July 28, 2020 — City Council Special Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] of Boulder for a very long time in fact um the buying of the bat Elder Ranch which is where shiaka is [Music] [Applause] [Music] today [Music] [Music]

[5:14] hear me okay good thank you Rachel you're psychedelic again are you sure you're not a hippie from the 60s sometimes In My Dreams yeah so I see ad of us here see five six

[6:03] seven8 there's Bob okay I think we're all here good evening everybody hi aronin so who is in charge of his channel 8 ready yes okay good 01 so I will go ahead and gavel this meeting to order welcome everyone this is the Boulder City council meeting of Tuesday July 28th it is a special meeting of the city council and um Debbie would you call the role council member Brocket present friend here Joseph Pres yes stick here wallik here Gates here

[7:07] young present mayor we have a quorum thank you very much and so before we um begin with our declarations tonight I would like to um ask for a motion to amend the agenda and we are going to add item 1 C which is to uh speak about the Ponderosa um project that's going on so if I could get a motion so moved second okay any objection to amending the agenda hearing none we can move into the main part of the agenda Debbie um our first item this evening is a declaration in honor of John Lewis thank you um before I begin I want want to um

[8:01] acknowledge uh the work of uh our intrepret assistant Taylor who is the principal uh drafter of this document and she did a wonderful job and and I want everyone to know that this is a declaration in honor of Congress person John Lewis's advocacy and service to the United States of America dated July 28th 2020 on July 17 2020 our nation lost a well-respected leader in civil rights icon it is with great sadness and hope for the future that we honor the contributions Congress person John Lewis made to the country and wish to recognize the difficult work and sacrifices he made to bring our nation forward in the fight for equity and Justice Lewis was one of the original 13 Freedom Writers of the 1960s during this tumultuous time in our country he participated in and helped organize stins marches and lectures he was a prodigy of Martin Luther King Jr and at the age of 23

[9:01] helped organize the March on Washington where he was that day's youngest keynote speaker at 25 Lewis co-led the marches from selon to Montgomery organized to demonstrate the desire of African-Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote the peaceful March traveled across the Pettis bridge where he and his fellow Marchers were beaten by state troopers the brutal confrontation gained national attention and became known as Bloody Sunday perhaps no single event was more significant in catalyzing public opinion against southern segregationist political structures and in generating support for voting rights for people of color to commemorate the Day Lewis became an architect and leader of an annual pilgrimage following the same route this year was his last time to lead the tradition in the face of the Corona virus pandemic and his own personal battles with health despite more than 40 arrests

[10:00] physical attacks and serious injuries Lewis remained a devoted advocate of nonviolence Lewis went on to become the director of the voter education project and under his leadership the project transformed the nation's political climate by adding nearly four million non-whites to the voter roles he was a staunch advocate of quote making good trouble unquote in the pursuit of social justice and human rights goals he pursued to the last day of his life Lewis was first elected to congress in 1986 and continued to serve for more than three decades until his death known is the conscience of the Congress his dedication to the community and high ethical standards won him admiration and respect from both sides of the aisle we the city council of the city of Boulder wish to honor The Life and Legacy of John Lewis a Titan of civil rights whose goodness faith and bravery helped transform the nation let us not forget his legacy and continue to build upon

[11:01] his sacrifice in our own Pursuit for a just and Equitable Community signed on behalf of the city council by Sam Weaver mayor thank you thank you very much Mark I appreciate that and I want to see if any other council members would like to say anything at this moment about um Congress person Lewis just me I I would had my actual hand raised um I just wanted to say that John Lewis understood what I think a lot of us could benefit from understanding and he called it Love In Action because he understood that you get more with kindness than you do with disrespect and unkindness and fearmongering and so I just wanted to say that because I think we're in some

[12:01] times that um that is forgotten and I think that we need to remember that thank you Mary I appreciate that anyone else okay S no hands debie our next item is a declaration in honor of Tanya Anie very good thank you and I will be taking this one um I'll just start by reading the Declaration and then I'll add a few things at the end um Tanya Ani joined the Boulder City team as a deputy city manager in 2016 over the past four years her leadership has brought transformational change to many departments and included initiative focused on enhancing the operations in Innovation and Technology Human Resources Emergency Management equity and engagement all of her work has cultivated a stronger value based

[13:00] culture throughout the city during her City service Tanya has championed transparency and government promoted Innovation and ensured that equity and engagement are at the center of everything that we do she helped to shape a new innovation and data analytics program restructured the city's Broadband effort around principles of equity supported the creation of our community engagement framework and has helped lead our equity and releasing work which has received National recognition Tanya has done some of her best work when confronted with the varied and complex challenges found in local government leadership her abilities to build strategic Partnerships coach employees and facilitate creative problem solving have made the city a more resilient and connected organization as the covid-19 pandemic impacted all of our Lives Tanya's consistent leadership has helped to manage the tough decision required to navigate these difficult times each of

[14:02] the priorities Tanya has touched have resulted in better outcomes for the organization and the community teammates who work with Tanya report higher job satisfaction increase motivation to perform and more confidence to express creativity in their job duties Tanya has offered so much to the Boulder Community with her gifts as a leader Mentor teammate and friend her passion for good governance combined with her aptitude for Success has served her well here in Boulder and will continue to serve every Community she touches we the members of the Boulder City Council recognize honor and appreciate the service and significant contributions made to our community by Tanya Anie thank you for all your hard work and I want to take a moment now that that declaration is um completed to say that um Jane and I participated in a

[15:01] phone call with Tanya's new employers and they asked us a lot of questions about Tanya and we gave her the the glowing um endorsement that you would expect as we went through that conversation I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness that they had found Tanya and taken her from our organization so Tanya from all of us thank you for all the work you've done and best wishes in your um future position um with that I think I'd like to start by seeing if Tanya would like to say a few words thank you Sam um and I appreciate the support of the council um the organization and the community at this moment I'm almost speechless and for those that know me that doesn't always happen uh very often um but I'm truly humbled and grateful um truly and it has been myON honor and privilege to serve this community and

[16:02] organization and I want to say I am inspired each and every day by the employees within this organization and their dedication to service Excellence I I would be remiss to say that this declaration is a reflection of all of them because the work that I do that we do together we're better together when we approach it as a team so thank you for your words and I want to also recognize each and every employee of this organization and I'm very confident that the systems and structures that we have in place will ensure that Equity engagement and Innovation will continue so we can strive to be a truly sustainable and resilient community so thank you um and I appreciate your support thank you Tanya and again best of luck um with your new position would

[17:00] anyone else like to weigh in here okay uh juny and then Aaron can you hear me yeah good thank you well Tanya I have messaged you privately again it's just echoing what I've said to you before I really appreciate getting to know you even though it hasn't been that long for only about 8 months I wish I had more time to get to know you and the work that you do I'm very grateful to be part of this Council where Equity is at the Forefront and I've seen all the work that you've done so thank you for your leadership thank you for your support and guidance and I wish you the best of luck wherever you going and I was again as a Haitian person we have a saying that says two mountains doesn't meet but two people do so I hope to see you again in the

[18:00] future thank you jie and Aaron well T you've just done such an extraordinary job here at the city and it's been an enormous pleasure to work with you over the last four years and we're going to miss you dearly um but I one of my very best friends lives in the county in in Oregon that you're going to and I told her that she is in extremely good hands and um so H thank you for all you've done and I know you're going to continue making the world a better place there and and on in the future thank you thank you thank you Ain Mary so Tanya we're going to miss you and I'm very grateful for everything you did great thank you again Tanya best wishes and I hope you stay in touch oh Jane sorry yeah thanks um I I appreciate the opportunity to say something so um at the end Tanya gave all the credit to

[19:00] the employees of the organization which is so so Tanya um but I I guess I want to tell you a story about the first meeting that Tanya had with employees here at the city it was with some members of our um it department and she sat down nobody knew her and the first words out of her mouth to each of them was what kind of a wizard are you and each of them sat up taller um thinking oh my God yes I am a wizard at something wonderful and and that's the thing that Tanya brings to our organization and that we are going to miss so very much is her really deep caring about each individual people feel seen by Tanya and that makes a difference in the organization in ways that I hope that you all can imagine it makes people stand up taller feel empowered to do the work that they do and then to do a great job T's been a mentor to so many people and in our organization and there are many that are sad that she is leaving um

[20:03] and I guess I'm the first one to say that um but Tanya's career is about to take off it she will shine in Oregon as she has here um and I I want to wish you the very best I'll miss you so much thank you very good thank you Jane um and with that best wishes Tanya of course and like I said before stay in touch please so thank you thank you so now I'm going to move on to an unscripted moment sorry to do this Debbie but um we learned yesterday some of us knew before yesterday of course but we learned yesterday our city manager Jan bringham is going to retire at the end of October and there will be a lot of time for us to celebrate all of Jane's accomplishments and all of the the inspiration that she brought to the

[21:00] city organization and to everyone she worked with but I just want us all to recognize that this is going to be a very transformative change and it will be difficult to replace Jane and to fill the big shoes she's had and and the impact she's made here in Boulder um I have a list of accomplishments Jane has has made and I I don't think I'm going to read them off tonight because we'll we'll go over them I'm sure um as we say goodbye but I just want to um let the community know that this is coming and that it's going to be a lot of um work to be able to bring someone into the organization that is so capable as Jane is so we know that this is coming we know that we're going to have to do this um move to replace Jane but it's also going to be a celebration of all that she's accomplished here for Boulder so

[22:02] we have until October to let Jane know um all that she has done for us and the way she's touched each of our employees lives as well as all the council members and our entire community so Jane I'm sorry that we have this news but I'm also very happy for you um that you'll be able to to make the next step in your journey um I would invite you if you want to to say a word or two about um what brought you to this decision and and how long you've been thinking about it and then we can move on to the rest of the meeting but it is a momentous um moment for Boulder to be contemplating uh what life looks like without chane at the H Jane well thank you so much Sam I totally didn't expect this so taking off guard but thank you um I really appreciate it I have had such an amazing career here in Boulder and I I love my

[23:01] job I um you guys know that I'm the president of icma and I had a speech that I was able to give last year to like a couple thousand people just about what local government means and how lucky we all are as city managers and I am to serve our um our public and to listen to the concerns of people every single day so it I couldn't have a better job and I'm really thrilled um I I have been here 12 years and I've had a really long career um I've been thinking back on it of course and I I've been working since I got out of Law School 44 years and I'm getting tired um and so that is kind of what has brought me to this decision um some of you know that I actually had plans to retire earlier this year and you may not know this but I was going to announce it on March 17th but oops oops we had a pandemic so um that did not happen but

[24:04] um now it really is time for me to go I want to stay until we get through the budget I definitely owe that to you all in the community and our organization and I'm looking forward to the next few months and I will do anything I can to help you get the best city manager who will take the city to new heights I'm looking forward to it very good thank you Jane and I do just want to note that um it is much appreciated that you stayed on through this very very Rocky time um and we will benefit greatly from your wisdom as we try and adjust our budget to what are the inevitable cuts that are coming um to our revenues so thank you for sticking with us for this this difficult time and we look forward to lots of chances to wish you well as we go forward thank you Sam thank you council members thank you all with that back to Debbie next item is um council's reaffirmation and reassurance to the

[25:00] Punda [Music] Community very good thank you and I didn't know if uh staff was GNA take this or Mary wanted to kick this off I think that staff's ready to do it unless Mary you want to Kurt hi Kurt hi good evening Council uh Kurt fhab director housing Human Services um so I'll just give a very brief update um I'm actually on vacation right now um um there was a request to do a a quick update on Ponderosa so I'll do that now so um over the last um couple of years um the the city's owned um Ponderosa during that time there um there's been 14 residents that have um left the community and sold their their um their homes to the city um um as far as I know um all of those residents have

[26:03] been able to take that those funds and purchase either a home um or or another home in the in the uh the Boulder County Community um as a result of that um we're in the process of taking those 14 homes um away we're we're hauling them off um and um during the last couple of months um we've completed the the technical documents um and received the permits for the infrastructure which started about three weeks ago so we're in the process of replacing uh sewer sewer and water currently and um one of the biggest pieces of the infrastructure is is the uh the creation of of a new intersection on the on the south side of um Ponderosa um this will require um a a street

[27:00] closure uh for I think about six weeks um and traffic will be routed um during that period um there's been three residents um that have had to move locations within Ponderosa um as a result of um impacts um to of of the infrastructure um particularly around um um surface drainage retention or detention fonds um the um the city um upgraded mobile homes for them to move into so they moved into a more upgraded home than what they moved out of um at no cost to the resident and the city also paid for their their moving costs um our goal is to have the infrastructure um completed by the end of the year and um there will be disruption to

[28:01] Residents particularly we're going to be working or we are working Street by Street putting in the infrastructure and um there will be disruption at the time of hooking up new sewer and water to each of of the residents um so that's the uh the update that I have okay very good thank you for that Kurt um and Mary would you like to weigh in yes I would um thank you Kurt for taking some time out of your vacation to um get provide the update um my intent was actually not to have you take time out from your vacation um I just wanted to make sure that the residents understood that um the council is committed as we have been from the very very beginning to minimize any displacement as Kurt said the residents that have left have left um on their own volition as far as far as I know and um and I've I have

[29:01] followed this from the very beginning so um I know that that's been the case um we have have had several times when we have affirmed that it is to be there was to be minimal displacement first off the night that this project was brought to us several years ago probably about seven years ago where Council said if there is any displacement you have no annexation deal and so Council came up um Council staff came up with an incredibly um creative way in which to um preserve the community and um its residents that make up the community um and then later there was resolution number 1217 which was The Ponderosa resolution that said um in its text that we will ensure minimal resident displacement there's also been a letter to the community that expressed the same

[30:00] um and the um the annexation agreement itself established that mobile homes would be a non-conforming use meaning that residents who wanted to stay in their mobile homes as they are um could could do so until they wished there was not going to be any forcing of anybody moving um the latest that I have heard from residents is the concern that um Kurt mentioned where some residents were had to move because of some of the infrastructure needs and um safety and um sidewalk needs and those residents were given the option um to move within another unit within um the mobile home um Park so I am certain I am positive that there has been the promise has been kept that there would be no or that that displacement would be minimized and so I just wanted to reaffirm that to the

[31:01] community and ensure them that there will be no displacement and um and what you are seeing are just things that happen when you are putting a new infrastructure in a community that was built in the 1950s um when this is all said and done it is my hope that the community will be stronger than ever and that you all will enjoy your new homes so thank you thank you Mary Aon yeah thanks for that U Mary and Kurt really appreciate you showing up on your vacation sorry about that um but just to Echo what Mary said and you know I I live near there and go by Ponder Ro on a regular basis and you know the construction is disruptive there's no question about it you know there's digging going on there's Vehicles being moved around and parking disruptions etc etc um so I know it's a hard time for the residents there but um as Mary said we as as a counselor committed to you know we finished the project people

[32:00] aren't um forced to move out of the uh community and um you know the long-term benefits will be hopefully very large so okay very good thank you Aaron um anyone else want to speak on this topic I do not see any hands raised so with that I want to also thank Kurt um for taking time out of your vacation I want to Echo what Mary said that not only is Our intention no displacement um we are striving to be as clear in our Communications as we can about what to expect um any kind of construction project is very disruptive and we understand that in the time of covid there are even greater concerns about um projects where people come in from the outside into your community so we completely sympathize with the disruption that's going on um Our intention is to be able to preserve the community forward for another 50 to 100

[33:02] years so the infrastructure work is part of that we appreciate your patience and we want to reassure you that we're committed to working with you um going forward so with that Debbie he next we have the consent agenda and there's just one item item a good so does anyone have any questions Aon I see your hand up but that may have been from the last item no I did want to speak here again um so the the item on the consent agenda is about um scheduling a public hearing to put the no eviction without representation measure on the ballot so they got their all the signatures that they required um so but I just wanted to give folks an update um on something I've been working on um that we'll be considering as part of this um I spoke with the organizers of that initiative about the possibility of adding uh rental assistance to the folks in danger of eviction as one of the purposes of uh

[34:01] the program and uh they were amendable to that they were interested in pursuing that so um when we get to First reading next week uh we're going to have a couple of alternatives to consider one is um their original battle initiative and another one is an edited version of the initiative that adds a rental assistance component to the program so we'll talk more about it then but just want to give people a heads up that this is you know kind of in negoti s and of course they have every right to be on the ballot with exactly the language that they have put forward but if there's a variant that the organizers think is better and that Council also thinks is better um we may have a slightly different path forward that that adds um rental assistance for people in need so just want to get people a heads up on that very good Aaron thanks very much for that work um much appreciated um let me look and see if there's other hands up Mary thank you for that Aaron and um I just

[35:00] wanted to I know how when funding such as this gets passed um by initiative that the funds are pretty restricted so I I really appreciate that openness to add rental assistance and um and as the negotiations continue I would hope that there is an openness to adding not only rental assistance but rental assistance mediation as well as legal representation um it is best to provide people with the assistance that they need and the further upstream and any potential for eviction the better so um so I would hope that mediation would also be um another option yeah great Point Mary we can continue to have those discussions I believe believe that's intended to be a part of the program but we can keep talking about it so anyway Reach Out to me individually if you have any further questions and of course this will be considered at public hearing so the

[36:01] public will have a chance to weigh in as well and I guess with that I'm happy to move the consent agenda do I have a second second very good anyone opposed to the uh consent agenda seeing no opposition it passes unanimously okay Debbie okay now on to the public hearing this evening it is the concept plan review for 4775 and 4649 spine Road okay and this is going to be presented by Charles faroh and Sloan wber actually good evening mayor members of council I'm G to turn it over to Sloan who's going to present staff analysis tonight Sam before great yep I was gonna interrupt sorry Sloan Bob has something you'd like to share with us yeah I um as I indicated in a hotline post about a week ago I need to recuse myself on this matter um it appears the property owner is a company which I own

[37:00] stock in and so I'm going to recuse myself I'm going to turn off my video step away from my computer and I think the staff was going to text me when this matter is over so well we will not be participating in this concept review thanks thank you Bob and with that over to you SL all right Chris can you bring the thank you cck controls okay um so good evening everyone the item for discussion tonight is a proposal to develop three vacant Lots at 4775 and 4649 spine Road the site's nearly 10 acres and develop with a new residential development with 268 residential units in 10 buildings the development is proposed to include 25% permanently affordable housing which is um 68 units

[38:00] um so a quick overview tonight I will just cover the purpose of concept plan review the existing site conditions and surrounding contexts I will describe the proposed concept for this sites and identify a key issue for discussion and I'll also provide a a short summary of The Board hearing so before we go on I'd like to make clear that um no decision would be made tonight by Council the concept plan review step is intended to give the applicant an opportunity to solicit comments from City staff the public planning board and city council early in the development process and it is intended to be a conversation um concept plan review is intended to determine the general development P plan for a particular site and also help identify key issues in advance of a site review submitt in this case the applicant elected to undergo a

[39:00] concept plan review to solicit this feedback it was not required because the site is located within an existing PUD and it's important to note that previously approved valid puds are required to be amended consistent with the provisions of site review so a subsequent site review application would be required to um develop as they propos um in terms of public notification as part of the process written notice was sent and signs have been posted on the property um the hearings have also been advertised in the Daily Camera and applications have been posted to the city website since January of this year to look at the regulatory context um the site is designated as light industrial under the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan land use map and as part of the 2015 major update to the

[40:01] comp plan the light industrial land use designation was updated to change the types of uses typically found within the designation and it added that residential and complimentary uses would be encouraged in appropriate locations the corresponding zoning is industrial manufacturing which um is intended for industrial manufacturing areas however again residential uses and other complimentary uses are allowed in appropriate locations um a use review would be required um concurrent with the site review to establish residential uses in an industrial Zone district and as part of that um they would be required to demonstrate that 40% of the required usable open space would be configured as a common contiguous area that would be provided for active and passive um open space needs for

[41:06] residents so just to give some context um as I mentioned the site's nearly 10 acres in area it is located in Gunbarrel on the west side of spine Road South of Gun Barrel Avenue the property was annexed to the city in 1982 as part of a larger indal seasonings annexation that was 52 acres in size Gun Barrel does not have an adopted subc commmunity plan the area covered by The Gun Barrel Community Center plan is located approximately three4 of a mile to the Northeast and as described in the memo several of the city's adopted plans describe the changing nature of gun barrel and the need for additional services and amenities this site is located more than half a mile from a neighborhood or community park so the design of the open space will be important um moving into

[42:02] site review the site is adjacent to spine road which is classified as a collector Street and um the streets interor interior to the sites are um private streets covered by access easements the area surrounding the site is um eclectic in nature and industrial areas are located to the north and east within the city limits um these areas have large Business Park style of development with very large floor plates loading docks and um large surface parking lots um most notably would be the metronic campus which is directly to the Northeast medium density multif family development is located to the east within Boulder County those are the Powder Horn condos and Hunter Creek condominiums and then single family residential areas are located to the South and Southwest

[43:01] and those are located within the city so in terms of previous reviews as I mentioned the site was annexed and planned as part of that Celestial Seasonings PUD you can see the extent of that on the map on the screen in 1980 late 1982 the annexation and PUD were approved uh the larger site was zoned as industrial as part of that process there was a small portion zoned residential uh the Pud established a site for the celestrial seasonings headquarters facilities and future industrial sites and residential development there's been several amendments over the years the most notable Milestones were in 1989 when the Pud um approval included a multiphase development and Office Buildings were approved along spine

[44:01] Road um the current site is three of those office sites that were previously approved um and then in 1990 SL steel seasonings began operations of the new facility and these lands have been vacant since that time so in terms of existing conditions there is an extensive active prairie dog colony located on the site um through the concept learn review it came to light that Celestial Seasonings had previously made some assurances to the community in response to a public outcry um over the use of lethal control the specific intent and extent of those are unclear at this point um there was a letter and article published in the Daily Camera which was attached to the memo um for your reference however it's important to note there are no for formal agreements with the city to protect the pr do Colony or to limit

[45:00] impacts on habitats um the urban Wildlife Management plan does state that the city would minimize conflicts with residents um while also identifying preserving and improving appropriate habitat within the urban area the applicant would also be required to obtain a prairie dog permit and through that process the applicant would be required to evaluate the potential for relocation so moving on to the concepts uh the proposed use is a multif family residential development on three lots um that includes 268 residential units the proposed unit mix is Studios one bedrooms two bedrooms and three bedrooms apartment units for rent as I mentioned the development would include 25% permanently affordable units on that southernmost lot um the development would also include Leasing and Community

[46:00] amenity spaces 369 parking spaces are proposed both as surface parking lots as and some tuck under parking the site design follows the established lot pattern established by the Pud um with access from those internal private streets they would also use utilize the existing public access points to spine Road buildings are oriented toward the streets with parking internal to each lot there are some increased setbacks proposed on the south to provide buffer to the adjacent single family development and the areas to the West are proposed to remain undeveloped as part of the Celestial Seasonings um development proposed open space consists of private balconies rooftop decks two Community build buildings with pools and some informal natural

[47:02] space in terms of building design the residential buildings are two to three stories in height um they are less than the allowable 40 feet the style is contemporary with flat Roes and the buildings fronting on spine Road are set back with two story elements fronting on the street proposed building materials include brick stone or composite tile metal with look siding and cementitious panel systems so the key issue identified by staff is whether the concept plan is compatible with the goals objectives and recommendations of the comprehensive plan and jaff staff finds that the concept plan is consistent with many of those goals objectives and recommendations and um that others maybe require additional analysis moving into the site review stage in general the project does support policies concerning

[48:00] housing and diversity it the project provides a mixture of housing types at varied prices and sizes and that includes permanently affordable housing these items contribute to a diverse housing stock within the city the infill of housing on undeveloped properties also supports a compact development pattern and locating new residential units and proxim it to um a high percentage of employment sites is consistent with policies that allow for more Workforce housing in the city also in terms of building design the buildings not parking front on Street frontages um and the design elements activate The Pedestrian experience staff did ask the applicant to give some additional consideration to a few aspects of the development um they're outlined in the staff memo um but generally in terms of the site design as I mentioned the parking is

[49:00] interior to each lot which limits those opportunities for Quality open space so in moving into the site review stage she'll have to um demonstrate how they meet the requirements for a common and contiguous area that meets the needs for residents the community has also expressed some concerns about traffic impacts on spine Road and J and also some speeding on spine Road and further analysis would be necessary at site review to evaluate those impacts also um more analysis will need to be done about allowing residential in an industrial Zone and what um the potential for future industrial uses would be on the site also as I mentioned um the prairie dog impacts is another item that needs to be uh looked that closer so just to summarize the planning

[50:00] board hearing uh on May 21st the planning board did hear a virtual held a virtual meeting and reviewed and commented on the proposal there was a large number of the public that addressed the board um regarding the proposal generally the board agreed with the staff analysis regarding consistency with the comprehensive plan uh the board felt that housing could be appr on the site that did encourage the applicant to consider a more mixed use development with um neighborhood amenities for live work units to be more in line with the industrial intent some members had concerns about the loss of industrial space within the city and also um the proposed intensity and compatibility with their surrounding residential development the board did have some feedback on the site design um including reducing the amount of surface parking and focusing on that quality open space and most board members stated that

[51:01] the loss of parod duck habitat was a key issue um in developing this site uh I also wanted to just address a couple things that came up at the board meeting um at the hearing there was the possibility of extending Gun Barrel Avenue to diagonal Highway was brought up as a possibility that does not appear to be the case however since the hearing the applicant has engaged with um city transportation staff on the planned first and last mile improvements in Gunbarrel and the future improvements that are planned to the diagonal State Highway 119 um and bu Rapid Transit is identified as a high priority project as part of planning work done in 2019 which was led by RTD an applicant does intend to explore um potential for shuttles services and improvements to those first and last mile as part of their TDM package um

[52:00] moving into site review and then another item was the allowed intensity of byrite Industrial Development on the site and um just for reference the allowed f is 0.4 in this industrial district so they would be allowed to build up to approximately 172,000 Square fet which is in line with what the p anticipated when it was amended in the [Music] 1980s and that was just a quick overview I'm happy to answer any questions very good thanks very much Sloan and mirbi has a question mirbi yeah so I I have a number of questions but just to help me clarify first um because I was not on planning board and this gets a little complicated so I know it was something that some of the planning board was concerned about but so it's it's zoned I am and to my

[53:03] understanding under 2.2.1 2.2.1 it's not appropriate for housing infill on the BBS or bbcp so I saw your map if maybe you can go back to that overlay of how it had the IM but then um industrial Maybe you can help clarify this for me and many of the residents how Housing Development is being allowed even though it's IM and and why the bbcp states that it's not appropriate for housing and infill does that make sense yeah sure so um in terms of the comprehensive plan as I mentioned in 2015 um which was a major update to the comp plan they were looking at opportunity unties for allowing housing in um additional areas and so as part of

[54:01] that update as you can see the description was changed to say that residential and other complimentary uses are encouraged in appropriate locations and that was transferred over to the zoning regulations whereby you can ask for residential in an industrial district subject to very specific um standards in the code then that's done through a use review so that impacts are evaluated through the use review as well as the appropriateness of the use so I think it's um it's allowed it's just subject to additional review okay great um that's one question and so then the other question and I know you spoke about it quite a bit but um you were talking about how I believe you said they needed 40% open space and not Big O back big S but just open open space around the buildings is that correct do I have that number right yeah so it's 40% of what's

[55:01] required is required to be common and contiguous and the intent of that is to provide for some sort of park-like amenity for the residents so that you know if you're located in an industrial district you're still able to have usable open space for the residents and so what is their what are they at right now and and are the balconies and the rooftops being allowed are those being counted in as open space right now they are counted towards usable open space yes i' have to I'm going to pull out my calculations for you I will say that they meet the required amount of open space they just haven't um demonstrated that they meet that 40% common in contiguous and I and speaking with the applicant they're working on other plans that would allow for that okay um and I'll let you look that up before I ask my final

[56:01] [Music] question if if you need a little time if if I I can go on with the next one if you need yeah why don't you go on and um I'll try and locate that I think it might be actually in the memo okay and so then I guess the next question is you talked about you said something in there about like it promotes walkability but my understanding is that our walkability scores are out of 100 and that this received a 12 or a 14 so can you explain how this promoted a walkability and how it's going to allow people who don't have cars and also because the bus routes there have been cut further from my understanding um that it doesn't allow for great transportation again for those who don't have cars so can you kind of go over that or what the applicants thinking of doing to make this more walkable um sure so Charles just pulled the number for me thank you Charles so they're proposing 42% of the site to be usable open space so that's about

[57:01] 181,000 Square F feet to answer your first question and the second part is that generally speaking there are policies in the city that promote infill and locating housing sites that encourages walkability you could potentially walk to work rather than drive um also that gun barrel area is intended to as part of that plan intended to provide more amenities and encourage a more walkable Community I I think that the addition of housing here is consistent with that um but I I you have identified the major issues in terms of Transit and walkability okay all right well that's it for the moment I'll let somebody else go good I've got Mary next thank you Sloan um you mentioned that the applicant has begun to look at

[58:01] a connection off of diagonal Plaza I mean diagonal Plaza off the diagonal Highway onto the development is that right so at some point in the Pud there was a requirement that they provide a connection to the diagonal later when the Pud was amended that was pulled back um at the planning board hearing there was some discussion about whether that would even be a possibility um in terms of limiting the number of access points to a state highway I don't think that would be a possibility but I wanted to point out that there is um a larger planning effort going on right now to improve the mobility along the diagonal Corridor so um so it's not real likely that a connection could happen and so so follow-up question is even if a connection could happen is there would there be a conflict with the hierarchy

[59:02] of Roads um rule where you have a certain kind of um road that can only feed feed into a certain kind of Road um and how that would work with this kind of situation as well as the railroad tracks run right through there so it would have to be some sort of an underpass or an overpass so um does that what does the likelihood of a connection look like with those constraints yeah I don't think that I mean I think you pointed out all the major issues that would need to be done through a larger planning effort that just hasn't been done even through the Pud it was very general that they should provide a connection there wasn't any detailed plans on how that would actually occur so I think you're right that um that possibility would be through sort of a larger analysis and planning effort okay thank you SL very good um

[60:01] Mark just just so I'm sure that I understand are the parking areas factored into the calculation of open space they are not um there might be small portions that meet our open space standards for just general Landscaping but surface parking is not open space no right thank you okay very good I see no other hands Final Call for Council questions okay seeing no questions uh we are going to move to the public comment and I would turn to um Sarah Huntley to walk through the mechanics comment does the applicant have the ability to oh I'm sorry thank you apologies

[61:00] okay all right Pete take it away actually I'm gonna let um Andy start us out um Chris I understand you have our um our presentation queued [Music] [Music] up all right can you hear [Music] me we can okay thank you very much uh good evening council members uh I'm Andy Allison and I'd like to start our presentation by introducing our team my company Alison Holdings has been developing and financing affordable projects at Boulder for the past 20 years my partner is Matt schil from srg and Matt will introduce himself next uh copin is our architect Pete Weber and Bill Hy are here tonight to take you through our concept plan this team has successfully

[62:02] developed affordable and Market projects in Boulder and is our goal to provide on-site affordable Housing and Community benefit I would add that currently there are zero Covenant controlled affordable units rental units bar at our recently completed project which is diagonal Crossing we delivered 105 on-site affordable units along with donating the land the new Meals on Wheels art buildings and we will deliver true affordable retail at that location which is the cafe that'll be operated by the bridge house we'll hear a lot uh from a lot of people tonight and we encourage the comments and the feedback but the one group that we will not hear from are the 500 plus people who will will initially move into this project the thousands who will call this project home over its lifetime with that I'm going to turn over over to Matt SCH next slide please thanks Andy uh just want to make

[63:00] sure everyone can hear me yeah okay great okay thank you um yeah Matthew Schultz I'm with the SAR bries group I've been involved in the development and housing uh in Boulder for the past 10 years um most of the projects have been members of this team um our team thinks that this project makes a lot of sense for a variety of reasons but I'll highlight two of them uh right now uh first we're creating badly needed low and middle inome housing um that's a huge recognized need in Boulder and second we're putting that housing uh in close proximity to jobs due to this we think that we can reduce commuting vehicle miles traveled by over a million miles annually uh which we think offers a huge benefit to the community and with that I'll turn it over to Weber who will talk you through the details of the plan thanks Pete thanks Matt Chris can you go to the

[64:02] next slide so I'm going to show you a Pete Weber one of the principles at Coburn we are the uh Architects and planners for the project what I'm going to show you is a abbreviated version of the same presentation that we used at uh at planning board and then talk about some of the comments that we received and what our plans are as we go forward to say review so the first thing to talk about is where we are in the world I think you're all familiar with it enough by now um but wanted to point out just a few things about that we are um as Sloan mentioned about three4 of a mile from gunbar Town Center um within a half mile we've got a couple of breweries we can walk to um and there is um reasonably well connected by bus and and bike routes so there are bike Lanes uh right on spine Road gumber Avenue the Lobo Trail is immediately um about a block south of the project um and the

[65:02] three 205 um serves gum Barrel in general the 205t running down spine Road um mby mentioned that there has been an interruption in the um service um of the 205 and 205t due to covid um we actually spoke with um some folks at the bus station today about that sounds like they're planning to bring it back but don't know when and don't know what it will look like when it comes back um let's go on to the next slide so also mentioned some planned improvements um along 11 19 so there was a project underway um with C do to make significant improvements along 119 to add um bus Rapid Transit HOV lanes um and a multi-use path so we're going to insert ourselves into that process and see what we can do to try to influence it notably there is a planned park and

[66:00] ride at 63d and um where 63rd connects to 119 so about a mile from our site this project going been ongoing since about 227 and is still in the works um and as I want to point out as Matt mentioned you know this project we think will reduce vehicle mile travel by in the neighborhood of a million miles annually by bringing people that work in Boulder closer to their place of work including the jobs that are right in gunar next slide want talk about land uses real briefly um we have single family to the south of our site and then we have um light industrial with Celestial Seasonings and the metronics campus just kind of caddy corner from us but most importantly want to illustrate how our proposed use of multif family is a Contin uation of the pattern that is directly to the east of us

[67:01] next I just want to talk a little bit about how we wound up with the plan that we have um so the first move that we made was to kind of form the street edges with building um that provided kind of a hollowed out Center we then inserted Green in places where we thought it was most appropriate um a buffer on the very Southern edge of of the property and then a central green on the upper portion um splitting that that upper Block in in half and then um further eroded it to to provide connections through smaller green spaces that um that cut the cut the project up into smaller smaller pieces next so the other thing we wanted to work on is you know how these buildings are formed and we we took a look at our immediate neighbors right across spine Road for a little bit of kind of guidance so we've looked at kind of how buildings are sized overall how those masses are broken down both in plan and

[68:00] in section if you look at the the lower diagram here we're proposing that we you know we step our buildings back off a spine Road in a similar fashion to the way that the Powder Horn complex steps their buildings back off a spine Road next uh the open space so we're going to talk a lot more about this too but um so the we have generally three kinds of open space that we're proposing one is the larger greens to the South and in the center of the project um then we have these smaller green spaces that are kind of the CAU spaces between buildings and then we have green space that's really associated with the north south movement through the project um internally we have front yards you know around the exterior um I'll talk again a little more about our plans for for the continuous Green Space next so some ideas of what that green space might be like um something some

[69:02] spaces may be more park-like which is what you see um on the right side image then we may have some that are much more activated um particularly what you see in the upper left that might be outdoor spaces that are really programmed for the users um and then um perhaps some Community Gardens as well so we see we see a iety of activity and and green space next the parking is largely U almost entirely internalized so it's away from the street in the center of the project uh we have three different types of parking we have a pretty significant amount of Tuck under parking which we're actually looking to increase we have some carports and then we have um surface spaces the we want to connect this project from north to south and that's the green band you see running up and down up and down the page there um that is an internal green that connects and

[70:01] there's some a bunch of smaller um connections as well and then importantly we were proposing that we have access to these buildings both from the interior meaning where you might park your car but also from the exterior so that you can get out into the world without circulating to the back of the project and your guests can come through a more front door relationship and that's what you're seeing in the the rendering there is a is an entrance that would be off a spine Road next so this is the site plan that that we have arrived at um you can see the the buildings flanking the streets um you can see the the central Green in the in the center of the project the Green Space to the South the front yards and how the connection will work through through the Project important to note that the the center of that the green that goes through those parking lots actually those buildings will have a large hole in them an opening a two twostory opening that will allow passing

[71:01] through um to connect through the project next architecture character slone touched on a little bit um we're proposing you know two and three story masses um contemporary design generally speaking um durable materials especially at the lower level um those first two stories we're thinking primarily uh brick um wood or wood look um in the the interior portions of those the balconies and then some um cementitious panels on a rain screen um that would be our second major material that would be at upper levels and then some of the lower levels as well next so um we've heard a lot since um these plans went public um a lot of input from our neighbors uh we received good input from planning board as well and I wanted to walk through some of the things kind of the high points of that input and what we're thinking about

[72:02] changing in the plan as we prepare everything for site review so the first thing um was touched on by mirabi and Salone which is the The Continuous open space we know that we need to have a significantly larger chunk of parklike um continuous open space and we had some ideas about we how we might be able to achieve that um we are proposing to add some uses to the site um some live work units affordable commercial perhaps a coffee shop uh some affordable telecommuting space which would be for the residents but also for the general public as well as some Community Art Space there was some discussion about the parking configuration um and reducing the large Lots we are looking at how we can break those up further and um as I mentioned exploring more tuck under parking um we want to maintain that access building access that I talked about being from both the interior and the exterior of the project and of course the parking relates to

[73:00] that and we've working with colani um the city's Urban designer on how we might maintain that and have the parking be as accessible as possible we are looking at some improvements on spine Road staff has um recommended and ask for some improvements on spine that would widen spine moving the curb curb the Western curb line further to the West that would allow some room to add a buffered bike lane there is a bike lane there now but it is not a buffered bike lane so moving that curb line to the West would allow for that and then we are looking at um uh various TDN measures to improve um the ability to use um alternative modes of transportation dockless bikes um car share EIP passes and shuttle services to uh to help solve that that last mile problem and um I think that covers what we wanted to go over we're anxious to hear your input as well and add it to our

[74:03] list great thank you very much Council any questions for the presenter Adam and thank you for the presentation uh is there any projected um rental rates for the individual units I know they range from Studios to three bedrooms but just wondering if uh what those market rate units are planned on being Matt I think that's one for you yeah this is Matt thanks for the question um yeah our rental rates would vary by the unit size on average in our PR fora we've under written about $220 per square foot so if that was a you know 800 square foot one bedroom you know our average unit size within the community he could correct me is about

[75:01] um about 930 square feet I think between the total mix here we've got a little bit uh more units dedicated to multiple occupants so more two bedrooms some three bedrooms which makes the average unit size skew up a little bit uh but we're about 200 $220 per square foot on an average across the entire community of about 930 square feet so it's probably you know roughly $1,800 a month thank you for that very good any other questions for the developer uh Mark yeah and this may be more of a question for Andy can you describe the relationship between um the owner developer and yourself in terms of how the affordable housing is going to be created are you simply the grantee of the land um are

[76:02] they putting up equity for you are they putting up funding for you how is this going to work thanks Mark um good good question um you know I do I always do my projects a little bit differently um as far as um I'm always looking for opportunities to provide um the affordable housing so um a little bit different than some of the other developers in town I always control the land up front and then um get the on-sites into the site plan um and bring the market partner in with me um as of right now no I'm looking at the projects similar to other ones I've done as far as funding so low housing tax credits um my own Equity um and not looking for any assistance from the city but um the land price that I would likely pay for my units once we're once we have all the

[77:01] infrastructure would be a little bit less than what the market uh developer would pay for his so you're essentially on sort of running an independent parallel operation in the creation of the affordable housing that's correct we're we're we're tied together in the uh going through um the project together and the entitlement and we see it as one project um but we're not tied together um financially okay thank you great Mary um this is a question I believe for Andy as I understand it the 68 units of affordable housing are going to be on site and um as I recall Terry palmos a while back ago proposed to have a similar situation as what you're proposing here um over at Violet Crossing where they were going to have a separate building that was all of the

[78:00] affordable housing units um as things move through the um the process the development review process that fell by the way Wayside and they ended up paying cash in L um I don't recall the details but I think that it had to do with um financing and um manag M of the units so since it's very similar proposition as as um as that case what you're proposing here what's to prevent that proposition from falling through in this case uh thanks Mary um another great question um and and I don't I'm not sure what um what Terry was working on um but got a few um different ideas here um so recently as I sort of hint too in the um original statement um you know we just completed the diagonal Crossing um project which has both market and then

[79:01] 105 on-site affordable units so um there's all sorts of uh people run into all sorts of challenges but uh my group is um completely aware and uh knowledgeable on how to get the on-site affordables um onto the deal and not um run into the whatever issues Terry may have run into um as far as the second part of the question um about you know the developer always having the um could always pay cash in L I don't know how to to really answer that one other than to say um this is one of the reasons why I control the I I put these deals together and control the land because affordable housing is is what I do um and um I think that you can see that as it goes back over the last 10 years of development so um I'm not sure how to quite answer that if there how people go through the process and when they make their decisions but uh we will be

[80:00] putting onsite affordables on our project great thank you for that Andy this is Matt I I could add something to that as well um if you'd like go ahead uh yeah the only thing I'd reiterate is that um Andy and I have done two of these projects or two of these Arrangements previously um that were similar but Apex 5510 in Gun Barrel which delivered off-site affordable units but but we did not pay cash and L and then the zero diagonal Highway which delivered onsite affordable units but again in neither instance of those two projects we did historically did we pay the cash and Li in both projects we intended to deliver affordable units and we did so we certainly have a track record of actually delivering the units when we set out to do

[81:00] it that's good to hear thank you very much I have another question um as um it's a curious question I'm wondering how many you know this this land has been owned by Celestial Seasonings and Hayne and I'm not sure who owns it right now if it's Celestial Seasonings or Hayne but it's just out of curios I wanted to understand how many times the land has changed hands since the purchase by Celestial Seasonings hey uh this is Andy I'll take that one um I'm not 100% sure of all the how hanne and Celestial um merged um or or what they did back in the day but um I i' I've been familiar with this site um for roughly 10 years um um so um during that time I can tell you that there's it's only been me um working with Celestial

[82:01] haane um before that um just from looking at the docs and the PD I it doesn't look like there's there was any other transfers of of ownership great thank you for that um appreciate it okay very good I see no other question [Music] here okay very good um I think we're ready to move to the public hearing but I screwed that up last time so so assuming that we are and I haven't screwed up this time we'll have Sarah Huntley walk us through the mechanics of public comment thank you Sam good evening Council um members of the community and the applicants tonight my name is Sarah Huntley I'm the engagement manager for the city we have um a significant list of folks signed up to speak tonight um I will let the public know we have 127

[83:02] people signed up a few people have let us know that they thought they were only signing up to watch so it is possible that fewer than that actually want to speak tonight we're going to go down the list um in the order in which it appears on the website um and the mayor will call on each name if you wish to speak great if you only intended to watch please feel free to just say pass so we can go on to the next individual and if you were intending to speak and somebody is already made your point and you feel like you would want to pass that's fine too the way this is going to work tonight is um as the mayor calls folks names I will enable your ability to turn on your mute and unmute button so you won't have the ability to do that until I've toggled it on for you so just give me a second or two after the mayor calls your name and you'll have your turn to speak we do have some rules in this online Forum some guidelines that Council has adopted to try to balance um

[84:00] security concerns in the zoom platform we've experienced some unfortunate incidents with that so I'm going to quickly go over them because I think we probably have some people who are participating tonight for the first time I'm going to share my screen so again this is to try to balance the importance of meaningful transparent engagement and online security so the meeting has been called to conduct the business of the city of Boulder tonight activities that disrupt delay or otherwise interfere with this meeting are prohibited so we'll be asking people to stick to the public hearing topic that they signed up for the time for speaking or asking questions may be limited because we have so many folks on the call today the mayor will go over the time limits for each individual before we get started no person shall speak when except when recognized by the mayor and no person shall speak for longer than the time allotted you were asked to register in advance everybody registered with their um full name except for one individual who registered with a first name only

[85:00] and one individual who appears to have registered with an address if that applies to you please send me your full information in the Q&A so that we can call on you when we get to your turn we are not allowed to call on folks who are using a pseudonym you won't be allowed to speak at the meeting no video will be permitted so I know it's going to be a little bit disconcerting you'll be speaking into the meeting but you won't be seeing yourself in the meeting um you can it's not uncommon for people to just confirm that we can hear you when you get started and we'll let you know that we can um but you will be asked to participate by voice only the person presiding at the meeting will enforce these rules by muting anyone who violates any rule um the mayor will actually direct me to do that um we are using the Q&A platform tonight we're not using the chat for attendees it's only for panelists but several of you have been Q&A um using the Q&A to ask me questions about when they were going to get to public comment or other platform

[86:01] related questions a couple of you have started to put some commentary in the Q&A box I'm just going to let you know that none of the council members and none of the panelists in this meeting are looking at that Q&A box we don't want to have a separate record of testimony so please reserve your questions there for asking me as your Zoom host questions about the format of the meeting or Zoom only the host and individuals designated by the host will be permitted to share their screen during the meeting you will not need to use your raised hand button because we did ask people to register in advance to speak so again if you're in the meeting if you got this link and didn't intend to speak and you're not on the list we won't be calling on you if you didn't intend to speak and you are on our list because of confusion you're more than welcome to just say pass when we get to you I think that's everything that I had to cover Sam I think you maybe were going to go over some um time limits and expectations with regard to how we're

[87:00] going to run the public hearing very good thank you very much Sarah and as Sarah said there's a lot of people signed up um many more than uh what is needed to trip our lower time limit for speakers so instead of the normal three minutes per speaker tonight it will be two minutes per individual speaker um folks can pull pool time together so if there are three individuals who want to pool time so that one of them can speak for four minutes we need to have all three individuals present in the meeting at that time for the pooling to happen um a reminder that this is a concept plan review and what that means is we're interested in feedback for the developer on how this project can be made to serve the community best um so that could be anything of course from the structure of the development to uh the distribution of affordable and market rate housing to

[88:00] um suitability for the site so it is concept plan so um this is the time when there's the most flexibility and what the developer um will be able to accommodate with that being said I think we're ready to open public comment um the only other point I would make is please be civil and courteous we want to have everyone feel like their input is welcome here so with that I'm going to name the first three folks we do know that there are probably people signed up who don't want to speak and as Sarah said you can just let us know to pass if you like that so the first three speakers I have on my list are Randall Clark Rebecca Morse and Lisa Haney so we can go ahead and get started with Randall Clark can you hear me now we can hear we can hear you thank you very much for letting me speak um I would like to say please at I would

[89:00] like to advise everyone to please read the letter from Mike chopos who is an attorney who represents all of us here in Gun Barrel some belonging to an association some not but we he is speaking for everyone in gun barel and so I uh feel that it's really important that you read what he has sent you it's not that long I think it's only 20 pages but he touches on every Point uh for me I'm very opposed to this development at Celestial I live at Powder Horn um I was completely unaware that this was going on until was some notice was sent around by people in the community that this was happening and uh the buildings are taller than those on the edge of of Powder Horn that's not my objection my strongest objection is that number two I couldn't believe believe that at the second presentation by Peter Weber of Coburn there was no mention once again of the prairie dogs

[90:01] which to many of us here and to Boulder as a community is a huge issue and it's the reason I live out here in Gun Barrel I live out here because it's rural because the prey drugs are a keystone species and their territory in Boulder is shrinking and to consider relocation relocation is off lethal just the active relocation and the nature of this community will be highly degraded and the joy of living out here will be deeply different with the loss of that Colony so this is not vacant land it's land on which the prairie dogs live and also the main one of the very main points of your bbcp was that there would be a gun barrel subc commmunity plan and none of that has been addressed and we feel that that we are not seen we have not been engaged we have not been included and there's no equity for

[91:00] us thank you Randall next we have Rebecca Morse Lisa Haney and Ralph fi freed I'm sorry Rebecca you're up can you hear me can all right um council members my family lives within the city of Boulder in gun barel and supports diverse and affordable housing here I would like to reiterate my support for the proposed development on Line Road this project is worth considering especially because of its inclusion of permanently affordable and modest market rate rental units I am concerned that while concept reviews are supposed to be about making the prop proposal in front of us better this one seems to be being used as a referendum on any kind of rental housing development in gumb Barrel our current housing crisis results from both intentional and unintentional structural racism which continues to ensure that the power in Boulder is held by landowning white people affordable housing is one piece of what needs to be done to ameliorate the impacts of unjust historical choices arguments have been made that the developer should integrate the permanently affordable units into the

[92:01] whole development rather than segregate them I agree and I've also come to understand that there are structural and financial reasons why developers organize proposed units this way we absolutely need to work on changing the structures that create this tendency a and residents of Boulder need affordable housing now arguments have been made that if the land is developed should be developed for ownership and not rentals I disagree the need for affordable housing in our community includes both affordable ownership options and rentals households in transition domestic violence survivors and international contract workers are all examples of Niche communities in the city of Boulder and in Gun Barrel that I am personally connected to with unmat need for affordable rental units there are more I share in concerns about the impact our city has on local environment and global climate change it seems illogical to me to continue to build offices and business parks within the city until we have adequate housing for the workers businesses attract that increases

[93:00] commuter traffic pollution and regionally just as much development is occurring albeit not in our backyard we should use this land so that people that work here can live here and so that we can protect and preserve our much larger natural spaces and the ecology there I also share concerns about underinvestment thank you Rebecca thank you next week have Lisa Haney um Ralph Fred and anarie Jensen Lisa hi I think I'll be using the time of Joe whis and Eileen ma if they're here okay I will need to verify with those individuals if they're willing to pull time with you Lisa can you tell me the names again please Joe wellis and aen Ma okay hold on one moment please Joe I understand that you're going to seed your time to leas the Mee is that correct you will need to unmute yourself to be able to verify that for me

[94:04] please unmute yes I yes I am yep okay great um let me check with the other individual please that would be aen ma m OSS aen ma ma aen yep okay one moment please aen are you willing to Siege your time you are unmuted we should be able to hear you if you could tell us yes or no aen we're having difficulty hearing you but I do see your hand raised so I'm going to um suggest um mayor Weber that she

[95:00] may be trying to indicate that she's willing to seed her time and having difficulty with her microphone that is fine so Lisa you have four minutes okay thanks hi my name is Lisa Haney and I live in Boulder County and I pay County taxes and I vote um I've been working in a little way with the gun barrel Community Alliance to help the city of Boulder and Boulder achieve a a more vibrant inclusive Gun Barrel um I just want to say I moved here from Brooklyn in 2003 and one thing that attracted me was um the whole comprehensive vision of Boulder to protect the natural environment and Foster a a livable vibrant sustainable community and to me that meant it was combining like the natural space with a more condensed housing um and I think for me this is not suitable for this site because it kind of goes against that vision of keeping a judicious balance between natural space and the environment and the built structures um since I've been here in

[96:00] the last five years even there's been two big complexes of Apartments built near the King Super in Gun Barrel there was 231 units in Apex and 251 in the gun barrel center for a total of 482 new units in the past 5 years um and they promised a lot of you know mixed use and store from and it's going to be lovely and walkable uh right now there's a lot of empty storefronts there's a number of empty Apartments there that are available and um it didn't really work out the way I envisioned it you know I was kind of looking forward to that like a little city center down here and I really want to Second this idea that gun barrel needs a subcommunity plan before we just keep randomly infilling all the empty space and the prairie dog fields and the the views we have of the mountains um this commitment to a new gun barrel subc community plan was one of the three priorities approved by the City Planning Commission um I was told in March

[97:01] 2020 um to be part of the new Boulder Val comprehensive plan so I think um adding like in this turbulent time of Corona virus and people moving in and out of the city some businesses may be closing um there may be a drop in in jobs available you don't really know what's going to be happening um the whole proposed 268 units on this 10 acre parcel is going to be it's it's like super dense for this neighborhood it's going to be I think 27.3 five unit per acre which is the highest density allowed and here out in Gun Barrel we have the highest density currently at 17 per acre so that's significantly it's like a little block like a like a little like a little part of my native Brooklyn like just dropped right in front of Celestial Seasonings and since I have a minute more I just want to say like I

[98:01] have been living here you know for 15 years watching the tourists come and go from Celestial Seasonings like people who come to visit their kids in college and some of them can't go up hiking in the mountains because they're not physically able and they come out here and they enjoy seeing like a little part of like the Western nature they see the prairie dogs and I just feel like as for Boulder as a whole to just toss this out the window um is imprudent and I also want to say since uh I've been living out here I'm a big Walker I'm a big biker and I feel like sometimes I'm risking my life going down J on that bike bike lane even though it's supposedly wide enough because traffic goes pretty fast there and I don't even ride it if it get dark I don't ride on that road and I'm somebody who walks to the supermarket and I have to you know plan 35 minutes and some strong arms to go do my shopping there you know and then 35 minutes back it's not exactly

[99:00] like I feel like the original plan for Boulder was that they would have sort of infilling uh so that there' be a little Urban space and then nature surrounding it and I feel like this kind of goes against that whole Vision so thanks I just want to thank you for your time thank you Lisa um next we have Ralph Fred anarie Jensen and Steven zosi Ralph good evening city council uh I'd like to provide you a statistically insignificant sample of one so that your decision on this matter is Thoroughly informed about a year and a half ago I took on a task to try and secure housing for a child and four grandchildren of a deceased mayor from the city of Lafayette so you can imagine that they were on every list that you could possibly get on to for affordable housing they were living in

[100:02] what I would consider to be unacceptable almost inhumane condition and I had secured a property for him that looked like it was going to work a condo was going to go to auction and before that auction could go a house flipper had purchased the leans against the property and I had no opportunity to get that condo for this family I was so aggravated and annoyed that I went out and spent $450,000 bought a home in Lafayette did $50,000 worth of improvement and I put that family into that home and they are in that home now and they are renting for $1,000 under market value she's working on completing her Bachelor so that she can teach in the city of or the county of Boulder and what I would like to just suggest to you at city council is I can do this once but if we're going to have affordable housing in our community for our professional health

[101:01] care workers our First Responders we're going to need your help that we needed diverse housing I think the planning's gone on well for overall in the county and I just applaud the effort for the County Housing Authority and what they're trying to do so thank you very much for your time and I wish you all the best with this endeavor it looks like it has great possibilities for those who are vulnerable in our community thank you and good evening thank you Ralph um next we have anarie Jensen Steven zasi and Joe Tiz and Marie hi um I wanted to thank you for this project I know this is the concept review and we're supposed to be looking at the details of the project but I feel that I have to be one of the people that that speaks in favor of the project because so many people have been speaking against it I wanted to quote a letter from 27

[102:01] Mayors uh about housing and it says we must dismantle the systems that keep disparities locked in place our nation's housing system and the programs and policies that perpetuate racial disparity and housing is the best place to start I know mayor Weaver signed on to that letter along with 26 other Mayors and I can't stress how important that is and that we have to look at where do we draw the line at making changes in our housing Supply we have about 2700 households in the county who are currently paying more than 30% of their income in rent we have about 400 students in Boulder Valley Schools who are homeless we have about 19,000 workers who make 25,000 or less we need Workforce housing

[103:02] we need housing that doesn't require people to commute long distances and we need the affordable component that's in this project Celestial Seasonings has been a longtime employer in our community and they're stepping up they want to create housing for their workers they they have made affordable housing an essential component of this project I encourage you not to do anything to diminish that but to work with the community try to mitigate the traffic and the prairie dog situation but please don't stop the project thank you thank you an Marie next we have Stephen sasi Joe skines and kit Fuller Stephen hello my name is Steph zosi I live here in gun barel and I've been working with the gun barrel Community Alliance and I want to step back and reiterate that in 1999 Celestial Seasons

[104:02] made a promise to the community that they would protect that land over there from the prairie dogs I know everyone likes prairie dogs but they're an important part of our habitat um they're keystone species which means so if you look at what happened in Wyoming and Yellowstone when we lost all the gray wolves you can watch DRC rary's on these where species were becoming near extinct even Rivers were literally drying up because of the chain of reactions now prairie dogs have less than 1% of their naal natural habitat remaining and that's extremely important that we need to stop destroying these place I moved to Boulder over 10 years ago now because a boulder was one of the only few places maybe not the only the few places in the country that prioritized the environment in addition to its people where we could have a a place place where we could live together and cohabitate um and the other thing in just in this community in general um the big red flag to me is the density the

[105:01] intensity of this project is that of the maximum of the city it's something that's appropriate for Pearl Street or 30th Street which a lot of those are going up right now and that's great and and two of my best friends live in affordable housing and like that those programs have been great but you can't compromise the environment you can't compromise this rural Community which has you know maybe you know even a third a half a third of the density of what their time proposed I'll leave it with this is everyone in the city um respectfully so everyone in the city council members you're here to serve us the community so I hope that you listen listen to us um and you know in respect our neighbors and consider what you're trying to do to our neighborhood that we're trying to protect and uh thank you very very much for your time that's all I have thank you Stephen next up we have Joe skines kit Fuller and Wendy Feinstein

[106:00] Joe yes hi I'm giving my time to Kit Fuller okay very good uh so kit Fuller you are up and we have Joe as pooling with you uh do you have someone else who is pulling with you kit can you tell us who else has signed up to pool with you tonight please yes uh can you hear me okay yes can hear you Christopher Ryan is the other person pooling for me Christopher Ryan okay bear with me for one moment Ryan can you just Christopher Mr Ryan can you just verify for me please that you're willing to um seed your time to Kit Fuller uh yes this is Christopher Ryan and I definitely am okay thank you so I believe Mr Fuller will get four

[107:00] minutes time correct you're good to go kit thank you very much uh my name is kit Fuller I live in the city of Boulder I pay city taxes I vote in City elections the part of the boulder I live in is in gun barel I work with the gun barel Community Alliance and we would like to help the city of Boulder in Boulder County achieve a more livable vibrant resilient and inclusive gun barrel uh I support affordable housing I appreciate diversity and enjoy a vibrant walkable Community but I'm here to say that this proposal is a very bad fit for this community so I ask you to reject the proposal and put a moratorium on development and Gun Barrel until we have a gun barrel subc community plan let me go into a little detail uh Gun Barrel is a rural Place compared to the rest of Boulder we still have a lot of wildlife living in the Open Spaces that surround us Gun Barrel retains good habitat for owls healthy prairie dog towns Raptors

[108:03] many other species ranging from deer and bobcats to foxes and coyotes uh we also have an ample housing stock compared to Boulder proper with lots of vacancies right now for at what rates that are really much more affordable than the rates in Boulder Barrel is like old Boulder in many ways especially in the spirit and the rural atmosphere we're surrounded by a green belt we're far away from downtown Boulder about six miles which is a 15minute drive uh or more depending on the time of day but Gun Barrel is an 85 minute walk to the neighborhood School uh Crestview Elementary for those of us on the west side of el of of Gun Barrel we're a 35 minute bus ride into Boulder um this is a an area that's Part City and part County it's got a lot of challenges and this is why one of the reasons the big reasons why we need a gun barrel subc commmunity

[109:01] plan we've um we had a gun barrel subc commmunity plan in 2004 but when developers came along in 2015 to build a block of Apartments uh the gun barrel sub community plan was ignored and the apartments got built and no affordable housing came along with that development um we pay sales taxes we pay sales and use taxes uh Gun Barrel residents pay millions of dollars every year to the city and yet spine Road gets little or no maintenance we have very few amenities that the park that we have closest to us is mostly a wetland it has a tiny little gazebo basically there are so many reasons uh that gun barrel is different that we need this gun barrel subc community plan to handle the the remaining development the site there are a lot of details about the site itself that make uh it not a very good fit for

[110:01] this type of density uh not the least of which is the wildlife uh preserve that it has on it but it's um it's a long walk to the grocery store uh it's not the 3/4 of a mile it's a mile and a half to the king supers from this site uh it's a two mile walk to the nearest city park with a playground and and to do that you have to go across diagonal Plaza so if you've got families uh with children everybody's going to need a car this is not a walkable neighborhood everybody's going to need a car because we are so far out of town um let's also remember the parcel is zoned I am industrial manufacturing and residential use of that should not be an automatic check uh that should be something that that Council weighs very carefully because of the diminishing use of a diminishing amount of IM land there are lots and lots of weaknesses in the proposal that other

[111:00] people will talk about the density the intensity etc etc my my main goal is to get the council to consider rejecting this and putting a moratorium on development until we have a gun Barr s community plan thank you much so next we have windy find Ste Aaron smly and ly seagull Wendy hi there can you hear me okay yes can okay my name is Wendy Feinstein and I resident of the city of Boulder and gun barrel for almost 20 years I don't believe this proposed development has been designed with any thoughts toward the city's own commitment to preserve protect and enhance Environmental Quality or the quality of life of the city citizens of Boulder and particular Gun Barrel I support this project be rejected as kit said and that the gun barrel subcommittee plan be developed um

[112:02] I with regard to the suitability of this site uh spine Road simply cannot sustain an additional thousand plus cars going every way drivers already treated as a racetrack there's poor visibility it lacks sufficient crosswalks especially where each of the bus stops are positioned along spine Road it's a hazard to cross spine Road during rush hour in a normal time students are taking their lives into their own hands twice a day Crossing spine road to get to the school bus and the city is doing nothing to protect these residents drivers are disrespectful they don't stop when there are people in the crosswalks where are the police why are they not out here monitoring this racetrack like kit said we pay city taxes the safety of our residents needs to be primary as well as the quality of

[113:02] our life that's what brought many of us here to Boulder we're simply asking that the C city planners keep in mind their promise to the citizens of Boulder be good stewards of the environment and for quality of life of its citizens thank you thank you Wendy next up Aaron SMY Glen seagull and Stacy Elder Aon hi can you hear me yes thank you um yes so my name is Aaron SMY I'm a resident of Gun Barrel I pay my taxes and I vote I along with at least 6,000 others who signed our multiple petitions oppose this development uh you keep calling it a vacant lot but we all know that this is a thriving Wildlife ecosystem and an ecological Park but I'm not here to try to convince you to stop this destruction from happening I'm here to warn you that by moving forward with this project you're setting a dangerous

[114:00] new precedent that Boulder no longer values our Wildlife as much as we can point out the hypocrisy of Celestial Seasonings who claims to be an Earth friendly company their hypocrisy would pale in comparison the Boulder Colorado a quote unquote leader in Environmental Protection and preservation for many years according to our comprehensive plan how is this protecting the environment exactly how can we conserve our planet if we refuse to conserve our own natural Spaces by the time we realize this is a terrible mistake it'll be too late Extinction is forever and I'm not only talking about the extinction of our local Wildlife the owls Hawks Eagles and other animals that we're so lucky to share the space with I'm talking about the extinction of Boulder's core values everything that makes this such a special place to live as the Bolder comprehensive plan States this open space contributes to the high quality of life for residents for recreation relaxation and connection with nature I also want to add that I live in Powder Horn and there's not really that many walkable jobs for my house unless everyone that moves into

[115:00] this new thing is planning on working at medronic or Celestial Seasonings they're still going to have to commute to work so this actually isn't coming back on our carbon Footprints also just want to point out that 930 square feet at 220 per square foot is 246 not 18800 that's much more than my rents in Powder Horn just so you know uh and it's definitely not affordable for someone who just makes minimum wage there's also plenty of other locations we can easily build within Boulder proper and doesn't involve destroying wildlife habitat at what point do we say is enough is enough I urge you all to take a long good look in the mirror before you make your final regard our community reject this proposal put a moratorium on development until we have a current subc community plan thank you thank you Aaron next ly seagull Stacy Elder and Dorothy Donna here [Music] when then you may need to unmute

[116:00] yourself please fire lolai I am no near nowhere near Gun Barrel I'm in central Boulder this is utterly ridiculous you people need to listen to your constituency you know they don't come out here by the hundreds so that you can sit there and do something different than what they say clearly I'm glad this project is at concept review so that they aren't deep into spending a lot of money you know we have a global depression here we have eviction like you've never seen before when the eviction you know restraints have been lifted or the help for evicted people um unemployment compensation is over you know like this is a big trouble and you're blasting on as if warp speed to build build build now every time that

[117:00] you build an affordable unit at $2,000 here yeah right um every time you build something the more expensive it is the higher the amount of service jobs to cover that housing fulfillment when you have un you know low um low uh price housing that still requires jobs to service those people and where are those jobs they aren't going to be in in Gun Barrel this is an exploitation of this annexation and this is so so unethical to strip gun barrel of their ability to you know have the infrastructure that they need with all the these 50% of their housing there apartments that are not fulfilled already that are just empty you know in a depression like where where are you people are do you

[118:02] here like snap out of it Global depression covid remember you know put a stop to thank you Lynn next we have STC Elder Dorothy Donahue and Rose Goodman Stacy um I was going to exceed my time to someone from The Gun Barrel Community Alliance but I'm not sure who that is right now Stacy if you'd like particular name that you're seing to right Sam yes correct I I was gonna say Stacy we can skip over you and come back to you if you just want to tell us in the chat when you have two people identified that you'd like to pull your time with that's okay thank you very good thank you Stacy we'll look for your resp response in the chat on zoom and then we have Dorothy Donahue Rose Goodman and Susan Krauss Dorothy

[119:02] [Music] coming oh I'm trying never mind um I was trying to do something very anyway my name is Dorothy tanahu and I'm a resident of gun barrel for 20 two years um I'm also a member of the Gun Barrel Community Alliance and I'm opposed to this development proposal in 1999 um there was an incident occurred where Celestial seasoning poisoned at all the colony of prairie dogs that lived for many generations on the Tea Company they were poisoned by the newly formed uh Hayne Celestial group this was met by outrage from the Boulder Community people boycotted ha Celestial products and with hard work of the Rocky Mountain Animal Defense um Han Celestial made a commitment a promise

[120:02] they promis to never kill the prairie dogs or other Wildlife on their property they promised to never Rec relocate them and they promis to never use this property for development fast forward to now we live in a time where a promise having the moral Integrity is at stake greed and poor financial choices have caused uh Celestial ha to choose to break their promises they are planning to pave over the homes of these Keystone prairie dogs and all of the other species that live with them um even though it's not even though 1999 seems like it was a light years ago I hope the integrity and the core of the people who live in Boulder still believe in what the words I promise mean thank you I appreciate having the time to tell you my

[121:00] feelings thank you Dorothy next we have Rose Goodman Susan Krauss and Alisa VY uh Rose um hi can you hear me yes you can okay I'm am a resident um in Orchard Creek in gun barel I am against this development first it's kind of idiotic it is way too crowded if you've been out to this area there are no resources the bike path does not connect out here you have to cross over dangerous busy streets to go biking into town there are no closed stores and the traffic is horrible it also doesn't make sense with the population declining in Boulder and so many open apartments that we already have um you'd be killing a whole ecosystem owls prairie dogs please don't do this and please help Boulder stay the stay the green environmental place that it is it would devastate the local community in this area I haven't heard one person from this community in Gun Barrel that wants this please listen to us and please don't ruin the environment we have in this community don't devastate the community that's already

[122:01] here and that's living here currently also I have grown up here my whole life I'm a senior at CU and I'm 21 years old um the buses have never come here it doesn't like the pandemic is not affecting the bus um route like Pete Weber claimed that they were the buses I've never been able to take the bus to school or to work because they just don't come here and I please advise the board to double check the developer statements because so many of the things that they said just at the beginning of this meeting were not true um just as the buses for example um the pandemic doesn't affect them like Pete Weber claimed that they do um and I'm just very upset that people are taking them so seriously whenever they're able to just say lies whenever it's just not true as someone who has lived here and grown up here I value this area and the open space and the environment is a reason why I love being in Boulder and why I stayed here for college it would just be so devastating and would hurt the community that's

[123:01] already here that wants to stay here um if this development went through so just please double check everyone and double check the facts um thank you so much for your time please just try to prevent this thank you thank you Rose now we have Susan Krauss Alisa laf and kayn Anderson Susan oh yes hello yes oh great okay thank you I'm a big fan of Celestial Seasonings tea I enjoy taking our guests to the tour and the gift shop but my favorite thing when I visit is watching the prairie dogs and their interactions with each other there I have written to the company in the past commending them for maintaining this wonderful habitat although I did not know about the previous um behavior of them but as a bi I am a wildlife biologist and an educator and I know that prairie dogs are an integral part of this ecosystem

[124:01] although they're misunderstood as pests yet over 100 species depend on them for food and shelter yet their value is not usually considered when developments are planned toads snakes owls ferrets jack rabbits are just some of the animals that will inhabit their tunnels I'm sure you know that Boulder has a n National reputation for sustainability stewardship preservation and this project is the exact opposite all of life is interconnected and prairie dogs are another living example let the few remaining prairie dogs coexist with us thank you for your time thank you Susan um next we have Alisa lefery kayn Anderson and Jan dorsy Alyssa I am not seeing Alyssa lefery in the meeting Sam she may be we have some call-in listeners um so if Alyssa is listening

[125:01] and she would like to verify with me that she's in the meeting perhaps we could come back to her sounds great okay we will come back to Alyssa if we see her in the meeting next we have Ken Anderson Jan dorsy and Kate Chandler kayn hi can you hear me yes can thank you for your time and for listening to the Community Voices tonight I keep thinking of the numerous issues with the proposed project at spine road which others have already spoken about but I ultimately keep coming back to the one thing the prairie dogs and the promis Celestial Seasonings owned by Han Celestial made to the community in 1999 as a city council you represent the citizens of this community and my hope is you will listen to them please tell H slel they made a commitment to the Boulder Community and the prairie dogs and they need to keep it by not approving this proposed development on this land we need to protect our land the ecosystem our natural habitats that are left in Boulder once the ecosystem

[126:01] is destroyed it is altered and gone forever while I understand the developers and the city want money in housing it is not worth the cost to the environment we are writing our own story of The Lorax and only time will tell if Boulder can survive all the development and destruction of natural habitats this is Boulder let's be creative in our Solutions be pro- environment Pro climate change and hold big companies accountable to the agreements they made with the community please protect our prairie dogs and the 150 plus other species that depend on them please say no to any building at the celestial spine Road property thank you for your time thank you kayin next up Jan dorsy Kate Chandler and Tracy Lions jar hello hello hi we can hear you thank you hi my name is Jan dorsy I live in P horn Condominiums and I moved here six years ago after my home was flooded in

[127:00] Jamestown I've lived in Boulder County for 49 years I moved to Gun Barrel because unlike Boulder it has a quiet rural feel and because unlike Boulder it was affordable I walk the celestial property daily before the virus I saw people on the celestial te to seven days a week watching and photographing the codies of prairie dogs that they'd never seen before these prairie dogs are down to 2% of their original natural habitat and they are a keystone species in 1999 after Celestia was caught poisoning a field of prairie dogs they posted a sign stating this is a prair private ecological Park Celestial Seasonings has dedicated this open space as a prairie Park we hope to preserve some of the disappearing habitat of the prairie dog burrowing owl Eagles and Hawks that were once so prevalent along the Front

[128:00] Range This Promise was followed by five rules and a quote from Marie curri and I quote all my life the new sites of nature Made Me Rejoice like a child the proposed Apartments would be twice as dense as Powder Horn inconsistent with this neighborhood character the traffic on J road is already backed up several hours of the day there should be a moratorium on development until the gun barrel sub community plan is finalized there's a special word topophilia which means the love of place once you love a place you're going to pay attention to the environmental circumstances and the consequences of your actions I respectfully oppose this proposal thank you thank you Jan um next up Kate Chandler Tracy lions and Emily yanero Kate hi this is Kate Chandler I'm seeding my time to Elena

[129:04] Irving very good regr you down um next Tracy Lions Emily yaniro and Marta loin Tracy I see a Tracy in the meeting without a last name um is it all right if I unmute to see if this is Tracy Lions let's see yep Tracy are you Tracy Lions you may need to unmute yourself Tracy if you are Tracy Lions um you're ready to speak if you unmute yourself we cannot hear you right now okay I will go ahead and move on um Tracy if you would uh please chat with

[130:01] us in the Q&A box and let us know if that is you next up we have Emily yanero Marta Laman and Adam Lee Emily hi yes can you hear me yes hi um thank you everyone my name is Emily Yer I live in Boulder I pay city taxes and I vote I own a condo on Gun Barrel AV directly across the street from the proposed ultra high density development I ask the committee to issue a moratorium until a subcommunity plan can be established that takes into account the needs of the residents and owners in Gun Barrel 16 years ago I moved to Boulder and discovered Gun Barrel as a peaceful Rural and affordable place to call home I worked multiple jobs seven days a week to save money for the down paying and proudly bought my third floor condo with a Mountain View over the years I've walked my dogs around the neighborhood enjoyed the open space watched the prairie dogs watched the sun go down over the mountains and watch

[131:00] winter storms roll in it is heartbreaking to hear this environmental ecosystem is targeted for development the guidelines say it may be developed as residential if appropriate it is not appropriate and in no way fits in with the rural character of our neighborhood or zoning requirements I am not opposed to responsible development that enhances our community but the exorbitant number of units seems designed only to enhance the profits for the applicant the applicant stated that their goal is affordable housing this is an insult to every one of us let's be honest these are real estate developers whose real goal is the bottom line if allowed this would be at the expense of our community and would negatively impact our quality of life enjoyment and views of the open space and the natural habitat for many species it would also impact our property values and cause increased traffic and congestion I respectfully ask the city to ensure our voices are heard and that

[132:00] this project does not proceed until a subcommunity plan is established it hurts nothing to proceed thoughtfully and slowly with a plan I ask each member of the city council if you lived right across the street from this project wouldn't you want the same consideration given for you and your family I urge you to look out for us as we are looking out for a better future for thank you Emily uh next MARTA Lan Adam Lee and Chris Goodman Marta you're up hi my name is Martha ly and I just wanted to take a quick minute and and try and not use my full two minutes since there's so many people participating I've been asked um by residents and gambaro to share my my support of affordable housing in general and accessible housing in general I appreciated the update from the the developers and that group that team that addressed a couple of questions that

[133:01] I've heard um just from residents around the county one in regards to that 42% I believe is what that that final number was of open space in this potential project the the point that I feel like is getting lost here is that from my um from listening to presentation that this area is already zon for light industrial so potentially it would it appears that there could be other um uses of this this land vacant lck um and thees the details commitment of delivering affordable housing from the folks that did present tonight it sounds like they are making that commitment versus the cash and L and so it would be great to see something you know somehow uh ensure that there was a couple council members that brought that up and I thought that was really important so my um continued conversation with Boulder City Council Members is that this is an opportunity

[134:00] to truly address the housing need I would love to see in the plan it just wasn't broken down and it may be out there somewhere condos as an actual home ownership opportunity within these types of projects um I've heard both I've heard a couple folks talking about just departments which is great there is an ownership component that we're missing meaning just the first line opportunity for folks to own property in Boulder County um and I just didn't hear that so I'd love to hear more about that in the future thank you Mara next we have Adam Lee Chris Goodman and Robert Irving Adam yeah can you hear me we can perfect um yeah so I live in Boulder I pay taxes to the city of Boulder I am also a gun barrel resident um one of the things that's kind of blows me away is that so many people in the community of Gun Barrel have come out against this or at least changing what is there currently and it feels like this is falling on deaf ears

[135:01] that's something that there is a lot of concern about that there is no representation whatsoever for the council for Gun Barrel um the other thing that was stated before the developer statements about walkability amenities bus routes all that within G that's they're just not true um come I live across the street feel free to ping me you could stay at my house for a week you will find very quickly that none of that is true um next thing that I really want to talk about and the only thing that I want to focus on is just the traffic in general almost all the traffic 4J for this comes from J road so that is South coming directly through the neighborh everything for metatronics all of that so something needs to be done there there's no this uh Road SP SP road is number six on the boulder neighborhood spee management that was done by Boulder City 2100 speeding cars a day you're planning on adding 1,600 more as minimum um spine roads are already destroyed and the noise pollution is horrific um the property

[136:02] has no value to the The Gun Barrel Community um all it is is population and traffic it's not going to add realistically housing when there already is over 200 available units in Gun Barrel right now you can go look that statistic up um some of the things that you could do is look at putting a new entrance on the diagonal Highway that is one thing you guys talked about said it's a little bit unrealistic cut spine Street to disconnect between Wellington and Gun Barrel at least it'll cut off the the areas between uh repave the roads reduce the speed limit to 15 miles per hour um here's the other thing is on J Road there is 20 acres a half mile from this exact location that is up for sale for development why are we not moving this thank you Adam next Chris Goodman Robert Irving and Susan Summers Chris Chris I've heard that one person is seating their time to you do you have a second person who wishes to pull this

[137:00] evening hi um am I am I on Chris CHR hi there um thank you so much I believe Jen law said that she would like to contribute to my time if that's an option as well she um messaged me and I hope that that's okay you need a second person Chris pardon me you will need a second person okay I don't have that here so that's fine I'll just try to talk fast um okay so my name is Chris Goodman and I live in the city of Boulder I've lived here since 2003 in my home that backs to this property at Celestial Seasonings in 1999 I was N9 months pregnant and I made the phone call and eventually reached Stephen Hughes at Celestial Seasonings and he called me back from a plane that he was boarding at that time to tell me not to worry at all this land would be designated as private Prairie space that

[138:00] he was working directly with armad and David Crawford and Lauren McCain and that they were trying to um they were they intended to keep this perpetually a preserve for prairie dogs um that said I want to bring some things to your attention tonight I did a search on line on Zillow which I am going to be emailing to each of you today that states that there are nine um units available at Meadow Creek nine at Powder Horn four at Williams Village um the ones that I I want to give you also the price ranges there's a total of 51 that I came up with as available tonight um just within walking distance uh from our area here in Gun Barrel the three bedrooms are going for 1392 per square foot there was a um a TW bedroom for $800 I I'm sorry not per square foot $1,300 for the three bedroom in its entirety so you're looking at affordable housing here present in Gun Barrel that's sitting vacant diagonal Crossing also has a number of units that are still

[139:01] available um the calculations as was noted um that we were given by cob homes are not the $220 per square feet um if or if that is the charge then that's going to total for this 930 feet unit a total of $246 um I found a studio that was listed at the diagonal Crossing which is the same Builder they're charging for a one-bedroom um that is 590 feet $1,670 that's $283 per square foot this is not affordable housing in any way shape or form we already have affordable housing here in gun barel and it's sitting vacant please hear our concerns so Chris stay on the line um somebody else has donated their time to you Tracy French so it's okay if we give you another two minutes Chris thank you so much thank you so much um these individual balconies and patios that they claiming or open space do not constitute open space um my children have lived here the whole length of time

[140:01] that we've lived here and they've never been able to take the bus because the buses are not running um as continually as they're stating that they are there's so much false information that is being spread by this developer that wants to build here and the people working with them I'm this is going to be a special task for the city council you're going to have to do your research on this because the information that's being provided to you by those that have a financial interest in this program is not accurate information if you map out on the RTD website um traveling from here at this location at Celestial Seasonings to get to the Tom Watson Park if you were not to walk across the highway and to take public transportation it would take you more than an hour or about an hour to get to Tom Watson Park that's our closest neighborhood public part park there is there are s amenities out here for our community we've never been able to walk anywhere um because there's just not that availability it's not safe for us to trans for us to travel along J Road

[141:03] um especially with our children on the bikes we we would drive to get to the closest bike path and from there unload our vehicles with our bikes and ride into town we are just not set up this is not a location for affordable housing or any housing unless you're intending to put car dominant Transportation um you know in that area that's what you're looking at this is not a location that is walkable if you're looking for a walkable location um the Sports Authority at 28th and you know Iris we have so many vacant buildings just sitting empty that are longing for to be re you know given a new life and I believe that affordable housing can be a part of that please hear our concerns we need your help thank you next we have Robert Irving Susan Summers and David D Robert hi can you guys hear me yes great hello my name is

[142:00] Robert Irving I live in the city of Boulder I pay city taxes and I vote in City elections I also work with the gun barrel Community Alliance we are help here to help the city of Boulder and Boulder County achieve a more livable vibrant resilient inclusive gum Barrel I would like to introduce council members to Gun Barrel since I live here Gun Barrel is rural yes it is part of the city of Boulder but is not City living by any means we are about six miles or a 15minute car ride to the city council chambers I have been told it's a 35 minute bus ride to downtown Boulder but my 18-year-old would seriously disagree with that we have although an abundance of wildlife if one looks outside you will see owls foxes coyotes Bobcats and of course the prairie dogs I would say that is what you get living in a rural area what we do not have in Gun Barrel are amenities that you find in downtown Boulder such as Library Rec Center swimming pool and importantly

[143:01] neighborhood parks safely accessible by walking or biking when I read through the applicant's proposal I get the feeling that the applicant believes that gun barrel is urban like downtown Boulder and it is not the density of The Proposal has been addressed it's 27.3 five the highest density in Gun Barrel right now is 17 The Proposal adds nothing to the amities that gun barrel needs only more people who will need those amenities I strongly believe that gun barrel needs a subcommunity plan that addresses the needed needed amenities includes Community participation and is Forward Thinking in addressing 21st century concerns I am asking you to reject this proposal and put a moratorium on development and Gun Barrel until we have a gun barrel sub community plan I want to thank the city council and the mayor for allowing me to speak this evening thank you thank you Robert next up Susan Summers David Dy and Alana Irving Susan

[144:03] I'm not seeing a Susan in the meeting at this point okay we'll put her over in the parking lot and then say we have David Dy Alana Irving and Debbie Richards David Dy hi can you hear me mhm okay uh my name is David Dy I'm a 20-year resident of gun barrel and the city of Boulder I'm an engineer and I'm a numbers guy so I'm going to focus on the density numbers under light industrial zoning a maximum of 172,0 square feet is allowed on this property during the planning board meeting David nin did an accurate backof the envelope calculation that about 171,000 Square F feet would be allowed under current zoning and added that he had to assume that this development would not exceed that but in fact it does by 80,000 square feet for a total of 21,990 square feet or 45% denser than the zoning allows excuse me uh twice as dense as

[145:02] any existing residential building and Gun Barrel the concept plan proposes more than 27 units per acre across 9.8 Acres 14 or more units Breakers designated as high density residential so this puts it into ultra high density range uh reasonably speaking medium Des density residential with 6 to 14 dwelling units per acre should really be the ceiling for this property to remain in line with its surroundings by comparison recently approved 30 Pearl in downtown Boulder has 120 units on 4.6 acres for 26 units per acre but 30 Pearl has Clos access to everything spine does not so it makes sense from planning Transportation resiliency and quality of life perspective this spine ultra high density development does not uh the proposal does not meet the requirements of section 2.21 of the comp plan for what is appropriate for housing in light industrial areas the numbers just don't

[146:00] add up or rather they do but in a way that is wholly inappropriate for our community or by the standards of the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan thanks thank you David next we have Alana Irving Debbie Richards and Wanda Fuller Alana hello can you hear me can great and I will be using the times uh seated by two other speakers Brook cholin and Kate Chandler so I believe that gives me four minutes yes they have both confirmed for me that they are willing to seed their time so you get four minutes Alana okay thank you my name is Alana Irving and I live in the city of Boulder in Gun Barrel where I currently pay city taxes and vote in City elections we all support affordable housing this is not about affordable housing this is just not the right

[147:01] location for this type of housing I'm offended that that there was suggestion made that somehow we are against affordable housing and we are not I am working with the gun barrel Community Alliance to help the city of Boulder and Boulder County achieve a more affordable Equitable resilient and inclusive Gun Barrel I want to stress the importance of a moratorium on development in Gun Barrel until a comprehensive gun barrel subcommunity plan is in place this is the essential first step for building a resilient Community both the City Planning Commission and city council have identified a gun barrel subc commmunity plan as a priority for Boulder Valley comprehensive plan subcommunity plans and Gun Barrel are necessary to align future building standards consistent with Boulder's comprehensive plan and its desire to

[148:01] minimize the impacts of climate change as well as the preservation of keystone species among many other factors the site is not a walkable location the only grocery store in Gun Barrel is 1 and2 miles away and the nearest public park is two miles away both accessible only via busy and unsafe streets spine and J Road are particularly known for speeding and there is heavy congestion at J and diagonal 1119 near the railroad tracks the public trans transportation system in Gun Barrel does not even meet the needs of the current gun barrel residents much less can it accommodate the influx of approximately 800 or more people traveling to and from this proposed location and that's calculating

[149:02] an average of three people per unit Gun Barrel has no public amenities and we all must travel by car or hours by bus to libraries recck centers Swimming Pools Parks playgrounds senior centers Playing Fields there's one narrow mixed use trail that ends in Orchard Creek there is no easy or safe way to access Boulder City amenities by bike or on foot finally the site is Zed light industrial manufacturing residential development is allowed in appropriate locations and this is not the appropriate location an ultra high density apartment complex does not fit with the existing community and would significantly increase the burden on the already crowded infrastructure there is also no plan to accommodate excess traffic and overflow parking with an estimated two cars per unit that's 536 cars they've only

[150:02] allocated if I recall correctly 360 proposed parking spots the Overflow parking is going to be in our neighborhoods in front of our houses we invite you city council members to please please come out to the location come survey the area really get a feel for what the applicant is proposing you'll learn firsthand that this proposal is not consistent with Boulder's values and it's not an asset to the gun barrel Community including those who may eventually live in this ultra high density apartment complex it will not do them any favors this is not the location for this project please reject the applicants proposal and put a moratorium on development in Gun Barrel until we have a subc commmunity plan thank you so much for the privilege of your time thank you Alana next up Debbie Richards Wanda Fuller and Sheila Cooper

[151:03] deie can you hear me yep okay I'm not GNA take my full two minutes everything has really been said but I do urge you to please put in place a gun barrel sub community plan this is not the appropriate place for this complex and um I I would request that you reject this proposal thank you so much Debbie next Wanda Fuller Sheila Cooper and Pam shookies Wanda I'm not seeing Wanda Fuller I do see kit Fuller in the meeting who's already spoken it's possible they're sharing a line perhaps we could ask kit to let me know if that's the case in Q&A and go to the next speaker and come back to Wanda if that's the case it's great um kit if you um have Wanda on the same line as you please put that in the Q&A next up we have Sheila Cooper Pam shukis and Nancy

[152:01] spian Sheila Sheila you may need to unmute I believe I did we hear you we can hear you okay thank you this is Sheila Cooper I live in Orchard Creek uh for the last 26 years that's inside the city of Boulder it is the subdivision that is adjacent to the property uh that we're discussing tonight um just to Echo what many others have said uh the only two things that I can see that this property will uh that this project will bring to this area is more more people and more cars traffic con with uh traffic congestion uh there are no Parks no Recreation uh no amenities from the city the county or anyone else in this

[153:03] area um and some other things just a second did Sheila still want to speak or did she finish Sheila you're muted oh it went mute all of all of a sudden there you are go ahead okay the RTD uh bus routes uh do not run consistently and when they do the um bus stops are more than a mile away from this location even though uh there is is a bus stop sign there is no bus uh there's more than a 30 minute walk to the gun barrel center and the King Super and the restaurant therefore this neighborhood is 100% uh uh car

[154:05] dependent uh the other uh thing I I know that um in The Proposal it talks about people uh having jobs uh working at jobs here there's no guarantee that they'll be working great thank you Sheila so we have two people um up here we have Susan Summers and then Wanda Fuller is on Kit's line so Susan if you are in the meeting and Sarah if you could bring Susan up I just did very good Susan Susan you're muted if you want to unmute yourself can you hear me now I can great

[155:00] sorry about that um my name is Susan Summers at 4636 55th Street in Boulder and I am a prairie dog advocate but I'm actually calling tonight to advocate for the members of you know the people that live in Gun Barrel um I over the years have attended meeting upon meeting of where people get up and protest certain developments and nine 99% of the time these developments get approved and I always find it shocking that that this is occurring in our country um I feel like you need to pay maybe a little bit more attention to the people that already live there not the people that need to move there um and while I certainly recognize the need for affordable housing I don't think that this community is what you're looking for I think it's very old and tired to keep pounding in more Apartments um the notion being that in order you know if you are lowincome and you need an affordable unit you

[156:01] don't want to own a property and I think if you're looking at affordable housing you should start looking at putting in tiny homes or some type of a community where where people can actually afford to own their own home and get some Equity down the road I think that's helping people better in the long run than putting in the apartments um obviously I'm tremendously concerned about the prairie dogs I also think that if you approve this development on this site um that you should certainly open up some property within the city to allow these prairie dogs to be moved so I think you have two issues here um I hope you don't do the right thing on at least one of them um either put in the right kind of housing no housing there at all or at least Le relocate the fa do so thank you very much Susan next up we have Wanda Fuller and Wanda will be speaking on kit puller's line can you hear me you can can hello

[157:04] my name is Wanda Fuller I live in Gun Barrel in the city of Boulder I pay city taxes and I vote in City elections I want to thank all city council members for calling up this proposal and for your service I support affordable housing but this proposal does not fit in Gun Barrel this site is six miles away from Boulder Gun Barrel is too rule for this ultra high density design and too far from Boulder services and amenities for alternative transit to be effective everyone here will need a car and adequate on-site parking the density in this proposal is ultra high for this area we need to hold the developers to 14 dwelling units per acre the upper limit of medium density residential The Proposal does not have enough open space or parking for the number of proposed units the traffic impacts would be excessive in this neighborhood The

[158:00] Proposal adds nothing to the neighborhood such as Parks Trails or commitments equivalent to the subdivision dedications that were a condition of Permitting most existing subdivisions in Gun Barrel we as a community request that the developers provide some benefits for the residents of the surrounding area including a community park and a branch library at this site my vision is that gun barrel would become a more livable vibrant resilient and inclusive place to live this proposal would fit in downtown Boulder but is wrong for Gun Barrel stop allowing unplanned development and Gun Barrel place a moratorium on development and Gun Barrel until we can work together to make a gun barrel subcommunity plan this proposal fails in so many ways please do not approve appr this plan thank you for listening thank you Wanda next we have Pam shukis Nancy spean and Christine Hurley

[159:00] Pam Sam Pam indicated that she wishes to pass in a message to me previously this evening so I've um queued up Nancy spe very good we can hear you Nancy okay thank you and good evening Council thank you for your time and also thank you for your service my name is Nancy span I live in Gun Barrel Boulder County and I pay my taxes and I vote I am here to voice my concern over the high density poor concept plan proposed on the Celestial Seasonings land as a longtime resident 20 years I also want to help Boulder and Boulder County achieve a more livable spiritmind and quality unbar this is not the time for this bit for this build with no gun barrel subcommunity plan including Boulder City and County in place the covid situation and economic un uncertainty but there are more concerns Gun Barrel is a rural

[160:00] community where many forms of wildlife enjoy their habitat including the prairie dogs owls foxes and coyotes on the celestial land to allow ultra high density housing is to destroy these habitats forever this development adds little to the gun barrel Community currently Gun Barrel does not have the infrastructure traffic and safety to support this development it doesn't have the services a poll a library a Rec Center effective Transportation or parks to support more development and finally I ask that the council seriously consider the voices and concerns you are hearing today and to do the following plan for the future of Gun Barrel by way of prioritizing The Gun Barrel subc community plan establish existing wildlife habitats that are remaining in Boulder and Gun Barrel as Wildlife protection areas and put an immediate moratorium on new development proposals

[161:00] in gun barel until a subc commmunity plan is complete thank you so much and I'll thank you for allowing me to have a voice on this very important matter thank you Nancy next up we have Christine Hurley Cindy seals and Megan Irvine Christine hi I am Christine Hurley I'm a homeowner in the city of Boulder very near to the proposed development at Celestial Seasonings I pay city taxes and I vote in City elections I like so many others moved here from an urban setting Boston to be particular to be closer to Nature and to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle I am proud to call gun Barrel home I enjoy the simple lifestyle here with easy access to nature trails and our quiet peaceful small community we are a community of people who mjoy walks throughout the day with our dogs and children while observing the local

[162:00] ecosystems and Wildlife at Celestial Seasonings including Turtles Hawks Eagles Perry dogs rabbits coyotes and foxes I feel deep despair that I must speak at all regarding the sanctity of an area that has since 1999 been understood to be a safe haven for Peri dogs a keystone species that supports over 200 other species and Wildlife the prairie dogs and other local animals have called these Acres Home for Generations this is not undeveloped land to them it is home it is a community I cherish their Community as a part of my own and feel fortunate to share this space with them I do not think that we should Place comfort and economy over the lives of the animals I don't understand understand the mentality to build upon a vibrant local open space within an established Community this open space is worth so much more to this community as it is than as developed for a cheap Buck during a pandemic my impression over the last six years is

[163:02] that people enjoy Boulder because of the open space and deep connection to Nature and Outdoor Activity I feel a deep desire to do what is morally and ethically correct for both animals and humans I do not support the vment of land at Celestial Seasonings and ask you to reject this proposal and put a moratorium on development in Gun Barrel until we have a sub community plan thank you Christine next is Cindy seals Megan Irvine and Samantha corn [Music] Cindy I delete yeah um yeah okay this is Cindy seals and I assume you can hear me we can we can okay thank you um I just wanted to say a few things um for the most part I agree with a lot of my neighbors and a lot of the folks that

[164:01] have been um rejecting this proposed plan to build uh on the site within our NE neighborhood for for most of the same reasons I just want to reiterate that I also live in this neighborhood I've lived in Boulder for almost 30 years in the same house and I do pay city taxes I vote for City elections and I also work with the gunbr Community Alliance um I totally want to achieve a more livable and vibrant and resilient gun barrel and to do this I'm hoping that some of the issues that have been raised about this building site will be taken under consideration um since it would make it very difficult to house that many apartment I guess buildings for this neighborhood um not only some of the things that the builders are suggesting are not quite true including the distance to nearby stores and to

[165:00] playgrounds and parks and uh just to the city of Boulder itself and we have very poor bus transportation out here which is all fine if you have a car but again with a car comes a lot more traffic so um some of the things that concern me also concern all the other folks living in this neighborhood and I totally appreciate everybody giving real specific details as to why this proposal is not in anybody's best interest but I do W to I do hope that the city council will take all these things under serious consideration and hope that um they put a moratorium on this development in Gun Barrel until we have a gun barrel sub subcommittee plan to in place so that we can address these issues in detail thank you very much for your time thank you Cindy next up Megan Irvine Samantha cornr and James Lewis Megan I'm not seeing Megan Irvine in the meeting I suggest we move on to Samantha and Megan

[166:00] if you're here under a different name please communicate with me in the Q&A and we'll Circle back to you great okay Samantha you're up no public speaking huh Samantha corre you are up I don't think they would have bought I was Cindy and Sarah if you could mute David Sheila hi Samantha hi um so my name is Samantha corn I am a student at the University of Colorado Boulder I am a rising senior I study environmental science geology geography and political science I have spent a lot of work in both house uh analyzing housing markets and also analyzing uh Wildlife uh management I would just like to say first and foremost that I am against this development for uh several reasons uh for one uh there's huge difficulty in

[167:01] actually relocating prairie dogs and under the uh Wildlife ordinance that Boulder instituted in 1981 it is uh unlawful to go ahead and move prairie dogs from their habitat unless there's a permit given um and a permit is required also to use lisel forth um against prairie dogs which was used um in 1999 with Celestial Seasonings and so with that that was either in a direct violation of this ordinance or there actually isn't a place to relocate these prairie dogs thus making this um completely unlawful to actually continue with this uh development um and then to address the issue with affordable housing in Boulder as someone with a very dire Financial sit ation already I'm at CU on a full ride scholarship uh due to academic uh success and also Financial need I know very well that there is um a strong need for affordable housing this subdivision only has uh how many like 25% of these units will

[168:01] actually be affordable and that's affordable relative to Boulder so if we actually care about making Boulder more afford more affordable more accessible and more inclusive we need to look at Boulder's broken housing market as opposed to just blindly building just for the sake of a money grab and just for the sake of developing land that is you know essentially developed for these prairie dogs that already live here um and that being said I would just like to thank you for your time and thank you for listening and that's it thank you Samantha next up we have James Lewis Victoria Harvey and Wong Fong gal um James yeah thanks for the time um I'm not going to take the two minutes I think a lot of what I would say has already being said but um particularly around the wildlife and the questionable need for the questionable need for the development um but I would focus on the transport and safety issues I'm a father of two living just south of the proposed development um a four-year old and a sixy old and we do bike frequently and

[169:01] walk frequently across spine Road and up and down spine Road and um I think as previously mentioned the speeding issue the amount of traffic which is going to be exacerbated is a big concern um so I would encourage any development to look carefully at that I know there's the talk of the widening it's still going to feed uh traffic onto J road which is a somewhere I bite down every day to try and get to work and it's uh it's not a safe place to be neither spne Road or J road so um the other piece of the the discussion was around buses we're a onear family try and use the bus whenever possible but it is a challenge from here we moved here from Boulder Central Boulder two years ago and it it is a challenge to get around um I tend to use the route J bus Which if we're led to believe that people will start to use the bus from this development the route J will be at capacity um if it continues to run um and if not then we we're back to the same issue around safety uh with the amount of traffic that's going to be going up and down

[170:00] spine road so um I'll leave it there um my my concerns are as I say predominantly safety and and increased traffic and pollution and uh and so on thank you you James next Victoria Harvey Fong and Linda shooter Victoria hi everyone thank you um I'm Victoria Harvey I live in Powder Horn and I own a condo here I'm also a member of GCA I wanted to say thanks for your time and I appreciate getting to speak I realize that your positions on city council are diff difficult and maybe sometimes thankless and in ways it's a labor of love so also I want to point out I'm amazed that there are so many of us in the best week of the year for mountain flowers it is like everybody's gone and we still have this many people

[171:00] um you know it's vacation time so I'll start with density the proposed 268 units on 9.8 acres equals 27 A5 units per acre I know you've heard this from us but it is so amazing it's not compatible with the neighborhood and the density ranges are almost half of that um the density and the design seem problematic um using the Forward Design building pushing the buildings to the street it gives the neighborhood a feeling of being choked and it's much different than the setbacks in the neighborhood um it begins to seem like a money grab when you know I I'm asking you guys to double check the facts the developers used they know the facts are different because at the open space planning meeting we talked about how

[172:01] different they were they say it's three4 of a mile we say it's a mile and a half go check for yourself but they're not accurate um and it's repeated and it's on everything we're not unreasonable we know that development's fact but if you consider developing even thank you thank you Victoria next is Wong Fong G Linda shooter and Susan gadon Okay uh thank you my name is y I lived in O Greek for the past 12 years so I strongly oppose this project first thing there are a lot of problems for this project so first this is the bad location gambaro has a lot of existing affordable housing available and lot of them are Curr vacant just across the street hundreds of them

[173:00] within about one mile radius there are hundreds of apartments in the North and South recently developed and also the U the one 19 Highway triangle project which probably is from the same Builder is L than is not completely finished yet even so affordable housing is good thing and but it should be more evenly distributed across the city not just concentrate in Gun Barrel this is bad planning and unfair for the property owners and residents the project development plan also has lot of problems not to say The Residency density and the parking issue a lot of people have already mentioned it it does nothing to address the worsen traffic and safety concerns to the neighborhood so there are no public parks or space available for the Gambar residents so and for from the FL plan if

[174:01] everyone follow the same style for development then there will be no public space besides the larrow single L streets thirdly there will be a huge inment impact as many people also mentioned this is a big part of the play dog Pro this is only open space we have as there's no public city space around here so in summary we need a better plan for the city and for the community for this kind of project thank you thank you next we have Linda shter Susan Gaden and Eli aerin Linda I'm not seeing Linda in the meeting this evening um Susan gayon is here so if Linda is in the meeting and wants to communicate with me we'll Circle back thank you Susan hello can you hear me we can hi I would like to seed my time to Mike

[175:03] chopos very good next next we have Eli Ain Julie Dy and Betsy gums Eli hi there can you hear me hi I'm Eli I'm a home homeowner in Boulder just uh steps away from the proposed development I pay city taxes and I vote in City elections I work with the gun barrel Community Alliance and we're here to help the city of Boulder and Boulder County achieve a more livable vibrant resilient and inclusive Gun Barrel the next few minutes are going to be about the sanctity of Nature and prot protections for those that cannot protect themselves in 1999 this parcel was named a nature preserve to protect the existing prairie dog Colony the issue as I see it is to address the outdated mentality of

[176:00] putting human desires and profits over respect and protection of our environment this is a small parcel of land but it represents a much larger societal mentality that has caused worldwide Environ mental harm it's up to us to make better decisions than our predecessors would have and stick to our word and protecting nature especially when a promise was made to do so as humans with the power to decide the fate of this land we must stand up for this natural habitat if we believe in restoring balance to our wider environment I'm asking you to reject this proposal and put a moratorium on development and Gun Barrel until we have a gun barrel subcommittee plan thank you for your time and for listening thank you Eli next up Julie Dy Betsy GS and Donna George Julie good evening uh both Mitchell Goodman and Rory Goodman have seeded

[177:01] their time to me I have confirmation from Mitchell let me just find um Rory Goodman just to confirm that or Rory Goodman bear with me for one moment please [Music] very well Rory this is Sarah Huntley um are you willing to see your time to Julie Dy yes this is Rory Goodman and I seed my time to Julie Dy thank you Julie you're Julie you're four minutes thank you my name is Julie dy I live in Gun Barrel and the city of Boulder thank you for your time tonight I've sat on a number of boards and I'm empathetic to council listening to so many voices but it should give you an idea of how important this wildlife habitat is to our community and how Gun Barrel feels like the ones no one wants to deal with we get it we're complex but we are residents and citizens and deserve what the Boulder Valley comp plan strives for which is to create and preserve a truly special place that is

[178:02] sustainable resilient Equitable and inclusive rather than Boulder's goal of the 15minute neighborhood Gun Barrel is the 15-minute Drive here's the Google Maps reality from Celestial Seasonings in our neighborhood an unpleasant 34-minute walk to the closest grocery store 48 minutes to the closest public playground across the diagonal and 1 hour and 25 minute walk to the neighborhood Elementary School Crestview this is not sustainable no rec center no Library few children friendly spaces for walking or biking no public art in one grocery store to quote the comp plan the quality of parks libraries trails and other Community Resources directly shapes Boulder's vibrancy functionality and livability and contributes to important parts of the City's community identity Gun Barrel lacks so many of the resources and amenities that our Boulder neighbors have this is not Equitable we have reached a Tipping Point in Gun Barrel you voted unanimously to

[179:00] prioritize our subcommunity plan and we ask that you hold approval on this and other development until there is an approved plan you have the ability to do this because the land is zoned industrial which the boulder Chamber of Commerce has deemed Critical with within the city you are the ones inow to designate if this development is appropriate on Industrial land per section 952 of land use regulations land owners and developers do not do this you do and we do the concept review even says further analysis is necessary to evaluate the appropriateness of housing on the izone site it is inappropriate and inconsistence with precedence to shoehorn in this highly dense intense extremely controversial development onto Industrial land when it will likely contradict future subc commmunity goals disregarding C Civic voice is not inclusive Pete talked a lot about Powder Horn tonight but the Celestial Seasonings proposed plan is twice as dense as Powder Horn and the highest density of any residential dwelling units in Gun Barrel section 2.10 of the

[180:03] comp plan States the city will seek appropriate building scale and compatible character in new development this ultra high density development is so excessive that it is not resilient we know a minimum of 40% of the required usable open space must be configured as common contiguous area can we all please agree a balcony cannot count as open space and Boulder the spine development brings nothing to the neighborhood but traffic and additional strain to our community section 1.09 of the comp plan States the overall effect of urban growth must add significant value to the community improving quality of life the city will require development and provide provide significant to provide significant Community benefits achieve sustainability goals for urban form and maintain or improve Environmental Quality as a precondition for further Housing and Community growth let me be clear an on-site coffee shop will not

[181:00] offset the additional burden to our neighborhood Gun Barrel is the affordable part of Boulder our M our Market priced housing is often similar to affording affordable housing prices in town we are yimi with a plan our goal is to create livable inclusive vibrant resilient and healthy Gun Barrel please work with us to do so thank you to the council and to my neighbors thank you Julie next up we have Betsy GS Donna George and Eric Olsen Betsy hello my name is Betsy GS I do live in Powderhorn and I am here to speak for the innocent beings that currently live and thrive on the celestial property on spine Road there are many many reasons that I am against this development but the main reason I am speaking out is to save the current wildlife habitat that was promised to the citizens of Boulder it is important that we hold Celestial to their promise

[182:00] that we accepted in good faith many years ago this has been treasured by numerous residents of the area as well as by the visitors that have come to enjoy the tours of Celestial Seasonings this company has profited over the selling of stuff Perry dog animals cards Etc since the habitat was created when people come here they learn the importance of keeping areas safe for wildlife and the role of each animal in the system of nature this land supports a healthy prairie dog Colony as well as rabbits and various Birds this needs to be protected for future Generations we are building over too much of the homes of Wildlife and it is important to keep places for them to live safely there are many difficulties facing our world today with covid-19 unemployment and Injustice but you the council have the power to make at least one thing right in our little part of the World by acting with compassion and respect for the few

[183:01] remaining safe havens for our Colorado Wildlife I am respectively imploring you to do the right thing and vote against any development of this land what does this our children if companies can not be held to their promises what does this hold for the future of our Wildlife we cannot solve all of the problems of this world but we can start by honoring our promises and holding companies accountable we can save a small part of our community for the betterment of all thank you your time thank you Betsy next we have Donna George Eric Olson and Shelley kovitz Donna you have four minutes Donna we are aware that you are ruing time yes okay they're here okay thank you my name is Donna George and I live in G I do not live close to this area but I do live in gumbo I would like to thank city council for calling up this concept plan review to amend the Celestial Seasonings planned unit development the Celestial

[184:02] Seasonings planned unit development should not be amended to allow this development to occur these lots are owned by Celestial te corporation which made a promise to the Boulder Community to protect these properties as habitat for the prairie dogs among the action plans on Celestial Seasonings letter to the Boulder Community they also wrote that they would explore the potential for some relocation of prairie dogs to our property meaning they would even have more prairie dogs coming on and ensure that the colony is protected during all activities utilizing the facility and most importantly that the fields are not used for parking and yet under this concept plan submitted by Coburn partners there is a proposal for not just parking but 268 apartment buildings covering this entire prairie dog habitat also in the packet about this concept plan review are procedures concerning removal and possible lethal control of the prairie dogs on these

[185:00] properties the city of Boulder which is always looking for places to relocate prairie dogs should preserve an already designated prairie dog habitat these properties are zon industrial Manufacturing under this zoning residential uses and other complimentary uses may be allowed in appropriate locations as a designated prairie dog habitat for years how is a residential use appropriate for this location it is not and because of this this concept plan should be rejected Boulder City counciling and planning board should not waste time and money of the applicants for a proposal that should never be approved the documents for this meeting state that the purpose of a concept plan is to receive feedback from from staff the planning board and the public early in the development process I reviewed the over 150 pages of public com comment and the majority of commenters strongly objected to this proposal I could count on one hand those commenters who were for any development

[186:00] on these Parcels how is public input and Community involvement used in planning decisions is it strongly considered or is it largely ignored for a predetermined agenda why would planning board and city council approve of a development at this site there are over 75 rental um vacancies covid-19 pandemic has has made a great deal of changes in the workplace and many people are now working from home this change will bring about a glut in office space these already developed areas with buildings and parking associated with them can be used to build affordable housing on them leaving this and other undeveloped open land for the Wildlife environment and scen it fused to be preserved why is cobr development submitting this concept plan who who actually owns this site I want to know that I know Mary young asked a question in the beginning and how can they is this kind of like an inside thing where somebody can get a change before they actually buy the property so that they know they can make tons of money off of it the concept plan review proposal to

[187:01] build 268 highdensity apartments on a designated prairie dog habitat is an assault on the prairie dogs the wildlife the environment and the taxpaying citizens of gun barrel for the monetary profit of a few there should be no development on these parcels and they should continue to be preserved as a prairie dog habitat future developments of housing should be on already developed areas and undeveloped lands such as this prairie dog habitat should be preserved for the Wildlife and the citizens again during this in the discussion I would like to know who owns this and how this is playing out how are they determining um who's talking to who and is this an inside thing where hey if we can get this changed then we we can we can make money we don't just have to buy it on a well maybe we can build these we can just buy it knowing we can build these thank you thank you Donna next up are Eric Olen Shelley krovitz and John Fitz Gibbons

[188:04] Eric I didn't have as much time as I thought I was going to have Eric you may need to unmute yourself I think I just found it out my name is Eric Olen and I live in Gun Barrel in Boulder County and I certainly pay my taxes and vote I have been a gun barel resident for 35 years and lived in Boulder for 7 years before that and moved here I was in favor of annexation but I've come to realize why that is such a bad idea and the anti- annexation feeling is so deep here frankly Gun Barrel has historically been treated very poorly by Boulder government and Boulder leaders have had and continue to have a strong bias Against Gun Barrel that aside and specific to the issue at hand the least City could do with regard to the

[189:01] proposed development would be perform a realistic traffic study and an unbiased estimate of the number of weekly car trips and parking requirements the development development will add also the use of traffic data collected during these unusual times certainly would not be valid to say the least I'd also like to add the connection to the Longmont diagonal from gun barel Avenue that was discussed in the 1980s and Mary young brought up was the right in write out connection not requiring either an underpass or overpass aside from traffic take a real realistic look at Wildlife impacts infrastructure or the lack thereof in Gun Barrel current housing available in Gun Barrel the evolving uh vacancy levels in the commercial property here and so forth I'm asking you to reject

[190:01] this proposal and put a moratorium on the development in Gun Barrel until we have the much wanted Gun Barrel subc commmunity plan very much ER next we have Shelley krovitz John Fitz gibons and Nora Swan Foster Shelly yes can you hear me yes thank you thank you for your time my name is Shelley krovitz and I live in Boulder County and I pay County taxes and I also vote I lived in South Boulder for 25 years and I moved to Gunbarrel and I bought my own home in Powder Horn six months ago I work with the gun barrel community Community Alliance and we are here to help the city of Boulder Boulder County achieve a more livable vibrant resilient and inclusive Gun Barrel we want to build a better gun barrel for the future at this time Gun Barrel has no Boulder County resources such as

[191:00] parks recreation swimming pools playgrounds Etc there are few retail amenities in Gun Barrel I wish that we had a fact checker for this developer because probably 80% of what he said is not true there is no walkable place from the proposed site there are no bus routes to speak of spine Road cannot be developed spine Road as it looks on his chart looks like a two two-lane road going in each Direction it's actually a one lane road in each Direction and it's very windy and it we also share that road with the bicyclist it's a very dangerous road before the pandemic it took me 20 to 25 minutes to get out of my complex onto

[192:01] spine Road and the diagonal is bumper-to-bumper traffic going north and south there is no way that we can add another thousand cars to the mix and not have all kinds of dangerous traffic accidents I also want to note that I do not know of any jobs available in Gun Barrel at this time so I can't imagine them putting in housing and assuming that they're going to get jobs that they can walk to thank you Shel thank you next up we have John Fitz Gibbons Nora Swan Foster and smar sair John hello can you hear me

[193:00] yes okay my name is John Fitz Gibbons I've been a Boulder County resident for 45 years uh a neighbor of Celestial Seasonings for 20 years uh I support the gun barrel Alliance and the many reasons that have been presented for a moratorium on development in Gun Barrel until we have a gun barrel subc commmunity plan uh we have no neighborhood park so my family and I and our neighbors have greatly appreciated the open space on prairie dog habitat at Celestial this is an oasis for us from the noise and pollution of the diagonal Highway and the railroad that had jooin this area sunc prairie dogs are just a a nuisance to be rid of these fascinating natives of our grasslands have a well-developed family and social structure a very sophisticated way of communicating with each other uh come out and listen to the different ways that they signal to each other whether an approaching animal is a hawk or a human uh their tunnels are are remarkable with separate quarters for

[194:00] various functions including separate quarters for raising their young until they're able to go above ground uh there's an opportunity here for Celestial Seasonings to live up to the wisdom of the quotation on its tea boxes uh including one with a sleepy sleepy bear and a quotation that nature does not hurry yet all is accomplished please reject this proposed construction until we have a gun barrel subcommunity plan thank you for listening you John next we have Nora Swan Foster smer sair and Mitchell Goodman Nora thank you my name is Nora Swan Foster and I live in the Deerfield subdivision and I've lived in gumbar for 28 years I'm a member of the gumb barel Community Alliance to help the city and county create an equitable Innovative creative and sustainable Community I pay taxes in Boulder County and I vote so many intelligent and professionally knowledgeable voices have been heard

[195:01] tonight and I'm deeply concerned that the intelligent and invested voices of our gumb Barrel Community will not be taken seriously this would be a dis discrimination and inequitable and I hope you will take our representation seriously I've worked on Pearl Street for over 20 years and the bus system has never met my needs my home backs up to spine Road in 1992 spine Road was still closed to through traffic when it was opened only cars were allowed then suddenly large trucks were allowed to make deliveries to the businesses traveling Jay to spine rather than look out to 63rd the curving road is unsuitable for large trucks sometimes they get stuck and the speeding cars are dangerous in the past five years the traffic has hugely increased especially before covid we've had several speeding accidents and one car drove through the fences into our yards I see this proposal as a land grab at in the best of times during covid when our communities are struggling and apartments and offices are vacant this project is not future seeking it's

[196:02] inappropriate location for such a plan and does not provide true lowincome rent 2,000 a month is not low income the project is driven by developers with inaccurate data no surveys taken from the residents who know and love this community it's a money maker for a select few we need an accurate data and a thoughtful collaborative plan that respects neighbors of all income levels who live here I'm offended that we're seen as some privileged Community please listen to our community and say no to this project I strongly ask that you the city council to place a moratorium on the development project and support a gumb barrel development plan please listen to us thank you so much for listening to me thank you Nora next we have SM sapir Ray nson and Joanne nson seeing a smar Samir in the meeting so I think we can go on to the newon and if some smar is in the meeting please communicate with me through Q&A and we'll Circle

[197:01] back thank you so next we have Ray nson followed by Joanne nson and Sky Canyon right yes this is Ray I assume you can hear me yes so my name is Ray kudon and I have lived in gun barel for nearly 30 years I pay taxes and I vote in City elections I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak and for all that you do for our city I'm here to speak in opposition to the proposed development project I likely have a different perspective from many of my neighbors in that my father spent his entire career as a homebuilder so I understand the need for projects that bring new jobs and I am not against new developments in principle what I am against are projects that do not give serious consideration to the impact uh to their impact on the existing environment both human and natural our neighborhood has already become a

[198:01] thorough fair for numerous construction and earthmoving vehicles and this will get significantly worse if the project is approved further once the project is complete there will a dramatic increase in automobile traffic and on street parking the developers claims to the contrary are simply not believable and the increased risk to pedestrians and bicyclists will be very significant equally inaccurate the developers claims of adequate bus service retail stores within walking distance and ab an abundance of walking trails these com these points have been made several times and I won't dwell on them I am not one who believes that just because we got here first no one else should be allowed in but I do believe that any additional housing needs to be compatible with the existing community so as not to degrade our current quality of life therefore I'm asking you to reject this proposal and put a

[199:01] moratorium on development in Gun Barrel until we have that gun barel subcommittee plan thank you again for listening to me thank you Ray and next we have Joanne nson I believe and then Sky Canyon and Mary Smith raise Jo Joanne nson on the same line as you no we're not related you're not okay and we don't have the same line either okay thank you so I am not seeing a Joanne nudson in the meeting at the moment um so let's Skip and we'll go to Sky Canyon you are in the meeting under a different name please let me know that through likewise I'm not seeing a sky Canyon in the meeting very good uh then we have next so we have Mary Smith Beth Quist and Stephen hits up

[200:00] next okay Mary Smith I've queued you up you may need to unmute can you hear me we can oh great okay well good evening Council um my name is Mary Coleman Smith and I am a homeowner in Willowbrook which is one of the neighborhoods that will be impacted by this development I have lived here for four years and I purchased in Gun Barrel in part due to the Natural areas and low density of apartments um I would like to thank you all for being on our city council and Sarah thank you for being the facilitator and representing our citizens wishes in creating vibrant affordable and friendly to Wildlife neighborhoods um I also thank you for

[201:01] listening intently to the voices of your constituents um I have to say I am in awe of the eloquence of the speakers I have heard tonight uh there are two issues that are of special concern to me one is because I am a board of the Gun Barrel Commons park um which is owned by five of the surrounding neighborhoods which this new development is not currently uh slated to contribute to um we we spend about $100,000 a year for the upkeep of this apart of this uh lovely park um it is highly likely that the new residents will use this park without paying a penny for it uh my second concern is as a former

[202:00] educator the destruction of natural opportunities for neighborhood children and especially lowincome children um is concerning we know that n is uh critical to Children's healthy development and I realize that many Boulder children can go out and get in their parents' vehicle and go places but a lot of low-income children cannot thank you Mary next we have Beth Quist Stephen hits and Angie mesha Beth Europe can you hear me yep great thank you hello I'm Beth Quist professional musician certified permaculture designer board member of prairie protection Colorado and I grew up in the foothills of North Boulder consider the words of arapo Chief nyatt whose home where you now reside was violently colonized quote people seeing

[203:01] the beauty of this Valley will want to stay and their staying will be the undoing of the beauty end quote most people interpret this as a curse but the more I look at his word the more I think he was simply wise enough to see longterm where this colonizing mentality would lead and here we find ourselves a few of us struggling to save the very few remnants left of native biotic communities in tiny corners of our towns our counties our states according to a research study published in 2018 humans in their livestock comprise 96% of land vertebrate biomass on this planet when is enough enough prairie dogs are down to 1% of their historic populations Temperate Grassland ecosystems a huge carbon sink are recognized as the world's most endangered ecosystem more than forests by killing or even relocating

[204:01] this one species of rain making Keystone black-tailed prairie dogs you would be condemning the rest of the resident biotic Community this land is already inhabited and we oppose this ecosal human development especially when there are very Creative Solutions to human housing that have been presented by several residents in the May planning board meeting if hay Celestial stands by their 1999 words and truly protects this essential biotic community of the Prairie Park I will purchase their products again if not they've lost my business for good Boulder City Council Members also have yet another opportunity and a duty to protect the remnants of a struggling and dangered ecosystem from corporate greed Agriculture and Industry thank you thank you Beth next up we have Stephen hits Angie Masha and Suzanne Smith Stephen yeah can you hear me y yes my

[205:00] name is Steve hitson I live in h city of Boda in gumaro and I work with the gumaro Community Alliance and I've lived here for about 12 years and over those 12 years you know I've noticed the density the congestion the traffic the noise and pollution has gotten worse over the years and um I really can't imagine trying to shove a 268 unit apartment complex with 500 plus additional cars in that small lot um like many people said the congestion right now and the density of of putting this project in this lot far out seeds what's acceptable for that unit as far as traffic is concerned 500 additional plus cars I mean right now trying to get out on the diagonal on J Road usually takes two or three Cycles the additional cars would be just you know unbearable in the morning to try to get out if you ride up and down um spine Road there's

[206:03] cars parked Bumper to Bumper um that's only going to become worse when you have all this additional cars overflowing from not having enough parking spaces in this complex as far as safety is concerned I ride my bike up and down J Road and spine Road and there's not a bike path there there is a lane that's a couple feet wide that's dangerous I've almost gotten hit several times and this situation is just going to get worse with the additional traffic comes additional noise and additional air quality is going to go downhill so for all these reasons I State um and for me and for all the other people I ask you and I respectfully ask you to reject this proposal and put a moratorium on the development um of any future um development in gun Baro until we have a gunbar subc community plan thank you for your time you Stephen um we're gonna go back

[207:02] to someone who um has just joined us who had signed up uh Joanne nson so Joanne you are up next danan you're queued up you'll need to unmute yourself thank [Music] you thank you for your time and interest tonight um I have lived in Boulder from 1974 to 1991 and moved to when I moved to Boulder County and I urge you to step back and look more closely at the impact and long-term implications that would result from developing the small parcel of land in the city of Boulder but next to the county of Boulder and across the street from a high density area including the Powder Horn complex and two other neighboring complex that pay

[208:00] additional dues to maintain and enjoy our Gun Barrel Commons park um the city of Boulder has annexed uh property to from Boulder County over the years to collect sales tax revenue from gun Barrow businesses such as king supers and business property taxes for example from Celestial Celestial Seasonings and they collected from AR code ZIP code we share a zip code 80301 and in the past we've had um the city has um paved our roads out here and then decided one year they weren't going to do it and there was a lawsuit and uh we ended up winning in Boulder County but it's like we need to work together on this and and when I heard the developer tonight I was at the other meeting in May but when I heard the developer tonight say oh we expanded a bike lane and that's your concession to your neighbors your proposed neighbors it's like it made me like that's not the way to approach

[209:01] this um it's uh looking at it stepping back looking at it and making it work for everyone so I implore you to be sensible be prudent seek the best for all involved and consider the timing of this devel development during the pandemic we currently have rental vacancies and evictions are going to be likely to happen so we need to take a step back and give careful consideration what would be necessary to make this the happiest place in the USA and keep our title thank you Joanne next we have Angie Michelle Suzanne Smith and Peter G Ang Europe you're live Angie you may need to unmute hi you hear me yes hi good

[210:00] evening I'm Angie mhaw 4626 burgundy Lane unincorporated city of Boulder I pay city sales tax and I vote I I'm working with the gumber community Alliance we're dedicated to helping you and the county plan a better gum Barrel thank you Council for your call up this evening and hearing us thank you planning board for your thoughtful comments and recommendations in May and thank you staff for all your hard work based on the applicant's proposal many deficiencies exist coupled with ultra high density resoning request with zero mixed use popped in our low to medium density neighborhood which lies nowhere near a walkable transit or retail Center this equals it's a non-starter from the get-go in addition the applicant is required to provide quality open space like a Central Park which is required for multif family developments there is no planned active open space like running tracks play structures Playing

[211:02] Fields basketball common gathering places with grills and picnic tables drainage easements do not qualify as active or passive open space just steps away east of the property lies dumb Barrel Commons park a private 10 acre Park this park is owned and funded by 5 HOAs thousand members and the budget is over a 100,000 a year just to maintain this park doesn't exist for the proposed developments used so the applicant can ignore their required responsibility to provide active and passive open space on site please keep in mind this proposal is 2.5 miles from the closest city park with amenities which is Tom Watson park across the diagonal Highway please reject this proposal and place a temporary moratorium on development in Gun Barrel while we as a community create a sub community plan with you thank you so much you Angie next Suzanne Smith Peter

[212:02] ganev and Lori Branch Suzanne yes can you hear me great my name is Suzanne Smith I live in Gun Barrel in the city of Boulder I pay city taxes and I vote in City elections and I'm a board member of the Gun Barrel Community Alliance I'm Pro affordable housing so much so that I worked for Habitat for Humanity I'm a yimi yes in my backyard yes to affordable housing I'd like to thank the city council for calling this up and importantly I'd like to thank the planning board for their very thoughtful comments on this proposal The Proposal in front of us is a high density development the applicant is pro proposing 27 units per per acre in a low and medium density residential neighborhood zoning Maps make clear that none of Gun Barrel is zoned for high density residential you know in density alone this plan is a non-starter and has to go back to the drawing board but let's take a step back for a moment and acknowledge that the historical lack of planning in Gun Barrel has had

[213:00] unfortunate results creating inequity for the Boulder City residents living here there no public parks and walking in walkable distance no libraries no rec centers for starters so you can imagine how very happy we are to see that a subc community plan has been prioritized for gumb barel thank you for that I'm sure you've heard the phrase Justice delayed is Justice denied the same thing true about planning planning delayed is planning denied indeed if we go forward with this development and others before subc community plan is developed you know we're effectively rendering a subc community plan moot because of the diminishing number of parcels left in Gun Barrel to incorporate into our plan you know Gun Barrel you we're asking for a moratorium on all development in Gun Barrel and you've done this before you've done it in nyatt in 2018 and Gun Barrel has many parallels in nwat being a more rural location between Boulder and Longmont you know the moratorium in nwat allowed residents experts and stakeholders to collaborate on iat's future we're just asking the same for ourselves in Gun Barrel please press the

[214:01] pause button on development give us a chance to look around take inventory and together design a vibrant and inclusive Gun Barrel that works for all of us thank you suzan um next we have Judith hour and Steven pagota um I've skipped over Peter gev because we couldn't find you in the meeting so if Peter is in the meeting please uh text hang on I just got a update give me one moment please okay got it I see it here so Lori Branch you are up yes hi I'm Lori branch and I live in Gunbarrel I live in Orchard Creek and I pay taxes and vote in the elections I've been here for since 1981 pretty much I want to thank the city council for listening to our

[215:01] voices the residents of gun barrel and the gun barrel Community Alliance I've heard a lot of really wonderful and um just passionate things about why we oppose this project and I agree with all of that I'm thinking you know how important this is for us as residents and how important it is if this pandemic has taught us anything it's the need to listen to intelligent voices to look for the facts the need for planning the need for putting people above greed and preserving the things that we value preserving the things that are important to us I will say that I have a high schooler who has crossed uh spine Road taking her life into her hands to

[216:00] get the school bus and I agree that it's a dangerous intersection there in fact I complained enough to the Boulder Valley School District Transportation um to where they would put a bigger crosswalk sign there and as I stopped to thank the man putting the crosswalk sign in he told me that he almost got hit by a car three times while he was putting the sign up so that will tell you right there as far as the traffic flow uh when the train comes the backup is ridiculous um I would also ask as everybody else did that we would put a moratorium until the subcommittee plan is done and we would like to collaborate with you and we thank you so much for listening to our voices it really feels like an honor to be heard thank you thank you Lori next we have Judith hour Stephen pegoda and John RM Judith Judith

[217:00] indicated she's seing her time so I believe Stephen pegn very good Stephen hello my name is Steve pagn and I live in the city of Boulder pay city taxes and vote in the city elections I want to thank the council and all the participants for caring about our community and keeping democracy alive in this in this and many other ways want to request the council to please reject the spine development for the following reasons and all the other ones you've heard thus far in the intro the developers I think were disingenuous and wounding their effort efforts for Community Development benefits for Community Development and I don't see how by destroying one of the rare Wildlife areas home to Keystone species that supports uh many other Wildlife species Eagles coyote Fox you've heard it

[218:00] before I don't see how it's a community benefit putting in high to ultra high housing will congest the area they talk about having proximity to jobs who knows that how do they know that they'll reduce travel by millions of miles it'll increase travel by millions of miles without having schools Parks shopping areas libraries businesses the reality is going to be a lot more travel and a lot more traffic we're an 85 minute walk to the nearest neighborhood school crestw elementary we're on a score of under 20 for a walking accessibility and as you've heard many times before the bike route the main artery J road is notoriously dangerous and has been the site of multiple bike and car accidents too many resulting in deaths uh there we are an inclusive and inviting Community I believe and low-income housing but let's do it with vision and creativity by using existing

[219:02] structures I request that the council uh wait for a sub Community uh proposal before going [Music] thank you Sten next next up we're gonna have John rasm Stephen Foster and Nikki Kiana John I'm not seeing John rasmon in the meeting if he's in the meeting please let me know through the Q&A and we'll Circle back I'm going to Stephen Foster next you're queued up Stephen you may need to unmute yes uh thank you can you hear me yep okay my name is Stephen Foster and I live in the Deerfield subdivision of Gun Barrel I'm with the Gunbarrel Community Alliance I pay taxes in the city of Boulder and I vote in City elections uh i' like to thank you for

[220:00] hearing what we're saying here this evening I have LIF in Gun Barrel for 28 years and during that time I've seen extensive unplanned development in the area this resulted in a community with few amenities and services and we drive everywhere you are empowered and have an opportunity to step up and impose a moratorium on development in Gun Barrel until the gun barrel Community uh plan has been completed and improved please do this specific to this proposal it is so poorly conceived that I strongly urge you to prevent it from moving forward as you have heard it is a complete mismatch it conflicts with Zone in that it's ultra high density there's no proposed adequate open space it is inconsistent with the community this is a land grab that will occupy the space preventing use for higher benefits for the community when other land is available for housing housing should be built in line with a developed plan and include

[221:02] wildlife and prairie dogs especially this plan fails on so many levels and we believe the applicant has ignored the community's uh comments on this project we urg you urge you to review the letter from Mike tropolis that summarizes a lot of the problems as you have heard there are so many with this plan that it fails the concept all it will bring is increase conflict is obvious to those who live here that this is just a horrible idea please listen to the voice of your community on this one we simply want a moratorium on any new development in Gun Barrel until a community plan has been developed is final and approved thank you for listening to me this [Music] evening thank you Stephen next we'll go back to John rasm who's sharing the line with Jan rasm so John and then Nikki Tiana and Mary rat John RM two minutes correct yes good evening

[222:01] all John R new 5955 rington Road City of bould I would sincerely like to thank the mayor City Council planning staff for the public service I have lived in Boulder County since 1969 and have been an active voter in Boulder since 1972 Jan and I have raised our family and lived in the gunbar community for over 30 years we have witnessed significant new commercial development and increased residential density without a clear plan in place for the future no new school Parks play Fields Recreation facilities librar or needed service retail have been added having recently retired from public service with the county land use Department I fully understand and support the vision of the Boulder County comprehensive plan and adopted sustainability goals the gunar sub community plan is needed now

[223:00] it is so important to plan and Implement now for the sustainable Community we want our children to inherit the scale p design neighborhood incompatibility and unsustainable nature of this proposal clearly identifies the need to complete the gun barel sub Community Plan before any changes of existing zoning uses are approved or increases in neighborhood density or considered anywhere in L Town gun barel area for many good reasons stated tonight this proposal should be rejected with no additional staff time assets wasted instead Provide support and directions for staff to work with older County to complete a truly Visionary comprehensive development plan for gun barrels sustainable future thank you for your time and yes there was so much more I wanted to say about how this

[224:00] public meeting process is being conducted not inclusive or accessible for so many in our community thank you thank you John um next we have Nikki Kiana Mari rap and Mike chopos Nikki I'm not seeing Nick Tiana in the meeting so I'm going to call up Mari Rob very good I'm here thank you very much for giving me the time to talk to you um obviously you have heard from many people tonight they've all had great points they're very obvious I think it's it wonderful that the gumbar Community Alliance is willing to work with the city council and really work on a cohesive plan for gumbrell please please please I've lived in Boulder for 45 years I vote I pay taxes I work here I volunteer all over the place and I

[225:00] really beg of you to listen to us and show us and other people in Boulder that the city council is listening and paying attention and trying to help residents I implore you to go ahead and listen to the subcommunity plan and help us develop a better thing there's several other reasons that I would like to point out besides the obvious density the environmental and um traffic um we have a beautiful Park right next to where I live I moved here because of that I am scared that if we add 800 people a block away that they will be in this park and it will not any longer be something that we pay for privately but that others will use and um thank you for your time tonight show me that you guys listen and work with the community and I appreciate what you do thank you and good night Mari next we have Mike chopos Deana Meyer and

[226:02] Alexandra agot um Mike Mike we've gotten word that several folks are pooling with you tonight so I believe you can start at four minutes sounds great thank you Sarah can you hear me we can okay Mike tropolis attorney for Gun Barrel Community Alliance first thank you for calling up the concept plan and to Jane for running the city the last few years um the high the ultra high density proposal is a non-starter if we want to plan a better gun barrel the planning board and Council have prioritized a gun barrel subc community plan in the 2020 bbcp midterm update appreciative residents look forward to planning for a more vibrant and resilient gun barrel with an enhanced quality of life lower carbon footprint and less Reliance on cars under the current light industrial zoning residential uses quote may be allowed in appropriate locations not

[227:00] high density or a plan that flunks walkability the Pud you heard about dates to the 1980s Gun Barrel is historically Boulder Valley's poster child for Highlands ranch style planning rooftop balconies are not open space even in Manhattan the quote unquote larger greens would be funny if the developers weren't serious in the concept plan the opportunity plan of committing all 10 acres to high density residential today is losing them for other priority public uses ever the plan directs our count plan directs ultra high density housing to sites plan for Transit oriented Redevelopment near major corridors and services sites with little or nothing in common with spine Road 268 units with several hundred parking spaces equals a 10 acre Urban heat island the concept

[228:00] plan would eviscerate the location's wildlife habitat ecosystem services and viewshed four recent examples of temporary Mor atoria on development in the city and county include first the opportunity Zone where in 2018 the city imposed a moratorium faced with an onslaught of new development updated zoning policies were designed to avoid halfhazard disjointed decisions two nyatt where in 2018 the county imposed a moratorium on accepting or processing new development in the nwat commercial District residents wanted to update density parameters and have a greater voice in their future both naat and Gun Barrel seek to retain a small town rural field like nyatt 2018 Gun Barrel 2020 needs a timeout three University Hill we in 2015 the city imposed a housing moratorium not withstanding a consensus

[229:00] on the need for more CU student rentals today Gun Barrel needs time to assess where and how to achieve the best mix of uses for the 500 acre planning Reserve since the 1970s where the city has deferred proposals on all affordable housing development for hundreds of units on private property pending a comprehensive planning process today Gun Barrel needs to assess its few remaining undeveloped properties for future Community needs including a library Annex swimming pool Rec Center planing Fields green spaces habitat Wildlife corridors and Par Parks temporary development moratoria ensure intelligent land use decisions reflecting core Community Values ultra high density and intensity are non-starters an urban heat island fails the resiliency test Gun Barrel subcommunity planning needs to inform the highest and best uses of the 9.8 Acres at spine Road developers

[230:01] concept is better suited to the 33 acre diagonal Plaza which is a parking lot in isore Desperately Seeking Redevelopment that's attractive thank you very much for listening thank you Mike next up we have Deanna Meyer Alexandra pegot and Jan R [Music] from can you hear me we can okay good sorry I was trying to unmute there all right my name is Deanna Meyer and I am the executive director of prairie protection Colorado I am here to speak on behalf of the biotic community at the celestial Prairie Park after committing a mass poisoning of wildlife Celestial Seasonings set this land aside and promised to Advocates locals and the world community that this land would be devoted to preserving Prairie habitat and would be used to help educate the public about the Keystone role prairie dogs play in grasslands Celestial

[231:01] specifically committed to quote continue working with environmental and Wildlife organizations to develop their long-term strategy for co-existence with this prairie dog Colony end quote since Advocates Wildlife organizations and local residents became aware of this proposed development they have continuously attempted to contact Celestial to discuss this breach of a commitment Celestial strategy has been to ignore all of the organizations and voices of concern Celestial has put profit over their values and Promises has evaded concerns and is letting down the community and the values of Boulder to benefit their shareholders at the detriment of wildlife habitat and the residents of the city of Boulder I am speaking to each of you as the city of Boulder council members because despite what some of you have told us you do have the power to say no to this development each of you has been elected to represent the residents of the city not the moneyed interests who are here to profit off of Nest projects financed

[232:00] by tax credits tax exempt bonds and soft funds which are not dependent on a return on investment investment from the projects or the community I themselves clearly your constituents are asking that you represent their interests and uphold your responsibilities as City Council Members the celestial Prairie Park is far more valuable to this community than the profits that very few will receive for allowing the destruction of one of the last remnants of a healthy Wildlife Community within your city thank you thank you Deanna um next we have Alexandra pagota janr M and Rona unel and Alexandra may be um on John rasmus's line I'm sorry Alexander is on Monica and Steve's line that's what I meant Steve's line yep sorry hi can you hear me yep okay uh hello my name is Alex and I'm 15 years old I live in Maple Court right across the street from the animal

[233:01] habitat the city is planning to build living places over I'm here today to talk about the significance of wildlife in Boulder and this Wildlife impacts not only land but the community and an ecosystem as you may know the prairie dogs is a Keystone Animal so if you take it out of the habitat in which it lives the entire ecosystem fail when St creature or even relocating it all the animals and plants that were in that area before will die as well if the city allows this disruption of a habitat it is showing how little they actually care about the values of Boulder and that they don't actually believe that Wildlife is as important as they lead on to not only does this construction impact Wildlife which we need to protect but it will take away the youth's ability to see nature and not just concrete buildings if the city would like to build more housing units for the growing population of Boulder it shouldn't be on land which we are all told to protect and treat with care from

[234:00] a young age the land you build housing on should not be land with should be land with no prairie dog preserve to destroy I know for a fact that there are better places to build and Boulder that aren't on land full of wildlife we need to protect the values of Boulder and the prairie dog preserve thank you thank you Alexandra uh next janr M Rona unel and AR Rico walduck Jan Jan before you start speaking we had some difficulty hearing John on your line so if you are listening to the live stream or the channel 8 broadcast it will be helpful if you mute that before you're speaking so there's no Echo hello my name is Jan R nen and I live in the city of Boulder I pay city taxes and I vote in City elections I've lived in the gumb barrel area with my husband for over 30 years and we've raised two wonderful boys here I want to thank you for hearing concerns regarding

[235:00] the proposed development and ask that you reject this proposal and put a moratorium on development in Gun Barrel into we have a gun barrel subc community plan to start I would like to point out this public hearing Zoom format is unlike any past hearings of such great import this format is not inclusive or accessible to many in our community I understand this format as being used because of the current pandemic but this only highlights the need to complete the gun barrel sub subcommunity plan prior to any decisions being made this proposal does not adhere to many of the Boulder Valley comprehens of plan principles and values it lacks any creative Innovative thinking and is certainly not welcoming an inclusive I absolutely agree there is an enormous need for affordable housing however this proposal segregates the affordable housing units into a separate area across the road from the remainder of the units this is particularly concerning and does not seem to be a welcoming inclusive approach to addressing the affordable housing need in addition the current proposal does not fit the needs of the community or

[236:01] offer to improve our neighborhood in any way the proposed ultra high density grossly exceeds the neighborhood character The Proposal does not not include mixed use such as a neighborhood market and service retail this proposal clearly identifies the need to complete the gun barrel sub Community Plan before any new changes of zoning use or increase in neighborhood density should be approved in the Gunbarrel area please stand with and work in concert with the county to achieve a sustainable comprehensive development plan for gun barrels future thank you so much for your time thank you Jan next we have Rona unel Aro waldock and and the next one seems like a address to me so Connie bobka will be next so Rona thank you my name is Rona unel and I'm opposed to this Development I've lived on 45527 Wellington Road for 20 years which is very close to the proposed Celestial seasoning project I'm a resident of Boulder County and I vote I'm also a

[237:02] member of the gun Barrow Community Alliance and thank you so much for calling up this meeting and allowing us to voice Our concern concerns GCA is committed to the gun barrel community and we envision the future of gun barrel with a thoughtful mix of land uses including residential commercial business and Industrial while still preserving our remaining Open Spaces in natural habitat we want a comprehensive plan informed by core principles in bbcp and sensitive to our community goals objectives and values intelligent subcommunity planting is the only way to achieve our vision for Gun Barrel any decisions for significant acreage of undeveloped land and Gun Barrel will impact the imminent subcommunity plan city council should approve a temporary moratorium on accepting or processing new development prop proposals until the new plan is final finalized this request is consistent with and supported by numerous temporary development moratoria approved by the city council in the last

[238:00] five years and be Beyond I site nwat as an excellent example we're also in the middle of a global pandemic with no immediate you know and in sight this proposed development is unsuitable for this location because of its ultra high density it's unsuitable for our rural Gun Barrel neighborhood and that zone light manufacturing none of Gun Barrel is zon for high density please reject this proposal in place of moratory on on all development and Gun Barrel until we have a sub community plan in place please hear us thank you so much thank you Rona next Rico waldock Connie boa and jam zidan Aro hi can you hear me yep okay great hi my name is erab walock and we used to live in gambaro but now in Boulder County and we pay count County taxes and my family vote was passion there are many housing stocks available in garel and Boulder

[239:01] adding to that diagonal Crossing has 250 unit in the inclusive neighborhood and development on the Lee Hill and Broadway will add 200 more housing market will not continue to grow grow forever I moved from New York so trust me on that a few days ago elevation Community Land Trust announced that they had acquired 13 town homes from two CU professors who wish to make them affordable housing in Garrow that is what we need destroying open space and build something new is a very outdated concept like shoulder pads there will not be open space to build forever we cry over possible Extinction of White Rhino we cry over possible Extinction of elephant only because we

[240:02] see PR dogs here we should not assume that they will be here forever we should prevent possible Extinction of PR dos in Boulder and old Wildlife that depends on them once the habitat goes extinction happened Extinction happens affordable housing is important but by killing wildlife and destroying open space the quity life would go down for everyone the current resident and the future residents of affordable housing I am asking you to reject this proposal and put the moratorium on development in Garrow thank you very much Rico next we have Connie Boba jamea zidan and Mary rat Connie not seeing Connie or jamala in the meeting um I'm going to move on to and Mari has already spoken she's a duplicate sign up so I'm

[241:01] going to move on to Ria and if Connie and jamala jamala are here please do let me know and we'll be sure to go back to you Ria you're on the air you may need to unmute hi can you hear me we can okay I'm gonna be really quick because so many people have made so many great points already um in opposition to this development about the prairie dogs and about how we are not getting all the information on the um amenities that are available and how it's not a good place for affordable housing in Boulder even though affordable housing is a big problem in Boulder um so I'm just gonna try and be really short and say that I agree with all those points but perhaps most importantly we are your constituents we are voters we live in your city and we're very concerned about

[242:02] this and so it's very important that you listen to our opinion um I'm gum Barrel resident I just bought here last year so it's and but I've been a boulder resident my whole life so yeah so those are my main points thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak with you thank you Ria next we have Susan Lambert B grab boys and Arlene Ole Susan so I'm concerned that I'm not seeing Susan Lambert in the meeting at the moment Sam but she has several people have seated time to her so if she is in the meeting under a different name now I'm going to ask her to communicate with me through Q&A and we'll move on to V hi can you hear me y hi I'm a resident of Boulder in Mapleton Hill I want to

[243:00] remind you that there will be far more people who call these apartments home than people speaking in opposition today I'm speaking in support of this proposal I biked to Celestial Seasonings on Sunday to see what all the fuss was about and I saw the prairie dogs I was there for about 15 minutes just checking out the area and I didn't see anyone there except for a few cars driving by it makes sense that no one would want to visit this place it's an ugly field next to noisy Highway yeah you can see prairie dogs there but you can see prairie dogs pretty much everywhere I saw prairie dogs in the northern part of Gun Barrel on the same bike ride even though I wasn't looking for them they aren't even the least bit endangered and Parks and Wildlife mostly cares about managing their populations to avoid bothering humans not about conserving them uh prairie dogs are great but you know it's better parents being able to spend time with their children because they no longer have to commute for hours to get to their job in Boulder that's who live here people who would otherwise been priced out of Boulder entirely and would be forced to drive from far away

[244:01] increasing traffic for everyone in the area I'm sick of seeing people getting priced out and forced them to long car commute it's bad for people's mental health and it's terrible for the environment I agree that gun barrel has been treated poorly for the people who are complaining about lack of services amenities crosswalks bus service Etc having more residents and voters living nearby will get you more attention from the city it doesn't make sense to run frequent bus service to a Baron Field it makes much more sense to run bus service to a dense Housing Development if you want amenities having more residents will support more and better amenities that's how all cities work if I lived nearby I'd be excited for this development we're in a recession and if developers want to bring jobs and economic growth to Boulder and pay for permanently affordable housing we should let them I urge you to support this project thank you thank you Vadim and we'll go back to Susan Lambert who will have four minutes because of pool

[245:06] time bear with me she was under a different name and now I'm not finding that name um Susan B Davis I believe that's what I believe as well but I'm not now finding Susan B Davis although she was here a minute ago okay very good well we'll pause and Skip Susan for now and we'll go go on to Arlene Ole followed by Mar Margaret Arnette and Anna Guyer Arlene you're queued up you may

[246:00] need to unmute okay thank you um hello my name is Arlene olle and I have lived in the city of Boulder for 43 years 26 of those 43 years in the gell area I pay taxes and I vote in elections I am working with the gumb barel Community Alliance to achieve a more livable and vibrant gumb barel I have concerns regarding the proposed development at the celestial seasoning area there was mentioned earlier that a convenience store would be within the complex is this really necessary Celestial Seasonings has a store and a cafe stay within their building in front of Leaning Tree which is across the street a new set of stores were built a couple years ago currently there are still many empty storefronts again in gumra there is a cafeteria within Celestial seasoning a coffee shop at king supers and a Todd's expresso Cafe next to King Supers do we really need more also was mentioned that the apartments are Geared for young professional tenants who will use public

[247:01] transportation and bike to work and most of likely these apartments will be occupied by families using cars to restore Apartments um is there a consideration for additional places for these families might go for the outdoors plus what about schools and libraries for these families the bus system is not very reliable spy is extremely busy with bikers and cars to reach these apartments occupants would have to require to drive to access the dearest services and amenities I did not notice any defined infrastructure in this development these apartments will increase traffic spying is not wide enough to support additional traffic and increased number of people will be using spine the roads are not maintained there are many po holes there will be incre increased noises due the apartments I believe the following developments of liquor mart area the velmont area the diagonal area and the new construction from the Google at Pearl and 30 with a mixture of residential and commercial space would meet the requirements of young professionals and families to walk

[248:01] bike to work at bus not sure why Boulder needs to build these 268 apartments in where there's so many being built and Boulder right now with better bikes and bike lanes and bus lanes thank you AR y uh next we have Margaret Arnette Anna guy and Arlene Ole Margaret Margaret was in the meeting but I don't see her in any longer I'm going to call on Anna guire and I'll just point out that Arlene o was on here twice so I think after that would be Jean Hancock very good K you should be able to unmute yourself now come on yes thank you Council for this opportunity my name is Anna gayer I live in Willowbrook condominium and I am a part of the Gun Barrel Community Alliance and I oppose this development I I am also live right across the street from the gun barrel

[249:00] Community Park which you've heard about it's a private park and all of us in the complexes around here pay for it which is over a thousand residents or a thousand units I should say um I'm not going to repeat everything I agree what everybody else said tonight that are in opposition but I also urge you to read the letter from attorney Mike chopis that was sent to you and to work with the gun Barry Gun Barrel Community Alliance to create a gun barrel comprehensive subc commmunity plan I have lived here for over 20 years when I first moved moved here it was quiet now 00 a.m. there is a constant din of traffic I am also speaking as a real estate agent interestingly enough the market is very active right now with single family homes but not so much with attached dwellings this is not the kind of design people want to live in right now this project has hotel likee hallways for the

[250:01] apartment entrances and as has been said it's denser than any of the condominium complex in the area um including I also want to mention that Powder Horn and all the other complexes have private entrances to their units so this development is not really contiguous um let's see I also wanted to say that I heard some of the people on the planning board some of the committee people making some comments about owners at Powderhorn these owners had Mountain views and the planning board said they should be happy that they had those views for the time thank you Anna and we'll go back now to Susan Lambert who I believe is on the line and Susan you'll have four minutes for full

[251:01] time great can you hear me we can okay and I have two people pulling time for me we've confirmed that you're good great okay thank you um hi I'm Susan Lambert and I live in unincorporated gumb Barrel I'm speaking tonight in strong opposition to the proposed development by cobr partners and Andy Allison at the celestial seasoning site The Proposal is deeply flawed flawed in many respects but among the most glaring are the lack of an independent legitimate traffic study the applicant's traffic study for their own proposed development erroneously assumes that 20% of all vehicle trips generated will somehow be offset with alternative transportation modes which is wholly unsupported with a walk score of only 23 that assumption is ludicrous regarding scarce IM zoning there is no compelling reason to convert this land from light

[252:01] industrial to housing other facets of Boulders government have expressed deep concerns for the rapid loss of industrial Zone land and its long range negative impact it weakens Boulder sustainability resiliency and flexibility to provide land for diverse businesses perhaps my most important concern though is out of this particular applicant Andy Allison and his former partners element properties have an abysmal track record for affordable housing developments which is on Full display in Boulder Mr Allison's past projects at Nest departments in Boulder are the poster child for neglect substance abuse criminal activity and neighborhood disturbances as police reports for each and every one of them reflects he and his associates who produce the nest properties have allowed them to fall into disrepair with a large portion of Nest managed by an out ofate entity who apparently seldom shows up

[253:02] there is no reason to think they would do anything different this time around around to be clear this isn't a nimy thing it's a community concern thing there are real people with real needs and realities which we can only imagine who are living in the nest properties and they deserve far better than this kind of treatment and neglect if you ask Boulder Police I'm sure they could show you records to back this up please do not Advance this project as proposed and instead ask them to go back to the drawing board to address the numerous flaws deficiencies failings and limitations or better yet recommend that this developer focus on fixing the mess they've already created in Boulder instead of putting them into the position to create another one thank you thank you Susan next up we have Jean Hancock El kushman and Chase French Jean

[254:01] I'm not seeing Jean or l in the meeting I do see a French in the meeting it's not Chase fren frch but I'm going to just check in and see if um Chase French is on the same line very good Tracy French I'm queuing you up is Chase on the same line as you can you hear me yes yes yeah no chase was giving his time to somebody who uh Susan Lambert actually or somebody that she she didn't need the time so he went to B okay so he is seated yes he is thank you okay thank you next John Owen Jill Mitchell and Connie bobka John I'm not seeing a John Owen in the meeting I'm going to move on to Jill Mitchell hello good evening well I am strongly opposed to the this proposal

[255:00] and I support a moratorium on further housing development in Gunbarrel until there's a Gunbarrel subcommittee plan that addresses the infrastructure and amenity needs as so many others before me tonight have so eloquently discussed I've been a resident or owner in P Powder Horn for the past 13 years I reside pay taxes work and vote in Boulder County from the hanne celestial website it states that the company's purpose is to quote create and inspire a healthier way of life end quote on the Celestial Seasonings website it states that Celestial Seasonings quote has always believed that the goodness of our teas should ex be exceeded only by the goodness of our actions toward the world end quote well those actions start at a local level and as is Apparent from the vast number of comments this evening from Neighbors who oppose this development I think it's clear that Celestial is not living up to their stated Mission at the very least if this

[256:01] project is allowed to proceed there must be more investment not just in housing but in support support of a true Community through an appropriate development of Transportation attention to walkability and sustainability ecological preservation Community oriented amenities so to the council first of all thank you for your time tonight and I beee you to please stand up to represent the rights of the gumbar community and your constituents and place a moratorium on further Housing Development until the infrastructure and Community amenity issues have been addressed to hanne Celestial please take action and live up to your State corporate values again to quote create and inspire a healthier way of life and to exercise goodness of your actions towards the world that starts by truly listening to your neighbors and by supporting Community not just development thank you thank you Jill next we have Connie bka Laura olon and Claudia team

[257:00] Connie can you hear me we can hear you Connie can you hear me yes can you hear me okay all right I'm speaking regarding the promise that was made by Celestial seasoning CEO Steve Hughes in 1999 that he would preserve the future prairie dogs after the poisoning of many prairie dogs on their land a while back that promise is in the danger of being reneged due to the selling possible selling of land owned by Celestial Seasonings for profit in other words profit before life I'm speaking in regard to the possible decimation of the current Parx on that land it seems like Colorado and general has become a kill state wildlife is no longer valued and not much effort is put forth to preserve them thus in this pandemic it is really important to make decisions that take into consideration who will be impacted

[258:02] by those decisions namly the decimation of the prairie dog Colony there which prairie dogs are down to 1% of their populace in Colorado and it's important to note that when you wipe out prairie dogs you also wipe out other species that depend upon them it's also important to note that you need to consider people in these decisions because many people are traumatized by witnessing the killing of these animals I have done so many times and I was so traumatized I had nightmares for a long time the council Council approves this decision to allow hurry dogs to be killed for this project and Celestial Seasonings to even think of doing such an act when they made a promise long ago the message that is sent that it okay to break a promise it's okay to kill animals if they are in the way and it's

[259:02] okay to make decisions against the environment devastating other wild life as well Celestial Seasonings decision possible decision to destroy more of the ecosystem for capitalism is poor timing amidst a pandemic or destruction is all around listen to people listen to the secret cries of the P prairie dogs and other Wildlife do the right thing for the ecosystem do the right thing for animals do the right thing for the people of Colorado thank you Connie um next we have Laura Olen Claudia team and Andrew Harris Laura have somebody named Laura with a first name in the meeting I'm going to check and see if it's Laura Alon because there's no other Laura on the list Laura are you Laura Alon maybe maybe I'm

[260:00] mute can you hear me yes okay yes my last name is Olen o l s o n uh I have lived in pay taxes Etc and gun barrel for 20 years however I have four generations of immediate family in the Boulder area both my grandfather and my father who built a cabin in Grand Lake in 2000 uh 19 and2 and my father took the trolley which ran along side Route 36 to see you from East Denver then I brought my brother to see when 36 was still a toll road then myself and my son I am in my 84th year this build and similar builds never ever was the vision of the city council of Boulder um from the from the past you must look back in order to look forward

[261:00] city council from some time ago was to have gun barrel have some Industrial properties for citizens of Boulder to have more employment and the industries to be closer to the actual City not the other way around live where you work is a nice sales pitch for bu Builders admit it that very few of us if any particularly right now except for Co in regular non-co times get to do this not hardly ever this is a very congested area Powder Horn habitat Hunter Creek and Huntington Point are all basically within a block and a half please come out and walk this area which I don't think you have done this is exactly what was not envisioned for Boulder a service people area for the expensive area of

[262:01] the actual City and its Elites that's not Boulder not what anyone anyone in Boulder ever envisioned would happen to their City over the many years or even the newbies H thank you Laura thank next we have Claudia team Andrew Harris and Courtney Maguire Claudia good evening members of council my name is Claudia Hansen theme I've owned a condo in North Boulder for long enough to recognize what a privilege that is I want to share my support for constructing permanently affordable and modest market rate rental housing on the spine Road Parcels as you know the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan identifies housing affordability and diversity as key needs in our community and despite our preference for detached single family homes which are as responsible for the degradation of native ecosystems as any new development

[263:01] the reality is that apartments are a housing type that can really move the needle on both of these problems the comp plan also identifies a need for more housing near employment centers and moves towards allowing housing in industrial zones to improve Boulders jobs to housing IM balance this project supports both of those goals again at scale most comments tonight have focused on WE housing is built and not on improving the preliminary proposal with regard to the concept plan I agree with staff's notes about making Open Spaces more active and usable and moving car parking away from Central shared spaces small commercial spaces would also be appropriate although they are not allowed by the current zoning the city for its part would do well to listen to current residents concerns about inadequate infrastructure and amenities at least In Those portions of gun barrel that lie within Municipal boundaries the neighborhood deserves champions for investment on this and every Council but these are not issues that can be addressed in an isolated

[264:00] concept review and they are not reasons to delay or chip away at a project that fills an urgent need and is following existing rules please support housing on spine Road please work with the project team to make this the best possible home for the working people and families that I hope it will enable to become more deeply integrated in our community thank you thank you gladia next Andrew Harris Courtney Maguire and Michael B Andrew hi can you hear me okay how you folks uh my name is and andw Harris I'm a resident at Willowbrook down the street I pay my taxes to the county to the city when appropriate I vote and volunteer at the Boulder County Dems as farther get out the vot efforts uh and I'd like to strongly support this development uh I had a very long thing written up but i' I'd like to start by echoing all the statements that Claudia made about the necessity of this development uh to allow more uh low-income folks and

[265:01] working folks to live in and become integrated into the boulder Community I think that's a beautiful sentiment and really speaks to this concept of equity not only to current residents but to Future residents within the city of Boulder uh as a five-year resident myself I've frequently used the bus stop on sleepy time and spine that is apparently so maligned by this community uh I regularly would take the J to my doctoral uh commitment at CU you on the 205t to a Contracting job on 28th uh daily when the weather is too bad to bike uh all that time I often lamented the fact that you have this enormous parcel of land that is very poorly suited to be a nature preserve it is surrounded on every Side by existing Development A four-lane Highway a collector Road and an existing industrial facility uh that we do not use to House people on this existing bus

[266:02] line and bike infrastructure I Echo the sentiment that I think the infrastructure needs to be looked at I was very pleased to see that the developers are supporting a widening of spine and protected bike lanes and I'd encourage them to look at increasing the frequency of buses along that route to match the development but I don't think any of these things are showstoppers or reasons to put a moratorium on development in Gun Barrel I think such a thing would be a disaster not only for the community here but for the city in general thank you for your time thank you Andrew next up Courtney Maguire Michael day and Tracy McCoy Courtney can you hear me okay thank you Council and planning board for your time I am a 13-year City and gunbar Resident vote in City elections and pay city taxes I am against this project for several reasons the development proposal was submitted

[267:00] in the midst of a pandemic and was not informed by any public meetings or community outreach on the part of the developer gun barel lacks the public transportation infrastructure and public amenities to support this population increase again the importance of subcommunity planning the new development behind king supers was mentioned earlier and the fact that it is still not bustling if this goes through what guarantee do we have that the developer will in fact put in affordable housing or will they be able to just pay a fee to get out of it after the project's already been approved higher road traffic is a given I walk my dog every day along spine Road and people drive incredibly fast we've already had to sporadically put up speed traps which don't work and widening the road is not going to change the speeding as someone mentioned earlier about biking on J Road a big draw for Boulder is the importance of prioritizing the environment the open space Celestial Seasonings currently hosts a healthy thriving supposedly protected prairie dog Colony a keystone

[268:01] species with less than 1% of their natural habitat left but are also numerous Birds of Prey Eagles Hawks Falcons we'd be pushing them out of their homes there would be increased traffic along the creek path affecting specifically the great horned owls dog park is unable to absorb an 800 plus population Spike into a private park in closing I'd like to Echo the gca's attorney in their letter to the city council informed decision-making and intelligent land use planning dictate looking before we leap thank you so much for your time thank you Courtney uh next Michael they Tracy McCoy and David Ry Michael yes good evening can you hear me we can great uh thank you um so I'm just gonna make a couple of observations I think that um folks on both sides of this issue have done a remarkable job of

[269:00] speaking to the concerns that we have uh the the main thing that I that I like to put forward for all of us to consider is that uh once the agreement has been given and the ground has been broken on this development uh we are all stuck with the consequences for several decades uh I'm not opposed to growth in Boulder County uh I've I'm actually a native I've lived here most of my life with a few stints and other spots I've always come back I've always loved it um Chief nwts uh pressent uh curse um not withstanding I think that it's possible for us to find a way to balance the needs that we all see for affordable housing uh for equity for preservation of Wildlife and I really think that the most necessary part of all that is not a permanent rejection of growth at this location or any other location uh not a permanent

[270:02] condemnation of the type of development that's being proposed but rather a more uh considered more thoughtful more datadriven uh investigation of exactly how we as a community that includes the city of Boulder uh the community of gun barrel and the rest of Boulder County can meet those needs in a way that are going to make all of us uh whatever our particular positions are on this issue at this moment happy with the result of the combined decision that we made in 20 or 30 years time we are looking back on its impact on everyone involved thank you thank you Michael next we have Tracy Mccoy David Ry and Lisa white Tracy hi can you hear me yes okay hi um my name is Tracy Harrington McCoy and I'm a Boulder City resident I vote in

[271:01] City elections and pay city taxes I'm an enormous fan of gun and Boulder and consider myself lucky to live here I'm against any new development next to Celestial Seasonings before I dive in I want to thank the council for listening to all sides of this issue and thank you also to the planning board and the GCA I live at the end of brand new wine Court in my backyard backs up to spine Road I have three small children and I'm already nervous about the heavy traffic on spine I'm extremely nervous about significantly increasing the traffic mostly for my children's safely safety but also because of the noise we already are frequently awakened by car noise and am quite concerned that increasing the traffic will only make it worse for all the housing along spine to this point I think it is a density issue the proposed development is high density which is inconsistent with the neighborhood the proposed 12 buildings with 268 residential units on 10 acres will be about twice as dense as the densest subdivision in the area and 13 times

[272:02] more dense than the subdivision of single family homes immediately to the South I strongly believe the proposal should be denied as it stands um PS my kids love the prairie dogs as to all the neighborhood kids thanks so much for listening grae next we have David Ry Lisa white and Robert ad day David look at me participa I'm not seeing David or Lisa in the meeting any longer I do have Robert OD day here and he is fooling with several folks so I believe he will get at four minutes and who's he pooling with can you put that in the chat thank you just just listen just take you to I can do that here this is a city council meeting city council so is [Music] um Robert are you there it's your turn to speak Robert

[273:00] you're on mute and we can't hear you right now okay why don't we take a pass on Robert o day for the moment we'll come back to you next is Dan [Music] [Music] harasi Dan you're on live you'll need to um unmute Dan you're on the line Dan had indicated previously that he'd be willing to se time if somebody

[274:00] needed it so I'm not sure nobody's asked for him to pull the time with him but he may not be planning to speak so um we can go to the next person on the list it's Coco and while we're waiting Robert we see that you're on the phone line we will come to you after um Coco speaks can you hear me yes we can hear you you okay um hi my name is Koko and I live in the city of Boulder um I work with the gun barrel Community Alliance and we are here to help the city of Boulder and Boulder County achieve a more livable vibrant resilient and inclusive Gun Barrel a lot of these um points you've already heard but they're worth repeating Gun Barrel retains good habitat for Resident Wildlife including owls and healthy prairie dog towns and offers important migration corridors for dozens of

[275:00] species ranging from deer and bobcats to fox and coyotes there's ample housing stock compared to Boulder proper with lots of vacancies right now for both affordable and market price rentals a gun barrel subc commmunity plan was achieved in 2004 but it was ignored in 2015 to build a block of apartments with a small commercial Lane Gun Barrel is still waiting for the more livable walkable and resilient community and public amenities envisioned by the plan commitment to a new gun barrel subc commmunity plan was one of three priorities approved by the Planning Commission in March of 2020 for the boulder Valley comprehensive plan 2020 midterm update this economic downturn is probably going to last and it may take years to recover to the point where this kind of housing is needed segregation of affordable housing units smaller space separate pool into a separate area across the road from the remainder of the units is a particular weakness some proposals and conclusions of the gumb barel Community Alliance prioritize the connection of Gun Barrel off street bike

[276:01] paths to the boulder off street bike path system via East par Street and Valmont find Land Trust organizations to help purchase these and other important Gun Barrel Parcels for permanent protection from development Institute a team of subcommunity ombudsmen to receive document and process suggestions and complaints from residents of all Boulder neighborhoods not just Gun Barrel in a systematic and coordinated manner I'm asking you to reject this proposal and put a moratorium on development and Gun Barrel until we have a gun barrel subc community plan thank you thank you Coco we'll go back now to Robert oday who's on the phone great thank you I hope you can hear me we can we can uh just confirming I have time pulled with with others yes you do you have four minutes great thank you I appreciate your time tonight I appreciate your patience and I sincerely appreciate the

[277:01] service of each of you um I shared a letter with you earlier today that outlines four reasons why I'm deeply concerned about the project before you I'm not a nimi development opponent in fact I've personally participated in the development of more than 20,000 individual apartments across the entire Western us over the last decade this project however and its applicant are unfit for the location where it's proposed I'm concerned this project is being proposed on landay the zone for industrial use its use has changed to permit this project the industrial will be gone forever this comes at a massive long-term economic and cultural cost to the city second the plan does not come close to meeting the code requirement on contiguous open space while you obviously as Council have discretion to deviate from the letter of the code I urge you to remember that the contiguous open space requirement is a very deliberate condition that was implemented specifically to make sure that when the community seed scares high

[278:01] value industrial land it receives in return a project that is unique and valuable to the community because of its contiguous open space characteristic this project does not come close to satisfying the letter or Spirit of the code three the surface infrastructure surrounding the site is simply incapable of accommodating the 2,000 new daily vehicle trips that are forecast for this project the team tries to conceal this shortcoming in fact today Pete Weber of Coburn again in his presentation used a fake m app that is off by 50% in its proximity reference of the subject site to gun Barrel's actual services in grocery store they again tonight relied on creating incredible claims that feel great but like so much of this concept just don't add up simple math a million vehicle miles saved by this project would require 300 residents to entirely give up an average of 13 miles a day of

[279:02] commuting and never again driving single mile to or from work this makes no more sense than the idea that residents will walk 3.2 miles roundtrip to a grocery store the games this development team are playing are insulting to you the council and to the intelligence of the entire Community their games are typical of a disturbing pattern that's emerged recently in Boulder where if a highdensity Apartment project applicant Embraces onsite affordable housing they gain the activist participation and support of HHS and others with within the city and thereafter the review process takes on an USAG against them Dynamic wherein no matter how engaged well reasoned constructive or insightful Community input is or how overwhelmingly uniform the community is in opposing a project it's simply dismissed as background noise or nimbyism and the council Falls neatly in line with staff recommendation this Dynamic is brilliantly on display in the email that

[280:00] HHS director Fern Harbor sent to city manager bradam after the recent May planning board hearing on this same project in which burn Harbor arrogantly characterized the 200 participants on the zoom meeting as quote 85% of the people were angry bitter and emotional really if those comments were made by Fern Harbor on another subject before this Council I'm certain his his employment would be terminated as it should be now there's no place for City staff especially senior staff to mock public participation this project uh positioned as a great addition to Boulder's affordable inventory is in fact a shameful example of social strip mining the on-site component of this project is not actually onsite it's not integrated and it's not inclusive there segregated buildings on a divided site with segregated ownership segregated managers

[281:01] separate property boundaries in closing please listen to your constit constituents lead with Integrity take time to investigate the facts review the actual impact in record of Allison's past project study their misleading presentation and ask why they that's enough so NE next we have Nancy so I'll let you take over here Sarah because you had mentioned in the chat so Nancy fan has already spoken I've looked for the next several participants in the meeting nidi Seth Huber Fidel Santos kin Chrisman Don regg Davis Russell Rod r tea and Charlie Bachmann and I'm not seeing any of them in the meeting so if any of you are here please communicate to me we do have one final person on the list who is in the meeting and that is Carmen

[282:00] Baron Carmen I've queued you up you will need to unmute can everybody hear me we can you're a little faint oh okay um I'll try to I'll try to speak up is that better yes yes great thanks uh good evening everybody my name is Carmen Baron I'm a resident of Boulder County I pay County taxes and yes I vote I oppose this proposed to dense development at spine Road adding 600 new residents here is unreasonable unnecessary and Hasty in this time of covid existing Office Buildings and other commercial spaces in the city could soon be emptying and available for repurposing in Greater volume than ever before and how can cobr invite more people to reside at this site right beside railroad tracks to suffer through freight train horns blaring at all hours of the day or night this is currently a light industrial use area so noise impact is not as drastic for those businesses as it would be for new residential neighbors this spine Road

[283:00] site is wildlife habitat for many species as you've heard already and is one of very few Open Spaces in our neighborhood the city claims no formal legal responsibility in Celestial Seasonings 1999 promise to set aside 15 Acres as a protected prairie dog preserve but don't you have a responsibility to retain the Goodwill and respect of our community by recognizing honoring and enforcing their commitment our gbel neighborhoods have been regularly bombarded with the threat of random unrealistic development it's frustrating to be subjected to yet another destructive overcrowding threat with Coburn's new proposal for infilling this precious area examine your feelings you praised your colleague Tanya Anie earlier for making people feel seen please see us here in Gun Barrel please air on the side of caution consider quality of life over development dollar someone needs to be thoughtful and

[284:00] accountable for the consequences of these decisions I ask you to reject re this proposal and put a moratorium on any further development in gun Barrow especially during our national health and economic crises instead please prioritize completing a gun barrel subcommunity plan that incorporates local neighborhood input and focuses on the needs of the existing Gun Barrel Community thanks so much for your time thank you Carmen and Sarah I'll turn back to you to see if you have seen anyone towards the end of this list show up let me just do a quick [Music] search nobody has communicated with me that they have shown come into the meeting and we missed them so I think you're probably okay to close the hearing very good with that we will bring the public hearing to a close and bring this issue back to council um so I guess we are ready for

[285:00] discussion or further questions to see here I see no hands up I assume that there's some folks Mary Mark so Mary you're and I see yeah um so questions for staff um was spine Road one of the recipients of the 20 M hour um reduction in speed so I'm I'm not exactly sure Mary Sloan I don't know if you're um aware hey Mary anecdotally I drive that about once a week and I have not seen any of the new 20 mile per hour vision zero signs yeah on spine Road well that would be great if

[286:00] somebody if somebody could just follow up on that question um there was a suggestion from some of the speakers to lower the speed limit I'm was just curious of that it happened there so that's one question um yeah type it is a collector so I don't believe that it applies to collector streets okay that's only residential okay thank you um the is there um any reason why a departments can't convert to Condominiums after a certain amount of time no we don't regulate ownership typology um how that interfaces or plays with permanently affordable I'd have to um defer to Curt on but just generically we don't regulate the typology of ownership okay [Music] um and somebody also brought up the

[287:01] point of um 99% of and it's probably higher than that of the projects that come forward are um approved and why is that is it because of um private property rights perhaps well okay so my I gu Mary I think at the end of the day um you know the decisions are based on criteria and I think that um you know by the time something gets before planning board Andor city council there's been a lot of work with the applicant um so that we feel like the criteria have been addressed so that's what we base our recommendations on to planning board and Council and um is it also because of denial of a project has

[288:03] to have some very um stringent me meet some very stringent um criteria well I think you need to make findings based on the criteria um of denial just like we would make on a recommendation for approval and because you've worked with the the property owner As you move through the process um you've pretty much taken care of all of those criteria we like to try to move things forward with recommendations of approval but there are are times you know when we feel like the criteria aren't met and we're not getting there with the applicant that we have to recommend approval it's rare but um you know again this project has been in the making for I mean how long now slown before we've you know the concept plan process is probably gone 10 months yeah it was January of this year January okay okay um that's all the questions I have for

[289:02] now great and next is Mark juny and Aon um I think since we're at this point we' brought this back to the council you can also you don't have questions you can go ahead and make your comments now this is a feedback opportunity mark thank you s I was going to ask you that very question um so I'm going to offer some comments um to me this is a um very problematic and deeply deficient project in a number of ways and uh let me offer a few comments uh I I do believe it is grotesquely out of character with the surrounding neighborhood uh and it's not remotely contextual with the remainder of gun barrel uh second in an era when we when we value 15minute walkable neighborhoods this is the furthest thing possible from meeting that objective uh it's not Boulder Junction it's out in Gun Barrel and I don't there's nothing walkable about

[290:00] this project third the concept of Open Spaces it's been presented so far in this project is basically ludicrous the interior is primarily a parking lot uh on page 33 of the plan the we were shown a number of of idilic illustrations of what that what well landscaped Innovative open space might look like but that's not what this project is at the moment it's a parking lot um next the mon of the architectural forms in this project give it the appearance from the street more of a of of a Barracks than a a welcoming residential community and I know contrast it to say the holiday neighborhood with its variety of forms this is this is really a sad second best and lastly to to me this project is representing a bad bargain that we're asked to accommodate in order to obtain affordable housing I want that

[291:01] affordable housing as I believe most of us do but it's time that the market rate portions of residential projects stand on their own and be judged on their own merits not merely as a necessary evil in order to obtain the affordable housing and on that basis this project fails the test in on nearly every ground from Context to design to Aesthetics uh to lack of walkability etc etc um I would greatly urge the uh property owner and the designers to pick up their pencils and try to be a little more imaginative uh try to fit this project into the existing Gun Barrel community and to remedy some of the the very serious and manifest defects that we see in the current design thank you thank you Mark um next we have juny Aaron nearby and Mary again can you hear me Sam you're

[292:01] y yeah I just have a few question based on uh open comment and before I start with the question I've been to Gun Barrel as well and I think a lot of the community members were inviting some of us to go there and when I ran for councel I made it part of my of you know going out there and meeting community members and that that was very important to me and I do agree with some of the comments made when it comes to access to services in Gun Barrel and having one bus going to an area is not enough so we definitely need better services in that area also another thing I think even Council have talked about that when it comes to library Services we don't have that over there either so I think that's there are a lot of things that we really

[293:00] need to consider as we're going through this process process uh you know whether it's working with RTD to ensure that you know we have better services for people when we have um housing and I think again part of it is that providing housing is not just one thing it's so much more connected to other services and I think that's very important that we keep that in mind and I think a lot of community members brought that out tonight um and I I think my question to you because I think some of the community members were talking about the subcomittee plan community plan and I wanted to know what is the feasibility of having a sub community community plan and how would that somehow facilitate the process or would it be a

[294:02] hindrance we don't sub community plan on our work program that's something that Council would have to prioritize as with the rest of the work of the okay so you saying that's something that Council have to prioritize as the next step in the process that's correct okay okay um and another thing is I think a lot of the concern that I hear from from community members I think these things are things that they're valid and they're things that we will have to work into because as a student as CU for instance I know a lot of the communities around CU some of them get a lot of overflow of people just going into their Community parking there and I understand you know some people may say well it's just street parking anybody can park there but if you live in a neighborhood and other people from other places just

[295:01] park there where do you park so I think that's something again that we also have to look into and consider for people who live there whether it's uh I know that around Boulder we have some neighborhoods you can't park there unless you have a permit or you can park there only for a few hours so I think these things are workable even though I hear you know people on the line who are making comments about you know the Overflow of parking so I think these things we can work out on um but I think we do have a lot of things that we have to work on there are a lot of issues that need to be ironed out before we just you know just have housing and I think housing is very important especially now when we think about covid-19 there are a lot of people who are in the process of probably losing their home who will be losing their home and their jobs and their livelihood so affordable housing is something that we need but of course I understand the need

[296:00] to also think of it and connection with all the other services that the city will be providing thank you JY next we have Aaron mirb Mary and Adam Aaron thanks uh just to start with a clarifying question so that there was um I think one of the developers was asked a question about pricing and they they gave an example of around $1,800 for an 800t apartment or a little over 2,000 for their average size 900 square foot unit just to clarify those for the market rate Apartments is that correct not the affordable apartments there somebody who can answer that oh you're muted matth hey is it Andy yeah that's correct that's correct for the market those numbers that were shared were for the market question great yeah thanks for clearing that

[297:00] because I I think a couple of the speakers had interpreted uh those numbers as supposed to be for affordable housing but those would be at below Market rates right the affordable housing units if the affordable housing would be yeah um set at a cable set by chaa which would be different than the rats that would exist at the market rate portion of the community um you know one of the things that um if I could expand just a little bit just a little bit it's late yeah I apologize We Believe market rate housing really is an inherently middle income uh product type and if you look at our market rate rents that we would charge they actually fall in line with Cha's uh rental table consistent with area median incomes of 80 to 100% of the Ami table so it really is the market RS in and other themselves are inherently a

[298:00] middle income product type okay that's a great clarification no thank you that was good appreciate that okay um yeah so then I'll go ahead and make some comments as well um you know I I agree The Gun Barrel area needs more investment from the city uh like Eaton Park uh which is the one kind of Park in the central part of Gun Barrel really needs more amenities I really want to see a library branch out there in Gun Barrel um better Transit surface juny those are all great points um but the but just to be clear that those those kinds of infrastructure issues I I don't think are ones that we can consider when reviewing one particular development project um so I think we need to you know when it comes time for site review you know we're restricted to the site review criteria and you know whether there's a library in the subc commune isn't one of those so we have anyway so we can't we can't fix all those issues with this development but just wanted to get the point out to folks um that we've

[299:01] heard you loud and clear and those are things that need to be addressed in other uh in other forums uh along with the the idea of a the sub community plan you know we do have an ongoing program to create subc Community plans and now it's already in process for East Boulder but um I think it's that we should take these uh requests very seriously when we're prioritizing our future subc Community plans so uh thanks for all those comments about that so um just some individual comments on the on the proposal I thought PL board's comments were very good I thought they were really On Target um but I will emphasize a few points uh I did get an invitation from Neighbors in the area to come walk the neighborhood with them and I really appreciated that opportunity um learned a lot about the immediate area and one of the things that really struck me about the neighborhood was how many lovely um kind of open spaces and park areas that they had that were landscaped and very beautiful and um I think the

[300:03] one of the ways of honoring the character of this neighborhood would be for the new development to have similar high quality interconnected open spaces and I think that is one place where the development proposal is lacking um is in those having those interconnected high quality open spaces so I think that's something that really would need to be addressed um in the next phases of the development and part of that is making sure that there's a strong connection between um the affordable and the market rate housing I get that those need to be on separate Parcels you know for financing uh reasons and management reasons but um to the extent that the Open Spaces uh of those two sides connect and so that you have a kind of continuous amenity and so that people feel connected to each other that you're part of one community and not separate segregated communities I think that's incredibly important so I think you can still have separate parcels and have the

[301:02] the two sides um integrated much better such that you'd have one interconnected uh community so but the the affordable housing is um an incredibly valuable thing so we often ask for affordable housing on site we're not allowed to require it but when it happens it's very much a desirable thing so I appreciate them bringing that to the table um you know the I I agree with the comments about you know this not being a particularly walkable site it is just from other amenities um but uh some on-site commercial could help with that you know some small scale retail um I think would improve that both for this uh development and for the rest of the neighborhood um if you can make a connection like a bike ped connection out to the diagonal to uh to integrate with the future brt and bikeways that'll be coming there um some years down the line you know that could help with some alternative mode opportunities um and I

[302:01] will just note that you know when when I went up there a few days ago I rode my bike and there are great uh biking options up there and good and easy ways to connect to the gun barrel Town Center not so much on J road which is not the best road to bike on but into the Town Center for sure and then you know talking about the prairie dogs um I know that one thing I believe that the developers have committed to is relocation of those prairie dogs and I think that would be a critical piece of of this process would be to you know move move them to um as humanely as possible to some new location uh nearby so I think th those are I'll just leave it there I think that covers what I wanted to say great Aaron thank you very much um I'm going to take a pause here before I call on nearby it is three so I we forget this but uh I could have a motion to extend the meeting p 11 so I get a motion in the second make

[303:03] one of you the second is there anyone who objects to continuing the meeting seeing none we will continue mirbi you're up so first I just want to give a huge thank you to the gun barrel Community um every single one of you who spoke or who had to jump off because it got too late um I been on Council for a little over two and a half years now and I never been so proud and so moved um and just odd by a group of speakers you were eloquent you were well thought out well spoken and it was just I'm I'm proud I'm very proud to be from living over in this area was my first home when I was born over in the habitat and North Boulder and I was in my habitat when I was in college and then my first house I bought is out here so I've been a part of this community um most of my life and you've all touched me and done me proud

[304:01] so thank you very very much um I don't know that my other council members have heard you but I have so I do support a moratorium on any development I will not support this project in any way shape or form um I understand the importance of our wildlife and I think that is one of the biggest things with the movements that we are seeing right now is that it is all about human rights which I think every single one of us will support um but without environment and without our nature we're not going to have people around so having a vibrant colony of prairie dogs which are the keystone species and feed 150 other species or help habitat you know have burrows for snakes and owls um endangered species is vitally important right now and with their numbers drastically declining uh I fully understand and and for our children to learn the respect of wildlife um you obviously have me sold

[305:03] on this one so I appreciate you you are heard and I think one of the big points that you were trying to make if I understood correctly is that you would like the amenities however you would like those amenities yes they cannot be done with this project alone but if we put a moratorium we will be able to then think out the developments along with the amenities that we will get as one large picture rather than just popping in another Mass development especially when the Apex apartments and the apartments behind consumers and many in Powder Horn horn in surrounding areas are vacant right now and I can attest to that 100% with the Apex being on behind my house and watching many of the windows that were once lit up prior to the pandemic now um dark with vacancy so uh with the imass amount of vacancies and apartments that are up for a much cheaper amount of money than $1800 for the median income uh I do see that there are vacant apartments that will vastly uh surpass the affordability

[306:02] that what is being proposed here and if they're vacant why would the $1,800 ones be proposed in addition I just can't get over the the buildings on the diagonal are already eyes soures enough and now to have this pled into a beautiful cozy neighborhood with flat roofs square boxes harsh materials is beyond unfortunate so I feel deeply for the residents in this area and one of the things that I promised when I got on Council is that I would care about the residents that lived here and the quality of life so you have my unending support and I thank you all again for the efforts that you made thank you mayby I have Mary and Adam next Mary had told me she wanted to make a proposal So Adam why don't you give us your thoughts or questions and then we'll get him married sure uh thanks Sam I have spent a lot of time in Gun Barrel um I lived in the Powder Horn Condominiums right next to the site uh for a year and I still travel there like

[307:01] I said about once a week so I'm pretty familiar with the area um I the things that stand out the most to me that are flawed in this are the current lack of Transportation infrastructure for sure um it's not easy to get around that neighborhood and um both spine and Jay are what I would consider pretty dangerous roads uh to travel on between cars and bikers and pedestrians um um another thing is I I looked at the current rents of the diagonal Crossing and the market rate units are going for 1,900 for a one-bedroom and 2500 for a two and I my assumption is that this development would be about that amount um according to what the developers said and what the market seems to be owing for um considering they're in a similar space

[308:01] so to me that's not moderately priced um you know at $2,500 you have to make $60,000 a year um and you'd be spending 50% of your income on that rental um so that underlying cost of the the development and the rentals there that's a major concern for me too I'm not sure that meets what we're looking for when it comes to high density um and in terms of what it would cost to rent um and just slightly on a broader note um I really do appreciate all the community input on this it's obvious that this is a a fired up community and uh the the residents of Gun Barrel you know they they put a lot into opposing this um my question is where are we going to get those 68 units

[309:00] of permanently affordable housing that I think we desperately need in that area and I would love to see the residents come out just as strongly with their proposals to find those 68 units if not here where um if that be changes in development or zoning um around Gun Barrel that would be great I would just love to see some alternative proposals um along with all the opposition I think that's an important part of the two-way conversation and the balance that we should have here in the community so um that would be my ask of the community uh I think there's some work to do on this proposal for sure I don't think it's living up to the standard of what we need right now um for our housing great thank you Adam so Mary I'm G to turn to you we've got Rachel's hand up and I have a couple of thoughts you want to uh add add some input to this or did you have a proposal what would you like to go from here well I I want to

[310:01] throw out a just a a proposal because it it could it may generate some more conversation I don't know um so I my last question to um the the applicant was um how long has how many times has this property um changed hands um and I looked it up and it has not changed hands since 1990 and the sales price for all three prop properties shows us0 dollar um so in essence it's it's a de facto Land Bank um I will also say that the architect the developer and the owner are local at least the owner has roots in local beginning with Mo seagull and on Down the Line who have benefited a lot from being a local business and having a company locally I would like to

[311:05] um and you know a lot of the residents also spoke about the the subcommunity plan and planning and the lack of amenities and and they mentioned a lot of the amenities they talked about Parks they talked about libraries they talked about um you know um playfields all kinds of things so there's enough there to kind of give start to give the flavor of what might be needed and what I would ask is if the developers seeing as how you're all local you all live in the community you're part of this community and you all we all want the same thing we want um the affordable housing and by the way for those of you who are um afraid of the crime that might be brought by um having affordable housing in your neighborhoods I will say this um a um the self-sufficiency standard shows that

[312:02] a family of four requires $925 42 for a family of four and there are 16,31 households that fall within that criteria um about 35268 residents so there you have it um I'm I'm not thinking that those people would be um causing a whole lot of crime so you can probably put those fears to rest but I would ask that all of you who are involved in the creation of this neighborhood to collaborate and to collaborate in a way that includes um all of the housing authorities Boulder County Housing Authority Boulder housing Partners um collaborate with chaffa work with HHS um of the city of Boulder um and and you Andy to all come together and create um a development that um welcomes families

[313:02] those 16,000 families that fall within the self-sufficiency standard of $992,000 a year and create a neighborhood that kind of fits more with what is there um maybe it's um duplexes and triplexes maybe it's a small house here and there I don't know it could be really lovely um and it could be 100% affordable um I think that we could probably use some of the the revenue from the Pard site that's going up for sale take it invest it in this development and then gather up your tax credits work with with with BHP and uh bcha and you know pull together the funds to make it all 100% affordable and um and so that would to your to your suggestion Adam that would um bring things in line with um what do we do and

[314:00] how do we get those those 68 affordable units we could probably get twice as many um affordable units if we took an approach that was collaborative and lived up to the company's stated values of um the goodness in your actions so um that's my proposal that's my ask um I think it could be really lovely and I think that the community could come around to supporting it so um any comments I would welcome them thank you Mary we've got Rachel um I don't have a particular response to Mary's suggestion so if anybody wants to cqu on that first I'll step go ahead no that's okay okay um well first I wanted to thank Sloan and 15 at night and for the good presentation um and then I think a lot of what we're talking about is more philosophical than

[315:00] what my understanding is like what I'm supposed to weigh in on at concept review so I don't have much to add um to the developers on beyond what planning board already gave them for feedback um so it seems like we have a lot of um again philosophical issues that we need to work through as a council that are above and beyond this project um and I don't I don't know that me going into them tonight adds anything to this concept review so um open to the bigger discussions on amenities for gun barrel and housing and transportation and affordability and sustainability but again I just don't see it as helping tonight's action so thanks thank you Rachel seeing now their hands up I'll jump in here and I'll try and be brief um I think what I would emphasize to the um developers here is to hear what Mary said and go think about if you could

[316:00] create more portability and perhaps uh a little more um cohesion with the rest of the neighborhood that's nearby I want to Second everything that Aaron said so I I really did uh think that Aaron did a nice job of summarizing the the issues that we're here at concept review for which is what can be made better about this project and I think one of the most important things that could be made better and we heard from lots of folks is open space and the way that that's connected and accessed I think we all understand at this point why affordable housing has to be in a separate building it's all about financing but it doesn't mean it can't be well connected and integrated with the entire project so I like those comments that Aon made I would second those um I I certainly do hope we can get more affordable here that would certainly be a community benefit um it is great however to have the affordable housing on site so I want to commend everybody in the development team for including that is a component

[317:02] here because that does create the kind of economic diversity that we're hoping for um I also don't love the look and feel of the external parts of this project um and the transportation challenges are they're no small matter it's a it's a real problem um to put this many folks in an area that is served in pretty mediocre fashion by RTD right now hopefully the 119 improvements will help that with brt but at the moment it is unfortunate but it is not very well served um by all that I'm going to bring up something that might bring this into a little more harmony with the community which would be um the way that we started a library service in North Boulder was with a a corner library that was only a few hundred square feet and 500 square fet I think one way that uh on top of the um

[318:01] affordable housing on site that this project could create some support in the community would be if 500 square F feet of potential commercial space were dedicated to library space so then we have the question of the The Collection that would go there and so on I'd leave that to our great um Library Department to work on that but the space availability for Library um small one uh would be something I think that could bring a little more uh Community benefit and it seems like based on the responses we heard from the community tonight that's something that's very much needed couple quick things subc Community planning has only been done for one area in Boulder so far that's in North Boulder um subc Community we have kicked off a effort to create more sub Community plans starting in East Boulder and there are a few of them long sorry um the hill and um Central Boulder where

[319:00] Alpine balam is coming and then gun barrel all of which are asking for subc Community plans so I think we need to listen to that and hear that carry forward into our conversation um you know the moratorium on the hill was pretty small and focused on a commercial area so I don't think that is exactly the case here and I don't think moratorium in this case is going to be very productive so I would I would um Echo kind of what Adam said and have the community f focus on how to make this the best that it could be because I don't think a moratorium is probably forthcoming so I think the developers have heard kind of the feedback from the community um I I don't feel the need to summarize what we've heard from everyone because I think that it all stands on its own and I would ask um staff and the rest of council is there any further desire or input on this okay seeing I'll thank everyone

[320:02] thank the community thank son and Charles for bringing this forward to us in a good presentation and um thank the Developers for sitting through and listening to all this I will suggest that we take a five minute break here let everyone catch their breath and when we come back we will hear uh about the um discussion with Excel so thank you all very much we'll see you in five minutes [Music]

[323:59] I

[324:29] te for

[325:04] okay we have Bob back welcome Bob okay so Mark juny Mary Aon and Rachel if you will let us know if you're around Rachel there is Mary and Aaron perfect okay uh we are back from our short break and I'm ready to move to the next item on the agenda Debbie okay our next item is a matter from the city attorney and it's an update on the Excel settlement discussions I I will be presenting this I'm joined tonight by JN by Steve katak and Jonathan con who are smarted than me and we'll provide the answers that I don't have um

[326:01] I'm here to present uh a a tentative agreement that we have reached with Excel to potentially settle the city's efforts for municipalization this is the first phase of discussion of this settlement if Council wants to proceed we will bring forward first reading of a ordinance for a franchise which can Will for which there will be a public hearing and if Council decides a ballot measure so I want to begin with the touchstones of our municipalization project which are the 3DS and the three Rs decarbonized decentralized democratize rates reliability and Renewables in our discussions for these settle this potential settlement these have been our our Focus points we've tried to address these as much as possible uh we address some but not all of them in this proposal

[327:01] so this is an overview of the settlement the I the the um Excel as you know uh is compelled by state law and by their own programs to reduce carbon their carbon emission 80% from 2005 Levels by 2030 so one of the things that that interests the city in this in working with Excel is the fact that they are going to get a long way towards the city's goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2030 with their carbon reductions so one of the things that we heard from the community loud and clear as we talked about these negotiations and got public feedback was the community wanted accountability and enforceability um it's not practical to say the city can enforce excel's goals but the city can resume municipalization if Excel doesn't meet the goals so um the the proposal is

[328:00] to have emission check-ins and hard targets which I'll explain in a minute the second part of this is that the city has its one 100 as I said the 100% renewable electricity goal um we will need to do some hard work even with excel's reductions to get to 100% renewable by 2030 so the agreement would call for a partnership with Excel to work cooperatively to reduce the and ultimately limit the carbon in the city's electrical supply um another another key component is maintaining the feasibility of municipalization in the future so I said the enforceability of this of this agreement depends on the city's ability to leave the city's ability to leave depends in part on its ability to create a municipal electric utility um another important function is undergrounding uh as you probably are aware under the the franchise that expired in 20110 the city got roughly a million dollars a year to underground um electrical wires in the city uh the city

[329:01] hasn't received that money for 10 years um that the agreement would call for $33 million uh of undergrounding over the 20 year life of the franchise with approximately half of that being spent in the first five years to catch up on what hasn't happened in the last 10 uh and then of course there' be a ballot measure and uh the city would agree to suspend the municipalization effort so this is a key portion of the deal and I want to go through this fairly carefully so this chart shows the emissions uh well so it starts with the base of excel 2005 base of was 33.9 million tons of carbon emitted uh in by 2009 they'd reduced that to 19.5 million tons emitted under state law by 2030 they have to get down to 6.9 million tons emitted or an 80% reduction so the the agreement calls for Target of 16.6

[330:01] million tons in 2022 13.6 million tons in six in 2024 and 11.5 million tons in 2027 the agreement would allow the city to to leave to to end the franchise if Excel did not meet those Targets in those years so the city would have an option to leave in 2023 2025 and 2027 in addition state law a city under franchise has an option to leave in year 10 and year 15 but the gri would also call for the city to have an option to leave in year five so the city would have six opportunities to leave over the 20-year life of the franchise three of those would be triggered by not failure to meet these targets and three would be could the city could leave without any re without any reason at all departure would require either a two vote of council

[331:01] members six council members or a a public vote if the council decided to put it on the ballot the um the carbon emissions would be measured by an independent third party it says here the climate reg registry which is a group that does me carbon emissions so um this this explains the years the city would be able to leave um 26 31 36 23 25 and 28 um so the um the idea of a partnership between excel in the city so if the city stops municipalization we would have those ability to leave but working together we would have the ability to attempt to find unique and uh interesting ways to

[332:00] reduce the carbon impact of the city's electrical supply there would be a partnership team led by the leadership of the city and Excel uh with an oversight team made up of um of Representatives employees and an advisoring panel from the community businesses and the University of Colorado to leverage the knowledge that we have in the community to help do the things we need to do so the projects we we've talked about specific projects one that leaps out is Kaka Shaka uh is very interested in becoming a net zero area um and as you all know they they have overhead electrical lines which not only Mor the historic nature of the property but also present a fire hazard um getting those underground and being able to demonstrate the use of the the creation of a Net Zero Energy District in a historic preservation environment is an exciting opportunity we're also looking at making Alpine Balsam Net Zero Energy for for the 9 acre new mix use

[333:02] development um that we've talked about developing a hydr and energy storage project and working together with Excel on cost sharing to fund these things a lot of the the things the reasons that the city wanted to create a municipal electric utility is that there are regulatory barriers to doing many of the things that we wish to do uh the agreement would call for Boulder and Excel to cooperate um to change the law to allow for more Progressive policies one of the things that we've talked about a lot is the 120% limitation on on-site generation that is you can't build um on-site generation solar panels uh on your home that exceed 120% of the electricity used in the prior year um this locks you down from uh from one sharing electricity which is also illegal um but it prevents people from

[334:00] um growth in their in home if they if they want to fund want to want to do it through uh renewable energy um so we we the Excel has agreed to go to the legislature with us to eliminate or substantially increase the 100% 120% limitation on onsite Generation Um to to develop a new tariff to effectuate the rapid conversion of bus fleets to electric buses the removal of barriers to large amounts of distributed Generation Um such as the the the proh ition on sharing across property boundaries facilitation of microG grids and specific properties and I talked about sh talk Alpine Balsam and then Excel will of course share data with the city which is one of the challenges we've had uh throughout this whole process is not knowing where our electricity come from how how much we're using where it's being used um there are agreements for Excel to share data with the city to help facilitate the development of these projects um so maintaining municipalization feasibility um as I

[335:03] said it's important for the city to be able to restart municipalization we are towards the end of a 10-year process uh filled with legal fights and other things to get to the expertise in the level that we are today stopping is going to be painful and obviously it's hard to restart on a dime so the agreement has some Provisions that make it more feasible for us to go forward with municipalization in the future if Excel fails to meet the goals or the city is just dissatisfied with the franchise U the one of the most important ones is a $200 million cap the $200 million cap applies to any award and condemnation that including the acquisition cost the the cost to require real property interest any going concern damages any damages to the remainder the cap also includes the purchase price of the two existing substations the city plans to buy from EXL most importantly the agreement also includes final agreement on all of the

[336:01] other substations there's four other substations uh the the Pu order did not allocate those substations or they basically told us to go work it out and we have been trying to do that for two years we have now resolved all of those issues or will there's still a few up but before the agreement was Final we will have agreements on all of those substations um we have paid for engineering to design the separation of the substations one of the things that came up was if if the city decides to depart in 15 years those engineering draw uh that engineering work is going to have to be substantially revised Excel agreed to pay the cost of any updates to the existing substation interconnection studies and design drawings that are made necessary By changes in the system over the time um the the we've agreed that the orders issued by the Pu that were hard hard fought in both sides will stand and they will apply to the separation of the city preses municipalization so we will not need to go back to the Pu and the list of assets that puc's already approved

[337:01] the city can use to U for future municipalization so if the voters approve so the the municipalization effort would be suspended the current cost agreement that the city has with Excel would be held in OB OB bance Excel will complete all the impr progress work and stop future work Excel will release the two letters of credit they currently hold from the city and the amounts of 1.7 million and 2.6 million and the city will dismiss the current F proceedings the agreement provides for the current case in the court of appeals to continue uh the pending condemnation case will be dismissed uh after the the court of appeals decision is is issued and if we need to go to the Supreme Court that's that's allowed too all further actions will be discontinued um there we still probably need to discuss that I'm not sure that that's the best approach but that's what's in the agreement so I want to talk a little bit about taxes what this means for funding there are two segments of the current utility

[338:00] occupation tax these are annual payments to the city 4.7 million goes to the general fund this was adopted in 2010 to replace the the franchise fee that was expiring at the end of 2010 um so that that provides that that tax only applies to entities that do not have a franchise with the city so if the city created a franchise the um that tax will go away way the tax is scheduled to expire in any event at the end of 2022 there is an additional portion that has been that was approved originally in 2011 and has gone up and down but right now is $2.1 million a year that funds municipalization that tax ends if the city ceases its municipalization efforts and under it's my opinion that doing what we're doing here is ceasing the municipalization efforts and as you know I tend to be very conservative when it comes to taxes um

[339:00] so the um the general fund portion will now be replaced by a franchise fee in approximately the same amount um one of the things that I'd like Council to consider is whether or not Council wishes to uh repurpose and possibly extend the municipalization portion of the franchise fee to pay for some of the energy projects that we're talking about doing and I have a slide here that presents some some of the things that um the city could consider doing with that that sort of money and some of the things that we talked about already um the schedule coming up this is the council briefing tonight uh the if Council wishes there'll be a first reading of the franchise on August 4th uh a second reading public hearing is 10 scheduled for August 18th Council has until September 1st to P final pass any ballot measure including this one uh the

[340:02] election day is on November 3rd 2020 uh if the voters approve the franchise it will have to go to the Pu we would expect the franchise to be effective then in January of 2021 does council have any questions for us thank you Tom um that was a good presentation brief um because it's late and so I want to just frame this up a little bit um the conversation tonight really is about do we go ahead forward and prepare the first reading so the the question before council tonight um there's a lot of information here to absorb in one presentation um but what we're hoping to get out of tonight is answer questions and then decide whether we want to prepare um a ballot item and there would of course be a public hearing at the second reading of that

[341:01] ballot item so nothing we indicate today is anything more than guidance for staff so no final decisions would be made tonight having anything to do with placing anything on the ballot so with that said I've got Adam and Mark in line Adam thank you Sam um and thank you Tom uh I have a couple questions for you Tom what part of the year would we be opting out if we were to opt out at any those actual off ramps like when actually would that happen um the we there's two choices really so we've talked about this and um the the for the the three opt outs that are triggered by uh carbon emission reductions we you'd have a year to do that so they would those would happen in uh the year the report would be the year prior and you would do

[342:01] that we talked about putting in a limitation and Excel wants you to have the opportunity to put it on the ballot if you choose so we don't have the exact language written but you'd probably have some extended period to make that decision and we haven't nailed down the exact dates yet but Council according to you could call for that vote as soon as we found out they didn't hit any any Benchmark that we desired we could call for a vote of six and then franchise over that's that's correct I mean we'll have to refine that language and remember there's there's six different points at which the city could depart the franchise three are triggered by admissions three are for any reason whatsoever right I was talking specifically about the three for any reason whatsoever um okay second question and this is an anticipatory thing um how will they slow the process um as they did over a very long period

[343:01] of time if we did opt out you know what what are the ways that you think in your legal opinion they might try to slow it down again I have I I I I believe firmly they will fight us tooth and nail um they will still see so so that cap that applies to the condemnation damages that's a a not to exceed amount so it's in our interest to litigate condemnation they will do the same thing that they I'm sure they will do the same thing they've done now which is make motions to dismiss um challenge the the the good faith negotiations challenge the this City's ability to condemn U so there will be those delays I I should have made clear I I didn't say anything about stranded costs the cap does not cover stranded costs so there'll probably be litigation in FK so um they will not be happy if we decide to depart and and I'm sure they know how to fight us and they will um the what the agreement does is provide us some level of shity that lets

[344:01] us have a better chance in that fight than I think we even have today thanks for answering the stranded cost without bringing it up that's helpful um last one it's just a little critique I don't see very much about Equity especially for lower income residents anywhere in here um it's great that we could open up you know say the rates on um or the amount of solar you could put on your house but that really only applies to people who could afford to put put more solar on their house type of thing so um there is some Equity concern in here for me and maybe that could be addressed with extending that tax that you talked about but um yeah that's that's sort of a glaring Miss in my view that's that's one of the challenges we we have very little that we can do on rates if we go with Excel and so and it was mentioned in the slide I did on the taxes as you noted that they're that the way to address the equity considerations is to to have funding that allows us to help our

[345:02] disadvantaged members of the community and Steve katak has something to say about that Steve yeah I did want to add let me know if I'm breaking up I'll turn my video off um in the partnership agreement you're breaking out Steve I think you should turn your video off a little bit better so your video is still on sorry there you are okay hopefully that's better in partnership agreement where we talk about the um governance of how we're going to work together the type of projects we're going to do we Define a process for defining those projects that we're going to work on

[346:01] together and some of the core principles that we call out in that agreement are actually equity and ensuring that we are developing programs and considering how best to ensure access to those uh that normally don't get access to things like solar panels and other um other opportunities that a lot of our programs bring so it it wasn't necessarily addressed in the slides but it has been considered in how we're going to put projects together thanks Steve one just off the cuff quick example you know if people had solar on their home and they had excess capacity maybe they could opt in to donating that to people who are lower income and can't pay their bills if EXL could work something out like that that would be pretty helpful um I think for Community buying yeah if I could jump jump in here

[347:00] Steve sorry to to cut you off Adam that example you just gave is one point of the 120% rule because if say a church to use a classic example wanted to cover Sur with solar and be able to donate or share the E excess energy that they would produce because often churches are don't have people in them um that's one of the issues that we talked about and another if you look on slide 12 of the present ation um that Tom gave you'll see that there are some mentions of multifam microG grids as well as um bottom talking about Energy Efficiency and renewable energy um access and so there has been some thought around that and one of the ideas of being able to share energy um ties into that 120% rule limit so there was also conversation the example of a church came up um because they're nonprofit and what could they do

[348:02] to um share that energy so appreciate the comment just wanted to share some of the conversation we had around that then next I've got Mark Rachel Mary and nearby mark Tom that was a a good presentation thank you two quick questions there are no guard rails at all with respect to stranded asset costs no [Music] and what's the variance at the moment in terms of what we think versus what they think those might be so I smile um I I think they're in the 300 to 400 million range and we go much lower than that we we think we can get it to zero we our estimates are down as low as zero I mean it kind of hinders does it not our ability to effectively exit if we have to get right back in the litigation soup with them on

[349:01] this particular issue yeah we tried to get a cap on stranded cost we were not able to do that um and I agree that it's it's a challenge um the difference of course is that stranded costs can be paid out of rates later they don't have to be paid upfront during a lump sum and uh there are ways that we can mitigate stranded costs as you know so even if there's a stranded cost award we can mitigate by either not using xcel's transmission system or purchasing energy and deporting slower um so yeah I would prefer to have a stranded cost cap we don't have one it's not in this agreement and and with respect to the carbon reduction metrics if we say we're exiting because you didn't meet the the requirements for last year are we going to be embroiled in in definitional issues of what constitutes their actual carbon output or or is there is there going to be

[350:00] Clarity that they in fact did not meet the standard the intent is that there be Clarity that as you know Mark as a lawyer there can always be a fight over almost anything but that we will agree on a measure um there are that that climate registry that I talked about and Jonathan can explain that a little a lot better than I can actually reports carbon equivalence every year for Excel and so that we we'll put that in the agreement that that number has to be what what they say that is so um we're g to try to eliminate the ambiguity as much as possible in the final drafting okay thank you thank you Mark Rachel thanks Tom and thanks Steve and Jonathan and also um Sam and Bob I know you all have worked really hard on um getting this uh teed up for our consideration so um it's really late I don't I don't feel I need to beat around the bush it makes sense to me that we would would um prepare the ballot item

[351:01] and have a public hearing and um let people weigh in on on the the concept here I had two I think uh busy questions one where like maybe this isn't known but how do we decide what gets undergrounded in like the first five years it's that's a great question I think a lot of folks want to start with shiaka there there'll be other ones what we've done in the past is look for opportunities and we we also will now put an equity filter on that okay obviously because there are really what I was wondering is chitaka sounds nice to to get the wires out but I'm sure that there are um Equitable considerations that might um way more heavily than that's part of the city process now so it would be part of that analysis of where we can get the most and that that um mean I only have a little experience with undergrounding projects because the only ones that I've seen the ones that we did with leftover funds after the end of the franchise and

[352:01] they tended to be tied to particular projects we never had this much money to do so I think folks like Steve and Jonathan and their team will think creatively about where we can get the best bang for those dollars okay um and then second um Mark just asked about stranded costs and um are we in any worse position if we uh enter into a franchise agreement with regard to stranded costs than we are now I mean we made some sort of Headway on that that we would be losing we have a petition in the firk to uh well no that has to do no there's nothing going on on stranded costs right now I'm sorry the for petition has to do with substations uh which will be mooded out by the substation agreements I hope um no it we're not be a bit the only thing is um you you don't know um what new generation they're building and you know so a lot of this plan is going to be acquiring assets to produce renewable

[353:01] energy and if they require those assets depending on us as a customer that could increase the stranded cost bill um but then again on the same token there's load growth and there's other ways to mitigate it that um that we we should also be so I think it cuts both ways I think there's an argument either way okay thanks thank you Rachel Mary mirbi and Aaron Mary thank thank you all um and thanks Tom for the presentation and especially um Sam and Bob for putting in the time I know staff did as well put in a lot of time to come up with this agreement and um I'm grateful grateful to you all for that um my first question has to do with exiting for any reason and I'm wondering if there are any exceptions whatsoever to that any reason no it's six person voted Council or a vote of the people okay um and then my next question

[354:04] has to do with the 120% increase substantial increase do we have um an idea what constitutes substantial no Excel said they'd be fine with getting rid of it um so that it really is that what what tolerance the legislature has and but I think it'll be pretty powerful as Boulder and Excel go together the legislature to ask for that to be eliminated well eliminating it would definitely be substantial in my book um and then you also mentioned data sharing and I'm wondering on the data sharing if that is as presented in a PowerPoint or as in raw data that we can analyze I think it's raw data and I turned to Jonathan con who is so much smarter than me probably explain it there he is I don't know about that Tom but I appreciate it so much excuse me mayor Weaver members of

[355:02] council Jonathan coton uh Chief sustainability resilience officer um Mary I appreciate the question I think this issue of data sharing is really a Crux and been a fundamental point of our conversations with Excel not only because it's been a historic issue for us as a city to be able to track and measure progress on our overall objectives and the work that we're doing here locally how are we building in resilience how are we making sure that our prog programs uh and strategies are effective but if we do enter in an agreement um and really start focusing on some of these distribution level system planning efforts in these projects we need to understand first of all if we think about where and how we site projects uh we need to know how the system functions to know whether or not it's going to be advantageous um if we think about resilience districts how do we know uh that we're actually achieving what we want to achieve if we can't pinpoint where our critical facilities are where our critical loads and how

[356:00] energy flows and so we put together a very very broad set of of data requests to excel many of those are uh parts and pieces of data that we received with our original franchise agreement in 2020 2010 we got information in 2010 2011 around our Energy System how it functions um an 8760 data uh collection which takes a snapshot of our energy load profile through throughout the year these are really critical pieces of data and so we spent we assembled a team on the city Side to work with the team on Excel side to really flesh out how will we get the data that we need and not just looking at kind of the standard Community energy reports that a lot of cities get right now so this is a long answer to a short question but I want to assure you that we really um worked hard to make sure we are getting the raw data that is absolutely necessary to achieve what want to achieve both on the program side and on the project

[357:01] side great thank you for that Jonathan and my final question has to do with the um second piece of the uot and that um that uot says that it will end if the municipalization effort is ended how does it apply or does it apply to a suspension of the effort I would say the tax ends I I think the voters approve that tax to pay for municipalization and um that that language about it ending if we stopped um I think would apply to a suspension as well I'd be very reluctant to advise Council that you could you could keep that money and use it for something else hence your um suggestion of possibly asking the voters to extend it yes uh well repurpose and or extend or both okay okay thank you that's all I

[358:02] have you Mir and Aaron Mir just want to First say thank you to everyone who put all their time and energy into this I can't even imagine the hours and effort so truly appreciated um Tom I have questions for you from some community members that had emailed me so I apologize if this was and answered but a little brain fried um first question was what would um be the cost of Boulder um what what will be the cost of Boulder of the energy future partnership that makes sense yeah uh it's not clear it depends on the nature and extent of the projects um so there's there's several levels of cost that we'll have to look at first the the people we have a a really great team uh and a lot of those people are paid for out of that tax so to a lot of the those people have the skills necessary to to

[359:01] build this partnership so funding that is going is a cost and then Excel has has identified some funding for some of these projects the city's going to want to have funding too so there'll be costs there as well so Staffing and um actually on the ground costs as well okay and then my second question um of the items discussed here do any of them need to be approved by the pu so some of the regulatory things may require pu approval and the franchise requires pu approval the Pu said they were not interested in approving the the substations the pu's already approve the acquisition of the assets so uh other than the regulatory things on the franchise I'm not sure that anything else needs to be approved by the puc okay all right thank you very much thank you thank you may Aon well let me start by just adding my thanks uh to the team that has been

[360:01] working on this so huge thanks for all the effort and insight that you brought to the process um just one more question about exits um so people have been asking about you know we have the ability to unilaterally exit uh either if they don't meet the the thresholds or at those uh 5 10 15 year points now um Tommy made the point that if we resume the m municipalization process Excel we can be confident would fight us as hard as they have always fought us um but if we if there were some opportunity that we saw that was available out of franchise but not in franchise like if the uh State Legislative langu um um landscape changed um we you know I guess the point would be is that we could vote to lead the franchise and um there's nothing Excel can do to fight us about that and then if there were some new energy opportunities available in that

[361:01] configuration we could pursue those separately yes and we've kind of blazed the trail over the last 10 years we've lived without a franchise for 10 years right so we could go back to that state if necessary and then either pursue municipalization again or not depending on what the landscape looked like at that time yeah that would be a choice for the council okay thanks for clarifying that and I'll just add my um my thought here that uh it seems like this is worth moving on to public hearings I'm not presupposing that um this is the uh thing that we should put on the ballot but I think it does Merit hearing from the community and holding a public hearing on it so I support moving forward to those steps very good I've got no more hands up so I'll ask for comments I will add some here in a moment but I I specifically want to see if Bob has anything that you would like to add to the conversation so sure um first of let me just add my

[362:00] thanks to um to the staff and to Sam for a lot of work over the last three months there was some great Community engagement in June we we had over 200 participants in that we got some really great ideas from the community in in those um video sessions and then we've received literally hundreds of emails from um constituents with some other great ideas and and I know that the team tried to incorporate as many of those ideas as possible in the course of the negotiations with EXL so um I am very grateful to Sam and the staff for um putting together a very nice proposal I'm sure we'll be talking about it more in the coming weeks um I I share Aaron's belief that we should go forward and go to First reading on this so that we can get to second reading where we'll help receive further public input and comments um I would also support and I would ask staff to draft this if majority of council um supports it um a repurposing of the

[363:00] utility occupation tax I'm I'm quite excited about the um opportunity to partner and on some distribution planning on grid modernization on some really cool Pilots that B can be Innovative around and lead the state on lead the country on but those some of those projects will require some money and so I would be in favor once we pay all all of our bills for municipalization uh if the voters approve the franchise and I think we still below the general fund about 1.4 million I'd want to repay that too once those bills are paid uh if we're if we're moving into franchise I'd be in support of having utility occupation tax repurposed at least for the the remaining two years the tax as Tom mentioned um sunsets at the end of 2022 we could talk in coming weeks whether we want to try to extend that now or talk about an extension later but um that's a that's about $4 million which will provide a nice fund for um those projects that um that were described and

[364:00] and I would be in favor at least at first reading next week to to consider not only a a franchise ballot measure but also a ballot measure that would under Taber allow us to repurpose the tax at least for the remaining two years one thing I I also want to say um you know I I've um I've been not been shy Through The Years about expressing my opposition to the municipalization Endeavor but one thing I do want to acknowledge um I don't think that we would have the package in front of us had we not pursued municipalization um I think the efforts that we took and the progress that we made um really gave the city a lot of Leverage and and and I don't I can't imagine another city receiving the types of um things that were being offered here by EXL had we not pursued it so while I've been opposed to municipalization I do have to acknowledge that um it has turned out pretty well

[365:01] for um the city and I would hope that the voters would see this as a positive thing um and an opportunity for the city to continue to lead um in climate action and uh I think this will be an opportunity for other cities around the around the state and around the country to follow us so that's um that's my view on that thanks good enough so I'll invite anyone else who wants to um give their thoughts or their input as to whether we should take it to First reading otherwise I will share my thoughts Adam and juny yeah super briefly um I think we should put this on the first reading just so we can see what the community that thinks about it and get a full you know um representation of people in a public comment um most of the community's been in the dark we've been as Council pretty much in the dark uh until this point so it

[366:00] would be great to hear even more Community feedback about what we've come up with thank you Adam juny did you want to say something just wanted to say thank you for staff and also to you and Bob for all the hard work that you've done uh for bringing us this far and I look forward to hearing from the community and at the end of the day this is not the end this is the beginning of a process so I look forward to uh to to hear what the rest of the community has to say thank you jie Mary I wanted to um comment on um Adam's comment about being in the dark um this actually didn't really C us until last Friday so we've been getting updates on almost a weekly basis as to what was going on and we did get confid itial memos but this whole thing Coes on

[367:01] Friday and over the weekend so um we're kind of learning um yeah we're just hearing about this because it just happened really um and I just wanted to you know again emphasize um and agree with what Bob said that without the municipalization effort we wouldn't have gotten here um I don't think that the state law um would have changed with without the municipalization effort um I think we also um it was also the Catalyst behind cc4c and so in the words of a famous British philosopher you can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you get what you need so I think that's kind of where we're at I think um I'm anxious to hear from the community but um I think you guys did an excellent job um Everybody staff worked so hard and you

[368:02] know came to bat with a lot of um Tools in our pocket so thank you for that and looking forward to see what happens next and I'm all for um going to first reading very good um so I'll jump in here um I want to say of course thank you to Steve and Jonathan and and Tom and David gear for all the work they've been and there was a lot of of leg work being put in by our staff and also than Excel um they um have shown up and they have devoted significant resources all the way from the CEO of of fesco Alice Jackson all the way through their distribution planning team we learned a lot from them also about how they do their work and how they do their planning because we want to if we go forward with anything like this the partnership agreement would be largely focused around grid modernization things

[369:01] like resilience and one of the questions that came up earlier was how would we work through planning the undergrounding a lot of that could go through the distribution planning in the partnership agreement so we can apply the filters that we want and Excel will help us figure out what's doable how does it coordinate with their plans how does it fit into better reliability and we could also look at how it works with our building the backbone of the um fiber optic Network out so um the undergrounding pieace I view as a portion of the distribution planning and grid modernization work that we can do together um so I think everybody gave a really good faith effort to work on what what the best outcome could be as far as a proposal on the table that would meet meet Community needs here and also meet um some of the company needs first and foremost I've been concerned with carbon uh emissions

[370:02] at the top of the list and so I want to highlight for folks that the commitments that Excel has put out as far as um the carbon targets are not commitments that had been put forward publicly before so another thank you to them for being willing to stretch um the 2030 goal um was known the 6.9 million tons but the pathway between 2019 and 2030 is completely unknown um and so credit to both sides for wanting to know what the pathway looks like and for having um you know both targets and consequences for not meeting those targets so I just want to highlight that um it's late at night so we glossed over that but it is an important new um step to have a pathway to the 80% goal for 2030 um

[371:02] and uh we heard a question about stranded um cost caps and as Tom indicated we're fairly far apart in our estimates of what those would be but it was a fairly big deal to be able to get one of the two big question marks um at least situated with cap so one of the big question marks we had heard about in condemnation was going concern another bit that we had had um was concerned about the uncertainty around the substations and so the condemnation work the cap the agreement that had been made um are meaningful in the sense that one big question mark will now have a limit on the downside should we ever end up back there of course should this go forward and should we choose an exit so it was important that we have both agreements on on where we want to go together but um ways out if if the going

[372:01] together doesn't work and those ways out um because we're giving up our timeline and potentially some capacity in the city um one way to make up for that and preserve the feasibility of going forward was to get a cap on a potential award so there's that the certainly on substations Jonathan talked about the information that would be a big piece of our Community understanding how the power system works um and then one thing to just bring forward um we had conversations about how all this works with the state legislature and with the rules and the the changing rules um one of the key components here is that we want to work on how we get to our 100% renewable electricity goal by 2030 um excel's target of 80% emissions reduction is much of the way to where we want to get to but it's not all the way and so discussions around how to close

[373:03] that Gap um will have intersection with state law and so that's going to be an ongoing work that has to be done Statewide as well as between us and Excel so I think this is a uh potential agreement we're talking about in the community I look forward to hearing what folks had to say um but I do want to say that this was an intense effort and everybody involved um did their part at um working towards a solution that that we can talk about in our community so I think that's the end of what I had to say tonight I know it's late um but there will be a chance I invite the community to reach out and talk to any of the council members about not only your thoughts but if you have questions to get with us or to get with Tom and David if it's legal or with Jonathan and Steve if it's more about what the programs would look like and how we can

[374:01] get there so that I'll invite yeah Mary I just wanted to um your your um suggestions or your comments generated a question for me and the question is um in the regulatory realm those things that Excel and the city of Boulder were will partner on to go to the State Legislature is that something where the potential is there to bring along more Partners well that would be the Hope right and when you say Partners there's various kinds of Partners there's the partners in the state legislature there's also the possibility you know that Excel or another provider could provide us enough clean electricity to make up for the Gap and so yeah that would be something to talk about and think about is with gaps like that if other communities have those same gaps what are the potential Solutions so I

[375:01] don't have an answer for you directly but yeah that that's all open and that's up in the air because it's not decided but these are questions A legislature needs to help every Community with uh which includes Boulder but it could include a lot of other communities as well so one of goal here would be the potential to scale anything that works in Boulder especially if it's programmatic um around distribution planning to other communities if it's working did that help or no thank you that's that's helpful um and I guess you know we'll put it out there if if this works out um to invite other partners communities um to build a coalition to go to the legislature and get those regulatory changes in place because that's part of um what the city was after right the scalability and the systems change and that falls under the rubric of system change so I think that's a real important piece good I've

[376:02] got Jane and Bob Jane thanks um as we prepare for first reading next week can we assume that Council agrees with council member yates's suggestion that we prepare a potential ballot measure to repurpose the utility occupation municipalization part of the uot I think so y thank you thanks you bet Bob Mary thanks for raising that point that prompted a a thought in my mind that I want to make sure that we're all aware of there's a list of things um in the agreements um that are being finalized that we'll all see here in the coming days where EXL has agreed to co um in with us hand inand to the state legislature and um change and I think the top of that list at least the top of the list for me is the

[377:00] 120% rule that's a a state law which prohibits um a owner of a building from generating more than 120% of the building's use of electricity on that U that structure and for buildings that have really big roofs but not a whole lot of electric load like um a church or a warehouse that's a really unfortunate law because there's a lot of Lost um solar opportunity there and EXL has agreed to go in with us to the state legislature and um get rid of that rule and that will allow um some really great local generation that can not only be used by the the building owner but also neighboring facilities and I know that we have several state legislators who are lining up to um to sponsor that bill so I think that's something that I'm really really excited about but the other thing Mary in addition to those things that XL has agreed to um to change and improve on the Regulatory and statutory environment for us um nothing

[378:02] prohibits Boulder from advocating on its own behalf in other words there's no gag order there's no limit to what we can do and I know one area that we are probably apart from um Excel on is what's referred to as Community Choice aggregation um Ed hooton our representative had a bill um on that a study bill on that this um in this session which unfortunately got sidetracked by covid but I know that she pretends to bring it back again next year and in um in our our city legislative agenda we support that we support exploring Community Choice aggregation and while Excel um probably opposes that um there's nothing to prevent us the city of Boulder and either individually or in with our partnership and cc4 CA and other um affiliations across the state from advocating those State Law changes so I just want to be really clear that our hands are not tied and that we can seek legislative changes with or without EXL that allows um competition that allows um acceleration of clean energy um um in

[379:03] in all different aspects and so we have a tremendous amount of flexibility and going into franchise does not limit our um our our ability to advocate for things that are good for the for the environment okay very good um I think we've heard clear Direction on bringing this forward for first reading and including a companion measure which which repurposes the um uh municipalization portion of the OT for these distribution planning and grid modernization projects so thank you all for that I know it's late it's a heavy subject to bring up this late but also it certainly looks like there's there's grounds for discussion here so thanks for that sure go ahead to I just wanted to want thank the our team I mean we've got Jonathan Steve and me here there's a lot of other people who help as you mentioned David gear he took the laboring or on negotiating this Kathy

[380:00] hack was was key to these negotiations uh Matt lurman and Lex tesk we couldn't have done without Jane's leadership has been amazing in all of this and I want to thank you and S and Bob as well I mean you folks who weren't there they they provided the community's voice in these negotiations as elected leaders we would not have gotten anywhere without having their input and the amount of time they were willing to dedicate for people who are essentially volunteers was just amazing so I want to thank you both for all of your your work on this it really was a a heavy lift that you guys did uh and and all the whole team when we do something like this it's a team effort and I get to talk about it but I probably play the smallest part in all of us from all the other things folks did so thank you all thank you Tom and there's one other item that um is on our agenda it is not officially there but it's just a small discussion that Mary and I want to have um now that Jam's news is public um you

[381:00] may understand why we were being a little hesitant about employee evaluations and um I'm going to let Mary take it from here but there's a few things we need to think about of decisions tonight but we just want to get it in everyone's brain going forward Mary Young unmuted um I just want to say that the reason that um Sam and I were meeting with Trish um to discuss how we were going to move forward is because we're both on the evaluation committee and um this all kind of began when um we brought up the idea of doing our employee evaluations and um and um some of us knew that Jane was leaving and so it kind of became problematic that um

[382:00] that that we couldn't do it for everybody and it so it it presented this opportunity to meet with Trish but some of the things that um we as a council need to kind of chew on and um discuss in depth at a later date are um the first one is the timeline the timeline for hiring of the the new city manager um you know we have an intention to start now and um and aim to hire by January February and it so that gives us um a three-month stretch with an interim city manager and um so that's one thing to consider that's one proposed timeline um another thing to consider is the search firm um HR um could select and begin to build the city manager profile um the profile

[383:01] being the job description and Jane um with Jane's help and she'll be very much involved in crafting the profile and um as well the subcommittee um and then we have um a timeline as well for hiring the deputy city manager that's Tanya's replacement um and so we discussed from the leadership and talent perspective the three of us discussed Trish and Sam and I that it's ideal for the new city manager to hire the next Deputy city manager so this this allows for the new city manager to look for a complimentary set of skills um and you know and the experience gaps that a new city manager um may want to to fulfill um so um and the

[384:00] organization um how how well the organization takes um Jane's retirement it doesn't it doesn't come as a big surprise and it's not um a it wasn't a question of of um if but but of when um Jane's given us three months notice and it um eases us with the change into the change and um she and the staff have been working to build a depth of talent across the organization that'll support us through the time of the transition so um Sam did I miss anything I just want to add two things um thank you for all that Mary one of the things I would like to add is that um it is not clear that uh the evaluation sub which is me and Mary is the right subcommittee to Shepherd the

[385:00] process of figuring out the um the next steps and so on however um we have been in contact with Trish from Human Resources just because of the conversation about um evaluations and that shaded over into um kind of think about timing and so on so that's one thing that we need to make sure everyone on Council is comfortable with is that um if you would like someone uh to work with Mary instead of me I would certainly think that um we want Mary's experience and seniority um but we can talk about this at the next meeting but something to think about is you want this to be me and Mary or should we have a different group or so on so that's one thing that Council needs to decide is who who will Shepherd the process along if if anyone um so that's one question the other question to be thinking about no decisions tonight obviously is we could do a

[386:01] request for proposal for recruiting firm um and have a competitive um RFP response and have that then lead into the recruiting process itself that will create a delay of about two months if we do that um uh the HR folks as well as the Jane and Tanya have um exper experience with this and they have recommendations of a specific recruiter within a specific firm who they think might be good so another option would be that we go forward um Council approves that we have this fall within a master contract with the recruiter which are include the city manager probably the deputy city manager going forward and other positions within the city so one way to keep the timeline on the schedule that Mary put out there is to do a master contract with a recruiting firm so another decision Council will have is to either go forward that way or to do

[387:01] an RFD for the recruiter specifically for um the city manager um process so those are just some thoughts to get in front of you no decisions are needed we're going to talk about this again next week but we wanted to make sure that you heard um some of the issues that we're going to need to tackle next week so Mary any final thoughts yeah no I just wanted to say that I'm very much um prepared and prepared to and willing to um serve on this subcommittee so if Council if it's council's desire great and I'm willing to as well but I don't need to if someone else wants to be um part of that so we will return to this next week um any further items anyone great seeing done I'll say thank you apologies for the long meeting but we had a lot of folks to listen to about

[388:01] the development and Gun Barrel thank you all for your time and attention we'll try and keep this the longest meeting in my 10 years mayor okay we have a go thank you and this meeting is adjourned good night good night everybody Live from Paris of [Music] fat