Everything in that plan has been "crossed off the list," Birks said, so the city decided it was time to set new goals. The new plan will be presented to City Council on Tuesday, March 27.

While there are no budget changes listed in the plan, it will have an impact on the way the Economic Health Office spends the dollars appropriated to it in the city budget. Budget discussions for 2013 and 2014, the first years in which the plan would likely be implemented, are now under way.

If the council adopts the plan,