March 5, 2025 — Environmental Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:31] But it'd be okay. I'm just starting there. Yeah. you're most likely just let us know, like the checks it needs to be.

[1:17] since back and forth, but that if I haven't the additional 4 weeks or some other things together, yeah. I was very happy to give it to you. Do some things specifically, you know, talk to adults, and, you know. get back to some advanced stuff. So. and everyone is different and just don't know. Also, joining tonight.

[2:04] Husband gets some wild emails. Yes, he does. He's still good. What things like I see you gather, and I'll promote you to a panelist. Is that where you want to put. No, that's solid. So research and development Lewisville slash title all right. This wants to flip screens on me. So sorry. Just one second. I'm getting set up ahead of time so that we don't have this issue. Alright.

[3:05] Okay, alright. Well, welcome all All this meeting to order, and we can get started. 1st off I thought, you wanna jump in with the meeting protocols. Sure thing stuck on one screen. Everybody name is heather, Sandin, and I'm serving as your the technical host for tonight's meeting. Thank you for your grace and patience is always struggling with technology. In this room the city is engaged with community members to Co. Create a vision for productive, meaningful, and inclusive civic conversations. This vision supports physical and emotional safety for community members, staff and board members and commission members as well as democracy. For people of all ages, identities lived experiences and political perspectives

[4:12] for more information about decision and the community engagement process. Please visit this website on your screen boulder, colorado.gov. Forward, slash services forward slash, productive hyphen atmospheres. The following are examples of rules of decorum found in the Boulder revised code and other guidelines that support this vision. These will be upheld during this meeting all remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to city business. No participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation against any person, obscenity, racial epithets, and other speech and behavior that disrupts or otherwise impedes the ability to conduct the meeting are prohibited. Participants are required to sign up to speak, using the name they are commonly known by, and individuals must display their whole name before being allowed to speak online. Currently, only audio testimony is permitted.

[5:02] because we do not have registration for open and public comment. Tonight you can indicate you would like to participate by using the raise hand function. The raise hand button is in the participant box which could be found in the menu by hovering over the top or the bottom of your screen, and then clicking on the participant icon. When the box opens, you will see the raise hand button at the bottom. By clicking that button you can indicate that you would like to participate and open a public comment. If you've joined us by phone, you can press Star 9 to raise your hand. Great. Thank you, Heather, and I would love to once again, as I did with our last meeting. Reiterate how little patience I have for bigotry, and if it shows up I don't like no patience. I think I will. I should hope that this keeps getting reiterated as long as it is a prescient issue nationally. with that. I would like to make a motion to approve our minutes for the last meeting. Second. Great, all those in favor.

[6:01] All right. That'll go on through. And then moving on to our discussion items. Jonathan, do you wanna enough? Or do we have looks like we don't have any. Okay? Great. So for the record, Jonathan Cohen, good to see you all or members. I will just tee this up, and I think I'm looking up at my guests on the screen who are turning on their cameras. It's really great to see you all. I just want to acknowledge that this is a little bit of an unusual discussion item for you tonight, as as you know, the Board has not had these kind of referrals from council previously in terms of site review. So I really want to appreciate my colleagues on the screen for taking the time to present you with some excellent materials to help walk through the kind of feedback that the applicant is seeking, and how we are bringing this to the board tonight for for your feedback. So again, I'm not sure, Charles, am I turning this to you or to Chandler? Whoever takes themself off mute 1st gets

[7:06] to speak for. Well, actually, you know, I'm thanks very much for the introduction, Jonathan. It's nice to be with you guys tonight. I'm Charles Farrow. I'm the Senior planning manager and planning and development services. I don't know that I've ever taken a Site Review in my 20 years at the City Environmental Advisory Board, so we might be breaking some new ground tonight. really, our colleagues, our colleagues, our clients here at Coburn, will will be making the presentation this evening. Chandler Vanscock is joining me from Staff this evening. He's the case manager on the application and apologies. We can't be there in person tonight. Both Chandler and I are sick. So we're keeping our germs at home tonight. So, Chandler, you want to take it away to talk about how we wound up here. Sure. Yeah, this and this will just be pretty brief again, I think the applicants gonna handle the meat of the presentation here. But

[8:02] so this is a site review that came in earlier this year. Actually, at the end of 2024, I guess. the overall proposal. I can just give a brief summary. The project is intended to redevelop the site at 2952 baseline with 4 new 4 story buildings. ground floor, commercial space and residential above, as well as a 5 story residential building for student housing. It's approximately 59,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space and 412 new residences. This project went through Concept Review, at which time it went before city council and city council referred it to the Environmental Advisory Board for feedback. So there wasn't much specific direction given in terms of the feedback they were looking for. So, as I kind of outlined in the memo

[9:00] You know, site reviews are we review them against the the criteria and the land use code. The Site review criteria as well as Boulder Valley comprehensive plan. So I I provided some hopefully useful kind of guiding questions in the memo as to whether the proposal meets the sustainable urban form definition found in the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan and then just gave some of the. you know, relevant points of the definition of sustainable urban form. Of course the Board is welcome to bring up other topics and discuss other aspects of the project as they see fit. I know the applicant has also prepared a presentation where they're going to have some specific questions for the board that they're looking for feedback on. So with that, unless anyone has any questions, I will turn it over to Bill or Catherine. I'm not sure. Who's Bill? Are you presenting? Or Catherine.

[10:00] So it's it's all cats. So. Alright, Catherine. The last you hear from me. Except for to tell Cat she's muted. Off to a good start. Thank you. I wanted to say, Thank you. I know this is a little unorthodox, but we do appreciate the feedback and having somebody else looking at this with an eye towards making this, the best project that we can bring in is really all that anybody wants right now. So, having your take on some of these items, and being able to walk through it with you, is hopefully going to just help all of us get to a better place. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen and run through just an introduction to a little bit of the project some of the thought process behind it, and then some of the measures that we are really focused on in order to really up the ante on sustainability and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and really just doing the right thing on the project especially, and when it comes to a place like Boulder, where this is really just a goal of the city itself is, how do we make things better?

[11:05] So 2952, baseline. This is a rough, overview, high level of what the project looks like right now, as we've conceived it. So to introduce you to the site just in case you need a little update. This is the site that's located next to the student housing at Williams village. Currently, it's got a strip, Mall. It's got the Broker Inn. There's a Mcdonald's and the Dark Horse, and this site is largely asphalt parking lot. It's very vehicle, focused. The connections that should run through the site, stop at the site. You have to move through a parking lot in order to get to the multi-use to pick up pedestrian pathways. It's very disjointed, very disconnected, not safe for pedestrians to move around. Most of the student population that tends to walk through the site is doing it kind of back of house and through alleyways. There's not a dedicated place for these people to walk across the site, and we really took that and started with that. When we laid out the design of this and focused on connecting the urban fabric that surrounds us through and into the site in a way that was intuitive, would provide safer spaces and really put the focus back on the pedestrian.

[12:19] So our vision for the site we have here and I'll dive more into this. But high level. It's really focused on drawing those connections in and through the site buildings are shaped by those streets, by those pedestrian pathways, by the connections to the multi-use. We're hiding, parking. We're creating great urban spaces and really trying to make this something that is a benefit to the fabric in this area and less of a detriment. So pedestrian focus, lots of focus on landscape bringing in natural environment. Like I said, the connections through the multi-use, we're trying to put the cars on the periphery. We've reduced the access points on the site. The parking garages have been located in a way that cars really don't need to drive through the site. They are able, because we need that, for, you know, services and things like that, but trying to make sure that it's not a conflict zone any longer.

[13:12] Buildings on the site use a lot of new technology. The materials are more efficient. We are meeting and exceeding some of Boulder's even energy goals, which are 20% higher than national standards, and the focus on landscape has given us the opportunity to really go with a natural palette that helps bring new plant life in and kind of connect that urban fabric with the natural environment in this area. So just a rough overview of the Site Plan just Orient, we have Williams village student housing over here on the right, Baseline Road and 30th Street Route 66, or 36 runs right along the south side of the project. And there's a multi-use path that follows that through our site. We're taking a lot of those connections and pulling them through, giving us nice corridors for people to walk along, plenty of bike parking, and we'll dive a little bit more into this with a focus on creating good spaces and bringing in natural environment.

[14:15] These are connections that we were talking about, very evident that the cars are not the primary focus here, and people are as well as the bike path connections. We are knitting together that fabric that's been kind of disjointed, and drawing it through the site, trying to pick up opportunities for alt modes, making it very convenient to move around without your vehicle to up the the likelihood that people will choose to use those methods, since they're more convenient. Short term bike parking located adjacent to all of these connecting paths. Long term bike parking located adjacent to building entries again, convenience making it the easy choice to say, I'm going to take the bike instead of pulling my car out of a garage and navigating this. we are lucky enough to be on a site that has very good access to alternative modes of transportation. We've got bus bus routes nearby. We have bike paths nearby. It's well situated in the city, so we have the the choice of not using our car for these

[15:14] and then for the places that we do need cars, or when we need other transportation options, we're providing electric chargers in the garages. We're providing electric scooter parking. There's electric bike parking, trying to give plenty of places where people can make a better choice for the environment. I'm going to switch to buildings. And this gets a little bit dense, very high, level buildings that we're designing to are needing to have a 10% better than city of boulders energy code in order to meet the requirements of our energy code, and that boulder code is 20% better than the national code. Our buildings are going to be all electric. We don't require that for where we are in code, but it's something that we are choosing to bring ourselves up to that standard heat recovery systems in those buildings where we have ventilation and water so that we're trying to keep that energy usage low. We have low flow and water, wise fixtures that we're putting in the buildings. But irrigation water is low flow, and we're trying to use nonpotable water sources primarily, and then go with other sources if we need to.

[16:19] And one thing that we are doing on site, that is a fun and interesting thing. We are proposing Clt buildings on site. So the cross laminated timber buildings. It's just one way of kind of showcasing an alternative. That's a little bit more sustainable isn't seen as often, and I believe it's the 1st residential building in Boulder that would have a Clt structure. Some other measures that we're doing that are not quite as technical, but a little bit more intuitive, maybe and don't cost anything which is great, because, you know, the developers love things that don't cost anything and don't get beat out windows and stairwells. People come out of the elevators. They start using the stairs to move through the buildings, saving on energy, getting people moving

[17:04] the floor plans that we're using. So we have garages that we're hiding. It gives us a more narrow floor plate. This is great. The natural light gets to come in. We're reducing the reliance on electricity. The windows on those walls are operable, so you have comfort without needing to turn on your A/C. It's just as simple as opening a window. The windows that we are proposing are better windows. They're going to meet a higher standard. They're going to have a more comfortable interior environment because there's going to be less convection currents and air movement. So they feel better. The glass that we're using is higher performance. So it gives us the opportunity to take advantage of the sun when we need to in the winter and not take on a lot of solar heat in the summer it's tuned to the solar exposure and makes it a little bit more comfortable for users. Again reducing the reliance on energy systems to heat and cool. And then the building materials that we're posing are high quality building materials, brick metal, composite woods that are going to last. They're not going to be replaced in 10 years. So we're not contributing to more waste or things like that. And I know that when we talk about emissions and materials and things like that. I know. Emissions of materials are pretty high in boulder, but not a lot of that's coming from construction, even though it's not the more that we can reduce that the better.

[18:23] We're also focused a lot on and have spent a lot of time considering the natural environment. What's happening here with plant life and how we're tying in the buildings. And this landscaped portion. You can see on the plan that we have a central gathering area. This is really the heart of our project. But instead of just doing a patio space, we've got trees. We've got shrubs. There's a lot of pollinator plants. We've got 115 different varieties of plant life here, and that will help us to connect the green spaces you see, in Martin acres and beyond, and start to pull that natural environment, creating a new native space here with the plant life that we're using.

[19:05] Some of these other open spaces are proposed to be more grasses. So this is that central gathering area where we'll have some low plantings, plenty of trees, things that we can do to make this space more comfortable, to feel better. We're also proposing a lot of different shrubbery and flowering plants so that we start to pull in a pollinator friendly plant palette. And I'm going to stop there and say, Thank you guys very much. I don't know if I should stop sharing my screen. So I'm just gonna go ahead and stop for now, and we can always pull something back up if that's helpful. So questions that we have for you. We focused a lot on plant life. I would love it. If you have thoughts on how we extend that canopy thoughts on other options that we can do with the landscape of the irrigation that would help make this just really drive home these sources. And then, if there are any additional things that you might offer on alt modes or things that we're not thinking about with billing materiality. I think that would be really helpful to get your take on that.

[20:18] Great. Thank you so much for the presentation. It was fascinating. I definitely love diving into those more in in depth details. So I can start by reading our absentee members comments, and we can then go into more interactive conversation from there. So from our dear Hannah Davis, who is out this month. Upon reading the packet, I would like to add my opinion that it seems to me that the proposal meets the sustainable urban forum definition found in the 2015 Boulder Valley Comp plan. This is also aligned with our recent advice to Council regarding the Ipcc's findings on urban city design and climate impacts, and she does pass along her apologies that she's unable to make it

[21:02] all right. I will then pass it along to the rest of my board members for for questions and and feedback regarding your questions that you brought. Does anyone want to start us off? I can start us off. just with questions that I had come up with before hearing from you guys, and then I'll take a little bit more on feedback for the your specific 2 questions. But for me to start great to hear about the Ev charging. That was one of my questions. So I think that's a really exciting thing that you've implemented. That's awesome. One of the thing things that was in the packet that you didn't necessarily mention was the types of restaurants stores that you're going to implement into this space. So I think it was great that you focused on small small local businesses keeping kind of. I think the Dark Horse is seen as a communal pillar with a lot of individuality. And people really appreciate that. We don't want to just farm things out to just cookie cutter designs. So I think there's a lot of appreciation for trying to maintain that one thing that was mentioned was leaving space for some sort of grocer. So this was going to be. My question is

[22:12] part of revamping this site. You know you're removing sprouts as a grocery store, and one thing that has come up previously on this board is when you remove a grocery store from a local neighborhood. What impact does that have on especially a student population that relies on public transportation, walking, cycling, when you have grocery stores that are then much farther outside their radius, so I guess to follow up. It sounded like there was potentially a plan to maintain space for a grocer. Is. is that correct? Or can you expound on that? I guess. Happy to. So our plan right now is that one of the buildings, specifically the building that is holding the larger parking garage we've been talking with sprouts, and are still interested in having them come into the building. So there's been conversations on how we reconfigure that building in a way that will make it an efficient space for them to use as well as still give them the pieces they need for function. So loading docks, garage access things like that

[23:10] without compromising our desire to keep the parking hidden, and and, you know not, have it be as primary focus on the site, and to keep it very pedestrian, friendly and walkable. So I can reshare for just a moment and just give you a little pointed out in the building here that you see underneath of my mouse, this building would still have the grocery inside of it. We think it's really important for this to be a neighborhood center. It needs to have a grocery store or something similar that service can't go away. So it's been a very, very big focus of our conversations, both with the development team as well as existing tenants, on how we make sure that they're happy, and they still want to stay and be a part of this, as it moves forward. Awesome. Thank you. And then another question I had, are you in thinking of implementing any sort of renewable energy sources in particular solar rooftop solar for these buildings.

[24:10] So we don't have a full development partner yet I think that solar is a really easy one to point to and to see the benefit of, especially in Colorado. So it's definitely been part of the conversations of where we implement how it gets implemented. What parts of the buildings make sense for it. So it's been a part of the conversation. I can't say that we have a definite commitment, but it's in the forefront of everybody's mind just because it makes so much sense in Colorado. Okay. And then this is maybe not under these specific guys of the environment. But I think it's something that we try to keep in mind in terms of our community and the diverse community that we do have. And this is maybe it's more of a talking point in general, not something that falls on Coburn to try to address, but I know there tends to be a number of unhoused people that live, if you will, in that area. Is there any conversation around? How this impacts their livelihood, their day to day lives.

[25:10] Kat, I can on that one. Yeah. yeah, I can chime in a little bit on that, because we had some early conversations with city council members that revolved around this issue particularly. And so you know, I I realize and I'm gonna try to be deferential to the fact. This is a pretty charged topic in boulder and you know Coburn in particular, is not, you know, we're not We certainly wouldn't want to say we don't want to solve the problem right? It's a it's a community wide issue. But what we do know is that it's not a very safe spot right now. You've got, you know, completely paved the site. You've got some back of house. It's a little challenging for people that are trying to occupy it. Whether those people are unhoused, or students, you know, away from home for the 1st time, or it's you know, just people that are trying to shop there. It's a really unpleasant place to be. And everybody's interacting with cars all the time. So what we try to do is say, Okay, well, what we can do as an urban planning group is, we can make this really extremely high quality outdoor space and make it welcoming to everybody. And then, you know, however, the community decides to solve or address

[26:18] the homeless issue. However, whatever your viewpoint on that is, if it's a supportive space that's pleasant to be in and healthy. That's much better for everyone involved. So that's why you have such focus on trees and cat. Maybe it's worth bringing up a site plan or something. but we've really worked to bring the natural world into the site. And that was actually something. When we went to city council that Taisha in particular. But some other members mentioned as well, and one of the challenges that they gave us that I've never been challenged with before it was really cool, was, how can you create outdoor habitat for the natural world as well as a nice urban place? So we've really focused on. As Kat said, pollinator plants, there's a. The landscape plan is a much more formal plan on baseline, but as you move south towards 36, the plants and the plantings become much more wild.

[27:10] We've tried to create habitat, for you know, rodents, small bees, bugs, birds, smaller animals, and then try to tie that into having a really pleasant environment for people. So I know that's not exactly an answer directed at at the unhoused, but our attitude is, if we can make it just better for everybody. Then it's better for everybody. Okay, thank you. I think that's I'm good for now. Cool under questions. Park of rooftop gardens. I'm sorry. Rooftop Gardens. Yes, we are planning on having rooftop gardens on here right now. It's green spaces on the roof. On all buildings except for building C, and then as part of building D, there's a plan to have a possibility for urban farming or community gardens on the roof.

[28:09] Alright anything else. I just have 2 questions. How will will it be? A change in the bus stops around this neighborhood like how will existing Rtd routes integrate with with this new development like, does it need to be a change, I guess? Or will it be the same. So I don't. We're not planning to try and change anything that the Rtd. Is doing. There's a stop located very conveniently across the way. There's another one slightly farther out, but all of these are within like a 5 min walk of this site. So they have a. There are a bunch of options that are very easily accessible, walking to the site, as well as a few options that are still easily accessible. If you are biking to that location. So we feel like this site is really well served by the existing transit network and wouldn't require a change.

[29:05] And Kat. I'll add one thing, that that bus stop directly to the north of the site on Baseline, their crosswalk that exists between our site, and that bus stop right now has been identified as a pretty dangerous crosswalk. So right now we've been working with the city. They have funding a grant funding to improve that. And we've been working with the Transportation Department to determine where the best place for that crosswalk to exist. In the new street plan that we've put together is so that will be improved and be much safer, for you know, students, or whomever else, to walk across the street and get on buses. No. And My second question. It said, the document that you share with us said that 75% of the demolished building materials will be recycled. So how? How will that work? What are the specific strategies with that. or the, I guess diversion of the construction waste.

[30:05] So that's typically something that's handled by the contractor and something that they work through with their own subs and their development. I know that a lot of the metals in the buildings are reused trying to divert some of like brick and other materials. It tends to be something that it's a bolder requirement. So there's no option not to meet this. They have to. There are options where you can try and divert more of the waste, but there are programs in building recycling systems already set up. I'm thinking of like restores and things like that as well, where they'll take some of those materials. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, Jonathan, yeah, thanks. I just wanted to pick up on this question and on as as I think you might remember, my office oversees the city's deconstruction policy and program. And so I can send out more information if you, if the Board is interested in it, just

[31:00] lists out how we provide a support system to contractors in helping them bind in markets and uses for reused material. And then, whatever obviously is not reused, how it's going to get recycled. And so we have some. Our guidelines are strict, and the program is very supportive. And so we work very closely with a lot of the contractors and cover has been a great great partner for us over the years. So feel pretty confident that do a great great job in this area. Thank you. That was a way. Better answer. Wasn't alright if so, there will be no gas lines coming into the whole. I guess neighborly. So the buildings are all electric, but we will keep gas lines coming into the neighborhood for backup generators, and then some of the commercial kitchens would might maybe need to have gas for just for cooking. So we're the buildings all electric. The tenants that are inside of those buildings may need. Some of those gas uses.

[32:04] Yeah. And let me just add to that, because Kat hit the nail on the head. There we did the Commons project over at 30 Pearl with Morgan Creek. Who's the development consultant here as well? That's a net 0 project and it all electric. We had planned there to be an all electric restaurant there which requires induction cooking, as I'm sure you all know. they've been trying to fill that with a restauranteur for years, and it's while induction cooking seems pretty well embraced in Europe. We're having a pretty hard time getting the local restaurateurs to adopt it, and I think you've all probably seen that restaurants are sort of under pressure right now after Covid. So that's the one caveat we're we're pretty concerned that an all electric restaurant like trying to convert the dark horse, for example, to electric, is probably pushing a rope up a hill, but the idea is to have the capacity in the buildings for that to occur in terms of electric capacity. And, boy it would be, you know, if we can get those spaces pre-filled, it would be great not to bring gas to any of those buildings, because it really reduces the amount of money you have to spend. If you don't have to bring gas into the site.

[33:10] But just to be practical about it, based on past experience and net, 0 buildings or buildings intended to be that we just, we just are not having much luck getting all electric restaurants in. One more question. I think this is sort of maybe for you, Jonathan. And folks from the city. How does this work? Do we have the ability to make recommendations? And then it goes up to city council again. How does the process work? Yeah, it's a great question. I think I would probably buy Chandler, and it looks like he was anticipating me calling on him because I think he is probably best to to share with you how they'll capture this feedback, and how that will be shared up with council and the other boards potentially, Chandler. Yeah, thanks.

[34:01] yes. So you know again, this is the 1st time that a site review has gone to the Environmental Advisory Board. I mean, typically with advisory boards. Yes, you can make recommendations. You know, it's helpful if there's some level of consensus among the board about what the recommendations are like, if you guys wanted to do kind of an internal vote and come up with a list of recommendations. Then, basically, I would summarize that in the memorandum that goes to planning board and then eventually council. So all of the Advisory Board feedback will be passed to the decision-making authorities. So it's a short answer. Yes, I'm sorry. That was a long answer. So for me, 2 things, one of more up, more thought on solar right, and I think solar, along with batteries.

[35:02] will definitely add significant costs, but something to consider for that. Gas generators as backup. And then the community serving retail is the phrase is a bit vague for me. I would hate to see a big box store go there, or you know. So if there's some way we can keep it to small businesses locally owned businesses. Minority owned businesses, women owned businesses, some, you know, some sort of definition, more specific definitions of that. That would be great. Other other official feedback. And then we can hear. We hear from, hear everyone's voices, and then sort of have more officialized form of feedback. So I would agree. Solar would be fantastic if we, you know, I know you guys had said, it's not a firm commitment, but I think if there's an ability to push on that I think that's

[36:04] establishing new spaces with. you know, explicit buildings that have this design that would be compatible. I think this is a great opportunity that would be sorely missed if it were passed by. Yeah, I think Solar was the one thing that I noticed, and I was definitely glad to see talk of rooftop gardens, and specifically how to manage. You know, high heats. And and the you know these, these heat islands that we tend to get throughout the city. yeah, that tho- those were what was jumping out to me. As for those 2 things, primarily so yeah, I I think as a general consensus, we'd love to see see more firm plans with with solar the the one thing that would have that I was also considering beforehand. But you talked about what was making sure that there is transportation access.

[37:02] because I used to work at the Fraser Meadows, and so I was coming down from Broadway, and they connect. Connection of bus was inconsistent at best. But that's not entirely within your control. Yeah, I think that's all that I have. I have one more point. But since Annie brought up kind of a more explicit definition that she wanted to see for what the retail space look like in a similar vein. I was wondering you had said. Generally you're trying to go with non potable sources for water. If that's not available, you know you'll look elsewhere. What sorts of things are you exploring for these non potable sources? How realistic does that look actually. So I'm and I might say, Bill, if you have a better idea than I do on this one, feel free to jump in from what I've seen and what we've been studying on our end is tying into some of the water systems that we're using like within the buildings, just as the water is used, and as it comes through sending it through into irrigation systems. Bill, maybe you want to throw a little bit more light on that.

[38:16] Yeah. And maybe it's a little different than than the way you're thinking about it. When you're asking the question, I think that one of the big changes in urban planning over the last 5 years, is a change in how we handle handle stormwater so rather than funneling into you know, cisterns. And and you know, kind of concrete management, systems you and i'm, sure, you're up to speed on this, but there's been a much bigger focus on rain gardens. And so I think the 1st use of nonpotable water is to actually capture rainfall in a way that's legal under the State guidelines, and, as you all know, I'm sure in Colorado you can't capture rainwater for more than 24 h, and it's not. It's not quite that simple. But

[39:00] there's a rule that's essentially that. But we can use it in through storm systems and rain gardens and things like that. So by able, by taking the rainwater, and then running it through these rain gardens. It holds it for a while, so the 1st thing is not letting the water off the site quite as fast. By doing that we kind of get around the 24 h rule. I don't believe that we have the the non potable water from inside the building, using gray water to irrigate is challenging. It is not something that I think a project at this stage of design can commit to it really requires a pretty technical design to see if it works and the and the function of how it's going to get reused, treated, and and brought out of the building. So that's typically something that's handled much further along in the process, like during the building permit process which for all of these buildings is about a year away. There's a desire to do that. Which is why it's it's shown here. But it isn't something that can be committed to until the actual water systems are selected.

[40:01] And I'll I'll just give you a couple of pieces of information on that. So one of the things we did at at a couple of our net. 0 buildings was we use something called a piranha system by a company called Shark. And what that does is it takes all the wastewater of a building and routes it through a common drain. and that allows it to recover all the heat that is utilized. You can't really use that with a gray water system the 2 things are sort of incompatible. You have to choose one. but it makes a really really big energy difference like, if you think about domestic water being the number one energy user in a residential building, being able to pre treat your water and raise it like 15 or 20 degrees, is pretty massive, but the trade off is you don't get gray water. So if we choose gray water that might mean that those heat recovery systems are not available. And I think that's just something that the project team won't get to for another 9 months. So hopefully, that makes some sense. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much.

[41:00] Yeah, we we're. We're really geeks on this stuff. So like, we're trying to not use up your entire meeting time. But if you want more information or discussion. We're in man, we love it. You are in good company. We tend towards the geeky in here. One more question, but I don't want to take. This is just now that I've had some opportunity to think on the questions you had for us. Revolving landscape irrigation, extended canopy as well as discussion about building materials. One question I had. This isn't an answer to your questions, but something to think about. You know, you talked a lot about your intentional use of building materials, which is fantastic. Is there a part of the conversation around fire, resistant types of materials? I think it's great that we're talking about being able to reuse, and what looks good by eye, and having these materials around for more than just a single decade. But you know we do live in a climate where fire is a real concern. Is that part of the conversation at all.

[42:01] Yeah cat. I'll jump in on this one, because it's kind of near and dear to my heart, and you'll know why in about one sentence, so this summer my brother's house burned down. He's up in gun barrel, so you know this. This matters to me pretty pretty deeply. But I will say, having said that that in this kind of urban context, this isn't the 1st thing we think of, we we think about that a lot more focus on it a lot more when we're sort of at the urban interface areas up along the foothills or close. that said, there's this nice little overlap between what we consider to be durable building materials and things that are really fire resistant. So for us, this project is, you know, mostly brick. There's also a lot of metal siding and cement board siding. All of those things are the 1st things we would grab for projects in the urban interface zone in terms of fire resistance. The one exception to this really is the Clt buildings which you can see in the upper left of that upper image.

[43:00] That is. it's essentially heavy timber, because it's all done with 2 by fours, and the the building itself is that kind of heavy timber material. You can see it better here. The siding is is likely composite wood, which essentially means it's concrete, or some sort of concrete material that has the characteristics of wood. There's another one we like, which is a rice pusk material that is pretty flame resistant also. So the long and short of it is that just by building with durable materials, are going to last a while. You end up with pretty fire. Resistant stuff. It's really like the collaborate siding and the press board siding, and you know the sort of cheaper wood things that are so combustible, so hopefully, that gives you some sense of of how we're thinking about it. Absolutely. Thank you. Do we have further questions for the comments any concerns? Alright, yeah, I I guess I just want to ask Chandler, Charles, and the team. Is is the feedback that you heard verbally sufficient. Would you like the board to prepare this in a different format, to write it up in some fashion. What would be the best for you, I guess, is my question.

[44:19] No, this is great. Yeah, I've been taking notes, and I'll I'll watch it again, if need be. But yeah, no, I think I think all this feedback is heard and understood, and I'm comfortable. Summarizing this in the memos moving forward. So thank you. Fantastic, alright. Well, thank you so much for the opportunity. It's been fascinating to actually get to to do one of these site reviews, which is very much, not our typical purview. So it has been very interesting. And I I loved getting a little bit of an inside scoop on on what's coming in into that space. It's been fascinating. Yeah, I think unless you have anything further for us, I think we're we're all

[45:04] oh, good. We should include really the positive stuff, too. So like we're, we're giving recommendations on wildfire resilience, solar panels, transportation. I think the positive in terms of the positive. I I gotta say, like, whoever did, your research did a good job like, I think you targeted a lot of the things we talk about. So I don't know if you use chatgpt or what. But this is really good. You know, you talk about energy systems. Our code. No chat. Dbt. Even more impressive. No, I mean, you talk about the or electric or energy codes recycling materials nature based climate solutions, circular economy. So I think you guys did a really good job like really targeting this project and what you're developing towards the effort. You know the effort the city is doing with respect to or climate issues climate resilience.

[46:08] So, yeah, I mean, I feel like, this is really good. I mean, this is like reviewing this seems like this is a project or community definitely needs. and in terms of our climate goals. I really think you hit the nail on the head like, I mean, I agree, maybe like, look more into the welfare, resilience or panels transportation. But overall, this is a really well put proposal. Yeah. And I would like to reiterate that I was having a hard time finding, like like critiques or feedback, as I was reading through it, because it. It all seems to be so well put together, well thought out, and and actually like reaching towards positive climate goals, not just meeting current standards, or like looking at the standards. They're going to be here in, you know, a few months, but like actually like trying to make progress.

[47:00] And and I was, I was really encouraged to see that. Yeah, yeah, I'll echo that appreciation, especially, for you know, recognizing that Boulder has high standards and that you're really trying to shoot beyond that is really very appreciated. And then also, I guess I didn't have many answers to your questions about landscape and irrigation, because I think you did a great job in terms of landscaping, having a variety not only in species, but size of plant life and keeping in mind, like you said, all of the potential critters and pollinators and things like that so very much appreciated. Thank you. Yep. Well, yeah, cobra's been in Boulder for 30 years, and we care deeply about our community. And your opinion matters greatly to us. The sustainability of our projects is something that's super super important to us. So, boy, it feels awfully good to have you guys feel pretty good about it. So it's really thank you for telling us. Yeah very much. No, ma'am.

[48:00] Right. Do we have any any further? Well, thank you so much for for presenting. It was very interesting to to see that. and if you have. if you have anything else for us, we're happy to hear it. If not, thank you so much for for coming. Thanks for having us this evening. Thank you. If you're. Take care! Have a good night. Thanks, everybody. Bio. Bye, bye. right! Who's the one attendee up there? There's 2 panelists, one attendee. There's attendee all right. So I mean, unless unless there's anything anyone wants to bring up off the top. I think we're just peeking ahead of next month, and then, or even ahead of council. And then

[49:00] are we gonna have an early finish, are you? I'm sorry. Are we moving into? The matters from, I mean, do we have anything else we want to discuss on the the Site review. Oh, no. The Site Review. Yeah. So I think that's the last thing on our agenda. So no, we have a couple other things on. So just under matters. There is one matter that we have to take care of, because this is your last meeting. Do wanna present you with a little parting gift? I know it seems kind of lame, but it's not, and I just will tell you that. You have left quite a legacy with the board and on the city. And yes, you can avoid. It's okay. Okay. Well, I have been honored to serve on the board. I'm glad to hear that you think I've left. You have, and and I have always appreciated just just what you bring, and we're going to see you, and I hope

[50:04] your next. your next journey, your next thing that you want to do, and that'll just like pick up some space on your wall. So thank you so much that's really cool. I can't think of the name of the top of my head, but it's stamped on the back. It's been a pleasure. Yeah. So appreciate you and everything that you brought, and just your perspective and your look, experience has been really helpful. It went really fast. It it did it. It feels like just yesterday we were still meeting over in the yeah. Since 22 was the year that I started. I was still at college. That was before I popped out.

[51:08] Yeah, goodness! Didn't even drink alcohol back. Then. really, I started when I was 19. I just turned 19 before I 1st meeting. That was, that was my whole sales pitch when I joined the board was, Hey, I'm young, and I can string words together. Full sentences makes sense, occasionally using sat level words. Even. I know right? Just really quickly, to just because we do this on a regular basis. Just wanted to flag a couple of upcoming council items that we're hoping to get on

[52:04] track to bring to the board one in particular. 1st of all, I want to just acknowledge that it's helpful to get some of the Board's feedback at our last meeting we do have a study session. If you recall on the update to the Excel partnership next Thursday night, so my team will be presenting as well as the excel team on successes, challenges, and just where we want to go with that partnership. So that'll be next Thursday night one that I did want to flag for you. That we were trying to get on your schedule is the manufactured home strategy, and this is an important one, because you've seen parts and pieces of some of the update from my team that's been working on the wind repair when damage repair program for mobile and manufactured homes. And so this is being rolled up into a larger presentation. Just what our long term strategy for manufactured homes in the boulder region is. I think it's a really important topic for the Board to weigh in on and provide a little bit of feedback. So I'd like to bring that one to use. We're getting that scheduled out for you as well. And I think that was the one that I wanted to flag for you.

[53:12] And just as a reminder. Your meeting next month will be the training so that will take up the full time. And I believe I'm looking at Heather. We are we starting early, or we go in late? We can, of course, change that if needed. That was my request. No, no, that's fine, caffeine. We will make sure that there is caffeine noted, noted. Oh, I'll also know that there is a video that the facilitators will send out ahead of time and ask for you to watch, just to make them excuse me. Training, go a little faster. Do you? Do you know how long that video is? Gonna be like how much time we have to put aside for that.

[54:04] It was a shorter one. I want to say it was an hour, maybe an hour and a half. And this is what is the topic of the training like, what are we getting trained on? It's the role of government. And sorry I'm trying to remember the formal name of it. It's it's basically a training on how government has perpetuated inequities throughout history and including Boulder and how we are working to repair that and the importance of working to repair that. Okay. this has been a mandatory and really fantastic training series that all city employees and city Council have gone through, and there's been a strong request to make sure that boards are getting the same kind of training because it's the consistency is incredibly helpful. And it's a really really great series of trainings that are available. Some are mandatory, others are voluntary, but a lot of a lot of our team, a lot of the staff go to these things. I would also just acknowledge the other. The other item I wanted to. Just highlight in the staff updates is heather. And I sat through some excellent interviews over the past couple of weeks for the vacancy that Brooklyn is leaving behind

[55:17] tier so, and I'm phoning a friend again. I'm looking over at Heather to remind me. Do you re recall the appointments? Date? I think it is the March 20th came. It's just as you were saying it. That's when Council will be making the appointment. so they'll be here for the training. Yes, yeah, that will be their 1st meeting to be the training. Second, I like how that's done, because I know I was supposed to attend a training last time. and this was like I was given like 5 options, and I found reasons to not attend any of them. This is great, because I had to be here. But this is good.

[56:06] Okay, efficient for sure, that's all I have. Thanks. Well, I mean, who's that? Is that everything we were? We weren't certain how long the discussion. I I think that unless unless anyone has any anything else that they want to bring forward impromptu, we are done a full hour early. Thanks. So you're parting. Good. Yeah. With that I will make an option to join the meeting. Second, all those in favor. Alright, that concludes my final Eab meeting, and next time we will have leading us. Yeah, alright.

[57:02] thank you so much, and good night. Good night. See? It's less dramatic. And then there's additional.