March 21, 2024 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:01] why SP the chicken because he was chasing a dogal good job buddy he heard joke and he's learned some new jokes so so what you call an angry carrot what a steamed vegetable that's a good one that is a good one oh you're gonna Matt Matt oh here comes Matt hi Matt you're out out out I just got up stage I just got up stage we're gonna say byebye and go get you tucked in I know bye Russell bye Russell bye Russell see you next week Russell yeah Russell jokes now not that I can I can retire my material officially official backup next week though no

[1:02] couple weeks couple weeks guest of honor at the retreat hello all right hello everybody good evening hello Emily are we good with Channel 8 I have not heard anything but I will check right now thank

[2:01] you I was in the municipal building today and saw all the people working hard on Chambers putting up equipment tearing the place down putting it back together it was impressive we are trying our best although I hear we've had some delay in parts and so stay tuned for that will will we be getting heated no you will not disabuse people of that and then you'll be falling asleep at the day is because you'll be too comfortable you should go the other direction where um our City attorney has a red zap button to make sure that we are paying attention to our oh I have that all right mayor Channel 8 is ready upon your queue very good

[3:02] and Lauren and TAA are you present yes I don't know what's going on with my camera I'm trying to push the button but it's not working there you go oh got back on thank you hope I can get us started good evening everyone and welcome to the Thursday March 21st 20124 regular meeting of the Boulder City Council I'll go ahead and call us to order and Elisha if you could do a roll call please yes sir thank you and good evening everyone we'll start tonight's roll call as usual with council member Adams present Benjamin present mayor Brockett pres council member fals present Marquis here shoard here mayor Pro Tim spear present council member wallet here

[4:00] and W here mayor we have our quum thank you so much Elisha all right our first item is 1A which is a declaration about the boulder day of remembrance and this is something that I am going to read so I will go ahead and get us started March 22nd 2021 is a date that will be forever sealed in the into the collective memory of our community on that Monday afternoon a grievous atrocity was committed that will Mark each of us for the rest of our lives but none more so than the families and friends of the 10 people taken from us suddenly and violently people going about their daily lives doing their jobs feeding their families protecting one another our entire Community joins those families and friends in saying the names of our neighbors taken from us before their time Denny stong Nevan Stanis

[5:00] Ricky olds Trona ovak Suzanne Fountain Terry lyer Kevin Mahoney Lynn Murray Jody Waters and officer Eric Talon it has been said that there are three deaths the first is when the body ceases to function the second is when the body is returned to the earth and the third is that moment sometime in the future when the person's name is spoken for the very last time let us never allow this third death of our 10 Fallen neighbors let us take the time to speak their names celebrate their lives mourn their passing as long as we remember them they will never truly die and so as our modest and humble gesture the city council of the city of Boulder declares that every year in perpetuity March 22nd shall be designated the Bold day of remembrance

[6:01] on that day every year our community will pause and remember the 10 people who departed on that day every year we will celebrate their lives on that day every year we will say their names out loud so that in our hearts they will live on thank you and NRI I wonder if we might make an announcement about the memorial event that we'll be holding at eTown tomorrow night happy to Mayor um that event will 00 to 7:30 the doors will open 00 p.m. uh ewn for those that uh may not have had the pleasure of being there is at 1535 Spruce Street uh here in Boulder of course it will also be live streamed and that information is at the bouldercolorado.gov boulder

[7:00] strong um it's on our website if people want to know the cost of the event is free it is open to the public we hope you will be there we will be remembering folks um uh and and be there in person we hope the public comes it is an important event to show up and to show our remembrance as we lift up um those in memory and in celebration thank you for that Maria we hope to see many of you there at that important Memorial event tomorrow and with that um we will move to item 1B which is the boulder Arts week declaration presented by council member wallik Mark uh you're muted of course I am mayor thank you for that that really beautiful statement it's uh a little difficult to follow that but I I will do my best um this is

[8:02] for the boulder Arts week 2024 Boulder Arts week is the city's only large scale inclusive celebration of our community's artists and robust Arts and Cultural offerings Boulder Arts week 2024 will feature cultural experiences from our musicians dancers actors authors and artists of all media in events in every neighborhood of Boulder Boulder is one of the most vibrant Arts communities in the US ranking in the top 1% in the concentration of artists cultural organizations and creative businesses the Arts contribute to Boulder's economic Vitality by stimulating creativity and Innovation creating jobs attracting new businesses and creating an environment that attracts skilled and educated workers the Arts are an economic engine

[9:00] in their own right according to the National Endowment for the Arts nonprofits in Boulder generate over5 million in annual economic activity supporting 2450 jobs and generating $21.9 million in local state and federal government revenues arts and cultural experiences and Boulder also enhance our community's social B BS participation in the Arts is proven to have benefits to mental and physical health cultural activity Bridges divides and connects people across differences the Arts narrate the most important issues of our times and build the foundations for action in the challenges of climate adaptation race equity and housing stability the Arts Foster Beauty originality and vitality and make our city feel more welcoming

[10:00] to the benefit of all the arts and culture sector has not recovered as quickly as the rest of the economy after the pandemic Regional nonprofits lost a decade of growth in tickets to the reduction in live Performing Arts events and thousands of Arts jobs were lost yet the Arts continue to enhance the social resilience of our community Through the lingering effects of the pandemic and mitigating other stresses on our neighbors friends and families the Arts play an essential role in individual and Collective healing critical to our ongoing recovery and resilience for over a decade the Arts leaders who collaborate on Boulder Arts week have Amplified the visibility of the Arts within the local community and highlighted the breadth and depth of Boulder's cultural offerings they will do so again this year and invite you to enjoy celebrate and support your friends

[11:00] family and Neighbors in Boulder's arts and culture Community now therefore be it declared by the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado that April 5 to April 13 2024 is Boulder Arts week thank you thank you Mark and I understand we have aise from yoga Pearl here to receive the Declaration leas would you like to say a few words yeah hi thanks so much for the introduction my name is Alise um I manage yoga Pearl which is located on 9th Street between walnut and pearl um we're so honored to be accepting the boulder Arts week declaration this year um the owner of yoga Pearl Aaliyah Seb and I were both Art majors in college and that's led us to have an appreciation for the Arts and to make sure that we incorporate them into our business um we've made a community supporting other local small businesses part of our mission and that's led us to to partner with local musicians to offer live music classes we

[12:01] sell locally made uh jewelry and yoga props and all of our merchandise is made locally by local branding and screen printing companies we also host a small business Market every year on small business Saturday to give local makers without brick-and-mortar locations a place to sell their work and connect with their buyers um in the interest of con of progressing our community we've created a mentorship program for new yoga teachers to help them find their Voice next Express their passion through yoga and along with this we promote the individuality and expression that comes through having a yoga practice not to mention the networking that naturally happens within our space and our community members um the Arts are an undervalued aspect of our society but we are so grateful to live in a town that has so many opportunities for those in the Arts Boulder Arts week is a great reminder to look around and appreciate the beauty it brings to our daily lives so we're so grateful to be accepting this declaration this year and for you guys too um make us a part of

[13:01] it thanks so much for joining us and for all the phenomenal yoga you bring to our community and it's part of our week and every day thank you thank you okay it is now time for open comment uh Leisha could you go over the public participation guidelines please yes sir of course thank you good evening everyone and thank you for being here we appreciate I will now go over the public participation at city council meeting guidelines the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civic conversations this Vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members staff and Council as well as democracy for people of all ages identities lived experience and political perspective

[14:00] for more information about this vision and the community engagement processes please visit our website at bouldercolorado.gov servicesresume Boulder Revised Code and other guidelines that support this Vision these will be upheld during this meeting our remarks and testimonies shall be limited to matters related to City business no participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person obscenity racial epithets and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability to conduct the meeting are prohibited participants are required to sign up to speak using the name they are commonly known by and individuals must display their whole name before being allowed to speak online currently only audio testimony is permitted

[15:02] online again thank you for joining us and we appreciate you being here thank you Alicia okay I'll read uh three names at a time and each person will get two minutes to speak and that limit is uh strictly enforced for fairness reasons just FYI okay our first three speakers are Patrick oror Joan Nagel and Tim Thomas hello Boulder City Council Members I'm Patrick oror president of historic Boulder tonight is the first reading for a possible new historic district it's in your package uh Boulder is very fortunate to have 10 historic districts and hopefully very soon we'll have an 11th on April 11th staff will present this new District proposal to you the new historic district will include several amendments all the amendments

[16:02] were unanimously approved by our Boulder landmarks board the most significant Amendment to the historic proposal is a request to expand the western boundary to include blacks 10 and 11 we believe this expanded boundary resulted from Boulder's community outreach program the expanded boundary came from a request from the Boulder County NAACP e historic Boulder supports the inclusion of the expanded boundary and agrees with the NAACP on its historical significance to Boulder on another note we want to thank Marcy CLA Aubrey and the entire landmarks board for the exhaustive and timec consuming research that they did in on this historic district proposal and we believe the all the information you need will be in your

[17:01] package um and available for you to approve this proposal on the April 11th date thank you for your time have a great night thank you Patrick now we have Jan Migel Tim Thomas and Dan lasham hi my name's Joan Nagel I've been a boulder resident since 1971 and have been at the same address since 1982 and I just wanted to thank members of the city council for agreeing that weighing in on International conflicts is not a good use of time for this Council um or for the city of Boulder and I would like to give the remainder of my time back to the council to address important city issues thank you thank you now we have Tim Thomas Dan leam and Ryan Scott

[18:05] my name is Tim Thomas and I'm president of the resident representative council the rrc our organization is a registered nonprofit consisting of residents who have been that has uh this organization has been in existence since 1977 our mission is to provide oversight over the city of Boulders Housing Authority the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development requires that all housing authorities including Boulders with uh maintain a relationship through a memorandum of understanding with one and only one resident Advisory Board you can see 24 CFR 903 and 24 CFR 964 as far as I know I am the first black president of the rrc our secretary is Latina our Treasurer is a white male but is also elderly and Ill we have a committee of directly assisted

[19:01] individuals that include white males and a black female we are a diverse group and for the last six months BHP Executives have been aggressively working to disenfranchise us of our ferally guaranteed rights in fact BHP has formed a new illegitimate and illegal group that is yet to have a name by the way our website is Boulder rc.org it'll be back up next week this new Raab resident Advisory Board does not have diversity it does not have families I've spoken to a current member of this illegitimate and illegal resident Advisory Board this person tells me that he doesn't feel comfortable uh working with this group and once again I implore the City attorney the housing uh Mr Ferber and the rest of the city council to look into this they haven't even put a new res commissioner on their website thank

[20:02] you thank you now we have Dan leam Ryan Scott and jacqulyn wall good evening Dan L couldn't be here tonight my name is Matt most I'm acting director of the Colorado Jewish community relations Council and I want to thank the city council for not bringing an Israel Gaza resolution and weighing into International Affairs and also want wanted to thank the city council for their tireless work on behalf of the people of Boulder and with that I yield my time for the critical work of the council thank you so much for the opportunity to speak thank you now we have Ryan Scott jacquan wall and Katherine bar I do not see Ryan or jacine online but Ryan or Jaclyn who are here please let me know by using the race and function or reaching out to me in the Q&A box very good we'll come back and see if

[21:00] they've arrived at the end of the other uh speakers so we have Katherine bar and then dragonfly rainbow and Rachel Klein de Morty uh good evening Council I'm assuming uh I am uh unmuted um I have assess the sections 2.27 2.28 and 2.29 of the comp plan be put a up on your screen to remind you how the county and City together together value the preservation of buildings districts sites and natural features and strive to protect them by local designation in 2013 I was honored to participate with the stakeholders that marthy gwing gathered to be part of the process called for in section 2.29 to develop Boulders preservation plan which was updated in 2019 on page 34 of the preservation plan

[22:01] you'll find that it says quote designate eligible city-owned buildings and lead by example Boulder aspires to lead by example modeling excellent stewardship for all city-owned buildings including those in parks and on open space the city's willingness to actively participate in its own historic preservation program instills a sense of unity with own owners of landmark properties and buildings within historic districts unquote in my experience Boulder is a remarkable place that protects and values our historic resources and is respected throughout the country we are a city that walks the walk as well as talking the talk in response to a question of why Landmark the whole of Central Park and the five already designated buildings I would say that as we approach the

[23:01] redesign of the East End the future design and management of the area will be facilitated by having one group of cooperating managers and interested users rather than five competing groups or as Aristotle said the whole is greater than the sum of its parts this evening a proposed historic district composed your time is up but thank you for your presentation now we have dragonfly rainbow Rachel Klein NE Mori and arson urand um I do not see a dragonfly rainbow online but if you are here please let me know by using the raised hand function are reaching out to me in the Q&A box okay so we have Rachel Klein NE Morty arson yuran and Steven Walsh hi my name is Rachel Klein Morty and and I've been a resident of Boulder

[24:00] for over 11 years thank you Boulder City Council for voting against a consideration for a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war that Hamas started against Israel war is horrible and human suffering from war is tragic and while this is not being debated we appreciate you staying true to the role you were elected to to oversee the development and safety of our community and not to re in on foreign policy we have serious local issues that need our attention and resources and we thank you for prioritizing these needs one such issue that directly affects the safety of our community is the Jew hatred and anti-semitic rhetoric that plagues many of the messaging we've heard and seen calling for this resolution this type of De demonization is reflected in a 360% increase in anti-semitic incidences across the US that include two bomb threats against Jewish congregations in

[25:01] Boulder since October 7th civil discourse is needed more now than ever to find common ground and effective solutions to peace and coexistence gaslighting through fear intimidation and aggression have no place for real peaceful Solutions and that applies to local National and international matters thank you so much for this platform to share residents concerns and thank you for your service I yield my time thank you now we have ARS Geron Steven Walsh and Ellen Wagner uh hello can you hear me yes great uh asalam alaykum peace be upon you I'm a fellow Muslim Community member and in this holy month of Ramadan Muslims across the world gather to break their fast at dusk with a shared nutritious meal in Gaza however this isn't the case as the ongoing War has deprived locals of food security my

[26:01] stance is I ask the city of Boulder to pass the ceasefire and reconsider because and become part of the national movement to protect Palestinians one critical reason that supports the ceasefire is the famine and starvation of Palestinians right before the start of Ramadan this holy month countless accounts of Israeli forces targeting civilians running to Aid have been recorded according to Chicago Global Affairs UNICEF reports that one in six children in Northern Gaza under 2 years old are malnourished due to the blockade of food medicine and water imposed by Israel now this means in is in Ramadan that the Palestinians who do not succumb to malnutrition are being starved Boulders passing a ceasefire is a step to towards National Action stopping the conflict and Aly for the distribution of safe Aid another reason to consider in supporting reconsidering the ceasefire is just the real intention motivation behind Israel's military action high level Israeli officials the face of the people running the military agenda have

[27:00] said time and time and again that the intentions of this of this violence is not to fight terrorists but rather to perform ethnic cleansing settlement Minister Ori stro said that there's no such thing as Palestinian people Israeli Heritage Min Minister um am yah who said that the month of Ramadan must be wiped out anyone with a clear sense of mind can see that all these are telltale signs of ethnic cleansing and of genocide and with this I just like to appeal to the human of the council members consider these two reasons and really just to reconsider and make the right decision to stand against Injustice because verily all of us will be held accountable of our actions and of our complacency thank you very much thank you our next three speakers are Steven Walsh Ellen Wagner and Mary Star hello my name is St Walsh I am uh

[28:01] hoping that they can push up the PowerPoint presentation that I submitted em or Alicia do we have that handy I'm almost there okay give us a moment and then we'll start your time okay and there we have it sorry for the delay no problem thank you guys so much for for having me tonight I um I'm here as an architect uh working in Boulder for 45 years on the screen you see a newspaper clipping from 1978 which was the first time I appeared before city council presenting a display system that we had designed and I only tell you that because I've in all these 45 years I have um uh been seeing our communities uh regulations get more and more complex and it seems to me as a citizen and as an architect that these um processes are

[29:01] are are preventing us from achieving the things that we're looking for next slide next slide and the barri I'm sorry back up one the barriers to uh uh development at the small scale we're seeing large scale development but the small scale along our um Urban core uh corridors mainly Broadway and fulam uh you can see those two black lines there's clusters of zoning that's uh in and out it's irregular but the the biggest problem I'm finding in running into is the split Zone properties these are properties that have half their property is zoned a commercial use and the other half a residential use in most cases and um because of the small scale and the um conflicting zoning uh intentions for those two zones these lots are becoming less and less developable next slide

[30:00] please um the irregular shapes of our Urban neighborhoods uh we they're bisected by um irrigation ditches uh they're long Transit corridors but the properties that are on them have outlived their usefulness they're small buildings that have become uh some somewhat of a blight in some cases but more importantly they're taking the place of of density that could be used for housing folks next slide um one such case is the old smooth Motors on fulam near Walnut I'm afraid your time is up but you may want to email us that PowerPoint presentation so we can take a look thank you and now we have Ellen Wagner Mary shinar and ly seel hi my name is Ellen Wagner I attended grad school at CU from 19 91 to 1995 and then I moved back to Boulder in

[31:01] 2008 to retire clearly a case of nawas curse thank you Boulder City Council Members for giving me time to comment actually have a question Trump recently claimed that if he were not elected there would be a quote blood bath end quote clearly this is a scare tactic but there is reason to worry about what his radical followers some in red counties of Colorado might do around the time of the election to the blue cities like Boulder Aspen and Denver what plans have you made to protect Boulder's municipal buildings utilities and water supply in case of threat what can we as Citizens do it would be really helpful to have a town hall or other meeting to set out Boulder's plans in case of this particular possible emergency thank you thank you next speakers are Mary striner ly seel and here as

[32:01] is thank you mayor Brockett and fellow council members I would like to express my gratitude to the majority of council members who voted to reject a ceasefire resolution in the Hamas Israel war a war that started when Hamas broke the existing ceasefire on October 7th the decision to not opine on International Affairs demonstrates your Collective wisdom that our city council lacks of qualifications and power to impact this crisis it also reinforces your responsibility as our elected public servants to serve with humility and impartiality in addressing our local issues our public servants are required to adhere to the higher standard benefiting their station and their responsibility is to improve the lives of all residents calls for a ceasefire since October 8th which added to the preceding years of targeted anti-semitic threats

[33:02] in Boulder's own Jewish communities Community including our synagogues K12 schools and our JCC have Amplified an already unsettling environment for Boulders Jews we have seen that hateful rhetoric justifying a ceasefire increases risk to our safety further divides the entire Boulder Jewish the entire Boulder Community and emboldens hate speech if someone is truly driven by the pursuit of peace and wishes to make a direct impact on those suffering from this current crisis philanthropic means such as volunteering time to nonprofit organizations or donating humanitarian Aid speak volumes thank you I seed my time back to council now we have Lin seagull yir aiz and Sharice Klein berlinberg L seagull

[34:01] um Thursday night uh planning board approved eight units across from Boulder High School where Thrive is you always know where Thrive is that's a little restaurant to service the high school um it's interesting because your staffer Allison Blaine had a little bit of a Freudian slip um she said this is uh residential use and she meant to say this is restaurant use now well it's supposed to be in the transition zone it's not this is got to stop enough already of million multi-million dollar condos on every corner with no services like at willville one it's like outrageous what's going on in this town and um and you know it affects me as an elder 70 years old trying to get as Ryan knows today trying to get through the library under that open area there was a

[35:00] curb siiz thing blocking me in the middle of the Bikeway I drive through there all the time and I wasn't looking because I didn't expect any um stuff left there from the homeless it was all cleared out they're all out on the North you know just west of there but I I could have killed myself on that thing I barely made it you know this is affecting your residence this homeless problem and you know how it happens it happens at 1015 Juniper where a place is demolished because the poor people bought something on a conveyance Zone and they can't expand it to what they want to so can't they just demolish it and put up a big you know10 million house no no on 1015 Juniper reverse 1015 Juniper that is an outrage um and you know Thrive that little restaurant reminded me a boulder projector a place where you could go to fix stuff a couple

[36:01] blocks away right near Boulder High shame on you thank you now we have yir aiz Sharice Klein berlinberg and fanders gy good evening council members can you hear me yes uh hi uh my name is yaser and um I'm calling to ask you to support a ceasefire and first of all I would like to uh address although this was not part of my spe but I would definitely like to uh address a couple of things that have been said by a few people here first of all there was never any th fire please read Alban Alban's report and amnesty Internationals report about six large military assaults by Israel from 2008 to 2022 there was no Seas fire before October 7th second there is there is no if you think this is about Jewish hate it is not we whenever we go out to

[37:02] protest all of us are Jewish and I can get you in touch with anyone from Jewish voice for peace and they would tell you this is not about hate this is all about life all we are trying to do is ask you to call for a ceasefire so people stop dying 31,000 people have been killed already and according to as of Monday morning according to wfp 1.1 million people are struggling with ifp IPC Phase 5 that's by definition that means two per 1,000 people are dying every day because of hunger because there is no seeds fire my question for all of you is how many more people who are trying to get flour to feed their family being blown up into pieces how many more blood BS like ala hospital and Al Naser hospital do you need to see these are all all these things are being broadcasted live 247 for you to see what

[38:02] more do you need to see to understand that this has nothing to do with war on terrorism how much more do you need to see to say to yourself This Ends right now and I will not be complicit anymore thank you free Palestine I give my time back to council thank you thank you now we have Shri Clen berlinberg fanders and Paula poach can you all hear me yes oh awesome thank you hi my name is sherff Klein berlinberg I had the absolute privilege of calling Boulders as my home for many years thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight I want to thank you for your wisdom of choosing to stay out of international issues and to focus on issues within your purview of Boulder Boulder is an awesome City and you all have the privilege of being elected to serve the people within Boulder you are not expected to be

[39:03] International Affairs experts and this is a very complex issue that is not under the responsibility of City councils none of you ran on the platform of international issues this is not what you were elected to do nor where your expertise lies any kind of ceas fire discussion has no potential to make any impact on an is international stage but clearly it opens the door for hateful anti-jewish and anti-semitic rhetoric I am shocked at the pervasive anti anti-semitic dialogue that is infiltrated city council during open comments in general these comments are completely irrelevant to what is being discussed and even worse being stated by those living

[40:01] outside of Boulder and not pertaining to the many important issues on the agenda or issues that impact this great City it is asinine that your important time and the limited time allotted for open comment is consumed by those looking for a platform to proliferate hate I ask that the format of open comment be modified to ensure it is able to serve its intended purpose no more discussion about something that did not pass no more opening of Old Wounds open comment for your testimony now we have Flanders Lorton Paul aich and Elliot fayton hi can you all hear me yes okay thank you first off I just wanted to say that we love our Jewish brothers and

[41:00] sisters um what we're speaking up for in favor of a ceasefire is nothing to be anti-jewish we love Jewish people it's to be anti this violence that's happening um we're against violence of all people so I'm going to take my time to tell you some things that happened this week uh last Thursday March 14th Israeli forces open fire on Aid seekers in Gaza at least six killed and dozens wounded uh Israeli executed a drone strike on a refugee camp killing more than a dozen and people Sheltering there Israel also struck a family's home in southern Lebanon the EU Parliament overwhelmingly passed a bill condemning Israeli attacks on Aid Seekers and called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire March 15th Apache helicopters open fire on Aid Seekers Israeli Apache helicopters open fire on AG Seekers dozens are killed and more than 150 are wounded in what is called a flower Massacre due to images of bags of flour meant for humanitarian Aid stained red with human blood multiple massacr committed by isra in 24 hours have killed at least 69 civilians including

[42:00] another bombing of an A Center um let's see March uh 16th the UN reports 31% of children under the age of two in Northern Gaza are suffering acute malnutrition un export un experts report us and UK made weapons were used by Israel to kill British doctors working in Gaza Israel bombs a seven story Residential Building in Gaza it is unclear how many are dead due to people using bare hands to search through the rubble Israeli air strike kill attack an overcrowded refugee camp killing at least 36 civilians of the same family video surface of corpses piled on the back of flatbed trucks at least three other family residential homes are hit with Israeli strikes killing most of the owners there 17th Israeli air strikes killed 12 more civilians massive protests against the government in Tel Aviv demanding a hostage deal uh like I don't have much more time but this is every single day it's literally attacks on Aid Seekers bombing Aid warehouses bombing Aid convoys bombing Hospital every single day they're bombing alifa they're executing children they're executing

[43:01] doctors this has to stop cease fire now thank you now we have Paula po Elliot fayton and laa Gonzalez hi this is Paula po can you hear me yes oh great um I'm a 19-year resident of Boulder I'd like to thank you mayor Brackett and fellow City Council Members um I want to thank the majority of you you for not voting on a Hamas Israel ceasefire resolution at this moment in time the only thing that res resolution brings about here in Boulder is a platform for hate and I think you've been witnessed to this by the continual barrage of this Council each session with misinformation and hateful rhetoric about Israel and Jews I urge you to continue to focus on local matters where you can really make a difference my family and fellow Jewish community members are feeling anti-Semitism every day here making us feel unsafe in our own town we ask you

[44:00] to stand up to hate in all forms it matters to all of us thank you I seed my time back to the council thank you our last two speakers are Elliot clayon and laa Gonzalez okay can you hear me okay yes hi Elliot fayen from Superior Colorado but actually sitting on vacation with my family in Florida as we're listening in to misinformation and blood liels again on Israel I'd actually hope to yield my time back to the council but some stuff just needs to get set straight um these continual calls for a ceasefire it's really important to consider this uh peace requires more than one willing participant uh and despite what I think an earlier speaker said Hamas actually did have a ceasefire in effect on the day of the massacre they do have genocidal intentions when it comes to Israel so if if you're going to if this Council was king of the world

[45:00] then it's not and the council could decree which you can't what was going what would happen in the Middle East uh and if they if there was an immediate ceas fire with Hamas remaining in power that's not going to be peace that's just going to be a cessation so Hamas can rearm and kill Jews in the future which is their stated intent and but it's not just limited to Hamas we've done some research in some into the groups that have been going to councils up and down on the Front Range one of the main ones uh they have I'm not GNA I'm not going to go through all them there's several of them but they have chant list and I would like to with my remaining time read some of the chants that have been put forward so that you can see that what's the aim here is not PE but the destruction of Israel one of the chances of course you've heard from The River To The Sea Palestine will be free uh another one is resistance is Justified when the people are occupied you know nakba 75 years give back the land stop the tears from the belly of the Beast no

[46:01] justice no peace we will honor all our Martyrs all the children Sons and Daughters we will honor all our M Martyrs all the parents mothers and fathers who chance celebrating suicide bombing settler settler go back home Palestine is ours alone denying Jewish connection to the land uh one two three four occupation no more 5678 smash the settler Zionist State denying Israel's right to exist thank you for your testimony our last speaker is laa Gonzalez can you all hear me yes okay as again my name is La Gonzalez and identify as a Maya mopan an indigenous woman I am here to speak on behalf of only myself as a descendant and Survivor of a settler Colonial genocide the original Holocaust committed by white sellers whose ancestors left the Legacy that benefits most of you all I am here to urge you to drop all your performative and voiceful actions to do

[47:01] remember days racial Equity Arts weak and housing stability and take action for that an issue that impacts all of us all of us as you heard today we indigenous people are relieving the genocide of our ancestors while your ancestors and you continue to do nothing not only do you continue to refuse to take this issue but you are funding it with 1.6 million for hardworking tax dollars from the city of Boulder alone get to do your job that we elected you for and pass a permanent and immediate fire resolution to stop the genocide of indigenous people in the occupied Palestinian territories by the state of Israel mayor your introduction is shameful you've been in this position of power for a minute instead of passing REM days take actions to prevent them such as Banning concealed carry at C Boulder in our public spaces and event to assault weapons could have prevented the mass shooting in our deer City I recall when you were hesitant to make Boulder Sanctuary City I ask you to listen to the direct impact their voices again I am asking you to now Center Palestinian Palestinian American Arab ameran and indigenous voices Boulder likes to Pride itself of being a progressive City yet after 100 cities

[48:01] that have passed a resolution including the city of Chicago with almost a three million population you have not yet passed a c fire resolution today bloody blinking call for a sixf fire resolution which will be brought to the UN Security Council will you be a leader will you prevent the continuation of a genocide or will you perform your equity and inclusion with another remember stes once Palestinians are massively murder ter Wier I want to leave it on the record that you lie to all of your constituents of February 15th that no one contacted you about the Israeli genocide and the Palestinian people not only did I call you and had to ask you to not be defensive and be cordial with me your constituent but I and many others imil you on this matter I'm asking you to release all of your emails and calls about this matter to show B residents about the truth of this matter Matt Benjamin you claim to Value Environmental Conservation and then did any of our absent speakers show up since we called names they have not okay in that case I will go ahead

[49:01] and close the open comment period and I'll turn to City staff to see if there are any responses uh none from me at this time mayor thanks Teresa none for me thank you anyone on thank you Teresa anyone on Council like to respond ran thanks I just wanted to recognize um Stephen Walsh Stephen if you're still here you had a presentation about infill was pretty mey you ran out of time uh mayor Brock had asked you to email it I just wanted to re uh restate that request if if you can send it to to us now through the city site um I have it I'd love to look at it as we go through this today and forward so Dar you did not enough of time you had a lot there please please email it to us like I'd like to look at it thanks Ryan sent it to us so okay thank you very good

[50:06] TAA I wasn't planning on speaking but alas when given a microphone you do what you can with what you have so I just wanted to remind folks of what I ran on and I ran on a climate and culturally resilient City that's what I ran on and the atrocities that are happening in Gaza right now not only impact the culture in this city and highlights the work that we still need to do we have a whole ha racial healing framework by the way that I learned about I'm like oh wow there are steps that they that people have cified that can help us to do some of this hard work in these hard conversations because again it does impact our capacity and our ability to work on some of those other issues but ceasefire um has historically worked so

[51:01] again um I just want to go towards history I I I don't I always try and ground my opinion in facts uh I am disappointed um in the will for ignorance and denial of what we are seeing in front of us um and the impact as an international City about to open two restaurants in a convention center and a conference center that can welcome over 200,000 visitors many of them will be intern we impact internationally every single day we lead internationally every single day including on climate where again the climate impacts of what is going on there will impact us here significantly as we transition and through to just transition towards renewable and other um energy sources that are less in intensive and attractive we have to be mindful of the

[52:00] military um footprint of uh of and the impacts to climate there our climate is also significantly impacted um and so and also the reminder that we've done it before we did it for South Africa we did it for Myanmar we did it for Iraq our schools Health Care Systems housing employment are all impacted when our federal dollars are stretched when we're told that we don't we can't afford when we're fighting over crumbs we cannot continue to allow this to happen and so I will continue to stand for an opportunity for us to weigh in on this because it will continue but I will also say I am inspired yay by blinkin finally coming in and asking for a ceasefire and those who have direct power doing their job and so I feel less about having to try and persuade y'all because again we were using the power

[53:01] that we had and that's what we had but there are people that have the power to end this tomorrow and this is where I'm H hopeful and I encourage us to pour our energy towards as well as our upcoming elections thank you so much got Tara and then Mark I want to remind all our city council members that we voted on this 7 to2 and that is final so we're not going to relitigate this because in our book in our code it tells us not to and that's all I'm going to say we're not discussing International Affairs it's out of our purview and it was voted on and asked and answered thanks Mark yes I want to uh second that and point out that contrary to uh what has been described as our willful ignorance uh I believe this is our

[54:02] willful understanding of what our jobs actually are um there was also a reference uh to those who have the power to end this tomorrow uh that power is not vested in us and no matter what we do uh that we do not have that that Authority we do not have that power and and as my colleague Tara said this has been asked and answered we voted on it let's not keep going back to the well it's not productive thank you okay thanks um any other follow-ups to open comment right seeing none we'll thank people I want to come in again and double dip here and I just wanted to lift up to Teresa the one about the um what was it the Residence commission piece I'm I'm I'm concerned

[55:03] about um what I heard about the dissolving of that board and just just I I'm I would be curious to learn more about that because that's concerning to know that the new rep the new uh group does not have the representation that is needed to make inform decisions that we rely on so thank you yeah I'm I'm happy to speak with you about that offline okay see no other hands we'll end the open comment period and Elicia can you take us to our consent agenda please yes sir thank you our consent agenda is item three on tonight's agenda and it consists of items 3 a through 3i any questions or comments on the consent agenda

[56:01] see none would anyone like to make a motion move we adopt the consent agenda second all right we've got a motion a second can you do a roll call vote please Elicia yes sir thank you we'll start the roll call for consent agenda items 3 a through 3i with council member add us yes Benjamin yes mayor bronet yes council member furz yes Marquis yes Shu hard yes mayor Pro Tim spear yes council member wallik yes M Wier yes the consent agenda items a through I are hereby approved unit unanimously thanks for that if you can

[57:00] take us to our continued public hearing please uh we need to go to our call up check-ins next so my apologies I jumped ahead so if you could do 4 a then for us please all right thank you item number four on tonight's agenda is our call up check-ins for a is the landmark alteration certificate to construct a new approximately 1500 sq ft accessory building at 159 Hillside Road in the hillside historic district any interest in calling this one up okay seeing none we can go to 4B yes sir 4B is the vacation of a 0.08 acre storm water detention Slater quality and drainage easement located at 311 Mapleton Avenue associated with the development of the Academy of Mapleton Hill it is reviewed under case number

[58:00] ADR 2024 that's 00009 you interested in calling this one not right seeing none we will not call that one up either so um all right coming back then if we can go to our continued public hearing please yes sir item number five on tonight's agenda is our public hearing 5A is the continued public Hearing in consideration of a request from the city of Boulders utility department to use and manage an approximately 2.2 acre portion of the van v open space property to construct access operate and maintain elements of the South Boulder Creek flood mitigation project pursuant to the disposal procedures of article 12 section 177 of the city of boulders Charter and related matters it is noted that this item will have a

[59:00] limited public hearing to address only items related to the open space Board of Trustees action taken at their March 13th meeting thanks for that okay so um just acknowledging that since our public hearing on February 22nd the open space Board of Trustees met and did take action at their meeting on March 13th so I'm going to hand things over to director open space and Mountain Parks Dan Burke for a brief staff presentation to hear more about their action and we will also hear from open space board of trusty chair Dave quz so um Dan if you could take it from here please certainly uh good morning or good evening mayor and good evening council members I'm Dan Burke director of the open space and Mountain parks department and I'm actually joined here uh tonight as well with utilities director Joe tauchi and of course we have a uh robust project team of both open space staff

[60:01] and utility staff that depending on if there's any additional clarifying questions May hop on and and help us address a question that you may have um so for tonight we have got a very brief um uh staff presentation and as the mayor said we will also hear a few minutes from uh osbt chair uh Dave so will help to summarize uh the board action that was taken on on March 13 and with that I would ask that uh the presentation uh slides for tonight uh be raised thank you Emily and next slide please uh before we uh sort of uh launch forward tonight you enter into consideration and deliberations just a a quick recap of uh what took place at the February 22nd joint osbt and city

[61:03] council meeting uh during that meeting um uh and as part of that meeting uh staff produced a a really a pretty robust memo we then uh provided about a 35 or 40 minute presentation and we also provided uh the osbt and the city council uh with our staff recommendation uh we then entertain clarifying questions from council members as well as Board of Trustees uh uh uh then then we heard public testimony and and then finally some final clarifying questions before motions were made both by the board and the council uh to continue the public hearing at the respective meetings in March next slide please so the purpose of tonight's meeting is city council consideration and deliberation on the request for on a revised staff recommendation and this will include this brief presentation comments from the obbt

[62:00] chair any additional clarifying questions that city council may have of Staff or the osbt chair and then we'll have limited public testimony as uh as Alicia uh explained earlier and then uh the mayor will help you all dive into uh consideration of the disposal transfer request of open space land and next slide please so as we said on March 13th the osbt did take action um and I will just read the motion into record John Caroll move the open space Board of Trustees to adopt resolution 24-1 and approve and recommend that city council approved the request from the city of Boulders utility department to use and manage approximately 2.2 acre portion of the van vet open space property to construct access operate and maintain elements of the the South Boulder Creek flood mitigation project pursuant to the disposal procedures of

[63:01] Charter City Charter article 87 section 17 excuse me article 12 section 177 Michelle estrela seconded that motion and that motion passed unanimously 5 to zero and next slide please based on osbt recommendation there's been a slight revision to the staff recommendation it essentially uh aligns uh with osbt motion and you can see here by the bolded language uh the minor modifications of of the staff motion the motion to approve the request and then finally a sentence added at the end and authorizing the city manager to approve an interdepartmental memorandum of understanding consistent with the provisions of the open space Board of Trustees resolution 202 24-1 and it will be through that in Department memor inter departmental memorandum of understanding that will

[64:00] actually uh where the transfer of land will actually take place and next slide please so before we move into any final clarifying questions that you may have um I'm going to turn things over to osbt Dave C who will help to summarize um uh osbt action and if Dave is here and available if could come on thank you Dan good evening city council um city manager I want to just real briefly provide a bit of context for the Council on the open space Board of Trustees actions to uh consider the city's utilities department request to transfer the 2.2 Acres of open space in Mountain Parks land the transfer area to the utilities department for the construction of a flood wall to help mitigate the impacts of a 100-year flight event on South Boulder Creek the

[65:02] land transfer is necessary because the land will no longer meet the open space purposes as defined in the city Charter this action taken by the open space Board of Trustees is not a routine land disposal action the Open Space Mountain Parks land will actually transfer from one city Department the open space of M parks department to another city Department the utilities department rather than to a non City entity or owner the transferred land will continue to be owned by the city for construction of the flood project the motion approved by the open space Bard trustees contained in the open space Board of Trustees resolution 202 24-1 in your meeting packet includes four recommendations to accompany the land disposal action acquisition by the city of the9 site identified as open space other in the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan

[66:00] and of designated water rights from the University of Colorado use of the 119 acres in water rights by the utilities department for the mitigation of impacts from the flood project and restoration of the site by the open space and Mountain parks department restoration of the open space and Mountain Parks land used for temporary construction area for the project and finally the transfer area reverting back to the open space and Mountain parks department if the Flint project is not permitted or constructed these four recommendations are considered critical for the land disposal to occur in order to incorporate previous decisions and actions by Council in collaboration with the University of Colorado and to protect and preserve the valuable natural areas both the restored 119 acres in the adjoining Wetlands native prairies and critical habitats for threatened rare plants and animals a majority of the board did not consider additional recommendations or

[67:01] amendments to the motion to be necessary or appropriate the open space Board of Trustees also unanimously approved a motion to recommend the council the annexation of 4.1 Acres of the open space in Mountain Parks property by the city in order to construct the flood project the annexation consists of the 2.2 Acres of the transfer area which becom land managed by the utilities department for the flood project and 1.9 Acres of the open space in Mountain Parks land for a temporary construction area that remains open space in Mountain Parks land and which will be restored to the native condition as part of the completion of the flood project the open space Board of Trustees considered a motion to staff identifying the importance of determining Public Access and use of a 308 Acre Site comprising the CU South property and the 119 Acres of flood mitigation and

[68:01] restoration open space and M Parks property before and during construction in prior to the development of the CU South property for example mitigation of project impacts on critical habitats of threatened species Public Access in let's see wait a minute I I just confused Public Access and use of mitigation and restoration sites are not requirements and federal permits it may be considered detrimental to successful impact mitigation and Restoration in the permitting process I apologize uh but for confusing people potentially the example was that uh the status of the 119 acre mitigation and restoration site um is pretty much defined by the permitting process and so um Public Access or use is not really a

[69:00] requirement in the permitting process so that uh provides some uh potential for um dis further discussion in any event the motion pass 4 to one is and is included in your agenda packet um so those were the actions that the open space Board of Trustees considered and um passed week ago on March 14th 2024 thank you very much thank you for that Dave um I really appreciate you being here with us tonight and then while you're here um I believe your service on the board is ending here in just a few short weeks and wanted to thank you I know You' spent five years working very hard for the benefit of the open space system in the city and I just want to thank you very very deeply for all that service thank you very much uh I appreciate that this is actually um my last official action um my tenure will end uh next

[70:03] Friday well all all the more thanks for being here with us particularly on such a weighty matter which I know you all did not take at all lightly so I wouldn't have missed it appreciate it any uh clarifying questions for Dave or for Dan from council members um if somebody could perhaps um clarify for me um the conditions being um suggested or imposed by the osbt resolution AR aren't most of those contained in the annexation agreement can can someone speak to that is this something new and uh unusual I mean you know obtaining the 119 acres is a provision of the annexation agreement um

[71:01] which becomes effective um finally when we obtain the approvals to build the project am I Am I Wrong Am I am I missing something there's something almost circular about what I'm hearing um and uh are we imposing new conditions on the effectiveness of the action we are taking tonight maybe Teresa could speak to that or or or somebody could speak to that thank you council member wallik um uh first I'd like to note that these aren't conditions so much as recommendations from the open space Board of Trustees um and then I'll look to David gear who can speak to the annexation agreement and um answer your question in particular thank um so for the most part they're addressed in the annexation agreement um some of the um Provisions require

[72:00] subsequent action by the city so for example with respect to that 119 Acres part of that 119 Acres will be gifted to the city as part of the annexation agreement um and another portion of that that is going to be sold to the city um at a set price so I think that the uh the spirit of the recommendations of the the open space Board of Trustees is along the lines of um Implement that which is um addressed in the annexation agreement and David although you need no introduction if you wouldn't mind intr David gear from the city attorney's office my apologies I would add that there's a couple of additional recommendations in the resolution for Council and that is regarding the temporary construction area um as well as sort of reversionary Clause that what happens if uh and that the uh the the transfer will go back to

[73:02] open space if for what whatever reason the flood project is not able to be uh commenced so uh a couple of additional Provisions that were in the resolution that isn't directly uh part of the CU South annexation agreement uh so there are a couple of sort of nonc South annexation items in there man as to what staff's position is on that uh we we support uh both the utility staff and the open space staff and CAO have uh worked uh and and and support uh item C and D which would be that the temporary construction area will be restored uh after its uh temporary use and that uh that the 2.2 Acres will revert back to open space if the flood project is not able to be uh undertaken so uh staff is supportive of those thank you and uh

[74:02] council member wallik if I may jump in um I think the open space Board of Trustees uh wanted to reemphasize the importance of those recommendations as the basis for its decision to dispose of the open space in Mountain Park's property and so they they are reiterated in in the resolution and uh the board saw them as significant uh foundation for the decision for the disposal thank you Mark does that answer your questions uh yes it does okay we got Matt and then Tina thanks appreciate the clarification and and also um grateful for obbt for passing this unanimously um my question is some of those recommendations seem operational in nature and so um in terms of just how osbt goes about operating set space Andor utilities Nets I just want to sort of make sure and separate that dividing line of what's operational

[75:00] versus stuff Council really doesn't have perview or or should weigh in on versus what would be really more policy side and so I'm just wondering if we can kind of draw that clear line so we can kind of parse out the operational and say have at it we trust you all to knock it out of the park versus what may be sort of left on the plate that's policy related want to take that well seeing no one councilman member Benjamin um again I think U the board had uh some specific expectations and um and wanted to provide Direction uh to staff as far as uh it B for the disposal decision and so e even though some of um those recommendations may

[76:01] have an operational component um I think the board definitely wanted to ensure that um it was clear um you know the basis for the disposal decision Matt I'll just bring you uh uh to the uh revised staff recommendation which is a a fairly brief uh uh uh uh recommendation with just one additional sentence just uh um sort of conveying that it's through the OU uh that will be sort of uh making this transfer request uh happen and that uh and and staff is is is definitely on board with having to be consistent with uh those Five Points four points that were raised in the resolution obviously if Council feels some of those are more operational uh in nature and not policy in nature uh that

[77:00] would be fine but our staff recommendation is fairly brief and just makes note of the IDM moou I appreciate I see Teresa's hand up but just for me I just would like Clarity just so that there's a clear understanding for Council staff and community of of where those lines are um for what is operational I I I read most of that as being mostly operational and I could be corrected but nonetheless I just I think it's good for just setting expectations so I'll I'll let Teresa um probably correct me if I problem there no um thank you your point is well taken Matt uh in fact much of this is operational and in particular what I would say is the umbrella of the interdepartmental memorandum of understanding which is what we're referring to is the IDM oou is operational in nature and that is um executed under the the supervision of the city manager between the two departments so here of course that would be open space and Mountain parks and the

[78:01] utilities department um and the uh all of the topics about how to go about the disposal and um when access will be allowed those kinds of things will all be addressed in the idou and and again as you note those those fall under the administrative brand of the government thank you for clarifying Teresa because at the end of the day I think there's a sense that what this action we're we're proposing tonight is the final discretionary step in this process and so I just want to make sure that the idou is not seen or misconstrued as yet perhaps another Avenue for discretionary stuff on behalf From council's perspective that our job would be done tonight on whatever decision we make and the rest of those actions maintain our operational in nature through the finality of the

[79:02] project Tina yeah thank you for all this information and also thank you to um the staff that's been really great about addressing the different questions I've had both just for my own um understanding and also for community members who've reached out so and in particular as Joe tci's helped me a lot um with this whole process um I wanted to ask one question about how the budgeting will go through when it relates to the restoration both of the 1.9 Acres of um habitat back to its natural state and then the restoration of the 119 Acres um that we're restoring into wetlands and um and I'm not looking you know for an escrow account or anything like that but I am trying to understand what happens if the budget um goes way you know gets much higher are we flexible in the bu that we can pull from to make sure that those habitat restoration initiatives do happen in a timely

[80:03] way good evening city council and and I can maybe take a first uh pass at this and thanks for that question Tina um and so we have $66 million in in the budget right now about 51 million of that is is allocated for the the civil engineering parts of the flood structure and then other elements are are related to property acquisition and um the we have been closely monitoring the budget and have had a construction contractor come on board to kind of review that as as one aspect and and recently received an update from our consultant and it's it's tracking that those are sound numbers so far I know we have experience with projects coming in and overruns and I would say within the utilities budgets

[81:01] and reserves we have the ability to absorb and some flexibility if it comes in unexpectedly higher thank you so much that helps and and I I'm remiss and not also just appreciating Dan Burke and Dave Co because everyone's just been so great um as a new city council member so thank you all right any other questions let see none I'm going to go ahead and open the continued limited public hearing uh we have two speakers each of you will have three minutes to speak and I'll just remind you that uh we're asking that the content of the testimony be about the action that the open space Board of Trustees took since our last public hearing so our two speakers are Mary Scott and Lyn seel so Mary you are I do not see Mary online but Mary if you are here please just let me know by

[82:00] using the raised hand function reaching out to me okay then we'll turn to Lind SE yeah um I want to read to you something from 1997 can you hear me can you hear me yes we can gotcha this is good from Gilbert white who's dead now it should be of deep concern to other citizens that udfcd and cwcb are strongly endorsing certification of a levy that does not actually prevent flooding into the city under a representation that it is vital to local public safety since the burm mainly protects the remaining mined

[83:02] property a reasonable citizen might conclude that the true motive for certification is other than the safety of Boulder citizens there were 23 private meetings with flat irance grael who never completed their Reclamation that they were required to do 23 private meetings that result in a $6 million cost of which 5 million went to Flat Irons gravel in a gift basically for a tax benefit taking the city out of competition because the city could have bought it for 10 or 11 but not 16 so this is a crime this is like a war crime this is like Gaza it really is um that Reclamation needs to be completed this is a complete taking um of this open space land towards this

[84:01] false remediation of a 100e flood P when CU South gets 500 years and we pay 63 to a 100 million bucks to landfill them so that they get 500 and we get 100 and then when it backs up it's going to guess what in the 100e fer plane it's going to flood another neighborhood and those people are going to come back to you and they're going to be pretty upset after all of this has transpired and see you sou is there do not do this and you should give more time to people do you respect your public you don't with two minutes that is not respect other communities in this area get up to five and more minutes if you're really reaching out to the public walk your talk and listen there are many highly

[85:01] educated intellectuals in this community in this university community and you don't have the ability to hear from them because you give them two minutes done thank you has Mary Scott come in Mary has not right in that case Cas I'll go ahead and close the public hearing and I will bring it to council for discussion and deliberation who would like to kick us off go ahead and make a motion feel free mat it's in the chat I see it uh presume it's the same one in the presentation U well text is a little bigger easier to read my aging eyes um all right um I'm make a motion to approve the request from the city of Boulders utilities department to transfer use and management of

[86:00] approximately 2.2 acre portion of the van Fleet open space property from the open space in Mountain parks department to the utilities department to construct access operate and maintain elements of the South Boulder Creek flood mitigation project pursuant to the disposal procedures of City Charter um article 12 uh section 177 and section 888-11 transfer of open space lands BRC 1981 and authorizing the city manager to approve an interdepartmental memorandum of understanding consistent with the provisions of open space Board of Trustees resolution 20241 second any want flip for it I'll let you take it it doesn't matter all right on a moot by council member Benjamin and second by council member Wier Matt would you like to speak to your

[87:00] motion um uh yeah I'll save actually some of my comments towards the end once we once we do this but I will just say long time coming it's our final discretionary opportunity on this long long project and a lot of people involved to get us where we are um and in particular just want to thank staff because there's been lots of different staff members and different leadership over the years and all of that continuity has really gotten us to this place um a lot of this is policy that's what's seen in public but none of this would have been uh possible without really detailed work from staff so just want to give a big shout out um Dan Joe your teams um and everybody else open space bard of Trustees as well so a big shout out there and then I've got some comments on the back end too if there's an opportunity but thanks to everybody ER did you want to speak and thank you to the previous councils that were involved in this anyone else like to speak before we vote

[88:00] Mark yeah um you know anyone who had the um very dubious pleasure of reading my recent hotline knows that I will be supporting uh this disposal I I think it's a it's a necessary step and it's the correct step and we need to proceed to determine if we can obtain the necessary permits to build the CU South flood mitigation project it's been a long road uh to this time as uh council member Benjamin pointed out uh there's been there have been Myriad uh staff members who have worked on it there have been count many many council members who've been involved in it including former mayor Weaver and uh former council member friend uh who were on the negotiating committee um this has been a very very long road I'm hoping it's coming to a conclusion tonight um and I will be voting in favor

[89:01] of exactly that thank you thanks Mark I'll go ahead and call on myself um if I may I'll be brief here but uh this has been a very long road I remember right after I first got on Council in 2015 one of the first things I did was meet with residents of Frasier Meadows uh who showed videos about their harrowing experience in the 2013 flood and I know that I've I've been dedicated uh from that time to providing the people in the affected neighborhoods with the flood protection that they need and so very excited tonight to be voting in favor um of this disposal because it will allow for the protection of those 2300 Downstream residents uh who will finally with this step and then the building of the flood mitigation project um get the life safety protection that that they desperately need so um I'll maybe have offer a couple more things later but just huge thank you to all the staff um who've worked so hard on this over the years all the residents who've

[90:01] been involved and all the council members who have worked very hard on this Initiative for for many many years so thanks for that ran the risk of being a little redundant I also uh would like to recognize and thank the council members who have worked on this so hard before I'm just coming into this at the very end and um so I I know that there this is an incredibly complex process and project and there has been um just an enormous amount of data and daylight that have come to this and um we're making the best decision we can with the information that we have and that's thanks to a lot of folks that have come for and especially I'd like to just say to council member wall thank you for for your diligence on this to up until this very end point so um thanks Sor right seeing no other hands raised Elicia if we could have a roll

[91:01] call vote please yes sir thank you we'll start the roll call vote for the public hearing motion to approve the resolution from the osbt board with council member Benjamin resounding yes mayor bronet yes council member fuls yes Maris yes sh hard yes mayor protim spear yes council member wallik I Wier yes and Adams yes the motion to approve the management of the vanv property as recommended by the osbt board is hereby approved

[92:00] unanimously thank so much for that thanks uh to my colleagues for that vote that's it has been a very long vote indeed and with this we come to the end of at least the discretionary part and um move to the implementation of the flood mitigation project which we look very much forward to mat thanks Aaron um yeah I said I wanted to sort of save some words and it it sort of demanded that we have to get past the vote a little bit because uh with that vote there there's some finality to this and um there there's some redundancy a little bit but bear with me there's there's actually some people that need to be and groups need to be thanked for the long road that it's taken to get here um it has been an incredibly long process it's been a thorough one with tons of community input um more than probably any project the city has ever undertaken um and tonight uh we we have provided 2300 Boulder residents a better chance to sleep at night more so than

[93:00] they have since that 2013 flood just a little bit easier than they have um and hopefully when we get it finished they will be able to sleep fully easy um so this is a big step for us but first I want to recognize the Project's committed opponents um your concerns and skepticism have ultimately led to changes to the agreement such as enhanced open space protection and public access to the whole site and some others and that scr and that is an important part of our debate and so I know that some people feel like this was this was not where they wanted it to go but know that that input has really shape this to be the best possible alternative and the best possible solution to protect our community but I want to just also start by thanking some people that have been absolutely foundational in this first I want to start with our mayor um Aaron Brockett who has been a champion of this project his whole time on Council and has seen it from beginning to end and so just a big thanks to our mayor for for being a thread through many councils um to get it to this point and and be here to see it in its final stages um I want to thank former me council member Rachel

[94:01] friend former mayor Sam Weaver former mayor Leslie durgen and former council member Bob Yates along with um council member uh Mark wallik for just really being along for the ride and really helping Shepherd this through as long as the whole 2019 through 2021 city council um and as we said really thanking staff so director of utilities Joe tauchi the engineer uh project enger Brandon Coleman and former city staff like Phil kler and former city manager Jane bronan but also couldn't have done this without our current city manager N River Vander um there's a lot of groups that have been a part of this as well South Boulder Creek Action Group Boulder chamber Boulder progressives better Boulder open Boulder um and then certainly our partners at the University um as a sovereign state entity they could have played hard ball with us and told us to pound sand instead they largely met our needs and they bent their position in order to fill the gaps in our negotiations so a big thank to our partners at the University that includes Chancellor Phil Deano Derek silver D Dereck Silva Patrick aor and

[95:00] Lorie call and many many others but there's also some very special people that sadly did not get did not survive and did not get to live long enough to see this through the end um and that includes former um CU Vice Chancellor Francis Draper who was instrumental into getting this project done and there are some staff and residents at Frasier Meadows some of whom are no longer with us uh Pat Carden ala blang Bruce Thompson Tim Johnson Carla rickens rud uh Luis Bradley Don Cody cff Crawford Pete Palmer Jim wolf Chuck how Pete Dawson Chuck Wilman and Dorothy rubert all of which were part of that devastating flood got out with by the Skin of Their Teeth also with their lives and and spent most of their time up until some of them their last breath fighting for this flood mitigation project and they're undoubtedly more that have helped get this project and this city across to this Milestone so just thank you for the opportunity to be able to thank those people people because this is one of the most important life-saving things this Council and many councils have been able to achieve um and so just thanks to

[96:00] everybody that's been a part of it than for that Matt it was it was a very thorough and well very well done set of thank yous to many people who deser people who deserve it very much maram uh mayor I couldn't agree more and I just appreciate um Matt for lifting up the efforts of staff I want to recognize um this is a cross- departmental effort and there are so many people Joe and Dan before you were just extraordinary leaders all around um and they're behind them there is a massive team and we certainly couldn't have done it without the work of pnds and the city attorney's office behind them as well there's so many people but I wanted to lift those in particular uh as additional big Partners um that had a heavy lift throughout this so just thank you Matt for lifting up uh staff because it was extraordinary effort and wanted to make sure that we called those out as

[97:00] well Maria and I'll I'll just chime in a I I won't go back over Matt's whole list but I just wanted to call out a few former uh Council colleagues you know who were supporters uh throughout the over the years and that includes um Jen Burton uh who's first elected in 2015 and was with me at that meeting at Frasier Meadows Matt applebomb uh was a big supporter from the early days and worked hard with us on the comprehensive plan changes that led to this point um and then our former mayor Sam Weaver uh who was part of the discussions with CU um and Bob Yates who also was elected in 2015 and was a strong supporter throughout his time on Council uh right up right up through the end and then um have to finish with former council member Rachel friend who uh ran for office in in part because of this project um and worked on it very hard during her four years on Council um and was part of those discussions with CU as well and so Rachel would have been great to have you with us tonight for this vote but um

[98:01] thanks for all of your efforts over the years any other um comments from folks all right seeing none then um Dave I going to thank you once again uh for joining us here tonight and thank you and again and the open space Board of Trustees for your hard work on this over the years the um because I just have to say that that list of uh requests that you all put together a few years ago uh made an enormous difference in terms of the amount of positive ecological transformation that's going to come from this project thank you very much okay and with that we'll bring this to a close and we can move to our second and final public hearing for the evening please Elisha yes sir thank you our sec public hearing is item 5B on tonight's agenda it is the consideration of the following items related to a petition to Annex a

[99:02] property at 5600 Table Mesa Drive first item is the resolution 1347 consideration of a motion to adopt setting forth the findings of facts and conclusions and the second item is the second reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 8623 which is annexing the property at 5600 table MAA drive to the city of Boulder mayor we are going straight to Christopher Johnson in planning and development services thank you area and thank hello city council members Christopher Johnson comprehensive planning manager and let me let me fire up the presentation here just a moment okay are you seeing the full

[100:02] presentation slide yes I'm getting a thumbs up okay great uh well as I mentioned I'm Christopher Johnson I'm the comprehensive planning manager um I am here to provide the the presentation and the information around this proposed annexation and the initial Zoning for 5600 Table Mesa Drive it's also known as case number L2 24- 0000001 uh and it is related to the South poer Creek flood project Spillway and flood wall in particular so uh annexation is the process to incorporate land into the city boundary uh land can be considered for annexation if it complies with State annexation statutes and the policies of the boulder Val Boulder Valley comprehensive plan uh the comp plan provides a framework for annexation and urban service provision within the city as you know and if a property is annexed then the city must also assign City's Z District that is established and is consistent with the land use designation

[101:01] in the land use map of the bbcp so the area that we are discussing this evening uh is addressed as 5600 Table Mesa Drive it includes just over four acres of city-owned land that up until just a few moments ago was currently managed by osmp you can see that in the in the graphic seen in green and then about 3 acres of adjacent ride of way that is part of the c us36 highway and so the total area is about 27.4 Acres um the annexation includes that adjacent rideway partly because portions of the flood mitigation project itself for example the outlet Works will carry water below the road and to the north side that'll be located obviously within that ride ofwe area and including the ride of way will further Define the jurisdictional clarity and the permitting process um however the underlying ownership will not change after annexation so that portion of RightWay will still be owned

[102:00] by C forward uh currently the annexation area is within the jurisdiction of Boulder County uh and it's zoned as rural residential so a couple of photographs just to orient you in terms of existing conditions most of you probably uh you know have traveled this area and know it well most of the area that is proposed for the annexation as I mentioned is right of way includes the us36 uh vehicle travel Lanes the adjacent multi-use path and then Associated median and shoulder areas and then the city owned portion is you can see visible there to the south of the highway and it's comprised mostly of the natural lands that are part of the van B South open space as was discussed earlier if we look at the buer valley comprehensive plan planning areas map you can see that the city-owned property itself so south of the highway is within area three and portions of the C do rway are split between area two and area three you can see the area two portion

[103:01] on the west and then area three to the east uh area two is the area within the Boulder Valley where annexation into the city for development can be considered if it's consistent with the relevant bbcp policies and then area three refers to the area within the valley where the city and the county intend to preserve rural land uses the land use designations for the area include open space acquired for the city-owned property that's south of the highway and then a combination of parks Urban other and then public and semi-public within the RightWay itself as seen on the graphic here and then as you would probably suspect the the area is highly impacted by 100y year and 500e flood planes the conveyance Zone and high Hazard Zone um and just to note that these boundaries both upstream and downstream will change and be remapped as part of the South Boulder Creek flood mitigation projects obviously that the flood works and the

[104:00] project itself will have a significant effect on where these where these FL plane boundaries are in the future and as I mentioned as part of the annexation process the city would also assign zoning to the property uh the Zone District that's proposed in the application before you is to apply public or P zoning uh to the city-owned property in right of way public zoning is defined in the boulder Revised Code as public areas in which public and semi-public facilities and uses are located including without limitation governmental and educational uses and you can see that there's also public zoning uh that's applied to several properties that are adjacent to the area so the the context uh the proposed public zoning fit into the surrounding context as well and then finally the annexation area has been assessed for wetland habitat and there were five Wetland areas that were identified in the proposed annexation boundary all of those were identified as high quality and therefore they would

[105:01] include the required 50 foot buffer as part of that mapping and that would be adopted as part of this annexation there's more detailed maps of the areas and the functional evaluations are included in your agenda packet as attachments as well noticing of the application was completed consistent with Boulder Revised Code so all the noticing requirements that are established in section 9-42 have been met written notification was mailed to all the property owners within 600 feet of the proposed annexation boundary signs were posted on the property for at least 10 days uh and to date there's been no written public comment that has been received that's directly related to this proposed uh annexation as far as board feedback planning board reviews all proposed annexations to the city and makes a recommendation to city council so there was a public hearing on March 5th and where planning board voted unan unanimously 6 to Zer to recommend approval of this proposed annexation and

[106:01] then additionally in this particular case the open space Board of Trustees reviews annexations that have an open space interest and so that uh referred to the four acres of City owned land south of the highway that was currently managed by osmp uh and at their public hearing on March 13 they also voted unanimously to recommend approval of the proposed annexation so this evening there's three key issues that are identified by staff for your discussion and consideration uh first is does the annexation request comply with applicable State annexation statutes second is is the proposal consistent with the city's annexation and other Boulder Valley comprehensive plan policies and then is the initial zoning of public appropriate for the subject property so I'll address each of these uh here individually so in terms of state law the annexation petition is included in the application and your agenda packet and is consistent with the statutory and constitutional requirements uh the site does meet the

[107:00] required one six contiguity to the city there's a community interest to Annex the property and the area is capable of being integrated into the city of Boulder uh as the area is proposed for annexation is greater than 10 acres there was an annexation impact report that is required and was provided to Boulder County uh to the board of County Commissioners at least 25 days prior to this public Hearing in terms of the city's policies and the comprehensive plan related to uh annexation the site may be considered for annexation because a portion of of it is located in area two and then the portion that is in area three uh meets certain criteria and conditions that are allowed under BBC policy 1.17 particularly subsection H so specifically Area 3 properties uh are are able to be considered for annexation if they meet these specific criteria within subsection H which includes that they be publicly owned that they remain

[108:00] in area three and there's a category called Area 3 Annex which uh is applied to Area 3 properties that are within the city boundary they will not require the full range of urban Services uh or that the area is being included within the city for health safety and Welfare reasons the application is also consistent with the other annexation policies described in the comprehensive plan which are 1.08 and 1.10 uh and it will facilitate the construction of the flood mitigation project so that uh in particular addresses several additional comp plan policies related to the ongoing life safety and environmental aspects of managing our plun planes within the city so overall staff finds the proposal is consistent with the relevant bbcp policies and finally in terms of zoning uh zoning uh if a property is annexed then the city would establish zoning that is consistent with the goals and the land use map of the cop plan as described before the proposed zoning in the application is for public zoning and

[109:02] we find that the zoning is consistent with the land use designations of Osa PK and public uh and it's also a logical extension to the city given the existence of that same public Zone District in the immediately surrounding context so in conclusion staff finds that uh one the proposed Ed annexation is consistent with State Statute number two it is consistent with the city's codes and the comprehensive plan and then finally that the initial zoning of public is consistent with the comp plan goals in the luse designations uh that proposed zoning is also logical extension of the city and compatible with the surrounding context so we recommend that city council make and approve the following motions and I will not read those tonight but if you need me to I certain thanks for that KJ any questions from Council for staff on this

[110:00] one and K you can there you go take that down no questions right seeing none I'll go ahead and open the public hearing on this we have one person signed up to speak so uh Lyn seagull you get three minutes nope doesn't meet large flooding events 3.25 doesn't meet High Hazard 3.24 doesn't meet Health welfare and safety of the individuals Downstream you manipulate a flood plane like this area has been without a Reclamation that was required that was never conducted you put the public at risk when you put in a 100-year flood plane and it backs up guess what it does it goes and it floods the up upper area and to other areas

[111:03] that were not presumed to be within the flood plane and when that happens you're going to catch a lot of flack from the public in those areas you're not doing an adequate flood mitigation you need 500 year and this area needs to have have the full Reclamation done before anything any mitigation projects are done there are 16 other flood drainages in town and to say that we're spending so much money on this one is not justifiable when you're not doing an adequate job and you're not protecting Boulder Valley comp plan initiatives which are Health welfare and safety you're not you're making it worse for people and you're going to have to live through being council members during this time when years down this gets goes

[112:03] out of control and you see what's happened um now I don't know but I got to call the people associated with the opposition and see now if we have 60 days if this is the our 60-day limit for you know fighting this with a ballot measure if um the they're willing to do that I'm going to go door too I'm set to go for this this is a travesty that this has happened I've been watching this thing for 35 years and um no way this this is horrific to to do this on on a state you know a state for a state entity you know granted we live in the city which is in the county which is in the state but we're not beholding to the date and I hope that there's a threat to FEMA that they're going to get backlash

[113:00] on this with they're permitting they're probably not going to permit it appropriately now that you've got your way but I highly recommend you don't accept either one of these land giveaways tonight this is not in my best interest and it's not in the best interest of the flood plane below this whole area and it causes so many 15 Juniper lately that went for demolition because it's on the conveyance Zone ly your time is up thank you for your testimony and with that I will close the public hearing and come back to council uh we have a discussion deliberation there is anyone do you want to put a motion on the table I'll make a motion go for it uh do you want a a motion for both or one at a time one at a time please okay first motion to adopt

[114:01] resolution 1347 setting forth findings of fact and conclusions regarding the annexation of approximately 27 acres of land generally located at 5600 Table Mesa Drive to the city of Boulder thank you you have a second I'll second motion second any discussion on that before vote Mark did you want to speak to it no I just think this is necessary for the uh completion of the project um we've had a great deal of data given to us on this and I I just don't regard it as especially controversial at this point in time very good Elicia would you like a roll call for both of these yes sir if you could then all right thank you well take start the roll call for resolution 1347 under item 5B

[115:01] number one with you mayor Brocket yes council member F yes Marquis yes shuar yes mayor protim spear yes council member Walling yes Winer yes Adams yes M Benjamin yes resolution 1347 is hereby approved unanimously thank you Nicole I was going to make a motion that's okay motion to adopt ordinance 8623 annexing to the city of Boulder approximately 2 acres of land generally located at 5600 Table Mesa Drive with an initial zoning classification of public p as described in chapter 9-5 modular

[116:03] zone system brc1 1981 amending the zoning District map forming a part of said chapter to include the property in the above mentioned zoning district and setting forth related details second all right we've got a motion in a second Nicole did you want to speak to that just to uh once again thank everybody for all of their work and I'm really excited to to see this continue to move forward than any other comments before the vote seeing none Elicia roll call please yes sir thank you we'll start the roll call for a ordinance 8623 with council member folr yes Maris yes shoard yes mayor Pro Tim spear yes council member Waller

[117:02] yes Winer yes Adams yes Benjamin yes and mayor Brockett yes ordinance 8623 is hereby adopted unanimously all right thanks so much everyone and for this I would really have to thank City staff and the planning department and um you all done a fantastic job with this annexation process but also with all of the all the the work related to the disposal the annexation um the work with CU just the list goes on and on and on the quality of your work is unparalleled and just deeply grateful to everyone on City staff who's participated in this s the years cool and I just do a special shout out to our Council employees nura and Teresa for all of your work and especially with

[118:00] this whole project just kind of picking it up as it was getting so close to some really key points and carrying it Forward just I'm really grateful for your leadership and your work on this so thank you both absolutely well said any other comments on this one all right that brings us to the end of our agenda any final thoughts we can end here before 8 o'clock all right seeing none thanks everybody for great meeting and Al gav 55 p.m. take care and have a great spring break everyone see you in a couple weeks