September 15, 2022 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

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[9:18] online and part in person today I see we've got council members assembling at the diocese mayor you may need to unmute we can't hear you if you're speaking you caught me midnight Sarah I thought we weren't ready yet okay thank you are we ready to get going Channel 8's good and we're are we recording uh Gary me one moment we'll hit record we are recording great

[10:01] thanks everyone well good evening and welcome to the September 15th 2022 meeting of the Boulder City Council we're going to get started I'm sorry to interrupt your mic is very faint can you please speak into it yes I can much better thank you so welcome to the September 15 2022 meeting of the Boulder City Council we're going to get started with a couple of announcements so if we can get there we go so covid-19 vaccinations for information and provider locations for free covid-19 testing go to boco.org covet testing and the boulder site is at 2445 stazio drive it's open seven days a week from 8 AM to 6 pm and for vaccine information and provider locations go to bocode.org covid vaccine her next announcement is return to council chambers as you can see council is in Chambers for this meeting and no public

[11:01] participation Chambers is scheduled for this meeting but it will resume at the October 6th regular meeting Council and staff wanting to ensure we had all the pieces in place to hold a hybrid meetings before inviting the public back to Chambers with the public being invited back for the October 6 meeting we want to remind you that we will be offering the public to the opportunity to participate both virtually and in person and you'll be asked to indicate on the open comment and public hearing forms if you will be speaking virtually or in person in-person speakers will speak first and virtual speakers will follow all speakers will be listed in the order in which they signed up and all speakers will have the option to change their location preference if needed by contacting the city clerk's office at city clerk's office at bouldercolorado.gov right and with that I will go ahead and call the meeting to order and ask for a roll call

[12:01] thank you sir and good evening everyone councilmember Benjamin president mayor Brockett president councilmember falkritz present mayor Pro tem friend here councilmember Joseph is absent council members fear president Walling yeah weiner president and Yates yes mayor we have our quorum very good all right so we're going to start I'm going to ask for a motion to amend the agenda we just are looking to reorder item 8A and 8B so that 8A will now become the 2022 County in Boulder Valley School District ballot measures and 8B will become the response to open comment on psilocybin second uh we have a motion in a second uh all in favor raise your hand right that's unanimous the agenda has been duly amended all right let's move to declarations uh

[13:01] Alicia do you want to walk us through this yes sir our declarations fall under item one on tonight's agenda to call to order 1A is the Hispanic Heritage Month declaration to be presented by mayor Brockett thanks so much it's a great honor to be presenting this declaration I will be reading it in English and in Spanish so get ready to hear we're going to start with English and then do the Spanish version so National Hispanic Heritage Month is recognized from September 15th to October 15th and it is a time to honor the invaluable ways Hispanic and Latin a Americans have shaped our community celebrate their diverse cultures and work toward a stronger more inclusive and more Prosperity prosperous Society for all the Hispanic heritage observance began in 1968 as Hispanic heritage week under President Lyndon Johnson recognizing that five Central American countries Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala

[14:01] Honduras and Nicaragua celebrate their respective Independence days on September 15th while Mexico celebrates it on September 16th in 1988 the week was expanded by President Ronald Reagan to cover a 30-day period to celebrate the contributions of Hispanic and Latin a people to the United States and those American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain Mexico the Caribbean Central America and South America the 2022 observance theme is unidos inclusivity for a stronger Nation which encourage us to ensure that all voices are represented and welcomed to help build stronger communities and a stronger Nation latinate people have enhanced and influenced our City's character through contributions of their talents cultures values ideas labor as well as new and old traditions that reflect the multi-ethnic and Multicultural customs of their communities while adding their

[15:00] own distinct and dynamic perspectives to the story of Boulder we recognize Hispanic and latinate community members in leadership positions throughout a myriad of organizations including in Science Education non-profit business and government so we the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado declare September 15th through October 15th as Hispanic Heritage Month and invite the community to share and participate in the celebration of this month and consider the great impacts that Hispanic and Latin a people have had on our lives in the community at Large okay in Espanol de la herencia is foreign

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[17:00] ancestors America or America Del Sur suerte Las personas hispanas Latinas and in recess ideas

[18:00] the Potter 's personas is Latinas and Westar Community organizations estimates is gracias todos all right so now we're going to move on to Item B

[19:03] yes sir thank you 1B is the national voter registration day declaration to be presented by council member Focus thank you the national National voter registration day September 20th 2022. voting is the Bedrock of our democracy without it we would not be free and both our city and Country would not be able to function having a say in your future is a basic human right and we believe that it should be protected at all costs on top of that we believe that voting should be made both accessible and streamlined to all regardless I think somebody has their computer audio turned on is my guess why we're getting that Echo yes we're hearing terrible feedback

[20:03] what was that Sarah that's what we're working on all right that sounds better though maybe somebody turned something off since our country was founded many have fought and even laid down their lives the right to vote countless hours unending effort and painful sacrifices were put into protecting this right and securing our freedom as a community and a country it is important to remember that there was a time when only a fraction of the country could vote it was only through the hard work of many Freedom Fighters throughout history that we have progressed so far even still the centuries of unequal voting laws have left a legacy that Consolidated power in the hands of a few privileged groups while leaving others voiceless and Powerless we cannot forget that our democracy is

[21:02] not perfect there are still many members of our community who have who have been denied their right to vote although all Americans have the right to vote in law this is not always true in practice there are many ways that people have had their voices taken away such as gerrymandering voter ID requirements and polling place closures everyone deserves a say in their government and it is up to us to make sure that voting is a universal right part of this includes exercising your right to vote for those who can while the United States as a whole has one of the lowest voting rates in the world the state of Colorado leads the nation in voter turnout and Universal mail-in ballots according to ballotopia in 2020 about 67 percent of eligible voters cast their ballot and that same year in Colorado specifically there was 76 percent turnout

[22:02] although there were roughly 80 million people who did not vote that year that was still the highest voter turnout of the 21st Century at the last presidential election in 2016 only 50 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots city of Boulder is already working to advance direct democracy through its initiative to integrate ranked Choice voting into the city's elections and we the city council of Boulder declare September 20th 2022 as National voting registration day and urge all community members to take notice of this event and participate in its observance can I just say that I want that sound effect for everything because it sounds like you're reading at the National Mall in front of a hundred thousand people so and particularly because we're talking

[23:00] about uh voting rights so nice work yeah definitely thank you Lauren I think our audience on Channel 8 is only 50 000. I'm afraid though uh so uh one see please tonight is our Energy Efficiency declaration to presented by council member Yates well thank you we're going to declare Energy Efficiency day October 5 20 20. 2022. Energy Efficiency is the art of getting the same or better performance using less energy all while saving money reliable affordable energy is vital to our economic prosperity and Energy Efficiency is a productive and cost-effective way to meet our energy needs smarter energy uses you use reduces the amount of electricity we need to power Our Lives which helps avoid power plant emissions that can harm our health pollute our air and warm our climate energy efficient Transportation reduces

[24:00] air pollution and improves the health of all coloradans implementing clean energy policies and programs help boost economic opportunities and job creation while moving towards a just transition and sustainable future for all the national network of Energy Efficiency organizations estimates The Cutting energy waste saves U.S consumers billions of dollars on their utility bills annually that's up to 500 per household from Appliance energy standards alone consumers can save three dollars on their utility bills for every one dollar invested in Energy Efficiency more than 2.3 million Americans work in the Energy Efficiency sector in local good paying jobs increasing efficiency will create more of these jobs including more than 32 000 jobs in Colorado alone the city of Boulder has declared a climate emergency we are committed to acting quickly in a way that is Broad reaching replicable and inclusive and

[25:01] that is framed around equity and resilience the city is a leader in climate action adopting clean energy and energy efficient programs and we have pledged to reduce greenhouse gases Boulder residents and businesses can continue to contribute to Energy Efficiency efforts by participating in the community's climate action efforts learning more about Energy Efficiency and practicing smarter energy use in their daily lives our Nationwide network of Energy Efficiency groups and partners has designated October 5 2022 as the national annual Energy Efficiency day so therefore we the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado declare October 5 2022 as Energy Efficiency day and we urge citizens to join us in supporting and implementing our clean energy goals now and in the future thanks for that Bob

[26:00] all right now we're going to move into open comment and I think um Sarah's going to talk through our guidelines prior to that beginning thank you for Huntley I'm the director of communication and engagement for the city and we do have some members of the public who have signed up for open comment tonight and so I'm going to just run through some quick guidelines uh Emily if you don't mind showing the slides that would be very helpful okay so the city of Boulder has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civic conversations the vision is intended to support physical and emotional safety for all community members who are participating today staff and Council as well as recognizing the value of hearing from people of all ages identities lived experiences and political perspectives more detail about this division is available on our website on the link that you see on the

[27:02] screen next slide please next slide please Emily terrific thank you as part of this Vision Council has adopted some rules of decorum that are found in the boulder Revised Code and we're just going to go through a couple of these particulars this evening to encourage this kind of constructive conversation that we're looking for here in Boulder or at least um testimony I recognize it's not always dialogue or conversation in this space but we want people to be able to speak their mind with counsel all remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to City business no participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person obscenity racial epithets and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability to conduct the meeting are prohibited we have asked participants to sign up to speak using the name they are commonly

[28:00] known by and we ask that you display your whole name before being allowed to speak online this evening we're able to support Audio Only testimony so when it comes time for your turn the mayor will read your name and I will toggle on a switch that allows you to unmute yourself and speak to counsel next slide please we do have the Q a box enabled this evening which allows community members to speak with me as the zoom host if you have questions about process or technical questions only please and with that I think we're ready to go to the list thanks so much Sarah all right our first three speakers are Mark Parsons Abigail Walker and Shane snowver okay let me call up Mark please Mark you should be able to unmute

[29:00] yourself now okay can you hear me yes loud and clear can you hear him in council chambers terrific great um so thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak um as a 30-year resident I know that I speak on behalf of many Boulder rights when I say that I am adamantly opposed to reopening West Pearl Street to cars doing so is a step backward and sends a very bad message I recognize that this is a staff decision not a council decision but this is an area where Council needs to show some leadership the issue is much larger than closing a few blocks of Pearl Street it's about how we move forward as a city and design spaces that are engaging and that work at a human scale cities all around the country are showing that if you make neighborhoods more human friendly they are more economically successful more durable more vibrant more loved it doesn't take

[30:00] years of planning or tons of money it takes commitment and creativity it's not just about the businesses on those few blocks it's not just about outdoor dining it's about making a city that works for people it's not just about closing streets to cars it's about wider sidewalks benches trees protected bike Lanes it's about mixed-use zoning that enables Dynamic and socially engaging spaces now I'm not privy to all the data that led to this decision to reopen but I do know that the data are open to interpretation and that we need to consider the bigger picture so Council the majority of you were elected on platforms that encourage pedestrians in a more human-centered City show that you mean what you said it's not all about big projects it's about creating an environment that entices people it's about the tone of your decisions and your vision reopening hurl flies against almost all of our community stated goals don't do it instead use this as an

[31:00] opportunity to help make Boulder a truly modern city looking forward not backward thank you thank you Mark now we have Abigail Walker Shane Snover and Jonathan singer good evening can you hear me okay yes okay great thank you thank you for this opportunity and speak tonight my name is Abigail Walker I've been a boulder resident for a little over a year in a Colorado resident for a little over four years tonight I would like to address the occupancy limits I know that this is a Hot Topic in Boulder and I know that this is a high priority for the council over the next fall the next year so tonight I want to focus my comment on just countering two uh common justifications for the limit and kind of color it with the reality of the limit and how it's affected Boulder residents um the first justification is preserving low density and I really think that this is essentially a myth Boulder is not a low density City anymore and also the subordinates is often defied in fact

[32:02] it's defined quite a bit and the enforcement measures that we see the reports that we see on the website are a severe under account of how often it actually occurs the other justification is often protecting and preserving Boulder properties and this is also a myth the reality is is that landlords enter tacit agreements or oral agreements with naive tenants who are just trying to stretch their last dollars especially in this economy with inflation skyrocketing and it being harder and harder to fulfill your needs at the grocery store they then ignore critical maintenance issues and employ cheap solutions that skate by the quiet enjoyment requirements that the city requires for livability tenants then have no recourse for substandard living conditions because they risk outing themselves to the authorities as rents are skyrocketing and housing is becoming an increasingly large and pressing issue for most people that live in Colorado I urge the city council to

[33:00] consider these things as they go forward and re redefining the occupancy limits in Boulder as well as the zoning and bring more equity and inclusion to their decision making thank you so much thank you Abigail now we have Shane snowver Jonathan singer and Paul tuden hello can you hear me yes perfect I'd like to speak tonight on the topic of reopening West Pearl to private Vehicles between 9th and 11th Street since the environmental impact of cars downtown is known I'd instead like to speak on the economic impact which has been the most hotly debated piece while I understand that the community of Vitality department has conducted a survey of the businesses in the affected area I'd like to note that the business owners surveyed are not data scientists many Studies have found a positive impact on economic activity from closing streets to cars including a recent study by Jenny Liu of Portland State University before implementing an additional change it is in the interests

[34:01] of the city and the businesses in the area to conduct a more thorough investigation especially given that it is at odds with the closure's popularity and boulders pledged to reduce emissions by 70 before 2030. finally I'd like to request that any studies or surveys by the city that have been performed should be made available to the general public in the interests of transparency thank you I see the rest of my time thank you Shane now we have Jonathan singer Paul Tuten and Lisa White Aaron you're um pretty pretty uh faint again if you could speak into the mic that would be really helpful for those of us who are online next is Jonathan singer Paul Tuten and Lisa White thank you Jonathan you should be able to unmute all right uh good evening mayor members of council uh I'm Jonathan singer I'm the senior policy program director with the boulder chamber and we stand with the downtown Boulder partnership in support of reopening West Pearl Street as soon as possible but also keeping the door open for future

[35:00] considerations historically Boulder has been Innovative transparent and thoughtful of competing interest in their deliberations concerning new regulations and the use of public spaces the business Community has been working in good faith to participate constructively during the pandemic West Pearl was shut down with the blessing of businesses since then sales tax revenues have not recovered they're only at 78 of what they work pre-covered and eating places stand at 81 percent comparatively all of downtown Boulder registers at 95 and 97 percent of where they were pre-covered and Citywide at 123 and 99 across the entire city our framework at the boulder chamber emphasizes developing spaces and creative policies for small businesses to locate grow and flourish but we also ask for a comprehensive review of processes during uh during these conversations a decision to permanently

[36:00] close West parole would clearly violate not fully our policy tenants but also the city of Boulders historically deliberative model forcing local area restaurants and retail stores to reevaluate their viability when there's no Public Health Emergency places political Trends over thoughtful analysis it's also aside from the sign of disregard it would evidence for the parking impacts in residential areas and the access challenges for those with limited physical Mobility in short now that the public health order has been lifted let's hit the reset button and a further exploration of options for West Pearl are desired which I believe they are let's commence that traditionally deliberative analysis and process thank you for your consideration and your time thank you Jonathan now we have Paul Tuten Lisa white and Eric Budd I'm not seeing Paul in the meeting give me one moment please just scan the list

[37:01] in case it looks like there's another person in under the name Tuten no I am not seeing Paul tooden May or maybe we could pass and come back to him if he comes into the meeting very good then that's uh Lisa white is next good evening city council my name is Lisa white and in 2019 I had the privilege of serving on the city of Boulders pedestrian advisory committee with a group of fellow dedicated volunteers to help inform the city's pedestrian plan as part of the 2019 Transportation Master Plan update in the TMP initiative 4 is prioritizing The Pedestrian and there is a full pedestrian plan outlining how the city will make the pedestrian the priority in our transportation system and so I'd like to call your attention to an excerpt from The Pedestrian plan on page 32. the city of Boulders initiative six

[38:03] offer more public space on a temporary or permanent basis to prioritize people walking by investing in pedestrian improvements and restricting motor vehicle access 6B car free areas identify opportunities for additional car free areas example plazas pedestrian models parklets playgrounds and pedestrian streets some addition some initial specific locations to consider include extending the Pearl Street Mall and 13th Street between Canyon and Arapahoe this was identified as a near-term goal to be completed in the Years 2019-2024. so since we are already three-fifths of the way through the near-term priority time frame of implementing car free spaces I hope that the city does not undo the positive momentum that it has so far by returning these two small blocks to motor vehicle traffic we have so much public space in our city dedicated only to motor vehicles but as

[39:01] your inboxes show there's a lot of enthusiasm for public space dedicated to people instead of going backwards on West Pearl I hope the city instead looks to improve the new car free space on West Pearl and to determine how to repurpose more public space throughout downtown and the rest of the city to instead be dedicated to other modes such as pedestrians people on bikes and buses thank you very much Thank you Lisa now we have Eric Budd Ryan Welsh and Lila hickey thanks Council recently I asked people on my circles what radicalized you about to get involved in local government because anyone who's really involved clearly has a story and the first time ever I ever really worked on a city issue was in 2015 and it was around biking production access and trying to make Boulder a much more bike friendly place that people could get around

[40:00] without a car so you all may remember in in 2015 that the city installed um some of the first set of protected bike lanes that we had really made an effort to prioritize at that point um there was it was an incredibly bold project that unfortunately only last lasted for about eight weeks um and then Lisa Marzell in the city council at the time ripped out the protected bike lanes and I instantly found myself as an organizer of a protest and you know that decision really set back our plans for better bike infrastructure in Boulder by about five years overnight and yes that was the moment that I was radicalized about city government and clearly I've been quite involved ever since and so on West Pearl we had the opportunity to shape our downtown and to make it more accessible and welcoming to all people keeping West Pearl free of cars is an issue that almost everyone in Boulder wants to see happen it doesn't matter what social platform you go on or where people talk about it unless you're

[41:00] unless you're part of the boulder chamber of the downtown businesses you're definitely in favor and I think we could I think we could bring them around too so unless you all take action it will not happen um the staff is going to move forward with just reopening and going back to the status quo but in Boulder we fight so hard so often to maintain the status quo and this is one case one of many during this election that we are having where we have to say that the status quo isn't good enough we have to have the vision to do better and that's exactly what we need to do in West Pearl thank you thank you Eric now we have Ryan Welsh Lila hickey and Dane kasterson good evening counselors like others I'm here tonight to ask you to keep West Pearl Street open to people and close to car traffic though small it's vital that this area not be forgotten for its part of Boulder's much larger goals in the fight against climate change and our toxic summer air we need more

[42:00] pedestrian-centric car free spaces throughout the city I hope the westward Pearl Pearl Street expansion is just the first step towards a friendlier more walkable and more breathable City we're lucky that this change to address the pandemic also helps us address the climate crisis it may be hard to commit to change in the moment we know that these types of changes are desperately needed from my own experience during the pandemic I saw West Pearl become a new and interesting place where I could bike downtown and be almost guaranteed to bump into someone I know prior to the pandemic this was simply a much less inviting area when I was severely injured and couldn't walk bike or even drive for half a year I still had it down to the walking mall but the west west side was too fraught for someone with a limp and a cane risking a fall into tight crowds in the car choke sidewalks was intimidating to say the least I appreciate the new space for people seems to be not only well loved as a third place but also more accessible than in the years before coping like Lisa I'm excited for our daughter who can't crawl yet to have the opportunity to grow up surrounded by

[43:00] even more of these car free community spaces I would love to see Boulder with a pedestrianized core where she can walk explore wander and dance without fear of cars I hope that West Pearl is just the start and I hope this is something we can keep permanent into the future to Circle back to one of our other commenters tonight I will agree with Jonathan's singer that Boulder has historically been slow and deliberative about its process with these sorts of changes let's not continue to make the same mistakes of the past by killing good things with process thank you for your time tonight thank you Ryan now we have Lila hickey Dane kasterson and Patrick Murphy good evening Council staff last year I stumbled across a TED Talk which Jason Roberts founder of a better blogger talks about making a people-centered streets in space what struck me was the method by which his group changes its space much of what they do is a intentionally reversible washable paint removable barricades

[44:02] pop-up shops from Merchants think I could participate in a weekly transformation but the impacts are wrong as Roberts describes it we're doing these temporarily so that it doesn't scare any but it's going to change the world forever but once they see the change and they experience it they can actually fight for these things I suspect it's exactly what city council and staff have been experiencing in Europe people want Westborough as a pedestrian space and not just the usual faces because West Pearl is lovely without cars people have seen when it's possible and they want to participate no clarity about its future and no Clarity on how residents can participate in that picture I know too that there have been emails that can help reopening the streets and politically polarized opinions are good no one ever cares what their government's doing the government probably isn't doing much but I

[45:01] encourage Council to ask whether the two opinions truly warrant equal weight in the consideration process will one may think staff is debris to reopen what's for occurs when support the pro car perspective tabs I just want memo to Council on the 14th of many of these intention to the question and are we seeing complaints from residents who cannot frequent the dining limit or are we simply hearing from some business owners businesses are important but only insofar if there is residential demand for their service let's keep West Pearl open to people while staff works on a proposal for enhances the clear case where a good solution is thank you Lila now we have Dane kasterson Patrick Murphy and Ramsay abuita good evening everyone can you hear me this is Dan casterson yes

[46:00] hi and thank you for your time um again my name is Dane casterson and I would like to quickly share an experience I've had interacting with the city of Boulder recently I applied for a marijuana dispensary license located uh in in the city and we were very surprised to have that license denied um we did our due diligence with zoning we received a thumbs up from them saying that this property would be ours by right okay we then took this back to Licensing in the city attorneys to ask for a explanation of the decision uh the the response was uh not straightforward it was uh contradictory and upon itself and left us with more questions here we then went to appeal this process or it went to appeal the decision rather and found that there is no way to appeal so we then presented more evidence to

[47:02] the city's attorney only to be told that we just weren't smart enough to understand zoning and I believe that we're looking at the same rules that everybody else is and what we've really kind of found here is that this process for appeal it doesn't exist and sending emails to the City attorney has proven to be a fruitless effort and so what we're doing here is looking for help from from Council to address this and have a conversation around us and all that we're asking is a marijuana business is that the same rules that apply to all their businesses be applied to us because this rings with a very familiar air of discrimination that we constantly face in this industry I'm a long time Boulder resident I've been here for 15 years um and I'm very proud of my city but I'm not proud of the way that I've treated here thank you very much for your time thank you Dane

[48:00] now we have Patrick Murphy Ramsey of Wheaton Evan ravitz in 2013 Boulder had a 1 000 year reign event and a 100 year flood right through town what happens after the hundred year flood mitigation has been installed in the 500 year event happens here's page 239 of the 483 page packet that I'm sure you all read not one image of the flood boundaries that were identifiable to the neighborhood level but it provided link allowed me to produce that detail slide two you need to make this map identifiable to the neighborhood level that will show the flooded areas when the 500 year event happens after the 100 Year mitigation is installed slide two please plan a is worthless due to climate change may be worth a little

[49:01] it may I'll just wait till you get slide two is that all right and you can give me time at the end this is this is not right okay we'll pretend like slide two is a it may help for the more frequent smaller floods but over time it'll need to be redone as plan a fails frequently due to climate change slide three climate change is the cause of this but Boulder's climate action is more focused on growing a bureaucracy with little cost benefit analysis lots of platitudes and collaboration hot air with no real audit of carbon reduction what is our cost per ton of carbon reduction 50 percent of our taxes for employees paychecks and that's not actual quantifiable carbon reduction it just sounds and feels good there's a logical sequence to Boulder climate action and it's not increasing electric use with EDS and heat pumps since the current

[50:01] transmission and generation systems aren't not are not yet adapted Boulder needs to reduce use first And subscribe to Renewables solar incentives wind incentives wrecks and energy use reduction should be our only Focus now the planet Burns floods and dies while Boulder fiddles with climate change thanks Patrick gave you a few extra seconds there because the slight issues now we have Ramsay abuita Evan ravitz and Dan Williams hello my name is Ramsay abueda I'm a neuroscientist a clinical researcher Community organizer and a drug policy reform activist I'm here to speak in respect to the movement to get psychedelics decriminized in Boulder first of all I'd like to thank the members of council to have engaged in conversation with members of her movement and expressed support I just like to State on the record that in private conversations a majority of members of council have expressed

[51:00] support of this endeavor so if you were wondering about a temperature temperature check on where this stands a majority of council has expressed some sort of support or encouragement only three members of council have not spoken with us yet the counselor were to vote on decriminalization today it would pass this doesn't have to be a long drawn out process that involves a complicated work plan 15 cities across the U.S have passed some sort of psychedelic decriminalization with 12 of them being done through a City Council vote almost all the cities that have passed decriminalization have used almost identical language in their resolutions as if they all copy and pasted the language and swapped out the names of the Cities it's really that simple the notion that Boulder has to reinvent the wheel on this and drag its feet with some complex work plan is not cogent all this would entail is declaring enforcement of laws regarding psychedelics to be the lowest law enforcement priority in Boulder as of last week San Francisco became the 15th City to decriminalize psychedelics in the U.S and currently a council

[52:01] member of Atlanta is introducing a resolution to the floor in the city of Atlanta It's time for Boulder to catch up to the rest of the Zeitgeist of this country and live up to its Legacy of being a progressive City at the Forefront of cultural movements I just want to give Boulder City Council Members a heads up that our activism is going to escalate big time in October as decrimized nature Boulder is hosting another large rally at the Riverside on October 14th you are all invited and I'll be sending you information soon thank you thank you Ramsey now we have Evan ravitz Dan Williams and Susan prant Mr rabbit says it says a draw so I'm going to move to the next speaker this is Dan Williams Pearl has been closed for only two years but tonight's decision on its Fate has been half a decade in the making

[53:00] it was then well before covid that a new Progressive Coalition came together with a different vision for Boulder uniting Environmental urbanists people-centered Transportation Advocates social justice stalwarts homeless Services Advocates and champions for renters and workers as a coalition we realized that our strength lies in our Unity and this year for the first time in decades I'm delighted to see a Progressive Majority Council on the diocese thanks to that very coalition tonight you're being asked to stand in solidarity with the environmentalists and the transportation advocacy wings of the Coalition and they've been unanimous and telling us it's critical not to see it one day of the year much less a month or a season back to cars on the other side of the argument are the corporate owners of fancy restaurant groups and the city's own Parking Department which is a post-posing West Pearl for the last two years

[54:01] and now some are saying that the state's public mall act requires compensation for businesses if it were closed but that's not true the Colorado Supreme Court in 1975 said in city of Boulder versus cons that no compensation was due to business owners with respect to our own Pearl Street Mall these other groups don't stand for the progressive vision for Boulder and they don't speak for the majority of voterites who have been filling your inboxes with a different vision now today with the first progressive Boulder City Council in history I'm counting on you to stand in solidarity with the Coalition that created this current city council and to not give West Pearl back to cars for even one day get in now we have suprant Nisha schnep and Andrew Harris

[55:00] hi my name is supreme I'm executive director of community Cycles Community Cycles urges you to maintain the motor vehicle closure of West Pearl we strongly urge you to read and reread carefully the tab letter sent to you on this topic tab lays out a clear concise and fact-based argument as to why the closure should be maintained and why the data provided by Community Vitality does not support the staff recommendation to reopen West Pearl to private automobiles also the hotline post today from council person Benjamin makes excellent points questioning the viability of the data used to support the return of cars it is imperative that all his clarifying questions be answered for sound policy to be made through the pandemic the state the space has served as safe unstructured outdoor space for build rights free from both the threatened disturbance of Motor Vehicles and from the more highly programmed format of them all it's arguably the most Urban space we've created in the city the response you've seen from the public on this issue much

[56:01] of it from people who rarely participate in most local government is a testament to its popularity survey after survey and thousands of hours of Outreach by the city to create its many planning documents and guiding principles show that Boulder citizens want calmer more livable more human-centered streets and public spaces citizens are concerned about the climate impacts of Boulder's continuing continued deference to the private automobile we do see room for improvements it appears that there may be need for better or more well-placed parking for people with disabilities 10th Street south of spruce remains configured One Way requiring access via the alley this could use study to consider allowing two-way travel this street has bought brought car free joy to thousands of people as our climate crisis intensifies and joy for many remains hard to come by now is not the time to push people to constricted sidewalks and allow back the noise dust danger and pollution of private Motor Vehicles we can continue to study it but

[57:02] in the meantime we should not list what's this programming we should let Wes remain space for people thank you so much thanks Sue now we have Nisha schneff Andrew Harris and Lynn Siegel hi can you guys hear me fine yes great so I'm Nisha schneff I'm a scientist who works at CU Boulder and I'm speaking today about West Pearl having the street close to traffic has been fantastic and I urge city council to put the brakes on reopening it to cars it is unclear whether businesses on the street really prefer having cars return or having continued vehicle closure but it seems like most people would prefer to have the street stay close to vehicles and open to people I think the city should investigate this before reopening the street after all once the street is reopened for cars it'll be a lot harder to close it again having West Pearl stay close to cars matters a lot to me owning a car is

[58:01] pretty expensive and for a variety of reasons it's been two years since I last owned a car when I need to drive I use the Colorado car share otherwise I rely on my bicycle to get around town when streets are close to cars it feels like public space isn't just being given to alternate modes of transportation but that it's also being given back to all the people years ago I remember reading a New York Times article where the journalist pointed out that City's downtown spaces are disproportionately for the use of wealthier people people who own a car get to use most of the city's roads and they get to use most of the street side space on downtown streets but when the street is closed to cars and given to pedestrians or cyclists it becomes a space that everyone can use to walk bike or just sit with friends over a drink of coffee or a plate of noodles I am asking the city to slow down its decision making through West Pearl Street let's please collect more input from the local businesses and from Boulder residents and while we do this let's please keep

[59:00] the street pedestrian only let's think about what type of City we would like Boulder to become rather than what the status quo was that we're used to thank you so much thank you Nisha now we have Andrew Harris Lynn Siegel and Brittany Beecher hi thank you for your time I like many commentators and speaking to urge the city council to keep Lush Pearl close to cars a move which will help us meet both our climate and urban planning goals at the beginning of the pandemic I was ecstatic to see our normal use chlorotic local government moved quickly to rest public space from the wheels of motorists and deliver it to the general public free from air pollution inattentive drivers and the omnipresent noise that accompanies car traffic as you can see in here these closures have been enormously popular Chamber of Commerce lobbyists be damned I call on city council to show leadership and not only keep us parole close to cars but

[60:01] also to take a more aggressive posture in building out pedestrian infrastructure and spaces in other parts of our city as well I know that you can do it because you've shown me that you can't I think now it's time to take the leadership and execute thank you for your time thank you Andrew now we have Lynn Siegel Brittany Beecher and Adrian Franco please interrupt me if my voice is not coming through like you failed to do with Lila tonight and please Advanced slides you got to slide one with Patrick Murphy what is the city council not high tech enough to advance slides come on now um you know when my brother brought up about the mall he said well why don't we shut the the whole Mall down to 15th no why why even have it you know what's the attraction to

[61:01] Boulder anymore there's no Services there's no Perry's shoe store there's no Fix-It there's a no Boulder projector there's no managers there's no arts and crafts Co-op there's no Hoshi Motors you know all of the services of Boulder are being displaced by high-end condos and the high-end condos are driving up the cost of affordable housing and so there's more an affordable housing demand and the CU South is going to do that in the biggest way possible so combined it's like The Perfect Storm um what we need to if you want to get people into town decades ago we should have had a parking lot out of town you know what parking spaces are in Boulder 200 000 slot um shuttle them in on the electric vans with with trailers to carry all their stuff for them it's a lot cheaper

[62:02] um let's see um oh I had an incident with Excel Energy they won't show me on my house where my responsibility ends and theirs starts and a tree fell on my line on the 30th and I want them at my place to show me specifically because I need to watch my contractor and I need my contractor there to see exactly what is being done they refuse to do this and they gaslighted me they said that someone came and they didn't your time but thank you for your testimony now we have Brittany Beecher and Adrian Franco hello can you hear me yes Britney Beecher I have been a Boulder County resident for over 20 years today I'd like to talk about my um support for your guys's City priority of amending the land use codes in support of Zoning for affordable housing I think

[63:00] this is very important as many critical community members cannot afford to live within the city limits right now for example many teachers of bvsd cannot afford to live within City Limits and I think it's important to make affordable housing for members who contribute to our community so much also when reviewing the density calculations for my understanding changing the parking requirements will not affect the 1977 Boulder Valley comprehensive plan which wanted to concentrate Urban Development while keeping rural areas preserved and moving off of this from my understanding it was really hard to find the density calculations and as you all roll forward with this priority I think it's really important that you make these calculate relations more widely known and show the public the mechanisms of change that you'll be moving through to support Zoning for affordable housing because it's important that if you want authentic Community feedback the

[64:00] community can understand where you're coming from and what you're trying to do thank you for your time thank you Brittany our last speaker is Adrian Franco I'm not seeing Adrian Franco listed and I'm also not seeing Paul to them back in the meeting all right well then I guess with that we'll bring open comment to close thanks everyone for speaking us to us tonight and I'll turn to staff to see if there are any staff responses Mr Mayor I apologize but you're very faint again I'll get right up here and lick the microphone thank you I'll say that the updates to the chamber cannot come too soon from what I see um I just wanted to thank everyone I know that we're going to have a robust discussion on West Pearl and just appreciate everyone's input into what has been a really hard topic a difficult

[65:01] conversation but we will be talking about that later on in the meeting Teresa thank you mayor I wanted to address Mr kesterson's comments about the marijuana business licensing and provide a little bit of context but first I want to say I I deeply regret that Mr casterson had a negative experience with the city attorney's office um and and I look forward to speaking with him and remedying that in the meantime I I can tell you that um planning planning looks at uses and zones they do not look at whether marijuana licensing is permitted in a particular Zone the council did pass a restriction on having a marijuana business in a mixed use Zone where residential is permitted even if the residential isn't being used or isn't in the same building so that

[66:02] was adopted somewhere between 2014 and 2016. unfortunately the place where Mr casterson is looking to license this business is within a mixed-use zone that permits residential use thanks for that Teresa I appreciate you following up with Mr Kesterson Council responses Matt you have some of that uh yes I just wanted to get maybe a response from staff and I think we have the answer but just want to clarify with Abigail Walker talking about occupancy and a lot of other folks in our community interested in occupancy limits just to clarify or just so that they know we're going to be talking about this in some great detail I believe at an October 13th study session is is that correct so in a month we'll have a have a robust discussion on occupancy and other aspects is that correct I invite um director Mueller to come up and speak to it but I believe that we are going to be talking about it in general terms but I believe that there's more conversation to be had about the timing of that conversation

[67:07] planning and development services so we have initially scheduled that we've actually moved back to a November discussion overall work priorities of the council so we'll introduce it in that context so Council can make a full determination about various priorities in light of Staffing and the amount of positively uh development review we've been getting as well can somebody just summarize what um Mr Mueller said we could not hear the podium mic at all on the zoom feed so what I what I heard from Brad was that uh they will be coming to us at a meeting in November to talk about occupancy and other code priorities thank you we appreciate it and if somebody could check the podium you might because we'll probably need other people to speak at it later tonight as well thank you anything else

[68:02] please thank you sir agenda on tonight any questions or comments in the consent agenda learn I'll move the consent agenda second great thanks we have a motion and a second uh if I don't see any further comments then Alicia I believe this is a roll call thank you sir we'll start this roll call with councilmember Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes councilmember Falcons yes mayor Pro tem friend yes councilmember spear

[69:02] yes wallet yes whiner yes and Yates yes mayor the consent agenda items a through e were passed with a vote of eight to zero thank you Alicia all right now we have one call up opportunity our call-ups are number four on tonight's agenda 4A is the concept plan review and comment for a proposed Redevelopment of an approximately 3.99 Acre Site with existing office use to a new 139 330 square foot Life Sciences building Pearl East Innovation building the property is located in the Pearl East business park at 4845 and 4875 Pearl East Circle site improvements are proposed for the entire campus referenced under case number lur 2022-00010

[70:00] thank you and I believe we have a short presentation on the side we do and it's uh her first meeting in person with Council so give her a warm welcome but Shaman bista Shannon thank you welcome welcome thank you I assume this is clear okay coming through good for me okay okay good evening council members um I'll provide a quick overview of the concept plan call up today which is for the development of um a four-story life sciences and office building in the Pearl East Business Park [Music] the purpose is to determine the the purpose of a concept plan is to determine the general development plan for a particular site and help identify key issues in advance um city council has the authority to refer

[71:00] concept plan review proposals to design Advisory board and the transportation Advisory Board as well this particular concept plan was um brought to planning board at a public hearing on August 23rd and staff had identified a couple of key issues for the board's discussion which I will be summarizing towards the end of the presentation the project site is located in East Boulder it's east of we apologize Council we're having all sorts of audio issues but we're managing through it it's located I think it's off okay it's um located east of Foothills Parkway and south of pearl Parkway the site is designated as light

[72:01] industrial on the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan with uses concentrated primarily in industrial parks the uses consist of light manufacturing assembly in research and development the project site is zoned industrial General this is consistent with the Boulder Valley comprehensive land use designation since the IG zoning is also intended for light industrial uses and Manufacturing operations um as mentioned earlier the project is located within the Pearl East Business Park planned unit development the Pud approval from 1989 allows shared parking and open space as well as lot area throughout the site the this particular proposal impacts Lots four and five I'll go through the proposed project briefly the building will be located on

[73:00] the surface parking between 4 48 45 and 4875 Pearl East Circle the plan proposes a cohesive building designed with brick and glass building materials the north elevation that you see there is located along the Pearl Parkway right-of-way the applicant is requesting a height modification the allowed height in the IG Zone district is 40 feet and three stories the proposed height of the building is at 55 feet and it's four stories without including the rooftop mechanical which is about 16 feet the applicant is subject to community benefit requirements and they intend to pay in the form of capital impact fees towards affordable housing in terms of the stats of the projects the building is proposed to be 139 330 square feet there's 143 parking spaces

[74:02] provided um in the below grade parking that's two levels there is a rooftop patio amenity and the buildings also located in the Hundred Year floodplain moving on to the planning board discussion the board had discussions around the key issues in The Proposal in general in terms of the height modification the board agreed that better justification for the height is required at this time based on the proposal the board had concerns that the principal use would be professional offices rather than the life sciences and lab the applicant um the applicant should provide more information and a better understanding of how the tenant spaces will be used and who the tenants might be occupying the space there is also um some discussion around

[75:01] the concept of life science uses which we're seeing more of in Boulder and planning board wanted just a general understanding of what the impacts of life science uses might be okay sorry no problem in terms of the design Advisory Board planning board decided 5-2 to not refer the project to dab at the um some of the staff members or sorry some of the board members felt that this was still at a pretty concept level plan um and wasn't completely fleshed out um comments were related more so to the performance of the building the uses of the building rather than the Aesthetics um the tenants are also not recognized at this time and the board would also like to hear better justification of the height modification uh in terms of sending it to dab the

[76:01] conversation was around um the fact that dab can provide a little bit more than just um comments and feedback on Aesthetics they can provide some assistance and feedback on how to modify the scale and mass of the building and that it's better to get the feedback earlier in the process ultimately I think it was decided that once the project comes back for site review planning board would like to take um time to review it before sending it to dab that concludes my presentation if you have any questions for staff please let me know we also have the applicant team available for questions thank you thanks so much shatnam questions for staff for the applicant Rachel thanks for the presentation and welcome to Chambers great job um did planning board talk at all about referring to tab they did not and um

[77:03] would this be the the only and or best opportunity for us if we wanted to refer to tab I believe this would be the appropriate time to refer to tab with any kind of guidelines you might have for what they should be looking at okay and just one of the key issues I saw is that members of planning board noted that the proposal does not meet the energy and climate goals or Transportation goals of bvcp as the project moves forward the applicant should take into account the network of multi-use paths and connectivity to the site so is that not something though they thought tabs should weigh in on they didn't really comment on that um but a city council has the authority to refer to Tab and some of that conversation was also regarding the design of the building and providing

[78:00] some sort of connection towards Pearl Parkway to the north thanks for that clarification and then in terms of the discussion on possibly referring to dab who were the two planning board members who voted to do that do you know I I don't recall at this time um and and is it typical that it would get referred at site review [Music] foreign [Music] he said to try again try talking

[79:01] I'm going to sit back and see if Sarah Huntley likes me okay from back here online what if I like yell should I use Aaron's microphone like what what are what are the good options here they cannot hear me on Zoom land I don't know so my question is just would it be tip it might be me I've been shut down I I just want to know would it be typical to to refer to dab at this stage versus site um yes typically we see concert plans being referred to dab prior to site review all right so any other questions no

[80:01] right any interest in calling this up or and or comments on the project hopefully I don't get it oh did you have something oh uh I was is now I just was curious is now the time for us to could perhaps make a referral to tab if there we were so inclined yes um so that would be the time um you know we have well I'll just I'll sort of come on say so when I think this is along a major uh artery of pearl it's got multi-use pads I mean this if if this doesn't qualify for a tab review I don't know what does um so I would like to see this go to to our transportation Advisory Board uh stepping back from this project I hope we can get to a place where we can Define what automatically goes to tab when it's near transit or multimodal so that we're not having to defer to this discretion of counsel to make those decisions we just know automatically that we want input from from tab so I uh I hate that we have to keep coming back

[81:01] to this discretionary ask versus just if it's on a Transit it's got multimodal it goes to them no matter what well I guess I would ask what specific issues would you like tab to evaluate well quite honestly I want to just know does the concept of this plan meet some of our transportation goals right I mean we have a transportation master plan does this project meet that it clearly it seemed from planning board's perspective that it didn't necessarily meet our transportation goals in the comp plan well does it meet our regular cities TMP so I mean these are fundamental questions that I think we have a board of tab to specifically answer and along a main arterial like like Pearl and with a lot of multimodal in its vicinity this is uh teed up quite perfectly for their input on such matters right and did you have any interest in calling it up in general or just not calling it up I just want to send it to Tab and see what gets worked on by our other boards and then if it comes back at site uh perhaps if it makes it that far then we get to have that discussion but I'd like their input very good maybe we could uh address that

[82:00] specific issue Teresa to respond that indeed it's in the code that it is council's authority to direct something to Tab and so um certainly there's the opportunity for that to happen at planning um but but it's also this boards this council's authority to direct that work yes we do we are allowed to do that yes uh Mark do you want to address this issue yeah I would I would be supportive of the referral both to Tab and Dad um and I assume if we do not call this up um the applicant will still have to be responsive to planning board's concerns well I mean it's at their discretion but if they don't address them they may not get an approval right so so I would support both the referrals and ask the applicant to be responsive to planning board as they move forward very good other thoughts

[83:01] Lauren yes I would also support um sending this to tab I also um want to comment in support of some of the comments planning board made I think you know the bringing the height limit to 55 feet and then doing an additional 16 foot tall mechanical space on a large portion of the roof along with what seems to be a fairly hot you know more parking than is even required which typically we're seeing you know 50 parking reductions on lots of projects so between those two things I would really encourage the applicant to look at how they can make the building more sustainable both through the reduction of the mechanical systems to try and reduce that rooftop area that they have and then also think more heavily about what kind of parking they're providing through this building

[84:03] any thoughts then I'll weigh in myself here uh so I am perfectly fine uh sending this to sending this to tab I I would I would ask them to focus in on a couple specific things and that this building would be in filling a parking lot and so it's I think mostly the same Transportation Network that service the site currently would serve this building but I would ask uh tap's consideration of the access to the the building from Pearl Parkway like specifically people traveling not via car because it did seem like the frontage on Pearl was a bit monolithic and didn't I don't believe it had a public entrance so I thought that would be a good thing for the transportation folks to look at and then also I believe that the applicant is talking about making some site-wide improvements not just this building but to the area of the entire PUD and it did seem to me like the Eastern side where there is a path connection over there that that's could use improvements to

[85:02] the connections over there and uh and some better signage so those are specific issues I'd love to get tab's thoughts on in terms of dab I also support that although I would say I might encourage that to happen after the applicant has maybe had a chance to make some revisions because I I believe they they may well make some revisions uh pretty substantial and based on planning board comments and perhaps what we're saying so I thought planning words point that at the moment the design is fairly conceptual was a reasonable one but I think having dab way in before it gets to the fully baked point of site review could be helpful so I'd I'd encourage it to not come right away but after after the applicant had had a chance to do a little bit more work and then the one other comment I'll make while I've got the floor is I did not have any issues with the height modification request it seemed a pretty reasonable place to me to have a four-story building that PUD has other four-story buildings and I don't think there are major view quarters that would be affected and also personally didn't have uh concerns about

[86:01] the the potential uses on the site I'll just throw those comments out there any further thoughts or I think the referrals would need a motion yes but just one quick comment but it can wait until after your motion so anybody I mean Matt you live the way on the first one I wouldn't take credit for leadership Rachel was the spawn on that one um we're not letting Rachel talk because just kidding so speak up whenever you're ready yeah so um I uh from basically what I've heard I'll go ahead and just make the motion to refer this to uh both Tab and dab that's tab with a t and dab with a D um for uh for the review okay Teresa's one motion okay thank you I suppose that depends on how the votes play out um it it would probably be better to

[87:01] have two motions okay we note it um I make a motion to refer to tab with a t do we have a second okay all in favor there could be a show of hands looks unanimous number two I make a motion to refer to dab with a D second all in favor also unanimous very good and then just to clarify no one was going to want to make a motion to call this up I didn't see interest okay uh very good there you go just a quick comment I wanted to comment on council member Benjamin's um thought about um thinking about what are the kinds of referrals that we do it's a conversation I'll say that we've had in the past we've had it with the previous Council I believe it's clear that we should have it again with this Council body and and open to that that could be a conversation that we have at different moments but certainly the mid-year

[88:00] Retreat is coming up and uh upcoming conversation about boards and commissions generally so we can certainly continue to talk about it and just want to be thoughtful about that great and then since we did take some action I just wanted to give the applicant an opportunity if they wanted to throw in a quick comment or ask a question of us uh this would be your chance and and I'm not sure how we would hear from them are they hosts or panelists I presume that if the applicant is here they would be on the Danica Powell has raised her hand so maybe she could be made do you have an applicant here would you like me to bring her in as a panelist or just allow her to unmute herself I think if she can speak that's sufficient Danica if that's all right with you oh sure sorry we I think we're all here we just weren't promoted so no this was

[89:00] great feedback thank you so much we don't have anything to offer but sorry we weren't in the zoom um but we are our team is here thank you very good all right thanks very much I think that closes that item out so we can move to our public hearing of the evening sir our public hearings are number five on tonight's agenda 5A is the consideration of a motion to approve the updated comprehensive flood and stormwater master plan very good and well folks are coming up I'll just thank shabnam again for that first presentation here in Chambers that was that was fantastic thanks for your help thank you mayor and we're going to start with uh Joe tadayucci at the podium and hopefully I believe the podium mic is working yeah let's maybe start with a mic check and can you all hear me Sarah can you and online very clear thank you great all right well it'll it'll take a minute for the team to get set up here and good evening

[90:01] mayor and members of council I'm Joe tadiucci I'm the director of the utilities department and I'd like to make a few introductory comments tonight on our comprehensive flood and stormwater master plan but before I do that I'd like to introduce the team that is here sitting at the diocese we have Joanna Bloom who is our deputy director of policy and planning in utilities she's been leading this master plan effort for the last couple of years and will lead our presentation tonight we also have Amy murdick she's our project technical lead with our consulting firm Tetra Tech and she did a lot of the authoring of the master plan document uh here with me in the audience is Brandon Coleman who you probably recognize from a lot of our South Boulder Creek presentations and he now oversees our flood and storm water engineering team and we're also very pleased to have Trisha oath with us tonight Trisha is

[91:00] the chair of the Water Resources Advisory Board and we'll hear a few comments from her at the end of our presentation in in terms of the process for this we were originally looking to have a water resilience study session with Council and and finding a spot on the agenda for that was difficult um normally for a master plan like this we would do a study session first but given the agenda difficulties we did an information packet memo on September 1st for water resilience and I just say that this Flood Master Plan is really foundational to our resilience work across the city and critically important the plan though has been really well vetted at this point and received unanimous votes and positive feedback from both the Water Resources Advisory Board and planning board and before I turn it over to Joanna for

[92:01] the presentation I did want to just say a few things about the plan itself this is really the culmination of two years worth of of work on this project and we received a lot of great input from a community working group that followed this plan along it included our community connectors who had a lot of influence on the Outreach and engagement part of the plan and that working group really volunteered a lot of time and really engaged and and helped shape the recommendations that are in the plan and just want to express our appreciation for their involvement and Joanna has a really nice summary of the highlights of the plan that I don't want to duplicate one thing that I do want to mention though is one of the biggest outcomes of this plan is a new way of prioritizing flood projects and that is informed by a number of different factors that we haven't necessarily looked at in the past

[93:01] including um our racial Equity work and we're really excited about that and and it changes the way we prioritize projects as you'll see in the presentation the last thing I want to mention is that the master plan really is a framework for managing the flood program across all 16 drainages and and we really want to thank the community and the community working group for working with us the staff team to keep the focus on those broader flood management objectives there's been so much discussion about CU South and the South Boulder Creek flood project and and I'm really pleased to be here tonight and and to this point we've been able to manage the plan and kind of have it stand on its own separate from that process so with that we look forward to the discussion uh with you all tonight and I will turn it over to Joanna

[94:03] thank you all right thanks Joe I'm okay I'm Mike all right great good evening Council so far so good yeah this way um I don't know um I'm Joanna Bloom I'm the utilities deputy director for policy and planning and thanks for the opportunity to give an overview of the comprehensive flood in stormwater master plan this evening I'm joined here tonight as Joe mentioned by several team members of the project team and the Water Resources advisory reward chair and I wanted to thank them for their time in being here this evening as well next slide please yeah pause one moment please

[95:05] thank you so much thanks takes a village all right here we go um so to start out to give some context for the plan Boulder does have three utilities a water Wastewater and storm water and flood utility the CFS applies to the storm water and flood utility only which is a younger utility than the other two and was established in 1973 about a hundred years after the city started being developed as we know it today the CFS has a city-wide focus and provides guidance for the management of Boulder's 16 major drainage ways and addresses topics such as flood management flood preparedness and storm water quality among others the map displayed here shows the current flood conveyance level for the various drainage ways across the city

[96:01] the CFS also considers high-level Citywide storm water issues which are related to more routine storm events versus major flood events the CFS complements however and does not replace the 2016 stormwater master plan which is a separate document that addresses more neighborhood-specific problems and projects tonight I'll mainly be providing an overview of the key outcomes and recommendations from the CFS update this master plan along with engineering and Regulatory Frameworks guides the implementation of drainageway specific work and other storm and flood utility programs and we really do feel like the plan authentically reflects the feedback that we heard from the community it embodies Boulders values and it captures the Strategic vision for the storm utility and positions us to move forward expeditiously

[97:01] um so to develop the CFS the project team worked with a community working group as Joe mentioned throughout the project duration and this group included one Water Resources Advisory Board member and two Community connectors to broaden our engagement with the Spanish-speaking Community the list of efforts here displayed on the screen shows the various activities we undertook to identify to inform the development of the project prioritization framework to identify issues and to comment on the final plan the cwg did author a findings report which is attached as an appendix to the plan and it echoes many of the highlights that I'll talk about today so I'll mainly be spending time talking about these six major outcomes and the discussion of the funding considerations this evening the first and potentially the most impactful key outcome is the

[98:00] project prioritization framework and I'll take a minute to provide some context for that framework and then talk about how it will be used so to give that context I'd like to explain the cycle of major flood projects the cycle begins with floodplain mapping which identifies the flood risk and then it moves into drainage way mitigation planning that identifies specific projects to mitigate these risks and then finally moves into design and construction before returning again to floodplain mapping to re-evaluate the flood risk since the last Master Plan update in 2004 Boulder has completed roughly two-thirds of the work associated with this cycle and represented by the blue polygons on the screen and that includes just about 10 of 16 mitigation plans and 15 of 16 mapping studies and this leaves the city with roughly 30

[99:00] identified projects depending upon how and if they're grouped that need to be designed and built to just provide a quick example of what a major flood project is that has already been designed and completed and this is the Wonderland Creek flood mitigation project which was completed in 2018 for approximately 30 million dollars which was paid for through utility rates and from funding from the mile high flood district and from federal grants here you see before and after pictures of the project and the right picture the after project shows some of the environmental features included in these types of projects here's that same project just from a different vantage point that gives an idea of the magnitude of the projects that we're talking about so to tie those types of projects back to the CFS the project prioritization framework that both Joe and I talk about

[100:01] will take these 30 plus identified projects left to be built and help determine which of them should be built when this framework was developed with the data we received from an online voting exercise that was completed by lab members community members and the cwg in the fall of 2021 and in this voting exercise we asked participants to weigh in on which of the Project's benefits mattered most to them and then we then use this information to inform the development of the project prioritization framework which will rank major flood projects in a way that's consistent with Community Values um provides an objective way to compare projects against one another and de-politicizes which projects go next meaning that projects that do the greatest good go to the top of the list and this last point is particularly important because establishing a framework will support faster completion

[101:02] of projects since public engagement can have a major impact on how quickly projects can be implemented I know this next slide is busy I don't I don't expect you to read the whole thing however I do want to point out how the project prioritization framework criteria have Associated metrics the majority of which are quantitative with a couple that are qualitative such as multiple benefits and these metrics are used to assign a weighted value to each project the framework will then be used to develop a 20-year Capital Improvement plan beginning with the 2024 budget cycle um I'd really like to highlight that an important component of the project prioritization framework and the overall plan is the inclusion of racial Equity considerations and project prioritization has historically relied

[102:00] heavily on cost benefit analyzes and avoided damages which results in prioritizing property protection and affluent areas by including racial Equity considerations using metrics such as the social vulnerability index the project prioritization framework prioritizes projects in areas where people need them the most so for example you'll see here on this slide that project a has a large Equity benefit it's that dark Navy line that's really long and it therefore that project ranks higher in priority than it might otherwise and I'll show you that here again um when we look at strictly benefit cost ratio ratio versus project prioritization framework that theme project a moves from sixth on the list up to third on the list this really highlights that the inclusion of racial Equity considerations has a tangible impact on

[103:02] how the city approaches its work okay so shifting gears another major outcome of the plan is related to climate change and the plan recommends that Boulder continue to be a leader in this area and recognizes that even though there's inherent uncertainty related to specific climate change impacts that there is a clear need to act now um to do that the plan recommends that the city continue to actively incorporate adaptive measures into flood features to design elements into flood projects for maximum flood protection and also to incorporate natural elements that support our climate goals another major Focus area was related to emergency preparedness the plan clarifies that both City clarifies both City and Community member roles and

[104:00] emergency situations including those related to insurance emergency alert systems and personal response plans so we received a lot of great feedback from our community connectors about ways to enhance emergency communications to reach Spanish-speaking residents going forward that are included as recommendations in the plan along these same lines the plan makes recommendations to enhance Outreach with a particular focus on targeting traditionally hard to reach populations this is an area of continual Improvement and the plan recommends a focus on tailoring messaging to reach specific audiences focus on maintenance of existing systems was a continuous theme throughout the master plan development process going way back to the first online survey that we did with the community the plan recommends measures to ins to support enhanced maintenance through

[105:01] three primary approaches the first approach is ensuring adequate Staffing and easements and access to open drainageways is sporadic along the drainageways and ensuring contiguous access is essential to effective maintenance additionally with regard to maintenance frequency and maintenance of the stormwater system primarily piped infrastructure is adequately staffed to provide a 15-year maintenance cycle whereas maintenance of creeks and open channels on the other hand is not adequately staffed to complete routine system-wide maintenance with any frequency with any regular frequency the second approach to maintenance involves managing expectations related to maintenance so for example maintenance can include removing sediment and trees which can be highly disruptive and understandably upsetting to people at times managing expectations and communicating the benefits of such

[106:02] maintenance can be key to success in these situations and lastly the plan recommends clarifying roles and responsibilities for public and private systems to improve maintenance efficiency all right finally nearing the end the plan discusses funding considerations so this funding conversation is in the context as I mentioned earlier of the city largely being built out prior to the establishment of the storm and flood utility this puts Boulder in a position where unlike some of our neighboring communities we don't have vast undeveloped floodplains left and therefore we're effectively retrofitting the city for storm and flood in many cases and there's a backlog of projects So the plan identifies about 350 million dollars worth of projects and at the current Action level of funding the city anticipates that these projects would be completed in approximately 50 years

[107:02] and we received comments that the city should raise rates to whatever is needed to move at the fastest Pace I mean conversely we also received feedback that the city should carefully consider how rate increases would impact those who have limited ability to pay based on the overall feedback however the master plan currently recommends moving from the current Action level of funding to the vision level of funding to accelerate the pace of completing major flood projects um it's important to note that not only funding but also increased Staffing levels and community and political support would be key also to moving into this Vision level the green triangle on the screen really illustrates this last point and shows the three elements that impact the pace of major flood of implementing major flood projects um there tends to be a persistent thought that funding is the main

[108:02] limiting factor associated with the pace of implementation however from our experience we run into Staffing and engagement related constraints well before we experience funding limitations all right so should Council accept the master plan the next step will be to apply the project prioritization framework to the currently identified major flood projects and develop the 20-year CIP projects will then be addressed in the Department's annual work planning efforts and boards and Council will have the opportunity to consider proposed projects as part of the annual budget cycle beginning with the 2024 budget cycle um in terms of process we received unanimous recommendations for plan acceptance from both the Water Resources Advisory board and the planning board and I have the opportunity to invite Trisha oath up to the mic I believe she's able to say a couple words Council

[109:01] requested that Trisha who's the Water Resources Advisory Board chair speak on the matter thanks Trisha thanks Joanna is this Mike okay good um nice to be with you tonight thanks for considering this Master Plan update and wanting to hear from the Water Resources Advisory Board happy to share just a couple of thoughts um from the board you know as Joanna said absolutely the board did vote unanimous unanimously to recommend approval and we had several touch points along the way with the with the project we had a water resources Advisory Board member serve on the on the working group and gave regular report outs to the rest of the board throughout that process at our June meeting we heard from a number of those working group members and they voice support certainly for the climate change and the racial Equity components of the plan those really stood out they also discussed the spectrum of financial perspectives with regard to increasing

[110:01] utility rates and accelerating the pacing of implementing the major flood projects and the sentiment there was largely in favor of accelerating the pace of projects and therefore the recommended station on Vision level funding the RAB generally had a positive reaction to the the project prioritization framework we support the factors that contribute to the framework and then for transparency the RAB requested that all projects even those that are currently in design and construction be prioritized in through with the framework so that the community can see where the various projects land in terms of relative priority to each other and the staff was agreeable to the suggestion and this request and that has been reflected in the plan we'll get to weigh in on future proposed projects in the CIP budget schedule and that concludes my remarks right well Trisha uh thanks so much for the those thoughts and just so much appreciate the work of RAB on this and

[111:01] all the others important utilities matters you contribute to so really appreciate you're on the board works well we appreciate that thank you Joanna said it yes thank you that's it we can take any questions um and we do have a we did post on hotline yesterday that there was an addendum to the memo it's really just the bvcp summary language and so I do have a slide with that on there if you need it and the motion language but we're ready for questions if you need it it'd be good to get that slide up for when we're ready for it great thanks so much for the presentation and and all the hard work to get us to this point really appreciate it Council questions Nicole gonna try the mic and see if it's okay um is this the time for comments too or just questions just questions then we'll go to the public hearing and then we'll come back to uh um then my question is just and I know that you've already thought about this given what's in the the plan but um what

[112:00] are the measures that will help those who will struggle with the bigger and faster rate increases what what are we planning to do as a city to help the folks who are going to be most affected by the increases thanks so much for the question so we do have utility assistance programs aside from the CFS that are just established we have Partnerships with those in the community and we also have um an emergency rental assistance program currently up it was a partnership with Boulder County we have a um called leap is the acronym through the state that we provide assistance through and then currently for those who have experienced a covid hardship we do have American Rescue plan act funds available in addition to our kind of ongoing program so um those are those are available and will continue to be as as we go forward just one follow-up there thank you where do people go to find out information about these programs

[113:04] I'm going to quit hitting the button um there is a financial if you go to I think it's I'll look it up but um it's the utility billing website and it does have a financial hardship link to it and it's available to the public [Music] good other questions okay Mark and then Matt just a couple of questions um I assume at some point in time infrastructure funds will be available under the uh the federal the Biden infrastructure act are we going to be prepared to access those funds for this purpose for sure and maybe Joe can speak specifically to it but I will say just more specifically the plan does talk about accessing grant funding when available and we we currently do that please go ahead yeah what what Joanna said is correct and actually we have several things in the works right now

[114:01] um various funding and Grant programs that were have have good leads on for utilities projects and we'll continue to look at that and prioritize it okay thank you um with respect to the vision level of funding that we're talking about at some point we need to get a little more concrete and understand what the real impact in dollar terms is going to be on the average consumer and do we have any information on this I mean 350 million dollars is going to require a good deal of bonding capacity and a great deal of increase in stormwater rates and it would be nice for the community to understand exactly what they're signing up for foreign ly speaking the difference between the action and vision levels of funding they both the rate increases would be within Striking Distance of rate increases that we've already implemented

[115:01] um it might be that if we move it would be that if we move to the vision level of funding that they would just be more sustained over time and those have roughly ranged from eight percent to 12 percent in the last about five years is that eight percent per annum or is that eight percent total it is eight percent per annum per annual yeah that's my team all right thank you colloquai on something that Mark I think it's my voice and voice I'm going to be way back here and see if that's better but just wondering as we think about moving to vision and Mark was asking about Federal infrastructure dollars um does that make it a particularly great time to move to Vision because there might be you know we might be able to get extra dollars right now that if we waited to

[116:01] uh increase what is going to be inevitably required to do we won't have that availability I'm just wondering is this like a golden moment I I might invite Joe to come up to speak I do think that construction does get more expensive the longer you wait and so I don't know that there's a lot of benefit to waiting however it's not the only factor and so I think you have to weigh that among the whole consideration but please add Joe yeah and I I would I would add to that for master plans common feedback that I think staff here is just in general is that there can be frustration that the vision plan is are really lofty goals but they're so far out of reach that um it's just challenging in our case the action plan and the vision that really are attainable and I think you're going to be making decisions the council will every year on

[117:00] rates and and so will the first step as Joanna said we'll be putting together a 20-year plan and we'll have options for how fast we go on that and and we'll make a recommendation next year and each year as as staff so I don't know that you necessarily have to commit to a huge decision that we're locked into forever more it's it's still there's still a year-to-year budget process so it is I I don't think I I totally answered your question is this is this moment a golden opportunity I I I would say it is and the prioritization framework is really the core of this Joanna described it really well and it's a platform for us to be able to answer the community's call to move forward more quickly so I think it is a good opportunity and the funds

[118:00] there are federal funds and things like that that we can look at thank you um I've got a couple questions um for one awesome great work I know we'll get to more comments later so we'll gush a little bit later I promise with regards to sort of emergency preparedness how are we working with OEM sort of notification evacuation reforms that were certainly stemmed from both Marshall and and Carr fire and so where does what sort of came out of fire preparedness and evacuation merge with some of our flood and and just how connected are we in those sort of plannings and and preparations you can start if you want but I thought I'd just stand here for a second to see what was next um really for utility staff the connection with uh Mike chard and the Emergency Operations uh is is strong and we get a lot of support from Mike and his team one of the things with regard to

[119:01] resilience and what we do in in utilities is Dam safety and and we do exercises and and Mike helps us with those he was really um a a key person that we reached out to in the development of this plan to get his feedback one of my personal goals was to get role Clarity within utilities of like when there's an emergency whose job is it to do which things and and we really work through that in Earnest with Mike and his team and our and our utility staff so I would say the discussions that we had with Mike in developing this plan and and just the back and forth have really strengthened that connection and we're we're well positioned to respond to issues in terms of the the types of response measures and the way that we work with notifying the community when there's an

[120:00] emergency the Marshall fire certainly brought some of those things to light and we were already in progress the Departments that have to respond to emergencies and OEM and looking at some of those things and there have been developments like the WIA system and and those are referenced in our plan and and we kind of have a list of of things that community members can be aware of and can sign up for and also some of the things that they'll just get automatic notifications so long answer hopefully I touched on what you were asking about thanks Joe my other question is with regard to sort of resources I noticed that we have a there's there's good plans in terms of what that sort of Maintenance cycling is for some of the larger infrastructure but that the smaller stuff is now kind of there isn't really a good cycle for that and that sort of I guess is sort of sort of left out in the ether to want to tackle is there a way for us to get a sense of you know what are the resource is needed for us to have a sort of Maintenance cycle

[121:01] for the whole system top to bottom and just how to pick up that last part because sometimes those last little Parts still have major impacts to even some of the communities and throughout throughout town and so I'm just sort of curious if we can know that certainly as we're in the midst of budget conversation not that it happens now but those are things that might help some of us weigh costs about where we want to allocate resources for sure and our utilities maintenance manager Josh Meck and I moved into our roles at about the same time three years ago and each year we've been looking at the resources and the level of service that we're wanting to deliver and how we cycle through all of our systems and water and wastewater and storm and flood so in in this year's budget cycle and next year I think we'll be bringing some of those details forward as we continue to do this analysis and get council's feedback on this master plan that covers my questions thanks Jeff thanks Jordan something else yeah uh

[122:00] just a couple of follow-ups um one of the useful life of most of these projects and the question is when we get F get to 30 35 years um are we going to just have maintenance of the existing projects are we going to have to cycle through it all again and and and build them again because they've exceeded their useful life sure and before coming to the city I was a consultant if you'd asked me that question in that role I probably would have said 50 years is is is the the answer but we know from maintaining these systems if we take care of things and and we do the annual maintenance uh components can last a lot longer than that it can be a hundred years or more so it just depends um with the with the major flood and drainage ways you have the vegetation that's always encroaching and and that kind of thing needs constant attention but a concrete wall or something that contains

[123:00] contains the flood waters can last well over 50 years and one thing that that Matt said that that triggered a thought in my mind one of the one of the unfortunate outcomes of the Marshall fire was that everybody found out that they were grossly underinsured I don't know if this is your department but is it can we engage in any kind of educational and informational program to get people to ensure themselves properly against flood and fire so that we don't repeat that kind of calamity it's covered in the master plan Joanna if you want to take that one yeah and I might actually just see if Brandon wants to speak to it I do know that we do um rely a lot on FEMA insurance and we did talk about insurance a lot particularly with the cwg it was an area of interest um and so for sure providing um resources to everybody to have that coverage but I know that FEMA is coming up with a new program Brandon I know

[124:01] I'll turn it off do you want to talk okay so I'm sorry but we can't hear anything in Zoom okay um yeah Joanna's correct if you could just introduce yourself please oh I'm Brandon Coleman uh the engineering manager in the storm flood utility um so Joanna's been helping with the master plan and I manage the engineering and the capital side of the storm flood utility um so yeah thanks to everybody for the plan but FEMA's our major insurance carrier for floods specifically there are regulatory requirements within the study for who has to buy flood insurance but it's not um it's not limiting so if you're outside of the flood plain or if you're within the 500 year flood plain those resources are available to you and they

[125:00] have calculations based on your home and your property value back in uh go with your insurance foreign see if it works still from uh far back I feel your pain Joanna so there's a one piece one little quote in the master plan Public Works projects use a significant amount of concrete and Portland cement the the key ingredient of that generates seven percent of the world's heat trapping carbon dioxide and then the plan points to Alternatives carbon storing concrete which incorporates Limestone Aggregates Etc so it can actually become the kind the cement and the concrete become a net carbon sink which is awesome and I'm just wondering are we doing that is this plan saying we want to do that how where where are we at and going with that because it's awesome

[126:01] thank you well and and so I'm just going to adjourn the meeting kidding but this is tough right it is and I will say that I hear that we are being heard really well on TV and it is just zoom that it's causing some of this issue so bear with us I know that there's a lot of Staff behind the scenes that are telling to recalibrate thanks thank you so whereas I can't speak to the the we're not using that exact approach in this project however or in this a specific project right now however the plan is recommending to use nature-based Solutions like the one described there as much as possible and so we really do work in those environmental features and in the design um and then also in the recovery in some of these projects and Amy I don't know if you want to add anything to that in addition to that it's also using less concrete whenever possible and that's

[127:01] the idea behind the nature-based solutions is how can you get nature to help you do what you need to do from an engineering standpoint and that's that's really what we're looking at is building resilient systems that that have benefits to the nature to Nature as opposed to negative impacts huh or what's to stop we do do it now and when you saw the Wonderland Creek that was a really good example of using nature-based Solutions so so for example uh in the 70s it was very common to just do a concrete line Channel and now using these grass bottom channels and incorporating these Wetlands gives you the added benefit while still providing the same level of protection not seeing any if we can move to the public hearing please and I understand we have one person signed up to speak so uh Lynn Siegel if you're there you

[128:01] get three minutes any time that and interrupt if you can't hear me you can't hear me clearly when you mess with the eluvian uh Lynn we can't hear you you're very distant sounds like thank you can you hear now not much now we can hear her very loud and clear and zoom so I'm just providing that information for folks in the room if that's helpful to diagnose well I'm glad to hear that have the public hear me but I do want the council to hear me as well so maybe we could hire some folks with more credentials in the audio visual Realm to get something going here so we can't

[129:02] hear you so just just keep speaking Congress um to have you know good Audio Visual in here yet yes when you mess with the eluvian you get trouble um especially when there's floodplains natural floodplains um and the best way to move water is to move it in the most natural way that it moved in the first place now Gilbert white always said the problem is not with the natural floodplain and flooding an extreme events the problem is with human habitation along those routes which is a clear indicator that we should not be making the problem worse with a quote-unquote see you South expansion

[130:02] um putting more people what's more danger to health and more danger to their lives in terms of property damage so keep the stream in the Stream listen to Carl Norby he has the solutions here you know he he sent me years ago a slide of a fence across one of the crooks in Boulder Joe tadayuchi has never responded to this you don't put obstructions in the floodplain that's the last thing you do you don't build up a lot of dams that are going to over flow and cause worse destruction to people Downstream in an unplanned way because there's a large body of water and when certain

[131:01] areas of the downstream flow gets blocked and glow gets redeverted you get a lot of impacts we could have major destruction down to the water treatment plant with it with a CU South for a hundred year flood claim and this would impair I mean we'd be like um Jackson Mississippi no it completely inundated so let's think about this and do the most you know the most aggressive kind of mitigation you can do which I think is keeping the stream in the Stream let the flow go out increase all the alluvium and the expense of this is really really horrendous when you're actually making the problem worse and the expense higher for all the people

[132:01] that live in Boulder already by increasing the population thank you Lynn all right so that's the end of the public testimony so we'll bring the public hearing too close come back to council uh so if people would like to start off with some comments yes Rachel quickly that I see staff really hustling tonight to fix the audio visual stuff in here and we have top-notch staff on the job and I appreciate it and and do not appreciate um people maligning the hard work that they're doing and then we that's all I have on that fair uh Matt well uh for one thanks utility department this is great work um I actually was fortunate to serve on this working group for quite a bit

[133:01] before I got elected to council and so um what I can say is I wish I was able to stick with this team to finish the work because I saw the potential and I saw the wide spectrum and diverse perspectives that this working group had and so to see the finished product in the manner that it is and those early Concepts that I was at least a part of come to fruition it's fantastic um and and I appreciate staff's work massaging the very different but but really important perspectives from that working group into the final product so um just just great job to especially you Joanna for sticking with the working group for as long as you did and the rest of staff so it was just it was just great work and so it's nice to see it on both sides being a part of it in the work and now seeing it on the final product here at the dice so great job your little team cool terrible go go

[134:00] I think it's great news that the racial Equity tool was used and what a great outcome because when it comes to storm water and floods the most vulnerable the most marginalized suffer the most so I want to really thank you for that bet you were going to say that weren't you Nicole thank you um I you know I I go back and forth with with the The Raid hike versus this is probably of all emergencies the most important emergency so if you listen fire so if you say and this is what I think I've heard you say Joe right that this Vision plan is not so far out of reach that we can actually do it that means a lot to me and that's what you're saying isn't it yes Terry you're exactly right that was what I was coming into praise I just really want to thank you all for this really incredibly great work

[135:00] um the note that you put in there about prioritizing the projects that do the most good first I just love that that saying it's such a simple but a powerful framework for all of our decision making I really appreciate calling out the bias in Prior project prioritization methods that provided more protection in affluent areas rather than places where life and safety risks are greatest I also really appreciate the objectivity in having a way to prioritize projects that align with our core values and minimize debate about what projects will go next this is exactly what I want to see with all our work across all departments and all of our decisions as a governing body and incorporation incorporating racial and social Equity as a primary consideration working explicitly to repair the systemic and institutional racial inequities we have in our city that's how we act on our racial Equity goals so Kudos this is wonderful and we need to do more of this it's really an excellent example for all of us on how the city can prioritize our

[136:01] work based on social vulnerability and Equity my only issue is with the quote on page 10 of the memo about Boulder being next to the word community in the dictionary we're not quite there yet but I think with more focus and work like what you've done here in this master plan we can get there I'll call in myself I'm not seeing the other hands and I'll go to Rachel after that just Echo the comments of my colleagues y'all have done a phenomenal job and it's been a lot of work to get here the and I really appreciate the way that this is involved the entire Community with the working group with the community connectors the Outreach here has been really fantastic so I appreciate that very much and I just have to Echo some of the specific words that uh looking at it through an equity framework right through the racial Equity tool and you know setting aside cost benefit is the primary driver of what we pick and instead looking at how we're protecting the most vulnerable in our community I'm just so appreciative

[137:01] that we've taken that approach you know sometimes we get questions about like okay so you're you're working on this racial Equity thing what's actually changed and this is a great example of some things very specific that has changed and will result in a measurable differences in terms of protecting the most vulnerable in our community so just huge thank you for for are putting that forward and working on that and looking forward to getting this approved other comments Rachel yeah sorry yeah just I Echo everything everyone else has said that was all very well said I think that our number one job is community safety and this plan drives that forward in a in a pretty remarkable way so I'm very supportive I'm supportive of us moving to Vision level funding I don't know if we have to specifically say that or not tonight um but I do think it's the right time to try and maximize and capitalize on on the federal funding especially that's available and it's not going to get easier and climate crisis really demands

[138:02] that we prioritize funding that's going to make us safe from from the floods that we know will be coming Boulder is the number one most flood-prone city in the state of Colorado so it's unfortunate that we have to spend as much as we do but we do we live here and we need to protect our community members so thanks for all your hard work it's great to see you all I'll be enthusiastically supporting um great and can we get the motion language up on the screen please I might invite emotion I'm not seeing any other hands all right sorry um okay I moved to accept the comprehensive flood and stormwater master plan and approve the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan comprehensive flood and stormwater master plan summary second it's a show of hands Alicia yes sir that'll be fine yeah any uh final uh thoughts before we get a vote

[139:03] all right I guess well we can all agree duly noted all right all in favor that's unanimous oh thanks so much appreciate all your kind words and with that thanks to all of you so so much just really phenomenal work I'm looking forward to seeing this move forward foreign so now we got a a matter yes sir next we have our item number six on tonight's agenda Matters from the city manager 6A will be the West Pearl update thanks so much uh Council we appreciate the opportunity to discuss the topic tonight and as staff gets ready I just wanted to offer perhaps some Framing and some Reflections as well we know this has generated a lot of conversation and

[140:00] community and want to acknowledge from the outset that this has been a really hard decision all around however folks feel about the reopening of West Pearl I want to just say that staff has truly been working hard on the issue since we last heard from you has been listening to a multitude of perspectives and has come to their recommendations from a space of balance and a recognition that we just have more work to do before we just decide what the permanent future of West Pearl Street will look like in the meantime we need to move forward I know many of you will recall vividly the initial reason this closure started to support our local business community's recovery from the financial impacts of covid and as with any temporary closure we move forward resetting streets to their former use once the need for the temporary closure has ended one of the major differences here I'll say is that we did learn some great things about this longer term temporary closure we learn how much we all enjoyed what this new more pedestrianized open space Plaza feel felt like and that we're

[141:02] probably like to expand this to different areas in the city we also learned that there are some accessibility challenge to this type of open space multi-programmed area and that existing streets perhaps need further work to attend to some of the pavement grade issues and curb cuts to better accommodate those in wheelchairs and who have low vision we also learned that we need to anticipate and try to measure what the financial impact may be to nearby businesses on any street that is closed and whether we can find other ways to support our businesses while still incentivizing alternative modes of transportation across the city the Silver Lining I hope and the takeaway is not that we want to see one section of one street remain closed but rather that we love this concept and want staff to move towards increasing this across the entire city where perhaps smaller businesses can Thrive and neighborhoods have an additional and closer space that encourages a sense of community and belonging this takes some time and engagement

[142:01] though to do it right and to make sure we're not running a foul of some legal concerns we have as we hear about either permanent closure or extending the mall that may trigger some potential legal concerns I know that CAO needs additional time to review pertaining to the public mall Act of 1970 and frankly we we have learned that there are more steps required for any permanent street closure than we initially anticipated we are open to all of these conversations and mindful that there has been a tremendous outpouring a tremendous outpouring of support for more pedestrianized streets while also conscious of the impact and voices of concern expressed by many in our business community that have been most directly impacted by the current temporary closure to address existing safety accessibility and financial impact concerns in the short term coupled with the fact that emergency orders have now expired I support staff's recommendation coming from Community Vitality transportation

[143:01] and mobility and planning and development services to mobilize resources and reopen West Pearl as early as planned and we want to continue the conversation about the West End to include a more robust engagement and ensure future decisions on street closure actually have some more robust analytics and alignment with all of our city goals versus being then the rightful reaction and response to a global pandemic that's a lot from me on the topic so I'm going to turn it over to staff for more detail but I hope you and everyone listening everyone who expressed their thoughts at the beginning of the meeting and everyone who shared with us their emails as we came into today's conversation I really hope that you hear that we too say we want to explore more multimodal places we too appreciate the need to work with community members to find increased ways to support our climate goes we too believe that it's important to support our local businesses who help us create a thriving economy that frankly benefits us all

[144:01] and we too want to make sure that these opportunities for new Innovations and change are happening all across the city and not just in our downtown core so with that I'll turn it over to Chris thank you Nuria good evening it's one of the cursed microphones oh maybe I'll try this one all right hi Natalie um thank you Nuria good evening city council I'm Chris Jones the interim director of community Vitality I am joined on my very close left by Natalie Stiffler the interim director of transportation and Mobility we're also joined on the zoom call with a number of Staff members from a number of departments who have been helping us

[145:00] with this very challenging conversation I'm sure we're also joined by a number of community members who are very passionate about many sides of this challenging conversation and maybe an unpopular decision that we've been faced with in this time and so look oh so um now we're looking forward to okay okay oh yes question can you do you mind driving I can okay I just need to be able to see it so I can oh yeah I'll speak to my slides up here all right better and then we'll we'll switch back all right so this evening I'm gonna share a little bit of background about how we got to this point um with our coveted related temporary closure and the decisions that that and the goals that drove those decisions then talk about some of the key considerations that we've taken into account um as we've been seeking away a path forward in this conversation then I'll

[146:00] hand it over to Natalie who's going to share some upcoming uh and proposed work items to help continue this conversation some of the the elements that Nuria mentioned and she'll share some of our our planned proposed next steps and then we'll have time for questions and Council discussion next slide so I think it's really important that we remind ourselves that all of the work that we do in all of the Departments of the city are Guided by the sustainability equity and resilience framework whether it's a long-term Master planning process or responding to a global pandemic and emergency orders that we are charged with with trying to figure things out very rapidly in ways to serve the community and so these are the goals that the city looked to when we were trying to to identify how do we help a business Community survive when they are being severely impacted by a global emergency and this led to the decision and the formation of the the boulder business recovery Alliance that

[147:01] we help to stand up with the boulder chamber the Latino Chamber of Commerce the downtown Boulder partnership the the Small Business Development Center the convention and visitors bureau and many departments at the city trying to to readily and actively quickly respond to some challenges in in March of 2020. in community Vitality specifically we certainly serve all of the framework goals but we've also identified some specific Department goals what we call our three pillars of community vitality and that's access for all District vitality and cultural vibrancy it's our belief in the work that we do that when we are able to do really well in those three areas then all three areas can can reach their their full potential in our key economic centers that Community Vitality serves if we're not doing well in Access for all then we're not going to be able to serve our key economic centers as best as we as we would like to in these other areas next

[148:00] slide please I think it's really important to remind ourselves that 50 years ago this community was facing some very significant challenges when it came to the vibrancy of our downtown and many Community leaders came together as we all probably know a lot of the history to take a look at what we are going to do how are we going to respond to the challenges of that day and the four blocks of our existing Pedestrian Mall were looked to as a place for transformation but our community and our leaders knew that what we do on those four blocks also has implications for all the other blocks of the downtown next slide please so that's why they made sure they incorporated into their planning an understanding of how the decisions for four blocks of a pedestrianized public space would interact with all the other spaces around that area to make sure that those blocks could be successful too and largely Now 50 years later 45 years later since the Mall opened we

[149:00] have seen the fruits of those decisions in a very vibrant one of the most vibrant Town towns in the in the country next slide please so looking to again a global pandemic in March of 2020 and the steps that we took to shut down West Pearl to allow businesses to rapidly expand out into the public right-of-way we rerouted the Hop to Walnut to make sure that that spaces on Pearl could be a little bit more pleasant we also work to implement curbside pickup zones for restaurants that wanted to provide for outdoor or takeout in October of 2020 as the pandemic continued we extended our emergency orders we created new winter Provisions that that led to a lot of the Jersey barriers that you saw go that went up around the outdoor dining areas we extended those emergency orders again the following year and it's about that time that we knew we needed to start a planning for what are the good things that have come out of this event and how

[150:00] do we start transitioning and anticipating when these emergency orders end how are we going to respond and transform and that's when we got direction from Council to look at a downtown Boulder outdoor dining pilot we've Revisited that with you in late late winter of this year we pivoted and decided that we wanted to focus on a city-wide outdoor dining program and so we we talked about that last April we also touched on uh decisions around West Pearl knowing that eventually emergency orders were going to end and we needed to figure out what our path forward was going to be we figured that out we got clear direction for outdoor dining we came back to you in June with ordinance changes that allowed for that program to exist outside of emergency orders we didn't get the the clear straightforward there's mixed feelings and sentiments on Council when we talked about West Pearl in April so now here we are again checking in with you letting you know what steps we've taken since then and and now approaching you with this conversation about planning processes

[151:00] that we've proposed for our work plan in the future uh next slide so in hearing from the community we know we've gotten just over 300 emails by count from what I've heard on our end maybe you've gotten individual emails that we have not received um but we know that that we have some images here that represent the way that a lot of people are thinking about their experience of West Pearl over the past two and a half years a lot of active Lively fun spaces outdoor dining great sunny weather you get to meet your neighbors on the street this is not necessarily the experience every day on West Pearl next slide um the business owners who are operating in this space 24 hours seven days a week 365 days a year are seeing a lot different experience and I think it's important to consider now that a lot of the outdoor dining equipment by choice has has been removed out of the public right-of-way there are a lot of times now that the space is is very vacant

[152:01] it's not as Lively as it had been during the the height of the pandemic and so this is having an impact on how people are experiencing the space and I think it's really important that we we appreciate those juxtapositions of of people's perception versus sometimes what reality is in that space next slide this is a collection of just uh not comprehensive images of some other issues that have been identified throughout the closure we've got two unused highly developed designed bus stops for the Hop that are Ada accessible they have shelter they've got landscaping and bike racks and and they were well designed to serve that that Transit service we've had issues with snow removal and Ada accessibility in the winter time and then of course Freight has been a huge Challenge and folks have been using the crosswalks on either end at 11th and Pearl and 9th and pearl for pickup drop-off for delivery of freight which leads to some challenging interactions between pedestrians and cyclists at those at

[153:02] those conflict points next slide please so these are five of the consideration areas that we included in the memo I'm not going to read through all of these and it's not intended to be exhaustive but wanted Council to be aware of some of the issues that staff was looking at when we were written we were recognizing that we needed to make a decision on how to move forward on West Pearl most importantly though recognizing that the decisions that we made to to quickly close West Pearl temporarily as a result of a global pandemic we're related primarily to economic vitality and so I want to just touch on a few slides next slide um we did survey the the broader business community and uh visitors and and others who were interested in what's going on with outdoor dining and West Perot we got over 800 responses to that survey this particular survey was targeted specifically at West Pearl businesses and we had about 54 responses and a mix of of different types of

[154:01] businesses and mixed uh results we heard that about 50 percent of restaurants on West Pearl did report that during the closure they've seen increased foot traffic these are things that we would expect to see we also they also reported more activity in the area but they also reported that there were increased challenges for parking and access and some reported other types of businesses reported decreased visibility as a result of the closure next slide please we've also taken a look at sales tax data we brought some of this data to you back in April we've gotten updated numbers through June of 2022 sales tax data is typically the data that the city uses it's data that we have readily available to us to indicate the health of a major component of our economy in the support of the services of the city and what this data is telling us Is that West Pearl is recovering slower than almost every other commercial area in the city I can't see the numbers from

[155:02] here but so this is retail sales tax for all retail sales tax on West Pearl currently as of June was at 78 percent of 2019 levels whereas the total Boulder sales tax receipts where 123 percent of 2019 pre-pandemic levels next slide when we look at eating places specifically this is the industry that was probably hurt almost one of the most uh hardest by the global pandemic we can see that in 2020 all areas with the exception of of maybe East downtown were impacted about equally they all had the same reduction and impact of the initial covid reductions but over time we're seeing a lot of of areas of the city are recovering more rapidly than the West Pearl area so for instance the downtown

[156:00] Pearl Street Mall right now as of June is at 115 percent of 2019 sales tax receipts pre-covered whereas West Pearl right now as of June is at 81 of 2019 sales tax receipts for eating places next slide I think it's also important again to to take a look at how we are are looking at the downtown comprehensively and and all the curbside uses and the the uses of the public right away trying to balance all the different needs um in this map there's a an indication indication on the West End that's where we had the closure where parklets were out in the street there are many different uses of the of the right-of-way and the curb throughout the downtown and they all do work together and any decisions that we make on these two blocks are going to have implications for the curbside uses in the surrounding areas just to note there

[157:01] are about 66 parking spaces in the west Pearl closure area we currently have five businesses that have applied and are continuing their their outdoor dining extensions in some of those parking spaces about eights parking spaces are currently dedicated to outdoor dining extensions there were 17 businesses participating in the program during the height of the pandemic we are anticipating that some of those businesses are going going to reapply in February to participate in the program next year there are Six Ada parking spaces in this area that is the highest concentration of ADA parking spaces in our whole on-street parking system there are two loading zones to help accommodate some of our ongoing loading needs and that leaves about 52 spaces in this area when it's closed not currently allocated for of a specific use currently next slide oh handing it over now to Natalie we're going to switch seats foreign

[158:04] thanks Chris and I'm I'll just reintroduce myself just I'm Natalie Stiffler the interim director for transportation can you hear me okay so I'm going to shift now to talk about upcoming work um so many departments are working on Place making and Mobility projects across the um across the downtown and there are a variety of planning and project efforts currently underway or planned each of these will help inform near and long-term possibilities for transformation throughout the downtown and surrounding areas of no one is one of council's priorities the can work plan item the downtown Mobility study this work is slated for mid-2024 given current Staffing and budget resources this study will consider multimodal connections throughout the downtown and in connection to other activity centers in Boulder like the University Hill and

[159:00] cu it's likely that this study would look at mobility in this area that we're focused on tonight as well Additionally the Civic area master plan and Pearl Street revitalization each have upcoming implementation efforts that will be partially funded by Community culture resilience and safety tax slide staff recognizes that much of the community enjoyed repurposing the street through the pandemic for Plaza space in response in the more immediate term staff is proposing that we conduct an analysis focused on the West End to evaluate options for the West End including West Pearl Street such options may include space allocated for weekend or seasonal programming and events this process would consider Transportation climate and other community goals that we recognize are important to inform the future of this area it will include a robust engagement process to ensure we're hearing from a diverse set of Community Voices and inform future decisions about how space is allocated in this area

[160:00] transportation and Mobility would lead this work with support from our colleagues in community Vitality Communications and engagement and other departments across the city for now we're tentatively planning to begin this work in early 2023. we need to consider through our work planning process how to prioritize this work among the work among the can work plan priorities we are already underway on the Baseline Road Transportation safety project and are preparing to launch engage engagement activities for Iris Avenue later this year and with Tab and council's input Folsom is slated to begin next Transportation staff wants to stay focused on can priorities so we look forward to hearing council's feedback on how we approach this additional work plan item that is up for consideration so as we move forward from tonight we will end the temporary closure if Council would like us to proceed with the west west end analysis staff will continue scoping that work to be ready to begin that work as soon as possible we will also continue work that is already underway with downtown Boulder partnership on the Downtown Vision plan

[161:00] and other efforts related to the downtown before we wrap up with questions for you we want to share feedback that was received by the transportation Advisory board and the downtown management commission this week consistent with tabs letter tab requested that West parole remain closed will any additional analysis is done as their perspective is that the closed Street helps us meet our transportation and climate goals by reducing vehicle traffic and providing more space for people walking and biking I'll hand it to Chris to summarize dmc's feedback that he heard this week and then we'll wrap up the presentation with questions for you thank you Natalie um so from from DMC uh conversely we heard that they they think that West Pearl should be reopened uh by the end of October while staff is able to take the time to consider other possible reconfigurations of West Pearl or other other streets in the downtown area they do believe that there is reconfiguration

[162:01] possibilities for West Pearl but it needs to be studied further and to include that input from the public and businesses and other stakeholders they believe that keeping West Pearl closed as is in its current form presents many issues and impedes business recovery particularly during the slower weekdays extremely hot days and during the winter months so that takes us to our questions for Council and I'm sure questions for staff but in consideration of the planned end they're goblins or uh uh in consideration of the planned end of the covid-19 related temporary closure of West Pearl Street does council support the staff recommendation to begin a new work plan item to pursue a West End multi-modal analysis to inform possible options for future reconfiguration of streets in the West

[163:00] End of Pearl and maybe other areas does council have questions regarding the current and upcoming planning processes that will help inform the near and long-term possibilities for West Pearl Street and other areas in and around the downtown um and with that we're happy to uh continue the conversation great thanks so much Chris and Natalie and you all are really good at playing musical chairs dealing with a difficult situation and did we invite representatives from uh any of the boards involved to speak to us tonight yes do it would you like me to I'll answer for all um we do have a member representative from tab we have a representative from DMC so Transportation Advisory board downtown management commission and uh chip I believe with the downtown Boulder partnership is available um if called upon great so here I have because these are invited guests I have made them each a panelists and can they can turn on their camera and speak to you when you ask for them to do so okay great well looks like we have teal

[164:02] duhane from Tab and Don Poe from the DMC I'll just say I saw Tila first I'd maybe I'll let her start off with uh maybe a couple of minutes of thoughts from each of you I'm so glad to have you here thanks for joining us thank you Mr Mayor thank you Council it's a delight to be with you this evening um you know I I'm hopeful that you were able to read tab's letter I think that that really encapsulated a lot of the discussion that we had and a lot of the consensus that we had it was fairly unanimous uh opinion upon among the members of tab that that sort of the binary Choice you've been presented with open it entirely or keep it entirely closed is maybe a false one uh and we feel that Coven in particular gave us as a city as a community the kind of impetus to capitalize on a chance uh to realize some long-held desires um during the meeting I referred to about 10 years of planning documents that the city had

[165:01] published that repeatedly as Lisa white this evening in public comment had referred to um expressed a desire by the community to have this kind of public space so we were so pleased when Community Vitality did open up um Pearl Street to people but we think that the option of changing it entirely back is not necessarily the only option to go so for a 90 second summary of our letter I would say the first point was that the business revenue and experience um a relative to the closure of Pearl Street to private Vehicles should not be the controlling consideration and even if it were the controlling consideration our second point was basically uh that the data based on the business experience and feedback that Community Vitality sought and received doesn't weigh either way toward a full return um to what was there before or to

[166:01] maintaining a full closure what it does seem to show is that there's a consensus about a 65 consensus of West End businesses to not end it right this second um and that can actually give us some room to think about how we might want to modify a full closure versus a full opening and I would really invite Council to um encourage staff to be creative and capitalize on the gains and the popularity and what we have learned that is positive about this um this project in this pilot our third Point basically was that returning Motor Vehicles to those streets actually frustrates a number of other community goals and I think if you look at the slides and the considerations that Chris set out that Community Vitality was including uh safety Equity accessibility operations and economic Vitality this is leaving out a whole bunch of stuff that is in our transportation master plan including a climate impacts sustainability mode shift induced demand

[167:02] reducing vehicle miles travels things that this closure really actually helps advance and that we would be backpedaling and actually undoing a lot of damage undoing a lot of progress that we've made by allowing Motor Vehicles to return to business as normal on here our last Point basically is about our last recommendation but we're kind of in this impasse and at this moment partly because we as tab haven't had as much input and interaction with Transportation with a community Vitality that we think has been would be essential and helpful uh we've been talking about it for years but um on the one hand Tab and the public are not able to integrate and interface with Community vitality and the business community and that's that's Community vitality's core mission right so we need to recognize that

[168:01] Community Vitality doesn't internalize the goals that are separate that are set out in our transportation master plan that Equity piece the um safety piece those things are not really treated with the same kind of priorities that we as tab help staff to keep front of mind and at the core of their mission and so if there were better coordination I think between Community Vitality when thinking about things like parking management access pricing and transportation Advisory board or Transportation staff I think we might not be in this kind of false dichotomy and situation where you have a really difficult decision to make and the the city manager Nuri has a really difficult decision to make I think if we had been a little bit more on the same page this whole time from the beginning of the closure to how is it going to now what do we do that the emergency orders are over we might actually be in less of a um of a hard spot in a rock place

[169:02] great well thanks so much Tila for representing Tab and for your your words and your thoughts really appreciate the work y'all have done on this and so I'll now turn to uh don Poe from the downtown management commission Don if you want to share the thoughts of your board please happy to do so and thank you for having me tonight my name is Don Ho I am the chair of the downtown management commission and we appreciate all the work that Chris Jones Nuria Natalie and the staff have provided to you to everyone and to us on this topic and uh I agree it's not a binary issue I think more research needs to be done um the long-term decision around what to do with West Pearl for now we support the opening of Western Pearl until uh more research has been done this plan multimodal analysis is a really wise first step to do that so opening West Pearl Now does not mean it will never

[170:01] close again it means we're going to be planning and doing this in a wise way so let's take a look back you know uh Chris was showing that map of uh What uh the walking Mall 50 years ago with the planning was done around that and it was planned it supported inclusion that supported businesses uh they they took planning into how deliveries would be handled they actually had a one part of that there's a three-tier tax system where the businesses downtown actually taxed themselves to make that all happen and so right now with the immediate closure of pearl that was understood why we need to do it for uh for covet issues but it also had Ada issues um what are we doing with bus rerouting uh what are we doing with the underground utilities that are there that need to be accessed there's no public art all these types of issues have come up because it was done

[171:00] quickly and now we have time to do this the right way so many of the businesses businesses on the West End um want the street opened as uh to have just also said too uh business leases were done with an idea of an open Street so after more planning is done West Pearl could be closed again in phases or given those businesses a known timeline so they can plan accordingly even right now we've had the parklets that were added this was uh done again in support of business but these are things are done very quickly the partlets allow for a hybrid approach so the park let's get the restaurants the flexibility as if the street was closed but it also allows us to open the street um dining outside in the winter is not the same as in the summer we need a plan for year-round activation um so West Pearl isn't vacant in the winter people avoid vacant areas you

[172:03] want things to feel activated Lively no one wants to go where there's no one there um that's why the mall itself is so effective if we don't plan this well we could actually tank the West End we don't want passion to tank what we have in front of us with the West End so as Chris talked about tax revenue on the west end has not risen in a similar manner why is that well is it because the streets are closed um it's because businesses closed uh you know what's going on this is why this multimodal analysis and other kind of research needs to be done so right now we're comparing the past years with it closed we need to plan and see what happens when we open it by having that comparison we can have an

[173:00] apples to apples and oranges to Apples comparison as to like what happens we is this now is the time to experiment and see what happens um opening the West End provides for these new insights so Matt Benjamin actually emailed the hotline with some questions and these are all things that we need to answer to make this happen and closing the keeping it closed won't allow for this to happen now we can go in let people return we can still feel as if it's closed with the parklets you can still walk on the sidewalk this is not a permanent solution this will allow us the time to be smart about it planned for Ada and all these other types of issues that have really cropped up so uh the downtown management commission plant is part of uh one of the commissions that supports you on these types of topics we help with Capital Improvements we work with parking we want to know more about the parking Revenue in downtown by losing those parking spots we're losing that Revenue but maybe taxes will go up

[174:01] because people are down there more again we need to study this more for how this works in our letter we mentioned that we would recommend this be open by October 31st and since then I've had a little bit more time to think about this with the coming of the potential Mall crawl and the issues we Face downtown uh with um the Halloween era I would like to have this opened up a little bit earlier so that the police can plan and have a working um runway for How uh the West End is open with enough time to also plan for the potential Halloween season of that weekend so we said the 31st of October a little bit earlier I think would be wise to allow the police to plan accordingly thank you very much thank you Don appreciate those thoughts and the work of the DMC on this issue and all the other work you do and uh chip did you want to add in a few words see we got you on camera here I would love to actually thank you so

[175:00] much mayor uh Parkin thank you for the council for the opportunity to address you all this uh evening and more importantly I want to take just a moment to thank the the extraordinary response of City leadership with Council and staff uh first and the weeks after the pandemic launching the many emergency orders including giving our restaurants Fighting Chance by providing the free use of the public right-of-way and removing miles of red tape that would have been associated with such a project so I know without the urgency exhibited from City staff really leading Boulder I believe to be the First Community in the state to begin an outdoor dining program uh that that would have been devastating and then again uh thank you to the staff for taking on the very complex project of creating what we have now in our uh pilot outdoor dining program Citywide which does as has been mentioned allowed allow operators to opt in to continue to use the public right-of-way for dining now that the emergency orders have ended

[176:01] and we really do understand how complicated that program was as we were Partners in helping to develop it so thank you so much uh as for the question of what to do with the West end with the two and a half blocks of Pearl Street between 10th Urban including 10th Street between 9th and 11th now that the emergency orders uh have ended there's a lot of points that we would like to raise but um I'm I'm happy to be following both Don uh with DMC and Tyler with the tab because I really agree with a lot of the points there they both made and in particular there's just so much that we do not know we don't really understand the economic impact of the last of the street closure there's many variables we've lost employees on the West End we've also lost employees on the East end but it's increased we don't really know the climate impacts uh just because we're not seeing cars on those two blocks doesn't really we don't have reliable able data of what the the

[177:00] impacts to climate was we know that outdoor dining in the winter has tremendous climate impacts we don't understand the equity impacts what we do know is that we've stumbled on to an extraordinary opportunity prior to the pandemic the West End was arguably one of the most well-designed and highest performing multimodal streets in the city automobile traffic bicycle bus pedestrian access all worked well together to create a diverse vibrancy of business types throughout every season and then during the pandemic we discovered that at times we were able to create an exciting pedestrian Plaza experience and clearly awaken the great Community appetite for the development of more human-centered sites downtown Boulder partnership is genuinely excited to work I'm so so sorry to interrupt you but we're having some trouble hearing you I don't know if you can get a little closer to your micro speak up a little bit I want to make sure we get your words I will they're all very important so I appreciate that every single one um I I

[178:03] am just saying we he is really authentically and genuinely excited to work with staff and with the entire Community to explore how we can take advantage of both of these realities as well as looking at other opportunities to repurpose streets alleys surface parking lots and all of our underutilized public spaces in the downtown to create better human-centric spaces we've already begun Network as has been mentioned with the Downtown Vision plan we've heard a lot from the community I'm really excited about some of the things we're hearing but I wanna I wanna stress last winter the West End of Pearl Street was not a fantastic example of human-centered space even unstructured public space requires planning investment programming and a lot of thought that we haven't had the opportunity to engage in it's after Labor Day we've got the outdoor dining program working well in the public right-of-way in the parking spaces but

[179:01] now we have a a not vibrant downtown Street that's inaccessible we need to return access for the winter while we do aggressively and creatively explore our many options in downtown and for the West end it's not a binary open or close there's so many options but we need to approach it thoughtfully but today we need to get the street open for the winter so the businesses don't suffer the way they did last winter and let's plan thoughtfully now for next spring and summer thank you so much for your time and really thank you for taking on this this complicated uh in and important Community decision thanks for that chip and we appreciate the partnership of the downtown folder partnership okay well it was great to hear from our guests thanks to all of you for your thoughts and so now I would uh look if we could structure it with questions right now for City staff and after we get through all of our questions we can respond to their questions for us

[180:01] let's see Bob to start us off yeah two questions for Natalie all right so I have a problem now too two questions for you Natalie um one um I'm just looking at your slide up there it says it refers to a West End multiple uh modal analysis by that would are you proposing at least for for this first um analysis to limit things just to West Pearl what's what's the geography of West End can you hear me okay I can okay um yeah I think so we're thinking of it as uh we haven't delineated you know a box around a certain area but it would be extend beyond we would look at more than just the West Pearl we would look at kind of the West End and the you know 9th 10th 11th as part of that it wouldn't just be West Pearl by itself how far east is Westco well I think that's open to

[181:01] consideration well let me ask a question this way would it um take if the geography was a little bit bigger I'm not talking about the whole city or even all of downtown but the drug view is a little bit bigger would that add time to your work or is that something you can kind of throw in so I think we do want to say pretty focused we don't want to expand it to all of downtown because well my thought is that we we are planning to do that work through the can downtown Mobility study and um and we would have to seriously shift work planning efforts if we were going to consider mobility and access across downtown and if that's you or me okay um it's both of us um so I guess I'll just I I'll be interested to know when we get to comments about or your thoughts on maybe 13th Street you know it doesn't have to be contiguous from 9th to 13th but 13th I know has been on everyone's list for a long time so I'm just curious about that but I will say that for the comments second question of my two

[182:00] questions is you said start the work on this um West End multimodal analysis at the beginning of the year when do you think you'd be able to come back to check in with us on how that's going yes so we are thinking no matter if we start at the beginning of the year or kind of a little bit earlier later this year we would try to be back in the spring um to talk about you know what we could do as the weather improves going into you know May June July okay great thanks that's all the questions have for now okay I'm going to get into a potentially difficult question out of the gate here but you know the questions presented to us are number one in consideration of the plan to end of the closure and I just wonder why is the first question not whether Council supports reopening the street in my memory Council was the driving force in closing these blocks as a policy decision and I thought that

[183:00] from The Retreat we had we had already added on the work plan that we were baking in covid Silver Linings and then I thought at the last check-in that we were it was made clear that we were going to get another chance to weigh in on this and decide so as a decision maker I feel a bit leapfrogged and I think as someone who um you know whose job it is to represent Community I think that community members also feel leapfrogged in this process so I just would like some clarification on on why that's not a threshold question does council support reopening so I'll start with that and I appreciate it um and again appreciate everyone's patience as we continue to deal with our audio um and I appreciate I don't know how this came right I wasn't here when this came first as we were talking about it at the beginning of the pandemic I know that when we came and I went back to

[184:00] look at the meeting in April about providing more Direction on what you'd like to see on West Pearl we didn't exactly get unanimous feedback as we were moving forward and our commitment was to come back and talk about it again um I don't believe at that time that we received unanimous feedback to close not close open I think at the time too we were thinking about when the expiration of the emergency orders hit and that happens to hit at the end of August at that meeting too we talked about because there were conversations about extending that to October or not and saying uh being very clear about we did not want to and did not feel it was appropriate Brit to extend emergency orders artificially to accommodate the extension of a closure that again we know everyone including ourselves enjoyed we believe it is certainly in the purview of management of of the city to

[185:01] reset any street that has been temporarily closed just like we do if there were a main break or construction this is obviously an unusual situation but it was a temporary closure based on the pandemic it is time now to reset it and certainly based on the recommendations from three department heads as we move forward there are additional considerations that we move forward and believe that it is when our administrative purview and the authority delegated to the city manager to move in that direction so I appreciate that response I would say that you know if we go back to the 2020 um decision it was different than like closing the street for a street main it was really a policy decision that came from Council so um I I guess I just still have a question of should this should the presentation of tonight uh start with um sort of I don't know who's on first look at it I don't want I think it's

[186:00] unfortunate that uh that the situation feels a little bit like a power struggle and I don't think that's good for any of us and I don't think any of us want it but I do think it's a threshold question so maybe I'll reserve the rest of that for discussion but but wanted um to understand From staff's perspective kind of how we got here and I think I have a couple more questions let me just can I just add two I'm sorry before you move on and one of the things that we hope to make clear is that um and again we we too don't want to get into a power struggle this is not it has never been my way um uh in whatever City I have served to not be collaborative with Council but it's just not my style I do think and I think the the question we're trying to ask is I think the appropriate level policy question what would you like us to do would you like us to do more multimodal what are other streets we could do we would love to engage in that conversation because frankly I'll say that I don't know that West Pearl is the one street I would have started with as we move forward it happens to be the street that was closed and now it is

[187:01] time with the emergency orders being ending to go back to when we didn't have emergency orders and really that is more in my estimation a an immediate administrative decision but I get that it is wrapped up in a larger conversation this community has had in the past and I hope that we continue to have with your nod to continue to move forward on what that looks like in every neighborhood anywhere in the city however we get that work in appreciate that and I think of you as nothing but collaborative so if that came out anything else that wasn't the intent um so also back in probably 2019 I had asked that um staff members kind of lay out pros and cons and I feel like this memo gave us a lot of cons maybe to why staff would recommend reopening or keeping it closed but not or whatever Pros to reopening and not cons to not doing that so just wondering what what might staff see as I don't know what the right term is here Pros versus cons the other side

[188:00] of the recommendation like I understand the the um we'll have some questions on business impacts but I understand what was laid out as the rationale for staff recommendation but does staff see um other side to weather to close it like what would be the Silver Linings to going the other way with it thank you for the question um and I'll start but there might be I think there there are different perspectives from different interests so when you think about the three pillars of community Vitality um I'd say the the energy that's behind uh the folks who want to keep West Pearl closed we want to have those conversations and we want to have spaces appropriate spaces to to activate and and connect with the community where everybody has access inclusive access to that space and maybe Westborough will prove to be that space there are things that we could do that make it all those cons that we mentioned uh in the memo

[189:01] there there could be interventions that we can take to mitigate those so that it can become that space that folks are excited about and they want to activate and this is these are things we've seen it all over the world prior to the pandemic you think about Times Square and how it's evolved in New York City um but right now the actions that we took in in May of 2020 we're in response to a pandemic staff really does believe that we we did the right thing um and now as as that as the pandemic is going behind us the opportunity now is to learn from that not necessarily presuming that just because we did what we did on West Pearl means that that is that that is the place where we need to have this conversation with the community maybe more appropriate spaces will reveal themselves we'll have less hurdles when it comes to a lot of the challenges that we presented in the memo maybe it will be West Pearl and that's why we we feel like we need to make sure we're taking that measured data Centric

[190:00] approach that's looking at all of the different measures before we make some pretty significant decisions on on just deciding this is the place we're going to further that type of conversation um I have a couple more questions but should have clarified nobody ever gives me pros and cons it's not this memo they didn't do it it's just it was really relevant in this one because I was wondering what the the other side was from staff's perspective um okay then on page uh in the memo I think it's seven there's a chart that has like increased foot traffic more activity in the area increased sales decrease in sales and I'm just struggling a little bit to understand it like increase sales I think it's self-reports from the businesses are at forty percent and then decrease sales is at 10 percent roughly for restaurants so it seems to me that the majority of respondents there that who responded to that question showed an increase in sales but but the the message I got from staff is that you know it's harming sales so so yeah this this graph is kind of

[191:02] hard to read um so for increased sales we got responses from restaurants and uh General retailers that looks like about uh 45 of restaurants who responded to this survey said they experienced increased sales about 10 of restaurants that responded to this survey said that they had decreased sales the rest of the the difference between 100 percent and and um uh 55 those folks didn't report either increased or decreased and so yes uh most of the The respondents Who indicated something around increased sales um 45 of restaurants that increase um looking at the the third category are the other businesses these are second floor offices and not or not necessarily retailers like um doctors offices things like that they didn't report any increase in sales uh with the closure associated with the

[192:00] closure they did report about a 10 10 of them said they'd increase they experienced decreased sales so it's really the split folks could pick a number of factors that they that they experienced and this is the percentage of those types of businesses that that reported having those types of factors whether real or perceived I guess it the memo does seemed to indicate that that businesses were reporting it overall a decrease in sales and and on this it looks like it's self-reported increase in sales well in two of the categories you know significantly more so than than the other and one a small decrease so less than 50 of any of the business types reported increase in sales so that means that the difference so for restaurants 55 percent experience they didn't say the experienced increase in sales so they experienced either they didn't report decrease but they also didn't report increase and we didn't say we didn't provide them a neutral option on sales so

[193:00] um it's not a majority of restaurants reporting that they increase that they had an increase in sales 45 percent responded that that was a factor that they experienced and again not necessarily Based on data it's based on perception and I we did this um this survey was in um let's see end of March early April I guess again of the people who reported it looks like an increase and I don't like if if we're saying it's meaningless I don't know why we're looking at it so it looks like it's it's increased and so it's confusing um okay I think just one more question um on the same page um where we talk about and is this overall the the uh tax revenues reported um I'm still unclear on whether that includes like sort of what are the Apples to Apples here um so and and how do we know that it or

[194:00] why do we think it's related to being close to car traffic so we're looking at a small number of blocks here on West Pearl I assume um compared to say total downtown so of of West Pearl what's their vacancy versus occupancy rate as opposed to the other blocks because if if we're including vacancy rates in you know zero taxes I would think that would draw the whole thing down I don't know if that's included or not you know as a revenue loss if there's no Revenue coming in at all in 2022 versus 2019 is that being factored in or not so I do know so I'll I have I can speak to that but I also know that Joel Wagner is on the call I want to but before Joel gets on if he wants to speak to kind of how we analyze our sales tax data is our most available data point to analyze the the overall economic health of different areas of the city we do not collect or get reported on the micro level of

[195:01] vacancy data we do know that the at the Q4 of 2021 we had about a 20 percent office vacancy in the downtown I don't know where those numbers are at right now but that's where we're at the end of 2021. um the thing with with our you know when we think about all the different departments have interactions with the business Community our goal is to make sure that we're trying to treat all businesses in all areas of the city as equally as possible and so that when sales tax revenue is coming in differently for one area or another we know that maybe there's something going on there that might need to be addressed and so when we think about the rules that govern the space on West Pearl and the rules that govern the space on East Pearl all things trying to be as equal as possible if there are higher vacancies on West Pearl that will lead to lower lower sales tax revenues because there are vacancies why are there vacancies is it because there's a

[196:00] closure Perhaps Perhaps not we are we willed caveat that correlation does not necessarily we can't necessarily say that that's causation but still for us given the Delta between the experiences of the four books brick or the four blocks of The Pedestrian Mall that we're seeing uh recovering quite rapidly spaces are becoming more occupied our first floor retail spaces um everywhere outside of West Pearl we're hearing are even if they're not open right now they are becoming leased we have heard from property managers that the properties on West Pearl are currently very challenging to lease partially because of the accessibility issues that potential tenants are reporting and so if we don't fill those spaces they are not going to generate sales tax revenue which is part of that conversation agreed all right thanks those are all my questions I'm going to call myself call myself here well you got this slide up can you explain the difference between the second line which is downtown including

[197:00] West Pearl and the was that the second the last one which is total downtown you sound like the same thing so there are other areas of downtown that we did not include in this graph primarily it's the downtown extension where Alfalfa's uh was at one time um so and it's kind of a it's a cobbled area I Joel can speak to more to the geographic areas and it it really it made this graph not not make any sense at all because we know that that downtown extension has had other factors and so it's not a huge portion of the downtown um that's why downtown uh in downtown including West Pearl are close um in in and let me see the red and the just the difference that total downtown includes that downtown extension I believe that that's the only difference thank you other questions for Steph

[198:05] they just had one one quick question um for Natalie and transportation and thinking about some of the other things that we've talked about recently regarding additional work for transportation department um like the e-bike rebate program that we were talking about I'm just I'm sort of wondering how does this fit in how are you going to make it all happen given that it's a couple new things that that you weren't expecting that's a great question um no I think we what we're we've been you know it's been a few months now that we've been thinking about the e-bike rebate program and the analysis and and really what what I'm trying to do is think about the the West End analysis to be a pretty like light scope right like which is why I continue to say we don't want this to expand to the entire downtown that is a can you know work plan item that's going to come and we

[199:02] don't want it to expand to the entire Community but we also recognize that there's a desire to have a conversation about street closures throughout the community and having a more Equitable conversation about that and and that's something you know we've we've talked to our colleagues across the organization about that we can do we can start to think about through the comp plan update um and Brad can certainly chime in more there if there's more questions there but there's there's opportunities in the work plan coming forward and and we this is all you know Tila spoke to the TMP and The Pedestrian action plan all of that is supported in the plans and and so we can certainly think about future work items to do that work but really for for the West End analysis it we want to have a light touch and think about how can we um re-envision the space on a more long-term basis that is you know either seasonal or weekend and it's not something that you know is is going to

[200:01] be that's going to take us three years to plan it's something that we can do hopefully in just a few months and still have a really robust engagement process so that's I think how we're thinking about it and and certainly you know open to hearing your feedback okay thank you um got a more than a few questions um and I know I put out a hotline and uh Chris I saw you multiple times today so I know you were we were all out and about so I know that uh probably not you probably did certainly didn't maybe have time to respond to those hope I'm going to trim some of those back which I think are probably information probably just probably no um and then the others hopefully we can get a response to which probably take a little more digging um one question that jumps out is um I'm trying to really settle on what really is the motivation here because I've heard kind of two things that it's a default answer to an emergency order that when it expires hands tied reopen

[201:00] no questions asked I've also heard that this is being driven because of the perceived harm to some of the businesses down in West Pearl and so I guess I'll just sort of flip this in an interesting hypothetical if businesses in restaurants on West Pearl were seeing revenues 10 20 30 percent higher than we see here and they were on par and doing better than than 2019. would the recommendation still be to reopen West Pearl to cars well I can't speak to hypotheticals and I'm seeing uh Teresa not erad I think there are other considerations Beyond how folks are feeling about the space or how businesses are performing in the space while they are very compelling to help us in our our speed at which we are trying to make sure we move forward with this conversation I know that there are other considerations that would likely come up even if the

[202:02] businesses were performing better in this space outside of emergency orders so you know I'm loath to give legal advice in public um as [Laughter] any attorney should be um but but what I'll say is that there are a number and we we've only done a preliminary look at this because from my perspective we did not have clear direction from Council to proceed on this and so though we spent a lot of time in resources in the last two weeks looking into this um it still just scratched the surface what I can tell you is that there are a variety of Municipal um code and Charter Provisions that are implicated in a street closure and so the authority to close the street really was from the city manager's ability under emergency orders and under 2-2-11

[203:03] but looking at a more permanent closure of a street or an ongoing closure of a street we'd need to both look at that we need to look at Charter section 78 which requires planning and development services to weigh in it would require an amendment to the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan an amendment to the transportation master plan and that's after just some initial research and so we have not as a city take in the proper steps to move forward with a closure that is under anything but the emergency orders I appreciate that all up on that go ahead I was going to follow up too but go forward um so I appreciate what you're saying would that also be true of a seasonal or temporary closure or would that have different legal ramifications

[204:00] thanks for the question I don't know that we've specifically analyzed a temporary or season seasonal closure to see if those Provisions are implicated in the same way we'd certainly be happy to do that work if Council directs that this is a priority that we should be pursuing thank you I think that answer is helpful Teresa a lot and it certainly adds Clarity that this is a decision that had had pure inevitability built into it that's exactly the information we should have known in March we should have known that this was going to happen independent of any review or thought from Council versus it was given to us as will seek your direction on what to do but in hindsight it seems like that decision was made independent of any review or discussion so I that's why I'm really confused about how we got to this place we'll maybe come back to that in comments

[205:00] um another another question I have is do we have do we have and maybe it just hasn't been sussed out um seasonal Revenue numbers for our businesses in terms of right I think if there's any question that in the summer months things were banging down on West Pearl and I think we can all admit in the winter less so and so do we know seasonal variability in in Revenue we're even though we might see the aggregation or the average being you know below maybe their 2019 average but did we see them at 150 percent Revenue in the summer months but maybe way down at like 30 percent which then still pulled their average down and so I'm wondering do we have seasonal data or or do are we sort of stuck with with long-term aggregation in terms of just the data I mean can it be sussed out or do we just not have that I mean so uh thanks for the question we do get sales tax data updated on a monthly basis um if this uh concept if the development of a West Pearl conversation into

[206:00] reconfiguration warranted the level of time and energy to to analyze that as one data point that we wanted to make sure we are keeping track of in that decision making process I know that we we can do that we do get monthly sales tax data we have not had the the staff capacity and resources to take on every data point that we would want to explore in a long-term decision for this space at this time thank you Chris I'll speak for myself I would love that because I don't know how we could evaluate any sort of seasonality approach without knowing that information so hopefully we can get that when we get going on on key considerations for Community Vitality a question I have is is why isn't the broader why isn't there a community engagement aspect to that that seeks input from the broader Community because it seems like every other department in any decision has almost a mandatory Community engagement component that

[207:00] seeks the broader Community not necessarily a subset or a particular niche of of to which that department is focused on and so I'm kind of wondering why that's not in there to again provide that sort of balanced input um in in decision making uh thanks for the question I guess I'd want to push back a little bit to reiterate that we do a ton of community engagement on our work plan items that we have been charged by Council and the city manager to be moving forward with Community Vitality has the very important but maybe unfortunate duty of being the the folks who are leading the charge on trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again on some really quick actions that were taken during a global pandemic that did not afford US the opportunity to check in with the community on a lot of decisions that were made to make these things happen and so we've been needing to then anticipating the end of emergency orders having to put the pieces back together without the resources and the time that

[208:00] we typically have when we're pursuing a typical work plan item to act to do that level of community engagement I think we would all love to be able to do that but given the timeline that we have been trying to to get all of these different changes across the the Finish Line in anticipation of we think the pandemic's ending in March we didn't know for sure I mean we were targeting August 31st we'd extended emergency orders but a half a dozen times since they started in 2020 and so it's been a really hard with a moving Target constantly to be able to anticipate and understand how are we going to effectively map out the path forward until we actually are at that point and so here we are the emergency orders have ended we fully intend to partner really close with with transportation and Mobility on this conversation that would include all of the appropriate Community engagement for a decision-making process in the community I appreciate that and so with sort of those limits of time and and resources

[209:03] how many surveys were provided for the business community and sort of West Pearl throughout the pandemic so our economic Vitality team I believe did two or three uh business oriented surveys throughout the duration of the pandemic it was more higher level about asking questions about how covid has impacted your business and that is tied to our work in that Community or in the economic Vitality sector we did one targeted survey of West End businesses associated with the West End closure that was the one that we've mentioned that was performed in late March early April and then we did one Community a broader survey related to outdoor dining to understand people's hopes and expectations as we're trying to quickly stand up a pilot program we got 800 and

[210:00] some responses to that survey and that largely served our our building of that pilot program so we did one targeted West Pearl Associated West Pearl businesses associated with the closure I know that the downtown Boulder partnership also did one Associated specifically with West Pearl businesses and the closure okay that's helpful and just so for clarity I'm still on okay good um so we didn't necessarily so we did one for outdoor dining that maybe reached about 800 people for the community but we did not check in on West Pearl with the broader Community um like we maybe did with the restaurant specifically just trying to figure out where we asked those questions and which subject matter we sampled correct the proverbial we being the city yeah did not have a yeah did not uh and do that type of yeah no no I'm just trying to get some clarity because that helps me understand where we go and that's that's the end of my questioning so okay I appreciate that thank you I appreciate it Matt okay thanks uh other questions and well

[211:01] actually let me just do you absolutely get your question but a time check we've talked about doing time check at nine uh maybe we're getting close to end of questions and we can go into comments pretty soon and move through this item are people comfortable with with that Lauren thank you so Natalie as you pointed out we have a portion of the can plan where we are planning on doing a multi modal Mobility study of the downtown area and also you mentioned that Folsom is sort of not the current but the next section of the can plan that we're going to look at I was just wondering if you've thought about switching those so that the downtown area plan was finished sooner and what was your reasoning for keeping it the way that we're current is currently proposed I appreciate that question I think we are open to

[212:00] um to reorganizing the way that we've prioritized corridors in the can really the current prioritization was based on direction from Tab and Council and so we have Baseline underway right now iris is queued up to begin later this year Folsom is queued up for later next year to begin that that work in that conversation with the community and then recognizing that those three corridors are big lifts for the Department we were going to visit downtown in mid-2024 at this point so we can certainly look at re-prioritizing those corridors um but that's where we're at right now foreign okay oh no sorry you get more yeah um so I guess I was also wondering I'm I appreciate your description of the possibility of looking at the West end is kind of a fast Light Lift

[213:00] would adding like the hill to that um dramatically change how big of a lift that is just it's a similar closure that we've kind of had experience with and I would just love to hear your thoughts on that I'm going to save Natalie for a moment on that just to speak to the event Street on the hill that we did close for the pandemic and we had two restaurants or maybe three or four actually at the height expand into the the Pennsylvania Street space that space did reopen to traffic on September 1st at the end of the emergency orders much of the request at the of the adjacent businesses there are also a lot of challenging circulation issues on the hill right now associated with the hill hotel we have Pleasant Street is closed off uh to very you know almost no traffic so we've had some significant circulation issues on the hill and so the the need to to get

[214:00] action on that reopening that happened immediately after the the emergency orders Ended as far as you know ongoing activation we do have ordinance language that does allow for the event Street to be activated frequently and this does go back to the question that was earlier about seasonal or 10 Prairie closures When It's associated with a special event we do have Ordnance language that does allow us to work with Community Partners who want to activate spaces to make those types of things happen and I think the event street is a great example while we reopened it on on September 1st it closed right again the weekend after for the the hill cu's block party on the hill and there have been a number of things going on and so I think it's actually it can be a good example if we activate it appropriately and work with Community Partners who want to do things in those spaces that we are doing those types of things and it is built for that type of activity thank you follow up okay do you mind if I so follow up on that so would we have

[215:00] the ability then to on an ongoing basis for special events to implement closures theoretically yes yeah that is that is uh capability in within ordinance is that something that we would have the capacity to do from kind of a staffing kind of standpoint I think it's a resource question um so if we were able to identify some resources that we wanted to work with a contractor that there are folks who throw events put on events and streets and other public spaces all the time we are in the process and Community Vitality of exploring that at Boulder Junction right now we have some dollars that are identified in order to activate spaces over there because those are big public spaces that are not really active that have some of the similar challenges and so it is possible we could go back to staff if resources were allocated to add on possibly to that contract to make some things happen in warmer warmer times during the year when we want to

[216:00] see activation okay and I'll add that because they're too far away to kick me that certainly that is something that we want to be thoughtful about right like I think it's about both the financial resources and then who could put this event on because that is not something we usually do with staff and dpd has certainly told us that they don't have capacity to do that but to Chris's point there is a contract there are possibilities that we can externalize that I want to be open to the possibility of being able to do this just like we've done on the hill because I do think it's important to demonstrate that we can be agile just as the way that we can be planful very good we will note that we do have some talented staff Chris meschuck is a former professional DJ could probably run a pretty good party all by himself activated I just I just want to say that right uh okay great are done with questions okay great so if we can come back to our the questions you have for us so and then I just before we get started I just want to say you know obviously there's a great deal of community interest in this this is something that we all care about as well

[217:01] so let's give staff our feedback but it encourage us to be on the concise side it's getting late so uh it's important to give the feedback but um let's try to stay focused well I think I say focus on in response to question number one I guess I'd like to see two things one is um if we could make um West go a little bit farther east if it's not too much work Natalie because I'd love to see on your analysis on 13th Street as well and maybe Lauren wants to add on for the hill so I know the list gets a little longer and then the time gets a little bit longer but um but at minimum I'd love to see um 13th Street in addition to some of the stuff you're looking at the West End the second it'd be great if you guys could um put a kind of a stake in the ground now about when you'll come back to us um you your analysis may not be fully baked but I'd love to just say all right we're all going to sit down on March 15th and see where we are and maybe you're done which would be great or maybe you're three quarters of the way

[218:01] done and you think you'll need another few weeks I I'd just love to have a date because one of the things I worry about is is things slip and they slip not not because of you guys but just because you know time passes and other other priorities come along and I think if we could now in September say hey we're all going to get back on the second meeting in March and just see where we are that would be really really great now and I think that would give the community some comfort that this is really going to happen and again understand that you may not be completely done by then but I think it would be really great to know now and be able to say the community now the study is going on these These are the parameters these are the things we're looking at and we're going to check back in with each other yeah I'm throwing March out there maybe it's February maybe say abroad or no but just we could pick a date now that would be really really comforting and I think a lot of people those are my two comments next no people have comments Nicole I can go next um I learned after my noise ordinance vote that it's good if I explain myself well while we're up here so I'm gonna

[219:02] I'm gonna do that I've saved so I didn't speak too much earlier so I could speak a little little here um so I'm really excited first of all to see all the energy that our community has for reclaiming spaces from cars and investing in Social infrastructure that supports people and I'm thrilled that our boards are so interested in this issue because I hope we can Empower boards like Tab and the human relations commission to help us find more places all over the city where we can transform our neighborhoods into pedestrian friendly Community Gathering spaces especially in the neighborhoods that are currently lacking social infrastructure everyone here Knows by now my North Star is social justice and that's why I support staff's decision in our racial Equity plan we committed to applying a racial Equity lens to our big decisions we haven't done that here and what I've heard from some marginalized community members especially some of our lower income community members is a sadness that we didn't look at our outdoor dining investment with that Equity lens and that we haven't considered it in our

[220:01] West Pearl discussions either downtown isn't a place where people in marginalized groups always feel welcomed or safe I'm not comfortable investing a lot more resources in more social infrastructure downtown without input from already marginalized groups that report feeling excluded personally I would prefer to use our limited resources in areas that are more in need of social infrastructure than the downtown area to get to question number one I think that ship is probably already sailed given the extents of time that's already been spent on West Pearl but I hope after West Pearl we can think about street closures and reclaiming spaces for people on a much broader scale as you mentioned Natalie considering Street and Alleyway closures all across the city and I hope when we do that we can prioritize the neighborhoods that are the most in need of social infrastructure first like we're doing with the flood and storm water master plan I hope Tab and HRC can help us with identifying these spaces to reclaim from cars and prioritizing neighborhoods that

[221:00] most need social infrastructure if we move forward with the West Pearl analysis I hope we'll make sure we're getting feedback from our community connectors and using our racial Equity tool to make downtown a more welcoming community space for more people in our community taking some time to be intentional about inclusion will make sure that more of us benefit from street closures downtown and elsewhere around town we all recognize that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to begin transforming our neighborhoods and I know some will be frustrated by my unwillingness to rush into a permanent street closure on West Pearl I'm also frustrated that we aren't focusing our street closure efforts in the neighborhoods we've most neglected where social infrastructure will do the most good so maybe starting with West Pearl is a middle ground I think it's really important for us to recognize that inequity comes out not just in the work we choose to do but in how we prioritize our work and I hope we can quickly pivot after the West Pearl

[222:00] analysis to focus on other areas of of town especially some of our lower income areas everyone in our community deserves people-centered Gathering spaces that get us out of our cars and into welcoming joyful inclusive community spaces I don't want us to stop with West Pearl I want us to keep going and transform our whole city for all of us but especially for the people in neighborhoods that this governing body has historically neglected thank you thanks for that Nicole what's your next mark first I want to thank my colleague Nicole for those comments they were really excellent and and very thoughtful and it's given me a lot to think about thank you um I am supportive of the staff recommendation uh I I think um okay we've had hundreds of emails um most for the most part stating you know it

[223:00] pedestrianizing that area is makes it more pleasant to walk in and to come with kids and every one of those emails is correct but there are other constituencies involved here and one of them is our business Community I did a highly scientific walkthrough of that area a few weeks ago and I counted six vacancies between 9th and Broadway and you know that that is not good we've had email after email from business owners to the effect that they have been hurt and they identify the the source of their hurt uh by the closure and I am unprepared to treat those businesses as some sort of collateral damage um by a reflexive closure of West Pearl you know we had a comment from tab in their letter that said business Revenue

[224:00] should not be the controlling consideration well it's that business Revenue that produces the sales tax revenue that allows us to do things like um protected bike Lanes you you can't have one without the other and frankly that was a comment that could only have been written by somebody who doesn't own or operate a business in that area we had another speaker tonight who railed against the corporate owners of fancy restaurants now I don't know if that speaker knows anything about restaurants other than it's a good place for a margarita but I can tell you that it is a brutal difficult business I did a lot of representation of restaurants in my career it is a it's a labor of love occasionally you can make a lot of money at it but most of the time you're working on thin margins you're working day and night to make it better and these businesses are important constituents of our community they add to our community and I think they're entitled to some degree of consideration

[225:02] as we move forward I'm supportive of finding ways of um identifying streets where we can create pedestrian areas and close the streets off I'm happy to have a concern a thoughtful consideration of what we can do with West Pearl you know to some extent there may be limited closures that are easily available to us but we need to do it in a thoughtful way and in a way that doesn't simply cast aside the interests of people who have committed their Capital their efforts and their souls to running businesses and some of them are on the edge so I you know I appreciate the enthusiasm that we received from the hundreds of people who emailed us but that is not the only consideration that involved you know whether it's nicer to walk there or not I think we have to be respectful and mindful of the people who are trying to make a living down there as well

[226:00] thank you thanks Mark Matt uh well so to question um number one so I'll maybe start um yeah so the question one yes I'm uh happy to see staff go study this I think this is we got 600 just about 600 emails uh 90 of which said we want pedestrianization so this is a pretty much the minimum we can do as a city to acknowledge that outcry it's the minimum there's more we can do there's more we should do I might get to that in comments but that's a minimum so I'm glad that there's an acknowledgment that that's where where we should at least start um you know I I'm not happy with where the recommendation is I get that that's a foregone conclusion in terms of where we had to be with emergency orders I I'll just sort of point out in in just a little bit here um we

[227:02] uh my frustration lies and we could have had the chance to have that very discussion to set us on a course so that right as the emergency closure was happening we had something that's that was in the middle ground in a hybrid form that would carry us temporarily until these larger discussions were happening and I think that's where my frustration centers is when we had this discussion at the middle of the beginning of the year we knew this was ending we knew there were statutory requirements that based how we would do this and none of that was presented to us we could have had the decision at that point we could have as a body said you know what this means so much that we could have repurposed our priorities to address that but instead it felt like we just said oh well we'll get back to that and we'll get to have a healthy discussion before decisions made that was my expectation and then it feels like everything got done before we got to have that conversation and you know restaurants were told about this a month before we found out we've I found out through an article in the paper that

[228:01] this was closing um so I this is where frustration is so I know this is where We've Ended up but I feel like we kind of got boxed in rather than feeling like an elected body got to really weigh in substantively to help maybe do what we should be doing best which is bridge the gap between the needs of the business Community which are clear they need help and the community who has an absolute outcry that they want that space it's incumbent upon us to find that bridge and I felt like we missed the chance we we had it was there and and the chance either slipped through or was never provided to us so um reluctantly yeah we know that recommendation is what it is so um I my My Hope Is if there's any need to salvage some real middle ground we think of a hybrid setup that we can Implement quickly um that involves either one way something that allows the parking to be activated while still allowing some pedestrianization I know we've talked about that you know some conversations but I think finding a middle ground

[229:00] allows us to show a commitment to both sides that we care about their concerns and we're willing to do that um and and there's some other thoughts that I might have later in later comments if we get there unless this is the time for that now but I'd rather yeah I mean we're in our Council feedback okay State then I'll say so and I'll just sort of clear end up I mean if we can't provide that balance and that's not not that's not going to work a promise to a process some extent got us where we are and I don't know if the community wants that or they they demand something different I'd say and so what can we give the community that's concrete other than a promise to a process and if it can't be some hybrid setup at the very minimum and I said more than just a promise to the process can we be clear to give us a backstop that you know what come the end of April we're gonna we're gonna allow West Pearl to go back to the pedestrians so that

[230:00] they can have that vibrancy when the weather's great when everybody's thriving and that one gives us a little motivation to say it's opening regardless into Bob's Point not knowing where the study is we might be ready to go and say we've got a better idea than just a reopening and we activate that but if it's still going to leak I don't want to have it leak where we don't have a good promise to our community and to businesses as to something that's going to be different and perhaps more substantive in the summer so I think if we if we at the very minimum can can agree that we could offer a backstop I think we could at least tell the community in you know that 90 of the community that wants us that that we've heard them and we're willing to throw a bone into allowing them have some confidence of recapturing some of the space at least seasonally until that study and other work tells us what the long-term Solutions should be and we have a chance to weigh in so um yeah thank you thanks Matt right okay who's ready Rachel and then Lauren

[231:00] Tara likes to go last these days um well I will say that um you know it's been disappointing as I said in the last few weeks to find out that um that we were felt like at a cross purposes with staff on this um it's something we've been discussing for a few years and like was in my retreat work plan and and it just feels out of left field to find out within the last few weeks that um it's it's legal advice and staff's position and it that it's not our decision to make so um I would say let's just not do this again on a future issues let's make sure we're we're all aligned um you know far in advance of this I agree with um council member Wallach that that it's important to to listen to business interests who are deeply impacted day in day out by the street closures and you know their their revenue has been suffering and that's that's an important data point um and uh I think one thing that that

[232:02] came through loud and clear in in the hundreds of emails that we've received in the last few weeks on this is that um this is this is a beloved couple blocks by locals specifically like there was something special about West Pearl that people who live in Boulder are gravitating to and have gravitated to for the last few years and I mean I I can vouch for that anecdotally that um you know it's the place that that my family has wanted to go for occasions and as soon as it closed down um my sister said why would we ever go anywhere else like this is awesome this is this is new and there was something sort of eclectic and funky and low-key about it and I'm worried that we might over process whatever's coming next and make it shiny and and and Polished and there's something about West Pearl that I think is is um beloved because it's easy and it's low-key and so I just want to put that

[233:01] out there that whatever's next let's let's make it a place that that locals love and let's let's try and continue right now if if really we we can't uh weigh in on on um you know extending yeah I'm unclear a little bit on on what can be done you know temporarily um going forward so hopefully we don't go all the way back to the way it was in 2020 because it has been it was an intentional decision to do it there I think that I appreciate council member Spears comments a lot I think that often in cities you can intentionally create a a city core that's pedestrianized and then that sort of ripples out to the rest of the city so it in my opinion it's not um inequitable to you know we don't displace Equity necessarily by increasing pedestrian opportunities in

[234:02] some spots where it makes sense we should be doing it in a lot of places and I think that um increasing downtown's pedestrian core is is helpful at helping that to radiate throughout the community and and creating more spaces where people are are safe and kids are free to run around um you know safe from from auto accidents so um just want to make sure that we're not it's it's not thought of as an either or this should be a win-win for businesses for people who want to dine outside for downtown for East Boulder for North Boulder so um I think that that we can have a lot of win-wins here and I am fearful that if we really just reopen the street and and have a lengthy discussion on this the the moment is lost because we are often pretty reluctant to change and right now the change is going back and once we go back the change will be to close to cars

[235:00] again and that's going to be hard so um I think that's why it will be helpful to have the the um the deadlines that that Bob suggested and um along those lines I wonder if it might be helpful or possible to have a a council process subcommittee on this just to keep us Tara's on it we got we got one volunteer we just like I remember when we were creating that first CU South process subcommittee it was to make sure that we were staying on Deadline that that Council wanted to be on and we weren't maybe having some of the you know extensions or glitches in in communication and and we all had eyes on it and we're working together so just wonder if that might be helpful for this and I know we might expand it to more areas and we want to look you know city-wide so might it be a helpful new subcommittee um and then in terms of question one I honestly thought this was on the work plan so yes I wanted on the work plan and I thought that that was like the Silver Linings that that's my memory from from The Retreat is that was

[236:01] something we didn't need to add because it was already there we were already looking at West Pearl and West End so the multimodal analysis is maybe different but I don't know I would like to think that we could fold it into something that was there I believe that's all I have Tara's ready to volunteer nice work nice that was useful properly I didn't use it properly didn't it okay is this on yes it is okay great too that was great thanks in fact all these comments are great so I just wanted to call it quick yeah I'm going to talk about what Rachel said yes it will be okay fine I also don't want the reputation of where he's going last I definitely don't want that reputation okay so I'm gonna do no you go you know

[237:00] I want to start with talking about why we are all so passionate about West Pearl it's not because the experience is the same as the existing blocks of Pearl Street of the you know the bricks it's because it offers us a more vibrant locally focused experience that is different from the touristy bricks section of the block of Pearl Street while I have no interest in having West Pearl revert to its pre-covered condition I also think that it would be disappointing to have it become just another repeated block of the bricks I would love to see us look at using a pilot project or doing to do like an urban woo Nerf um that we might roll out to other parts of the city whether part of it is a one-way Street a street for bikes a street for buses but not Cars I think we have an opportunity to try a new type of design solution

[238:00] our tax data shows that the bricks are doing at least as well as downtown as a whole so having the Street closed to cars is not on its own clearly the cause of reduced sales however Ada access emergency access delivery and bike access and snow removal are all issues that we need to address the West End multimodal analysis would allow the city to do that I support moving forward with a truly light and fast planning effort that is aims to solve some of these biggest issues but isn't necessarily attempting to create the final form of the street in the meantime I would like to see a seasonal closure of the West End to balance the desires of the business Community while building trust with our community at large that we are taking this pedestrianization seriously I also think that while we have a number

[239:02] of planning and revitalization efforts planned for the downtown and Civic area that will largely take place in the street right of way we need to look at moving up the portion of can the can plan that looks at the downtown area we already have a pedestrian plan that talks about some of these changes and in order to ensure that up plant upcoming plans and modifications reflect our transportation goals and include things like lunar design features where appropriate we really need to make sure that we're taking this first step and having the transportation plan completed ahead of time can I call a queen what you said Lauren I want to go back to when we talked about this months ago and you talked about

[240:00] the redesign of West Pearl and I don't know if you remember but I remember I do remember that we were gonna we were thinking of something different and not just an extension we definitely weren't if you looked at some of those pictures I'm sure we weren't thinking about it looking like that right we were going to have a nice European looking um Street and I I'm sure everybody agrees that what we had even though it was super fun and I loved it did not look European I'm pretty sure so that being said I do want to say a few things and first of all it's you guys there's no way we had a crystal ball and we knew that everything was going to happen like it did there's no way we knew that we were going to have inflation problems supply chain problems a pandemic I mean everything happened at once and it was also new so I'm going to stick up for you and say that considering everything that we went through we did our best and you guys did

[241:01] your very best to quickly move when cities are notorious for being slow I think you did pretty good also though it's let's just say that that the closing of West Pearl was one of the most exciting things that happened to me so does that tell you what my life is like probably it was a much needed lift it was it wasn't even just a silver lining for me going to West Pearl oh my gosh this is going to be so much fun and downtown should be about fun and and let's just say that I'm not going to say that Pearl Street Mall got a little stale but this okay maybe I am saying that this really livened it up so I'm going to agree with Lauren that now is the time will actually spring to do something really fun and exciting that isn't difficult I have some really fun ideas so that's why I want to be on the subcommittee I have some really good ideas I'm not kidding that being said I just want to talk

[242:01] about the businesses for a second I know we got some emails from people and they said well we shouldn't listen to the businesses we need to listen to the people but our local businesses are actually made up of people and they are just trying to make it really honestly just like all of us and so in the winter when you when I I go I used to go to West Pearl a few times a week and even in the winter because my husband would never eat inside and I didn't want to cook so there we were on West Pearl and it was empty and it was cold and it was icy and it was not fun so that being said I don't as much as I don't want to lose the momentum I also don't West Pearl is the businesses else it would just be a regular old block wouldn't it so all those businesses we do have to listen to them that's what it is west Pearl that's what makes West Pro great so we do need to listen to them and I just think it would be wouldn't it be

[243:01] terrible if we got there in this if we closed it and then we six more businesses closed because they couldn't handle the other thing is is the businesses decided to go to West Pearl it was kind of like a contract for them this is right near the mall it's great but we also have access and we also you know people can drive right up there I can think of one restaurant that was a fast food restaurant that had to move because there was there were cars there and certainly having the concept of a quick fast food restaurant doesn't work if you can't put your car's there and so we do need to listen to them so I feel like uh we can do the we can make everybody happy I really do think we can let's do it let's make everybody happy so listen to Lauren wait let me just make sure the the got to go through all my things since I'm the last one actually I'm the last one oh yeah you're right you are what I would rather see rather than two measly little little box Blocks close to

[244:01] traffic is something we did in Philly for all you people who've ever lived there we actually closed down an entire Highway the West River Drive which is a very big highway on Saturday and Sunday for biking now that was great and I would like to see entire giant Street not two blocks what is two blocks going to do for our climate our climate goals wouldn't it be great if we could close down entire parts of the city on a weekend or on a day or on a Saturday morning and then we have one big Community party going down 13th Street I happen to love biking down 13th Street so I'm I want to look at the bigger picture when it comes to closing down streets and not just this little section which has a lot of competing interests okay did that did that did that welcoming Community there's a bunch of us on Council who are a part of different committees to make Pearl Street more welcoming more inclusive but more fun involving everybody and not

[245:03] just a few and I've I don't know if Chip is still on the call but I believe that we have something exciting coming up where we have an anniversary and it's going to be our opportunity to rethink some of our events so that they're more inclusive I don't know if Bob wants to speak to that or whoever else is on the committee but I would say that we do community have really exciting things coming up I want to reimagine the Pearl Street area myself I just feel like we have to do it in a very um thoughtful manner because so many it affects a lot of people's lives thanks for that um okay very good well I'll just offer a few thoughts I appreciate all the comments from city council so far and I just want to start by thanking Nicole I really appreciated your insightful comments about equity and and you know

[246:00] how we're making sure we're providing social infrastructure for marginalized communities I thought that was really important and appreciated your city-wide aspirations for people-centered spaces so I think those are all words that we should carry forward so appreciated that very much you know in terms of West Pearl yeah I've been down there probably every week or two for most of the closure period it's been one of my very well my probably my favorite spot outside of my own neighborhood to spend time in the city it's been a wonderful wonderful experience down there clearly very well loved as shown by the hundreds and hundreds of emails we got from people who want to you know preserve it as a people-oriented space right so um you know there's it's clearly struck a very positive nerve can you start like a positive nerve with our community you know I wish we could have kept the previous version of outdoor dining that we had you know through the summer and earlier you know through at least the end of October I get that there were reasons why that didn't happen but I think that it's it's kind of a shame it

[247:01] would have provided a a softer Landing um and personally you know if it were just up to me I I would keep that Street closed longer than um September 30th so that we can continue to take advantage of some of the good weather that we're having for for perambulating and such but I totally get why um why the businesses down there would want the street reopened to cars for the winter you know the the winter is just a time when you have a lot less pedestrian activity where the outdoor dining is less interesting and it was a bit Grim there last winter you know there was much less activation the snow clearance was less good you had the pictures of the the ramps that that were getting iced over so so I understand the need for a seasonal seasonal access um you know to change it back to open it to cars in the winter months um but I really want us to to look at at a at a a vibrant you know different future for this stretch of of West Pearl

[248:01] going forward right and not just say okay well we'll open it to cars and then we'll be done with it and so I do I do support your your question number one about uh working on on this on the West End multimodal analysis I do definitely support that and I agreed with I agree with uh Bob and Matt's comments about you know figuring out a time frame soon about when y'all could come back with with at least a prelim preliminary assessment of what the next steps could be that could determine a unique future for West Pearl that that continues to prioritize access for people over primarily cars while still of course allowing for good disability access because we have heard that from some members in the community who have struggled with access to that stretch of Street in its current configuration but because of Mobility challenges so that's important for us to keep in mind but I appreciated Lauren's comments about some Innovative future for that stretch that that where we look at different options uh because I don't I don't think we want to just extend uh the bricks for another

[249:01] couple blocks I think we we have an opportunity here to have a a vibrant unique future for this stretch that I think can incorporate a lot of different goals done well so I look forward to that that discussion and and figuring out that kind of brilliant and Innovative future uh together I did ask that question about activation in the meantime I'd love to see us you know do occasional special events so that we do preserve some of this feel that we have all loved so much over the last couple of years that we don't just say okay well we're done with it for a long time while we figure out eventually what we do next you know let's continue to to on some of that momentum right for the the special attributes of the street that we've loved so much so just the the one other thing that comes to Lawrence point about um asking about the can prioritization you know Natalie you all been very responsive which I really appreciate about you know shifting things around and look being willing to work on this uh and so I just wonder if we rather

[250:02] than this being a distraction from the can work that maybe it could be part of the can work and so maybe that means you know we don't start looking at Folsom for a while but we look at the downtown as a whole sooner so I just throw that out to you as you're thinking about next steps that maybe we can still be efficient with the your staff resources as we work on this as well okay so that's that's what I got thanks everyone uh for your thoughtful comments and just before I turn back to staff I do want to thank you all for your work on this this has involved a huge amount of staff time uh and Blood Sweat and Tears almost literally probably some tears have been shed actually I'm guessing so um I appreciate you all working with us in the community obviously this is an area of great Community interest so thanks so much and and um I won't take much of your time but just wanted to say a couple things and response and

[251:01] hey I just want to thank you for your thoughtfulness right I think I know this is a hard conversation to have and I know that in hindsight perhaps we could have all done things differently as we're talking about this difficult work right our commitment continues to be to work with you right our commitment continues to be collaborative our commitment continues to be to work with our boards and commissions and our community and while we may differ on the path to get there I actually think we're aligned on the back end that we want more of these spaces and it's a conversation of where and how and what's it going to look like and can it be funkier and doesn't have to be planned to death right like the journey to get there I think we are much more aligned than we are not and so I just appreciate that coming forward I also just want to say too that I don't believe we knew in March that the path was inevitable I honestly don't I don't know that we knew then some of the stuff that we have uncovered now I also believe that part of that is we have been super busy

[252:01] trying to build back and trying to work on I don't know that we knew outdoor dining would take us as much time and effort as it did because the very same people that were working on that needed to then transition to West Pearl so I just want to be thoughtful and mindful that it is never Our intention of staff to not be upfront with Counsel on what trade-offs will be to not be up front with Council on what decisions or determinations would be and that commitment continues to this day so I just this conversation has been hard not just with Community but frankly it has been hard between staff and Council and that is never a place that we want to find ourselves in and I hope that we when we find areas of disagreement that it is on genuine Pathways and differences of opinion but certainly not because there is a thought that that staff is not bringing to you the right information at the right time thanks for that appreciate it Rachel a

[253:00] couple follow-up questions maybe brief maybe brief indeed um just with the can reprioritization it seemed to me that when that was lifted up by a tab member he was they were pretty intentional about like there would be some funding streams coming at certain times and and like you know designating an order partly because of I don't know transportation funding cycles and things like that so maybe just check in with them before like I think they should weigh in before we say please re-prioritize that yeah and can I just totally agree with that I'm not I'm not saying just do that just because I said that right obviously you got to go there are probably reasons you know so consider it talk to tab I just wanted to know if maybe we could form a subcommittee on process on this I was going to say too that that would be very welcome by staff we're done I mean I uh what do you think does the majority of we got a strong mayor

[254:00] man I started ruling by Fiat here um can I just get a show of hands of people who think forming a subcommute would be a terrible thing we got it looks like a majority not quite everybody Maybe no of course go ahead no well because there was a couple comments that had think had heard some general agreement on about either setting a date or or creating like a backstop um so that we can give that that extra bit of confidence to you know a large section of our community and so I just maybe would like to just you know ask is are my Council colleagues interested in us looking at providing that it could still be flexible but at least as of now to when we get there we know that that's a thing and if staff's information dictates change when they come talk to us great but I just sort of want to ask if that's a a viable thing for us to plant the flag on

[255:01] specifically do you mean them coming back to us in the no that we we're we're clear in what Our intention is with what to do with West Pearl starting in like April to gear up for the summer season okay I could live with that okay there all right uh do you want to invite people to this should we maybe what we can do is ask for folks to volunteer via email certainly we can send an email out and see how many folks are interested and then we'll have to think about the inevitable narrowing yeah okay fair any anything else Nicole did you want to say one um thank you and this is not not so much about this um this particular topic but more just about the process there are just a few process related concerns that I have with our discussion here that raise some

[256:01] red flags for me from a governance perspective first is that permanently closing West Pearl the cars wasn't on our work plan I checked the boulder beat just to make sure before but um and I'm just concerned by the amount of time that this was taken over the last couple of weeks not just for myself council members but also from staff and from community members as well also concerning was that some of us as individuals seem to have asked certain boards to weigh in on this issue without asking other relevant boards I don't think it's good governance for us to individually direct board work or to favor certain boards over others in our decision making and I'm also concerned that it appears from open comment that one of us shared information from a confidential memo with a Community member which doesn't feel very respectful to staff so at our upcoming Retreat I'm really hopeful that we can think about some improvements that we could make to how we direct our time and staff's time when new and exciting issues arise that we're all really passionate about how we engage boards and commissions as individuals versus as

[257:00] a council body and how we balance our individual desires with our work as a governing body in a way that respects each other and our employees I mean you brought up some great points about process and so I appreciate bringing them up I think there's a lot is there a chance for us to kind of have a postmortem on on process before it gets too far from us while it's still fresh that we can kind of dictate so we don't repeat maybe some some of those issues if they're uh I just while it's fresh it might I just don't know if now is the time or at some point there's some process things with regards to boards and commissions right and there's a lot of things to unpack Nicole brought some of bibos I just don't know if now is the time or if that's a broader discussion to have but not you know next fall when we kind of you know it leaks out through osmosis can I offer a suggestion on that and uh just at our at our board retreat um or at our Council Retreat yeah yeah I would I would recommend against delving into that right now it's 10 15. right um but uh but I think uh you know some

[258:01] thoughts Maria from from you all about you know the process and maybe ways that things could be done differently maybe a little better I not to point any fingers at us or anybody else but they're probably some improvements that we could all make I think there are some learning lessons and I am happy to discuss those in the future it's great and the meteor Retreat sounds like a good spot so maybe you can think about it and we can park it and come back to it all right so all done good all right thanks again so much Chris and Natalie for all of your very hard work on this foreign okay so uh folks it's 10 15 we've got two matters items um are we good to continue get get through those we don't need a motion when do we need

[259:01] the motion to extend after 11. 10 or if we want to take up something new after 10 30. no new item may be introduced after 10 30 PM unless a majority of the council members in attendance at that time agree okay so we're good for now all right so um Elisha I think we're on to 8A yes sir thank you 8A on tonight's agenda is the the 2022 County and Boulder Valley School District ballot measures okay so this is coming from me so I'll go ahead and introduce this we did get requests from our partners at the bvsd at the board and um and the county to for us to to offer our support for their ballot measures so specifically this is about the bvsd bond measure for school construction and maintenance items and

[260:02] then the county has a 0.1 percent Transportation sales tax that they would like to extend and then a 0.1 percent Wildfire mitigation tax that they would like to add and a 0.1 emergency preparedness tax that they would like to add and my desire here is not necessarily for us to debate the finer points of it but really just kind of to do a quick straw poll to see whether there's majority interest in in adding and US supporting them this and if there is then um uh staff would bring back uh resolutions of support on a future consent agenda probably the next one uh yes Bob [Music] I'll say about this what I've said um around this time I think for several years in a row um I don't well these are all worthy of valid measures so I don't don't this is not a reflection of the ballot measures themselves I don't think it's the the role of this city council to be weighing in on um ballot measures put forward by other jurisdictions it seems to me it's a

[261:01] slippery slope because I mean uh Aaron you identified some some good local ones you know the school district and the county but why not some State ballot measures right and maybe there's some national stuff too that we'd like to weigh in and at some point in time I think we have to kind of draw a line and I think where that line should be is with with respect to the ballot measures that we put on I would hope that we are endorsing the Bella measures or at least give people the opportunity to endorse or not indoors the ballot measures that we're putting on but I think once we start getting outside of our jurisdiction um I I think first of all it forces us all then to focus on what those ballot measures are and I don't think I'm fully up to speed on all those battle measures so I'm gonna have to go out and read them and figure out what my position is um before I have to ultimately vote in in late October the second is I just think that it's not a good practice for us to start going down this path because there's lots and lots and lots about measures out there and we're not going to weigh in on all of them so I that that's the the statement I've made every September when this question comes up I usually got voted I'm fine to be out

[262:01] voted again on the straw poll about whether we should do this or not I'll probably if if a majority Council does want to weigh on these particular ballot measures I'm sure I'll probably just substain thanks for that Bob and people don't mind if I just do a quick response I did uh bring these forward uh well I do think that they're worthy ballot items but they're uh direct requests and I think all three of these being local not just the city but the the school our school board in our County felt like they had a sufficient Nexus to the the work that we do at the city that they were worthy of our consideration but appreciate your fundamental Point Nicole yeah I just had a thought that I mean for me this feels very similar to the way that we weigh in on legislative issues at the state level where we have a whole committee devoted to that and a staff person you know devoted to helping us with that as well and so for me it feels like a natural extension of that to weigh in on ballot measure issues as well especially when they're tying into our legislative or other priorities that that we have as a body because we do that at the state level anyway

[263:01] thanks technical I neglected to mention that the legislative subcommittee did vote unanimously to forward this request onto the council I have that right further thoughts Lauren in the interest of weighing in on the actual content of these ballot measures I did while I really think that the Wildfire mitigation is needed I was really disappointed to see this put forward as a sales tax initiative I think intrinsically one of the main things that we're doing when we're you know doing Wildfire mitigation is protecting structures and so the fact that that we're Landing that as a regressive sales tax and not um as a property tax was fairly disappointing to me but not so disappointing as to not want to do Wildfire mitigation so

[264:00] fair fair point uh all right so I'm not seeing any other hands so if I could just maybe call for a straw poll on this one maybe we could see a show of hands of people who'd like to see us take a position of support on these ballot measures oh okay great that's a it looks like a seven seven person straw vote in favor so appreciate everyone's consideration of it and then so if we could get back to Carl Castillo and uh work on Preparation resolutions please yeah thanks so much 8B 8B is the response to open comment on replies great and I believe this was uh Rachel s that we we take this up so I just thought that um we've we've gotten a a lot of open comment and emails about Council taking up psilocybin I believe uh decriminalization and adding it to our work plan and um just to honor the

[265:01] volume of comments we've received and I know a lot of people have met with the organization or activists trying to get this lifted up I just wanted to see if if anybody wants to move forward with it um I'm I'm not inclined to Tinker with our work plan at this point I believe this is a state ballot issue right now um so I I think it may well just play out at the state level but wanted to to honor the the people taking the time to connect with us with uh just people's thoughts and then Mark well I appreciate Rachel you bringing this up because I think this is important for us to respond when the community shows persistence to his organization and shows us and and we see this uh we see through criminalization of psilocybin happening in other places cities that we relate ourselves to um so I think it's it's absolutely uh just for us to have this conversation now tactically how do we do that I do

[266:01] think it's appropriate for us to maybe wait to see what the state does because if if what the state does might completely change any thoughts we have um so I don't know if we have to act immediately until we see the outcome of the state stuff that's coming up on the ballot but um I think it's something to at least consider um at the next work around retreat but I think there's a lot of data and a lot of information a lot of stakeholders in our community we need to hear from before acting ourselves um but you know I think it's fair enough to start at least starting to think about what those resources are I want to hear from I want to hear from Maris and you know I want to hear from a bunch of our boards and commissions I think but I don't know if the time is now for that so I think we should come back to this conversation maybe a little later what I would also wait to see what happens at the state level but to my knowledge we don't have a a lot of gaps in our work plan we have a fairly robust work plan and I'm I'm disinclined to Simply add this um you know we we have an environment where

[267:01] if you want to take psilocybin we don't have you know robust enforcement against it if you want to go down to the creek and sit there and Sample your wares you know we're not putting people in jail um and and I understand that they want the formal decriminalization and basically the seal of approval by Boulder but that's something that really has to be studied you it's not appropriate for just for us to just say yeah they're doing it in Berkeley let's let's go I mean it needs it needs a little bit of analysis and frankly I think we're a little busy and in terms of prioritizing this versus the Litany of things we want to address and and deal with this pretty much comes up at the the bottom of my list so

[268:00] um I would be disinclined to spend staff time and really our time on a tangent when there's no pressing need to do so either something's going to happen at the state level or if not you know we're doing a Live and Let Live kind of policy here um and so I would this is not very attractive to me can I call them can I call A queen just on a characterization only if you do it right okay real quick and then we'll come over here you know Mark I think we're kind of aligned generally on where to go and yes our priorities are pretty full I just I just maybe caution a little bit of of the assumption that decriminalizing this is just someone wanting to take mushrooms on the creek I think it's clear right so I just I mean there's there's people that are really looking for an opening to think about this medically which isn't isn't that isn't just a pure individual recreational thing and so I just want to be cognizant that there are people interested in other tangible organized

[269:00] maybe advertised uses which could get them into trouble so I just want to make sure that there's there's a spectrum there I I agree with what you just said uh it's just that um everything is a matter of prioritization and a matter of resources and I am just loathe to have staff delving into this when a it could be resolved at a state level and if it's not we do not have a punitive attitude towards it and we have other things to do okay fair yep so I think that one of the things that this brings up both in how it's being enforced or not enforced in our local community and will end the state law are both Equity issues so the state law is really supposed to be looking at more of creating a framework for licensed Healing Centers rather than looking at like individual usage so it's more of a commercial proposition rather than a broad-based decriminalization

[270:02] and I think that while there are people who may feel comfortable skirting the law and not and that they um are not concerned about the impacts this might have that is certainly not true for everyone in our community and so I think that I would like us to look at this I mean again my understanding with this was that we would be hearing about what kind of lift it would take for us to look at this um and how that that might impact our work plan that was sort of what I was expecting with this tonight um but so it's hard for me to weigh you know whether or not I would like to see this on the work plan or what you know because I don't know what impact it would have on the other items but you know generally speaking I do think that it's something that we've seen a lot of support from in the community and

[271:02] that and that we also have local um uh you know Denver did this in 2019 and so they've had a policy review panel that has looked at the effects and what they've seen with the outcome of their decriminalization measure so it's not some it's not like an unknown we have Regional data um and I think that there are some very good reasons for why we should look at moving forward with this uh Nicole and I'll call myself [Music] perhaps things are clearing up I mean I think people have to stop suing us wow but I'm just curious how you know if this feels like anything that could

[272:00] be fit in and if so when and then my other kind of follow-up question what if it would whatever happens at the state level in November negate some of the work that's done prior to that because thank you for that question and acknowledging that much of the work would come out of the city attorney's office um again you know and I'm not trying to be pedantic or difficult here but I don't examine what kind of lift something would be until you ask me to and so if you ask me to look at that I'm I'm happy to do so um my understanding was you know tonight you all would be deciding if this was a priority for you to move forward with the city attorney's office's work is

[273:01] dictated largely by the work of the Departments right we're in a support role um and so their work plan is full so our work plan is full is is the way it works um the other thing I I would note here is you know the city attorney's office doesn't typically independently bring ordinances and so I would think that this would be in conjunction with Public Safety that they probably would be the sponsoring group maybe HHS I I don't know we would have to figure out where this lives right and I I think it would be important to know how much information and research and background Council wants on this or does council just want to move forward with decriminalization so there there are some threshold questions to answer thank you

[274:00] let's see I got Tara and then but Rachel did you have a follow-up it was a separate crazy all right I'll I'll go I call I'll call on myself and then tear and then Rachel um just I think for me this kind of a work plan discussion our work plan is very full so um and uh contrary I think to Mr abuita's assertion in open comment I do think we would have to do some actual work on this I think we'd want to consult with experts we'd want to consult with Public Safety we'd want to consult with uh you know a board or commission or two so I think it would be you know a lift exactly how much I'm not sure but uh we're so busy and we've got so much great stuff in the hopper that we just added to tonight that's in the exact same department but I wouldn't um I wouldn't start adding additional things to it while I'm sympathetic to the fundamental aims of what we're being asked for there and I will note that my understanding of the ballot measure at the state level is that while it's focused on these Healing Centers that would sell psilocybin it

[275:03] would also decriminalize my understanding is that that it includes portions of it that would that would decriminalize the substance as well so I think the ballot measure may just take care of this depending on what the people of Colorado say so Darren what Aaron said this is this is just me going this is double dipping I think rather than a colloquy but um I I I've been been meeting with the the folks working on this I think since late 2019 and my head advice has consistently been um you know we're we're a great town for direct democracy um you know for things that aren't added to the work plan um and I I personally had at least three work plan items that that didn't make it onto the work plan I think you know including some around fire safety one on homelessness um uh at affordable housing thing so for

[276:00] me this uh this would not be a top thing that I would want to displace the other things that didn't make it onto the work plan of my own so I I still think it's you know Council doesn't have to do everything in this town there's there's a really good path for direct democracy if people have a strong strong support group for it next which was how it got done in Denver right that was about measure citizen initiated ballot measure okay any last thoughts on this topic seeing none we'll bring it too close and I believe that brings our agenda to a close very good any final thoughts I I will I will note that uh despite the difficulty and number of our topics we're only three minutes past schedule so um well done everybody and thanks for all your thoughtful comments tonight so gavel is closed at 10 32 pm good night [Music]

[277:24] foreign [Music] [Music]