September 24, 2024 — Downtown Management Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:02] Everyone and welcome to the downtown Management Commission meeting. It is 4 o'clock, September 24, th 2024, and I will start our phone call Erica dog cousins. Justin Calvin. President Andy may be here. 70 trees here. and I will turn our meeting over to our chair. Commissioner. Thank you, Lisa. may I have a motion to approve the July 16? th Yeah, for Thursday? If you wanna take a phone, make sure everybody's on the same page. But may I have the vote? Please? Hi, Hi. okay, thank you. Okay. The next procedural item is elections. Chris, would you

[1:04] help us manage those? Sure, we only received one nomination via email. I believe there were 2. 0, there were 2. Yep. Well, 1 1 email nomination. But yes, one email with nominations, one for chair one vice chair. But swapping rules between the account. All welcome to make nominations. Second nomination moved on. Yep. just second. Any other nominations for anyone else. Yeah. alright. So our slate is gone for chair, Stephanie for vice chair. So if anybody wants to move out of slate, those positions. did you know too well. if you want to make a speech. Can it be like Dwight in the office?

[2:06] No? Well, I did. I have gotten just an Update on some of the things, because I think it does pertain to the board just a little bit. I was able to meet with a woman who was the marching person at the limelight, and I was able to connect her to Chris and to Bettina, and so I was really excited to be able to bring that connection to the limelight to more of the city meetings and stuff like that. But did you get the jump up here, Bettina? Did you get to meet with great and then also at the the city. Whoever had the. you know. I don't want to say get out older, but that's not the right term now that you said it again, what's up folder? But I was at that. I was able to connect with Boy. The room escapes me right now, but she connected me with

[3:03] Cynthia Fuel. who? Karen? Who? Because I was inquiring about some stuff that's going on with the electrification of downtown and how that's gonna impact. And so she wrote an email, and I can submit that all of you. But I didn't want to submit it one on one. but so I even saw her on one of the invites. so she might even be here. No, she, an information item is provided in your packet And she provided this extra information beyond what was in the packet, so I could send that to Lisa to distribute to everyone else. Just so everyone has it, but I didn't do it correctly. It's a very expensive. but so those are a few of the things I've been working on. Try to bring the Dmc. Up a little bit and present information. but so, anyways, we should. Well, it feels weird for me. I can give a speech, too. So Don and I talked about this in advance.

[4:02] and I think what for? We had felt like. We work together well, as a team. We have been splitting up going to certain meetings I go to. I call it the team. This meeting, even though it has another name. hopefully as much as I can. Monthly don't split between us. We've been recently communicating a little bit more outside of the structure. and I see Don some enthusiasm for doing more. Above and beyond. Outside of the Commission. We have our monthly planning meetings, too, that we both go to I personally felt that I wasn't able to do that much outside of the pre-existing meeting structure and thought, Don, you know, has some extra bandwidth and interest in doing some more outside stuff, and I thought it made sense for us to step into this role for the next year, or however long. We do this forum for me to support in that, and be more of a backup. So and, Eric, I reached out to you today through your website because I don't know your email address. Oh, but I just love to. You know, I know, Andy, I know

[5:08] your email. But I yeah, I tried to ask, just like, kind of talk to everyone individually, just to get a sense of kind of like motivates everyone individually. So I'd love to just schedule tickets. but not trying to see. Okay, so just wanted to know. And since, unless hopefully, we don't lose anybody from there in terms of according to this this would be our slate until 2026. So we wouldn't unless it's determined that we want to. this is, the team will be the same until we lose 3 folks in 2026. So yep. say aye to both those things.

[6:07] Probably should we go towards a vote, a motion, and a motion motion, a second, and a and a vote second to vote motion to vote. Oh, I thought you were emotionally so sorry. Typically the candidates do not make a motion. We need someone to make a motion to vote. So you would like to make a motion. I would like to make a motion. I'll second it. The motion to vote before this slate for this slate correct. So the motion sounds like the motion on the table is for Don to be chair and Stephanie to be vice chair, and there's a second. a second. We got a second. And now you can take a vote. Okay, all in favor. Aye, aye, aye, aye.

[7:00] okay, never to post okay. great official. And now you're welcome to continue. But typically the, you know, we don't necessarily have to get the meeting over to Dawn for this meeting unless you're prepared, and you'd like to. I'm prepared. So are you also prepared. I think? Did you meet the last meeting? I think I'll just. I'll do this once it's not prepared. okay. So next we have the item of downtown boulder Partnership Board of Directors, Dnc. Ex officio representative. Yes. So Bettina made us aware, community vitality that there is a spot for an exhibitio position on the Dvp board. so I know that, Stephanie, you've been attending the Dvp. Meetings. But we can make a Dmc. Member official on the DVD board. So we put this on the agenda for you all to take take a motion and take action to make

[8:13] someone's presence on that board official as a representative. And what does that mean? Official member of the board, so it would be an exercise. No, not voting again, but it would give you insight into some of the advocacy roles that the Dbp. Board of directors takes. So the meetings that you've been attending are joint meetings of the partnership and the business Improvement district. So we would be asking you to join business meetings of the partnership as well. It are an additional 30 min every other month. Is it? Is it similar? Is that at the same time as that meeting. You just say 30 min later, oh, you come 30 min early. Okay. okay. it's weird. And it's only every other time.

[9:01] Yes, okay. So the next meeting, for this would be November 14.th Okay, so do we vote. and we need a majority vote for well, since I already I guess I should say whether I want to do it or not, since I already go to those meetings minus last meeting. I think it makes sense. I think I'm the only one who actually is available. Well, at least of the 3 of us to go to that meeting, and or at least that was the case, and I go to them. So I'd be happy to do that move to make you the Dmc. Exit this year. I do that. I just want to welcome them and tell the new members, and make sure that. Erica, you've been on the board before you have 4, and and you're new. But I also, I just don't want to while you have my full support, Stephanie. I want to hear from everyone as to like if either one of you would also just be

[10:03] not a fair issue. If you have interest. I'm in the company. Yeah. Well, also, perhaps, is this a big rotating function? The board? Because, like, I think so. I've been like going to them, maybe for a year now. And I I'm not like wanting to stay in this indefinitely like I like how we cycled. and if we're allowed to cycle, I think the nice thing is like, probably you should. I can accept the position. Now. You 2 can start going to those meetings, and you can occasionally see what it's like. and then like, if you express interest in wanting to do it, I in behalf so like, bring it up here, and, you know, come to vote again. I think it's gonna be hard to probably just jump into stuff without knowing any context unless we can, we want to put it on. But that's the other.

[11:00] Just report back everything that is the other. That is the other. It's a lot of information. But yes, I think we would. We have a standing we had standing meeting a standing item on the agenda. sure. And now that it's a more official thing, we definitely should have it as a more formal report. So I move for Stephanie to be our ex officio for this time being potentially rotate them to second, then oops. Which of those? Yeah. all in favor of Stephanie being ex officio, say, Hi. 5, 50. One day we'll we'll have it down. But they're they're good. Yes. thank you, patina. The opportunity. Okay. But when is the meeting? Oh, yeah, it's the second Thursday of each month from 8 30 to 9 30 am. Right. The next one will be on 8 to 9, 30.

[12:07] Oh, yeah, for me. But the the general meeting is from 8 30 to 9, 30 correct, and the next one is the Town Hall. Sorry? Yeah. The next one is a town hall, probably good one to go to. But yeah. we're allowed to. Yeah. As long as you don't all sit next to each other and whisper in each other's ears a lot. Okay, I will not steer your thunder on that. Okay? So the second Thursday of each month. So the next item on the agenda is public participation. Do we have any members of the public present have any problem. Okay. we can move next to the consent agenda. So these topics will not be discussed unless there are questions posed by the Commission.

[13:07] I'll give folks some time to scroll down to the consent. Agenda may take a little while. I had a question on page 12, the smooth garage public project. they've been working closely with engineer. And this is this the just an update on the one that we kind of had input on a while ago was right. Yes, Matt, do you have any additional context? You'd like to provide? No, I I don't have any updates. Projects take a long time. But I think we decided in like 2022. So it's going to be probably 3 years. and that is that, like the complexity of the engineering work itself, seems kind of unique in this scenario compared to like mural one.

[14:01] Exactly. Yeah. And I think that this is a good thing to think about. At the same time we have some structural repairs. We're going to be making. Got it? Okay. We don't want to do something that that needs to be removed in order to do structural repairs. So we're trying to make sure it's all. So it is taking a little bit longer than we originally planned, but it can only be done in certain season, too, I know. because of the nature of it. At least, that's kind of no, maybe got it. Okay, that was one of my questions, too. I also want to note that we don't have an agenda item for, like baser AI or the Q 2 economic indicators. Those. Both of those items were provided as information. Only if there are any questions that you have about those. I had a

[15:00] more of a comment. Comment question on the groups projects. We did a music project. Who? Who owns that from the city we can. Overseeing that work. Commissioner Treece. I I forgot that we were doing this, I think because I just feel like I haven't heard a lot about it. And I I'm just. It was more about just like before a lot of people know about it. I feel like it's hard to see if something's going to be successful. So I was curious about what other ways we can like just help people get more aware for a very long time in advance about when things happen so they don't miss them, because I feel like everyone knows about band on the bricks. But I talked to other people in the community, and they? They don't read, they don't read or get the emails. And they just don't. They miss out on all this stuff. So it's just. Bigger, fan. Given the simpin the sip and scroll like I, only I heard about that from the packet, and I work on East Pearl, and I was like, oh, no, like. What if people don't hear about it like? So

[16:07] one of my questions was like, How do we get the public like more aware way far in advance. Just so. It's like becomes part of just what they do. I know that takes a long time, but it's like that for band on the bricks. It happens every summer. You don't exactly know when and what, so like these other new things that you're working on. I want people to hear about them, but I feel like I hear about them. Kind of late, too. Yeah, no, that's great feedback. Thank you. That's something we'll take into consideration if we continue to work with them. I will say the 3 events on the hill that have already occurred. We're super successful. We saw over a thousand attendees collectively, between the 3 events on the Hill Event Street. And then the final event, is actually this Saturday in Boulder Junction from 4 to 9 pm. In Depot Square. But that's great feedback, thank you and something. We'll definitely work on our outreach efforts for future events, maybe leaning more on our community partners and and whatnot.

[17:10] Yeah, maybe, like, I think you're saying they're still successful, even if a lot of people don't know about them. Maybe it's more like local attendance versus it's good. So that's good to hear. But yeah, and while we community vitality have vested interest in produced events being super successful, we also not necessarily well, yeah, we have. Yes, we have a vested interest in these things being successful because we do contribute funds, but thinking about the grants. As an example of the the Arts Commission. where we ramped out to entities who are putting on their own whatever and while we certainly encourage them and want them to. They can. Do, you know, do a great job of marketing, whatever it is they're doing at least partially with resources that we've distributed to them. It's not necessarily hard thing to do, but we do try to get the word out as much as possible through newsletters, and the our regular communication venues. For this and everything else that we

[18:17] support resources that we have. Does anyone have any additional questions about the consent? Agenda? Okay? No. Now. if not, we can move to fund financial same same thing here. It won't be discussed unless there are questions by the Commission on Fund financials. One quick question. It says sales tax by location downtown. I assume that means all. Cajun. What is downtown in this definition. Page 14. Get into just a moment. Elliott's out sick today, because normally just, you know. Yes, exactly. Page 14. Maybe what I'm talking about here is on downtown revenue downtown is increasing. 10% may over last year, whereas Pearl Street has gone down

[19:17] 2 and a half right? So there is a geographic boundary that finance uses to analyze all the businesses within certain geographic boundaries. So for all of downtown. it's looking slightly up. and but if you just look at businesses along Pearl Street, and I'll need to confirm with Elliot whether that's oh, yeah. Pearl Street, Mall. It is a different story. What the growth is coming from some of the things that when there's when there are spaces that have been vacant for some time and then got new things moving in. Is gonna make that fluctuate quite a bit. We saw that happen with the office space.

[20:16] There's some backlog sales tax that didn't come in. So there are some fluctuations that happen year over year. I think we'll probably hear a little bit more from Katina. On how things are going downtown. The first, st you know, part of the year was sore. 2023 was very, very strong. The 1st part of this year was not nearly as strong as what we saw last year, but things, at least from our measures have been so. At the end of the year we'll see these numbers come back up. They map the sales, tax revenue to the East End, West End, and like Fall Street, Mall, did you break all those out? Yes, we see that breakout in the future. Sure.

[21:05] Okay, is that interesting to anyone else? Yes. and it's not quite East and West End. It's our East downtown. And but we will break out whatever finance has been able for us, that'd be nice. Another question I had on page 13. Where is it under use of funds, under like economic vitality and district management. so it seems like that this year is like a higher. the more expensive year for use to fund. Then it goes back down again. Am I reading that? Right? For the let's see for economic vitality specific. That's like, staff of the department. Yeah. So there's

[22:01] yeah. Well, there's 1.4 2.4 7. so these are different. Yeah, the different work divisions of the department. There's the actuals. So that's probably what you're saying is, there's there is what they actually expense. So whenever we have vacancies. which we've had over the past number of years, then we understand what was actually budgeted. See what's adopted is what we had anticipated that we'd spend and then. as a result of taking a look at trends over time, or 2025 recommended is going down in that area because we haven't been spending If salaries are anticipated to come in at that level. So just looking at the past. it's reflecting, and where we think our target should be in the future. So what is the Revised? What's that revised category plan, then that means

[23:05] whatever we're now anticipating is going to be the end of the year. So there's what's adopted by council in October. Okay, then, revised means after the 1st and second adjustment to base depending on additional expenses that we've had in that specific area that leads to the revised amendment. So you're tracking, because there's no actual security where you're tracking less than adopted. Correct. And that's why 2025 recommended is kind of like where you are right now correct. So there's the way 2025 is closer to what's actually and so, and Elliott would be able to specifically tell you exactly where things moved around because it's really looking at the at the total uses of funds over time. We did some shifting around with things like the ecopass program, putting some resources in some because we weren't spending as much as we had done, because our Tvs fares have gone down. We shifted some, some of those resources to other funds.

[24:06] and also expanding the level of service that we provide for the Eco. Pass to part time capabilities. We do have some slides that will speak to that a little bit in that, or she soon. So yeah, this framework's a little bit not intuitive for me. So I apologize. A revised, adopted thing, and it's not used to it, but similarly for the customer service. So for the garages. I remember when we working with metropolis, they were going to that was going to hopefully decrease customer service, spend for credit card fees. Yes, for credit card. So we are showing like a recommended drop like to 618. That would reflect the difference there, probably. Yes, although we do still have some credit card fees. And again, Michelle, that's the project that's like what we recommend, based on those efficiencies versus the difference between, like the 750, or 7,

[25:06] 69, and the 6, 18 is some of those projected savings. Exactly. Okay, yeah. So the customer service credit card fees, not the people working in booths. So yeah, the- the people in the booths are gone, but we still sell permits out of the front desk area part of their salary. A big portion of their stuff is paid for through agents. the majority of our our permanently. Just make an agent any additional questions on the budget. We will, when Elliot's feeling better if there's any, follow up. Probably I haven't listened to my responses, and if we've done anything wrong we will let you know. Thank you. Okay, up next is patina

[26:05] for a 15 min update from the downtown boulder partnership. Great. Well, thanks so much for having me today. I know it says my name is Terry on the agenda, but I was. I was at the International Downtown Association Conference in Seattle with Chris and Elliot. Cindy, and a number of people from community vitality was really cool to have such a great component of the city of Boulder. At that conference we came back with lots of fresh ideas. and now we're tired from all of that learning and engagement. So I've got a slide deck here, and if you go to the next slide, is there a quicker? Or do I just have to thank you. So this is a little bit small. Hopefully you can see it on your screen. We've been tracking our monthly pedestrian counts. So we have the totals for July and August here. And one of the focuses that we're going to be really working on over the coming months is how to integrate this data from the pedestrian counters which are gathered from cameras that are actually located at specific locations

[27:09] and then synthesized by a program called springboard. How this compares to the numbers and the data that we're getting from Placer AI, right? So we know that they are capturing data in different ways. And there's always a bit of analysis that needs to be done to understand what is perception versus what is reality? So you can see. In July we were down 0 point 2% from 24 to 23. It was a little bit hotter in July which might have had something to do with it? And then in August we were actually up 2%. So nobody knows why. It's not a specific science, but it is super helpful for us to be able to see this data, especially when it comes to getting getting sponsors and generating interest for some of our community events like in July we had the Wall Street Arts fest, which I'll talk about in a little bit.

[28:01] Any questions on the pedestrian counts next slide. So speaking of the Pearl Street Arts Fest, we had a very successful season with this. I hope. I think I saw some of you there. I know I personally spent a lot of money at the booths, and this is something that the artists really enjoy. They come back year after year. We have people from Texas, New Mexico. Some folks come as far away as California to attend this event, and we had really good visitor engagement. So this was by far the most popular traffic day of the year, and these are some of the figures that we share with our sponsors. We had some good open studios, children's activities, and it was just a really fun environment help restaurants, or does it help retail as well? Or does it hurt retail? Because people are all we get a lot of people. It's kind of like the same thing with some of the other events where you get a lot of people, but they're not necessarily from the source. you know, getting a lot of people, but they're not going to the stores has been a theme that we've been hearing a lot of lately, I think, for events like this, it actually does help everybody just to have more people downtown.

[29:08] and particularly when they're spending money at an artist Booth. They might be more interested in wandering into a shop, and they're buying a dress that might go with the new jewelry they bought for going into the air conditioning a brief moment. Yeah, I I mean, I I. So I'm also on the marketing committee. So here a lot of this as well, and I always find it very interesting, because I think the point is to create an overall positive feeling of downtown. And then people want to keep coming and shopping, and not every single event is is about me. and about spending money at my store. So I think it's like we have to remember that downtown's for everybody, and that you should be able to go and do things that don't cost money. So I think I think it's great, because if people have a great experience coming to the Arts bus. It's like they're like, we like downtown boulder. We have done some fun things there, but it is also one of my best one of my better weekends. So I you know, I think.

[30:05] How's it work for you, Pat? Oh, well. about the same. Here, look. we're busy just because it's a weekend, you know. So I don't think that it affects us really. We maybe see a little bit more pen turn on the bigger events across the street. Things like that. But when it's on Hill Street like this it's more people attending the goal is to get people downtown, because then they will shop, enjoy services, buy drinks, do all of the things, and also just look around and see what's new to remind them next time they come downtown. Yeah, I appreciate you bring up that point, Erica, because I think we all are downtown a lot. We sit with some people you read in these surveys they're like, I don't come downtown. And I'm like right? So we need sometimes you need excuses for people who don't otherwise come down to be reminded about how great downtown is right. And maybe this is one of the things that appeals to them to like ours. Maybe something else appeals to them.

[31:06] and the idea is to also get people coming back. We just kind of perhaps even stopped coming in the Covid era, and like we should kind of bring them back into the fold. Yeah. exactly. Make the teenagers suffer. They'll they'll be better off for it. If you go on to the next slide. You can talk about some other events. Bands on the bricks came up that we had a wonderful season, 8 weeks of free summer concerts. We really recognized that when we partnered with other organizations we had a better turnout, so we were partnered with Rocky Mountain equality. We had pride night we had cu night. That's why, there's pictured chip with our reminders. We had a great season and we did see some good visitation as well. So that's is it? Because what you can hit their mailing list, or what is the benefit you get? It's sort of co-promotion, right? So if there's a built in audience for c unite. In particular, there was an event honoring

[32:06] Chancellor Phil Distefano at the Boulder Theater, and so we encourage people who are at that event to then come out. It's the same thing if we have, you know, multiple, different athletic teams representing at the stampede versus just one type of sporting event with bands. Typically what cold? They're from Colorado. They're all Colorado fans. Yeah. So that's just some more pedestrian impressions there. And then, if you go to the next slide. We had our fall fest, and that was just last weekend. Unfortunately, my data Cruncher, who understands how to read the pedestrian count data is out sick, because apparently everyone's out sick right now. That's what's happening these days. But fall fest was another example of a beloved institution. This one's really geared at bringing out families. and we partner with firefly handmade market. So we don't have to curate or jury in the different providers who are bringing their stuff. But Firefly market does. So it was a success.

[33:06] We did have a little bit of a a downturn in terms of our bar sales, and that's how we make a little bit of money. So we're going to be evaluating ways to maybe dredge up that event a little bit more for next year. It was also very hot, so it kind of felt like it wasn't really fall of us, because it was 85 degrees. I keep thinking of all best that's coming up. That sounds like. doesn't feel like, fall right? Yeah, that's right. That's right. We were also up against a the Rocky Mountain showdown football game that took a lot of attention away. There were just myriad other events that were happening throughout the community. The what's up Boulder event, I think was also that weekend, and there were just a lot of so we'll be looking at that. But nevertheless, people had a great time and it's fun to see people bring out like this group of people brought out their bespoke telescope, and they were taking us, letting anybody look at pictures of the film. Can I ask is that the event that also has the Oktoberfest within it? Or I think it used to? We don't market it that way anymore. Okay, that's interesting. Because, like, I,

[34:19] I heard of this as like an event more like, Oh, you're a kid like there's kid stuff. But it was really hot that day which I made a lot of other plans. But I remember Pre kids, we go to this for the Oktoberfest Beer garden in particular, whereas I'm not really interested in shopping as much. So I I'm curious about if the change in the like marketing also impacts people going to like have the October fest like Beer Hall experience, which it used to be a little bit more like that. I think beer festivals in general have kind of peaked a little bit in terms of just the general market. So like, I said, we'll be evaluating internally and looking for other organizations to partner with, to to make it more representative of what the community really wants to say.

[35:03] If you can go to the next slide. These are just some advocacy and connections work that we've been doing behind the scenes. Unfortunately, there are continued power outages. There were 2 in the month of August, one that affected the West end of pearl. and then another one that affected the hill we oversee. While we're not actually administering the district on the hill. We do have ambassadors who work up on the hill. So we work really closely with those businesses, and we've been working with the Chamber. Some of the departments of the city who are working on their Wildfire Protection Act. And now the Public Utility Commission is launching an investigation into excel to figure out what they can do to maybe mitigate these issues going forward, but this has taken a lot of time and energy. No pun intended. We also had a meeting with the Eastern businesses, because, as I sort of intimated earlier. We are hearing from folks that they might be seeing a lot of people downtown, but they're not necessarily

[36:01] carrying bags and or spending as much so in order to be responsive to that. We had a meeting with the East End businesses, and that's where we came up with this idea for the sip and stroll which will be taking place this Saturday. We've got some great participation from local businesses offering mocktails, those organizations and businesses that have liquor licenses are going to do, drink specials, shopping specials, and we're hoping that if this is successful it'll be something that the East end can take on and do, maybe every other month, or on a quarterly basis. I'll let you know at the next meeting how that went. We organized a flash mob to welcome the Sundance Institute to town. That was super fun, and it was great news. Last week we heard that we're one of 3 finalists for the Roller Coast City for Sundance, which would be just a wonderful thing, and probably not until after the this year's festival. That way they'll be able to say, Hey, we, you know this. We've made a decision, and then they'll have their last one in Park City before they come to us.

[37:13] but it might be a little lackluster if they said, Oh, and we're moving to Boulder. And then, yeah, but come to our festival next month. We don't know that they're going to choose us. I'm just choosing. So you think they're going to in 2025. They're going to tell us the packets of 2026. And I was like, they're gonna say, after Sundex 2025, which I don't know when that is. But after some next 2025. They're going to ask. But yeah. that's very interesting. And the 3rd choice is Atlanta. No, it's no, and I'm sorry. just awesome. I did get in a conversation with some of the staff from downtown Cincinnati when I was at the conference, and so we sort of Boxing moments, and in line also with some of the conversations we've had with people about their concerns over lower sales. We did have a special meeting for a select group of retailers. So we're talking about holiday programming. We're thanks to community vitality. We are going to be purchasing some more holiday lights that will make this more engaging and more interactive fun place to bring people during the holiday months

[38:20] and just looking at ways to increase local visitation overall. And then we completed the intercept survey. And so it's actually over. Now, we got over 700 responses at the beginning of the season. We thought we weren't going to be able to hit that target because it was a very long survey, and you can hear about those results after the October 10th Town Hall. If you can go to the next slide instead. are you doing the AR thing? Yes, we are. And actually, we're partnering with Reality Mint, which is a local company, and we're going to be doing the find breezy initiative where people can go and they'll it'll be a virtual reality instead of a physical object.

[39:01] so that'll be fun to see. they come up with. We have the tebow train running. Interesting data point, we were down. This is one of the most adorable things that we do on so Stephanie's family was responsible for but again, I think this is one of those things where, if you know about it, then you know how amazing it is, but if you don't know, you just don't know. So we're like thinking about ways to improve communication around that we did. we got good. We've got good data, and where people are coming from. So this really is an activity to local families. But we're also seeing visitation from other visitors as well. It is done now. But it'll be returning, as the Polar Express in December. For a couple of days. Weather dependent or sorry. Not the Polar Express, because that is a trademark to name. It is the Snowflake Express.

[40:01] and on the next slide just Super recorded very snarky joke. I'll tell you later an update on our ambassador. So I was really happy with all the questions that you guys asked. Last time I was here when I presented our second quarter report, and since I gave you that report, and you asked such wonderful follow up questions, the ambassador reporting system, which is called the smart system as undergoing a massive upgrade. So lucky boulder. We and I think 6 or 7 other cities across the country are now part of this tech upgrade. And as you all know, anytime, there's a system update. Sometimes it's fantastic, and sometimes you just don't know how things are going. So I don't have as robust figures for you this time. But we did get some good news this week that They're what we're going to have good apples to apples figures from the old system into the new system data, which was what I was concerned about. Because we've really been focusing on the reporting this year

[41:08] we've been really focusing on leading and on the tree grates and doing a lot of work with the city arborist, and also just with the city staff to make sure that we're keeping the sidewalks as clean as possible. I did want to give a little shout out to our team last Thursday night there was a big effort by some people who are doing graffiti. They did 12 different pieces all around downtown, including on the Mall, on trash cans, on benches, on windows, and our team was able to clean everything up within about 9 h. So that's 1 of those examples of the work being invisible right? Because if you saw all of those pieces of graffiti you would be pretty upset. But if you don't see them, that means that somebody was there to pick it up. You picked over smile? No, never let smile be, let smile be sick.

[42:01] Smile is not completely. This is other more incendiary television messages. you know. Even the Usps doesn't paint over. Smile. Okay, the Federal mail recognizes that. That's not again recorded line. I can't speak. Don't do it. National. We're. We're also just doing a bunch of work on the Ambassador level to really make sure that the trash and recycling bins are clean and well appointed. You can go to the next slide. I can show you some before and after. There's an example of the kind of graffiti that we take away and some of the messes that we clean up. So. I hope that you, as you're out there, wandering around. not wandering on, having a lovely stroll through downtown. If you ever see an issue, please do report it to our ambassadors. They are as present as they can be, but we really to rely on the public and and our community partners to look like this as well

[43:02] on the next slide? Coming up so question on ambassadors. Yes, an issue happened in building between where we are, where they had a broken window. Does ambassadors help with putting them wood in the broken windows. You know we don't, for the simple reason that we do not have wood. We don't have the supplies for that. So I know. That can be a tricky thing, especially if a window is broken like late at night, when Mcguckins isn't open. You don't have access to that. I'm not quite sure what the protocol is. I told them to reach out to the ambassadors to see who at least they would recommend to get it done, because I didn't know. Yeah, I mean, and you are the property owner, right for my place for your place. Is it your building? It wasn't our place in between us, and I think actually, I think it was. The owners end up putting up the wood, but they didn't really clean up the glass. and they cleaned it on their own property, but they were still so, but I think would be I mean, it's funny we proactively did ask. These would be good to have some solution in the event that this happens.

[44:06] so we were, gonna we're actually gonna talk to the like, the guy, the door. I came over the door company in Buffalo something, Buffalo Lock, and see if maybe they have recommendation. But it'd be good for us to have like a solution to that, totally, and just to clarify. If there's broken glass on the ground, the ambassadors can clean that up, they just don't have the materials to put up the broken window. It's a great question. They came and heated like 4 days after I. There's even an expression about it. So we're super excited about this Saturday. In addition to the sip and stroll with community vitality support, we have some locally made Adirondack chairs that are going to be art pieces, and we have 5 artists who are selected from by a jury, and they're going to be doing. Yeah, thank you. That's right.

[45:07] Oh, wow! That's I know. I know. Thank you for your service. So we'll be having live painting going on from 9 Am. To 7 pm. And then starting next month. The public will have a chance to vote on their favorite chair as part of this community art project, and then the winners will get a cash prize, so that would be very fun. Thank you, Wayne. Thanks, Wayne. There, there's a special auction. I just got an email today about this, the smile auction. It's going live on Thursday on the next slide and ask about this. So sure the 1st time I'm hearing about. Well, the fact of the sip and stroll is the idea, like the 1st time, is a little bit more organic to see if people show up and then like how people like it. And then you're mentioned before I work on. I just said maybe I just rely on physical signs.

[46:03] Your. but like I think I didn't hear about. And I was like, Oh, shoot. I made other plans. I wish I could go but it's the idea that people kind of fear about it, and then maybe they come to the next one if it works. Yeah. And I want to be very clear that this we put this together very quickly. And so this came together in about a month, about a month, really a month and a half, maybe at the Max. So it didn't have the same kind of lead time for a lot of our downtown boulder community initiative events where we have everything planned out a year in advance. We're really hoping and and asking the retailers in particular to be the ones who are sharing this. Got it? It's not a ticketed event. We don't have any kind of income coming from it. It's really just about getting people to come into the shops. So we did get support for the community chair project, which is another kind of bonus ad. This is in many ways a response to the fact that we heard, because Boulder Thon is also this weekend, that when Boulder Thon puts up the no parking signs which are a requirement to clear the streets. Sometimes people think, Oh, I can't park there, even though the date is written on the No parking sign. So this was an incentive to try to create an opportunity for people to come down.

[47:16] despite there being a perception that you can't work, and that you can't be affected. that was a really long answer. But that's good context. Yeah. So it's a bit of an experiment. But you're wanting to kind of. Say, we heard you, and then them to take the initiative. Yeah, cause it's not. It's like there's no event for the rest of us. You know what I'm saying so and like we pay our dues to kind of thing. So this is sort of like an all of our niche to be like. We hear that it's, you know, in the pedestrian count numbers show that traffic is down on that end. So it's kind of like, what is something we could do special for you guys. But it wasn't budgeted last year. So. and the vacancy rate is a little bit higher on the East End than it is in the West End.

[48:04] so we'll see how it goes. I hope it's successful. We'll be doing a survey of all of the participating retailers and restaurants afterward to see if it helps boost them. and then coming up. We have world Singing Day on October 19.th We will actually be running this event next year. So this is the last year that the independent organizers are going to be doing it. I just sponsored a song, so I would love it if you all can come the song that I sponsored as we built this city. So I know you all know that one and then, October 31st we have our Munchkin masquerade from 3 to 6, so we are looking for volunteer crossing guards to help us get all the profits and animals to them from their true status. They mix everything. And I think that might be the end of our deck. Is that correct, Vincent? Yes, yes, so one last commercial I'd love to give you is to please come to our town hall on October 10, th and we'd love to see you there.

[49:06] We'll be getting an update on the intercept survey. Elliot will also be giving an overview of some of the Placer AI data, and I'll be doing an Update just kind of on all things center any other questions. What's the feedback on the stampede? So far? The 1st one was a was pretty low, I think, because it was a Thursday, but last Friday was just bananas. and it was really cool because we had the Brazilian festival on the courthouse lawn right before it. So, starting at 5 o'clock, going until about 8 o'clock. It was just. It was a real scene downtown. I hope you saw the impact in your business. Anything else. Thank you. Institute.

[50:06] Okay, so let's shift to the matters from staff. It looks like you want to take that one. I will take it from here for matters from staff first.st Just want to share some follow up from the last conversation we had about Budget, where you all approved vitalities. Recommendations. They went, then went through the city process. And you see, the city manager's recommended budget. Just wanted to point out a few shifts that happened through that process. 1st of all, we had originally suggested that the shifting of some of the capacity savings into support maintenance operations, which is some of that that movement that you saw in the fund financials and the projected. We had suggested a 1 time shift, and those have been recommended as ongoing permanent shift to maintenance operations in Cajun. There's also a

[51:09] there was a general fund transfer decrease one time recommended associated with the savings that we have with the credit card processing fees, and those have been as ongoing and which we're not concerned about just because we're not expecting. It's not like they're gonna go back up this new system specifically for forget about it, because it's strictly related. And it comes down later. But I'm going to miss the connection to it here. if we raise the parking rates as we talked about later in the packet, does that increase the fees because it's a percentage base? Or is it a per transaction fee? So the amount we charge does not change the fee amount to the credit cards. It's a really good question. It's probably the former. But we didn't need to have.

[52:01] I live in the team because that'd be interesting, because that does impact yeah, our current agreement, at least for the garages and our permits is that it's 3% or 4, 99, whichever is higher and 4, 99 is still higher. So it's I don't think our increases are going to change that, but we'll have to go back. The surface lots and the Trinity garage are 7. Are we talking metropolis, feet or credit card fees. The credit card fees are not. Oh, yeah, we're talking about metropolis fees right? So different than credit card fees. So in a way we should table that to that. But in a way it impacts this number we're talking about here, too. So our credit card fees went down significantly, as a result of the ship to metropolis doesn't mean that we don't still have credit card fees, and that's why there's been this shift. and that's because they pay the fee, or

[53:00] and then we pay the fee to pass through. Well, we. So if you recall, we we decided that Cajun would absorb a certain amount of the software, 99 cent fee for short term visitors. There is also a fee associated with the permits. For what does Cmo stand for city managers. And that so some enhancements that were discussed with you all we had recommend we had 1st had the Ambassador program proposes ongoing again. That's going to be a 1 time request for the 2025 budget. We're going to be working with the downtown boulder partnership on a formal advertising Rfp process to make sure that we're getting the highest quality service for the money

[54:07] hopefully, the next coming months, so that in 2026 budget planning process, we'll be able to point to a competitive bid process in our ask to make the funding for that program ongoing. So we don't have to go to city council and ask for everything here. Also we had proposed resources to continue the effort and pilot program, which originally were supported in part by Federal arpa dollars. we had suggested this amount of time. But ongoing program right now, it's currently going to be a 1 time request for 2025. So we'll continue to ask for that in the future. Same thing with the opposite thing with the again the Eagle Pass program. We're going to be doing the expansion to part time and seasonal employees ongoing

[55:05] and then on the flip side for our arts and culture budget items we had suggested. Some things is ongoing. But they're going to be one time in the budget contingent on the update of the community cultural plan which will lean on that work over the next, over the coming months to Do our long term. Budget asks in the 2026 budget process. The other things. Let's see, I don't know that. There's any adjustments for caged in the capital highlights. Let's see 1 1, i wondered, was security enhancements in the garage, because that's something that we have routinely here. Can you talk to us about that? So this was included in the budget that we brought to you at the last meeting. So these are cameras. These are lighting improvements. One of the things that we hear from our customers is one of the reasons why they don't want to park in the garage. They'd rather park on street is safety also includes cell phone signal enhancers. So folks who are in the basements of our buildings can have better ways to communicate. If there is an emergency, it also benefits folks wanting trying to sign up for

[56:26] metropolis. Does the police or ambassadors go circulate the parameters? Yes. and we have security. Private security. Yeah. A related question to this probably doesn't fall under security. But I saw we're we do this like major power washing when the garages are kind of, there's a capital cancer work done. What's the cycle for the for that washing? Because I do think smells like urine is a big reason why I don't park

[57:07] 6. And I. I know that's not security, but it costs money, and I know that that's something that isn't key. Sure. So we do have Christine Edwards on phone she can speak to the maintenance schedule. Possibly, if she's in a spot to speak is she able to talk. or we can just allow her to talk. She's raised her head. There she is! I'm gonna unmute you. Greg, we can hear you now. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. yes. Can you hear me? Right? There it is. Eureka. Okay, sorry about that.

[58:00] so we are working currently on our planned maintenance schedule. We have been looking at our. So I have to say our maintenance team does go into the garages almost weekly to especially like the Saint Julian Stairwells to clean those things out. Power wash all sorts of human grossness out of there. So there's that level of stuff that happens almost on the daily, if not weekly basis. We are doing more of power wash. I don't know if you guys have gone down to hang out in the Saint Julian garage yet this week. It's a treat, I must say, because we have done a bunch of painting and traffic coating and striping, and it's starting to look human again, which is exciting. So we are attempting to streamline our planned maintenance and have a cadence at which these power washing, striping, traffic coding processes happen. So I can't tell you what it is quite yet, but usually it's every 3 years is what we're anticipating for striping.

[59:02] I'm hoping that we can incorporate power. Washing. It's very expensive, but incorporate power washing of the garages annually is the goal. So more to come as we work that into the budget, we're trying to expand our budget for maintenance this year so that it can start to feel nicer. yeah, did that answer questions? Yeah, that did. Clear as mud. Does that clear as mud for everyone. There is a amazing traffic code. So pretty. Oh, God, the things I'm nerding out over these days, you guys, it's it's kind of sad. More questions on budget tweaks. All right. There's no vote required. If you did have concerns about these shifts, we could provide an opportunity to provide that feedback to council as they're going to their 1st and secondary game.

[60:06] There we go all right now to the big packet agenda item. Here. We've got a lot of materials related to the civic use pad and the proposed development and the Cajun easement. So I provided a brief memo to kind of give you all an overview of where caged and Dmc. Is involved in this, and it is really relatively limited. I might share my screen just because it's deep in the package of things that I want you all to be considering. But there are 3 things that we are thinking about in and wanting feedback from you all, and where we're headed with the civic use pad

[61:01] trying to make sure right while you're looking at it. Proposing this is this the city or the Saint Julian Saint Julian Point? This is. I can't my tabs trying to get to. There we go. Okay. 3 things for Dmc's consideration. 1st of all mentioned the and Don saw this. The proposed adjustment to the easement along the pedestrian corridor between Canyon and Walnut. So currently Cajun is responsible for the upkeep of the lighting along that corridor there are banner poles that used to be available for aesthetic improvements. There's a proposed adjustment to the size of that easement, due to a cylindrical pillar that is now going to be smack dab in the middle of the old easement.

[62:15] So that's how the the applicant has responded, because originally the easement was going to stay the same with the cylindrical pillar going in the middle of it, and the planning board's response was, there needs to be some reasonable accommodation. and so the easement is getting a little bit bigger to make sure that the public continues to have access a lot of those comments. We certainly wanted to make sure that there's good way finding for the public as they're navigating this easement. We haven't seen the lighting proposal yet, but that will be coming. Up till now. Cajun has been responsible for maintaining the lighting. We have not been doing a great job of that, because vehicles that go through there take those light pulls out way too frequently. So we're really looking forward to having St. Julian formalize this space and have their own provided lighting, which reduces our long term maintenance obligations for that space.

[63:14] Some other elements to consider is with the increased use on the civic pad that's being proposed. That means there's going to be more vertical movement in through the garage that Cajun is responsible for in the stairs and the elevators. So when you're thinking about an owner's association, there's a use assessment to understand there are multiple owners who's using what part of the property more, and that determines how much the split should be among maintenance costs for for those stairways, for those elevators and those other uses. So once we have the assuming this project is approved and the thing is built. We are going to want to engage with the Saint Julian to take a look at. If there needs to be any adjustment in the the

[64:09] use percentages for the shared common elements that will just maybe the long term use or maintenance of those St. Julian gets allocated a certain number that the city gets more right. But now that they've got a building above it exactly, we want to make sure that Cajun is not, you know, being burdened on unduly because of the increase in development on top of each other. How cool is that like, what's the current capacity of the garage in terms of? Because won't it actually increase revenue per agent, like? Sure, likely. Yes, yeah. There's plenty of capacity. It's probably it's our largest garage. Yeah, it's actually bigger than this garage and number of spaces. And probably the lowest, or if not one of the lowest utilized garages as a percentage of spaces available.

[65:11] So the garages were built based on modeling the build out of downtown. So it's natural that they're not all we pull because they're built to accommodate future uses, such as a possible civic use development. So that's why the garage has so much capacity. And so we'll look forward to having that. And so generally, you don't think this underground ones being big. And here you could be like, oh, that's a big building. There's gonna be a spy in there somewhere. Yeah, so yeah, certainly. Anticipating a higher utilization of the garage with this development which will translate them. Yeah.

[66:00] So yeah, in in advance of all this, we're looking at doing a stair reconstruction. So the stairs on the north side of the civic use pad are particularly bad shape. We have stairs on the north side of the St. Julian as well, next to the elevator. So this is right off of walnut. They're both in need of reconstruction. We want to take advantage of if and when this project gets approved. and when they're having a lot of wild construction occurring. With that we want to take advantage of that and get not just the stairs done, but a number of other capital projects you'll recall. We've been working to repair concrete between the 1st and second levels of the underground parking. That's partially why we wanted to make sure we got this traffic put in, is all the concrete work that we've already done. We want to try to protect that as much as we can. We also want to minimize any additional concrete deterioration that's been happening for 20 years, and while their construction is going on we want to get in there and do the rest of the concrete repair.

[67:11] So that. you know. find ourselves in a situation, and with the building with more uses on top of the garage, Loud work will be even more challenging to get done. So that's our current plan. And Christine is is leading that with our our team and our capital improvement contractor and our maintenance staff. So we're working to make sure. So those are the things that we've been taking into consideration, representing you all as a Downtown Management Commission, and how the the Cajun responsibilities are shifting as a result of this proposal. And hopefully you saw those reflected adequately in these plans, and the memo. If you are feeling like we've missed something, there is still time to provide comment. We want to just make sure that that we daylight some of the key considerations in this work before

[68:13] on page 80 it talked about how this is for a 35 year term. What happens after 35 years to the civic space. Let me get to page 80. The civic pad is owned by St. Julian, and the green means anticipated. The pad would be leased to the civic uses for 35 year term the right to lease the civic pad was agreed to expire. so this might the well documents together now. So this is is the 3rd page went after the big pages. Does it look like? Well, and so this is the thing is, it might be.

[69:01] This is atypical for our can I see it on your screen? Yeah, I'm gonna stop sharing. You can see where it's in that paragraph after the bumper red. So there's just one sentence that says this is at least for right 5 years. So that's if there had been a civic use identifying other than you know what we have identified as a the right to give local nonprofits access to volume space. That is what that's associated with whatever the civic use is going to be. So Saint Julian technically onto all the airspace but with the civic use requirement of the original development, the city, and 20 years to identify what that civic use would be.

[70:09] Whether it's going to be a children's museum or another sort of nonprofit, you know anybody come up with resources to develop that space would be able to to have a 35 year at least 40 space whatever it is. Unfortunately, that's that never happened. No, there was no development that came in. for that. So is this the difference between when it technically expired to kind of what we get now. But so is it internally going to be this kind of civic use space, or is like they could really beg on this in here and be like, oh, it's now there's the terms of the contract. The only 19 contract determines the the civic benefit.

[71:02] But if that's a vendor. So that is the whatever the term of that contract is is what how long they have that benefit? So it's not necessarily that. 35 years. What I'm thinking that this 35 years is more. In a way, I still don't know the answer that when, how long do we get to have this as reduced rate, for I like to look at the terms of that contract. Let's see. And do we know, like I feel like it sort of says that they got a discounted price. But do we know if the call competes to market rate for other things like just because it's discounted doesn't mean it's affordable for nonprofits, like, I'm just reading about like they can charge to use the warming kitchen like. is it one of those pretty affordable? Yeah, Matt, do you have any additional context on how we're applying the because we have the same arrangement with limelight hotel

[72:06] on the hill, so as far as the local nonprofits having access affordable access to ballroom space. so the question, Matt was. how long does that exist for that reduction in price for. and not necessarily in time with it with them. So that is one question. The other question is. how do we determine what? Affordable? Yes, yeah, because it's all completed and everything. Do they just say Julian just owns it. Learn. Steve. Julian will own the building. They they already do. They've always owned this. Yeah. Yeah. It's the how long does the civic benefit exists? Only required to do this discounted rates for a certain amount of time, because that's a city requirement for all new circuit, though.

[73:06] but otherwise they, you know. So we'll make note of these questions, because for whatever reason, I'm not seeing that maybe not involved. I had a second question with it more directly in line with what we're doing that easement area with the pole and everything. you know. It is relatively trafficked, and even in the pictures of like people walking their bike. Is there a ramp like, I know the stairs? Is there a ramp right there, too, for people to. Yes, okay. And there's an Ada right? So not a not a cycle. That's not great for bikes. Right? Yes, 100. It's a hundred 80 degree turn, and not all poles, as I remembered. which, on one hand, though, is good cause like that, is so narrow I don't. I'm concerned about bikes zooming through there, and it's helpful that there's not a really good

[74:02] way to get down the stairs and that ramp on bike. So in a way that mitigate some of the issue concerns that I had with. If now it's so open that bikes can get through their fine. But like. I'm kind of glad that you can't. There's no budget. We're lives. Yeah. those things would be like awesome jobs. Yeah. And that's the there's no proposed change to those to the current access or North South circulation for bikes and pets and others. Do we know how optional the bridge is amazing? That was bridges not, is not? That was the original proposal. That's more. The context of the evolution over time is not included. Oh, between the 2 buildings across. Okay.

[75:03] presuming, that's what you meant. I mean, even here it says you have to lose their employees to start alcohol at 2.5 times the minimum wage for attention, please. So in the agreement that I was referring to is attachment may. So whatever whatever that's that's what outlines all of the arrangement, there's no. let's see. So I would presume that this agreement is in perpetuity attached to as long as that uses there. This is an agreement for the person. So no determination would be my current understanding. That is not figured out. That is not. Can you just confirm that? Because that's okay.

[76:01] big deal, that's a big assumption. So did someone else, I think, getting to your question, Erica, a little bit like, did some other body in the city like assess whether the rates presented were considered affordable. And is there some framework, or is it just like putting the word healthy? It's not like. So this was all arranged so when the clock was ticking, when our 20, when the city's 20 years was about up. This was a arrangement with lawyers on both sides of an agreement that they can come to to maintain some sense of civic use of the Saint Julian's right to redevelop their property. Yeah, I like the concept. I'm just curious what the basis of the rights were, or if that was part of the negotiation. and like the financial models and stuff. certainly. And so we'll get. Is there another example of? Is there another civic use setting that you could met for events? I'm trying to think

[77:08] for nonprofits. I'm trying to think. The only one that might be similar is Mackey auditorium. We have a range of people who participated in collaboration. but it's it's a very different arrangement. There's not a lot of benchmarks people right? Exactly meeting it. Is there one group I'm mine out 92. It talks about all the Tdm plan elements, and I didn't see anything about he got forsaken lines so mentioned there whatsoever oops. So the we have not seen lime as a separate private entity. Outside of

[78:06] private developer. So I don't know that we've seen private developers saying, Hey, we're gonna put in the land group. do it again. Okay. some people don't. Some people do. I think they're. I'm not sure where the lime groves are in walnut current. because it talks about the cycle. That's when V cycle is mentioned in here. On again. This is my 1, 92. It's Tdm. Toolkit element. It's table one of 900 Walnut proposed. It's got a yellow bar at the top of this. Looks like that. It was where I was coalescing 2 documents. So B cycle is mentioned in here. So that's where.

[79:00] Well, this is the Tdm plan that was developed with the original proposal for the parcel. Some. This is dated. We're not assuming much overlap between lines, scooters. so we can certainly does not manage the Tdm plans for developments. It's all handled through transportation mobility. We can follow up with them and see if they're asking for sweeter related elements in those plans. Did you get the different demographic? As though I think of it? Maybe I'm not aware but hotel visitors we're talking about how to get up and down, but the hotel visitors like do rent a lot of like the B cycle is a very touristy thing, or I think the population, as I understand, of blind spirits, is more the student population

[80:01] and not like the the Saint Julian. It's just weird that it's not yeah it, because that's what for downtown mobility. That is one of the things we've been tasked with this deal with them. And it's not even mentioned as an option. Yeah. because it's a it's a private, and it's like, you know, including enterprise rent a car as part of your Tm proposal. and submit it. They have like a contract. And the contract today. So you're gonna design infrastructure. That is important to note that there that as part of the development, more bike parking is going to be located within Kg space in the down in the intergraph garage, not impacting any existing parking spaces, but think they're also creating secure by clicking.

[81:07] So do you need any? What other feedback do you need from us? It it's really just a daylighting exercise. So wanted to make sure that you're all aware considerations, questions back on some of these other components. It's not consequential to the development, but certainly important to make sure. It's clear on some of the benefits and anticipated outcomes. As long as you don't have any additional questions around agent specific impacts, and it all feels like your which your responsibilities have been adequately represented by Staff. and how we navigated the change in the easement, the way finding how to make sure that that pedestrian way works as well, or, if not better, than what currently works. Maybe from a pedestrian point of view.

[82:04] there's garbage thing. It's like, right there it is 100% we're talking about key in the garages. Far worse walking by us. Yeah. never even walked that direction. I don't even know you could frankly like these little shortcuts that go up there and then the one yeah, we can pass that comment on and see if they can make sure we don't have any leverage for smells. Approaching on easements, but it doesn't mean that the it has come up before, so I'm not sure if they're proposing a ways to mitigate that but we can certainly share that all right. Moving ahead. Our next item, Sam Bromberg is here to talk about a kickoff for our parking product analysis week. It's been going on. Been doing a ton of work in the garages to to make them work better for existing customers. We also want to be thinking about

[83:16] how our change in technology, for, like metropolis and for our conversion from the T 2, permitting system to the teams permitting system allows to look at all of our products in a different way. And identify different ways, we can better serve existing or future customers. So Sam's been working with the the team. On working to identify what is, what are some problems we want to solve. And some strategies that we can employ to both optimize these aren't the only objectives we want to optimize the space that we have available. For parking and access related needs. And also think about, how do we make sure that we're maintaining revenue sources and things like that to take care of what we have. So with that I'll hand it over to Sam for her presentation. There was another memo, of course.

[84:16] Oh, yes, I kind of reset it. But yes, so we're continuing to do our capital projects to get all of our garages up to a state of good repair. We will be tackling the 1,100 spruce garage anticipated next year, and then moving it to the St. Julian as we discussed already. And again, we want to be anticipating the key to these needs as well as we're making all these capital improvements. How do we also make improvements to our operations, our product offerings, the best reflected needs of today as opposed to Pre Covid. So I'm Sam Brownberg for those who are new. I'm a senior project manager with community vitality that focus on the access for all pillar.

[85:05] These are some of our downtown parking options. I wanted to put them on a little map so that you can see them all together. The largest portion of the gauged assets are are 6 mixed. Use parking garages and one surface lot, which is the spruce lot in purple. So we have 5 garages that offer both hourly and permit parking. Those are orange. We've got the permit only Trinity garage, which is not on the map, but I've kind of pointed to it in the Reds. You can see where it is. we've got 3 general fund owned permit only surface lots along 14th Street, also known as the East Bookend lots purple. They're kind of on the right side and purple there and then, of course, the civic area municipal lots which provide hourly parking as well as space for city boulder employees. So that's kind of the ecosystem in terms of where things are located.

[86:08] And then this is the ecosystem in terms of current products. This was also in the memo, so I won't go over it too much in depth. But essentially, we've got monthly permits. And then we've got more kind of like hourly daily type of rates. We've also done a little bit of market research to understand. You know, the local landscape in which we're operating. To summarize. We're our permit pricing is pretty significantly below the market rate, which is like 200 to 230, and we're at 1 65. So we're pretty. We're pretty below that for for hourly pricing we're not too far below, we definitely are, but not as not as significantly as the current pricing also current state

[87:00] wayfinding. We do have some of these static signs throughout the downtown area which are meant to guide Parkers to the different options that we have. We also have the brand new digital displays that were installed last year. Some of you will call those, and they show like where they're how many spaces are available, and then they've got other variable messaging there. But since these signs were installed, which was a while ago, you can tell by the condition of some of them. There was one on the hill that was like completely washed up by the sun. They haven't been looked at in a while, so traffic patterns may have changed since they were installed utilization trends. This was my interactive slide. Some of this was in the memo. So if you did your homework? You'll be able to answer these questions really easily. But my 1st question is multiple choice, and it's when do you think the downtown garages and lots are most utilized. A is weekend A is weekdays. B is weekends and C is wildcard.

[88:10] Yeah, that was the shipping. Awesome. Yes, which garages do you think are the least utilized? The Rtd one, yeah. Rtd, for sure, is like the number one least utilized. Do you ever think that's the? Have you ever done data to figure out why, like, I'm curious that people assume Rtds only, for if you're taking the bus, and if the Saint Julian one is only if you're staying at the hotel like, I just wonder if people yeah, I think it might be the loss themselves, too. You know, patient. My favorite loss is the we're selling a lot of people. Yeah, that's a, it's a really great question. And it would be an interesting assumption to test. I think that would be a really hard question to answer. Because how do you understand why people aren't using things? You'd have to ask them. And I think there's definitely

[89:14] a lack of understanding amongst the public of like where our garages are and like what they can use and can't use. So that's something that I'll talk about, and I love to talk more about that, because, like, I don't use a person. I think I I avoid lots in general, but I think a lot of public does, because we have great on street parking super easy, convenient. But then, if I'm going to use a lot, I'm going to go to the lots that I like and avoid lots that I don't like because they're dark. They're smelly. They're inconvenient. But I was just thinking like, how do we turn? And I think this is a separate conversation. But how do we turn that lot into a desirable lot, I think, connects back to like. Well, why would you even use that lot? Maybe it's like the farmers market. But then you don't realize you should park there.

[90:05] and so like that there's not like an obvious destination from that lot, because it's still kind of far away from it's like inconvenient to park there. Yeah, you're going to pearl. We almost certainly do get farmers market utilization. Yeah, that lot, because you'll you'll see in in some of my next slides. Yeah, like the weekends are way more utilized. The Rtd garage is not exactly the farmers market lot, but like it's cheaper than boulder high the closest class. It's like right over there. Do you need a sign at the boulder high lot like, or park at the city block? Go over there? Well, you know, we updated wayfinding. That's something that we could look at is like, you know, where is traffic coming from? Where is it going to? And then putting signs along that route that to make sure that we're guiding people to. Yeah, the resources that we have

[91:03] no. One of our sorry to drive in our customer service supervisor was a lot attendant for a long time, and she said that a lot of folks will jump into the square around downtown at Spruce and hit the lot first, st because that's the 1st one you come to. Then they'll go over to the Spruce parking garage. Then the next one that you run into is Randall's, and if you keep turning left. you ignore the Rtd garage, likely, because people don't know that it's not a park and ride, and then you hit 1,500 pearl. and the Saint Julian is way is just outside of that. So yeah, as we look at traffic patterns, it's really interesting to see the way human brains work. And then my last one price is right. If anyone can guess the longest, the length of the longest. Wait list for our East bookend lots. This was in the memo, but

[92:01] if you want to, just wanna throw out a number, and then I'll tell you the answer. A year and a half 2 years. Oh, no number of people waiting to get a permit. Oh. 400 not working. It's 60 that each of those lots has, like over 60 people. Those were. Let me go back to the slide. These, can you see? My, so these are permit? Only right now. Yeah, it's like. It's like 70 people or 65 people. We've had over 60 people for like many years, like, there's been no budget, not all the lots, just those 3. So and interestingly, Trinity, the Trinity Garage, which is also permanently, which was my little Red Arrow. We only have sold 19 permits. We have 52 that we can sell.

[93:11] So. But that's pretty new, right? That it became a city situation. It's a church, right? Yeah, it's underneath it. Affordable housing, senior affordable housing. Yeah. And the church is something. But I think we want something south side of Canyon. But we're talking about the purple ones are. Yeah, there's all these businesses and stuff down there. No parking. Yeah. Fun. Fact. Just as of today we may have somebody who's gonna scoop up all of the Trinity permits. So that's exciting. That's okay. It's not this was just a little bit of data to help. You understand the utilization of the garages. The top one is weekdays and the bottom one is weekends. This is 1,100 spruce, which is one of our more utilized garages, most the most utilized garage, and then.

[94:04] Well, 1,400 well known as the Rtd garage. By comparison. You can see weekdays. It's like kind of flatlined weekends. We've got a spike, and that's because of that. Farmers. Market utilization looks likely. So to summarize. You know, some of the challenges that I've described so far, supply and demand is definitely a challenge that we have with the mismatch in parking availability and the demand for that travel patterns changed when parking is most in demand in the garages. It's free. And it's not consistent across all of our assets and over time, you know, with some lots having super long wait lists and some being undersold. The other thing that we've had requests for is for residential permits for Cajun residents, which is not something that we've entertained in the past.

[95:01] Another challenge is public perception. We've talked a lot about this one. There's a perception that parking in Boulder is challenging like everybody. A lot of a lot of them understand that. They say they want like they want to pull right into the place. They want to go and have a spot she's like waiting for them. Yeah, I just I don't know. I just I also just don't think next door is, it's just like where people go to complain. So it's just not. I don't know if that's representative. But in a general population. Well, and we also did that gateless survey earlier. there's also there's also the perception that the garages aren't safe. So that's another public perception, I think. Yeah, that, like it was, has there been cars broken into in the garage we had like 5 or 6. Really, really. do you park at Randall? I'm like a Randall guy.

[96:11] mostly in the rainbow part of the direction. So I would say that we have had some. you know. Some instances. It's mostly in the Randall but no. no significant trends that we haven't ever looked. I can second. That it would end up on my plate of nightmares. and I don't spend a whole lot of time dealing with break-ins. Right. And that's why we, we consider it to be like a public issue as opposed to like an actual safety issue, might have to pay $4 75, which we know you can afford. You could just go to the garage and not pay. I I think that's the thing that I'm curious about like

[97:00] the public. Maybe they're just going on this route. They're just like wandering in their cars. They don't see spots. They don't know where to go. Like. yeah, I just, there's a lot of parking in boulder people still park there. Weird. Yeah. Or do you park on the street? This could be an easy spot like if you forgot to put like, add money to your meter, you're gonna get a ticket, and then I think people have a perception of like being angry at. That's why I'm always like going a lot. You can stay as long as you want. You never get a ticket right? Good marketing sense. Yeah? And then our 3rd sort of challenge areas are climate initiatives. So this is, you know, a city policy, right? How can we contribute 2 climate initiatives by supporting multimodal travel both to and in the district. So I put this as sort of a challenge area. This, you know, how can we? How can we contribute to that goal? So. But we've come up with some objectives for this project to try and accomplish the highest and best use of the Cajun assets.

[98:07] And we are looking for feedback on these, but we'll we'll hold off on the feedback until the end and back to the slide. These are in the memo as well, but they are, support. All loads of transportation to downtown. manage parking, demand across the district. maintain safe, accessible, and activated district assets. create a consistent parking experience across boulder. support the park, once philosophy and support the downtown economy. So these are our objectives very high level, you know. What could we accomplish? Park once, park once, and then walk, you know, so that you're not so if someone comes downtown and they choose to drive. We want to encourage them to like Park once in a garage, and then take another form of travel within downtown. So they're not like driving to their next destination downtown. There.

[99:04] there may be taking a B cycle, taking a lion scooter walking. picking the phone. That's the the park once. If you do need to drive just Park. Once on that. use another mode. Condon. I've always yeah the second time. Focus group one, but like parks at one side of Pearl Street and drives through the other. Do it all the time. because I'm not gonna like, take my children on the joint suit or anything. I've never walk 3 blocks. Well, like if you have an errand, and you're like picking stuff up, and it's heavy, and I don't know. I mean. Well, there we are, focus group of 2. I've never done it. They can barely walk all the way down. I don't think that many people do that, though. Like if you're disabled, or if you have kids that have to walk, you can't get. But I guess, what have you got? Is it part

[100:04] moving the car around a lot, something that happens. We have the Tibu trains I could take out. I have no doubt that it happens, and I'd like for it to happen. It's just one of the ways that we could contribute to. Yeah. exactly. So we've developed a couple of options to the end of achieving those objectives that we've just outlined, and those include some short medium and long term options for us to explore. So and these these options, we're also hoping to solicit some feedback from you all on as well to understand kind of what your preferences are so to support almost the transportation downtown. Something that we could explore would be additional multimodal benefits for Cajun employees. That's more of an employee focus

[101:05] to manage parking demand across the district. We could update our way. Binding signage, which you saw was a little bit outdated. We could think about some creative marketing approaches that we could implement that could include a lot of different approaches to try and get a little bit more education into the community about where the resources are in terms of parking, and then we could also consider pricing adjustments to help manage, supply and demand and redistribute that across our assets. to maintain safe, accessible and activated district assets. We could we already plan to implement some safety improvements in the garages. So that will certainly help And then, also, you know, to identify customer needs that aren't currently being met by our assets. What? Something like residential parking premise which might activate the garages at a different time of day than they're being activated now, people in there at different times might help with that perception of safety.

[102:15] create a consistent parking experience across boulder. Currently parking is paid on Street Monday through Saturday before, in the garages, on Saturdays and Sundays, you know. Could we figure out a way to have a more consistent experience? No matter where you're parking boulder. support the park once philosophy. So we know people still need to drive, so let's encourage them. If they do need to drive to Just Park once. Just talk about that one support the downtown economy. And this is, you know, how could we consider ways to support small businesses which could include promoting. You know, our affordable commercial pro program to property owners and small businesses and other types of initiatives.

[103:05] In terms of our staff recommendations is our short term option. Most of the other options that we started to talk about could be incorporated into the 2025 to 2027 work plans depending on. You know how Dmc. Is feeling about some of them, but this is an option that we can implement sooner, because we are slightly under market rate for all of our current pricing. So our recommendation is to explore some increases in the downtown garages and the surface logs, but not necessarily the Kennedy garage, because that's currently a transition. Maybe so these are some gradual increases in pricing over the next few years to try and get a little closer to that market rate. and address some of the supply and demand issues. Something of note is that parking pricing in the Us. Is a little fairly inelastic, which means, if prices rise, we're probably not going to see a decrease in demand just because of, you know, there's not a lot of other places for people to go. So we don't anticipate that these pricing changes will create a huge drop in demand, or really any significant change in demand for them.

[104:25] Yeah, sure. with my philosophy is, government shouldn't compete with private, and that if we're this underpriced and it's inelastic, there's like all these things that say get higher, faster. Why, I would propose going getting the market rate. Just boom. There's less confusion because the rates are changing, that causes confusion for people. It's like the rates changing year after year. Is there an issue with just going from 1 65 to 1 80 stuff like that?

[105:04] So we do have a number of very large customers who are major property owners in the downtown. So some of our constituents that don't pay our salary. So what you know, somebody who might own a few parking permits larger increase doesn't affect their overall bottom line, and in the budgeting process as much as somebody who owns hundreds. Do we know how many is probably. Well, actually, I don't. That was sorry that so we have. We do have some property management companies. Significant number. So what might seem small. But we're 60 people on the waiting list. That's a surface loss. And you will see that you know what we recommend for the surface lots is a per is. This is a higher. So underneath the price I put like the percentage increase year over year, so that you could see

[106:07] historically, we've only increased pricing every other year. So we're my suggestion was, you know. Let's increase prices over 3 years every year, and it's a slightly higher increase for the surface lots than it is, for you know the my philosophy is a little bit different, like the business owners are being pushed. And now, like just, I talked about all the Excel energy stuff that's probably going to be really challenging for businesses. How do we get them to actually get their employees to drive to parking lots? That will be some sort of like low price because of volume sort of arrangement. And then how do we increase pricing for the general public. who is actually, I think, more price and elastic than we think. They just want convenience, they want cleanliness, they want safety. I I don't think people in Boulder are as price sensitive about parking, because they'll park in the

[107:03] you know, as convenient as possible pay a lot higher amount. They're just not thinking about those dollars and cents as much. Maybe we don't have weekends free all the time, or maybe we like start making up the lost revenue elsewhere. But I I just not that I'm a business owner, but I do feel like that's gonna affect their bottom line and make downtown businesses less viable, which we hear that a lot. Yeah, if if they're the main permit holders which just sounds like they are. it adds so sometimes a lot of times actually, parking permits are included in the lease. So yeah, it's not. It's not as direct, but still with the triple net structure in our downtown. The increased expenses get translated onto the tenants one way or another. and so just trying to be thoughtful and careful with that. Yeah, we have a lot of low margin

[108:04] like, where like, you think about that more. And so that's been our strategy is, how do we balance the the need to to make sure that we're not undercutting market? because that's that's not good territory to be in? But we also don't want to create a unplanned, significant financial burden or any of our customers that currently have. We can also get rid of the $3, I mean, that was also an experiment of I know I like proposed it back in the day, but it just also figuring out where we make up for it. Right? Yeah. And that's certainly part of the options we want to explore. And the feedback that we're looking for is like, where is the appetite for exploring some of those different pricing. potential, pricing changes. Yeah, I also would love to bring up that

[109:01] When I've gone to meetings with Dvp. A lot of business owners are are concerned that because there's no free parking, that's why people aren't coming to their businesses. So there is an impact on businesses, or at least perception. That community members aren't going downtown because parking is expensive. But again, perception versus reality, we have some exploration to do. Didn't you look into the Saturday thing? Isn't that been discussed like charging again on Saturdays? That was, that's an option that we can consider, and if that's a direction that the Dmc. Would like us to explore. we can do that between now and November and back in November and present on. You know. What would that look like? What does that mean. and what revenue does that generate? And then how can we reinvest that? And some of the other options that we're looking even. I feel like, if you took just based on pedestrian count, like what is the slowest day of the week like, say Tuesday or Wednesday. Maybe if that was a free day and kind of shifting like, so that locals maybe feel more like. That's the day that I am available to go, whereas I feel like weekends

[110:22] and Mondays are primarily tourists. and they're gonna pay, no matter what, because they're just prepared to pay. But I feel like. or something else we could consider is if we're going to charge on Saturdays like, could we maybe lower the cost of the 1st hour of parking a little bit more to bring it more in line with the on street rate for that more consistent experience for us, yeah, or like, what else could we do? Could we create some creative marketing approaches that maybe validate parking for specific user groups on specific days, you know, to encourage them to come downtown on those lower utilized days like Mondays, are very underutilized

[111:08] with the two-two of you on listening. Would that be something? Well, maybe I should ask you more. But how would validation work so that they would drive people to stores or restaurants more because you validate? How would that work? Would that just be free then, because it's validated, or with the restaurant, or just the yeah, we have to pay. And I mean, just for the record I park in the neighborhood. I've in 17 years. I've never paid to park on top. I'm not gonna do that, and the amount of money I've saved is like outrageous, and I don't mind the walk, and I don't mind the hunt. And then Saturdays and Sundays I parked for free. But even I'm like I'd give it up. cause I can't imagine. I mean, I'm 1 person right. I can imagine the revenue that I see of like tourists that are parking for free, who probably don't even know it's free and probably pull out. And they're like, well, I mean, especially now, the metropolis. I think it's really easy to forget whether or not you got a bill

[112:00] so, and sometimes the sign says, parking screens and then support. But so I don't want us to get too far into the tinker. The decisions that we make about parking for short term visitors on weekdays has an impact for businesses who are paying for permits for employees from Monday through Friday. So just there's a there's a kind of a domino effect. So we want to be really careful about what adjustments we can do right now as we contemplate, maybe some bigger picture initiatives that could help us solve some of these problems associated with getting locals to come downtown more often. How do we get weekday workers to to come to the office more often? It is all certainly interactive. Come down to park in the garage like. I mean, we're not gonna change habits with garage marketing. We're just gonna make sure people park there.

[113:00] Well, on street parking is significantly more expensive than garage parking or well, I don't think we're gonna like go downtown on Monday, I mean, at least. No, but we might be able to change perception about accessing boulder. And I think that's where the great changes is like when people don't no longer have that perception that it's so challenging to get there. Maybe they're more likely to come come here. Right question is is about the metropolis like shadow of my my older father and my babysitter. Both had like a very bad incident where they got these, and they tried to write back. And I I wonder also if there's a shadow of the people who are like I talked to customer service. I didn't know about it. They got fees. I'm just never doing it again. And there there are a lot of people, you know, the next door. We see that they've one bad experience. They never return. And I I was kind of thinking about like how much of the bad. I have one bad experience that the garage feels like urine. It's really dark. I feel scared. It's at night, or whatever it is like. This perception issue. And

[114:08] yeah, like, how much of this is just, it's more about not about pricing just about perception and getting people there and getting people to go back who had one bad experience like I'd have to know. It's going to be different one way we solve the problem. If it always has a cost. Then the people who complain that they get charged, not registering for 3 days. Well, I do think we should have refunded all those people, those fees who like mistakenly left, and I think I didn't hear that happen, and I haven't escalated. That was just like a long time ago. But there are still very angry people about just one incident I'm like, just give it up. It's 20 bucks. But you know people well, we have a we have a policy where, if it's your 1st time violation, and you can test it. As long as you register for the system, they'll waive. The fee.

[115:01] Is that always been the case. That's been the case since we launched. Yeah, I think people know. Confused general confusion. Yeah. yeah, 2024. Yeah. So I'm I'm more interested in the marketing campaigns more than the pricing, but I also see the pricing could generate revenue to do more marketing and and to reinvest in making the garages better. Sometimes they're expensive to maintain and to keep nice. So if we need to fund that through an increase, then I would support them. Looking into that. Have you anything to say about paying on weekends and retailers, and like paying to park on the weekends versus? Not because, yeah, it's good. You're gonna come anyways to a degree. You know, I don't know that like a buck 25 is gonna I have a lot to say on this topic, so I will try to preserve my speech.

[116:03] But I will say in general, I think that Boulder has one of the most user friendly parking experiences that I've encountered, not just in the State, but in other States as well. I think it would be a really big mistake to get rid of street parking weekends, because that even if you don't use it, it sends the message that we are a community that wants people. So I would recommend. I know it's not my purview to say this, but keeping the free weekends is really critical. And I think that I can't really said it. But the community is probably less price, sensitive and more convenience focused. That's absolutely true. I agree with that. Don't know. I mean again, focus group of one. But when I attend the park. It's in the park like I have hacks, places that I know where to park and stuff. But I mean, like, you gotta make it really easy, and I think it seems like the perception is the reality. So

[117:05] if there's already a negative perception, then for you to sort of take away one of them Perks that you have. I think it's gonna only create more pains. And you know. upside, especially if you're saying that you know, people are going downtown, but you know I don't know. They're not always going. I mean, you just gotta make it easy for people who want to be downtown. Well, maybe the $3 after 3, right? And I think what we're looking for today is not necessarily like, what do we want to do because we haven't developed those recommendations. It's more just like, what what is the appetite for us to explore? And pricing changes could be one of those things. This is our our short term option. So I don't want to get too far past this, but I will quickly. Yeah, let me go to next steps, and then I've got my questions for the Dmc slide. So I've laid it all out for you guys. So then.

[118:00] in terms of next step. steps kind of depending on some of the feedback that I hear. We'll be putting together more of a formal project schedule which we'll bring back to you in November, so you can see, you know, based on the things that are interesting. How can we start working on them? Over time? And then, if there is approval for the pricing changes that we're proposed by staff with permits we can implement them as soon as the 2025 calendar year. So sorry going back to that. That pricing we just had the market rates, you mean. or the market research, or the or are the Comps. the cops? Yeah, let me go back to that. do they have wait lists? I don't know. I think so. I guess that'd be interesting just to see if there's a comparison. As we look at rates for that. It's just like you have a wait list, too. There used to always be a wait list.

[119:09] And then people just aren't. I mean correlating with upstairs office space being vacant. Yeah, this is one more data point, just as we're like, what kind of rate changes concept waiting list. Yeah, I do see. refer to your the permit seem like an easy way to increase pricing. But I I also just feel like the downstream implications on business owners. If that's not a legitimate concern. If you all don't feel like it is, and you hear most of that feedback. then I would defer to you. But I also think the public is less price sensitive than we think. Maybe not 3. But about raising rates. I think most most permit holders expect that prices are gonna go up some year over year. That's sort of an expectation for most people. So I'm not anticipating the changes that we've suggested are pretty mild. All things considered, like, we're not suggesting any crazy price jumps.

[120:11] So you think it'll be accept and fine. Yeah, okay. so these are, these are the questions that we have for for Dmc. I hope we've addressed all of your questions about the existing conditions, but if we haven't, I can address them. we'd like feedback on our identified objectives for the caged assets. I can go back to that slide if that's helpful. And to understand, if there's any that you aren't seeing that you'd like us to add in terms of sort of the high level project objectives, and then, of course, feedback on any of the recommended mechanisms that I've talked about to meet those objectives

[121:07] also want to do a time check. We're at 6 o'clock, and so I feel like we've gotten a lot of great feedback already that we can certainly incorporate into our next step. If there's anything else you want to share, based on the memo. Happy to to entertain as well. I'll I'll just say the part. Once. Mentality, I think, are landmarking of our assets is a good step in that. you know. Just had a bunch of family in town. And being able to say, Oh, it's right by this thing, or like this little alleyway mural going from the. It's currently like. if we continued landmarking form, I think that makes it easier for people to just kind of know where they are in relation to everything that we're trying to get them to walk to back to things like that

[122:14] don't know if we were discussing also good! That can be put in a favor sign on Rtd, so people know that it's not. Rtd. don't know. Yeah. And if we could do more, but it costs money. So okay. so the rest of the rest of these we can either quick update and also maybe if there's anything that we can easily move to the next agenda as well. Just

[123:06] but that I'll pass on to you for a quick update on where we're at with council on the commercial areas. Great! I'll try and do this under 3 min. so we brought you a couple of times the updates on the Improvement district analysis, and just a reminder. That is the vision and the mechanisms by which we can achieve that vision for general improvement districts. We have gone through a couple of changes in scope. And that's been further informed by the conversation with Council at their meeting last week. and so wanted to give you an update that essentially, we've broken apart what we've been talking about with the district analysis into near term and long. And so we're going to take a look at immediately. What changes can be made in efficiency and governance for general improvement districts, including Kg.

[124:02] right now, in order to achieve immediate goals that are already established, and we're really keeping an eye on a deadline of next May to analyze and come up with recommendations on that Then, as far as the long term visioning goes. That was part of the scope originally that we are now calling the boulder commercial areas blueprint, taking a look at it as more of a strategic document that springs out of the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan update which will be kicking off here, I think, next month. So the idea is to take full advantage of the Comp plan update and all of the questions we're going to be asking about commercial areas, the connections, the quality of life, the governance, the efficiency. We're taking a look at all of that with the Comp plan on a very large scale. Then from that do the specific analysis engagement that we need to understand what our priorities and vision are going to be for downtown over the long term.

[125:02] And then what type of governance, tools, improvement, district tools. We're going to need to achieve that. So there's a lot of detail on that. We'll have a lot of conversations coming up. We still have you on the hook to help us out with this. Thank you very much. And we'll be providing updates pretty much at every meeting. I'm pretty certain. As these things roll along. But I'll answer any questions you have but just summarize. The short term is coming up next the district. Analysis is going to look at a near term for what to do. So so I'm happy to answer any questions you have, or if you think of anything, reach out, and I'll I'll make sure. Set aside time. Sit down and walk through anything coming up. Thanks, Matt. Next we have 2 quick Updates from Regan. Thanks, Chris, so I do have a Powerpoint prepared for affordable commercial, but I promise I can fly through it.

[126:06] So let me share my screen and then the commutify update will be very brief as well. Okay, can you all see that? Yep. great I'm just gonna jump right in. So I'll just emphasize the purpose of this work. Well, 1st of all, on September 9.th So last week we launched an affordable commercial Grant pilot program. and the purpose is to help address a gap in the market for more affordable commercial space and increase opportunities for small local businesses to thrive in our commercial areas. So to just kind of go over the basics here grants are available for commercial property owners to renovate.

[127:04] expand, improve, existing vacant commercial space. And the requirement is that they then lease that repurposed space to multiple tenants at a below market rate. Total funds available for this grant program is about $850,000, which includes both American Rescue Plan Act funds as well as caged funding. So there is an emphasis on downtown locations. Given that we are using caged funds for this initiative as well. and the grants will be dispersed on a reimbursement basis, meaning we will reimburse the expenses already incurred as opposed to providing all the funding upfront. And awards we, we will award proposals up to $300,000 and awards above the maximum amount may be considered if a proposal exceptionally aligns with or exceeds our established criteria and we will accept proposals for smaller amounts as well.

[128:09] So again, the application was released on September 9.th The deadline is October 7.th I will be convening a review panel to score the applications, but in mid October, from the 8th to the 20, second. with a with decisions being announced at the end of October, and we will enter into agreements with the grantees through the month of November, and just want to emphasize that the American Rescue Plan Acts Act Funds do need to be encumbered by the end of this year and need to be spent by December 2026. Eligibility is I can't see the. If anyone wants to interrupt me. Go ahead. I just can't see there's the wrong. Panel selection. Later in your presentation. Yeah. Yeah.

[129:01] So eligibility requirements. I'll just quickly go through. Each of these eligible projects include regarding the scope include both capital expenditures and initiatives designed to provide rent subsidies to tenants and the projects must be structured to ensure long term, affordability to multiple tenants. The project must be within the city limits of boulder must be a property owner, commercial property managers. or business ventures with legal authority to execute a commercial lease. The projects must have multiple tenants. So think of shared retail or office facilities. Incubator spaces. Similar models like that are eligible for the program. And then capital projects. Any projects that would enhance the space for a tenant. I'm not gonna go into this with too much detail, but the applications will be evaluated based on

[130:06] a local small business focus, impact and feasibility which includes affordability. Is there a clear implementation plan. and then longevity. So just looking at long term affordability, what measures are will be taken to ensure sustained program impact. We will require that any of the grantees submit reporting so quarterly reports. final report and an annual affordability compliance report which details lease rates and tunnel tenant profiles for the prior year. I have the city web page and application link here on the screen. Happy to answer any questions, but I do just want to use this as an opportunity to extend an invite to one Dmc. Commissioner to participate on the review panel. I did reach out ahead of time to commissioner trees about this, but just wanna open up the invitation. During this meeting

[131:07] the Dmc. Commissioner would be a non voting member, but would provide general oversight, expertise, and advice on behalf of the Dmc. So would love to extend that opportunity to you all. I don't know if anyone has particular interest in that, but. No, I have. I would love for you that should be out of it. Like to, I think the more we spread it out, the more. Also we're aware. And I'm really curious about this. And just in terms of a time commitment, it'll likely be about 4 to 5 h in October. So 2 meetings likely no more than an hour, one meeting to go over the review and scoring process, and then another meeting to deliberate on our scores. But we'll be scoring individually, which I imagine will take

[132:06] 2 h or so, depending on how many applications we receive. Has there been you said this, launched on the 9, th I believe. September 9, th yeah. And what's the feedback been so far application. So far there has been a lot of interest. The application itself isn't it'll take some time to fill out, so we have yet to receive applications, but I know of several folks that are planning to apply. So there is a lot of interest, and I've had a lot of conversations with various property owners about the program. Yeah, that's what I was. Gonna ask. how about how many unique property owners are there in occasion, like, I know, there's a lot of. There's a lot of overlap, but there's a lot. There's a lot of big ones. But then there's a lot of small ones, too. Okay? And are you seeing more interest from the big ones to the small ones? Or is that something we'll report on.

[133:10] I'm seeing just based on conversations, a bit of a mix, but happy to report back on that. After the application. Yes. That's good to hear. This is, it's really exciting, because there's been so many ideas about how to repurpose the space. And this is a really cool pilot. So glad that we're involved. Yeah. So I would like to do that. Yep. yes. So we have 2 volunteers. Okay. So both Erica and Justin have raised their hand. Regan. I mean, there's no 2 commissioners are allowed to participate in things, so we might be able to accommodate both of you. So we'll follow up.

[134:03] If that's the case, it's not too great. Yeah, if you can send information about when what that looks like and when that would be exactly that great. Yeah, absolutely. I'll follow up with you both this week. Alright! All right. Last agenda item here. So just want to give a brief update on the boulder clean commute program as a reminder. This is the Tdm program that we launched earlier this year in Caged and Boulder Junction, which encourages companies to fund and participate in more sustainable commuting practices through a financial incentives matching program directed at their employees. So the city will match employer provided funds for their employees who take sustainable trips to and from work and with that, one of the incentives for the employers as a reminder is that they can apply for the State tax credit that provides a 50% tax credit

[135:07] towards dollars spent on sustainable transportation initiatives for their employees. You should have a quarterly report from communify in the meeting packet. It is from quarter 2. So it's a little bit outdated. We have seen more engagement since then. There are approximately 22 employers participating in the program with roughly I think 17 of them are based in Cajun. 1,200 sustainable trips have been logged by 40 employer users. So those are just some Updated statistics for you all, I think, even though we are seeing some level of engagement, we would love to see more. And so this is a pilot. We're evaluating our opportunities and looking ahead, we really want to boost our outreach efforts. The remainder of this year just to raise more awareness of this program

[136:03] talk to employers who might be aware of it, but haven't signed up just to better understand any barriers as to why they're maybe not signing up. But we do want to see this program continue. So in our recommended budget for 2025, we have allocated additional funding for this program. But official City Council approval on that budget won't take place till October 17.th So more to come. But it is in our recommended budget, and just kind of looking to boost our outreach Efforts. One question on the page about all the blue charts or cables I saw remote listed. There is that one of the reimbursed ways is by. I was intrigued with remote being on there versus car and carpool and driving, so are we paying people to stay home. We're not paying people to stay home

[137:01] trying to see what you're looking at, Commissioner. What page is it on. Yeah. Well, that's on my page 4 of 1, 75 for me. paid for and also paid for. Yeah, it's got the 4 at the bottom. So we're not paying folks to work remote because they're not commuting. Of course. commute moderate weekly frequency of each route. That's good. That was my big picture question. So what does it represent? Yeah, that's a large number. I think that's just reporting right? I think it's just the day it might be the I'll have to dive a little deeper into this, but it might just be those who are taking advantage of the program which days they're working remote. Remotely, I may have to dive deeper, and I'm happy to get back to you on that, but I do want to clarify. We're not paying folks who are not commuting to work. So you said that. So this is a pilot, but my sense is that you don't think it's considered successful yet, because of the low

[138:05] engagement. So does that mean that contractually. there's like you'll make a decision that you may be, even if you allocate funds towards this project that you might not continue it, or is. they're an assessment that's gonna happen of. Like. Also, like I, I have a company, we do pilots. We are on the hook for making those pilots successful, or they we have an opt out and contracts. And I I would say, I'm excited about this program, but it just doesn't seem like the reach is successful, and I'm wondering if there's more leverage on communify versus on the city to like help make it more successful. Business. Yeah, no, that's that's a great question. Desk technology like, you know, it. Well, we're having those conversations with them. We are gonna lean on them a little bit more heavily to help with the outreach efforts. I wouldn't say it's not a success. We

[139:05] you know, this just launched in April. So I think it really does boil down to just kind of shifting our outreach efforts. And there's a lot more analysis to be done. We plan on doing conducting in a survey towards the end of the year and just doing more analysis. To better understand is this something that we would want to continue into the future. Now, I I also think that like changing behavior is really difficult, and this is. Product like my products with my company's behavior change product and like getting people to change how they commute is a really challenging thing and leaning into like making that really easy. so I I guess I'm I'm not saying I don't think it's successful, but I also think that it's it's a. It's a hard thing to do. And it's going to take a lot of effort to change people's behavior. Yeah, I guess maybe my big picture question based on what you're saying is, is it actually changing anything? Are we just paying people to do what they're already doing? Yeah, are we? Has there been behavior. Maybe we talk about this separately, Reagan, but like

[140:11] it might just be in my bench, is like having a behavior change company that we founded. That actually does not use financial incentives purposely because they're not effective for a lot of behavior change. people would have already done it. And you're essentially paying them to do what they would already do. But programs that change behavior that use intrinsic motivators, competition, other things like, I'm sure community has a lot of thoughts on this as a company in this space. But I do think it's possible that financial incentives might not be what motivates a lot of people. It could be with a certain population and certain types of behavior. So yeah, I think it's a tough space. It's like an intriguing pilot. But it's hard. Yeah, that's helpful to hear. And I think that those are again things we want to dive deeper into when we do conduct this survey work and increase our outreach. I mean, we want to better understand the folks who are taking advantage of this platform. Are

[141:10] you? Were you already biking and walking to work, to begin with. And now you're just taking advantage of this financial incentive program, or did you actually shift your behavior? So certainly something we wanna dive into more and happy to chat with you. More offline about it, too. That's everything. Thanks, very good day. You. That's good. We're ending 3 min earlier from last meeting. So there's a lot here. I have to go to my daughter, so I need to be adjourned. Yeah, awesome. Thanks, everybody. Thank you.