July 22, 2024 — Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] About. Are you recording? By the way, Rosa, thank you so much for for that. We've got a pretty packed agenda. We've got about 2 and a half to 3 h of items on the agenda. I want to acknowledge that staff have been working behind scenes to try to streamline their presentations and limit the length of various items tonight. But even with that we're gonna have a pretty heavy agenda. So do expect that timing tonight. And then with that. let's go to approving the agenda. So I'm actually gonna move to amend the agenda right from the get go. I'd like to. I talked about this with Ali beforehand, but I'd like to approve the agenda with the amendment of removing one item. It's matter from the department item C, which is the 2022 Vpr plan implementation. Update. That's a non urgent item that we can talk about at a later date and just given the number of items on the agenda tonight, I think we can remove that

[1:12] is there any opposition to that? Okay. So anybody want to move to approve the agenda with that amendment. Ruth. Second second. Thank you, Jenny. all in favor. Aye. any post. Okay. Jen is approved. All right. So future board items and Tours. Let's hand over to Allie. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Folks, I'm Allie Rhodes. I'm the director of Parks and Recreation, and given the length of meeting. I'll be really brief in this, just to call out that next month is your annual capital Projects tour. For new board members. That's when we actually all hop in a van, and we take you to some of the sites where we either have projects underway or projects upcoming so that we can on the land talk to you about what's coming. We find it really helpful to be with you. And have those opportunity. Ask questions. That is a study session format. So the public is welcome to visit the tour at different locations. But there's not public participation. We'll have published that tour schedule.

[2:15] and the locations. Later in the meeting, you have an item about the scheduling of that under matters from the board that we love your input on that other than that. I just we always welcome your input on the items calendar for the board, and they're outlay for you here in that 3 month format so that you can give input on items that are coming. Thank you, Ellen. Any questions from the board on that get moving aligned. Okay, so do we have anybody signed up for public participation? Thank you. Gotcha. So when anybody present like to use this time to present public participation. You're coming. Thank you.

[3:00] Okay. Well, I think we can then skip that item. So let's move on to the consent agenda. which includes, I'll just remind people. We're both the minutes from the prior meeting as well as updates from the department. So when we do our vote, which means we're move for approval. And the second, we'll have a discussion. That's when we can questions. We can offer amendments to the minutes from the previous meeting. Okay, so do I have a motion to approve the consent. Agenda ocean. Thank you. Second, second, second, second. hey, tie between study. Don't go with Bernie cause he was here first, st as a second any discussion on the consent agenda items which includes approval for minutes. As well as the updates from the department.

[4:07] I have just one or 2 questions related to the okay. This. oh, you know what this is related to the budget. So I have no comments or questions on the updates. I I just had a comment about the Boulder Creek signage just the right time for that. I just wanted to say. Thanks. We had had a discussion about this month before last talking about Boulder Creek and how to implement some sort of flag program, and how the county would help with that. In the meantime, I see these signs have gone up, and I just wanted to say, Thank you. Measures to protect the community. Cute. Okay? Any other questions? Discussion. Alright, I'm gonna abstain from this book because I wasn't here during the last meeting. So I really say, what was discussed during the meeting. So, but I will ask for

[5:07] all in favor of approving these consent. Agenda, and say, aye. aye. okay, all opposed. Okay. So the consent. Agenda is approved, which means the minutes are approved from last meeting. And, Rosie, you can send me those to sign. Okay? And then moving right along to action items. We actually have an action item this evening which has to do with public hearing on the consideration of a motion to recommend the 2,025 proposed budget and the 2,025 for 2,030 proposed capital investment program. And I'll hand it over to Alec. Sure this item is gonna be presented to you by our incredible budget leads Jackson Heights. Stacey Hoffman. Jackson is our senior manager for business hop services. thinking about Steve often trying to be succinct and not too fast. I just want to acknowledge the amount of work that goes into budget development. And while it takes staff all over the department, Jackson and Stacy just do an incredible job giving our folks tools and information and providing analysis to do it to do it well, and I appreciate that. I also want to acknowledge the new members of Prab, Waylon, Jenny, and Eric. It is so hard

[6:19] to come in as a board member right in the midst of budget, because you haven't had the onboarding yet. The breadth of the department, the services we provide, and I recognize how frustrating it might feel to jump into the wave event of this Budget pool and just appreciate you bearing with us, and know that we've lost in so hard to your comments and questions, and not, you know, not all of the the things can be responded to or addressed overnight, but we are listening carefully and look forward to doing better in future years. Thank you. Adam Jackson Heights. I'm going to run us through a quick presentation tonight. As you know, we have been talking about the budget since March. So for those of you who've been on the board the whole time. Thank you for the new members. Even more. Thank you. I know it is hard to come in process

[7:03] the older municipal code does have 3 different suggested motions in it for that. You'll be approving tonight. So those are a certain packet and we'll have them on the last slide. I want to just acknowledge that this has been a multi-month process, and while this board engagement will be wrapping up tonight, it will continue through a additional engagement process. So it's going through the Executive Budget team. Review then it will go through planning board and city council. So by the end of October we will have a fully adopted budget and, as Ali said, I recognize that there have been some common themes and feedback from the Prad that we really appreciate. I know that at the beginning of the year we said this was a fiscally constrained environment, and it really is, and I recognize that we haven't been able to accomplish everything that the prab was after and that being said, we also have a lot of opportunities moving forward where you will hear from staff in September. About some of our opportunities. Opportunities for donations, and then the more entrepreneurial aspects.

[8:03] So we do look forward to coming back and sharing that information with you. This budget does assume a lot of those philanthropic aspects still continue. And we are continuing to be more entrepreneurial. So this graphic you've seen before we are at the far right hand side. After tonight we'll pop down to the bottom right corner. I'll talk you through what those next steps look like. The packet itself had 2 different scenarios what we heard last month, as well as that recommendation scenario, too, and that really converts the Ranger program from a fixed term or a pilot program into ongoing. And this would include the 3 existing fixed term employees, and then converting 3 temporary positions into to ongoing. We found that we have better coverage and consistency year round by having those 2 positions instead of meetings on board 3 new temporary staff each year. There's a senior landscape architect that's currently fixed term that would be converted to ongoing.

[9:01] We address minimum wage and compression hearing the feedback about competitive wages to maintain current service levels. And then we have realigned cip. We continue to focus on the projects that you're well aware of. But we have realigned budget from areas that we just did not have enough funding to really fully support. So with that table, 2 packet identified is the breakdown of funding. Thanks. Minimize this. Okay, right hand side shows the proposed 2,025 budget at 43 9 million. You will see this is a decrease from 2,024, and most of that is aligned to reductions in cip or realignments that have occurred within the operating budget. This chart goes back to 2019. So you can see that during the pandemic we really decreased our spending and then have increased slowly over time. And we've essentially reached the plateau as far as what's possible within the fiscally constrained budget. So the 43.9 million includes funding across multiple funds. As I mentioned, that's in table, 2 in your packet.

[10:09] looking at the capital side of things. The capital investment program identifies where we're going to be putting significant dollars into major capital investments. Capital investments have a lifespan of over 5 years and $50,000. This map really indicates from the 2022 department plan the areas of greatest need. And that's where we're trying to prioritize a lot of our capital projects. You can see at the top left corner, Violet Park, which was renamed Park last month. Is an area that is significantly underserved. And then, where we are continuing to invest dollars in the center of the map is Border Junction, Mapleton and Boulder Junction Pocket Park are both slated for investment of the next 5 years. I'm not going to go into all of these, but really just hitting on that. We are using racial equity tools to identify where investments are going.

[11:03] Throughout the entire budget process. We have looked at Cip and a breakdown by spend asset management aligns with the master. Plan theme of taking care of what we have, and you can see that that accounts for about a 3rd of our staff. The remaining two-thirds is really focused on parks and recreation facilities. These are major breeding apps of existing facilities. And then you could see, we do have a small amount of funding for system planning which is really to identify plans that will last 5 to 7 years and guide future investments. I will note that this slide on the subsequent sites do not include any of the Ccs funding. We'll talk about the Ccs funding differently. But looking at the 2025 post budget, you can see half the spend on the left hand side is really associated with parks and recreations, dedicated funds. The remaining half is one time funding that is supposed to go towards special projects, and these are dedicated funds with specific sources. So you can see that dedicated funding is supporting Boulder Junction. We have development impact fee supporting growth Pilot Park. And then we have Ccrs for certain named projects that we'll talk

[12:11] on the future site. Looking across the 6 year Cip, we do budget for 6 years. We're really asking you to appropriate a 2025 budget tonight. Everything else is kind of in pencil and allows our staff to plan accordingly. Have opportunities for community engagement and really seek those philanthropic donations. Grant funding to further the dollars that we do. You will see across the 6 years. There's 55, and a half 1 million dedicated towards cip projects, and the full list of projects is included in attachment. C. In your packet. I did touch briefly on Ccrs. Ccrs was approved by voters in 2021. And this was really to focus on infrastructure tax as far as community priorities. The Department received funding over the 1st tranche for 4 different projects. I think the 3 that are worth highlighting are the civic area phase 2, the Pearl Street Mall refresh, and the Rec center's future with a significant investment at East Boulder communities.

[13:17] I know we've talked on the fact that this budget doesn't accomplish everything, and the city is aware of this. We aren't the only department facing this challenge. City Council and the City finance department are working on a long term financial strategy. This is a plan that's going to be laid out over the next 2 years or so and focuses on a lot of things the department has already done, such as the comprehensive fee study. But looking at this, at a citywide level, what our core service levels are, and then potentially something, a valid measure for additional funding. So that really wraps up where we've been Later next week we do have a we will have a budget review with our executive budget team, who's looking at all of the departments citywide to determine the best allocation of resources.

[14:06] By August 30th the city manager's recommended budget, will be released to the public, and then there are 3 different touches with city council. The 1st one is a study session, and then there's a 1st reading, followed by second reading and adoption. All funds would be available to spend starting on January first.st And with that we have 3 suggested motion languages for you, but I'm happy to take any questions. So how often do the tranches of funding from the Ccrs come in? It was a 20 funding but funding really comes in annually. City council chose to initiate a 5 to 7 year Tranche for the 1st phase. The reason for that is, they are going to bond against that and that requires the city taking out a bond and then paying future payments on the bond so this was the 1st tranche and we

[15:02] there's no limitation as far as when the next tranche can be issued. But most of the funding through 2030 has already been allocated, for I had a question from something that was mentioned in the packet. which is that you say that without additional funding by 2027, we'll need to basically look at. You know what programs we keep. And that's kind of an ominous statement. And I wonder. And you also mentioned that city council is looking at kind of a comprehensive fee, study citywide and wondering to what extent can we, as a department, move on increasing fees, or, you know, doing other things that would improve our fiscal situation. Aside from what city council. Yep, that's so. Last year the Prep. Adopted the fee policy. The fee policy sets cost recovery targets across the board. This is our 1st year where we've implemented it. You may recall last year we did updated fees. We will be coming back to you later this year to look at updated fees for 2025

[16:10] with the fee policy. You've essentially set what our cost recovery targets are so as expenses continue to increase year over year, we are going to have to increase the amount that we charge for those services. So per the policies that we've established. We can increase fees consistent with those policies. Correct, and it doesn't matter if if city council is looking at a comprehensive fee study. We can just increase those fees without waiting for them to approve. They still have to go through a formal review process. But yes, the Prad can increase those fees. Okay? And then the other thing was related to the Pearl Street redo. It seems like the 2 projects you mentioned that were potentially gonna receive less funding or Pearl Street and the reservoir South Shore improvements. And I'm wondering, given that, are are we looking more purposefully for private funding for the Pearl Street Redo. Especially given the annual

[17:07] celebration that's coming up, Mark, can you take that? You can answer the question at the end the celebration. Yeah. And we're looking at the funding that probably take care of emergency needs on the Mall, like the bathroom. For example. when I say emergency like assets into a condition. Meanwhile, if we do the timing right, we'll hopefully can get like a schematic design. There's a plan in place by 26, and then that would allow us to sort of sell that plan as a concept to work with our partners through them all, to see if that can be a fundraising campaign for the 50.th I haven't gotten any of the details yet. We've just talked about it. But yeah, if the nail on the head. But 50th is an opportunity. And remind me when the 50th anniversary is 2027. Okay.

[18:06] coming up perfect. Alright. Anybody else have any questions. I'm sorry I jumped in. I just wanna share as an example that this is an area of deep study for the department. So we have all been looking at various precedents and case studies of examples where communities are working in partnership with with their businesses to make the public realm better. Just recently, on my own family vacation. We swung through Omaha, where they leveraged a 50 million dollar city investment into a 350 million dollar improvements in their downtown water park and 3 parks and figure if they can get a 5 to one return, and we can turn 20 million in the civic area to 100 million will be doing pretty good. So there, there's lots of great examples all over the country to Elliot your other question of what else we could do. It's fees. it's grants, it's philanthropy. And but without all of that it is. And this was, this is not news. I just want to remind folks. And for the new Board of Members with the 2022 Vpr. Plan. One of the things that you saw in your packet was just

[19:08] at that time both prep. The planning board and council, and reviewing that, knew that without additional funding we will have to reduce services, that the cost escalation is outpacing. Revenue grow and that's a reality we've known about. We've been working since then to address it. That's why we created a fee policy. It's why we have been working to realign our capital, and we have less shiny new and more focus on just taking care of what we have. It's not fun. It'd be a lot more fun to to do it the other way. But I just I want to acknowledge that th this isn't news, and we've been working really hard for several years to try and address this gap in the work continues. I presume that if we, if city council comes up with some as part of their planning some budget. Planning you know, magic sauce over the next 5 years for how to fix the city's financial situation and impacts our budget. In a certain way we would be apprised of that change.

[20:06] I think you'd be consulted. Any other questions. Eric, are you? Can you hear? I I didn't even check on you when we started. But can you hear everything? Okay. great. Yep, I hear you just fine. Any any questions from you at all. No thanks fit. One question. like the Charl Street Mall, is sort of an unusual. They like. I imagine, many cities or communities don't have the Pearl Street Mall under a parks and rec designation. Has there ever been any discussion about why that is staying like it seems like such a huge investment. That's not really traditional park and Rec. Area. It's more of a commerce thing like, could it be redesignated under a different umbrella and city? And the people who are, you know, more involved in commerce may be taking more responsibility for the upkeep and for the

[21:08] the programming in that area. I just feel like the traditional stuff is falling by the wayside. Sure. I think that's a really great question. It's important to note that most of the funding for Pearl Street Mall does not come from dedicated parks and recreation funding. So there is a business district. the central area, general improvement district or cages. A lot of those dollars go towards the operations for the pro Street Mall. So the downtown Boulder partnership and the work that they do that's all funded by cages. Major maintenance on the Mall, often funded by cages. So there already is a mechanism by which the business community can help fund it because of the economic impacts of the Pro Street, Mall. I think it. You know it's a significant portion of city sales tax revenue. And so I I hear what you're saying. I think what it, sonny, is it accurate that you're saying that you think parks and recreation investments are falling at the wayside because of the need to take care of Pearl Street mode. I I understand that concern. I I don't. Because of those different funding mechanisms. I think it's okay.

[22:09] I think it's it's a good thing. We work in close partnership with community vitality, the city manager's office, but at the end of the day it is a public gathering space with incredible green spaces, and I think it's great that it will, that it is, you know, owned, if you will, by parks and recreation. But the funding comes from lots of places, and the decisions are made in very close partnership with the business community. Did that? Was that helpful? Did I answer your question disappointing. I just feel I don't know. I just feel like it's it's a different beast, the parks. And next up which we're looking at like these rec centers that are falling apart, and the tennis courts that we can't fund. And I just feel like that. That to me is my image of parks. And rec, yeah, whereas the Pearl Street Mall, I I don't frequent. I don't see my kids playing there. I don't feel like it really contributes to mental and physical health or environmental anything. So it just feels like a different category to me. And so I was just curious how that ended up under parks and Rec. And if indeed, there, a lot of money is going there, but sounds like it's not

[23:17] a huge amount, but it just feels like. as Jackson pointed out. That's the Ccrs tax is what's funding it. That isn't part funding. And then community vitality is funding the other part. And you'll see when the project comes forward. As Ali pointed out, that we community vitality, climate, initiative, city manager's office. We'll work together for the different responsibilities. And we do have the Park civic responsibility like the civic areas. You'll see that detail come out in the project which might delay some of those consistency. I was wondering about the possibility, or feasibility of making like in terms of the funding sources for parks and Rec. It seems like a significant portion comes from regressive

[24:04] access, and I just wanted to know about the possibility that, like sales, tax, and lottery are both regressive and the possibility to switch more of the financial burden to tourism or some non regressive? I think some of those questions will be explored the funding mechanisms. That is one question. So, for example, one source of funding creation. The permanent parks and Rec fund is property tax, which is seen as less regressive. It's currently set at a certain mill, and it's restricted. It's legacy language to around acquisition and development of parkland. Well, we're a built out system. We're not acquiring land. We need to take care of land. We need to operate land. So I'm I'm making this up. But what if an outcome of this strategy was a a renovation of that that property tax? So it was more flexible, and could be used for operations. And what if we discussed the set amount for it? So I think that is part of this this conversation. It won't happen overnight. It's a long conversation and with the community. But it's on the list.

[25:14] Great. Okay? So we've got 3 motions on the table. We need to take each one step by step. Right, Rosa. Yes, please. Okay. So Do. We have a motion to recommend the 2,025 proposed parks and Rec. Department budget of 43.9 million dollars. I would like to make a motion to recommend the 2,025 proposed Parks and Recreation Department budget of 43.9 million. Hey, Jenny? Second. second, okay. all in favor. Say, aye, aye, aye.

[26:01] any opposed okay. That motion passes motion. 2. Who wants to read that one. Anna, go for it? I'd like to make a motion to approve the 2,025 recommended expenditures from the permanent Park and recreation Fund to City Council for appropriation. Thank you very much, Anna. Second second, thank you, sonny. All in favor. Say, aye. hi, 5, aye. all opposed that passes unanimously. And then 3rd motion. who's that? I will? Move to recommend the 2025 to 2030 proxy department, capital improvement program, cip to planning board and city council for approval and appropriation. Second. second. all in favor. Say, Hi. aye, aye. all opposed. That also passes.

[27:02] Okay. anything left for that action item, ally or Rosa. we're good. Thank you. Okay, thank you. All right. So we are moving along. Now we've got the matters for discussion information, the London Link encroachment issue. And Regina, are you doing that? So while she gets organized, I'll just introduce this topic. Regina Elsner is our senior manager for natural resources. We've been talking to the crab about this item a couple of times. It began in 2023, when we were getting complaints from neighbors about encroachments on the public land, and rather than deal with those ad hoc, and in a way that could have concerns around fairness and equity. We decided to deal with it holistically. And so Regina's been leading an effort to look at this and then deal with it. I'll just say out loud, this is one of the least fun things that we do. No one likes leasing public lands in this way. People have asked us multiple times, why are you spending time on this? Go do something else. And I am so grateful for Regina's professionalism and diligence. She has met with multiple hoa groups. She has taught, spent countless hours on the phone with neighbors.

[28:17] and and all because that is one of our responsibilities is to protect public lands, and you simply just can't let people have take over public lands for their own private benefit use. And so I'm really grateful. I know this has not been a fun project, and it's really important. It's actually a national practice. It's 1 of the standards of our accreditation is that you have not only the legislation, but a policy for him. How you manage encroachments, because it is one of our responsibilities. So I just thank you, Regina for taking this, and I we'll hand it to you. Well, thank you. Good evening, like Ali said. My name is Regina Ellsner. I'm the senior manager for natural resources. and I am here this evening to talk to you about our Wonderland Lake Encroachment project. I'm going to give you 1st a little bit of background about the project, the process that we've gone through. We'll talk about the remedy or resolution alternatives that we've identified, and then go into next steps and just kind of a reminder. The purpose of this tonight is really to give you all

[29:16] the background about the projects, have some opportunity to ask some questions, provide some feedback. All in preparation for August, where we will need action from the board. In 2 ways. First, st we will need the prab to provide a recommendation for the revocable license agreements. And we'll talk more about what those are and what that action will look like. And then, secondly, is, we will also need, perhaps, approval of the revocable easement agreements, and through the course of this presentation I'll talk about what the difference is between those 2 different mechanisms. So just a quick update about the project. Timeline. Give us where we are today. As Ali said, we started to receive a a number of complaints and questions about property lines around the London Lake area and the Park and this the way that this area was developed back in the seventies. There aren't a lot of fence lines, and it was just unclear where that private property, public property boundary, was

[30:20] and so our staff couldn't necessarily handle it, because we didn't know where those boundaries were. So we hired older land consultants. In 2023 they completed a property line evaluation. We sent flyers to all of our all of the adjacent neighbors around the park to let them know that the project was kicking off that they would see surveyors out in the area through February and Mark May of last year. We did that property line evaluation. We generated the report that this is all based off of That report gives us accuracy of between 4 to 6 inches, give or take of where we feel the property boundary was

[31:01] in July of 2023 we sent City Council a heads up, also giving them some awareness about the project. What we're doing, why we were doing it. As we were starting to reach out to individual property owners. We also I also did some initial outreach with the neighboring homeowners associations around Wonderland Lake in September last year we did our initial property owner outreach. We got some feedback through that process. Of that initial outreach, and we actually kind of went back to the drawing board a little bit to kind of continue our ongoing communication. And that's really when we develop the evaluation criteria that's listed in your project or in your packet. We did that through October and December. And really, since January of this year I've been doing a lot of outreach with individual property owners, basically January through July, essentially talking with folks, with various kinds of encroachments. And how many, as Alia said, we've done a lot of individual homeowner outreach working quite closely with our neighboring hoas. So there's been a lot of kind of back and forth

[32:18] time with these folks. So this map shows you the project area. All of those property boundaries outlined in red are the property boundaries that were evaluated as part of this project. There's about 10,000 linear feet of public private property boundaries that were evaluated. We've got about in the neighborhood of 200 private property neighbors. Along those lines we did identify 52 different encroachments, those vary in size and scope anywhere from as small as about 10 square feet to over 2,000 square feet of encroachment. So very large range of encroachments, and some of them are very temporary things, like just storing some personal property on on the public land to more permanent encroachments. And we'll go through kind of what that range is here today as well.

[33:22] So through many conversations, I've been working very closely with our city attorney's office. Through this entire process. We developed basically these 4 different remedy alternatives. The evaluation criteria that we developed that sort of set of 8 questions that we want walked. Each one of the encroachments through helped us determine under which of these 4 alternatives remedy alternatives, each encroachment would potentially is an appropriate remedy. So these go all the way from a simple city, asserting ownership. Saying that this is now ours for management.

[34:04] To removal, asking folks to remove that personal property or the improvements off of private or off of the public property. With, then we have the revocable license agreement, and then the revocable easement agreements. So for city asserting ownership, these are a couple of examples of what that would look like. Basically some of the criteria associated where this would be the preferred alternative remedy is where the removal would create additional disturbance to the public property that's undesirable. And the encroachment itself does not significantly impact aesthetics does not create a significant management issue for our staff. And this is generally a minimal area. Here you can see this. These landscape rocks essentially, that matches the landscaping on either side of it. As well as sort of these landscape folders that are behind the fence, which obviously we're not placed by the city. They're placed at some point in time, but they don't create a huge management issue for us.

[35:13] Removals. Removals can vary in their size and their scope. We can. This kind of shows you a progression of what some of these look like. The picture. On the far left hand side of the screen is one of the smaller ones where somebody has just extended a garden bed onto city property. And just to clarify all of these encroachments, are at least a foot over the public property line. We set that as a threshold. So we are. That was part of the our sort of decision. We didn't want to be cobbling with folks over a matter of inches. We wanted this to be something that was of a significant more significant area. So these are all at least a foot, if not further onto the public property.

[36:04] The one in the middle. You can see. I don't know if you can see it all the way back there, there's a fence line back there. That's the private property line behind all of these improvements. And then the 3rd is a sort of stair bridge structure that is actually on the city property that folks are using as access into the city property from their private property. So those are all examples where we have asked for those improvements to be removed from the public property because we're not interested in maintaining more planting beds. Lord, community gardens. revocable license agreements. Revocable license agreements were really for sort of what I'm calling semi permanent improvements. So these are improvements where there's potentially significant burden for removal. And that was one of the key kind of criterias that they're removing or changing that improvement is going to cost multiple thousands of dollars. Potentially.

[37:13] this includes most commonly offline property fences, so fences that were just not placed on city property. Most of these are in the neighborhood of about 5 feet off of the property line. On average. There are also a few examples of patios, portions of patios, or decks that are extending on to city property as well as like this picture in the middle of a non structural retaining wall that is there to aesthetically maintain a a planting bed. So these are some of the revocable license agreements. We had a question. Yeah. So you said that there's a significant cost burden. Who incurs that cost?

[38:00] That's a great question. I'll go over that in the next slide. So part of the revocable license agreement you were provided in your packet, a draft template or the template that we've been using for all of these revocable license agreements and negotiating these with our adjacent neighbors. Basically the length of the the agreement is until one of 3 potential end states the look revocable license agreement gives the private property owner the right to continue to use the public property until either. 1st they transfer ownership of the property, so they sell it. Replacement of the improvement, for instance, offense. If it's a fence and they decide it's reached the end of its useful life. We need to replace it. Then we're asking them that that would be replaced. Then back onto their property line or per city charter. We can only approve those private uses for up to 20 years. So all of these revocable license agreements have an end date of 20 years.

[39:11] These agreements are not transferable to successors. which means that should. for instance, should someone enter into this agreement, sell their property and not remove the encroachment off of the public property. The city, through that agreement has said that we will. We can come in and remove that encroachment at the cost of the adjacent property owner. So all of this is at the adjacent property. It is not a cost to being incurred by the city or removal of these encroachments around accountability. These agreements will be reported on that adjacent property with Boulder County, so that again, these are things that would show up in a title search during a real estate transaction. There are insurance requirements.

[40:05] the an important part of the revocable license agreements is that we do not. We're not transferring any property rights. So we're not actually giving the adjacent property owner any of our property rights. We are simply allowing them to use the public property. and the agreements also maintain the existing size and scope of the encroachments. Again, through the resolution at the end of one of those 3 dates, the encroachment will be removed from city property, the public property must be restored. And then, once the city accepts that both of those conditions have been met. Then we will also report a release of the agreement. That shows that it's been accepted. Yeah, is it the 1st date termit? Yes. yes, whichever happens in the free which one happens first, st those 3, they can't just pick one. No, no, no. So if they sell the property, and it's before the 20 years. They can't say, Oh, we were. Gonna do it in 20 years.

[41:07] It has to be, whichever is the soonest of those 3. So this slide just kind of reiterates what is prop role in these revocable license agreements? Again, this is an agreement that exceeds Prob's authority to approve, because it is over 3 years. City Council must approve these agreements, but we will be asking in August for Prab to provide approval of these revocable license agreements. So as we go to city council, they're aware that Prab is reviewed. These and have we have saccas, the approval to finalize these full license agreements specific to these wonderland break encroachments. and then the final set of encroachments are revocable easement agreements, and these are the most significant. These are permanent improvements that either

[42:04] most of them are structural in nature, meaning that they are tied to the structure, the actual private property. The structure on the home, or it is creating it. Has been created to address drainage. Erosion issues onto this private property? And then the final one is the one in the middle is actually infrastructure that was installed around public trees. So removal of that retaining wall would actually destabilize those public trees, and you don't want to destabilize those trees? so these are all examples of the revocable licensing or sorry revocable easement agreements. this was a pretty high bar for us to consider this because it is a disposal of public property.

[43:04] So these were not properties where we felt like we could ever necessarily ask for the removal of those so back of like when you do the easement, what do they get? Just the wall itself for that whole property strip that's 20 feet long. No, they will just get the area around the retaining wall itself, and enough space around that to be able to operate and maintain it. So that is part of the terms of the agreement is that the that grantee is responsible for the maintenance of those encroachments. And so we need to give them enough space to be able to maintain it. And then can new people just come up and make a structural change and then get this? Or is it like cut off? So most of these appear to be original. The construction of the homes like, for the example, that encroach that

[44:06] retaining wall on the far left. Again you can see that it looks, it appears. but it's actually tied into the structure of that home, both of those homes right there. And so that was likely part or part of the original construction. Nice. Eric just raised his handle. You got it? Good. See, Eric. go for it, Eric. Yeah, I just have a question like, why, this isn't being handled by like zoning and code enforcement. You know, I have a neighbor who accidentally built his retaining wall 6 inches onto public property. And he has, you know, that's it's the zoning and the code people that are requiring him to remove it, and I'm not sure why that we're taking this on. That's a great question. I think that the biggest.

[45:01] It's part of our. I think, management obligations as the public land managers to be aware of what's happening on our property and making the being able to treat this sort of holistically and equitably and transparently through this process. I think so. Planning and zoning through to get code enforcement involved would have to take a much sort of harder line. And I also know that they are very strapped for capacity and being able to deal with individual issues like this. And since this is ended up being such a large project the amount of time that would have been spent. I don't know that they would have been able to provide the same level of service and the same sort of individual attention. Right, I agree. I mean but it's it's also to be consistent across all departments, you know. If if these guys in Wonderland like are getting a pass from Park and Rec on their encroachment. But if you live in a different part of the town, and you happen to, you know, you're not gonna get a pass from coding, you know, so that it just as me doesn't seem like it's very consistent. Across the city departments to to be doing it this way.

[46:24] Eric I'd love, I'd be happy to follow up specifically with that address. The reason Parks rack is handling is because it is Park land. I'm not sure where the encroachment is happening in in your neighbors, if it's also public land, or if it's on the other private land. But it doesn't matter, and I, my take on. It was, if we go back to the very early days of this we consulted heavily with code enforcement, with zoning on how they would handle it, and it's outside of their purview to handle encroachment onto park land. And so per the charter, the the city charter. They don't have the purview to do it, but we have consulted with them, and I I wouldn't agree with the assessment that they're they're getting a pass. There are only 5 instances where we are allowing a permanent

[47:03] easement. And it's for these very structural issues. Everywhere else. The remedy is that it has to be repaired, and we are giving some leeway. And then I also want to agree with you around Consistency citywide. A next step of this is to take this approach and review it with all land managers in the city utilities and open space, so that there this policy that we develop is reviewed and implemented consistently right now. Everything that Regina's developed around the criteria and the remedies is new, and we hope it gets applied. And it's consistent citywide. This has been a pilot. This small area, these types of encroachments exist all over the city and the city has not had a documented process. The code is clear and that they're illegal. And it's it's not okay to encroach upon public lands. But how they're dealt with has been very subjective. This is one more way. We see the pressure of land and boulder, and that there is more attention on encroachment need to protect public land. And so we do expect this to lead to a consistent citywide policy.

[48:11] I had one more question just in terms of how this has been received by these people. You've approached. That's a great question. a, as you can imagine. With 52 different neighbors there been about 52 different responses. Everything front, you know there's a lot of emotions involved for some folks that have had these areas on the public property for many, many years. There, there have been a lot of emotions involved. There are other folks that are are very, you know. I didn't know. This is how I bought the property, and are very much willing to work with the city and want to. you know I've I've had folks say this is great. You know I'm really sorry this happens. I'm grateful that the city is willing to work with us and be trying to be reasonable. So you know, I I would say that their responses have been as varied as the encroachments themselves.

[49:16] Eric asked one of my questions, but Just recognizing that none of us in this room were around in the 70 s. And how did this happen? There's a lot of you know. I think there's a lot of conjecture that could be happened. One thing that I've learned and discovered through this process is looking at all of the various subdivisions that happened around Wonderland Lake. There was A lot of those were developed with very small lots and very small what are called setbacks, so setbacks that would probably never be approved in a subdivision today. Some of them, in fact, have 0 0. But setbacks like on the property line and then compounded with the fact that many of these properties never had fences installed, so

[50:09] their property boundaries were never defined by the original construction. And then 40 years of 50 years of just unfortunately not close monitoring and being honest. So follow up question. I agree with everything we're doing. Just wondering, though, why do we decided now is the time to start forcing. That's you know. I think it was just there were like, Ali said. We started to get a number of questions, number of concerns from neighbors, saying, How can this be allowed? What are you doing about this? And really, why am I staring at a trampoline in the open space? And it's next to my home like that is public land. And it's not, you know, we. So there were multiple complaints and we didn't.

[51:00] Yeah. So there there were multiple complaints, and again wanting to be as equitable and as holistic and identify, and not not having the potential that we are treating one person differently than their neighbor. 5 houses down. So that we could do this sort of transparently board. We decided to dedicate the resources and the capacity to address this in a way that was transparent, equitable. Any kind of maintenance or management decisions based upon complaints can have real racial impacts. Lots of impacts when it's just done on a complaint based. And and we chose not to do that. Yeah, I think that in general this is a reasonable approach. It just seems like. from an equity perspective like this, incentivize people who may have an extra 1 million dollars to throw around to just build a new deck on the public land, and then save like

[52:08] I think it cost me a lot of money to. How does that not like when you say this is going to be our policy now going forward. Is it something that has to have? Not? It had to exist since the seventies? Or what's the cutoff. So I think what this does is part of the encroachment policy is. This was, yes, an effort to identify potentially very long standing encroachments. What it also allows us to do is establish. What does the policy and the procedure look like? If we were to identify a single one off situation? We're like. okay, we know where this property boundary is now, because we've done a property line evaluation. We feel confident we know where it is. You are now building on our property that is unacceptable, that we can be more proactive in that management. And approaching, and then honestly, with the Rangers, being able to enforce some of those, whether it's trespass damage to public property. Other pieces of our boulder revised code that we can utilize

[53:12] in the moment when things are start, when things are happening, but because this was so long standing. That would be the other goal of the encroachment policy is, what do we have do when we, as staff sees it happening in the moment. So to be, I just wanted to say, really clearly, this does not apply. If we walk out tomorrow, and someone is building a deck on public lands. This does not apply. This is for the retroactive remediation of existing encroachments is, I have lots of questions. But are you finished and ready for questions? I have a few more slides. I do have a few more slides that we can get through, and I do know we have. You know I'd love to answer more questions. But let's if you don't mind, let's finish the question. The slides, and then we'll answer more questions.

[54:02] So back to the revocable easement agreements, there are 5 specific encroachments. That we are proposing to engage with these revocable easement agreements. You can see what they all entail. They're all retaining walls in some manner, fashion, and then there is also one for roof drainage again. This is just simply they have less than 5 feet off of their property and cannot appropriately manage the roof drainage and still on the park property. So it's basically the drainage easement. So while we have 5 specific encroachments, we're actually looking at negotiating 7 different easement agreements. With each individual adjacent property owner. just kind of going back quickly through the agreement terms the length generally. This isn't into perpetuity unless one of 3 things happens. This is why it's called a revocable easement.

[55:05] If there is a public process through city council, through the Parks and Rec Advisory Board, that there's a change of use of the public park property that makes that encroachment no longer feasible. But again, that would be part of the very public process, with lots of engagement. Most of these easements exist in areas of where there's also a utility agreement and a utility easement we can't control. If the utility needs to get in there and change their infrastructure. We don't control the utilities. And then the 3rd is, if there is something that happens and the grantee engages in some sort of a substantial reconstruction. So i 1 for person that I was speaking with, I was like, say, in 75 years the owner of this property decides. They want to scrape the property and rebuild a new home on this property at that point in time. That's when we would look to remove that easement, so that that property is being rebuilt, and it needs to be handled all within the private property boundaries.

[56:12] So that's generally the terms of the local easement agreement again recorded with Boulder County, all of the easement agreements maintain the existing size and scope of the encroachment. They can't get larger, and, as I mentioned before, it clarifies responsibility for who's maintaining that encroachment? Many of these are not for the benefit of the public property. They are for the benefit of the private property, so the private property owner needs to bear the maintenance of those of improvements. I think I mentioned this. The revocable easement agreement is considered a disposal of public property rights. So this does have to follow our disposal of parkland process, which inquire, requires an approval from the prab of at least 4 members.

[57:05] We do need a planning board. Action doesn't necessarily require planning board approval or recommendation, but they do have to take action on it. And then city Council has the final approval. Because it is a property right that we're looking to dispose of quickly. Sort of next steps. Obviously, we're here today to talk about it. Answer questions, get some feedback from the crowd in August. We are looking for a proud action item with those 2 different recommendations. In September we are looking for planning board consideration and city council action. And then, as Ali had mentioned, august sort of through October. My intention is to pull all of the learnings from this process together. Working with some of our other land management departments, open space utilities, Greenways, others to make sure that we have sort of a citywide comprehensive approach and operating procedure for how we deal with encroachments.

[58:06] So this point we're here. I'm finished up to the questions for the prep, specifically here. And then I'm happy to take another question. Yeah, I have a question about especially the easements. it sounds like parks and Rec does not want to be responsible for structural or drainage issues that come from private property. So if I understand right? We're just saying, Okay, you can keep it there. But we still own it. Has there been any discussion about just saying, you know what things have changed since the seventies. We don't want to be liable or responsible. Why don't we sell 2 feet of land or 5 feet of land that not I. I just can't imagine public use actually coming into play like, if I was in a big open park I wouldn't go sit 2 feet away from someone's house, especially if there's drainage issues or retaining wall like it feels like there's a stream of income that we're not

[59:03] tapping into. That would also save us a lot of headaches in the future as ground moves of geologists by training, like I know, with all the crazy weather like we would maybe do us a big service to say, we'll, we'll actually give you 10 feet because we don't want to deal with what could potentially happen in certain circumstances that just the geography dictates that this isn't for us for public, anyway. At this point I I would say, I don't think that selling the public property is necessarily going to create a additional benefit to the, to the to the public land. I would say that in the case of a lot of these easements, that if there were a chance for them to be rebuilt, being able to have it be a revocable easement. It creates contiguity of our public land and doesn't create these little spikes out that then we need to continue to all around or manage around. It allows us to continue to manage right up to those encroachments themselves. So for one of the encroachments you saw it was a retaining wall. We we do in that area, so it allows us to continue to mow and create

[60:21] consistent management across that land. Just the route retaining wall itself is not an improvement that we would want to. But if it fails, don't we have to fix it if it's on on public land? If that is part of the reason for the easement agreements is because public land is not the one benefiting from the existence of that retaining wall. And so we, the city, doesn't feel that this, that the public should be responsible for maintaining that and so, if it fails. it needs to be the responsibility of the property owner who's benefiting from the existence of that encroachment which are those adjacent property owners?

[61:05] as far as sort of that liability piece goes. you may have to. I think there's a brief I I hear, where you're going, and I think the brief way to say is that this agreement accomplishes both things. It protects public land transfers the responsibility and liability to the property owner who is benefiting. And so that's the intense attorney Review is what this does. And I mean, I could go into all the reasons why I I don't think opening the door for sale of public lands is the right answer because of one. Well, there's a lot of reasons. But in these. I just want to remind you that of all of the land that was surveyed there are 5 permanent easements that we're looking at. It's just the way these homes were built 1970. It's not any malice or harm, and you know there is continuity of management across the park plan. We don't want to divide it up. We just want to transfer the liability to these homeowners and make it clear that that this is public property and always will be.

[62:07] But so we're going right up against people's homes and mowing their lawn. Most of these areas are natural areas that actually get a rough cut just twice a year. That's the other reason for the management is that this is natural habitat and trying to protect those that there are nesting birds. There are pollinators. There are rodents. There's lots of habitat in this area that is being impacted. The license still transfers liability to the owner as well, though correct. So in my just reading through all this simple question, when you in the very beginning, said, assert ownership or so like the rocks that were against events, are they? Just? You're just taking them. We're we're basically what we're saying is, we're asking the adjacent property owner. We're saying, Okay, these rocks are going to continue to exist here. The city is asserting ownership over these, and if at any certain point in the future we decide we want to remove those rocks. We're gonna do. So and you're gonna be okay with it because it's on city property. It's now ours. It's basically giving us the ability to.

[63:18] If in the future. Like I said, we need to remove those rocks if we want to change that planting, or whatever it happens to be, that we will do that because it is city property, and just making sure that those adjacent property owners are aware of that, because a lot of these folks some of them are like. But that's not what I was told when I bought this property. And so it's just ha! Being able to have out loud. Have that documentation. It's like, there's the property line. This is the cities. So okay. in general, I think this is a great creative solution for a big problem. That impacts lots of people, even though it's 5 Eastern, there's still 200 homes that are around there in some fashion that are affected by whatever decisions are made through this process. I do think there needs to be a process in place. But I, personally will would not. I'm not okay with the easy portion. I would say I would be okay with the license and

[64:18] funding in the land, but I would not vote to dispose of any city property. So just, I think again, I think it's a really creative solution. But there's there's a way to fix it. When you buy a house. It's easy to find a pet of survey and figure out where your lot lines are. Your your inspectors should come in and tell you these things as well. So this is the way I bought the house to me. It's not any reasonable time problems on your property. I've owned last houses and different places and had to go through many things like this. I'm on my joy board right now. We deal with the stuff. So I really appreciate all the effort that you made, and I do think that this is the beginning of a great policy that needs to be put into place citywide. But I don't think that disposal of any public parks is a solution.

[65:05] So I would be fine with licensing all of it. But not I'm personally, I absolutely. unless they need to. So if we're transferring ownership of, we're transferring liability and the license. I would want to do the same thing with any things that maybe roof drainage again. There, there's ways to train things in a different direction. So there's got to be a solution for retaining walls. And and who's if I was the one with the garden beds in the back, and you said, Well, I don't like this, but this guy over here has trees that might be affected, and they have a retaining wall, but that one gets a license. But the garden beds don't. How do you make that decision? So what's an easement. What's a license? So in my eyes you either follow it, or if it's something that really would be detrimental to the park or the property, it would have to be a license. It'd be 1 1 of those 2. But the easement for me goes. I I'm wondering, I think, when we bring this back to you. We can clarify with our attorneys. I think we're just. It's considered a disposal because we're disposing some rights to the property. It's not a disposal of land we still own the land is that

[66:12] was that part clear, like, we're not giving anyone public land. They're getting a permanent right to that improvement. But it's so the sexual easement correct the license. Eventually that problem has to be fixed. Got it? The easement doesn't. So that problem just stays the problem. So let's go back to the pictures of those. And I just wanna make sure I understand. So, for example, the homes that have the retaining wall was a part of the homes construction. You're saying we should be seeking a remedy for that. Yes, exactly. Well, not. We should be seeing they should be seen. Yeah, I mean the one in the middle. That's a tough one, right? Because it's got the retaining wall around trees that are public property. I don't know, you know I'm not sure there there has to be a solution. I mean, I know we don't want to lose tree canopy in any fashion, but I. I can speak to some of the specific terms to that one in the middle is that at

[67:03] that one has an additional term in it, that when the city, at our sole discretion, removes those trees because they are one of the 4 D's that our forestry team uses to remove public trees with diseased, dying, defective, or dead, and they are one of those 4 things, and those 2 public trees are removed. That retaining wall will then is that they're revoked at that point in time for that one in particular. But the others are all such that I I don't. I don't know that there is a roadmap. Necessarily so, why wouldn't the middle one just be a license? Because those trees can go on could live for many decades. Still, that would exceed that 20 year term that we cannot permit per city charter. Also, the license agreements cannot be transferred to successors, so if they

[68:01] sell the property, it can't be transferred to a future property owner. The easement is the only one that's transferable to a future property owner. And I did consult with our foresters on this particular one, in that if we were, those trees have grown and matured with that retaining wall in place, if that were to be removed. those trees could very potentially die and no longer be stable so and just take irritating. Well, like that. It's on your property. It's yours. Now. It's part of the tree. He's saying the public. We couldn't. I don't think we wouldn't necessarily want that retaining wall. It's not a retaining wall that without those trees the retaining wall does us no benefit, does not benefit the city. So you're saying, then, when the trees die, then we're stuck with the retaining wall, and nothing. Well, no. When the trees die, once the trees die, then that easy. If we were to oh, just assert the manager ownership. Yeah, then we'd have a retaining wall that we don't want we don't want.

[69:18] and if and if you were to remove that retaining wall, and a year later there's structural damage to the house, which is right next to it. Who's who's gonna take care of that? I just I just feel like. and I'm not there. I wish we could go there and see these spaces. But what I'm imagining is, there are swaths of land that nobody is actually gonna use publicly. So there's too close to private homes that are maybe like. because of the geology or the topography of the of the land have just been have evolved in a way that people have built and supported and protected in the most logical cost, efficient way.

[70:03] and it makes more sense to sell and give up the the little swaths that aren't really a value to the general public. and and take wash your hands of it. How do you know what's the value like? How far into you go before it doesn't become a value. I mean, it is. It's it's all. It's all public record, and it's a survey, and it is what it is, you know. But why not? Just sell something, use that money and get something for something we're not using like. So I I wouldn't go sit next to this one. How far would it have to be out until you sat against it? So how much land are you? Gonna give them until it's good for public use in these 5 situations. It it again. I'm not there, but it looks pretty obvious where the border is, and and anything beyond those little borders don't seem like useful space to the public. whereas these people might be very invested in it and want to sell it, and then we don't have to maintain it or think in the future of how that's gonna work. Like I again, I haven't seen the boundaries, but I can imagine

[71:04] it would. It would be cost effective and not make a real significant shift in the environmental value of it. To make a much. to give a a birth to, to these homes like, I don't think we want to. The land. I'm gonna give just some really specific information on the disposal of Parkland is an incredibly rigorous process that has significant community engagement goes all the way to city council and again, I think we're getting well when I say disposable, I mean actually selling it to the community as you're proposing. I think it is dangerous. and would not be fulfilling our mission and our roles is outlined in that boulder revised Charter to consider selling land that had been given or sold to the city for the purposes of Parkland. I think it opens an incredibly slippery slope. There are homes adjacent to Parkland all over the community, and if you start

[72:01] where Jenny is going I hear 100 what you're saying that you think that this is an issue? We've had attorneys review this, they review the liability, and this is their best solution. I will let you know that the The way the city attorney's office is structured is there's a city attorney, there's deputy city attorneys, and then there's attorneys, and our attorney the city attorney is closely evaluating this right now, because this is a whole lot of administrative rigor, all to go to the board, and then the planning board and the city council. See, is there a simpler solution? Because this is a whole heck of a lot of time, and we haven't even gone to planning Morgan City Council. Yet is there a different, simpler solution. And what I'm hearing from the prab is that you want to both protect public land interest. You're looking for something that's easier. I I also I wish we had an attorney here to talk about the liability concerns you're sharing. We don't share them. Our attorneys don't share them. They think they're covered in these agreements that we that we that we have created and so I'd be leery of of developing a response to those concerns that aren't shared by our attorneys.

[73:07] Looks like Eric has a question. Yeah, I mean, I I hear you. I think it's good to have this policy moving forward, but I have a little more sympathy for the landowners. I think a lot of it was probably inadvertent, and I mean some are, you know. Some are more egregious than others. But have you guys ever just looked at sort of saying, You know, grandfathering some of these in. And you know these seventies sort of things. And then everything moving forward. you know. Take this approach with, but it does seem like a lot of bureaucratic headache. and I'm not sure what really comes out of it. That much. You know, other than setting this precedent. But I mean it's a you know. it's it's gonna and I don't. And I kind of I don't see it as that egregious of, you know. stuff and and and. If you draw that line. That's the question. So like the policies are in place, surveys, the plots of surveys are written. The parkland is what the parkland is, and everybody in the city has to. 100,000 people have to abide by those rules. If you start to saying, well, this one's grandfathered in that one's grandfather. We're going to sell this, but we don't want to sell that.

[74:09] But with the. But to. Enforce it for 50 years. I mean, I think that there's some there, you know, if you there, there is some sort of law around that basically sort of like, you know, if if you don't enforce something for 50 years, it sort of becomes part of their property, you know. like. So it's not. you know. I just I just think it's a lot. We're spending a lot of time and effort on something that's. you know, dubious, and whether what benefit we're the we're within environment and park and Rec is getting out of this. In general, I agree the whole process. I just think that it should be either assert ownership. Be happy. I wanna make sure that we're keeping moving along. But I I did just have one question about what? What is the is it? A legal requirement that we cannot have a license that runs with the land, you know, past one owner. Is it like you cannot license something that is attached to that property?

[75:13] Or are we making sitting there? I think part of it is, we're making it choice to do that. Within at least those license agreements, because a they can't extend beyond 20 years. that the with the goal to have the encroachments eventually be removed from the property. That those are clear. Transfer of ownership is a clear date and time in which there is a mechanism by which for us to check and see if that is has been removed, because the goal at the end of the day is to have the vast majority of these encroachments removed from the public. So when there's a sale, do we? Then we're prompted by that by the the fact that there's a sale. We then go to the new owner and say, Hey, let's revisit this. We'd like you to get rid of this. So the actual terms of the agreement are that the existing property owner prior to that sale and that transfer has to have the release of that, the release of the agreement signed so that the city has. They've done the work. The city has approved the work we're releasing that so.

[76:23] I could imagine it being. It's sort of a term of the similar to like the inspection, like, I want a radon system, the new property owner. I want a new Radon system installed. Okay? Well, then, we're gonna take negotiate what that looks like. Well, we need to move this fence line to remove this. You know, it's essentially a color on title. This agreement shows as a color on title on that. But a buyer could say, I'm okay with this thing? So do we then proactively approach the new owner. If they, if they opt to keep it, if they opt to keep it, then it's in violation of that agreement, and they are no longer part of that

[77:06] for lack of a better word grandfathering and of the encroachment. And we, as the city, through the terms of that agreement. have said, we can now go in, we will remove the encroachment and place a lien on the property. Is that the same? Let's say someone has a trampoline and parkland, and they say I like my trampoline. I'm gonna leave it there. We then place lead on the property until they remove their trampoline. So what we have done in cases where? So the trampoline is actually very specific that could create a liability for the city. If we allow that to continue on the public property, because that's not something that we ensure. It's not something that we maintain. It could create a liability. So we give them a certain amount of time to remove that from the city property. And if they don't, we have started to actually issue violations and summons for that, then it must be removed off of the city property. And, he continues, we will write a citation in the summits.

[78:07] What if it was something I didn't create my voice? Yeah, it would be a similar process, basically with the removals we've given them. And.

[79:14] Update that don't consider things for the I think that would be a property by property conversation. I don't think it would be a necessarily a it's as of January 1, st 2,024. Anything prior to that we'd look at it, would. It would have to be specific to each. Okay. any other questions? Great? Well, that was, I have a million more questions. But in the interest of time thank you for that presentation. Really appreciate it, and I'm happy to follow up offline with any of those as well. So the next steps is next month.

[80:02] Yeah. And I would just ask that the materials provided next month try to incorporate some responses to the issues that were raised here. Because we're going to take a vote on this. I think there are some outline questions. So with that way, we can actually talk with Staff Yup, and I want to just check. So I'm hearing one on just clarifying the disposal on the 5. And I hear your interest and not seeing any park plan and just getting the attorneys input on that the question on liability and clarifying that this isn't assuming any liability, and we don't have an interest in in getting rid of this property for that. If there are other questions. Let's say email them to us by end of the week would be ideal. But no later than Monday, I'm certain we'll need to consult with the attorneys or others, but we would love to be responsive to those in the materials. And oh, we have more time, because this isn't coming. Oh, it is coming to you in August. We could push it to September.

[81:00] Yeah, I can't remember. September 23rd is when it's currently on prices which we could push. We needed to. If you can send us questions, we'll try and keep everything as scheduled. By end of the week would be great. Yeah. And I would just say, I would like to understand more fully that how you guys are drawing the line between doing an easement versus a license. Oh, and I wanna capture a 3rd question. I hear Anna's on, what have we want to apply this citywide? I mean, you know my take would be, we are clarifying that it is not okay to privatize public lands. And this is how we'll be enforcing it citywide. And and to Regina's point, like, I think it's as of the effective date of the policy you build anything on city property. It's going to be removed, and we don't care how much you spent because it is our policy to enforce what is the law? They built it last year, 2 years ago, or 2 years ago. I thought of this earlier, and I let it go. Part of what this conversation has elevated is the importance with planning and development services to review lot lines for deck and fence permits.

[82:08] That is part of the process right? So people shouldn't be just willy, nilly billing a deck or offense on the public property. If they do, they did so without a permit, and the city will be enforcing it. And so I hear the concern that we'd be allowing things that are one years old or 2 years old. But I do think development review has gotten so much better in the recent decades that if someone is building a fence or a deck. It's not gonna be on the city property because the development Review doesn't allow for that. The way it might have in the day when the paper review allowed for a lot more error, or it was more permissive to build things without a without a permit. So that is another protection that I I meant to just share out loud that in development review they do review. Is there a way to tell us how many houses sit on our property like adjacent to property. All of our parks are individuals, all of that like. What would the total number of houses that would be affected? I mean, that's a just be curious, really, at the end of the day, how many houses we're talking about? It's a lot, I mean, parks are centered in neighborhoods, anyway. So so

[83:23] you know a lot of our open spaces. And Jason, too, it's a lot. Yeah, yeah, I I want to say that with, there were discussions around. some of the wildfire mowing, and things like that open space that they have, I think, 250 miles of property boundaries with private property. So wow, I mean, if we were to extrapolate that from parks to citywide like we have. So this is a very important conversation. myth great, that was awesome. Thanks. So much for the discussion. Okay, let's move on to matters from the department. And

[84:03] I am so excited to just introduce this 1st item, this is the final draft of the tennis and pickleball court system. Plan. I see smiles in the back. you all have seen the same emails I have where folks have said, listen, tennis is growing. Pickleball is growing. We're fighting for courts. There are less courts in the community. Please please help us. We heard that 2022, when we developed the park. The 2022 park plan, and what we heard was. you needed a better plan. To address this. Really, I mean double digit growth sport that is really serving all ages. It is important. We value pickleball. We value tennis. What I find incredible is that we were prepared. As you can see, we thought maybe we would have we might have a lot of folks here tonight.

[85:01] I just wanna introduce our partner in the back. Gonzo Garcia has been 20 years ago he was a coordinator who worked for the city of Boulder sports department. When we made a decision that is in line with current direction today, when something requires expert skill, let's outsource it and let an expert run it. Dennis Gonzo has competed for and successfully won the partnership of the city multiple times. He's been our tennis partner, for I think it's 15 years now, maybe a few more. 2,006. When did it start? Not 1717 years. Okay, yeah. So 2,007, Gonzo Garcia has been our partner teaching kids and adults tennis. But the fact that this room isn't full speaks to the incredible work of Tina Briggs and Charlotte O'donnell and the planning team to bring folks along in this plan. You're have been hearing about it. Multiple multiple times. You've heard about the community engagement. The regular relationship building with Boco Pickleball with the Boulder Tennis Association. Bernie has contributed time as a liaison on this project.

[86:06] and I just I you know, for folks who. Well, I'm gonna just flip it and say, this plan is really momentous for us, because we're gonna do a better job serving this portion of our community, and we're really excited about it. With that I'm gonna turn it over to Sharon to the presentation. Thanks for that introduction. As Alan mentioned, my name is Charlotte O'donnell, and I'm a city planner here, with the boulder box and Recreation Department here to talk about the tennis and pickleball Court system plan hopefully for the last time with you all. Pretty brief agenda tonight. As we've been here quite a number of times in the past year. But we'll go over a brief background and purpose, timeline, and then we'll dive into the key recommendations of the plan. So those kind of high level pieces that are included in the executive summary and the conclusion. But happy to answer questions, the end with more specifics. As the whole plan you saw was attached to your packet.

[87:00] So, to start with the context, our current system is 20 dedicated outdoor tennis courts and 8 multi-use courts. The standard on those multi-use courts is 2 pickleball court lines have been drawn over one tennis lines. They can be used for both sports. Also the growing demand that Ali spoke to. So I wouldn't talk anymore on that. We know that's very real. And there's also changing private supply in our community. That may have seen emails or heard heard throughout the process. While it's outside of Vpr's control, we realize that we have a significant role to play with it in the community. And we're evaluating what that role is as part of this project. And acknowledging. That's part of the landscape. So to address that context, the 3 primary outcomes of the tennis and pickleball court system plan are recommended. Short term actions about how the department manages and invests in Bpr's current courts suggested long range investment opportunities in Bpr support system and recommended next steps to evaluate if and how Bpr. May play a role in potential indoor and outdoor facility.

[88:04] And if those sound familiar again, it may be because we have been to crab quite a number of times. That's the blue portion of this timeline graphic on the bottom, where we've come to speak with you and and out. As Ali mentioned, Bernie has attended quite a few more meetings, so thank you so much for all your efforts. As we move into the pink, and we met with our stakeholders regularly monthly. Throughout this process Bernie was there alongside us, and really appreciate that, in addition to our stakeholders, we had quite a few people in the room at the beginning in October 2023, we had about 200 people at a public meeting, and over 1,000 comments submitted on the online portion of that engagement. And then in March we had almost 100 people, and several 100 comments on that online portion of the engagement. So we heard a lot from the community through that throughout this process and that rolls up into the green, which I know. It's a little bit hard to read here with that tiny font. But the different parts of the plan that wrap up into the final the whole document, all those different chapters that come together.

[89:12] But as we dive into the key recommendations of the plan, the 1st one it lays the foundation. So it's all plans for court should follow the city of boulders. community sustainability, equity and resilience, framework, and the parks and Recreation Department plan best serve the community. So an example of what this means is in that department plan, also known as the 2022 Master plan. One of the key themes of that plan was taking care of what we have. and in this case. in terms of courts, what that leads to is our second recommendation, which is Bpr. Should continue the asset management approach by investing $400,000 per year over the next 6 years to improve playability of existing courts and reduce long term maintenance costs. So this, indeed, is following that guidance to take care of what we have.

[90:01] and the 2 pictures here are of a wrap of a ridge and columbine, which are the 2 properties that are being addressed this year through this asset management approach, and they're both getting upgraded concrete that's now reinforced or called post tension concrete. That'll expand that lifesp span and it reduce the need for crack filling and resurfacing. So it's a win for our maintenance team, and our maintenance costs as well as the community itself. Who gets to now enjoy those ports? For a longer time. but moving on this beyond our current supply. This plan also really looked at what level of service we should be providing our community. So, as our court supply has remained somewhat stagnant, we know that these have been growing sports. And so this speaks to that recommended level of service in our community. That goal which is Bpr. Should develop additional outdoor courts as funding and capacity allow. The recommended additions are 22 de dedicated outdoor tennis courts, and 22 dedicated outdoor global courts. So some of you may remember the presentation we made specifically about this back in January, where we looked at how much the sports are growing, what the ratio

[91:16] tennis courts to pickleball courts may look like in the future in the community. And just how much the population of boulder is projected to grow throughout the the the years. And so this graphic may also look familiar from that presentation which the green circles are current court locations. The yellow circles are 3 priority properties that we looked at as part of this plan where potentially in the next 6 years. there could be development of additional courts. and then the blue circles are 2 additional properties, where, if we're not able to meet that goal of 44 additional courts at the 3 yellow properties. There are additional sites where courts could be located

[92:03] and then moving to indoor. So that's outdoor dedicated ports, but thinking about indoor opportunities, as well, you know, are important to our community and changing with the private supply. This one talks, speaks to that by saying Vpr. Should explore it should explore potential partnerships. To better understand indoor facility opportunities. For example, Bpr. Will continue to determine feasibility of a temporary indoor facility with construction at East Boulder Community Park in 2025 and long term opportunities as part of the future of recreation centers project this picture. You've heard a lot more about last month. This one is an example, indoor facility from Parker, Colorado. And you'll hear a lot more about the future of Rec Center's project coming next month. and then, finally, there's lots of other. This is kind of a catch, all recommendation. But Ppr. Should pursue programming, reservation and maintenance improvements. One of those improvements speaks to the budget conversation we had earlier looking at how our rental and reservation fees now align with this new fee policy that we've created. So that would be one example. But this chapter obviously had a lot more specifics on those daily operations as well.

[93:20] So with that, we're, you know, collecting final feedback from you all final questions tonight. This plan based on charter. It does not require formal approval. But of course we've come to you so many times, because we value your your voices and your thoughts. Once we collect your feedback tonight and make any final changes like adding T's to very important names in the document, for instance, that we may have type of we will plan, plan, publish this plan online, and share it. So, although it's technical and it's intended to support staff staff throughout the next couple of years we wanna keep this process transparent for our community and and bring them along as we have throughout this process. So

[94:06] that, that's the brief for tonight. So thank you all for coming through this project with us. What? What questions are? I was just curious about the 2022 outdoor core utilization analysis. It just seems really low. And so I was wondering how that was inform. I mean, I I think, in terms of number of hours, number of hours used. Yeah. So I mean, it appears that only the course that we have were only used 20% of the hours they're available. Yeah, I I realize I'm sharing my screen. I should have printed copy so I could flip to that page 107 of the packet, and I like have it up in another window. But that doesn't help me right now. Nope. I just clicked off. This is only hours that it was reserved in active net. Right? Yes, wondering if that was like, is there drop ins that are happening kind of a thing. And we're are the reservations happening

[95:09] through like a danzo is part of the reservation hours. That's internal. Bpr, I think, and then anything else would be from like a tennis club, or or it could be an individual person doing a reservation online as well. Right? So, although the hours that are officially reserved are 20%, the drop in rate would make it correct. Exactly. Yeah. And and also maintenance. For instance. it's a small percentage. But that's not included as well. Okay? And do you think like, for example, you showed Columbine as an example of something that needs to have some upkeep done that is showing a total number of reserved hours only at 5. Do you think that's because the courts are damage, and sometimes, or need to need upkeep that definitely could be part of it. That's what we're hearing anecdotally from the community for sure. And then

[96:03] I just wanted to ask about the new courts that you're talking about building at East Boulder rack. are we? And you're talking about putting up some sort of potential indoor structure. That's kind of like the bubble that we talked about last time. Yeah. and that can support. So I know a lot of the ports we have won't support right? So that would be part of the conversation is as we create new courts. Can we build them to support a bubble? The the the ports that are existing at each folder will not? And are the puzzles temporary in nature, or are they? Can they be permanent? If I show that life cycle. So, and the idea is in our case, we're trying, writable, permanent, indoor facilities, part of the plan. So the recommendation to look into that with partners. So the bubble is a way to provide some indoor use. But again, we don't currently have funding for that. I've been trying to work with partners to figure out how we can sort of more to come on that right. And that's just that's just part of the east border. Correct. The other thing I'll just note is not all. Bubbles are year round. Summer operated just seasonally, for example, the current one in town at Rntc. Was only in place seasonally, and the rest of the time the ports were were open, and that's that could be a more cost, effective way to do it. You're not running any, you know Hvac, or electricity for the months when

[97:26] we have our 3, you know, 300 days of sunshine and and really mild climate. So all of those are things that when we say there's a lot more work to happen to flush this out. It's details like that. And this isn't. I mean, talk about detail. This is an incredible, incredibly detailed thank you for running adults. Yeah, I was just amazed by that amount of feedback you were able to get from community users, and putting that all together in a very readable format that was really helpful.

[98:02] My one question is just related to funding so like, what of the 22 new ports? We think we're gonna build what percent are like funded versus unfunded or not funded? Yeah, yeah, no. I he's border community Park manager, Tina Briggs, and he asked about it. We'll lead that effort. and that's where we're initially trying to put in the idea converting courts to provide 16 pickleball courts and up to 8 dedicated tennis codes. So that's really our 1st effort to really invest and provide new facilities as we get into later years. And the cip. That's when we'll bring you more of that detail back to you. And the plan points out, Tom Watson, or photos is that potential places to do. What about like of those things that east of the port, said East Folder. Are we budgeted, I forget. Are we budgeted for those? Okay? And then the layer stuff like

[99:06] building at Belmont and Watson. Another place that's not currently in the budget. It's not. It's basically as we come back to a laid out years and the cip, and we'll start to balance the competing needs. That's when we'll get into more detailed discussion of those we're not saying to the public like, we are going, we can currently with money. We have build these things. Yeah, I want to be really direct. There is no funding in the cip to build it Tom Watson or Belmont. I think that's what you're asking like. We'll revisit it each year. But here's what what I wanna add, because in September. Angie Jeffords, the executive director of our philanthropic nonprofit partner, is gonna come, talk to you you all about a lot of questions about fundraising. She's fundraising. She's gonna talk about the work of play. She's gonna unveil their 3 capital campaigns that are part of their mou, that they run major capital campaigns to help us with fundraising. You all have a lot of questions about that.

[100:03] I believe that we have some very exciting seed money that will have formal documentation of that will be the start of a courts campaign. We have heard from the community that they wanna contribute that if money is the limiting factor, they wanna try and make it happen. So we're happy to capitalize on that interest. We know that there are partners that are interested in building tennis courts. And so if we're relying on city money, there is not what we're hoping to do with the court system. Plan is to position yourself to ask for money. Yup, yeah, I just the only reason I raise that question is because I want to make sure that the public understands that just because we've created a plan right and an aspiration to do these things that doesn't necessarily mean we are going to do that because we have the funds to do it, or if we hope to do it. But I just wanna make sure the public is clear about that. And there is like. It's great to state that as well as this, the pragmatic aspect of the plan is seeing much and invest in the existing codes. Get those really good standard get better use. And we've got money to begin in reducing the new codes. So the plan isn't just gonna sit on the shelf

[101:09] so we can take care of that, but also identify the reality of where we got funded. So that I like that about this point, as it covers both aspects sometimes plans. Just sit on the shelf and become the implementers. So there is a balancing act there. Yeah, I appreciate that. And then Eric's got a question. Oh. Yeah. Just had a question about a couple of 1st of all, where did the 400 K estimate come. you know, for annual maintenance. Was that just? Was there a need study, or there a cost estimate of that or. So that's based off of the estimate to redo 2 pairs of courts for tennis courts every year, and how that would then trickle down throughout the system. So it is based off cost estimate for redoing that post tension, concrete. Plainly.

[102:00] Say, the specific numbers go. When when do you think we could get these East boulder courts in the ground? I mean, like, it sounds like we're starting this whole East Boulder process this fall. But I mean W. Are we good? I mean, when can the public see those? These boulders? Sounds like the fundings there? Right, I mean, can we do these. Yeah. Our dream would be to have ribbon cutting last July. But we do have to go through a few steps and Tina's gonna lead the project. We're really off like frankly looking to move it forward. So we hopefully can move forward in construction in 25, probably late 25. It there is always a new ones like permitting and aspects of design that you have to consider. But we're doing our best to put it in on a fast track to get it done. And is there too many Is that where we're looking for an indoor facility or indoor outdoor facility, possibly at those those ones that are already sort of budgeted for. Correct. It's with that project that we're exploring the feasibility of a seasonal indoor option.

[103:02] Okay. Great. Thank you. Eric. Any other questions from the prab before we move on. I just mentioned one thing. This was a legal some credit of the staff, and obviously Allie, great leadership in the project. But this was Charlotte's 1st project. So I think, she said, a pretty high volume. There's a lot of engagement with the public, and I know that was this work. So hold on to you both. And I just wanna say adding out of the compliment. Sandwich here. My kids been doing Gonzo tennis for years, and it's awesome. Yeah, it's so great. Okay. Oh, Eric, did you still have a question, or did you mean to.

[104:02] Yeah, I just, I just have one other question. I know that in some of the email conversations that I've had with people that were involved with the stakeholder groups. They they kind of want to continue having sort of a work group and be involved going forward. Is there a formal process to do that to have a a check in once a year about how we're implementing this plan. I think that would be. I think there's people that'd be interested in that. I think it's good to keep. Keep the momentum on this. I I you know, and and is is that something that we would consider. Do you guys have work groups? Is that how does that? How would that play out. Yeah, that's something we've talked about with our current stakeholders. And I don't know, Tina. If you wanna add anything but are definitely exploring for the east boulder like, specific. Yeah. So as we start up the project for East Boulder Community Park. we certainly are going to tap into those same stakeholders. So at the appropriate parts of engagement as we set up that engagement plan, we'll look at the best places where they can provide the feedback to us, and it'll be most useful. So whether that's a monthly bimonthly or quarterly we'll define that as the project gets a little bit more time, but they'll absolutely still be involved.

[105:16] I wanna add to that, with just our aquatic stakeholders have a similar interest. We have. There are so many groups for whom the city is not the provider of the program. But we're the facilitator because they happen in public facilities or on parkland. And so working not just in a renter run, you know. Rent or rent whatever. I'm missing the words. But in a very transactional relationship. How do we actually work in partnership with all these providers who provide so many services to our youth. So Scott and Megan are doing this with the Aquatics group. In 2025 we have a work plan item to just develop better partnership models in general. I'm very interested in this. With you sports boulder parks and recreation is very different from most municipal agencies and health. Little use sports we provide, but we facilitate almost all of it through our facilities, and we're really interested in how we could help shape that to address some of the critical issues facing you sports. So this is a great model. The way that we built a relationship with Bta Boco pickleball the way Megan and Scott are doing it with the aquatics groups, we should do the same thing with all of our user groups. So, Eric, I really appreciate you just elevating that issue because I think it's really important.

[106:25] Yeah, I mean, I think we put a lot of effort into this plan. I would just like to keep the momentum, and, like, you know, have an annual check in as Prab, and say, How how are we doing on this 5 Year plan to implement these 22 courts, you know, and so that we keep thinking about this and kind of like, you know. I you know I read the old aquatic study from 2,015, and I. My questions are well, what you know. I know Covid got in the way. But you know, how are we doing implementing that plan? You know as well. Thank you, Eric. are there any other comments or questions related to this item before we move to the next one?

[107:05] Okay, so next up is the civic area, planning analysis and park receptions. Summary. She and Homi Korea Gawa is our senior landscape architect and project manager for the most complex project on our work plan involves a lot of stakeholder engagement, a lot of coordination with city departments, and she is doing it incredibly. It's pretty sweet. What other directors constantly rate about your staff. Thank you all. So, as Ali mentioned, I'm Shahomi Korea. I'm a senior architect on the project, and I am here to talk about our engagement effort and specifically summarize the feedback that we got. So let me share screen. Really cool. Yes, thank you for my name.

[108:03] Okay? So we are still at the very beginnings of the project for civic area. And so we kicked off in getting up this year in 2024 with the design team, but also our 1st window of engagement. And so that window of engagement we're here to review our summary and feedback. So it's kind of exciting to get to review this with you at a high level. But just to note as we go through these different sections. We wanted to just ask Brad if you had any questions on the process for window one. If you had any questions generally feedback as we move through, and then, of course, anything else that we should keep in mind. We're in the middle of planning for Window 2 right now, so we kind of had a quick turnaround. We're back at it. So let us know at the end. I'll go through this presentation as quickly as possible, and then we'll get to any questions. So

[109:00] the overview of window one engagement really was from the start of February to April. So we had 3 months to go out to the community with several different events. That we did throughout multiple locations of the city, including the park itself. But in general we asked these kind of 4 high level questions, on what do you envision doing in the civic area? What are your top values and priorities that will help inform civic area phase 2. So this is just coming off of the phase one that we opened in 2020 2018. Excuse me. what are your top concerns for this area? And how would you like to connect to civic area through the arboretum? So we're kind of talking about bigger questions on visioning for the next future phase this slide just highlights all of the work that we've done. So 13 engagements in those 3 months. We did a community feedback and family concert event. So that was our bigger family, or, excuse me, our bigger public engagement, and that was centered around youth and family and general public. We did have an online questionnaire as well, both in English and in Spanish. We also included a lot of pictures throughout just to help with any language barriers in general.

[110:22] we had 6 historically excluded focus groups where we're really trying to prioritize certain community members making sure that they're coming along in the process with us in design. 2 student groups. So that included, see you. And of course, boulder high throughout window. One engagement, and then we had some fun dynamic events. In terms of some pop up locations. So that was in the library in Agwell Center, among some other locations. So we've had been busy out to various parts of the community and definitely focused on equity

[111:00] and with that equity as part of the process. So you'll notice here these next slides are, what we've dove into in specific detail. We're not necessarily gonna go into specific detail of each engagement event. But this is just a sampling or example. So for racial equity, you'll notice that we have a Spanish 1st meeting, equity focus group and specific demographics taken from the online questionnaire. This is some of the highlights that we have from what we heard in terms of what's pretty recreation and play welcoming inclusivity and multicultural space. So you can start to see, as we go out to these certain groups and specific events, you can start to see all the juiciness that people are talking about areas with tables and chairs to share food and connect with children, friends and family. So, starting to really see what people want out of the space in terms of the disability equity. We worked closely with people experiencing physical and sensory disabilities with our Roland Stroll group, Cpwd and also our stakeholder group. So specific to this group was universal access, really creative thoughts around design and lowering barriers to entry. But not only barriers for access or circulation.

[112:24] talking about play, talking about the importance to connect, to outdoor recreation and how we get all different kinds of folks. Those opportunities and access to recreation throughout the space. You can also see over here. We'll get into it a little further down. But we asked people the guiding principles of our park plan. There are 7 just to start to prioritize what they thought should be top of mind, as we think about design for phase 2, so we've gone through and seen all of the feedback from across the city what priorities are floating to the top.

[113:05] So then, also, part of this focus group was the youth Equity. And you know, just knowing that. Young people have more barriers for getting their voice out being heard being a part of a government process in general. And so working with Boulder High was a wonderful event. We had an art gallery of all the wonderful ideas and creative design that the students were coming up with. We've also worked with Cu as well on multiple proposals of what they see throughout the site. And we're gonna be working this summer on a temporary pop-up installation with some of the Ce. Students. So we can kind of see that come to life, and that will help with part of the engagement that we'll be doing for next year. hey? So that's in general brief process on what it took to get through window one and make sure we're trying to hear as many voices as possible. And what we've actually heard I'll get into the summary for civic

[114:09] at the top, above the line are those guiding principles that I mentioned before. So, again, going back and asking the public we have this existing park plan. Here are the guidance principles that start to create the framework. What are the priorities here? Below the line? You'll start to see some more detail on the themes that emerged within those principles. So people really talking about how to activate the space. For instance, so seeing all of the different ideas of how to activate the space what people want to see throughout the space connecting to outdoors and the like, especially with life and property, safety to different themes starting to emerge. So here you can see at a higher level the key findings. So on the left we have entire boulder community feedback on the right. We've pulled out historically excluded groups.

[115:07] To highlight that specific feedback. And you can see right off the bat. It's actually pretty synonymous with each other. So place for community activity and arts. People wanna see the space activated. They wanna go to civic area and just immediately be a part of event connect with people. See a neighbor and kind of quickly be sucked into something engaging. Outdoor culture and nature, civic heart of boulder life, property, and safety, you can see floated to the top of our priorities of the top 4, and then everything else sort of comes to the backside. That does not mean that we won't incorporate design. For sustainable, viable future enhanced access and celebration of history. Those principles will come along with us throughout design. Of course. we're just noting what is floating to the top for the public. Interestingly enough, historically excluded groups that civic heart flips above outdoor culture and nature. The civic heart principle talks a lot around equity, inclusivity, celebration of culture. And so I think that makes sense that actually bumps up higher for our focus groups.

[116:25] Sorry about that. This just expands a little bit of those principles, our guiding principles. And you can see some of the themes that start to emerge again between the entire boulder community and the historically excluded groups. Still very similar. But yes, you can see people are starting to talk about community recreation. So people are talking about recreation specifically connect with each other. talking about play. A lot of art and music events in general. I just want to show up to an event again. That was of interest. You know, boulder is known for its wonderful outdoor features and amenities, including Boulder Creek, and so not a surprise that outdoor culture in nature was pretty high there.

[117:12] Let me get here to me about the size of the event. Spaces. Yeah, the size of the event. Spaces really do matter, and not only the size, but also again, some of those barriers so permitting expensive, permitting the system. So really providing different types of spaces for rental for community benefit. And just really take over their own events. Maybe even looking at the band shell to how to program that more for high school support poetry slams or rock concerts. Things like that so different sized events, different ways to rent and permit maybe not permit all the time, maybe more, for professional groups. But we've heard a lot of feedback on that. Thank you for adding. And then I just wanted to bring this up. We know that a safety in general is really top of mind for a lot of people in civic area. We separated this from the top 3 priorities, although it is barely it's coming up very close

[118:15] to the rest of the priorities. Really, this is something that design cannot solve on its own. We know it's gonna take design space activation policy work with other partnerships, our Sams team, our urban rangers to really create a safe and welcoming space. But you can really see the concerns here to have the space feel safe again. I've heard a lot from the community that really at one time, you know, this had been a wonderful safe place. And then, you know, we've had so many things kind of come along, and so really wishing that the space felt safe for families. Really talking around the unsocial behaviors of the legal activity. And so this will be key in window to go back out to the community and just talk about. What are those unsocial behaviors that you see the most? What are the social behaviors and the values that we wanna really prop up and get behind. So

[119:17] well, I would say, not only I mean there's a lot of vandalism happens from all different user groups, but I would keep it to unsocial behavior, specifically towards drug use, vandalism and sanitary conditions. That helps us understand how large of a problem that is. You know, I think what we're doing right now is collecting data between our operations team, who's out there a lot of the time working with the urban rangers as well as our police department. So we do have some historical data on that as well as you know, starting this engagement process has been really wonderful in terms of gaining a perception. What people are really feeling when they're using the space.

[120:12] If you're asking questions about actual crime data, we do have it. The police department takes a very solution. Oriented crime approach where they target areas. That are specifically pervasive. And this is one of them. There are regularly mostly it is members of the unhouse community who are victims of crimes, of of physical crimes. But there are There are a lot of challenges, and we're working closely with the police department to address them to make sure it's safe for everyone. So you know, like this. I'm I'm gonna make those far beyond parts. But, we in the city have a tendency to push the house population around, and that. I think, leads to more crime, not less as that communic. As that community loses any stability they may have. So again, this post manager works on me, but I'd love to understand, like, what are we doing with other city departments to

[121:08] ensure that like, we're taking care of those people with our city. While also thinking about how we're going to create the safe, welcoming space in our civic center. It was last year's retreat where you all got an overview on the safe and managed public spaces program, and then the housing approach and the close partnership we have with what was both the boulder shelter for homeless. And now all roads. We can certainly put that on an agenda to be calendar it it is complex, but The city is doing a lot and spending tens of millions of dollars in more than any other city to try and get people into housing, and we would love to talk more about that. And we did as an example one of the groups reached out was, I think it did. The nonprofit Bridge House which the city and bus staff provides housing. So that was one of the groups we was part of the conversation. Understand? Needs. And how can be more proactive in that regard?

[122:00] So it's you're right. It's 2 sided kind, supporting all community members, but also identifying what are social behaviors that unacceptable. For while taking care of like working with folks like Bridge House, so we're doing our best to cover both sides. There. Now, it's nice to hear, too, from the community feedback, definite concern about the space and feeling safe in the space. We did also hear feedback about the humanitarian side and making sure we're taking care of the population and not moving people around needlessly. We are trying to walk that line through our coexistent model that we're applying onto this design process on how to be absolutely welcoming inclusive and sort of walk the line of safety. Thanks. Yeah. What's your question? You had mentioned that like sanitation concerns were part of the safety experience. I just like, I have observed that

[123:00] the strategy has been to like remove bathrooms, public bathrooms that were available. So I think when you remove the place for people to go to the bathroom and to manage sanitation. You're gonna get an unsanitary situation because people are not gonna stop going to the bathroom. Absolutely. Yes, thank you for that comment. We are working in civic area, also across our perk systems and looking about looking at some of the better systems that we can implement for restrooms. They are definitely something that we're thinking about in terms of operations. They themselves get vandalized quite a bit. And so it's really what is the best system that we're looking into? And we're doing research across Civic Peel Street as well as other parks. Civic is a specific beast in that. It's very hard, because of the high hazard really, to work within the boundary of the floodplain. And what is allowed to be buildable and a structure within that floodplain. So it's pretty hard to get around. But we are going to. I recognize that challenge, and we're gonna incorporate it in this

[124:06] sanitation for restrooms is definitely a key concern. Sanitation also for Boulder Creek itself. Finding trash even needles as well as what we've heard, and keeping, you know, just a level of stewardship for the creek and the space. I I think it would be interesting to see some guidelines for the city. Like, if you have a certain number like there's parks that don't, or they're gonna have picnic or eating areas there, that there's gonna be bathrooms, because, like around, there's like picnic tables for 100 people. But there's no bathrooms. So I just think it's like a mismatch. Is that for the key findings of the recreation activities. This is a little bit different, right than our priorities, our guiding principle priorities. But you can see again floating to the top is programming what people want. It's a smaller text on the bottom. So sorry about that. I'll just read. But under the guise of programming. People have talked about community programming. So again, really wanting to engage meet neighbors be

[125:14] seen and be seen. Music, events came up a lot youth programming. The farmers market? Probably not a surprise very well loved. And how do we expand the farmers market make it more permanent, make it seasonal, or excuse me year round. And then just generally attending any kind of event would be great to see from what we've heard from people. You can see that playing, eating, dining, and picnicking, observing nature, experiencing art, gathering with friends and family, was at the top. For all of the boulder community, and again very similar for historically excluded groups, along almost the same lines. eating and dining flips up. And that is because we heard, I think, a lot of these stories around eating as a communal activity as family and friend connection. So that was really at the heart of some of that feedback and then dancing was added to for historically excluded communities.

[126:15] So that was our brief summary. We will be putting online on our project website, something similar to this graphic summary. It's a little bit longer. And so you can see a little bit more detail there. But for next steps, really, we are finalizing site analysis with the design team. So now that we have engagement feedback the design team has been working very tirelessly on a lot of technical side analysis. We'll marry that with all the policy overlay that we have in this area. So there's quite a bit of parameter that we have to think about before we even get to design. You can see that will kick off next year. So still a lot of moving parts to get through. But we'll be back to the public and to Brad and Window to to share out

[127:02] one really what the window one findings are. So that's more done that now. But we're doing that with the public. We like to share that out and confirm. Did we miss anything? Also make sure that any voices that we miss from window one get a chance to speak on the priorities for guiding principles and window 2. As I mentioned again, we are discussing that part perceptions and acceptable acceptable part behavior. And then also looking at the programming and space activation. So we've kind of gone through some of the principles, the space activation recreation activities. So we'll start to actually, put some bubble diagram into that. So that is the look, for we don't want engagement for civic area, and I'll just pop it back to proud for questions. Yes, Jen, do you have any? Have you looked at any other cities that you're interested in modeling? Yes, and are, before I answer. Sorry. Are you talking about any specific? One thing, boulder Creek or civic center, like it just seems like

[128:13] with the bookends. And then you're already having the library and working with the flood problems like it seems super unique. So I wonder if there is another city that you could or have you looked at? That might be similar. Yeah, we're doing a precedent study currently with our design team, we're looking at not only the different types of facilities space activation, the governance on how to really run these types of urban spaces that have so many components to them. Carrie Park is one of them that we're looking at currently some of these spaces to our different scale. but Clyde Warren is a great example. Specific elements within civic area, you know. I think Golden and Clear Creek has done a wonderful job with their Creek system and activating a water trail. But we're kind of looking all over the country for that. Well, that's some of that information be included in the phase 2.

[129:11] And then my other question is, is I? I find it so interesting. So I hear all the time that people are looking for community engagement, and you know a place to go and meet people, and you know some of the larger events aside. I've gone down to like 13th Street for some downtown boulder partnership stuff, and it's just really low, like low attendance. And I wonder if like. How do you fix that? I mean, is it a marketing issue? Is it the type of events this Boulder Creek fest as well in the farmers. Market does well, you know, like those regularly scheduled events people can count on. So when you're looking at be that being the top thing people want. How do you address you? Wanna start? Okay? I would say that we got some really great feedback from the Boulder social streets plan that we ran last year. So really activating or trying to activate 13th Street there, got really interesting feedback. And how to program specifically, 13th Street, and really what we heard was something that is very similar

[130:16] to the farmers market and scheduled, it happens, reoccurring at a time on a day that I know I can show up is a lot easier to track and of course, you know, farmers market is such a bigger event. But they have a lot of partnerships. So partnership is the key, right? I think boulder social streets was such a quick plan and prototype to implement. We were a little bit kind of constrained on the amount of vendors that we could partner with, and creating something a little bit more robust. So that, I would say, is probably another key fact factor. Honestly, everything that you mentioned, and then the marketing, the marketing is always key. So it's kind of a yes, we need to do all of those things a little bit more robustly and also be centered. Have some synergy with Pearl Street.

[131:06] So we got some feedback that you know Pearl Street has so much going on. What can we really do to complement in that area? Down by civic, and not take away just to back out a second does these 2 include the arboretum? Yes, it does. We are looking at key connections to the arboretum. And how we really do some implementation in the near term on it. But really think visionary about that connection. Okay, can I just add to that? That's that point, isn't it, where the concept plan will cover the whole space and it gets back to the area point, doesn't it? You look at the fish pond and then the multi-use path. All these things that were added sort of it's never been designed a specific space so civic space will activate it. So the concept plan will provide that needed framework. But the reality is, we've got 80 million dollars. So we'll have to decide.

[132:01] where do we focus that money? That'll be a key part of the discussion, knowing that the concept plan will help us figure out what the funding needs are for the other spaces we call funding phase? 2. Okay. So if we're getting into vision, or I think so put an idea there. Have we ever considered purchasing some of the properties? It's East Side, Broadway, raising a good question where? When the plans told me to? Yeah, when we. the original plant focused on Eastern Soccer west. it wasn't really looking to the south. especially with all the readum, and, like alfalfa's, is empty at the moment it would, and a lot of the business community said the the businesses and the shops have sort of turned their back on the park. So how do we ever need to face the park again? I mean by connectivity. And so yes, as those conversations start to occur, how do we think about that bigger picture of revitalizing it? So it's a great question.

[133:04] I just want to make sure we're clear that our freedom was also part of this window of engagement. Okay, good. I just want to make sure you're raising such good questions where the governance piece and the partnerships that start to emerge here would be key activating the space like other civic areas across the Us. And Europe which which copies you well like. There's like a a there's a couple of several empty storefronts that are on the east side of Broadway, between, like Arapaho and Kenya. We'll wrap a hole in so like between the High School and Broadway. Bernie York makes that simple like at the minute most of the shopfits face Broadway. It's a busy street, not very pleasant, and if you face the arboretum path, which is certainly an attractive path at some point with outdoor cafes and stuff. You've got a much better business venture. There's some things to talk through this weekend.

[134:01] and I just if we're throwing things out there. And I'm not sure of the actual plan for the Municipal Building. If, when everybody moves up to Alpine Boston. But that's a city on building that I don't know if there's any plans, for I would love to see a youth focus something happening just because I think that it would be a nice place to have centralized location for kids. And considering what Ali said earlier about low programming for kids. I mean, we have issues with the night rides and the North Boulder Park, and not that it would make it better or worse, I'm not necessarily saying, but there is not a lot of space for teams, so I think a youth area would be great building. It's already owned by the city. So that's just an idea to throw into. No, that's great. And we are looking at that idea, especially as we balance that Alpine balsam campus. So a lot of the city buildings within civic that have staff will be moving over to that campus. And so there's ample opportunity for exactly what you're talking about.

[135:02] Oh, yeah. And so when we worked with Boulder high we had wonderful shreds with the art students over there, and working with their gallery and coming up with some pro type and sketches. But we heard some really great ideas on a cafe, a coffee shop, something that's a little bit more affordable and welcoming, and you know you're able to be there and loiter to really feel welcomed. So I excited because some of the students talked about well, some kids have after school programs and some kids just go home, and then there are those of us who have nowhere to go can we find this 3rd place and really embrace that in the civic area. So we thought, that was just a wonderful idea. Yeah, I would just add that I think that relays the arboretum and that connector space between the upper part of the hill and downtown. I think that see you boulder

[136:00] Pbsd and the city should be working in tandem on that project, and I mean sharing resources, too, because all 3 of those entities have a massive incentive to make sure that that space is thriving especially with the University's new Conference center. I just I feel like there's a lot of space for collaboration there. And I hope that the city is is pushing that. Oh, I wanna just build on that because these folks won't celebrate it. But I wanna just recognize already that our freedom is having just a I don't know the right word polish, brush up whatever you want to say. The land, the the design team has been actually out, you know, doing their own sweat, Equity and team building to clean up some of the beds. We know the importance of the connectivity between the hill and downtown. Someone asked a question about that at a meeting, and wanted to hear more about that. It came up with the trees. And now I'm trying to remember if I ever sent that follow up information to you. It's been a very busy summer. But if you if you were to walk the arboretum right now, you would see wayfinding signage that says you're here. Pearl Street is 5 min walk, or, you know, a 2 min bike. The hill is this way. So wayfinding has been installed through partnership with community vitality and the downtown boulder partnership. See, you has been a part of that. So there's already that partnership. The collaboration is happening around. What makes sense to do on a short term. It's always

[137:19] this team does a lovely job of saying Ally, that's great. That doesn't make sense. We're gonna we're, gonna you know, we're working on a visionary design here. We're gonna make the whole space better and spend a lot of time and money. But what can we do in the short term to make that connection better safer? So that as these hundreds of people start showing up at the Conference Center and the Hill Hotel. They come, spend money downtown safe. I suggested. I know this is like a picturing that the Alpha space be like something like that's community centric rather than just like another or something like that. That's not really engaging. I'd like I'd like to see an endorsement facility there just because boulder high. And I think it's something that could really kind of bring community members there rather than just like tourists that are passing through, or

[138:09] kind of other buildings that don't really engage with, and don't think they are too. Oh, Eric. Yeah, I just I mean, I think it's a great plan. It's it's what we need down there. But you know, I think you know, the safety thing is huge. I live in that area. I've been through the arboretum with my kids, you know. I go to the fishing pond. and I've been even GA. Lot, and that the camps along the creek, the drug use. Those are huge issues. And like, I'm not sure where the city is now with the recent Supreme Court decision about enforcing the camping ban. But you know, and I'm hopefully, by the time we start to initiate this civic plan. We'll have dealt with that. But we, you know, we need to tear, you know, take care of our unhoused people, and but we also need to enforce this camping ban and and and clean up our downtown, I mean, since I've moved to, I've only been in Boulder 5 years, but I've seen a significant decline in public safety down there.

[139:11] And I think we're gonna spend a lot of money improving this. We we can't really beat around the bush about that. And, Eric, I appreciate that response, and I would. All I would say is that you're right. It's a really tough issue, not the only city. and part of this effort is, you know, in the past, and some Ali's leadership it was. We might have just had a design plan, and then did the ribbon coding hopefully. You're noticing here that we're looking at space activation even before the designs finished. along with the placemaking. And then also looking at. What is this idea of rules and regulations? And then how does that fit in with the operations space? So those 4 quadrants you can actually see in that bottom left diagram, but analyzing all the time across the board with the different groups we work with, so that we don't have the perfect answer yet, but with really trying to think of it in that way. So it isn't just trying to figure it out.

[140:08] So about 2 years to work that through more feedback we get the better frankly. and we'll all be in it together to try and figure it out. Okay? Any other questions or comments on the side. 3. Alright. So that concludes the staff presentation portion of the meeting. The next item is matters. I wonder if we could post just maybe a minute bathroom, break and reset. I'm gonna let. We've got a bunch of staff, and rather than be disrupted to your conversation, if we could just take a quick movement, break bathroom, break for folks who I know. We've been here a few times, but bathrooms are right up the hall.

[146:45] Mean, I was in Seattle at this Parks Conference. It's really a a downtown and urban Parks Conference and you're all back together. I'm happy to make sure you have time for your matters. But yeah, no. I actually think we should probably build in that 5 min break between staff presentation matters from the board

[147:05] for every meeting unless there's like well, I just I mean, just for you. I am constantly telling people like, I know. Mark got home at one o'clock in the morning he had a death he was in Utah. Scott has a 5 am. Flight. He's taking a vacation, and they won't leave. They feel rude, and so part of it is me also trying to like. Let them all feel like we all respect, and lot of lots of them want to stay and hear your conversation. But I I know that they're all gonna work, you know, way too much this week. So thank you. Okay, so reconvene in the meeting, if it ever was not convenient, or whatever back and break. We have a couple of items the 1st of which is the Fab meeting dates are coming up in the fall, so I'll just get to the easy 1 first, st which is the November and December meeting dates those fall on holidays, or either actual holidays or school holidays

[148:06] and staff have proposed we, the agenda setting team, has proposed that we move the November meeting to Monday, November 18, th which is a week before it's currently set. And then the December meeting from like Christmas to December 16th and so we are the agenda setting team, which is me. Bernie and Ali have proposed these dates. Does anybody have any issue with those dates? So they're in the if you look at page 322 of the second from the last page. It's Monday, November 18, th is the November meeting proposal, and then Monday, December 16th is the December meeting proposal. If is there any issue with those dates

[149:02] among those presence? Okay, so let's go ahead and change those. Thank you so much, Rosa in advance for doing that. The next issue there has to do with the study session. Slash, retreat. the reminder. This is like a step back opportunity for the prab to just chat about various things that are really, just have to do with our governance. And also just Bpr business. And that is typically spearheaded by 2 grab members. And those 2 prep members are typically not in leadership. And it's a really great opportunity for members new or seasons to take a leadership role to help spearhead the agenda which typically can be just a blank slate like, what are you interested in talking about and so one thing we want to do tonight is talk about whether we want to have that meeting this fall, versus like in January or February.

[150:09] and if we wanna have the meeting this fall we gotta start planning for it soon. Because it does take a month or 2 to kind of get things moving on that. And we wanna coordinate. We wanna make sure that the agenda is run by staff in case they have to provide content for the study session, which is always fabulous. So 1st item, there is, do we want to have the discussion in the fall versus like January, February. I would personally propose that we stick with the fall cause I think it's a good chance for us to step back for the new folks to come together with all of us and just like not have a set agenda from staff, but like to set our own agenda and to talk about items that we want to talk about. It's like a it's a prab driven agenda, and it's also a chance for us to just kind of get to know each other a little better. So I think that we should do in the fall. The problem doing it falls like November and December are really busy

[151:06] and so we typically have to be like in October or something, or in November, in addition to the November meeting. And that's always kind of tough. So I open that up for discussion with the recommendation that we do it in the fall at some point. Good cause we don't. When is our October meeting set for. I believe, October 23rd garage. right? And so 2828. That's even better cause. Then we can maybe set it for earlier in October. Have we done it before? Where we've done like in a week before the regular meeting? We've done that before. Right? Yeah, you've done the week before. I mean, you've done it whenever you can get February right before the regular meeting. Right? Okay. So could we then send out a do a poll for dates in October that'd be awesome.

[152:06] And just you want to propose, like limiting it to Mondays in October. Yeah. Be ideal to do. Mondays. We'll we'll pull for the 14th and 21, st if that's okay. The 7, th this part indigenous people's day. That's a holiday. Thank you, but, the 7th is our National Conference, which, if my presence is required, I'll be at our national Conference. So that leaves the 21.st Thank you so much for flagging that so quickly? So we can just pull that one date. And unless you want to expand about our dates, and it's also, I mean, my attendance isn't mandatory. I'd love to be there. That's I would like you to. You're gonna be probably presenting something or wanting to address topics, and you're an indispensable member of the 21st works for me. It works for me, too, works for me, too. It's the day after my 43rd birthday. So celebrate that. What is your favorite kind of cake just regular safeway cake, just like, you know, fluffy vanilla cake with frosting.

[153:18] That's what I'd like I like. So, October twenty-onest I'll look for a location, and I will advise Eric. Does that work for you the 21, st or does that not work for you? But it works. I just can. You could explain this study session thing a little bit more. Yeah. Can you provide like, what did you guys talk about last time, or like, what's the goals here? Is it just to. So. Are we? Are we presentations, or is there what goes into these things? Yeah, so good question. The the nature of it is essentially, I would say, the 2 goals are, we want to get to know each other more as a board, and then 2. We wanna address topics that concern us as a board, and that could be topics that

[154:10] we want staff to present on. So in the past we had a whole presentation on how much money and what are the resources being put into public safety issues and park rangers and you know, keeping the bike paths clear and that kind of thing. And we've done team building exercises and just done. You know various activities to get to know each other, but it's an opportunity for us to also talk about how we you know. How do we address items from the Board or matters from the board. How do we improve that? How do we make sure that we're all bringing our opinions and our ideas to the 4 as a group in a, in a structure that's not staff driven so like Staff are driving the agenda for the meetings, typically because they're bringing us the things that we need to hear about. And the retreat is an opportunity for the board to drive the agenda like, what do we want to talk about? What are things that we feel like? We as a group, need to discuss.

[155:14] to make things more efficient, to make things more transparent. Fair. Related to our business. We're also just on better understand issues that we may be curious about. Yeah. Okay, got it. So it's to improve our operating procedures a little bit. Is that what I'm hearing of. It could be so like, you know, one agenda item I'd like to discuss this year is this matters from the board agenda. Item. What? When do we have it in the meeting? Do we move it up? Do we change the format? Are there are there ways to improve the way that we are prompting each other to share opinions or thoughts about park matters. Are there norms that we need to discuss about like, you know, group conversations. There are all sorts of things we can talk about, that kind of come up in the course of meetings that we need to address as a group.

[156:09] Oh, good. Yeah. I mean, I think, Mo, my initial thoughts are like with the prep. It's like. it's very hard to have this. These these conversations with you all because everything has to be, you know you can't. CC, anybody. So I feel very isolated that, like we meet once a month. But there's no communication during the month that we can have. you know, and that I I'm trying to understand how that works with this this open records law. I guess it is right, but it does feel like we could be doing a better job of I don't. Yeah, I don't. I'm trying to work around that, but I don't see how there is ways to work around that and still be collaborative here without just, you know, every month we get together. I would like, you know, there's not this dialogue with you, others that I would like. Yeah, that's a great, that's a great point. And we should raise that. We should talk about that. I wouldn't. I would note that you. I have. You are okay to talk with an individual other member of the crab at any time. It's just if you have 3 people talking. That's a meeting.

[157:09] Yeah, I just that. I just think. Hey? It's like you want to have. I've never come across that in anywhere in my life, and it just seems so bizarre. To get your. Board and not have conversations with other board members. You know more with more than one, you know. And and we're lucky if if we were in a State Commission which I've been on before, you can't talk to anybody. Because that's a meeting like you can't talk to one other person. To me honestly, it just seems really counterproductive to be. I know. This role. It seems very hindering and kind of you know, a little bit so. So we should talk about ways to work around that. Yeah. Friction in a way that would prompt collaboration. I think that'd be a good idea. But anyway, so the agenda is set by the people who organize it. In concert with leadership. So we have to pick who wants to run this

[158:05] retreat? Okay? So we got one volunteer. Thank you so much. I was gonna volunteer. So thank you for prompting that. So Jenny needs a friend. And you did this last year. Right? Okay. So you're off the hook. Anna, have you? Have you helped organize the I don't know. Okay, so you're you're a candidate. Have you helped organize? I haven't, did I? I would like to, unless I'm gonna already have my say as a vice chair. I think that having you do it with Jenny makes sense, because then you can be the bridge to leadership, and then we don't have to have this like separate discussion. So the 2 of you can spearhead the agenda we can share with you past agendas. We can. We can't like all meet about it necessarily. But you guys can talk about like what you think would be a good agenda topics, and then you can bring that. You can bring that to our J agenda setting or whatnot. And we can talk about like what resources we need from staff to actually make it happen. And I guess I would also just say that this

[159:17] anyone else on prep. Has thoughts about what they might like to see discussed. Why don't? Why don't you email that to me or to Jenny? Not to both of us at the same time, just to one of us, and then Jenny and I will meet just the 2 of us, and we'll discuss. I just offer a process thing to Eric's point. You all can forage for ideas. You'll have a business meeting before then, when you'll all be together where you could have a matter from the Board to finalize retreat topic so that you can all discuss it together. So your September meeting it'd be very appropriate to have a draft retreat agenda that the Board could, as a group, discuss. Okay. but our September meeting comes very close to treat date so

[160:00] well. That comes to another proposal just as far as for your August meeting. Well, I'll get there when we get to the Retreat. or sorry the August the field trip I was so as an option. So your current schedule. The next item on this is the field trip schedule Regina and I chatted. We agree this wonderland encroachment. It's it's a it's a very big and a very important conversation. We were putting it before this meeting to keep things moving along. There's we're eager to put this to bed, but we're eager to do it right, which is why we've been so thoughtful about it. We could push that to September. You could keep this as scheduled. You could do a retreat, pep over dinner. You'd have to convene as an official meeting from 5 30 to 6, but you could have a retreat conversation in that 5, 30 to 6 window, if you like. So we show up at Tate. You've got a box dinner you convene an official meeting. You talk about the retreat, and then you hop on a bus.

[161:00] That gives you more time rather than waiting till September. Okay, Rosa, do you mind reminding me to add that to the agenda for okay, August, and we meet on Thursday, anyway. But I mean, can you help remind me to talk about it on Thursday, and while we're on it, just because I have it up my mind, I was really happy to hear the topic brought up about the collaboration between grab or parks and Rec and Pbs, when it's talking about the arboretum and that whole area there. And it's long been my thing to to talk about it as far as South Boulder goes, and South Boulder Rec. And the High School and the middle school all being right there. So I don't know. That's something that we could like. Just address a little bit or talk about like, what are the hurdles between? It is the collaboration. What how can we use Jason or or our connections that we have to make that happen? I just feel like that's 1 of those obvious in my mind. It's so obvious, and it's

[162:15] what's keeping us from doing more of that. And I don't know whether that's a policy thing, or you know, admin thing, or it's a just brainstorming like. In that case would we request for the actual study session a representative from the School Board to come, talk to us like? Is that something that we could do, or, you know, like, who presented about the safety thing last time? So I think I'll I'm gonna speak directly to the way, sonny, phrase that and that that you're perceiving a barrier to collaboration. I I don't share that concern. I think we have an incredible partnership with the bulk Raleigh School district. We have a very strong joint use agreement that the barrier is is funding and prioritization, and that we don't have money to do all the things. And so I just, I just want to be clear. I don't know that the right solution it it would be appropriate 1st to talk.

[163:06] I mean you all just review the budget and the Cip. That project, you know. So to me the right conversation isn't necessarily Bvsd and Vpr collaboration. It's project prioritization and funding. My question is more generic like, would it be if we had a topic? Would we bring in people to talk about that. or is it just us and you mostly, I just wanted to say, like the study sessions, for Council is always like tons of people come in with information. Yeah, that's not what we're talking about, right? It it's been both for the more the when we talked about safe and manage public spaces. I can't remember if we presented, or if we had someone from Hhs talk about the network of services, and that the outreach and the thing. And then we also talked about the way that we're trying to balance. you know. with that, anyway. So there was a staff presentation to to Bernie's, or I think, Elliot said. Sometimes there's a topic that just hasn't come up in the course of business, but that you all want to know more about discuss.

[164:04] And so I would think, as you all submit topics for discussion, you should be clear on the interest, right? And and I'm just gonna I'm gonna use. I'm I'm big on being very clear about interest versus positions. And I'm just gonna use this example. And that's okay, that so interest based bargaining. If folks are familiar with that. So the classic example, my 2 sons, Bernie and Elliot, they're fighting over an orange. Their position is they want an orange. And so I say, and I cut it in half, and I give them both an orange. and neither are happy cause their position was Elliot starving? He hasn't eaten all day, and he wants an orange, and Bernie's making potpourri. He could have been happy with the peel like when you learn people's interest. There's a there's a solution. And I say that say, Sonny's interest is that that part get renovated and collaboration, and be more actively used by the students. I would I would make your suggestions interest based versus positions based cause that opens the door to solutions. Right? Like. So, yeah, like, my interest is that we get Grab and Bvsd in a room to brainstorm and create a vision that really is bigger than prioritizing individual

[165:09] projects. Like, I agree with you that the the hurdle is is money and prioritization. But if there's a shared vision that could stimulate some seed money that could. That could be a passion project for somebody who can relate to that on the level. That's like more moving than we need to do these little individual projects. That's that's the way I feel is is that I I like to see big picture. I like to see how you could get people's emotions involved in decision making, because I feel like it's not all numbers. I don't think a lot of people remove my my numbers and prioritizing a lot of times. I feel like when people get involved in the vision. And the. you know, really imagining how this is gonna affect people and the big changes it's gonna make. Then it's more exciting. And there's just more more focus, more talk, more, whatever I don't know. That's

[166:03] that's the way I see it. So I don't know if this is the right place for that. But I just I want there to be more. more exchange of ideas and more. I want us all to know that we are all on the same page. And how can we support each other? So maybe it'd be helpful if we learn from Allie about the choice agreement that exists. and beyond that. Yes, what does it look like to partner with Bbsd? It would be beyond the Pratt's role to ask Bbsd to come to the table and sit down a room, because that assumes that that is the city's largest to talk about South Boulder. That would assume that is the city I'm talking South Boulder central boulder, too, like, if there's a an idea that that safety concerns youth engagement like it's all happening in the same space. And so, if individual organizations are are in the currently trying to solve the problem

[167:00] separately. Then I can see why it becomes a financial issue and it becomes lower priority because there are other things that can be manage easier, maybe, or solve easier or with less money. I don't know. I I don't understand it well enough, which is why I wanna like I think it would be posing your interest and letting the Retreat Committee. And we can talk about the best way to achieve that interest cause. I I, I with Bernie's, with this one. Yes, I do think the best 1st step would be a background on existing city Bvsd relationship, and how how things work, how topics are prioritized for city coordination. Right now. I'm so thrilled. And in September we're opening, you know, a a manufacturing facility for building modular housing at Yesd's, etc. It's amazing. So they just wanna be clear. There's a really great partnership with the city and with Pbsd, and that would that foundation would be a good place to start, and then the board part of the conversation would be okay. What do we do with that? Is this a priority discussing this? And you know I I can

[168:04] help with. how does that work within the bounds of the perhaps role within the bounds of our role and purview a city staff. Okay? Great. Well, thanks for volunteering. Really appreciate it, both of you. You can start chatting whatever you want about proposed agenda. We'll obviously have our planning meeting on Thursday, so we can talk more about like downloading what we talked about today. Some of the ideas. But you know, the 2 of you can feel free to drive the agenda. And it typically starts with an icebreaker type activity. And then we move into discussions that pertain to board specific stuff like, how do we govern ourselves better, more efficiently? How do we like engage in the meeting better. And then also, you know, Staff presented guided stuff like, what do we want to hear from them or other city people? And it's important to make sure that we provide staff with a heads up.

[169:01] If we want them to present information to us, or we want them to get some other staff member from the city kind of your to your point about city council meetings. Just in advance, so that they can plan around it. So thank you. Okay, the second item is has to do with prab agenda setting. So this really just has to do with in the last few meetings. We've had some questions about, how do we? As a group suggest items for the agenda? And there are a couple of ways you can do that one is, you can raise it in the meeting. So at the time of the meeting, when we're discussing an item, if you want to add something to the agenda, or if you want to talk about something more, you can propose that in the meeting. And then the agenda setting team so Ally and Scott and me and Bernie. We will talk about that in our agenda setting meeting and decide if and where we can put something on the agenda

[170:01] you can also email me or Bernie separately, or me and Ally together, or just Ally. And you can suggest here's an item I would like to talk about that will then be brought to the agenda setting team. Keep in mind that our agenda setting meeting happens the Thursday after the Monday meeting, so you effectively have, like, 3 days after the meeting to email or suggest something. You could also just call me or text me about it. Right? So those are the ways. You can add an item to it to the agenda. And just be conscious of timing alright the field trip slash meeting in August. We have a proposed schedule for that. By the way, this field trip is great. It it's 1 of my favorite parts of being on grab each year is to do this field trip. So I really look forward to it. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as well. But we've proposed the start time of 5 30

[171:00] to 6. Cause. There needs to be an initial business meeting at the beginning, and we've just added an item to that with the discussion of the retreat agenda, and that means that dinner would be served from 5 to 5, 30, and what we do is we have boxed meals that are prepared for us to take with us, or just to eat there. So come earlier than you typically would. But it's important that we get started early, because this will last the entire time, and we want to make sure that people can leave when there's some daylight left. Yeah, I was just gonna offer sunset on this date is at 7 40 pm. And typically there's enough sunlight to see outside for about 20 to 30 min after we'll finish up inside an east. So there is some wiggle room at this time isn't tenable for you all, but just not much. Yeah. So Fo. So cause we've talked about 5, 30 to 6, eat and talk. But we're gonna do 5, 35 to 5, 30 eat 5, 36 talk. It's going to be. The meeting itself is going to be 5, 30 to 6. The dinner will be available 5, 5, 30, but I think we don't care if you're eating from 5 30 to 6, you can bring it with you. Some people choose not to eat better. Those of us with small children are like famished

[172:24] I'm happy to offer more about why our team selected them. If there's something missing, we can discuss that. Yep. so why don't we? Why don't we solidify that during the Thursday meeting just make sure we know where we're going. And then, but if any of these folks have, input we would need it. Now, yeah. in the in. And then, is there a business meeting afterwards, then is that. No. so it's just paper. Yeah, I should block 5 to 8 for that Monday. Is that right? 5 to 8 30. We'll have you back at Tate 8 35.

[173:02] Okay. There's a just for folks to see. I know this packet is ginormous. 3 on page 324 is a schedule outlined for the tour. It's also really hard, Eric. I just want to honor if you're on a laptop and just tableau, everybody's just on a laptop. But when you're virtual and have just the one screen and. Yeah, no, I'm flipping back and forth. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And we are going to Wonderland Lake and Primos and Boulder Junction. Wonderland like, was that meeting topic. Just to be clear, we're not going there. We're not going to 1 1 like we're not gonna go. you know. Look at walking around in Boulder Junction and East will be a future of rec centers, Kickoff, and we want to walk with you on the land at home and Pan Austin share where you were. We are really hoping that we can build a whole lot of this

[174:03] all right. And then, Brad matters. This is the time of the meeting where people get to speak their truth. and the only thing I have is that for play boulder they have a I've I've met with those those people there, and there is a golf outing coming up. So feel free. It's it's been launched on their website. So so Friday, September 13.th Thank you. I know, because you're also gonna get an invitation, that is, when we're intending to have the grand opening 8. So if there's you can buy, you can volunteer, you can get, you know, buy a foursome, or there's sponsorship opportunities, or whatever you can do. But I'm meeting with them tomorrow, I think, or Friday to help out a little bit more with the marketing of the event. So that's my 1st go at the marketing. Please feel free to attend. I don't know yet. Okay, we haven't gotten quite that. We would get through the golf outing and then see what happens after

[175:04] restaurant the afternoon of the 13, th the afternoon. Okay, after the golf, adding, Okay. anybody else want to comment on parks and Rec related topics. I. I have one on July 4th I rode through Eva G. Fine park at like 8 in the morning, and it was nice to see the park already filling up, and our staff already there, being helpful and direct traffic, and then we rode back through the park around 2, 30 or so, and the park was quite crowded. And again I see the park being utilized. One question I had, Allie, was, might we in future years, on a day like that, where we know the proximity extremely heavily utilized. Consider bringing supported bodies in the line I saw, for the bathroom was like a quarter mile long. Oh, that's interesting. I haven't heard that feedback or request. We do have a lot of staff on site. That request hasn't made its way to us, but certainly that'd be something we'd be happy to consider, especially as you might assume. The woman's room had a very, very long line.

[176:12] I would assume that. I hadn't heard that feedback. I appreciate you passing along. And again, that's the kind of thing you're welcome to email us anytime immediately after. And we do a full after action review of major events like the 4th of July this year, did go very well. I'm so proud of the work the team has done, both at M. And G. Fine Park and the Boulder reservoir to make sure those are family friendly days. It's not always been like that. And I'm I will share with the team that you had that observation. Thank you. Great. Any other comments? Questions. Okay, next meeting is the is the field trip. So it starts a half hour earlier. Great meeting.

[177:00] thank you. Hey?