September 22, 2022 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

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[5:03] up and running and they're ready to go all right perfect I'll just make sure everybody's here um I know Rachel's checking in so she'll be here momentarily all right we'll just get started and through the announcements we'll get Rachel in um so uh good evening everybody and welcome to tonight study session I'll wait for that recording uh yeah this is tonight's study session uh the Boulder City Council I'm council member Matt Benjamin and thank you all for joining us um I will uh make note that uh councilmember Yates will not be joining us because he is out of country and so um we miss him and hope we'll get to see him again in two weeks uh when we reconvene on October 6th um on tonight's uh agenda we have really just two items to go through uh our first item will be to cover the sort of preliminary scoping of the transit area

[6:00] Village plan otherwise known as t-vap2 or Boulder Junction two um so maybe we'll have a straw poll one of many to decide what the actual term we'll use is so uh I'm just kidding maybe that won't be the case but we'll try to keep it simple and organized in terms of the naming and then um an update on the um um uh projects uh for comprehensive planning and um and then we'll sort of have some uh updates on budget reallocation for the library funding um if in fact you know we do there is a Library District that gets created and the consequences of that ballot measure will go through some of those issues as well um and then we'll go ahead and just uh start this meeting with tonight's announcements and I do want to maybe pause after I did of some of those actually after announcements I want to turn over to Mayor Brockett um just for a hot second but with some of our announcements we have kova 19 testing and vaccinations for testing for information and provider locations and for free Copa 19 testing go to

[7:04] www.vocode.org covid testing in spite of what President Biden said the pandemic is not over we are still dealing with it here in town and people are still getting it so let's be careful be cautious be safe and also do check vaccination the bivalent booster is now available so if people are interested in that specific Omicron based booster do check local pharmacies for information about that or do talk to your doctor but there are some restrictions with regards to That vaccine pertaining to when you've probably had other boosters so there is a new one out and people are getting them and so for vaccine information do go to www.voco.org covet vaccine next slide and much anticipated return to council chambers we've had certainly a false start in May and it looks like we are doing well now with regards to council

[8:02] and staff being in person and what that means is now that we've got our legs under us public participation in Chambers will resume at the October 6 regular council meeting Council and staff are working to ensure we have had all the pieces put in place to hold hybrid meetings before inviting the public back to Chambers uh even those of us at the diocese right and those at home I recognize there's been volume and other Tech issues so it's glad that we've worked some of those Kinks out and we're ready ready to welcome the public back in and with the public being invited back for the October 6 meeting which is in two weeks as a writer next week we do not have a meeting uh we want to remind everyone that you will be off um pardon me that you will be offering the public to participate in both a variety virtual and in person so it will be hybrid in that sense and uh you will be asked to indicate in the open comment and public hearings forms if you will be speaking virtually or in person in person speakers will speak first and virtual

[9:00] speakers will follow all speakers will be listed in order in which they signed up all speakers will have the option to change their location preference if needed by contacting the city clerk's office at cityclerk's office at bouldercolorado.gov prior to the start of the meeting I think that concludes our announcements um mayor Brockett yeah I'm gonna give it give you the give you the mic for a minute yeah thanks Matt I just want to let folks know I'm not feeling great tonight so I will have my camera off for most of the meeting apologies in advance for that but I will still chime in uh as occasion uh requires it thanks thanks Aaron um now that we've done announcements um we can kind of get right into all the good stuff um but before we get into our work items um I just want to sort of outline you know how this meeting will be conducted um we're going to review the staff presentations and sort of go through the items that that are of the subject and

[10:01] we will have time for questions ideally we'll save questions for the very end unless staff has a break slide within their presentation um where they are asking questions so we'll take lead um on staff in terms of where they want input um and so let's try to hold back questions on a slide by side basis and either wait for those breaks or wait till the presentation is over um and then we will sort of have a chance to ask questions and certainly have that Council discussion that'll hopefully give guidance to staff on the questions they have asked um and now uh with that out of the way I'm going to turn it over to our city manager um and Nuria Rivera vandamide and to introduce the first item area take it away thanks much man and I'm still marveled that all of you can say my entire name which has not happened in my previous City so yay for Boulder um I'm not going to take up a whole lot of time the first item we have today is actually on a project that well preceded my coming here and has been a while in the making and so I will ask Brad Mueller to introduce himself and take

[11:00] the home thank you Nuria I am Brad Mueller the director of planning and development services good evening counselors we are very excited to bring forward this overview of Boulder Junction 2 and recognize it as one of council's priorities certainly recognizing and building on the success of what is now built out mostly built out Boulder Junction one and looking it forward to the next enhancements in the city we'll also talk a little bit about Council other work program items within planning and development services so we essentially have this presentation divided into two parts we'll have an opportunity to stop for discussion after the first part I would like to introduce Christopher Johnson right now the senior manager for comprehensive planning who will start the presentation and then we'll have a little bit of handoff as we go along

[12:00] so thank you great thank you Brad good evening council members and we'll wait for the presentation to come up and we'll get started perfect great was Brad as Brad mentioned my name is Christopher Johnson I'm the comprehensive planning senior manager within planning and development services um I am very excited to be here this evening uh it is my first study session with city council so um that's exciting and also we're talking about a really exciting project as well um and I'm excited to work with all of you to accomplish your identified priorities that were established at The Retreat earlier this year and and really ultimately implement the Boulder Valley comprehensive plans for all the work that we do within our comprehensive planning Division I have asked a number of several other comprehensive planning team members to join me this evening just in case there are questions about specific projects that you may have later on in the presentation or during the discussion session Sarah course is a

[13:02] new principal Planner on the team and she'll be the lead project manager for what we're calling Boulder Junction phase two um she'll cover a couple of slides here a little bit later in the presentation Kathleen King is here as well she's an other principal planner that many of you know and is the lead on the East Boulder sub-community plan which thankfully will be back in front of you at that first hybrid in-person meeting on October 6th and then Chris wranglos is a senior planner in our division he oversees a lot of the department Master planning coordination and our annual Capital Improvements uh plan work that we do I also wanted to introduce quickly Vivian Castro Wooldridge who is part of Brenda writtenour's team on the communications and engagement side but she is the new engagement senior project manager for planning which is a mouthful but importantly she is focused on pnbs and will ultimately helped create and execute all of our public engagement strategies so we're really excited that Vivian has joined the team uh just a

[14:01] couple of weeks ago and is getting up to speed very quickly and also Brad is here of course and he'll be on hand to help facilitate the conversation regarding some of our future work planning and priorities which is the second portion of this presentation next slide please so as we mentioned this evening we're going to cover two primary topics first we're going to present uh some background on the transit Village area plan and then describe what we are putting forward as two preliminary options for a scope of work to implement phase two of this plan uh we'll take a break at that point we'll pause to ask uh the key questions of you and listen to your feedback hopefully to really help us refine uh the trajectory of the project and and ultimately what our community engagement approach looks like based on the scope of work second then we'll move into an update on many other planning priorities that we're balancing across the department and really this is intended to serve as an introduction to

[15:01] a more in-depth conversation that we plan to have with all of you about our priorities and Staffing scheduled for a future study session which is currently uh on the calendar for November 10th so hopefully tonight is is really just an opportunity to tee up the conversation and then come back on November 10th with some more details next slide so we're going to begin this evening with what we're calling Boulder Junction phase two and and the reason I'm saying that is that I think many of us as City staff members and members of council we've we've become pretty used to using the shorthand of TV app for Transit Village area plan to describe this neighborhood or this project we believe that Boulder Junction is probably a more familiar term for the general public and we want to try to move away from the planner ease that we often find ourselves falling into so we're going to Endeavor to use tvap or Transit Village area plan when we're when we are referring specifically to the plan itself but then using the terminology of

[16:02] Boulder Junction in reference to this location and head itself next slide so before I move on I'm just going to really quickly run through the three questions that we included in memo to all of you and that we have for you tonight to help us guide the future of the project the first is related to the proposed land uses that are in the plan currently and whether or not those should be updated next slide the second is relevant to the transportation connections plan and whether or not some amendments are updated or updates should also be considered as part of the scope of work and then the third item next slide is really just a general uh question in terms of additional feedback that you may have on the proposed scope in the schedule for uh for phase two of this project so I hope you can just keep those questions as my in mind as we as we move through the presentation and certainly bring that forward as part of

[17:00] your feedback during the discussion portion next slide so phase two of the transit Village area plan was identified at The Retreat as one of the top priorities by city council earlier this year we have been able to add some important staff capacity and we're definitely rebuilding our comprehensive planning team and also looking forward to Future positions through the 23 budget so we are very much now poised to Begin work on this project and excited to do so next slide so in terms of just a review of the area plan itself it was adopted back in 2007 uh really established a vision to guide development within this area of Boulder Junction as you would expect within the plan itself there's detailed recommendations on future land uses various character districts Transportation connections a lot of information around Transportation demand management one of the key aspects of this was to not increase

[18:00] significantly the amount of single occupancy vehicle trips and so there was also an implementation plan that was created after the adoption of the original plan that really outlines more specifically what needs to be implemented uh particularly in terms of infrastructure and who would be responsible for that how it moves forward and when next slide so just to orient everybody and give everyone a quick uh you know frame of reference I'm sure you're all very familiar with this particular area but generally the plan boundary Falls along Belmont Road on the North Foothills Parkway on the East uh the railroad and the North Boulder Farmers ditch at the south end and then 30th Street on the west you can see that there's a small portion that's west of 30th Street and again just to orient yourself that's actually the location of the new fire station number three that's been discussed recently next slide

[19:00] So within the plan itself it identifies two main phases for the implementation of various land use changes the infrastructure improvements and ultimately the Redevelopment activity in this area the first phase which you can see on the left is generally located west of the of the railroad tracks and phase two is generally east of the railroad you'll notice that phase two uh also included what would ultimately became known more recently is Phase 2A which is the portion that is west of 30th Street and the implementation of the land use changes to bring that um into and up to date within the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan land use map that all occurred during this most recent update which occurred back in early 2021 so really the focus of what we consider to be phase two uh really is therefore on that larger portion that is east of the railroad they're shown in the dashed blue boundary on the right hand side next slide

[20:02] the uh the original Redevelopment Horizon for phase one was about 10 to 15 years we're now at the end of that just in terms of time but also uh in terms of the actual amount of Redevelopment that has occurred in that phase one area um and within the implementation plan there are uh there's further Direction on when it would be deemed appropriate to move forward with phase two and there were three primary uh sort of triggers for that the first was demonstrating substantial completion of phase one something that we're working on currently within uh within our staff and other departments the second is to confirm that there's market demand for the land uses that are proposed within phase two ultimately we'll be working with a consultant to do a market study to confirm that and then third there is a need to develop a plan for providing the infrastructure improvements within the phase two area so that again is going to be something worked on within uh within various departments to strategize and scope that out next slide

[21:03] uh we're going to touch on each of those three really quickly with a couple of slides so the first one if you recall was substantial completion of phase one as I mentioned we are actually already in the process of completing something we're going to be determining the substantial completion report which will provide more information about the Redevelopment that's occurred and how it is achieving the goals of the plan um there are a few major takeaways that I do want to call out quickly um in terms of the overall sort of planning and Regulatory outcomes there were several updates that have occurred and occurred quite a long time ago actually in terms of changes to the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan land use map there was a creation of a form-based code that applied to this particular area and a number of other code changes that ensure Redevelopment does not outpace the infrastructure needs and also contributes to those multimodal and TDM goals in addition there are two general Improvement districts that were set up and

[22:02] established to provide governance for this area area and it was established to help pay for and ultimately manage some of the parking improvements and also the TDM programs that apply in this particular area next slide So within that overall governance and Regulatory framework of course there are several physical built outcomes that have occurred over the last 10 to 15 years and through the Redevelopment of this area there's been approximately 1500 total residential units that have been constructed over 300 of those is permanently affordable so in excess of 20 close to 25 percent uh new hotel restaurants shops office space the preservation of the historic Depot building and relocation of that onto this site the number of improved bike lanes and pedestrian zones and public spaces and then of course the RTD Regional Transit Hub and the parking structure that's associated with that as well next slide

[23:01] the next question is to think about the demand for the proposed land uses uh within within phase two so I want to take some time to just examine these a bit closer and certainly we can get into some questions around these land uses as part of the discussion uh section so one thing I want to note quickly is that the description or the naming of these uh of these land use coordinate categories is unfortunately not aligned with the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan land use categories so really part of the project as we move forward will be to translate and understand what the what the expectation was within the plan itself and how these these currently induces here better proposed can be translated into that appropriate category within the bvcp uh there are five different land use categories in the phase two area that you see highlighted and bold in the legend uh primarily we're talking about high density residential 2 industrial mixed use Office industrial and then

[24:01] there is a portion of Greenway and open space along Goose Creek there towards the center of the phase next slide so the high density residential 2 land use is you can see there is on the north side of Goose Creek it is proposed to allow for stacked flats and Lofts potentially up to two to five stories in height approximately 25 to 50 dwelling units per acre and primarily would be it containing underground or structured parking so not a lot of surface parking in this particular situation you can see you know in the photographs from the plan sort of the character of what that might look like but relatively higher density in terms of residential uses next slide and just to give you a bit of understanding of what's there today uh the area is currently characterized um by a comprehensive plan land use

[25:00] designation of light industrial and has industrial General zoning that applies to it and you can see that really it exhibits generally one to two story Office Buildings and light industrial type buildings um Etc so implementing the recommendations within the area plan as currently written would be a pretty significant change from what is there today and certainly would introduce the potential for many more residential uses next slide foreign the industrial mixed use one area is directly south of Goose Creek and really located around the old Pearl Street alignment and as proposed would allow Light and Service Industrial some small technical offices with potentially live work units or some residential mixed in vertically or horizontally within buildings um overall it anticipates you know generally sort of lower scale one to three story buildings a floor area ratio of about 0.8 to 1.3 and here it could be structured or potentially surface

[26:00] parking in this condition next slide so the implementation of the proposed land use here in terms of that industrial excuse one would allow structures that are relatively similar to what is there today um there certainly could be some additional height and density introduced into this particular area it would also allow for much greater flexibility for residential uses than the current land use and Zoning that applies to this particular area but overall the sort of built character wouldn't be wouldn't be modified too dramatically next slide uh the industrial mix use two Zone district is a little bit different and you this area is located near Pearl Parkway and Foothills Parkway there to the southern end in the railroad this allows for a much greater intensity than the industrial mixed use one area that we just talked about so it envisions a strong mix of residential and office and Industrial in up to three to four story

[27:01] buildings a much higher far of 1.5 to 2.0 and primarily structured parking next slide So currently this area if you're familiar with it is primarily kind of some large format light industrial and Warehouse type structures one just there's a few one to two story Office Buildings in Those portions that are north of Goose Creek and some other similar uses um so the proposed land use that's in the transit Village area plan would certainly allow for much greater intensity of uses and Building height and again allow for much greater flexibility for residential than what exists today under the current land use and Zoning which is fairly restrictive next slide and then finally I want to touch on the office industrial land use so this is the essentially the the northern third of this entire phase two area a pretty large area up the north it incur really encourages an intensification of the

[28:01] existing office or industrial areas um it could include the addition of two to three story industrial or Office Buildings relatively low far of 0.7 to 1.0 uh and and really continue a mix of structured and surface parking which is very similar to what's there today next slide so you can see in the images on the right um pretty traditional Office Park layout with some large surface parking areas generally one to two story Office Buildings and these are in various states of agent conditions some have been built or renovated relatively recently others have not the proposed land use here within the transit Village area plan essentially maintains the status quo um aside from perhaps some intensification of those uses but it does not anticipate the incorporation of residential in to this large portion on the North End of phase two I want to note here too that certainly given the recent experience that our

[29:01] team has had within the East Boulder sub-community planning effort and really the desire to create more mixed-use type of industrial areas this is certainly an area that staff is curious about and whether this particular land use recommendation May warrant some further evaluation and discussion as part of this phase two project next slide so finally coordinated with the proposed land uses the area plan includes a detailed connections plan that identifies a number of different improvements within the phase two area the city would be responsible for some of these improvements but it's definitely expected that private Redevelopment will contribute to and Implement many of these as part of individual projects a few real key points to just highlight here include extensions of wilderness place and Frontier Avenue and along with the new bridge that would connect and create a primary connection across Goose Creek sort of near that old Pearl Street area next slide

[30:01] a number of additional local connections to really lead to a much finer and more connected Street grid internally to some of these areas next slide and then the addition of multi-use paths and number of pedestrian connections a lot of these are adjacent to Foothills Parkway or along Goose Creek and also in the proximity of a potential future rail station so I've identified the location of that rail station there with the blue dashed Circle sort of in the northern portion and western side of phase two that's another area I think in terms of what the future holds potentially for that rail station and how those connections are working is another area that staff is interested in digging into a bit further so with that I'm actually going to pass the presentation off to Sarah course uh at this point who will discuss some of the considerations that we've been weighing as a team that led ultimately to these two preliminary options for a scope of work for phase two

[31:00] awesome thank you Christopher and we can go to the next slide okay so Christopher just gave a brief overview of some of the topic areas as well as recommendations from the plan and that will guide us as we continue into our work for phase two so when we began to develop the scope of work as well as engagement strategy for phase two there were several different considerations that we felt that we should accommodate into our thinking so the first set of considerations were about policy related considerations so um such as the relevance of the plan recommendations 15 years later and the alignment of proposed land uses to the community's current needs we also considered how the potential for reduced transit services in the future might affect proposed land uses and connections and then we also know that back in 2007 when the plan was completed there were very few residents in the area and the city didn't necessarily have a deliberate racial Equity Focus as well

[32:00] so in addition to that the second set of considerations were more about administrative elements such as tailoring Community engagement to the scope of projects and looking at how we can balance staff resources considering there are many other city council and Department priorities all right so with these considerations in mind we developed two preliminary scope options which I'll present next but first I'd like to say that at this time we feel we need input from you on these options to help guide those most uh the most appropriate directions for the scope of work and that we wanted to receive initial input from Council first as this is identified as the city council priority project and your feedback will have a significant influence on the overall trajectory of the project then we'll consult planning board and the transportation Advisory Board once we refine our approach based on your comments so let's talk about the scope options you can go to the next slide so the first option option a pretty much

[33:02] looks at what the scope and schedule would be like if we implemented the transit Village area plan as it's currently written with maybe only a few a few minor updates we anticipate the project the process to include these steps to do an inventory of existing conditions to create a strategy for implementing land use and Zoning updates infrastructure phasing and financing as well as District governance and then finally to initiate the adoption of Boulder Valley comprehensive plan land use changes and form-based code updates the process would take approximately 15 to 18 months with work starting around the end of this year and having anticipated completion date of quarter one of 2024. it would require the equivalent of one and a half full-time pmds staff members and I'd like to note that this is existing staff and we're not necessarily active asking for additional staff and we also know that other departments would contribute staff throughout the duration of the project as well

[34:01] in terms of community engagement for this option it would be more at the inform and consult and of the engagement spectrum and this is because the assumption is that major policy decisions have already been made and are currently documented in the plan and then also as part of Engagement we would utilize the racial equity instruments and we'd also consult boards and commissions so as a quick summary of option A this option would focus primarily on plant implementation rather than new recommendations you can go to the next slide all right so in contrast the second option option b considers what the scope and schedule would be if the 2007 land use and transportation recommendations are re-evaluated and if they are re-evaluated it would then also require adoption of a plan Amendment option b would then introduce additional tasks tasks to a 3A and 4A which are in the blue text and these tasks would include

[35:01] investigating new land use Mobility alternatives reaching preferred land use and Mobility connection recommendations and then bringing a plan Amendment through the adoption process with planning board and city council so the schedule then need to extend by approximately six to nine months to accommodate these additional tasks and that would put the total timeline at about 22 to 24 months again with work starting at the end of this year but with an anticipated completion end date of quarter three of 2024. additional staff would also need to be assigned to the project to support the expanded scope which means this option might require the equivalent of about two and a half full-time pnds staff members and public engagement was also expand and it would expand to consult and involve the community in potential policy changes that we consider again similar to option A we would utilize the racial Equity instrument and we also consult boards and commissions

[36:02] in summary um you know we recognize that this approach places more demands on staff and also lengthens the total time needed to complete the project however this option could result in updated policy recommendations that are better aligned with the community's goals and needs now as well as into the future currently staff is leaning towards option b and this is partly because the original assumptions around Transit as well as the community needs have evolved since 2007. they're substantially more residents in the areas such as the new residents that live in the phase one area and we also have the new racial equity and racial equity instruments as well as other community engagement tools to reach and respond to groups who may not have participated or been involved in the previous planning process next slide all right so that was a summary of the scope and schedule for both options A and B now we look forward to hearing your feedback on both of these

[37:01] approaches we also realize we might miss something or there might be a third option somewhere out there but we can come up with that together today after the discussion we plan to refine the scope of work as well as Outreach strategy based on your comments over the next couple months and I'd like to say as part of refining the scope we'll be sure to also identify other departments that we'll need to coordinate and work with as well and then after that next we'll provide planning board the transportation Advisory Board as well as view with an update of a more detailed scope of work probably towards the end of this year or potentially early 2023 and then finally our hope is to formally launch the project in quarter one of 2023. so thank you and I'll pass it back to Christopher to continue the presentation great thank you Sarah you can just jump to the next slide and this is our this is our break here for discussion um so really as we mentioned at the start of the presentation really are key

[38:00] questions for you or whether we should explore updates to the current proposed land uses and transportation connections as would be accommodated by option b that was just described earlier uh and certainly if Council has any additional overall feedback on the scope and the schedules presented this evening we we welcome all of that and look forward to the discussion well uh thank you Brad thank you Sarah thank you Christopher for the presentation um I'll sort of open up for Council questions and some feedback I will just make a quick observation to simplify if we can put those questions back up we might perhaps consider just combining question one and two to option a option b thinking even in the presentation they seem to combine scope of work about proposed land uses and transportation together so maybe just just for throwing it out there we might want to just combine question one or two as an A or B solution rather than parsing them out

[39:00] between land use and transportation um but when we get to answering those questions just uh might be a little easier and simplify it that way so I see a hand up uh Nicole go for it thank you and thanks Steph this was a wonderful presentation um you laid everything out really clearly and um just appreciate it um my uh first question it's really just purely a question I was wondering if someone could remind us of what those different levels of Engagement are um I know there's a wheel and it has different words on it sort of showing what is involved with the different engagement stages can you just remind us and help us understand what the difference is between option A and option b yes I can if you give me two moments to find the Spectrum okay so the boulders engagement Spectrum generally uh has four categories um beginning with inform consult involve and collaborate so our thinking is that

[40:01] under option A you know really a lot of those major policy decisions have been made they're documented in the plan we really are ultimately just focused on implementing those uh current proposed recommendations so we would inform and consult members of the public and certainly you know local stakeholders Property Owners uh folks folks of that nature um if we moved into option two that of course broadens uh the level of Engagement we would shift slightly towards the consult and involve uh end of the spectrum because we believe there would need to be some additional conversation particularly as Sarah mentioned there's a number of people that actually live in this area now uh and would want to gather their feedback and input into any updates or amendments to those proposed either land use or connections recommendations thank you um and Matt would you prefer us just to ask clarifying questions at the moment or do you want me just to

[41:00] give my input now as well uh well let's see I mean if we have a slew of questions or clarifying let's maybe go through that and then we can answer the questions in one fail swoop but if there aren't too many bites at the Apple then I would turn it right back to you Nicole Aaron go for it you know thanks for the uh informative presentation I appreciate that from all of you um and so my question is sort of in terms of whether there might be slightly a different option on the table so I get that so the we need to look at this area comprehensively from an infrastructure and standpoint like about what what are the roads and paths and the um utility infrastructure and flood mediation Etc that are necessary to serve this whole area but it does feel to me like it has some distinct uh sections to it like that area north of Deuce Creek which is is a developed with a more recent buildings I'd say with with uh with more

[42:01] life left in them you know whereas like south of Goose Creek it tends to be older smaller buildings that might be more ripe for redevelopment and um and then south of pearl Parkway is a different character from north of pearl Parkway kind of as it seems to me so what I was wondering is that you know in the in the first phase of Boulder Junction uh each there were different sectors in there and each of them had really finely grained um character sketches and studies and different zoning different Lane uses Etc would it be possible to kind of do the overall look at the whole this whole area but then like have a phased approach on either one maybe two or three different phases and what I think about is maybe working from the south to the north because the northern section to me seems like it's less ripe for for change I think still worthy of being looked at but but the areas um that I think are more Viper to the South so is there is there any possibility for breaking it up a little bit and part of my motivation there

[43:01] would be to see if there's something that we could get 100 complete in a shorter time frame um than what we're looking at in your proposed time frames so that's my question to you yeah it's a good question thank you uh mayor Brockett um I think uh you know you noted and I would certainly concur that there's value to looking at uh the entire area comprehensively certainly as it as it comes to some of the infrastructure improvements there's going to be a lot of you know really integrated and interconnected um things that you know you do want you do one thing at the south in terms of infrastructure or flood mitigation that's going to have a Cascade of effects of other utilities and infrastructure to the north so we certainly would want to approach that holistically um in terms of the uh you know some of the regulatory functions of amending the land use the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan land use map or

[44:00] introducing new zoning those are the types of things that from an implementation standpoint could absolutely happen I think in a more um phased approach where uh you know it's an area uh needs needs or deserves some additional conversation around a proposed land use for example um those changes and the you know those ordinances could ultimately occur at a later time but I do think there could be some some opportunities to look at a few of these areas that um have perhaps have recommendations that feel feel right and and you know really are consistent with our current Community goals and we could certainly look at um moving forward on some of those land use and Zoning changes more quickly in some of those particular areas and I think hearing your feedback tonight is certainly going to help us move forward and and sort of sharpen our pencils as we as we move back in and really refine the scope of work and the schedule those are the things that we can come back to

[45:01] you um here later before the end of the year with with more details on that great that's really helpful Christopher well I'll respond to that in my comments a little later after other people had a chance to ask questions thanks Odyssey Lauren then Tara thanks Matt so my first question um has to do with I've heard about maybe a culvert going in under um sort of the railroad in order to alleviate some flood issues and I was just wondering how this um does picking a timeline you know the option A or option b have any impact on how quickly those kinds of utility things might move forward I think we would see if Joe tadiucci is on perhaps after that unless uh Brad can take a bite at that apple

[46:01] I do not believe he is on today but we can certainly take that back or Brad yeah Joe's not but um but we have talked a little bit about that so um just to make sure I followed your um question Lauren just um wondering were you wondering about how the mapping would uh play into the overall planning process and timing I just want to make sure I followed that correctly well I guess my question is is that I mean it seems like that update to help provide some I mean I'm assuming that that's to help reduce our you know the area that's in 100 year flood zone and the danger that's there so um is that moving that forward dependent at all on the rate at which we move the rest of this forward or is that kind of going to run on its own track and

[47:02] right or not my understanding is that the boulder Slough um has already undergone the mapping phase and that the next one is mitigation planning um those are work program items uh as Joe is related to me that to be scheduled and prioritized with the plan I think there's some Independence between the two but um we can certainly take that question back and get back to you in more detail about it uh we'll talk about this a little bit more as we go on but we also have a plan November 10th work session uh with Council and that would be a opportunity where we could lay out all the various elements in a more detailed plan so I could Envision us bringing that then too okay thank you Lauren do you mind if I have a little coloring Rachel I was just gonna add a little color based on conversation I had

[48:00] with Joe that might help with where Lauren's going but go ahead Rachel well I just wanted to make sure I understood your question are you asking basically if we chose plan or option b would that delay flood mitigation efforts for people who need it or for an area that needs it is that the question yeah I mean I guess the question is some of those is that a utility Improvement that depends on this plan moving forward or is it um you know unrelated but work that's happening nearby on its own already okay thanks um so there's there's one other there's a partner in here who's sort of a gorilla in the room it was not literally in our room but that's the railroad and so that's a whole nother you know beast of the whole thing but you know what what I gathered from what you know I obviously what Brad said was right but one thing I I did pick up on is from Joe that they're just starting their work planning items and remember when we just passed the storm water and Flood Master Plan we we created a brand new prioritization criteria and so based on

[49:00] how we indicate our priority for that southern section may change where a flood mitigation project may move up or down on that scale um so so I think there are some considerations that utilities would take into account based on any any uh acceleration or priority in terms of whether it's industrial or more housing in that space because that would change uh how it's prioritized on the uh rubric that we just passed with the with the master plan so they are kind of connected in how they would then prioritize and then move forward and certainly work with Brad and his team on that process so so I think those pieces are kind of intrinsically connected based on where we set priorities for that southern section of Boulder Junction 2. yeah thank you um and then my other question was to me it seems like the option b feels like it actually

[50:00] does include quite a bit more than option A and I guess you're planning on adding more Staffing to accomplish it faster but to me I was surprised that there is only the six to nine month difference between the two do you think do you feel confident in that assessment uh we do um you know certainly this is a first pass at um you know really kind of laying out a general scope of work and what we anticipate needing um I think the key for us during um you know as we were thinking about option b is being strategic about what what types of things were reopening within the plan like what questions are we asking um we certainly are not taking the approach or wouldn't propose the approach of scrapping everything that's there and starting over we have a really great Baseline to work from we have some excellent outcomes from phase one that

[51:00] we can really lean on and learn from um so I think we would be pretty we would attempt to be pretty surgical I think about the about the land use or connections recommendations that we want to revisit um rather than you know really revisiting the whole thing so I think that's partly how we think we could you know extend or expand the the scope of the project and still maintain a relatively um you know relatively tight timeline for some of that expanded work great thank you Tara you're up actually believe it or not Lord those are my two questions and now you said them so well I only have comments now so I'll wait Rachel go for it just one um understand if we sorry if this is duplicative of what somebody else already asked but if we go

[52:00] to option b here does that have a ripple effect on other Council priorities such as occupancy say or adus yeah I can start with that one um we're going to talk about that a little more contextually in the second half of this uh but the short answer is no this this already has been on a track um before those others and the key staff that are involved with that we haven't had quite the same impacts um the kind of questioning around Staffing on the mid to longer end of the overall project we may be able to get some efficiencies with Consultants um certainly the idea of respect and support this evening or the question of of facing some of the finer grain elements um but this is a is relatively independent of the others

[53:01] do you have anything else Dan Christopher that based on our conversations no I think that's right I think you know the you hit the nail on the head in terms of the key staff that would be potentially involved with some of those code updates versus the expansion of the Boulder Junction um work um we you know two two different groups of folks and and I think we'd be able to um I don't think that any expansion of the Boulder Junction work what happened effect on those on those code updates thanks for that what it would it impact can I call Liquid oh sorry sure and and just want to uh expand that my question maybe would it have an impact on anything like would I hear a lot as a council member well we have you know we have a limited amount that we can do with the the staff that we have which I understand so I just want to understand if we if we do you know broaden this to the bigger option b timeline is that going to impact anything else we might want to do or be

[54:01] doing sure I appreciate that question um in in kind of very basic terms the Boulder Junction 2 is handled by comprehensive planning staff that's where we are most fully ramped up and this being a fairly discreet project over multiple months wouldn't get impacted by some of the other kind of code changes and other priority projects um the other big one and we'll touch on this is the area three research uh where the question of resources comes into play relative to some of these planning projects as opposed to code update projects does in kind of uh relate to the um longer time frame and for that we already in the budget you'll see a request for an additional planner for

[55:00] comprehensive planning that would support this timeline either of these two timelines as we've represented them as well as a request for some Consulting dollars okay thanks for that Matt I I know you wanted to call it clay and yeah so I just to maybe button that that up um clear I totally understand that you know the code work is a different team than the comprehensive planning but maybe more specifically you know if given the request for Staffing if we were to delay or sort of jettison the area three from sort of our current timeline of work plan would would that free up resources to shorten the timeline of option b given that I'm assuming that that's part of the same comprehensive team or would it be inconsequential if we move that off the plate in terms of affecting the option b timeline yeah I'll let Christopher kind of kick me under the table if he disagrees but I

[56:00] think the answer is it would provide some efficiency so if we were looking at that gen uh chart again it would it would compress but there are certain elements of this planning process that are sequential so there's there's kind of a limit to how much of that we would be able to do can you put a finer point on that Christopher in terms of what months might be saved yeah um I don't I don't know if I can Venture a guess in terms of specific timelines but you're exactly right I do think we you know obviously having staff you know generally the entirety of the team focused on this project would certainly help um to accelerate certain aspects I think one area that we run into in terms of these planning projects that um option b is you know in terms of having to move forward with the planned Amendment something we can't avoid is is just the the process it takes to run through our

[57:00] boards and commissions and city council to ultimately get approval of that before we could move forward with land use updates and Zoning updates and things like that so that's that's kind of a it's kind of a given you know that that's going to take time to work through that entire process but certainly the engagement piece the development of Alternatives and valuation of those Alternatives we could potentially have some time savings there if if we're able to you know really focus all of our staff on on this one effort I may I don't want to I know Tara's up next and I see what Rachel's hand up so I don't know if she has a follow-up to continue or not I didn't want to usurp that perhaps we can Circle back to this question and maybe raise that to everyone on Council as if there's perhaps a a preference or desire on whether or not they want to lean towards moving area three to gain some efficiencies or if we want to table that decision for another time but we might Circle back to that in the later part of

[58:00] this conversation just to just to maybe give staff a little bit more clarity as to where council is on that particular issue if that's all right with you Brad yep okay um all right Tara here it sounds to me well you said you wanted to do option two correct you leaning towards that is that not right Brad yeah and so since it sounds like it would be more work for you you've got to have some pretty good reasons why you're leaning towards that and I would assume it is because you do want to update um what needs to be updated yeah fundamentally the recognition that 15 years have passed and you know life in the world has changed then a secondary and very important uh consideration too that there are residents now where there hadn't been before so there's a voice uh and voices there that um could only be predicted in the past but are known now

[59:00] and then we do have some more uh robot excuse me robust um tools available now such as the racial Equity tool and such we would use those in both cases but uh using that in conjunction with the Outreach tools and um Outreach teams that have been developed since then Community connectors and those types of opportunities hmm does that cover what you needed Tara all right Aaron you're up and then I'll I'll take a bite at the Apple unless someone else raises their hand right well if I if people don't mind with me starting with a little bit of background information here so I don't know how many of you have talked to about this but I went to a little three-day uh mayor's Institute of City design conference uh several months ago and I brought this uh project forward to for people to look at and discuss and I have not gotten they were they're going

[60:00] to get us formal follow-up materials about the some of the analysis and recommendations and such which I will I had Hopper would be ready by now and would have passed on if I'd gotten them but I did not so I'm just going to offer just a few high-level things things that I heard from on that and then I'll offer my own comments after that um the the people that so there there were some design professionals there and some some other Mayors from other jurisdictions and they noted what a fantastic opportunity this was for the city is is one of uh you know a few redevelopable areas you know kind of left in town and um and and thought that given our current housing prices and the needs in our community me that it made sense to focus on housing as the driving kind of use in this area you know well and then noting the importance of time knitting it together with the golden Junction phase one and the uses to the west to the railroad tracks and and also uniting some of those Transportation connections north south within within this area as well and and then the final thing which is

[61:01] kind of beyond the scope of this but just maybe something to think about is a potential importance of place making here that if it has a strong individual identity that it could help draw people in and make it a kind of a crown jewel of Boulder and and not just an area that has a few apartment buildings so I think those are the top level thoughts I got from that which I thought all raised pretty good points um and then I'll turn then personally so I I'm gonna go with uh the option b fundamentally here uh because I think the the land uses do you need some updating and in particular I think they need to focus much more carefully on housing uh you know I think the you know we know how much of a need we have for housing in this in our community and so I'd really like to see the land uses updated to reflect that and so I think we do need a bit of a heavier lift in that area on the transportation side I'll say in looking

[62:00] at it I don't immediately have anything where I say oh well that's really out of date you should really do something else instead so um but of course I think we should have tab look at it right to say see if they think that it's up to date or would need revisions and or maybe some of it if we change the land uses that might trigger some reevaluation to Transportation connections my guess is not that much but you know we certainly want to hear from tab in my opinion on that and and then in terms of of timing I'm going to speak up for that sort of phased approach because I you know it would be fantastic to get something done before this council is done with our time and partly it's just because it's um well a lot of it's just for continuities sake you know that when when pencils turn over there's inevitably some number of months of delay as folks shift priorities and things like that um and it's also really great to have a group of people so your project at least partially to to fruition so um I'm gonna I'm gonna put in a plug for

[63:00] some kind of phasing uh for the detailed uh land use and Zoning changes going from south to North and and see if I ask you all if you feel like it's possible maybe to get through the infrastructure piece um and then you know a first phase that we could finish out by you know the next fall kind of time frame so you know maybe you'll come back to us and tell me that's totally impossible and if so that's the way it is but I'd just love to hear from you if you do think that might be possible with that kind of approach and what was our third question that was oh was further updates which I've already given you so those are those are my thoughts I'm really excited to be getting going on this and I do think it it can turn out to be well I'll just make this another comment let's let's make sure this is a special unique place in the city of Boulder right so let's let's think about it as as a unique place and let's think about how this process as we move through it can can really bring some additional character to our our city and a special

[64:00] new place thanks thanks Aaron um I still had a couple questions I know Aaron got into answering which is which is great no I'll get him I'll get done um no that's fine um Lauren did you have more questions or were you going to jump on to answering uh SAS questions for a ladder awesome well then I'll I'll I'll go to you next Once I ask stuff a little about my my upfront questions and we'll jump into that probably for everyone else unless someone has some free questions um so question couple questions I have is um certainly in kind of where Aaron's comments were about really being intentional about housing and and thinking about that sort of IMU one and two that currently exists and and thinking about you know is there any restriction in really moving that towards an area that I think a lot of us were pretty happy with with the East Boulder subcommunity plan was that sort of mu3tod you know I mean being so close to the Boulder Junction itself you know Transit oriented development seems Seems really ripe in certain

[65:01] parts of that area in proximity and so I didn't know you know in those revisions is that kind of where you're thinking in into building that kind of continuity with what we have in East Boulder sub-community and and bridging that Gap um and so I sort of wanted to ask about that in in one pence and then I have a question about um office and Industrial um after that so and I'll start with the IMU one and two question sure um yeah thanks for that question um admittedly we haven't gotten into a ton of um you know detail on on what changes we might think about or what alternative land use is we might put forward um but certainly you know I do think that there is a lot of value in the work that was done um just over you know more recently over three years in East boulder around that station area master Planet 55th and Arapahoe which is visionary and based on future Transit but we have an opportunity here where Transit already exists and hopefully RTD is able to you know bring service back to this location as soon as possible

[66:01] um so I I you know certainly that is that is a point that we would look to you know immediately as one of our first options to evaluate and think about how we might make some adjustments um and certainly there's some some benefit um to I think a number of things you know what we've learned out of East Boulder is going to help us move forward quickly on some of the changes that we might look at here and also the fact that we already have form-based code in place we might need to modify it and update it but we already have a lot of that of that structure already in place and the general Improvement districts already exist on the other other side of the track so we can look at whether or not simple expansion of that makes sense as opposed to trying to set up and establish a new District so I do think there's a lot of opportunities both within the existing you know that apply here but also what we've learned more recently with over the last couple years that we can bring to bring to bear in this project

[67:00] I I appreciate that I mean it sort of generally answered my other question just in terms of how much we're going to leverage that work that was just sort of across Foothills um so so I I appreciate that I think that that's good Synergy and leverages work that you already know has a lot of support um certainly from us and the community at large so I appreciate that um oh uh I'm gonna move over to Lauren so she can answer staff questions and then hopefully everyone can chime in on their responses and then we can hopefully synthesize um what we're going to give guidance to staff on and keep the ball rolling so I see Lauren then I see Nicole foreign thanks Matt and thank you staff for the presentation and for your thinking on this and bringing forth multiple options um I think I am also leaning towards more of an option too you know so much has changed since 2007 um and I think that it would these plans represent really quite a long frame for development this is

[68:00] something that we're going to be um implementing for the next 15 years and so we don't want to be implementing you know 30 year olds thinking in 15 years so I think it is really important for us to take advantage of some of the really smart um choices that went into the East Boulder sub-community plan like Matt was talking about the transit-oriented districts sort of around the transit hubs the I also really appreciated how that plan had housing specifically tried to take any area that had sort of green space and rapid and housing um I think that something like that could be appropriate here as well and as you mentioned we have more residents living nearby that should have a say in how this area gets developed as well as you know new tools like a racial Equity tool that I would really like to see play

[69:01] um a bigger role in how we're thinking about these very important decisions um I also would really like to see us try to think more deeply about how we can pick the best zoning types um to really reduce our climate impact so what are the sort of you know if we were going to look at this just through a climate lens what kind of zoning would we pick for these areas based on that and so I would really like to see EAB also involved in this as we move forward with looking at what this new zone or you know what modifications we might make um and then in term I guess like Aaron I'm

[70:00] a little bit less sure about the transit plan and if that still makes sense I would really be interested to see how tab feels about it and um if they think that it means significant updates or not thank you thank you thanks Lauren um I see Nicole then Tara for all the reasons every bit already stated the one thing I will just bring that comes out of our Dr Cog meeting last night and approving the greenhouse gas mitigation reduction plan there is that they're going to be offering technical assistance and things as well for communities that are interested in trying to build more housing along Transit High Transit areas and corridors and so that it sounds like it's just going to be available to communities that wish to use it I know we have a lot

[71:00] of resources here in our city already and people who know about that but just wanted to offer that it's something that they are going to be developing and preparing and will have available to communities like ours if we need it thanks Nicole Terry you're up down the mute buttons good for me okay um let me just get my notes I would like to slow down and definitely I'm on up with option b one thing I would like to do is be honest and talk about what has worked in tbap one what hasn't worked what isn't that great what is great I don't want to be a negative now you know but when I was reading the um the TV app plan has a lot of pages that we had to read a lot of it was words like vibrant and

[72:01] Community Center and some of the areas are not vibrant nor are they community centers so some of the year the opportunity to do a work what the pandemic has Tara we I don't think we can hear you you're breaking up a bit do you want to maybe just turn off your screen and then maybe provide that input maybe we can then hear what you're saying maybe can you hear me now yeah that's much better okay maybe I'm not talking clearly because I don't feel uh I think we're still losing out we're we're just here in every 10th word

[73:03] why don't we pause see if see if it just sort of improves itself on my move to Mark and Juni and if if we can get a sense of your connection improving we'll Circle back to you in just a little bit sound good [Music] Mark you're up okay thanks um I am also going to be supportive of option b I'm less concerned with how long it takes although you know doing it expeditiously is better but uh I'm more concerned with getting it right um I I think uh Tara's initial comments before she became garbled were correct um one of the things we ought to be looking at is uh where are the successors successes and failures in TV1 and let's not repeat the mistakes and let's emphasize the things that that are good and that have worked well um so for me it you know instead of relying upon a 15 year old plan

[74:03] um uh I would much prefer that that we do option b and really look at this with new eyes and with current understandings of Transportation of uh the kinds of housing we want kinds of housing we need Etc so I'm I'm very supportive of that um I I would I would not abandon the urban Services study for area three um this is a part these Parcels of land if the next could provide a significant opportunity not just for housing but for affordable and potentially middle income housing either through Community benefit agreements if we Annex private properties and at our own discretion if we own the properties so I would I would not walk away from that um under any circumstances because I

[75:00] think there's we're not going to run out of Need for housing before um if we could do tivap 2 tomorrow we'd still need more housing so I think the area three well the planning Reserve is is an important asset and we ought to be moving forward um and looking at that as well thanks thanks Mark let's check back in to Tara Junior and see if her connection works and then we'll Circle back to you that works let Judy go Junie go all right thank you Tara this is great um I am in full support of the comment made by Mark about area three I was the strong proponent of the study um being done because of the very reason mentioned by Mark which is affordable housing and Workforce housing which is something that is greatly needed in the community um but I was looking at to answer the question I agree option b uh because

[76:01] even looking at some of the um the processes it seems option b offers a little bit more uh which I welcome and I when I was looking at the slide as well and I thought Lauren was going to mention that because she's the architect in the room um about you know our architecture and the importance of ensuring that um there is um some level of beauty uh in the way that we do this work um also on page 25 I welcome the additional multi-use path and pedestrian connection I think that's very important you also mentioned the racial Equity tool especially in this type of project sometimes it's hard to find okay how do we ensure that we bring Equity into the work into this type of work sometimes we don't see it because it feels so concrete but I really appreciate that as well I appreciate the comment that you made actually uh Tara you are gonna say something about being Community centered

[77:00] and I and I think that was great as well um that is very important um and also there was a comment about actually in one of the slides about tailored Community engagement that's very important because it's not enough to just do community engagement it's more important that we ensure that it is tailored uh to the community um that's yeah that's where I'll leave it for now and thank you that's really great work thank you it's great to go last that's all I can say everybody said practically everything I was gonna say well you do you want me to go so you can still go last there no no okay no all right you sound great so I'm not gonna well I'll just repeat a few things yes I'm Beauty yes this is the opportunity really this is a great opportunity make something beautiful to make something that really is a community center so going back to looking at what is not a

[78:02] community center and what is a community center in the current um in the current uh tv app and the current Boulder Junction would be a really good idea um I want to say that to me listening to the community that lives there and the community connectors is probably one of the most important things because when you're far away from it we don't live there let's say there are certain things that we don't know we don't know um well we do know because people write to us for sure but it will be best to hear from them before we make any what I would call of the same mistakes I'm not saying we're making mistakes but it will be good to know if we are making if we have made mistakes to not do them over again so everything else everybody else said great things and um I don't need to repeat them so I'm going to go with door number two thanks Tara Judy I still see your hand up did you have something else to add

[79:00] oh all right sorry um I haven't we haven't heard from Rachel on the questions yet so Aaron do you mind if I roll to Rachel or were you gonna build on something someone else said Aaron yep do do other people first I just have a little more thought awesome go ahead Rachel you're muted Rachel and what you said was probably really eloquent so we missed it you'll never I'll never be able to supportive of as well and to Tara's point about um engagement I do think that people who live at Boulder Junction now are probably in a good position to give us important feedback and I think we have two boards and I don't remember if that was specifically built in but you know along with uh planning and tab I would think those two boards should have a lot of good input as as we're looking at what what has and hasn't worked and as I recall it's hard to fill those boards so

[80:00] that's one thing that's not working I mean something about the process already isn't great so so let's include them and figure out maybe how we can do some of that better thanks Rachel um Aaron go ahead and add your uh comment and feedback and then I'll answer those staff questions uh after you great Just one thought I forgot to include uh was just in terms of efficiencies that we have just gone through the East polishable Community planning process and that area of town was very similar to this area of town and so I think rather than Reinventing all of the wheels I think we could borrow some of those ideas so obviously we want to do the community outreach and the things that folks have said about Outreach to nearby neighbors and the community connectors are really important in applying the racial Equity tools so not to pre-determine anything but if once as we get that feedback if we look at some of the tools or some of the methods that we applied to these Fuller subcommunity plan we could maybe use some pre-existing work that we've

[81:00] done to get a great outcome here that also is a little bit more efficient I just want to throw that idea out there as well thanks Aaron um so you know before I answer the well let's see I can answer the question and I'll look to clarify from from Brad and maybe uh Christopher and Sarah on on a point that sort of seemed to be brought up by some of my colleagues um so I I mean I'll just make this sort of unanimous um that option b is my my preferred Direction um we we all as soon as we set a plan we own we deal with obsolescence oh pretty quickly with how things change so um modernizing it as much as possible and if we could somehow just prognosticate the future 15 years from now and make a plan for that wouldn't life be great we'd have flying cars and and you know all those things already but but so I think that uh option b is the way to go um I did want to clarify and ask Brad a question and maybe that helps clarify

[82:00] Mark and juni's concerns about area three is um is there a critical path from which studying area three has to be done by in order to be incorporated into the next round of the Boulder Valley comp plan I'm just wondering do we have a are we already at that point where if we don't start it now we miss that window or do we have some grace period that we we can work with with regards to delaying it but not missing that important window which is really the whole point of the urban study is to have it ready for the comp plan conversation so I'm just wondering timing-wise do we have something to work with there are we already sort of you know borrowed for time yeah Matt uh that's an excellent question and I'm afraid I simply don't know the answer um maybe Christopher or we've got some other staff who can I I will offer up that um you know this is the basic tension of comprehensive planning which is the not urgent but important and so our

[83:00] instincts as planners are too want to move all things forward all the time because we know this Day of Reckoning so to speak will come on all all things long-range planning uh but there is and obviously must be a prioritization at the same time um I would suspect this will be the greater part of our conversation in November a little bit on the second half but certainly it's a retreat as well so but to the mechanical question of its a relationship to the uh Boulder Valley comprehensive Plano deferred others on staff here yeah I'm happy to chime in on that a bit I mean the so the next uh major update for the comprehensive plan is scheduled for 2025 which you know of course will be upon us before we know it um but the completion of that Baseline Urban Services study in order to inform those conversations and be referenced within the document um you know really we have until until

[84:02] that date so it could be completed next year it could be completed in 24 um before we get into that 2025 uh major update and even though I am new to the city you know what I have seen in terms of those major updates to the comprehensive plan is that they often tend to not occur actually right on schedule on 2025 so that could you know conceivably even extend into 26. um hopefully not if if I have anything to do with it but um you know certainly that that could happen I I appreciate that that adds a little bit of context to it um I guess what I'm hearing is that we we um we we do have a little bit of time is what I'm kind of hearing maybe not exactly known and maybe there's greater context in November as to what that might look like um and then maybe what I if I've also heard from a Conte from the conversation about where where the planning departments work is it seems to be more

[85:02] front loaded on TV app and towards the end is where you're starting to check in with boards and commissions and then that's sort of just a fixed delay because it's got to go to a meeting and then a month later it's got another meeting and a month later another and those are just baked in based on the virtue of the Cadence of meetings and feedback but the heavy lifting is done maybe in that first half to two-thirds do I understand that correct yeah generally from a you know from a workload standpoint and certainly the creation of new materials yes most of that most of that is really front loaded in terms of engaging the community listening to people creating Alternatives and refining those you know ultimately landing on a preferred option um you know the the second half of the project is is a lot of uh you know sort of wrote uh adoption processes through our boards and commissions through Council and if if we do a planned Amendment there's

[86:00] a planning portion of that but then there's also uh implementing any ordinances that would actually change the code or change zoning you know you know type of thing so um within that 20 within our current you know window of the 22 to 24 months that we were anticipating for phase two or for option b um that does include or attempts to try to incorporate some of those additional implementation steps so it's not necessarily just to get to a plan amendment in 24 months we think we might be able to actually um you know do some of those other code updates and implementation steps as well within that time frame all right that that's helpful context and I just wanted to then Circle Tech to Mark and Juni with concerns about area three you know if there was a desire to gain those efficiencies because I definitely want to make sure that whatever we do with Area 3 is incorporated the compound we probably all share that um uh uh intention but would would you be amenable if we delayed the start of the area

[87:00] three to gain efficiencies knowing that by still starting it you know nine months from now a year we still get it done in time for it to be ultimately incorporated into the comp plan um is is that because I'm trying to see can we have our cake and eat it um it's more or less what I'm kind of asking and I think what I'm hearing from Brad and Christopher is we probably can um with regards to this and so Mark Juni since you had those concerns I just want to Circle back knowing that now does that change your thoughts on whether you want to gain efficiencies by delaying area three no it it really doesn't matter um I look at the area 3 as a greater opportunity for affordable and middle income housing than TV2 which is basically going to be market rate housing in whatever configuration we permit with either cash and Lou or uh you know 25 affordable area three as I said to the extent that that there are properties out there that the city owns we have full discretion as to what we

[88:01] want to do with it and with respect to properties we don't own if they want to be annexed we have much greater leverage in terms of of getting a favorable deal that can produce housing you know above 25 affordability levels so to me in a lot of ways the I mean both properties are going to be there I mean nothing's going to disappear but the urgency for affordable and middle income housing is such that I actually think the area 3 property is as important if not more so than TV2 which is basically gonna as I said basically be a market rate driven development so I would I would be very reluctant to do that all right I appreciate you clarifying uh Tara I see your hand up and then you can maybe button this up yeah uh quick question uh when we had we had our tours to the east Boulder sub community plan areas

[89:02] that really helped me I'm a very visual person and to be able to see it made a big difference and I'm wondering if before the November uh meeting can we have another tour I'd love to go see extensively what areas even even looking at TV app one even looking at the areas that are that did and didn't work and then going to um the next section and checking that out and I think visualizing will really help at least me I'm sure we can have a field trip love it happy to work with you to set that up wonderful I think that's a great idea Tara thanks for bringing that up uh we all love our field trips uh preferably when the weather's nice um that would be nice um so let's let's see if we can wrap this up and then you know and make sure

[90:01] if there's any clarifying from from staff but it looks pretty it's well it looks like unanimously we want to move with option b so I think that's really clear guidance for staff with regards to those first two questions um and then sort of one that that's um and then there's a you know one comment that I think kind of got also repeated or at least got got tacked on to was one that was really kind of initiated by by Aaron which was really looking first you know obviously looking at the whole area but sort of quickly starting to think about in implementation breaking this up into phases and and sort of thinking about it from a south to North perspective um but as we look at those things being really intentional with housing um and really leaning into to that um aspect and intentionality seemed to be a theme as well um as we move forward and I think staff certainly you guys have nodded your heads yeah that you're leaning that too but I think it's just to be clear that that was I think sort of what we heard broadly and and I I did want a circle because I know we're going to talk about it in November but I just kind of wanted

[91:01] to get a sense from my colleagues is there even though we chose B is there interest in gaining any efficiency with regards to area three you know we heard from Mark and Judy that they're not interested in that but I did want to hear from everybody else because that might be indication for staff in terms of how they want to think of things in preparation for November and so um I would just maybe quickly just sort of throw out just a quick straw poll if you want to raise your hand are you interested in trying to find efficiency by any kind of delays to area three is that of interest to anybody on Council all right well that answers that question there's just two of us that are interested in that all right um yep yeah one I just want to say that that I was that I was interested to the extent that we could still get area three done 100 within the comprehensive plan window so just in no way wanted to delay that but as long as that wasn't a threat and I think we heard that

[92:01] um you go ahead Lauren yeah and I just wanted to add to that I I think that there might be other reasons like other priorities that might that I might choose to put in front of area three but in general I think that I trust staff to balance their schedule I mean I think that largely we all agree that we want to make sure that this is done for the comprehensive plan and it is a super important you know as Mark said area for us to look at so I don't you know I don't want to jeopardize it but I also don't want to micromanage um how things are lined up in your on the planning and development services schedule I also just wanted to mention that I I'm not sure that the south to North I would need to look at that in more detail before I would feel comfortable saying like that is a plan that I solidly agree with and support I trust staff to if there are way pieces

[93:01] that it makes sense to bring forth more quickly for the phase two I'm open to that but for me it's not having it done right and with the strong engagement is my priority thanks Lauren so I think we're clear on option three going forward any last comments before we move on all right I think we're all good um thanks for staff's presentation thanks for clarifying A lot of our questions um and just a last check in with Brad Sarah and Christopher do you think you've got what you needed from us to move forward not just on Boulder Junction too but certainly uh preparation for the November 10th meeting yes thanks good awesome thank you uh well uh just to recognize uh also this is Sarah's first meeting in front of council as as a new person so great job Sarah um nice work

[94:01] um and KJ as well we haven't seen you so thank you you guys you guys did great um awesome well thank you so much and thanks for everyone's comments um link that buttons up our conversation on Boulder Junction and Nuria do you want to turn it back to you for our transition to our next subject well the transition remains with pnds because they had a part two to the days oh that's right you're right yes and I will uh qualify that this is much more informational at this point it is really kind of a preparatory discussion leading up to the November 10th uh work session that's planned so this is uh just giving a broader picture because we are comprehensive planners of the of the broader landscape planning projects so take it away Christopher thanks Brad I yes I will continue to be in the hot seat here this evening so when you pull the presentation back up we've got a few more slides to run through

[95:01] it's great the next slide will get us going great thank you um so yeah as Brad mentioned this really is intended to be informational and really set the stage for that November 10th meeting where we can get into much more details and and decision making about um a number of things really across our department um so we're going to begin just by providing a reminder of the five Council priorities um that involve our department directly and then we're going to hide just a few other ongoing and unscheduled items that are on the radar and sort of circling within the department next slide please so as we've been talking about Boulder Junction phase two obviously was a priority that came out of the retreat area three that you can see there highlighted at the North End of the city island B and then the three code update items that really are intended to

[96:03] modernize the code in relation to accessory dwelling in its affordable housing occupancy next slide in addition of course there are ongoing things or things that have come up recently that are also you know on the radar and on the on the new for us to be thinking about as we move in so there's a number of implementation projects that are continuing to come out of the subcommunity plan a number of zoning studies some creation of form-based code infrastructure planning Etc that would be that we will continue to be moving forward with and implementing that plan as hopefully it leads to toward adoption on October 6th we also if you recall committed to creating a Civic area historic district this was an outcome of the decision not to expand the landmark boundary of the band shell and really the importance of looking at this area holistically rather than on that piecemeal basis so the the

[97:01] challenge I think associated with that Civic area historic district is is really the intimate connections with the work that Parks and Recreation is imminently moving forward with on their phase two of the Civic area master plan and then some of the previous land use planning work that our department was involved in on the East bookend that was ultimately put back put on hold back in 2018 after the existing conditions and the inventory task was completed uh next slide and in particular a lot of that Civic area uh work is really falling into the context of a number of other projects that are focused on downtown currently and whether they be led by City departments or or others uh things like the Downtown Vision plan that's ongoing certainly the recent conversations around the future of West Pearl and Mobility study in that particular area and also thinking about connectivity to the CU Boulder campus and improving you

[98:00] know improving those connections between campus and downtown particularly as it relates to a new hotel conference center that is um that is you know set to begin here fairly soon we recognize that you know not only is there just a tremendous amount of attention being focused on downtown right now but also there's a there's a Time component of all these items and the fact that they're all sort of aligning in terms of their timing is is somewhat unusual um and we see that presented you know really is a tremendous opportunity for a lot of cross-disciplinary collaboration not only within within our city departments but with our stakeholders and Community leaders as well so really offering a chance to think comprehensively about all of these components together next slide and then finally I I would be remiss if I didn't remind you about all the ongoing annual and daily work that you know our department is um is responsible for that's our annual Capital Improvements plan our department Master

[99:00] plans that fall under um fall under our wing you know all manner of applications and permits and development cases particularly our historic preservation and our development review teams uh and then thinking ahead towards you know perhaps the next sub community plan uh what does that look like and where is that located thinking about already some of the initial pre-work for that major update of the comprehensive plan in 2025 so really the goal here is just to Simply you know not to just present to you and say we're busy because I think you know that but it's really just to provide a reminder and overview of all the items that we are thinking about and attempting to balance and consider as we start thinking about our work planning for next year and really hoping that we can continue to make a lot of progress on the council priority projects um you know within the context of all these other things happening so we've got one more slide and uh I think Brad is going to close that out and then we'll move into the next discussion section yeah thank you Christopher and as Christopher

[100:02] has mentioned and I've alluded to and others we will be coming back to you in about six weeks or more with details and thoughts on how we can really strategically balance these and uh honor and recognize the priorities for Council and priorities these prioritize these various work items I want to relay that we have had success in filling some very important Staffing positions um both within comprehensive Planning and Development review some of those were just on the cusp of as well but it certainly did result in um uh delays even even while we've been fairly successful in getting those staffed up and uh but onboarding those folks and getting people familiar in the meantime though we do continue to make good progress on important efforts like finalizing the land use table updates and refining the scope of work uh for Boulder Junction uh by the end of the

[101:00] year which again will be part of what we bring forward in November as well and in early 2023 we look forward to finalizing the priorities with you at the council Retreat and we would anticipate initiating the Adu code update work during that period and completing the update to the site review criteria that you've seen earlier and formally starting uh Boulder Junction too as we've talked about tonight and then the other items that we've itemized this evening being part of that broader discussion in the next six weeks here so I believe that concludes our presentation map Advanced to the last slide and any last thoughts that Council has on this under your picture thanks Brad uh thanks Christopher um anyone got any comments or feedback on um on this before we move on going once

[102:01] going twice um all right I'll just add one I I would I'd love to see us since we've been talking a lot about comprehensive planning I'd like to see as much of an acceleration on getting the Adu stuff done because it's pretty I think as we identified it at the retreat was really just a couple targeted code changes and because we've not long ago already went through a lot of community input on adus I think we can I think we can knock that out much faster than than maybe otherwise we could think if we just lay out what three we want and get to code I think we could turn that around uh pretty quickly um so I just would hope that we can find some ways to to do that I see Aaron's hand up go ahead Aaron yeah I agree with what Matt just said but I also I didn't see occupancy on that list anywhere that may have simply been an oversight

[103:00] but that certainly is on the on the list here thank you okay good to hear thanks yeah Aaron it was on the a couple slides earlier um it was on that just maybe not at the final slide but well no I I saw it the earlier one but I didn't see it on the schedule and so yeah no questions where is it on the schedule fair enough um so are any other thoughts comments feedback uh before we head to November 12th or number November 10th meeting all right um well that was that was fast appreciate it uh Again Brad Christopher Sarah thank you so much I really appreciate you guys working through this we look forward to seeing you again in just a handful of weeks and uh going through those next little pieces as we start to knock out um the rest of these uh Retreat priorities and look forward to hearing some more updates on that going forward so thank you appreciate it all right thank you have a good evening

[104:02] all right neria take two back to you great thank you so much Matt um and so tonight we're gonna come to you and talk on our second topic about um discussing not a new topic uh and really at the request of you all in Council we've been discussing Library funding and governance for years now um and certainly we all know that there's a ballot item that's considering creating a Library District in the near future if the district is passed by voters there are a series of actions and steps that we need uh that will need to occur and while tonight isn't really about discussing all of those items I just wanted you to know that staff is really ready and we'll be prepared to bring the council comprehensive outline of that information in November should that ballot item indeed pass the conversation tonight is about the potential reallocation of the funds that are currently used to provide Library services this is the beginning of that conversation that if the library district is passed by voters in the fall will continue into

[105:01] 2023. tonight we'll be seeking initial Council thoughts on the subject and so we'll appreciate all the feedback that you can give us additionally we know when we want to clarify some of the information about the property tax portion of the library funding and I know that staff will be talking about that as well so with that I'll introduce Cara Skinner who along with Mark Wolfe and Teresa Tate will be presenting this item Cara again area and I believe Michael taught the presentation great thank you Nuria Cara skin on Chief Financial Officer um and I think we can move right on to the next slide thank you Mark so as Nuria mentioned we are here this evening as Council requested the discussion on the process the timing and priority making for the reallocation of the budget that we do believe would be

[106:01] available beginning in 2024 should voters approve the library district in November so our presentation uh agenda as you see here items two through five relate to that scheduled discussion and Mark wolf our senior budget manager will take us through that portion of the presentation however as Maria mentioned before we get to that scheduled conversation we do want to take a few minutes to clarify with Council and the community the impact of the city's ballot issue to see and the library Mill Levy so for that conversation I will welcome our City attorney Teresa Taylor Tate for the clarification thank you so much so um as council is aware but we want to make the public aware as well following the publication of the staff memo for tonight's discussion questions arose about the impact of repealing

[107:01] certain provisions of City Charter related to the library specifically under ballot item to see and with respect to the council's intent of the ballot question and the ballot title um so these questions prompted further discussion research and ultimately consultation with an outside expert in elections law after one-on-one conversations with each council member it's clear that the super majority of council intended that ballot question 2C if passed would repeal the tax and taxing authority of the .333 mill Levy so tonight we'll present the council action that will be required to effectuate that repeal of that Mill Levy should the voters approve the library district and City ballot question on 2C

[108:03] and I'll turn it back over to Cara um and Mark to discuss the mechanism for doing that thank you Teresa so as Teresa indicated if both measures pass um both the library district ballot issue and the City ballot issue 2C staff will then bring to council for Council consideration an emergency ordinance to revise the 2022 Mill of the ordinance which you will be considering and approving in October to reduce the total City to Mill Levy by that .33 Mills um so as you know um we always present uh the middle of the ordinance and the budget um without anticipating a certain result um of the November election so the mill Levy that you will develop the ordinance you'll be considering in October does

[109:00] not presume those ballot measures pass so if they do pass we will bring something to you uh at the meeting following the election in November and it will need to be passed on emergency ordinance to reduce the mill Levy by that .333 and with that then I'll hand it over to mark all right uh good evening Council uh Mark wolf senior budget manager so I'll now take you through a few slides related to the current Library budget the amount available for reallocation upon uh District creation and the proposed process um starting here this slide has a few parts beginning with the 2023 recommended Library budget uh you'll notice here that the recommended budget includes appropriation of the library fund which includes the 0.33 Mill lebby

[110:00] if the district is approved and the mill Levy is repealed we will need to identify another source of funding for Library operations in lieu of the property tax for 2023. and that amount is approximately 1.4 million dollars as a reminder if the district is approved 2023 would likely be a transition year the city would continue to operate the library as a city service through 2023 and then the city would likely be repaid by the library district subject to Future negotiation for the total cost of operating uh the library that repayment could begin as early as 2024 and again details related to such would be worked out through an intergovernmental agreement negotiated between the city and the district if the district passes in November

[111:01] so related to what we're talking about this evening primarily is this amount that is uh or would be available for reallocation so a couple notes here you'll see the projected general fund Library budget of 9.25 to 9.75 million for 2024. and then additional what we're calling direct general fund savings again a range of a half a million to a million dollars so the the number that we're targeting this evening and planning ahead for that potential reallocation is that 9.75 to 10.75 million dollars I also know that that includes the North Boulder operating expenses again that is expected to open late in 2023. I also want to acknowledge that these numbers uh that 9.75 to 10.75 are differ from what was contained in the staff memo and again that difference is the revenue from the 0.33 Mill Levy is no

[112:02] longer included as we're anticipating that would be repealed if the district were to pass all right one more number side this side is to emphasize the amount um that is estimated to be available for reallocation again that's in the first column on the left here um this amount includes all direct costs to operating the system so that's all Staffing what you would see represented within the library budget within within your budget package it does not include such indirect costs um that would not result in those direct cost savings so parts of other positions that support the library is a good example of that and it does not include other foundational or Grant support that are that's represented within the library fund it's part of the total budget but wouldn't be cash savings that the city could could spend if available after the district was created so that's how you

[113:01] start to get a different number from what is available for reallocation versus what is the true full cost of the to the city of operating the library so that's in the middle column so that includes annualizing certain maintenance costs it includes all administrative overhead costs so you imagine all of the other finance and City attorney support that the library would receive does receive an addition of many other departments so that total cost is is much bigger than the cash that is available for reallocation there are probably some other savings as we've talked about mostly in efficiencies and being able to allocate staff time elsewhere but in terms of cash that we're anticipating to be available again that's in the left column and then lastly just acknowledging that there are some other future liabilities or future costs that we would be quote avoiding with the district being created such as

[114:01] other maintenance that we would be anticipating the incremental costs of personnel insurance and other types of service expansions all right so now I'll start um talking about our recommended approach to looking at the potential reallocation and priority prioritizing our needs so we have begun the process and we do this on a regular basis looking across departments and inventorying our needs from a work planning standpoint from a budget standpoint but also if there are opportunities such as this we want to have a good sense of what what is missing in terms of the funding fixture going forward so we have started that process with our departments we are discussing that a potential process now and what we're suggesting is that we work through council's financial strategy committee on a prioritization of those needs for Council review

[115:01] sometime over the winter to help inform the budget process for 2024. and again because those dollars the soonest that those dollars would be available would be for reallocation within the 2024 budget we think it's prudent to look at that budget process which would include include all of our needs and all of our funding sources that would be the appropriate time to look across our entire budget and make those decisions so your recommendations in advance just like Council priorities in that time frame as well help inform our work planning and our budget planning so what might this categorization or prioritization look like what we're suggesting is to organize ourselves across five different areas core operational needs programs and services program and service enhancements aligned with established policy new Investments aligned with established policy new new or new new

[116:01] expanded Investments to meet emerging Community needs and then we have spent some time in the past talking about potential additional tax relief and rebate considerations so what do we mean by all of this core operational needs again might be pretty straightforward but essentially these are the critical Investments to maintain our existing service levels and lack of funding would implicate some type of service reduction so these are things like facility maintenance snow plowing median maintenance sidewalk repairs software replacement uh maintenance of our fiber system Parks maintenance Etc this would also include Investments continued investments in our city staff we've highlighted this through the 2023 process and again we'll likely need those continued Investments to stay competitive as a workplace uh program service enhancements aligned

[117:01] with with established policy so essentially these are investments uh to existing programs or services that are aligned with existing policies existing policies the easiest is to think about uh accepted Department Master plans a couple examples are continued implementation so areas that we've already made Investments such as advanced life support services emergency medical services within our fire department our vision zero goals within transportation again we have made some Investments there but likely more to come new Investments align with established policy so in this area we may have a policy that's been accepted or adopted by Council and we have not yet begun to make progress within a goal area so one example could be the facilities master plan so certainly that plan calls for

[118:00] the build out of the Alpine Balsam campus that's on the capital side but if there's a significant City investment on that site in pursuit of our goals there's likely some Debt Service associated with that so that would be an ongoing expense a new investment in in alignment with a within a accepted master plan another maybe some of our additional climate action goals and programming associated with meeting our climate action goals we know that there is the ballot initiative in November but that will not cover all of our needs in terms of meeting our climate calls from a programming perspective newer expanded Investments to meet emergency community community needs so sometimes there are Community needs that come up that may not be specifically called out in an existing plan but nonetheless are something that we need to address in a short period of time so example of this is the funding that

[119:00] we have proposed in the 23 budget to to start a day Services Center our behavioral health program is another we also have several programs that are identified with arpa funding these are all one-time uses of funds that implicate ongoing services or ongoing need so again with a really interesting opportunity to look at ongoing costs again this funding if it does come available is ongoing in nature it's an opportunity to look at some of these ongoing needs and lastly the consideration of additional tax release tax relief or rebates um we were asked to put together some thought around this we could look at certain rebate programs targeted at certain community members that could be a property or sales tax rebate in some way we could also look at an overall reduction in the sales tax rate or

[120:00] property tax credit for a certain period of time again we'd want to use caution and be thoughtful about how we use those mechanisms but that certainly is within the council's purview and then just for your reference one mill is equivalent today around 4.2 million dollars and uh 0.1 percent sales tax is equivalent to about four and a half million and uh this slide you have seen uh two weeks ago so I won't get too far into it but these are the types of pieces of information that we'll be refining this is not a comprehensive list but gives you an idea of scale the number is Big the number is likely to be bigger as we complete our inventory so that really does necessitate um some type of prioritization with Council to determine how we may use this money and then also structure our future budgets all right so as we build out this list

[121:01] of unfunded needs broader than the last slide what does this prioritization exercise look like what we're suggesting again is to work through a council's financial strategy committee on the specifics however a prioritization is likely to include looking at alignment with our sustainability equity and resilience goals other considerations for prioritization could be ongoing versus one time reflecting that opportunity to look at ongoing addressing ongoing costs and then some type of weighing of the different categories that we've presented um at least getting a sense of where we should be focusing our our efforts so that concludes a very brief presentation but essentially we're trying to tee up Council um to get some reaction on that on that process and also hear some early thoughts as to whether or not you all have some ideas for emphasis on those categories or at least would like to help Focus some of

[122:00] our inventory and gathering information for future Council consideration prioritization hand it back to you Matt thanks Mark Cara um thank you for this presentation and thanks for uh clarifying certainly the uh item 2C on our ballot that's really helpful for outside Council and also the community I appreciate that um certainly going to open it up to why don't we just start with sort of the you know the that first question uh about sort of process and reallocation um I will sort of just uh remind everybody that um we we will be making the 2020 uh four budget it is this body that will do that and so the reallocation of these funds should the library district get passed it will be up to us to decide that in in a formal sense when we start our budget process um next year and so there's no passing the buck there's no making decisions on

[123:00] others um and so I think it's important to know that that uh this is good planning for decisions we as a body will ultimately make um and and also in terms of timing that this is exactly when other all most departments are already starting to think roughly about what buckets they're looking to put money into in preparation for that so the timing of this conversation even though it coincides with a ballot measure is actually really appropriate with regards to where other departments are doing that planning and so I think just sort of working from that Foundation we can sort of uh March forward once we answer that first question I know as wheels are turning I do want to sort of point out that let's try not to get into dollars and cents and and Hyper specifics of programs I think let's talk about buckets um and more or less um because I think uh the the details will come later and I think you know certainly the budget team and marking care of demonstrated certainly is what we saw with the last budget they're pretty good at hearing what our priorities are and and finding those investment points around that so I

[124:00] think they do a pretty good job if we can highlight those buckets so about that out of the way I'll turn it back to help me answering that process of number one uh the question number one and I see Nicole's hand up so go for it I just had a pre-question before getting there just a point of clarification um so we're really just talking about reallocating um kind of some of what it currently costs us to run the library so if I'm understanding correctly when we're estimating the savings that we'll actually realize in terms of what we can reallocate to other purposes we're not really looking at the total cost of running and maintaining the library so the operating cost that we're looking at that comes from the general fund is excluding building maintenance for example Capital maintenance improvements things like that is that am I understanding that correctly I just want to make sure I wrap my head around this the right way that that's correct it there there is some Building Maintenance that we've built into those

[125:00] those direct cash savings if you will that would be available for reallocation there's a there's a larger bucket that includes future larger maintenance projects that are not built in into that that we plan for and also kind of General um uh administrative overhead which is more indirect that's not not represented in the in the cost savings that would be available for reallocation okay yep so we're talking about just kind of this portion of nine to ten million dollars or so that covers some of the operating costs but not kind of the full cost of of running the library and I think that's a place where I'm just hearing a lot of confusion out in the community and I think sometimes even in our conversations here as to like what does it actually cost us to have the libraries as a part of our budget so um thank you for clarifying I just I think it's really important for us especially as we're talking about it in front of the community to help everybody recognize that that nine or ten million dollars that's not the entire cost of the library that there's there's more there

[126:01] um and can you put those questions back up I'm happy to answer them now unless other people have clarifying questions they want to get to First well yeah I think Nicole we're we're going to just answer that first question so thanks for priming the question up there yeah just in terms of just questions about the process um let's just sort of start there and then we can dive into the buckets because obviously I think that's where the meat on the bone is here in this conversation but if we can knock out the first one which may inform the second let's go ahead and do that um Aaron Aaron I see your hand go for it it Nicole did you have any other questions my main question for now okay great thanks well just to and to build a little bit on what Nicole was saying so there are categories of expenses like the building maintenance right that that that aren't included but also I think as I understand I just want to make sure I understand this correctly that there will be things where we there will be areas in terms of uh staff time where we will not be saving money because we're not going to

[127:01] lay off staff that have helped out the library but the but the um but those staff will have additional capacity to work on other City projects so do I understand that correctly that's correct mayor great so that that part of that differential between the the 10 and the like the 16 or so million the 10 million that we're talking of savings we're talking about reallocating in the 16 million to run the library center stamp part of his uh we'll have additional capacity to work on other things that's good to understand because of course we're always we're struggling with the lack of capacity across the board so that that'll be really helpful I think um the other one was I know back when we were talking about either doing an IGA before the ballot measure you know this is a number of months ago you know we uh there were we were talking about whether we would be leasing the buildings to the district or transferring ownership of the Bill of the buildings to the district and uh as

[128:01] under as I recall we had a majority of us that said you know we should we should lease the buildings to the district did but regardless like is the does this cost allocation analysis Does it include either the city owning them or the city leasing them or is that kind of cost neutral how did that play into this analysis yeah that's a good question um I I can just speak to the the portion of looking at the difference between what's available for um reallocation versus estimating the total cost of providing the library the total cost includes us owning the buildings because that's the total cost to the to the city today um in terms of anticipating reallocation um it it doesn't anticipate um the terms of the IGA so I think we'd have to wait to see exactly what the structure that was before costing out if there there was a difference between the city retaining ownership or not but I don't

[129:00] think it changes that amount available for reallocation and that we're predicting in 2024 unless there's some other term that the IGA comes up with related to building maintenance that we can't predict at this moment okay that's helpful to understand and of course this this body will have uh have to approve any such thing so if we were assuming we're going in this direction um then we're in good shape okay thanks for answering that that's all I had Aaron can I call a queen for a second um if I recall those conversations I don't think it had a financial impact one way or the other we were either going to uh transfer uh phenomenal consideration or we're going to lease phenomenal consideration um I'm not sure that the form of of the relationship is going to have a great economic impact one way or the other for us it's a good point thanks Mark

[130:00] was that all you had Aaron yes all right Lauren you're up so I just had another clarification around that it sounds like right now though the 10 million dollars in savings does not include any savings in building maintenance that depending on how the IGA is written is something that we might see um sorry is that yeah what I can tell you is that the um the estimated amount includes an average of the amount of building maintenance that we have done over the last few years and I think that number is around 500 000 and then we anticipated some direct cash savings above that for those other administrative costs so it's the library budget as it stands today plus some Building Maintenance and some other what we would consider cash savings um beyond that like the the future

[131:01] anticipated expenses the major maintenance those are not built in as cash savings um at this moment and then to your point there there the IGA could influence some of that but we obviously don't know any of that today thank you any other questions about process Oh Nicole I see your hand go for it oh this sounds maybe another clarification not necessarily unprocess I just want to make sure that I understood correctly we're not including in thinking about this reallocation funding available the 0.33 Mills that currently goes toward the library because what we are expecting um based on Teresa's conversations with all of us is that there was a super majority of us that are interested in releasing repealing that property tax should this District measure pass so you get that did I get that right that's correct the 0.33 Mill Levy is not

[132:00] reflected in in the figures that would be available for reallocation okay thank you to um Teresa for figuring this out um I apologize for not having looked at this closely enough when we were looking at the ballot measures um to kind of pull out that that detail so I just thank you Teresa for finding a way to reflect what it was we were hoping for you are almost welcome and I think you know we all um we all learned a lesson about communication and making sure we have robust conversations around issues that are important um and and very happy to to try to help lend some some clarity to this issue and reflect council's intent and will thanks Teresa Mark you're up just one question for Mark um the 9 to 10 million dollars using those rough figures um that is not net of the 1.8 million

[133:01] dollars that we're going to lose with the repeal of the uh the 0.333 uh Mill Levy correct uh it is not so that that is excluded from the 9.75 to 10.75 so that 9.75 to 10.75 is what we would expect to have available for reallocation okay I I you've lost me for a second the nine to ten is after or before deduction of the 1.8 million will lose when we repeal the tax after at and the tax uh itself in 2024 is anticipated to be 1.5 million okay thank you foreign well outside of any other questions about process um I think we might move to sort of just discussing a little bit about you know the areas and the categories that

[134:02] um Council would like to prioritize with this rough to ten I know we keep saying 9 to 10 I think for Simplicity and math just call it 10 it's a nice divisible number but we don't need to split hairs but we're not going to get into dollars and cents but just in sort of you're thinking base certainly is certainly those are unfunded needs um just sort of thinking in your head um because saying you want to do an unfunded need that's 20 million dollars and all we're talking about is 10 there's futility in that but nonetheless uh we could take a bite out of it so anyone want to take a quick crack at um where they see some of these priorities and core needs and um so you want to go for it Mark go for it start out by being contrarian because I think this is a conversation without substance um we're effectively formulating our 2024 budget before we've even passed our

[135:00] 2023 budget and depending upon the timing of the transition we may be formulating our 2025 budget as uh my colleague Bob Yates pointed out in his hotline post everything we're discussing tonight is both contingent and remote we have no understanding of what economic conditions will be like what sales tax revenue is going to be generated and what other necessities are going to arise um you know the council voted for a library district and you know that was a clear majority and nothing nothing exceptional about that and most of my colleagues are strong supporters of the district and their individual capacity and that's great but what council is doing tonight is basically producing an Infamous infomercial in support of the district and all of the benefits that can arise from the district and and frankly I think doing so is a little bit beneath us on the role we ought to play as a governing body nothing that we're going to discuss

[136:01] tonight has any real grounding in reality nothing can be promised no commitments can be made and anything we do promise the the community can be undone by a subsequent Council other than what we put in the 2024 budget so to me all of this is frankly um and I don't mean to be harsh but it's a form of performance art and as I said it it this is not an appropriate role for us to be playing thank you thanks for your comments Mark um I might just take a take an ad here that if if if we were basing decisions on the uncertainty of budget and what was going on we would never pass any budget at any point because we would only pass a budget based on that moment in time so there has to be planning based on conditions and this is part of that um I I am concerned about sort of a nihilistic perspective that um that this is sort of Showmanship this is largely a product of having to dispel copious misconceptions

[137:03] um that have been spread about this issue and it's important for us to do that is in fact incumbent upon this body to dispel and somewhat be Arbiters of Truth so that the community has a fair place from which to judge a lot of these things and and because of those misconceptions this is one of those where people want to know exactly what this money is and where and how it's going to go and I think it's important for us to do that departments are doing that throughout our city already in preparation for 2024 and we're talking about two percent of our budget with this so it's important for us to at least be thinking about those bucket buckets um intentionally so that the community has confidence that this money doesn't just get just folded into The Ether that there's intent with these savings to meet Community needs and I think that's a fair thing for us to give the community as they evaluate the merits of a library district and what this city is going to do in terms of fulfilling the commitments that it has both with tax rule leaf with the 3.33 Mills and what we're trying to do here with the roughly

[138:00] 10 million dollars so I see Nicole's handout let's turn to Nicole Matt before you go one comment please yeah um given the um well stated and perfectly appropriate by the way views of most of this Council on this issue um I am hard-pressed to see us as the Arbiters of Truth um we you are the orbiters of a position and you're perfectly free to take that position but as an Arbiter of truth I would expect to have something a little more disinterested uh in the process and that's not what is happening here so I I I appreciate that perspective Mark but um numbers don't lie um so so we we will work within the facts of that have been presented to us um Nicole please go for it thank you um and thanks everybody for coming so far and thanks Jeff for the presentation um I I just wanted to say you know I

[139:00] think with I haven't been shy about the fact that I you know support forming a Library District at all and I really feel like voters as part of the decision making want to have some insight into what it is we're thinking about um here I think this idea of planning ahead is Central to our role as a governing body um I see our primary duties as council members as being protecting our community's safety and protecting our finances making sure we have enough money to run so I see this kind of as a a financial planning type of exercise and I think it's an important one for us to be thinking about because as Matt said it is it this isn't it's we're not just talking about a thousand dollars um here this is a fairly large component of our of our general fund and and you know I think there's a lot that we do where we're referring to work that's going to be done by Future councils just tonight in

[140:01] our discussion of TV phase two that I think is now Boulder Junction phase two there's a different word we were using for it but we were talking about work that would be done in 2024 that's beyond this Council as well so I think it's it this is part of what we do is we talk about things that are coming in the future and we certainly can't predict what future councils will do but we can make the best decisions about what they might do with the information that we have at hand right now and and that's what I see this process as as being not not an infomercial but part of us doing our jobs as Council people who are tasked with the governance of our community and thinking well into the future beyond our time on this governing body with that said to answer question two what I'm looking for is is really thinking about more of the new and expanded Investments to meet emerging community needs that is that that is

[141:00] what I would really love to know more about and when I think about what this what the function of the libraries are in our community it's really social infrastructure it is a free space that has resources that are available to anybody in our community it is a place for us to come together as communities and connect there are meeting rooms spaces we can use there's art that's displayed throughout the Library resources available training opportunities all of these things that build community and connection which is something that we desperately need as we Face the climate crisis and as we move forward as a community so what I would really love to know more about and to emphasize for consideration of these funds was something that fills a similar purpose something that's um capturing Community social infrastructure Gathering spaces for our community to to move move forward it doesn't have to be for the entire Community but you know different bits and pieces as places we can come

[142:01] together so I would really love to see this maintain as social infrastructure thank you Nicole uh Juni thentera thank you Matt I welcome the comments made by Nicole uh thank you for them and I just wanted to add for me just to answer the question um I would say I don't fully understand the new and expanding investment to meet emerging Community needs that's that's a mouthful in itself but I think uh what I want to say is that I hope that we'll put that we'll use that money in a way that is Equitable for instance I've had community members who said in a place like Boulder where we talk a lot of equity and inclusion yet we don't really have a cultural center so maybe that is something we can think about as a community how do we

[143:00] spend that money to bring forward that Equity maybe this is where we should use the equity tool and say what is it we don't have and how we can better use this fund um I saw also tax relief and rebate consideration there are elderly people in our community and some people mention how can we use that money to give some of it back to community members and form of tax rebate that's something again when we're talking about Equity that could help us leverage um how we use those funds as far as cooperational needs not so much because I feel like these needs are always there but this is an opportunity to maybe uh what's the word um level the playing field use that money in a way that make people feel like they are we are bringing the community in together and I know Maria has been working really hard since he's been here since I've been on the council to ensure that we have that sense of community where you know we bring more people into the process and I hope

[144:01] that's what we'll be able to do with this money to look into some of these issues that we've not been able to implement and put action behind in the form of equity and inclusion thank you foreign I see Tara then Aaron well I just want to stick up for what Mark said because in some sense it is like an infomercial because we're saying this is what you can have if we pass the library district so it's a it's a commercial of sorts um but I'm not going to go down that route because frankly what I do like is that we have a ballot measure and we can all decide and that's the Fairway um so I'm gonna say that I like what Juni said because what I'm most worried about with the library district by far is the fact that a lot of people who bought homes when they were way when

[145:00] they were a couple hundred thousand dollars maybe even like fifty thousand dollars back in the day and now these homes are so expensive and people a lot of people are going to have a hard time with that property tax so it would make me feel good if we could give relief to those people that can't afford the property tax so that's the first thing I'd like to see the second thing is is I've always been a big fan of core operational needs I have to say and one of the reasons is is because when it comes to you know taxes you're paying your taxes and then you're riding your bike and you're the roads are falling apart and you just broke your time you know you just you're tired is broke or whatever I feel like core operational needs are what a city is supposed to do right now we have a big backlog of those things we have a backlog in our roads and maintenance and in our snow removal could definitely be better and those are things people really care about um they don't care about them until they

[146:01] just broke their tire but and then all of a sudden they do so that's important to me and um lastly I want to talk about parks for a second can you hear me yep where are you good no I can't even find my zoom is my zombie good computer day so that's good so Parks remember last uh was it last week when we were talking about storm water and how they picked a Visionary funding well Parks is right now under what is called fiscally constrained funding and that means they have no money and why that is so important to me if we're gonna if this does pass is because their parts get so many letters um people are having a hard time affording the um the cost of the uh community centers and they're having um there's not a like there's not enough maintenance there's not enough pool time there are so many things people want to see in parks and they are under a lot of

[147:01] stress right now Parks is a great Parks does a great job when it comes to equity they offer so many discounts or people that are marginalized or in need and so it is super important that we fund our parks to better levels than fiscally constrained I think we should get it up to at least we're doing a pretty good job funding whatever that is but right now it's we get so many letters it's such a low so that's why I would like to see more of our money uh if we did have that and if this did pass going to um parks that's it thank you chair Aaron you're up great thanks Matt um well just to start about why we're having this conversation um I think it's specifically in response to community requests uh that people's I've heard from a number many community members about hey what what will the money get spent on if the These funds

[148:00] are freed up and so I think this is being responsive to some Desires in the community rather rather than in for infomercial purposes that's certainly not my intention so to to that point I'll just offer a few thoughts that um and just note that that the amounts that we're talking here about 10 million dollars a year is about what we've gotten from arpa funding from for two years is about 10 million a year so it's and which we've we're able to do some really uh helpful things for our community with that money right so this this provides a similar opportunity but out into perpetuity so I I thought what um Nicole said about social infrastructure was was really good um I think I think that we we need more of that in our community and our society so it's a great point I I liked um what Genie said about you know certainly applying an equity lens and I think going out and talking to people in the community that are that are missing

[149:00] some of those you know Gathering opportunities or service opportunities and and finding out what they what they need right so I think um that's not predetermining every dollar for sure but thinking about who we're talking to as we're developing a spending program but and then I also I also noticed like the the um the behavioral health response emergency response program that we're standing up this next year that that's being done with one-time funding so I if that goes as well as I'm expecting and hoping that it does we're going to need ongoing funding for that um and that that would be a real opportunity here something else that I've had my eye on throughout my almost my entire time on Council is you know we're moving towards bringing Advanced life support services in-house in the fire department and that's about paying EMTs better and providing better service to our community and making our emergency response and our firefighters kind of more effective and also giving them a

[150:01] better working environment so I would definitely prioritize that for some of this funding because uh every single person in the in the community if something if if they're in in crisis you know like a medical crisis having that response come faster and higher quality is a benefit to each and every member of our community and then the last thing I'll just say is that either that this well the tax increase would be a you know relatively modest one at about four percent uh of property taxes it is going to fall harder on some people than on others and so I think um developing some kind of a rebate program not across the board but with criteria you know income based or or hardship-based criteria for uh individuals and small businesses um I think would be beneficial and I don't know I'm not going to try to pretend what percentage of funding should go to what right now but I just those are some core areas that that I

[151:00] would look at for for funding priorities and thanks for the opportunity to talk about it thanks Aaron I appreciate that um some some thoughtful comments there uh oh I just saw Rachel dropped um did you intend to go I believe I intended to unmute myself and I instead hit the hand button they're not even close to each other so there's no good excuse oh all good because I think I saw your hand up in front of Lauren so I wanted to just honor that so go for it Rachel and then I and then I see Lauren thanks for honoring my my faux hand um so this is a little bit tricky for me um you know I I laughed at Mark's use of the word infomercial um it hit my Funny Bone thank you for that and I don't want this to feel like an infomercial of just like what what my sort of um pet projects or desires are for funding and so I'm a little bit loathed to weigh in on like what what are my favorite

[152:01] um uses of of 10 million bonus dollars so I think what I feel is that it it's probably going to be best for Nuria to say here's where we have the highest need for 10 million dollars given Council priorities as they stand in November of 2022 and going forward so um I'm not going to be able to to weigh in um much much deeper than that because it's we have a over 500 million dollar budget and this is in in some senses a drop in the bucket and and I feel like staff is going to be better able to tell us whether we need it for um EMS versus flood mitigation versus homelessness services or anything else that we're looking at so um I don't I don't feel I can weigh in too well on this thanks thank you Rachel Lauren you're up thank you

[153:00] um I one of the comments Mark Brockett brought up is about this being performative and I just wanted to it caught me thinking because I'm sure you could make that argument but you can also make that argument about a lot of things that go on I mean to a certain extent being an elected official being on Channel 8 there is a performative nature to all of this that we do and I I get the criticism but I don't think that this is um that's just part of part of our job um so with that being said I like Nicole um really strongly would support this a sizable allocation of these funds being spent on social social infrastructure projects like Parks

[154:02] um I think that but there there could be other options there and then sort of my second tier would be life safety things like Aaron brought up the advanced Life Safety support and also Vision zero things I think that you know those are making sure that people in our community are safe is really there's few things more important that we do um I did want to bring up this rebates I do I have an issue with using general fund dollars which are largely sales tax based which are regressive tax to give property tax credits which would mostly go towards people who own property within our community I think that there's um an inherent Equity issue there it there

[155:00] might be ways to overcome that with really smart high end targeting of who those funds go to but I'm going to be fairly skeptical thank you thank you Lauren barring anyone else's hands up I'll I'll weigh in a little um no I for one I appreciate the thoughtfulness from from the comments that have come before um you know certainly I I I see social infrastructure as an absolute need I think that that's a high priority in our community um it's an increasing need in our community so um you know arpa is is finite in nature and we've been largely using a finite um source of money to prop up our increasing needs of social infrastructure so the fact that we could supplement what was finite in terms of arpa with money that can sort of hang

[156:00] out in perpetuity I I think is a generational opportunity given the social infrastructure needs that are presented in front of our community right now and will continue to be the case so I appreciate Nicole's comments on that and those that have backed that up I I think that's uh spot on um you know the other the other interesting part is I do appreciate where Aaron was going with ALS um Advanced life support I think that's a huge thing with regards to community safety right I mean one of the first things we take are uh pledge to as council members is health and safety of our community so I'm hard to ignore that as an important investment um you know I I think you know the rebate conversation is tricky I I tend to align with where Lauren is I think that's tricky to take sales tax and give a property tax rebate but but I do think in terms of you know groups that are hit hard um by the library um districts um funding is is the business community and so I I'd like to see us think about some some small business Tax Grants and

[157:02] small business support um because you know it isn't an it still isn't easy for them and they're still recovering um and so I think if we can certainly give them a leg up and give them some support to soften the landing a little bit I think that would go a long way um it'd be quite important for us to do um I didn't really see where that fit into sort of those main categories um and and since that is gone I'll just remind in case people didn't see it um Mark was kind enough to put those questions in the chat so if you want to refer back to those query areas they're sitting in the chat um you know and the other part is certainly you know some of our climate work I know we've got a climate attacks but in some ways there isn't enough money to deal with the immense impacts of climate change and so certainly I'm thinking how to help climate initiatives about whether it be ebike program or Wildlife or Wildfire resiliency so those are some of the things that for me seem and they aren't just pet projects these are things that have been overwhelmingly shouted uh at us by the community and so in many ways we're just reflecting the

[158:01] community needs back to this 10 million dollars to try to find ways to to make sure we meet those needs sooner rather than later so those are my thoughts on it does anyone else have anything else um before we move on I don't see any hands so let me ask Mark and Cara you know based on sort of what you've been hearing do you feel like you've you've heard some Consolidated thoughts that that inform um you in terms of where the thoughts are on on this roughly 10 million dollars and what departments um you know you you are worth reaching out to in terms of of how to think about allocating this money should it be freed up um after the November election yes I think so um we certainly have a couple specifics that will do some sharpening of our pencil on and try to bring back some more specific numbers and then again we'll be working closely with FSC on what that prioritization process looks like and Target coming back for

[159:01] um more robust conversation in the winter if the district passes wonderful thank you Mark thank you I really appreciate it and thank you Teresa for um helping us navigate the the 0.33 Mill um and and providing just real clarity about what 2C is and then also the commitment that um staff and Council will make in terms of emergency ordinance um right immediately on the heels of the election results um in that sort of I think November 13th meeting I think is the one that I think I said or something like that um but anyway one of those um but anyway thank you so much yes following the election and yes and absolutely our pleasure and we appreciate you all um sticking with us as we reasoned through this well thanks again and and as always um you know navigating all that is Nuria I know she's been quiet tonight but thanks to Nuria for helping navigate all of those pieces um in this conversation um so thank you for that

[160:02] our pleasure all right well um we are at 8 35 anything else on the table um don't think so it's not a regular meeting so we don't have matters going once going twice all right um well yeah and I saw the gesture for sold from Rachel um so without further Ado um we'll go ahead and adjourn this meeting at 8 35. um I think we beat our time frame so kudos to everyone um anyways thank you all so much uh have a great week and then also yeah we're not meeting next week so we have sort of a week off in terms of meetings and then we'll be back in person all the way around October 6th Council staff and the community look forward to seeing everybody in two weeks in person um so have fun enjoy yeah nicely done Matt good night

[161:01] everybody [Music]