November 20, 2025 — City Council Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[4:37] 30. So, welcome to the Thursday, November 20th, 2025 regular meeting of the Boulder City Council. I will go ahead and call us to order and ask Elicia for a roll call, please. All right. Thank you, sir. Give me just one second. I was running around doing something.

[5:03] >> All right. Thank you for your patience. We'll start the night's roll call as usual with council member Adams >> present. >> Benjamin >> present. >> Mayor Brackett >> present. >> Mayor Proim Folk >> present. >> Council member Marquis >> present. >> Shuhar >> here. >> Spear >> present. >> Wallik >> here. And Winer >> present. Mayor, we have our quarum. >> Thanks so much. And then Elicia, if you could go over our public participation guidelines, please as we start item number two, open comment. >> All right. Thank you. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for your participation at tonight's council meeting. We ask that you abide by the rules of decorum found in the voter revised code. This includes participants are required to sign up to speak using the name they are commonly known by. Individuals must display their whole name before being allowed to speak

[6:00] online. Only audio testimony is permitted during open comment. No attendees 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 any lawful order of the presiding officer to leave the meeting room or refrain from addressing the council. All remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to city business. No participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against another person. obscinity, other epithets based on race, gender, or religion, and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the beating will not be tolerated. Thank you again for joining us and thank you for listening. >> Thanks so much, Alicia. Uh, everyone will have two minutes to speak and I will be strict on that time limit um in the interest of fairness and we're going to mix inerson and virtual speakers. So,

[7:01] our first three speakers are Philip Ogrren in person, Daniel Eisenman in person, and Laura Kaplan virtual. >> Good evening. Um, I want to start off by thanking Lauren Fulkurts for your years of service on this council. Um, I remember a few years ago interviewing you for a podcast I was hosting at the time and we just itemized a bunch of different things that you were excited about working on. And I remember thinking, damn, that's a ambitious woman. And uh I it's just very gratifying to see all the great work this council has done over the years and your participation in that. Just to name a few things, ADUs, occupancy reform, minimum wage, coralia network, embodied carbon building codes, um even your elections. Um so yeah, I I hope you enjoy your year off from city council. Um, as a member of the airport

[8:00] neighborhood campaign, I had a couple things I wanted to say. Uh, first, thank you so much for uh the recent um press release committing to not taking uh federal funding that would um require us to uh keep the airport going uh another 20 years every time we take more money. So, thank you for that and I hope that continues. Um, I'd also like to mention that the recent fire on realization point did not make any use of the airport and that was confirmed by a um spokesman for the city recently spokesperson and uh yeah so thank you for that. Thank you Lauren. That's all I have. Thank you. >> Thanks. Now we have Daniel Eisenman in person, Laura Kaplan virtual and Chelsea Castellano virtue virtual. Hi, my name is Daniel Eisenman with Conscience Bay Company out of Boulder. Uh, mayor, council members, thank you for the

[9:00] opportunity to speak tonight. Uh, Conscience Bay has submitted the concept plan for the Pearl Arts District, a fourb block mixeduse district in Boulder Junction fully aligned with TVAP 2. Our 11acre site currently holds two aging warehouses, and we see the chance to transform it into a creative, walkable, sustainable, Boulder neighborhood. At the center of this neighborhood will be a world-class 2500 seat performing arts and events venue surrounded by approximately 500 new homes, 150 room hotel, 30,000 ft of food and beverage and 48,000 square ft of cultural space including 8,000 square feet dedicated for the performing arts group uh and more than 2.3 acres of parks, paths, and plazas. Uh the project aligns well with the expanding Sundance Festival presence and the arrival of the train and it positions the Pearl Arts District as a true gateway to the corridor. Our plan reflects extensive collaboration uh with city boards, departments, regional

[10:01] partners and more than 25 uh local performing arts organizations. Uh we are also advancing the Boulder Slooh and rail culvert replacement in collaboration with the city. This work will remove the site and 35 nearby properties from the flood plane and unlock the redevelopment of our project and others. Um, our initial studies from our line advisors estimate that the economic benefit of this project for Boulder County is around $2.8 billion and $1.6 billion to the state of Colorado over 30 years. To deliver these benefits, the two key financing tools are essential. a single property owner commercial only metropolitan district and tiff through bureau. The metro district will fund streets, sidewalks, utilities, trees and parks. TIFF supports the venue parking structure, the rehearsal space and the rooftop park. This is a clear case of growth paying its own way. Uh the pearl arts district,

[11:00] thank you for your testimony. >> Thank you. I'll be here for the rest of the session if you want to have any questions. Now we have Laura Kaplan virtual, Chelsea Castellano virtual, and Jary Worster in person. >> Good evening, city council members. Um, I'm Laura Kaplan and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you on this crisp fall evening in Boulder. So, speaking as an individual, I signed up tonight primarily to give a sendoff tribute to Council Member Fulkurts. Lauren, your service to the city of Boulder has been just outstanding. You have many council colleagues who are very sharp on planning issues, but you stand out for your depth of expertise as an accomplished architect. There is no one like you who can look at city planning and building code and understand so clearly what it means for our built environment and then take meaningful action to improve it. Countless code changes and plans with your stamp on them will carry on shaping

[12:03] Boulder. But your service goes beyond that. You have brought your heart, your ethics and values, your thoughtfulness, your vision, and your full humanity to this job. You have been a steady voice of courage on council for these past four years, and that voice is unique and respected, and it will be sorely missed. I am so eager to see what you will do next and I know that I am far from alone in that. So, shifting gears to another topic now. Speaking on behalf of the airport neighborhood campaign, we would like to thank city leadership for deciding not to pursue FAA grant funding that would extend our commitments to run the airport past the year 2040. Thank you for standing up for local control and for the rights of the people of Boulder. And I'd like to close by sharing a fun fact about the airport. According to city staff, the average annual grants taken from FAA or CD dot funds over the last 10 years was $250,000 per year. To put that in

[13:01] perspective, that is less than 0.05% of our most recent city budget. 0.05%. Even if we need to increase that a bit to catch up on deferred maintenance, that is a tiny price to pay to keep the city's options open and keep control in local hands. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now we'll go to Chelsea Castellano online, Javier Worcester in person, and Charles Stober virtually. >> Uh, good evening and thanks for the chance to speak in appreciation of Mayor Pro Lauren. Lauren has achieved more in four years than previous councils have achieved in more than four decades. There are very few people in this world and even fewer in politics who can reliably count you can reliably count on to do the right thing and consistently stand up for people especially those with less money in power. Lauren has been one of those people. Boulder has been beyond lucky to have her and the truth is we will be worse off without

[14:01] her. I also want to name what so many of us saw during this election, which was malicious lies and bad faith attacks that were paid for and spread by outside groups. And while I don't think I'll ever forgive those who chose that path, I will always remember the integrity and grace with which Lauren stood in the face of it, she never lost sight of her values or the people who she was fighting for. And that's on brand for Lauren because she leads with her values and she also delivers real results. While Lauren's time in office was cut short, the legacy she leaves behind will forever be felt. Because of Lauren's leadership, our elections will be more fair and representative. Wages will be higher. A more diverse group of people can now serve on council. Our environment will be cleaner. Housing will be more abundant and affordable. And more people in crisis will be able to access mental health support when they need it most. And that is just to name a few. Um, but it wasn't just her advocacy and votes that led to better

[15:00] outcomes. It was uh the work that most people never got to see. Setting bold and visionary goals, bringing people together, forming coalitions, wrestling with the details, and making sure the final outcome was the best it could be. I'm happy to be on record saying, I hope this is merely a vacation from council for Lauren. in 2026 when far more people turn out to vote. I hope they have the chance to vote for her because she offers exactly the kind of leadership this community deserves. Thanks. >> Thank you. Now we have Jary Worster in person, Charles Stober virtual, and E Part. Is Jary here? Not seeing anyone. We'll go to Charles Stober online. >> Mayor, I do not see Charles online tonight. >> All right. How about Eve Partridge and the Jill Grandma? >> Hi. C can you hear me? >> Yes.

[16:00] >> Okay, great. We are living in the belly of the beast. Numerous holy sites on sacred land have been bombed, museums, olive trees set on fire, homes stolen and demolished, and genocide with US taxes and investments in war profitering. After 9/11, this was fair game. Surveillance, torture sites around the world. Guantanamo is still open and kept open to be used for immigrants. It is a special kind of pain seeing people that look like your family murdered and detained daily at the hands of imperialism, colonialism, and yes, white supremacy. To watch my peers that at one point protested US wars suddenly be on the side of war and genocide has been the most disheartening to observe. The normalization of violence towards the others and that it is okay to turn against each other and even against ourselves for survival is a new normal for many. Triggers awaken within those whose ancestors have experienced genocide. Illnesses can carry on for up

[17:00] to four generations. Hysteria and people that take advantage all come into play. Like disaster capitalism after a flood or a fire. Boulder is supposed to be one of the most educated towns in the country. But so far it's looking a lot like the Bush years with liberal flare. The smearing of Adams and community members in the press for political gain has been the antithesis of community work. Instead of working towards understanding communities, you've chosen to make examples of community members. In an article, council was quoted in accusing communities free speech as the precursors to violence, insinuating that our community members were terrorists. What is a terrorist? Someone that has nothing left to live for for their lives were destroyed by imperialism, colonialism combined with mental illness and lack of support. Self-reflection is important and necessary to be in any position of power. Being sensitive to only one group of people is problematic and perpetuates division and toxicity. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now we go to Jill Grano

[18:01] online and then Gabriela Subia Smith in person and Max Lord in person. >> All right. Hey council, this is Jill Grano and I'm just here to also say thank you to Lauren. Um I want to echo everything that Laura Kaplan said, including all the airport comments and everything that Chelsea said. um you have just been phenomenal. Um your values and your leadership and really your smarts on housing. Every single meeting where housing or land use is brought up, you really shine and we've needed it. So I hope that this is just a short break for you. Rest, relax, get some massages, come back. We love you. We value you. We appreciate you. I'm here with Natalie. She's with her kiddos, but she says thank you as well. That's it. Thanks. Now we have Gabriella Subia Smith in person, Max Lord in person, and Matthew Joerger virtually. Gabriella,

[19:01] not seeing any. Oh, there we go. Hi, good evening. Thanks for having me tonight. Uh, my name is Gabriella Subia Smith and I'm here to talk about proportional representation and to ask the city council to consider joining or convening a study session to look at proportional representation options for the city of Boulder. Um, I finished my PhD in geography at SU Boulder uh in the fall of last year studying re congressional redistricting in Colorado. um looking at the po possibilities of proportional representation from independent redistricting processes. Independent commissions are a good step forward towards proportional representation but ultimately they are not enough. Um instead they entrench um uncompetitive elections and reduce the viability of minority candidates overall. This is why proportional representation is an important goal for for all

[20:02] electoral systems, but particularly particularly for the city of Boulder. Uh Boulder is often considered a homogeneous city where people look, think, act alike. This this council is proof that that is not the case and yet it is still not proportionately representative of the city that it serves. Um, proportional representation systems like rank choice voting offer an opportunity for us to pursue more representative options for the city. The city of Longmont is currently pursuing a study session for proportional representation systems and I would encourage the city the city council of Boulder to either join that session or convene our own session to study options that would work well for the city. Uh, thank you for your time and attention. >> Thank you. Now we go to Max Lord in person, Matthew Jagger online, and Maryanne Gaton in person.

[21:02] >> Hey guys, I'm Max Lord. Um, you know, Boulder's controversial and outspoken carpenter. Uh, and I guess you guys have all run for office and you know I did too. And you know, every day somebody's going to ask you, why are you doing this? And honestly, I never came up with a great canned response. I'm bad at canned responses. But if I had to, that was awesome, by the way. It would be that when I look up here, I don't see the people of Boulder. And I have so much respect for you all as individuals. But for instance, we have 50,000 renters. Half of you would have to be renters in order to be an accurate representation. There are 20,000 people who are making less than 40 grand a year. And that's people who live here. That is not counting the 60,000 people that are in commuters. and those people aren't going to vote. And that's a problem, right? Like I've been trying to rally service workers to go to, you know, county commissioner meetings and I can't get them down here. I can't get them to vote. And that's a fundamental problem in our democracy. It's where our

[22:01] democracy fails because the people who are struggling the hardest will have the most difficult time participating in it. I didn't even get to shave before I came 30 this morning. So, I'm wrapping my mind around this every day. like how are we going to solve this problem? And honestly, one of the best ways that I can figure out is to have leaders like Lauren who has showed an immense amount of integrity and bravery. And that's what it takes to show up for people that aren't going to vote. It's so easy to become beholden to an interest group that's going to take care of your mailers. But what's hard to do is show up for people that don't even know you're doing it. And I have the utmost respect for you, Lauren, for doing that. Uh, and I'm probably going to run out of time because I am not one for brevity, but I will say that I had the pleasure of knocking on doors with Lauren towards the end of the campaign, and I really enjoyed talking about architecture. I wish we could do that more. But something that she said to me was to spend less time platforming my own ideas and to spend more time listening to people about what they want and what they need in order to do better here.

[23:01] And I think that that is remarkable advice from an impeccable woman and I would recommend that we all heed it. >> Thank you. Now we have Matthew Jagger virtually and all the rest of the people are in person. Maryanne Gatton and Win How being the next two. >> Good evening. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Good evening, council members. Thank you for having me tonight. My name is Matthew Joerger. I am a third-year law student at the University of Colorado and a resident of the city of Boulder. I'm here tonight because this is the first opportunity to speak since the city announced it would not appeal the federal district court decision about its obligations around Boulder Municipal Airport. That decision may pause the legal questions around the airport, but I don't think it makes sense for this community to wait until 2040 to talk about the airport's future. These decisions are being shaped now, not 15 years from now. By stepping away from FAA funding, a significant financial burden is placed directly on Boulder's residents. The city's own estimate shows that more than $40 million in local spending will be needed to keep the airport operating through 2040 without federal support. If closure becomes part

[24:02] of the long-term plan, removing an airport is extremely expensive. Demolishing runways, reworking utilities and storm water systems, negotiating a FAA releases and addressing environmental cleanup is from nearly a century of aviation use and easily reach tens of millions of dollars before redevelopment even begins. And that tax that cost falls on taxpayers. The redevelopment concepts we've seen don't resolve those issues. The proposed housing pockets are isolated from grocery transit and daily needs and would require substantial subsidy under Boulder's urbal housing policies. A site that needs that much cleanup in new infrastructure is not something private developers are likely to take on without significant public financing. There are also safety concerns. Having small aircraft able to be based locally matters for quick wildfire response in the foothills. All redevelopment proposals include a single helellipad that does not replicate the the flexibility or response time of an airfield and for city with our fly wildfire risk and history that matters.

[25:00] More broadly, it is unusual for a city the size of border to consider eliminating airport entirely. Even much smaller communities maintain general aviation airports because of the value they provide. Becoming an outlier in that way doesn't reflect well on a city that hopes to lead in resilience and innovation. These questions shouldn't wait until 2040. The choice is being made now. We'll turn voters options later. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now we have Maryanne Gatton, Win Howell, and Min Kohl's. >> Um, good evening. I'm here representing North Boulder Alliance. Um, we remain deeply concerned about the crime and the extreme high volume of service calls in our neighborhood. While the city continues to site overall decreasing crime, um North Boulder is experiencing unacceptable levels of crime, antisocial behavior, and our businesses and residents are feel the impact every day.

[26:00] At the same time, the city is planning to move all nonprofit services out of downtown and Central Park into North Boulder. and there hasn't been any neighborhood engagement whatsoever given the conditions we're facing. This is a serious raises serious concerns. Um, crime has doubled in North Boulder since 2022. I want to remind council of the North Boulder sub community plan. In that plan, it talks about building a safe, walkable, familyfriendly neighborhood that is the entrance to North Boulder, not a dumping ground to the city's problems. My neighbor Renee Bashers spoke recently at council about the safety issues in North Boulder and asked for a crime update um from Chief Redern. That is yet to occur. We need to understand what is actually happening in the neighborhoods before any new decisions are made. The North

[27:00] Polear Alliance requests that a meeting happen in the next three weeks with the mayor and the city manager. We want to talk about things about, you know, a timely update of the crime when the timely update of the crime presentation's going to happen. um a renewed focus on the specific issues occurring in North Boulder. Talk about investment in things like security cameras, 24-hour security at all roads, uh increased police patrols, and a BPD substation in North Boulder. North Boulder residents deserve >> Your time is up, but thank you for your testimony. Okay. >> Now, we have Win Howell, Min Kohl's, and Rob Smoke. Hey y'all. Uh Whit Howell, state director of working families power and working families party and I am just here to simply say thank you to mayor

[28:01] prom fulkers for her service on this body. Um there are few people that we get the privilege of working with who in in the political world and elected office who truly center working people at the heart of every conversation and the mayor prom is one of them. Um and so I think this body is losing an incredible leader. Um, I can only hope that those who follow uh in this next iteration of the council learn from her example um and continue to center the voices of people who are too often desentered in the halls of power. I think it's easy to listen to the loudest voices, the voices that are most often in your face as an elected official. Those tend to be lobbyists and they tend to be not representative of the actual people. And so, uh, Mayor Prom, just thank you again, uh, for your service and I look forward to seeing where you

[29:01] go from here. Thank you. Now, we have Mick Kohl's, Rob Smoke, and Sha L. So, tonight marks the close of this council's term, and I want to express my thanks to council for addressing a longstanding housing crisis driven by rising demand and restrictive arcane Boulder land use code. Not counting staff, there are only six people in Boulder who understand our code. Lauren is one of those. And we thank you, Lauren, for having provided direction and expertise during the most consequential period of housing reform in Boulder's history. Over the past four years, this council has modernized our code in ways that eluded the city for decades. You updated our intensity standards, setbacks, floor area rules, and subdivision requirements so more modest, attainable homes can be built in

[30:02] areas already designated for growth. You opened the door more to more density along corridors and in neighborhood centers, strengthening walkable 15minute neighborhoods. You expanded housing choices in established neighborhoods by allowing allowing duplexes near transit, increasing unit counts in medium density areas, reducing minimum lot sizes, and streamlining approvals for permanently affordable homes. You've made building ADUs in Boulder a real option across the city. You modernized occupancy limits, updated the use table, strengthened inclusionary housing, and simplified the review process. One of the most significant steps that this council has taken was the elimination of off- streetet parking minimums citywide. This single change will reduce development costs, unlock land for housing, and

[31:00] allow more 15minute neighborhoods to emerge. Lauren, thank you for your work in addressing Boulder's housing crisis. With your colleagues, you have built a stronger foundation for affordability, sustainability, and opportunity. Thank you for your service and the legacy that you leave behind. Your time is miss. >> Thank you for your testimony. >> All right. Now, we have Rob Smoke, Shel, and Robert Porath. Good evening. My name is Rob Smoke and uh very happy to be here this evening. I um like Max, I I recently was in the city council race and uh I gave a quote to

[32:01] the newspaper saying that uh it was an honor and a privilege to have my butt kicked in the uh in the election. But I added to that stuff that they left out and I talked about uh um the need for the city to divest from uh companies that uh are supporting or profiting from the genocide that's occurring. And it seems like to council it's still like just a big question mark whether you know we should we have anything at all to do with genocide happening. uh you know, somewhere else, someplace we can't usually see unless we're on the internet. And um I just find all of that rhetoric kind of sad. I I know people in Boulder have lost family and friends in the conflict uh occurring. And uh the term genocide is not just being thrown

[33:00] out there. starts being used by uh authorities with, you know, deep connection, deep uh reporting. Uh I mean, it's just there's nothing to indicate that it's it's something someone made up. And so, uh, once again, I'm going to just say that people need to stand up and, uh, speak out and, uh, don't accept what's been normalized as something that is actually normal because it's not. And, uh, the so-called ceasefire has been uh, just violated daily, routinely by the state of Israel. Thank you for uh listening. >> Thank you. Now we have Shael, Robert Porath, and Lucy Carlson Kov. >> Good evening, uh members of city

[34:01] council. I'm Shael. Um I've never spoken at a city council meeting. I would like to give a brief personal anecdote that I hope touches on a more broad concern that may come to light as uh the city continues to grow. And that's about um the prevalence of or lack thereof ADA parking. Um in my particular neighborhood, which is the uh Junction Place neighborhood, which is relatively very new, there are only two out of hundreds of spots. Two of them are ADA parking spots. Um, there used to be ample street parking. Um, now they are all paid parking spots. I personally, and I'm sure many people in my position, cannot afford $20 a day to park in their residential area. Um, it has been very frustrating for me and many other people that I've interacted

[35:00] with that are um, dealing with this situation. I do have access to a parking garage, but it's further than 200 yards away from my front door. It doesn't have any ADA spaces in it. There are no street lights along the path to my building, and the ones that are on the main street are all broken. I've placed calls before, but nothing's been fixed. Um, I come here this evening to request that this be brought to light and maybe talked about. Um, it's caused me a lot of frustration and exhaustion. I know I'm not alone in that. Um, also I would like there to be a consideration for all ADA parking to be free much like is done in the city of Esta's Park. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Now we have Robert Porath, Lucy Carlson Kov, and Evan Rabbitz. >> Yeah. My name is Robert Porth. I live on 27th Street in Martin Acres.

[36:01] Affordability is today's holy grail of political ambition. How this can be accomplished is vague, but there is nothing in the Williams Village expansion that addresses affordability in any formula. Livability is a term I would I wish of more concern, hearkening back to when Boulder when Colorado was a red state and Boulder disparaged as the people's republic for its focus on the quality of life. Developments approved by the pe by the council over the years have favored business interests over residential livability. The result is high housing costs, increased traffic, congestion, and pollution. Baseline has two pedestrian controlled crossings to accommodate student foot and scooter and bike traffic, and the intersection with Broadway, Basemar, 27th Way, the dark

[37:03] horse, 30th Street, and the off and on ramps to the 36 are already backed up at rush hour. The university as the city's cash cow is coddled at every footprint expansion and increased enrollment. When I was a student at in a far away past, residents on the hill paid off their mortgages, renting out rooms for 305 to $40 a month with semester leases. Today's student housing is a corporate operation with luxury accommodations. Sustainability is another ignored concern here and globally. How much of the direction of modern life is truly sustainable? Resources are not limitless. Artificial intelligence is now the holy grail of tech enterprise despite its heavy toll on the earth. And

[38:00] >> your time is up. But thank you for your testimony. >> We'll see all this progress is about >> sir. Sir, I'm I'm afraid your your time is up, but thank you for your testimony. Sir, I'm afraid I need to ask you to stop speaking. Please stop. This is your last warning. >> We're going to have All right. Um, now we have Lucy Carlson Crackoff, Evan Rabbitz, and Trish Mer. >> Hello, council. My name is Lucy and I was born in Boulder and I work here as a bilingual health professional serving pregnant patients on Medicaid or with no insurance. Um, I am not here at all here today in my official capacity, but I bring that up because my work has informed my values and local governance. These values of compassion, anti-poverty, and Elizabeth Warren style plan for that government um led me to

[39:00] vote for Lauren Fertitz as many times as I could and can do so in the future. I understand the frontline issues we are facing, high cost of living, lack of affordable housing, and too low of wages. Lauren does too and has shown up time and time again for our community. Thank you to Lauren and I hope the current and the future council members can follow her fantastic example. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now we have Evan Revitz and Trish Emzer and then I understand that uh Jary Worster is in the house. I'm going to analyze Zionism through the personality of its most ferocious proponent here, who regulars know as blood liel boy, lawyer Elliot Flatten from Lafayette, who tries to intimidate us with biblical accusations of blood

[40:02] liel. I call him be boy because I saw the infantile side of Elliot when we ended up sitting next to each other here for an entire hour. He furiously played firsterson killer video games on his phone, palms sweating, thumbs viciously stabbing at hundreds of bad guys, blood lust in his eyes. He seems a real couch warrior, a desk jockey trying to feel like a man. But as all psychologists know, the psychopysical principle means you have to keep increasing the stimulus to get the same effect. So now he also yells blood liel at us and bask in the glory of being an apologist for God's chosen genocide. What could be more manly? Of course, many of you also show the sad symptoms of being desk jockeyies needing

[41:02] excitement. I've documented the majority of you lying either to the public or to your newsletter cult victims. Mostly you've lied that some city rule prevents you from taking action on national issues or that there are only three or four anti- genocide speakers here when even Aaron Brooks on Next Door says there's 30 or 40 of us and that's just those of us who show up and don't give up. Instead of further effing our town, why don't you go skydiving or learn to tightroppe walk? Right. Our last two speakers are Trish Mzer and quiet in the audience please and Jary Worster. Good evening. I'm glad to be here tonight. Trish Mzer on behalf of bikeolder bike boulder our advocacy group. Um it's well established that

[42:00] there is three rules to keep your bike safe. Secure it, store it, and register it. and we're here tonight asking for your participation. Uh so let me frame that up a little bit. We're doing some things really well in Boulder. Our group has reached out. The city's done a great job and for two of the things uh secure it and store it. I've included a couple of pictures here. People are buying better locks using them and the city has deployed inverted use everywhere. I even found one in Four Pines the other day. I was very excited. Uh, as far as what we aren't doing as well, it's bike registration and we're seeing opportunities that we could improve upon that perhaps as a partnership and we did a little study last month. We looked at bikes stolen reported to Boulder police as well as CU police and on bike index and unfortunately for October there were 123 bikes reported stolen in all but

[43:01] only 7% of those were registered in bike indexes stolen. That means we don't have law enforcement finding them, recovering them and that's a big drop from last year when we saw 30 to 40% of the bikes registered. We think there is a really good way to fix this. Some other cities have employed a simpler form that's an inter interface between bike index and our city form and it not only makes it very simple one step to register your bike. Please have access to the national database but also it allows one to specify an ebike and with so many ebikes in our community that's something we're missing right now. You can register your bike and nobody knows it's an ebike. Um, so I summarized some of the stuff I sent you earlier and it would be great if the city has someone who could help us participate in streamlining the bike registration process. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our last speaker is Jary

[44:01] Worster. >> Sorry for missing my earlier time slot. Um, good evening mayor and council. My name is Jary Worcester. I'm with uh Tremble Crow Residential. We are the applicant for the project at 4880 Pearl Street on your call-up agenda. Uh to begin, I want to say thank you to city staff for their time and effort working through what is an extremely complicated property. While we're a little unclear about their interpretation, we're grateful to the commitment to the process. As such, I would like to formally request that this project be called up to get direction on key policy issues outlined by staff and to gain clarity on the opportunity to move forward. As suggested by planning board members, this case will be an important one for city council to weigh in on. We would also like to get clear interpretation on what the East Bowler sub community plan means. Does it override zoning? The primary policy issues here is the underlying zoning

[45:00] does allow for the project and while the area plan doesn't specifically call for the property to be an area of change, it does not define it as an area of no change. Hence, the zoning should apply. Specifically, the areas of change were upzoned, but other properties were not downzone. Finally, staff seems to be split on whether this was a contextual issue or one of contiguity. On this topic, there seems to be confusion as to how Goose Creek is defined relative to Kigui. It is called greenway in the area plan. It is called a floodway in staff's comments. As you can see, this is complex and we would strongly encourage the opportunity to present the project to formally showcase its merits. Thank you for your time. Our team is present and available to answer any specific questions. Thank you. >> Thank Thank you. All right, that brings us to the end of our open comment speaker list. So, I will turn to city staff to see if there are any responses. >> Thanks so much, mayor. Just a couple on my end. Um, I uh want to thank our folks

[46:00] from North Boulder Alliance. Um, happy to come speak with you. I know I it's chief's not here, so I'll speak for him in his absence, but I'm sure that he would as well. I will note that the chief did send council uh update a crime update on October 29th, but I'm happy to share that with you and I'll follow up and and email that over. Um I wanted to also uh just mention to Shay that I uh want to follow up um on your concerns that you brought up about ADA parking and we may circle back with you um to understand some of the issues, but I know the team has been working on some of that as well. And just Trish, thank you for your partnership. I know BPD has been working with you as well as transportation and we will continue that partnership. So, thanks so much, >> Teresa. >> Nothing from me, Mayor. >> Thank you. Does um council have any questions for city staff based on open comment? Seeing none, we do have a 30 second per person opportunity to speak if you would

[47:00] like. And I'm going to start by calling on myself because I would like to recognize State Representative Jenny Joseph who's joined us here this evening. Thanks for coming, Juny. I understand you were hoping to speak to Lauren and thank her for her service but weren't selected as part of the randomization process but do appreciate you coming. Anybody else? >> No. >> I think the chance to um throw accolades on Laurian's later when we do the declaration for her. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. Seeing none others, that brings us to the full end of the open comment period. I will go ahead and call us into recess and we will be back at 6:30 to do the rest of the meeting. Thanks everyone.

[64:33] 30, so I'm going to gave us back into order for the business meeting here. And we're going to start with item um 3A, which is the Transgender Day of Remembrance Declaration to be read by Council Member Shuhard. So Ryan, if you would please like to call up uh Mark Lester and Theo Conover from Rocky Mountain Equality,

[65:01] please. How's this? Just stand here. Great. Transgender people in Boulder have long been and continue to be valued important members of our community. On this day, we honor transgender people whose lives were cut short in acts of transphobic violence. In addition to the threat of violence, transgender people have often inequitable access to income, employment, adequate medical care, housing, food, and acceptance in public life. Social stigma, a lack of comprehensive protections, and eraser limit this community's ability to fully express themselves, access services, and hold equal rights under the law. These disparities are compounded for black and latina transgender women who are

[66:00] murdered at disproportionate rates and face a uniquely complex system of discrimination and violence. The city of Boulder embraces our trans transgender community members and will continue to uphold our shared values of inclusion and belonging. The city will not tolerate acts of violence or discrimination against transgender people and will continue to advocate to expanded programs and equal access to transgender people. We are grateful to our partners at Rocky Mountain Equality for advocating for transgender people both in Boulder and across the state of Colorado. Our community must continue the work of promoting change that protects the freedom, dignity, and humanity of transgender Coloradoatans. On November 20th of each year, we honor transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of violence for the fullness of their lives and identities, their joys, their contributions to the community, and their connections with their loved ones. We, the city council of the city of

[67:02] Boulder, Colorado, declare November 20th, 2025 as transgender day of remembrance. Mark, would you like to say a few words? >> I'd love to. Thank you. >> Um, thank you. >> Um, thank you. I'm Mark. Um, I work with Rocky Mountain Equality and I live in Boulder, Colorado. and um Rocky Mountain Equality, we perform advocacy and programming and a lot of other services for the LGBTQ plus community in Boulder and in the rest of the state of Colorado. And I want to take my moment just to extend um our group and our community's deep gratitude to the Boulder City Council. We recognize that in this moment in history, standing with transgender people, no matter what community you're in, is an act of heart, of courage, and of principle. So, we really appreciate that. And I want to thank each and every one of you for stepping up to do that. And now I'm going to hand it to Theo to talk a

[68:01] little bit more about Tedor. Hi everyone. My name is Theo Conover and I'm a 24year-old transgender man that lives in Longmont, Colorado and I work with Mount Equality. I remember the first time that I attended an event for Transgender Day of Remembrance and how numb I felt after seeing the sheer amount of loss our community experiences year after year. Each of those lives lost represents a story, a family, and a future taken too soon. Transgender Day of Remembrance is an incredibly difficult day for trans people and our loved ones. This is a moment for our community to come together in mourning of the lives that have been taken by hate, discrimination, and violence. At least 27 trans people in the United States this year have been taken too soon from their loved ones by anti-trans violence. Worldwide, more than 300 trans lives have been lost. Though, we know that there have been many more deaths that go unreported or unrecognized. Trans people can continue to fight for recognition, respect, and representation in all aspects of our society, including

[69:02] seeking justice and accountability for targeted acts of hatred. This year, transgender people have faced countless political attacks and rhetoric that spurs on more violence. We must not only remember those that who have been taken from us, but also come together as a community to reaffirm our commitment to one another. Today is about creating a space to heal together, mourn together, and stand together. Here in Boulder and in communities everywhere, we use today to promise each other that we will continue to build a world where trans people are safe, are loved, and are valued for who we are. Thank you. >> Okay, thank you. Thank you, Mark. So Mark and Theo, thanks so much for joining us and for your powerful and important words. We are going to move to item now item 3B, which is a declaration to honor Mayor Prom Lauren Fulkurts for her service on city council. And I will

[70:01] invite up council member Nicole Spear to read that declaration. This was a terrible day to lose my voice, but I'm going to do my best. Is this on? Is it on? Okay. Lauren Folkarts was elected to the Boulder City Council in 2021. Throughout her four years on council, Lauren has been a leader on issues as diverse as housing, homelessness, behavioral health, labor relations, land use, and climate resilience. She was selected by her peers to serve as mayor prom from November 2024 to November 2025. Before serving on council, Lauren served on the city's design advisory board, sharing her expertise in sustainable

[71:01] design and architecture as chair of the board. As a council member with her professional background and experience as an architect, Lauren has worked with the city's planning and development services department for years on countless projects. Because of her familiarity with the built environment and development review process, her tenure on council contributed greatly to conversations about important land use matters, including permits and applications, building design, placemaking, updates to landscaping codes for water conservation and wildfire deterrence, land use code modernization and simplification, and most importantly, expanding people's access to housing affordability through increased housing choice. Lauren championed several city council work plan priority items including the water wise landscaping wildfire hardening project, the family-friendly vibrant neighborhoods project, and the zoning for affordable housing project. She was also a strong advocate for changing regulations concerning ADUs,

[72:00] parking, and occupancy to remove barriers to more affordable forms of housing. She also contributed greatly to the East Boulder sub community plan, the 55th and Arapjo Station area master plan, the East Boulder form-based code update, and the Boulder Junction phase 2 area plan amendment. In addition to her contributions to land use reform and housing affordability in Boulder, Lauren has been a strong advocate for many other climate and equity related issues. She kept our city at the forefront of local climate action through her leadership on building code changes that reduce embodied carbon and local development projects. These changes will serve as a national model for decades to come. Additionally, she supported efforts to implement evidence-based solutions and enhance services for people and families experiencing homelessness. Lauren also led the Boulder County minimum wage working group and in that capacity headed Boulder's regional efforts to increase the minimum wage in support of working people. She demonstrated strong

[73:02] commitment to increase civic participation in her leadership and support of efforts to move council elections to even years and increase council pay so that more people can afford to represent our community as elected officials. In everything she does, Lauren centers community, social equity, and systems change. In addition to her work on the council body, Lauren has represented the city on the Boulder County Consortium of Cities for four years, the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee for four years, and the county's elected officials regional working group on homelessness since its inception. Lauren's colleagues describe her as principled, pragmatic, collaborative, curious, thoughtful, and valuesdriven. They appreciate that she approaches governance with humility, rigor, and practical, actionable solutions to complex public policy problems. Lauren has made countless memorable contributions to the Boulder City Council over the last four years. While her council term has come to an end, the

[74:00] Boulder community will continue to benefit from her passion, knowledge, and service long into the future. We, the city council of the city of Boulder, Colorado, recognize, honor, and appreciate the contributions to the city by outgoing council member Lauren Folkarts. And I have just a few words to say for myself. Knowing me, it's not ever just a few words, but I'm going to do my best. Lauren, some leaders need three years, three terms to leave their mark. You needed only one. In four years, you accomplished change most politicians can't achieve in decades. Because every word you spoke and every action you took was deliberate and precise, exactly the right pressure at the right point. Your effectiveness is unparalleled. You've modeled the best of local politics through your pragmatism, your courage, and your unwavering commitment to collaborative solutions that benefit the whole community. I honor your service and the lasting

[75:01] impact of your leadership which will continue to shape Boulder for generations. Thank you and your family for giving our council four years of your wisdom, energy, and love. I wanted to close with a poem by Sylvia Pla, another highly influential and transformative woman whose brief career epitomizes that what we do with the time we have matters far more than the length of our tenure. It's called mushrooms in a nod to your climate work. Overnight, very whitly, discreetly, very quietly, our toes, our noses take hold on the loom, acquire the air. Nobody sees us, stops us, betrays us. The small grains make room. Soft fists insist on heaving the needles, the leafy bedding, even the paving. Our hammers, our rams, earless and eyeless, perfectly voiceless, widen the crannies, shoulder

[76:02] through holes. We diet on water, on crumbs of shadow, bland mannered, asking little or nothing. So many of us. So many of us. We are shelves. We are tables. We are meek. We are edible. nudgers and shivers. In spite of ourselves, our kind multiplies. We shall by morning inherit the earth, our foots in the door. Thank you so much, my friend.

[77:16] Thank you to everyone who showed up tonight. And for those who have shared your support privately, I am going to talk for a little bit. I generally don't say that much on council, so I'm going to take a little bit of time. As I look back on the last four years on this council, I'm filled with gratitude. Gratitude for the people of Boulder who trusted me with this responsibility. and gratitude for my colleagues and city staff who show up every single day with dedication and a belief that local government can make life better for the people that we serve together. We have accomplished so many meaningful things. I won't go through those accomplishments again. Um I think

[78:01] Nicole did a great job of covering that. Um, but beyond our accomplishments, we have also lived through many difficult moments. And I worry that these challenges are only increasing. We have seen national and international issues, anger, and fear echo in our local politics. I've watched talking points born of right-wing media make their way into our elections, spreading ideas that sound compassionate but serve the interests of corporations and wealthy elites. These messages work because they speak to the feelings, but too often they turn away from the facts and from the people who most need us to tell the truth. In a time of rising inequality and division, it could not be more important to stay rooted in evidence-based policies. This work is hard. These times are hard.

[79:01] And to my council colleagues, as elected leaders, you will have to deal with rising economic instability, the defunding of our social safety net, growing pressures on working families, and increasing fear as our neighbors face deportation, and families are torn apart. These aren't abstract political debates. They're real harms affecting the people who live in our community and who depend on you. You are the last line of defense. The votes cast in this room shape whether someone. Whether someone has a roof over their head, whether they feel safe walking, biking, or driving down the street, and

[80:00] whether they believe that this city is a place where they still belong. As I step off this council, I do so with immense gratitude and concern, but also hope. I hope Boulder will continue to lead with courage. I hope that you and the community that surrounds you will keep showing up for those who need it most. And I hope that we will continue to look beyond slogans, beyond fear, and beyond easy answers, and instead stand firm in our commitment to justice, to dignity, and to one another. Thank you to my council colleagues, to staff for the work you have done and the work you continue to do in these challenging times. And thank

[81:02] you to the community members who have shown up again and again for fighting for the Boulder that lives up to its values not just in words but in the lives of all the people who call this place home. Thank you. Wow. Thanks so much, Nicole, for reading that and uh Lauren for your powerful words. I think a couple colleagues may have something to say. Um Mark, >> I want to speak on a point of personal privilege. We have in the audience today uh Representative Juny Joseph, who I know would like to speak on this subject, and unless there is an objection from any other member of council, I would ask that she do so. Jun, you want to come up to the podium and say a few words? >> Thank you very much, Mayor Brackett.

[82:00] Thank you, members of council, and special thanks to Council Member Wallik for the opportunity to speak before you today. Again, it is an honor to be here. It is bittersweet moment as we acknowledge the incredible service of Mayor Prom Folkertz. I've had the privilege of serving alongside of her for two years. She is steadfast, hardworking, and a tireless advocate for Boulder's working class. She led efforts to change our building codes and work to raise the minimum wage in the city of Boulder. Mayor Putm Folkert's work did not end on the dis. She also advocated for and supported bills on renters protections, accessible housing, and environmental justice at the state legislature. I have personally reached out to her on many occasions to testify on some of my

[83:02] bills and some of my most difficult bills and and her answer was always yes. Her dedication extended far beyond her official duties. She fought every day for the people of this community with a deep heart of unwavering commitment. I also want to take a moment to speak on behalf of community leaders who are currently in the room but not able to speak. Planning board member Kurt Norbback has said that Mayor Prom Folkt's understanding of Boulder's built environment is unmatched and her compassion for residents is inspiring. The president of the Boulder Area Labor Council deeply appreciate her advocacy on behalf of working people. Mayor Prom Folkart's work has strengthened our community in countless ways and her absence will be deeply

[84:02] felt. While the council will continue, the people of Boulder have lost a true champion tonight. We extend our sincere gratitude for your service, your leadership, and your tireless advocacy. I look forward to seeing the next chapter of your work and the continued impact, positive impact you will have on the Boulder community. Mayor Prom Folkertz, my friend, thank you for serving the people of Boulder and thank you for being a friend. >> Thank you for that, Representative Joseph. Well, I'll just call on myself. A lot of wonderful things have been said, so I will keep it short, but uh Lauren, I'll just say you have been a phenomenal partner and a good friend and I will deeply miss uh your presence on the DAS

[85:01] and on council. You are not replaceable and I'm not sure what we're going to do without you. So, thank you, >> Mayor Pro Ferts. You are my favorite and now we're gonna have to have a competition, but that's for another day. You also are a a tween idol as as parents, some parents will know. My nine-year-old has cut her hair after you. Um, so me and and I think many of the admirers are drawn to you for a lot of similar reasons. You are principled. You're steady. You're deliberate. You stand up for civil liberties and decent standards of living when nobody asks you to. And you are a very dependable and intelligent advocate for climate solutions. And um followers of council

[86:03] will know you for a lot of this. They'll know you for your steady voice of courage which um Laura Cap Kaplan said earlier. But I wanted to say two things that might not be so much at the surface and Nicole said one of them which is you are effective. Um you are very practical in how you package ideas and I will be studying you until the moment Aaron strikes the gabble tonight. Um you use procedure to make things happen. Uh you are here not to grandstand um or to say things but to do things and you do do things. um and you do an incredible amount behind the scenes um with you that you have partnered with all of us and so many things that nobody will see uh around energy, homelessness, being the county's liaison um and the list goes goes on. The other thing I wanted to say, um Lauren, is that you you have the highest standard for yourself. Um,

[87:02] I've never heard you defend yourself or excuse yourself, yet you have this incredible gravitas. And yet, I remember talking to you once complaining to you about someone. I forgot the context, but your response was that you just don't you just don't really expect things of other people. And that is true that you you hold the highest standard for yourself, but you it's sort of up up to others to do what they want, and that's fine with you. And um those are two incredible qualities. I'm tempted to say we'll miss you, but um as judging by your admirers here, it's not going to be easy for you to to go far. So um for now, I'll just say thanks. >> Yes, so many um great things have been said, but Lauren, I loved working with you the last two years and appreciate the time you took to help explain things like single staircases and um I loved the folks amendment. I don't think anyone else had an amendment named after

[88:00] them and that's really an achievement I think. Um but uh also just being a kind and caring individual. Um I'll just speak to the human aspect because that's what I'll remember probably the most but also long list of things. So thank you. >> So yeah I mean the the echoing the the sentiment that everyone is just have amazing accolades for you but I'm going to speak to how you've impacted me not just as a council person but uh personally. uh one I think um you and I have the first and the last uh comboed council priority. Um so so we get the last right. So a testament to your partnership there, but also you you've taught me more about the uh enigma wrapped in insanity of Title 9 and our building code uh more than anybody else in in my time here. And I think that's helped me be a more effective person on council and to just for a fraction amount that you've been able to do advocate for good building codes, but also important for

[89:01] housing and how do we support our businesses in that environment. So, thank you for helping educate me and make me a better person in that capacity. And on the personal note, I'm going to absolutely miss the bike rides home to South Boulder. And instead of just parting ways, just sort of hanging out at the corner of Tablem Mason and Yale and talking for yet another 45 minutes or an hour or two um until our ebikes beep at us because they're tired and want to go home. So, I'm going to miss that tremendously and and miss your time on council. from Lauren. I learned so much about land use and zoning, the importance of housing for all, how to use LM notebook, setbacks, windows, open space has two meanings, that type thing. She freely taught me what I didn't understand and was always available. I will never forget all you did to help me whenever I needed it. also fashion for instance

[90:02] widele jeans long discussions about life helping me see perspectives I wouldn't normally see changing my mind on many a thing purely by your logical reasoning oh and the council handbook we were hanging we were hanging around with each other about two years ago and I said Lauren I don't understand how do people know these rules nine of five quais judicial went to say so moved so many things where how do people Oh, and she said it's in the council handbook. And I said, there's a council handbook. So, remember that. So, thank you for everything you've done and all the learning that you've given me and just for being you. >> Yeah. Ta. >> Thank you. Um, in addition to all of the accolades already shared, um, including the design, I'm going to throw in deconstruction as a personal

[91:00] thing that I learned. Um, and just being on the resource conservation and waste and all of those pieces and I will continue to take that on. Um, but I wanted to also highlight the human rights component and the work that you do there. um you mentioned in your um talk that we are the last line of defense um and that just resonated so deeply and I just got back from Alabama and got to sit with some foot soldiers in Selma and obviously there's a lot of things that happened that were led by those who are the most oppressed but each of them told a story that included somebody, somebody like you when nobody else had the courage, conviction, interest, whatever the excuse is.

[92:00] And in spite of that lifted their voice when danger was on the line for them where you could lose something. Um, and so I just want to thank you for reminding us what white abolitionists look like, that they do walk amongst us, that they can be trusted in times when it's unsafe, not convenient, uh, not timely. Um, and I'm just forever grateful that you are willing to abolish systems that discriminate against people and the planet. Um, I'm also encouraged by the reminder to use the tools. And a tool is only as good as how we use it. And a statement is only as good as how we use it. Um, and so I want to thank you for lifting your voice. And you will be you will be vindicated. Time will.

[93:01] So thank you for your ceasefire. And our community thanks you for that, too. Thank you for your confidence in values aligned investment and thank you for your courage around minimum wage knowing that when we have no ceiling it's hard to maintain a floor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Well, not seeing any other hands. Um that was very powerful. Thanks again, Lauren. All right. Well, on to the business of the meeting. So, um, Elisha, if we can do the consent agenda, please. >> I'm gonna need a minute, sir. No. All right. Good evening again, everyone. Our next item on tonight's agenda is our consent agenda items number four, and they consist of 4 A through 4 D. >> Any questions or comments on the consent

[94:01] agenda? or perhaps a motion. >> I move the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Motion and a second. Roll call, please. Alicia. >> Yes, sir. We'll start the roll call for the consent agenda items 4 A through 4D with council member Marquis. >> Yes. >> Shuhar, >> yes. >> Spear, >> yes. >> Wallik, >> yes. >> Winer, >> yes. Adams, >> yes. >> Benjamin, >> yes. >> Mayor Bron, >> yes. >> And Mayor Pro Tim Folks, >> yes. >> The consent agenda is hereby approved unanimously. >> Thanks so much. If we can go to our first call-up check-in, please. >> Our call-up check-ins are item number five on tonight's agenda. 5A is the concept plan review and comment request

[95:00] for a proposed development of the Boulder Storage site at 4880 and 4898 Pearl Street in the IG zone with four residential buildings containing 281 apartment units in a new 85,000 ft commercial storage building. >> Thanks. Um, I'll see if there are questions or comments or desire to call this one up, but if people don't mind, I'll start by calling on myself. Um, because I I do have interest in calling this one up. The uh issues raised by the project are complex and ambiguous and I thought planning board's feedback was mixed. So, I felt like it would be helpful for council to weigh in and give some more clarity on the potential direction forward for this project if any. >> Yep. Mark. >> Yeah, I want to support that. It's a complex project. uh it did not get unified support at the planning board level and it is also quite large and uh for all of those reasons I think it's appropriate for us to take a look at it. >> Okay, Lauren, did you want to say

[96:00] something? >> Can I make a couple of comments about the project? >> Sure. >> Okay, great. Um, so I support calling this up also because the applicant asked us to. Um, and I just wanted to since I won't be with us for the call up make a couple of comments. Um, one of the things planning board brought up was the area of change. Um, and that is a term that comprehensive plans and planners often use to talk about where they are looking at new rules or trying to encourage particular kinds of change. Um, but in in the work that I've done in planning, which isn't a ton, but something in my understanding of these terms, usually being outside of the area of change, doesn't mean that it's something is being preserved. It just means that um

[97:00] we're not going to make changes to the zoning or to increase density. Um and my understanding is that with this parcel we have not changed the zoning um through the East Boulder sub community plan nor increased the development potential. So this project is being brought forward under sort of the existing rules in kind of the status quo way and I would suggest that that is in line with um the plan. Also there's the Goose Creek Greenway um and there's a question of whether the greenway should count towards the parks and open space requirement for establishing contiguity. Um the contiguity requirement in the IG zone allows it basically is a requirement for when parcels can be developed with residential with a residential component. And I think that the that

[98:03] greenway provides the kind of amenity the plan is really suggesting that we should be looking for um in a park, open space or residential area for the contiguity requirement. So, I think that it should be counted. Those are my two cents on that. >> Thanks for that, Lauren. Well, I'll go ahead and make a motion that we call this project up. >> Second. >> Uh motion second. All in favor, please raise your hand. That's 90. Okay. Project is called up. Can we go to our next item, please, Alicia? >> Yes, sir. Thank you. Item 5B is the consideration of a use review for three hotel suites in the existing carriage building and new building totaling 20023 05 Spruce Street. This is reviewed under case number LUR 2025-000032.

[99:01] >> Any question, comments, or desire to call this one up. I'm seeing nothing but heads being shaken. So, I'll take that as a no. And we can move on to our public hearing, please. Yes, sir. Our public hearings are item number six on tonight's agenda. 6A is the consideration of a site review and use review to redevelop approximately 7.96 acres of an existing 9.86 86 acre site at 2952 Baseline Road with five new buildings containing a total of 427 new dwelling units including 122 units for student for students ranging from studios to sixbedroom units and 58,365 square ft of commercial space. The redevelopment retains the broker in and a portion of the adjacent parking. Proposal includes a request for a height modification to allow buildings to reach

[100:00] up to 55 ft in height. This is reviewed under cases number LUR2024-000071 and LUR2024000072. >> Thank you so much, Lysa. And I'm gonna send this to our principal planner, Chandler Vench. Certainly, this is a uh this is a project that has received a lot of attention in our community and so uh Chandler, why don't you take it away? >> All right. Thank you, Nuria. And good evening, council members. Um as Alicia just mentioned, um we're here for the public hearing of the site and use review at 2952 baseline. Um I will not reread the full agenda title, um as those details will be presented again shortly. Oh, sorry. Um, so just to Oh, that's not switching. Um,

[101:01] >> team, are you able to >> sorry >> advance the slides from your end if it's not working from over here? >> Yeah, it's working on mine um which is linked to the main system. Okay. Oh, here we go. I think we're back. Well, we're back. Okay. Um, so quickly we'll go over the procedures for a quasi judicial hearing. Um, first council member should note any exparte contacts. Uh, I will then give a presentation. Council may ask questions. Do I need to pause? Does anyone have any exparte contacts to mention? No. Okay. Um, the applicant may then make a presentation and council may ask questions of the applicant. Um, a public hearing is then

[102:01] open for community members uh comments and council may ask questions. The applicant may provide a rebuttal to remarks made by the public. The public hearing is then closed and council can discuss the decision. A motion requires an affirmative vote of at least five members to pass. Motions must state findings, conclusions, and a recommendation, and a record of the hearing will be kept by staff. Um, so in terms of process, uh, this project requires concept plan review and site review because the site is over 2 acres, the proposal is greater than 25,000 square feet, and a height modification is proposed. Uh the use review before you tonight is required because the project site is located in a business community area subject to special use restrictions and the proposal includes ground flooror residential uses. Uh the proposal as part of the use review must demonstrate that the use will not adversely affect the intended function and character of the area as a neighborhood serving business area where retail type stores predominate on the ground floor. Um these uh applications require a planning board action subject to call up by city council. Uh this

[103:00] application went to planning board on September 30th, 2025. The planning board approved the site and use review application 6 to1 uh with two added conditions. One was that the applicant shall add an active outdoor ground level programmatic element to the site such as a playground, play area, dog park, dog park or community garden. Uh and the second condition was that the applicant has to provide an additional 15% of the required bike parking spaces over and above the 5% electric spaces required uh with no minimum size requirement for those ebike spaces. Uh council voted to call out this application on October 23rd. Um I'll now just give a bit of background. Um so a concept review was submitted um in July of 2023. On January 16th, 2024, the planning board um held a meeting and provided feedback and commented on the proposal. Um just as a reminder, this was uh the original concept review uh site plan. It included 610 units, about 70,000 square feet of commercial use, um a 76,000 foot hotel

[104:01] use um and a variety of other um land uses. Um on February 1st, city 2024, city council voted to call up the concept plan. In March of 2024, council held a public hearing to provide additional feedback to the applicant. Um, at the hearing, council referred the application to the design advisory board, transportation advisory board, and the environmental advisory board. Uh, staff brought the project to all three of those boards. Um, overall, the boards expressed support for the proposal um and focused comments mainly on the following areas. Um the EAB expressed the desire to see solar incorporated into the project and support for small local businesses. TAB um expressed the desire for strong creative TDM strategies and parking management strategies. And DAB uh at that time expressed the desire to see more entries and wayfinding strategies incorporated into building B and a desire for additional roof detailing. Um part of the packet does include minutes from those hearings as well as the

[105:00] applicant responses to uh the advisory board comments. The applicant did make a number of changes during the site review process to address advisory board comments and feedback. Um, so jumping into the site itself, the approximately 9 and a halfacre project site encompasses the triangular area located east of Highway 36 south of Baseline Road and west of 30th Street, excluding the baseline crossing site in the northwest corner of the site. Um, and the McDonald site. The site is zoned BC2, business community 2, and is adjacent to BT1 zoning to the north and across baseline. Public zoning to the east across 30th where the Williams Village um towers are. To the west across Highway 36 lies the 2700 baseline site uh which is also zoned BC2 and the Martin Acres neighborhood which is zoned RL1. The BC2 zoning district is defined as business areas containing retail centers serving a number of neighborhoods where retail type stores predominate. Uh the project site as I mentioned before is also located in a business community area subject to special use restrictions. Um

[106:00] so retail and restaurant uses are allowed by right. Attached residential is also allowed by right except for ground floor residential which requires a use. Um this I'm sorry the um BBCP land use designation for the site is okay there we go. Um the BBCP land use designations for the site are community business and mixeduse business. Um CB or community business areas are the focal point for commercial activity serving a sub community or collection of neighborhoods. MUB areas consist of business and residential uses and apply to areas around 29th Street as well as North Boulder Village Center, commercial areas near Williams Village, and parcels around Pearl 28th and 30th Streets. The site currently contains five existing 1 to threetory buildings containing a variety of retail and restaurant businesses, including a Sprouts Market, the Darkhor Saloon, Cosmos Pizza, a liquor store, a bank,

[107:00] and other restaurants, not including the hotel. Um, there's about 55,000 feet of commercial currently on the site. There's a Kico gas station on the northeast corner of the site off Baseline Road. On the south corner of the site is the Boulder Broker Inn, which is a legal non-conforming hotel use. Uh both the Darkhorse and Broker in have been in this location since 1974. The property is not landmarked individually or within a historic district. The site currently contains five Oh, sorry, my notes and my slides keep getting Um the site currently has uh nine existing access points. As you can see here, there's four off of Baseline and five off of 30th Street. Um the two access points shown in green are full movement. All the yellow arrows there are right in right out only. Um within the site, circulation is largely securous and autooriented um with a variety of

[108:00] vehicular crossing points and is generally um fairly unsafe for pedestrians. As you can see here, there's an existing multi-use path that runs along US 36 along the south side of the site. Sorry. I don't know why my Okay. So, now for the proposed project. The applicant is proposing, as Alicia mentioned, to redevelop approximately 7.96 acres of the existing 9.8686 86 86 acre site uh as a mixeduse development made up of five new buildings ranging from 42,000 square ft to about 210,000 square feet in size. The proposal includes a total of 427 new dwelling units including 122 units intended for students

[109:02] uh ranging from studios to sixbedroom units. The redevelopment will also provide 58,365 ft of commercial space and 534 new parking spaces. Uh the proposal includes the or retains the broker in as well as a portion of the existing surface parking. I don't understand what is going on. Okay. Um so there are two primary private drives proposed. These are designed as varfs. Uh, Vunerf is a Dutch urban design concept for a living street where pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists share the same space with pedestrians having priority. Uh, the current proposal reduces the number of vehicular access points from 9 to four. Uh, three of which would be full turn accesses and one of which, the north entrance to New Carter Way just east of McDonald's, um, would be right in, right out only. In terms of pedestrian and bicycle access and circulation, the site plan includes a new multi-use path uh which runs north

[110:00] through the site between the existing multi-use paths along US 36 and Baseline Road. That's shown there in pink. Um and also provides three new pedestrian only accessible routes. Two accessed via the US 36 multi-use path and one accessed via 36th Street. Those are the red arrows shown there. Um new detached sidewalks are also shown along the 30th Street and along the private drives within the development. Uh open space for the project is proposed as a mix of atgrade open spaces, plazas and landscape setbacks as well as rooftop decks. Uh the project provides a total of 101,481 square feet of open space where just over 85,000 square feet is required. Um the central plaza is the focal point of the site. Uh it contains a variety of hard and softscape services, ample landscaping and flexible seating and event space. The applicant will get I think more into the programming of that in their presentation. Um this rendering shows a view looking from the south end of the site at the main wound style drive and central plaza

[111:01] along with several of the proposed rooftop decks and pedestrian areas south of building D. Um as shown in the rendering, the central plaza um again is the focal point of the site um and does uh is of ample width and includes a variety of amenity um features. Um so in terms of land use under the current proposal all the buildings except for building E are mixed use with ground level commercial spaces and residential units on the upper floors. Uh building E is proposed to be entirely student housing. Buildings A and D will include a mix of ground flooror commercial uses facing the interior of the site along the private drives and pathways and ground floor residential units facing the rights of way surrounding the site. Buildings B and C will be entirely commercial on the ground floor except for lobby areas providing access to the residential units above. Uh building B has been designed as a new space for the existing Sprouts grocery store. The overall design outcome is that with the exception of the western half of Williams Way, which fronts building E, uh the private drives within the

[112:00] development would be entirely surrounded by active ground floor commercial uses. Um and as it says here on the slide, uh this proposal would increase the overall amount of commercial square footage on the site um from about 54,000 square feet to about 58,000 square feet. So, in terms of building massing, uh, the proposed project would add five new buildings to the site while keeping the existing broker in on the southern portion. The new buildings would range from 50 to 55 ft in height, um, and would total approximately 555,000 square feet in floor area. Buildings are positioned toward the edges of the site to create a well- definfined urban edge with the tallest building, building E, located on the northwestern boundary of the site um, and intended to act as a buffer between US 36 and the interior of the project. The buildings are stepped down at strategic points along the interior drives to create a pedestrian-friendly scale um along the exterior of the development and to help break up building mass and provide transition to nearby buildings.

[113:00] Um so I'm just going to quickly go through each building. Uh building A is located on the southeast portion of the site north of the broker in facing Williams Village Towers and Student Housing Development directly across 30th Street. The building is approximately 117,896 ft in size would contain 111 units ranging from studios to three bedrooms. Uh 51 structured parking spaces and uh the east elevation includes five town home units along 30th Street with ground flooror commercial uses on the north and west elevations along the internal private drives. Uh the east facade has been divided to create a more direct pathway into the site from the existing pedestrian path across 30th Street. The small portion of the building separated from the rest by a pedestrian bridge is intended to be a jewel on the site, terminating the view along the wounderf and announcing one of the key entries. The jewel is proposed to be cross-laminated timber or CLT construction. Uh building B holds the northwest corner at baseline and 30th. It would contain the proposed grocery store use and hides the larger of the two parking structures with 406 spaces proposed. Baseline's

[114:01] frontage has larger scale um and thus is home to the proposed two-story grocery space. The other street faces are more pedestrian oriented and will be broken down into smaller retail spaces. A total of 92 upper story units are proposed ranging from studios to three bedrooms. Uh this building uses different materials to call out the retail featuring wood and larger expanses of glass on the lower level. Uh brick masses grounding the corners. The building steps back along baseline to reduce the scale along that street and to respond to the one and twotory buildings located across it. Uh the upper floor also steps back toward the village center allowing for a roof deck or similar space for the residents there. Uh loading and unloading is provided on the west side of the building off New Carter Way and the parking garage access is located on the south side of the building. Uh building C transitions the building scale along baseline between McDonald's um and building B. It addresses both the newly created retail street as well as the multi-use path. building has four fronts with retail uses being focused primarily on the east side along the new private drive and the west side

[115:00] containing entries to the residential units. Uh this building also includes small stepbacks at the north and south reducing the height along baseline and the height at village center. Uh a total of 44 units and roughly 7600 square feet of ground flooror commercial are proposed. Building D anchors the long edge of the new village square. Um the north portion terminates several of the views into the site creating the second jewel anchoring the other end of the new wounderf. The ground floor bordering the plaza contains two flexible restaurant spaces totaling approximately 4,000 ft. There are 11 ground floor residential units provided on the southeast and west sides of the building. Uh the former fronting on the small plaza and pedestrian pathway and the ladder facing the US 36 multi-use path. Um an additional 48 units are proposed on the upper floors of this building. Uh building E which is the largest of the buildings is proposed to be the student housing building and is intended to act as a buffer between the site and US36. Uh this building has been designed so that it appears as three uh different buildings with each segment comprised of a different primary material and with changes in window

[116:00] patterning and architectural detailing. There are five pedestrian entries located to provide access from each side of the building uh with primary access being on the north side of the building fronting a small plaza on Williams way. vehicular access to the garage is located on the east side of the northern portion of the building. Um the garage is located along the southeast portion of the ground floor adjacent to Highway 36 uh where the higher grade of the bike path and highway raises pedestrians on the multi-use path as well as drivers going past the building up to the second level helping to camouflage the parking garage. Um these are just some additional images of building E seen from the multi-use path uh the um access drive and US36. Um so in terms of parking and TDM strategies, uh the project did include a robust TDM plan which was included with the packet. Um for bicycle parking, building E is proposing to provide 268 bike parking spaces where 246 are required. Uh buildings A through D would include a total of 750 bike parking

[117:01] spaces where 702 are required. Uh the project also includes a total of 637 vehicle parking spaces. Um that's 521 new garage spaces, 13 on street spaces and then 103 existing spaces uh which would be maintained on the service parking by the broker in the TDM plan includes um orientation packets uh which include brochures, maps and other resources um monitoring and evaluation um through sales release agreement. The site's residents will agree to participate in annual online or paper surveys regarding their use and satisfaction with the TDM programs. uh microobility features including a bicycle share and longboard program available to both residents and employees. Uh this would be managed uh through a third-party service and typically provides four bicycles and five longboards that are securely stored on site. The applicant will also provide collapsible carts and wagons for use by residents. Um the applicant pro uh proposes providing multiple escooter parking areas for the parking and storage of e- scooters.

[118:00] Excuse me. Uh they're also uh committed to participating in the uh business and neighborhood ecopass programs uh for a period a minimum period of three years and have also proposed an alternative transportation fund uh where they would make available $150 a year in transportation subsidy fees per unit if the residents do not require on-site parking. Uh if they if they have a vehicle, they will need to show it will be parked in an acceptable location offsite to receive the subsidy. Um in terms of parking management, as I just mentioned, 637 total spaces are proposed. Um these are split between um parking garages hidden in buildings A, B, and E. Um all garage parking spaces will be unbundled and paid separately uh from the units. Parking garages in buildings A and B will be controlled by gateless online realtime uh parking access permit and license plate recognition control system. and the 64 garage parking spaces building E will be managed separately um from the parking

[119:02] spaces in the other buildings. So the key issues for discussion are the same as were uh brought to planning board. Um there are two key issues. One is whether the proposal is consistent with the site review criteria including the additional criteria for buildings requiring a height modification. And the second key issue is whether the proposal is consistent with the use review criteria including the specific use standards for ground flooror residential uses per section 963e. Chandler, sorry to interrupt there, but we are a bit over time on the presentation. I note there are 10 slides still left. So maybe >> not even 20 minutes. >> It's been 25 I think. >> Oh, okay. So if maybe we can get through the rest of them speak any faster. Um we can hold off on the key issues if you'd like and just do those as part of the discussion. >> The key issues are important. Um I'm just going to encourage you to to move briskly through the remaining slides. >> Okay. >> So for key issue number one, um staff finds that it is consistent with the

[120:01] BBCP land use map as well as the goals and policies of the BBCP. It is consistent with the several characteristics of the sustainable urban form definition. Um, it meets the intent of neighborhood centers. It does provide goods and services for day-to-day needs of residents. It's easily accessible from surrounding areas by foot, bike, and transit and contributes to a sense of place and achievement of a walkable 15-minute neighborhood. Um, we've also found that it meets the um main site review criteria. It establishes a sense of entry and arrival to the city. Improves safety and connectivity. Uh supports and encourages alternatives to single occupant vehicles. Provides open space areas with a mix of sun and shade and hardscapes and greenscapes. Uh landscaping includes a variety of plants, colors and contrasts. Building and sighting design are compatible with and approve upon the character of the surrounding area and it successfully creates visual interest and a vibrant pedestrian experience. In terms of the additional criteria for height modifications, the building's form and massing approve upon the character of the area consistent with the intent of paragraph 3. Uh the buildings are designed to a human scale

[121:00] and do create visual permeability into and through the site. Buildings AB and E are over 200 feet in length along a public rightway, but all of the buildings are designed using distinct breaks in the buildings form and materials to visually resemble separate structures. Overall, the buildings exceeding 120 ft in length are broken down into different segments no longer than approximately 100 ft, which are separated by recesses, changes in materiality and fenestration, variations in building height, or other measures. The site is located near multiple transit options and multimodal corridors in an area that is anticipated for higher intensity development. Buildings B, D, and E include roof decks on top floor, which provide mountain views. Uh, building A includes a roof deck with a pool amenity, which would also be shared. Um, central gathering spaces uh are designed to be flexible in use and the uh main plaza has a width of 74 ft. The central plaza has southern exposure and sunlight, decoratively scored concrete, amenities, landscaping and sidewalk visibility. In terms of key issue number two, which is consistency with the use review criteria, um staff finds that it does meet the use review criteria

[122:00] and um most importantly that the proposed use meets the conditional use criterion and does not adversely affect the intended functioning character of the area as a neighborhood serving business area where retail type stores predominate on the ground floor. Staff finds that overall the project enhances the character of the area as a neighborhood serving business area by increasing the overall amount of ground floor commercial floor area by roughly 7.6 6% from 54,000 uh square ft to 58,000 ft. Greatly improving pedestrian accessibility to these spaces and adding residential density to support the businesses located therein. Now I'm happy to answer questions. Apologies for going over that. That was a nice pickup of the pace. I appreciate that. Okay. Any uh questions for Chandler or city staff on the project? Mark >> really just just wanted to start. Um I I see you're using cross laminated timber for one of the buildings or the the developer is um why such a restricted use of that technique as opposed to

[123:00] something larger. >> Um I would defer that to the applicant. >> Okay. >> I've got uh three questions. Um, one is just generally pertaining to um, the dark horse on the site and just is there any inh inhibitance to allowing that uh, to stay open until the development needs to get away get going and just I'm thinking about one its historic nature for the community, but also just um, time to celebrate and enjoy this iconic restaurant. And so uh, just sort of there's any press to demolish it quickly or can it stay allowed obviously with de development or discretion. And I just want to make sure that there's time for community to enjoy that before it's gone. >> Um yes. So this is an issue that we've discussed with the applicant and um unfortunately there's not a lot of time for it to stay open um if they're going to move forward with phase one as proposed to try to open for the 2027 school year. Um there are easements and

[124:00] utilities required for the project that go right through that building. um as well as existing utilities and easements that serve that building that have to be vacated uh before tech docs can be approved, before the subdivision can be finalized and before permit can be submitted. >> Okay, I appreciate that. Um the next one, um there's a question about building B. Um it's got grocery store use, and I was just sort of curious. It says proposed twotory. Is it twotory in use or twotory in height, but really a one-story grocery store? I was a little confused. >> The latter. >> Okay. Okay, great. Thank you. And then my last question was um on building C um so you show on slide 21. I didn't get a description the giant white wall in the southeast perspective. It was kind of it seemed like a graffiti magnet or something that hadn't finished rendering. I was just curious what it was. >> I think that is just supposed to be the massing for the McDonald's building finished. Yeah. >> Gotcha. Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you. >> You chasing the giant white wall, Terra?

[125:00] I wonder if you have any pictures of what the Sprouts or grocery store would look like facing baseline. Do you have that or does the applicant going to show that? >> The applicant will definitely show that. They're they have the good renderation >> because I'm curious about the in-n-out. Is it the same as it is now? And it will there be ADA parking? >> There will be ADA parking. Um but all the parking is wrapped on the inside of the building. So you'd have to go into the private drive off of baseline and then take a left. um to get into the parking area. Oh, >> so it's the parking's not far from the grocery store. >> No. And there's accesses into uh the retail spaces from the parking garage. >> Great. Because that's my grocery store. So, I just wanted to make sure. >> Tina. >> Yeah. Um, I had a question about the alternative transportation fund and um, it said there's a piece of it that says that you can get the um, if you have a car but you're not going to you have to show that the car is parked in a in an appropriate place offsite. How is that

[126:00] place um, determined and who makes that call? >> Um, that I would also probably defer to the applicant. Um, I think they can speak more to that process. >> Okay. And then it also says the um the builder will pay for the be the eco passes for a period of three years. Do you know what happens after that? >> Um so that's that's our standard kind of requirement time frame through site review. Um and someone from transportation could probably speak more to this but from my understanding is that uh most people after paying for three years or or almost all after paying for three years continue to stay in the project or stay in the program because it works really well. >> Okay. Um, so three years is what we require and I think RTD also updates their pricing every three years which is why we maybe do it by that increment. Um, but I think we have a very high rate of people just voluntarily continuing to pay for those passes after those three years are up. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Right. Not seeing any hands. I'll invite the applicant to come up for your presentation and I'll encourage you to

[127:01] be expeditious in your presenting of your presentation. I was going to ask real quick who actually was utilizing the applicant's presentation because we don't have it. >> Did you save it? >> I think he's trying to share screens. >> He can't share the screen because we have a closed network. >> Okay. Typically at planning board, we show it. So, we weren't aware of that. Um, >> are you going to try to run it through Zoom? Is that what you're saying? >> Yeah, we were going to run it through Zoom. We can all It's pretty big. We have it on a flash drive if that works. >> Yeah, we can't plug the flash drive into our closed network. So, >> okay. Um, >> uh, normally we'll get it and receive it

[128:00] from staff. So, I'm not sure why we, you know, that what happened there, but if you can one, if you think you can project it through Zoom, we can try. >> We could do that. That's what we typically do at Planning Board. I'll stop I'll stop my share and try sharing again. >> Okay, perfect. I just wanted to check in. >> Thank you. seems a seems an important point. I was not. Let me try again. I am sharing it now. Sorry. Figure out.

[129:08] Can I just give him this HDMI? Um to this partially choose.

[130:17] We're now city clerk city office. Just appreciate your patience as we work through this.

[132:09] Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Thank you for the creative computing. >> And can I just say slide or something to >> Thank you very much. >> Go ahead, Bill. We won't dock you the five minutes. >> Thank you very much, Bill Holliku with Coburn Architecture. Um, if you could go to the next slide. Chandler already described the site. You all know it really well. It's a it's a parking lot with a shopping center in the middle of it. And we call it a neighborhood center, but it's a parking lot. And that's on purpose. If you look throughout the country, our neighborhood centers, they're just shopping centers. And they turn our neighbors into

[133:00] motorists. You get in your car, you drive here, you get out of the parking lot. You get out of the car at the parking space as a motorist. You walk in, you grab your stuff, you sneak back into your car as a motorist, and you drive away. And the thing about motorists is that they're really, really bad neighbors. So, one of the things that we're trying to do, and maybe the primary thing we're trying to do with this site is to change it from a community center, a neighborhood center with air quotes to something real. So, if you could go to the next slide. Um, this is the concept plan that we brought to you and it's very different now. At the time, we were thinking that about this is like a city street grid with a bunch of buildings in it. And um we talked to a whole series of stakeholders which you can see on the left and I won't go through all the different points but because of the night it is and because of what happened I'd like to remind you that when we were all done presenting the concept plan Lauren went first and Lauren had about five really insightful comments and every single one of the other council members said what she said and then you all added a little bit to it but those comments that Lauren

[134:00] made were really what spurred the entire vision for the project. So, if you could go to the next slide, um, we created a vision statement based on that. And due to the time and trying to move fast, I won't read through it all, but really it's all about trying to create a place for people and a place that's actually where people can can socialize and interact and really have a neighborhood center. And there's a mixture of different demographics and and we're bringing green back onto the site. So, on the next slide is the site plan. Um, and Chandler already showed you this, but the big thing we were trying to do, and I thought I could point, so good luck. I'm going to describe this verbally. The only real street on the site is the little L around the building in the upper right. That's a street. Everything else is not really a street. The um when we didn't want the site to be autodominated. The whole point of a neighborhood center historically in our country, even building now, is a car dominated thing. And everything that we heard from you was don't do that. do something different. Ryan, I think you

[135:00] said invent something, which was something I have not forgotten. So, we wanted to figure out a way to do this, but we were having a real difficulty trying to get the services and drop off and pickups and everything onto the south portion of the site. And this is the next thing that Lauren said. She said, you know, maybe a wounderf. So, we're like, okay, maybe a wound. Well, there's not a lot of wounders. There's very few of them in Boulder and even fewer still in in like the general uh Midwest area. um they're hard to do well, but it worked in this case. So, if you go to the next slide, for those of you who don't know what a wound is, it's a it's a street, but in name only. It's really a bike path or a sidewalk. Cars and motorized vehicles can go on it, but they're the last users in priority list. So, you know, pedestrians, bicyclists, scooters, uh you know, that kind of thing. They're first, but you can still do drop offs and pickups and everything else on on the site. So that allows the site to function, but it's not required for day-to-day use. So it it really kind of opened the site up and all of a sudden we had this, all right, we can really do this. We can really keep the

[136:01] cars minimal on the site. In the next slide, if you could move forward, um the other thing that we heard from you, and again, Lauren, you brought this up first was make it something that couldn't be anywhere. Our concept plan really could have been anywhere. It was a city street grid with buildings in it. But what we heard was, hey, there's something special about this place. Make it a place that that has an identity. So, we came up with this idea of the village center and this is this blue thing that Chandler was talking about. Everything revolves around that. That is the heart of the neighborhood and that's what makes it special. And if you go to the next slide, we have a rendering of that. And I apologize that you didn't get the best renderings in your packet and there's a little glitch in in when they were delivered. Um, but this shows what that would look like. And the tan area is permanently closed to automobiles. That's the plaza. And that during the day um would be tables and chairs for the restaurants. But because it's private, there's no permits required to change it. So it can be popups all the time. It can be food trucks and um farm

[137:00] to table. It can be art installations. It can be incubator uh businesses for CU students. It can be all kinds of stuff. And in fact, because the Warnerf is not required for the hour to hour or even day-to-day operation of the site, it can be closed down because it's also a private street. So a bigger thing like a large concert or an art fair could be held there. So it becomes this heart of the community. And you can see and we'll show later that all of the buildings look down on it with decks. So it's also vertically integrated. And if you could go to the next slide again. Um so then we had this neighborhood center and we started to arrange all the commercial around it. As Chandler mentioned, we all sort of there was a consensus to not lower the amount of commercial, maybe even bump it up a little bit, which which was done. The grocery store, we've been working with Sprouts and their architects directly. So that blue box is the footprint that Sprouts wants with the loading docks that they want in the parking for tucked into the building in white directly behind it. And then the yellow are places that are pushed forward for for potential restaurants. They wouldn't all be restaurants, but

[138:00] that's where we would see restaurants happen around that community center. And then the purple or blue color along with some of the yellow is the service and and retail stuff. On the next slide, the other thing that we found is that when a lot of these um these mixed use projects around the country, when they do the residential, they put the amenities up in the air because it's more private that way. But what it does is it create this kind of separated um neighborhood, the up in the air stuff and the down on the ground stuff. So we brought the amenities down to the ground and the purple ones are actually going to be open to the public as well. So things like co-working now that with so much work from home co-working is a is a great amenity for residential but that can be open to the entire neighborhood. Same with like fitness would go in there and then the pink is also amenity brought to the ground for the students. So in that way we have this interaction of all of the neighborhood in these public spaces and it's really exciting especially around this this center area. If you could go to the next slide. Um you've heard me say this before most of you probably the first 14 feet of a

[139:00] building are absolutely critical. All the science says we map things that we might be able to touch in a much higher level of detail than the things we won't be able to touch. And the texture and detail and attention to that part of the building is what roots us in place and makes us feel like we belong there. So we've spent an enormous amount of time on the first 14 ft of the building. And if you could go to the next slide, um the computer renderings, which are like the technical compliance documents that Chandler showed, don't really show this very well. But we've also spent a lot of time on the upper levels and and things like trying to make sure the buildings move and they're not flat. You can see on the right hand building the the window surrounds are protruded out like shadow boxes. On the lefth hand building there's two step backs for the brick for the windows. So we're creating this depth on the facades, but still the most important thing is that first floor. And you can see the awnings create that outdoor room to make you feel like you're in a special place. Um next slide. TDM measures are a really big deal. By the way, um the TAB, EAB, and um DDAB, the DAB, I guess now, um visits were

[140:02] extremely fruitful. It was great to go there early enough in the process to incorporate the feedback, and there was a long list from each one of the boards. TAB was great in helping us understand how to put together TDM measures. Happy to talk about any of them in more detail. But after a while, and we were just kind of haunted maybe by Ryan's invent something comment. It's like, oh god, what are we going to invent? Like there's a lot of things out there that have been done. What we realized what we were inventing was a neighborhood center that wasn't a strip mall. And there really aren't any. If you go around the country, they just don't exist because the idea is you're coming from the surrounding area and everybody wants to be able to do that in a car. And to be honest, like if you're in Martin Acres and you're trying to go to this grocery store and it's, you know, 5 degrees on a snowy February day, you're going to go in your car. So it has to work for a car. But we have to make it so great here that people want to get out of their cars and use all these TDM measures on the right hand side right hand side and use the transportation stipend. If they want to get out of their cars then all these things that we provided will be used. So that's how we

[141:00] approach that. Um and you can see that the parking garage would be a lot more efficient if it was one big garage but then it wouldn't create this broken down building mess in this in this smaller blocks. The lefth hand building is as small as it can be. is the grocery store footprint and the smallest garage where you can ramp up to upper levels in a thin wrap of commercial. So, if you could go to the next slide, um I can show you some of those buildings. Lauren, you also made a comment that was it would be really nice if you could design this over time so it doesn't feel like a campus. And unfortunately, with our site review process, there's no way to do that. It has to be approved in full detail. We did what we thought was the next best thing. We brought in outside architects and divided up buildings and like this is one building with a parking garage inside it, but we broke it into chunks because that way it didn't feel like it was one big building. And we're really cognizant of Williams Village over here and the campus over here and trying to make sure that didn't feel like a continuation of the campus. So that variety of design hands and the fact that we used a really open design process where nobody owned a building really helped create those

[142:00] incremental changes to the building to help it feel like it was broken down. Um if you could move on to the next slide. And the same is true on the student housing on 36. Normally this would be just a box and u we had a really great partner in this which was cool. 36 rises up so it compresses the apparent height and it's really two buildings sort of joined at a common core with an elevator and stair shaft but we broke it down so it looked like three separate buildings. But the other thing that was really cool is um the partner was okay with us not doing a wall. So these big insets acts as baffles and what that does is absorb sound. It's the exact same principle as a recording studio when we do acoustic paneling. So this prevents the sound from being bounced off a a hard wall back into Martin Acres and we heard that from you and we heard that from the neighbors. So we really wanted to figure out a way to do that. We're really enthused that we were able to pull this off. Next slide. Um a variety of building heights. And if you could go to the next slide, Chandler already kind of covered that. Um,

[143:01] Mark, you made a comment that really resonated with me. You were talking about baseline, and you said, "Don't let it be a fortress surrounded by a moat," which was a little little little extreme, but hey, um, no, we we got the point. We when we came in, everything was at five stories, and this was five stories along baseline. And I think we we heard that. And so we worked pretty extensively with both DAB and the city's urban designer um to figure out a way to break that down. So this building instead of being five stories is now a combination of like a tall onetory in the grocery area, three stories and four stories and it's broken into chunks. And this again was a lot of the back and forth with DAB and then staff afterwards was to figure out how to make this really supportive to the pedestrians are going to be walking by because there's thousands of them. Thousands of kids away from home for the first time are walking through this to get to see you. And that energy is really valuable to the site from keeping like the commercial alive and that kind of stuff. But we also need to connect people to the place. So, that was a really good set of comments and it really drove a change to how we dealt with baseline. Um, next slide.

[144:01] Um, and we're getting close. Uh, sustainability um was something you guys talked about a lot. We, uh, we have a whole variety of things from creating habitat. Um, there's 160 kilowatts of solar power on phase one, phase two. We haven't designed far enough to know how much is going to be on that, but the thing we're most proud of are these two blue dots. And those are the CLT buildings. And if you could go to the next slide, they're at either end of the woundf. And Mark, you had asked why not more. Um, there are no residential CO2 buildings in Boulder. It's really, really hard to do from both a fire code and a sound code. We have solutions for those things, but nobody really knows how much it's going to cost. So, we're using these as laboratories. We're putting one at each end, and it's committed to in the site review um p uh materials, so they have to be built that way. And that will show everybody how to do it. And then we can repeat that. And I love this slide. This is real. This is a real rendering of where the Williams Village towers are in relation to where we are in the site. And everything about the tower shows you what's wrong with my profession 70 years

[145:01] ago. Huge inhuman boxes in a field as opposed to what we have now, which is this lowcarbon street in the wound that's all about people and these lowcarbon cross laminated timber buildings at each end. And like sorry I have goosebumps talking about it, but I'm a geek about that stuff. Um, so it's really exciting in that regard. Um, I'm happy to talk more about any of that if you could go to the next slide. So, this is what you end up with. This is that center um that center village, that village center and all of the balconies looking down into it. It's just so rich with possibilities. And none of this would have happened without the feedback of everybody that we came through. It really changed it from an urban street setting to a placemaking exercise. And if you go to one more slide forward, um, what's so cool about this is that this is super super rare. This is one of the most excit This is as excited as I've ever been about a project. There are there are no projects like this. There are no auto last or auto non-dominated

[146:01] neighborhood centers. There just aren't, you know, the um a true full function like show me another one in Colorado. They don't really exist. It's it's a European idea that's just starting to get here. and the um you know a new mixed juice project with 60,000 square feet and you know all of these things are not things you see and somehow this project just happen to work. They all layered together and and functioned. So we're really excited about it. It will be I think a beacon not just for Boulder but also for Colorado and the nation about how you can reclaim these broken strip mall autodominated nonhuman centers. So with that I'm gonna have Andy um say a few words. It'll be just a few words. Um, you guys make Chandler and Bill speak so fast because they're trying to talk about a year and a half's worth of work in like 20 minutes. Um, my name's Andy Bush. I'm with Morgan Creek Ventures and Bill and I together have done a dozen buildings here in Boulder that are highly sustainable all electric. I think Erin was on planning

[147:00] board when they made us commit to a big solar all electric strategy at the beginning for some of our first buildings. Now we just do it because that's the way we do it. Um, this is really unique and probably the most unique project I've ever worked on. And it's really because it's not a developer project or developer-driven project. The Williams family brought this forward because they wanted to do something. It's a legacy. And so, it's really a legacy project from a family that's willing to say, "Let's take input from community cycles to Sierra Club. let's go to every advisory board before we even go to planning board and then let's go to planning board with a really interesting concept that doesn't max everything but instead starts with kind of a heart and a core and builds out from there and um I've been part of a lot of projects in my 30 40ome year development career but I've never really been part of something here where we're trying to say let's put pedestrians and cyclists first let's sequester cars ers

[148:04] um and let's do that in the concept of a neighborhood center that serves the neighborhood and really the whole community. Um it's also pretty fragile honestly when you think about the way it's come together and each piece having to relate to each other piece. So um we're really proud of it. It's really unique and thank you for giving us the opportunity to come talk to you about it. >> Great. Well, thanks very much for all of that and for your rapid fire delivery there, Bill. Uh, any questions for the applicant? Tina got Tina. >> Hi, thank you for being here. Um, so my question was the one about how you ascertain whether the parking spot is um appropriate for not having to uh forgetting the the fee due. Do >> you want to handle it? >> Yeah. So, we have a representative who's going to have to uh enforce that. So,

[149:00] Hi, I'm Alyssa Galina, the developer of the student housing building. Um or the I work for the developer. Um so we would require the applicant um if they did indicate that they had a car to show that they have a lease or you know they're parking at their uncle's house or whatever. Um so they would have to specify exactly where they would be storing their car if not in the garage in order to get that benefit. >> Okay. So it wouldn't be So if they just said we're parking across the street in Martin Acres, that's not okay. >> Correct. It would have to be either a lease or again like a private residence that they're going to be parking at. So >> Okay, great. >> Um and then from what you're saying, would you recommend that every project go to DAB, EAB, and TAB? >> Um I I like it. I mean, because I'm an architect, right? So I I like to talk to other designers or design-minded people about it. I think that, you know, large projects, the earlier they go, the better off they are, and getting that

[150:00] extra feedback is great. Um, you know, at some point, smaller projects, it becomes a burden, I'm sure. But for us, we enjoy it. Okay. >> My final question, just out of curiosity, there were some changes to the credits that people can get for energy work um through the federal Yeah. >> credit. Is it how does that impact people? I'm just kind of curious. >> Um, it's definitely impacting people. It's changing the amount of solar that makes sense from a fiscal standpoint. You know, we're lucky in that >> the newest iteration of our sustainability code essentially, you know, clamp ramp ramps down yet again how much energy you can use. And and while the code doesn't specifically require use solar, boy, it's very very difficult to make a building work without it. So, I think in the absence of federal credits, like in the absence of a carrot, unfortunately, it's our city stick that's probably going to force this on projects. I do think um you know Andy has is has been at the forefront of of making solar pencil. There are ways to do it even with the current um credits available but it's

[151:01] harder. >> Okay, thank you for that. >> Hi, just a couple of questions. This is obviously a much more interesting project than we have seen uh previously. Um, a a couple of things. Um, on the commercial space, have you talked to prospective tenants? I have you confirm the viability of these spaces for whatever rent you're you're looking to achieve? >> Yeah, we've talked to a lot of outside tenants, but we've also talked to the inside tenants. For example, Mo wants to stay, Cosmos wants to stay, Austin's Barberhop wants to stay and expand. And we've gone through the actual rent performance with each of them as part of it. And we're in negotiations with Sprouts right now as part of it. And you know, it's complicated, right, to make those kinds of things work. But yeah, we think, you know, commercial rents, we used to always think that the first floor and commercial drove the rest of it and they were the highest rents.

[152:00] That's changed. The practical reality today is commercial rents are slightly lower than residential rents. Um but we think there's viability there as part of it and that's through direct conversations with tenants who want to be there. >> And the reason I ask is you know there's that um uh combined commercial and residential project on 15th and Canyon which has never had a commercial tenant and may never have a commercial tenant. And I'm concerned that you're anticipating commercial tenants and you know obviously it would be very harmful to the project if you end up with lots of vacant spaces. >> Yeah. I mean, I think that we're pushing it a little bit, but actually, I think it's doable. And we've done it at 30th and Pearl, and we actually did the first affordable commercial program with the city, and we're about 60% lease there. It takes a little longer, but we're getting the rates that we had hoped for, and we're doing the affordable commercial program. So, I think it works in the right locations. I think 30th and Pearl is a good location. I think this is a good location. We could have a broader discussion about first floor retail, but I think this is a solid

[153:01] location for that. >> How many >> Can I just add one thing, Mark? as a as a designer, the thing that we're always struggling with is get people on the streets, right? That's like how do you get energy there because that's what supports the commercial. On this particular site, that's sort of baked in because there's so many students walking across and you think about the um the businesses that Andy was talking about, the businesses that are there, so many of them cater students like the pizza place and Dairy Queen and the barber shop, right? So, there's built-in energy that isn't existent in all parts of the city. >> Yeah. It helps there to have a captive audience of 6,000 or so that walk through every day. >> I don't have a caller. >> Yeah. >> And I assume this this project is subject to inclusionary housing. >> Yes. >> And is that going to be cash and loo >> likely, but we don't know for sure. >> Okay. Well, that'll be a nice check for affordable housing program. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um,

[154:00] I'll go into what I appreciate about it later, but for now the questions. Um, one of the big ones with changing to the Worerf Street, how does move in work for, um, that number of units given that it's likely student housing and everyone's moving in at the same time? >> Yeah. So, there's there's two moving questions, right? There's the move in at the student housing, move it at the market rate housing, the regular housing. Um, we're really helped by the fact that both are on private streets, so we can manage how that works. With the student housing, it's pretty straightforward because they're furnished apartments, so they don't have to move a bunch of moving trucks in. It's really a kid with their car full of stuff, and it's highly managed. They have like a staggered move in over the course of a week and different times for everybody to move in because they know what's going to happen within this set period of time. for the regular market rate stuff. You know, if you assume everybody stays for a couple years, then you're moving a 100 people in a year, round numbers. But because of the wound and the fact that we can control the

[155:00] streets, that's also what makes because of private streets, it also makes us uh be able to control deliveries. So, we know, for example, when Sprouts will be delivering food, those loading docks may not be used at certain times. So, within the management agreement, we can use it for other things. Um, we can use trash backup when the trash trucks aren't going to be there. We can use parallel parking spaces between the hours of 7 am 00 am. So, there's all these things that can happen to manage that and we're pretty excited about it. So, it's like what the city's doing with managed street parking but on a much like a micro scale. >> That's really cool. Thank you for that. Um, with the grocery store, one of the comments from DAB was about adding entrances. Did you add the entrances? And I know I'm thinking about alalfas and I know the multiple entrances were sort of an issue for them and so how through store design have you thought about >> yeah managing theft and things like that? >> Yeah, it's always a challenge because a retailer wants a single point of control because they're worried about people

[156:00] stealing stuff and not being able to to manage it. Um we do have we did we were able to add an entrance to the building on the eastern side along baseline and that entrance actually gets you to a bunch of stuff. if it can get you into the grocery store. It also can get you into the parking which is nice. So that's like a public entrance on that side. The main entry is really on the the west side and um it so that gives them that control that they want to see. So we're able to kind of create those two entrances without it being a point of purchase control problem. Little bit of a kind of trickery inside the building for how it's happening, but it gives you those entrances into the building. >> Thank you. Um, and then my final question for now is about the wounderfs, which we have seen some issues with in this community related to cars hitting the planters a lot and needing to have a lot of replacement of components. Um, and so particularly around the um,

[157:02] village center area. Yeah. How are you thinking like designing in a way to keep cars in the car zones? >> Yeah. So, the big lesson from Boulder Junction is that don't score your concrete so it pulls cars from one lane to the other if they follow the scoring. And that's exactly what happens out there. So, you know, I mentioned I don't know if I mentioned it or not, actually. The the patterning of the paving, whether that's pavers or concrete scored or anything else, is is really critical for a bunch of reasons. It it lets people know it's special. helps slow people down, but it's directional. We're used to following lines when we drive. And so if the lines are leading, if there's no like striped painted lines and the concrete leads you to the left, you're going to go to the left. And that's why people keep hitting those planters. So in the tech doc, which we're working on, um it's really important that there are clues for how you drive the car in that. And it's not just clues like go here. It's also clues like slow down. So I don't it's a kind of a technical answer. I don't have the final solution yet, but we know we think

[158:02] we know why it's happening in Boulder Junction, and we think we know how to not have it happen here. >> I'm sorry I laughed when you broke the >> No, you're you're good. Thanks for thanks for those answers. >> I don't know how you guessed she was talking about Boulder Junction, but Ryan, >> I think you were next, Ryan. >> Thank you. I just have a few questions about energy. Um I think I think we did the building uh code update after we saw you last. I can't remember. But in any case, um can you just um give a summary of the I guess the reduction in the fossil natural gas system infrastructure that we'd expect to see in this? >> Yeah. Yeah. No, that's a great question. So it's all electric with two exceptions. Um there's some pool heating and they're very small that might be gas and we don't know that for sure. And the second is, so Andy and I have been trying to do this for about 10 years. We still can't get restaurant tours to

[159:01] embrace induction heating. It's just a real challenge for a variety of reasons and some of which I understand and some of which are just tradition, but with the exception of cooking and some water heating for for the pools, everything is going to be electric. Um, so does that get at the question? >> Great. Yeah, thank you. And maybe just a followup then, so does that look like um a removal of the natural gas pipeline infrastructure that's sort of in the whole space and it just it gets taken out. >> Yeah, it's a much smaller line because all we're having to do is like feed this first floor heat. So instead of like, you know, your normal 2-in gas line or something, it's a much smaller piece of infrastructure and we only need it on places where we're going to have either cooking or the or the pool. So yeah, much much lower. Um most of what's in there now will be removed. >> Great. Um the second question is I enjoyed the discussion about solar. Um I'm curious about the underground side.

[160:02] I I don't think we gave any direction to think about geo exchange or geothermal, but I'm just curious through the the work to date. Has that come up? The consideration of would this make sense? Would this you know contribute to the project? >> Yeah, we keep trying to do geothermal. I really want to do it. Um, generally it's very difficult on urban sites because it needs to be drilled straight down and there's, you know, you have to, even though they're private streets, we still have to create utility easements for all those streets. So, if like a sewer line runs down, there's a 15t strip of easement and then there's a water line with a 15oot strip of easement and none of that infrastructure can be in those easements. So, in an urban setting, there typically isn't enough space to put in geothermal. Um we have explored it in some other locations where we've had a little more space for various reasons and typically cost is still a concern although it's coming down but in the urban sites the geothermal it's it's space limitations are the most challenging part >> okay >> I I can I'm happy to get more technical with that sorry but it's up to you

[161:02] >> um well I'm I guess maybe just a follow up on that um I'm guess I'm wondering if there's still space to explore explored this with you either under the wound nerfs or deep geo. I mean I realize this is coming at a big idea kind of late but I'm just wondering if if if it's something that with the within the procedure it's there's still a way to explore that doesn't get in your way and >> if you knew that we were interested. >> I appreciate that. I would encourage council to consider talking to utilities and planning about that because for example when we at Alpine Balsam which we were working with the city to design that was one of the city's goals and even with all of the city staff in the room and us in the room through the code requirements we couldn't find a way to put private utilities for private buildings inside those easements. It's just not allowed. So there's a there's a legal barrier to getting enough space to do it. Now, if it's on our own property and there's no easement there, we can do

[162:00] it. Um, but there's a real issue with city access easements and private utilities, and I don't don't think I'm speaking wrong, but that's the general issue. >> So, I don't think we can put it in this project, unfortunately. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> I love this project, but I'll talk about that later. I just have one question. Okay. Um, Willville uh has a lot of bike theft right now. According to the CU reports, it's the number one bike theft location for CU. So, I'm really excited about the bike parking that you're putting in there. But I'm wondering like for instance, when they have cages with doors, that's huge theft there. >> Yeah. >> So, do you have any plans for or have you researched be best bike racks for security? Um, >> yeah, we're just putting them inside the building. We're seeing the same problem. You know, if it's in a cage, they just clip it. >> Yeah. So, it's inside. >> Yeah, it's inside. So, it's Yeah. On the

[163:00] first level, you'll see a bike room. You go inside and there's your bike. >> You did get me very excited to shop with a bike, so I'm going to go out and get a cargo bike. >> You have a little bit of time before it would be ready. >> All right. I'm not seeing any other hands. So, Oh, there's Taiisha. Go ahead. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um it was really wonderful to see the solar piece in particular. Um we know that continues to be a challenge but it is certainly one that uh we must face. It is not a nice to have. It is our capacity to live. So thank you for making that investment even though the terms right now are not the best. So thank you for that. Um also was really helpful to hear and I can save other comments for later. So I'll go straight to questions and it is food. Um, and so although I love seeing native grasses, um, I think, you know, um, food security and affordability and it's wonderful that too is my grocery store. Um, and, um, I'm just kind of curious what you all's thinking was around um,

[164:02] food. I didn't see any um, you know, I didn't see an extensive use of community gardens like there is on that um, in the middle of the highway one. Anyway, it doesn't matter. My larger point is is I'm just kind of curious about that aspect as just another uh mechanism for uh biodiversity as well as um um you know just food food security um those kinds of things. So just kind of curious where where you are on that. And then secondarily um that center also seemed like a really great place to potentially um host a farmers market. So I was also curious um and again I'm sorry if you you have that in there. I just I didn't remember seeing it. So, just curious about the food. Thank you. >> Yeah, we didn't >> we we didn't we didn't we didn't put the food in there because we need an operator. So, we didn't want to promise it in the site review, but the roof deck of building D is designed to accept a rooftop garden. And the idea would be um hopefully we

[165:00] find a restaurant tour that will do a farmtotable and so that's there for them. But we need somebody who's willing to water it, weed it, take care of it, plant it, shade it, all those things. Um, it would be, I think, disingenuous to say in the survey packet that it was definitely happened, but it's it's designed for it to happen. >> Okay. And I'm curious about the city's capacity to engage as a potential partner. I just am thinking about our agricultural portfolio. I know we haven't had any acquisitions lately. Um, but just trying to be more strategic about um, food and food security. Um, has me thinking differently. I'm also thinking one of our leases for our 6,000 acres of agricultural land is one that is specifically working with restaurants in our community. So, I mean, having that model already in our portfolio is very exciting and um, recognizing that you can't be everything and do everything for everyone. And so really making sure that those partnerships are there and are a priority. But um those

[166:01] are my questions at this time. Thank you. >> Yeah, I'm 100% sure Andy would be love to take that call uh for a potential partnership. >> Great. Thanks. Um not seeing any other hands. So we can now go to the public hearing. We have three people signed up to speak. Each speaker will get three minutes and uh we do require that people speak to the specifics of this project in public hearing. So, our three speakers are Lynn Seagull in person, Lara Gonzalez virtual, and David Enzin in person. >> Uh, this is your time to speak. If you come back before the public hearing is over, you can go then. >> You're welcome to use the >> Sure. Sure. Go ahead. If you come back while it's still going on, you're welcome to speak. Um the next one is uh Lara Gonzalez virtual.

[167:14] >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, so I really would like for city council to vote no on this redevelopment of what it seems to be just another capitalistic business area. Um, and if you were to approve it because you care more about money than people, then I would like to make sure that you guys make a requirement that that space is a community garden because we need food. We do not need more dog parks. We do not need more children's spaces. There's plenty of them everywhere in Boulder. Um I heard something about, you know, making it accessible 15 minutes. Like Boulder is pretty accessible anywhere you live. Let's be real. It's a bubble. Also, I actually really want to thank Terara

[168:00] Winer for asking about the ADA parking. Yes, you Terra Winer, thank you for caring about disabled people and for ADA parking. I just wish you care as much. You can speak to the specific project and not to individual council members. >> Oh, no. I'm talking Well, that is about the project. This is related to the project. It's about the AD parking. I'm giving thanks to Ter Winer for it. I just wish she cared about the children who are getting made. >> Speak to the specifics of the project. This is your last warning. >> Um, also I want to talk about the whole carbon thing. How the applicant so excited about carbon, but I am curious about his background in science because I am an atmospheric chemist. Believe it or not, I have a master in physical chemistry. So, I know how climate change works. And what's the point of being excited about the carbon here? Like so excited about trapping carbon when we're going to get all the emissions from the echoes in Congo, Sudan, and Palestine where we're more complicit in Palestine. Correct. Because we invest $38 million.

[169:01] >> It's also not about the project. So, your time is going early now because of that. >> Okay. Uh, we have Lynn Seagull and then David Ensign. Lynn Seagull. Um, now I finally figured out where it was that I'd heard all these hearings. I don't have a life, you know. Um, about the sixbedroom apartments, sixbedroom apartments. The other one is 777 Broadway. That's five bedroomedroom apartments. I never knew they made so many bedrooms in one apartment. And they're rented by the bedroom, I believe, like the Millennium is. This is This Boulder is not owned by CU. I'm sorry that Bill Holliki did a very innovative design. All these people worked very hard on this really good job. But there's 45,000 people at CU.

[170:02] That's almost half the population of Boulder. This is just not sustainable. I mean, it's sustainable to the growth as we've been seeing it on a steep curve. It's not okay while people are not drinking in Gaza. Okay. No height amendment. No height amendment. It's a lovely design, but they can do it within the grounds of what the city of Boulder offers them. Um the wounders are great. Also really good design, very livable. Um no subsidies whatsoever for this developer. Not one. The cost of these things like with Marp House and Kirkwood and remember the Iris Fields. Oh, I can't be off subject, Erin. I understand that. But you know,

[171:00] this is all over town. This is happening. This is not okay. Um, let's see. CU is like holidays. I don't celebrate holidays or football or big universities or weekends or any of that stuff. Every day is a holiday. Every breath I take is precious. >> So, please speak to the project itself. >> One second. Please stop interrupting me, please. And I have a right to think for a moment and craft my comment without being interrupted. That is not okay. I think the issue of the private easement should be dealt with before

[172:02] this project moves forward. I want to see geothermal in a space like this district geothermal and I want it to pave the way for the rest of Boulder because the costs of geothermal are exceedingly excellent. That's what I live for. 54 degrees all winter. >> Your time is up, but thanks for your testimony. Our last speaker is David Ensign. >> Hello, city council. My name is David Ensign. I live at 4020 Evans Drive in Boulder. Um, I wanted to offer my perspective as someone who knes near the site halfway between 30th Street and the Meadows Shopping Center at Foothills and Baseline. This is a great area to provide housing for both students and non- studentents near services and adjacent to both the university and existing student housing. It's at a

[173:00] transportation crossroads, so a model area for transitori. Uh due to demand, we're seeing single family homes being converted to student housing in my neighborhood. This development will help help ease this demand with offering housing that may be more appropriate for the needs of students. Uh the existing conditions are uh include a lot of rundown surface parking and outdated structures. So this area is appropriate for redevelopment. Adjacency to Basemar makes it a key neighborhood center string of pearls mixeduse area. We've seen excellent improvements to bike lanes just north ACR across 36. Let's continue to make improvements. Uh this area is on a my daily running and biking route. And uh I enjoy taking different routes through the existing Williams Village. Having more pedestrian permeability will be welcome. When we open new streets and

[174:00] werfs through neighborhood centers, it can be gamechanging for users. I wanted to uh talk about a little bit about the Irish and Diagonal uh project uh which also that's kind of coming to completion now and I work out at 24-hour fitness and I go through those new roads there and um since this is the last chance to interact with you in this capacity uh Mayor Prom Fulkurtz you were chair of DAB when we looked at that project and I was the leazison >> we do need to speak to this specific project in front of us tonight >> like this project >> like this project I'm just so happy that to have your eyes on this one. Uh so uh like others have said tonight and I know that this is a divergence but uh I will miss you much. Uh looking forward to uh seeing uh how the lanes will be protected on this stretch as part of the redevelopment. Uh the core RTL network is uh very important to us all and this is kind of a dicey part of baseline. So let's see some improvements in safety. also love to see some uh potentially

[175:02] some attractive murals on those uh uh areas along Highway 36 that are just kind of concrete and uh on additional ground floor residential that's kind of a a challenge for us uh postco we've seen a lot of uh reduce in demand for commercial spaces so having a little bit of flexibility and some ground floor residential I think is perfectly reasonable here and finally I think the height allowance is up to 55 5 feet are perfectly fine given what's in the area. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. All right, that brings us to the end of the public hearing. I'll ask the applicant if they would like to rebut any of the testimony. Uh, looks like a no. All right, so we'll come back to the uh council for discussion about this. So, I'll just remind everyone that we are uh looking at the criteria of whether the project complies with the uh site review criteria and the use review criteria. So if you did want to turn down the project or amend the project,

[176:00] it would need to be so that it would come into conformance with the criteria. If you think we should approve it, I would encourage you to speak briefly to that as we only have 9 minutes left in the aotted time. Who would like to kick us off? I saw Matt first and I saw Tina and I saw Tara. >> Mine was more process. Um we'll focus initially on the quasi judicial nature and if there are additional comments perhaps outside of that, save it for after we do this. Would that be appropriate for all? If at the end you wanted to offer a few additional comments, you could. Although I'd encourage them to be brief. >> Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to check on that. Okay. I guess then I'll let others go and then I'll take my turn. That was just a process question. >> Sure. Great. Tina. >> Yeah. I thought staff did a great job with their um assessment of whether it meets the criteria and and think it does. >> Sarah, >> I can make at the same time. >> Okay. I definitely think it meets the criteria and besides the amount of trees and the beautiful buildings and especially the outward- facing architecture, I especially just want to say that this is

[177:01] my commute back and forth, back and forth to preschool to pick up the grandchildren. And um one thing that I feel the most excited about is right now it is not a place where students necessarily feel safe. It is cold and concrete like, but it's also doesn't have that safe feeling. And I think that the space activation that you're going to do is really going to change that in a great way, and I'm really excited about it. >> Anybody else? >> Match Mark. >> Yeah, I I support where this project's going based on on the criteria. I think it meets all of those. Um, I'll just say, you know, some things that have really stood out to me is that it's not maxed out. I think that's a temptation to be done in today's world with pricing. It's not done that. I think that discipline is key. Um it's evolved significantly. Uh which shows a lot of listening to the community should those everyone you talk to is proof of that. Um the deemphasis on cars, the diversity of materials. Um the sound baffling on 36 is not a have to, but it was a want and a desire and I thought that that was

[178:00] a nice touch to be able to focus on that. Um can't can't not go through this and not say we're not going to miss the dark horse. Um it was a college hangout of mine. So to see that go um will be sad but but um out of the ashes can other things can come. Um and the scale didn't appear to have diluted the soul and the heart of what the communities are. And I think that that's uh uh quite impressive on that front. Um and and lastly, I'll just mention that uh it's good to hear that maybe Dairy Queen's involved. I know that when I after I'm done coaching baseball over at the A7 baseball fields, uh my son and his baseball team crave a little Oreo. um blizzard at Dairy Dairy Queen. So um hopefully that could stay in place. Thanks. Appreciate it. Getting a blizzard of positive comments here, Mark. >> Yeah, I think this project has evolved very nicely. It's uh been very responsive to comments and I appreciate that. I remain uh concerned about uh the ability to fill the commercial spaces and how well that will work out, but um

[179:00] frankly as a private party that that will be your challenge. uh and I'm happy to uh proceed with it and and give you that opportunity uh to to make something out of that commercial space, but otherwise I think it's a uh a very intriguing and and appropriate project for the area. >> Mark, >> yeah, I'm going to agree with what Mark said. This project has really grown in leaps and bounds since we've seen it last. And I always appreciate uh someone coming in and doing something a little bit different and new, especially when that's in the public realm. So, thank you for um really diving into the wer for creating a variety of scales in the outdoor spaces um and really putting a focus on activating that outdoor space to make it a shining hopefully shining public amenity. Um yeah, thank you.

[180:03] I agree it does meet the criteria and um just a few other comments to agree that um I appreciate uh the responsiveness to council's suggestions. It's it's come a long way. Um, I think it's it's an exciting thesis that you suggest, I guess you suggest to Mark, that um helping to let people be outside and to activate that space with humans is actually one of the key things that's going to make the commercial part of it work. Um, in any case, it's uh really exciting to see a um a mixeduse site like this right in the middle of our bike network and our transit network. And it will hopefully become a resource for greater utilization of our shared services that will you know make make the whole system even stronger. So um very happy to see this go forward.

[181:01] >> Very good. Any other hands? Um then I'll I'll just call myself and say absolutely think it meets the criteria and I think it's an exemplary project. I think it's going to be phenomenal once it's built and I um applaud you for the creativity that you brought to the solution that you found to this complicated site. Chandler, do we have motion language? Andy, >> sorry. Yes, we do. Do >> you want to just go for it? Y'all just go for it, Chandler? I got it right here. Um, I make a motion to approve site review site review application number LUR2024-000071 and use review application

[182:01] LUR2024-000072 adopting the staff memorandum as findings of fact including the attached analysis of review criteria and subject to the recommended conditions of approval. >> Second. >> We've got a motion and a second. Um, do you have to anything additional to say? >> I already said it. >> Great. Very good. Roll call, please, Elicia. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. We'll start the roll call on the site review and use review as item 6A with council member Shuhart. >> Yes. >> Spear. >> Yes. >> Wallik. >> Yes. >> Winer. >> Yes. >> Adams. >> Yes. Benjamin, >> yes. >> Mayor Brackett, >> yes. >> Mayor Pro Tim Folks, >> yes. >> And council member Marquis, >> yes. >> Item 6A is hereby approved unanimously. >> Congratulations on an excellent project

[183:02] and a successful approval. >> Can I say thank you? >> You may. >> So, just quickly to all of council, thank you, but especially to Lauren on this your last night. You made this project what it is. Thank you for your help. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. >> Thanks for bringing forward. We're at a fun project for my last night. >> Great. Okay. Thanks everybody. And please quiet in the room if you want to chat. Maybe do it outside. And uh with with it um folks if we can move the conversation to the outside of the room and and with that we we were exactly within time like Okay.

[184:01] Again, quiet in the room, please. So, Elicia, ma'am, if we can go to our item number seven, please. >> Yes, sir. Thank you. We're next on our tonight's agenda is the item number seven, matters from the city manager. 7A is the economic development financing tools concerning bureau and the metro districts update and discussion. >> Thanks so much Miss E. Uh council we have been doing a lot of conversation about uh your council priority on economic development and thinking about the many many ways in which we can support our businesses um and frankly as we support our businesses we support our tax base um as we move forward. one. Today's conversation is really about financing tools uh and two in particular. And with that, I will pass it to our assistant city manager, Mark Wolf. >> Thank you, Naria. Good evening, council. I'm Mark Wolf, assistant city manager.

[185:01] Um joined by some colleagues this evening, uh Jennifer Pinsino, Regan Brown, who will soon be in our new office of uh community, excuse me, cultural and economic development. Um you'll hear a bit from uh our friends from Butler Snow. Dalton is here. Teresa will introduce uh him in a moment. Uh we're excited tonight to bring you the next iteration of work towards building greater capacity uh in the city to finance economic development in different ways. Uh specifically this evening we'll talk about two uh tools in particular uh which is urban renewal and metro districts. Uh as Nuria mentioned you are very aware that these are two um items that are tied closely to two council priorities from this term. uh the first related to updating our strategy uh related to economic development. Um I'll talk in a moment of some of the other activities, but I also want to mention how uh the efforts we'll talk about tonight relate directly to this second council priority and

[186:01] thinking about the vibrancy and connections related to our commercial areas to uh implement our economic vitality strategy. I won't go through all of these, but I want to point out that economic development financing is not the only thing that we are doing to support our business community. There are a few examples here. Uh, as announced last week, the city is partnering with an organization called city's work to work with our small and micro businesses to determine and reduce barriers in working uh with the city. Uh we're excited for for that work ahead. Uh we have established a business newsletter to communicate uh directly with our businesses. We've continued to work on clean and safe within our uh commercial areas. Uh and uh as we've uh talked about before, we have restructured ourselves to help accelerate some of this work as an organization. And then I do want to mention hot off the presses and for a long day for Jennifer Pinso um and our

[187:01] colleague Maricelo Peraguz who uh were at the state uh economic development commission this morning where the city's application for a chip zone was approved. Uh so that is one uh accomplishment that we're excited to unlock some uh potential tax incentives to support uh certain advanced manufactured uh industries. So uh tonight as we shift towards uh economic development financing tools um there are other tools we're exploring we have talked about a downtown development authority that work planning work as well um underway uh we have recently uh through your work uh expanded our economic development incentive program um just mentioned the chip zones and again um we're going to talk about two in particular uh tonight and I and I think it's important to to mention here that uh as we talk about economic development tools, uh there is a a range of different options in terms of control

[188:00] and governance for these various different items, right? So, we're familiar with general improvement districts. We've traditionally use those tools in the city. Um those are kind of much more under city control. Um, as you start considering items like a downtown development authority, urban renewal area, metro districts, they may unlock different ways to finance and with that there are different um levers uh different um aspects of control where it gets further away from direct city control. So these are the things from a policy perspective that you're asked to to wrestle with uh if we decide to implement um urban renewal in a greater way, if we decide to move forward on metro districts. And so we'll be speaking to some of those aspects uh tonight. So the questions uh for urban renewal for our Boulder Urban Renewal Authority or Bureau, uh it really is a status check and just seeking any um feedback as to where we're at in that process. And then the heart of the discussion tonight is probably on metro districts and uh seeking direction as to

[189:02] whether or not to bring forward an enabling ordinance and a model service plan to council related to metro districts. And if yes to that question then um are there uh specific feedback on any of the policy items that we'll we'll get into. I will go through urban renewal fairly quickly but if you do have questions uh we are available. Um Bureau itself um is not a new tool to the city. We just haven't used it very often. Uh Bureau was established in 1979. Uh we have two significant urban renewal plan areas. uh one that became the 29th Street Shopping District and the second that became the St. Julian Hotel. So 1995 was the last time we've really used urban renewal uh in the city. Uh we have a we have a commission, we have an urban renewal area board. Uh they are able to meet and consider certain things. However, based on 2015 state law, they cannot consider new urban renewal areas. So their function is very limited unless we uh

[190:00] take some steps to uh get into uh compliance with that 2015 state law. So we have worked with the existing uh board to take some of those steps. Uh you took uh one step uh this evening uh in your consent agenda to uh help unlock uh some cost sharing uh with with the urban renewal area. Uh the board has amended its bylaws to expand the number of commissioners that allows that compliance with state law. That will include three representatives of the overlapping taxing entities. Again, that's that's mandated under the under the state law. Uh Bureau also authorized um our city manager uh executive director technically of Bureau uh to enter into agreements so that we be can begin to take the steps to look at areas whether or not there are the conditions relevant in certain areas across the city to establish urban renewal areas. Um I will mention that even with studying those areas, the consideration of whether or not to establish a new

[191:01] urban renewal area is something that first the board would consider and then you all city council would have that final uh approval of whether or not to create um an urban renewal area. So we're several steps away from that. Uh but making you aware of these activities is important and also um foreshadowing the appointments that you will make to this uh board which will be um 13 uh potential seats um as we get into um January, February, March. So I mentioned some of these next steps. you have taken one of those uh this evening that if we establish urban renewal areas in the future and there is a a revenue mechanism this allows us now to as a city to to be reimbured for all of the staff time for any consultant work. Um so that is certainly uh helpful. Um we will move forward in studying potential areas. Uh we will recruit uh new members uh for the board

[192:00] and uh work with you on that appointment uh process. So looking forward to those uh next steps and any consideration of new uh URAS uh could be as early as Q2 depending on the nature of those studies. So that's a very brief urban renewal area update. I'm happy to take any questions or punt them over to Jennifer if you have them. >> Does anybody have any questions? >> Okay, same Matt then Mark. >> Thank you. Oh, that was a first. We had mayor and prom absent for like hot second and Nicole jumped on that. Knew the procedures well. Credit to that. >> Most recent mayor prom. >> That's right. Well played, man. We're on it tonight. Um, yeah. My question just sort of again with a question about timing because it sort of we keep doing like we will take the step to get ready for the step. We're going to get ready to take the step for eventually do the thing, you know. So the Q2, when will we actually have new authority outside of

[193:02] the this updated state statute from 2015 where we can start executing on these things and open ourselves up versus being ready for those things. I'm just kind of wondering when's that the the the go date more or less that we're targeting to kind of unleash this tool uh for for success in our community. And our attorneys here will kick me if I'm wrong on on this, but I I think generally you can't do anything until you have a board authority um an authority board that can take the action to recommend to you all whether or not to create an area, a new urban renewal area. Right now, our current board can't do that. So, with the appointments that you would make in early March based on our calendar, that board would then be able to consider um new urban renewal areas. So if a study came back and said area X has the conditions for urban renewal and the board says you know what we think it is appropriate and in the best interest of the city and the authority to create an urban renewal

[194:00] area for area X and make that recommendation to council. We would bring that forward and then council could consider that. Um we are on a timeline with our consultant to to do studies of certain geographic areas across the city over the next few months. And so I think if the conditions were were there um we could be in position in that April time frame. So early Q2 to say here is an urban renewal area um board would you consider establishing an urban renewal area? So that that's how we've been setting up um that timeline to be ready in that window uh to be able to create new areas if that is um supported by the the data. And then if that were to be brought to us by by our by bureau, what's the sort of statute in terms of if we execute on that before it becomes law, is it still like pass an ordinance 30 days, it's it's the real deal, or is there something different with urban renewals of taking different time frames or anything before they're active? >> I'm going to punt that question.

[195:02] >> Good evening. Uh Dalton Kelly with Butler Snow. Um so as far as approving an urban renewal plan, that's done via um resolution. Um one thing that is the hurdle to approve an urban renewal plan though is that um you have to negotiate tax increment sharing agreements with all of the taxing entities. That can be up to 120 um day clock um before um arbit um arbitration mediation. Um but it is um a resolution to actually approve the plan. And so once you have a plan in place, you've negotiated your sharing agreements, you approve the sharing agreements, you approve the resolution, and it's ready to go. Um the big impact on when you approve the plan is that starts your TIFF clock if it contains a TIFF provision. And so sometimes there's some thinking about when you would want to actually approve it because of that. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. >> Yeah, I this is not a question, but I do have a request. Is it possible for us to

[196:02] get a chart or a cheat sheet describing the various entities that we're we're dealing with? um how they're financed, what guardrails are available to us in dealing with them, and what are some of the procedural steps we have to go through with each of them because, you know, right now I'm getting lost in a soup of acronyms, um whether it's bureau, DDA, uh MDs, and it would be nice to know um the particulars of of each one um as as we move forward in the process. >> We're happy to do that. That's my question. >> Um, do we anticipate any issues getting to 13 commissioners? That seems like a really high number for a board when we have difficulties filling five member boards and commissions. >> Appreciate the question. Uh, yes. Uh, I think we will, uh, do our best to, um, recruit members. Um we will have a

[197:01] couple questions that will help um I think you all vet candidates for uh their understanding and background. I think some technical expertise is really helpful for uh urban renewal. Um I think given that uh if we can get a solid group of commissioners that can make meetings and meet quorum or working with our overlapping taxing entities on filling their seats. Um, you know, hopefully even if it's not 13, we we do have enough to to fulfill the the obligations. Um, so uh we'll do uh our best to get the word out uh to make sure that the pool of candidates is as robust as possible. >> Okay. And do they have specific terms limits? Is it how many years? >> They do. They're they're five-year terms. Uh we're currently looking um at our ability to stagger those terms since we're having all 13 uh at once. Um but it is a five-year term. Okay. And then is that something that if we felt like it's too high of a number, we could go back to state to the state and ask if we

[198:00] can get the legislation changed? >> We we can certainly ask. >> Okay. Thanks. >> I'm not seeing any their hands on that one. Did you need more specific feedback or is that good enough? >> If that's the end of the feedback, then we're good. >> Good. Just thumbs up. Y. Yeah. >> Thank you. Teresa will take us to our next item. Thanks, Mark. Um, it's my pleasure to introduce you this evening to Dalton Kelly with Butler Snow. We have engaged them um as experts in a variety of tools including metropolitan districts. Um, they're going to take you through a presentation tonight with some general information and uh then we're going to pose some questions for council. So, take it away, Dalton. >> Thank you, Teresa. Um I'm Dalton Kelly with Butler Snow. As Teresa said, we're special counsel to the city in connection with some tools. Um the alphabet soup um as as we call it and as

[199:00] was alluded to earlier. Um and metro districts are one of the potential tools and may be appropriate in certain circumstances, may not be appropriate. That's really your policy decision. If we go to the perfect awesome Yeah. Just need to know where it's at. All right. Um, so this presentation was in your packet, so I'm not going to go through it line by line, but I will hit the high points and then hopefully leave ample time for discussion and questions. Um, as far as our agenda tonight, we'll go through what are metro districts, how are they formed, really what is the city's role? We'll talk about governance because that is a distinction between some other tools that you've used in the past. Um, we'll talk about the revenue raising powers briefly, um, a little bit on transparency. We'll um linger on enforcement rights um for a bit and then we'll talk about key things to have in a model service plan if you want to move forward with one. And so really with metro districts, I think the the biggest thing they're formed under title 32, so that's their governing statute. But the

[200:00] big thing to understand is once they are formed, they are an independent quasi municipal corporation and political subdivision of the state. They're not part of the city. They're not a department of the city. They're not something that you run. They have their own voters. They have their own powers. They they run themselves. And so, um, that's a big piece as far as separation between a metro district and like a GD is, um, it is not a part of the city. It's not ran by the city. Um, metro districts have to provide two or more of the services listed on the screen. Generally speaking, the types of improvements that metro districts finance are things like streets, water infrastructure, sewer infrastructure. Um but they are authorized to do a few more things as far as how metro districts are formed and really what's applicable to the city is what is your role in this? Um to form a metro district that is located wholly within the boundaries of the city. An applicant has to submit their um service plan to the city council for review and

[201:01] consideration. Um the city council has three options under the statute. You can approve it, you can disapprove it, or you can conditionally approve the service plan with conditions. Um, I will note there's nothing under title 32 that requires you to approve any service plan. There's no mandatory approval um criteria, but you do have some discretion to approve or approve with conditions. As I noted, really the city's role is just approval of service plans. When you approve a service plan, it doesn't mean that the metro district is formed. It is really the first step in the process. Um the metro district still um to be formed, there has to be a petition filed with the district court that's signed by 30% of the taxpaying electors or 200 whichever is less. Um the district court orders an election. The qualified electors of the existing district or proposed district um in this case vote on um the formation of the proposed district and any other questions. And if

[202:02] the vote is in favor, then the district court orders the district organized. The piece about the district court um ordering the district organized is important because once it is organized under the statute that conclusively establishes the organization of the district. So at that point in time um it is its own quasi municipal political subdivision. It is now operating under title 32 and under the service plan. As far as governance goes, and this is um with the whole alphabet soup, every tool in the toolbox, there's a lot of different governance structures across these public financing tools and these different entities. For metro districts, they're governed by a five to seven member board. And that board is made up of eligible electors. Um, to be an eligible elector, it has to be a person and they have to be eligible to vote um, registered to vote under Colorado law. And then they either have to be a

[203:00] resident of the district or a person who owns taxable property in the district. And so with a residential metro district, you might have a lot of voters because you have residents and you have property owners. If it's strictly a commercial or industrial uh, metro district, you might have very few voters um because it's property owners, you don't have any residents. If it is a very early district on a vacant piece of property, you may have very few voters because the criteria um is limited to um these eligible electors. So just something to keep in mind though these eligible electors are who votes on formation tax questions, debt questions, they also are the ones eligible to be on the board. As far as the revenue raising powers of the metro districts, really I'll just focus on two. Um the big one is property taxes. Most metro districts across the state primarily finance infrastructure and operations with property taxes. And so any consideration of approving a

[204:00] metro district, it is now required in state law. Title 32 is now catching up with what um municipalities have been doing for a long time. But you do set a maximum mill levy for debt service. Um fees, rates, and tolls are another thing that metro districts can charge. um you see it more often with some metro districts that are also water providers, but they do have that ability. And so um just like other governmental entities, something to keep in mind of um if it's not taxes, are they using fees? Do we want to think about fees and how they're charged? Special assessments are available, but um not used a ton. They are becoming more popular. If there's questions, I'm happy to take them, but it's it's um you not used as much. And then sales tax not is not applicable for any district that's formed into the city. Um this last piece I will note um is also important because metro districts are governmental entities. They are subject to tabor. They have to vote debt. They have to vote taxes and they have to do that at the same Taber

[205:00] elections that um other entities um are able to do so. And so generally speaking that's every November and then in odd years May. And so the next um election for a metro district applicant um across the state is November of 26. So just um I'd note that piece as far as Metro District transparency because they are quasi municipal governmental entities. They are subject to um the audit and budget law. They're subject to open meetings laws. Um board members are elected um every two years. Um and so those those seats um become available um every two years. There's an annual report that's made to the city that contains certain information really about, you know, how are things going, how's development, what obligations have been issued. Um you can always add to that report if you want to see more things, but that is a requirement under the statute. And um relatively recent

[206:03] law, Metro Districts now have to maintain a website that contains certain information. their audits, their budgets, things of that nature. So really, as we start talking about if you want to um entertain using metro districts, the service plan becomes the the most important thing about um whether you want to allow certain districts or not. Your decision criteria really comes down to what's in the service plan because that's your role in approval. It's also important because the contents of that service plan really do govern what the metro district can do. So, right now, if you um just said you could have a service plan that says you can do everything under title 32, the that's the outside parameters. What the service plan is is a document of limitations. So you can add requirements, you can add restrictions, you can add oversight and then the statute requires that the facility services and financial arrangements of the district shall conform as practical

[207:01] as possible to the service plan. And so that document really becomes what governs the operation of the district. If the district's going to do something that goes outside that service plan, then interested parties are able to um go for an injunction to stop them from um taking that action. anything deemed to be a material modification can be enjoined and um any material modification needs to come back before the city council for approval. And so those are changes of the basic or essential nature. There's a couple examples listed on the screen that come from the statute. Um, if there are things of particular concern, you can define them as such in a service plan. But that's really um I'll linger on that point for for a second outside of one other enforcement mechanism in the statute, which I'll touch briefly on here in a second. This is really your enforcement mechanism once districts are formed. you set up a service plan and you say you're okay to operate on the service plan and so long as they're operating within it. You don't have a

[208:01] lot of oversight, control, enforcement under the statute. And that that's um the way the statute set up because they are independent um entities. If you desire to have any more oversight or control, that's something that has to be in a service plan because this is really what title 32 contemplates is you can enjoin something that goes beyond the service plan. I did mention there's one other enforcement oversight provision and it's every five years the quinnquinial finding of diligence. Uh the city council can ask districts to submit an application that basically details how much debt has been issued. um you know, how are things going? Essentially, do you have um are you on your financial model? Are you gonna have de uh difficulty paying your debt? And it's really a check-in about debt is is what it's limited to. The real teeth to it is if the city council holds a public hearing and finds that the implementation of the service plan or

[209:01] the financial plan will not result in the timely payment of debt, you do have the authority to stop them from issuing any more debt, anything that's authorized but unissued. It doesn't undo any debt that has been issued, but it essentially lets the city step back in and say, "Hey, five years down the road, we don't think this is looking like you're gonna be able to pay any additional debt that you issue, so we don't want you issuing any additional debt." I haven't seen this tool used a lot, but it is kind of your down the road only other enforcement mechanism unless you have um something baked into your service plans um for any other enforcement. So I have listed on the screen um just a few things that would be key topics to be addressed in a model service plan. But before I just highlight a couple of those um I think it is a basic question of why even have a model service plan? What are the benefits? Why would we do it? And the first piece is really uniformity. um so that when plans are

[210:01] submitted um you're getting plans that contain the same provisions, same language, and that allows you to evaluate applicant A against applicant B based off what really is going on with the projects um that they're proposing. How is the tool going to be used? But you're not having to sort through how does this plan relate to that plan? What's this plan authorizing that's not in this plan? Um and so that that's one reason to have it. Another reason is it communicates your policies and perspectives to potential applicants. And so instead of somebody submitting a plan that's basically their best guess at what you might want to see in a plan, you've told them in a model, these are the basic things we need to see in a service plan so that we feel like we have covered what we think are important topics. We want to see it in this way and then we can talk about your project. And so that's that's a reason to have a model plan as well. It also streamlines everybody's review process. You as council members can evaluate them apples

[211:01] to apples and then anything that is um is a deviation from the model plan can quickly be called out and discussed as far as hey we know we have a deviation here and here's why and and you get that justification rather than having to sort through how they how two plans that are very different are similar and trying to figure out why why one works and the other doesn't. Um and and the last piece is really um it helps the applicants understand what your policies and goals are so that somebody is submitting an application that hopefully is aimed at at satisfying those goals and where you think a metro district is appropriate. Again, rather than sending it out to the community to guess what should be in the plan and what does council want to see, um you're you're starting to message that when you have a policy and a plan in place. Um, so with that, I'll talk briefly about kind of the nuts and bolts here of what we think should be in a a model plan.

[212:00] Some of these are now state required law, but the first three are really your most important ones for um financial protection of future taxpayers or existing taxpayers. And that's the maximum mill levy, how much can you tax us, maximum mill levy and position term, how long can you tax us for for debt? And then the debt limit, how much can you actually issue? The first two are really what protects any individual taxpayer, how much and how long. Um but overall debt will control um that how long piece quite a bit as well um because um it will limit how much um can can be issued and when it will be paid off. That debt limit also is driven a lot by capacity and so it helps you evaluate between what are public improvement costs, what can the district actually issue and then what is the delta that that needs made up. Um, some of these other ones are are kind of specific situations that um over time I think have become more uniform like imminent domain for instance. Often

[213:00] that's um it is allowed under the statute but most service plans only allow it with consent. Um as far as disclosure um various communities have different things they want disclosed or put on a website. Um so there's some additions there sometimes. And then um I'll just hit the last one. financial review of interest rates because these are really used as a financing tool across the state. Um particularly with um debt that's not going to the public market for um kind of overall um selling to the market and with bids. Um if something's privately placed, there's um a lot of service plans that require independent review of interest rates just to make sure everything's fair. Um with that, I think that's the end of the presentation, so I will pass it back over to Mark. Yeah, I'm just a couple slides to wrap it up and get it back to council for for questions and discussion. Uh again, um th this evening is um about uh seeking clear policy direction. I think we're at the point um

[214:02] there's a Colorado Revised Statute book next to me. So, this is a complicated subject that requires a lot of staff work. And so I think if if we are to bring forward um an ordinance, we we really need to to know whether or not council's there and if so, what should be in an ordinance? And so we won't get all of that information of what should be in an ordinance if the answer to the first question is yes, but we'll begin to understand kind of where those key points are, where the bottom lines are for this council. And that'll be really helpful for us uh as uh if we were to move forward in in bringing forward um an ordinance. Just to hit on a couple the these were in your packet. Um Dalton hit on these um in a little bit more detail. Location and type of development is one of those areas. So if the answer is yes, please bring us some type of ordinance, regulating ordinance. um you have discretion over where um and in the city and based on I think the comp plan

[215:00] can be a big driver of that that that's one part of it and the type um we've talked a lot about the protections for for residential uh property owners in the in the future in metro districts um you could decide to do commercial only you could do commercial and industrial only you could do all three knowing what type um will be helpful in setting some parameters around uh bringing forward an ordinance. Um we mentioned the maximum mill levby cap certainly uh that combined with the debt uh term uh will provide some some guard rails. Uh the others that we've highlighted the limitation on service scope. Um there are certain uh areas certain services that a metro district can provide. uh we would want to be clear as to which services um are are allowable within a metro district which we would would think is a duplication of city services. Uh we we can provide some examples of those if um if you're interested in that. Um governance transition and asset control is an area to to think about. Um

[216:02] especially as you think about um the the infrastructure that is developed uh that is facilitated through a metro district that we would want a certain standard of that maintenance to meet city standards and then um be reverted back to city convey conveyed to the city at some point. And so how and when and at what standard are important factors uh in that piece uh and how how bonds are issued, whether or not private debt is allowable and if so under what circumstances are another another key factor um in uh any type of of regulatory um framework. So that's a lot. Again, we we don't think you'll get through all of this, but I think getting a sense of the the key question first. um is there interest in bringing forward an enabling ordinance and a model service plan? Um and if yes to number one, then uh that initial feedback will be really helpful in in crafting something uh that you all

[217:00] review at a later date. >> That's all we got. >> Great. Thanks so much uh Mark and Dalton for all that information. Can I just start with a process question? So let's say that with your question number one that we did give some direction to move forward. How much specific initial feedback would you need for that question? Number two, if we just said, "Well, bring us back some recommendations." Is that good enough or are you looking for more than that? >> You mind if I start, Mark, and then you can weigh in? Um, I think there are some big threshold questions. For example, whether um if this council wanted to move forward with metropolitan districts, whether it would want to do metro districts in commercial areas, residential areas, both only one. um that would really help focus the work and um the rest certainly we we have a great deal of experience in Butler Snow and um they can help fashion some

[218:00] recommendations and best practices that they've seen and bring those back. >> Got it. Could we ask for like phases like start with this type and then maybe consider other types a later phase? Mayor, I I if I understand your question correctly, so for example, could you could you say let's look at commercial first and then perhaps down the road we could look at residential? You certainly could approach it that way. >> And my final process question is do you have a sense of timing for uh like let's say we said look at all of them or if we said look at just commercial what kind of time frame are we? >> Yeah. So look at everything is going to take a long time. Mhm. >> Um but I'll turn to Dalton with some who has some experience in how long these things typically take and um what what an expedited schedule could look like. >> Thank thanks Teresa. And yeah, I think scope and general feedback um drives the timeline a little bit. I would say

[219:00] typical timeline's probably around six months to a year. Um I think depending on on how and some of that's driven by really priority of um council what you have on your schedule really the steps I see uh for this um typically to go well is we get your feedback. It takes us a couple weeks to put together a draft that we think captures that. Um we then work with the city attorney's office, city manager's office to get input and any other relevant um departments um usually planning a weigh in or or other departments about community development. Um we take that feedback that usually takes a couple weeks um and then we like to bring that initial draft to um the city council for a work session. It really helps if you can see the document in front of you because I have a list on the screen of what I think is important, but actually getting your hands on one and reading it and seeing how it works um is helpful. And so we like to get you that in advance. Go through a work session so you can say what are you thinking here or we like this or here's

[220:01] the missing components. After that, if um generally we feel like we have a good handle on it, we can bring it back for council consideration after that or another work session. any other um you know check-ins along the way that you want um would be um up to council. So I would say probably on the expedited schedule three months um on kind of the more drawn out um leisurely um six months to a year as I mentioned earlier um the first ele well so a metro district could go for formation at a special election but it couldn't vote any tab questions generally speaking the metro district wants to go authorize um debt in taxes as well and so the first tab election that or the next tab election that would be available if we move forward tonight is November of 26. And so realistically, an applicant would need an approved service plan by August of 26 to be able to hit the November 26 deadline. And so depending on what the council's desire is for this process to

[221:03] um have a model in place that applicants can start submitting on I would say you know generally between that three four month timeline you should be pretty comfortable to have a model in place to where um applicants can look at it submit them be reviewed and be ready by August. So that would be kind of the the express timeline there is three to four months on that. >> Thanks for that answer. Matt, did you have a followup? I just had a quick colloquy. I have other questions but there's a colloquy to yours. Um you sort of mentioning uh the is it you know could it be either residential, commercial or industrial does >> do you need a single model service plan to cover all three or can you have a model service plan for each of those three types because I would imagine the criteria and the demands would be substantially different for all three. So I'm just wondering is it service plan for all or do you have three separate ones? >> You could do it either way. Um and some ways are done better than others. Um but you can um have a model that contemplates if you're

[222:00] commercial then here's your criteria here's your max mill levy or you could have separate models for each and some of that comes down to if the if the desire is to say we like this economic development tool but only for this use right now let's see how it goes and you would focus on that and then down the road you would evol evaluate policy issues that might be more relevant to different types of uses and so you could have a commercial model an industrial model, a residential model, variations on those. Um, I think the the key to that aspect is when we say it's a commercial district, what does that mean? No residential 10%. Where does that go? And that's a little bit of the line here on on how do we deal with that? And and mechanically, there are ways to work that out. But that's really the question if you want to split it up is what do we actually mean by those things. >> Great. So, what I would suggest is let's ask any clarifying questions about metro districts now and then we can ask council to respond to staff's question for us. Mark, did you have a clarifying question also? M

[223:00] >> um does having a model plan carry any implication that we will that we must or will approve the actual plan as it comes in front of us. >> It does not. But that's another reason why we think a complimentary um ordinance. So, your ordinance really sets forth your process for submitt. Um, you need to spit by X date if you want to make this election. Here's our review process. Here's the fees that you need to pay. You make this deposit. You set forth those mechanics, any additional transparency, any enforcement mechanisms. Um, but also making clear here's our model, here's our policy, but this doesn't mean we will approve you. Really, compliance with the model is you've passed go, but it doesn't mean you get a yes. As I mentioned earlier, you're not required under title 32 to approve any plans. So, we don't want to force you into that. Um, what the model does do though is it sets forth a standard and so you can't be arbitrary and capriccious. What it helps is allow everyone to be on the same footing. So, you're evaluating them and then you can

[224:01] give reason decisions why. Yeah, you comply with our model, but you don't fit our policies. Here's why. And so, it helps set that framework so that you're working within structured legal parameters to make sound decisions. >> Okay. Um assume we we establish a let's say a commercial metropolitan district and for whatever reason the bond market goes to hell in a hand basket. Okay. And and performance is not possible. What do we do? >> So the city has no obligation for the district's bonds. Um these usually as they are issued it depends on the state of development. investors are weighing the risks and these are sophisticated investors and ones that buy the higher risk uh metropolitan district bonds have to be um usually qualified institutional buyers or at least accredited investors. So we're talking about people who can evaluate the risks. They take those risks. And so under the Metro District Service Plan, you have a set mill levy that says we're going to levy say 30

[225:02] mills on this commercial district. if that commercial deal uh if those 30 mills don't um produce what it takes to pay debt service, they go into default, but it's the district's default, not the city's um default. They have their own remedies and work out. And so that that's ultimately the the process that it can go through is the district bonds default. They have remedies against the district, but it's not the city's debt. >> My question actually presumed that um the bonds had not been issued. They are simply incapable of performing what they wish to perform. May be no fault of theirs, but we we now have a metropolitan district and inability to get the benefits of that district because financing is not available. Do we have any course of action that we can take to um to deal with that situation? >> Yeah. And it kind of depends on what you

[226:00] desire to do to deal with the situation. What we see in some other communities is you let's say you approve the plan in 2025 and by 2030 you're hoping this project is developed or ultimately that financial plan's pretty stale anyway. That you know the the anticipated public improvements are probably pretty stale at that point. Um, I know some service plans require that the district either dissolves if they haven't issued debt yet or that they come back to council to talk about why um, things haven't happened. You can think about, you know, the pandemic. There are a few districts that didn't move along according to plan. And we actually had one in another community that had to come back and say, "Hey, we haven't issued debt. Here's what happened. Here's our plan going forward. And now the bond market's better." And so the city approved an amended service plan to update the plan and a couple things. and now that district's going forward. So, if if you're concerned about basically a district sitting out here that has one authority to issue debt and just hasn't been able to and we're not getting the project or the plan, um you can put into

[227:02] the service plan that hey, after five years or 10 years, whatever it is, if you haven't issued debt, if you haven't really moved forward, you need to dissolve the district or come back and really refresh. >> And and my last question, I'm sure you've answered this. Is the mill levy in the plan additive to or in place of um any mill levy that that the entities in the district are already subject to? >> It is on top of any um levies that are already levied. And so city mill levy still applies, county mil levy still applies, school district mill levy still applies. It's a mill levy on top of that. >> That can that can get pretty expensive. Um but okay, that kind of answers my question. So, >> uh thank you. A couple questions. Um one to sort of circle it back to timing. Um obviously the there's a November obvious the first one as you mentioned would be the November 2026 if it had a Taber um

[228:00] attachment to it. Um then sort of just working the clock back. Um stuff has to go to the county clerk by usually early September. Any anything on the ballot? I assume it's running through the clerk as any other thing or is it a separate piece of paper that does not involve the formal election process? >> So, usually um metro districts are allowed to coordinate with the county. Usually, they do not coordinate with the county because if you have a limited voter pool, it just doesn't make as much sense. So, they're not as bound by that IGA date that's in August and then that certification date that's that first week of September. So, there's a little bit more leeway. They do have to meet the Taber notice deadline which is 45 days before the election. And so basically midepptember is is when they have to have ballot questions ready so Taber notices can go out the door. >> Okay. And to continue working the clock backwards. Obviously it's got to go to a district court to get approval. What's that time frame like? And my and I only I asked that partly for timing but also in terms of any ordinance that we place on timing. we would be placing an or we would have an ordinance on timing that

[229:00] would then be reflective of a court timing that we have no control over you know in terms of oh you can get on the ballot if you get something to us by a certain date but since we cannot control a court timing I just caution that that's maybe something we don't control or is it very proforma when it's at the district court of like it's done within this certain time frame full stop so I'm just sort of curious about that >> yeah so district courts that deal with this a lot um processing pretty quickly my suggestion on the ordinance as far as timing goes is um it's more for not getting a rush of applications submitted in July for city staff to review and to come in front of you that haven't been fully vetted. So, communities that usually have a timing um aspect, say if you want to meet the November deadline, you need to submit your application by April 1st or May 1st, whatever it is, so that you actually have time for staff and legal review so that we can work through any deviations, any concerns, so that you can actually bring um a service plan to the city council for approval in

[230:01] late July, early August. um service plan approval um or denial or with conditions is done via resolution. So you don't have an ordinance on top of that. So it it goes to the district court right away. But my suggestion on the timing is more so and we see this a lot. I get a service plan dropped on us the first week of August and they want to you know have it approved by the end of August. And if you're completely in compliance with the model and and everything looks great, maybe. But um it it protects against that. >> And in the district court process is roughly how long? Um, yeah, I'd have to defer to Metro District Attorneys on that. I don't take districts through district court. I I I don't operate in that space. My anecdotally, what I've heard is you got to usually get to a district court by the beginning of September to make sure that you have it certified in time and it's pretty tight, but the district courts that are in the metro area are used to seeing um seeing these. they they process them pretty quickly, but it is um that's why you'll

[231:01] see a push from applicants to be earlier in August if possible. >> All right. Well, I appreciate that part. Um the other one I have, the other question I have is regarding the model service plan. Um is it if I get that right, it's not a quasi judicial in terms of its criteria. Is that correct? Or is that is that correct? >> That is correct. It's quas legislative when it's before the city. >> So we have a fair amount of discretion. it's a guidance rather than a rule for us and if we sort of find that this project maybe doesn't need that requirement we can be flexible on that is that correct or do we really get held to it in which case we don't have flexibility so I'm just wondering how prescriptive we want to be in a model service plan that unfortunately maybe ties our hands and I say that the caveat that we've never we haven't seen any of these come through so my only caution is being prescriptive before we have the experience of knowing what's coming before us >> so it is quasi legislative and the standard under the statute is arbitrary and capriccious. So ultimately you need to have reasoned decisions for why

[232:01] you're doing things. The model is one argument that if somebody says well they were arbitrary and capriccious I was in compliance with the model. That's an argument they have. But that's why we advise you have your policy you also you will when you review these you'll have a discussion. You'll have your reasons why you approve it or not approve it. So you do retain discretion. However, the model should be reflective of really what this this council's policies are. And really, my suggestion is you would be deviating from the plan because there's substantial justification. And so, if they need more mills, okay, usually we limit this service, but they have or here's an example. Usually, um there's a lot of service plans that say the metro districts aren't um really formed to exist forever. They are here to finance and then get out of the way. You dedicate everything to the city. Well, maybe they have a non-pot system or detention ponds that you don't want dedicated or you will not have dedicated and somebody needs to maintain them and operate them. That would be a deviation then that you would say okay it's okay

[233:00] for this project we know why. So you do retain discretion. The model is fair that ultimately you have now set a policy decision that they can say okay why when we complied with your model um and somebody else did why are they a yes and we're a no. But it is this arbitrary and capriccious standard. You have flexibility. It just needs to be reasoned. But the model really I I do think for both council's sake and for um your business owners, your future developers u sake, it messages what you want to see and it should get everybody on the same page. >> I appreciate that. And just the last question maybe for you and also for my colleagues is just a question of there's a this is a fairly if we're considering all the different types of metro districts. It's a lot of variables to consider. Pretty robust ordinance depending on whether we pick two, Teresa's point, or all. And that would be a long process. We haven't yet seen one. So, we haven't gone through this process. So, it kind of feels like we're flying a little blind into this. I know we've got your

[234:00] guidance, but from our experience, it's it's a little bit unnerving in that sense. Is there any precedent or ability for us to maybe just say we're going to maybe start with a pilot on a pilot program with perhaps just maybe one that maybe we know coming through to give us experience but also giving us time to evaluate the larger ordinance and larger model service plan so we can kind of work in parallel because at the end of the day we have the larger comprehensive conversation to have about the city but we also have what looks to be a potential bonafide proposal perhaps coming to us rather quickly and not let the larger process impede the ability for us to be able to evaluate something that's coming down the pipeline. So, I'm just sort of curious if we can be paralleled in our tracks. >> You can I will say from my experience if you approve a service plan before your model that de facto just became your model because the next one you see is going to look just like that one and they're going to say you approved it for them. And so if you have one, people can submit and they can submit at any time. And part of your process can be engaging

[235:01] with the community that we know, the attorneys that that work on these plans for their feedback and input to make sure we're in line there um for ultimately if you want their feedback on what the model is. But I would caution against approving one kind of ad hoc and then trying to do the model afterward because your model will more or less follow that ad hoc decision because it's hard to break with what you just approved until the next one that they are now treated different. It is done. But I I would suggest not doing it that way. >> Uh thanks so much for um the presentation and work. Um, I just have a a question around how the metro districts fit into existing city work, strategic plans, departmental strategic plans, things like that. Is that the type of thing that if we wanted to make sure that it did align with our citywide strategic

[236:01] plans or departmental plans, um, that that would come up in, uh, limitation of service scope? Is that I mean, how how does that sort of fit in and where is the right place for for having that part of the conversation? Thank you for the question. I'll start. Um others feel free to add. I I think um there's a couple places generally um moving forward economic development financing tools is something contemplated in our citywide strategic plan. Um it was a part of our work plan. Uh I think uh how the the the important piece of how some of these financing tools uh work with uh your uh Boulder Valley comprehensive plan is important. uh is something in the back of our minds as we're going through that process. So I I think depending on where you're at on on these tools and to what extent, where, what type um could be implicated in policies in in the comp plan um which will come to you over the summer. So that's something to keep in in the back of your minds. uh we are holding work

[237:01] plan space for additional work in this area for 2026 with the caveats that were mentioned on on how fast depending on how extensive uh some of these tools are. Um but generally yes in our work plan align with citywide strategic plan and there are some future policy considerations to to have in in your minds >> and I would just add to that you know part of your review criteria can be so ultimately taking one step back the service plan is not a development approval it doesn't approve the project. It doesn't approve what they're building. You still go through your normal land use process but it is that financing tool that enables potentially um the use that they um intend to have. And so part of it could be um the public improvements that are contemplated or public improvements contemplated by the comp plan. You intend to finance these improvements um with the metro district. That's all in line or you intend to exceed maybe some of our requirements and that's why you you need the tax exempt financing or think it's appropriate here. And so, um, linking

[238:02] those things together about, um, having some criteria at least of showing how the proposed project to be financed with the district aligns with your comp plan or similar plans is something that you can add. And that's that's how they would relate. Um, as I said, the service plan is not a development approval. So, it's not replacing your comp plan. Just because you approve a a service plan that maybe has some development that's not contemplated by your comp plan doesn't mean you've changed it, deviated it, given any rights. Um, but because really thinking about this as a financing tool, if it's tied to a certain type of project, um, thinking about those two things together, you want to make sure the project they're envisioning something that you would actually entertain approving and that the financing works. Um and and just kind of uh pushing on this point a little bit more. So the services that um could be provided include things like fire protection, right? Parks and recreation, things like that. And so I I guess my my question is around that as well, but we already have

[239:01] th those departments have strategic plans um for work to be done the next five or 10 years, right? And so I guess that is it is it in thinking about limiting the the service scope if that were something where we wanted to make sure that um work was adhering to those departmental plans then that would be a limit that we would put into the service scope. Is that >> one? Yeah. Just to to start on that I I think uh yes what services are allowed is something that you'd want to consider in in a regulating ordinance. Um, I I think if you're looking at kind of more narrowly tailored geographic areas, it makes kind of those service the service conversations a little bit easier. Um, one of the things that I think we're thinking about in terms of a tool in our tool belt is really when you need an extraordinary step financing tool to to deliver some of the public infrastructure that the city just can't do on on the time or on the scale. And

[240:02] so that that's the heart of it. and then how far you kind of want to go from there is certainly things you could contemplate. I I think generally when you're looking at fire protection, you're looking at parks, it's when you're you're looking at really large kind of green field development. Um you know, obviously we're limited there as a community. >> Yeah, I'll say usually with fire protection, uh it's usually not a service provided by the metro district, but they're allowed to finance fire hydrants and infrastructure that's needed. And so um that's that can be a criteria of making sure that they um and again the development plan future development plan will need to be in compliance with the fire protection plan. But making sure the service plan allows them to finance that would be part of it. Um parks is um one that usually you have a parks department. Maybe they u maintain parks but if there are certain requirements you can build that in. streets and water um you know is something that usually if you have an independent water provider there's some

[241:01] discussion with the independent water provider about their criteria. Are they willing to take the dedication? Are they willing to serve those pieces? And so those are the types of things exactly that you would think with the services. Um how much do we want to relate it to our comp plan or um making sure that it lives with other plans. So >> I have a few and I'll try to be concise. Um there was a a couple of slides that showed um some tables of different design elements of a service plan. Uh and I'm wondering can you imagine a um uh a design of the service plan that would be targeted very narrowly to say like public benefit infrastructure of paths wer traffic calming and crossings near an arterial road traffic signals assuming it's coordinated with with the city appropriately but you know in a in an area that's both has private property but is adjacent to you know city city

[242:00] land. I'm just thinking about the idea of using the the this vehicle to to support that type of like public surface, public real sort of quasi public realm. Um that seems like a pretty pretty narrow use of this compared to the examples I've heard, but like would that work administratively or legally? >> Yeah. So, metro districts are allowed to finance improvements both within and outside of your boundaries, which is something that is some that you would address in your service plan, especially the outside the boundaries piece, but it is not uncommon if they're near a major arterial road to say you're going to make these improvements to that arter arterial road. Um really again, the metro district's the financing vehicle and so some of this is you have the financing vehicle allows them to fund the improvements. Um, and then your um your development plan or site plan is going to say these improvements have to go in first, so get them done. Um, it can be um restricted to the place of you got to get these things done first. I've

[243:00] seen roadway agreements and things that are very specific. And so some of it gets down to how far along in the development process are they, how far do we know along are we to where we know what we need and when we want it. But ultimately there is a lot of flexibility here. Um, and there's a lot of discretion. And so, um, as far as tailoring plans and and a little bit to counselor Benjamin's point, being able to tail tailor plans is important because you might have different situations. Um, you can definitely accomplish these things. It's just, okay, if we're asking them to improve, if you're on baseline, we're making them approve baseline, but we're not making somebody down the road do it. What's the difference is a little bit of the question. But at the end of the day, this is just a financing vehicle. What triggers their requirements to improve these intersections is going to be your code and development approvals anyway. This just allows them to finance it with tax exempt bonds. >> Okay. And and as far as what we the design of what we would approve to be

[244:00] allowed for the financing, would it be workable that we might say we'd like to focus that on um paths, wer um road type infrastructure in the property in and around the property? That I guess that's more my question. Can we can we can we narrow it to that? Would that be appropriate? >> Yeah, you could narrow it to that. And you could also say that we um it could be one of your p you know your policy considerations that we are more in favor of plans that provide these types of public improvements and a financing plan to to finance these type of public improvements. Um generally speaking um with with actually limiting the financing tool is ultimately you're going to require the improvements that you want. So, as far as saying we favor a project that has these things, at the end of the day, it's the math problem for whoever's building it to figure out how which bucket they want to put things in because they just have a public improvement number. Um, but you can be very tailored to you can only spend it

[245:00] on A, B, and C. And that might be um very helpful or not helpful depending on the project. Um, and the other piece is it's really just driven by if we're going to allow you to use this, you have to have A, B, and C. Then they're going to have to figure out how to have A, B, and C. whether they're using the tool to do it or they're doing it themselves. >> Okay. Thank you. And then related um I I think what I'm hearing is as as part of such a such a service design, you you the the um the party could provide financing for true public infrastructure such as signals and traffic calming at at an adjacent uh road. But that would need to be coordinated. I mean the city would need to be in the lead of of like how that would work, right? And it would need to be as part of this the city's transportation design plan. So there's a model that that would that would work. You you allow the private you allow the private party to fund it public infrastructure, but then they sort of give that ability to the city. >> Yeah. So generally the discretion is in

[246:01] the service plan you are allowed to finance street improvements including signage, um sidewalks, lighting, whatever you want to be available. and that the final improvements required to be constructed will be set forth in the development plan. So service plan authorizes it and then what's required comes down through your development approval. So what you would authorize in the service plan you can be as broad as you can finance streets or you can say you are able to finance um specific streets or specific types of improvements. You could be that specific. Um, I will say generally speaking, what we see is pretty broad authorization on the types of improvements and then what boils down really is in the either um either in the development plan or an intergovernmental agreement between the city and the the district that says you district, we'll use your financing to do A, B, and C. >> Okay. Thank you. And then I just have one or two more. Um, so picking up on Matt's um thought about the that this is um we don't have a live example yet and

[247:01] so we're talking about creating a a new policy from kind of our imagination. Is is there not a model that you could sort of co-evolve where if you had if you did have a um a proposal that looks it looks interesting, it looks appealing that you you kind of could use that as a guide to develop a policy and then you sequence it such that before you you know finalize presumably the the proposers um concept you you know you you also finalize the policy so you're not caught in this thing of well, we didn't make the enabling policy and therefore now we're somehow stuck without the enabling policy. But but you and we'd have the benefit then of of a policy that would be informed by actually g having gone through like you know substantive tactical discussions about what is real. And can I call a queue on that just and could an avenue for that be like having a public input process where we worked

[248:02] with interested members of the public as we work on a model ordinance? So, as far as um you know, potentially having having one come down that informs um it it is helpful to think, yeah, this is the type of of project or type of development that we think a metro district might be um appropriate for. And that might be the impetus for thinking about, okay, anything we want to do would be something like this or um you know, similar things and kind of get it flowing. Um, you know, as far as the examination goes, ultimately the plan contains what the district is, what it can do, here are your limits. That's very nuts and bolts. Um, we can get a model plan in front of you that and then you can start thinking about it in the context of of an applicant. reviewing the model side by side with an application to me is a little a little tough just because um it looks like you're I mean we could

[249:00] think through that one a little bit. Ultimately I think it is the type of thing that will inform do we think this is appropriate or not having an idea in mind of where you think it might be appropriate whether that's an actual project coming or things that you're thinking of. Um to the mayor's um question uh yeah community input um you know stakeholder input however you would want to solicit that could be another thing that helps think about this of you know I think you know somebody could say we really love this parcel over here but it's got these challenges that unless we had a a metro district or some other tax exam financing we can't really overcome it those types of examples might help you think through when you think this is appropriate and so I think soliciting and getting that kind of inputs helpful. Also, these things are are not you uh new. They're used around the the state quite a bit and so I'd encourage you to talk to your colleagues and their experiences. Um there are very few communities that are exactly like Boulder, maybe none, but they will um they will definitely have some ideas of

[250:00] of what has worked well, what hasn't worked well, what which developments have really succeeded. Um you know, I can think of a few across the state that have been very successful and there are some in the papers that have not. And so, um, I think that's that's part of it is those can inform your your decisions here. >> Great. Final question. Um, please tell me if this is correct. We if we go forward with a policy, we we we adopt a policy, we can then modify it both to both to generalize it or to make it narrow. A a after we do that, right? >> Yeah. You're you're able to it's it's any other legislation that the city adopts, you're able to change it in the future. Um the big question is when you do it it's just this arbitrary and capriccious thing. And so over time we've seen models updated. We learned something. We don't like it. Now we're changing it. >> Well ju just add one quick thing is that keep in mind that the what the the ordinance does in the model service plan. It sets some general parameters, right? And we certainly want that to be

[251:00] in alignment from a policy perspective with where you're at. And then an individual service plan is a negotiation. So if if we're in the room trying to negotiate something that we hope is in alignment with where council's at, it's helpful to have something in place that tells us where you're at as opposed to having kind of starting from scratch. So I think that's what we're we're trying to suggest and knowing where you're at on that piece of it is is helpful tonight, >> Tina. And then hopefully we can answer staff's questions. No, Lauren's got something too. >> Sure. Um if the person who owns the property in the service plan, assuming it's an individual owner or the owner of one single entity, uh if they sell it, does the district go with them? And do the electors become the new electors automatically? >> Yes. So the district doesn't go with them, the district stays on the area that's included. But yeah, the the new owner, the new um the new owner or if there's new residents, those become the electors. And so, um, yeah, over time

[252:02] electors can change. >> Okay. And then, um, the other question I had is a little bit following up with what Ryan was saying. Um if you know that the you know this a lot of this is uh we're talking about this because there is a proposal that's out there and it's specific and in this case it would have a big impact on the road adjacent to the uh property because it's a it's an event venue and it's a lot of people. So in a service level plan, could you specify if the amount of traffic exceeds this much amount, we need some kind of financing to help with traffic control or you need to do the traffic control or something like that. Is that something you've seen? >> So usually we would see the trigger for um increased um public improvements come from a development agreement. You have now triggered these improvements and need to do them. Um really where the

[253:00] district would come in is they have an authorized mill levy and authorized debt. And so really if you're getting down and this kind of gets into the nuts and bolts on how these two things are working together, but if you you kind of know down the way, hey, you have a debt limit of $20 million. Um but if this um road comes up, we know it's a $5 million price tag um to say, well, if you do trigger this, we want the district to spend their first $5 million that they can issue because all of this is limited by market forces. Even if they have a debt limit, doesn't mean they can sell it. But um you can you could be very restrictive and say, "Look, the first five million that you get has to go to fixing this road." And then through your development plan, that's something that has to be done before they can do the rest. That's really the way to control it. So much of it comes down to to where you're at in the development plan. And really where I've seen it get tailored more um with an actual service plan is service plan authorizes the public improvements, the debt limit, the mill levy, but then you have an

[254:00] intergovernmental agreement between the district and the and the city. And that's where you would negotiate, hey, we need you to do these improvements. These have to be financed to do the development. And and that's part of the piece of the metro district and finance. Anecdotally, usually the metro district can finance somewhere between 60 maybe 70% if they get really good interest rates of the public improvements. That spread is still made up with traditional private financing. And so it still gets back to if you're requiring it and it has to get done. They have to find a way to get it done. Um what you can push towards is we want you doing these specific public improvements with the bonds that you issue to make sure they get done. And so you can put a little bit of weight towards those. um if you know certain improvements are going to be triggered or may be triggered >> and the intergovernmental agreement that would be negotiated simultaneously or before after the service plan. >> So usually what we have is you approve a service plan that has a form intergovernmental agreement basic provision is you're going to comply with the service plan and then you would add

[255:01] you're authorized to construct these public improvements and then um that's something that could either be amended or executed later. And so that's a document that would be approved with the service plan, but with requirement that you execute that um IGA with mutually agreeable terms before the district's authorized to issue debt. And so that's kind of your two limiters. We we approve the service plan so you can go to your election, but you can't issue debt until we have an IGA that's satisfactory. And that's where you can get further down the line with some of the development. >> Okay. And then um if we sort of add metro districts as as an option in the city of Boulder, just in your experience, would you anticipate we'll get more interest in metro districts? >> Potentially. I mean, Boulder's a a unique community. I think right now with rising costs and just some challenges um trying to get things to pencil, we've seen a lot more uh interest in public financing tools. Um metro districts are

[256:00] one. We've seen a lot of interest in urban renewal and downtown development. And so you may see more, you may um see, you know, a couple projects here and there. Um I do think having the policy that sets forth what your expectations are. If it's a really high bar of we only think it's appropriate in very limited circumstances, you probably won't see a whole lot because there's not a lot that's going to check those boxes. If your policy is, hey, any development that wants it can have it, you might see a lot more. And so I think that's a little bit of the policy baseline of when do you think this is appropriate and for what type of development and that'll really drive I think how many applications you see or ones that have you know real viability. >> Okay. Thanks. >> So and this is mostly for staff. I'm thinking about um kind of things that we've created over time in an ad hoc manner. boards and commissions, PUDS, and kind of the decades that it has taken to create

[257:00] alignment or make those um easier to maintain over time. And I'm just wondering, you know, especially considering that this will be used to create infrastructure that the city is likely to um become the owner of and responsible for long-term maintenance and that we need it to conform with our city standards. Um, and with the potential of area 3 in the future being open to annexation and probably also being an area where there would be a lot of infrastructure needs and potential interest in something like a metro district. Do you think that having um a model service plan would help reduce staff time required in the future to either um review or deal with metro districts compared to metro districtrics coming forward on a case-by case basis?

[258:00] >> Yes, it would. And I mentioned the back and forth negotiation and a service plan. I I think having something in place would provide guidance. It would it would save future time for sure. >> I can say from the legal side, it cuts my review from maybe, you know, a couple full days to a few hours because it's a red line to see, have they deviated from the model? If so, where? And now we have very pointed questions. And then most the the review of the service plan at that point focuses um usually from um the financial side on the financial plan and is it sound and then on the estimated cost of public improvements in what they're building which is more the meat of the development and so yeah the it it expedites it quite a bit. >> Thank you. >> Terra's got one quick one then we can answer your questions >> really quick. Assuming that we all say we want to go forward with this, do you think that you can is it appropriate for you to engage with the applicant in the

[259:00] first phase so it speeds it along better or no? >> So I I think it's fine to talk to Metro District attorneys that potentially will represent either this applicant or future ones. There's really four or five firms and I'm happy I think we can talk with them about and get their input. Specifically taking just feedback from one applicant um I think is is probably not the best idea. I think we should take input from from multiple from the legal side from firms that are in this area and you might have um besides just this applicant some other developers that might be interested. there might be some hearing about this right now that might um be in touch later and say, "Hey, we have some thoughts." And so I don't think it's a bad idea to get input. I'm a little uh weary and I think Teresa probably shares it of just taking input from one applicant to build your model. >> So then can you take implicate input from a few uh how can you get input from

[260:01] entities where it directly affects them while you're making this uh model? I I think we if if council is asking we can certainly um with some type of draft uh ordinance service plan uh do some light engagement. I mean any engagement will lengthen time. I just want to be open about that. But I think um to Dalton's point, there are limited firms that work in this space. We could certainly solicit feedback on on where on where we're headed. >> Great. Good enough. Okay. So, um, the first question is, does city council wish to provide direction to staff to bring forward an enabling ordinance and a model service plan to regulate metropolitan districts? And with council's permission, I'd like to give us a starting point for discussion. Um, so, as has been acknowledged, we do know that there is a potential application coming forward from the folks who've submitted the concept plan for the Pearl Arts District. And while we know that metro districts may be a tool that we use in multiple places over the years um

[261:01] that we're kind of working on it um at this moment because we know that this is going to come forward before too long. We also know that that proposal is for a commercial type of district specifically and that there is some time sensitivity. So my suggestion would be is maybe what we do is we if council is interested that we do say yes to working on enabling ordinance and model service plan but to focus that initially on commercial districts specifically um that we could get accomplished in a time frame that would still allow for an application um in 2026 and then once we get that done then we can look at potential future phases for residential or mixed use or things like this. So, and and that this could include some level of public output um outreach um both to the known applicant and as well as other people who have knowledge and interest in this area. So, that's the thing I'm putting out there and I'm happy to take suggestions on that. >> So, I I love it. Um I can I just add one thing on timing. Just saying in 2026 is a little vague because we were given a sort of longer time frame or an

[262:00] expedited three-month. Can I just add a friendly piece of expedited three-month because once we get it, we might chew on this longer just because it might be our first go with an ordinance and a model server plan and an actual proposal. So expedited will get us to the point where we're evaluating something sooner. So can I just add that we do it on an expedited schedule? >> That was my intention and thank you for making it explicit. Thank you. Thanks, Mark. >> Yeah, I I like your suggestion. I I would probably not want to do the expedited three months. Well, let's assume staff will use its best efforts and be as timely as they can and and not doawle. Um, and if that takes two months, great. It takes four months, again, best efforts. And I think that's it's important not to put that kind of hard and fast deadline on them, it may not be a deadline that that's easily met. And um, I'd like to give a little bit of grace to staff on that. I can straw pull that maybe in a minute with some explicit parameters around it.

[263:00] Yes. >> Um yeah, I was kind of taking this as the the two different questions. Um so I don't know for if you're J. Are you wanting to kind of roll it into one and then >> I didn't actually because I was thinking about having this threshold question and then if that is accepted then we could say and here are additional specific policy feedback we'd like to give. Okay. Does that >> Yes. Yeah. No, it does. And um so are you looking for kind of the the initial threshold piece right now with feedback later? because that the only thing then that I would add to to what you put forward is um I I would actually be interested in thinking about this as a percentage of commercial, but I was kind of curious if that would um just staff's perspective on the amount of work it would take to set it up that way to begin with versus to start with something that was 100% commercial and then move move forward. Um, to me, when I think about the way that these may be used, um, it generally revolves around some sort of percentage of commercial.

[264:00] It's harder for me to think about how we would use a 100% residential. Um, but also just curious about the workload there. Um, is it is it better proactively to to do that work um or or to move forward just with 100% um, commercial? Um, and then I I I think, you know, I want to I want to make sure that as we're moving this forward, you know, obviously there there is somebody who is interested in u moving forward with a metro district um proposal, but also I don't really want the tail to wag the dog right here, right? I think it is so important that we develop this in a way that's general um and applies to kind of holistically how how these could be used. And so that that's my only concern with the idea of of trying to make it expedited or move move something forward that that quickly um is is that we're not tailoring it just to to one area as as you noted which was also my my feeling that this this is a tool and it can be a very good general tool and I

[265:00] think it's important that we approach it that way. >> Yeah, thanks for that Nicole and to clarify for what I'm putting out there. I did hear that the it was you felt like it was important to think of something generally um while also taking input and so I was proposing a general something rather than something that was just about one proposal. Any other thoughts before we get to the will of council? >> Yeah, I just um we know that we're doing a prioritization in January. So I would just like us to think that we might be doing a priority right now which is absolutely fine but we are certainly um committing staff time in a way that is significant. So, um, >> fair point. So, what I'm going to suggest then is that I I take a a a straw poll for the will of council on this generally and then if that passes then to check in on the time frame that people would like to move forward with it, whether it's a little quicker or a little more leisurely. So, the first question is are people support the thing that I laid out previously? All in favor raise your hand. >> Can you be more explicit about the thing?

[266:00] >> So, yes commercial. >> Yeah. So what I was saying is is what what yeah so that giving staff direction to bring forward an enabling ordinance for a 100% commercial metro district with a model service plan um to regulate those types of metropolitan districts while doing some um public outreach with stakeholders and other um people who are interested in the concept. And >> could I get an answer to the question? >> Could I I was wondering if I can get an answer to the question about whether um 100% commercial is more efficient, faster, all that than >> it. The the difficulty with the numbers is always this isn't um the development approval, but if we set a parameter and I know other jurisdictions that have that say a commercial district is 10% or less of residential um that is workable. it is done. Um, generally what happens is if they get over their threshold on residential, it's condominiumized and

[267:01] excluded from the district. So, it's not included. Uniform mill levy requirement. The reason we can't just say, well, only text the commercial uh is the uniform mill levy requirement. We won't get into business improvement districts and how that gets around it. That's a conversation for another night. But, um, so you can set that. And so what we can do um if it's the council's desire, we can draft a model service plan for commercial and an ordinance and then we can offer up some definitions. I would like to discuss with staff about, you know, kind of what do we feel is a commercial district, what do we feel is not a commercial district and then have an informed decision because some of it is is it square footage, is it, you know, the primary use? Starting to think through there's a lot of different ways and so I think staff could really inform that conversation. >> Sure. Because I think getting in the weeds of exact percentages I think is maybe just say commercial district and let the definition come from that. It might end up Yeah. But you started with 100%. So I just want to be clear that that we don't do a percentage and we just say commercial district. If it ends

[268:00] up 10% residential or whatever the number is, we'll deal with that when that when it the time is to address it. But we're I just want to make sure we're not locking ourselves in. I >> Yeah, I'm open to what you described as long as the complexity level doesn't get too high. And I do I would have concerns about making sure there are guardrails for residents that may or maybe are not necessary for uh non-residential projects. But anyway, so with that stated, can we raise show of hands of who'd like to proceed with this? I got eight. No, no, nine. Okay, so that's nine. And then the next question is on timeline. There was you described note sort of a a a leisurely versus expedited. I was proposing expedited. I was not saying a specific date, but Teresa, you look like you have something you'd like to say. >> I do. Um, uh, Butler Snow has a lot of experience in this area. They do not operate outside of the city attorney's purview, though, and my office would need to review. We need lead time to be

[269:00] able to review to get it on an agenda. So, if Dalton can do three months, then we need to add at least another month for CAO. So, what I'm hearing if we did the more leisurely uh timeline, we might not be able to be done with something in 26. >> I don't think I'm not requesting a leisurely timeline. >> I think four months is still a break neck speed, but we're willing and able to do that. >> Y, >> but I don't think we can do three months >> and and and we will maybe we have to have a trade-offs conversation. >> Understood. So, but generally I guess I'm straw polling is would we like them to move in general faster not expecting three months on the dot versus more leisurely. So, all in favor of the faster approach, raise your hand. We got one, two, three, four. >> I need to ask a clarifying question. >> Is there any way we can frame this instead as working toward enabling someone to do a November 26 election? >> That can work.

[270:00] >> I would prefer to phrase it such. >> Okay. So the what she said is uh to give direction to do it in a timeline uh that would enable something to be brought forward for November 2026 election. >> Can I ask a question? >> But Nicole's gonna ask a question. >> Um and and it sounds like you know you have you have the time in the city attorney's office in theory um to to address some of this next year. Um I think I heard that there was a little bit but I also know that you're really swamped. Right. We've got Sundance coming. There's so many other things that um the city attorney's office is uniquely working on. Just wondering if this pushes anything else back that we have already prioritized. So, as we talk about economic development, we're talking about a DDA, we're talking about a urban renewal authority, we're talking now about metro districts. I don't think you can have all of that at one time realistically from my office unless you would like to hire more attorneys and that then we can

[271:01] get see if Dalton wants to come on board >> button are you available >> right like re realistically um those are all the same wheelhouse >> fair yeah fair point >> and yeah just sort of a comment having that information now Right. It's it's hard for me to think about how to prioritize among those different tools that we've talked about, all of which seem like they're really important. Right? So, I I think that's that's what I'm struggling with, colleagues, is sort of how do we how do we fit this in? How do we prioritize um the timing of all these different things that we've decided are important? >> Can I Yeah, I just want to on that. I I think my sense is that since we have an actual applicant and it's not theoretical, there's a little more priority in my mind uh for doing this. But having said that, I'm still of a view that, you know, using best efforts to get it on a

[272:02] track to to uh go to the voters in 26 um is about the most we can impose upon the CAO. I mean, it's there's just too many unknowns, too many other issues that are that are involved. Um, and I really don't want her to promise three months and it turns out to be six. Sure. >> I I think, you know, for me, best efforts to do this in an expedited way in accordance with the 26 schedule is about the most we can reasonably ask for. >> That's that would be my request. >> Thanks, Lauren. And then I'll I'll straw poll us here with the specific. Oh, yeah. would you like to add? >> Just if I may, mayor, I mean, I I I think the conversation and I appreciate the questions. I'm I'm certainly always wanting to um protect the team from the time that is being drawn forward. We certainly have the benefit of Butler Snow uh in many of these. We still have to go through the city attorney's

[273:00] office. And as we're thinking about trade-offs in the future, what I would remind council of is this is not the only work. So as you're thinking about other work and the urgency and the work that is coming in the future that will too be measured against this. So certainly this is one project that can be brought forward but as this is brought forward there may be other work in the future that cannot be asked with the same amount of urgency that this one is being brought forward. It cannot all be done at the same pace. So if this one is moving forward which is great just know that in the future that's the kind of trade-off we'll have. Understood, Lauren. >> Thank you. And kind of in the same vein, I was just wondering, I believe the next council will be doing a one-year work plan, and I believe every work plan item goes through the city attorney's office. Is that true? And would require some level of commitment. So is that kind of

[274:02] four month timeline considering a set aside for that or are those going to have to kind of weigh um against this in the future as >> future councils think about that? >> Thanks for that. I am going to reframe it in Tina's phrasing rather than a four months phrasing. But >> I'll start and and certainly um uh welcome my colleague because it is her office's time. Many of these, as you know, have to go through the city attorney's office for review. It's similar to many of our internal uh services um or internal service departments. Um hopefully by tomorrow uh evening, you will receive from me a preliminary uh look at some of the major initiatives that staff is working on. We have been working on getting ready for work plan priorities. to receive a a more final version of that in December. But we wanted to advance some of those major initiatives as you're thinking about those one-year not doubled up

[275:00] priorities, Mr. Benjamin. Uh um as you're looking forward because it is precisely that crosswalk of how many of those priorities and how many of those work plan initiatives, regardless of whether they're council priorities, um implicate other departments. So, we're hoping to give you a sense of that just so that you know what is on um staff's plate so that we can have those conversations as you're thinking about what you would like to move forward because we want to make sure that we're thoughtful um about those conversations and being able to accommodate some of the things that you're thinking about in the future. >> Good. Good enough. Um yep. Yeah, Brian, >> I this is um I would really like this to to go on be ready for the ballot, but I just I am uncomfortable with the the in a month we're having this retreat and looking at tradeoffs and it just I just this feels like um not the right thing to force now. I would I would love it if

[276:01] we can get this done. So, I'm going to I think I'm going to vote no on directing a timeline on this. I will carry hope that the timeline will um allow for the ballot initiative to move forward, but I just wanted to share my thinking. >> Okay. And I would love to get the vote on this, but >> a question. >> Um you know, I think it's often hard to um pause work and restart. There's a little bit of a cost in doing that. And so I guess my question is um if we were to kind of pause, wait and on timeline till the retreat um does that add a little bit more time and and or is it something that you can just pick right back up and head back into it with? >> So as far as process goes, we can put together an initial draft and at Teresa's um direction, we can get started on that and get it over to city attorney's office and so they can start their review. Um, we can get together an

[277:01] initial draft over to city attorney's office here in a a couple weeks. Thanksgiving's next week, so really looking sometime in December and so hopefully have a draft to city attorney's office before you have your retreat. And so that might inform your timeline after Teresa looks so that it says what adult do or actually this is okay. So um that might help. >> Thank you. Um and Nur and Teresa I mean and colleagues I guess with everything right. I think COVID showed us somehow um when we need to, we can pause things and pick them back up um in in the future. And so I kind of think about this as as in many of the things we're going to be embarking on. Everything is so uncertain right now in so many ways. I have no idea what's what what's going to be facing us in 2026. Um so I I think that that's uh um I I think I feel comfortable um moving forward asking for asking for this as much as possible with Tina's wording. um you know if we if we can get it get it done um I'm comfortable with that um also knowing that it's really uncertain and we'll be

[278:01] open to changing if we need to. >> Okay, great. I would like to move forward now with getting the will of council is which is uh would is would council like to move forward with a time frame such that an application could be um submitted to the ballot in November of 2026 for a metro district. All in favor raise your hand. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Or were you yes or no? >> I guess I'm >> okay. So that's six in favor. All opposed or or all who would prefer a different timeline. Okay, that's three. So the the direction then is is to please work towards a timeline that would allow a submission and and Tina, thank you for that suggested language. I appreciate >> point of clarification. Um, based on what was just said though, it sounded that Teresa was going to or Dalton was going to send something to Teresa. Then Teresa is going to share something at the council priority agenda retreat and then based on that there would be an

[279:00] opportunity for us to amend whatever it is that was just decided upon. Is that correct? >> I I think the direction we just gave was to actually just say no, please do work on this so that it can be done in time. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you for the clarification. Okay, so that answers question number one with some details and then the item number two is um does city council have initial feedback regarding any of the key policy items identified? And I just say if people have thoughts I would um encourage them to be high level based on the time and I do know they're going to come back to us with some uh suggestions for our discussion um before this gets finalized. But if people have some specific thoughts they'd like to get on the table, now is your chance. >> Mark, >> just one. I'd simply like a plan that's um adequately protective of our interests in case uh there is uh a failure to be able to finance whether that's um a five-year term or or whatever. Um you know, please

[280:00] incorporate whatever the state-of-the-art protections are. >> Um yeah, I just my my recommendation just in terms of like the key topics is to stay high level. mill levy maximum mil levy debt debt limit and not you know get get too far down that list. I think we sort of start basic and and go from there. >> Ta then Tina >> um I am concerned about the governance component and just the um proportional representation of the residents. I just I just have some concerns on the government on the governance and the membership um and accountability for um any kind of conflict of interest. So those would be my areas of interest related to this work moving forward. Thank you. >> Uh my interest is as I stated before just um understanding how the city can address unforeseen impacts to surrounding areas, roads and traffic patterns.

[281:03] Nicole. >> Um, yeah. And I I think some of my uh bigger policy concerns are um around avoiding uh duplication of services or interference um with existing city services. Um I do want to make sure that that we maintain control um over a lot of our core services in these areas. Um and then uh the other one is in terms of um developer bonds. um I would be uh more inclined toward outright prohibiting the use of privately placed debt. Um but also um I think limiting I could be okay with that kind of thing too. So >> those are my main ones. Uh just just one thought um picking up on the the topic earlier about just the idea of this financing to be used to create public public benefit um type amenities and services to the extent that that fits with um the kind of broad approach that um I don't know makes

[282:01] sense. Um I I would I would love for this to be a vehicle that is creating not just uh benefit private benefits for the district but rather public benefits. Um my mind goes to infrastructure like PAS one or ways to you know fund um other parts of our transportation system but there's probably a more general way to think about that. Um so I just ask the team to to really think about how can you maximize the public benefit that comes from this. Thanks. >> Um, and because I think this is going to probably get used to do infrastructure that the city's likely to own, I think the governance transa transitions and conveyance requirements would be a really important piece to cover. >> Okay, I think that's what we've got. Um, staff, is there anything more that you need from us or do you feel like the direction is clear?

[283:01] That's all we do. Thank you, C. >> Okay. Um, thanks so much for all your work on this and for the work to come. We look forward to the next stages. All right. That is the end of our agenda for tonight. Um, any any last comments before we wrap up? >> Yes, actually I do have some. Mayor, um I continue to be concerned about the um potential conflict of interest with the Boulder Police Oversight Panel and some of the other issues that were raised at the last meeting. Um I it is my understanding that there are some questions that the CMO team is working on related to the issue at hand. Um based on the response from the memo that was provided um once I get that additional information um I am planning on submitting um some kind of uh CAC request around that. But I just wanted the community to be aware um that some of our council members are interested in

[284:01] learning more about this particular issue. And we also acknowledge that the city council does have authority um as we provided um you know authority to uh the city manager for the Boulder Police oversight panel and we can make the decision to um change that. So, I just want to a acknowledge the power that the city does have as a council and b um just let our coun uh the many many uh former and current and um just those in the public that were at that last meeting um it's it's absolutely critical that we um continue to make sure that all parts of our public safety frameworks are strong and I look forward to continuing that conversation uh in the weeks ahead. Thank you. >> Thanks. All right. Well, before I gave us closed, I just have to offer one last enormous thank you to Mayor Prom Lauren Folks for her service.

[285:00] >> We're going to miss you. Good night, everybody. I'll uh adjourn us here at 10:10 You know what?