October 26, 2021 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] [Music] now joining us tonight is that correct that is correct and so if we have Aaron we are ready to go we do have Aaron look there he is he is good evening all right I see Taylor says that channel8 is on air and ready so Brenda you give me the high sign and we'll get us going great we are recording Sam so you're ready to start welcome everyone to the boulders

[1:02] October 26 2021 special city council meeting uh there's only one announcement for tonight it's the usual one covid vaccinations are available and encouraged and there's new guidance around boosters you can get more information on getting your vaccine um course uh at www.bouldercounty.org slf families SL disease-9 vaccines and with that I think we are ready to go Alicia if you could please call the rooll yes sir good evening everyone council member Brockett present friend here Nagel here sweti

[2:00] present wck sorry about that present Weaver here Yates here and young present mayor we have our quum excellent our first item tonight will be to amend the agenda so I'm seeking a motion to add four items to tonight's agenda at item 2D which is um disbanding the CU South process subcommittee item 2E which came across on hotline just a few minutes ago consideration of a motion to call a special council meeting on November 9th of this year item 4 C which is performance evaluation and Merit raise for judge cook and item 7A discussion on in-person hybrid meeting attendance um the last couple of meetings this year so could I get a motion to amend the agenda please move

[3:01] second anyone object to amending the agenda perfect seeing no objections the agenda is amended and with that we will move on to our next item which is a declaration honoring Boulder shelter for the homeless director Greg harmes for his 19 years of service and that will be presented tonight by council member Adam stick Adam thank you Sam uh I'll begin the Declaration now uh Greg harms began his work at the boulder shelter for the homeless in 1995 as a volunteer for the organization he joined the board of directors in 1997 and after serving on the board for five years was named the chief executive officer in 2002 throughout his 26-year tenure at Boulder shelter for the homeless Greg has been a standard Bearer for the eort 10 homelessness Greg led the effort to

[4:00] create the 160 bed shelter at 4869 Broadway and work diligently to change the Sheltering culture to one that focuses on exiting people from homelessness Greg's dedication to the environment contributed to making the shelter one of the first lead certified shelters in the United States Greg was instrumental in the development of Boulder County's 10-year plan and homelessness participating in every committee and task force and using his engineering background to help the work groups gain consensus through data logic and objectivity in 2006 he started the first countywide permanent Supportive Housing program Greg was a leading partner in establishing the city's first permanent Supportive Housing building at 1175 Lee Hill Drive which opened in 2014 Greg was a lead participant in the homelessness working group in 2016 to 2017 helping to craft the city's homelessness strategy and to launch the transformative coordinated entry and housing Focus shelter program programs

[5:00] over Greg's career at Boulder shelter for the homeless the shelter has provided care to thousands of Boulder County residents through his work with several ballot measures such as the worthy cause tax and his long-term leadership at Boulder shelter for the homeless Greg helped to create a real Pathway to housing Greg has made himself available at all Council meetings to help further the discourse on homelessness actions providing expert advice and counsel he has been dedicated to community input and has regularly met with the shelter's neighbors to work through Community concerns and input since late 2017 the shelter has been the primary agent and exiting over 1100 people from homelessness in Boulder Boulder shelter for the homeless currently provides direct support to over one 130 people in housing which is more than the average number of people using the shelter on a nightly basis we the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado recognize honor and appreciate the dis distinguish efforts of Greg

[6:00] harms and his many contributions toward ending homelessness in Boulder thank you so much for that Adam um do we have Greg here or anyone to accept this I am not seeing Greg here okay super well with that I think um we'd all Echo everything that Adam said in that declaration Greg thank you so much for your 25 years or so of service and I we have Kurt Fern hobber here Kurt would you like to say a few words uh thank you Sam I think Greg is on I'm not sure if they can find his uh his connection though but I I know that he's listening um so um yeah apologize for the technicalities um but um I know Greg did want to uh thank the council for um its its partnership with the uh with the shelter over these years and uh when I spoke with him this afternoon he W

[7:02] wanted to express uh his thanks in the progress around um uh housing first and getting and changing the whole mission of of the shelter from from a shelter to actually um a path to home um so um I I don't know if he's been able to get connected yet but um I know that's the message that he spoke to me about this afternoon excellent and I see that we have a hand um from Tiffany stamus uh on the attendees so I don't know if we want to try and move Tiffany over if that happens to be Greg or not but um with that I I will also Echo what Kurt just said about the transition that the Greg has guided the homeless shelter through um to be a housing first oriented um Pathway to home that has been incredibly effective and we know much more now than I think we did when Greg first got on and oh I see Greg is here CG we've got

[8:01] you under the name Tiffany ah we've got your name changed so you are on and live if you have a few words you'd like to say thanks Sam uh sorry about the technical difficulties there um but thank you all for the recognition uh as Kurt said you know it takes a team and uh there's no better team member than the city in this effort to to try to end homelessness um you know the city has been the key partner in our efforts to end individual homelessness and I want to thank Kurt and his team for all of their efforts um because it it doesn't happen with just one person or one agency um it's clear that we haven't ended homelessness in our community uh but we have taken literally hundreds of people off the streets permanently and I think we can all share in that success um thank you again for the kind

[9:01] words and I just want to encourage us all to continue to work to make our community one where every single member really thrives so thanks again thank you very much Greg and I will open the floor any council members have any words that they want to say I see lots of Thumbs Up So Mary yeah Greg I just wanted to thank you for your collaborative leadership role that you displayed especially in the last few years when um when that was that really made a difference when all of the organizations came together to really um have common data and start collecting the data I think that was instrumental in the successes that have been experienced of um of housing people um when Sam and I first got on Council

[10:00] there was actually not much data and so um it's really come a long way um and there is still a way to go but um it has really really come a long way and thank you um for your willingness to be collaborative and cooperative and um changed a lot of the systems that that were changed in order to make that happen so thank you very much and best of best wishes for you thank you Bob yeah I want to add my thanks as well um um Greg as you know um in your 26 years with the shelter you've um mentored many dozens of city council members who have come and gone um and taught each of us um about homelessness and the best solutions to homelessness um you've helped the community understand homelessness and the causes and the solutions um there's a lot of Mis information and misunderstanding about it you've been very patient and thorough as you guided each of us down this this path and this journey and I

[11:00] think we're all better people for it so not only have you helped those who are unhoused um find permanent housing you've helped the rest of us who are housed um help those run housed um so thank you for your mentorship and your education Through The Years great thank you Bob and I'll just close by saying when I got on councel I had no idea what a complex and wicked problem homelessness is and so Greg the years that you've devoted to helping make that path way better for people who are in need has been extremely helpful and as Bob said you've had to bring a lot of us along with what you've seen so thank you so much for doing that great all right and with that we will move on um our next uh Alicia if you take us to our next item please yes sir next we have our consent agenda which has items a through e very good good and one of the items

[12:00] that we have is item 2C which is resolution 1300 which concerns commitment to achieving new climate goals and I know that uh I think we have staff here so I'll turn to you Nua if you'd like to introduce that sure we have tonight Jonathan con and Lauren tremblade to speak to the issue excellent great thank you Nia uh appreciate it very much uh mayor Weaver members of council and Jonathan Cohen um interim director of climate initiatives department so I have three short slides and I see that Taylor has queued it up for me right there so I I want to just kind of go through this fairly quickly but it's a significant thing that we're doing tonight so I did want to pause and talk a little bit about how we got to where we are um so first a a few months ago at your June 8 study session our staff team presented really what was a revised framework for local climate action that included what we were calling a system based framework for updating our climate related goals and

[13:01] targets so at that time Council requested we bring those proposed goals back in the form of tonight's resolution so to frame this up a little bit I think we're all aware that scientists tell us we have roughly until 2030 to make the massive societal system scale changes required to avoid what are going to likely be the worst effects of climate change so we know the situation is urgent U but we're also in an incredibly inspiring moment so I think we recognize it every day new leaders are joining this cause from every corner of the globe including here in Boulder so our community is poised to take this next step in our work moving forward though the community's climate action work must look different than it has in the past so in our June session we laid out a handful of key challenges and insights learned from our work at the local level so next slide please um first among those uh is uh those lessons anyway is that the latest science shows that much more aggressive

[14:00] targets are necessary to meet what is this rapidly accelerating impact of climate change in other words our Target should be updated to reflect the latest science so there is action on all fronts but we know we need to move faster which is why a growing number of cities from around the world are setting lofty goals but are also carrying through with timely impactful plans in support of of what we're calling transformative actions so at the same time we still need to focus on how to deliver on the commitments we've already made so as we move to set more ambitious goals we're still committed to reaching existing energy and zero waste objectives uh uh including um our 2025 zero waste goal and achieving 100% renewable electricity by 20130 a second Insight is that consumption-based emissions which are those associated with goods and services and Emissions caused by uh land and ecosystem degradation are factors that have really been underrepresented in in most conventional methods of accounting

[15:00] for emissions and that includes our own emissions accounting system in Boulder so stabilizing climate will require both more inclusive accounting of those impacts and coordinated efforts within and Beyond Boulder's boundaries to address those factors and a third challenge that we uh brought forward in June is that both adaptation and resilience and Equity have to be considered integral elements in all of our climate action so climate change is a crisis it places a disproportionate burth burden on our most vulnerable population so that's our low-income communities communities of color seniors people with disabilities so our response to the climate crisis has to be accelerated and focused on adapting to the impacts we're already feeling and preparing for those changes ahead so next slide please so resolution 1300 uh is intended to set ambitious goals and targets backed by meaningful numbers that Encompass all major greenhouse gas emissions and focuses City actions in support of achieving larger Regional and

[16:00] National Climate targets including reducing emissions 70% by 2030 against to 2018 Baseline second becoming a net zero City by 2035 and becoming a carbon positive City by 2040 so so let me unpack that briefly to to achieve net zero emissions by 2035 essentially means that all human caused greenhouse gas emissions produced by our community must be largely eliminated and then balancing any emissions out that we emit into the atmosphere needs to be done through removing an equivalent amount I want to also point out it's going to require a total transformation of our energy systems that underpin our economies later this evening you're going to get an update on the Excel partnership and we need to make sure we stay on track to what was committed to with our utility provider related to stepping up our efforts to switch from using fossil fuels which is still the biggest cause of climate change so switching them to carbon positive that essentially means that activity goes beyond achieving Net

[17:00] Zero carbon emissions to create an environmental benefit by removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and I think we know that that's going to require significant changes in land use planning ecosystem regeneration to sequester or pull out carbon from the atmosphere to both neutralize existing emissions to reach Net Zero and draw down previously released carbon I I do want to say for those of you that are watching it at home this may feel a little bit complicated um and I'm through pretty rapidly but uh we do have a lot of background on how these specific goals were selected the accounting methodology and a substantial list of the objectives targets key performance indicators and very specific strategies many of those are included in the June 8th study session packet which was linked in tonight's memo also so before I turn this back to you Mr Mayor um tonight's resolution is part of a sequence of conversations uh that we are having on our local climate action there is no question that our approach has to be

[18:00] ambitious but it also has to be deliverable meaning our targets are one thing but implementation is yet another the the June session was intended to introduce this new climate uh climate action framework will be coming back in early December to council to present and the types of transformational moves that we believe are required to meet these new goals and about the necessary funding to implement them I also want to acknowledge one last thing which is it's five days until the start of the 26th climate Summit in Glasgow that is regarded as one of the biggest ever World meetings on how to tackle global warming the Summit is seen is pretty crucial at the global scale but I want to just point out that the next decade is really going to require unprecedented changes to how our cities operate and what each of us can do we know stabilizing climate change won't be easy uh but we also know that implementing climate Solutions will make our cities better so our pathway may feel Nar nrow and somewhat challenging but it is

[19:00] feasible provided we all continue to take action so that the goals don't slip Out Of Reach so it is an honor to turn this resolution uh over to you mayor Weaver and on a personal note uh I just wanted to say uh for those of you that are nearing the end of your Council tenure it's been a true honor working with each of you and we are also grateful for your tireless support of our community's climate work with that I will hand this back to you mayor Weber thank you so much Jonathan um that is great and um I guess I will say that I am very hopeful that this resolution with its new targets um is as useful as a touchstone as the racial Equity resolution has been to the work that we have done since then something that future councils can point back to and reference as they work through those actions that you pointed out Jonathan um there's no bigger challenge that we have to face as a city and as a a state and a nation so thank you for bringing this forward it's great to see the follow

[20:01] through we'll have all those points of touch that you talked about later on tonight as well as in December and with that Council any comments on this or any other of the items that we have on the consent agenda tonight great seeing none would somebody like to move the consent agenda for us I move the entire consent agenda second awesome we have a motion and a second and Alicia my notes tell me this is roll call is that correct that is correct sir great if you could walk us through that'd be wonderful thank you sir council member Brocket Hi friend yes Nagel hi stick yes wallik hi Weaver

[21:00] hi Yates yes and young yes the consent agenda pass sir unanimously excellent thank you very much and Jonathan thank you for being here and your presentation on the resolution and with that Alicia would you like to take us to our next item of course sir thank you next on our agenda tonight we have our public hearings item number four item number 4A is the reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 859 SE amending sections 2-2-5 neighborhood permit parking zones and 420-4916 neighborhood parking Zone permits and 7-6 parking infractions BRC 1981 this is in order to imp Implement access management and parking strategies

[22:00] and setting forth the related details thank you Alicia and Nur I'll hand it to you sure thank you mayor and I understand Erica vandenbrand is here and will start us off kicking off to Chris Unless somehow that has gotten mixed up but I'll start with Erica thank you very much I'm Erica vanon brand director Transportation mobility and transportation and Mobility is one half of the partnership um the other half is with Community Vitality on the access management and parking um strategy affectionately known as amps today we have Chris Jones and also Chris Haggin with us to be able to um talk about next steps and to ask um for your action in terms of an ordinance to actually Implement many of the um changes to the strategy that were originally presented to you earlier in the summer so with that I will turn it over to Chris and Chris thank you so much Eric I'm starting to share my screen um hopefully

[23:01] that is showing up as everyone's seeing a presentation I see it Chris great all right well good evening Council um my name is Chris Jones I'm the deputy director of community Vitality I'm also joined today um by Leah mayot she's our product support and customer service supervisor um she's here to help answer any questions you might have regarding specific permit products uh later in our conversation I'm going to run through some slides um because uh the action really tonight is really tied to some ordinance changes that we presented to you um that were needed um back in June at a study session um but just want to share some progress that we have uh to date so again the overall um objectives of this work that we've been that's been underway for over a year now is to rework both our neighborhood parking management and our parking pricing approach to be more aligned with uh broader City goals around access and Mobility I'm not going to go through all the work that we've done to to effectively collaborate with uh

[24:00] Community Partners the general public boards and commissions and other stakeholders um but do want to point out that um we've met with a number of boards and commissions at our study session in June Council asked us to also meet with the environmental Advisory board and the human Relations Committee to better understand the balance between social and environmental issues and the decisions that we're making in this work um and some um feedback that we've received from them will be included in an information item that's going to the new Council um by the end of this year this slide should look really familiar to you all it's the first steps that we'd identified um if we were to move on with the council supported priority based neighborhood access management um we have already made the changes necessary through the budget process to increase the residential permit rates from $17 to $30 in 2022 we inadvertently uh um did not include the commuter permit rates and so some of the work that you're considering tonight is updating the ordinance to increase increase commuter permit rates by $20 in

[25:01] 2022 and as communicated in June we need to update our ordinance and regulations to allow for the new NPP process that's been proposed and so that's a majority of the the work um that's been done and thanks so much to Sandra and her team on the language changes for for the ordinance for yall to consider tonight I'm not going to go through the rest of these um action items but we've been underway and all the other um uh steps that we intended to take um in pursuing our 2022 work plan um but of course we're happy to answer questions about um other progress to date but that will be included in an information item um before the end of the year again um so for our parking pricing strategy um the increases and our on Street rates from a125 to150 were included in the broad um budget proposal for 2022 um and so no additional work needs to happen at this time um to to pursue that for January 1 I will note that based on Council feedback um around

[26:01] weekend pricing in garages Saturday and Sunday will remain free in our city owned garages in 2022 there is an added uh work item in 2022 to do additional analysis on the possibility of of weekend pricing um and so more to come on that in the future I also want to point out um an additional element um to you all that we've included uh for implementation for January 1st it's um the implementation and advertisement of free short-term parking that's duration of 15 minutes or less in garages and on Street once per day um in garages it's unlimited any visit and that's it's always been this way we just have not advertised it very well that any uh parking uh duration that's less than 15 minutes is free um with our new paay stations we're we're able to offer a one 15minute um or less session per day per license plate um so folks who need to pop downtown or to one of our managed districts um for a quick errand that

[27:01] should take less than 15 minutes we'll be able to do so using that um uh new the new parking Pace stations uh to access that free parking um for our parking fine strategy again um one of the steps we need to take is updating our ordinance to allow for graduated fines and Mobility safety fines that we presented to you back in June and that's another piece of the work this evening um along those lines again and we have a lot of work to continue to do to work with our partners and um educate the general public on the changes that are coming um and that's included our next steps um in continued Community engagement um we also as I mentioned are preparing an information item for the new Council to get to speed on all the work that's previously been done in the proposed 2022 work plan that includes other elements of the amps work so that will include um updates on the curbside management work um parking code changes that's being led by planning um and also TDM ordinance work so this

[28:02] again is a multi-department effort um it's takes a village uh I think I heard earlier it takes teamwork to make the dream workor or some version of that and so we've been working really hard across departments to help carry these things forward in community Vitality we're going to continue to seek to create new parking products to especially better served lower wage earners and and small businesses and we're going to continue to collect dat to better understand the needs of our broader customers and when possible test um uh product Pilots um moving forward with that I'll get back to the work of tonight um with our proposed um ordinance changes and suggestion most motion language for your consideration and uh to get feedback from the public in the public hearing and of course we're all here to help answer your questions and so with that I'm happy to stop sharing my screen and hand it back back to you you Mr Mayor thank you Chris and thank you staff for

[29:02] the presentation uh I see Bob you have a question yeah just two things for thanks for that presentation Chris thanks for um keeping parking free on Saturdays and Sundays in our garages sounds like we'll have further discussion about that next year but um for now uh they remain free and I that is important for our downtown businesses as they recover from the pandemic one quick um question for you Chris you mentioned 15 minutes of free parking on street using the um using the kiosk um does that also work for those who use the park mobile app that is a great question and I Leah mayot is here I know for sure we have tested the programming in our pce stations and I think we are also exploring to make sure we can use Park Mobile but she can confirm yeah we're going to do our best to make sure that on street parking is a consistent experience so that 15 minutes free would be for both using the pay stations and then people that are paying uh mobile as well great thank you great Council any other

[30:04] questions great seeing no questions we have a public hearing to open and before we do that I would turn to Brenda R hour and see Brenda do you want to put up some slides about um our code of conduct for public hearings I sure do Sam I think most of the folks from our next hearing are also here so maybe this will suffice for both hearings um let me go ahead and share my screen and as you can all see on these slides um we do want to make you aware that the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civic conversations this Vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members for staff and for Council as well as supporting democracy

[31:00] for people of all ages identities lived experiences and political perspectives for more information about the vision you can go to the city's website and from the homepage just search the words productive atmospheres is the easiest way to find that page the following are examples of rules of decorum found in the boulder Revised Code and other guidelines that support this Vision these will be upheld during tonight's meeting all remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to City business no participant shall make threats or use other forms of intim of intimidation against any person obscenity racial epithets and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability to continue conducting this meeting are prohibited and participants are required to sign up to speak using the name they are commonly known by and individuals must display their name in order to be

[32:00] allowed to speak online currently only audio testimony is permitted at virtual meetings if you do need to have your name changed and you're not sure how to do that please message me in the Q&A box and I'm happy to help you with that I may also reach out to you in the chat if I'm not seeing um your name as it's registered thanks so much Sam that's all great thank you very much Brenda and for our public hearing tonight we only have one speaker um and so that speaker will have three minutes to address us uh that speaker is Timothy Thomas so Timothy um when you are ready you will have three minutes to speak on the parking issue and Sam I am not seeing Timothy on the list so Timothy if you are here if you could use your raised hand button um because sometimes folks are here under a different name and we can get your name changed and

[33:00] unmute you like you Brenda I do not see Timothy anywhere either so with that we will go ahead and close the public hearing and thanks for the guidelines we'll use those in the next one as well and bring it back to council Council any discussion or a motion on this item Mary and then Aaron Mary so I just wanted to thank staff for carrying um the banner on this for so long it really has been a long time coming um and a lot of these are very necessary changes that bring us up to

[34:01] date and um and I H I'm happy to see that they are um that we're taking it in steps to make sure that our strategies are well thought out and Equitable and um and I just I really appreciate the work um because this is a real important piece of um how our city functions so thank you so much thank you Mary I'll go ahead and make a motion so I'll move that we adopt ordinance 8509 amending sections 2215 neighborhood permit parking zones and 42049 neighborhood parking permit fee chapters 423 neighborhood parking Zone permits and 76 parking infractions in order to implement access management and parking strategies and setting forth really details second great we have a motion and a second Aaron would you like to speak to your motion yeah I I'll Echo Mary's

[35:00] thanks and you the the amps Road has been an extremely long one I I remember first talking about it when I was on planning board like nine years ago or something so uh really glad to see these changes come through I think they're Common Sense they're moving Us in the right direction I think our parking policies are improving you know we're taking a few graded steps which makes sense and then I look forward to Future phases as well so uh Chris and leam your teams um thanks so much for all the work you've done and look forward to the implementation this going forward thank you Aon Mary anything else no um other than thank you so much great any other council members I guess I will step in and say thank you as well um it it is great to see these concrete steps going forward with parking pricing and um I know that we have a uh pause on new npps but I know that we will be touching the next Council we'll touch those rules as well

[36:01] as I think a holistic look at parking I think all of our parking regulations might be something that the next Council gets a chance to take a look at this is a great first step I agree with Mary and Aaron on that so thank you all for bringing that forward and then um I think we are ready for a vote on this item and uh I think it's a roll call Alicia is that correct that is correct sir all right if you would walk us through the roll call on this that'd be great thank you council member friend I'm a yes Nagel hi stick yes wallik hi Weaver hi Yates yes young yes and Brocket hi sir ordinance 8509 was adopted unanimously

[37:00] excellent thank you very much and when you are ready if you take us to the next item please all right our next item is again a public hearing item 4B it is the second reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 8510 which Pro which amends Title Nine the land use code to allow restaurants as limited uses in regional parks within the public p zoning district and setting forth related details excellent thank you and Nia if you'd like this one thank you Sam and I just want to before staff starts with their presentation just sort of acknowledge that the topic of restaurants in our regional parks is generated a lot of conversation in the past months specifically around the new restaurant at the boulder Reservoir but truthfully my understanding is that the topic has been around much further than that dating back to 2012 at your request tonight we have staff from parts and Recreation and the planning and development services department to present a proposed code

[38:00] change that will hopefully clarify the role of restaurants in Regional Parks so again I want to acknowledge that the topic has generated some tension within our community over the summer months and I want to honor the hard work and engagement the parks and rec department has done since neighbors began sharing their issues and while I'm supportive of staff's recommendations I also want to acknowledge all the comments we have received both in support and critical of our approach however ever folks feel about the topic I can honestly attest that staff has actively listened to community feedback and tried their very best to find a path forward that works for the entire community and with that I'll pass it on to Carl Gyer to get us started thank you nura good evening council members I'm going to present uh ordinance 8510 to the city council tonight uh this relates to restaurants within the regional parks of the city of Boulder

[39:01] this is freezing up let's see if this moves there we go so the purpose of tonight is to hear the presentation on the ordinance uh and Then followed up with clarifying questions for staff uh following that we'll have a public hearing on the ordinance and then city council deliberation of the ordinance and then decision on the ordinance so I'm going to start with a just a brief overview of what's contained in the ordinance uh what What's proposed would be a change to the land use code and it would permit restaurants as principal uses within the use table uh within Regional Parks so it's there's three regional parks within the city of Boulder and I'll talk about that so that's contained within attachment a of your packet uh the restaurants would be allowed in Regional Parks which are larger than 100 acres in size um and there's also a stipulation in there that would change it it would basically be regulated as a limited use uh where it would be considered by ripe was within

[40:01] 500 feet of a residential Zone it would then require use review so again this would apply to three regional parks in the city so you have Boulder reservoir uh up near Gun Barrel you have velmont City Park in East Boulder as well as flat irons's golf course in East Boulder and these are areas that are all zoned P for public so certainly discussions about the reservoir H restaurant have raised the idea that perhaps it makes more sense to consider restaurants in larger Parks as principal uses uh since the use would be consistent with comp plan policies related to parks and also the goals of the parks and M Recreation master plan for amenitized Park spaces and creating memorable spaces for the community to gather so to talk about this more I'm going to turn it over to Ali rhods who's our director of Parks and Recreation thanks Carl for the introduction good evening members of council and the community so um I'm here

[41:02] to share just a little bit more about how this code will align um this how this change ordinance would align the code with multiple planning efforts which I believe is why Council suggested this approach earlier this summer Carl just spoke a little bit about the comp plan but I do want to highlight with just in the Parks and Recreation master plan which is how the comp plan outlines that we fulfilled the Parks and Recreation related goals of the comp plan the 2014 plan had policy direction to seek us um directing us to develop Partnerships that are mutually beneficial um and really help leverage opportunities to uh maintain the community's assets and provide Community benefit engagement to dat for our Master Plan update including input from yourselves and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board supports continuation of those part partnership efforts uh our current Financial challenges certainly accentuate the value of diverse Revenue streams to help us deliver on our core Mission services like addressing Health Equity restaurants and Parks can

[42:01] generate revenue for the city thus providing subsidy to help us broaden accessibility one of the goals we've discussed several times with you specifically and recently last year when we were discussing the capital project at the flat erand golf course so um if we go to the next slide I'd love to share a little bit more about how the ordinance aligns the code with very specific goals for each of our regional parks is outlined in the concept plans as you're aware our team has worked for months now to listen hard to concerns about operations at the boulder Reservoir and proactively address them in the spring we developed a management plan for the restaurant based on input we received from Neighbors other community members the prab and some members of council it's been carefully reviewed to ensure it complies with current zoning and code and examples of responsiveness to concerns that we've heard include spending thousands of dollars on sound equipment that continuously monitors and Records sound levels to ensure we're complying with noise ordinance and not impacting neighbors or Wildlife we've SP spent significantly more in staff time

[43:02] trying to reconcile the concerns that we've heard on our website we've linked to a lot of that information to demonstrate these efforts and I want to highlight that Reservoir operations are not planned to shift based on the outcomes of this ordinance the management plan adopted for 2021 will carry into 2022 when we're excited to finally achieve a more complete vision of the concept plan and we believe we can do that and be good stewards of the reservoir our community engagement methods continue to improve based on the work of the public participation working group and the city's award-winning engagement framework an investment in each of these site regional parks are Guided by plans that were developed with multiple opportunities for Community engagement adjusted based on input from the community and the prab and unanimously approved by the Parks and Recreation Advisory board on the screen is the concept plan the prab unanimously approved for the reservoir in 2017 it reflects their input that the public fa ing areas should be prioritized for lake views and that accessibility be a focus

[44:01] on the left building D in that figure is conceptualized more in the image on the right and it's an add-on that was approved in the concept plan a space dedicated for Community gathering for events learning or other needs to be built only if a partner was on board at construction and willing to fund that aspect of the project that did not happen and Parks and Recreation funds were prioritized for the base needs and were working to fulfill the goals of the project that the approved which are also outlined on this slide in response to conversations this summer we've heard continued support for the goals of this concept plan and this partnership from across the community and even some neighbors we know we have not reached agreement with other neighbors and that is disappointing given the time and money invested and how challenging it has been and yet we continue because the broader Community has expressed support for public private Partnerships and restaurant in our regional parks and because Boulders regional parks are designed and operated to serve the broader community and region in the

[45:01] council memo we've outlined the planning efforts at all three regional parks that support this ordinance at the reservoir the building is complete and poised to fulfill its purpose to support events and dining we have a lease to guide that operation signed with a partner who has weathered this storm by our side eager to help fulfill the Community Vision this unique and special place at the flat irons golf course and on your next slide you can see that we're out to bid for construction now on the new facility that is informed by a prab unanimously approved concept plan that includes a restaurant we look forward to cultivating a strong public private partnership to help people eat gather and celebrate in a part of town that is interested in more food is expressed in the East Boulder sub community plan the golf course is adjacent to the southern border of that area approval of this ordinance would certainly set us up for great conversations as we begin partnership exploration this fall not too far away at Valmont City Park which is including included in the East Boulder sub community plan the South velmont concept plan also includes

[46:00] opportunities for public private Partnerships to enhance the experience in community Through food the city making clear the ability to operate restaurants in these regional parks would certainly support our efforts to cultivate strong public private Partnerships at flat ir and Valmont and so I hope you've heard how this ordinance would align with Boulder comp plan and City policy and how the ordinance also supports Parks and Recreation master plan goals and the site specific goals for each of our three regional parks we've discussed this approach with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and they appreciate how it is specific to the three regional parks which have unanimously approved concept plans that include these goals and they support council's review of leases for restaurants and parks to ensure each is appropriate to its site and so if you go to the next slide uh my colleague Carl earlier shared what this ordinance does and I want to highlight it what does not do it would not negate any existing contractual agreements it does not allow us to negatively impact neighbors or Wildlife we still have a responsibility to uphold our commitments and be stewards of

[47:01] natural lands it does not eliminate public processes associated with lease review and it does not eliminate our responsibility to manage performance of our partners to ensure they have fulfilling City goals and commitments but what it does do is allow the city to cultivate Partnerships it will show we mean what we say when we believe in public private Partnerships that are mutually beneficial and we can do that and be good neighbors they are not mutually exclusive it will support our existing partnership at the reservoir now without changing the operating plan our ability to build a great Neighborhood Place at the golf course very soon and at velmont city park someday with that I'm going to hand this back to Carl to talk about the details of the ordinance thank you Ally so getting back to the details of the ordinance I'm going to go into the technical aspects so really quick uh restaurants on city property are most often considered accessory uses in that they're secondary to the primary mem uses on the site so one example the seeds Cafe uh in the

[48:01] library um that'll continue this is is not something that would change as a result of this ordinance again we're focused just on restaurants within the regional park so those three Parks um so what basically would change in the code is in the use table there's a line item for restaurants and Industrial zones we're proposing to change that to Industrial and public zones and then we would create a new limited use so again a limited uses basically keeping it as as allowed use an allowed principle use as long as it meets the the requirements within um what's stated in the use and it's usually fairly limited um to um what's stated in in that category so in this case we're proposing an l18 that would basically say it would have to be a restaurant within a Regional Park which is greater than 100 acres in size and then is greater than 500 feet from a residential Zone if if it were less than 500 feet from a residential Zone it would require use review and the reason we took that approach is it's it's

[49:00] wholly consistent with other restaurants within the city of Boulder there's many examples around the downtown and around the hill where if you have a restaurant you know that's greater than 500 feet from a residential Zone it's a byright use and then within that 500 feet it triggers use review so it would be the same as a as applied in other areas of town and making it a principal use would allow some flexibility for that restaurant use but again also remembering what Ali was talking about with the greater oversight that exists um with the public involvement involved in the lease agreement review and the ultimate approval either by parks and wre Advisory board or city council so obviously we're we're referencing Regional Park in this ordinance and so it it does require us to add a regional park uh definition to our code trying to advance this so here's our our proposed definition for Regional Park again uh done in consultation with Parks and Recreation uh and and put into our land use code um

[50:02] also because it's a unique situation where a restaurant would be sharing parking with a park we've added just another uh parking requirement that would relate to these uses being that they're in parks and not in other parts of town where they're sharing parking with other uses um or on their own individual site so we do have a new parking requirement proposed for these so we did present this ordinance to planning board um and planning board did not have consensus on these issues uh based on uh their evaluation of the ordinance and and hearing public testimony um and because of the the non-consensus they did not recommend approval of the ordinance uh there were some board members that did Express support in concept for restaurants within the regional parks uh but there were others that also felt uh some or added some caution that there maybe not all the parks of be appropriate for uh restaurants as principal uses and so a lot of the discussion did Focus around

[51:02] uh the reservoir restaurant based on some of the things we've heard from some neighbors up there related to impacts to Wildlife or noise or traffic impacts that might occur from a new traffic generator within the park uh the board also felt that a one-size fits-all approach that that's being proposed in the ordinance may not be uh appropriate uh in in the case for the three regional parks so attachment D does include the draft minutes from that planning board meeting so staff acknowledges the board in public testimony uh on this matter but as we've been stating in this presentation staff continues to find that the proposal would which still includes the public process involved in the lease agreements would be appropriate um in allowing this as a limited use so so we're we are recommending approval of the ordinance as we have it attached within uh the packet but in conclusion I'm going to pass it back to Ali yeah thank you Carl and I I just want to Echo the um

[52:01] appreciation that the input from the planning board certainly merits pause and consideration and I understand their concerns about the unique uniqueness of each of our regional parks and the city's responsibility to be stewards of natural lands wildlife and Community what I would offer is that they were not able to benefit from the extensive engagement with an understanding of all the community process that's been involved with the plans I mentioned earlier after extensive dialogues the concerns from the planning board did seem to be based on the possibility that the process was broken because of unresolved concerns the scrutiny and controversy related to the reservoir has not been fun it has been um very hard both on staff and neighbors I know and I promise that we have learned a lot from it as an example moving forward we'll do a better job communicating in the time between concept plan acceptance and implementation but the controversy and public cons conversation has also confirmed General and consistent community support for the outcomes of this process in restaurants at these

[53:00] three regional parks and that is why staff are not recommending that use review be added is it seems it would be duplicative of the process and review conducted by The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board in approving concept plans and leases as well as that of city council the prab has reviewed and approved all three of these concept plans unanimously and the lease at the reservoir was unanimously approved by the prab and Council and the prab has also expressed support for this ordinance we believe this ordinance aligns the code with City Planning and will contribute to our ability to curate appropriate Partnerships it will support the work at the boulder Reservoir and hopefully help us find a great partner at the golf course and with that we're here for your questions all right thank you Ally and thank you Carl and all of staff for that presentation it was excellent um with that I'll turn to council and see if we have questions to start with um I will also note that we had a hotline from Mary young today which had some language for us to think about and then we also

[54:00] have some options in the presentation uh which I think we might want to talk through or ask questions about and with that I see your hand Rachel go for it thanks Sam um and thanks uh to the staff for the presentation um I would say that Leslie nope has nothing on Aly roads and our Parks and Rec staff um so I just wanted to walk through sort of worst case scenarios and see if you can answer some questions so my most walkable Park is Admiral Burke Park could this um ordinance change result in a restaurant going there by right it could not it is specific to the three regional parks that are defined not only in the um the language here but also in the Parks and Recreation design standards manual we only have three parks that are of that size 100 acres or greater I will note that the Parks planning Reserve in North Boulder when developed could meet this and at that

[55:00] point the ordinance would need to be updated to include it okay so we're talking about just three and possibly four parks that might qualify for by by right restaurants under this change correct if the restaurant is 500 feet from a residential area and I'll note that that might be possible at Valmont is where we have noted for the facilities it is not the case at the golf course or the reservoir so those are both under 500 feet so would not be by right is that what you're saying they are both well um over 500 feet every residential area okay so I think that the next Park that might qualify closest to me would be the golf course um so could you know if we're passing this ordinance that we can have restaurants by right there could tomorrow or next week or next month like 12 fast food places just go and set up shop on the golf course by right that would be the most impressive City process ever and not possible at all because the prab has to review any

[56:03] lease on Parkland um The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and then city council has to approve any lease that is greater than three years which is almost always the case for a restaurant there is such a significant capital investment UPF front Partners nor are the city because of the time invested in the process they not interested in shorter term leases so no one I just want to make sure I'm following no restaurant could just go set up we would have to approve it through prab and then probably city council if it was more than a three-year lease correct accurate okay um I think those are my only questions for now thank you thank you Rachel I may I cqu sure um I Rachel's questions raised a question for me which has to do with um the number of restaurants so is there anything in the proposed ordinance that says that more than one restaurant is or

[57:01] isn't allowed I'm going to ask my planning friends to chime in if I'm wrong there is not the concept plans would limit it right so at the at the boulder Reservoir there is only one planned restaurant at flat irons golf course there is one planned restaurant at the Valmont South velmont there are several opportunities for concessions or a potential restaurant but I think um based on my understanding of the sites and the constraints it it would likely just be one by Right restaurant and I'd love Carl or um someone from pnds chime in if I'm missing something yeah just just like the rest of the use table each individual restaurant would be considered an individual principal use so each would have to be evaluated against consistency with that limited use restriction so because one goes in doesn't mean that all of a sudden a bunch of others could come in each has to be evaluated against that limitation and um so to to Ali's point

[58:02] about um only one is planned um Carl could you elaborate on only one is planned does that mean that because the the master plan um only shows enough area for one therefore that is the the planned limitation I mean these particular uses are unique because there is a whole other secondary layer of process that's involved in their creation and approval you know most of the use table applies to you know private land throughout the city and the city has to look at each individual use either through building permit or through use review in this case obviously before anything could even come in to the planning department like a permit or something it would have already gone through an extensive review by Parks and Recreation potentially city council okay and then um the an RFP

[59:01] would have to have gone out for an additional restaurant is that true I believe that is yeah I'll chime in on that so I mean just to to be more clear and double click on that before we build anything anywhere we have Community input on the concept plan the site plan and then should it indicate a business need for a partnership there would be a public process but both in the RFP and then the the lease cure in Partnership curation okay great thank you very much thanks Mary and then we have Bob and Mark Bob I have two questions one for Carl and one for the legal department Carl um if if 8510 is passed tonight or some version of 8510 is passed um uh would would the next Council have another opportunity to take a look at this through our our planned um update of all of the use tables in 2022 in other words um this is a this is a temporary change um for restaurants in

[60:01] big parks but then the Ed tables are all going to be revamped and revised next year and that would presumably be subsumed into that is that correct that is correct uh we are U working on the standards process and do expect to come back to council hopefully sometime next year and obviously a big focus of that project is to look at how restaurants are regulated Citywide so certainly the next council could look at that okay so this would be kind of a this is a temporary a temporary solution it would help us maybe get through the golf course RFP but then the next Council as it adopts the use table sometime next year will'll be taking a look at this holistically is that right that's correct and and we probably will end up having some sort of study session at some point with Council to kind of go over you know the kind of changes that we're proposing before we go to ordinance and at that time uh council members could request specific changes if need be great perfect yeah let's let's do that and then my second

[61:00] question is really for the legal department for Hela or for Sandra um I very much want to get to Mary's proposal because I find it intriguing we can do that either before or after the public hearing but um in addition to Mary's very interesting proposal I'm just qu this is a kind of a drafting question I guess and I realize that leases um at parks U if they're longer than three years go to council and if they're shorter than three years they don't have to go to council if we were to and I I appreciate your comment Ali that most of them are longer than three years anyway but if we wanted to change that in say one year just to increase the likelihood that there's Community participation and public hearing so and so forth I guess legal folks is that a drafting thing that can be done tonight or is that something that would be done later on if we wanted to to to change that rule from three years to one year I can answer that Bob thank you for the question um so BRC code 8-32 3 addresses that and um Council has delegated um some of its authority to prab for these shorter leases and so it

[62:02] would require a code change that would have to be done at another time okay that's fine and and and believe me I I I do not mean any disrespect to prab I used to serve on pra by um by proposing a change from three years to one year one of the things that we heard from the planning board is a concern about public process and while I know that prev had a public process around the lease approval and and Council had a public process around lease approval I think if we were to shorten that time frame we would guarantee that virtually all leases come to council um upon a PR PR recommendation so it's um it's just a built in suspenders but thanks for that Sandra that's all I have for now Bob I'd like to cqu real quick um this is to Sandra Sandra um on slide 15 um of the staff presentation tonight option b basically says um pass 8510 the ordinance and also require that I'll lease contract s require public process so if I understood your answer to Bob correctly would option b require an

[63:01] additional um ordinance or what would it require would it just be a process change what would it require to implement option b can someone put up that slide I guess I'm not sure I think I I understand your question um and that is that there's a current process already in place that requires approval of the contract either by prab or Council both um yes I mean your answer to Bob slightly confused me because you made it sound like there was nothing that we could do in the short term to change that but I want I just wanted to make sure that I understood your answer so my response to Bob's question had to do with shortening the the um lease term uh that uh council's required to review So currently um PR has the authority to review and approve leases that are three years and shorter in term

[64:01] and then they only go to council if it's for a longer period of time if you wanted Council to review leases with a shorter term that would require a change in the code so it's a code provision it's an ordinance essentially that uh delegates that authority to prb exactly so in the charter um it's delegated to counil um that they have the ability to approve any leases and um it also provides for the ability for Council to delegate some of that authority to prab and they did that in BRC 8- 3-23 got it okay excellent so if we wanted to implement what I think is option b which is pass the ordinance and require that all lease contracts in this case require City Council approval that would that would be an ordinance change so we could move for instance to pass ordinance 8510

[65:02] tonight but as part of our motion we could note and request that a future Council take up that other ordinance sorry the other code provision that would allow Council to pick up say onee leases and grader in those three Parks well um you know I might want to ask Carl or somebody else to jump in here but if we're talking about option b in in the way that I I understand that you've described it then it would require an ordinance change to a different section if we're talking about um Mary's hotline and her idea then that would wouldn't require a separate ordinance change it could be implemented as part of the of this ordinance got it and I'm just going to pull up Mary's thing to make sure that I track that um but Mary's thing doesn't speak to

[66:01] lease duration it basically says that the public agency us issuing the lease has to find that it is compatible and has minimal negative impacts on surrounding uses so that's a little different than reviewing is that essentially the same as reviewing all leases in the regional parks well it it's actually an more specific uh uh requirements in terms of how the leases are uh analyzed and reviewed and so um it would it would require it doesn't talk about the the the the current term of the lease because that would still be in place but it does require a finding that you know the use is reasonably compatible and has minimal negative impacts which isn't currently a requirement in the code got it

[67:03] so the way that Mary's change would operate if we were to pass it with that change in place would be that if it was a one-year lease um and prab was going to review it prab would do its normal review and add these um specific requirements so uh is that correct if we okay got it and so if we wanted to pass the ordinance tonight with Mary's change however we um may work that over but we wanted to do what's in option b which I think would at least hint at changing the term so that Council would review all leases in the regional parks that would have to have something separate so I think you've cleared that up I'm much appreciated thank you great thanks and with that I've got Mark and Mary Mark yeah well let's start with something fairly basic what is the impetus for this for this ordinance what is the ill we're

[68:00] trying to cure I think the discussions that have happened in recent months have just kind of raised the issue that there are other communities other cities that have large Regional Parks or large siiz parks that have full service restaurants within them so it just it sparked the idea that maybe we should be looking at that as a principal use in the use table it has nothing to do with to implement the plans um the parks master plan so it it has nothing to do with whatever legal Jeopardy might acre to to having restaurants def find this accessory or does it I'm just asking I'll answer that a little bit differently Mark so this summer and in the well I I hear Reservoir neighbors saying they are supportive um of a restaurant under different operations for for months we've heard them say they

[69:01] did not support a restaurant at the reservoir because we had so many restaurants per capita and they didn't think it an appropriate place for a restaurant so this will make even more clear the city's intent at the reservoir the golf course and Valmont city park to fulfill those concept plans all right um and and if if we implement this in one of its versions um how is this going to change the approval process for the restaurant I mean how does it streamline it or not there few as a new ordinance it it wouldn't retroactively apply to say the reservoir restaurant but it would apply to any restaurant facilities at the golf course or velmont Park uh however um again saying that it wouldn't apply retroactively if the rest let's say a change in the code was adopted and then the restaurant at the reservoir was to make a change in the future then that that change in the future would be

[70:00] subject to whatever gets adopted tonight um and how did we determine that 500 feet is the magic number why not 400 700 650 uh what is the the theory and the thinking behind 500 feet again there are other restaurants throughout the city where this 500 foot distance is used as a determination about whether something is a restaurant is by right or whether it requires use review so I think in the past that was the you know size of like like a city block or something where there could be potential noise or or impacts from that restaurant that should be assessed more closely through a use review process and is there a particular since we're only talking about three locations what is the particular burden of a use foreview I'll respond to that because we we talked about it a lot in response to the

[71:01] planning bird it it's not NE well I don't know that burden is the appropriate word but it feels like a duplicative investment in process and review when that process is happening with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board who's intimately familiar with the parks and city council well I guess I would only note that that we're going to have a fair number of speakers tonight so I think there's some concern about process um and I suspect as we move forward with the other locations there will be local concern about process there and and I guess I'm asking I haven't prejudged it I I just don't know is is use review so difficult and burdensome as as to require a a statute to make sure that we don't have to do that I think that will be part of your deliberation earlier what I would offer is just one of the things I think we as a community we as a a staff organization

[72:01] certainly need um and are committed to figuring out is when there is a conversation and not everyone agrees are there better ways to have the conversation so that that folks can accept the outcome and move on um we have been trying for months to to handle a conversation where not everyone agrees I but I don't think that means the process or the outcomes are broken okay I I would only note that that we're moving forward even though there are people who disagree I I'm just not sure that um all disagreements need to be avoided it doesn't mean you can't act it just means certain people are going to disagree all right that's that's all I've got for the moment thank you Mark Mary yeah um thank you Sam so my first question has to do with with um kind of just stepping back a little bit because some of the emails that we've seen have um said that we're

[73:04] putting a bar in place or allowing bars um could someone please um help me out with um is a restaurant a bar when is a restaurant a bar and what is the difference between a restaurant and a bar um I think that would be helpful in perhaps providing some Clarity around um assurances that these restaurants will not be bars we do Define in the land use code restaurants group hubs and taverns differently uh they're generally lumped together as a use in most zones but we did discuss the issue of taverns uh and we we deliberately kept it as a restaurant use and did not include the Brew Pub and Tavern definitions um for inclusion in these Regal Parks so it would have to be a restaurant obviously where you know the service is more focused on on food uh

[74:01] and not fall under the definition of CH of Tavern and um and so you're saying that this um taverns and brew pubs were left out of the limited use the l18 that is being proposed in the ordinance it just it just says restaurant so so by definition it canot be a brou hub or a Tavern be with that limited use included in that language correct okay um thank you that clarifies it um at least for me um and then um I wanted to just comment um on the language within the The Proposal I've made and just to say that that was an attempt to address um um planning boards um concern that this is one siiz fits all so just to provide some assurances

[75:02] that the lease and the management plan would be would consider these elements that are mentioned in l18 as part of um the review so that's that's just a comment um and then with respect to um the reviews and process um it's under the charter um essentially land that belongs to um Parks is the purview of prab is that is that a true statement yes so um so given that that's how it works then um the the the planning board

[76:01] doesn't just by by standard procedure or Standard Process ever look at anything that um relates to land that is Parks um is that true and if and if not when when does the planning board see um land use related issues um two parks um so what I'm trying to get at is why was this why did planning board see this particular um ordinance and not the prior concept plans and as as planning board does see concept plans um so I just wanted some clarification there yeah I think I can I can respond to that question the planning board sees the projects if under the land use code they require a review by the board so for example when the when the new facility at the at the reservoir was

[77:02] approved there was a site review process that occurred and planning board did approve that facility there the restaurant itself was not approved as part of that review because it was a site review and it focused on the site plan itself and the facility uh not the use within it and it is considered um an accessory use this particular restaurant at the reservoir and that's not subject to review by the planning board that's something that the city manager or the planning department reviews so there are instances where Parks properties do come in front of the planning board and it's within the review processes that exist in the land use code if those are triggered then the board sees it okay um and so for this particular case um the planning board because of the way um there is purview on Parks had not had

[78:02] not been part of the whole process is that a true statement yes I would I think that's a true statement in that it wasn't part it didn't review the restaurant for example yes there was a whole lot more process within the the part Department managed and with prep and probably city council that wouldn't all have gone to the planning board for review because of the the the lease is that leases are yes that's correct the lease is not subject to planning Board review a lease of Park land that's not within the planning board's purview okay great so any any extra I'm just trying to be clear on um whether or not my proposal is one that makes sense to leave um within the purview of um just as it is right now um

[79:01] so leases and management plans are the purview of prep Andor Council depending on duration okay um thank you for that and then um let me just check and see if I had some additional questions and then in terms of again um in terms of the concern with respect to one size fits all um prior to calling out these Parks as Regional Parks um these Parks were just like any other city park right so they were they had an even broader um setting in in terms of where they live in um in our zoning they were just Parks they weren't Regional Parks they're they're

[80:02] considered regional parks in the Parks and Recreation master plan but we did because it's it's now an issue within Title 9 the land use code and we're relying on that definition within the parks master plan we we had to add the regional parks definition into the land use code and so in our land use code we did not have Regional Parks it only existed in the Parks master plan correct so so is it true to say that as far as our um as our um land use code went The Parks at the reservoir the golf course in Valmont City Park were just like any other Park in in terms of how they're looked at in our land use code in general yes I mean it's just it's whenever there is a land use issue that requires us to define a particular park or n so in another instance we do

[81:00] reference neighborhood parks because there's a zoning regulation related to uh residential uses in industrial zones and there's a proximity to neighborhood parks that's cited there so that's something that's useful for that lande use so we did have to Define neighborhood parks but in this case this is we' never had to reference the regional parks okay so that's um that's all I have thank you thank you Mary all right Council any other questions so I had asked that um somebody from planning board be here tonight um sounds like the chair couldn't be here so John G is here and if it's okay I would like to turn to John and John I've got a a fairly directed question for you um You probably heard the conversation that we've had so far maybe you've had a chance to look at the hotline that Mary put out um and was curious if you could

[82:00] just comment on did Carl summarize the planning board discussion accurately and do you have any input based on the discussion you heard about whether Mary's change uh would be helpful and also if it would be helpful if we shorten the lease period that Council would review in the future so John if you want to give a crack at that we can follow up with any questions sure thank you uh and thanks for the opportunity to to participate um with respect to your first question Carl's uh description of of our discussion I I think in general it was okay but I would have uh I would have said it a little bit differently I I think that it was pretty clear that the uh the complete planning board uh did not agree with the proposed uh uh proposal in front of us for for

[83:02] differing reasons um Carl mentioned that there was a disagreement uh not every not everyone agreed but everyone agreed that we were unhappy with this so uh I can I can go into greater detail if you're interested but that's how I would have uh described it with respect to Mary's proposal I think it would go a long way to dealing with our concerns um not completely but it would uh it would move definitely in the right direction and i' I'd be happy to to summarize our major concerns for you if you're interested I don't want to take too much time but I think U Mary's proposal would uh would address several of them quite nicely but not all of them excellent um we all had the chance to read the minutes of your meeting so I I think that between you and Carl um we

[84:02] have a pretty good sense of what the concerns were I was most interested in hearing the feedback you just gave on Mary's proposals so that's helpful the other question I'd like to ask is do you think planning board would be further um supportive of the change to reduce the least term which Council would have to review so in other words right now anything under a three-year lease is just prab and over three years goes to council um if the future Council were to change that down to one year so for these Regional Park lease issues um that Council would review those um for compliance with Mary's concern for almost all leases in regional parks would that also be helpful I my perception is that it would be helpful and and I'd like to make it clear that I at this point I'm just giving my perception of how planning board would respond I'm not authorized

[85:01] to speak on their behalf on on this matter but I I do think that that would be a very positive element as far as the majority of the planning board is concerned super that's super helpful Mark yeah John I'm I'm I'm very happy to hear your comments about Mary's language uh can you give us a better idea of what concerns of the planning board would not be addressed by that language uh and and the suggestion that Sam made about shortening the uh term of the lease before it has to be reviewed by Council what are we still missing I would say the there's the concern about uh changing what is a principal use and an accessory use U was quite a central element uh and and uh you know these are all things that could be addressed in the in the use review um

[86:01] but uh uh it's not obvious to me that in in Mary's phrasing that that that would be explicitly discussed and and it I know that at least among many of the planning board members that was a a real concern um and otherwise I think there was a the general concern about adequate public process would be nice could be nicely addressed in in Mary's uh proposal um and uh I I would also like to say it at some stage just so it's it's very clear in general planning board is likes the you know is has no problem with the idea of restaurants in in Regional Parks but it it uh when it's when you you get down into the details and uh the operating uh procedures of these restaurants that that care is needed and uh that was

[87:01] probably why the planning board reacted in the way that it did thanks John and Mary thanks for being here John um in in the hotline post um that I published this afternoon um at the bottom there was also another um statement that said that to address the the principle versus accessory use that um I would prop I would propose to council that we um direct staff to make that um part of the use table project now with that um Direction address further address your concerns or the planning board's concerns well uh again I I'm reluctant to speak for the other folks on the planning board I I think it would be address it partially but it's not

[88:01] obvious that it would receive the sort of public uh review that that I know several people on planning board would would like to see and that's why uh that's why this has been pointed out by several folks and by by public review because as part of the use table project it would come to planning board um as part of the regular process so it would come um you know in several stages probably to planning board um so is that the public review you're referring to or is there some other idea um is there what what am I missing here in terms of I I would say partially and sorry about this howling dog it'll end shortly um partially uh right now the uh the determination is

[89:02] made by prab about the uses in these parks and based on what we've seen so far it's not clear to us how how Bas how complete a review crab has been making on those issues um and so if if there is an adequate review and opportunity for public input at some point then I think our concerns would be addressed okay thank you that's all I have great thank you Mary thank you John appreciate you being here I I know that you don't speak for the whole planning board but it's super helpful to get your perspective on it so thanks thanks and I'll stick around if there's any more questions awesome very good okay uh Council any more questions Rachel well I was just thinking um my understanding is prab gave a

[90:02] unanimous recommendation in the opposite direction and so did we invite anyone from prab to weigh in or can we ask um their chair if they have any concerns with Mary's proposal I think Ally would be the one to check in on that I don't know if we have anyone from prb here we do not have anyone from prab here and they didn't take formal action on this item we briefed them on it last month we discussed it in last night we shared um this idea about having additional Council control on the lease um we shared that idea with them and they were supportive and and I certainly cannot speak for them I believe that they would be okay with your language because I believe they think they're doing this extensive review already as as as I shared earlier they have provideed input on the man agement plan that is guiding the operations um at the boulder Reservoir and again while it has not resolved concerns from Neighbors they believe it is balanced and represents um

[91:03] represents responsiveness and so I thanks Alie all right um any other questions or if not I think we should go to the public hearing all right very good let us do that um so we have let me pull this up so I get the number right we have 29 speakers signed up for tonight for the public hearing on this item so that means that each speaker will have two minutes to speak um and I think that's all you you all have seen the presentation that Brenda gave about the rules of the game so with that our first three speakers tonight for the public hearing are James Duncan Shirley shaller and Sharon Anderson uh you'll each have two minutes and James you're up when you're

[92:03] ready okay thanks Council um I Trimm this down a little bit it might go a little longer but as a resident of Boulder for over 10 years I have frent in the outdoors north south east and west and even right in the middle of the town where I live is graced with extraordinary natural relationships raccoon Fox deer even the occasional bear and lion have been witnessed here I am struck by the difference in the states of the environment during the the times of the day it's literally the difference between night and day Sanitas where I usually go in the daytime there's so much activity mostly human men women young old and children and their dogs paragliders are now common in the skies uh but not paragliding dogs yet but at night it changes dramatically there are far fewer people on the trail the trails

[93:00] up there which makes me think that Boulder is a still a nice homey town and people are doing their normal human activities in town at home but I get a sense that there is a sigh of relief from nature a friend of mine taught me a wonderful technique of allowing nature to really activate for extended period of time be still and quiet then that sends the message that all is clear and so the fauna can resume their normal activities we must be cognizant and respectful of these neighbors and value their gracing the land we share they can't write and speak to you here so I am their friend obliged in that capacity Bob Yates helped us close world singing day with Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World there's a line in there that says the bright blessed day and the dark sacred night please keep the nights sacred at the boulder Reservoir say no to the nighttime Club

[94:00] activities at the reservoir abide by the planning board's decision not to change the land use zoning to allow restaurants by right in our regional public parks thank you thank you James next we have Shirley shaller Sharon Anderson and Eric tusi who is pooling with two people so surley you are up and you have two minutes uh good evening mayor Weaver and City Council Members thank you for your time my name is Shirley Scher my husband Earl and myself live at 5054 51st Street our farm was homesteaded in 1872 by my great grandparents and 200 Acres of that land went to the completion of the reservoir I'm fortunate to be the fourth generation to live here I have grown up to appreciate the reservoir for its family oriented water activities and for the vast array of animals and birds that call the reservoir home the reservoir is a Hidden

[95:01] Gem in Boulder County surrounded by the city of Boulder open space there is no other Park in Boulder like it it needs to stay a dark and quiet area noise travels across water differently than land and this morning I heard the crew members who were on the far side of the reservoir being uh told what to do by their coxman I believe and I could hear it from my living room closing it dark has kept these animals and birds safe and their numbers are increasing after dark the reservoir becomes alive with owls coyotes deer Bobcats and occasional bear and other animals there are other parks in in Boulder that are far better suited for a late night restaurant thorough burden and Wildlife studies need to be done your planning

[96:00] board voted unanimously for you to rewrite and do more research on ordinance 8510 please do not ignore your planning board thank you thank you Shirley next we have Sharon Anderson Eric tusy and Vicky Nichols Goldstein Eric I will tell you so that you have time to re act um your pooling partners are not in the meeting at least uh not that we can see so when I come to you we'll be asking about your pooling partners and with that Sharon Anderson you have two minutes um do you know that the reservoir nearby neighborhoods want a restaurant but by accessory use we've never said we do not want a restaurant we do not want one after dark why does the section about sustainability and impact State there are no ident identified environmental effects there where is the Environmental study to prove that putting an after dark restaurant will have no identified

[97:00] environmental effects I have asked for any study and have not received any response at all do you know that the boulder Reservoir in surrounding open space houses one of the largest Raptor areas in the United States do you know the Boulder County ottomon Society has real concerns about this after dark operation do you want to be a predator to all Wildlife living at the boulder Reservoir your weapons will be car lights hundreds of people Amplified sound and traffic after dark did you read any of the articles that I sent you about negative effects of movement light and sound on Wildlife light pollution is on the increase one article States increased light has had profound impacts I'm going to run out of time I'm sorry scientists have found that disappearing Darkness disturbs migrating bird think 400 car lights in a night in what is supposed to be a totally total darkness

[98:01] increased movement is also I have to cut this short please read those articles think emissions think 400 car trips a night to and fro in the dark many Studies have shown that noise is also a big has a big impact think 200 people driving talking and Amplified sound follow the advice of your planning board and review each Regional Park individually they are unique when the wildlife disappears will you hold yourself responsible thank you Sharon okay next we have Eric Toc Eric I cannot see either of your pooling Partners here um and I will turn to Brenda Brenda do you see uh Rebecca Bates or Philip hickey here I do not we had Phillip hickey here earlier but um I do not see Philip here now so Eric you

[99:02] have a choice you can speak now for two minutes or we can push you further down the list as you try and get some pooling partners and Eric you should be able to unmute well you can put me down the list I'm not sure if I can contact these people these people one's playing underwater water polo and the other one gave me an email so put me down the list and I'll see if I can get reach one and my wife is here playing bridge and uh she will pull with me if that's acceptable uh that would that would be fine better if they signed up ahead of time but uh she your wife could count as one um we'll need another I thought these people logged on at the time but they have commitments so I apologize okay so Eric we're going to bump you but we will definitely come back to you um thank you appreciate it okay very good good and then we have next we have Vicky Nichols Goldstein Mara suder and Lisa Spalding Vicky you're up and you have two

[100:01] minutes thank you my name is Vicky Nichols Goldstein and I'm the founder and the executive director of the inland ocean Coalition an organization that works on plastic solution ocean policy um waterers shed health and we are located in Boulder um we just celebrated did our 10th anniversary at the bould res um where we had our masquerade mermaid ball um we have chapters in 16 States and active Volunteers in 26 States and the people who attended the Masquerade mermaid ball on in September at the drift R were primarily Boulder residents um we had about 140 people many of them carpooled and it was an absolutely beautiful night um it was the WEA weather was gorgeous The View was amazing it was a wonderful working with the res and with the staff at the drift win um there was music I felt like it

[101:01] was a beautiful opportunity to really appreciate the natural beauty of the res um everyone was very respectful um we 30 and people left and I just want to really advocate for appropriate use of the Bodo res and some of the other natur areas because getting people Outdoors having a nice meal socializing and really building Community is an important component of us in Boulder and also for nonprofits so I really do hope that you will um listen to the people who are also interested in having these gatherings and these restaurant opportunities at these very special places so thank you so much for inviting me thank you Vicki um next up we have Mara suder Lisa Spalding and Patty tusi Mara you have two minutes thank you for affording me the

[102:00] opportunity to speak today regarding ordinance 850 8510 which I fully support having restaurants in our public park supports an undeserved want that benefits our entire Community as a member of the Boulder Community I congratulate the city for improving the amenities at the reservoir and make it a making it a fun space for the community to gather how great is it to enjoy a meal together grab a snack indulge in a glass of wine or a milkshake in a community space I personally enjoyed soft serve ice cream and hot dogs after paddle boarding with my kids at the res the summer it was an opportunity we hadn't had prior and one we hope to continue in the future such spaces also provide a location for a Community member to host an event such as a life-changing bot mitzvah or a nonprofit fundraiser as was just discussed prior my son was able to celebrate with a classmate as she became a bot Mitzvah at a restaurant at AR res

[103:00] this summer without such a location she would have not have had such a phenomenal opportunity supporting Community needs requires that these restaurants be opened during the day and evening these restaurant should not be limited to operating only during daytime hours as that would create a disservice to the public needs as a whole the reservoir presently houses large community events such as marathons and triathlons a restaurant would have significantly less impact than these approved events do and serve a greater Community need than they do please do not make this opportunity cumbersome for restaurants coming in as a restaurant owner myself I appreciate the difficulties already incurred when opening a restaurant in the city the proposed legislation is sound was created with and was created with the community in mind thank you thank you Mara next we have Lisa Spalding Patty tusi and Tannis Samson Lisa Lisa

[104:02] Spalding for plan Boulder plan Boulder County urges you to follow the planning board's unanimous recommendation and refuse to adopt 8510 which proposes to amend the land use code to allow restaurants as limited uses in Regional Parks we understand there's a controversy over PL for drift wind at the res to radically change the hours of operation and the character of one of our most important public parks the original plan for a small restaurant serving wine or beer as an accompan accompaniment to meals was supported by both the residents living close to the reservoir and the community at large however it was completely predictable that a controversy would arise when those approved plant were switched out for late night bar and Event Center we refer to a bar because restaurants that stay open after dinner hours turn into bars they function as bars ordinance 8510 would Grant drift wind the ability to benefit financially from the community's park to the detriment of

[105:01] nocturnal Wildlife the safety of residents living nearby and the patrons who will be drinking and driving on Dark and Dangerous Country Roads Boulder has not previously and should not now propose an ordinance that would adversely affect access to the mental and physical benefits of swimming boating running and simply enjoying this beautiful Community Asset protecting the reservoir the open space surrounding it and the wildlife that inhabits this land is our responsibility establishing a full service bar and restaurant at the reservoir access by inadequate roads would unacceptably impact adjacent residents wildlife and other Reservoir patrons as well as bicyclists and Runners it is not appropriate and the Citizens Trust in the city's ability to manage our invaluable public facilities will be broken if the the public has denied a full hearing on drift wi's plans please do not accept ordinance 8510 thank you thank you Lisa next up we

[106:00] have Patty tusi Tanis Samson and Charles de de sorry de bom um so so can we check in Eric Patty is Patty available for her testimony she would prefer she's in the middle of a bridge game to be honest she will pull her time with me but you know this started at and that's how it goes if that's acceptable I can Em I'm emailing the other person Rebecca Bates right now the other person's playing water polo or actually water rugby okay very good we will skip Patty and come back to you then Eric thank you thank you so next up is Tanis Samson hello my name is Tannis and I

[107:03] have lived in the city of Boulder or Boulder County since 2004 having worked in the outdoor industry I have traveled and lived in many outstand outstanding outdoor towns but nothing compares to Boulder which is obvious with the latest Award of Tau places to live in the US the quality of life that Boulder offers is why most of the outdoor industry manufacturers and retail shops are relocating to Boulder along with their outdoor staff and consumers climbing mountain biking skiing hiking paddle boarding and running are easily accessible for all and we have several notable world-class athletes that call Boulder Home the boulder res as you know is a fantastic venue for Iron Man athletes and running groups the Improvement to the existing Raz building were needed a Daytime Cafe was favored by all including the neighbors but now with the proposed ordinance 8510 to

[108:01] rezone the res so that it benefits one private operator to profit we have to ask where will it stop are we paving Paradise for a parking lot full of food trucks it is everyone's duty to preserve and protect the natural environment and land resources that characterize Boulder a notable outdoor town where you can go for a run around the res and expect to hear bird calls not last call from a bartender thank you for your time and dedication to our community thank you Tannis next up we have Charles deart Karen deart and Jessica Benjamin Charles you're up and you have two minutes H hi the this discussion is about land use I would just like to check somebody can hear me can you hear me we can hear you great super this discussion is about land use should Lander the reservoir and other Regional Parks be used for restaurants as of

[109:02] right and I should add that restaurant use includes special events which can be rowdy I'm going to focus on the buo reservoir and argue that one size does not fit all for me this is an issue of urban creep the reservoir differs to the other Regional Parks as the other parks are surrounded by development but the reservoir is not so surrounded as other as other speakers have emphasized it is a particular beautiful open space a beautiful mass of water with perhaps a paddle board or a Sailing Boat slowly Crossing it a hawk or a heron flying by perhaps an osprey nesting recent studies and the experiences of cities in the pandemic is that people's well-being and mental health is improved by being able to freely experience nature the absence of development near the reservoir provides many people with the opportunity to experience nature of

[110:00] a particularly high quality this proposal if adopted would reduce the quality of nature experienced of the reservoir I do not believe it is necessary there are many other locations suitable for restaurants in Boulder summary I urge you to leave this open space is undisturbed open space and not allow restaurant use of the reservoir as of right thank you for allowing me to talk thank you Charles and next up we have Karen De BTO Jessica Benjamin and David Slade Karen you have two minutes okay thank you I am also asking the council to reject this ordinance because I don't think this is an appropriate place for a restaurant um I don't understand why we need more restaurants in Boulder we have plenty and many of them have closed during the pandemic um so I think we have enough um I reviewed the case studies that were prepared by

[111:00] the planning staff and um I I know something about those Parks um because I was a Waterfront Park planner for many years earlier in my career many of them are um in much more urban areas the reservoir is unique um I think once we commit it to nighttime use for uh for large events noisy events events involving alcohol um we have really lost something that will be quite difficult to get back so again I urge a rejection of the um of the the uh ordinance um I want to tell you about what one of the scariest nights of My Life um and it happened um within a few feet of my house we were coming home from an evening event it was Winter the roads were icy my husband was driving he does not drink um we came up over the hill between Kelo and Valhalla and um it there was a car sideways in the road um in the dark um

[112:01] and um in order to avoid hitting the car we had to drive into the fence um off to the side of the road it turns out we got out to find out what was going on with this car there were six inebriated undergraduates sitting in the car they had spun around they didn't know how to get out of it and we avoided killing them by running in running off the road which has no shoulder and no lights um it is my personal nightmare that we're gonna have things like this happening again if we have people drinking at the RS driving home in on icy roads in the dark with no shoulder with no lights um in unfamiliar areas we are we are just setting ourselves up for um for some very unpleasant events thank you Karen next we have Jessica Benjamin David Slade and Jill Grano Jessica hello council members and City

[113:02] staff my name is Jessica Benjamin the producer of First Bite in Boulder County's restaurant week which I hope you all recently enjoyed I am speaking today in support of passing ordinance 8510 option A as a patron of Boulder Reservoir it adds a lot of value to be able to pop up to the restaurant not just a quick bag of chips or to use the restroom but to be able to stay for dinner and watch the sunet like chiaka dining hall having a restaurant on site of a public park adds longer term enjoyment of the space and a specialty dining experience which is a valuable amenity for our community already many organizations and private groups utilize these beaches of Boulder Reservoir to gather with their staff and Friends spending quality time together as a 15-year event planner in this town the restaurant at the reservoir is a perfect venue to bring our community together to celebrate life's milestones we have several large successful nonprofits in Boulder that provide our community with valuable services but there are few spaces in Boulder that provide a space

[114:00] big enough for them to host fundraisers the boulder Reservoir and restaurant and Beach would be welcomed addition as I am intimately aware of the struggles our restaurant Community has endured these past 20 months I would also like to speak to the ease of running a small business in Boulder there is none the amount of red tape and Hoops we are already asking of our feelings small businesses to jump through is no small feat by passing this ordinance or option A you would provide enhanced ability to tailor restaurant operations to the site and allow them to find opportunities that suit the community's needs finally I think it's highly inappropriate that planning board was invited to speak on this issue tonight to weigh in without inviting prab it has already been stated it is not in their purview and it is wrong to allow their voice to carry more weight without the consideration that PR has already unanimously approved this concept plan this is poor governance allowing a handful of cranky residents to hijack the collective values of our community values and adding more steps to the process is not what the community

[115:00] needs thank you Jessica next we have David Slade and Jill Grano and Neil Anderson David David you should be able to unmute now hello can you hear me there we go thank you very much uh my name is David sled I've Liv in Boulder since 1997 and I would consider myself very active in the Boulder Community I regularly volunteer in bbsd I've worked to support emergency family assistance association I've worked at Boulder County headart I really care about this community um I live in Pao park now with my wife and kids which is less than two miles from the reservoir uh we regular Lally use the reservoir we hike around the res we bike around the res we swim we rent boats and uh and last month we had our kids Bar Mitzvah at driftwind which I was thrilled that opened because uh a

[116:02] restaurant near the water who wouldn't want that um everybody I know in Boulder loves and really cares about this uh this community and the environment um I can tell that the city of Boulder has taken this matter extremely seriously um they've been very respectful and attentive to the concern of the cranky Neighbors um I have respectfully heard the complaints of the neighbors who are lucky enough to live at the resz um who oppose having a restaurant I've heard what if the headlights are on and they come into my house what happens if people drink alcohol and wander into the water and can't find their way out because it's dark uh one of the most vocal neighbors who calls himself a newly minted High net worth individual uh and she said this to taunt the nonprofits that had events at driftwind implying that she would not support them if they supported drift wind another neighbor called the police with noise complaints the police showed up at the resz only to discover that the noise was coming from one of their own neighbors weddings at their house they called the

[117:01] cops on a neighbor's wedding then during a c council meeting this neighbor said that there have been noise complaints against driftwind referring to his own Eros erroneous noise complaints it's really difficult to take these complaints seriously and these people seriously who only seem to be thinking about themselves your family has owned land at the res for 400 years that's really good for you my family hasn't and we'd like to enjoy that land too I'm speaking for two reasons to implore the boulder Council and the people of Boulder not to heed the ridiculous complaints from the privileged patricians of Valhalla David your time is up you can send us the rest of your comments by email to council at bouldercolorado.gov thank you for your input um next we have Jill GR o Neil Anderson and then I will come back to Eric tusi Eric I will just let you know that the two people that you have lined up are Shirley scher's husband and um Patty tusi and I will

[118:03] need both of them to be able to say hello when I call on you so if you want to let Patty know I will come to you after Neil Anderson with that Jill Grano you have two minutes all right hi everybody my name is Jill Adler Grano and I'm the senior director of policy programs for the boulder chamber I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the boulder chamber our membership includes almost 1300 businesses and organizations from throughout our community first I want to thank Council and staff for your thoughtful consideration of ordinance 8510 and for the extensive public process that has surrounded the consideration of restaurants in our three qualifying Parks all of our parks are zoned public they're paid for by the public and they're designed for the enjoyment of the entire Community the boulder chamber supports the opportunity for restaurants and select public parks and for the public private Partnerships that will result from the passage of this ordinance these public private

[119:01] Partnerships allow new small businesses to form and to thrive while also providing valuable amenities to the public these Partnerships also provide important tax revenue for the city of Boulder and it's this tax revenue that helps us run our outstanding Park system in all cases we expect that our businesses will be respectful of neighborhood concerns we urge city council to work together to find a solution that works for everyone and allows for the passage of ordinance 8510 thank you for your consideration thank you Jill next up we'll have Neil Anderson Eric tusy and then Jackson mayard Neil um I see that you're pooling with Catherine Walker and Kelly d natal and I see both of them here so you are good for four minutes Neil whenever you're ready okay thank you I appreciate uh being here tonight and a chance to speak before you uh I'd like to say this zoning

[120:03] change is not a clarification is stated but really a major rezoning that will profoundly change the nature of this place and radically alter its future what's currently allowed as a Daytime Cafe serving Reservoir users and employees which we've always supported and uh welcomed uh the use of outside users for that matter this change is to allow a nighttime dining entertainment and event center it's not just a restaurant people need to recognize that meant to attract population from the entire region not a tweak but a radical change I would urge folks to go out to the reservoir some night after dark when the res is closed and drink in the experience after the daytime's activity is gone it's quiet tranquil and you begin to hear The rhythms of nature at night this is a place of

[121:01] nature an important part of one of the most sensitive habitats in the entire County this change will take that place of Nature and turn it into a place of man giving 65,000 Square ft at its heart to a private for-profit operator not just for a restaurant but an event center with very wide latitude as to the number size frequency of any events activities including Amplified music that will extend very late into the evening in essence a night spot a Regional Entertainment destination this description is not imagined but based on the lease statements and plans that have already been witnessed not withstanding the promise to keep things the same through 2020 2 which is one season this is what change will enable over a 5year lease and this change will put it will put the future of the reservoir on a very

[122:01] different trajectory as success comes as I think it would things will grow the city's own documents show plans for an expansion of the Event Center what do we do with all these cars more paid parking and the events are at night it'll be lit infrastructure will grow grow and on and on ever more commercialized and urbanized at prab last night we heard a lot of very Noble and well-intentioned words sustainability Equitable e equitability stewardship and the importance of Nature and you talk about a 15minute city with this resoning you will create an entertainment destination distant from the city that you can really only get to by car this is the very definition of urban sprawl what about the immense number of car trips this will generate how can you possibly square that with any goal of

[123:00] sustainability there are many places within the city for restaurants and some appropriate places for an event center and you take this piece of Nature and commercialize it how does that demonstrate any reverence for nature how is it Equitable to increasingly make such an important inegalitarian recreational resource increasingly pay to playay it's hard to see anything about this resoning that is consistent with the values and goals that are always expressed uh in laudable words uh those that we heard of the master plan draft for instance please listen to your planning board they gave you a unanimous opinion that this was far too complex a question to be rushed through like this it needs much more thoughtful consider a consideration and the season is over so why are you rushing it anyway as stewards of Boulder's future I urge you to consider the real impact of this not

[124:01] just now but over the long evolution of this place that we all share and love NE thank you Neil your time is up your time is up I appreciate your input if you'd like to send us the rest of your input you can send it to council at bouldercolorado.gov with that we'll go to Eric tusi and um first we want to start with Shirley shaller and see if her husband Earl is there Shirley can you have Earl say hello to us yes I am here My Name is Earl Scher thank you Earl and then Eric you will be up if you can get Patty to say hello to us then you'll have Pat all right hi Patty okay Eric you have four minutes and you are good to go whenever you're ready well let me walk downstairs so give me five seconds if you don't mind okay I don't want to disturb her bridge but thank you for um your flexibility on all

[125:03] this okay um thank you for talking to us tonight I did want to clarify a couple things that I wasn't going to talk about uh John um also confirmed that planning board on October 7th did reach consens consensus to zero against this ordinance uh Mark wall had a question about why this is happening it is because of a legal action um the way accessory use reads the restaurant as it is allowed to operate is a zoning violation Parks and Rec director stated that there is community input repeatedly we have asked for open records request for the data that shows the community support that says we want extended hours extra seasonal activities and so far after a couple different requests we've still been provided no data to support this from Parks and Rec last night also

[126:02] at the prab meeting the director mentioned ordinance 8510 will rezone the park to quote align with the parks and wrecks planning process which means it's currently violating zoning I'm just trying to be straightforward because I only have a few minutes so the legal action by the neighbors to ask a judge to rule on the zoning is a will be a moot point if you pass this and if that's your intent that's what will happen the reservoir as you can see from this map is a city-owned water supply used for human recreation in the largest riparian area of its kind in the County wildlife is mentioned time and time again in master plans open space reports currently the reservoir website links um wildlife and talks of sensitive species and the negative effects of human activity on Wildlife this is going on right now it's it's on the website the new one last night's PR meeting Neil mentioned um they're working on the

[127:01] reservoir Master Plan update they're focusing a lot on protecting nature their people mentioned considering Mother Nature sustainability issues and climate change and I don't understand it but to be a protector of nature kept being referred to as being hippie like so I I didn't think that would happen in Boulder but I guess it's happening at this at whatever level years ago Boulder declared a climate emergency Boulder has several departments related to climate initiatives look at this 1300 proposal you guys talked about at the very beginning of the show I mean it's all about sustainability and if you add activities and drive people to the reservoir at night you're adding to climate change as you can see in this graphic the reservoir is a long way from Boulder City Limits the closest ones are several miles away it's about five miles from town every trip is about an 11 Mile round trip if just from Central Boulder and people come from all over Boulder's

[128:02] sustainability goals now not 1300 are 80% reduction by citizens and the City of emissions by approximately 2030 there's a little variance but that's the summary now this 1300 talks about 70% so I'm not sure if that's the right direction but every new activity and every new visitor goes out to the res and emits more CO2 the prab meetings last night and in general talk about taking care of what you have they talk about not loving your parks to death the 2012 master plan discusses the carrying capacity of the parks promises to limit special events are included in the 2012 quotes and that has not really happened happened although they're still defining special events as for a conversation today I had with a staff member but Wildlife is mentioned in the 1993 Boulder RZ Wildlife study it's me there's chapters

[129:01] of it in the wildlife plan from the from the 2012 master plan there's a 2002 climate action plan and so the verbiage from a lot of these plans is great but what Eric I'm sorry to interrupt but your time is up if you'd like to send the rest of your comments um you can send them to council at bouldercolorado.gov thank you very much for your input and with that we will move on to our next three speakers who are Jackson mayard Casey Easton and Brian Frey Jackson you're up and you have two minutes all right hello I'm here to speak in favor of the ordinance um the res and other parks are great assets to the local economy as well as being personal favorites a mind for recreation this ordinance allows for another another jolt to an important industry as well as expanding the ways that people Boulder can enjoy these spaces that we all value so much there are reasonable ways to

[130:02] address the concerns of reasonable centers as shown by the robust Civic engagement tonight and the thorough planning throughout this entire process one thing that has been mentioned by both opponents and proponents of the ordinance is the Priceless natural surroundings of these spaces especially the resz I think the environmental concerns have received adequate attention and reflect the value of a high quality of natural environment as well as the Abundant opportunities for recreation and public enjoyment I hope the robust Civic process undertaken to arrive at this moment will not be usurped by a disproportionately loud minority of constituents seeking to undermine the conclusions of a very thoughtful majority thank you thank you Jackson next we have Casey Easton Brian Frey and Bonnie Gallagher Casey you have two minutes hi thank you um I am I would just like to um say that

[131:01] I do support opening the opening of the restaurants in all the locations um I've lived here for 23 years between the resz and Valmont I'm pretty sure that our family goes there seven to 10 times a week um um I live in North Boulder I can't afford to live out by the reservoir and so um I think it's an amazing thing to be able to go out there and watch my kids on the paddle boards or swim while I'm sitting there at the restaurant eating or go out there at night with a friend and have a glass of wine um I don't know how many of these people that have spoken have understand that people in Boulder aren't outraging all the time unless maybe they're on the hill which for some reason I doubt that's where people are going to go from the hill over to the reservoir um I think it g brings a great feel uh to the community and it allows the people that don't live out there as other people have said to be able to

[132:00] kind of appreciate the beauty and um uh you know out at the reservoir and like I said I support it in all the places because we would love also to have this at Valmont so my kids could ride their bikes and snop stop in for a snack um and you know it's also great that it can bring business to some local restaurant tours and uh people that have lived here a long time as well so um that's all and I hope that and like the previous person said I I just feel like a like a like something can happen to make everybody somewhat agreeable on this and I hope that happens because I would really like to be able to go out there and hang out and have a glass of wine or not milkshake so thank you thank you Casey next we have Brian Frey Bonnie Gallagher and Daniel holey Brian you have two minutes thank you listen our Parks provide a wonderful experience with all sorts of animals but

[133:00] it's ultimately the people who come to them that support them there's no evidence that allowing people to responsibly eat food and drink during regulated park hours would negatively impact our nature spaces actually on the contrary it's a group of neighborhood opponents who seem to be voluntarily incriminating themselves as a nuisance already with threats um and Loud disturbances parks are public spaces not private backyards this has been an extensive process and is a great example of responsible City leadership and parks to provide a public benefit this is a clear win-win for all the organizations the community non profits and the businesses that are eagerly waiting to hold events in our parks for people of all ages these public private Partnerships would Breathe new life into our Parks allowing visitors to directly support our parks

[134:00] department through buying food and drink and enjoying these spaces and the key word here is responsible and I think that the city has demonstrated a responsible over oversight of this process and would be a responsible um Steward for allowing these restaurants um to operate in these spaces I ask you to please support this ordinance thank you thank you Brian next we have Bonnie Gallagher Daniel holey and Rachel gtii Bonnie you have two minutes Bonnie you should be able to unmute

[135:06] I'm going to push my as to unmute button and hopefully give you an easy button to push there samam should we come back to Bonnie sure let's do I see you're in the meeting as an attendee but um Bonnie we'll be back to you hopefully we can figure out the technical difficulties next we have Daniel holey Rachel gtii and Kim bixel who's pooling Daniel you have two minutes and you should be able to unmute now

[136:13] Daniel Brenda I am not sing Daniel being able to unmute shall we try Rachel and we can come back to Bonnie and Daniel absolutely Rachel you should be able to unmute now and this has me concerned yeah I'm seeing them both with mute buttons next to their yeah names have a button where I can ask them to unmute and have pushed that for all three of our folks folks let's let's try Bonnie again because Bonnie's not showing oh there's Rachel there we are hey Rachel hello I kept pressing unmute over and over again so I'm assuming that you guys are having

[137:01] technical difficulties with the other people just to let you know um but first I would like to ask that the council adhere to the planning board's recommendation to do a use review on each Regional Regional Park separately seeing as they are all vastly different and just a reminder that the boulder Reservoir is in a rural area it has no public transportation and for a byright full service restaurant with a liquor license everyone that drives in must drive out and US neighbors are in support of having what was originally in here in regards to the potential zoning J change for the regional parks we urge you to consider that if this zoning change is approved it will have been done with no community outreach and public process the rezoning would mean a dramatic change in intensity and use and could fundamentally alter the environments particularly the boulder Reservoir and regional park that is largely

[138:01] undeveloped first and foremost the people of Valhalla and Waterstone neighborhoods have consistently been hugely in favor of a Cafe Restaurant as well as special events that is within historic operating hours of the reservoir a food concession serving the Reser our patrons while the reservoir is open it was is what was originally presented to us and the planning board of 2016 and 2017 we are still in support of idea this idea however the proposal is a large scale zoning change with no public process in truth the existing restaurant and Event Center was done with almost no public process when November 28 2016 Master Plan update was presented it mentions that the farnworth group interviewed only City staff and employees for ideas about improvements to the boulder Reservoir Visitors Center subsequent review from the public only asked about the design of the proposed buildings the ideas for concession extended hours

[139:01] alcohol service and sing are singularly from City staff not the community and all well I'm out of time but please take that all into consideration thank you Rachel let's go back to Bonnie Gallagher and then Dan howy Bonnie you should have a mute button now that you can press to unmute and it sounds like repeated pressing may be what worked for Rachel I'll try my ask to unmute button I'm not sure what other tools I have Sam that is okay let's go on to Kim bixel um

[140:03] Kim is pooling with two people who I see in the meeting so Kim you have four minutes when you're ready good evening um I'm hoping you can hear me is that right we can hey there um I'm going to try to speak quickly uh um I know this has been going on for a little while I'm hopeful that I can maybe be a little bit of an answer as to um kind of alli's questions and a few of your questions about why this is still an issue um we would not be here if this was just an is issue of a few cranky neighbors David um come visit us we're not super super cranky neighbors and I'm going to explain why we're not privileged patricians of Valhalla um I'm happy to expand on that and you know so many of us can as well um we wouldn't be here if that was um if we were just unhappy with what the parks and WS plans

[141:01] were for the restaurant the reservoir okay so follow me if since 2016 which was the beginning of all the plans for the reservoir development parks and wck had said this okay planning board and city council at the newly built visitor service center we are bu building this for the purpose of creating a new destination we are building this primarily to use after dark for a potentially a restaurant but mostly what was described in drift winds beverage licensing Authority plans were after dark private and special events with Amplified music focusing primarily on operations after Reservoir closing hours this is the central point that we are contesting with very minimal concessions during the day for Reservoir users the menu pre with a previous operator was way more expensive than milkshakes and hot dogs if they had if Parkson R had said since 2016 that a full liquor

[142:02] license for both inside and 62,000 square feet of outdoor space including a public be so that you could no longer bring your own alcohol to those areas hello I don't know what's going on sorry um yeah keep going Kim okay if they had explained all of this and then us cranky neighbors had expressed our displeasure with that plan we would not have a valid concern to be discussing with you and I'm sure the zoning process would be completely different also because it would have been zoned for a much more intensive drastically changed use of the reservoir than the accessory use that was originally approved this was not absolutely not the circumstance here the eight years of prab meetings and staff work approved are vastly different from today's actual plans that they want to implement for driftwinds operations at

[143:00] the reservoir there is a serious disconnect between their plans and the implementation and the words that they say and this ordinance is a shortcut to approve you know it's a shortcut to appropriate zoning processes so in my slides I don't I and I don't want you to take my word for it these are exactly to show you what was actually planned and approved and it is what the entire community supports so there are all kinds of quotes also but I wanted to save you the the pain because I I know you're already rolling your eyes but this is why we're here talking about this it is important for you to understand if you pass this ordinance even a modified ver version of it you will prove to all of City staff that doesn't matter how staff goes about planning or zoning or communicating or solic being feedback all staff needs to do is win over a few Council people behind closed doors and the rest was for

[144:01] show it is important for you understand if you pass an ordinance you'll be commuting to the entire city public that anytime staff puts a few compelling words together they can convince you to throw out our most important Boulder Valley comprehensive plan goals environmental stewardship in place of Place making statements that are so Broad and general that the goals could be met by any type of gathering thank you thank you Kim Let's go back and try we'll try Daniel holey Rachel gentiy and then we will close with Roman San Martino Daniel you are up if we can hear you and I'm sorry I I messed that up it's Bonnie Gallagher and Daniel holey and

[145:01] Roman San Martino so if we can get either Bonnie or Daniel that would be great Bonnie let's try and see if you can unmute now there we go looks like we got you all right can you hear me we can okay great um so I'm originally from Michigan where back in the 50s outdoor areas were open during the day and closed at night and when you went to the park there was a rope across the driveway to get in and the driveway is closed at night and the park is closed at night um I don't understand how we can even be cons considering opening the reservoir at night for entertainment and restaurants and alcohol and music it's a park um it doesn't need to be opened and if we open

[146:01] it at night and start having parties there it's going to change the flavor of the reservoir as a place of peace and rest and Recreation during the day and that's really all I have to say is parks are closed at night thank you Bonnie okay thank you with that let's try Daniel Howley again and then Roman s Martino hey Daniel I'm gonna try one other thing let's see if we change your status in the meeting that didn't work either so I'm going to go back to asking you to unmute [Music] Daniel and it may be that he was called away from his computer c yeah I'm not sure let us go to Roman San Martino okay

[147:03] Roman you yep Roman you should be able to talk hello can you hear me yeah you have two minutes all right um I'm the head coach of the CU roaming team rowing team and I would like to thank city council staff parks and W and all the other folks on meeting for their hard work tonight and have on been ongoing um I just want to say that we don't support the ordinance as is and would like some key revisions to be made before proceeding uh we I've been using the reservoir regularly since 2011 um 16 hours per week nine months out of the year um and CU has uh been at the reservoir for 30 years we have 60 plus people there almost every day for six months out of the year um and we're concerned about a couple things so um uh we've had a lot of changes in the past 10 years and all of them have been topped down uh and there's been just been little room for compromise um and the specifics of that is for another time but my point here is that there's just is a trend of just inadequate

[148:01] weight of the postures that patrons who use the reservoir most have on uh things that impact them um so the key things here is that uh we think the three-year uh use review process is very impactful um what's to stop parks and wreck from just renewing threeyear leases without public input just ongoing with the same vendor um I do think Mary's proposal would address that concern um we're also concerned that the restaurant serving alcohol late at night um we don't want intoxicated patrons damaging hundreds of thousands of dollars of uh Capital we invested in our rowing equipment and uh other people have invested in their equipment at the reservoir perhaps we should just have narrower hours and limit the alcohol service to just beer and wine um I also just want to Echo uh Kim stting that we've had some similar experiences working with parks and wreck we just don't feel heard um as ongoing community members thank you so much for your time and go Buffs thank you Roman and with that we

[149:02] will try Daniel one more time Daniel it looks like you can speak to us and you have two minutes yes thank you um and sorry that I was a little delayed putting some kids to bed here um I really appreciate everybody's time being here and uh the thoughtful uh nature with which you're approaching this issue um I'm uh the owner founder uh and manager of uh the spot Bouldering Gym um in the climbing gyms that we've opened since then uh in 2010 we did a an event at the reservoir battle in the bubble um it was a professional climbing competition and um we felt very very fortunate being able to use such a a wonderful place to to hold the event um one of the stipulations of course in the holding the event there was that uh we had to be all buttoned up at a reasonable hour and um you know when when we worked with uh everybody in

[150:00] charge uh we did our best to accommodate that and uh at first we were you know we were looking for an exemption or an exception uh being able to stay open uh with the event much later um but the reasoning behind the the zoning the way it is was explained to us um uh that the community and the wildlife uh really aren't uh supportive of of loud noises amplification late at night uh bigger crowds etc etc the the park needs time to rest which uh again we were so happy to be there because of its beautiful setting and what goes on there so um when it was explained to us that uh we couldn't stay open or do the event later um it made sense and we cooperated um and I would just uh ask that you look very carefully at the the nature of the res resir um you know I don't believe that the commercialization of the reservoir is in our uh best interest and um I don't definitely think it's in the best interest of the the neighborhood the community and the um the wildlife

[151:00] that's there so um I I just hope that you guys really take that into consideration I think there are better ways to um be able to provide access for people to be there um without commercializing old the reservoir thank you Daniel and with that we'll bring the public hearing to a close and bring this item back to council um Council any questions or discussion Bob just a quick question it's actually address to ali rhods um Alli I I think I heard you say something about but I wanted to make sure that I heard it in light of all the testimony we just heard from folks I I think you said um in your opening remarks that regardless of whether uh Council passes ordinance 8510 or not tonight the lease of the restaurant space of the reservoir would continue is that correct yes sir okay so this is not about whether we

[152:00] lease the property or don't lease the property or terminate the lease or change the lease this is really about um the use of restaurants going forward at at three big Park Properties is that correct yes sir thank you thank you Bob then we got Mark and by Mark my questions are also for Ali and and forgive me but I'm asking you to refresh my recollection um what are the current hour limitations at the uh at the resz for the restaurant or the current operating hours well for the restaurant yeah so and I I guess I should be clear with everyone the restaurant has not fully operated right it's been very limited um due to One Construction impacts through June but then the fact that um there have been so many limitations on their operations so I understand folks preference for a broader menu and they really look forward to having a grilled Caesar salad and lobster rolls but but that has not been possible um within the current

[153:00] restraints but the the plan is when they operate again next summer they're currently dark through Memorial Day um weekends until 10 p.m. and so that means I just I do want to clarify because of comments about late night bars and such that would mean dinner Sur Serv and um certainly any last call for beverages would be well before that are those limitations in the lease or or otherwise they are in an operating agreement the lease requires compliance with any operating agreements and allows the city broad purview to set those and are there any size or frequency limitations with respect to events yes um the well in this way any 00 over a certain amount of people um or requires additional Amplified sound requires our per our um permission the the outdoor speakers have to be off by a certain time in the

[154:02] evening what what time would that be I believe it's nine o'clock I'm pulling it up it's linked in your memo but I want to I want to confirm because I know how important accuracy is always and certainly with this conversation it's opening right now all right so private events are allowed they require permission from the city if they require any request for Amplified sound Beyond um what is currently allowed they if they require support from City staff 00 or if they exceed 200 attendees so as long as they're within those parameters um they're allowed to host events and then as far as sound just to clarify all sound will adhere to city ordinances in addition and more restrictive than the city ordinance outdoor speakers are to be turned off at

[155:02] 9 o'clock Monday through Thursday and 10 o'clock Friday through Sunday we will Monitor and record sound levels throughout the year and to ensure that we can address any issues should they arise okay thank you I just needed that refreshing freshing of my recollection thank you thank you Mark Come nearby Sam quick question is this where you want us to just discuss where we stand on this or is this just questions or I just want to make can get in comments before we vote floor is open so you can speak about anything you want so questions or comments are fair game okay um so this has been oddly a huge topic um I would love to support restaurants over by the golf course I think that's a great idea um I'd even like to support the restaurant here at the reservoir um until it gets dark um but I think once again the impacts to our Wildlife are just something I'm not

[156:01] willing to compromise with um I think this has been extremely sad to hear the community degrade the neighborhood so severely and the nasty comments it's it's embarrassing and it's inappropriate in my opinion um if this was happening in their backyard uh many of them would be doing the exact same thing and these people are not being grumpy neighbors they're not being entitled neighbors they're speaking out for something they care about and that's what we celebrate and we pride ourselves on in Boulder and so once again most likely I will be the only council member supporting our neighbors and our Wildlife I hate to say this for the count the staff members who are working on our climate action plan but it's just proving over and over again that our climate action plan is is a joke I said it before with Celestial Seasonings and I'll say it again we value humans and their activity so far over what this planet can handle it's unbelievable and this is coming from Boulder so I hate to see what other towns and cities are like

[157:01] um if we can't understand this if if we cannot get our acts together to support the wildlife and the environment that we live in and we continue to commercialize and continue to take away and ship away at what they can naturally do we're going to lose our wildlife and apparently people who have moved here in the last 20 years in the past 30 years or even more recently just don't seem to care and has completely changed the face of B so so be it enjoy your lack of wildlife is all I can say um and I sincerely say good luck to those who are in the reservoir and what you're going to have to deal with my sincere apologies and I will be very obviously voting no on this thank you mby Bob I wna um maybe be so presumptuous as to call on my colleague Mary young and ask her if um she could walk us through um the revised language that she worked up with the city attorney's office today I think it was up on the screen earlier if somebody could put that up in Mary would you be so kind as to walk us

[158:01] through that because I think it does as John gist indicated it does address a number of the concerns the planning board raised and I'd love to to hear your your take on it Mary sure um there it is um all right so um like I mentioned a little earlier today um this was an attempt to address the concern um regarding the one siiz fits-all and then my questioning during The Question Answer period was confirming that um it indeed um did and and as well as John gerol um also agreed that it didn't need to involve the planning board so it would go um it would apply to either um the the Prav the Parks and Recreation Advisory board and or Council so the idea is was to um include the language

[159:03] that is highlighted that would allow um and guarantee a discussion um during the management plan and um the lease that would take into consideration the context of each individual um Regional Park so the compatibility and the impacts um are relative to the context of each so that's that's the intent behind this because um and the reason I wanted it in the ordinance um specifically I I I worked with the city attorney to put it in tonight's ordinance because I um felt that there was a gap in the certainty for

[160:01] addressing um these impacts and compatibility um so in other words the it was possible that possible but probably unlikely that a lease would go through without consideration of these um the compatibility and the impacts so um now it's within this proposal puts it within the ordinance within the definition of The Limited use so that was the thinking behind it is that this provides some measure of guarantee that the context the specific context for each of the three and maybe four parts would be considered within the negotiation of the um lease and the management plan I I did have one question um arise um for me when somebody would kept

[161:02] referring it referring to it as the operating agreement so my question is is the operating agreement the same as a management plan or do we have to add operating agreement to this statement here I guess that would be a question for Sandra thanks Mary um you know I think that they're kind of used interchangeably um it's defining what the business plan is and and the details regarding the operation um I don't have an issue with changing it here um but would be open to any other thoughts from Ally or somebody else if if they thought that that would Pro present a problem but um it seems to me that those two terms can be used interchangeably okay great thanks and um and so Bob does that answer your

[162:01] question it does and I'll just go on to say Mary I really appreciate um the effort you put into doing this I think it it goes a long ways as John gersal said to addressing some of the concerns actually addresses number of the concerns raised by the community members we just heard um and I guess so I support what you what you have here I think this is a a good Improvement I hope that the the park staff and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board uh thinks so and I I and I hope the planning board thinks so Sandra if we were to adopt Mary's uh Amendment tonight I assume that this would go to third reading we could do that um on November 9th is that is that right yes that's correct it would need to go to third reading and it it could be done on the 9th okay well I for One support what Mary's put forward here I'd also like to consider it doesn't have to be for tonight um reducing the the time uh frame for for Council approvals at leas again not to be disrespectful pra because I think prb does a very good

[163:01] job of this but one of the concerns we've heard is is that um we want lots and lots of public engagement and having served on pra myself many years ago I know that not a whole lot of folks show up at prab on Monday nights so perhaps in the future we could reduce the um the time frame for leases that are approved by Council from 3 years to one year I think that would be a a secondary change um I think Mary's language goes a long long ways to addressing what the planning board and some members of the community were concerned about but that's a that's something we we could talk about for the next Council as well so I I support what Mary has proposed and and I'll hear what other people have to say but it's at some point in time I would hope that someone would make a motion um incorporating Mary's Amendment and Aaron I see your hand but I'm going to briefly um it on that so I agree 100% with what you said Bob and thank you Mary again for the work you did on this this is really excellent I have two word smithing proposals so I'd like to hear your feedback Mary as well as your

[164:00] Sandra and the rest Council of course one is when I read this several times I couldn't get past um in Mary's change provided that the approval Authority for the lease of the public agency I would like to propose that the word of be changed to buy because the public agency is issuing the lease and I I found that lease of the public agency sounded like you were leasing the agency itself so one proposal is change of to buy there and then I always have a struggle with anytime we use minimal minimize um all that stuff and you've all heard it so I won't bore you with it so in order to try and be a little more clear about what we're hoping for in this I would propose that we put the word materially after the word minimal so it would read compatible with and has minimal materially negative impacts on surrounding uses natural areas and

[165:00] Wildlife and the reason for that is because you know trivial impacts are very hard to avoid of any kind and so if we put the word material in there it gives everyone the heads up it's all subject to interpretation of course but the heads up is we want to focus on substance and not just um trivial or kind of dilatory potential impact so those are my two suggestions here of becomes by and we add materially be interested to hear what anybody has to say but Mary I'll turn to you first do you have any concern with those potential changes you're on mute sorry no I um I don't have any um issue with them and I actually think they're Improvement um and I have um many times heard the minimize and mitigate um issue you have so I totally get it and um and so I think that the materially um addresses

[166:00] that so thank you for that super and Sandra is there any problem with the things I've suggested from a legal standpoint um I don't think so um I would um I'd welcome hela's thoughts if if she has any but I I don't see any from my perspective I don't see any legal issues I do want to point out that minimize negative impacts is terminology that's already used in the code so in the future it may be looked at requiring something different than for example that same language might require in a use review so that's a nitpicky thing um it could certainly be minimal materially material negative impacts but I wanted to put that out there for your consideration thank you for that um yeah I've always been challenged by minimal minimize mitigate so anyway those are my

[167:01] thoughts and I have Aaron Rachel and mark up next Aaron yeah um Mary thanks for working on this and and putting this together I appreciate it you know we have a an issue here where Parks Advisory board has come to us with the unanimous recommendation to proceed and our planning board has come to us with the unanimous recommendation to not proceed both of them are are important boards whose opinions we respect on this matter so I think this is a good way of uh addressing um planning board's concerns um and you so I I appreciate you putting this together and I think it helps us move forward uh with the input of both of our advisory boards here I mean I I do support where we're going with this I think the the fundamental impact of this change is it would allow um a restaurant in these three parks to have some slightly different operating hours uh from their uh the other facilities there and also would allow you know them to

[168:01] have visitors to that amenity only um and and say people might go to the restaurant at 2 o'clock on a Tuesday and just have a sandwich and not go swimming and then go home and then you know that that it's not potentially that's not an accessory use and then that would be fine with this change and I think uh that's appropriate for the reservoir and for um for the golf course and for Valmont one of these days um I think that that restaurants in in major regional parks like that can be a really wonderful amenity I I will say that um this is separate from this zoning question that we're considering today which is you really about primary versus accessory use um but I do you know obviously we we've got a lot of controversy here we've got a number of people who live nearby who are very concerned about this and some other folks in the community who are as well so um I think if we can continue to work on the

[169:00] operating agreement to make sure that this facility doesn't end up having um you know a major negative impact on the surrounding area um I think that's worth doing you know so we could consider you I'm not going to ate this but I'll just put some some things out you know 00 closing time you know every night for example you know maybe some look at the operating hours that might scale um you know into the shoulder season um you know saying something should close it dark was very hard to do operationally so I wouldn't say that but you know look at some potentially um changing hours over the course of the season and then I know noise is a real concern and I'm impressed that we put in um continual monitoring sound monitoring Dev deves and just just want to make sure that we are and I'm in no way think that we aren't but just make sure that we are responsive so if we do end up with noise levels that exceed loud levels that that's something that somebody could look into that evening or that afternoon

[170:02] and wouldn't have to wait for a report and come look at it the next day or something like that so you know just want to make sure I know Ally you're thinking about all this I you're popping up on video um but just as we move forward with this just to make sure that we are a good neighbor um to both the people who live nearby and um the various um Critters and such who are there as well and so it's going to be an ongoing iterative process that we'll just need to keep a close eye on right and I know I know that we will so that's all I got and with those comments I'll I'll be supporting this revised ordinance uh from Mary and then with edits from Sam thank you Erin I've got Rachel and Mark but before Rachel I Call On You Ally did you want to say anything you popped up on video and your hand came up and they went down yeah sorry I wasn't sure if Aaron was going to ask you a question but since you're providing the space I did want to point out that the the sound monitoring system is called noise Scout and we actually have it programmed if if there is an um a sound that exceeds the limit it pings

[171:01] two members of our staff they get an alert on their email and so they actually should know before there are any concerns with neighbors right now when it happens it's typically tied to wind or a vehicle or something but we are prepared and have a full sop develop to make sure we're responsive that's one of the things we look forward to talking to Neighbors about at our meeting next week that's great to hear thanks s thank you Ally and and Rachel um just before you go I wanted to to come forward and say that I invited planning board to be there at CAC so I just wanted to make clear that was done at CAC and it was done so that we'd be able to ask questions um particularly about any changes we might want to make and any feedback we might get from them so apologies for not not inviting prab but I just wanted to put that out there that was done at CAC and it was at my inclination so Rachel and then Mark Rachel thanks for clarifying that um I wish I'd been at CAC yesterday it was supposed to be I could have done it um okay a couple questions on Mary's

[172:01] proposal thanks for putting that together Mary um so I'm a little bit worried that as um I think Sam pointed out you know with the minimal negative impacts um and wanting to bolster that a little bit I could see that leading to more Community sort of friction rather than lessening Community friction that we will be arguing about um whether something is a negative impact on surrounding uses natural areas and Wildlife so wanted to um find out more about that language in Hela you mentioned that that's used elsewhere so maybe you can answer if that's an easy easy thing to identify the Minima negative impact statement or just what what is the minimal negative impact yeah the the same language is used in the use review criteria so it's it's um I consider it a discretionary review standard and it's applied by

[173:01] staff and the planning board and Council and Council reviews use reviews on a regular basis so there's a lot of discretion in that term yeah so when we you know if we're looking at doing this by right does that sort of undercut the byright nature of of this ordinance then if we're injecting that discretion into it no I don't think so because of how it is drafted requiring that finding to be made by the The Authority that approves the lease so it's prab or city council or both um I guess it's it's prep by itself or prep and city council and maybe depending on a future code change that's coming up but it would be them so it doesn't change the buite review under the zoning standards okay um thanks for that and is it the same is that are those the same

[174:00] descriptors that apply for the negative impacts in the use review surrounding uses natural areas and Wildlife are those the the descriptors that are usually implicated yeah it talks about surrounding use say it doesn't specifically address natural areas and Wildlife we added that because those were specific concerns um that were brought up by during the by the planning board okay all right thanks for that may I just I I just wanted to comment Rachel um just that um thank you for asking the question about whether or not it um basically undermines the the idea between um the idea of making this a um by right and um Hela and I Hela helped me with this language so thank you Hela and um we talked a lot about

[175:01] that and making sure that whatever we did didn't then sort of negate that um by right that intent to make it by right so um so hello worked really hard to make sure that it did not okay thanks um I appreciate that I I still worry that it may um lead to um just more friction and bickering uh when we get to these these reviews but uh still appreciate the language and then just as I was listening to testimony tonight um a lot of what I was hearing sort of reminded me of open space so I just went to look at the missions of parks and wreck versus open space I just wanted to read those the mission of um our parks and wreck is to promote the health and well-being of the entire Boulder Community by collaboratively providing high quality Parks facilities and programs and then open space um is

[176:00] to preserve and protect the natural environment and land resources that characterize Boulder and I think you know a lot of what we're talking about tonight applies more to open space than parks and wrecks so I just want to point out that that's a bit confusing to me like even in even in this language you know we have added in natural areas and Wildlife and I do understand um that that the reservoir is special but yet the parks and rec Mission um is different than open space and we uh would not be looking at a restaurant at open space obviously had this been uh brought into the city as open space we would be having a very different conversation so just want to make sure that we're kind of um staying in our lanes I guess as a council on on what the use of of the reservoir is so I'm going to support um the staff recommendation today um I think that that it is in keeping with the the mission to use it um to to build community and space and we have that that um wonderful amenity and I'm

[177:00] supportive thanks you Rachel Mark yeah let me just start with a with a question for ali um are the operating terms of the operating agreement and the lease um the same do they differ in any material respect the lease doesn't call out specific operating limitations and that was for for two reasons one is that this is a brand new thing and we wanted flexibility right to learn to learn how it went what worked with the operation um and the second and I I think Council knows some of this history is that um it is very hard to get public private Partnerships to work with government and we had several Folks at the table and then not sign lease and we have been so glad to have a successful and local operator um and when the lease was getting signed January February we wanted more time to figure out those details and so we included and we worked with the attorneys to include language that says there will be an operating

[178:01] agreement and the city must approve it and you have to abide by it um what we included also were the guiding principles that were mirrored after shiaka so that whatever the changes of the operations they always would comply with those principles I I do I correctly understand that the lease actually has longer operating hours than the operating agreement the lease is similar and I'll I remember I think we've talked about this before the lease and the beverage licensing Authority require that have to have a maximum operation because let's just let's say the lease always set a 10 o had a 10 o'clock Max and then there was an event that went 30 that would be a violation of a liquor license and could be caused for revocation that is why there is a midnight cap we do not expect midnight operations to be regular and again the restaurant would is scheduled to close 00 on weekdays and 10 o'clock on weekends I I understand I guess I'm suggesting that perhaps some of the Animus that has been generated by this

[179:00] might dissipate if the operating agreement and the lease um were yeah you know we providing the same terms of operation because I I I have heard comments from people who look at the lease and they um they are distrustful of the limitations contained in the operating agreement and that might be one way of uh trying to diffuse um some of the vitriol that surrounds this project I just as a suggestion um that's up to you but and moving on uh first I um very supportive of aon's comments uh I I hope that consideration will be given to some of his suggestions I I think they were well taken with respect to the language uh provided by Mary I think it goes a long way uh towards helping um with respect to the changes you wanted Sam I'm I'm good with

[180:00] the first um but when I look at the phrase um minimal material negative impacts um my mind starts to explode you're going to have uh disputes over what con minimal M and material and negative um and I I I'm looking at that language I'm thinking it simply doesn't have the clarity that I would like to see in terms of um you know guiding us going forward um I I support this this concept actually I like Mary's language better um than the changed language because I think it's a little clearer um and I would like to combine Mary's language with the option b that the council approves all leases over one year uh and I think those two things together uh would be responsive to a number of the concerns that have been raised um and I want to thank Mary for doing this now sort of coming in and

[181:02] saving the day and uh bad news Mary is after doing this you can't leave Council sorry you're gonna have to stick around but uh you know I I don't know how you feel how strongly you feel Sam about the the interjection of the material but I I found it somewhat confusing well Mark alolo um I find the point that you made quite accurate we're going to debate each word here um minimal negative impacts to me is almost meaningless like I don't know how to interpret it which is why hel said it's discretionary the idea of putting materially in there is simply to try and emphasize that it's not trivial impacts that could be brought up or could could be determinative here I don't know how to say it any better um if I had a little more time to Wordsmith it that's just I'm not really attached to it but I will say that what's there will result

[182:00] in lots of disputation if I can suggest how about minimal negative impacts of a material nature that's just fine with me yeah yeah anything which which tries to get the concept in there that it can't be trivial that's all I'm trying to do and minimal can be trivial so how would you say it minimal negative impact material nature okay I I'm good with that I think that's an improvement okay um all right that's that's what I've got anyone else great well then I will jump in and I will say that I'm going to be supportive of this ordinance with Mary's changes I think those changes are quite important to being able to make this um comport with what we heard from planning board which I think was good feedback um I didn't agree with all of it but I certainly agreed with the key points that we want to have more public input over the approval of these kind of

[183:02] operations and particularly this Regional Park um so I I think generally speaking this is a benefit to the community much more then it's a negative I mean let's be clear this is a man-made Reservoir it's got two dams which create it and keep it here and we allow boating on it you know many things are happening here which are more recreational in nature uh so to speak than we have with open space so I think that is a key Point here I think we need to be very um clear about any impacts that we do have on Wildlife I think that is definitely something that we need to track but we are not managing this facility and this Resource as open space we're managing it as a park and I think that's very important to keep in mind so um with that I I don't think there's

[184:02] much more to say I I want to thank Mary again for um all the work that she did in bringing us to this great compromise and Mary I see you got a hand up yeah thank you and um I I want to especially thank Kella for helping me out with this um and the other suggestion that I wanted to make and um so I'm going to be supporting um basically what's option b with this alternative l18 language and um with Mark's suggestion um and um the other suggestion that that I wanted to make is the one that in order to address the whole um um planning in planning board's motion they had a concern regarding the um accessory versus primary um that it needed to be further um it needed more vetting so um my

[185:03] suggestion is that we direct staff to include that specifically within the project um that is already in progress on use tables so Mary if I could just um try and summarize that you said three things there's approve the ordinance with the L8 language as amended and then option b which I agree with 100% but that sounds like that needs to be a suggestion to the next council do you agree with that yes I do agree with that and um so I guess it can only be a suggestion to the next Council um but that project the the use tables project is an ongoing project so so um but but Mary Nots interrupt just to be clear on the option b part that's to have Council review leases that are a year not just three

[186:01] years correct yes yes and I and I agree with that okay so we got the use table piece the oneyear lease piece and then the LA language are the three things that you mentioned correct got it all right and I'm fully supportive of all those as well okay great uh M asandra do you have something yes thank you um I just wanted to clarify that with respect to option b that would require a separate ordinance and so that would be something that could be um you know that council could um recom commend to the next Council but we don't have that ordinance here tonight just to clarify that absolutely I think I thank you for clarifying I think we get that and that would be of the three things married just listed two of them would be suggestions to the next Council so and

[187:00] then the first would be the new language great Mir by I didn't have anything Sam sorry I had a kitten on my computer all right very good okay um with that I think we're probably to the point uh a motion would make sense now if anyone has one they want to tea up I'd be happy to try give her give her a shot okay um I move that we um pass ordinance 8510 um with the amended alternative l18 language that swaps out um lease of the public agency with lease by the public

[188:00] agency and includes has M minimal negative impacts that are material in nature did I get that right Mark CL enough and so with those amendments to that language um and so that that is the motion and then aside from that a suggestion to the next Council that they consider um the changes to the the duration the periods at which the leases are reviewed as well as um considering the access the accessory versus Prim primary within the use table project second excellent excellent so um Mary any anything else you'd like to say about this um only only to say that um the this as as um Ally mentioned and um

[189:04] Bob reaffirmed at the beginning of our discussion this ordinance does not affect the lease that is already in place for the reservoir um and um I um I support the comments that um Aaron made as well as just to say that we kind of need a baseline on the on this operation of this restaurant so we need it we need to let it operate as envisioned and then there's a there are a lot of um things in place within the operating agreement and um the the Good Neighbor agreement that um that can take care of issues should they arise but my guess is that if we let it operate as envisioned and then work from there I think we

[190:01] might be pleasantly surprised um so I would just ask for some patience and um and I know that if the problems as en visioned by many of the speakers tonight come to fruition that they will be addressed um my guess is that they likely will not come to fruition so if if we can just be patient and let this um existing lease work through the Kinks as it actually operates um I think we might be pleasantly surprised so um and then with respect to the ordinance um I really I support it especially because it's moving forward for the golf course and for velmont city park and um I think those amenities would really enhance those Regional Parks so um thank you for those um for that ordinance thank you Mary Bob I just want

[191:01] to compliment uh Council for the teamwork that was just demonstrated over the last couple hours in being respectful as Aeron said we we had two boards that gave us conflicting uh recommendations planning board and the Parks Board and I think that what we've done here with with Mary's assistance is is woven um input from both boards together um we've we've sought a compromise uh we tweaked the language we had support from the legal department we've had support from the parks department um and I I just think that this um this is a good result um thanks to hard work by a lot of people and and respect for our Advisory board so um good job everybody thank you Bob Rachel yeah I'm in the compliment business here too for a second um I just want to reiterate I think we've mentioned several times during pandemic I think that our Parks and Rec staff probably um has been has been maligned The Worst by the community during pandemic you know they could almost do no right they were

[192:01] either trying to do too much like at the reservoir or too little with swim lanes and things like that so just want to acknowledge it's it's um this has been a very trying issue and I think it was maybe unexpectedly trying so I wanted to thank our Parks and Rec staff for um sticking with us and and working for compromises um and for actually engaging in a lot of community dialogue I know that that's um that that some community members are not feeling heard and I do appreciate that um but I I also appreciate that there has been a fair amount of Engagement so just wanted to say thanks to staff as well thank you Rachel any other comments we have Motion in a second all right hearing none um Alicia I think this is a roll call is that right that is correct sir great could you take us through it please of course council member Nagel

[193:00] no STI yes wck yes Weaver hi Yates yes young yes rocket hi and friend yes ordinance 8510 is adopted as amended great and the vote count was seven to one correct yes sir excellent sorry I forgot that no problem and if you would take us to the next item when you have a moment clarify that I think Sandra correct me if I'm wrong this needs to go because we amended it this needs to go to third reading on November 9th is that correct yes yes it does so maybe CAC because of pass 7 to1 perhaps CAC can simply put this on consent yeah we will have to call a actual official council meeting though

[194:00] which we just did under consent yeah yeah so I think we're go okay thanks all right I will correct the record to read that it was approved as amended 7 to1 and will be forwarded for third reading thank you council member y I wasn't sure all right next we have item 4C which is the performance evaluation and Merit raise for municipal judge Linda cook thank you very much and for that I will turn um to our committee Bob and Rachel are one of you ready to speak to this sure Rachel do you want to go or do you want me to give this a sh have at it Bob okay so just by way of background um as Council knows and maybe most of the community knows Council actually has three employees the city manager the City attorney and the municipal judge um and in a normal year um Council would do performance evaluations for all three

[195:02] employees this of course was not a normal year because we um replaced our city manager our last city manager retired at the end of last year and we were so lucky to have engaged Nuria uh this spring and so it was it was too early to give a performance review for nura this year and then of course our City attorney retired um this spring and a couple weeks ago we replaced him with um with a new City attorney Teresa uh uh Taylor Tate and she'll be starting in December one so obviously we can't review her as well um what got lost in that little Shuffle was the performance review of our outstanding municipal judge um and and her raise and actually two things H Happened One caused by the pandemic and one caus by what I just mentioned the due to the pandemic a number of employees last year were furloughed and lost um some of their pay and we um because we've had an economic recovery here in the last few months we've replenished the pay that they lost um but um we haven't done that for for

[196:01] our judge because because she stands out especially because she's an employee of of the of the um of council and so we we want to recommend two things today one is to um uh ref replenish or refund the money that uh judge cook lost um with the fur last year and that amounts to a little over $4,000 of precise numbers in the memo we received today and the second is to actually give judge cook a well-deserved raise of 3% which is about $5,000 of precise numbers in the memo so a onetime $44,000 payment uh uh reversing the Furlow it a raiseed from about 174,000 to 179,000 um and then of course we'll have a full-blown performance review of all three of our uh city employees next year by whoever is on the Personnel committee so that's the recommendation that Rachel and I are making tonight and we just need a vote of council after a public hearing to um to approve that and Rachel anything that I missed

[197:00] there uh no just that we are the interim members of this committee and appreciate you passing that up and and if uh I'll after we have our public here and I'll make the motion and and recite the precise numbers I was just using round numbers but I'll I'll have that in front of us when we get to to motion time Sam excellent perfect so Council any questions great seeing no questions I would open a public hearing but we have no one signed up so I'll open it and Alicia we don't have anyone signed up do we no all right with that I'll bring public hearing to a close and return it to council for a motion and action so I'll go ahead and make the motion since I have the numbers in front of me I I I um I move that um we approve a one-time restorative payment to judge Linda cook in the amount of hold on just a

[198:02] second the amount of uh $4,140 44 that's the onetime payment that'll be paid I believe uh in November and second part of the motion is is that we increase judge Cook's um annual compensation retroactive to July 1 2020 from uh a prior salary of $174,950 14 to a new salary of $179,450 second very good Bob would you like to speak to your motion well I mean judge C is has been our municipal judge for over 20 years and we are so lucky and blessed to have her um lead us and of course we hear from her on a quarterly basis and all the wonderful Innovative things that she's doing not only here in Boulder but she's actually considered a national leader uh she and a few other judges around the country started a municipal

[199:01] judges Association that's a National Organization is affiliated with the national league of cities and uh we are so lucky to have a progressive and forward-looking and creative judge um uh who uh provides uh justice in our community um with with the right balance and and we are so fortunate to hear from her from time to time and and so I I'm just sorry that it's taken us so long to get this um this uh raise in place but I'm I'm glad it's retroactive to the time it would have otherwise been put in place thank you Bob Rachel well my hand was up from I was going to Second Bob's motion and and try and articulate what he just said so well uh about appreci judge Cook's uh work and and um how impressive she is and how lucky we are to have her so awesome thank you Mary what Bob and Rachel said very good all right we have a motion and a

[200:00] second and Alicia if you would walk us through the roll call but all right sir council member stick yes wck hi Weaver hi Yates yes young yes Brocket Hi friend yes and there go hi the action motion approved Serv unanimously EX excellent and if you would take us to the next agenda item all right next on tonight's agenda is item number five Matters from the city manager 5A is the Excel Energy partnership update thank you very much nura y thanks so much and we heard from

[201:00] Jonathan earlier today so we're gonna skip right over him today and go to Carolyn for an update great thank you uh good evening Council Caroline elim I'm the uh senior manager for energy systems work within the department of climate initiatives I'm really excited to be speaking to you about our Excel partnership um both on the the eve of um the oneye anniversary of our community's decision to move back under franchise and enter into this partnership but also to have the opportunity to um really thank the outgoing members as Jonathan did um of our our Council who've been you know so instrumental and advancing our energy goals over the years as well as this partnership and especially thanks to you marwe for for all of your work on this partnership so really excited to talk about it I am very cogi of the time though um so I will try and keep my remarks brief we did share a a memo with Council and the community really summarizing um some of the progress so far um but we definitely have some time for questions or comment after my presentation so give me a second I will share my

[202:10] screen great and I believe everybody can see the presentation now yes it's not in presentation mode but we can see the slides perfect there you go there you go great thank you um I just wanted to give a very high level um summary of of kind of where we're at today related to the actual execution of of the franchise and and some of the core pieces we put into into place and I'll dive into into some of the specifics but you know again um last November 3rd our community made the decision um to enter back into the franchise and the partnership um Council moved that forward through the ordinance change and Excel filed the the franchise agreement with the Public Utilities Commission for acceptance um I will you know

[203:01] acknowledge and we spoke with Council about this at the previous two updates the one in February as well as June um while you know the franchise agreements typically move pretty expeditiously through the Pu process um ours um did actually um have to go through a formal litigation process we did have the intervention of parties in it I'm really seeking to understand you know some of the the nuances specific to our partnership related to um the emission reduction goals the specific targets for Excel um as well as some of the op outs and so um through the course of of the spring and summer um the city uh staff as well as you know supported Excel as well as other parties and working through through that litigation process and we have since gotten that pu approval um but just noting that you know it occurred it's Now official but it went into effect in September so while the partners really work to move things forward you know I think we did have to be very cognizant of the backdrop some of that delay presented and some of the uncertainty you not

[204:01] knowing if the puc might require changes that we had to take back to our voters and so just want to caveat a little bit of when we talk about the types of projects we've been executing and the work we've been doing it is set against some of that backdrop we did however really focus on standing up the governance um really putting in place our teams our executive team our oversight teams U recruiting and seating our community advisory panel and I'll talk about this in more detail shortly yeah everybody's familiar with this but you know really centering this partnership is about advancing our community's goals specific to those that Jonathan uh talked to earlier and and Council has adopted around reducing our emissions it really acknowledges the importance of addressing the emissions associated with our electricity Supply as well as our gas supply it's really centered around our goals um 100% renewable electricity and um we retain that goal even though we know that currently um Excel is not projected to get to that so part of our goal is to close that Gap um really to advance our

[205:02] goals for local generation Electrify our transportation and buildings um boost the resilience of our community's energy system as we Face some of the changes that we expect through the stresses um that are going to come with climate change change and really to Center Equity more within the work that we're doing and really close some of the inequities that currently exist in our um Energy Systems um those are those are the um priorities that are outlined in the agreements itself I did want to talk about some of the key principles though um that really underline this and I I realized that you know Council has received some questions from our community about you know how much have we reduced emissions how have the projects really had this immediate impact and I just want to remind us that you know the partnership is about helping us create the systemic change that we talk about that we really need if we're going to counter climate change

[206:01] if we're really going to have the magnitude of impact we have and so this is really a screen and the way we need to think about these projects we really need to remain resilient of course in the face of climate change but we really need also focused on replicable scalable solutions that benefit beyond our boundaries these need to be have lasting systemic change um not just short-term things that that have a near-term impact um these are really the lenses that we look at it also really you know frames the fact that we're not doing easy things we're doing things that require material change um to existing systems there's legislative changes that have to happen regulatory changes that have to happen these projects require planning and execution and so you know while our community may not see the immediate impact um there will be these large stepwise impacts that we're going to see that don't just affect our goals but affect our state level goals and so with that in mind we'll talk about some of the work we're doing so starting with the governance

[207:00] structure I've talked about this previously so won't go extensively into it but really the partnership agreement envisioned um this integrated structure that starts with an executive team made up of our Executives um from both the city and Excel they Empower an oversight team made up of the senior staff and and leaders within those organizations to really execute the work we work very closely um with our community advisory panel to advise and and help prioritize that work to really bring the voice of the community forward and then we work through project teams to execute some of the specific projects those project teams will be made up not just to staff from Excel or or from the city but also other partners as well as community members um will really be responsible for executing those individual activities um we did talk about the seing of our advisory panel we're really excited um to have the members that we were able to recruit we did start recruitment again in February of this year um that process um we just seat the panel and complete our interviews

[208:01] towards the latter part of May um we did have some initial meetings with our our advisory panel to really work on some of the team building and and laying some of the initial Foundation so the working agreements um we did actually hire a facilitation organization to help us with this um our first panel meeting was at the end of July um where we did some breakout sessions that allowed the the panel members to get to know each other to start to level set where they were at as far as their goals and objectives and start to bring that work forward for a formal business meeting that we're planning um for November um to really start to dive into the work of the panel we've also provided some some background information in a webinar to really um answer questions that they might have because not everybody started at the same place of understanding as to you know how the initial set of projects were identified or or how franchises work so really providing kind of that baselining of information and so we are excited to really now dive into the business side of this and really start

[209:00] to frame out the projects I did want to take a moment to to Really acknowledge um my core Partners um in this work um which is our project oversight team um along with myself I'm joined by my counterpart at Excel ify Jennings and really facilitating this work um but we have you know really just some amazing folks um from both sides the city and Excel um who are really providing that day-to-day reach out into the organization these folks have been working with us um since the start of this to really start to bring Clarity around the project list the scope of what we might do to start to gather all the Baseline information we need and really start to Vision some of the projects that are going to go forward forward um so I just definitely wanted um to call them out um a couple of them are here today um but these are really great folks and I'm I'm so honored to be working with them um what the project team is really oversight team has really been focused on is taking that initial set of projects that were identified um by the

[210:00] City by our council members by the community um and by Excel during the negotiation and really starting to frame those with a little bit more clarity around how they connect to goals where we have existing programs in place versus where there's opportunity to really build on them you know most of them were not discret projects per se but rather areas of opportunity starting to bend those together and really think about where the synergies are and also the types of expertise we're going to need to bring forward to really frame out and Charter the projects that we're actually going to execute going forward um this is now conversation that we bring to our advisory panel to really start to Vision how these will move forward this is the project list not going to walk through each of these in detail I'm very happy to answer any questions I do have highlights um for some of these as we move forward in the presentation that I'll talk to I'm just showing this to really illustrate um that we have you know started scoping some of the work some things are in uh you know business case development um and others are are really pending kind

[211:01] of that visioning process we want to work through with our our community and our our panel um so this will all be carry work carrying forward I also want to say this is the list we started with this is not intended to be the only projects that get executed um we're really creating a process by which new ideas will come in um that we need to respond um to changing conditions you know new legislation that opens up opportunity or ideas that come forward so as next steps um with really in this planning work it's really working with our community advisor panel to to start to focus in on this we do have a plan to have a conversation with them to select their top priorities and start to have discussion with our executive teams and project teams about where they really Vision our community's needs being to really start to Charter out those individual projects over the coming months and further refine and prioritize that work um again I want to say these are the the longer term projects the ones that are going to require more substantial resources and Investments and these are the ones we

[212:00] really want to have that Community conversation as we prioritize understand what their potential impacts are and how they Advance our community's goals so with that I'll dive into some actual um project highlights um where we're kind of at and I'm going to start um talking about our our K area of grid modernization this really is talking about um improving what we have today and really moving it towards the vision of the future um some of the key areas are um that have been identified with it in this are really like improving our reliability through undergrounding um our distribution system implementing system upgrades that our sub stations and our distribution system to to Really Shore that up um against future outages and the impacts that we're going to see from from different weather extremes or other events and types of stressors our community can expect as we move forward um through some of the um changes we will expect with our changing climate um we really want to identify and Harden

[213:00] some of our critical infrastructure so thinking about our um you know key assets like I have the the photo of our one of our water treatment plants down there it's really identifying those making sure um we're using the expertise at Excel to really Shore those facilities up and ensure that in the event we do have an outage these are the first to be restored so that we don't disrupt um the flow of the community the the support system for the community and then really visioning more towards the future it's really planning what the distribution future system of the future needs to look like you know the system that's going to support widespread adoption of solar um distributed generation battery storage electrification of our buildings and transport a and and how do we really move what we have today um towards that place where we can really be successful um and enable that Vision that we have and and the technologies that we need to adopt so um overall the team has done quite a bit of work really looking at the current status of the reliability of

[214:01] system we've been analyzing some of the outage data um some of the um types of errors or system uh interruptions that we see to start to understand where some of our vulnerabilities might be this has informed some of our work in undergrounding again we've identified you some of our critical infrastructure I will also highlight chiaka um which really is kind of a model of how you bring some of this together in the modernization of the grid and and both thinking about you know securing a a historic site and Shoring it up against future impacts um we're really working with the shiaka team um and the city staff to to really put pen to paper EnV Vision what what um that potential business plan looks like and business case looks like for really moving that system forward thinking about things like undergrounding the distribution system that supports that improving the reliability of the site through um upgrades to the electrical infrastructure enabling electrification of of the facilities on site um and

[215:00] thinking about the role of Renewables and so we do have a team working on that business plan and we'll start to present um some of those you know the implications in term of cost and execution uh to the team in the coming months we're really on the cusp but really starting to move that forward we've talked about the um first 1% undergrounding project um if you've driven up North Broadway of late um you've probably seen quite a bit of it we're really excited this project is starting to near um completion overall um this is really undergrounding that entire Mainline that runs from Violet up to 36 we're doing this in conjunction with the city's North Broadway reconstruction project this is really leveraging an existing project to maximize the investment we can make it's also tackling an area that we've known um we've wanted to underground for some time both to support reliability of some of those surrounding areas this is a system that feeds not just the businesses and residents along North Broadway but runs into feeders up through those neighborhoods um to some

[216:00] of our our communities that um we really want to ensure that we have reliable service too it also um creates a pathway for future Redevelopment of this area by moving that line into underground position um so it's a great project we're also planning um and starting to evaluate future projects including conjunction with um some of the work around 19th um and potentially some of the um Easter rapo work as well um so we're in varying stages of engineering evaluation of what those projects could look like um so we expect to make some decisions about the next phases of the work next next year street lights it's always my favorite topic um I know everybody loves our street lights it's a very passionate topic amongst our community um we do have approximately 4,500 street lights that are owned and operated by um Excel Energy we've long been exploring Ways by which to convert those to more efficient LEDs and and also improve the overall um reliability of the system U we have explored some options with them and in

[217:01] partnership with them we're also exploring the opportunity for the city to actually acquire the system and take control over um where we're taking the system we have completed the Baseline St stud of what Excel can do through their existing programs and we've also um secured uh a full audit of the system as well as the separation study um so we understand where the points of Separation we need to be the next steps um we're working with the consultant to finish out that business plan to understand what our our cost of engineering and construction would be to Vision how we may design um the LED conversion and I show this map here because as you look at this you can see that we have areas of very high density Street lighting as well as areas um that are under lit within our community um we really want to Vision this project as really um trying to meet the community's needs better um and really reimagining what the systems look like this may include removing lights in areas that currently are are over lit or um maybe

[218:01] better lit through LED as well as closing in some of those gaps in areas that are currently not well served um so this is the the type of consultant we've brought forward is really going to help us Vision that engineering design and that will be the business plan that we bring forward to council early next year um for consideration around to go decision to start negotiation for acquiring and so it'll evaluate the various different options and present the total life cycle cost so including our long-term operations and maintenance implications for the system and that will be a discussion we'll have early next year um and again this is where we're at kind of baselining that system um I wanted to show this because you know I really think it's important um we we know that a lot of LED conversions have just taken the existing light thrown an LED in there and it's created an experience that has not been satisfactory to the community that's not the strategy that's going to work here um we really need to do a detailed study of what lighting requirements need to be

[219:01] to really figure out what the proper LED conversion looks like and like I said where we may need to retire or um add additional lighting so so this is the type of study our vendor is going to work um through with us we will Implement Pilots um to start to inform that um so getting feedback from the community um through a engagement process and really thinking about um our strategy for Community engagement throughout any kind of transition we would move forward um electrification is certainly a priority um for our community we need to not just clean up our electricity Supply but then move um our buildings and our um Vehicles onto electric clean electricity um so this is a priority of the the project we're looking at a number of different things for example what happens if we want to Electrify an entire segment of the the community so that we can retire existing gas infrastructure um Excel has completed an

[220:01] initial study to really see what would be required in terms of building out the electrical supply um this is to a major downtown area that I think we're all very familiar with um where we have high density uh businesses restaurants and really understanding what the implications are similar to a study that Excel did with Denver to to see what the cost implications you do we have enough substation capacity um we'll use this to start to inform types of projects that move forward um we're also working with Excel and other partners on a potential um financing solution for community members who want to undertake electrification of their home or business um I think anybody and I I know um Mary and others have explored electrifying their home and understand that it's a it's a Monumental upfront cost and we really need to break down that barrier we made really great progress and are excited um to see where this is going I also want to really take a moment to acknowledge the work of um

[221:00] our Senator um Steve fenberg and his leadership and moving forward you know what is really I'm I'm a legislative change I remain in a and I've been working in this area for quite a long time um so Bill 261 you know attacked our 120% real modification we were looking for but it did so much more um and it really paved the way not just for electrification but also our renewable goals and and I think this is really important we are going to move into Ru making um for some of the um components of that so we'll be seeing some of the effects of that and start to Vision what how we're going to leverage that to move projects forward with the city um Excel is already implemented though the 200 the raise in the cap to 200% so some of the benefits are already being realized by folks who are are bringing new projects um through so there's great progress there and we're continuing to look at um strategies to to drive more electric vehicle adoption including our own city fleet I did want to spend a little bit

[222:01] time um on this topic of really closing the Gap and what does that mean um at the beginning we noted when we were on a pathway to um municipalization the 100% renewable electricity goal was um met by having full control over the power we purchase and the attributes that go with that um within an Excel partnership um which brings the benefit of you know the actions we take have broader implication across the state we have to reimagine like how we measure and Define what 100% renewable electricity is and the types of projects that get us there so there's been a lot of work you know seeking to to model and understand what that Gap might be and really working with our community to to talk about the specific values that define success and I'll talk a little bit more about this um again we focused a lot on putting some of the key Tools in place um so in addition um to the work that Senator fenberg did with his bill um I'll also talk about some of

[223:01] the the leadership our team has brought um and A New Concept that's been proposed as part of the um Erp testimony that the city filed um earlier this month so understanding The Gap um I think we know you know the state mandate is that our utility has to achieve an 80% reduction over their 2005 Baseline by 20130 um Alice Jackson spoke to council and our community in June about their Vision um for where they're going to be and the likelihood um of achieving closer to 85 or even 86% reduction um compared compared to that Baseline um that's going to equate to a net level of emissions at the system level and then our percent of that will be based on on the amount of use that the city has right we really use this as a baseline our teams are working together to gather all that data to understand some of the different growth scenarios so for example um do we see high adoption of

[224:02] electrification of our buildings or do we see moderate how does that affect our our impact on that overall distribution and that tells us the gap app or the net emissions that we need to close and that will be then a model that we can use to test different scenarios um so there will be some that explicitly impact just our local emissions and don't necessarily change the overall system level there are other strategies that will have a net impact on that system level you know and just to put it into context um I believe you know the numbers um around 80% emissions reduction that um Alice spoke to us about is roughly um 6.8 million metric tons of carbon emissions um in 2030 um the 85% um gets us closer to 4.3 million um for Excel a 1% change and that number requ to roughly 370,000 metric tons that's a pretty significant impact if we can Implement projects that can move um

[225:03] excel's reduction on ass assistant level even just 1% so some of the strategies we want to look at are really focused around these scalable solutions that move not just our community forward but the other communities who represent really 35% of the Excel service territory who have similar goals to ours um defining success um we've heard a lot of thoughts about you know we could be 100% renewable today if we just subscribe to windsource to um you know we have to have additionality we have to displace fossil fuels um this is something we're really planning to dive very deeply into with our advisory panel to make sure that we're all level setting around the same types of of values and I you know include just a little bit of a primer here because the interesting thing with Renewables is they come with two attributes you know one is the actual electrons and and where you're getting your power from the other is this renewable attribute that

[226:01] can be sold um it can be treated as a commodity um and so there are ways by which you know we could effectively claim as a community to be 100% renewable electricity without having a single impact on global um emissions right it's it's buying renewable attributes versus um we may never be able to claim that we're 100% renewable but we've so reduced our our net emissions we've accomplished a similar goal and so these are the things that we're going to have to weigh as we think about the projects going forward and so I just wanted to to name that because it's a it's a complicated conversation we need to have with the community there's even this um you know we have a lot of thought leadership um from our community around this idea of time and Renewables that actually means that we're we're managing how we use our energy to really align when with when those Renewables are generating we're using storage and other means um is that success um if we fully move Boulders load I think these are the things that we have ideas around um as City staff and we are really excited to start to

[227:01] talk to the community about some of the strategies that get us to each of these values um think we've made some Monumental changes um that really lay the groundwork um again with some of the net metering changes obviously these have to move through rule making and get into put put into place but the thing about them is they're not just affecting Excel they're affecting the state um so every person in Colorado now benefits um who wants to adopt solar or move these projects forward so it's it's a great change that's going to have material effect in the coming years um there's also been changes to solar garden legislation of late that open the door for us to also think about how those programs benefit our community whether it's developing our own City Sites or or really thinking about how we better serve our low-income community members um and and not just through small scale projects like we're piloting now but really tackling every member of our community that doesn't have access to to renewable energy who

[228:00] will benefit from the way solar Gardens can help um address long-term affordability of energy the other thing I wanted to mention um and we alluded to this in in the memo is the city um did file about 90 pages of of testimony um as part of excel's electric resource plan and and clean energy plan filing with the Public Utilities Commission um a lot of this um touches on proposals from Excel and largely supportive of some of their um desired outcomes in particular some of their long lead time projects that get us to Net Zero generation assets we did also proposed a strategy by which communities could really help Excel make those big changes and really bring additional Renewables um you know I I often reflect on on conversations Leslie lr's had um with Council about the last acquisition um that Excel went through there were um renewable projects or energy storage projects that did get

[229:01] left on the table for various reasons either they were slightly higher cost or um maybe had higher risk around around their ability to deliver um there were attributes to them that that left them on the table but there could be strategies by which communities like ours um could enable them to acquire those assets so um Matt lman with our team put together this concept it's it's a very elegant one that I I won't try and really walk through in detail today I think that really gets into a lot of the the technical details and you know it also there's a lot of work to be done on it um but it's really elegant for a way the community like ours and not just ours we're talking about Denver and and the other communities can elect to participate and really help address some of the final Financial Risk concerns and not necessarily in a way that cost the community more money um if you think about products like um renewable connect that's available today you get credit for you you pay for the service but you also get credit for the benefits that

[230:01] brings and so what Matt has really proposed is a combination of how we can drive more Renewables but also um rece credit as a community for the benefits we bring in terms of our our leadership in load management or solar adoption or storage adoption and so we're really looking forward um to moving this through the Pu process and this is one that we're really talking in partnership with Excel um we often think about testimony we file as you know a shot over the bow um at at what the utilities is filed this is really something we're planning to work on together and really explore the opportunity around and so this could really be um the key Foundation that we need um to to make a real material change towards our goal so we're very excited to see that go forward and I put Matt's quote on there because we all loved it about you know we need to rethink the way utility supplies cold beer and warm showers and you know it made it into testimony so we're um we're going to continue to propagate that um so those are kind of the project

[231:01] updates I did want to share this with um Council and the community as just you know kind of the look ahead things to keep their eye on um this is the list of um all the ongoing and upcoming uh filings that Excel will be making each of these present opportunity for us as as a community as well as us as partners um to start to think about ways we can influence these new projects or facilitate them so we're keeping our eye on on a number of these including you know the distribution system plan um which we've already kicked off some of the stakeholder work related to that as well as um some of the ru making um for the upcoming renewable energy standard plan um so there is a lot of opportunity here um to start to put the some of the foundational pieces and and we will continue to participate in these as well as watch for other opportunities um one final thought you know I talk about this um this is a huge team it cuts across the entire city organization um it touches every

[232:00] department and and we have an amazing group of folks who are working on each of these projects and you know this is just a sampling there's others um are showing up each and every day and so this really is something the city as a whole um is really committed to seeing the success and it's been a really great um experience to work with all of these folks as we move these objectives forward so with that I will say thank you and I will happily answer any questions from Council thank you Carolyn um this was an excellent presentation and I just want to say that the breadth of kind of topic areas that have been touched in your report just now is pretty incredible um and so I do have a few questions but I wanted to start out by saying you know I really appreciate how staff has dug into this partnership so quickly um especially given the fact that it took until September of this year for the franchise to be approved so fantastic

[233:01] work so my first questions are about undergrounding because I think the hope the council had was that that would be the kind of the first actions that we take on resilience looks like that's coming to pass so thank you and congratulations for that I want to give a thumbs up but had two questions about it one is there's been a commitment made about catching up right and so catching up is you know about a million or two a year and it added up to around 15 million hand waving give or take um how are we tracking that that commitment is met so I know that we'll have projects but how are we lining those up with dollars and making sure that we're getting fully caught up as well as continuing to underground it each year as we pay in right so the process is um is this is as we enter into these projects um Excel prepares an initial um cost estimate of what that that credit would be and it's or what the total project cost would be what comes from

[234:03] the 1% what other um considerations there might be we expect some of these projects may have additional fun sources like some of the betterment funds um that come but they'll they'll provide that initial accounting and then at the end of the project we will true up those final costs and we'll continue to track those um as a project oversight team to make sure that we're we're truly trained up against um that Target and the catchup dollars excellent um yeah I think it'll be important to make sure that that gets reported regularly at the governance level just to make sure that everybody can keep their eyes on you know when we are caught up we'd like to tell the community we're caught up whether it's three or four years um because I think that's such a tangible outcome that we want to track it and then one question that was raised and it's been a constant issue around undergrounding is you know Excel more or less fully manages that undergrounding

[235:00] fund right but they don't actually keep it necessarily in a fund like a pot of money that's fully accounted and some critics of the settlement had talked about that money won't actually be available to Boulder because the Pu will prevent that so are there any concerns about us being able to catch up because I hope you've heard about concerns if there are any yes I'll do my best and I'll let Jonathan weigh in as as well um I think as you noted um there isn't a quote 1% undergrounding fund it is in fact an accounting um it's all part of the the broader um program that Excel presents as part of their their rate case um for managing their distribution assets right and so what it means is that a community has the ability to help direct a portion of those funds equivalent to 1% of the revenues it both doesn't um constrain the amount of investment that Excel will make based on on what the needs are to

[236:00] serve that Community um it just provides a minimum threshold by which we can help govern um some of that investment um I think you know that is the um uh that was the clarifications um that were presented um throughout um the litigation process by by Excel and in their responses and I think through our our settlement as as part of that um process you know just really clarifies that ultimately Excel as they currently do today and with all the other communities that have that same 1% you know they have to justify as part of their rate case the recovery of those dollars um but we still have the the commitment and and there was nothing that that changed the availability of those dollars to us as a community did I capture that well Jonathan or my friends in legal here no thanks Caroline I thought that was great the one piece that I would add just for clarification when Carolyn refers to settlement that was really the settlement in our pu proceedings so

[237:01] there were were other parties that were part of that case that were raising that concern and so through the settle of those parties I think that issue was really um addressed as Carolyn mentioned awesome that's great news um and then the the only other question I had um I got a bunch of comments but a question you talk about financing building electrification and how The Upfront costs are such a huge challenge um to being able to do that for most homeowners what kind of progress have you made in thinking about that so far like H how how will the partnership potentially be um implicated in financing upfront electrification Investments um yeah so as background on that we did participate in um the 2021 2022 demand side management program

[238:02] filing um at the Public Utilities Commission in which um several of our parties um advocated for exploration of an non Bill solution um Excel has stood up a working group to focus on that um and they've held a couple of of working sessions um we've really participated at a um heightened level within that um and really brought some of our leadership to to thinking about what that Vision could be how we want to enable electrification and we'll continue to support um Excel they have developed a a preliminary model that they will present to the stakeholders in December they did preview for that for us as well as some of our partners um from Denver and some of our um our state energy office as well as some of our um advocacy groups that we're partnered with around electrification as a whole I'm really excited about what they've proposed um I think it's it's really a huge step um

[239:01] and it would be a a tarff based solution meaning that they would um help you finance the cost of that project and recover it through ongoing um tariffs on your utility bill um so those would transfer to new owners um in the event that you weren't able to fully enjoy the benefits of your investment it's one of the big barriers we've had um and the solution they're proposing um provides a a not to low cost pathway um for that financing so the cost of financing it's obviously has to go through a significant um process to file that and and put it into fruition I mean I think separately we'll we'll look at other Pathways to include potential legislation to enable it but I think the design is there and the commitments there and then as partners is really um how do we create the supply chain and the other pieces that are going to make that successful because it's not just about breaking down the financial barrier it's also about making sure that

[240:00] you can actually get the thing you want and um that is to a challenge and so we're really partnering around um Workforce training Workforce Development um as well as how we structure future rebates and and work with some of our partner utilities um to really Drive uh the market transformation that's necessary to make all of this come together but I'm very excited about where we're at um it's been a great partnership around that topic well that is fantastic news um I I just have a trivial question about that um why is that under the demand side management rubric because it's you know it doesn't seem to me it's going to increase demand not reduce it so why is electrification part of DSM um that's a great question um part of the Mandate of demand side management is is also around emissions reduction and as we clean up our electricity Supply right we know that we need to transition away from natural gas and the there are targets around natural gas reduction there's also an

[241:01] expectation within that portfolio um to facilitate electrification is is really the best um pathway going forward um and so it showed up there I think it's going to show up in other places as well including potentially the renewable energy standard plan um to start to incorporate we know solar is a great part of making this economically viable and we want to also allow storage and other Technologies to be brought into that it was the first opportunity to really surface it I would say as part of it as well um but it's also landed with a good team in Excel to really explore it which I think is is helpful um towards advanc in our goals awesome um Council other questions any feedback all right well I I'll weigh in with a few more points because it's my last crack at this um uh I love the street lighting stuff that you've got going on I I look forward to that and I

[242:00] think the community will be really interested in in seeing that I want to point out that you know we have seen some tangible benefits and we'll see more of our partnership with Excel along the lines of legislation Statewide now they have not come around to our way of looking at the world completely but they honored their commitment with 120% lifting that cap and going up to 200 that's a huge thing that I think this Council in particular can feel good about because this Council put that settlement on the ballot it got approved and one of the things that happened within a year is not only has doing things for us which is undergrounding but that 120% cap going up is huge it's Statewide and so the impacts of that are felt scalably beyond our border and I think we should all be proud of that especially the team that made that all happen um down at the state house which includes Senator fenberg among others as you pointed out

[243:00] um really Senator fenberg Champion that um he used the opening of the 120% cap lift to work on other things as well and so like this electrification work I think whatever we come up with there that we help participate in designing will also potentially be scaled across other cities and and potentially the whole state um so I think that's worth noting um and I want to ask I know that this might be controversial for the people who pay close attention to this but I still want to just ping this concept we have all this gas infrastructure like every town does right we've got natural gas running to every building in town basically and yes we'd like to Electrify everything as soon as we can but in the meantime there's this infrastructure that's going to be around for another 20 to 40 years decades anyway so has there been any talk about renewable natural gas so truly renewable like is there a way that

[244:00] we as a city can buy into some way to leverage the infrastructure since we can't Electrify everything all at once is there a way that we can make our natural gas better than it is now and I'll just put that out there is that a conversation that the team has been having yes and I I would say a few things I would start trying to think of where to start and I think first I would I would name our existing um uh work in that area within the city and really the leadership from our our water utilities um side of the house and and just naming the fact that we're doing that today um we are producing renewable natural gas at the at the um water resource recovery facility um formerly called the wastewater treatment plant and and injecting that into excel's um gas pipeline and selling that renewable natural gas um to uh Western Disposal for use in in their Fleet and so um that that is in place today and I think renewable natural gas has an extremely

[245:00] important role especially for our heavy Fleet conversion we know the electrification Technologies aren't there today um I there are other applications particularly we think about the fact that technology is not ready for some of our industrial operations um my general comment um regarding its use continued use um in building operations is one of the net benefits that I would cite around electrification that we cannot achieve um with renewable natural gas is really addressing the um emissions of our buildings um and their contribution to um ozone and other pollutants right so our combust appliances in our buildings are are worse than power plants at this point um in contributing to Ozone and so we still want to move towards electrification but I want to definitely say that particularly um for some time to come there are definite needs for transition to renewable natural gas as well and those are going to be topics we will explore that is fantastic um and then I

[246:03] guess the the the final comment I'll make is I didn't quite follow all the details because you didn't give them wisely about um The Net Zero communities work but that also sounds extremely exciting in a lot of ways so being able to come up with a way that we participate in putting more Renewables on the grid and that's fundamental to closing the Gap it seems to me that if that idea that you all are talking about that you highlighted Matt lman for if there's a way to advance that that seems scalable as well and it seems is really important so um I'll just close by saying thank you um this is really really good work I'm happy to see the partnership kind of being a catalyst some of this would happen independent perhaps but it's got us all thinking about this cluster of issues Al together so um Council one last chance I don't need to be the only one talking here if any of

[247:02] you anything okay well apparently this was all for me and appreciate it very much well thank you and I just have one correction to make Mar I I fully expect that um we just are moving into a new phase of collaboration on this partnership with you so and I look forward to those conversations so thank you all right thank you all very much and with that I think Alicia we have one more item is that correct excuse me that is correct sir item on our agenda tonight is item number seven Matters from the mayor and M members of council 7A is the discussion on in-person and hybrid meeting attendance awesome and uh this was brought up by a council member who just wanted to check in area and see that we're still tracking for hybrid slash inperson for November 9th and the 16th thank you mayor and and may I just

[248:01] say on the previous conversation that this is why we will miss you as you step off of council your depth and breadth of knowledge and support of climate initiatives I will say are just so appreciated by the city organization so just a little mention of thank you as you uh as you continue to push us hopefully after you leave Council so uh on Co I'll transition and just say thank you so much for the question I want to say we've had a really great conversation with the county and want to thank them for their support and and guidance just this afternoon we clarified with them what it would take for Council to come back and not have to use a mask when speaking which was your preferred uh mode of moving forward at the last time we spoke on this issue and what we've clarified with the county is that this event would not in fact qualify as a public performance exemption because that would require all of council to be at least 12 feet apart from each other and the constraints of chamber really just don't allow for that

[249:02] but it would qualify if we wanted to do so and we are prepared to do so as a fully vaccinated event that would allow uh Council to be entirely unmasked though mask while not speaking are still strongly encouraged so I just want to also say that we're still at level red for transmission and we anticipate the meeting would be hybrid allowing those council members who want to be present to join in person but also allowing for others to participate in line because we understand not everyone is comfortable in coming back in person or may have some other underlying health conditions or reasons why they cannot come back back staff participation would largely be virtual as well allowing for essential uh support staff to also be in person and we'd also remain virtual for the public as well we would be contacting for the November 16th meeting incoming council members to verify their preferences for inperson or virtual attendance after the election as well

[250:00] but for more detail I'll ask um our assistant city manager Pam Davis who really has been the main lead on those conversations with the count to provide us sort of more of the details of what that would look like and then we'd love to hear your preferences As you move forward bam thanks naria and thanks council at this late hour um I'm Pam Davis my pronouns are she her and I'm an assistant city manager and I've been serving as the city's covid recovery manager uh for the long year and a half we've been in this um so as nura shared if Council does confirm tonight that we'd like to move forward with in-person Council meetings that would allow you all to remove your face coverings um in the room together then we would just need to receive final approval from Boulder County Public Health that would allow for our Council meetings to be known as vaccine verified events and this is really the only opportunity to um have an exemption from the current indoor mask mandate at the County uh so

[251:01] in order to qualify for this process uh 95% of individuals participating in the meeting in person will have to provide proof of vaccination in to the city and so in our case we do recommend limiting imperson participation to council members and city employees who provide direct support to the council proceedings um staff presenters individuals hesitant to participate in person members of the public unvaccinated individuals and those not wishing to disclose their status they would all still be accommodated with virtual participation um we have a couple recommendations as we would proceed with this while the approval of the meeting um to become a fully vaccinated event would mean that no one is required to mask we would still recommend generally that individuals would keep their face coverings on and simply remove them when speaking to one another or when really needing that face-to-face contact UM in addition the scope that we would

[252:01] anticipate being covered by this program would only include council chambers for the duration of council meeting so face coverings would still be required within the municipal building uh to protect any individuals you might come across outside of that council chambers environment um and then finally if we're directed to continue moving forward we will go ahead and follow up tonight's meeting quickly with a message to all of you asking who plans to attend in person on November 9th and would provide those final details and instructions regarding the logistics of how to show proof of vaccination and what to expect when entering the building and then as n mentioned we would be following up with new council members to verify their partic participation as well after the election um so if you have any questions I'm here to answer them otherwise I welcome your discussion awesome thank you Nua thank you fam um Council bring it back to us

[253:01] questions at all um so comments Aaron and then Rachel Aaron sounds good let's do it Rachel I just want to laugh a little bit that we don't count as performers sometimes it does feel that way uh but I'm also very supportive um thumbs up for me as well uh sounds like a good plan Pam send us a note and tell us what we need to do and um we'll do it awesome Adam yeah I don't want people to forget how tall I am so let's do it uh Mary I don't want people to forget how short I am so let's do it all right very good so it's pretty clear I think that we'll we'll meet in person and we'll have the hybrid option so we won't require any commitments we'll do that by email um but it it's

[254:02] clear that we have a majority who wants to get together in person so the is easier than the 16th I think so let's consider the ninth dealt with for tonight and then for the 16th um you know normally we've done this and I know it's on a normal year but I recall it being in the canyon room of the library typically so that family and friends could attend the swearing so the 16th to start over we have a meeting at 10 o'clock in the morning it's when the new council members are sworn in the old Council gathers has a quorum gaves in swearing ends happen and then we continue the meeting till that night and at 6 o' it starts with the new Council um all that being said normally it's a big public event obviously we can't do that so is the thinking on the 16th that we might do that in council chambers for just the council members and the newly electeds is that the idea it is and we uh are also inviting

[255:02] some of their we're limiting the invitations but letting um some of their immediate families come in so had limited numbers we will be spacing folks out and treating it also as a hybrid fully vaccinated event so we will be pulling them and letting them know what they need to do and having them ask us uh let us know what they feel comfortable with um as we move forward and we're fully prepared with legal and Sindra you can correct me if I'm wrong but we believe we can um do the swearing in both in person and virtually for those members of our incoming Council that do not feel so comfortable so we have thought about it we are ready to do this in Chambers and we just need to a sort of account for who wants to come in and who does not feel comfortable yet to do so did I miss okay well I think this sounds wonderful I think it's great to hear that there's a plan for the 16th that one's actually more complex so sounds

[256:01] like we have a plan Rachel yeah sorry you probably already said this but how how will we confirm to you that we're vaccinated and all of the family members and new people coming in as well or is that an email to Pam you want to take it although we're going to try to do low Tech and maybe high-tech so it depends but we will Pam I'll let you take that one yeah we uh spoke with the county a little bit so with the employee mandate we have some technology that we're enlisting but it will not be ready by November 16th so we're thinking very low Tech will appoint a city staff member to be kind of the designated verifier and that person's responsibility will be to um check those vaccine cards at the door essentially we we would prefer not to exchange that information electronically over email if we don't have to and just to check in as a follow-up will it be okay to have a photo of your vaccine card as long as it's got the right name and everything so you can use okay super all right um great sounds like you

[257:03] all have all over this which is to be expected with you guys so thank you very much for that um and it sounds like council's good to go with in person on the 9th and the 16th so I think that was all that we intended for this item uh with that any other Rachel just one more question for the ninth and the 16th will um press be invited or included so we have not um we we have at the moment decided not to but we will continue to think about about that because it falls still in line with we will have hybrid event and we do not M members of the public inside whoever they are but it it came up yesterday as a question and so we'll continue to think about it okay but in keeping with safety our initial inclination was no eron well I just want to point out while we do have a a little special meeting on

[258:01] the ninth on consent this is the last business meeting for our departing council members so I hope you're savoring every moment of your 107 uh Council experience on a Tuesday well thank you for pointing that out Aaron it is certainly true and we will miss you very much just want to say that too all right well with that um shall we end our last council meeting as an official council meeting any further comments questions all right seeing none this meeting is adjourned final regular 18 thank you all and everyone have a good night and enjoy the election one [Music]

[259:05] week