April 17, 2025 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[5:49] Here it is Febru It is April 17th of 2025 and the not time is now

[6:00] 4:30. Thank you for starting our recording. um for the February 6th for the April 17th meeting of the Boulder City Council. Um thank you everyone for joining us. Um Alicia, will you start us off with a roll call? Yes, Mayor Pro Tim. Thank you. Good evening everyone. We'll start tonight's roll call as usual with Council Member Adams. Benjamin present. Mayor Pro Tim Folks present. Council member Marquis present. Shoeard Spear present. Wallick here. and

[7:03] Winer. All right, Mayor Pro Tim, we have our quarrel. Thank you, Alicia. The city manager and city attorney have requested an executive session pursuant of CRS section 246424 concerning the potential acquisition of real property interests, determining negotiation positions and strategies, receiving legal advice, and considering confidential documents regarding the same. The following pro provisions of the Colorado Open Meetings Act authorize an executive session to discuss this matter. The purchase acquisition lease transfer or sale of any real personal or other property interest. Conferences with an attorney for the city to receive legal advice on specific legal questions. Determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations. developing strategies

[8:00] for negotiations and instructing negotiations and consideration of documents protected by the mandatory non-disclosure provisions of the Colorado Open Records Act. Do I hear a motion for executive session? So moved. Second. A motion of executive session must pass by a twothirds of the quorum of council present. May we have our vote? All right. Thank you. We'll take the roll call vote for the executive session and start with council member Benjamin. Yes. Mayor pro Tim Folks. Yes. Council member Marquis. Yes. Spear. Yes. And Wallik. Yes. The motion to call an executive session of the city council is hereby approved unanimously. The motion has passed. The council will

[9:00] now recess and reconvene immediately in an executive session to discuss the matter previously stated for the purpose previously stated. Hello, this is Taiisha. Can somebody just make a note that I've joined the meeting?

[95:44] Everyone, welcome to the April 17th regular meeting of the Boulder City Council. Um, I want to start with a general reminder. It is important for the order of this meeting and the function of government that I as mayor prom the presiding officer of this

[96:01] meeting maintain a meeting where all voices are heard, business is handled, no one is intimidated and there is respect for all points of view. The city council has adopted rules of decorum so that business is conducted in an orderly manner. If attendees obstruct the business of the meeting, the council will take a recess and clear the chambers. I will be fair and impartial in administering these rules and I appreciate your understanding and help in creating a welcoming atmosphere for all members of the community. Oh, and thank you. H. Sorry, I lost my

[97:11] We are reconvening from our executive session. Why are you going to reconvene to the back to the regular meeting to time? Thank you. We are reconvening back to our regular meeting and the time is now 602. The first item on our agenda is our Earth Day declaration presented by Council Member Marquis. Thank you. Excuse me, Mayor Prom. Um there is there is a bit of a housekeeping from the executive session that we need to finish up. Thank you. Yes, I see that now. So, the time is now 6:03 p.m. and the executive session has been concluded. The participants in the

[98:01] executive s am I reading the right part? The participants in the executive session were myself, Mayor Prom, Lauren Fulkurtz, council members Adam who participated virtually, Benjamin Maris Shuard who participated virtually, Spear Wallik, the city manager Nur Rivera Vandermide, city attorney Terresa Tate, along with staff members Michelle Crane, Kurt Fornhabber, Chris Mezch, Mark Wolf, Joanna Kan, and Joel Wagner. For the record, if any part person who participated in the executive session believes that any substantial discussion of any matters not included in the motion to go into executive session occurred during executive session or that any improper action occurred during the executive session in violation of the opens meeting laws, I ask you state your concerns for the record.

[99:01] Seeing none, I continue the April 17th regular meeting agenda and we will start with um a declaration presented by Tina for Earth Day. Thank you. So I'll read this Earth Day declaration uh which will be on April 22nd of next week. For more than five decades, Earth Day has been a reminder of both the beauty and fragility of our planet and of the power of people to protect it. Since 1970, Earth Day has sparked transformative action, inspiring landmark environmental protections like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act, and fueling grassroots movements calling communities across the globe to step forward as caretakers of the earth. Today, as we face the defining challenge of our time, the accelerating climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity, Earth Day carries even deeper meaning,

[100:00] the harm done to our natural world is not inevitable. It is the result of human choices. And it is through human action, courage, and care that we can heal and restore the ecosystems that sustain all life. Boulder has long been a place where this truth is recognized and embraced. From being among the first cities in the nation to fund open space preservation in 1967 to pioneering recycling, adopting the nation's first municipal carbon tax, and consistently pursuing bold climate action, our community has shown what is possible when vision meets commitment. Over the years, Boulder has reduced emissions, expanded renewable energy, protected vital habitats, improved water quality, and cultivated a deep rooted culture of environmental stewardship. But we know our work is far from finished. In this moment, we recommmit to protecting the natural systems that nourish us, to confronting the climate crisis with urgency and resolve, and to restoring the balance between people and planet. Earth Day is not just a date on the

[101:00] calendar. It is a call to reflect, to recommmit, and to inspire. It is a reminder that this community together can lead by example. By investing in clean energy, protecting biodiversity, restoring ecosystems, and empowering future generations, we can create a healthier, more equitable and resilient future for all. Now, therefore, be it declared that we, the city council of the city of Boulder, reaffirm our unwavering commitment to environmental leadership and hereby hereby declare April 22nd as Earth Day. We in the city of Boulder, we invite all community members to join us, not just today, but every day in reflecting on our shared responsibility, recommitting to the hard and hopeful work ahead, and letting Earth Day serve not just as a celebration, but as a guiding principle for the work ahead to protect, restore, and nurture a sustainable, equitable, and biodiverse future for all. Thank you. And there are lots of events happening next week if you go to the city website. Um, so I hope you all can enjoy them.

[102:02] Thank you, Tina. Next on our agenda is open comment. Elicia, will you go over our public participation guidelines so that we can begin? Yes. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We now will review the updated public participation at city council meeting guidelines. The city has engaged with community members to co-create a vision for productive, meaningful, and inclusive civic conversations. This vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members, staff, and council, as well as democracy for people of all ages, identities, lived experiences, and political perspectives. For more information about this vision and the community engagement processes, please visit our website at [Music]

[103:02] bouldercol.gov/services/productive-mospheres. And also, we welcome you to review these guidelines in the Boulder Revised Code Council procedures section 16B. The city will enforce the rules of decorum found in the Boda Revised Code section 16B, including 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. No attendee shall disrupt, disturb, or otherwise impede the orderly conduct of any council meeting in a manner that obstructs the business of the meeting. This also includes failing to obey and lawfully any lawfully order of the presiding off officer to leave the meeting room or refrain from addressing the council. Only one person at a time at the podium unless an accommodation like an interpreter is required.

[104:02] All remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to city business. No standing in or otherwise blocking the aisles in violation of the fire code or in any way that obstructs the vision or audio of another audience member. No signs or flags shall be permitted in council chambers except for one sign held by a person measuring no more than 11 by 17 in which is held higher than the person's face. No higher than the person's face. No participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person. We ask that you not affix items to the podium or deis or walls or other services of the chamber. Signs, flags, or other items used to communicate must be held by one person when displayed. Obscinity, other epithets based on race, gender, or religion, and other speech and behavior that disrupts

[105:01] or otherwise impedes the meeting will not be tolerated. And lastly, inerson participants are asked to refrain from expressing support or disagreement verbally or with sounds such as applause or snapping with the exception of declarations. Traditionally, support is shown through American Sign Language applause or jazz hands. Thank you again for listening. Thank you, Elicia. I will call the first three names. If you hear your name, if you could join us down here at the front um and one by one step up to the podium, that would be wonderful. You will have two minutes to speak, and I will cut you off after two minutes to ensure fairness to everyone. If the audience interrupts while you are speaking, I will step in to make sure that we can hear you and return lost time to you. First up, we have Leslie Gluestrom, then Mary Juliet Bird, and Martha

[106:02] McFersonson. You're up first. Uh, good evening, council. Uh, thank you for this opportunity. Mayor Prom Folkertz, good job. Um, and as always, I just want to thank you so much for your service and for keeping democracy I always want to cry. Keeping democracy strong and keeping it civil because I don't need to tell you how important it is that we from the bottom up continue to do that and I honor each of you for doing that week in and week out. So, thank you so very much for that. Um, my name is Lesie Glustrm. As you can probably imagine, I'm here to talk about climate change and about Excel. I think you all know that we have an off-ramp from our franchise, like our contract with Excel this year. Um, it happens in 2026, but we have to make the decision this year. And I'm really here, there's no PowerPoint slides now or anything like that, but really here to encourage you to take very serious, and

[107:01] I'll be back as often as I can be to be honest, encourage you to let the community have this vote. That's how democracy should work. Let's hear it from the community. Let's have the discussion. Do we want to stay with a monopoly? A monopoly whose profits went up 11% last year, taking 782 million out of our state and after tax net income. Boulder at a little over 3%. It means that every year over 20 million is leaving our community to support basically Wall Street instead of keeping that in our community supporting Main Street. So, it's very important to think about the rates. And I just want to briefly talk about reliability. We all wish there was a way to avoid wildfires and all the other, frankly, extreme weather, but there isn't. So, we have to start

[108:00] thinking about how to build a system that will function in the face of the extreme weather we're going to see. Something I work very hard on, something that we're highly likely to see in any significant way with Excel. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Leslie. Next up, we have Mary Juliet Bird. And I this doesn't seem like they are in the audience at the moment. I know there was some confusion about the timing for the start of open comments. So if they come before the end, we can come back to them. Um Martha McFersonson, then Susan Hall, and Bryce Billard. Uh yes, my name is Marth McFersonen and I'm here again to raise my voice to protect those who need our combined humanity to step up to the

[109:00] madness. The madness being truth is anti-semitism, protest is terrorism, dissent is Russian propaganda, war is peace, freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength, as George Orwell called it. The Gaza Holocaust is happening right in front of our eyes. No one can say they didn't know. Deliberately killing children in the name of Jewish people incites anti-semitism. Calling for an end to the killing for the equal rights does not. Opposing Jewish supremacy is not anti-semitic. We have all been witnessing an orgy of killing, sexual violence, false imprisonment, and torture and mutilation of doctors, healthcare, and aid workers, journalists, and civilians. Yet, after 18 months of this savagery, you still sit there and defend

[110:02] the policies of Jewish supremists, Netanyahu, Bengavir, and Smootrich, each of whom has publicly called for genocide and ethnic cleansing. At what point will you finally see their resemblance to the Nazis? You accuse those of us who call for an end of the savagery anti-semite. But we are your mirror and you refuse to look. Where is your conscience? I bow to Taiisha Adams Adams who has the integrity to stand up to the apac strangle hold. You others look hard into that mirror. Retrieve your inborn humanity for all of our sakes. You have a platform. Use it for our evolution. Thank you, Martha. Next up, we have Susan Hall. And please, I have to ask you to remain quiet in chambers

[111:00] and no booing or clapping. I just want to say thank you to Martha first off. And second off, I want to say thank you for Patty uh Fooster Aqua Aguilera. Thank you. And uh of course I have some stuff here. Um I thought I might uh mention that $94 billion is what Biden signed, but you guys probably just watch the news, you know, that has the weather on it. So even though Martha said you see all this, maybe you don't see all this. My mom doesn't see all this. She's in Texas. She gets a total type different type of news. They don't show anything that's coming from Israel there. You have to go find it. You have to care about it. Well, right here it says uh this is uh our president's words. Oh, we already give Israel $4 billion a year. That's a lot. You know, that's a lot. That's what he says to Mr. Netanyahu or as we call him uh before he moved to

[112:02] Israel, Melanchowski, is that how you say it? Uh I know he changed it so it sounded much better when he was getting all this money. 94 billion last year. Uh 93, no 8.8 billion under Trump. So for uh what the girl said before about having money from for uh for our ecological system, it's not there. And what do we get for our money? We get senators that are bought out. Hickinlooper gets $273,000 a year. Oh. From Apac. Well, no wonder he votes for all that money to go to Israel. uh Gabe Evans the same and more of what we get for all that money is Israel has more ampute children than any place else in the world. Uh how about this one little

[113:02] girl caught in her car. Oh, she must be a terrorist. Let's shoot her 355 times. Thank you, Susan. Oh, you're welcome. James, I need to ask you to not stand during the um while people are speaking in the aisles. According to the fire chief, the aisles must be cle ke kept clear. So, I would appreciate if you could keep your seat. Thank you. Uh, next up we have Bryce Billard making cowls and Alicia Curtain. On the wall of Avitz concentration camp, there's a quote by George Santiana. It reads that those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it. When I graduated high school and left the conservative town in Colorado

[114:00] Springs, I went on to get my bachelor's in journalism and German world language and culture. Both of my degrees had a heavy emphasis in Holocaust studies. I spent years learning about the genocide because that is my own family history. My grandfather's entire extended family having been murdered in Ashvitz. I learned about the ghettoization, the internment, the torture, the medical experimentation, the endless murder. And I internalized all of that because I truly took the saying never again to heart. It is because of this deep internalization that when I finally educated myself in the horrors that have been unfolding in Palestine for the better part of a century, I was shocked because the similarities were blinding and how obvious they were. Again, I read of ghettoization and internment and torture and medical experimentation and endless murder. It is a dangerous thing to be painting people who are standing up against genocide of the Palestinian people as anti-Semitic. And I say that as somebody whose entire family has

[115:01] experienced the fallback of a genocide. Stop this. You paint yourself as progressive city. And it's why I moved to Northern Colorado, specifically to Boulder, because I wanted to leave behind the bigots in Colorado Springs. But what I have found here is that the only difference between them and you is you pretend not to be. I yield my [Applause] time. Thank you, Bryce. Next up, we have Megan, then Alicia, and then Jan. Um, I I do just because I am trying to um counter any disparagement that gets said, I would like to say that I have met many very nice people in Colorado Springs and I really think that it is not um we don't want to disparage an entire group of people. Thank you, Megan. Thank you. My name is Megan Kohl's. I live at 17th in Mapleton and

[116:02] I'm here tonight to ask the city of Boulder to collaborate with Boulder County to turn the county's Broadway campus into a bold new example of social housing. The countyy's 17acre campus at Broadway and Iris is a 15minute neighborhood location across from Foothills Elementary near parks, services, grocery stores, and transit. It should not be sold into private hands as the county now intends. Instead, the city and county should partner to create several hundred homes, not only for lowincome, but also for teachers, nurses, and frontline workers who earn too much to qualify for subsidized housing, but too little to live in Boulder. A mixed income community is the very definition of social housing. Let's follow the lead of Montgomery County, Maryland, which includes Gaithersburg, the other city with a big National

[117:01] Institute of Standards campus on it. Their housing opportunities commission uses public land and lowcost public financing to create mixed income housing that serves people across a range of incomes. And because the public retains ownership, these homes remain affordable not just for 15 or 25 years, but permanently. It's a model that has brought stability and inclusion to one of the most expensive regions in the country. The mixed income character of social housing prevents the stigma often heard in conversations about affordable housing here. We can do this. Some have raised concerns about losing the baseball fields, but those fields can be relocated and improved and expanded along with tennis and pickle ball courts on the city parkland in the planning reserve near Violet and US 36. This is a once- ina generation opportunity. Don't

[118:00] let the county sell this land into private hands. We can do this. Thank you, Min Alicia Curtain, Jan Burton, and then Jim Morris. Thank you everyone for having me. My name is Alicia Curtain. Yeah, you'll have to lean like right in. Yeah. Is this better? Is this better? I am Alicia Curtain. For nearly four years, I have lived on Grant Place with my four children and two dogs. We've relocated from upstate New York to our dream location, and we are very happy here. I bought and renovated a lovely home with our savings, only to have an investor purchase the lovely four-bedroom home next door and turn it into a nine-bedroom rental. This added density on my one-way street has me concerned regarding evacuation when an emergency reaches our community.

[119:00] I sit on the University Neighborhood or University Hill Neighborhood Association Executive Board. I am a member of the Flagstaff Fire Action Prevention Committee and I trained as a this past winter as a fire adapted Colorado neighborhood ambassador for University Hill. I also invited you all to my presentation at the library informing the neighborhoods about home or excuse me my neighbors about um strategies they could take to harden their homes as part of my um facing. I'm here tonight because of my concerns regarding the management of the Flagstaff corridor and the significant threat of wildfire to Boulder to the Boulder community as a whole. First, I urge you to coordinate with the three other entities that manage the corridor in an effort to responsibly manage this area and the WOOI. There have already been seven human ignition fires on Flagstaff this year. The illegal

[120:00] behavior that persists on Flagstaff and Panorama Point continues to put not only the Willowbrook and the University Hill neighborhoods at risk, but the greater Boulder community as a whole as well. Fire Chief Lowry has stated that should a wildfire come over Flagstaff, it will become an urban fire and they will focus on lifesaving measures. They do not intend to save the city. With the density on the hill, I have grave concerns about evacuation during an emergency situation. Thank you, Alicia. Your time is up. Next up, we have Jam Burton, Jim Morris, and Evan Rabbits. Good evening, council. Good evening, Jan Burton. I live on the hill and Alicia is my fire advocate for my neighborhood and she's the one who began to get me interested in the subject that I'm going to talk about, a local issue tonight, which is uh fire hardening and fire prevention. Haven't we seen enough fires

[121:01] now, both locally and in other places to know that Boulder is really at a sign significant risk for a fire? We need to have a sense of urgency as a community. I had the fire department inspection person, Steve Orur, come out and do an inspection on my home. It was very, very valuable and I took his lessons to heart and will be beginning to rip out junipers, my beloved blue spruce. Um, and I'm going to take his recommendations and do them all. And I don't do that only to protect myself, but to protect my neighbors. And I feel like that's the attitude that we should have in this community to really protect ourselves. Um, but he can where the staff can only do 435 homes a year. That's not going to get us to where we need to be when we have 49,000 housing units. So, we need to have neighborhood efforts, train the trainer programs, and

[122:01] legislation. I've reviewed the WOI legislation and I think it's a great step, but it's only for new building and I think we have to step up as a community and say we're willing to put standards also on existing properties or we'll never get there. Um Steve our has said that 80 to 90% of fires are started by embers and that there are certain things that can be done to really protect the community if we'll do things. So there are simple things like get rid of junipers the gasoline plant um put screens on the vents, get rid of mulch. Those are the kind of things that every property owner could do. Thank you. Thank you Jan. Ne next up we have Jim Morris, Evan Rabbitz, and Freda Silva. Hi, I'm Jim Morris. Um, and Jim, could I

[123:02] get you to lean into the microphone a little more? Is that better? Okay. Um, I think we should not give weapons to countries that are having civil war. I think that would be like Sudan, Chad, um the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I think there's I might get confused here, but there's supposedly 1 million refugees displaced people in one of those two countries and 15 million in the other. I think the Congo was 1 million and Chad was and Sudan was um 15 million. I also think um we need climate action, not war. I mean, war is really bad for the climate. You burn a lot of you produce a lot of greenhouse gases with a jet or a tank or you also do that starting fires that phosphorous bombs

[124:00] are being used in Palestine and they're made by a company that's one of our largest employers in Boulder. So, um, I was sort of amazed to find out that the seventh largest weapons company in the world has a major Boulder presence. It's BAE. They make phosphorus bombs, drones, subs, missile launching kits, ammunition jets. It goes on and on. And those are being used. Well, not all of those, but they have two ammunition plants in the US. and they um they make the howitzer bombs and the phosphorus bombs and we're trying to create a city that maybe wants to not have the whole planet burn up. But by promoting war, our tax money is $12,000 per household in 2024 for the military budget. It's $40,000 per

[125:01] household from 2002 through 2023. And it's a scam. Sort of the war profiteeers. I made this shirt a long time ago and it showed Oh, I'm up. Quiet please in the audience. Thank you, Jim. Evan Rabbitz, you're up next. Freda Silva and then Michelle Rodriguez. Uh, Evan Rabbitz does not appear to be here at the moment. Freda Silva and I als Oh, okay. There we go. It's going to be important. Alrighty. My name is Freda. I'm a

[126:01] sister. I'm a daughter. I'm a community member. I'm a friend. And I'm talking I guess Taisha is not here. I don't know. Matt, Aaron, Lauren, Tina, Ryan, Nicole, Mark, Tara. Talking to each of you. Um, you're going to hear the obliteration and the total destruction of a people. I'm going to share with you sounds of Gaza. And you will hear heavy air strikes in the northern and east eastern region of Gaza right now. [Applause] [Music] And you will hear now the aftermath of

[127:02] what usually happens after air strikes hit. Excuse me. [Music] [Music] Mama. That's destruction and the obliteration of a people funded by the taxpayers of this city and this

[128:03] country. Please quiet in the audience. Thank you, Freda. Michelle Rodriguez, Rodmoke, and then Elliot Flatten are next on our list. Good evening, council members. I'm here today to bring a deeply troubling update and ask some urgent questions on behalf of our community and the family of Sariah Hardy. Just last week, an honorable local judge ruled in the preliminary hearing for the tragic homicide and human trafficking case involving the murder of Zariah Hardy. The court found sufficient evidence to support that the crime included the completed act of trafficking for sexual servitude. As a result, the accused murderer is now being held on a $10 million bond. However, two alleged accompllices remain free. One of them, Zariah's boyfriend, confessed to selling her for drugs. The other has not only made a confession, but has now been

[129:00] connected by DNA evidence to the case. Yet, neither of these individuals has been charged with trafficking. In fact, one of them was seen this morning attending our very own community court and outreach right outside this building, receiving services and shelter that are meant for to protect our most vulnerable. Meanwhile, Zariah's family sat in disbelief at the preliminary hearing last week. They're left to wonder just as many of us are how we move forward when justice remains incomplete. So I asked the body directly whose responsibility is it to charge these two individuals? Why has it not yet been done? Why are these individuals loose amongst our community after voluntary confessions, especially when a judge has determined their involvement? Zariah Hardy deserves justice and her family deserves answers. Our community deserves

[130:03] accountability. Please, I need you guys to address this. I need answers to those questions for the family. They need to know how to proceed. They're not being given any answers. There was no media at the court date. There were only standin officers. They deserve more. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Next up, we have Rob Smoke, then Elliot Flatten. Good evening. My name is Rob Smoke. I live in Boulder. I've been living in Boulder most of the time uh since ' 86. And uh last uh council meeting uh a woman got up to speak and went on quite a bit about uh her well her feelings about people using the term zonazi. So I'm not advocating that people use that term. However, the people who have been

[131:02] speaking out on behalf of uh murdered Palestinian children um get upset about that. And I think there's a pretty sharp contrast between somebody who's saying they feel discomforted by terms that are used which are really just being used to kind of gain attention, try to raise consciousness a little bit. I mean, it is true that uh the indiscriminate killing is more akin to something that we'd see uh in World War II by Nazis. And for people who are denying that Palestinian children are being killed indiscriminately, who are you denying? You're calling me an anti-semit? Are you calling Human Rights Watch, the UN,

[132:01] Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders? Are they all anti-semitic? Are they all people who are just lying to you or fabricating something? It's hard to have your consciousness raised. It's painful. I grew up with a Zionist lineage in my family, a true Zionist lineage. And I think it was probably at the age of 12 or 13 that I kind of came out of it because I was listening to other people. and two of my best friends in high school were Israelis who are being protected by their mom from entering the military by being brought to the US. Anyway, thank you for listening to me today. Thanks. Thank you, Rob. Um, next up we have Elliot Flatten and then I'll return to the inerson speakers who um weren't here the first time. Continually repeating a lie does not make it true. At these meetings, I'd like to have my time back. At these meetings, no one bothers to explain what the repeated and clichéed use of

[133:01] genocide actually means. Definitionally, genocide isn't just mass killing. Under federal statute in the genocide convention includes the killing of civilians, but not just any killing. Not caring about civilian deaths or even deliberately causing them for another reason isn't enough. If the killing is not done with doules specialis special intent to destroy a population, it does not qualify as genocide. This is intentionally the hardest part of any genocide case to prove for if otherwise then nearly every war would be genocide. That's why under ICJ precedent, the evidence must be fully conclusive and genocidal intent must be the only plausible inference. see paragraph 373 of the 2007 Bosian Herzgovenia vers Serbia case and paragraphs 162 and 178 of the 2015 Croatia vers Serbia case. So when someone points to rhetoric that might seem dehumanizing and that alone doesn't meet the legal bar, especially if the other side is taking documented

[134:00] steps to reduce civilian harm. In that case, genocidal intent is not the only plausible inference and the charge fails under ICJ precedent. Similarly, food s shortages, even tragic ones that may be intentionally caused, don't prove genocide either if there's a reasonable military explanation, like targeting enemy fighters or weapons infrastructure. In that case, the required intent to destroy civilians is not legally present. So, in spite of the people laughing in the background and trying to interrupt me, in the future, let's not rely on clichéed and racially charged and anti-semitic slogans. Let's have analysis based on actual legal standards, not incitement dressed up as justice, and certainly not racist and anti-semitic blood liels. Thank you. Thank you, Elliot. Please quiet in the audience. [Music]

[135:03] Um, given that I am committed to countering all disparagement, I would like to say that um I recognize and honor those in our community that raise their voices in thoughtful protest. Your commitment to advocacy, justice, and the democratic process reflect the heart of what makes Boulder a thoughtful and engaged community. And no matter which side of this um I don't think whatever please be quiet in the audience. If you don't I need I'm going to need to recess the meeting. This is a disruption unless we can become quiet. I appreciate that. Thank you. Um Mari Mary Mary Juliet Bird or

[136:06] Evan Rabbitz. Are either of you present? If not, we will be moving on to our virtual speakers. Our virtual speakers are Josh Schlloberg and followed by Arm Bingham G and then G Jeff Cahoun. Yeah. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Okay, I guess start the engines now, please. uh city of Boulder along with Boulder and Jefferson counties uh uh the counties of Jefferson and Boulder uh paid for a 2022 study which concluded that forests quote thinned prior to the 2020 cowwood fire burned just as intensely or more so as uncut forest and ultimately released more carbon into the

[137:00] atmosphere. Uh the study by climate scientist Brian Bumma, PhD from University of Colorado and other scientists found in forest plots previously cut in the name of quote wildfire mitigation a quote lack of clear effectiveness of the treatments at increasing surviving live biomass when exposed to a wildfire unquote. Study authors theorized that partially the high ground fuel loads and decreased tree density led to increased fire intensity as a result of easier wind movement and unintended consequence seen in the 2010 four mile fire as well. Uh city of Boulder didn't just ignore the findings of the study. It didn't even mention the existence of the study it funded and its roughly 150 references in its 2024 community wildfire protection plan up on the city website. Uh this joins several hundred peer-reviewed studies by hundreds of scientists that contest the fuel reduction narrative in our forests. Uh studies Boulder also disregards. Why did city why did the

[138:00] city ignore and bury its own study? Was this an error or intentional? Uh on top of previous cutting, Boulder City Open Space Mountain Parks is planning hundreds of acres of tree removal and forest clearing in 2025 in the name of wildfire mitigation. money that could instead be spent on actually effective home hardening and defensible space up to 100 feet around homes that other folks have mentioned. Uh this is why we're asking for a moratorum on any further tree cutting in the name of wildfire and open uh space and mountain parks until the full body science and public opinions incorporated into the decision-making especially when it comes to the city's own studies that it funds for this very purpose. Thank you very much. Thank you Josh. Next up, we have Arm Bingham. Hello. Hello. We can hear you. Okay. Thank you. I will begin speaking. I hope you remember me standing before you over a

[139:00] year ago to remind you that Boulder City Council waited for over three years and 600,000 dead Iraqis before acting to pass a ceasefire resolution. A year and a half into the war on Gaza and by public health experts best estimations at least 300,000 excess deaths of Palestinians with starvation, continuing blockade, collective punishment, genocide, ethnic cleansing, whatever you want to call it. This is your halftime warning. You have through avoidance, condescension, disingenuousness and outright repression of citizens rights to express themselves in this public forum avoided doing a single thing to promote peace and human rights. You have told us you cannot make motions on foreign affairs when you know this is not true. City Council's Rules and Procedures Item 15F states, "Council shall not act on a foreign policy or national policy issue on which no prior official policy has been established by the council or the people unless sufficient time and

[140:01] resources can be allocated to assure a full presentation of the issue. You are fully empowered to allocate this time and resources. And despite the many hours of cumulative public testimony over these 18 horrible months and an abundance of resources in the form of blood money of city investments in war profitering corporations, you have told us the lie that you cannot comment. You have also told us patronizingly that we are wasting our breath here and that we should be speaking to our elected officials at a higher state and federal level as though this is something we are not already doing or as if this is something you should not yourselves be doing already. If you believe that human rights violations committed with our weapons and tax dollars are not preferable to peace, then you should say so. Don't make us wait another 18 months, thousands of more dead children, hundreds of dead journalists, and assassinated paramedics for a council which either suffers less from cowardice or benefits more from bloody hindsight to get our resolution. In my last few moments, I want to say we should never have hired police chief

[141:00] Steven Redern. How do you expect this to be? Aram, your time is up. Thank you for your comments. Jeff Cahoun and then we'll have Joseph Amodore and Laura Gonzalez. Good evening uh council members. I appreciate your service and I appreciate your time. Um I have the unusual situation of appearing before you. Many of you and I, I think, know each other uh without a title under me. I'm appearing strictly on my own opinion. Uh but I am noticing something and I think it's important. It's a civic issue and it has nothing to do um with the travesties that occur around the world, especially in the Middle East in Ukraine. Um but that being said, we have a fair amount of issues going on with elections

[142:00] at this point. I want to suggest that we take a more comprehensive look, not just I know of and support the League of Women Voters call for um a review of of repres of um a parliamentary representative u type of agreement. I think that's great. I think it's wonderful. But I also note that there are calls for Longmont to do something. Boulder is talking about it. I think, you know, we took big steps, big steps in going with a new election system for council and direct election of mayor. Why don't we take a little pause here and very intentionally with the in with the involvement of the Boulder County Clerk that's critical to take a look at our total election systems and organize a citizens assembly or some other form of

[143:03] group analysis involving not just Boulder but the other customer of elections, Longmont and the other cities and take a look at really take uh developing a better solution. And with that, I thank you for your service and I thank you for your patience as council members. Thank you, Jeff. Um in the front row, Bryce and Freda, I'm going to have to ask you to lower your signs down so that they're not above the top of your head, please. Thank you. Next up, we have Joseph Amador, and I apologize if I'm not saying your name properly. And then Laura Gonzalez and Patty Fster Aguilera. Hello. Can everyone hear me? Yes. Okay, awesome. Uh, and good pronunciation.

[144:00] Good enough. Uh, first, uh, thank you for your dedication, service to Boulder, to the city council members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak, uh, for a few minutes. It's my two minutes of fame. Uh, you know, my family tells me I'm very revoke, so I don't I hope I don't bore you too much. Um, uh, you know, nice to be at a city council meeting. I hope you're able to get to city business. Um, and, you know, focus on our city. Anyway, I wanted to just point, uh, provide a point of view on my neighborhood, which is the University Hill, loweraka area. Uh, Alicia, who spoke earlier, touched on some similar points, not exactly what I wanted to share. U, but it's nice to just, you know, have that voice in your head that you're not crazy. Um, so I'm not actually advocating for a specific policy. I'm not asking for a specific thing. I think I'm just trying to share uh and ask for a measured and thoughtful approach to how city policies impact this area of our fine city. I actually grew up in a small college town, very similar to Boulder in a lot of ways. Same size, high quality of life, a dominant university. Uh, very pro- college town. College towns are a huge

[145:01] uh asset. I think the university is a huge asset. We have little kids. It's a great place to grow up. Um, but I wanted to share that I think our policies at a city level have a differentiated impact on this neighborhood. Um, and I want to make that point without saying do X, do Y. Um, again, not advoc advocating for a specific policy, but I just think we need to recognize that a policy for Boulder may function or end up being different because of the outsiz impact of the university in our specific neighborhood. Uh, I also want to acknowledge that I think this is a topic of discussion. I've seen uh emails from some of the city council members who have noted maybe we need to think about this slightly differently, this neighborhood slightly differently than the rest of Boulder. And I just want to advocate that I agree with that. Um, I think that that should be uh kept in mind in general. And I also just want to acknowledge finally that there are pros and there are cons. I'm not saying there's a lot of negatives or there's a lot of positives. I just think it's different in our neighborhood because of some of the dynamics. Uh, and I appreciate it all. Thank you for your

[146:01] time. Have a great evening. Thank you, Joseph. Next, we have Laura Gonzalez and Patty Fooster Aguilera. Can you hear me? Yes. And folks, thank you for dehumanizing me. You know damn well that my name is Laa and you did not honor that. I want to start by saying that you guys are joke. You have a proclamation of Earth Day when literally there's an echoite happening. Not just in Gaza, by the way. There's also an echoite in the Congo and Sudan. And all of it's connected back to our tax dollars and the decisions that we make such as you that you're just not silent, but you're literally making rules to suppress pro Palestinian voices. Let's not even say pro Palestinian voices, humane voices that are fighting against the genocide. Uh to the first speaker that spoke about the Excel contract, yeah, I'm glad that you're fighting for that and against monopoly, but I also encourage you to fight. Why did Mark

[147:00] Wallak leave by the way? But I also want you to fight for um you know the against the genocide because it's all connected. What's the point of breaking a contract with Excel when we're literally not going to have 10 or 20 more years because of all the emissions that Israel's pouring out in the atmosphere right now? Also, I think it's such a joke folks that you're talking about fire access code when there is absolutely no risk for a fire. You know where there's a risk for a fire? In Palestine, in Gaza with our money and our bombs. And you know what happened last night, folks? And I I want to know if you can sleep at night. 10 children were burned alive. They were charred. How dare you talk to people in silence than more. I thought you were a humane person, but it doesn't seem like you are. You rather care about order than justice. Also, um let's talk about like the resources and time like another of my fellow uh comrades did earlier,

[148:01] right? You do have the resources. Do you know how much your city manager makes? Your city manager makes $310,000. You know what the police makes? A police, what's his name? Uh Sterling Aqu. He makes $200. And thank you, Laura. Lara, I apologize um for mispronouncing your name. Next up, we have Patty Fster Aguilera. Uh hello, can you hear me? Yes. Yeah. Uh big disappointment all over the place here. You all are so shameful to to just, you know, just such shame for the the world. Um, I look, I just came back from like, you know, receiving like the president's excellence award in inclusivity from the whole University of Colorado and at the

[149:00] same time I have to deal with a trial for appealing on my 30-day suspension because my sign was too high. What a shameful like council in this city that you want to be like progressive and you are like so shameful and like yeah like to you know kudos to LA to say that you you put order over justice you know how how do you sleep at night you all it's like so shameful you know I work at CU there's 12 students already that their visas have been revoked. We have a problem with like cutting freedom of speech to people and you in the local government are doing exactly the same thing. Nia Ria the the city manager uh that yeah it makes more than 300k a year. How can you think that like somebody like this is gonna care about

[150:02] people? the NWACP chapter are dissolving also because she wanted to hire the chief of police that murder Elijah my claim like what a shameful place that we live on you know and in the meantime I have to deal with like all these students that are being like repressed we are getting suspended silencing our voices we can even come to the city chambers and if you all know it is because of the city manager amended this policy that they are able to suspend people at the city chambers. Okay. So, like this is so shameful. Ad Thank you, Patty. We have um do we have Mari Juliet Bird or Evan Rabbitz in the audience? If not, that concludes our open comment. Um, Nuria or Teresa, do you have

[151:01] anything you would like to add? Sure. Thank you. Uh, as always, we um appreciate when community comes and shares your opinions. There are a couple things about uh that require staff followup. Michelle, thank you for sharing um your insights. I'll be following up with BPD um about um what you have brought forward. So, know that I'll be doing that. Uh, I also understand there are some folks that uh talked today about what we're doing with um wildland safety and I know we're going to be discussing that um on May 15th more robustly at second reading. Uh I know there was a caller who spoke um today about forestry. I want to say first of all that our OSMP staff, our director has been speaking with Mr. um Schllober uh directly. I also want to say that I know our staff has been um looking into our forest ecosystem management plan and our community

[152:00] wildfire protection plan and I trust in the work they are doing but they have been reaching out directly there. Um and that is all I have for you. Thank you so much Naria for your always dedication and hard work. Teresa, nothing from me. Thank you. Thank you as well. with please quiet in the audience. This is open comment is concluded and we need to move on with city business. I'm going to have to call a recess. We demand an answer. This cannot go on as usual. Business cannot go on. This is a disruption of our city council meeting and we cannot proceed with business. I am calling a recess to our meeting. You guys

[157:06] Next item on our agenda is our consent agenda. Um, let's see. Does anyone have any questions or comments they would like to make related to items on our consent agenda? Matt, I see your hand. And then Taiisha, I see you next. Uh, thanks Lauren. Um, yeah, indeed. Uh, with regards to the consent agenda, I sent out a hotline on item 3H with regards to our first reading of the WOOI code update. Um, and I had a recommendation that was looking to try to pair what would likely be our new three- tiered WOOI map with our curbside assessment so that we have a consistency with knowing if you're in the WOOI and you have at least a baseline assessment of whether or not your home is firewise on the

[158:00] colored tier that the curbside assessment has. followed by a recommendation that if you are a colored as a red or an orange, meaning the uh least fire-wise in the most fireprone properties, that then you would be required to um seek a in-home assessment from um one of our uh folks in Boulder Fire Rescue to get some detailed recommendations as to how to make your home fire wise. Um, I appreciate our director of planning and development services, Brad Mueller, for pointing out that that recommendation, albeit probably useful, is maybe a little outside the scope for the WOOI code update. But I do want to make sure that that idea remains on the table perhaps per our July 24th meeting on the water-wise and fire hardening discussion, if not on its own. I do think we need to work a little bit harder to bring community in line with the most egregious uh uh properties that are at creating the greatest risk to themselves and their neighbors. And and there aren't that many. And I think we can do a great job to sort of bring them in line by by forcing them to get those recommendations. And education is

[159:00] usually the most powerful tool to bring about compliance. So I just want to put that out there. Don't I'm gonna pull it from from asking that be a part of tonight's recommendation based on Brad's piece, but I would like us to keep noodling that as we get closer to some of our other ordinances coming and addressing wildfire mitigation. Thank you, Matt. I see Taiisha and then Tara. Mayor Pro Tim, if I may please uh call to just a point of order. We need to read the consent agenda items into the record. Okay. All right. I apologize. Point of order. Point of order for me before we do that. Um, I actually raised my hand before the um before the adjournment because I had questions about public comment. So, should I I just want to and then when you all came back, Matt went first, but I actually had my hand up before we left. So, I just wanted to make a note that I still have questions to staff regarding public comment. Thank you. I apologize. I did not see that. Um, I think now is an

[160:00] appropriate time to do that. So, please share your questions. Thank you. Um, one of the commenters mentioned that um, the city manager was the one who changed the um, policy for public comment regarding the signs and things and I just wanted clarification because that was not my understanding on that. My understanding was that the city council voted. Thank you for the question, Council Member Adams. That's right. These rules are contained within the rules of decorum that is a council procedure appendix and those rules are approved by council. In addition, the amendment to the um code that permits building suspensions is an amendment that was um that was recommended by council and approved by council. Thank you very much. Just wanted to clarify the record there. And then also

[161:01] I had a question about the other commenter who mentioned the ninebedroom rental property and I just I I was surprised to hear that on a residential neighborhood. Is that I just wanted to get some more clarification on on that particular item from staff. We can certainly follow up with that. Council member uh Adams. We we certainly do have um rental units that or went to dwelling uh buildings that have units that are nine units and more, but I can certainly look that address up and get back to you on that. Okay. Thank you very much. And then lastly, thank you. Um the city staff already addressed the um comments that were also raised around Sarah Hardy and getting more clarification around that issue. So, thank you. That was going to be another one of my questions. Thank you very much. Thank you for those clarifying questions and correcting the record on that. I appreciate it, Taiisha. Um, next I'm

[162:01] going to have Alicia read the uh consent agenda into the record and then Tara, I have not forgotten that you have your hand up. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. The consent agenda is item number three on the agenda and it consists of items 3A through 3 I. Thank you, Tara. Yes, I'll be colloquing, if that's a verb, off of um Matt in regards to I believe it's 3H. And I just wanted to say that I did have some um issues maybe like things that I think might need to be changed or looked at in regards to our urban tree canopy. But I will I'm just announcing that I'm going to bring that up at the second reading. Thank you, Tara. Any other questions, comments on our consent agenda? If Oh, I see Mark hand. Yeah, I

[163:02] also have questions concerning um uh item uh uh 3H and I will be raising those as well at uh the second reading. And forgive me for being horse. Thank you, Mark. Um With that, I believe we can start our roll call. Oh, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. I would love to entertain a motion on our consent agenda. I move to um approve the consent agenda. Second. Thank you so much. I believe this is a roll call vote. Elisha, would you lead us through the roll call? Yes, ma'am. Thank you. We'll start the roll call for the consent agenda items 3A through 3 I with council member Benjamin. Yes. Mayor Pro Tim Fogerts. Yes. Council member Marcus. Yes. Shuhart.

[164:03] Yes. Spear. Yes. With a no on H. Thank you. Wallik. I Yes. Um with no reservations. Winer. Yes. And Adams. Yes. Thank you, ma'am. The consent agenda I um the consent agenda items 3A through 3H are hereby approved unanimously with the dut duly noted nay on 3H. Thank you, Elicia. Next up, we have our callups and check-ins. Thank you. Our call-up check-in is item 4A on tonight's agenda, and it is the consideration of a

[165:00] site review for the redevelopment of 255530th Street with residential uses and a groundf flooror commercial space. The proposal includes the demolition of the existing car dealership and proposes 142 units including studio one, two, and threebedroom units totaling 111,495 square ft. The proposal includes a request for a height modification to allow for 55 ft in height, a request for a 6% parking reduction, modification to setbacks, number of stories, and building size. proposal also includes an administrative amendment to TVAP. The applicant has requested vested rights. This is reviewed under case number LUR2024-000047. Thank you. Um, do we have any questions or comments on this?

[166:02] Any desire to call it up? I see Mark your hand. Yeah, I I do not have a desire to call it up as the applicant has agreed to the conditions imposed upon him. But in the documents, it said that one of the conditions of approval is that ground floor commercial is to be 50% of the 30th Street frontage and as quote approved by staff unquote. Um, what is the role of staff in telling an applicant what type of commercial space he can have? I I found that to be odd. I see Brad coming up to answer that question. Good evening, council. Brad Mueller, uh, director of planning and development services. uh Allison Blaine the planner

[167:02] working on it's available online too and might be able to add to my comments but I believe that that condition was just referencing kind of the final um configuration of it not dictating what the actual use would be and Allison maybe you can uh keep me honest on that. Hi, this is Allison Blaine, senior planner with planning and development services. That is correct. The condition is just so staff can verify that the condition has been met at time of tech. Um, but will not staff will not be reviewing the exact uses. That will be up to the applicant. Thank you. That answers my question. Thank you. Seeing um no interest in calling this up um we shall move on to our second second checkin item. Nope. We shall move on. We have no public hearings. So moving on to our matters from the city manager.

[168:00] Thank you ma'am. Our matter from the city manager is item 6A on the agenda and it is the civic area planning analysis and emerging design priorities. Thank you so much uh Miss Alicia. I'll say that the uh next matter is one of great interest to our community. There's been a lot of engagement and you will hear from an extraordinary team uh who's done a great uh job of doing some of that engagement. The project team launched this scoping in 2023. Uh, and I'm going to pass it on to our director of parks and recreation. And before I do so, I'll say that you'll hear from her, you'll hear from Shahom, you'll hear from me. There's a lot of temptation to speak about this project in really broad um ways. There's a lot of interest in talking about um all the possibilities that could happen. I'll always remind council that we have a constrained budget. I don't know if you've heard that from me lately. Um, but as we talk about this, um, I encourage you to

[169:00] constantly think about in particular, um, the east bookend as we're talking about that, as there is always a desire to continue to think about, um, the entirety of the civic area and yet want to always think about possibilities, um, but want to set expectations as that moves forward. With that, I will send it off to Ally without being a dream killer. Well, that exciting. No, just kidding. Uh, folks, I'm Ally Rhodess. I am the director of parks and recreation and honored to talk on this topic with you all and represent as Nuria said an extraordinary citywide team of experts and subject matter experts on the project team. Um last time we were here before we uh the very first question from council member Shuhard was why are we investing in this park and why are we talking about this? So we're going to start our presentation tonight with that why. Um first off just so we can be economically vital. There is recent research out of Dallas that the investments they are making in their

[170:00] downtown parks are seeing a 7 to1 return. It is our hope that this largest swath of public land in downtown Boulder can be a tur turbo booster on the economic engine that is the Pearl Street Mall and the Hill. We want to be healthy and socially thriving. And again, this is the largest swath of public land. By investing it, we can better connect to both nature and each other at a time when we need that connection. uh we can help support one of our best activations with the Boulder County Farmers Market. And then finally, so that we can be environmentally sustainable by taking care of this park right along Boulder Creek. We can create a sponge in the middle of the city. It already is. We can do that better. And to tell you more about that, I'm honored to introduce our senior landscape architect, Shiomi Kuryagawa. She is the project manager for this effort. Thank you, Ally, so much. and um thank you for having me here. Good evening, council. Um I'll run us through kind of where we're at in an update with civic area. It's been a while since we've last

[171:02] been to council. We've sent a couple IPs, but I'm really excited to be here tonight to talk about a little bit of uh context and timeline where we're at in the project, but also um the fund phase that we completed in planning analysis, did some community engagement and the eastbook end redevelopment as well in there. um emerging design concepts was something that came out of that phase and so we'll get into it tonight. And the two key questions that we have for council are um does council have the question or feedback on planning analysis and the redevelopment process of the east bookend and does council have any questions or feedback on the emerging design priorities for the civic area. So we will stop in applicable spots um to have discussion in between. So just to orient everyone um for the civic area in red what you see here in the boundary is the project scope. So civic area has the Boulder Creek running through it um from 9th to 14th street

[172:00] and from Canyon to Arvvada that is or Rapjo excuse me. Um those are the bounding roads that we have including the arboritum path that connects up to the CU campus. So we are heavily influenced by Pearl Street downtown as Ally mentioned, but also CU's campus in the hill. And so we are sort of at the nexus of downtown. The project schedule and where we're at currently is where the star is in 2025. We've just launched uh concept design. So what you'll hear today on the presentation is the planning analysis tax that we completed. Um, so we'll go over a lot of those key components that included the planning analysis in 2024 and then we'll share next steps in design. So we showed council this diagram last time and what I want to note on this slide is that uh the park design and arboritum design really are are on a separate and parallel path from

[173:01] the east bookend. So East Bookend is taking um programmatic theming at a higher level and the design of the park and arburetum will be at a uh more detailed level. Um the pink arrows sort of denote that we're in between these two phases. So wrapping up that 2024 planning analysis and moving into design. We will look to council for feedback on the 2024 process. We'll be back at the end of 2025 for council review of uh concept concept design. So planning analysis, let's get into it. Um really what to know here on planning analysis is that we've taken three vital prongs um into uh the data and we've taken um policy and guiding documentation as well as technical research, site evaluation and then the third would be of course community input. So what was included in the council memo was a pretty dense attachment for the

[174:01] technical site analysis. Um so this is just to say an overview that we've done a lot of the research on um transportation universal access our natural resources that are out on site, how to leverage um the community in uh community programming and what festivities we have out there now. Where are the gaps and what are people wanting in this space? Um so it's a lot of analysis on what's there today and um what are some of the parameters on site that we have to work in. And one of those parameters we just wanted to highlight as one of the key drivers for what is going to guide park programming and development and where we can accomplish things is really our flood plane and high hazard. The high hazard is shown in blue. Um, so we're really at this point where balancing the safety, but also looking at how other cities sort of innovate a lot of park programming in flood constrained areas

[175:00] is something that's going to be key for this project. Um, you can also note there in orange for the east bookend, it outlines where developable area can occur. Okay, so the east bookend redevelopment. Um, this scope again like I mentioned is a parallel process. And so right here we're outlining what the scope includes in terms of 13th Street to 14th Street canyon to Arapjo. In red is really what city-owned property is. Um the dark red are the building amenities and facilities and then the lighter red is property. Uh the private property is denoted in white. And so currently civic area is looking at uh the redevelopment of what is city property and I should note here um from programming and the use study of the east book end is really um something that we're looking at the use and programming existing today and what we're analyzing now is what is a higher

[176:01] and best use programming for the east book end in the future and so that process really looks at um a three-step approach with market analysis, development types, and then high level performance to get us to what kind of best use do we see in civic area and the eastbook end. And what this slide really talks about here is a little bit of that market analysis um with target groups. And this is just to say who's moving in, who's coming to downtown, what kind of housing are they looking for, what activities are they interested in, and so how can East Booken and civic area combine sort of support that type of development in which we get some of these key development types, residential, retail, and employment for the East End. And so this is what the East End can really support and what we see on different groups moving into Boulder. So here we talk about um again a lot of different data coming together. So it's

[177:01] uh key to note here on this slide that really uh community engagement was included in uh some of the higher level programming and theming for the east book end but also taking from the 2015 civic park plan. Um so a lot of guidance was uh brought from the plan as well as this market analysis and the technical research. So again, kind of always a three-prong approach with policy, community engagement, and the technical uh evaluation. So community, residential, food and beverage, art and culture, and health and recreation are all themes for development that we see throughout um East Book End, but also health and recreation really speak to the park. Um there is marks on health and recreation as well as food and beverage that tie into that retail theming that we just saw earlier. um community residential. Residential is a new key theme that came up from the 2015 park plan. Um and so we know residential is always at the top of

[178:00] mind when we're talking about um Boulder and how much more housing we can provide. Art and culture really ties in too with the employment and this live work notion um but also for community benefit cultural spaces. So to continue down our research um the scenarios of performers that we took really if you think about each rectangle as a different scenario for East Book and development those are mixed with those themes and so at different percentages um the themes sort of have a different makeup and so what we're studying here is um really with the different makeups what are the different investments that a developer would have to take to actually have a development on East Book and be feasible. And we're always trying to balance and see what um we can do in terms of community benefit for the development. So, we include things like parks and public spaces as well as um

[179:01] continuing to create a vibrant uh downtown space. So, I would say for next steps for East Book and and staff recommendation, um we really look to going out for a request for interest in RFI to a developer team, any nonprofit teams that would be interested in partnership with the city on the east book end. Um going out to RFI helps us do several things here for the next steps in implementation. um it really allows us to market to a wider audience and find um a new innovative and appropriate partner, right, to take on some of the development that we look forward to revitalizing and reinvigorating downtown in the civic area. Um with a partner, uh what we can do is do more strategic planning and really understand what it would take to implement with the private sector, uh with uh a nonprofit as well. um at the

[180:01] table. And so, you know, working with existing property owners as well on the south side of East Bookend, uh we are looking sort of at all angles and opportunities for the parcel. And really, we're excited because we want to continue to ensure the festivities, the activities, and activation down in the space from multiple angles. And so working with long-standing partners like the farmers market and really expanding their presence would be something key moving forward um in partnership to on the eastbook end. But then also wanting to acknowledge the new partnerships coming to town with Sundance. So all of this is opportunity um and something that we're open to. So, this is the time where we'll pause and we'll ask council if they have any questions or feedback on that first planning analysis process for the civic area and the redevelopment process for East Bookend. Who wants to start us off with

[181:01] questions? Tina. Hi. Um, thank you. That was great. Um I had a question about how in the process um we can think about the existing businesses on the sort of the parallel downtown mall and the eastern part of Pearl Street which were receiving a lot of feedback that it's the it's not great especially midweek and I believe during the summer um and it I'm not sure if the housing opportunity for the east book end is enough to fully sustain new food and retail establishment establishments in the new east civic area. So, is there a way to do some kind of analysis so that we ensure that this doesn't um negatively impact our downtown Pearl Street Mall um and just so so for me I would want vitality like I'm trying to how do we uplift the vitality in both areas um and not one or the other I think is what I'm trying to ask. That's a great question. Thank you,

[182:01] Council Member Maris. Um, I I would say that in our analysis, um, we definitely look to be synergistic with Pearl Street, The Hill, and sort of adjacent, uh, local property owners and business owners. Um, the farmers market is definitely a different sort of look on food and beverage, right? So, um, that idea of more farm-to-table. They're interested in establishing more of community outreach, classes, opportunities to bring in the public and engage. And so I would say um when it comes to looking at partnership and expanding them, that's sort of something that's synergistic and different from Pearl Street. Um the other thing that we're also looking at in terms of things like food truck venues and more fast casual walkthrough um is very different than what Pearl Street owners and business in terms of the the retail and restaurant offer. Um so we're trying to sort of balance the nuance there. Um, but we know that there are concerns.

[183:05] Uh, who anyone else have questions? All right. Oh, Taiisha, thank you. Taisha, you're up. Thank you so much. And, uh, sorry I couldn't find my button fast enough, but really excited about this project. Um, curious only have a couple of questions. curious about um one just the use how the racial equity tool is used to ensure that um racially and ethnically diverse um consultants and vendors are identified to inform and guide this work. I asked because when I looked at the site analysis and I actually went to the website to almost half of them and unfortunately I was not able to see um a proportional representation um oftent times it was zero non-white people on

[184:00] leadership teams um very few women um on some of the sections there and so again I'm just curious how this project used the racial equity tool um to inform and guide that. So that's question one. And then my second question is around the use of AI by consultants. And so if you'll recall on my last CAC request, which I had to withdraw after learning that we had no external policy for AI use by our consultants, researchers and contractors. if somebody can speak to um whether there was any use of AI in this analysis and if so um what was done to ensure um any kind of issues around bias and discrimination which has been explicitly and extensively documented regarding the outcomes of the um findings andations provided. Thank you. Thanks Council Member Adam. We're going to tag team your question. I'm going to take the first part and just note that while the racial equity instrument will

[185:00] be used throughout this process, it was not used as a decision-making and consultant selection. I know we are working closely with Patrick in the office of equity on developing that equity and purchasing policy and that will help with future projects and it was not used in that way for this. Although equity was part of the interview process and one of the reasons we selected this project team um of course they select their subconultants but one of the reasons we selected this project team because of the way they demonstrated in alignment with our focus on equity and making sure that this park is a place where everyone feels welcome. Right. Well, I certainly appreciate that and again, um, you know, although I appreciate robust community engagement, I'm also eager to ensure that our city's investments are being spread throughout all of those who are who are um, experienced and um, able to do this work with fidelity and who have unfortunately been historically excluded from these opportunities in the city of Boulder for

[186:00] the majority of its existence. So I'm excited and I look forward to the use and how we can ensure and also I'm curious in the interim how we can address the gap in the power dynamic by having a lack of that representation by those critical decisions. So thank you for that. um look forward to the responses to my second question regarding the use of AI, generative AI in particular. Um any kind of clauses that we have in contracts and also how we are doing enforcement to ensure um the documented evidence of bias and discrimination which unfortunately um disproportionately impacts marginalized and underinvested communities. Um thank you council member Adams. I can speak to that. Um, for our first and second window of community engagement, we did not um, readily use AI. We did a lot of analog in terms of going through public comment and data. Um, and so every step of the way there was always

[187:01] several staff members um, evaluating feedback. Not not only that, we had our community connectors as well evaluating data with us and ensuring that historically excluded communities the feedback that we were given was uh fairly represented by the designs and throughout the process. Okay. So just point of clarification, no AI programs or software was used in the uh by our consulting groups. What you're saying is no AI software was used by your consulting groups in any stage of this project. I would have to defer to Abby. Abby is part of our RIOS team and we'll get back to you on if any AI was actually used throughout the process. Um if there was, I can say that uh again uh staff members had always been um reviewing data. Awesome. And it's really important that we have those multi-layer multi-layer checks. So I'm really

[188:00] grateful to hear that we are doing um that level of mitigation. I did want to come back though. I heard you say we although we don't have that representation where more important decisions are made. We have where decisions are being made. We have that representation by people who are providing feedback. And um this happened at something similar happened at the incredible um gathering at the Boulder Valley Comp plan at the East Boulder Rec Center um last weekend where we had this incredible team and so many robust conversations, but I noticed there were no black identifying facilitators. And so I asked about that and again um I I I applaud our city for recognizing the gap in staff and having somebody from our community serve as a facilitator. However, that facilitator does not have the same power and influence in um in in in decision- making on the policy as staff does. So, um although I appreciate the stop gap me mechanisms that our city has identified because of the lack of uh

[189:02] meaningful and proportionate um power sharing by um uh disproportionately impacted communities. Um, and um, I will continue to ask these kinds of questions until we can get to a place um, where there's fairness in our city. Thank you very much. Thank you for that feedback. Next up, I have Ryan and then Matt. Great work. Uh, I just have one question. Um when we looked at this uh with you about about a year ago, um I I think I expressed an interest in um looking at design ideas that would facilitate good connectivity for transit, active transportation, other car light access. I'm just curious if that's something that um has made its way into either the thinking or the planning so far or if not if you think it will in the next stage or if you rule

[190:00] that out. not applicable. Um just any any thinking around that appreciate. Yeah, of course. Um our design team well with our city team that is uh a core team of almost every department including transportation has taken a look at at least in this beginning stage. We're just edging into design now but knowing that um universal access and multimodal mobility and connectivity is very important. Um connectivity in general is very important. have done a lot of analysis on the existing conditions, pain points of the site and have really um elevated a few key uh spaces where we can improve on in terms of a universal access and so that that goes within the design within circulation of civic area as well as getting to civic area and then I would say uh the third point too is accessing um the hill and cu it's very hard in that grade uh difference to get uh ADA access for instance from the hill down to civic and up to Pearl Street. And so

[191:00] we're sort of balancing and thinking about all of these issues. Um Abby is on the line from our design team, Rios. Do you have anything to add to that in terms of transportation, what we studied? Well, that's a great summary. I think I would just add we are also considering things like mobility hubs on site to let as shomi said help connect certain kinds of transit with micromobility and a more robust pet and bike network. So in addition to sort of underlying better connective networks, we're also looking at amenities such as micro uh microobility hubs. Lovely. Thank you. Next up, I have Matt. I appreciate it. Um, by and large, I mean, great work because this is I mean, we're this is a lot of lot to put together. Um, so I'm loving the elements that are coming together. Ryan was sort of touching most on one of my questions, so I'm glad he asked that. Um, mine

[192:01] centered around a little bit about maybe the the band shell. Um, because it's such an anchor to that area. And has there been consideration of outright moving it to a different location? that's perhaps more useful for its intended use. It struggles with road noise being there to hearing folks and plus also the audience is staring at a building in a band shell rather than our icon the flat irons. And so there's things that I think are I'm just sort of curious because that hasn't come up and I'm wondering why you if that doesn't need to be answered but those are some things I'm just sort of curious about of like where do we think about flipping some of our bigger elements to really liberate that because if this is a new visioning opportunity then maybe those anchors are holding us back rather than liberating us to think a little differently. And so that's something I I'm just sort of curious about. Um the other question I do was and I think you maybe answered a little bit is is our partnerships with CU and then BBSD. I see that there's certainly a teen h teen hub and so I know that that's an awesome little piece but I'm just very curious about how those other two stakeholders

[193:00] really have some some say and help us shape this. Yeah, that's great. Thank you for those questions. Um so on the band shell we in terms of this project team have looked at the band shell and because it's a historic landmarked uh building not only cited um within the landscape so the landscape is actually historically landmarked as well. We have not looked at um moving the band shell. Now I know previous studies had looked at that before but because of the landmark we are looking at how to keep it in its place now and what kind of modifications are needed to actually bring it up to um modern-day performance operations and you know there's so many moving parts about that but also balance the original historic character of it. Um what I can say is we're looking at the full space for other event opportunities and venues um in terms of where can we have larger bigger gatherings. Maybe the band shell is um a different size more local gatherings and

[194:00] festivities. So there's opportunity for different types of scale for events around civic area that we can actually leverage. Now um for the second question in terms of um oh sorry can you remind me the second partners CU and uh school district so BBSD and CU um they've been a key stakeholder in terms of all of our engagement and throughout the process and design and so in each window of engagement we've definitely been including um both partners um in terms of uh programming and activation that will definitely be something where um they're at the table to help us look at programming and activation, especially when we talk about the arboritum and that path connecting um the high school and college kids down the way. Um but also looking at what sort of design function is best um on that south side and coming up as you enter civic area. Can I just I just want to add something that the team is doing really well that

[195:01] I want to brag on is that that involvement with both the university and the school district is not just with the decision makers, it's with the students. And so we're working closely with Growing Up Boulder. Uh Principal Morales has been so open inviting as have been the staff at Boulder High at opening their doors to the partnership and to the engagement and the team is doing an excellent job. Similarly with the university. Are you Um, I just wanted to follow up on the question about noise the band shell because having attended a number of events there I think it is a really significant issue to having community events there and so I was hoping maybe you could share some of what you're thinking about in terms of how we might address that noise issue if we're leaving it in place. Yeah. So, we have worked with um a consultant on our team that looks at sort of auditory needs, technology needs. Um and Abby, I might throw this to you in terms of um some of the techn

[196:02] the technical upgrades that we'd have to look at for the band shell. Yeah, as you mentioned, the biggest strategy is just improved AV infrastructure. So, new, bigger, better speakers essentially is the short answer. Um, you can also look into increased landscape buffer to try to mitigate some of the traffic noise, but research shows that actually isn't quite as successful. So, the biggest one would just be more amplified sound. By amplified sound, so far there is no in permanent install of audio equipment. It's all brought in. So, are we looking at having uh permanent installed like like pavilion theaters and other places tend to have that you sort of plug in and use or are we still looking at transporting equipment in but just offering beefier equipment? Those those are all on the table. We're still very early in the design process. So, as Shahomi mentioned, we have a design consultant who is an expert in

[197:02] outdoor performance venues. And so, they've laid out a range of different options that range from the more temporary to permanent, robust, improved AV infrastructure. So, those options are still on the table. That hasn't been determined yet. Okay, I appreciate that. Let's lean for installed because that lowers the barrier of entry for people to use in the community. So, uh we'll get there, but thank you. Nicole, um I don't really have any feedback other than to say that I really appreciate uh the proform analysis that's going on. That feels like really useful information to have for the east book end. So just appreciate that you're including that um in this analysis and I look forward to uh learning more about what that finds. Wonderful. Thank you. Moving from questions into comments on the project. Anyone who wants to be first up on comments Nicole kind of transitioned us already, but who wants to go second?

[198:02] Well, go Tara. Did we discuss or are we going to be discussing soon the arboritum path or is that is that in the second part of this uh presentation? we will get to uh the emerging design which also highlights not only the civic area but the arboritum connection. Okay, awesome. I'll wait. Okay, it sounds like perhaps we could move on to the next section. I got a question. I'm sorry that this is not a time for questions from the audience. Can we move on to the next items? Quant clarification. Um, Mayor Prom, I was curious for the section um feedback. Uh, we're giving comments section by

[199:00] section. I'm sorry. Um, I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything because yeah, I Okay, I think so then my comments, but we could also No, it's fine. I just need a clarification because I'm not there so I don't have all the stuff. Um and so this is just um comments about the about the site analysis. Yes, the analysis and the eastbook entry development. Okay. So um well then I'll just take this moment to Oh, sorry. So can I I'll raise my hand then. Yes, Taiisha. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tim. I'd like to come back and reinforce my questions into comments. Um I I I'm hopeful that we can continue to um ensure that AI is not used and when used that there is rigorous oversight by people who are have expertise in oversight in providing enforcement and oversight in AI.

[200:00] Although I appreciate staff analysis that is not the same as the professionals and experts who do AI uh who are who do responsible AI analysis. Um, as far as the um the actual teams, you know, more community engagement is not this is not the response that I'm looking for um for the gap in racially and ethnically diverse people in a meaningful decision-making role in this process. Um, and so I don't know what the what the comment I mean the comment is really how you know at this point what can be done. Um because right now all of the group, you know, the majority of the groups that are leading this work are not reflective of our community and I'm just tired. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired as Famine Liu Hamer often said. Uh and I don't know how much more I don't know, you know, um there's no higher decision-making level than

[201:01] being on city council for these things. And so I just I'm hopeful that my fellow council members also hear and understand what I'm asking as well as our our our city manager's office so that I don't have to ask these kinds of questions moving forward. Thank you. Okay, with that I think we are ready to move on to the next section. Thank you. So um moving forward on community engagement and the emerging design for civic area and the community engagement um we did write an IP to council on window one. So what we'll be presenting today is window two. We just recently completed that last December. Um but window one really asks the community dream big and think about what you see for the next phase of design for civic area. And window two what we're presenting on tonight really is what we heard. And so confirming what we heard in those design ideas from community members and working with Rios, our

[202:00] design team, handinand throughout the process. So I won't go over this slide in detail, but this is just to point out that we've worked really hard to get um sort of broad voices at the table citywide um to come and engage with this project and dream and think big. So from groups from historically excluded and also key community organizations that will help us program this space but also be key partners. Um we tried to do um as much outreach and engagement on this project um because it is a key city location. So, in the engagement window too, this just sort of outlines um the questionnaire responses to in-person events that we held, five different popups around the city, as well as community connectors um supporting the process at every step of the way. And so that included um community connectors supporting in events and that data analysis and making sure um all voices were elevated to have a voice in design. And so here's where I'm going to pass it

[203:01] off to Abby from Rios and take it away on what we heard from the community. Thanks. Um, as mentioned, I'm a urban designer with Rios and our firm is you paused for just a second. I'm sorry. I'm going to have to ask you to be quiet in the audience so that we can listen to the presentation. It's this is not a back and forth conversation. During this part of the presentation, we hear from this, we will discuss at the end of the meeting, but or we have the opportunity to respond to comment at the end of the meeting. Um, but if you continue to disrupt the meeting, we are going to have to call a recess. Please, please refrain from disrupting the meeting. I call a recess to the Boulder City Council meeting. a spine.

[204:05] All the

[207:40] although looks like we're missing some people up on the screen. And then Abby, I believe you were um responding to a question. If you need that question again, let us know. But if you can just jump into it also that's great. Would you like a reminder on the

[208:02] question? Yeah, no problem. Sorry. No, I think I was going to speak to a couple slides. Yes, that's right. So, Abby, if you can see um hopefully you can see the presentation. If you can walk us through the design ideas that we worked on with the community members, that would be great. Awesome. I am not seeing the screen yet, but um that's okay. Yeah. So, we um built directly from the really amazing design ideas that we heard from community members in community engagement window one about different ideas for the future civic area. And we developed two programming diagram options that really center around two broad themes for the future of the civic area. The first was called Creekide Social. Um, this presents a vision for the park that really prioritizes flexible, welcoming, social spaces that

[209:00] foster community connection with lots of passive opportunities to engage with nature. So, the six sort of top most voted for features from this theme included what we're calling Boulder Beach and uh a creek walk. So, flexible park space that provide enhanced creek access. uh upgraded infrastructure for the farmers market and also for the band shell and new food and beverage opportunities such as a food truck plaza and a beer garden. And the second diagram that we created really centers around this theme of adventure and a connective loop throughout the civic area. So this theme focuses on community requests we heard for active recreation, nature immersion, and unique experiences, creating a more intensely developed and programmed park approach than the first. So again circled here, the six most voted for features from community engagement were

[210:02] uh again infrastructure for the farmers market and the band shell. So those were popular in both again food opportunities here such as a new library cafe and a beer garden. And then active recreation opportunities things like a potential standing wave in the creek and a potential zipline along the arboritum. So for emerging design concepts, you can start to see how some of these ideas are coming together, working with closely with the community, our design team, and then like I mentioned, the core team interdep departmental effort um across uh the city really is tracking towards um some really exciting ideas. And I just want to highlight to in terms of the emerging design um what we're doing along with supporting design is thinking about a park management model. And so it's not only about the placemaking of the space and ribbon cutting, after design and implementation, but what are we doing after ribbon cutting and taking care of

[211:01] what we have in terms of operations and programming the space um for more festivities and really enlivening again um one of the key areas in downtown Boulder. um thinking about policy too and promoting social behaviors is something that each bucket of this park management model is looking at studying alongside design and placemaking. So hearing back from the community members um these are some um key comments and top ideas. But you can see in those four different prongs that I mentioned or buckets from the park model um a lot of the comments actually shake out in these different buckets. Not everybody's talking about design. they're very interested in what new programming um can be included in the space. And so that's what we're taking a look at too as we took take a look at design in terms of open-ended comments and reviewing the analysis that we're getting back from the uh community at large. um the entire Boulder community was evaluated and then of course our

[212:00] historically excluded group comments um were also evaluated and um voices raised so that we can really identify and make sure that we're covering a lot of either wants, desires or issues and challenges that that we're hearing for civic area. And so the top themes you can see is um sense of feeling safe but also having child and familyfriendly activities and amenities and programming. U more access down to the Boulder Creek is sort of top highlighted in these themes. And actually they're very similar categories for the historically excluded groups as well. Um the colors just again denote what kind of comments are we getting. Are people talking about um design in terms of the family uh friendly and children spaces or is it more on the programming? So those are sort of categorized as you can see with the theming. And then Abby, I was going to throw this to you. So that's sort of a holistic look on just um excuse me, a

[213:00] holistic look including design but policy operations um and the programming. And then Abby, if you could walk us through um specifically the priorities coming up for um design as it relates to our 18 million in funding and what we're trying to prioritize going forward because we know we can't build this whole space at once. Absolutely. Thanks. So based on everything we heard from community engagement and then also by going through a robust feasibility study which is still ongoing, certain key design ideas have started to emerge for the future of the civic area. Um so the first is an expanded year-round farmers market. So bridging beyond 13th Street and making sure it can have year-round presence on site. Secondly, community gathering areas. Ideas such as a deer garden or a teen hub, nature center, and small event spaces to make sure community can gather for lots of different types of events and programs here. Third, what we're calling Boulder

[214:02] Beach. So, a flexible space connected to the creek that creates a really vibrant gathering hub that is safe, fun, connected to nature. Next, food truck plaza or other opportunities for more informal popup food and beverage uh that presents a diverse range of food options for all sorts of visitors. A creek walk that creates recreation access and really makes it a lot easier to get access down to the creek. And then lastly, an elevated connection at the arburedum path. So, making that connection easier, safer, and more exciting and walkable. So with that um we have started to translate some of these ideas into a very abstract conceptual site diagram that you see here. So these are not exactly to scale or final but we've been translating everything we've heard about what is most desired for the civic area and what would be the best fit for the future of this important downtown public

[215:01] space and started to lay them out on site so that we have a basis to go into concept design with. So you can see here a lot of the different uh program ideas that we just described showing up throughout the civic area. Um throughout the process I'd say cultural history that tells the stories of this place will be woven into the design. So that's an exciting next step future stages we'll share more about. Um we also are working closely with lots of different city departments and our full consultant team to assess uh the feasibility of these elements and all the sort of underlying infrastructure that makes this work. So transportation and mobility, flood plane considerations, historic landmarks and more. So this will be the basis of going into concept design which will cover the entire site area. And then as Shahomi mentioned, after the next round of community engagement, we'll zero in on a somewhat smaller section of the site that will go into schematic design, which corresponds

[216:01] with that $18 million of funding that's been set aside for phase two. So, we'll be very excited to share a more advanced design sketch with you all this summer. Great. Thank you, Abby. along with design. Um we do have a lot of exciting uh studies and other support that we're undertaking for civic area. Um so part of that we've talked a lot about the space activation but really um partnering with key collaborators and relationships that will help us activate the space. Um so that collaboration has already launched this year looking at a governance strategic group and planning for how we operate civic area. Um, usually big downtown civic centers have a support of an operations group and a programming group and so we're looking into that. Um, just having coming off of a meeting internally with our operations and safety team. Um, so really trying to uh get our heads around how we support

[217:00] um the community and um support the safety and feeling inclusive and welcome for civic areas at the top of our mind. And then this year um this summer connecting to nature will be our engagement three series. And so um that will take us into our next step. So we hope that um we incorporate we get the feedback that um we have for council here tonight and we'll move to our next question here pretty soon. But incorporating uh council's feedback and input tonight into the emerging design is how we'd like to go forward and next steps. Um concept design has already launched like we mentioned and that would include the eastbook end RFI as well as the civic area and arboritum concepts and you saw those priorities coming up with that 18 million and anything else that we can uh leverage in funding. Um and with engagement window number three going out to the community members on concept design will really take place in June and September. So when we go out to the community in uh midsummer, we'll come back to council and we'll review concept design and what

[218:01] we heard from community members at the end of 2025. So those are our next steps in um the planning process and the design process and I'll throw it back to council for any questions and feedback on the emerging design priorities for civic area. Thank you so much for that wonderful presentation. Who wants to start us off? Is it okay if we lump questions and feedback together or should Yeah, together sounds great. Um, I see Tara ready to go and Tina. We can't. Sorry, I'm muted. First of all, Ally, now I know why you have been so excited about this. This is really exciting. Do you want me to do you want us to give our opinion on the different elements or just say how excited we are? Are you looking for me to tell you how much I can't wait for an ally year farmers market or what are you

[219:02] looking for? Um yeah, I think you just dive in um for whatever questions or comments section by section. If you want me to go back to any specific slide with the diagrams or the priorities, I'm happy to. Why would he know my top? What? Ellie, Tara, I was just going to say careful on the weed level. Like we'd love what is helpful tonight is tops of the trees feedback on design. Um not not types of trees. So just to clarify, I really love trees. Are you saying you don't want us to talk about trees? You know, I'll talk about trees all night long. I just would like you to stay at the top of them. Okay. Don't go into the weeds is what you're saying. Okay. Well, then my my only comment is is I'm thinking about um how our hotel is going to be done, our conference center rather, and that I think um the connection, which I visualize as a highline. Sorry to get into the weeds

[220:00] because you know how popular that is in New York. something really incredible to take the people from the top of the hill there, from the conference center down to this new and very exciting place is top of my mind. Um, and I absolutely love the many different options you're talking about. In fact, there's not one that I don't like. So, bravo. That's great feedback. Thank you. Are you planning Ally? uh and team, sorry, not just Ally, team on working on the um arboritum path relatively soon. Is that going to be at the end or you're not really sure? Um the timing of the arboritum will coincide with um at least I should say the design will coincide with the rest of civic area. So as we move into concept um we will also be looking at the arboritum just as closely. Um, now we know that we have the 18 million in funding and so we'll have to see what comes up in

[221:01] prioritization. Um, but also, you know, talking about partnerships earlier, um, talking with other partnerships um, that can go in and support our arboritum is always up for um, opportunity as well. So, we'll see where our priorities land us, but the arboritum is key for us. Thank you, Tara. Tina. Uh, sure. And I'm just a little confused. Is there an elevated connection? Is there So, we are looking at both ongrade and an elevated connection for the arboritum. Um, this first diagram, it's a little bit harder to see. Um, these are beautiful program diagrams done by Rios. Um, and they're so lovely when they're bigger in person, but this one shows an elevated condition. Um, it's actually very similar to what CU has in terms of their catwalks from the residential halls down and over the creek. Um, this one, uh, so just to hit on what Tara mentioned, but this one, uh, looks at really being more

[222:02] of a highline, so placemaking. It's not only moving, uh, foot traffic through, but it's talking about a bigger uh, park space that's elevated with overlooks, art opportunities, signage, and wayfinding. I just had the pleasure of learning about the walkway that's being developed for the sesquentennial which is quite similar and that would be great. Maybe we can get a BOGO. Um so that would be great. Um so on the the other thing is just on the small event space. Um and I know it wasn't supposed to be specific but I'm just wondering will there be any kind of enclosed event space? Weather is an issue in Boulder between rain, heat, snow. Um, is that an option for this area or will it be all open air? So, what we're looking at for civic area specifically were open air and more conicle shell similar to the band shell um upgraded in modern I would say for amenities and technology. Um, this one does show that

[223:02] amphitheater um on the south side of Boulder Creek and looking at sort of synergies with the library. Um, we do have an enclosed theater space now in the Canyon Boulevard or excuse me, the Canyon Theater. Okay. Thanks. And then the final thing that I'm interested in understanding over time is just how we get the numbers of people. And I I I really appreciated how you segmented the different types of users and that one slide in the prior section. Um, just to to see how we're going to get that activation and how we're going to get people to be there. It's such a critical part is that people go and we know our summer can be slow from Monday to Friday and but I think this is incredibly exciting. So, thank you. Thank you, Tina. Who would like to go next? I see Matt. Um, so yeah, the the this is I think where it gets fun because you get to see the elements. Um, I think there's a little bit of hybridization actually between the two of these in some form.

[224:00] So, I hope none of these are uh at exclusion of another. Um, certainly when I think of the adventure loop, but I see an art market, I think that should be indoor farmers market, right? So, there's weird like it's like the Mr. Potato Head of these things. You grab a little piece and you throw it in and plug it in over there. So, I think there's flexibility there. The one piece that I've seen that seems missing here that's been discussed by a number of our community organizations is a cultural center. And so, I'm wondering where has that come up in discussion and where do we find that perhaps fitting in? because that's been a conversation I my entire time on council um whether it's you know conversations with our catmand do sister city which I'm a leazison leaison for um it's been conversations with NAACP I mean there's been others um there's been a lot of them so those are things I'm just curious about come up and how has that has that occurred quiet please in the audience or I'm going to have to call recess you've been warned so many times

[225:01] Clearing the chambers.

[227:52] Okay, I will reconvene the meeting. Matt, I believe you were asking a

[228:00] question. I was until we got disrupted, but I'll try again. I got the question. You got the question. So, I'll just save oxygen and let uh Nuria answer it. Thanks so much. And the question was really about has there been any consideration about um potential uh the placement of a cultural center which certainly has been talked about a lot in community and I'll say that certainly that has been a discussion that has formed part of this conversation. I'll also say that the city in general has been thinking about that. Um we've been exploring different city buildings in the future and just know that we will be coming to you uh in the future with options as we consider as we continue to consider that in the future. but know that that has been part of our conversations. Wonderful. Thank you for that. And I'll just finish my comments just saying um as I mentioned at the farmers market year round inside, great stuff. Also, I like that you know, zipline elevated. Um I know that there's been co colleagues of ours in the past that have really advocated for the G thing. Um we won't say the word. It's it's the thing that won't be named. Um

[229:02] but I really like that there's an interest in highlighting some of those characteristics without the thing itself. Um but I appreciate that. Yeah, this is actually going really well. So, can't wait to see it come to fruition. Wish we had a money tree. We don't. Um, so we'll see it in the phases it comes in. So, appreciate the hard work. Thank you. All right, I see Taiisha's hand. Awesome. Thank you. So yes, this is the very uh exciting and uh fun part and it was really wonderful to see how much engagement um was used to inform these um recommendations. I cannot more strongly agree with uh my colleague uh Matt Benederman regarding yearround indoor farmers market again and and just in general. I would love all of these options to be cross referenced with our council and our citywide priorities. And so although I appreciate right the

[230:00] importance of community feedback, I also think it's really important that any investments that we're making drive us to the goals that we've identified and again um have climate resilience is one of them. And we know that agriculture and food access is a critical part of climate uh resilience. And so um wanted to double down on that. Um also wanted to um double down on and uh extra cosign the um social spaces and community center or sorry cultural center. Um there that is something that has that I I know I've heard from community in interest as a resident almost 14 years um of the lack of cultural spaces um for the majority of our um community members. And so, um, just again wanted to echo, uh, my interest in that and alignment with not only community needs, but, um, also just the investment portfolio and where it goes. Um, in addition, I wanted to lift up the

[231:04] uh, well, I think I just have those two um, on this section. So yes, and I um yeah, I I I don't really have a comment about options until I see a fiscal note. Fiscal note, fiscal note. Um again, making these decisions without understanding the financial impact is um is not practice that we should continue to be doing. And I was told that we were going to have a fiscal note by Q2. It's Q2. And um again we are making critical even now we're making decisions even in if we had fiscal data it may I would I would be surprised if it did not significantly impact my comments and my priorities and preferences based on the financial implication this gone are the days where we will build it as it comes. Um, and I'm also just curious in general

[232:01] around um, what is the refresh re recession uh, addition elements of this plan? um it seems like it's still moving along as it had from the beginning of its process. And what I would like to see in the next iteration is what are considerations based on the financial uh or rather economic and climate um issues that are and challenges um and historic challenges um unprecedented challenges that our community will be fa that our community are facing and will continue to face. you know, we can anticipate more billion-dollar disasters. And so, again, having that fiscal note is going to be absolutely critical, but as far as the quality of the process, the quality of the options, um, I think we're we're very much moving in the right direction. But I continue to have concerns around the fiscal capacity, uh, given the other priorities and of course the gaps in, uh, values and uh, values aligned investment. So, thank you very much and

[233:00] I look forward to um the next iteration and congratulations on this herculean effort. Um thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you Taiisha. I see Nicole and then Ryan. Um I am just so excited about all this work that you all have done here and what I am most excited about is what I'm seeing and the results of some of the engagement. um responses. So, for so many years, I have heard from folks in the community, particularly from um people with uh currently or um and historically marginalized identities, um about wanting things like more spaces downtown for families to gather. um wanting space for local markets, um more local goods, wanting space for teenagers, um wanting bathrooms, better transportation connections to downtown, um even food trucks. And that we are at

[234:00] a point in the city where that feedback is here in our meeting packet speaks to the quality of the work that you're doing and the progress we're making as in a city in the city. Um and so just you know kudos to the community connectors who've been involved engaging in engaging their communities. It just this to me is one of those transformative changes that we are so fortunate to witness and I just I am so grateful to be here and to see some of this coming and doesn't mean we're perfect but we are certainly moving in a very different direction um than we were even a few years ago and I find that extraordinary. So, I am so excited to see what your continued engagement uh brings and I just thank you for creating an environment where more people are willing and feel comfortable participating in our decision-m. Thank you, Nicole. Ryan. Okay. I have a comment and a couple of small questions.

[235:01] Um the first is just to agree with my council member colleague Nicole. Um I period agree with that. Um, and then building on that, I um I don't think this was in the level of detail that they were provided, so apologies if this is below the the tree canopy, so to speak. But, um, building on that, I yeah, I'm just so excited to think about a a landscape that has drinking fountains and and bathrooms hopefully. And, um, also, you know, I think in general, parks and wreck is a real leader in throughout the city in uh, bike parking infrastructure in particular, good good standard for inverted use. Um but as I look at well and as I look at this it reminds me one of the practices that we have in city code for new development is that you you have good um inverted use bolted within 50 ft of of doors and you have a lot of doors here so to speak and um I'm just very excited to think about um how to you know how to really make it a a full experience for people to kind of enter and exit and be a part of that in in

[236:01] different ways. Um and my questions are just kind of small questions. Um, one is on trees, and I'm sorry if I missed this. I think you did speak to this um, a little bit, but with with respect to mature trees, are you at the point now where you're able to say like, you know, we we only expect to lose a small amount of those or none of those or see later if we're going to have to lose any mature trees. Um, we're always going to work with our existing canopy out on site. So, one of the um diagrams that you saw in the presentation in the packet is sort of outlining the natural resources that are in the area in Civic and a lot of the trees um especially in Central Park or old growth. And so, we're committed to working within that canopy, adding to and making sure um if there's anything that is a safety hazard or disease, you know, we'll work with trees like that. Um but so far, we are committed to work with our canopy and add to it. Great. About what I expected. Um my the second and final question is um so last year after we um did not

[237:02] landmark the the area, we had some discussion around um the the opportunity to elevate black history and other parts of our history um heritage. Uh I think you might have touched on this a little bit earlier in the presentation, but I'm curious if you could say just a little more about um plans to elevate that part of our history. Yeah, it's so hard. Um I know our design team is really itching to get more into the detail. Um at this level we are pretty high high level programming and thematic. Um although Rios's design skills and their graphic skills are so fun and whimsical. Um but this specific uh diagram shows uh the loop that goes throughout Civic area. And we talk we're talking about this being really a cultural loop, a storytelling loop as you move through the space. um where were certain people settled as you move through the space, calling out views and honoring the land and the peoples before us that were

[238:00] here. And then of course all of our landmarked buildings and how they were influenced by um the great people who either designed or um their uses uh storytelling sort of all of that. Um, and then I would just say in terms of the creek side social diagram, we looked at a cultural trail coming down from the hill and um, coming through the arboritum actually and up to Pearl Street. Terrific. Well done. Thank you. Thank you, Ryan. Um, I guess I will go next with a couple of comments. Um, so thank you again. Um, for me, I think one of the biggest pieces of this area is that even though it's downtown and the heart of the city, it doesn't feel like the heart of the city necessarily, it's so cut off, you know, but because of the roads and because of the creek being at a lower level and kind of the topography. Um, so for me, one of the most important things for this is how we access it and sort of

[239:02] improving the routes for how we get there, whether that's the arboritum or the path along the creek. Um, I think sort of access from the high school, from the university, Pearl Street, bike paths, bus stops, like that kind of how it connects to the rest of the city. um for me is probably one of the most important portions that I'd like to see an improvement on. And I think that through that there could be a lot of um room for you know like you have the elevated walkway but also adding additional education, art, culture, history um ecological aspects to that um to make it more interesting I think would be um sort of a beautiful way to tie it through. My second one is um bringing unique activities and social opportunities. So for me, I would really

[240:01] like to see us prioritize um things that we can't necessarily find other places in town or nearby. I think the food truck plaza is a great idea. Maybe tying that with the farmers market so that we can provide indoor seating. And again, kind of that like how do we activate the space through a variety of seasons. Um, I know it might sound a little crazy, but the standing wave with the beach, I think, would help activate that because in towns where I've seen that, people do use them in wets suits in the middle of winter. Even though I wouldn't, people definitely do. Um and then you know looking at maybe some youth activities too like you had had courts in one of them it kind of popped into my mind that it's actually relatively affordable to get an outdoor ping pong table. Maybe there's some different kinds of youth focused activities there. Whether it's sculptural, maybe it's not a sculptural

[241:01] skate park, but just a couple of features or kind of smaller things. In general, I'd prefer us focusing on, you know, a couple of significant interventions um but maybe along the paths scattering around some smaller interventions as well. And then of course, um, making sure that we're providing for people's needs, whether that's drinking fountains or bike parking or bathrooms. Kind of trying to make sure that when people are down there or or snacks. I mean, making sure when people come to that area that there are um services that they can have their needs met. Thanks. That's it for my comments. I see Tara has her hand up. Double dip. Sorry about that. I just wanted to call off of Lauren and talk about connections for one second and remind us that when we did the 13th Street activation, which I think activation is

[242:00] being generous since it wasn't really used that much. I'm hoping that we could learn from that. And I'm wondering I agree that it can't just be the arboritum. What about the other way across um canyon? And I'm wondering if there was any thought given to how to get that part of the connection pedestrian wise. If there's anything that's being worked on for that or are we just going to leave it like it is? I'm just I'm curious. So we are doing a higher level planning effort to look at 13th Street. Um 11th is also a major connector. 10th, 9th. Um, a lot of the city streets that run through Civic sort of end at the park but then pick up again and connect you to Pearl Street. We do want to be a major connector in and out of the space and throughout. Um, Abby, did we do any specific uh transportation study on the crossing for 13th and Canyon?

[243:03] We have proposed things like uh enhanced crosswalks there, a decorative crosswalk for example, to make sure that that crossing feels like a real gateway drawing people down from Pearl into the civic area. Um, we also, this is outside the scope of our project, but we've also talked about how it might be nice to have some wayfinding signage that connects up 13th towards Pearl Street so that it's really clear if especially if you're a first time first-time visitor that all you have to do is walk down 13th a few blocks and you'll be at the civic area. So, there could be some companion projects that help connect some surrounding streets to the civic area through things like enhanced signage. I'm going to call a queue on that really quick. Um I got did get mentioned in the presentation, but you know, we have our major bus station relatively close and there's no real connection between those two things even though for many

[244:00] that's a gateway entrance to our community very close to sort of um a significant cultural area. So you know that's also somewhere where it might not be within this but if we could think about generally what that might be a part of and able in order to kind of improve that connectivity and then I see Tina I just you're talking about wayfinding and is this area going to be called the civic area or is there going to be a different name? Um so after uh concept design, we're really going to take um all the visioning that's come together from the community and with our design team and city team and start to look at a renaming um effort for civic area um and rebranding. And so I think to some of the points about connectivity and wayfinding, it's really about building identity and gateway and a place um that people recognize as a destination for

[245:00] itself. Um, but I think this is has a ample opportunity in multiple ways. Um, the RTD station, but also as you come down 93 um to be the gateway of Boulder. Any other questions or comments? Taiisha, sorry, I realize I forgot one question about or request about particularly it was in the analysis section and for the ecological work um just making sure that we're engaging our indigenous and tribal um partners in in that level of evaluation leveraging as much traditional ecological knowledge in the development of the um of the area as possible. recognizing that they are uh the traditional stewards who were here thousands of years and we are working towards uh 150 next year. Uh so that was one thing that I just wanted to really make sure and I didn't have a chance to

[246:01] cover for four. So thank you for the opportunity to double dip and um really grateful for um the advancement of of this section. Um, yes. Thank you, Taiisha. Not seeing any other questions or comments, I think I will call this section to a close. Thank you so much for all of the hard work and for the wonderful presentation. I know we barely scratched the surface of what's you guys have thought about, but really wonderful work. Thank you so much. Okay. Do we have any matters from the city attorney? No. Okay. Um, so then I have our debrief. Um, I had a quick comment that I wanted to make. I

[247:01] apologize. So, I just wanted to take a minute and thank staff. There were some comments during Oak comment that I didn't address and I apologize for that. I am deep deeply grateful to our city staff whose professionalism, dedication, and hard work keep our city running and support this council's ability to serve the community. Your commitment behind the scenes and at the forefront is invaluable to Boulder. I also wanted to thank my colleagues for their patience and help and support in um running my first meeting. There was also significant staff support in that. Thank you for that as well. Um, yes, very much appreciated. Does anyone else have any other comments? I see Nicole's hand. Yes. Um, I wanted to uh use my two minutes um to speak to our exceptional city staff tonight and especially to our city manager uh who has been the target of some attacks recently um not just

[248:00] tonight but uh and uh throughout the community in other ways. Um first of all, I don't think there's any value in attacking each other in this moment. It has uh never ne never quite been a way to get things done. Continues to not be a way to get things done. But for staff, you all care deeply about our community. And I see this in the long hours you work, in the relationships that you work to build and maintain with everyone in our community. The way you continue to care for people even when they don't know how to manage their pain and they turn it on you. The compassion, intention, and collaboration you bring to city leadership is truly unparalleled. And you do this while you're also caring for parents, children, um partners, friends, family, and helping them through these really chaotic times. And I'm particularly grateful for those

[249:02] of you uh many of whom are here still um who have one or more identities that our community uh continues to marginalize. You're judged more harshly and you're held to a different standard daily. And this isn't fair. And that you continue to serve our city continues to feel miraculous to me every day. You are doing exceptional work in extraordinary times. Our city isn't perfect, but your leadership is making us better, and I'm very grateful for your commitment to all of us and to this community. Thank you, Nicole. Uh Ryan, I want to appreciate Nura, Teresa, Sterling, um Alicia, Emily, the parks and recck team who muscled through some disruptions. um and say that they they are not the decision makers in the

[250:02] choice to not actively bring Boulder more directly into the situation in Gaza, which has groups in our community on different sides. That's council. Um and I was looking for words to conclude to say what a great comprehensive job they do, but I cannot improve on what I heard from Nicole. So, um thank you for saying that and endorse that. Thank you. Um, and I would like to give an A+ to Lauren for her um her work tonight. Thanks. Any other comments? All right, with that I adj I'm sorry. I'm not okay. I am sorry, but I'm not fast on the buttons. Alas, um, thank you very much. Oh, I can't see my two minutes. Just as a remote, just FYI, can I get that,

[251:00] please? Thank you. Um, thank you very much for the opportunity to provide. Thank you comments. Thank you again for all of our commenters who continue to come and ask our council members. Um, only things that are under the authority of our council to do. Um these are all city issues when we have authority uh decision-making authority over them. I also wanted to lift up another issue which is that I'm seeing which is a misalignment of our council time on the topics that we have prioritized in our city uh in our council priorities and citywide plan. Although I appreciated having this robust update about the civic area, this is the at least the second time that I have had a thorough update and information about this. We have had zero conversations about our agricultural footprint, zero conversations around human re uh human relations human relation human relations ordinances um which are also urgent and

[252:02] important. I urge our CAC to revisit our agenda and look towards prioritizing those things that are urgent and important as we are continuing to face unprecedented climate issues as well as cultural issues um that are dividing our community further and not allowing us to be resilient. Although I appreciate and love parks and open space as a former commissioner for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, I continue to be concerned about the gap in um council members conversations and staff members conversations with the public on a climate resilient component that is not being addressed sufficiently in as evidenced by more money being investment invested on renovating one garage than our entire agricultural portfolio. Thank you very much. I look forward to more values aligned investments not just in

[253:00] the time but also how our dollars are spent. Thank you. Thank you Taiisha. With that I would like to call to adjourn this meeting on April 17th. Thank you.