Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

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[5:09] 21st 2024 regular business meeting of the Boulder City Council I'll call us to order and can we do a roll call please Emily absolutely and good evening everyone we'll start tonight's roll call with council member Adams present Benjamin present mayor Brockett present Furs present thank you Maris present shuart here mayor protm spear present council member wallik here and Wier here but I can't seem to make my camera work ter here we've got Tech folks reaching out to you so hopefully they'll be able you get that result yep we'll get you going there all right well mayor we have our

[6:01] Quorum fantastic well our first item 1A is small business Saturday declaration to be presented by mayor protim spear thank you um and we have a few people here to uh receive the Declaration um from Gabby coffeee one of our small businesses uh we have Hoang J and hio Jang Kim and Yuri Lee and you're welcome to come and join me up on the stage if you would like to while I read the Declaration um stage dis feels like a stage sometimes um and we also have Sarah wood from the Small Business Development Center so if you would come up as well thank you wonderful thank you so I'll read the Declaration and then you're welcome to say a few words um each of you and then we will all applaud and uh you can go go on about your evening but thank you so much for making time it's uh it's it's busy especially being a small business

[7:01] owner so thank you the city of bowler celebrates our local small businesses and the contributions they make to our local economy and Community according to the United States small business administration as of 2023 just under half of All American private sector employees work for a small business and small businesses have created almost two-thirds of the nation's new jobs since 1995 small businesses are particularly important in Boulder where 96% of businesses have fewer than 50 employees advocacy groups and public and private organizations across the country have endorsed the Saturday after Thanksgiving as small business Saturday to encourage community members to shop and eat locally during the holiday season according to a national research study in 2022 72% of consumers reported that small business Saturday makes them want to shop or eat at a small

[8:02] independently owned business all year long not just during the holiday season that same year it is estimated that small business Saturday drove almost $18 billion dolls in consumer reported spending as Boulder and communities everywhere continue to recover from the impacts of the global Health crisis the city remains committed to supporting businesses our community is thankful for the businesses that serve our city the many Frontline workers that operate the shops and restur resturants we love and those who will shop and dine locally this season and all year long we the city council of the city of Boulder Colorado declare November 30th 2024 as small business Saturday and urge the residents of our community and communities across the country to support small businesses and Merchants on small business Saturday and throughout the year and I just want to extend an special thank you to all the small businesses right now that serve as almost uh subcommunities other communities within our community Community because we need community so

[9:01] much right now so thank you for all you do to create those spaces uh good evening uh my first language is not English so please understand my poor English but I make a small note to share the some words so uh good evening esteemed members of the Border City Council uh distinguished guests and community members we are deeply honored and humed to stand here today as a reent of the super business declaration this recognition means so much to not only to us but also to other team members family and also uh customers and supporters who have made this journey possible uh 6 years ago starting a small business as a immigrant and minorities was not easy there were challenges along the way but

[10:02] we are able to overcome them thanks to [Music] the uh thanks to the incredible support of this community your encouragement to help us navigate those difficult times we are still learning how to give back to the community and what specific actions we can take to contribute as its members however whether this is more cont uh this is more business decoration as a new mindstone we are committed to stepping into more meaningful L I look forward to continuing to serve this city growing our business and contributing to the vibrant diverse and inclusive community we are all building together thank you again well small business Saturday here

[11:00] we come I'm Sarah wood director of the Small Business Development Center week seven I think so super happy to be here and thank you all for supporting our small business Community with this declaration and thank you for contributing to our community as a small business um as you said it's a huge part of our business community and we are thrilled as the small business uh Development Center to be serving them and and a few stats to share last year we served 925 businesses we also performed 78 workshops which had over 2,000 attendees and recently we strengthened our partnership with the city and they are now providing increased Operational Support to the boulder Small Business Development Center which allows us to do more and so we're super happy to be extending that and working throughout Boulder County

[12:01] for all of our small businesses and continuing to support them so thank you for also shopping small on small business [Applause] Saturday thank you so much thank you for well Sarah thanks so much for those words and to the folks from Gabby coffee really appreciate you joining us here this evening they do some of the very best coffee in town so if you haven't been by there before you need to check it out absolutely and thanks as well to Jen Jennifer Pino from the city and batina swiger from downtown Boulder partnership for joining us and with that let's go to open comment Emily if you could go over our public participation guidelines please absolutely the city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive meaningful and inclusive Civic conversations this Vision supports physical and

[13:01] emotional safety for community community members staff and Council as well as democracy for people of all ages identities lived experiences and political perspectives for more information about this vision and the community engagement processes please visit the bouldercolorado.gov servicesproducts Vis 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 all remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to City

[14:01] 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 blocks the views of another person no participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person we ask that you not to fix items to the podium oras or walls or other surfaces of the chamber signs Flags or other items used to communicate must be held by one person when displayed obscenity other epitet based on race gender or religion and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the meeting will not be tolerated in-person participants are asked to refrain for from expressing support or disagreement verbally or with sounds such as Applause or snapping with the exception of declarations traditionally support is shown through the American Sign Language Applause or jazz hands thank

[15:02] you thanks so much for that all right we've got 20 people signed up to speak each person will have two minutes and I'll announce three names at a time if you can start coming towards the podium as your name is called please and our first three speakers are Christopher sites Steve schaer and Tatiana tibo is Christopher here not seeing him then we'll go to Steve and I have a PowerPoint presentation there we go and then also bring the microphone over to your mouth please how that better okay thank you my name is Steve schaer I'm a resident of downtown Boulder and I'm here to uh describe an issue with

[16:02] the St Julian extension relative to The Pedestrian Corridor that goes in the 10th Street uh and the alley you can see on this picture this area looks quite congested in the picture and that will get even more congested with the addition of the St Julian uh The Pedestrian path which is shown in blue and purple uh crosses the intersection of the alley and tens Street which meet it around a curve at a for at a 90 degree angle this creates a passageway which has very low visibility in both directions for vehicles and for pedestrians thus reducing a potentially dangerous area next slide please I just have some pictures here this is a photograph of of that area you can see the tall wall to the right which is of the parking structure that blocks All Views around the corner the big Transformer is there um next slide

[17:01] please there's another picture of that same area showing the congestion of traffic that we have even today without the extension next slide please and as we can see sometimes the alley is completely blocked which creates more difficulties in moving vehicles uh next slide please U one thing that's happening you can see in the green circle the existing trash of the St Julian that causes the congestion there's also a new trash area in the red oval which will add additional congestion and can only be serviced from the alley there has been a traffic study done of this but that was in 2019 for a building that was much smaller than the extension and we don't believe that that adequately evaluates the impact of the new facilities and we're concerned about The Pedestrian safety thank you very much I request that you call this up thank you thank you now we have Tatiana tibo B basichis

[18:01] and Eileen wals Tatiana Tio I live in Boulder s Julian request for 55 foot height variance is often justified by sighting the approved previously 55 foot tall children museum at the site as you can see however it's important to note that the size of the building was approved at only 38,00 000 Square fet city con's council also should know that 50,000 square foot figure for S Julian expansion presented by the applicant it accounts only for the habitable area excluding the m in mechanical spaces their architectural plan shows a total building size of 60,000 square feet if you can sleep next slider without additional and it's also they adding no

[19:00] additional parking spots the combined impact of 55t tall 60,000 square foot structure plus a massive 12 foot tall mechanical unit on the roof resulting in 67 foot toll structure is staggering and there are no true Community benefit to granting such significant height in Mass variances instead of providing uh benefits this private expansion will harm the community blocking neighboring uh properties views daylight solar panels plunging the M building into dark obstructed flat iron views from kida's public rooftop deck it will worsen parking problem and intensify traffic congestion on Walnut Street and 10 Street Corridor proposing building Mass bulking scale that does not need need site review criteria we urge the city

[20:01] council to take a leadership role and call up this proposal let's ensure that downtown Boulder is developed in thoughtful and respectful manner preserving our precious flet Island views for everyone to enjoy appreciate your testimony okay now we have Ben basichis Eileen walls and Dennis Johan might Jo I'll try that again later uh good evening ladies and gentlemen of the city council and beautiful citizens of Boulder my name is Bena basichis and I and a few friends are here to share about an experience called coher that happened in October so coher was a 10-day event series an immersive game intended to increase Collective awareness of what's going on around Boulder and also to cultivate a sense of belonging interconnectedness and resilience while we designed a few of the events specific to coh here such as the opening and closing parties the intention was to create an open container that highlighted many of the amazing things happening week to we in

[21:00] Boulder next slide please so we co curated this calendar for 10 days and sent a daily digest with four to seven events each day that people could choose their own adventure and throughout that meet one another in different contexts and expand their awareness of some of the amazing things happening around the city um and we have a next slide please short video that we play um no no sound to it but I recommend you watch the full video online after this and also at the opening ceremony we invited people into play as a mindset and had an immersive game that went throughout the 10 days which included these Arch type cards which represent roles that people can show up as in community so the invitation was to when you see someone embodying that role gift it to them as uh inspiration and encouragement to continue showing up in that way and so yeah here are some of the scenes as you can see sharing sharing food and music and laughs um was core to it and we have more people speaking to that and our intention with bringing this to city council is to lay the

[22:01] foundation for future collaboration between the city and Community organizers like us so for the city to support future events like coh here and for us to have eyes and ears into different subsets of the community that might not typically be reached by the um research and Community engagement activities that the city does and yeah and thank you to Taisha for her involvement in making it an amazing event with that I'll hand it off to Eileen thanks now we have Eileen uh so yeah you can go to the next slide and so yeah coher was this really beautiful Community experience um it generally genuinely just arose out of this desire to highlight all the beautiful things that happen in Boulder um I've been living in the area for about 10 years and helped co- Steward this map of a lot of the just inspiring uh activating and Brilliant things that

[23:00] are happening and so we hope that this map can continue to expand and be updated and cared for um and spread around to different parts of the community uh we have copies that will pass around and yeah when I look at this I really just want more people to be able to step into Boulder and find the place that is like their home and their connection and help them come alive and come into uh different ways of activating and supporting uh more vibrancy and connection so you can go to the next slide uh and this is the artifact that we co-created at the end of the closing event so we had a few people on our team who have experience in participatory research and really wanted to harness some of the um both like Harvest of what happened during those 10 days and also invite people to Envision together what's possible from here and so that's where you see um some themes that emerged so a lot of people just said that this was the most connected to

[24:02] place that they felt since they've moved here um obviously Boulder has a lot of transient folks as well as people who have been here their whole lives and so really just wanting to make the the web more accessible and um interconnected and celebrate the diversity and strength that's possible through that and so um I know that script is really tiny um but there was a lot of really incredible things and stories that we got to hear through the course of 10 days and so just excited to continue exploring how to be in collaboration together um and align with the visioning of Boulder's brighter future the yeah more on that thank you right now we have Dennis y johanning Meer Travis hail keler and James colano my name is Dennis johanning me good evening City Council Members my objective today is to resp respectfully request the city council to call up the

[25:01] St Julian application for height variance for your review I live and work in downtown Boulder my community service includes serving as the Rett HOA president as you council members I devote countless hours to understanding a wider range of perspectives on matters impacting my community as the R hoe president I blessed to be charged with the responsibility of listening to the voices in the room and directing the proper course of action I call it the higher Duty let's talk about why the planning board debunked the Civic use element of the St Julian application they attempted to get it right with motions that included an $80,000 contribution to the affordable housing fund and 700 Square ft of pavers

[26:04] on the roof this was not the first committee to challenge the purported Civic use the design Advisory board and the boulder urban renewal Authority both expressed concerns at the planning board meeting three people spoke against the approval one was the general manager from the St Julian not one not one nonprofit spoke on behalf of their civic use application in conclusion I ask you to embrace your higher Duty and call up the St Julian application for height variants based on Civic use it does not provide Community benefit thank you very much thank you now we have Travis Hill keler James colano and PTY fer aguiler

[27:01] good evening city council and I just wanted to come in to have a little bit of update what is happening with the homeless Community down the last few months uh things have been changing and shifting in a healthy way the shelter has been adapting and becoming a little bit more healthy in the way how they approach certain individuals my church has started the Illuminator series program we've actually gotten hired individuals to go into the community to get get a little bit more self-worth and value where we can have mutual trust and communication based on social Capital to start um getting better work ethic in certain individuals in the homeless community and allow more of a cleanly and also more sightly sort of look for the city because I can tell some individuals do feel like that matters a lot but also public health and safety is Paramount and we're trying to shift it in the right direction we just had a seminar on Saturday with 35 individuals including a few sociologists psychiatrists and Professionals in poverty to come discuss on what we can do to change in the future we're going to speak with Mike Butler the uh ex police chief of long month we're going to have a system of allowing uh

[28:01] emergency resources for folks leaving um jail so they don't get themselves cold or so much constrained when they get released in the back of the public we're going to meet with David Portillo of the Denver Foundation again for the third time discuss about funding and other programs and and substantial sort of uh work to be done but we have been discussing and thinking about a warming Center or possible sanction camping location and at this time we do not have the knowledge Foundation or the people who could actually make that work yet it's still about six nine months out but we're discussing about using our program to help condition and training individuals to be in the right direction to allow them to be prepared for such an influx of individuals as some are worried with the election change and the change of powers certain individuals may lash out at family members or lash out at roommates and some might end up being displaced become homeless and we worry that some mental health issues could get worse and things could get more violent than future our organization is working to make it improve in the future and

[29:01] we're going to update you the next few months thank you thank you now we have James colano PTY Fuster Aguilera and David Adamson good evening I'm Jimmy colano I've lived in Boulder for 49 years back to the St Julian the site was always intended for civic use and now there is a distinct likelihood that no square footage will be used for that purpose the St Julian could pivot and allocate no space for the public good is this the outcome Boulder initially anticipated would it be acceptable downtown Boulder has enjoyed the open views surrounding this pad for decades in a multi-story building will block flat iron views that citizens and visitors have come to relish our council members okay with killing our coveted world renowned views the expanded expansion will

[30:00] increase traffic clogging a pristine corner of downtown Boulder do we really need yet more car congestion 60,000 square feet is a 58% surge above the original 38,000 square feet originally improved does the neighborhood want this building bloat and can the existing infrastructure even support it the potential to add a Public Square with a skating rink benches and other amenities will likely be lost forever will Boulder citizens react favorably or with outrage and finally Boulder is gaining two nearby hotels a half mile away in the University Hill area so an additional 39 Extended Stay rooms are likely unneeded does Boulder really need more luxury hotel rooms with the expansion of an already largescale Hotel

[31:01] final question are council members prepared to be held accountable for what could be a regrettable poorly thought through decision please call up this project and require that it be scaled back thank you thank you now we have Patty fer Aguilera David Adamson and Pete Doric I my name is Dr P fer agilera I'm asking for City Council Members to speak up about the genocide that is happening in Gaza and pass a ceas fire resolution a genocide by Israel and funded by the US I want you to look at this slide last night this child went to sleep and it never woke up he never woke up he's under Rubble 88 people died at least last I mean this morning they found them I want you to understand that each one of you is

[32:01] complicit in the killing of these children you are complicit in the murder of these children because your taxes are funding it you are complicit in the murder of these children because you are remaining silent you are complicit in the murder of these children because you are not using your voice to speak up for them you are complicit in the murder of the children dying right now of illnesses and starvation because you remain silent I want to remind you that power comes with responsibility I have a responsibility to raise those voices that keep being silence I have a responsibility to speak up and make their voices be heard you do too please use your power this is why we come here every time to and speak up I'm here with and for my Palestinian and lianes CH siblings this is the minimum I can do raise my voice I cannot comprehend how you all city council members don't use your power to do the minimum speak up we

[33:03] see children under Rubble every day look at this picture imagine the many children's dead bodies under Rubble that will never be rescued how are you not angry how are you not speaking up this is not a war it's an ethnic cleansing it's genocide I need you to inform yourself some friend dropped these on your mailboxes check these out free ptin thank you now we have David Adamson Pete Doric and Patricia Emer hey I'm David Adamson from 815 North Street where I live and where I work at Goose Creek to land trust and I'm here to share a story with you can about my friend David kavika

[34:01] volmar and to um support the beautiful work of cohere I'm still connected uh and and hopefully get together with us uh after Thanksgiving um I um was born at bik hospital exactly nine months after my parents met at the sink um and 40 years later I met my wife at Boulder Community Hospital and I won't say what happened at the in the waiting room there but um 18 years later I spoke at the going away party for the brilliant urb and rejected planning board

[35:00] applicant Zay svin who is giving up on Boulder and that we could have a diverse welcoming um an inclusive community and I spoke about how we shouldn't give up and oh my God I met eyes with David kavika volmar and he wanted to continue and he was was inspired to help our efforts of goose Greek Comm land trust and then he was killed by a speeding motorist and I pledge to build this building that he wanted to build and to continue this work and cohere is a beautiful way to do that and I'm just so inspired by their work and by you thank you thanks David okay now we have Pete Doric Patricia Emer and trip West hi my name my name is Pete Doric and I live in South Boulder lived in

[36:00] Boulder since 1976 my family's been here even longer in fact my aunt was a waitress at the sink in 1954 I've watched this project the St Julian unfold and followed it since SEMA first brought this PL to the city that's been a lot of number of years also want to say thank you to the council we recognize the commitment you make to making Boulder A Better Community for all of citizens the Civic use area has been subject of council discussions for a long long time by calling up the St Julian application this is your chance to finally get it right if council is going to Grant a community benefit for the height variance of five stories and 55 ft tall then it should actually benefit the community let's be honest the 9,000 foot for-profit Ballroom for the height variance of five stories and 55 ft is really not Civic use space under any definition but

[37:02] that's what the St Julian application says it is let's be clear we love the St Juliet we often go there in the evenings to listen to music it's a centerpiece of the community but this is about doing what's best that we can with that space and this application just isn't it this is the last piece of open space in downtown with a view of the flat irons I we respectfully ask that you call up this application as a way to fully determine an accurate definition and contribution of community benefit and Community or Civic use the current application is neither and let's make sure that traffic concerns design issues of how having what will be one long solid block of buildings on Canyon will affect everyone in Boulder and how this space can impact everyone who have long waited for the Civic use of this space thank thank you please call it up for a hearing thank

[38:00] you now we have Patricia Emer trip West and Gail Gordon hello Trish Sher here good evening and um I did provide slides there's no need to do a Cadence for me if you want to flip through them that's great but it's intended for your uh review at your time um so on behalf of bike Boulder allow me to give you an overview of what's in this deck first you'll notice about four Trend charts that describe a recent rise in the number of bike thefts there's not only an increase in bike thefts but also increasing bike value per bike stolen next there's an analysis of bikes and ebike stolen last month where we used what we call a super set of data from both bike index the registry plus Boulder police reporting each data source that I just mentioned has its advantages Boulder Police data includes the theft location

[39:02] the value the description of the bike but there are no locking details provided to us bike index typically provides the bike year make model serial number and sometimes we're lucky and we get the Locking details where that data overlaps between both data sets we get the most information so what you'll also see in the deck is a deep dive on ebike the last month um what we've seen and as you look in the notes on that data and bikes that were literally stolen with heavyduty bike security chains is we need better way to secure our bikes um so in summary and consistent with bip Boulders m mission we will continue to educate report and focus on more secure and Equitable biking in our community and on behalf of our organization thank you all for your

[40:00] support very much thank you now we have trip West Gail Gordon and Tom mayor hello everyone um I'm trip West and I live off 55th in vilmont I'm also here to speak about cohere um I just want to tell the story that you know as a community organizer myself this event was uh a dream for me because it it is often that we we find ourselves siloed in our own communities um that we know and relate to but this was a cross-pollination across diverse communities that otherwise would have never talked to one another um I know that you guys at city council um want and encourage uh communities to collaborate with one another for the health of this city and um in my opinion if we want a healthy City we need um diverse perspectives and we need I collaboration to happen um and

[41:00] so that's that's what I see as the biggest most impactful thing um that this event represented to to meet um a lot of events happen in this city and a lot come and go um it's been a months since this has happened and it's still coming up in Daily conversation with uh friends of mine um something really special about this is that it kind of removed a lot of barriers to entry for people who are new to the city for people who may not know know um different communities it really was just in Open Arms come in listen learn participate where you want to um and so yeah it it it felt really uh profoundly different than anything that I've um witnessed before um as a community organizer I've seen different people shift their strategies based on what happened here um and we um as as uh several members of um creating coh here would really love to to ask for some guidance um from any

[42:03] anyone on city council um who is interested in this project if you would like um we we are asking for guidance on how we can create more future collaboration together thank you thank you now we have Gil Gordon Tom mayor and James Duncan good evening my name is Gail Gordon my can you speak into the mic please oh good evening my name is Gail Gordon my husband Rob Gordon and I live at 377 West arapo Lane we've lived here 34 years I'm speaking tonight on homeless encampments along Boulder Creek and homeless campfires the current system is not working which is to tag and remove one day a week our houses uh had a 16-day encampment behind it Ean Fine park today had 12 to 15 uh encampments

[43:02] this afternoon uh our neighborhood is between EV G Fine park to the west and the Justice Center to the east we suggest that the system remove encampments more frequently which is to tag on Monday respect the 72 hours which is Tuesday Wednesday Thursday remove on Friday tag on Thursday remove the next Monday I personally have called 911 myself four times for homeless campfires two of which were tepees the other one two to three feet in height one was a charcoal based the other was similar and they're ignited by some kind of fluid um our Canyon area is fir prone it's a wood it's a wind tunnel if there is fire The Embers will shoot down it

[44:00] will Encompass our neighborhood destroy it destroy the St Julian the the business center of Pearl Street so we urge that there be immediate more frequent removal of encampments to prevent homeless campfires thank you thank you our last two in-person speakers are Tom mayor and James dunan my name is Tom mayor I live in the Fraser Meadows Retirement Community in the eastern part of Boulder I am saddened and angered by the failure of the city council to pass a resolution against the Gaza genocide or the nuclear danger in Ukraine I hope you are familiar with this important book Hannah arent aishman in Jerusalem a report on the genocide of evil the text of the book is about the trial of Adolf

[45:00] aishman in Jerusalem but its subtext is why evil can occur in a society with mostly well-meaning people and the reason is very simple although some few people will dream up evil things to do the great majority of the people in that Community will continue doing their normal activities in the face of an enormous evil that is exactly what the boulder Council city council is doing continuing its normal activities in the face of enormous evil it is participating in what Hannah arent called the banality of evil now Adolf aishman was not a high- ranking Nazi he did not start the Holocaust and he did not have the power to end it he merely arranged the train schedule which uh which brought people to the death camps now I know you will resent

[46:03] the comparison but I detect a distinct Affinity between the Boulder City Council and Adolf Heisman all right and our final in-person speaker is James Duncan good evening Council thank you for your service yes uh my friend Kristen recently wrote a short short story I'd like to read you and the title was inspired by Maya Angelou caged they were trapped the remnants of a bombed building their only shelter Jed was watching Cella unfold a cardboard ammunition box and refold it along different lines to make an origami Dove he Shrugged and kicked some sense some Spence shells toward her he hissed try using these to play peace songs s picked up a shell with a bandaged hand and brought it to her cracked lips she

[47:02] blew air across the M the metal whistling Imagine by John Lennon what the heck are you doing the devil will be ice skating before anyone dares join you said said Jed suddenly a bird a Palestinian Sunbird landed on a broken branch of a nearby Olive Tree and began to sing this story illustrates how we can be trapped caged by War why did the Cage bird sing maybe the reason is hope I hope that Boulder will join other cities including Chicago in passing a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza a just peace will give us all reason to sing thank you our three virtual speakers are Michael broer Daniel dietler and Barbara Gordon

[48:00] mayor I do not see Michael broer online so we can move to Daniel deer very good good evening my name is Daniel dietler uh 1077 Canan Boulevard in Boulder I'm speaking tonight to ask you the city council to call the St Julian proposal my wife and I have owned and enjoyed living in Boulder since 2011 we are the original owners our unit faces West and has an outdoor deck the intent of your predecessors was that in exchange for approval of the original 200 room Hotel this pad was to be set aside for public benefit your predecessors did not anticip ipate a massive 60,000 foot for-profit Hotel

[49:00] building with no real Community benefit the bureau Board review was limited to the urban renewal plan the planning Board review was limited to the site review criteria though they had many questions about the proposed Civic use and Community benefit the record reflects their challenges to reach their decisions many questions remain about this proposal the city Council now has the authority to look at this proposal in a holistic manner by calling up this manner matter there will be ample opportunity for council members to ask questions and engage in thoughtful discussion your decision should be based on facts including information from technical experts as well as answers from the applicant made directly to the council I encourage you as Leaders to take the time to make the right decision please call up this important matter

[50:01] thank you thank you our last speaker is Barbara Gordon mayor I am also not seeing Barbara Gordon online all right in that case Daniel dietler was our last speaker well thank you everyone for coming out and for your testimony this evening I'll turn to City staff to see if there are any responses good evening Council and uh thank you to everyone who came to the meeting tonight and uh shared their thoughts uh many of the comments were related to the St Julian which is on your agenda for a call up later this evening so I won't uh address that and uh with that I'm happy to answer any questions the council may have nothing for me mayor thank you thanks any thing from Council TAA Lauren Lauren and then Taisha and I've got

[51:02] something I wanted to thank everyone for coming out to and speaking today um bike theft homelessness so many other topics and um I always appreciate hearing from a variety of our community members for those who came to speak about the St Julian expansion I hope you will stay and listen to our following discussion while we hopefully will chat a little bit about what we can and can't impact through our site review process um and for those who shared with us about the cohere events um thank you for that and I look forward to learning more about that um for those who came to ask us about a ceasefire resolution I appreciate you continuing to draw attention to the actions of the Israeli government and I support your efforts to prioritize peace and protection of human lives while I share your concerns and value

[52:00] the passion behind this call there currently is not a enough support on our Council to move forward this resolution I do want to take a moment to acknowledge the pain being felt by both our Jewish and Muslim members of our community you are seen heard and valued and I'm committed to fostering a city where everyone feels safe and supported and I hope we can continue working together to advocate for compassion and Justice both locally and globally thank you thanks TAA and then I got tra thank you um council member fartz for those comments um I also want to thank um all those who spoke today um also for our recipients I remember when you all opened um and I'm just a big fan of your work okay um having said that uh I also wanted to

[53:00] again um speak to the cohere um organizers in appreciation for that opportunity uh I would agree in at least in my 13 years of living and serving in this community it was definitely a cross-section of community intergenerationally geographically um it just was really wonderful and I look forward to Future opportunities um and I know that there's some events that are coming up so as those opportunities present themselves please send us an invitation we have a council calendar um and would love to have other council members uh be able to participate and experience um what you all are beautifully building um the kindergarten if you will that you are building for us um I also wanted to um thank uh you for the bike theft uh and that reminder um I was reminded that I have a c CAC request drafted um and that is actually on it spoiler alert um so um again uh as we um ask our community

[54:01] to transition away from cars and fossil fuel um you know myself included with ebikes there's a difference between ebikes and road bikes or more traditional bikes and um I'm hopeful that our policy framework uh and enforcement um can um evolve with uh the evolving of the technology the cost and the safety issues um I also want wanted to thank those who continue to come and advocate for a ceasefire and arms embargo um and divestment in organizations and companies that are funding this genocide I use the term genocide purposely because I am a believer in the United Nations after studying and getting my degrees in International Education with a focus on International Affairs uh I also used to run a model un program so it's very close to my heart um there will be consequences for funding the Mass Slaughter of women men children

[55:00] non-binary um and non-gender conforming people there will be consequences for the ecos side that we are witnessing the destruction that we are witnessing we are in a climate crisis we all agree um uh in that CAC request will also be a request for a review of our social uh Investments for our city um and the criteria that we are using um as we talked a couple of weeks ago about caterpillar um we are investing we are funding um some of our services off of those Investments we are 100% tied it is devastating to me to know that I'm funding it it is devastating to me to know that we um as a council are unable to come to any agreement on what a response would look like considering that we do have skin in the game and blood on our hands um and let's see that's all that that I have um thank you so much again and I look forward to um

[56:01] continued conversations and opportunities to activate collectively uh for lives near and far thank you thanks I got Tara and then Mark well first I want to thank you Trish Emer for bringing forward the uh problems uh the big problems that we're having with B thef right now that are affecting our climate goals and our Transportation goals and are also disproportionately affecting people um in lower income brackets because it's just not possible for a lot of people to get another bike when their bike is stolen 51 ebikes is just crazy and a lot of people use it for transportation that is their car so I appreciate that you're you are and your committee is bringing this up thank you very much for bringing you to the Forefront and Gail Gordon I wanted to thank you for speaking tonight tonight I am very concerned about um

[57:00] fires from the um the fires uh in our very fire sensitive community and I just I want you to know that it's on my heart and I am working at trying to figure out a solution of some type and lastly I just want to say that I OB to the statement of blood on her hands I personally object to it I promised that I would not speak about International Affairs and so that's all I'm going to say for that and that's all I have thanks then we got um yes ma'am I wanted to just clarify that I did not say that there blood on our hands I said blood on my hands thank you very good Mark two comments one um I object to the weekly or bi-weekly uh relitigate of the same subject we had already disposed of

[58:02] many months ago I think it's inappropriate that we do that um but more significantly one of the speakers tonight um essentially called us uh the equivalent of Adolf akman for the way in which we conduct ourselves as a council member of the Jewish faith I cannot think of very many uh epithets that are more um uh disgraceful uh and more harmful um to be uh using and to me that is the use of free speech which we always promote to F hate speech because that that is a form of hate speech to me to suggest that the members of this Council are the equivalent of ad hman is uh reprehensive to say the very least and so I am not going to stay silent when that kind of

[59:01] comment is made anymore I'm going to respond to it and I'm responding to it now that is disgraceful thank you thanks for that Mark and so quiet quiet please in the audience all right so that brings us to the end of open comment um appreciate folks joining us here this week and we are going to go to move now to the consent agenda please yes thank you mayor next on tonight's agenda we have our consent agenda items and those are items a through K any Council questions or comments on any of these yes Tina yeah I just um wanted to comment on item H but um just on the supplemental Appropriations to the 2024 budget and lifting up that um we we've dedicated Another $500,000 to two organizations working on homelessness all roads and

[60:02] together um and partly in response to some of the hardships we anticipate that we facing so um obviously this reflects priorities and um this budget these appropriation changes don't get as much attention as the original budget but I just wanted to lift up that uh piece of the supplemental thanks thanks for that anything else Mark yeah I I I'm generally supportive of these um uh adjustment to base supplemental Appropriations but I would like to know when we are making ex uh dispersements out of fund balance what is the impact on the on the fund balance what is the remaining fund balance to what extent are we drawing down on the fund balance and and what is left and that is information that I I don't think we really have here so um I would ask staff to at least give us um uh some

[61:01] indication of um whether we are um skimming a small amount from the fund balance or we are drawing it down uh substantially or getting close to zero and if so why how are we intending to replenish the fund balance Chris do you want to address that sure I'm happy to address that and Mark thanks for the question and if it uh works for Council we'll treat that as a first reading question and include more information in the second reading memo if that works perfect sounds good anything else or a motion um I had just something that I wanted to bring to attention I um had some questions about the micr trenching I see that this is only on first reading at the moment but I believe it's scheduled to be on our consent agenda for second reading um particularly where the micr trenching

[62:00] is happening in bike Lanes along where kind of the curb and gutter meets the road if there's any additional photo documentation or sort of I don't know things that it doesn't have to be this meeting but maybe the next meeting or I see Brad coming approaching the podium so maybe you could I just I'm not a great cyclist and that little seam um yeah has caused me trouble before and I have concerns about making that allowing for that to be exacerbated through this yeah thank you uh Brad Mueller planning and development services director um a a great deal of thought was given into that concern uh we met with community members Community cycles and others to kind of vet that uh it's a it's a series of trade-offs to be sure uh Mark Garcia the senior engineering manager is online to elaborate or we could also follow up

[63:01] with some written documentation to to walk through that as you like yeah that would maybe be great before our second reading okay we'll be sure to cover that thanks thank you thanks Brad anybody interested in a motion I'll make a motion to pass our consent agenda second got a motion in second second can we have a roll call please Emily absolutely we'll start the roll call on tonight's consent agenda with mayor proem spear yes council member Wallock hi Wier yes council member Adams yes Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes council member ferz yes Marquis yes and to hard yes the consent agenda is hereby unanimously

[64:01] approved thank you Emily can we go to our first callup check-in please yes of course our first call up check-in this evening is item number 4A and that is a consideration of a site review Amendment for an approximately 55 foot tall structure with 50, 69 Square ft of floor area with a first floor meeting space mechanical mezan and upper level hotel rooms connected to the existing St Julian hotel at 900 Walnut Street reviewed under case number l questions surrounding the project that would be best dealt with at a public

[65:00] hearing um and also I consider a call up when there is such a controversial project as as simply part of our job giving voice to the community and letting them Express their views and their concerns and not simply uh riding rough shot over them um and we have received enough expressions of interest in this project uh pro and con that I think it is well worth um a public discussion so yes I would like to call it up got it Tara yes um according to our city council manual it says that if something is a matter of substantial public interest then we are able it's it's um we are able to call it up and for that reason I would like to call it up as well I also um am very interested in as far as in Council member folker's um comment about what we can

[66:00] and can't weigh in on so I'm in many respects interested and curious um to call it thanks for that I'll I'll call on myself and I do also have um interest in calling this up to you know explore how the project may or may not comply with the site review criteria but I've got a question and hell this may be for you or maybe for Teresa um in terms of what the scope of our deliberations would would be because I know that some have asked about whether we could have a different Civic use in in in place of the one proposed but we have this 2019 agreement so maybe try you can talk about what our decision space might be around this project yeah thank you mayor um a review would be limited to the criteria laid out for site review and um as you said there is a November 2019 agreement um city council authorized a city manager to enter into a management and operating agreement with the St Julian regarding the Civic use of this site um that agreement outlines the

[67:01] terms of that use and this council is now Bound by that agreement and so to put it bluntly the moment for civic use um comments has has come and gone uh certainly we're always interested to hear what the the public has to say but we are bound by a legal agreement in this situation thanks for claring clarifying that I appreciate it I got Nicole and Lauren or Lauren and then Nicole and we'll come back to you Mark um I think this might be planning and development services team although maybe Hela but um could you clarify for us what um exemptions this what the site review process could approve that the applicant is asking for in this case like what what aspects of the project require site

[68:03] review approval so that the community can better understand in terms of what kinds of things they might tailor their feedback to if we do call this up yes thank thank you council member uh Again Brad Mueller planning and development services uh this is a criteria based decision so we'd be happy to ticulate that a little bit uh Shannon mohler's on the line maybe she can elaborate a bit on that and hel can maybe bad clean up on that sure um I can uh speak to that I'm Shannon Mohler um City bilder Planning Department um so yeah the project is in a site revieww um amending the existing site review that was approved for the St Julian um so we're reviewing it under the site review criteria the um project

[69:02] has modifications that are requested through site review including for height and some setback modifications um so we're reviewing it under kind of the standard site review criteria thank you cool um and I have uh two questions about this I think one for each of you Teresa and Chris um one is is just to make sure I understand um planning board did a criteria based review of this and I believe they were unanimous or nearly unanimous on everything um if I'm remembering the notes correctly uh but would we review this with the same criteria I mean is anything going to change um in the way that we would review this versus how they did and and the criteria they used I'm trying to get an answer to whether it was unit or not so we'll get back to you on that um but certainly they planning board did approve it um

[70:01] council is bound by the criteria and would look at the exact same criteria okay thank you um and then uh Chris this is a question for you and I'm about to roll off of the council agenda committee so this is about to not be my struggle anymore but I do want to be sensitive to what a struggle it has been on the council agenda committee um to try to fit in um the things that we need to talk about for our work plan and for the city's strategic priorities and so um I guess the you know question I have is is how do we fit in more things without ending with four or five hour meetings um as we head into winter sure I appreciate the question and as we uh look forward on the council agendas many of them are pretty full through the end of the year so um if if the application is called up then um we would bring to CAC some options for SCH in uh this item and that may cause some shuffling of the future calendar uh to accommodate it but

[71:02] we would try and bring forward some options that have the least impact if if it is called up okay thank you um I I am leaning toward not calling it up just because I really don't know that we would reach a different uh conclusion than planning board did um and because our agenda is just so full and many of those things are the work plan priorities that we um all agreed were were going to be the priorities for the Council um but again I only have one more CAC meeting as the mayor protm so uh it's about to not be my struggle so if a majority of you would like to do that uh good luck to CAC I I'll just add um that it it will it should this um body call it up this body would have 60 days in which to review it so it would be a quick turnaround in terms of review maybe just just one followup like the things that we've got coming up if I'm remembering correctly it's things like home lessness it's things like um some of the compliance changes we need to do for state law regarding um adus

[72:01] occupancy those kinds of things so we've got some pretty meaty topics coming up I got Mark and then maybe we can move uh to a final Callum this that's a quick question for the City attorney uh Teresa um does being eligible for some of the uh variances that the developer has asked for uh imply an obligation to Grant uh council member wallik are you speaking specifically about the height variance the height the uh the Mechanicals Etc um if we establish that a project is eligible as most seem to be these days for 55 foot uh height um is that not a discretionary uh matter on the part of of council you know I'm G to excuse me I'm going to turn to my learned colleague Hela here um because while I have a

[73:02] working knowledge of it she has an in-depth knowledge with the city attorney's office um closer okay H penwick with the city attorney's office um the the variances that are requested or modifications is what we call them in the S review process have to be approved if the criteria that apply to them are met can you be a little more specific I'm trying to understand uh why we do not have discretion over a requested variance I think you do have some discretion to the extent that the review criteria are discretional um and a lot of the site review criteria are so a number of modifications then that can be requested have to just be granted if the the general s review criteria are met so

[74:00] there's not special criteria for many of them for some there are and the height modification is one of those um but that uh can be the requirement for that can be met by payment of an increased um affordable housing linkage fee yeah thank you Aon can I have a quick cqu sure okay um and regards to what Mark says can you confirm um also if I see one of the people was talking were talk one of the people was talking about um the Mechanicals being over 55 ft is can you confirm that and is that allowed in terms of our height limit who's going to take um oh I can I can answer that question um yeah we the city does allow for rooftop apperances there's a Code section regarding that that any rooftop apperance needs to meet

[75:00] and the proposed rooftop apperances would be consistent with our with our code requirements in this case thanks for that all right so is anyone interested in making a motion to call this project up T oh go ahead Mark I move that we call up uh uh the St Julian project for um uh for public hearing do we have a second second great we got a motion in a second I think we can do a hand raise on this one all in favor raise your physical hand got six all right or seven all right so we that that motion carries successfully so we will call that one up all right that's it for that one and if we can go up to the next call up check-in please yes next we have our call up

[76:02] check-in item 4B for a landmark alteration certificate application to modify the front Dormer and entry of the house at 241 fist stre in the Mapleton Hill historic district pursuant to section 9-11-18 of the boulder Revised Code 1981 and under the procedures prescribed by chapter 1 D 1-3 quasa judicial hearings BRC 1981 any questions comments or desire to call this one up I am not seeing any next one please all right our next Call of check-in is item 4 C for a landmark alteration certificate application to construct a new 715 sqt accessory building at 575 ID Avenue app pending Landmark Pur stent to section 9-11-18 of the the boulder Revised Code 1981 and under the procedures prescribed by chapter 1-3 quasa judicial hearings

[77:02] BRC 1981 any questions comments or desire to call this one up not seeing any here either so can we move to our first public hearing please absolutely our first public hearing tonight will be item five a that is for a consideration of a motion to approve and authorize the city manager to enter to execute and negotiate administrative amendments prior to or during the term a 20-year fber backbone lease agreement in substantially the same form as an attachment a between the city of Boulder and Alo Communications LLC leasing the city's dark fiber backbone for re for retail Broadband services with the city council finding that the lease and the construction Associated therewith will provide a public benefit to the city of B older thanks Chris you want to take it away I will kick it off here briefly uh

[78:00] we're excited to present this item to you tonight and uh Mike giansanti uh the deputy director from our Innovation and technology department is gonna give the presentation Mike is online he's a little bit under the weather so uh we appreciate him uh keeping the germs at home um but we've got lots of folks here from the team that Mike Will introduce and uh Mike will go over the history of this a little bit but uh the the real effort on actually began even further back than that uh beginning with a community conversation around the role of the city in broadband and so we're very excited to bring this uh presentation for you uh tonight so with that Mike I'll turn it over to you thanks Chris and uh good evening Council uh as as uh Chris said Mike Janti deputy director of innovation and technology and I apologize in advance for my voice um as Chris mentioned I'm just getting over being sick um super grateful to be joined by my colleagues who are in person uh and available to help answer any of your questions this evening uh in

[79:00] front of you on the dis are Don mvy my counterpart in Innovation and Technology overseeing our it infrastructure and Andy fart who is our legal counsel from the city attorney's office on this matter uh also in the room tonight are Jennifer Douglas our chief Innovation and Technology officer Dan Nelson our senior project manager on the community Broadband program and Mark Garcia from planning and development services we also also have in the room three gentlemen uh from Alo Communications uh Brad Molen the president and CEO Bob bias Ford the regional general manager in Colorado and Andrew Venton Al's legal and Regulatory director next slide D our purpose here tonight is to obtain your approval to execute a lease agreement with Alo for a substantial portion of our city owned fiber backbone and as you likely saw in our menmo and as I will outline here tonight the terms of the lease will yield both direct financial compensation for the city and direct Community benefits through this

[80:02] new fiber based internet service provided by Aloe throughout the entire Boulder Community uh and what I hope you find is that we've structured a deal uh where the retail internet services will be provided to our community in a manner that is centered on Council six objectives for this program which we'll uh touch on this evening next slide before I uh dive into the deal just a quick history uh on what brought us to this point tonight and as as Chris alluded to um this this matter dates even further back than than what is uh outlined on this slide here um but in 2018 Town Council did take some um significant uh action related to improving internet connectivity in Boulder by investing $20 million um of funds uh for the design and construction of our 50 plus mile fiber backbone that runs along the main transportation corridors in the city um the this fiber backbone was completed uh

[81:01] earlier this year which is a huge milestone in and win for the city um the intent back in 2018 2019 when this was approved was to enable a future Council to make decisions on how to best utilize that asset uh to bring affordable fiber-based internet to all Boulder rites uh and as many of you on Council likely remember from last year um we had a series of study sessions and a public hearing that was backed by staff and consultant analysis uh and Council voted unanimously to have staff move forward um to seek a private party to lease a portion of our backbone and use it to provide retail internet services uh to the community that was opposed to the option of a $250 plus million doll uh City investment in a fully Municipal City Network so uh beginning earlier this year we issued a for proposals seeking organizations who were willing to bring uh both capital and expertise into

[82:00] Boulder to leverage our investment in the backbone and to build a secondary Network off of that backbone and and serve the community um from the RFP we evaluated three possible vendors we looked at the work that these vendors had done elsewhere we looked at their financial standings and we looked at how well suited their proposals were to meet our our six Council objectives for Community broadband and from that analysis it was clear that Alo was best suited um to do that and so over the course of uh the summer and into the fall months we've worked really hard with the folks at aloe to structure a deal that's in front of you this evening that we believe allows Alo to run a financially viable business here in Boulder um while at the same time achieving the six objectives um that we've set forward for this work so um tonight for essentially the cost of the $20 million that uh We've invested in the backbone infrastructure um we have the opportunity to bring in excuse me a

[83:02] worldclass internet provider in aloe um to build a 100% fiber the home network uh to serve our community um in do so in a way that is Affordable to our taxpayers competitive in the market uh and Equitable for uh for all Boulder rites uh next slide please so just uh really briefly here who is aloe um aloe is a telecom company based in Lincoln Nebraska they operate in 47 cities across four states Missouri Nebraska Colorado and Arizona they offer uh fiber based Internet TV and phone services uh and they serve a population of about 1.2 uh million folks uh they are growing quite rapidly here in Colorado our neighbors um in Erie and in gy um are both uh beneficiaries of aloe Service uh today um and if uh this deal

[84:00] goes through aloe would become or Boulder would become the 11th City served by Aloe in the state of Colorado next slide so I'm going to walk through the deal terms in sort of three sections tonight the financial items the impacts to our backbone infrastructure and then uh the community benefits organized around those six objectives um but first uh this is a 20-year lease uh with an option for a 10-year renewal um in 20 years uh we are leasing half of our dark fiber capacity in our first backbone conduit and leasing the entirety of the empty second conduit uh with an exchange of dark fiber in that conduit that will ultimately exceed the amount being leased to aloe in the first conduit and so I realize that's a bit confusing I have a visual here in in one second I'll talk a little bit more about it um but the city will be paid uh $1.5 million lease fee UPF front and then success-based payments of

[85:01] $225 a month per residential customer and $9 per month for business customer um which Nets out to a net present value of about 9 million um valuation um for the uh for the lease for the city um the mix of the upfront and the success based payment um was done to maximize the financial value of this uh for the city while also placing a pretty substantial floor of of $1.5 million to the deal that will allow us to continue investing in the broader Community Broadband program uh in the near term um so don you can fles up the graphic on the right side so just back to uh what this specifically means for our infrastructure in the ground um right now when we talk about our excuse me our backbone um what you're looking at here is a cross-sectional view we have have two 2in conduits in the ground um in conduit number one we have 432 total

[86:01] strands of dark fiber and currently today conduit 2 is completely empty um the city will be leasing half of the 432 strands um in conduit one to aloe and we will be retaining the other half the other 216 for governmental purposes and and other uses a lot of which is is already lit up and being utilized um for uh connecting traffic signals connecting Public Safety Communications and and and other uses um in conduit 2 um aloe at their cost will be installing five micro ducts or smaller conduits um each of those micro ducts will contain 288 strands of dark fiber aloe will keep four of those um under their own ownership and the city will take ownership of one of those five so effectively um we are increasing the city is increasing our dark fiber capacity at no additional cost to the city we'll be giving uh

[87:02] 216 uh in conduit one on a lease um to Alo over the the 20-year term of the deal and we will be receiving complete ownership of 288 um strands of dark fiber in one of those micro ducts in conduit 2 okay let's go to the next slide um and before I go into how I believe this deal meets and and hopefully exceeds council's six objectives for this project I just want to quickly remind you of those six objectives that I've alluded to probably a dozen time so far in this past seven minutes um those are Citywide access competitive Marketplace Equitable and inclusive future oriented net neutrality and consumer privacy okay Don let's go into next slide um so the first is city-wide access um under the lease term Alo is committing to build out their Network to 80% of the city within 3 years and to 97% of the city within 5 years they are

[88:02] also agreeing to serve any newly annexed or developed areas in the city within two years of of such a thing occurring effectively Alo is agreeing to serve the entire city and wants to serve the entire city that 3% buffer that we see here um with that 97% threshold is really left to account for any areas that might arise as not accept accessible due to property owner refusal or RightWay issues or any sort of geological issues we we might run into um in certain areas of town um on a case-by casee basis the city would would evaluate these um again we expect this to be um the exception not the rule um and the city obviously maintains the right uh to serve um this 3% or less um as deemed appropriate at the time uh next on is competitive Marketplace um we worked really hard to ensure that Alo was going to be bringing a competitive product to the boulder Market to ensure that every single

[89:00] Boulder Rite has access to affordable fiber-based internet and and we're really really happy to share that um Alo all-in pricing um which uh means what they advertise is their price is what you pay there's no additional fees um or add-ons um that that amount is capped uh at each tier at the max that Alo will offer in any other major Colorado Market meaning people in Boulder will not pay more for Aloe internet than people in Eerie or gy or any other major aloe Market um now or in the future um for the tier of Internet that they are getting and and we felt that this was critically important um to sort of cap pricing here in Boulder um because we have made some assumptions based on our experience building conduit here in Boulder that our geology is such that it genu uh generally is more expensive to to uh construct here in Boulder than it is in um neighboring communities east of here and um we wanted to create a

[90:01] situation where we weren't seeing those construction costs directly passed on to our Boulder consumers and and rather mitigated a little bit out through the entirety of the aloe Network and um so we're excited about that provision um we're also happy to share that aloe will not use residential contracts which will give customers a lot of flexibility um they'll offer several tiers of service um currently in Colorado um those tiers are being offered at $79 a month for a 500 megabit um symmetrical service $108 for a gig symmetrical and $1 136 for 2.3 gig symmetrical service um Alo will also offer uh what the industry traditionally refers to as Triple Play services where customers can bundle um fiber based phone and um fiber-based TV services along with their internet services um one important note here is that Al's ability to provide TV

[91:01] services will require them to have a separate cable franchise agreement with the city um that agreement will be brought forward for Council approval at a later date likely in in q1 um or Q2 of of 2025 um and given the importance of that Revenue stream for Aloe uh We've made the terms of this deal conditional on the approval of a cable franchise agreement um which again will be brought separately in early 2025 uh next on is Equitable and inclusive and we heard loud and clear from from um the nine of you on Council from your predecessors and from our community how critically important um this uh item was and we placed an incredible amount of importance on this in our negotiation with aloe um particularly given the fact that um the Federal government's affordable connectivity program funding has now lapsed as of April of of this year um we

[92:00] worked really hard with Alo to make sure that we were getting uh affordability for all including those that were previously eligible for the affordable connectivity program uh Alo has agreed um to provide a substantially similar amount $30 a month which was the um deal through the affordable connectivity plan um a $30 a month subsidy to all Boulder rites um who live in affordable housing or otherwise qualify for any sort of uh federal government financial assistance um these are using the same parameters as were used uh for the affordable connectivity program things like free and reduced school lunch snap Medicaid supplemental security income um and and and and many more um this means that there are about 5,000 affordable rental and owned units um that will be preemptively marketed to by Aloe um for awareness of this offer uh and then anyone else who qualifies outside of uh low-income housing will uh provide an

[93:02] affidavit that they uh have uh subscribed to one of these government programs and up to uh 6,481 households uh will ultimately be eligible to apply for the subsidy with ala which means um up to 10% um of our Boulder households um will be eligible for this program which which we felt was a a great win um and surpassed uh what the uh level of participation uh in the ACP was um quite significantly um additionally those who qualify will also be eligible for a 100 megabit per second symmetrical Service uh which will not be offered to other uh Boulder customers and this will be offered at a discounted price uh of $30 a month Allin so um this is highly competitive with a um this tier of service that would be offered in in other communities uh even those with Municipal internet options um in in

[94:00] Longmont in lovelin and so forth um additionally all will be providing uh for all college students in Boulder um the ability to upgrade their service so you pay for a 500 megabit plan and you will receive at the same cost a one gig plan um this is a program all offers in some of their cities today and we've had uh them memorialize it in the contract to provide here in Boulder throughout the term um of the agreement uh and then beginning in 2028 or in year three of the agreement um Alo will be offering free gigabit service to 25 nonprofits in Boulder uh who maintain a brick and morar location here in the community these will be chosen uh for three-year participation in the program and they'll be chosen by a group of diverse community members who will work with aloe um in that selection process and they'll be opportunity for additional nonprofits to um have that opportunity in Rolling threeyear basis

[95:00] uh and then lastly on this point all will be opening a retail storefront here in Boulder um that will be accessible by public transportation and will act as a local customer service hub for our folks here in town uh next on is future oriented and um really excited that the network that Alo uh would build here off of our backbone is um it will be scalable to provide multi- gig services to anybody here in Boulder so as the need and demand uh for for data consumption Rises um we are going to be future proof in our homes and businesses uh here in Boulder um with this uh infrastructure and with the infrastructure of our Legacy providers um all will also be building over 90% of their Network underground um adding to the Network's resilience um and they'll be offering their smart Town program which um will allow uh aloe customers in Boulder to jump on Wi-Fi wherever they are within reach of an aloe router in um in public

[96:01] spaces um enhancing connectivity for for those folks across the city um in our public spaces uh and then lastly Alo like the city has a very strong commitment to the environment um they have agreed in the contract to use sustainable construction materials uh recycle materials throughout construction and Beyond uh and to maintain policies and procedures aimed to mitigate any environmental risks associated with their last mile infrastructure uh and then last on uh you can put up five and six there uh so Alo is uh very committed uh to an open and fair internet um they will they have committed to not impose any data caps or throttle anyone's internet services very much upholding the principles of of net neutrality uh and they also maintain very high standards for data protection uh strictly prohibiting the sale monetization uh or exchange of customer data for any commercial purposes and and

[97:01] their consumer privacy standards um exceed uh what is required under the Colorado Privacy Act for this matter so um so with that joh we can flip to the last slide that concludes our um staff remarks tonight we can pause here and open up for Q&A thanks so much for that Mike very detailed and informative presentation on this agreement uh does council have any questions for Mike or other staff members on this proposal Lauren Taisha all right thank you very excited so I just want to start off with that um super important and all of the one all of the wonderful things so um I did have a question about um the environment section which I appreciated having the recycling component mentioned mentioned

[98:00] um but I would be remiss if I didn't bring up the fact that um this project and this work the nature of this work requires digging into Earth right and putting these lines down and the fact that that wasn't included in the environmental component is something that I thought was an interesting Omission um but it's also to me an opportunity because I was looking for it um because in the Reconstruction right of putting that back there's opportunities to you know do Native grasses or what right I'm just kind of thinking what in what way could we um mitigate the disruptions to you know soil and habitat um to lay down the lines and how can we potentially you know model um you know um The Greening in Greening the infrastructure if you will so that to me was something that I I had hoped to see in here um but when I looked at other um types of work of this nature I wasn't necessarily seeing it so it doesn't seem that it's an IND

[99:00] industry standard but it was something that I had a question about if that was was something that um that you would be willing to consider or if you if you have had any experience in um really um innovating around Greening the infrastructure um I so that was one of my one of my three questions Mike do you want to respond to that one um I guess I'd look to uh folks in the room um he's getting up he was on his way would a representative from Al like to come down introduce yourself and and respond to that question please turn on the mic there if you would please uh my name is Brad Molen I'm the founder and president of Alo Communications and founded Alo 22 years ago um a couple of things on on the the impact let's just say is easiest way to to the

[100:01] environment one admitted it is disruptive um the foresight of of the council was to build a you know 50 60 mile ring and you saw the impacts of that it it's it's a lot of work um one of the things that we've done throughout our entire history is we become part of the community um we're a competitive uh provider and so we want to disturb what's seen and what's underneath the the Earth as little as possible and be a good Steward of the earth um our practices actually um we use a financing program called uh securitization and we were the first um company of our sort in the United States to get awarded a green um green Bond certification which meant we take

[101:01] care of under above the Earth and how we recycle and and take care of the um not just the Earth but also the people that are working on the project as well that's a nice third-party um result and and that's I think what you can look towards um in in how we do our work okay thank you anybody else want to answer that um and again just hopeful that there that is a consideration it would be wonderful to to work with the you know osmp and just really thinking about uh that disruption and and what we can do um to mitigate that so it's really wonderful to hear the green and again that's it would be great to have had that in here as well so um next question is the 25 people or 25 organizations that would be um selected in the selection process so um one one wonderful love love that aspect um of it but I was just curious again since this

[102:00] is a public Investments there is it seems to be that'll be an internal process and just kind of thinking from transparency and you know just making sure right that we you know we have a responsibility but if that responsibility is going to be on you and your team then what is the reporting and transparency on that yeah we can um we've done this in other communities um and what we've done is uh We've made sure it uh the requirements for the application um are publicly available um we we expect to work with uh the city leaders and um on that what's happened though uh is that these uh requirements um have been appreciated by other cities uh and and gone through that process and uh just on a personal note the rewarding of th awarding of those is as good a feeling as you can get because you help

[103:00] these nonprofits not have to raise money to pay me right I understand that and it's a it's a great give back and um I you know it's uh I don't want to read too much into uh the the whole program because I don't have the paper in front of me and I apologize for that but we can make it available um worries for tweets will it be publicly like who gets the award will that be publicly available or reported publicly what we've done historically is we've had a a a period where people apply and then there's a cross-section of of Alo people and the community that choose uh who gets awarded and um and and so both the criteria and who gets awarded are very public and then who receives the yeah is also okay thank you that was just wanted to just make sure that there was a public component and I think we got City staff who want to respond to that as well oh and I was just going to highlight member Adams it's it's right now the contract requires a reasonably diverse advisory committee so we have

[104:01] some um I think the plan is to be in communication as to how that committee is constituted and to understand what those awards are and I think Alo has expressed a desire to make that public and transparent awesome thank you I strongly recommend we unpack reasonable um and then lastly is the question around the income uh or low income again um fantastic benefit curious um how the uh the cap of 6,491 was identified yeah council member Adams I can take that so uh we we base this on um the number of uh units of affordable housing um validated through the city um which is around 5,000 units uh and we made some assumptions based on the number of folks who were eligible for the affordable connectivity program um and the number of which we believe lived in affordable housing and we saw about a 20% Delta there um and so we added a 20%

[105:03] um sort of buffer zone to account for um those individuals uh with low income in the city who don't uh happen to live uh in a city um verified low-income housing dwelling um and so doing that math comes up with a quite specific number of 60 one I don't have it up in front of me here but the 6,100 or so number that you see in the agreement okay and just point of clarification that is going to be over the first 20 year period and that won't increase that is at any given time um and it is based baked into uh the contract that we readdress this um on a recurring annual basis with aloe um to make sure that the benefit is staying substantially the same both the um number of folks um the proportion of folks that are receiving benefit and the actual amount of the benefit is staying substantially um equivalent um when we see inflationary Rises over the term of

[106:01] the Le awesome thank you so much those are all my questions thank you thank you I got Lauren and then Markle thank you um my main questions are around the storefront um I appreciate that you guys are going planning on doing that and the community connect s um you know suggested that was something that they cared a lot about one of the things not related to this industry but in some other industries that I've been hearing a little bit about is um really a lot of community frustration with um public hours not being posted and you know so they go to pay a bill to do to do that and can't access um that store front um well I guess in this case I'm mostly thinking about um landlords and some some of those kinds of things that can be really difficult

[107:00] for people we don't have any language in there currently I believe around ours but could you maybe speak to a little bit what your plan is on that front yeah if I remember right the the statement is standard business hours you know which would be um in most communities an 8 to5 type time frame um and uh we we operate um storefronts in all of our markets not not just to to receive payments um but also to learn streaming to um try it before you buy it um those types of things and to to answer a variety of other questions and and so um it really becomes more than just a transactional um location and and we do have uh a letter of intent I don't think I should probably announce exactly where it is yet because there's only a letter of intent um but on a

[108:03] storefront so that um reg regular business hours is something that you guys are committing to yes thank you Mark uh couple of comments um first U congratulations to staff this is a a tremendous achievement and I I I really think you've done a great job and a a special shout out to Mike um for answering all of my questions so quickly and so substantively thank you very very much I do sorry to interrupt you but we are in questions so did you have questions or comments I have I have several questions okay there you go um in one of your responses to my hotline you said that the city did not conduct a detailed review of Al's financial statements is that kind of a an error or is that is that really the

[109:00] case I was just referring uh councilman wallik to the the fact that you know we we didn't um we didn't go through and and evaluate every aspect of Al's business um we made some assumptions based on the relationships uh that they have with other communities successful relationships that they have with other communities um the type of of debt that we've seen them um draw um and the fact that they've had great success in in building and expanding their infrastructure in those other communities there was there was no intent other than just to make it clear that we didn't um you know we didn't hire any sort of um audit or or consulting firm to to go in and and take a a deep look at Alo and who they are financially okay my next question is really for Alo um how many of the communities in which you operate are the size of Boulder um the uh the size of Boulder um about 105,000 fet yeah I I was trying to I'm

[110:01] going through uh Lincoln Nebraska is our largest it's the 70th largest uh community in the United States um and it'd be about three times the size Yuma Arizona I think is about exactly 120,000 um we've got several in the 70,000 in uh range and about maybe a half dozen in the 40 to 50,000 range okay um this is something I had asked Mike um it seems to me there are no requirements for the financial credibility of any potential assign of Al's interest in the contract is is that true I I don't know the details of the contract at that level I apologize I

[111:00] think City staff can take that one yeah Andy are you able to respond to that yeah hi hi member Wallock um there there's a general objection to assignments so that's one of our um just uh I guess General safeguards and then I know remember wallik you had brought up the risk of a foreclosure or some sort of RIS R of a financial um generally just a mortgage that could result in foreclosure and and there's a couple of safeguards against that one I would say is the um we have broad rights to contest any sort of uh foreclosure action so that's one of the language uh some of the language that's in there but I think more importantly is if they were to assume the rights under the lease agreement through a foreclosure I think whoever would be stepping into those shoes would have to meet some very detailed requirements which would probably place them in breach and give us um an ability to if be so desired to

[112:03] get out of the agreement um where are those requirements stated the for instance the ju I would just say generally so all of the requirements concerning um for example net neutrality price privacy um I mean we we really went in and I would say made it specific to aloe in a way that it would be really hard for somebody to subsume the rights under this under this lease but I'll give you one reference in particular that um if I can find it here I don't want to take up time finding it but there's a statement that notwithstanding anything in this agreement to the contrary we have the right to contest any sort of um foreclosure action is essentially what

[113:00] it says and is it clear to you that we have the right to contest an assignment on the basis of the financial stature of the asse so one of the um kind of I guess caveats to this is whoever comes into this if they were to take rights under the leads they would need a CFA to operate the services the cable video services that Alo will operate and under the federal regulations that's one of the criteria that we would and in fact that's one of the criteria you'll need to examine as part of the cable franchise agreement that they'll be applying for shortly so um I don't know if that helps you there if you'd like for us to refine that further this meeting is to adopt substantially in the form the contract that we have but we're happy to take a look at that again if you'd like I I would I don't want to take up more time tonight with that but I'd ask you to

[114:00] look at it and and simply do what's appropriate um to make sure that we if in the event there is such an assignment uh we end up with an assign that is uh of equal experience quality and financial stature as Al I don't think that an unreasonable request okay thanks Mark is it it that's it okay Nicole and then Tina thanks so much for um this presentation I have a couple of questions one is um if I'm understanding correctly the uh lowest service tier is $79 is that is that correct that's the current price in Colorado today for that okay okay thank you and the basically the discount that for um eligible low-income families would be $30 is that right that's correct but individuals who qualify for that will also qualify for another tier offered at $60 and applying

[115:02] that discount would then make it $30 okay so they're still getting $30 and I was just wondering is there is there any way of getting a um a service tier where the cost would be equivalent to the discount so that our lowest income folks would have um no cost internet that anyway it feel feel feel like that that's the way to be a leader in Equitable access yeah thanks for that council member spear um we we did go back and forth with Alo quite a bit um on what would um what would be financially viable um for for them to sustain business uh and would um meet our community needs here um we did some analysis on neighboring communities and on what they are providing and and I recognize that you know in your mind might not be seen as uh leading in this but um we wanted to be at least um as as good as what they were providing in communities like Longmont and lovelin um who have

[116:03] municipalization nearby um and this $30 a month product with the um discount applied um is effectively equivalent um to what we found uh in our research and in these other communities as well so um we felt as though it was a um a a a a really good deal um for a high quality internet product um at at a at a rate that um is hopefully affordable um to our community members thank you I don't know if you want to if I could help one other thing uh this may be a a general statement but um I attended a a meeting at the White House you know to announce the Affordable Care um plan and ACP which currently doesn't exist we're lobbying hard um we really want it to

[117:00] come back and it did provide for a zero cost for people and um as a a side note I've been doing this for 30 years it was the most rational program I thought we'd ever had and so I'm rooting for it to come back and um and I believe it will may not be in the first year but I I believe in in the next couple three years it'll be back yeah thank you for that that makes me think about our federal policy statement but that's a different discussion um the uh other question that I had um the no cost service tier upgrade for students does that apply to graduate students it it does um the the upgrade and and we we have a great um participation there I think we've got several thousand um people uh under that plan and um what it does is it allows people to get just a little bit more speed um they're um quite often they're doing um just terrific research and things and they're doing it from home or

[118:00] they're doing it from other locations and so we want to enable that um uh just as a side note Alo is um supportive education and that's probably what we lean into the most yeah thank you I appreciate the inclusion of graduate students that's not common thank you thanks Tina yeah I just had a general question question that's um I'm not as familiar with this industry at all and when we think about how people are charged if you have a single family home and it's converted into a duplex does that turn into two contracts or does that remain one contract that's split between the two new entities in general the the uh normal normally when it is split it becomes two separate households and we kind of follow the household definition and so usually that would be two separate um uh yeah that's probably the easiest way to say it okay but if there were and also if it's combined two

[119:01] becomes one um U my family rehabbed a a house that was a duplex and creaded one and uh and two became one okay but then if there were eight people sharing a house but they're just renting rooms that would just be one contract split eight ways so it doesn't matter how many people are drawing from the normally that would be be one um uh in college towns um sometimes that is our challenge is uh sometimes one very many becomes one um just the the nature of a college student in the college uh environment and so uh we generally try to follow um how a other utilities how their insurance follows those types of things okay and then my other question it's just in the city of Boulder how do we um manage people who are in the strange pockets of County do they generally access the same backbone or would they

[120:00] be treated differently like what would the communication be to those uh people it's just a couple areas in the city right yeah so I can start on this one and Andy feel free to elaborate um under this contract uh we don't have the jurisdiction um to enforce Al to build um outside um of of of City Limits The N the 80% threshold and the 97% threshold apply only to dwellings within City Limits however there's also nothing prohibiting aloe um from from doing so um and um would be advantageous uh for them I would imagine from a business standpoint also capture those uh potential customers as well Andy anything you would add to that I don't think so thanks okay and then um has there been any discussion with the um the school from the Boulder Valley School District and other schools just how they might be able to also qualify for some of these reduced rates for the schools themselves or for

[121:02] um students and families of the schools both um the schools themselves uh no um Don could I uh tap on you to just quickly talk through how the schools um generally get their internet connections today yeah so uh schools today a lot of them uh partner with our Front Range Gap pop here and so they do a lot of dealings with them because they connect our research institutes schools and education throughout uh Boulder so a lot of them have a deal with them um versus um going to a private ISP I said so most of them are doing that because that's more of that Community they're trying to be partnered with so it's not something we usually um would talk them about because they have this deep partnership with the front R kop I would just add that one of the deal terms is a broad reservation of rights to do serve other governmental

[122:01] entities and provide that service within the city within the 288 of fiber or the um least portion that we or the non- leas portion of fiber that we still have so that availability and that flexibility was something that we negotiated hard for so that the city could have that future capacity for those uses I might add one other thing is um most school districts are eligible for E rate um which is federally um subsidized uh the services um Alo is an eate provider and so um I I would hate to throw out the the exact number but I'd say it's north of 80% of our um communities uh we do all the work for the schools um over a period of about five to seven years whether it's voice internet um Layer Two bandwidth whatever um we we believe that the ecosystem works better when the schools and the students the city government and the um

[123:02] residents the hospitals and the patients can um benefit from that we saw that in Co um Lincoln Nebraska we uh we had oh gosh between probably eight and 10,000 workers go home over a 4-day period and they never saw a blip um because of that ecosystem and how well we were working together thanks for that good enough right I have one question for you which is um let's say there were an apartment building uh owned by say our Housing Authority or a privately owned apartment building where they wanted to get one account and then had internal wiring to the individual units is there any problem with having one account in a situation like that yeah what you're describing as a bulk Arrangement um that's also been in the uh in the policies and um debate it at the FCC level you know whether that maintains I would estimate that it will M uh bulock Arrangements will maintain we we we're happy to meet

[124:02] people how they want to do business whether it's in a bulock Arrangement or on an individual basis and um and we do that that work um sometimes we have to rewire the entire um uh apartment or or other location and we do that on our our investment where one of the things we look at is you know this isn't a two or threee process for us um this is a we look at it and we say it all the time this is a 30-year uh decision for us um we've been in business for 22 years we expect to be here for a while appreciate that did you have some Ry just just one question thanks um are there any conditions uh under which the the system would stop to work because or would need to be upgraded because either you know we add population or we add or or the

[125:02] population that we have has greater needs how how to think about the kind of limits of what this system can provide versus what we might think about having in the future uh that's a great question um and uh we're constantly upgrading uh 22 years ago when we started internet wasn't that important it was all voice um fax machines and how fax lines worked um now you fast forward and now we're talking about gig multi- gig um we recently tested with one of our invent uh uh vendors 50 gig and it's publicized uh you can Google it um we constantly have to stay in ahead we in the end what you're What's Happening Here is there will be competition there will be more competition than there was yesterday and that is a good thing well uh the various

[126:00] providers will constantly invest more and more uh so that they can stay ahead and that's um uh and when you have fiber and all fiber that's vital um and then it also becomes how you work with students uh the one of the comments earlier was was about our smart education or or Smart Life Products um the kids with the uh Chromebooks we we've enabled it so that if we have a relationship with the school basically if they authenticate their devices if a student can see an aloe router they can get back to their school to do homework um we developed this after covid you know to me it's a shame that we had kids sitting outside of a of a coffee shop or hamburger place just to do work get their school work done not to cut you off but just looking at our future here yeah that and that's why I'm say we developed this and um uh

[127:03] the first I think in the country to offer it and um it's making a difference and so you just constantly have to upgrade AI will be another one you know who knows how people will be using that in their homes and businesses great thanks for all those answers all right I think we are ready to go to the public hearing uh so I'll open that up we have two speakers one in person and one virtual so uh David Adamson come on down you got three minutes to speak to us that is if you're in the room not sure okay well let's go to our virtual participant which is Lyn seagull so Lynn you're up you have three minutes no we can own our fiber optics we can own our own fiber like Longmont does we can make money for our customers instead of Alo making money through

[128:02] us that's Community benefit so what are you doing here again like with our M Municipal electric which we're going to have in 2025 and if we don't then we'll have it the next exit R possible the business model is wrong only it ourself we can do what we need to do ourself and we don't have a profit Advantage for some that some corporate entity like Alo is why do you do this why do you agree to these things why we don't need Aloe we need the city of Boulder fiber optics like Longmont you know there needs to be an iterative conversation here because this is getting scammed to us through the

[129:02] city again this is some benefit to us no it's not self- ownership is the benefit um Longmont put out all their fiber to each individual household and they're making money on it the city is making money and we have enough constraints on our budget with the city of Boulder we can't even afford hotel rooms for the homeless like we did last year and ARA we can get funds from ARA the same as Alo can but you know what in a trump Administration you've got to be kidding we're never going to get aloe funds that's so yesterday the social safety net is gone with Donald

[130:00] Trump we need more than ever now to own it ourselves think about this Administration we're coming into we're going to have our community struggling we don't need another corporate entity owning us for 20 years 20 more years we need our own didn't you learn it with Excel Energy and Boulder Power and Light no you didn't you're going to learn it eventually bigger is not better the community benefit is ownership then we do what we want in any Myriad ways that we need to your time's up but thank you for your testimony last call for D David Adamson okay sorry David all right I'm

[131:02] going to clo close the public testimony portion of the public hearing and bring it back to city council who would like to kick off our discussion on the motion proposed Motion in front of us Nicole I am happy to offer my comments um I just largely wanted to say thank you um we had a laundry list of asks and this really is an impressive negotiation um so thanks to Andy and the city attorney's office um and to Mike and Don and everybody in it um in Our IT department and um also thank you Brad and Alo for um for for being here and for uh partnering with us um I think it says a lot that uh the president of the company is here um I was and still remain a little bit nervous nervous about um bringing a for-profit company in on this project um things don't tend to go well for a lot of folks in our community When people's ability to access uh their basic needs is sold for

[132:02] a profit um but given that we didn't have the funds to finish this uh buildout and provide internet access as a purely Public Service um you all have done a really good job of finding a middle ground here um and making sure that our community is looked out for and making sure that all of the things that we were looking for in a public private partnership have been addressed so I just want to thank you all for um for partnering on this and for giving us so many of the things we were looking for so thank you this is really impressive work tresa did you want to weigh in I do we just had an oversight in um when we introduced the team in addition to those already named I wanted to acknowledge R Ward our pargal who has been supporting this effort in here this evening thank you r yeah Matt yeah all right I'd like to go ahead and uh make a motion to approve and authorize the city manager to enter into

[133:01] into execute and negotiate administrative amendments prior to or during the term a 20-year Fiverr backbone lease agreement in substantially the same form as in attachment a between the city of Boulder and aloe Communications LLC leasing the city's dark fiber backbone for retail Broadband services with the city council finan that the lease and the construction Associated therewith will provide a public benefit to the city of Boulder and I'll just make a quick oh let's get a second then I'll make a comment second nice if you'd like to speak to your motion yeah um I appreciate my colleagues asking some really good questions and I'll just Echo um mayor Pro's uh compliments this is a long time coming when the community said hey we want to do this and here's some money and we made it work I know that in this industry owning the infrastructure is usually key um and the fact that we found a partner that was willing to work with us as the owner of that infrastructure uh I think showed a tremendous uh Bridge uh with that

[134:01] partner and so I just want to say thank you for for that because I understand that those pressures to only infrastructure in this industry and and you guys worked with us and that was great we thought that would have been a hurdle um and it turns out that it's actually going to create a great partnership so so thank you so much so this is a great opportunity and it's great to make do when the voters say go do forth and we do and here we are the precipice of making that promise made so excited for the opportunity thanks for that Matt and I'll speak to my second this has been a long road and coming so Echo the things um mayor PM spear you out outlined those very very well Matt you built upon them too um but just I was around when we were making these early decisions back in 2017 18 and 19 and we looked at the dollar amounts required and said you know we can't do this on our own um but you know what we could afford is build a backbone and we can start with that as a public utility and then see where we can get from there and that was something of a leap of faith completed the backbone huge thank you to everybody in the city that um oversaw that and made that happen and now it's built and then we

[135:00] said what could we do next can we get a private partner because again the public investment required is outside of our scope of financial um ability and Alo I so much appreciate you stepping up with an excellent RFP and complying um with all six of our primary goals and so here we are today I'm very excited to vote in favor of this and start what hopefully will be a decades long partnership to finally realize the goal of at least municipally partnered Broadband that I think is going to provide an enormous benefit to our residents for years to come so it's been a huge huge team effort um I think each and every one of you who's taken a major role in this and looking forward to seeing it uh come into fruition all right uh any other comments before vote we got Mark I got Lauren yeah I think I've been pretty clear that I think this is a terrific achievement um staff has done a wonderful job and we're on the verge of uh providing a great service for the community um uh my only last comment is

[136:00] I would urge staff to take another look at those assignment provisions and provide us a little more protection in the event uh there is an assignment of Alo contract position um as a steward of the city's financial position I really do not want to end up with a partner of any less capability experience or financial uh strength than aloe and I think that that's an easy fix and I would ask you to take a look at that if you if you could very good Lauren thank you um I still wish that we were pursuing Municipal fiber internet um I believe that utilities like water sewer electricity and internet should be owned and operated by the community um however in terms of a possible private partnership I do think Alo and this agreement are a strong

[137:02] option for us and um that this will give us the opportunity to move forward with the much needed faster internet for our community on a faster timeline so thank you all right not seeing any other hands raised um I'll go ahead and call for a vote em Emily should we do a roll call on this one yes sir we will do a roll call vote and we'll start the roll call vote on tonight's public hearing item 5A with council member wallik yes Wier yes council member Adams yes Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes foler yes Maris yes shuart yes and mayor protm spere yes item 5A is hereby approved unanimously all right well thanks for that and uh congratulations and Alo we're looking forward forward to the

[138:01] partnership in the the years and decades to come and before we wrap up I just want to give a a final big huge shout out to Mike John sunti uh Mike you've done so much to bring this to fruition and uh we wish you could be here in person with us uh for this evening's uh hearing but appreciate you showing up virtually and hope you feel much better soon thanks mayor Brocket and sir certainly a huge team effort here I I cannot take credit for for all so thanks to the the whole team absolutely all right and if with with that if we can go to our continued public hearing please our last agenda item of the evening absolutely mayor we are now on to our last item on tonight's agenda and that is public hearing item 5A and that is the continued public hearing to consider a motion to find that there is interest in considering a service area expansion into Area 3 planning Reserve as part of the 2025 major update to the Boulder Valley comprehensive

[139:00] plan the good thing about reading the whole title is it gives the team time to come into place that's right so we have uh Christopher Johnson and Sarah horn from pnds that are here up on the dis uh this is a continued public hearing uh and so we're going to kind of pick this up right where you left off from from the end of the public hearing so it's really back to you as Council for deliberations but staff is here to answer any questions that you may have very good and KJ and S are you offering any other additional words or should we leap right in you are welcome to uh to LEAP right in we um we do have the presentation available from from last week in case you wanted to pull up any of those slides um and we have some staff available uh either in the room or virtually to help answer questions great and just would you mind for the record uh letting us all know what planning board's uh result and decision was on Tuesday night yes uh thank you so planning board voted uh 7 to zero

[140:02] unanimously to um to find that there was an interest to move forward um with exploring expansion as part of this next bbcp update so that would essentially uh authorize staff to move forward with the community needs study as part of the comp plan update okay very good so um all right so we can uh launch into Council discussion here about this possibility of a motion um of the motion in front of us and I will just note that uh this is one step amongst multiple of them that if we do uh decide to take this next step that there are several points in the future where we could either decide to continue or decide not to continue so um it is one step as part of a process um who'd like to start with whether they would like to consider expansion yeah TAA thank you so I am very clear that this is a multipress tiered process

[141:01] what I'm not clear on is if this process will allow um so I have raised concerns around the completeness of the Baseline study and the omission of um of of critical components that I think would be NE necessary for a baseline study specifically the lack of the Colorado River Basin at all mentioned or considered for this so onethird of our water supply was not even considered in this conversation the other thing that was not considered is wildfires and specifically the amount of water that comes from the reservoirs to take the water you know to address that so that is also not considered nor just wildfires in general and the increase the the known increases in water in Wildfire um in addition to that there was no habitat assessment of the current lands to determine

[142:00] Wildlife um you know grasslands you know we are the way that it is written assumes that there is no current benefit of that uh ter of that um of that planning Reserve or that area it is very human centered um and so my question is um um it is not clear to me um if the next steps before you go out and ask Community or do community anything we are still not aund we still do not have um all of or or what I believe to be critical information related to nonhumans um in addition to that there's also the energy component which which is mildly addressed um but I think that there was a an invitation to continue to expand that as well and so um although I can understand

[143:04] the interest right um my concern is is that we will move to the next phase which is community input similar to what happened with the airport when there is critical information that wasn't included in that initial study yeah thank you for the questions um so related to uh the uh the Water Supply in Colorado River um I believe that we did provide some clarifications around um how those models were prepared uh and certainly our our teammates and utilities can can speak to that um regarding some of the other studies as far as um you know Environmental Studies and and other things like that we envisioned those would would certainly be part of those future phases so this this SE second step of the process is related to again just assessing the community need and exploring whether or not expansion is really necessary if that were to be true or found to be the

[144:02] case an expansion was um was authorized to then create something called the service area expansion plan that is where we would get into a much much deeper analysis of the future land use types and other things as to what this place could be and as part of that we would have much further conversations around what are the existing uh environmental conditions um how might those be incorporated into future development um and as the as the neighborhood would evolve or as we would plan for future development in the area that's when that would be incorporated um but but not as part of that initial Urban Services study right and so I guess where my concern and is literally why I ran for Council is because I feel like we or rather the current planning process in is very human Centric and when when habitat is in round three um it shows right we have Wildlife Corridor issues right now as a community um which

[145:00] I know is hard because you see the flat irons and you're like wow we've got so much but actually Critters need to go throughout the city and again as a former commissioner for Colorado Parks and Wildlife even in the city of Boulder this is a problem um we have significant habitat loss um across the state because of development um and again I I was hopeful that in the update to the BBC plan that there will be opportunities for us to um actually update the criteria for these studies so that that so that we can um again it was my understanding that the the criteria was created in 1997 or six when I graduated from college and um um I think there were some minor updates in 2021 my larger point is is given where we are in the planet um with the climate um e economically I just have concerns that um that some of these critical in you know I'm I I am concerned that I have

[146:01] more information around commercial space residential space open space Etc and I have not as much information around Habitat Energy Water um those things should be driving how much infrastructure commercial Etc um not the other way around and so that is really my concern with moving forward if there isn't um prioritization on getting some of this critical information and especially the Wildfire component which was not addressed um in in that also another area that was not addressed at all was local agriculture um you know I know we have a thousand acres of land but as we think about more people um this is a real invitation and I I understand that that goes to the subcommittee but that also is the way we've always done business and that is what I'm on this Council to to disrupt because that way we have done business is resulting in increased or decreased air quality water quality um and soil

[147:03] conditions so um those are my concerns again I see the interest and I want to say yes but if we're going to just keep moving forward and waiting until stage three or four for some of these critical components that really should be in my opinion um and to ecologists and biologists around the world um should not be in stage four uh when we have a significant habitat um situation thank you point taken thanks TAA I got Mark and Tina uh I'm gonna sign on to just about everything that Taisha just said I think all of those issues are important uh but they're critical um uh I also have as as my hotlines have demonstrated uh a real disagreement um with respect to the concept of how we're going to pay or hundreds of millions of dollars maybe a billion dollars worth of

[148:01] infrastructure um I am absolutely unconvinced of the mechanisms that have been offered for the manner in which that's going to get done um since the housing gets built last and the infrastructure gets built first uh we're actually going to have to fully finance that infrastructure um you know we're saying we don't have enough money for a South Boulder Rec Center um yet we're prepared to uh go down a path that will require us uh to undertake several hundred millions of dollars worth of infrastructure I don't see the capability I don't see the plan and in terms of the um unmet Community needs um study I can save you a great deal of time and effort um uh it's going to come out with a decision that we want housing and most people going to say we want affordable and middle- income housing and that's great I support that

[149:00] um but you need to have a road map of how to get from here to there and when you're expending that kind of money on infrastructure um I don't know how you're going to end up achieving more than a cursory amount of affordable and um middle- income housing I don't look upon this as simply an opportunity to develop several thousand housing units that is not of great Community benefit we have plenty of units of Housing and we're going to have plenty more in East Boulder and in other areas um what I don't think we have is that kind of middle income housing and there is nothing in this process that's made me more comfortable that we have a clue as to how to get it um and doing a buildout in area three primarily for the benefit of property owners there it's simply not very interesting to me um doing it in a way that gets us you know serious

[150:00] affordable and middle- inome housing fine then we then I would be happy to have that conversation but I don't think we know enough about any of these key subjects to be moving down the road and simply saying but we have step two and we have step three and we'll figure it out in step two and in step three um at some point you create create your own momentum uh and I don't want to see that momentum created until we have answers to the Myriad questions that are being posed by Taisha um I'd like to see a few of mine answered um and I'm sure a few of my colleagues have questions as well so um I may well be in a minority on this but I I think this is not ready for prime time thanks Mark I got Tina and then Lauren yeah thank you um and I'm following up a little bit with um council member Adam's comments about water um I I appreciate that there are a lot of off-ramps in this process and um

[151:02] and take that to heart and I and I think it is worth looking at the reserve but only as part of an overall Vision which is the bbcp you know comp plan process and also looking um hopefully as a council together hearing the same information together at what the water tradeoffs are going to be in our community and also with our neighbors and our neighbors also are they have housing goals and they're trying to get water as well this is a whole Regional issue and I'm hoping we can get a regional lens when we have those water discussions um in particular because it's it doesn't behoove us to hurt our neighbors on their water supply if we're building more in our community um so that's and and so many people who work in Boulder are living in our neighboring region so I want to be sensitive to how those neighborhoods are going to be experiencing the climate future um so I'm not so much against the exploration but my expectation and what I'll be

[152:01] advocating for during this process is that we create a regional vision and a regional understanding of water um the other piece is what we see sometimes is we start like what I wouldn't want to see happen is we pursue area three and we start with the words it's going to be affordable housing that's a middle- inome housing type like a town home or a duplex which is similar to how we started the affordable housing which then became the familyfriendly vibrant neighborhoods I hope that if we do pursue some type of development that we're able to create a mechanism where it stays into some type of housing that is an unmet need in our community now and to do it in a way that it's difficult for it to time out like the Civic use pad next to the St Julie or be morphed quickly so that we can commit to a an affordable housing goal and hopefully um it's interesting this

[153:00] is really a very small version of sprawl that we're looking at that we have just spent a lot of time passing a Transit bill at the state level to reduce sprawl and sort of not go in this direction at the same time we recognize the need for this other kind of housing type I think this is a really good Community discussion on whether we have the appetite for this direction which is something we've really been moving away from as a community so you know ultimately I I think the discussion is worth it but I I want the discussion to bring a richness to the whole discussion so that we either recommit to our vision of sort of this more local density that can have a sort of a more bikable walkable future with the I I don't I haven't quite seen the bod yet but we talk about it all the time and and also have a really good understanding on what our water usage does to the region and what it looks like in the future so I'm ultimately actually going to be a yes vote but hoping that it elevates the discussion in a way that we have a

[154:00] better Regional View and a really good Urban feel for where we're headed um so that we don't just jump on projects and the other pieces we stick to what we said and have a mechanism to ensure it thanks Lauren then Mark or no Matt I'm really glad I get to go after that thank you Tina um I guess I have a question which is sort of related to those things Tina outlined in terms of a regional kind of looking at the water through a regional lens and also how this might be different than just doing the same thing we've done again and creating sprawl where does that go in our process yeah thanks for the question um so we anticipate that that conversation around um really what this place wants

[155:01] to be and that's a community conversation that would be part of step three when you're actually developing the expansion plan so step two kind of in reference to uh council member Marquis um comments that the planning Reserve would be evaluated um as a component of this larger community conversation as part of the comprehensive Plan update um not you know the sole Focus but it certainly would be one solution that would be on the table to evaluate that Community need then if if an expansion was authorized that's when we would get into the much more details around what does this place look like what are the housing types what types of um sustainability measures or green infrastructure or um habitat protection you know all the things that we want to have that conversation around um as far as as the kind of the the tangible things of what does this place look like um that would happen as part of that step three so I see in the step before this

[156:00] there's a portion that says engage the community to explore various policies tools to meet Community needs including service area expansion and weigh possible tradeoffs of each alternative so if we're not getting to that level of detail how is the community weighing tradeoffs yeah so I think you're referring probably to um uh what we had outlined as as maybe the the third phase of this community needs study which um would be folded into that Alternatives analysis as part of the comprehensive plan so what we had anticipated and and sort of um envisioned of how this plugs into the overall comp plan update is that again the planning Reserve would be one option uh evaluated against a number of other potential policy changes um to accommodate if the need is identified of housing we might explore you know are there other regulatory changes that can

[157:00] um that can loosen up uh you know density uh within other parts of the city um might we even look as far as um you know increasing density around Transit nodes or or looking at the height limit in specific locations of the city and exploring the planning Reserve as another Outlet or another alternative that we could evaluate as far as what you know what does that look like in terms of um the number of units the number of jobs that could be created the greenhouse gas emissions um water use all those types of things will be uh sort of built into our scenario analysis so that's what we intended for uh you know weighing of those trade-offs and kind of understanding that and then again if we get sort of past that point and and we do recognize that the planning Reserve is a viable option and is something that needs to be further explored and really consider that expansion that's when we would really get into those conversations around how do we do that so that we are serving that need but also protecting and and really serving the future generations of the of the community through

[158:00] that thank you and if we choose to move forward with this tonight are we rubber stamping that um process as well or will we have opportunity to have feedback on the process that's outlined or what the scope of those yeah on the community needs um process is that what you're referring to or I think how we're thinking of things like that phase three how we're framing that um trade-off conversation sure and what level of information we're providing yeah sure yeah that's a great question so um as far as the overarching procedures regarding um you know step two of the community need study step three of a service are expansion plan those procedures that are already in the comprehensive plan those those could be

[159:00] changed as part of this comp plan update um but as they they are established for where we are today the community need study of how we will actually do that work as part of the comp plan update which we included that sort of preliminary outline of what we're initially thinking of in the memo um that is all subject to because that's just that's staff's initial uh sort of understanding of how might we fold this into the overall comp plan process um so we can certainly have additional conversations around you know what does that look like what are the types of analysis that you'd be looking for each of those um steps throughout that process thank you I appreciate that and with that I think I will be supporting this but I will be interested in um taking a closer look at the portions of that process that we can influence thank you thanks all right I got uh Matt Nicole Ryan appreciate it I'm going to start with a question that maybe dovetails a little bit off

[160:00] what um Lauren was talking about and it's kind of with regards to the service expansion plan that seems to me where the rubber meets the road here I think that's where the details are baked in to some extent I think some of the concerns that even Taisha brought up that that it's that stage which is I've heard analogous to our area plans is where just a lot of that stuff fin finally takes shape it's where we finally put paint to Canvas uh more or less and so I guess the question is is all right we go through that process we we develop that you know what at what point can that maybe potentially be revised right I mean we're still talking a decade or two of staggered development in this place our needs could certainly change by then or the information around those needs could change in that time and so I'm wondering what's the what's the interval what's the process in which the service expansion plan AKA area plan can be modified or tweaked down the road after we then pursue the annexation process yeah sure um so as any type of area area

[161:01] plan or subc commmunity plan those can be amended um through you know through a through a public hearing and through a planning board and city council process um both both bodies would have to approve what those amendments would be at some point in the future um we recognize that um you know the if we got as far as developing a service area expansion plan we recognized that the eventual development of this area is likely to be on the scale of 15 to 25 years maybe even longer so I think we would um I think we would be fooling ourselves if we thought we could figure it all out at that one time and so I think the approach that we you know would take would be to look at uh what are the initial phases what are the things we know about um and can be confident confident in in terms of making those decisions at that point build that into the expansion plan and then have either some placeholders or other other um sort of big bubble

[162:00] diagrams essentially so those future phases could then be Revisited and um and refined at that point obviously sort of reflecting back to some overarching principles and vision that would be established as part of that expansion plan um the last thing I'll mention too is I think uh by incorporating the need study into the comprehensive plan it gives us an opportunity that um if we're going in the direction of of moving towards an expansion plan at some point in the future we can build in some of those policies and some of that broader vision statements into the comprehensive plan itself so we already have a jump start on kind of what this place might want to be um so we can begin to scratch the surface of that conversation I'd say a little bit ahead of the expansion plan just through the comp plan update because we'll be having that conversation with the community as a as a whole I appreciate that my sort of last question related to that is you sort of mentioned phasing can can we actually create phased zones of the service expansion plan because thinking

[163:01] about the whole area all at once one takes a lot of time and also maybe harder with 40 different uh Property Owners to achieve but if we broke it up into chunks we one might be able to um instigate uh development at a more rapid time frame at smaller scales and then sort of stagger that over time so I'm wondering does does have to be done at once or can we do that that staggering yeah we we can definitely do that um as a staggered and phased process there is some language in the comprehensive plan now about the um the service area expansion plan that in order to um in order to proceed with a a sort of comprehensive Mana manner the the smallest each of those phases should be is about 40 acres so um about a tenth or so of the overall area so conceivably it could be broken down into as many as 10 or 11 different phases but I I think um you could probably do it um you know in a three to four phase type of uh process appreciate that well thanks for answering those questions and I I'll just end with a few comments um you know

[164:00] I said last time and I it was sort of you know saying it in just with regards to you know our word bubble here but we we throw around housing crisis in everything we do and so I really think this is kind of a put up or shut up moment for us where if we're really going to be serious about addressing a housing crisis I don't know how we sit on our hands and let 500 Acres hang out for another five years or 10 years without starting to do something and and I think any crisis requires you to act now and to some extent fly the plane while you fix it um you know we can't let Perfection be the enemy good when we're dealing with a housing crisis and we have to start making um our strides when we go down that direction um and and I think it's just critical that we do that and so I'm appreciative of the of the effort we're on but also recognizing that these are the steps that were baked in by previous previous councils and we we don't have the luxury of rewriting the rules every time because that sets a dangerous precedent that the rules we set with good intentions get Rewritten just a couple years from now so I think we need to follow those steps and we're going to have the opportunities to tweak modify

[165:01] and continue to address Community needs as they come up um but that doesn't mean we dismiss the concerns that have been brought up I think there's opportunities for us to bring that stuff in but I but I don't believe we're at a place where we can say we don't have enough information because we're in the process of gathering that information I think we have to get further along before we can look back and see what holes in our understanding of the process going forward so um I'm going to be supporting this um I think it it's kind of a must this was a land bank for us a long time ago to address the very needs that are in front of us and and here they are and I would say we probably should have addressed this 10 years ago um but here we are now and so um I think it's critical that we get the ball rolling thanks Nicole yeah um thank you and thanks thanks for the presentation and uh for reminding us where where we left off appreciate it um I I'm kind of similar to Tina I support moving forward um I also just am trying to not go in with a predetermined outcome um I am really interested in having information about

[166:00] what we need in general and then whether this land could help us meet any of those needs um I think there's a lot of things that we need that we've talked about it it is housing yes but it's also um agricultural land if you talk to some folks in the community it's tennis and pickle ball courts there's there's all kinds of things that that people want and I'm really curious to see what comes out of the BBC process so I I I would like to include it there uh but I really see this as um two kind of distinct questions that we'll get out of this um needs assessment one is what do we need in the city and then is this land a good use for one or to meet one of those needs um and I just don't see how we can answer those questions without the information that we're going to get um through through the need assessments so I'm supportive I'm really interested in um having a clearer understanding of um how we answer those two questions moving forward thanks Nicole got Ryan Tar and

[167:00] then I'll go okay um I forgot who said this but I I joined someone I think in um being skeptical that we we need this housing on our outskirts um I think we have plenty of housing in our um already developed areas and just a point on this um I've heard today a few people sort of ask you know what what are the goals why do we care about housing and I'd just like to offer that you know there's another meeting taking place right now and that's the UN climate conference and the headlines unfortunately are the same same thing that they are pretty much every year is is that we aren't taking this seriously and um one of the things that the climate science is pretty clear about is that we need to build more compact space efficient communities that allow people to not have to drive cars and live so energy expensively and um if we do this and others do it with us we will build a more water and energy

[168:00] efficient place to live and we'll create more money to share resources to have better um shared infrastructure and one of the things that the ipcc and the um the experts tell us is that the existing patterns in which we are working don't work the way that we have cars that are multiplying all of our impact um which we forc to to drive around by not letting people live near where they need to go is the face of our climate crisis and the level of water and energy and other resources we're consuming as a town also aren't consistent with a a a serious approach to um getting our arms around our climate future in a responsible way so um just one other quick hopefully not a digression um many people talk about visiting places like Del or utre in the Netherlands that are in the nether excuse me the Netherlands that are um Transit Rich they're bikable and they're walkable um they're lovely they're peaceful and in many ways um and

[169:02] you might one might ask gosh how dense are those places compared to Boulder and the answer is they're both they're both twice as dense uh Del is about the same size as we are in population around 100,000 we trct is is um around three times our um um our population a similarish area so um we have work to do to transform Our Town um Area 3 might be part of it and I think we should be exploring that but my starting point is we have the space and the means and the resources and the Mandate uh to do it here so um I join Nicole and not pre-ordained what we do um but I do think it's important that we make area three part of our our wider set of uh possible Futures as we look at the bbcp and also as we think about the wider region and the housing that it needs to build and that we need to to work on it with um I agree with Taisha very much that the um the sequencing of issues is

[170:00] um inelegant perhaps not your words Taisha but um I I hear you about that um and I'm hopeful that as we go forward we'll get to um really be serious about some of those um evaluations with habitat um and and water um that's I think that's mostly what I had just maybe just to conclude to say that um I'm excited about Area 3 even though I've said that I don't know that we need to develop it but I do think it's important that we have it um as an option and if I had my choice of sequencing I would say we start with the condition that um this will be a contribution to all Boulder rites being able to live joyous lives with less Reliance on cars um that we won't be talking about um widening roads at any point point but rather we'll be using the chance to um calm and um reduce the capacity on on our roads uh in the region up there so um I'll leave it at that thank you for your work on this

[171:00] thanks Ryan terar well no more needs to be said this is the first time I I think I've been remote and I've been able to listen to you all and it's been a great conversation so all I can say first of all why is my view just looking at myself that's my first question so I I'm just to a going to agree with this conversation I'll be voting yes because we I feel like we need more information and I like where everybody's going so um it sounds like it's yes but and I appreciate that or yes possibly and that we're not making any firm decisions because we need more information so thank you I want to thank everybody who spoke tonight because it was a really super interesting conversation and I'm glad that I can be a part of this thanks thanks Tara um and I'll go but TAA you want to make one more point before appreciate you thank you for letting me double dip there's two things I didn't speak on um and that is um uh

[172:02] the Excel Energy conversation that is going to be happening in the next year and a half that'll have significant impacts on the future of our city um again not a reason why not to but just something else that is going to take a lot of time and energy of our our community um and our staff and the other piece is going back to the um the agriculture component and just lifting up um that um both Agriculture and habitat to me are as professionalized as water and energy and again the idea that that would be in step four is just I I just I can't get over that anyway I'll let it go um and then the last is um Trump 2.0 and I would be remiss if I did not bring up the fact that you know based on what the what was campaigned on alone we

[173:00] can anticipate being on our heels um just on the values alignment on on what was shared on the campaign Trail and and the values that we hold as a city um and so I also want to lift up the reality that every single day is going to be an assault on something on someone um and it's going to take up an unbelievable amount of bandwidth to do that so I will say um one of the things that makes me um feel better about moving forward because it sounds like there's a majority to do that um is what Mark Mark sorry what Matt brought up that I appreciate that we are not bound to having to think or even talk about the whole area I am much more willing to talk about smaller pieces or something like that I do not feel um like it is good for you know this isn't an opinion habitat isn't somebody's opinion right it is factual and it is an expertise that should be in the front and it should be a part of the trade-off

[174:01] similar with agriculture um and so it's not enough to just say how many grocery stores we need a wholesale reimagining of how we feed Community we have food security issues that are going to continue to exacerbate so I just wanted to lift those those up again as concerns and things that we are going to have to mitigate um I I'm just remembering you know the first Trump Administration and every day I was working in public education um and every single day there was an affront that took up a significant amount of time and by the end of that Administration we were so far behind on our plans because we were on our heels most of the time so thank you very good thank you um well I'm going to go ahead and and make a motion so I move um that we find that there is interest in considering a service area expansion into the area 3 planning Reserve as part of the 2025 major update to the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan do I have a second second all right

[175:01] so I'll just uh speak to my motion I really appreciate uh the conversation uh with my colleagues here a lot of really excellent points have been made um so thanks for enriching the discussion lots of really excellent questions as well um and Nicole I appreciate what you said about how um the only way we're going to answer these questions is to go ahead and move to this next step right um and I particularly appreciate that we would do it as part of the larger comprehensive plan so I think doing the needs anal I feel like right now is the right time in particular because doing the needs analysis on the planning Reserve while we're doing the needs analysis for the city as a whole while we think about revisioning our future for the next 20 to 30 years is the right kind of way to synchronize um our thinking and our planning efforts so I'm really looking forward to getting this kicked off and looking at it holistically um taking into account uh Taisha all those incredibly important issues that you raised you know which I I know that staff has heard about that and will come as part of the next phase or the phase after that because we have

[176:01] to consider them before we make an eventual decision about whether to uh make this land in exible um mat I thought that was an excellent point about potential phasing um so that that's definitely something to think about and keep on the table and um Ryan to your point like we've um got to think about it in the most climate friendly forward-thinking way I mean I think if we do if we do take this on I Envision a future for this area that would set a model for every other community in in the country um and the people from all over the country in the world could learn from um I think we need to look at the bar of Excellence that high for for if if and when we get to this eventually um so I think it's a it's an exciting Next Step it's been a long time incoming and um looking forward to engaging with you all on it um over the next year or two any other oh well I think everybody's spoken so I will go ahead and call for a vote if we could do a roll call please absolutely we'll start

[177:00] the roll call tonight on item 5B with council member Wier yes Adams yes with reservations Benjamin yes mayor Brockett yes ferts yes marus yes council member shoard yes mayor protm spear yes and council member wallik reluctantly no okay so item 5B is hereby approved with a vote of 8 to one okay thanks again everybody for the discussion and thanks for all the Fantastic work by staff uh for getting us to this point and of course there is a lot of work left to do and we look forward to engaging in it with you anything else that you need from us tonight I don't think so but thank you for your conversation and for keeping us honest and keeping us on top of things

[178:01] and we will definitely be talking to you a lot more about this in the future so thank you very good good okay thanks everybody that brings us to the end of our agenda so I can go ahead and gavel us closed 53 p.m. which is about 50 minutes early thanks for a good meeting everybody

[179:17] e e