September 5, 2024 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

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[6:00] order for the Thursday September 5th 2024 regular meeting of the Boulder City Council good evening and everyone and welcome and I'd like to start by requesting a motion to amend the agenda to do two things one is to add item three I consideration of a motion to cancel the September 26 2024 study session 3L roll call First I'm too excited by the bees I'm buzzing if we could have a roll call please yes sir thank you we're all excited about bees tonight thank you we'll start tonight's Road call as usual with council member Adams Benjamin pres mayor Brocket present council member vs present Maris present shart here mayor protim spear present council member wall here and Wier present mayor we have our call thank you so much all right I I was

[7:02] serious about this though if we could have a motion to amend the agenda please uh to add item three l i which is a consideration of a motion to cancel the September 26 2024 study session and approve replacing it with the community in Council for to be held that night and to remove items 3G 4A and 4B the initiative petition ordinances 8638 and 8642 which is due to the airport committee withdrawal of their petitions on September 4th 202 24 so moved second uh Motion in a second if I could see a show of hands in favor that's unanimous so the um agenda is amended great so now if we can move into item 1A which is pollinator and little creature appreciation fall equinox celebration declaration to be presented by mayor proen Spear and if we can have folks come to the front who are partip this

[8:09] please and I think tonight um the B folks are going to say a few words and then I will read the Declaration and then we'll hear from a few more folks so oh I'm sorry okay so um we we've got uh Tim BL and Elise Jones they are going to um think then kick us off and invite our little friends up well thank you Council and um folks watching tonight um my name is Tim PL I was a council member in 2014 uh when the very first uh pollinator Declaration was uh approved by the city so it's pretty exciting to be here tonight and uh I'm glad to see you all have the antenna on I know that night I wore antenna like this and it and I think it adds gravitas to the council deliberation so you might want to wear

[9:01] them other nights as well and let me give this to Elise for a sec well 10 years ago I was wrinkle-free and a Boulder County Commissioner and I had the honor and pleasure of standing with Tim and reading um Boulder County's pollinator appreciation resolution and it's one of the many things that the city and county has gotten to work together on and I'm glad to see it still going absolutely 10 years later and here we are so it's so so exciting to see this being followed followed through on and you know because it is a real priority I think for for our community so uh with that um should I give it back to you or do you want to read it or do we want to re oh okay am I speaking to another slide so we're we're wanting to just let you all know how many dozens of events that we have facilitated over the years from our

[10:01] culminating September pollinator Festival to education campaigns to parades and to our dig a spot for Local Natives where we organized nurseries and have entered the vocabulary of native plants into our local Landscapes um so we are going to next slide thank you we had an art show last year it was called little creatures and it celebrated all sorts of insects not only pollinators but all kinds of creepy crawly bugs and Dr Sammy Ramsay from the CU lab our um entomologist from CU was the keynote speaker and he was terrific next slide so the beas have um been working and working for 10 years with um a a workshop or speaking event or something

[11:01] pretty much each month at the library that's open and free to everybody who wants to join and so we've had at least 80 workshops and events and engaged a lot of different people um to encourage biodiversity appreciation and hopefully eventually mitigation of our climate change which is my biggest issue so so earlier today we graduated the third class of pollinator Advocates and the mayor was there to um help them through um their their celebration yeah so we have gotten 54 skilled community members through who are out there creating habitat and working with their neighbors and friends and and everywhere that they go and we from that we have 80 more than 80 new pollinator Gardens just from those few

[12:01] pollinator Advocates 1875 sare ft that is and over 400 ft of new Gardens and mobile home communities and we launched in the last 10 years we launched cool Boulder which is a um a project through the climate initiatives department where we have 51 Community Partners and we and our partners the city and our partners have planted 14,000 trees in the last three couple of years since we've been around we we've effect we transformed 740 acres of land and we've had over 62,000 active engagements with residents and we're part of Boulder's part of a Statewide Coalition so we're part of the Colorado pollinator Network um we put on the Colorado pollinator Summit every year which is almost as old as the pollinator appreciation month we've had major majorly important legislative um WIS the last couple of years we have been Partners in the Colorado um Native pollinator insect study and last year pollinators

[13:01] invertebrates and all insects are now wildlife in Colorado which means it can be managed and the Department of Natural Resources now have six new positions so that's like a huge a hugely important thing for all of us across the state so what we want to say is where we want to be 10 years from now and um maybe a couple of you can say that and then and then we'll have Nicole well I Envision a boulder that's full of native plants native pollinators and that when you ask the average person they know that there's a th6 native bees right here and that's common knowledge yes I will second that replace all of our front Lawns with Native Plant habitat and create a connected Corridor throughout the city so so my goal is for all the city vehicles to have pollinator license

[14:01] plates um and I will say that I was down at one of the Open Space Trail heads in South Boulder today and I saw an open space vehicle with a pollinator plate so I think this can happen so Council please make that happen thank you well and my wish is that these young bee lovers will grow up and do research and be Advocates and tell all your friends to come out and be po pollinator appreciators as well and we will just grow the movement bigger and bigger all right um and I just want to say thank you to all of you for setting up this um this tradition that has honestly become one of the most fun things that we do on Council so that's exactly right yeah we don't often get to wear antenna so thank you so much for doing that and I hope that it is a fun thing for you to as well to see how this has grown and thank you beas and everyone for being being here um so I'm

[15:00] going to go ahead and read our declaration now for thousands of years the beauty of Boulder's natural landscapes has inspired countless Generations our connection to Nature provides ecological cultural and spiritual benefits which also extends into our city in our Parks Greenways Gardens homes schools and daily lives in recognition of the essential role of pollinators for ecosystem Health and Human well-being 10 years ago the city of Boulder declared the first pollinator appreciation month in the past 10 years the city has partnered with community members and local organizations to create pollinator habitat raise awareness through events education art and community- based programs we have joined Statewide efforts to create policies to conserve pollinators including earlier this year when the Colorado general assembly recognized that pollinators and other invertebrates are Wildlife empowering the state to take conservation and management actions as our community enjoys the

[16:02] Bountiful Autumn Harvest and as we witness the Regeneration of our grasslands forests Meadows and Landscapes from their tire from the tireless work of pollinators the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado declares September 2024 pollinator appreciation month and commits to ongoing and inclusive Partnerships with our diverse communities to enhance climate ecological and Community resilience that will protect pollinators and all bio diversity for current and future Generations thank [Applause] you well thanks so much everyone for coming out and celebrating with us today all of our wonderful pollinators our bees and our butterflies and our flies and everybody else special thanks to our young visitors all right um and now

[17:02] we and now we'll go to item 1B which is National voter registration day declaration presented by council member wallik this is not the uh first time I've read a uh Declaration on voter registration but it is always an honor and a privilege to do so voting is the Bedrock to our democracy without it we would not be free and neither our city nor our country would be able to function democratically having a say in your future is a basic human right and we believe that it should be accessible and protected at all costs centuries of tireless work has expanded voting rights and access nevertheless the systems for participation in our democracy still maintain barriers for Access or or outright deny many members of our

[18:00] community their right to vote everyone deserves a St in their government and it is up to us to make sure that voting is a universal right which includes exercising the right to vote for those who can while the United States lags many other countries in voter turnout the state of Cal of Colorado leads the nation in voter turnout and Universal mail and ballots according to ballot pedia in 2020 two about 58% of eligible Colorado voters cast their ballot representing the sixth highest voter turnout rate of all 50 states that year therefore we the city council of Boulder declare September 17 2024 as National voter registration day and urge all community members to take cognizance of this event and participate fittingly in its observance thank you and now a few comments uh we have uh

[19:01] Cassandra barnhard from the League of Women Voters thank you and I just want to say I thought my gold hoop earrings with vote on them would be the coolest accessory and I've been out accessorized tonight will not happen again um so thank you so much for inviting us on behalf of the uh Boulder County League of Women Voters I'm Cassandra Barnhart and we thank you for joining the league and our mission to protect and defend Dem democracy through the sacred Act of voting the League of Women Voters envisions a democracy where every person has the desire the right the knowledge and the opportunity to participate fully in our nation's future to protect and Empower this Vision it is crucial that each of us engages in the Democratic process by showing up to vote every vote is a powerful Act of Civic engagement that strengthens our democracy so that we can create Society where every voice

[20:00] is heard let's encourage each other to vote in every election to protect the Democracy we all cherish thank you thank you very nice uh I'm Carl lapum I'm the boulder Le or Regional lead organizer for newera Colorado first of all thank you for inviting me here I feel an enormous sense of Pride accepting this on behalf of newera um I'm grateful both for this recog and for the opportunity that I've gotten over the last couple of months to wake up every single day and to convince my peers that it is not only necessary to participate in our elections but it is ferociously validating to invest in our community so thank you nicely done thank you [Applause] both thank you for being with us to celebrate that important occasion

[21:00] all right and now item 1 C is uh presentation and questions about our annual comprehensive financial report and auditor selection so Professor gross if you'd like to come get not up here but yes exactly at the podium please yeah if you hit the button hi so uh this is a hopefully very boring but very necessary audits are never boring but if you can get into the microphone please oh sorry okay uh my name is David Gross and I serve on the Boulder City Council audit subcommittee I'm a finance professor at Leeds uh my phds in financial economics and separate from my academic activities I do this kind of audit accounting and financial oversight for many different organizations and this is my sixth year on the city's audit committee uh the audit committee consists of tcia Adams Mark wallik and myself as the outside expert and it's our job to assess and interpret the audit of the city's 2023 fiscal year financial statements it is

[22:00] not the job of this committee to in any way assess the stability or health of the financial position of the city or to assess priorities or efficacy of financial activities this is of course the job of the council and all voter citizens but without the work of this committee this would not be possible uh the motion on the consent agenda for later this evening is to approve and accept the city of Boulders 2023 audit and the annual comprehensive financial report the act for uh and so what I'm going to do is give a brief description of the process that led us to where we are right now and then uh open for any questions so first uh the city staff records every single financial transaction as they occur am I moving away from can you hear me on the microphone okay good uh second the staff uses this information to prepare uh financial statements there are financial statements prepared for the city's 45 funds including General open space Transportation Municipal property for each of these there are three main financial statements prepared there's

[23:01] like a p&l or an income statement there's the statement of Revenue expenses and change in net position all revenue transactions are summarized and categorized by Source all expense transactions are summarized and categorized by type and then from this the staff computes the resulting change in fund balance we would call this net income If This Were A for-profit entity and like a balance sheet uh there's the statement of net position this is what the city owns its assets what it owes its liabilities and then the resulting net position and again if this were a business we'd call this the owner's equity and the difference in the net position between the beginning of the year and the end of the year is the net change in fund balances from the prior document uh the third set of financial statements that are produced is the statement of cash flows this documents all sources and uses of cash throughout the year if an entity has lots of credit transactions it might be the case that it appears financially healthy but it runs out of cash cash and so this is a necessary document in many situations

[24:01] this is not really an issue for the city of Boulder is not a lot of credit transactions so these financial statements are public and they can be used by anyone to understand how the city of Boulder operates where does it receive its funds where does it spend its funds is it stable is it healthy is it sustainable financially sustainable uh what are the city's priorities and how effective is it in meeting its priorities but again these questions can only be answered if the city accurately records all of its fin cial transactions and produces correct financial statements so the third step is to present all of this material to the auditor Clifton lson Allen and then the auditor works with the city to gain an understanding of the processes used to record transactions to produce the financial statements and also ensure that there were no um opportunities uh that the internal controls are sound uh so the auditor prepares a uh uh sorry the auditor ensures the recording and preparation are done in accordance with

[25:00] the rules set by the government Accounting Standards Board the gby board and once again the Auditors gave a clean opinion this is also referred to as an unqualified opinion and we love trying to explain that unqualified is actually good there are no qualifications to the opinion and this is the best possible uh result for the city so an excellent job summarizing the opinion on page 17 of the 315 page annual comprehensive financial report the auditor wrote in our opinion the financial statements referred to above present fairly and in all material respects the respective financial position of the government activities business type activities of each major fund and the aggregate remaining fund information of the city so again uh the Auditors looked for a couple of different things specifically deficiencies significant deficiencies material weaknesses there were none there were no issues again 100% overall unqualified clean opinion so excellent excellent work so for the 34th

[26:01] consecutive year we don't get a lot of flaws usually for this for the 34th consecutive year for the 41st year total uh the city was awarded the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting by the government financial Officers Association which certifies that the city went above and beyond to produce excellent Financial reports so the fourth step uh which is what we're doing now is the audit committee interprets and acts on any recommendations from the auditor again there were none and next the audit committee considers the audit findings and makes a recommendation to the council as to whether or not the council should uh uh accept the audit and the annual comprehensive financial report and it is the unanimous recommendation of the audit committee that the council approve and accept the audit and the report thanks so much for that Dave really appreciate it thank you right round of applause for everybody who's done that um unqualified is never never sounded so good um did Council have any

[27:01] questions for Dr Gross looks like you're off the hook thanks so much yeah real huge appreciation to you and to um council members Adam and Adam and W Wallock as well sorry I can't speak Adams and wallak uh for your participation on this committee and huge kudos to City Financial staff for that 100% clean unqualified opinion amazing work okay that brings us to the end of that section of our agenda and the end of our Applause allowed uh items and we're now going to go into open comments so Elisha if you could go over the public participation please hello can you hear me am I oh yes Taisha there's your hand is up hello I as an audit committe or as a as a first person audit or first time audit committee participant um I would like to also just give some love and appreciation for the incredible budget

[28:01] team and Cara and her team um walk me through every single page of the previous audit and just explain the background and the thinking and um it was just really powerful so I highly recommend um sorry I'm not to add any more to everybody's overflowing plates um but certainly for the noobs that that walk amongst me or with me um I found it to be incredibly valuable said really get a handle of where our financials were and it it I think we were able to do it under an hour um and I just want to really thank them and I'm really excited for the budgeting process ahead so thank you thanks TAA a guidelines please Elicia all right thank you sir I will now go over our public participation and city council meeting guidelines the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civic

[29:01] conversations this Vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members staff and counsel as well as democracy for people of all ages identities lived experiences and political perspectives for information for more information about this vision and the community engagement processes please visit our website at bouldercolorado.gov servicesproducts the following are examples of rules of decorum found in the boulder Revised Code and other guidelines that support this Vision these will be upheld during this meeting 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 online only one person at a time at the podium unless an accommodation like an interpreter is required our remarks and

[30:01] testimonies shall be limited to matters related to City business no standing in or otherwise blocking the aisles no participant shall stand or hold items such as signs or Flags in a manner that would block the view of another person no participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person we ask that you not AIX items to the podium or D or walls or other services of the chamber signs Flags or other items used to communicate must be held by one person when displayed obscenity other epithets based on race gender or religion and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the meeting will not be tolerated and lastly inperson participants are asked to refrain from expressing support or disagreement verbally or with sounds such as Applause or snapping with the exception of declarations traditionally support is

[31:00] shown through American Sign Language Applause or jazz hands thank you for listening and we appreciate your presence thanks for that Elicia we've got um uh 12 people signed up in person and four virtual um for the people in person uh please come down as you hear your name approaching and each person will get two minutes to speak our first three speakers are Evan rabbitz Robert smoke and Tom mayor just a second since you celebrated Constitution Day two months ago I said the only law respected here is kiss up and down here's one way the city shat on the con institution I came here in 1978 with a

[32:01] VW Bug and 30 bucks I performed my tight Road Show on the mall and later from Alaska to Guatemala in 1979 1980 and 1982 the old Mall commission had police stop my and others shows until a lawyer discovered the commission had only advisory power and had denied us constitutional due process Council rewarded this down by giving them licensing power in 1983 I wasn't about to kiss the asses who shat on me some of you have they include Mall designer Richard Foy and disgraced councilman Richard pulk and George kakan so I performed out of town for years my lawyer finally convinced the commission that free entertainment was

[33:01] good for business and I reserve resumed work in 1985 but with much more competition so I never bought a home had a family or health insurance and sold my car so the city wrecked lives now the city has wrecked my health by wasting six years of my time trying to get you to fix the online petitioning voted by 71% into the city Charter so I am angry anger has survived a million years of evolution for good reasons St Thomas Aquin said if you can live amid in Justice Without Anger you are immoral as well as unjust thank you our next three speakers are Robert smoke Tom mayor and Leslie glustrom hello my name is Rob my name is Rob

[34:01] smoke is that all right I live in Boulder and um I guess I'm happy to be here tonight although I feel like the news from Palestine Israel Palestine and in particular Gaza and the West Bank now is really upsetting it's really um hard on a lot of people living here uh yesterday the uh city of Portland Maine unanimously passed a uh a resolution in support of divesture and this city I mean there's um I I am Jewish and there's a phrase in yish I guarantee it's not obscene in any way shape or form but um so recall as I did study it a little bit it's uh C CA big shout out to my friends in

[35:02] Vienna um it means uh go stick your head in the ground and make a noise like an onion and and it's something that I I have to say to people when they say I'm anti-semitic and it's a little hard to take my uh great uncle Max Ciy I have a a photo of him standing to standing next to Harry Truman at the signing of the uh Congressional Declaration on May 14th 1948 and my grandfather Jacob BR he was editor of the Jewish daily forward most of his life and uh we we spoke of these things together often the issues with Israel and Palestine and I just want to say I still support the council should they uh come around and try to come up with a resolution in support of of the people of Palestine who are suffering terribly

[36:00] right now thank you thank you now we have Tom mayor Leslie glustrom and Vern Harish I'm Tom mayor I live in Boulder I call this piece not of concern and I dedicate it to the Boulder City Council 1864 Sand Creek Massacre several hundred cheyen and arapo women and children killed not of concern to the Boulder City Council 1943 45 aitz death camp 2 million Jews executed not of concern to the Boulder City Council 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki not of concern to the Boulder City

[37:01] Council 1948 Palestinian nakba 750,000 Palestinians expelled 500 Villages destroyed not of concern to the Boulder City Council 1965 to 75 war on the people of Vietnam 3 million people killed not of concern to the Boulder City Council 2023 24 genocide in Gaza excessed mortality over 180,000 not of concern to the Boulder City Council 2100 in the future environmental catastrophe extinguished es human life on planet

[38:00] Earth 2 million years from now a new intelligent species unearth unearths a calcified testament which says extension of human life on planet Earth is not of concern to the Boulder City Council right our next three speakers are Leslie glustrom Vern Harish and ly SE Leslie I'm not seeing her so let's go to um ver Harish then hey mayor council um Vern Harish resident here been living playing working in Boulder uh on and off for the last 60 years uh getting ready to leave again for the fourth time I think nyatt might you know curse might have me back uh uh but first I just wanted to thank you over all of the years that I've seen

[39:02] that we have held the growth on this beautiful city and haven't turned it into Austin Texas where I spend a lot of time as well and so concerns about what we might do with the airport uh adding a whole bunch of other people I've just appreciated that you guys have kept it uh relatively a small community um by the way earlier this summer I left uh to drive away and had to change my license plate uh for whatever reason and I parked in the Metropolis parking garage and for $2 and I was gone for a month and I came back and realized that they had not got the word I thought that I thought everybody communicated because they know how to sure get a you know a ticket to you and it was a $30 charge for $2 and Fred Reichel who's the one who created the net promoter score talks about good profits and bad profits uh PMC is the parking organization that the

[40:02] university uses they give you two courtesy warnings they they're like as did 480 when I had the same situation occur a beautiful lady answered the phone she said oh hey I see you're already in the system as I was with Metropolis we'll get your license plate changed we'll wave the fee um good Metropolis doesn't even have anybody to call and so I would encourage you guys next time if that comes up uh metropolis and it I think reflects on the city and not the place that I want to be is practicing really bad profits and that's not the kind of community that I have loved over the last 60 years thank you thank you our next three speakers are ly seagull Michelle Rodriguez and James Duncan ly

[41:21] okay so are we going to play a video no Emily is pulling it up now we appreciate your patience EX became your culture they Ling on the

[42:00] news with no exposure taking our homes bul too many Imes I can see I feel like my heart [Music] being beging to Brea beging you pleas you watching bed nobody knows who the be so watch us expose what's your goal the [Music] world ER break [Music] bra children [Music] makes me so sick I'm nauseous we got kids Bleeding Out unconscious call what

[43:02] it is murder kid [Music] you yeah it for what it is is it's a hoca who got the audacity to blow up deep inside us [Music] okay thank you our next

[44:04] speakers are Michelle Rodriguez James Duncan and Aaron Brooks all right then you got me if I can get a second okay I felt that um okay but what I'm here to talk about tonight is um um we've got some things going on with our houseless people that um we're in a process of you know trying to clear the Public's PL places and we're we're having people move up to the to the Hillside and what I would like to um respectfully request is that we revisit the smallest of the propositions of the in the sanction encampment and get our people people off the mountain we've got people out there with um Mountain line

[45:01] activity and bears there's a couple with a six-year-old little girl that's only a birth certificate away from being housed but they're sleeping next to to Wildlife and um when clearing the flood zones and stuff uh it kind of defeats the purpose for us to have moved them just right above EP Fine park um there's no restrooms it's still not sanitary um also I'd like to say as far as the shelter there's a 90day limit for people to stay in there so nobody is safe through the winter right now um it's a process I know we're trying to perfect it um there's sober living there's regular Lotto there's the day Center there's going to be the day Center closing at 4:00 come winter time with people with nowhere to go if they're not in that situation but a 90-day limit starting from the time you sign up until the time your 90 days are over with one day a month allowed for a Callin out of the

[46:00] shelter makes it to where nobody's safe through the winter we have to consider this we have no extreme Sheltering and it's it's going to be a mad house here soon thank you thank you uh now we have James Duncan Aaron Brooks and Hep ingum good evening Council yes my name is James dunin I live here in Boulder as a matter of fact uh that's one thing point I want to bring out is that this is my city I live here in Boulder you are my city council you are the public servants to to which are accountable to me and the public I want to help you there is a genocide going on right now a holocaust it it's a Mass Slaughter and and it's contining with this starvation uh I know

[47:00] you probably don't see you don't want to see the P the pictures the news but I got to tell you that that uh it's out there um one of the the videos that I saw uh was in a home and it was very uh U peaceful there was a little girl sitting in a corner right next to a window um and she's got these beautiful brown eyes long brown hair and she's smiling and happy she's got one arm she's missing one arm and she's missing both legs right and uh but she's happy I don't know exactly how that happened but she's happy right uh how that tragedy happened uh and then she wants to move around do you know how she moves around she gets on the floor and she rolls she rolls her head and it's just rolling her whole body that's she doesn't walk she doesn't have legs she just

[48:01] rolls this is this is what's happening war is a terrible terrible thing stop it ceasefire now please thank you thank you now we have Aaron Brooks Hep Ingam and Ben needam Wood good evening everyone based on watching or attending hundreds of City Council meetings and I mean that literally here in Boulder and as as well as across the country there seems to be a misunderstanding by some in the public and possibly even one member of this Council on how City Council meetings actually work so I thought I would offer some comments on this you were all duly elected by the voters of Boulder to serve on city council this means that you listen to constituents and you I will repeat you make the decisions based on a majority vote anyone that is res or taxpayer or Boulder can run for a seat and if they win a seat they have

[49:00] the right to make these decisions and they then have to sit through public comment it is not about who comes to the most meetings interrupts the most rudely calls out City Council Members personally by name accusing them of supporting genocide of and other things which is totally ridiculous it is it about doing what some members of the Rocky Mountain peace and Justice Center did on Sunday barging into the Labor Day Parade a family a friendly event in Lewisville with obnoxious signs and Palestinian Flags there are approximately 105,000 people in this city 105,000 it's the same handful of people that come back over and over demanding something about which you've already decided additionally to me anyway it's really sad when an issue has already been discussed by Council a clear decision has been made by the council majority and there is still one member who can't help but not along while the same people continually and obnoxiously Badger this Council demanding a ceasefire and then insists on retiga an issue that has already been litigated

[50:00] further when respectfully asked about it by their fellow council members related to council rules they proceed to go on a five minute rant and I actually timed it it was a bit longer than that on something they and their fellow council members have already decided good they continually post about this to both of their and they both they continually post about this to both of their Instagram Pages it is disrespectful to the community and to fellow members your council member your Council has made it clear that international issues are not in your purview I'm truly hopeful that all members of the council can stay disciplin and focused on local issues going forward so that we can have the greatest City we have thank you okay now we have Hep inam Ben needam Wood and Mike Clark good evening members of city council I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of the airport neighborhood campaign can you get into the mic a little more please the ANC has officially withdrawn our two airport related ballot measures we confident

[51:00] that the city's lawsuit against the FAA will affirm the city's title to our airport land and will tell us how many years we have until we can close the airport without FAA permission makes sense of sequence the decision on the future of the site after the city establishes our right to close the airport had we known about the litigation we would have held off and petitioned in a different year this Collision in timing is just how events unfold we also support the city's policy of not taking FAA grant money until the litigation is resolved we should not be seeking more grants that come with 20 years of strings attached while we're engaged in litigation to verify our right to cut those strings there been four years since the last time we obligated ourselves to the FAA it makes no sense to give up that progress for a few $100,000 of federal money which is a tiny fraction of 1% of the city's annual budget last week thec hosted a second

[52:00] presentation by Dr Robert pel about the impacts of Leed aviation fuel and that's where we learned about how the children living near Reed Hillview have Reed Hillview Santa clir have higher blood L Le levels than what happened to the kids in Flint Michigan there the Santa clar County Commissioners did not think about the feasibility of Leed fuel but they banned it we should not subject another gener generation of kids oulder to this treatment the airport neighborhood campaign looks to continue our work with Council staff and the broader public on these issues we thank you again for your contribution to this impactful conversation about land use the airport affordable housing and our values as the city of Boulder thanks thank you our last two inperson speakers are Ben Nita wood and Mike Clark thank you all so much for your service and for having me here tonight uh my

[53:00] name is benam wood and I'm the artistic director for Boulder ballet I'm here tonight to advocate for Arts funding particularly as it pertains to ballot measure 2A from the 2023 ballot um at Boulder ballet we do our best every year to create a full season lots of fun lots of joy and also a lot of expression but we also get invited to a lot of other events last year we were asked to participate in the tribute event for mental health Colorado helping to raise awareness for mental health needs um next week we're actually going to be performing at a fundraiser for the Stout Street foundation in Denver which helped to support those addicts struggling with recovery these kinds of events often look to the Arts because there's a shared understanding that the Arts help to make uh important moments more meaningful and that can make a big impact having the opportunity to create builds confidence and selfworth having the opportunity to express builds

[54:00] empathy and understanding and having the opportunity to gather like we are here today gives us an opportunity to celebrate shared values ideals and dreams that ultimately help us move forward and that's what the Arts provide these are all things that the Arts amplify and these are reasons why we need to continue supporting the Arts and Boulder our current city funding while we're grateful for it is only a fraction of what it is in many comparable cities and I can speak as an employer that my artists are having to work multiple jobs just to make ends me on a daily basis and I am excited for the opportunity for us to give them more support to continue amplifying these this important cause for our city so that we can keep celebrating and bringing Joy so much of what we heard tonight recognizes that there's a lot of hardship in the world and the Arts are a form of medication for that they can be relief they can be um um communal and beautiful and I want to thank you for your support and your

[55:00] service thank you now we'll go to Mike Clark and also I see Leslie glustrom is in the room so she can go after that good evening my name is Mike Clark and I'm a resident of Boulder been here about 43 years if you can get into the mic please it's kind of low I know right I have to lean over wait you got to start over no um I'm here about airbnbs and short-term rentals in my neighborhood which is a rapo ridge I now have two behind me that back up to my backyard and we've been having problems one of them has never had a resident in it the other one had 50 people at it last weekend you as Council approved what planning said recommended to you but what you didn't see was that planning has no way to enforce any of the rules I've contacted planning occasionally

[56:00] they might return your call they didn't return my call until I had to make an appointment with the city manager then all of a sudden it's you're real we have to deal with you then we talked with code enforcement they've got nothing to do with it we call the Boulder PD and unfortunately we call the non-emergency number for noise drugs marijuana walkling through my house CU my window windows open and they tell us it's not a priority I don't have the patience to go to that house and ask them to please 30 in the morning I don't want to be in that position that gentleman there is paid to be a policeman I am not I'm a resident I'm asking you to re-evaluate what you've done you've taken a neighborhood and changed turned it into the hill you have everything going going on 50 people in one house they put a motor home in the

[57:00] driveway just so they could pack more in but you folks are the ones who approve it planning is the one who comes up with it you need to rethink it it's a mess in my neighborhood I'm debating to leave the city I'm getting ready to retire but thank you thank you Leslie glustrom then we'll go to our virtual speakers thank you very much Council lesie glustrom I live in Boulder and I want to thank you for your time uh the uh State energy conservation and I'm sorry energy and carbon management commission took half of our speakers from last night and put them on to tonight so I've been downstairs testifying on the cumulative impacts which they've gutted um so I apologize for not being here as always I want to thank you your deal with so many issues on our behalf and I'm really grateful you've all seen this graph

[58:02] before but you're going to see it many times more the blue line is Excel sales they've been basically flat for 20 years the red line are their profits The Gray Line is what their profits would have done if they gone up at the rate of inflation there's obviously a huge disconnect here between the level of sales the level of profits I keep showing this graph created by Paul colan thank you Paul I keep showing this graph because it's the only way to summarize what I've experienced in 20 years down at the Public Utilities Commission trying to keep a monopoly utility regulated people who work for the Monopoly utility are very fine people people who work for the commission are very fine people but it can't substitute for competition I heard a story as I was walking in tonight from somebody who lives in Boulder of a terrible situation with EXL and no response and blowing out his appliances and and there's just no customer service and that's what happens when you work with a monopoly so the question becomes could we do better and

[59:00] when our decision Point comes in 2025 as it does I'm hoping by then we will have done these two minute we could go to the next slide please uh the next slide just shows all the different uh rate increases that I've been a part of one way or another down at the Utilities Commission with sales flat you can see the big number in the lower right over 800 million more of annual revenue approved with sales flat now it's a long story how that happened but I will tell you that I wouldn't be here if I thought it was well Justified so many communities are getting much better deals and next time we're here we'll talk a little bit about those as we get ready for 2025 thank you so much thank you our first three virtual speakers are Aram Bingham puster Aguilera and adelene Marquez

[60:00] all right can you all hear me yes thanks my name is Dr Aram Bingham I'm here today with the direct appeal for the city to take action and I would like a direct response on this issue which I do not believe has yet been brought to the council according to a recent report on Boulder's Municipal investments from April of this year the city is holding many millions of dollars in bonds issued by corporations profiting from the apartheid state of Israel it's illegal occupation and dispossession of Palestinians and the ongoing genocide in Gaza today I would like to speak specifically to the nearly $9 million in corporate bonds the city holds from Caterpillar Financial Services Corp though there are several other companies in the city's portfolio that the city needs to divest from on similar grounds as highlighted here next slide please caterpillar Financial Services Corp is the financial arm of caterpillar Inc a manufacturer of bulldozers excavators loaders and other heavy machinery that is widely used by the Israeli military with the history going

[61:01] back to the 19676 day war and subsequent Perpetual pattern of destruction of Palestinian homes businesses roads water and electricity infrastructure Farms Olive Groves and more that has occurred in the occupied West Bank ever since armored caterpillar D9 bulldozers are a favorite weapon of the so-called Israel Defense Forces in their ongoing ground Invasion and occupation of Gaza including its War crime and illegal infringement on pales inian territory by raising all residential buildings schools mosques and agricultural land within a one M wide buffer zone all around the in perimeter of Gaza while caterpillar equipment are weapons of Destruction throughout the history of illegal occupation and dispossession Palestinians in the West Bank Caterpillar heavy machinery has been crucial also for the Perpetual expansion and construction of the system of walls checkpoints and military installations designed to isolate and terrorize Palestinian communities there next slide please divestment from genocide needs to happen

[62:00] uh the nearly $40 million in corporate bonds the city of Boulder now holds from Caterpillar Toyota IBM and others does not align with the guidance given by the city's own socially responsible but thank you for your testimony uh no no uh noise in the crowd please our next three speakers are PTY Fuster Aguilera adelene Marquez and Lara Gonzalez can you hear me yes my name is Dr Patty Fuster agilera I work and live in Boulder I am here to call out this Council and every council member on your duty to serve the people of Baler and hear our voices we come every time and ask you to demand a ceasefire I want you to understand that the decision that you took to not even have a vote on this issue even though we have given many arguments in why this is in fact a local issue is in fact signing the death of thousands of Palestinians and in particular to the thousands of women women and children that have been killed by Israel you have been showing us your true colors that is white and

[63:02] white supremacist techniques to silence our voices and those including some of the council member voices this is Crystal Clear you have approved new silencing rules for us not to show solidarity and raise our voices all these new rules were imposed as a reaction to us raising our voices in solidarity to the indigenous peoples of Palestine who are suffering a genocide it has been 75 years of Oppression it has been almost a year of the genocide in Gaza our silence is allowing for the genocide to propagate in the West Bank and it is clear to me after the last council meeting how council member Wier and Wier and wac tried to use white supremacist techniques to try to silence to silence the only black woman council member here what a shameful scenario and this is not the first time we see your misin Noir in action was your decision as a council to not address open comment because that is exactly what she was

[64:00] doing addressing open comments which none of you do even when many people at each meeting talk about this issue except council members Adam and fuler if you need new issues to be brought up I would say that yes the news is that every day dozens of Palestinians get killed directly by bombing and shooting and indirectly by starvation and no water or medical supplies and to remind you that the math that council member Adam thank you for your work it is about $5.9 million that the city of Boulder thank you for your testimony our last two please uh quiet in the audience our last two speakers are adelene Marquez and laara Gonzalez can you hear me yes okay I'm here to continue to ask you to support a ceasefire and gasa and ties with companies that are complicit in Israel's genocide um and atrocities recently as

[65:03] someone mentioned earlier the Portland City Council in Maine voted to divest All City funds from companies complicit in Israel's human rights violations against Palestinians you can all do the same here in Boulder City Council in September we celebrate Suicide Prevention month we recently saw how Israel attacked the polio vaccine event for Palestinian ience that Israel had approved and was even involved in the coordination of again and again we are witnessing this level of horrible psychological warfare against Palestinians and this will cause significant traumas that will undoubtedly lead to more mental health issues and suicides not only to those living over there but to those who are witnessing these horrible crimes and are having their mental health seriously affected here and since this is the area that I work in I am seeing it again and again and the consequences are very real talking about suicide and mental health just yesterday we had another deadly

[66:01] school shooting in Georgia where a 14-year-old killed four and injured many others mental health will come up again and again how many times have we not heard about it we need gun reform now we need investment in our communities here um and in antiviolence initiatives and not in funding genocides war and violent views yet if the identity of the shooter were something besides White the talk about mental health would be non-existent and that is dangerous we've seen it happen with a when a minority person does something the whole Community Pace we see how this affected our neighbors in Aurora who were given six days to evacuate because of all the fake news of Venezuelan gangs taking over we cannot allow this discrimination and bias to continue to happen and that's happening here in Boulder as well so I ask you to support this anti-discrimination and bias work thank you our last speaker of the evening is laa

[67:00] Gonzalez can you hear me yes well I was starting to put a speech but I saw the beautiful children trying to protect the Beast and honestly that brought me a little bit of Hope in this space where you have continuously shown that you have no Humanity for or Palestinian children who are of the similar age play like the kids did today pushing each other they also like to wear little bead things and they like to protect the Beast too but you don't care about Palestinian children because you don't see them as fully humans and if you do why don't you stand up right now if Palestinian children are humans can you please get up no fulkers okay so you continue to send our Texas to murder these children these children today reminded me that I am not longer here to convince you of anything I'm really not I am here to make sure that your actions and LA are are on record I will make sure that future Generations including the children that we're protecting this today your children and your grandchildren will see all these

[68:01] videos of city councils and know where you stood during a current Holocaust inflicted by the settler colonial state of Israel with your unconditional support at this point you have shown that you would have done nothing during slavery the genocide of my people or the Holocaust of the Jewish people this children will know that instead of engaging in courageous conversations about importance of Life freedom and dignity was not important to you because you rather hold on to the Western imperialis seller Colonial system you benefit from that will be your legacy and I cannot wait to see the faces of these children and grandchildren growing up as real humans and being disgusted of being related to you because of your lack of humanity also I am here to applaud um Taisha Adams and fulker for well mostly Taisha Adams because she continues to bring this up and I appreciate you and I would encourage you to continue to do that and I am sorry about the miss jir that you are facing with this white supremacist sitting next to you especially wall and Wier um stop sending $1.6 million of our

[69:00] taxes don't laugh Wier you are here to listen to your constituents not to be laughing so stop being rude get off your phone and listen to your constituents because that's what you get paid for but thank you for your testimony okay that concludes our speakers for this evening appreciate everyone coming out and talking to us I'll turn to City staff to see if there are any responses thank you mayor just a couple of followups um Mr Harish uh I'm sorry that you have gotten a ticket and I will say that um I understand uh from our team that Metropolis does offer a waiver on your first ticket and if that has not happened please let us know and we will follow up with you um Michelle uh as always appreciate you the information that you bring and I'm always concerned when I hear that someone may be in danger so if there's somebody specific you want to bring to our attention please let us know um so we can address that and Mr Clark I just wanted to say I appreciate um you bringing up the concerns about short-term rentals Mr clar oh he left

[70:01] well at any rate I'll say that our um pnds director met with him recently we have uh flagged the property uh for followup and we'll continue to um look into the matter in the future thank you thanks and uh Chris anything from city attorney's office uh no mayor thank you okay great thanks um any any council members want to yes Tara Nua does our new um ordinance uh nuisance ordinance help Mr Clark in any way um I think as with everything right I think the ordinance is one of the tools and the toolbox to do that I think catching some of the activities is always hard because sometimes you have to go there but we are talking with um our code enforcement officers in PD we are talking with uh and continuing to talk with our code compliance officer in pnds and part of it is continuing to

[71:01] look at the data look at the properties bring it to our attention as we continue to enhance the resources that we have in the future we hope to come to you with additional ask for resources and people power if you will um as we continue to uh increase the amount of people that we have in our division of Code Compliance so I do think it adds new tools and I think it's just a matter of um making sure that we're able to enforce appropriately and in the moment so yep thanks anything else from Council Ryan I would like to address the speakers who have come to talk about the catastrophe in and around Gaza I hear you I have heard you and others who have come to talk with us about this this past whole year I hear your pain your horror your your

[72:02] desperation your frustration your absolute rage earlier this year our council did vote not to take action as a body I was part of that vote and I believe it was the right decision that doesn't mean this is not an issue of concern and it's not doesn't mean it's not a local issue in my judgment a local issue is something that impacts our local community and that residents say is important that is the case here and there is more to the question of how we decide what action to take some things we have to consider include how to achieve the most for our residents with limited resources and also how to take appropriate care when we undertake matters of great significance and sensitivity I not proposing any new action again this is something we decided but I do

[73:00] want to recognize you we're coming up on about a year of this and I want you to know that I hear you I respect and admire your dedication to representing those affected which includes in many cases you and your loved ones and if and when you come again I'll still be listening thank you thanks R anybody else right seeing none oh Terry you wanted to add in like Brian I appreciate when everybody comes here and I appreciate and listen to everything you're saying I do object to being called a white supremacist which I'm not so you can tell that you can miss Gonzalez the reason why I roll my eyes is because frankly I don't really want to fight back I don't feel like it's my job I mean I'm here as a as a municipal legis later and so I'm going to sit here and I'm going to listen to people complain about me what I have to

[74:00] say when it starts being name calling I do object to it and I feel like I'm allowed to object to it so I do object to that particular statement and I do find it offensive thanks we got Taisha I know we have a lot on our agenda this evening so I will be as brief as possible I did want to lift up this Airbnb comment um as something that I wasn't aware of so if we can get at not at this moment but at another time um maybe a hotline or just a staff response to how we're dealing with that and the enforcement um as just as well as just the policy um as we would love to have more people who live here full time and then on the anti-discrimination and bias work I want to thank you for that comment um I commend the efforts of the city um in um centering training and developing meaningful tools like the racial Equity tool um and I'm also eager for the next phase of the work which is robust accountability and so I noticed

[75:02] at the CAC a meeting um that an upcoming agenda item will be the discussion of cultural competency assessments which again will be absolutely critical in determining and supporting our efforts and monitoring Etc both at the staff team uh Council um and Community levels but you know as I often say training uh without accountabil is violence um I'm also looking forward to some differentiation do D dja 101 feels like Spanish 101 forever and not being able to move forward is it really hurts our ability to move and and to deepen that work I'm also eager to hear more and work more deeply with the human Relations Committee um and start to navigate how we consider and address both the monitoring report reporting and enforcement of our very robust and beautiful words uh but again words without accountability is violence and then lastly telling that Fuller story and we have a rich opportunity to do

[76:00] that with the America 251 uh Colorado 150 um honoring or commemorating the um anniversaries of America and the founding of Colorado um in 2026 and so eager to work with anybody and everybody um to make sure that we are telling that Fuller story because bias is easy uh to do when a rasure uh is possible um and then lastly uh I return again um thanking those who have commented including my council members fellow council members on this issue I remain firm in um the evidence the extensive evidence that has been provided that this is a local issue just as we speak to State and state issues um and also Federal policies like arpa and Ira Etc which we often times lift up and talk extensively about um and again um I just want to Let's see how many lives okay no not going there oh but I did have something good here um and that is to say um you know I am not one who is

[77:02] trying to go in and I'm waiting for for those to uh ask and I'm excited that we have heard uh from the not na City sister city Representatives I am the na sister city representative for the city um and they are actually um have requested to meet with with us and and thank you mayor Brockett for for your willingness to to to to join that meeting and and and take that the first part of that meeting I'll take the second uh but really it is about um a project they're working on to develop a health center for at one of the refugee camps and as some of you are aware um the um the fighting and destruction Etc has escalated in the West Bank as well and so again we actually in addition if we're not able to do a ceasefire we don't have uh the collective uh will on on Council to do that as community and through these programs we do have a specific opportunity uh to support our nablas uh sister city in this effort and

[78:02] so as I said we are in we are learning more um but if those if there if there's interest and again there's been a lot of interest in this work we have an acute opportunity uh to make a direct impact so I want to again thank the novelist sister cities uh I look forward to um the work with our Council on that and um I think that's really all I have to say about that right now um so thank you very much we have a long meeting I probably had more to say but that's all I have right now let us choose Justice over order thank you thanks TAA okay um so that brings us to the end of open comments so if we can go to our consense agenda but also I'd actually like to request could somebody assist ter our chair is broken maybe we could swap with one the empty chair so maybe somebody from back there could assist with that and while we're shuffling around maybe we can get our um consent

[79:00] agenda I guess we'll give it 20 seconds see if Matt brains me here Matt gets the chair carrying Award of the day that's right better than a mouse all right thank you our consent agenda tonight consists of items a through G1 G2 and G3 H and I and sir and councel if I may for the record your agenda item 3H is approving the ballot order and I just want to note that with the amendment of the agenda the two measures that were removed will not be included in the ballot order to transmitted to Boulder County elections and will not appear on the November 5th 2024 ballot thanks for that any questions or comments on the consent

[80:02] agenda Mark I was a little confused in Reading um uh the regulation of horses and livestock can somebody in 30 words or less tell me what's the what's the actual impact of this are we expanding arees do you have an answer for us I believe um from office we have Janet Michaels is online Janet can you answer council member Wall's question about what that is about I can't thank you for the question Janet Michaels with the city attorney's office we are expanding o open space in Mountain Parks is expanding the horse regulations so just briefly a history is that in 2016 osmp completed a trail study for um let me get to my memo the trail study

[81:01] for the West Trail study area plan and Eldorado Mountain dowy Trail and at that time they enacted um horse regulations and those are in 8-37 and there's a map that's a that's linked to 837 that identifies where horses are allowed in those areas since that time pardon me since that time they have completed uh the North Trail study area plan and the Gun Barrel Hill site management plan so what this amendment does is expands the horse regulations because they've completed those and so it addresses the horse regulations in those two additional Trail study areas does that answer your question yeah and I just have one follow-up question it looks like from the maps a fairly sub substantial amount of osmp land permits off tril access by horses and I'm not

[82:00] quite sure what this means hikers are always admonished to stay on trail in order to not damage open space what's the impact of horses going off Trail you I'm going to see if any of our colleagues from open space and Mountain parks are here that can address that there are horses aren't allowed for instance in trail uh excuse me in habitat conservation areas horses generally stay on trail and what the open space in Mountain Parks does is sign the trails to indicate where they are authorized where horses are authorized um to go off Trail but if there's anybody from osmp that can help fill in the blanks here that would be great and I might suggest maybe they could get back to us or do you feel it's necessary to vote on I'm sorry could they get back to us with more information on that yeah we can do we can do this off F okay great thank you thanks for assisting Janet is that for

[83:00] now Mark good okay great um Tina did you have something no any other questions or comments on the consent agenda seeing No Hands maybe a motion I'll move to approve the consent agenda second got a motion second uh Elicia can we do a roll call please yes sir thank you Q we'll start tonight's roll call for the consent agenda items a through G1 G2 and G3 H and I with you mayor Brocket yes council member fulkers yes marz yes shoard he stepped away mayor Pro Tim spe here yes council member Waller uh yes with the exception of

[84:02] G2 thank you sirly noted council member one yes Adams yes and Benjamin yes the consent agenda with the items as noted it here's by approved with a vote of 8 to zero thank you Alicia can you take us to our callup check-in please yes sir thank you our callup check-ins are item number three on the agenda three I'm I'm sorry item number four on the agenda 4 a is the consideration of a landmark alteration certificate application to demolish the existing building and construct a new 2800 squ foot house and a th000 SQ foot accessory building at 520 Pearl Street this is referenced under his224 0152 a non-contributing property in the west Pearl historic district pursuant to

[85:00] section 9-11-18 of the boulder Revised Code 1981 and under the procedures prescribed by chapter 1-3 quasi judicial hearings BRC 1981 any uh questions comments or desire to call this up not seeing any hand raised hands rais so I think no action on that one all right thank you sir next on tonight's agenda is item number five our public hearings 5A is the second reading and consideration of a motion to adopt ordinance 8646 designating the property at 1836 Pearl Street city of Boulder Colorado to be known as the Thelma may do house as an individual Landmark under chapter 9-11 historic preservation BRC 198 one and setting forth related details and I'll send that straight over to Mary thank

[86:02] you thank you and good evening Council I'll begin by going through the procedure for the Quasi judicial hearing do do you want to just introduce yourself first I'm so sorry Marcy Gering principal historic preservation planner in the planning and development services department thanks Marcy good evening all right so the procedure for quasa judicial hearings begins with uh council members noting any Exar contacts and so I'll just pause now rather than asking members to go individually if there are any exp parte contacts for this uh property any conversations or site visits you may have made to 1836 Pearl Street anybody great any see none we'll begin with a staff presentation followed by any uh questions from Council that the applicant is then here to make a presentation followed by uh Council questions and then the public hearing is

[87:00] open for Community member comments in Council uh questions after the last public comment speaker the applicant uh May respond to anything that was said and then the public hearing portion is closed and Council discusses a motion requires an affirmative vote of at least five members to pass and motions must State findings conclusions and a recommendation and finally a record of the hearing is C by staff as part of the Quasi judicial process the criteria for your decision is found in 9116 of the boulder Revised Code and that is focused on whether the designation meets the purposes and standards of subsection 9111 a and section 9112 of the boulder revised code in balance with the goals and policies of the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan looking at those two code sections the first defines the purpose of the historic preservation code which is to preserve protect and enhance historically significant buildings in

[88:00] areas of the city reminisent of past eras events or people and to develop and maintain appropriate settings to enhance property values stabilize neighborhoods promote tourists trade and interest and Foster knowledge of the city's living history the second provides the types of designations Council may pass including individual landmarks on a single site containing special character and special historic architectural or aesthetic interest or value and then the third part of your criteria asks whether the designation is in balance with the goals and policies of the comprehensive plan which sets the vision for the future development and preservation for the City and County of Boulder the options in front of you this evening are to approve the designation by ordinance modify and approve the designation or deny the designation if designated this property will become Boulder's 217th individual Landmark uh

[89:00] exterior changes will be reviewed through a landmark alteration certificate process and the owners will receive a bronze plaque and be eligible for historic preservation uh tax credits this application began uh quite a while ago in January of 2019 uh after proposing to demolish the building uh through a process with the landmarks board the property owner agreed to preserve the building and the landmarks board approved the relocation of the building forward on the site in order to allow Redevelopment behind it in 2019 the applicant applied for designation for individual landmark and the landmarks board held a hearing on July 10th and uh at that hearing they had a unanimous recommendation to designate the property that brings us to uh this evening and the consent agenda for first streeing occurred on August 15th the property is located on the

[90:00] south side of Pearl Street between 18th and 19th uh in uh East Pearl you can see on the left hand side the green shaded areas are identified potential historic districts while the purple shaded areas are designated historic districts as this is one of the oldest parts of uh Boulder there are quite a few buildings that are eligible for designation including this one the property is a vernacular masonry house relatively simple in its detailing and some of the key uh elements include the gra the Craftsman detailing of the porch uh including the stone uh masonry at the bottom and the half timbering in the Gable end it meets the criteria for historic significance for its association with early Boulder residents Henry and Ella Harris and Jame James and ist beus Harris had a transfer team and beus was a justice of the peace and later janitor at the University of

[91:00] Colorado the baker family lived here between 1896 and 1913 at Edward Baker uh was a seon for the Presbyterian church and lived here with his daughters Maran Sutton and B Baker Thelma Mau is the property's longest resident living here for more than six decades starting in 1930 until her death at age of 91 in 1996 her parents Hal and Elma Mau rented the house before purchasing it in 1931 her father worked as a house Carpenter and Thelma her mother and her sister as well as her cousin worked as laundresses while her brother and another sister worked for an oil company they all lived uh in this house uh in the 1940s and 50s the house meets uh the criteria for architectural significance as an example of vernacular masonry construction with Craftsman elements and the building retains a high degree of architectural Integrity the house dates from the

[92:00] city's uh earliest period of European settlement and is one of the few remaining 19th century houses along East Pearl Street the image in the um bottom right is a baseball game from uh 1887 and the house is uh shown on the right hand side and the building on the left is where cure is today uh you might also recognize this house from a couple years ago when it would be decorated uh for Halloween but year round a lot of people know this as the haunted house uh and it surely looks different today the uh property meets the environmental significance criteria uh for uh its character which has historically been a mix of commercial and residential properties the house is a familiar visual Landmark along East Pearl Street and the scale and massing of the building and its overall site are compatible with the surrounding mixed use context the house was uh recognized as a

[93:01] structure of Merit which is an honorary designation in the late 1980s and was also recommended as part of a East Pearl historic district which ultimately wasn't approved um but the house has been uh identified as potentially eligible for nearly 40 years the comp plan policies that are relevant to this application include those that speak to protect sites with cultural or architectural value encouraging new designations and working to support historic amenities so they continue to contribute to the economic Vitality of the community and Foster meaningful connections to Boulder staff in the landmarks board recommends that the boundary be established to Encompass the Northwest portion of the property which includes the historic house that excludes the more recent multif family development behind and with that uh staff and the landmarks board recommend that the city council adopt ordinance

[94:01] 8634 we'll double check that number designating the property at 1836 Pearl Street to be known as the felet made house is an individual Landmark uh uh in closing I would like to welcome Aaron Grant who is the property owner and thank him for bringing this Landmark designation forward um and I'm also happy to answer any question questions council members may have thank you thanks so much Marcy uh council members any questions for staff not seeing any um Erin is the property owner did you want to address us if you can turn the mic on good evening okay um ladies and gentlemen the council uh my name is Aaron Grant uh 1040 South Gaylord Street in Denver um

[95:00] I'm the developer of uh 1836 Pearl and worked with Marcy and and landmark to to uh get this project done um I have an old friend from high school went to uh nwat High School uh the Hol family that um was the owner of the property when I found it and um they were attempting to demolish the building and there was a bit of a uh impass or Crossroads there and so um I came to Chris uh and said hey why don't we you know see if the landmark would move the house rather than demolish it I mean it's a very it's only a 620 foot house 20 by 30 box um and uh and so we presented that as an idea and and uh everybody seemed to like it so um I think it was a wonderful compromise I mean we uh as the developer uh were able to open up the building envelope to the back of the site um and we simply had to move the house 46 feet

[96:00] uh to the north uh to put it on Pearl Street and uh I had never moved a house before so that was an interesting process um and covid and all the things that have gone through gone on since but um I think at the end of the day uh we uh developed a very nice project uh I think it's being very well received I think uh it's a benefit to the community and I'm awfully proud of preserving the house and it's um turned out to be the most interesting component of the project so um I can answer any questions if anybody has any thanks for that any questions not seeing any but appreciate you being here great thank you okay now we'll go to the public hearing we've got one person signed up to speak which is Lyn seagull and it says Lynn that you're pooling with Christen Marshall and James Duncan are they present they don't seem to be present on

[97:00] Zoom so ly you I have three minutes to speak uh now is the time for you to speak so if you wouldd like to speak to us now now is your opportunity no because this is open this is the only time for a public hearing you all right so Lynn you can either have your three minutes or not okay we're not coming back there we go three minutes have started got

[98:19] I used to like this house I don't like it anymore it's dwarfed it's sterile like everything else in Boulder it's got this huge condos behind it and please stop laughing at me Tera yeah my God is right just be civilized please I'm a taxpayer they might as well have demoed this place and you should see the house that they they demoed yesterday 13048 Street it is the house

[99:03] directly across the street from the south no the North West corner of Columbia C Cemetery I stopped by it today it has two elephants on the front big Rockery it's the most beautiful eclectic like Charming place it has a separate house in the back it's got stained glass it's it's just absolutely fabulous and they killed it killed the life out of Boulder that's what the landmarks board does in this town that house should never it's not funny Tara not funny you want to just take your time if you can refrain from personal attacks pleas please the personal attack isn't me when she's laughing at me excuse

[100:01] me I don't know why they did this appeal for the individual Landmark so late in the game was it tax credits that they get National Historic tax credits or what this is sterile New York City where my dad wanted to get away from New York City that's what this house looks like now inside and inside doesn't matter does it Marcy doesn't matter you just go by the outside just go by your guidelines just go by your own personal unobjective choices okay thank you and that is the only speaker and so that brings an end to the public speaking portion of it though um so I'll look to the applicant did you want to reut anything from the public comment okay uh then we can come back now to the board for to the city

[101:00] council for discussion does anybody have any comments to offer or perhap yes Lauren um I wanted to thank the applicant for finding a way forward for this property to maintain this building I used to work across the street from it and while I will lament a little bit the uh lack of Halloween decor um I am glad that it um is there to contribute in a way that also still allows um the some additional housing and modification as well um I did also just want to address a comment that was addressed towards Marcy and um say that I really appreciate your professionalism and your even balancedness on um everything you bring forward so thank you I agree with that as well for sure I

[102:02] guess I could ask are we allowed to amend the motion to require Halloween decorations just kidding um with that would anyone be interested in making motion it's right there up on the screen I would like to make a motion to adopt ordinance 8646 designating a portion of the property at 1836 Pearl Street city of Boulder Colorado to be known as the Thelma Mau house as an individual Landmark under chapter 9-11 historic preservation in the boulder Revised Code 1981 as well as adapt adopt the staff memorandum dated September 5th 2024 as the findings and conclusions of council and setting forth related details second got a motion in a second can we do a roll call please

[103:01] Elisha yes sir thank you we'll start the roll call for ordinance 8646 with council member folr yes Maris yes Shu hard yes mayor PE Tim spear yes councilwoman wall he said yes got it thank you sir Wier yes Adams yes Benjamin yes and mayor Brocket yes ordinance 8646 is hereby adopted unanimously very good well congratulations and thank you for your efforts to Landmark the property can we go to our other public hearing please yes sir thank you our second public hearing is item 5B on tonight's agenda it is the consideration of a site review

[104:01] application for redevelopment of 2206 Pearl Street as a mixed use development with approximately 2,21 Square ft of first floor commercial space and 45 efficiency living units along with Associated amenity spaces including a second level Community deck common Lounge area secure bik storage an at grade parking garage containing 18 parking spaces where 45 are required this is a 60% parking reduction requested it is reviewed under case number lur 2023-2024 there we go thank you very much um good evening council members my name is Chandler van Scot I'm principal planner for planning and development services I

[105:01] will be presenting the site review for 2206 Pearl Street um so as Darcy or Marcy went over um just a little bit on the procedure for quasi judicial hearing um council members note any ex parte contacts um staff will then give a presentation and Council may ask questions the applicant will then make a presentation and Council may ask questions public hearing is open for Community member comments and Council may ask questions after the last public comment the applicant has the opportunity to respond to anything that was said public hearing is then closed and Council can discuss the decision the motion requires an affirmative vote of at least five members to pass motions must State the findings conclusions and a recommendation finally a record of the hearing is kept by staff so in terms of public notification a written notice was sent to Property Owners within 600 ft of the property notice was also posted on the property um staff has received comments and questions from several neighboring

[106:01] residents several neighbor uh several residents have expressed support um and several residents have also expressed concerns uh among concerns expressed by residents um are not enough parking potential impacts to the surrounding area um units which are too small to be livable uh units not being affordable and too much density the subject property is located at 2206 and 2210 Pearl Street the approximately 20,1 156t property is located south of Pearl Street and North of Walnut Street between 22nd and 23rd there are two commercial buildings located on the property totaling approximately 5,000 square ft um to the rear of the property is an alley the buildings on the property are located towards the northeast corner and the rest of the site is surface parking along 22 Street to the west of the property are parking spaces and there are no known natural features on the site aside from the views towards the west and south of the

[107:03] property this is just a closer up view of the existing property um the sit's comp plan land use designation is high density residential uh which are defined as areas generally located in areas planned for Transit oriented Redevelopment and your major corridors and services the uses range from attached residential to apartments and uses that are complimentary Services the intensity is anticipated at more than 14 dwelling units per acre the site is zoned uh mu3 or mixed use 3 which is defined as business areas that are changing to a mixture of residential and complimentary non-residential uses generally within the same building attached residential uses are permitted by right in this context density is determined by open space per dwelling unit um and there's a relatively low open space requirement the surrounding context is

[108:00] characterized by mixed use residential and Commercial as well as high density residential development to the north of Pearl Street are the Whittier Square condominiums to the South are one and two story residential homes and to the East are commercial spaces immediately across 22nd Street there's a residential building converted to office and multif family home and green leaf Park is located roughly a quarter mile from the site um the site itself consists of two buildings and uses as I mentioned before both of the uses are Commercial Art spaces uh the site is located along the hot bus line on Pearl Street and is also within two blocks of two existing B cycle stations the site is also highly walkable and bikable surrounded by on street bike lands within uh with easy access to several multi-use pads so the proposal is for mixed use development with approximately 2,21 ft of first floor commercial space and 45 efficiency living units along with

[109:01] Associated amenity spaces including a second level Community deck common Lounge area secure bike storage and an accrate parking garage containing 18 parking spaces where 45 are required um it's important to note so there are 17 just totally regular parking spaces then there is one dedicated car share space and there are eight tandem spaces um for folks who might not know what a tandm space is that is a space behind a space so when you park a car directly behind another car um our land use code does not count tandem spaces because they um do not provide the required backing distance they are allowed but we can't count them so if we did count them there would be 26 paces and it would be a 42% reduction um per section 963 B3 of the boulder rised code no additional parking is required for the floor area that is necessary to meet the required minimum depth of the first floor non-residential use which I forgot

[110:00] to mention during the zoning piece but there is a required requirement in mu3 that for attached residential you have a um non-residential or commercial space on the ground floor a minimum of 20 ft deep so they are providing that and there is no additional parking required for that space I'm just going kind of floor by floor at the ground level there are five units located on the ground floor facing 22nd Street the rest of the units are located on the second and third floors of the building uh there's a Plaza on the northwest corner of the lot catering to the commercial space along Pearl Street the parking area is located on the ground floor in a screen from both Pearl Street and 22nd Street with access provided through the alley south of the building the alley is also designed to accommodate loading and unloading as well as a r shair pickup and drop off space short-term bicycle Prov uh short-term bicycle parking is provided near the Northwest Plaza as well as on the east side of the the building new landscape tree Lawns are provided along the street frontages and Landscaping is provided within the building setbacks along the Southern and Eastern sides of

[111:01] the buildings um as you can see here on level two uh 2,000 plus or minus square foot common Terrace a resident common room and 20 units with individual balconies and wall mounted bike racks as well as 11 um storage lockers level three has a roof deck PV solar awning an addition 20 units and additional 11 storage lockers um here are some elevations of the proposed building the building materials pallet consists of modular brick uh metal store paneling wood siding and F fiber cement paneling um so just a bit on the process background up to this point in February 2023 the project went before planning board for concept plan review um 10 residents spoke six in opposition and four in favor uh the planning board discussed three key issues which is whether the project was um consistent with bbcp goals and policies they generally found that it

[112:00] was although some concerns were expressed regarding affordability uh the board was split on whether they supported the proposed parking reduction um but agreed on the fact that a robust Transportation demand management plan would be necessary uh the board generally found that the site design was compatible with the surrounding area um but expressed um a desire to see the applic really focus on architecture landscaping and open space programming um following submittal for site review and a few rounds of Staff review the project went to both the design Advisory board and the transportation Advisory Board um on July 10th in 2023 was the tab for transportation Advisory Board hearing um tab expressed very strong support for the project um they found that TDM the transportation demand management and parking management plans uh met both the transportation master plan plan and Boulder Valley comprehensive plan in terms of the um transportation and TDM related goals uh then two days later went to

[113:00] design Advisory Board um there were differing opinions regarding the building design and the proposed land use there's a a lengthy discussion um the applicant took a lot of those comments to heart and included in the planning board packet where um was a written response that explained some of the changes that the applicant made to the building following the dab hearing but they did make some changes to the design um the project then went to planning board in April of this year April 2nd um there were eight public comments at the planning board hearing split between um those in favor and those opposed uh there was discussion on whether the proposal meets the site review criteria and the parking reduction criteria uh ultimately the planning board voted 61 to approve the application with the recommended conditions um with an added condition to modify the site plan to include an outdoor covered seating area associated with with the ride share pickup spot so that condition has been um added to the uh conditions being recommended to council

[114:00] tonight uh then went to council one month later on May 2nd uh for call up consideration city council voted 54 to call up the item for a public hearing and um that brings us to tonight so the key issues for discussion um are the same as were presented to the planning board first key issue is is the pro is the proposed project consistent with the site review criteria uh including on balance with Boulder Valley comprehensive plan policies and the second key issue is whether the proposal is consistent with the parking reduction criteria of the land use code section 996 f as well as applicable site review criteria um so for key issue number one um just quickly go over the staff findings um staff finds that it's um consistent with several characteristics of the sustainable urb form definition uh it provides 45 efficiency living units on a site designated for high density residential housing in the bbcp

[115:00] that is within close walking distance to both the Pearl Street Mall and the 28th Street Corridor and is well served by transit uh consistent with several aspects of the sustainable Urban form definition found on page 38 including sensitive info and Redevelopment enhanced design for all projects energy efficient land use energy efficient building design reduction of single occupancy vehicle trips uh integrated TDM programs and mixture of housing types um the project incorporates site design techniques and infrastructure that support and encourage alternatives to single occupant Vehicles provides for a balance of private and common open space areas uh Landscaping includes a variety of plants colors and contrasts building and sighting design are compatible with the character of the surrounding area and the project successfully creates visual interest and a vibrant pedestrian experience with simple human scale in high quality architecture uh for key issue number two focusing on the parking reduction criteria um as noted above the project

[116:02] is requesting a 60% parking reduction to allow for 18 off street parking spaces which is 17 unbundled spaces for residents and one reserved for a subsidized car share vehicle uh to be provided where 45 were acquired by the land use code eight additional tandem spaces are provided which do not count towards the minimum required parking because they do not meet required backing distance as I mentioned before um but these tandem spaces do effectively bring the total number of parking spaces to 26 which equates to a 42% parking reduction if they were counted um overall given the site's high level of walkability the existing and proposed multimodal connections on and surrounding the site and the applicant's robust TDM measures including providing a subsidized car share vehicle uh ample long and short-term bicycle parking and other measures it is anticipated that many residents of the development will not need to own a vehicle and that the proposed parking will adequately accommodate the probable number of vehicles to be owned by residents um the

[117:00] applicants also providing an alternative transportation fund um where they will offer um Financial incentive to Residents who do not own a vehicle um subsidized car share as I mentioned before um Boo and N which are business ecopass and neighborhood ecopass membership for residents and employees um and there is nearby on street parking for visitors um so in terms of the availability of off Street and nearby on street parking uh the applicant did uh prepare a parking study which they submitted which showed at least 84 available unrestricted unrestricted excuse me public and on street parking spaces during the study period um and use of multimodal Transportation options will continue to reduce the need for on-site parking on an ongoing basis um so both their TDM and parking management plan outlin strategies to reduce the parking needs of the project and increase multimodal travel share um so with that I will provide the suggested motion language which is here I don't need to read the whole thing um

[118:01] and I am happy to answer any questions thanks so much for that Chandler um before we proceed to questions I'll just do a check in do we have any expart Communications to disclose anybody on Council not seeing any then uh we can go to questions I'll just remind folks that this is a of course a criteria based decision that we're making tonight about compliance with the site review criteria and the parking reduction criteria so just keep that in mind as you ask your questions and consider your comments later on any questions uh that this is a criteria based decision that we're making tonight so we're considering whether the project complies with the site review criteria and with the parking reduction criteria and just to keep that in mind with your questions and your comments any questions work question about process yes um are we not permitted to make more generalized comments about uh things like

[119:00] affordability and uh and that sort of thing you're you are welcome to make some additional ad hoc comments but we need to confine our decision our vote on what's in the criteria okay very good yes any other questions I'll ask yeah go ahead um maybe I missed this are any of the 18 parking spaces in uh expected to be EV uh either suitable ready or or uh yeah mostly just EV ready charging spaces yes um and the exact number Escapes Me it I think it's six was it I can defer to the applicant for their presentation but um there are you can see the ones on the right there listed in red um there's some that are EV installed and some that are EV ready so I think I don't have telescope to see that yeah sorry I think there's I think there's three um proposed as Eevee installed and then additional five that will be Eevee ready great appreciate

[120:01] thank you maybe just to followup so does it fully comply with our code requirements in that area yes very good any other questions mark and let me know if this is not an appropriate question um my recollection is that it is anticipated that the monthly rents on the Apartments will be uh somewhere between 2,700 and $33,000 a month is that correct or have I misremembered um I would have to defer to the applicant we don't get that information and they're going to make a presentation in a minute so I think you can ask them okay that time oh wait question for staff yeah with the um new legislation on parking minimums would this um area fall under that legislation when that goes into effect yes so our code would be reflecting that change regardless sort of if this application were coming through after that yes by July of next year there

[121:00] would be no parking requirement for this development so that would be a m part of this application correct um and then the second piece is I remember in a in a different application we talked about um micro units that there's some sort of 40% rule on that or um what how does that play into this I I I think it doesn't apply here but if you could explain it to me not as part of my decision- making process process I think what you might be referring to is the we did used to have regulations that required a use review if you were um proposing more than 40% efficiency living units um but we did away with that as part of the um Zoning for affordable housing code update so it initially came in as a site end use review and then while it was in review um we changed the code so the use review is no longer required perfect thank you all right see oh yes Lauren you probably don't have an answer to this question but just in case I know that especially in our older

[122:00] neighborhoods we see I have seen a lot more smaller unit types do you have any idea like from buildings prior to our current [Music] code how often we see kind of this 300 square foot unit or you know with what regularity does that occur in our downtown area I don't have an answer to that I can try to look that up for you um but this is the first project of 100% efficiency living units that I've seen yeah I think most of the the projects I'm thinking of are significantly older where I've seen this but thank you okay seeing no other questions then I will ask the applicant to come come forward for their presentation

[123:18] please if you could start on that first slide please there you go thank you thank you for your service and your time tonight we appreciate the feedback that we've received so far in this extensive process it's been great working with Chandler Our Hope tonight is that you see that we have listened to this feedback Incorporated it and that it results in a better project for this this community can I just interrupt can you introduce yourself and then just swear Fromm to tell the truth oh sorry I'm about to introduce myself but I'm

[124:01] okay swear to tell the truth thank you thank you I'd like to take the opportunity to briefly introduce our team for those council members that don't know us my name is Ross Holbrook I'm the managing partner for stok Investment Group I've lived in Boulder for close to half of my life and am currently raising a family here I've been involved in a lot of local organizations including Flat Iron's Habitat for Humanity and more recently the uh City's affordable housing uh technical rev review group or TRG you can go to the next slide please uh Matt Mao is my business partner at Stoke Investment Group he previously built a sister company called Stoke which is an advisory and Consulting business focusing on decarbonizing the built environment they've done over a 100 Net Zero projects and do Global work for large organizations and municipalities

[125:03] our team is local dtj is a 50 plus year boulder-based design firm I'm sure many of you know Dana capow at Dan at Trestle and jva is our structural and civil engineer next slide please Matt and I actually met five blocks away from this site at college at at CU Boulder um we were both heavily involved in the CU real estate program this is a early picture of us at the Redevelopment of the 29th Street Mall 20 some odd years ago we started our discussions around building this business in 2016 the political environment was different than it is today I just had my second daughter and I was really focused on what the future uh efforts I was going to have in my uh career going forward we built this business with a goal to be proud of what we build and develop that means Pride from all of our stakeholders our residents our investors

[126:00] the environment and this community we think our Focus around housing and sustainability is very aligned in the city's goals around housing and sustainability our goal is actually to bring the cost of hous new housing down with smaller units less parking quality finishes and most importantly in great locations go to the next slide thanks this is Dana kapal with Trestle strategy group do I need to be sworn in as well I will tell the truth never hurt what it can never hurt okay all right so this is our project timeline um we've been at this for a while as you can see we started um in 2021 and have really visited every board in commission that the the city has um we visited planning board as uh Chandler mentioned in

[127:00] 2022 with our concept submitt and we are here before you with our site review which is really only for a parking reduction at this point many of the code changes that have been made would now warrant this project not requiring site review or use review next slide so just to I heard a lot of these questions um and your questions to staff so just to comment on those um the two so so when we started we would have had to do site review because we had over 20 units and over 20,000 gross square feet um now that limit was raised to 30,000 square feet for residential um use riew was required for having all efficiency living units which are units under 475 Square ft so that requirement is no longer um in place so the only reason we're here before you is for a parking reduction um 25% is allowed administratively we are proposing 60%

[128:02] with really a 42% reduction and um I just want to note that we have a dedicated on-site car share space that our code also doesn't contemplate doesn't give credit for in the city of Denver they give that equivalates is it equivalent to five parking spaces so that will be paid for by the developer and included for forever in the development um and as you also noted this would probably not even require be required to go through site review with the upcoming parking code changes next slide um as you know you're the ones that have been reviewing this most recently um the city is exploring eliminating parking minimums this would be a site where that would happen um as from the data that was shown from the fox a Tuttle parking study there's an excess of parking especially for mixed use retail and Commercial uses and we found that in our own parking study that we did and conducted over the course of

[129:01] this project next slide so this um just quickly is the schematic that we showed at concept review you can see we largely held um to the massing and form of the building and really focusing on the articulation and streetscape um we did hear uh feedback from you about the car the focus on car light living um and support of parking reduction and really wanted to focus on the mobility and the parking and transportation aspect this um board I did I think referred us to both Tab and dab who we visited with and took their comments to heart and um next slide these are some of the comments from the tab review as Chandler did mention there was a strong support from tab they were very excited to see the TDM that was being proposed at the site and the emphasis on multimodal access dab um we did get a lot of comments some

[130:00] conflicting comments as as can be with Architects but we did take those to heart and kept the simple design um that we wanted to as well as trying to create a some more articulation as we were advised and our architect will be here to go through that in detail next slide we um did receive re 61 approval at planning board in May and we did add a um lift share this is just a schematic we have't actually design or not I'm sorry we have a dedicated um U Uber and lift site on the street so we have a car share dedicated space we also have an Uber lift dedicated space and they wanted a bench for people in the neighborhood who might come and wait for their ride share so that will be added this is just a really quick um design that we did we'll work with staff Tech docs to design that further and next slide just surrounding developments um just noting what the Amis in the area are I know that this is

[131:02] not part of the criteria but has been up for discussion since the beginning a lot of the projects that have been built recently are um were byright projects that were luxury um town homes and condominiums that are selling currently for 200 to 40% of the Ami so we do hope that this is providing something different next slide um it's attainable housing downtown it's um middle income market rate housing we're we're targeted at earning at least 80% Ami to 120% we're able to keep the cost down um on this project by removing a lot of the parking costs parking costs 80 to $100,000 a space we're not going underground we've made them small we've made them efficient we've kept the design level very high they're furnished with appliances and Furniture so that that rent number includes all the common space common kitchen and furnishings and we're providing housing downtown which is much needed for people

[132:02] to shop and spend money downtown um given what's happened in the last few years and we hope to serve um we the Amis would Target actually 70% of all job types for city employees so it's I'm earning that 80 to 120% Ami and I'll Lee with dtj great and I think you're coming up close to the 10-minute Mark so maybe if you can keep your subsquent comments brief I'll try my name is Lee p with dtj design and I also swear to tell the truth you can go to the next slide please Chandler's presentation was so great forgive me if a lot of this is redundant hopefully I can speak to a couple of other things that maybe weren't spoken to before the existing site is a parking lot with two one story buildings as you can see a big feature of this project is the bike parking uh there's 45 unit there's 45 racks within the units 25 long-term spaces in the

[133:01] secure area and two different locations for short-term spaces disperse throughout the site all edges of the property are being improved with landscape uh the alley is having a new dedication for widening of the alley Street trees uh detached and attached sidewalks along Pearl in 22nd with Street trees and then more passive shaded East Side yard area next please our exterior design was very much inspired by The Neighborhood scale and character high quality materials expressive roof forms but simple building forms uh authentic materials as Chandler mentioned modular brick and wood uh simple but beautiful next please um great resident amenities both within unit and uh outside of your unit uh private outdoor spaces for all of the units bike storage as I was mentioning within the unit and within and private storage for residents within the

[134:01] building in Secure areas all the units are furnished with furniture and appliances the residents will enjoy U common amenity areas such as a common kitchen outdoor dining that's adjacent to this wonderfully Southwest facing outdoor uh elevated Courtyard that's private there's a bike repair area in the garage um and yes I just mentioned the elevated Courtyard next please uh in general um we are slightly under the allowable F we're over on the required open space uh we are over as I was mentioning a feature of this project is the the bike parking spaces were're over on that and with the inclusion of the tandem spaces and the car share space uh this is proposing a 42% reduction that's intentional uh we are targeting decoupling cars from the units to have a less car Centric project thank you hello Matt MCO Stoke Investment

[135:00] Group and I swear I will tell the truth thanks Lee following up on Ross's intro next slide please uh we want to ensure everyone here knows uh who we are and why we exist founded in 2018 we exist to build affordable sustainable and healthy moderate income apartments F focused exclusively on to Urban infill locations the benefits of Tod are endless but paired with mixed income the benefits compound picking up on the that idea we wanted to illustrate how aligned we as developers are with the city's goals next slide please in Boulder sustainability and resiliency framework your vision is to thrive in the face of Social and environmental challenges ours is to be seen as by cities as champions of those challenges and where renters choose us for the experience we create similarly your purpose is to use the framework to guide planning and budgeting decisions our purpose is entirely focused around building better buildings better is inclusive of everything including

[136:01] environmental and social justice issues in The Guiding principles you list we feel that this project touches every single one of them in a material way said more simply we share the same values next slide please we seek to create a healthy and communal inclusive Atmosphere by bringing people together through shared amenities our efficient site plan creates space for the often overlooked Beauty items such as pollinator Pathways and biophilia to prove that we're all about health we are seeking a fitwell certification a building standard that was co-authored by the Center for Disease Control next slide please on the sustainability side we're creating a walkable car-free living which has been proven to drastically reduce operating emissions of buildings bike parking and charging as well as multimodal transport allows for the focus on the human scale we've designed an all electric building with photovoltaic Renewables as well as sustainably sourced wood most

[137:02] importantly if successful this will be Boulder's first zeroc carbon building next slide please on the unit side the units are fairly straightforward in their design they're wide tall long and inclusive of balconies yet simple in nature these are the same name is typical units except smaller and furnished they create home without overbuilding private single use amenities we hope that you see the same vision that we do and we appreciate your consideration last slide is uh just for questions thank you great thanks so much any questions from Council for the applicant Lauren um let's see I had a couple of questions about related to Transportation um the alternative transportation fund how is that

[138:01] guaranteed in terms of a promise to the city like how many years does that continue for and um how do we know that that is going to happen thanks uh yes I I can't recall the term that we decided on uh planning board I think there was a condition of approval related to that Chandler do you remember yeah that's correct it's they're required in the conditions of approval to follow their uh Transportation demand management plan which has specific reference to the um subsidy okay um and then with the unbundled tandem parking how do you foresee that working yes so it's relatively simple uh in our mind you essentially have a parking roommate and so they will be incentivized to coordinate with each other to ensure that they can get their vehicles out

[139:01] when they need them okay um we we will also price them differently obviously the space in the back would be uh cheaper than the the one in the front thank you any others Mark um I'll go back to the question I I raised briefly before um uh my recollection is that these are going to be marketed at somewhere between $2,700 and $3,000 a month is that not correct we don't know what we're going to charge because we don't know when it will be built but our Target is 80% Ami and above that changes every year it's based on uh County census data that the colado Housing Finance Authority publishes every May with all due respect are you telling me you have not provided a performer

[140:00] with these kinds of calculations and anticipated uh rent charges to your lender to your Equity investors I mean is this uh are you not going for outside Equity or or financing because I can't imagine that you would get that financing without a performer that indicates what you're going to charge we don't have that information I'm sorry I remember it yeah I mean I'm pretty sure and um and my follow-up question to that is assuming I am correct in in what I uh read previously um how does renting the most expensive efficiencies ever seen in Boulder uh operate to bring the cost of housing down which was one of the statements that was made earlier I'm G to go ahead and try and answer that the the area median income

[141:00] um is $100,000 right now and the average area median income or the 100% Ami for a zero for a studio apartment is $2,500 so those are the tables that are available um through chaffa we're targeting 80 to 120% Ami I've worked on many residential projects in Boulder and to be honest it's the first time I've ever been asked what the rents were or how much the units will be sold for that has never been part of the criteria there's data that shows that this is not the most expensive project per square foot in Boulder well if I give my presumption for asking these questions uh I'm I'm just a little concerned when uh it appears to me that anyone making less than six figures if they choose to live here is going to be rent burdened um well it's the mark if you can if you can sell it you know more power to you um I jump in there sorry I think that

[142:00] was an inaccurate statement so 80% of Ami is actually 80 close to 880,000 which is not six figures no but I'm I'm simply saying if you if in fact the rent is $32,000 a year at 2700 a month um I did not say that well I that was a figure that was published a while ago um and if you're saying that's not true then I'll I'll take your word for it but at that level um uh anyone who is making uh less than $108,000 would be paying more than 30% of their income uh towards rent and that means they would be rent burdened so um but let's let's move off with that because obviously you don't really want to engage in that um um on the parking um what provision is

[143:01] being made again for building staff deliveries Etc I mean how will the how will parking be provided for staff and for deliveries and and support sure there there's two spaces along the alley um one for our car share space and one for Uber lift that will be available for uh deliveries and uh building staff okay thank you the commercial space um is in is it in the it's in the downtown there is no parking requirement for the commercial retail space so I deliveries would happen like they do on every retail space in Boulder probably happening on Pearl Street um during you know off hours so there is no commercial parking requirement thank you great thanks Mark uh Taisha yes I just wanted to confirm

[144:02] though or ask a clarifying question um I believe and Dan I'm sorry if I um I feel like that might be you but I I'm not 100% sure but um somebody shared that the um efficiencies and You' worked on lots of efficiencies and this isn't as expensive but I was curious if those efficiencies were as small as 300 square fet or what percentage of those efficiencies were 300 Square F feet so there's a a a project that was just delivered in the last year called Olive by core spaces out of Chicago uh they have several units that are under 300 square feet today and are at the same price or higher or if we can have quiet in the audience please their their pricing changes on a weekly monthly basis so so again I'll have that I look forward to the aggregate data on that if you're welcome to share um at a later Point um and just to the comment

[145:02] of these issues and the questions that were asking I just wanted to clarify that one of our key qu key issues that we're going to be talking about shortly is not just the site review criteria of the land use code um but also includes if it's on balance with the Boulder Valley comp plan policies and so I want to be very clear that it appears that there has been um some weight in some areas over others but I did want to lift up um that these affordability questions are in line uh with the priorities that have been clearly laid out in the Boulder Valley comp plan policies thank you so much and I look forward to our conversations just wanted to clarify that thanks tasa any other questions okay go ahead chair I don't need this for myself do I I have a question about the parking requirements so how much are people paying per month for those spaces is it

[146:01] $125 to $150 yes so when and this is for the community especially to understand because I don't understand that I assume some other people don't as well how are we how are is the community saving money on parking reductions if they're paying for parking spaces so where does the savings go to sure so if if we were to build a parking space for every resident the project would be more expensive and therefore residents that don't own a car and choose not to own a car would still be paying for their parking space right so you don't save money for the people that I I see okay maybe a different way the project would cost less the project costs less because of We're Not Going Underground with parking so that translates to lower rents and that lower Amis that you saw then the projects around us that have very

[147:00] expensive parking garages that are 200 to 400% Ami um I wanted to does that answer your question go ahead well I was going to answer I pulled up our TDM so the alternative transportation fund is managed for people that don't park and that's um $12 per month and that fund can be used to pay for car share memberships ride B cycle memberships um it's similar to what commutifi is doing with the city of holder I believe employees and we have spoken to Comm communify about um running that program this is second project I've worked on where we have an alternative transportation fund so I think um working closely with actually our our colleagues at the chamber and Boulder Transportation connections on how to manage that fund and have it be used usually they'll provide a debit card and that can be used alternative transportation cost I believe it's for the lifetime of the project um the residents the lease will include languages that they can't have a vehicle to receive that alternative

[148:00] transportation money so that will be built into the lease I think that gives the teeth um through this site review and and through our TDM so hopefully that answers both of your questions okay so last question is I'm I was paying attention to your bike parking were those lockers for the bikes themselves for long-term bike parking is that what they were for I'm not sure which lockers your reference it was in the pictures the pretty pictures that you hador let answer that one I think the the Box shapes that you're referring to those are for private resident storage for their own personal effects they're not for bikes the so where how are the people going to be storing their bikes do you know there's a bike rack within the on in the actual unit yes ma'am okay and then the um short-term bike parking is to the east of the building do you know if that east of the building gets a lot

[149:01] of foot traffic or you don't know uh I would say so I go back and forth on that street a lot on my way to Pearl Street so it's in two spots there's one by the front door that has about six short-term spaces you know for visitors and then the others in the northeast corner is where the higher concentration is hopefully for uh uh that are Patron patroning the commercial spaces okay thanks so yeah I think it does get a lot of traffic any other questions all right seeing none we can go to the public hearing we've got six people signed up to speak five of them in person one virtual each person will get three minutes our first three speakers are Drew fin Elizabeth hondorf and Judith Jones can you hear me great good evening Council my name is Drew I'm a resident of Boulder until very recently I was a

[150:01] neighbor of this s and I continue to own a residence that's occupied by a family member uh I'm very supportive of this project having lived in the same block I know how fantastic the location is with easy walking biking and public transit connections to commercial areas because of its location close to the mall and its current configuration as a single story commercial space I feel it's of the absolute best places to add density in town a project like this allows more residents to live right downtown close to where they work and socialize I believe there's been some push back about the proposed rents but they will be affordable to Residents making median incomes and are in line with other recent new construction I went online to see what current job openings in Boulder were at that income threshold was interested to see that it was most commonly health and education professionals dental hygienist occupational therapist residential caregiver specialed teacher family therapist Etc these are critical roles in our community that will be easier to fill with attractive housing options more broadly this community says

[151:00] that it wants to encourage the creation of affordable housing but this very meeting is a factor in the high cost of housing if this project was just more high-end tow houses the site would already be under construction but because this local team chose to take an Innovative design oriented approach to reducing the cost of housing one that does not rely on grants or subsidies they're being penalized with a drawn out review process that's added significant cost and risk what message does this send to others that want to build middle-income housing anyone watching this process will be forced to think twice I encourage you to vote in support of this project and I hope that you'll think critically about how both the decisions you come to and the processes through which you come to those decisions set the tone for the community thank you thank you now we have Elizabeth hondorf Judith Jones and Lyn seel Elizabeth here okay not seeing Elizabeth we'll go to

[152:04] Judith button no you're good just pull the mic down okay okay my my name is Judith Jones my address is 1905 22nd Street my property is one half block from this project I have lived here for over 45 years when we first arrived 22nd Street was a dirt road and much of the neighborhood was small family homes over the years we have tried to keep the neighborhood a good place for people to live so for example my husband and I have been the caretakers of the mini park in front of our property but during the time every developer has asked for and received parking reductions South Wittier neighborhood has been forced to absorb the Overflow this project should be rejected not only because of the excessive

[153:01] requests for parking reduction but also for its massive sight and incompatibility with the neighborhood with its projective rental rates it is no way affordable housing and the increase in the number of cars parked and trips taken will transform a quiet green and friendly neighborhood into a hectic place I understand there is a developing policy for eliminating any minimal parking requirements in Boulder this idea of forcing people to use an ad an inadequate mass transit system by decoupling people from their cars needs to be thought through the more affluent residents of Boulder have private parking it is only the less affluent who will be impacted their landlords will charge

[154:01] extra for parking space such as this project or they will have to compete for the decreasing number of public parking spaces neither Boulder nor the surrounding communities have the infrastructure for people to work without C cars I needed a car to get to my teaching job most working people still do thank you thank you now we have Lyn seagull and then Darcy kitching ever bought soap and notice your soap get smaller and smaller you know this isn't about affordability it's am Ami it's 80 to 120% Ami that's fixing the middle income right the problem is shrunk shrink

[155:00] wrap and when you have a shrink at space and how much storage do you have some ply little thing what are you gonna do go to your storage lock Locker every five minutes on Uber it's a transfer of parking to congestion and I won't accept that I mean if you're going to pass this thing which of course you're going to I'm going to protest it Boulder Valley comp plan indiscriminate type things you know like people need space this is not have space the bed's robotic you know so what do you do you put out your work during the day and then oh whoops I have to go to sleep oh well my

[156:02] papers are all messed up you know practically speaking you're trying to squish into a tuna fish jar you know and extract the wealth and the profit the maximum amount you can get what this community needs to do is get some creative Architects that can do communal housing with different themes and different types of individuals you know or or families to living together you know this is not it's not cheap at all I mean it's it's cheap because you know but they've got toilets for each person in there you can't have more than two people in there and you're not going to you're going to have one washer dryer nobody asked about that but you know that's what the communal house should have up to 10 people on One washer washer dryer and then you have

[157:01] these little tiny kitchen things that no one's going to eat there of course uh you want them to go down to Pearl Street M yeah and and increase our tax revenue good luck with that because you're going to increase my my ability to ride my bike around town with more cars cars from them and and they've got their bikes in their units hello these big wheel bikes in a 300 squ foot unit you know and yes Olive has 200 square feet for 2,000 square 2,000 bucks a month granted but these guys are now building over on Walnut for 375 Square ft you know small better our last in our last inperson speak speaker is Darcy kitching hi everyone I'm Darcy kitching associate executive director of Boulder

[158:00] chamber Transportation connections speaking in support of the proposed development there's a question of the feasibility of a carfree or car light lifestyle with some asking who would want to live like that well about 8% of Boulder households thousands of people live car here carfree but I'll focus on two first the person who lived in my southp D condo before me she was an active person who worked part-time as a pets sitter walking dogs in the neighborhood she loved living on the skip bus line and not having to worry about maintaining a car or driving as she Grew Older second my 40-year-old colleague at the boulder chamber who lives in a small unit less than a block from the proposed project he's a single dad who rides an ebike year round with his very active toddler and who loves being able to live and work close to everything he and his son need every day for him it's not only doable to live without a car it's desirable my colleague saves about $1 13,560 a year by living carfree that's

[159:00] the cost of owning and operating a vehicle in Boulder according to the housing and transportation index the kind of people who will choose to rent these micro apartments are likely to be the kind of people who want to live and work in the heart of Boulder they'll spend much of their lives outside of their units patronizing our downtown restaurants and coffee shops going out to bars after work and not driving home they'll take the hot bus walk check out B Cycles and borrow the on-site car share vehicle when they need one they'll add to the vibrancy of our city and our economic Vitality spending money here not commuting in for a job and taking their earnings back to their home communities those sales tax revenues will provide much needed support for our city and these new neighbors will become 24-hour members of the downtown community that's meaningful to our businesses too which want employees to have easy access to their offices and to fill the vacancies we're experiencing right now these kinds of housing projects are essential for helping us meet the goals of the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan which requires us to use the urbanized spaces we have more

[160:01] efficiently and to promote sustainability by putting people in proximity to the resources and destinations they need every day according to a 2019 report if onethird of Boulder's non-resident employees moved into the City and traveled like current residents do it would reduce greenhouse gas emission by over 33,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to taking 7,000 cars off the road many people do want to live in small centrally located units without having to pay for parking the more this kind of housing we provide by right the more affordable it will become over time thank you very much thank you quiet quiet in the audience please we have one virtual speaker which is Jill Grano quiet please good evening Council uh thank you guys so much for the work you do for our city I I'm truly so grateful for each one of

[161:00] you um and tonight I'm here speaking in support of this project so according to the recently released Dr Cog study that council member Spar shared today via hotline Boulder needs to construct over 10,000 new housing units over the next decade for a for individuals making 120% of Ami or below these elus help us move towards that goal and look I understand that 2500 to 2700 for an elu sounds high but what would you rather have these developers build luxury condos fewer larger apartments that are going to cost even more per month I mean this isn't a BHP project and I'm truly confused as to what you think a better alternative would be here I implore you to focus on the form and structure of this project and not the potential price of the units their market rate units and they're going to fluctuate with market conditions if we

[162:00] build more of these there'll be downward pressure on these rental prices delaying or rejecting projects like this only contributes to Upward pressure by right the alternative to these elus in this location is more luxury condos that we have all over Boulder right now rather than serving those making Ami luxury condos serve only an elite population to afford a $2 million condo one must earn over $700,000 per year I recently conducted a study of five luxury condo complexes mostly along Pearl and found that over 34% of them are owned as second homes in contrast these elus will be lived in by our local Workforce providing much needed housing for those who contribute to the Vitality of our community and if you have concerns that these units might become corporate rentals or effectively used as a hotel I urge you to address the laws that enable that those are

[163:01] policy issues that have nothing to do with the form of this project lastly it's crucial that you recognize the environmental and social benefits of building more housing within existing infrastructure denying projects like this doesn't stop homes from being built it just push is development further out and that means consuming more agricultural land displacing more Wildlife stretching water resources and making longer commutes for our Workforce you guys please don't repeat the mistake that we made at the old people's clinic along Broadway near Iris where we now have 13 bulky luxury condos that sell for $2.7 million each that developer tried to do something similar to this they tried to build elus and we denied it and now we're never going to get that space back please support this project thanks so much thank you and that finishes out the

[164:02] public hearing I'll offer the opportunity to the applicant to rebut anything if they would like to no okay very good um then let's bring it back to city council for a discussion and Chandler can we get the key issues back up on the screen please please great so our key issues are is the proposed project consistent with the site review criteria including on balance with bbcp policies and is the proposed vehicular parking reduction consistent with the parking reduction criteria as well as applicable site review criteria does anybody want to open us up on addressing these key issues all right mat jumping at the bit here um well so for one I I mean it's

[165:00] going to be a yes yes for me pretty straightforward um but I do think that in terms of some comments about that um I think what Jill and Drew mentioned I think were spoton what would what would this place be other than this this is exactly the kind of thing that so many of our codes are trying to create and so I don't know why we would get in our own way uh we've been spending at least on my entire time for Council trying to get to a place where this is something that can happen and maybe happen faster um than we've otherwise had and we've been getting out of our own way with code so this is exactly the kind of thing I mean four Town Homes going for $2 million a pop is the opposite of what we're looking for so I appreciate the applicants for bearing with us as we navigate how to make our codes more conducive for the values that we have in our community so sorry has taken so long to get there uh but appreciate your patience in the pursuit of that um with regards to parking again we've got staff working on this this is exactly the tripod of parking reductions that we've asked staff to do and this

[166:01] project is doing exactly that and on top of that the state just told us to eliminate parking minimum so I don't know what there is to really mention about parking of then that's exactly where we want to go with things so we might not like that this isn't some permanently affordable thing but it's exactly what our code gets by right and it's fantastic to see that we're heading there so I just appreciate the applicants for uh you could have left this sound and said see you we'll go somewhere else but thanks for sticking with us and and look forward to seeing this project come to fruition so appreciate that thanks Nicole thank you um and it's a yes and yes for me as well um and I just want to know U just thank you to the applicants you have worked so diligently to help this project align with our sustainability and transportation goals I know that's the focus of what we're talking about tonight I really appreciate your persistence here um just a quick little anecdote when I met my husband in 2000 he lived in a very old

[167:01] tiny little efficiency unit in a 16 story apartment building in Downtown St Louis um and I went back and was trying to talk with them you know hey what were you paying for that do you remember um and on a graduate dipen this was St Louis of course but he was BAS basically making 80% Ami and was paying something that today would be equivalent to the price range that we've kind of been talking about here so and it was very old so just just want to note that um but in his his uh Studio the very first time I went there I walked in it was so tiny his bike was taking up a quarter of the space with all his cycling gear in this tiny little uh studio apartment and there there weren't car shares there weren't um secure bik storage spots um there weren't any Community areas or places to bring people together and I just hearing about this project it's it's amazing to me how far we progressed in 25 years and um variety is so

[168:04] wonderful in our community and I really appreciate you bringing this product type to um to this Market here and just thank you so much for persisting with us it will not be for everyone but it will be for some people and they will appreciate what you're bringing to the community thanks anybody Ryan yes and yes and I uh would concur with everything I heard from Nicole and Matt this is an excellent project team brought a solid project Concept in may they made it better addressing feedback from our boards it seems like the details have gotten a lot of attention um because what we're doing here or what you're doing here is being taken as a little bit exotic and I think that's that's a statement that this is a category of housing that we're short on and need more of uh as Nicole said this is not for everybody but there's an incredible and perhaps incredibly surprising diversity of housing needs um

[169:01] and uh this is the step in the right direction the fact and the fact is the cost of housing in Boulder is high uh and I would compliment the team with their Vision about thinking of costs in terms of the holistic costs that combin Transportation housing and other amenities this is in the urban core uh per person and this is going to reduce impacts um costs I should say in our community compared to anything else I've seen on Council um and I think you create you set a new bar for us as we start thinking about uh updating our transportation demand management planning so um thanks for sticking with us um I hope the the the next project that has this kind of a form and a footprint can sail through um more quickly thanks again Tina uh yeah thank you staff for helping understand all the different issues and to the applicants um with their presentation um I I do feel that this meets our um our land use code and the

[170:00] bbcp policies and I because of the changes in parking requirements um I also think it meets um that that we should move forward with the parking reduction um separately to the um thought around the um just sort of its ad hoc comments um you know my particular interest is trying to find ways to help people with children live in the city of Boulder and so it is upon us as a council to think about our bbcp policies and how we create incentives and conditions that will promote that kind of development as well in our city as well as for this Market that's being served in this development um so that's my uh that's my my basic uh comment do I have anything else um oh and also I I am sensitive to the transportation issue and the congestion of cars in downtown Boulder we have so many challenges in transportation and we were also aware that we haven't met the transportation

[171:00] hopes and dreams that we had in terms of buses in terms of the frequency of buses especially to the airport and to downtown Denver we have so much work to do so I hope that when we see projects that have reduced parking that we are sensitive to the neighborhoods and come up with Solutions so that um as we become the transportation state which doesn't seem what's going to happen next year that people can um live easily in their neighborhoods while they need to drive a car to their work thanks thanks anybody else good Mark okay and then Tera I can't see you over there Terra you got your um yeah obviously I'm I'm gonna have a slightly not a slightly a substantially different take on this uh first with respect to BBC policies you know um the comp plan is a little bit like the Bible um you can pick and choose among policies and justify almost anything under economic Vitality I could

[172:02] probably make an argument in favor of fracking in Boulder and so it's it just to say it it conforms with BBC policies is not really a satisfactory uh comment to me um I am I don't mind parking reductions but I think this one could well be a little bit excessive um and that's of concern to me as well and I I want to focus on what Tina said um what this city requires is more housing for families for uh people with children um that will go into our school system um of all the many needs in Boulder for housing um satisfying the needs of individuals Mak six figures and who want to live in an oversized closet is really about the last one that I would wish to address so I I have a much more jaund this view of

[173:00] this project obviously than than my colleagues um and that'll be reflected in the final vote but um I I just don't find this to be a very appealing uh project on on a number of levels thanks I Tara Taisha and Lauren well I'm going to vote yes and yes but I do want to say that after reading I mean we're applauding you like it's the first coming or something I mean honestly it's an investment group and you want to make money so I would say that there's nothing wrong with that that's my personal opinion but I'm confused how housing justice has to do with this which is one of the pages of your website what I'm saying is is my opinion is be upfront you want to make money you're a developer that's fine but it's not like you're doing this for charity either so that being said I'm for the project I'm not against the project but I feel like just you know like we called

[174:00] it up because it was an important issue and I feel a little bit chastised that we called it up should we know this is an important issue that we wanted to hear from you and I'm satisfied with what I heard in general um but I felt it was important enough that we should call it up also I do want want to say just a quick word about the bike situation everything's a situation for me you we have a lot of Stolen Bikes right now like two to three a day and so I'm thinking that if you want to do even more Innovative work than you're doing now maybe look into how we can have our outside bike your outside bike parking with maybe something more innovated than just by GRS because it's a pretty big problem and I'm looking for companies that will join with us and try to help us fight the bike crime and in a more substantive way than just regular bike racks so

[175:01] maybe you can look into that and that's all I have thanks Taisha thank you so much I would love to I Really commend you know I ran on climate and cultural resilience I absolutely commend all of the environmental sustainability efforts with the exception of the two parking spaces for Uber and lift sharing for 48 people or 48 units or however many you and I know that's not enough that math ain't mathing but other than that I really do appreciate that aspect and it does align with with much of our um B bbcp policies as well as clearly aligns with the site review code and I agree um Jill that the the code the design the form is amazing it's amazing and I can't wait to work with our colleagues and uh intergovernmental um to really think differently about how we do housing and so this is where I will be a big no on number number one um because I do not

[176:02] believe it aligns uh or rather it it um it is inconsistent with our bbcp policies and specifically I'm going to lift up policy um 711 balancing housing Supply with employment base so one of the speakers thank you so much mentioned um City staff and um again remember our city staff range is is quite large um and much of our city staff can't even afford to live here now um and so again um 11 7.11 speaks specifically to the bowler Valley Housing Supply should reflect the to the extent possible ex uh employer Workforce needs locations and salary ranges and um if if our conversation around minimum wage has taught us anything or has shown us ex uh with very robust evidence that our employee our Workforce um currently does

[177:00] not have uh uh does not have or rather our housing needs does not meet um the workforce needs or our housing stock doesn't meet the need um and so again um I I will be voting no um for for that um and unfortunately uh but I hear you on I don't want more big boxes so to me the answer is not well we'll take what we get because that's how we got here um and again I need not remind anybody of the founding of our city in 1859 with ,000 a lots this kind of housing will not help us um meet the needs around families um around having um I think back to the pandemic um and not having um diverse set of of different types of jobs and responsibilities here and having 30 to 40 % of folks having to come in and you know those 30 to 40 perks are from low you know have lower income lower of the Ami BMI whatever acronyms you're using so um that's a no for me on number one but um an absolute

[178:01] strong yes for me uh with the exception of those two parking spaces for number two um and again the message that I hope that I am sending crystal crystal clear is that we want housing that is Affordable in a variety of different ways in a variety of different places including in our downtown area and we wanted to comply with Rule 7.11 and I look forward again to the update to the bbsb plan and being Innovative in a variety of different ways I know we have a lot on our plate today so I will end there thank you thanks tasa Lauren and then I'll say a couple words thank you um I wanted to oh yes first address these for me it is a yes on both number one and number two I do find that it is consistent with the site review criteria and and um I support the parking reduction proposed I want to thank the client for push for bringing forward this somewhat

[179:01] risky project I imagine you might not have anticipated how challenging it might be to move forward um one thing that we haven't really celebrated tonight is um the carbon neutral piece I I think that that is a um as an architect a huge undertaking and I look forward to hearing how um what ways in which it is difficult for you to achieve that um hopefully you will present on that in the future I would love to hear it um I also appreciate the unbundled parking in the car share we currently you know H are not completely in control of our Mass train transit system and while we are working to improve that system I think that there are a variety of different Alternatives that we need to provide to help people um in the interim and I think that those are good options for um helping us

[180:01] bridge that um and while this project alone is certainly not going to solve our affordability issues um having a variety of housing types is a significant part of creating an e ecosystem of housing options that helps um with affordability in our community always new projects are more expensive than older projects and so even when as new this project is going to be more affordable in terms of being affordable to people making 80% of Ami in our community than many other new projects in our community and that affordability is likely to deepen over time um just last week I met a

[181:00] 65-year-old who had just moved into a 350q foot unit um several years ago her husband died and she had been moving into progressively smaller units and she was so ecstatic to tell me that her current house was the fa her favorite that she had ever lived in um so I think it's important to to not prejudge who might live here and who might be happy with this living situation I know that if it's if I were single it is seems like a place that I would like to live um and so I think that again we just need to not project our own desires in terms of living because not everyone shares the same goals I love a cozy living space and I appreciate you bringing those options to our downtown thank you thanks Lauren I can pretty much just

[182:01] ditto what you said I thought that was very well said along with many of the other comments from my colleagues but just very briefly I just think this is the perfect project for this location um it's so walkable and bikable and has a great deal of Transit so definitely agree that it meets the site review criteria and absolutely on the prking reduction criteria um and this is a type of housing that we don't have a great deal of and so it will provide an option that I think is not for everyone for sure but for some people it'll be absolutely perfect for them and so we'll have 45 uh folks who are able to live right near our downtown um in ways that they probably otherwise would not be able to um people making that 80 to 120% of Ami and I was just walking down East Pearl a couple of days ago and all the new developments in that area primarily are these larger town homes and they're lovely but as Dan pointed out in her slide they're serving 250 to 400% of Ami um so these new units won't be dirt cheap but they'll meet a housing need

[183:00] that is has very few options currently so uh excited about the project and all of us have spoken so chandela do you have the motion language handy maybe somebody would like to make that motion Nicole I motion to approve site review application L 2023 000020 adopting the staff memorandum to the planning board and the attached analysis of review criteria as findings of fact and subject to the conditions of approval imposed by the planning board and its actions on this application second got a motion in a second Lisa should we do a roll call here yes sir please thank you we'll start the roll call on the site review of 2206 Pearl Street with council member Maris yes shuar yes mayor po Tim spear yes

[184:02] council member wallik no Wier yes Adams no Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes and council member fulkers yes the site review plan plan for 2206 Pearl Street is hereby approved with a vote of 7 to2 congratulations sh the quiet in the audience please take care all right can we move to item 6A please yes sir item 6A is the Matters from the city manager and it is the council agenda process improvements

[185:00] discussion thank you so much Council if you remember and recall at our last Council Retreat we talked a little bit about uh changing our um current agenda management system and I will say while staff in general is very excited about that I believe no one more excited than our own City Clerk um so uh we've been working hard on it and we had some conversations at that at our Retreat and there's been a lot of work so I'm going to pass it over to our assistant city manager Pam Davis to kick us off thank you very much and good evening Council my name is Pam Davis I use she her pronouns and I serve as assistant city manager for the city of Boulder um so I appreciate the opportunity to represent our cross departmental team here tonight just want to give thanks to our amazing clerk's office as well as Information Technology Communications and engagement and planning and development services departments who have all contributed in some way next slide so tonight I promise a very brief background on our work in progress in

[186:01] this area of process improvements to the council agenda as well as um some recommended changes regarding distribution of meeting packets and some informational materials next slide so presented to you tonight are really two related but Independent Drivers of some desired process improvements on behalf of Staff the first is related to a necessary transition of our software that the city uses to manage our memo and agenda process for Council this includes our agenda development memo development and workflow and has allowed us to have the opportunity to more deeply study all of our current processes and ensure we are going to enhance our processes and make them more accessible full implementation of our new agenda software is anticipated in the first half of 2025 as that project timeline becomes more refined we intend to find a logical break in between meetings perhaps a a

[187:02] time when Council already has a short Gap so that we can then provide extended notice to city council all of you as well as the public about any changes that they may experience and how to access meeting materials before that goes live Council will also receive specific training on the new system how to access those materials and how to view meeting packets going forward the second driver of tonight's discussion is continuing the process changes mentioned at the April 2024 Council Retreat that nura has already mentioned step has already begun developing components of a new memo template as discussed at The Retreat those improvements based on feedback from you include standard inclusion of a fiscal note and identified racial e Equity impacts for items reducing redundancy of information better identifying pros and cons of possible actions clearly defining terms

[188:00] and acronyms and demonstrating connections between items and existing plans and programs across the city all all use better use of attachments and links for related information and keeping memos as concise as possible it is not a small sorry did you say shorter memos is that what I heard that shorter memos that's the goal should I drop the mic there or um and so the the topics around meeting packet timing were deferred from your retreat and being brought back this evening next slide so as we start to talk through the process improvements I just wanted to present a very simple visual of a standard month in the city of Boulder this is what happened in June of this year here um as you well know currently City staff produce three packets every two weeks to provide information to you for Council meetings and study sessions so this means for our internal workflow

[189:01] we're kind of always working on at least two meetings at any one time we are hopeful to streamline this flow of packets so that you're getting the information you need when you need it but so that we can also make some internal process improvements to allow for things like an enhanced review workflow internally to ensure that information you're getting is consistent in nature and shorter memos next slide specifically the changes that we're recommending the first is for your regular and special meeting packets So currently two separate packets are produced in advance of a regular or a special meeting the first is the preliminary packet that is provided roughly 13 days prior to each meeting that usually includes uh the majority of general information that is coming to you in uh the final packet but will occasionally be updated or added to or um additional items will be included in a final packet if they are highly times

[190:02] sensitive and we need those extra few days then seven days before the final meeting is when before the regular meeting is when you receive your final packet we are seeking your guidance on whether you'd be comfortable with our recommendation to shift to a single final packet a week before the meeting considerations in making this recommendation include um certainly on the staff time uh producing one memo per meeting um certainly allows for efficiencies in our clerk's office and across our departments um when also balancing that with the work needing to be done to produce the information for you uh we know that currently our preliminary packet system is um inconsistent that sometimes we have the enough time to provide complete information to you other times um items might be missing or incomplete we also realize that currently you often have two packets on your plate to be reading through at any

[191:01] one time this would eliminate that um and we do acknowledge this would reduce some of that review time as a result of eliminating the preliminary packet the next slide please so this slide then talks about study session packets again they currently are distributed 13 days prior to the meeting you get one study session packet uh there is no sort of prelim and final we'd like to shift that if possible to be seven days prior to the meeting with the idea that no longer would be we produce two packets per week but move to um a meeting packet in advance of a meeting followed by um the next so that you're only reading one per week similar considerations as before while it would reduce total review time it would cut down on the duplication of packets that are being issued in this particular case the one uh there would be one follow-up action required that we would bring back to you uh the current

[192:01] Council rules of procedure do ask that generally study session packets are made available at least 10 days before the meeting so we'd need to make a minor edit there okay next slide and finally we are recommending shifting how information items are currently distributed to you so um years ago the the decision at a a past Council retreat was to attach information items to meeting packets we see now over time that that really uh kind of reduces when we can give you information quite frankly and so decoupling the process of providing information items that don't have a corresponding Council action at the meeting seems like an improvement that would benefit both uh staff because that meeting production that meeting packet production would shrink in size and also allow for more Nimble distribution of information the other thing I think this decoupling allows for is just giving us

[193:00] a different mechanism to provide you information if we know a really meaty subject is coming up on a council meeting and hypothetically we do shift to this one packet a week situation leveraging these information items to provide you for example a technical consultant report several weeks in advance followed by a memo that week before um we could see some opportunities to get you the information you need when you need it next slide and this is it so this is an example of the short concise information that you can expect from us moving forward um so we have our three fundamental questions for you all here tonight related to the process the first two questions deal with the timing of council meeting packets whether or not you support eliminating the preliminary packet for regular meetings and receiving a final packet a week prior to each meeting and whether or not we would shift the timing of these study session packets to be a week in advance of those study sessions finally the third item is

[194:03] related to that informational item distribution and sort of decoupling those extra attachments to meeting packets and communicating those over separate cover electronically and that is the end of my presentation thanks so much for that Pam so what I might ask of council why don't we start with any clarifying questions that you have and then maybe we can do a real quick response to their questions for us so any clarifying questions for staff Taisha or thank you just a question about whether um that was inclusive of presentations for the one week thanks for that question currently presentations are distributed I think early in the day of the meeting most weeks um that is not proposed to change in the scope of this conversation that said we're welcome in general to feedback on presentations okay and I just ask because um to me it's it's um it's you

[195:01] know having you know Equity is not having one very long packet but having a variety of grain sizes so I was hopeful that in the reduction of all the redundancies and the sections and making it smaller that then there would potent there would be the potential to um have the slides available and again coming from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and I recognize the Cadence is very different from a monthly meeting to a weekly meeting but it was just really helpful um from a public perspective and from you know a a a reader perspective reader pect perspective you know there's information that comes in that presentation that is different than what is in the packet how it's organized um it's just a it's a nice uh complement to um the larger packet so um I'm just hopeful that there's consideration around that intersection thank you thanks other questions Nicole or Tina um I had one question you made mention of a long report being sent

[196:01] separately is that something where even if it's part of one of the two packets you might send it in advance if it were like 350 Pages just to pick a random number of p no connection to anything recently not at and and heavily economic yeah yes no absolutely and that's that's exactly council member Marcus the the example we were thinking of in mind when we were considering the information item is um you know some projects the context that staff provides from uh a report we deem necessary to ACC company um but others you know we could provide to you undercover this is the independent analysis we've received you know feel free to start digesting it we'll follow up with the memo and so that that's exactly the vision if something things available well in advance why not let you start your review and then I had a second question for the items that currently are sort of below the line that uh aren't um that we don't have action on would those come out in an

[197:00] email to council or would they go out more in a hotline format so the community would have awareness of those so pending your direction tonight I think we'd want to have an internal stff discussion on exactly the form that takes um you know balanced with use of hotline and other things I think um certainly items that are of public interest like the reports we maybe just described I think we could absolutely consider a hybrid between um sort of when is it a quick email versus when is it a hotline post cool and thank you for the presentation all the thought that's gone into this um I'm just wondering what the new agenda software is there any way to still put these information items and things there there in some format just kind of getting to Tina's point about how they can be made you know publicly available and the way that that folks are are getting them usually right now I do think it's very possible in the workflow that we could do like a Roundup of

[198:00] information items that still get attached to the packet but not have the distribution of those things dependent on the packet so if that's something you'd like us to roll in depending on your direction happy to okay thanks yeah I don't I don't know that I have a strong opinion about it I just maybe something for you all to discuss and see if that's worthwhile and then um the other question that I had is just if you would mind considering in the information materials distribution uh having things have consistent subjects or something like that that we can easily use rules just just just kind of I would love to be able to take them out of my inbox and put them in a place that I know I should kind of go to and check in on uh to avoid them getting lost in the mix of everything else we get thank you do you mind if I follow up on that question just and in addition to maybe attaching them to packets as well could there be a common repository where we as council members could be like oh I need to catch up on my info packets and you could go to a certain folder somewhere there's yes as you all know

[199:01] our Council assistant Megs valer who I know is listening somewhere in another room she uh oh never mind she's right here of course she is thanks Megs um we have a council library now and so absolutely that repository exists and so if we wanted to add C categories for things like those heads up emails boards and commission meeting minutes um I can absolutely ask for Meg's help yep great I got excuse me Pam if I may add to that we also can put those items in laser fish under informational packets for the public to also have access to them great Lauren and then I got taish again my questions were answered I would I have comments but no questions we'll come back to you tasa a follow-up question yeah you know I I I was actually vibing off from the polls and that was around the um if it would be possible to connect the um specific topic to or and how it aligns to either the bvs bbcp

[200:02] plan or the sir whatever or whatever you know just basically some mechanism where I it would be easier to to be able to see you know when we're you know what uh the frequency of topics and and the kind of analysis that we talked about at the CAC meeting thanks council member Adams I think what you're describing is suitable for kind of memo content as we're exploring the capability of how new templates in our new software might easily pull that kind of information so um just jotted down that note as well to explore um but appreciate the theme oh no I mean I was like cool like thank you that's it I'm I'm happy that they even in the in the source great terara this might have been asked and answered already but I didn't always have this in I'm having trouble hearing so Alicia what did you say about the

[201:01] information packet because right now let's see I've been on Council two and a half years and I remembered one time to read them so only one so I'm hoping that they're in a place where I can when I have free time and that's not after reading 350 Pages uh get to those information packets and like how can they be in such a way that like big letters this parks and Rex W for instance wants you to read this information packet about tennis because I keep missing them and it's my bad well I think um and Pam can confirm for me I think the purpose of us getting that information through you through an email or through the actual Library will be your First Source right but you can also if you don't want to go into that and look around or whatever you can also we can also place them in our City's archive under informational packets and we can even make the file

[202:00] structure where it's very easy to understand and we can even make the file structure by Department that's something we can work out down the way but I think the initial thought is to have them sent to you directly when you may need to see them and then if you don't get to that email you can actually go into the archives and see and also direct to public to the archives as well so you said you're going to send us an email with the information packets is that what you're saying that would be great correct we'd have some sort of proactive communication and then ASA described when you forget where that email is you can always point to that just for clarity and what I'm hearing uh councilman Briner is a desire for plain language and Clarity so that the nomenclature that we use the wording is like Parks tennis not date and memo of right that there is some simplicity so that you and Community can figure out what what what the topic is when you're searching is that what I'm hearing if you're searching with the

[203:01] word Parks you know stoping Mark did I see your hand okay all right I'm not seeing any of their hands for questions so um I will note we're a little bit behind schedule so what I'm going to say is um how about we just if you have any problems with with what's being proposed or have any requests for changes you could speak up but I'm going to generally go from the assumption that we're we're liking staff's proposal so if you have any objections or comments or yeah Mark and Lauren yeah I'm basically supportive but uh a couple of things one uh if you're only going to give us seven days to review this material um we have to avoid uh six seven memos um at a time each 40 5060 pages I mean we just have to be a little more disciplined than that I often start

[204:01] preparing when I see that kind of agenda 10 days in advance um because I have to U and number two I'm a little concerned with um some very large uh memos uh that really do require a bit more than seven days and I believe we we uh published the budget last Friday um I would be you know I think it would be a very different position if we only got the budget or access to the budget tomorrow um for next week's conversation that document is necessarily very very large and there's nothing you can do about it uh and there's no way you can you know turn into a 20page memo uh it is what it is and and if people are going to um really delve into the budget itself uh to determine if if they're happy with the allocation of funds and and how

[205:01] we're proceeding um there's got to be enough time to do that and um unless you're going to devote your entire weekend and I'm sure we all would love to do that um there are some things that are just necessarily very long and and maybe on those exceptional occasions we could get a little more time than seven days there's nothing that that says it has to be written in stone on each and every uh topic um and something like the budget is certainly one that I would want to have more opportunity to to peruse and getting it Friday morning and uh preparing for a uh study six days after that very good Lauren then I got Taisha yeah we're at comments but hopefully brief ones in general I

[206:00] support this and I'm excited to see us move forward um I do AG I mean seven days we make it work any extra day would be you know if it could be eight days that would be nice if we could get the presentation the day before the meeting I think I know that you're all up against hard deadlines and making it all happen is hard but um just having a little bit more buffer would be really helpful um in terms of not everything happening at once in terms of a council meeting the new packet but you know trying to stay on top of everything I will also say that with the informational materials um while I support them being distributed other ways um again having the link in the packet is just a nice way to make sure

[207:00] that you don't miss an email we get so much email and um I think it also is nice for the public record because that is someplace that the public already knows to look for what's kind of coming in front of council and a nice way to record that that is information that's public available I'm open to other options but I think it needs to be something Beyond email thanks TAA did you have your hand up I'm just a brief coign on Mark's comment around if we know that there are certain I would love us to just kind of do a review of some of the bigger packets and things and just start to think about um some of those bigger packets I do think there are exceptions to every rule that's literally the definition of equity thank you thanks Ryan then than Tina um yeah thanks for putting this together this seems great and um I would just ask one just we do a check-in and see how it's going and um of course we always we do like to share feedback so

[208:00] I'm sure that will happen regardless um and then the other piece is I um you know I watched the Longmont minimum wage um council meeting and looked at their agenda format it was kind of interesting they broke up that study into different sections that you could click on it was just an idea that was a little bit more digestible than the um 350 page not to pick too much on that document but uh uh you know that was a weighty tone um so it was the Longmont structure I thought was intriguing Ryan Matt I'm supportive of all of it grateful for the work to to make this U more efficient and I just wanted to uh endorse Lauren's uh thought about or message about the last bullet um I'm happy to receive those items in email but I my use will be to look probably once into the the place where I need to go for the meeting and i' hope for that all to be inclusive there you know if if that's an addition to that great but I yeah just SC Lauren

[209:04] thanks I think this is all the right direction it's a long time coming so I appreciate the work to get there and look forward to what this committee is going to do on some of the subsequent work uh where it will likely get a little more difficult um to get there but this is a good start uh I just want to I'm sympathetic to Mark's Point uh and I think it's probably a pretty straightforward is just sort of have no less than seven days but offer discretion for maybe up to 10 and that discretion is something we lean on CAC to do they're looking at that long-term coming down the pipeline and maybe CAC goes oh there's this big one coming maybe we'll we'll key up for 10 days on that giving enough notice to staff and again not being abused but I think that's a way to sort of have a have have our cake and eat it no less than seven discretion to go to 10 if the situation demands it I just want to throw that out there something more specific to to pin on may may great work mayor mayor respond briefly for clarification I'm hearing specific items we may want to identify for that early dismissal not necessarily every full meeting packet

[210:00] and so as we have that conversation I just want to clarify what we might do for example budgets coming up there happens to be four consent items as well the meeting packet in its entirety can maybe still hit our normal Cadence but that memo that specific item memo can be delivered under separate cover to you early does that sound reasonable okay yeah I think that's the kind of thing I'm hearing I'll call on myself here and say um I do actually really enjoy not enjoy I benefit from getting enjoy is really the wrong word um benefit from getting the preliminary packet and from the study sessions two weeks in advance to try to keep on top of everything kind of see where the schedule's going but I recognize the benefits of doing it this way so am supportive um but just want to Echo the comments of Mark and others about the ability to get things in advance and maybe substantially earlier um in advance for like the Wildfire uh plan was another good example right that that was a report and I don't know exactly when it came out but if we could get it

[211:00] more or less when it came out and say hey this isn't coming up for another three or four weeks but wanted to get into your hands um since we just got it um and then maybe there's some other really significant ones like the budget where it's possible to get some additional lead time I also might think about like if we had like the um site review tonight the planning board packet would have come out like six weeks ago so maybe a pointer to that like hey this is coming up in your agenda here's this packet from planning board if you want to start reviewing that so if there can just be a little proactivity around the things that are available early um it might help us stay on top of particularly the larger agenda items yes I have a clarifying question am I the only person on this Council that never reads the pack if you for the previous Saturday is that what you're saying I'm the only one I need a straw pole I am not going to I'm not going to do a shame straw pole of when people who reads the packet on Thursday afternoon everyone raised their

[212:02] hand all right um any other comments about this and we appreciate all your hard work on this and and Elisha in your office as well so look forward to these process improvements coming forward great appreciate it and as mentioned we'll Implement these kind of in a package of changes upcoming so we won't immediately change these timelines so staff don't get too excited if you're listening but in the coming months we will just tell me when the last preliminary packet is coming out so I can say goodbye deal it'll all be okay mayor it'll all be okay be it'll be all right um okay will we do um always thanks Pam uh need 30 we're about 15 minutes behind schedule we've got one last item on our actual agenda uh which I feels pretty doable um if that's right for us to proceed with that yep and then so um Elicia do you want to read that into the record and then we'll go to Taisha for it yes sir

[213:02] thank you and thank you again Council for your support on our change suggested changes um our next item is number eight on tonight's agenda it's the Matters from the mayor and members of council 8A is the rocky flat Stewardship Council of Taisha will'll turn to you for this one well thank you I am I am I'm actually not taking the lead I'm the Caboose on this one so I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to our city manager nurri and Nera very good thank you so much uh I would actually say that you have been quite instrumental and um really appreciate your um uh presence in these meetings as we move forward and tonight really uh at your request council member we're providing a quick update and um certainly we'll refer to the council member to add any more color to uh the update to that I'm about to give but for background the rocky flat Stewardship Council was formed by an intergovernmental agreement between 10 jurisdictions in 2006 to provide ongoing

[214:00] oversight of Rocky Flats the mission has historically been to provide that continuing uh local government engagement on activities occurring on the rocky flat site and to maintain public knowledge of the site through elected official and Community Education and engagement it does not however exercise any regulatory authority over the former site so that's important to know Boulders involvement is provided and enabled an opportunity for discussing items of Interest related to Rocky flights including environmental oversight and Regional Trail devel development over the years starting in January of this year however the rocky flat Stewardship Council began exploring Avenues to actually dissolve the organization giving years of consist consistent Department of energy reporting and monitoring data as well as the existence of other venues to discuss issues of mutual concern such as water quality according to the IGA that that creates the Stewardship Council there are three ways by which the organization can be dissolved one of which is when the number of member governments decreases

[215:01] to fewer than six as of this update actually six of the local governments have formally adopted a notice of intent to withdraw from the organization they include the town of superior the cities of North Glen thoron and golden the city County of Broomfield and Boulder County so this really only leaves four participa participating governments which sets the dissolution process well into place regardless of any action or inaction on behalf of the city of Boulder so the next steps for the Stewardship Council is to be discussing the necessary administrative actions to dissolve the organization at its upcoming September 9th meeting the executive director David ablon is estimating that these actions will be complete by the end of first quarter 2025 five uh and certainly this is well in motion given the um the jurisdictions that have already withdrawn or set a notice to withdraw so council member Adams I Turn to You in case I have missed something critical but again thank you for your participation and if

[216:00] there's anything else you wanted us to add um no thank you so much Nia and um thank you again for the opportunity to serve um again I am so excited was so excited and I to be able to serve and learn and then um and to all the community members who were um generous with their time providing the history um and background and discussions um tours with the Department of of energy for The Unofficial uh tour with the Wildlife Refuge as well as official tours um of the Department of energy and and the actual area that only doe members are allowed to to be in and um you know even though I felt like um you know the the data provided to us um and the scope and provided to us um you know met the criteria for the dissolving and um again this was concurred by our city staff as well there was a continued effort and interest to continue to stay involved

[217:00] and engage in our Collective climate efforts uh because it's going to be uh it's going to because it's going to need that um however I would be remiss if I didn't lift up the continued issues that many in our city of Boulder Community have raised around the air quality uh issues that still remain um and again there is um quite a bit of a brewhaha around that um and unfortunately um one of the things that I must lift up in this conversation is public comment um this particular meeting is only quarterly um and for the last eight 30 in the morning um the process of closure um initially we had discussed having Outreach to all of the city cities and municipalities but again um from a research method perspective that process was not reliable and valid because there was no common set of approaches um and guide uh and requirements on how we were going to engage so some cities only engaged staff others engaged public in

[218:01] other ways um and so again not having that deep thorough um public comment um and engagement um and activation more importantly is very concerning and so it does lift up and as we look at the couny procedure and we're looking at our County our Council appointments I'm hopeful that we can also take a look at um the level our expectation our shared expectations um around Community activation again engagement is is there's no paperwork with engagement uh uh we want we want the paperwork we want to see policy engagement and and decision and collective decision making so again um um I'm disappointed that we did not have the level of Engagement in the closure of this process before we had met this point um but I'm hopeful and our team is hopeful and has been very clear on the interest in staying engaged and involved on this specific issue um as well as um to continue to work very closely and

[219:00] even deepen that um work with our uh local and Regional uh municipalities and and others um and jurisdictions uh as we uh move towards much stronger climate resilience so thank you so much and thank you to the team and um all of the other municipalities that have been participating um this was an effort over many many decades I know people who had worked at Rocky Flats um and to see what it was to what it is is rather astounding I was also recently reminded that Marshall Mesa is on a CO a former coal mine so again as we think about our upcoming energy needs I'm just very hopeful that we can um learn the lessons uh the many many many many many lessons um from the past around um sacrifice Zones near and far thank you thank you for that Taisha and really appreciate your service on that body over the last 10 months or so um so thanks very much for the update so n as I understand it this is an update because uh the

[220:01] conditions for dissolution have already been triggered so there's no action necessary on our part that is correct okay very good um all right well I think that concludes that item unless anybody has any other comments on that do you have a comment on that uh no this anything else on Rocky Flats okay so I think we're done with Rocky Flats that's the end of our formal agenda did anyone have any other thoughts they wanted to offer um before we finish tonight see te over here and Mark yeah I just wanted to um and just following it's interesting that um we were talking about what to include as the attachments to the agenda that aren't actions but I did want to ra up um one the one that uh council member Adams just referenced the coal um mine and Marshall Mesa Trail and the work that's being done there to mitigate it that was in one of our attachments um for this meeting and I just think it's really important to understand that that is being that work is starting um as

[221:02] part of the Marsha Marsha Mesa Trail Improvement and the second piece is um and I'm sure it struck most of you in this s's summary um toward the end it um it describes some of the work that are that the people doing this the cleanups experience and some of the conditions they have so I just want to appreciate that staff called out how incredibly difficult the work is both physically and psychologically and um I know that our our staff is very caring and concerned so my my I I would assume that we're taking care of those individuals in the way that they should be but I really appreciate you highlighting how extraordinarily challenging that work is thank you great points thanks Tina Mark yes um I want to lift up one other subject um as many of you have read my hotline I think we came out of the last meeting in a state of some degree of confusion as to

[222:01] where we were and the guidance that we were giving to staff as you'll recall we had uh two motions in front of us one was defeated uh one was passed and yet the uh the following day it appeared that we had um authorized both motions to proceed with staff and what I would like to do is first by straw pole I get an indication of whether council is prepared to discuss that this evening and I don't think it requires a lot of speech making it's a simple either or uh and if we are prepared to engage in that um let's provide some very quick um guidance to staff as to what it is that we're expecting of them and as I said I I thought we were going to do one ordinance I don't recall ever doing two especially one that has been uh incapable of getting uh a majority of

[223:01] council to a straw pole so I I think you know proceeding down that basis uh that line of inquiry is is not the way to go but let's uh let's take a straw hole and see where we are and again I don't think that requires a lot of speechmaking by any of us uh so we can actually get out of here at a reasonable time yeah thanks for that Mark if I can respond there the I had the great pleasure of going back and watching the recording of uh that meeting um that's right right an hour of my life I'll never get back um and and it was there was definitely um we were all tired um there was some confusion you know there were a couple of there were a few different decision points one of them certainly was that there was a straw poll of what percent increase people preferred in year one and there was a clear five votes for 8% and four votes for 15% so that was a clear judgment on that we had a couple other straw in the evening but near the end of

[224:02] the discussion um a thought was put forward or proposal was put forward to have two ordinances um come back to us one starting with 8% one starting with 15% some interest was shown in that um and so then that was put out there okay are people comfortable with us moving forward with two ordinances and uh there were no objections but at the same time there was no test of the will of councel so there's no strole and I have gotten ample feedback from colleagues and some people in the community that they felt like um that was uh the the straw poll would have been necessary so if it's the will of council tonight to have a straw poll on whether there should be one ordinance or two we can certainly do that um yeah and so and but I would love to do something consider whether we want to take it on and then if we do want to take it on do the straw pole hopefully quickly without a lot of speechifying there yeah I had Tina but yeah if you want to clarify question yeah no my my question I think this is probably just a question for you

[225:01] Chris just from a process perspective I mean one of the one of the the sort of things coming on Council is around um kind of not not retiga red deciding re kind of doing things that we done so I just I guess my question around is just around in general is the when we get to the end of meetings and things like that can we redo discussions and kind of revisit guidance to staff in general at this point it's more just process thank you for the question um the purpose of a study session is give uh for Council to learn about items and to give direction to staff and uh I also went back and watched that meeting and um the direction to staff was pretty clear at the end of the the meeting and what we're really talking about is one ordinance with different numbers and it's not like the ordinances are going to be substantively different they're just some plug-and-play numbers and so

[226:01] when you have this drafted ordinance or ordinances come before you at second reading for the public hearing that's really kind of the Crux of council's decision is you know what are the numbers going to look like does council actually want this ordinance um but to answer your question mayor PRM um it is it is true that to re litigate a matter that's already been decided it does require uh a majority of council to do that and that's in the council procedures okay thank you and can I just ask one more um and just to clarify when an ordinance comes before us we can make motions to amend that ordinance right and there's sort of no limit on the uh amendments that we can make to that yes thank you yeah to your point regardless of whether we get one or two ordinances the final decision is made at the public hearing and motions can be made in any direction for sure I've had Tina lined

[227:02] up no I just wanted to reiterate this and I um and it's very much what you just said but I want to say it again um as I said during the study session I it is not my belief that we set minimum wage in the last study session and um I I have noticed that this Council will frequently um change parts of ordinances on first and second reading um so I don't um but I also want to respect the direction that was given even though I'm not 100% sure that was the right direction to be given during that particular meeting so um I I just want to set expectations that it's not my belief that we set minimum wage nor did we even raise it during study session however there was an indication by five people that the preferred number to start if it were to be raised was eight thanks Taisha and then maybe I'll gauge council's interest here I actually have a significant process question and it is around the use of straw poles for those of you who tuned in to the CAC meeting on Monday I explicitly asked if

[228:03] a straw pole required you know uh a majority for something to move forward and was told no um double down no uh and then we received the um hotline from um our our attorney to recitate um saying that yes uh majority is is the way to go and so just from a procedural perspective processes where Equity goes to die I have all kinds of concern around the the Precedence of a a non-vote being a vote we did not vote on that second piece we did not do a draw a straw poll on that second piece and so for anyone to say well y'all didn't say anything so it's a yes for us we got enough that that that's a dangerous precedence um I also agree with Mark's comment around having this be a top priority um for the uh Council PRI

[229:02] process group um and as I said I am all kinds of concerned around a non-vote being considered a vote um whether it be a straw poll a naify and if that is the case I will plan to bring it just gives the indicator that it's not even necessary to have a majority in order to give staff Direction and if that is the case I plan to send a CAC about us discussing um a both a ceasefire and a um what's that other thing oh um convers opportunity to talk about International Affairs and I don't even need to have five I just need to have enough guidance to give staff for them to go and consider it that's what we're saying and I'll be happy for that but see I don't set process so that it meets just my needs I set process so it's very clear to everybody so I don't I'm sorry Mark I know you wanted this to be a five quick quick quick thing but to me it is not about is it a one order

[230:02] ordinance or two it is whether or not we need to have a a knot of five a straw pole of five a majority of us to give guidance to staff for them to take their time and energy to investigate any particular thing so my thing is that we did not from a p process perspective do we did it for the a88 but not for the other alternative and that to me is a problem and in the past going back to process when we have missed steps like this we have been told by staff excuse me you missed a step so again I'm not pointing fingers at anybody because that's three back at myself I take responsibility for legislating after 10 o'clock but what I'm not going to do is set a precedence that is very dangerous I see we are over over over monitoring in some areas and allowing under um under not enough Clarity in other areas so to me the question is not even the question uh for me the question is um

[231:02] does a is a straw poll necessary to provide guidance and if that is not clear then we have a problem thank you thanks real quick real quick guys hopefully just wanted to add thank you just want to add my understanding that substantively there is really not a difference in what what we do here because whether there are two proposals going forward now or there are one in the case that there's one those who might seek to support an amendment could ask for that Amendment would be along the same grounds as if there were two proposals so I'm proceeding along the lines that there is no substantive difference I think Taisha raises some interesting points about the more General process so if feel free to correct maybe that's my understanding no correction um I think being caught up on the on the details of is is important I think there the I think what has become a bigger issue here is is the is the that there is not a ubiquitous recognition that that was very confusing

[232:01] that we did not give clear guidance we have two straw Poes effectively that conflicted with each other and I think to some extent a lot of us may have felt I certainly felt that we just needed to have that omission and I think there was I think there's some Sting in the fact that Upon A CAC request and upon it being just asking for clarity that there was a a somewhat of a feeling of being gaslit that like oh no nothing to see here it was perfectly clear when some of us had a different lived experience of that meeting and I think just acknowledging that we have a shared truth and a shared set of facts will go a long way into building and maintaining the trust we need to have as a nine and we need to have a staff going forward through the many difficult things that we have ahead of us so I think that acknowledge that it wasn't indeed clear and we make mistakes none of us caught any of that conflict that's okay but we got to admit that we made it made a mistake and we can come back and fix it if we want to is one of the bigger acknowledgements and I think that's the key that we're sort of stuck on a little bit here if we

[233:01] get to any sort of poll on it that's different um but but I think we just need to recognize that indeed this was very unclear it was opaque we were not at our best and it's okay to have the humility to admit that and a desire to be better and if that means processes to fix that okay good let's explore that um but but I think there just needs to be some general recognition that five of us perhaps experienced that night differently than it is being conveyed in other forms okay yeah I appreciate that I mean I tried in my opening remarks to say that it was confusing what happened that night but it took us two weeks to get there in in a large sense this is our first meeting since then so emails hotlines right yeah okay Lauren um I thought the points that Taisha raised were interesting and I just wanted to hear care if um city manager or the city's attorney's office had a response I will and I'll I'll jump in here a little bit and certainly Chris if you've got more to share but you know as we reflect right a lot of things happen that evening and we move forward but I will say that from my perspective and I believe you have heard me say this

[234:00] to you before uh that when we get either a nod or we get a KN of three or or a KN of five in the case of of voting or frankly a particular direction in a straw poll um we do take Direction from the C with a vote of five it is a majority we do however take feedback which I believe is what um our City attorney was trying to uh correct in her um hotline we do take occasional feedback from you either in stury sessions or in in meetings where we hear individually or from a group there is interest in this there is interest in that um but when we do take Direction there is a there is a specific majority that we do take direction from it is equivalent to a vote for us as we move forward and it is essential for us because if not we would be sent in a variety of different directions looking for other things so that Clarity I think is is critical as we move forward good all right I would like to move forward if I could I was just going to say and this is the brief version of

[235:01] this conversation we're hopefully it can we can keep it relatively brief going forward um so anyway so what I'm here's what I would like to to do and I want to be very try to be very Crystal Clear is that first I'm going to ask for a show of hands of the number of council members who would like to have a straw poll over whether we should have one or two ordinances brought to us for the first reading of the public hearing if a majority of people would like to have that straw pole I will then ask for a show of hands on that straw poll of whether people would prefer one or two ordinances is that clear so threshold question would people like to have a straw poll where we consider what there one or two ordinances I'm going to raise my hand because people have told me I should have done this in the first place all right I got six here two three four five five I got five yep so um so there are five people who

[236:02] say they would like a straw poll of whether there should be one ordinance or two so now this next question is a straw pole on whether you would like to have just one ordinance which would have the 888 percentages uh which was the straw poll that a majority of people said they wanted that number or would you like to have two ordinances brought forward one at 888 and a second at 15 8.5 8.5 keeping in mind we can do whatever we want at the meeting itself so Choice number one would you like to have one ordinance with 888 options all in favor raise your hand I got five and would you prefer to have two ordinances instead in favor raise your hand and that's four so uh majority would like to have one ordinance with the numbers 888 in it does that provide clear Direction yes it does okay very good

[237:03] anything else that anyone's anyone wants to add to that discussion all right seeing none we did at least get done before 10 um have a good night everybody meeting a jour