February 24, 2025 — Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] Pm, sorry for the delay in starting meeting. But, Rosie, are you recording? Yeah, awesome. Okay. We have quorum. And the 1st item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? Sunny? Anybody second, a second Eric, any discussion or proposed amendments? Hearing none. The agenda is approved. The next item is future board items and tours. I'll pass it over to Allie. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Folks, I'm Ali Rhodes. I'm the director of Parks and Recreation. Looking at Page 2 of the prab packet, I just want to call out a few items that are coming up. One recruitment is underway to fill the 5 vacancies that we'll have on this board at the end of this term. At the end of March. Those interviews are Underway Council will make appointments at their meeting on March 20th

[1:04] current Board members who either have a term ending or who have resigned. Their terms will end at the March meeting, but new folks will be sworn in. They'll join. Their 1st meeting will be that onboarding retreat that you all have scheduled and hosted, and we will support. We're thrilled with that idea. Other engagements. I just want to call out. They're not on this calendar yet. But we're going to be sending you some emails about some upcoming engagements. North Boulder Park on Sunday, March 80, 16, th Sunday, March 16, th Sunday, March 16, th we'll be in the park talking to the neighbors about about the project. We'll share some other engagements coming up, related to the civic area related to future of Rec. And so when you see your March calendar just know we've got a lot of community conversations coming up and then the other thing just yellow lights. We're coming into budget season, which more than half of you won't care about at that point, but a couple of you will, and that'll be happening april, May and June to prepare for our final submission to the city centralized budget process.

[2:15] When's the North Boulder Park meeting. 16, th I know. But what time? Oh, 11 to one pm. That'll be a family friendly engagement with. Well, Mark, maybe you could share a little more in advance of the email in the picnic area bathroom. Sorry the bathrooms play areas and looking at how some of the activities occur around the park with me utilities where we might be also looking at open culverting and fixing some of the drainage issues in the book. Jeff and Paige will be doing a concept to make it family friendly. so it'll be a fun day out with some good engagement. Can you send us an invite for that for sure?

[3:00] Great. I mean, we can decline or accept as our availability allows. But I would like to be invited to that. It is always helpful when it's on the calendar. Yeah, when we send you appointments. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yep. Rich. Anything else. that's all I have tonight. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Okay, great. All right. Next item is public participation. This portion of the meeting is for members of the public to communicate ideas or concerns to the Board regarding parks and recreation issues for which a public hearing is not scheduled. Later in the meeting this includes consent agenda. The public is encouraged to comment on the need for parks and recreation programs and facilities as they perceive them. All speakers are limited to 3 min. depending on the nature of your matter. You may or may not receive a response from the Board after you deliver your comments. The Board is always listening to and appreciative of community feedback. and I believe we have one person

[4:01] joining us virtually tonight for a public comment. Ryan Bennett, we have nobody who's present in the meeting room. So Ryan, if you're ready we'll start you. Yeah, Ryan, you ready to go. Hey, everyone! This is Ryan. Can you hear me? We can hear you. Go ahead. Perfect. Thank you so much. Good evening, everyone. Thanks so much for allowing me the time to speak. Good to good to see you all tonight, you know, as I'm coming again as a member of the reimagined South Boulder Rec Center Committee and wanted to share. We've been doing some work. You know, Darren and Allie and Team have been doing amazing work, as it relates to getting input from the community as we think about the South Boulder Rec Center, moving forward. And we wanted to do work to supplement that and make sure we really understood our constituents and what they really care about, as we think, about the path forward for the Rec. Center. And so we launched a survey. About a month ago we had over 700 people complete the survey. So really a strong response from the community. And it really focused on 2 things. One was, what values do they care about for the rec center as we think about a reimagined version. And the second was what amenities specifically could be really relevant.

[5:25] And we've shared these results. And I'll talk through the highlights. We've shared them with Ali and Darren. I think they're actually embedded in some of the materials that we'll you'll go through in the meeting later tonight. But if I talk through them on the value side. So we asked about 8 different values that people could consider from creative expression, expression, lifelong learning, sustainability, community building, even inclusivity, saving health and wellness. And we gave everyone a chance to rank those from very important all the way to not important at all, and you know, not surprisingly, the thing that came out loud and clear for values is that health and wellness

[6:02] was far and away. The most important thing over 95% of our community. Our stakeholders said that that was varied to them as part of the Rec center going forward, following that safety, inclusivity, youth, development, and community building were really the next tranche of things that came out. And those were somewhere in like the 50 to 60% range of people viewing those as very important. So just a nice grounding of like at the end of the day, reminding ourselves that, like health and wellness really is at the core of what people are focused on when they think about a rec center moving forward as you move to the amenities. So we asked them about over 20 different amenities, and we gave them a choice between a must have a nice to have and a do not have option. and I think the finding that came out from the survey is that there are 5 amenities that, consistently viewed as must have across the community, and those are cardio equipment, weight, room exercise, classrooms.

[7:03] and a double wide gym. Those were loud and clear, very much above what the rest of the amenities that we saw on this and. Right now. Connection is a little bit spotty. Stuff! Oh. And your connection's a little body. Can you? Can you repeat what you just said about the 5 amenities. Yes, hear me! I can hear you now. Yeah, you. Your connection was a little spotty, but now I can hear you. Okay, perfect. Yeah, just interrupt me if it goes out. Sorry about sorry about that. Yeah. So the 5 amenities that really clearly stood out as must haves were a weight room, cardio and exercise classrooms, a lap pool, and a double wide gym. and relative to all of the amenities we talked about, or we asked about those 5 clearly stood out with high majority of the people, saying, Those are must haves for the Rec. Center, moving forward

[8:09] for the remaining 15 or so amenities that include everything, from a sauna and steam room to a ninja gym to an indoor track, to turf, field, etc. People viewed those as a mix of must, and but largely nice to have. And so I think what it, what it lands for me is that those 5 things are really at the core of what people want, and they're the amenities that the current rec center has. And then if there are additional things things that could be a magnet across the community, etc. Fantastic. And people could see value in that. But it has to start with the 5 core amenities and that clean it's through. Well, good. I is there a moment? Thank you. You both.

[9:01] Hey, Ryan? The last 10 seconds of what you said was cut out a little bit. Do you mind repeating the last 10 seconds worth of stuff. Yeah, I think this is a great. Okay, looks like we've we've lost Ryan. Ryan. Thank you so much for your comments. and for sharing that information with us. Sorry for the connectivity issues, and I'll just call out for the board. He he mentioned this, but the project team is working closely with them. These findings are linked in your packet under the consent item under future, of Rec as the findings from this community group. Yeah, does any board member have a comment or reaction to the comments.

[10:02] I have a question which probably probably won't be able to get a message from Ryan. But do you know how how they circulated this survey, and the kinds of people who responded to it. Sunny might know better than I do, and I'll let you answer, and then there's just been a mailing list that's been accumulating, you know, different people from the community, all different demographics and so forth, but just slowly has been gaining a lot of interest. And it was just sent out via email. And people passed it off via email. Yeah. But it was a really well done survey, I think. Yeah, how does that compare to the survey that the broader survey that was done in terms of responses? Very consistent. Well, no. Sorry. I thought you were going to say in findings like in terms of responses and also findings. Findings are similar, responses are different. And in that. And that's where you know, we talk about when we make decisions, there's a bunch of different data points. No one data point is the deciding factor for this one. The distribution method like for it to be

[11:06] a city survey we would have over sampled certain populations. We would have gone to people and make sure. But this is a data point that is helpful, and the findings are actually fairly similar to what we found in our engagement. To me it seems like surveys are great. We probably didn't need one to tell us that big room, Cardio Pool gym, are extremely important things we have to have. I wonder did your survey or this survey. Talk to kids who go to the school. Darren Wagner, our project manager, is here just to answer such a question. And I see her unmuting now. And I'm so sorry. Could you just repeat the question? I'm juggling a couple kiddos. Thanks, Darren. Just wondering, did. Do you know if the the survey that the the member of the public just spoke to, or the survey that you all conducted. Surveyed kids who go to Fairview and and Southern hills.

[12:05] So in terms of how that got distributed to those schools for the community survey, I'm not entirely sure. And again, Sunny, you might know for our for the community wide survey that was open to absolutely everybody, and we made efforts to share it with Bbsd so that they could pass on those efforts, and we had about 30 Bvs. Well, 30 respondents under the age of 18. To that initial survey. So you know, not a huge sample, but some some response. Yeah, thank you. Darren. Yeah, you bet. I don't know the number of of students who responded. Definitely, families responded. So multi age, you know, response. But I don't know the numbers. And I'll add another input on this project is engagement with growing up boulder for multiple projects where we've been able to tease out what teens are interested in what other young people in the community have been telling us. That's great. Thanks.

[13:09] Any other comments, sir. Thank you so much, Darren. Questions. I'll just say that as ryan was listing like the important, you know priorities, I I would note that they align very closely with our master plan priorities. In fact, health and wellness is number one. So I'm glad there's alignment there. And also youth engagement is, you know, on that list as well. So seems like there's at least like a value alignment between our master plan and what this community wants. I would request that because there was a connectivity issue with Ryan that we follow up by email with him and say that we his call was disconnected, and we had some trouble hearing him at the end. But we did appreciate his comments, and could hear what he had to say.

[14:02] I think that would be helpful. Can I clarify, Mr. Chair? Are you asking that someone on staff do that on your behalf, or that one of the board members. Yeah, do you mind, Rosette? Yeah. Good good question for you all to preview. Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Anybody have an objection to that. Okay, that is it for public comment. The next item is the consent agenda and the consent agenda, as in a reminder, has the minutes from last meeting, but also has updates from the director of Parks and Rec. And other operations and planning design construction updates. So the discussion portion of this approval will be a time to ask questions, if any. So do I have a motion to approve the consent. Agenda. So oops 3.

[15:02] Second, I'll give. Give it to Eric. Thanks. Any discussion questions on the items. Oh, we I do have a question in it. Item, 8 matters from the board discussing the budget process. Jenny and Jenny, you raise your hand and said you were interested in being liaison to the process. Did was there any movement on that? Did you introduce anybody? Did anything happen. Yes, Jackson, if he wants to speak a little bit to that. He sent me a great email with lots of information on it that I've been reading. And once we get towards the end of this month and beginning of next month, we're gonna get together and and talk through kind of what we're what we're going to be looking at. Towards the beginning of the budgeting process. Great thanks for doing that. Penny and Jackson. Absolutely, Jackson, if you have anything to add, please.

[16:04] You covered it. Thank you. Sure. In addition, discussion questions. Okay. All in favor of approving the consent. Agenda say, aye, all opposed. all right. Consent. Agenda is approved. There are no action items, no matters for discussion or info. But there are 2 matters from the department, so I will hand it over to Ali for the 1st item, which is the forestry report which I always enjoy. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Our department is the proud home of the city's forestry program, and it is. well, I say this about everything we do. It's 1 of the most important things we do. Trees. The more we learn about them the more how it is clear how important they are to a climate that is more, or a community that is more sustainable, a community that is more healthy. as Mark will tell you, they make a community more fun in lots of ways. You're going to see that in more and more of our planning projects. And so in 2018, the city developed its 1st urban forest strategic plan. It is a 20 year. Look how to care for tree. That is right to have such a long term plan, because trees take a long time

[17:17] to fulfill their role, and you can't just make things happen overnight. One of the directions of that urban forest strategic plan is that we monitor the urban canopy carefully, and then we publish a report. Every 2 years. We missed that 1st one amidst a worldwide crisis in 2020 and 2021. We published the 1st day of the Urban Forest in 23, and Kathleen is here tonight to give you an update on the state of the urban canopy. We think this is really important for you all to hear tonight. There's not a request for your action. But we'll we'll want your input. This is a key element in our long term financial strategy. Taking care of our trees is underfunded. It is one of the gaps in our funding, and we want you all to understand that, so that when we get into the budgeting conversations. You can help us with those

[18:02] shaping the conversation both for the Bpr. Budget, but also for the city's long term financial strategy. And so Kathleen has about a 10 min presentation, and then we welcome your questions on what we're doing or what she shared, so that you, too, couldn't become advocates. Kathleen Alexander is the city's forester. She has worked for us for over 25 years. She is recognized around the country for her work, and caring for the urban canopy for the work that she does in response to pests like the emerald ash borer and New York. Thank you very much for letting me come and talk about your needs to mind. It's going to be hard for me to limit it to 10 or 15 min. But I'll try really, really hard. So Mark's gonna get a little closer. I wanted to start just by reminding you of the incredible benefits that our urban tree canopy provides. You know, every April we do an arbor day planting with one of our local elementary schools here a city park, and we always ask the kids, you know, why are trees important, you know. Why do people need trees? And inevitably we'll get like 20 different responses. And they're all right.

[19:11] It just it. It just goes to show how many incredible environmental economic social wellness benefits health benefits that our urban tree canopy provides. I think a couple of the most important are related to climate change. Trees can help mitigate climate change, but they're also impacted by climate change, which I'll talk about a little bit later. But just through photosynthesis trees take in carbon dioxide. They store it in their wood. they also, through shading and transpiration, can actually cool the urban environment. And when you look at mortality from natural disasters internationally, heat kills more people internationally than all other natural disasters put together, and trees can actually help mitigate against that, especially in urban areas

[20:06] next. Sorry that'll take. It. Might might take some getting used to there. But so our work group. I like to say that we do almost everything that you can do for public trees. There are 7 of us standard employees, and then we hire 2 seasonal or temporary employees. Every year we maintain 50,000 public trees. As Ali mentioned. You know, we're a little bit unique in that. About 37,000 of those are in the public street rights of way outside of city parks. 13,000 of those are in city parks. but, as I mentioned, we do almost everything for public trees. I mean, it's our general forestry operations, planting, pruning removals, integrated pest management, including the emerald ash borer, response development review for private development. All the city cip projects, transportation parks utilities. We have a very high level. A number of

[21:05] citizen service requests that we do every year for the public emergency response. We're also responsible for the maintenance of all of the hardscapes around trees in the downtown areas. So the tree grades tree Guards under our work group, as well as Ali mentioned. Back in 2016 to 2018, we worked on our 1st urban forest strategic plan. It's really our roadmap to help us create a more resilient, sustainable, urban forest. Oh, I'm so sorry, Rosa. We're next we did extensive public engagement through that planning process. and one of the things we heard from the public overwhelmingly was that they wanted to see our urban tree canopy grow over time. In 2013 we had done our 1st urban tree canopy analysis that showed at the time we had 16%

[22:00] but we decided to set our goal at maintaining our urban tree canopy rather than really growing it over the next 20 years. The reason for that is because we knew we faced a lot of challenges with just even the maintenance, because we had just discovered emerald ash borer a few years prior climate change, etc. When you look at the plan, it's actually divided into 4 major themes, plan, protect, manage and engage, and you'll see those carried throughout the state of the urban forest report as well. One of those action plans was to do the report that I'm here to talk about tonight. And we did engage prab and the Environmental Advisory Board, and we did go to City Council for the strategic plan at a study session to get their feedback, and then Prab did unanimously approve the plan. In June of 2018. So you can advance here we go state of the urban forest report. So the purpose of this is really twofold.

[23:06] The 1st is to keep the community updated on how our urban tree canopy is doing. The second is to provide an update on how we're doing and other city work groups on achieving the action items that were included within the strategic plan. I want to clarify. We did have this information in the crab package kind of the difference between in the strategic plan. We talked about 16% urban tree canopy. In the state of the urban forest report we make reference to 22% urban tree canopy. That unfortunately, does not mean that our tree canopy has increased that much since that time. What it really means is that technology has greatly improved since 2013, when we had 1st done it. So how we're doing it, the methodology and where we're measuring the canopy has changed.

[24:03] So our new baseline is 22%. But the main takeaway, unfortunately, is that our canopy is declining in some areas. That chart. I know it's pretty small there, but we do have these numbers in the story map for the state of the urban forest report. But the biggest change we saw was in the Central Boulder University Hill neighborhood. That's the map. Kind of that little snapshot in the upper right. The red that you see is canopy loss. The University Hill neighborhood has a lot of large trees in there. It's 1 of our older, more historic neighborhoods, as you know. So even losing just one tree means we lose a lot of canopy in there now, Paylo Park, for just to contrast that newer subdivisions, a lot of younger trees it is actually holding steady. It has not changed in this time period. But if you delve down into that more closely, we have actually lost trees, as you can see on that map. The red again is canopy loss. However, the good news, though we have planted a lot of trees in there, there are new subdivisions that have more trees, and those newly planted trees are just starting to get to the size where they're starting to contribute to that urban tree canopy. So some good news in there.

[25:27] what's next? What's causing the canopy loss. Well. I'm gonna talk about these top 3. And these 3 reasons. If you ask any city forester across the country, they're probably going to give you the exact same top. 3 reasons. The 1st is going to be climate change, you know, as as a forester, we can see that difference in the almost 28 years now that I've been here. We can see much more frequent and intensity of those severe weather events. We're seeing more of those late spring or early fall snowstorms. The last really big one that we had was in 2020 in September.

[26:12] Also, seeing those extreme temperature fluctuations which really impact trees. If you think back to November of 2014, the temperature went from, I think it was a high of like 63 to 11, but below 0 in 36 h. and in November a lot of trees were not yet fully dormant, because it had been so warm, leading up to that. and so that one photo kind of in the bottom center. There we lost over 500 large elms and hundreds of fruit trees. In that one temperature, that one freeze event. insect and disease pests, you know. As I mentioned, we have emerald ash borer. We are, however, successfully managing emerald ash borer here, so we have been able to keep those losses to a minimum.

[27:00] But there are other pests that have been a lot more challenging for us even ironically than Emerald ash borer. That image on the lower right is a declining red oak, mature red oak at Central Park. with a pest complex, called drippy blight and Kermi scale. It's been very difficult for us to control. We're one of the few in the country having to deal with this pest. and I think, unfortunately, it means we're gonna have to remove several of those large red oaks in Central Park this year because we just we're having a tough time trying to get it under control. The 3rd big challenge that we have is development. you know, not just private Development city Cip projects. I mean, certainly trees. They have to be removed sometimes. I mean, we understand that, you know, for development, but we're working hard with our partners and other our colleagues and other city work groups. private development. Sometimes it's a little bit harder to get them to preserve trees, but we're working really hard to try and preserve as many trees as we can on these projects.

[28:06] And folder. I just want to add, it does have a little unique challenge, too, in that we do have 54% rental properties. So it is that's challenging in itself to try and even plant new trees in front of those properties and and keep them growing and thriving. Next. so kind of the heart of the state of the urban forest. Report is a discussion of kind of what progress we've made on some of those action items. And so I want to go through. And we have these organized by theme, plan, protect, manage, and engage. Clearly. I don't have time to talk about all of these, but I just wanted to highlight a few going through these. So under our theme of plan, we have partnered with our climate initiatives department To subscribe to a new canopy software that does provide more routine every other year. Updates on urban tree canopy, and they actually break it down, even to the parcel

[29:08] scale. So it's very easy for us to see kind of that change, and the methodology that they use is consistent. So we know that we're comparing apples to apples. No tree pun really intended there, but over time, with the canopy under our theme of manage. We have been collaborating very closely with our community vitality Department on improving the site conditions for trees to grow on the hill. I mean, I'm sure all of you have been down there. You're familiar with, you know the infrastructure down there. Has been. It's it's in this repair parts of it, you know, the sidewalks falling apart. There aren't tree grates down there for a lot of the trees, so it's been difficult for us to replace trees down there as they get removed, but they successfully were able to justify additional funding. So we're going to be working with them this year to upgrade many of those tree sites and get some more trees planted down there.

[30:08] We also did complete an inventory, a tree inventory update last year. So this year we're going to be kind of diving down deeper into that data and analyzing it and creating a tree resource report. Which ones that's complete. You know. I'm sure we can include as part of the Prep packet, so that you all can read even more about trees. So next under the theme of protect. There are going to be 2 different packages of code changes. Going through going to council this year. One surrounding kind of more water, wise or climate, resilient landscapes, the the other one is more focused on fire, hardening, wildfire hardening, but it does have a small landscape component to it. So we are working closely with utilities on that, with planning and development services, with fire and with climate initiatives on those code changes.

[31:10] and then under the theme of engage. About 75% of our tree canopy is on private property. So we know that we we don't have any chance to achieve any of our goals, if without, you know, partnerships with private property owners here in Boulder. and that's why we're very happy to partner with and support the play Boulder Foundation Tree Trust, because we kind of have our hands full with our public trees at times. And so it's hard for us to really engage a lot with private property owners about trees on their property, but that's what the Tree Trust is there to do. So we're happy to help and support them in any way that we can. One of our priorities moving forward is we do want to start a conversation with the community about the need and the desire to protect trees on private property.

[32:05] 28 years ago, when I started. we never could have done this. I mean, the community at that time was not ready to have that conversation, but every year we have, we hear from more and more people in the community that they want to see some sort of protection for trees on private property right now, trees on private property are only protected through the development review process. So you know, and with climate change and the need to preserve and expand our urban tree canopy. We want to try. And we want to start that conversation. So it's not on the work plan for this year, but maybe perhaps next year, depending upon our the work plans for our colleagues and other departments. But certainly, you know, Fab and Environmental Advisory board would be, you know, big players in that when when that does occur. Ali had mentioned next side the funding gap.

[33:05] The urban forest strategic plan in 2018 did identify a $500,000 funding gap based on the average, spending in comparable cities on a per capita basis as well as the funding per public tree basis. That's even larger now. Just based, I mean, after all, of the cost increases and labor shortages and covid it's yes, it's significant. So what we would use that additional funding for one of our major priorities is to reduce our pruning rotation right now. Our pruning rotation is at about 1415 years for street trees and about 10 years for park trees. The industry standard is closer to 8 years. We also want to support some more proactive measures to ensure survivability of not just newly planted trees, but our existing trees in the public street rights of way. It's hard. It's almost nearly impossible to grow trees here without irrigation.

[34:10] and a lot of not just private property owners, but commercial property owners are just not aware of that fact. And so often in commercial areas, we see trees declining. And when we kind of dig down to see what's going on, they forgot to turn on the irrigation system, or there's a break, and we would like to have some more flexibility capacity to actually engage and work with them, to make sure that they can support those trees. Longer term capacity to focus on urban forestry planning issues. A lot of plans are written and developed every year in the city of Boulder. A lot of them involve trees, and we just unfortunately have not had the capacity to really engage, I think, as fully as we. We should in a lot of those planning efforts, and then, just of course, continuing the education and outreach with the community

[35:07] next slide. and then we also in the state of the Urban Forest report did have a section for the public on how they can help, because, as I mentioned, you know, we know that we cannot do this alone. You know, we only have 2025% of the urban tree canopy on public property. So caring and preserving trees on private property is crucial takes a long time to grow a tree, so any trees that we can preserve on private property through the development review process is a bonus planting and growing new trees on private property. We also have a street tree planting program ourselves, so reminding people that if they reach out to us. We are happy, happy to plant a tree for them in the public right of way adjacent to their house. With just

[36:06] in agreement that they are willing to help us keep that tree watered, mulched, etc. And then, being on the lookout for invasive pests, you know emerald ash Borer, unfortunately, is not the only invasive pest out there. There are many others across the country that we are on the lookout for here in Boulder 2 of the big ones are spotted lanternfly and Asian longhorn beetle, the photos in the lower right. There. the earlier a pest is detected, the more management options are available to you as a city. So, and often when you hear about new detections of invasive pests across the country, it's actually just residents of that community that were educated that knew what to look for. That actually detected them first, st and then supporting play Boulder Foundation and becoming a tree tender, you know very, very, very important, and then advocating for more, just for trees, you know, in your neighborhood across the city. Very important

[37:06] next. So. as Allie knows, I could probably stay here and talk for another hour on trees, but I will end it there. And if anyone happy to answer questions. yeah, I'm really curious about the relationship between you guys planting trees and the fire mitigation. If you can talk more about that. I live in an area in South Boulder where a lot of people have trees like plant they planted in their little teeny space right next to their houses. And then there's, you know, a lot of open space brush. And so I'm just wondering, how how do you decide to plant a tree and have canopy versus be prepared for wildfire mitigation and that kind of stuff, and what is what is the conversation you have with them? And how if, if my hoa decides to make us all clear out everything within a few, you know, feet or meters of the houses.

[38:12] Would you then be able to plant trees? Or, anyway, I don't have a specific question. I'm just curious about that relationship. It's actually it's an excellent question. I mean. Needless to say, we've gotten more questions about that since the Marshall fire and wind event. And our work group actually, this year is cross training with the fire department work group that actually goes out and does the detailed home assessments. And one thing that we're learning is, they've told us it is rare that they ever tell a homeowner or recommend to a homeowner to remove a tree they're like especially deciduous trees. They're like, as long as that tree is well maintained. You know that there's not big deadwood in it, and that they actually clean out the gutters so that there's not the accumulation of needles and leaves and whatnot in the gutters. They say that the trees actually pose very little risk.

[39:10] Down here in the urban area, because up in the foothills it's more of a typical wildfire down here. It's more of what they call the conflagration which the trees are not what is actually carrying the fire. It's kind of the ambient heat from house to house to house, and what they saw in the Marshall wind. Event was that there were actually houses and cars that burned. And yet some of the trees didn't burn so you know. Fortunately, you know, they are telling us that it is very possible to have both. A more kind of fire, wise or fire hardened landscape here in boulder with trees. As long as they're well maintained. So

[40:00] so they do, however, want you to within 5 feet of your house. To make sure that you don't have, like the juniper shrubs around your foundation. And and that type of thing. So so I have a related question, does your work group collaborate with wildfire partners. Is that the work that you mentioned the fire department? Or are they another entity wildfire partners, I believe, is Boulder County. We are actually collaborating with the cross training with the city fire department. Yeah, they're forgot what the work group is actually called. There you go. Thank you. Yeah. But they're they're actually they have 2 different programs. One is, they have firefighters. Wildland firefighters do kind of assessments curve assessments as they're driving past but then homeowners can request detailed home assessments, and they will go in and look at both your landscaping and your house, and provide recommendations on fire hardening for that. I just got a report about my very expensive tree project that I have to do. So. Yeah.

[41:18] And if there is a park. That, we think, is a great potential place for you to plant some trees. How we would just reach out to you. Yes, on our boulderforestry.org website. We have a link to our planting program, and there is a form on there to request a tree. It's and then from there. What we do is we actually work with Mark's group to make sure that we're not planting trees and areas that would conflict with any future needs or for the park or yeah other recreational activities. But yeah, we most of our requests are for street trees. But yeah, we love getting requests for parks, too. So just one more question. You'd said you looked at comparable cities, and I'm just curious, like

[42:09] how many cities are to boulder and size and climate, and like, you know, how do you? How do you really compare what it is? It's more, it's not so much the climate as comparable size cities across the country. Yeah. And there's we had worked with a consultant on our strategic plan that had done. They had kind of done benchmarking for similar size cities across the country. There's also a municipal survey municipal forestry survey that's done every 10 years that looks at as a City forester. Actually, just this morning I mailed my 20 24 version off, but they update that every 10 years it comes out with kind of an average number of staff that forestry departments have, what their budgets are, how they're managing emerald ash for that type of one more. How do you decide what kind of tree like I'm I'm a little

[43:10] in the middle, in the middle, as far as like we don't want invasive species or non native species. But if our climate's changing. maybe we need to change our trees. And so I'm just curious where you guys are with that let's see, I'll try and keep. Let me see if I can keep this. Very. So, okay, when you look at native trees here, we probably have maybe 5 native species to the boulder area. You know, a couple of different cottonwoods, willows, box Elder Chokerry. The key to resiliency with our urban tree canopy is diversity. We need to have many different species out there to allow us to recover from invasive pests and storms and that type of thing. So most of the trees that we are planting, especially in the street. Rights of white are not native species. For that reason, how we decide what species to plant is.

[44:07] we do have diversity requirements. You know, where we don't want to plant more than like 3 of the same species adjacent to each other. When we're out there. When a homeowner requests a tree for the public street. Right of way we go out there. We look at what other trees are around. For example. I know this is controversial, but it's hard for us to plant maples on Mapleton Hill, especially Mapleton Avenue, because there's so many other maples, you know, if we got a pest like Asia longhorn, beetle that loves maples. It could come and just decimate that street. So we're trying to get other species there in our midst in there. But it's also matching to the site. because our soils are more acidic and better in West Boulder than they are in East Boulder. So species like sugar maple. It's hard for us to plant in East Boulder, because the soils are more alkaline. So it's also kind of matching species to the site.

[45:08] Yeah, Jenny. Thank you. I have a couple of questions. First, st I was wondering if you could tell us what are the top like? 3 reasons to keep the tree canopy high. Well, to provide the benefits really, that it on my 1st slide, one of the things I talked about was how trees can help mitigate for climate change. I mean, it's 1 of the easiest ways our climate initiatives department here with the city has a new work group that they implemented a few years ago called natural climate solutions, which is really using nature to mitigate against climate change. And the urban tree canopy is an important part of that. It's 1 of the 3 main focuses of the cool boulder program.

[46:04] because, as I mentioned, trees can help cool they can help mitigate that urban heat, the Urban Heat Island. one of the other big benefits for us. You know, Boulder has the highest flood risk in all of Colorado. and trees can help mitigate stormwater runoff. They can actually help reduce stormwater runoff. So I mean, if you think about how catastrophic that 2013 flood was. But then, if you think about how much worse it could have been if we didn't have the urban tree canopy that we have. That's really what's most critical. and you know I would also say I mean pick any of the other benefits. Economics, you know Pearl Street Mall, you know people love coming to Pearl Street, Mall for the tree canopy, I mean. Think of what it would be like if there weren't trees there. I think trees add livability to a city.

[47:07] Great. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you. The other. Another question is, I know that you'd mentioned that the tree canopy is currently at 16%. And you're looking to go to 22. Is that right? It. It's currently at 22, because the methodology that we're using to measure tree canopy has changed. So when we did the strategic plan. We based that off of an urban tree canopy analysis that was done using Lidar data back in 2013. And there have been so many technology advances since that time. That we know that that number actually was closer to 22% at that time. So 22% is kind of our new baseline. And what would be your ideal number for tree canopy coverage.

[48:02] Well, I mean for the strategic plan. I mean, we had said, you know, that we we wanted to maintain that. But really it's that's kind of the overall city average retrieve canopy, because if you look at some some neighborhoods like University Hill, for example, it's up like over 30. Mapleton hill is in the upper twenties. But gun barrel is more like, I think, 8% urban tree canopy. So it's really trying to bring up some of those other areas and also bringing equity into it as well, so that we can increase that urban tree canopy in those lower canopied areas in boulder, too. So. Oh, in an but in an ideal world, if you were to take the average. what would you say? I'm just curious to know what I mean. I don't know much about tree canopy, so I'm just wondering what what that number would look like. Would it be 50%? Or would it be like.

[49:00] No. 30. No, I I mean, we have more limitations here weather wise than in the Midwest or back back East. I mean even some of the midwestern and Eastern cities, I mean, have, you know, less than 30% tree canopy? And they might set their goal to be 30% tree canopy or 35% tree canopy. Here. Water is a limiting factor for us. So I mean, many of the species that we're planting are more water, wise and drought, tolerant species, and but it would still be hard for us here to to achieve 30% tree canopy citywide. So I mean, I would be thrilled. Now I know our climate initiatives department probably would want the number even higher, but I mean, I would be thrilled if we had 22% canopy in every neighborhood across the city, so. Great. Yeah. And then I, in the report you said that you were looking to identify additional funding resources. Is your department. Is that solely city funded? Or do you receive any Federal funding.

[50:11] We do not receive any Federal funding, though. And then, second to last question, for your marketing. How are you marketing the plant? A tree and you said you wanted to start a conversation about trees on private property. is there any? How are you currently doing that? Well, we really haven't started the conversation about the trees on private property. It's just, you know. formally, we kind of. we know. Okay? Well, like, I said, when I started up all those years ago. we were not having anybody push for protections for trees on private property. But now we receive multiple calls every year. Every time there are projects that go in where trees are getting removed. You know, we get calls from the public complaining about the tree removals. And you know, why are we letting private developers do that? And so it just seems like the community is more ready for that conversation now than they were previously.

[51:21] And it it might be that you know what we find out through that engagement process is that no, they're not ready for that yet. But I think it's time that we at least have that conversation to engage them in that way. or the other question about marketing the free tree planting program. It's really it's, you know, we work closely with our communications person for parks and Rec, you know, we put the word out there on websites, on social media. we have. we do a lot of notifications for the public for anytime. A street tree is, you know, pruned or removed, or we do a pesticide application. We're notifying them in some way. Either be a door hanger or letter, and we also put information on the door hanger of the letter about if you'd like a street tree and you have room, please visit our website and fill out the form. And

[52:22] okay, yeah, great. And then last question, you had listed what we can all do as individuals. I was wondering if there was anything that you that Prab can do to help this initiative with that in mind. Being on the play Boulder Board, I do know that there are 3 tree tender trainings coming up which are timely for this. So anybody who has wants to become a tree tender in March there are some of those trainings coming up. I will send those to Rosa so she can send it out to the team. So you guys can learn how to do all things tree. But besides those individual things. What can Prab do to help you. I mean the 2 big ones for me are are advocating for trees. I mean, it's for and supporting funding requests

[53:08] as they come through, I mean, as as Ali mentioned, you know we do have the the funding gap, and we I mean, we'd love to plant more trees would love to maintain our trees better and do more for them. But we do need more money and staffing to do that. So and then, you know, as you mentioned the tree tenders, and I know, you know Prab supports the play Boulder Foundation, you know, in all of their programs, and but that, too, goes a long way for us, because, as I mentioned, we can't do it just on public property. We need the help of private property owners. So. Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate everything you do. Oh, thank you very much. Any other questions we've got. I've got a couple. I just had a question. You know, these summers are getting so hot, and every time I'm out there I'm like we need more shade in this town, you know. We have a lot, but and some of the school yards are pretty pretty hot, and so I'm on a Pto. And can you do you guys work with Bbsd? Or how do you get trees on in school playgrounds or playgrounds in general, I mean, I guess the city playground we would work with you. But

[54:20] just seems like these. These. A lot of these playgrounds are planted a lot or made a long time ago, and maybe the summers weren't 100 degrees in June, you know, like now they are. No, I I completely. I agree. 100 I would love to see more trees on Bbsd properties. We are limited in that. We're only planting on in city parks and in the street rights of way. So not actually on Bbsd properties. We have tried working with Bbsd on, because, for example, we have a lot of street right of way, I'm thinking, like, in front of Fairview High School, you know. We removed, unfortunately, a long row of large ash trees in there that were infested with emerald ash borer. We would love to go back and plant more trees there.

[55:09] But you know Bbsd has been limited budget wise for so long when it comes to maintenance that it's hard for them to justify planting trees that they then have to maintain, and they don't have the budget to do it. So it's it's it's been challenging, you know. I know they want to. But it's yeah. They're limited budget wise. So I was gonna specifically ask about Greenbrier. Somebody brought that up. Seems like a street. It would be nice to have some trees on do you have any other question? Nope, so just for my own background knowledge. Osmp takes care of the trees on their property. Right? Do you ever collaborate with them? Is there? Is there any kind of level of coordination that happens? We do they actually

[56:02] well, I mean, they piggyback off of a lot of our continuing services agreements with tree care companies for pruning and removal. You know they don't do a lot of kind of the more what you would think of as urban or a culture, unless the tree is a danger to a street or path, or some other infrastructure. we have also, we've done 3 risk assessments for them in the past. We've worked with them. We've done releases of bio controls for emerald ash borer on some of their properties. So yes, we have collaborated with them in the past on. But it's it's typically kind of like, project focused. So yeah, last question for me. You had mentioned that during your presentation you said that there are unique challenges having the high percentage of renter occupied based in boulders that because you can can't be confident someone's gonna take care of that tree. Yeah, yeah, we have not had very good success with planting. We. We get very few requests for rental properties. The the few that we do. And again, I don't have.

[57:15] This is just kind of anecdotal are more when the property owners actually live here in Boulder somewhere, and are more kind of hands on, and less so with the ones that are managed by property management companies. But the biggest thing for us is watering. You know, the trees have to be consistently watered. So I mean, we do have a small watering program. We have a you know, a truck with a small tank that we water some trees on our own. We contract some tank watering, but you know we don't really have the resources to do a larger kind of tree watering program. So good. Thank you. Yeah. I had a couple of questions, too. There was a guy who had written us last summer about his concern about the University Hill Tree situation. I was just wondering if

[58:09] I think you'd be happy to hear about the initiatives that you're gonna take. Sorry address Lucas concerns up at university health. Is it possible to share out some of this with that person that isn't ringing a bell for me at all. And so I'll Russ, I'll ask you to research that. Look at that. He was it an email to prep or a public comment. We still have records of that. And so we can research that request and follow. You're asking that we follow up with the community member on this work. Yeah, yeah, like a lot of what she's talking about addresses a lot of the things that he was saying, like he wanted to build up like the boxes around the trees on. You're talking about downtown and University Hill. Yes, absolutely. Yes, thank you. You said I was thinking the neighborhoods. For some reason we are closely communicating with the business owners on the hill in downtown, and they're aware of this work. Thank you. I was like. How do I not remember this at all? It was not in the for and just the way you describe it? I was thinking it was in the neighborhood. They're aware of all of the work, and especially I mean, I think it. I don't remember the number. Was it 1.2,000,001.7. The Streetscape project that they're doing.

[59:28] See? I mean Kathleen's team is advising, obviously. But transportation and community vitality. I mean to to fix the irrigation that Broadway median that is so visible, where we've lost so many trees that's entirely due to irrigation. Well, you have to get under the highway, you know. That's a state highway, it's and that's a significant portion of the expense. But we think it's worth it. We're an area where there's so much pavement as you just heard Kathleen describe. The cooling is really important, as is the air filtration. And so there! That project I I know it was well over a million dollars, and it was funded in the 25 budget. So we're pretty excited about that one.

[60:03] My next question was like, in a lot of the I live up in Northfield Commons, which is kind of in, and I've seen like a lot of the smaller trees like tend to have, like the bark peeling off, and I called one time like a company, and they said that it was squirrels that they're biting off the bark to like get the liquid under like they lick it, or something like that. Is that something? That is being addressed? I didn't see squirrels mentioned. No, we have. We're not doing anything about squirrels. They do on certain species, they will. Typically, it's not the trunks they on the upper branches. They will strip off the bark, and then, yeah, drink some of the sap, especially during the winter. If they don't have like easy access to to water like strips. I didn't know, like what the guy told me was right or not, but it's like the whole tree trunk on the smaller trees gets stripped, and then they die.

[61:07] There's also some species. The thinner bark species are super susceptible to what's called sun scald, which is almost kind of like a sunburn on the south and west sides of the tree, because what happens is the gosh! It's been so long since I've talked about Sunscorp. So the here in Colorado, I mean we get those. The temperatures go up during the day, but then they plummet at night. So what happens is the bark in the winter months will heat up, and those cells will become active during the day. But then the temperatures plummet rapidly as we go into the evening hours, and those cells, the water inside those cells can freeze and then rupture the cells which then cause that the kind of that layer of inner bark to die back. and you'll often see what happens is the the tree will try and form. This wound would around that wound, but all of the bark dies, and then it strips off. So you'll see kind of like these long wounds. Typically, those are going to be on the south or west sides of the tree, because those are the sides that heat up during the day.

[62:20] So the solution for that is different. Types of trees, different types of trees or tree wrap can help. Yes, during the winter months, and then a lot of the other like, that's 1 thing that's affecting the trees in our neighborhood. Another thing is, I've seen is like when the hoa, or whoever plants trees in the median or the right of way. I didn't know they were available free from you guys, but the city has like a list of 60 trees or something that you can pick from, and they pick the lowest cost tree, and we end up with like locust trees, and so I was wondering. like those don't make. I was wondering if the all canopy is created equal like you can have, like the telpa trees that have those really big leaves and make a lot of shade, or you can have like a locust tree that has like it's big, but it makes 0 shade. I was wondering if there's like any

[63:13] preferences of, or it's all canopy just canopy it. That actually is an excellent question. I was in the Climate Initiatives department is working with several Phd students at Cu Boulder who are doing research. We were working with them on helping them set up heat sensors in some of our parks this past summer, and they were looking at a couple of different things. But one of them was species. And are there certain species that produce? I suppose the word is better shade than others, and yes, Honey Locust was one of those that they said, it does produce shade. But when you look at kind of the quality of shade. you know it's not good. It's not as good, yes, as other species. But from this the forester perspective. There are other factors, though, that we need to look at with, because honey locusts, for example, are one of the most drought, tolerant trees that we have. So it's kind of that balancing act of, you know. Yes, we want more shade. We have to plant.

[64:20] you know, more drought, tolerant species, too. So thank you. And then the last question I had was about with Bbsc, you were saying like, they don't wanna pick trees that will create a maintenance expense for them. But I was wondering if they've looked at the cooling effect like, because they're paying money to cool their buildings. So if the area around them has like a lower temperature. Then probably their cooling expense is going to be lower. I was wondering if that's a calculation. I I can't answer that question. Yeah, for them. I don't know. I mean, I like, I said we would love to plant more trees on public property adjacent to Vvsd properties. But

[65:05] yeah, it just hasn't worked out in the past. They're budget limited. And it's you know, I I totally understand where they're coming from, because it's it's it's even so much, not just the maintenance of the trees. But like, for example, at Fairview. it's they have to upgrade the irrigation system, repair the irrigation system before we could even go in and plant trees, and I just don't know if they have the funding to do that. So the other thing I mean, I'll just share, because I think Bbsd is. You know, they have been such a collaborative and helpful partner with us in so much ways. They're not a public land agency. They're an academic institution whose mission is to educate the young people in our community, and they have land to support that mission. And so what would be amazing when you talk about a funding gap is if there were funding for additional trees and the infrastructure. You know, some communities have shared maintenance between schools and the city and parks, and I

[66:08] I'm intrigued by that, because so often, and especially in the eastern parts of the city where the it was the Post World War, 2 Development, where you have schools and parks right next to each other, because that was most effective way for a developer to to develop the the subdivision there. There's so much co-location. I I think it would be super cool if we had the funding to help in that endeavor, because it's not for a lack of interest or for a lack of it in it, is entirely that they don't. They don't have enough money to fulfill their core mission, much less the secondary ones. Just get to back to Eric's question from earlier playgrounds like our playgrounds, like sometimes they're just baking in the sun. How do you decide when there's an opportunity to plant a shade tree next to a play structure? A lot of that is request driven. If we remove trees, we also, we try hard to to go back in and replace those.

[67:04] It just takes a long time. So I mean. I know that you know those trees like, for example, around North Boulder playground. I remember when those trees went in. You know that we had received a request about, hey, this playground is so hot, you know, we need more trees here. And so I mean, we have. But yeah, it just takes a while before. I'm gonna ask Mark to add in here, because we are looking at each other, we're moving into a different era of the way we plan, playgrounds and and opportunities. And Mark just had a little bit more about what's going to be different from what Kathleen seen the 1st couple of decades exactly. And we'll be bringing more of this to you as we go on through engagements for the projects we're definitely moving from sort of small gross motor skill play areas to thinking about natural play areas which frankly provides more opportunities please, more opportunities for different types of play. So you'll see us bringing this forward in the next 6 months, and some of the latest thinking of that which is, you know, we've got a couple of national experts helping with us.

[68:07] so it'll be a really nice partnership as we get into it. Yeah, so I would love to keep talking about this. This is why I love this discussion because it just goes on for a while, and it's super super awesome. And all the obviously you can tell. We're very engaged. but we sadly, all good things have to come to an end, so we have to move on. But thank you so much for coming, thanks to the board for your questions. That was really great discussion. next up is the Bpr progress report and 2025 work plan. Yeah, thank you so much, and I'll just echo Elliot's comments on that conversation. We thought it was important to not just share that in the consent agenda, because it is such a critical function that our department provides, and we are going to be talking about this funding gap.

[69:04] And so we're trying to in advance of the budget conversations. Prepare you for some of those items that we're going to be bringing you one to help inform the input you provide during the budget process, but also because we with the state of the urban forest report, we're sending this message a little. We're getting a little louder every year about this funding Gap, and and I expect you might get questions either from members of council or members of the community, and so thank you for your engagement, and and thank you for coming to us tonight, Kathleen. We really appreciate it. Thank you. So the next item is similar in that every year since about 2014. With that that last department plan we've provided an annual update. So that's our intent tonight in your packet is the full Progress report. I am not gonna read it to you. There is a lot of really great work in there, and I hope you take a few minutes to see it. Because I think it does a nice job of capturing so much of the work that we never talk about with you all because it's just part of what we're doing. There's great work happening. But it doesn't require a change in investment. It doesn't require community engagement. But really good things are happening. So we want you to be aware of that. And we also, when we do that, we're again. This is all framed in the department plan. We want you to know what's happening, Russell. You can go to the next slide.

[70:21] We want you to know what is on the work plan for 2025. This is important in a couple of ways you're gonna see us talk about when things will be coming to you. So we're giving you a forecast of what the work is gonna look like for 25 and we just want you to be aware of what's on the work plan. I think sometimes, you know, you'll see something from a community member, and I'm so bad at on the fly examples because they'll offend someone. But you know, someone says, can you add thing, ABC, to the work plan, and the answer so often is, no, our work plan is full because we are steadily marching forward on all of the work that was outlined in this Bpr. Plan, and I just want to remind you. This plan was unanimously supported by the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board by the planning board by the city council. And so this is the the guidepost. And for how we decide what work we're going to focus on each year, how we make investment decisions. And it's why there really just is not a lot of room and flexibility for anything outside of the plan.

[71:18] So dive in with just a reminder that all of our work is guided by a citywide framework. You will hear in city council meetings them talk a lot about the sustainability, equity and resilience framework, or the sare framework that is a framework of 7 outcomes that define who is a community we want to be. We want to be a healthy and socially thriving community. That is where most of our work falls. In that outcome. We want to be an environmentally sustainable community. We want to demonstrate good governance, so that all feeds down into our department strategic plan and down to each individual person on our team has individual goals that that point towards that work.

[72:00] The next slide. Again, we're starting to prepare for the budget conversations. This is a slide that we showed each of those boards as they discussed the 22 plan. So the Proud saw this side. The Planning board saw this side and city council this side of the slide, and reminding people that we've been saying without additional funding, we will be reducing services. So on the on the tails of the conversation, where we just talked about where the urban canopy is already funding. This is not where we want to be. One of the things that was celebrated, though, about that 22 plan is that it balanced 2 tensions. We have to face a fiscal reality where our expenses are far outpacing our revenues, and we're not going to be able to continue as we are without some changes. The other reality is, we have to plan for the future. We have to plan for a community that wants us to develop South Belmont. That wants us to provide more recreation amenities. And we're carefully trying to balance that tension. Always this slide outweighs the additional, the things we are working really hard to do to maintain levels of service. So you'll hear us talk about grants and philanthropy. You'll talk about additional tax subsidies, and you'll talk about revenue generating opportunities. So we just want to call out that even in 22 we knew that additional funding was going to be required. And I think you're going to be hearing more about that as we develop the 26 budget.

[73:20] And so we have 6 key themes in the department plan. We're gonna just highlight some of those key accomplishments from 24 and some of the work plan items. Scott and I are gonna do that for the key themes. And then Mark is gonna finish with an overview of the capital projects. We started listing those in the key themes, and the reality is so many of our capital plans. They align with all 6 key themes, the work we do for our infrastructure, both in the parks, but in our recreation centers it. Almost all of it aligns with supporting community health. making sure we're fiscally sustainable. making sure we're taking care of what we have promoting youth engagement building community like they, they check every box. That's why we spend so much of our money on taking care of what we have. So Scott is going to start with the 1st 3 community facing key things. Great. Thanks. Ali Scott, deputy Director of Parks and Recreation. As we look back at 2024, there's really some exciting information that we have to share here, and we are extremely proud of the numbers.

[74:24] And and especially if you look at Recreation Center, visits, a 23% increase in a given year is is pretty remarkable. And so we are extremely happy. That that we've had. So many people come and utilize the facility gymnastics programs continue to to thrive in our community. As well as our drop in fitness participants and a 44% increase in drop in fitness. And what we found is fitness. Classes really create a social opportunity for folks, and so I think there's really been some great cohorts of classes, and any given day you'll go and see the the line of people waiting for their pass for their their spin class. And so it's just really exciting to see such strong numbers there. Financial aid. Participants are also

[75:14] up slightly, but financially. Visits are really through the roof. And this is exciting what it means, and what this tells me is that people are coming more than just one time to check it out. They're actually becoming regular users of our facilities. Through our our financial aid program, which is, which is really neat a couple of key accomplishments that I wanted to highlight. You all are very familiar with the court system plan mark and his team did a phenomenal job putting together that plan. And that's gonna guide the work for tennis and pickleball courts for years to come, which is really exciting. Another key initiative that we accomplish this year is our service delivery model. And that's how we do what we do and how we make decisions around what services we provide to the community. We feel very strongly that we don't keep offering the same thing because we've always done it. We want to be very intentional about the limited resources that we have and and how we create programs for our community.

[76:12] And so that service delivery model has been updated. And actually, later on this week, all of our recreation coordinators and recreation programming staff will go through another training on how to use that model. So we're really proud of that work coming up in 2025, we'll have a committee that's focused around a lot of the programming work that was identified in our 2022 Bpr plan. And so we're gonna continue to to look at ways to make improvements to how we do our programming and and what that looks like. And so that committee we anticipate taking a couple of years. Rosa, can you hit the next slide? Perfect? Thank you. So, looking forward, with the the next area, that's our youth, activity, and engagement. And certainly youth activity is extremely important to us. You'll see there with our expand and Ysi programming, our numbers actually dipped a little bit in 2024 and one of the reasons for this slight dip was, we had a couple of babies that joined our

[77:14] our our staff, a couple of our our staff within our expand program. Went out on leave this fall. And so we intentionally scaled back a little bit of a programming so that our staff could handle that capacity. We still had excellent numbers and so many wonderful programs going on. But we had to take a bit of a step back there. Camp participants continued to be very strong. And then we're certainly proud of how our swim lessons have bounced back and the majority of our swim lessons as we offer these lessons, they are filling up, and people are very excited about that couple of key accomplishments. For 2024 we created the habitat at Crestview Park, which was really exciting. So again Mark and his team did a phenomenal job. With that.

[78:01] We are back to year round swim lessons. And I would say also, with that we offered multiple free swim classes. So we did one day dip into water safety workshops at our pools that were free to the public. And it was really focused more around swim safety than it was around. Swim lessons and learning strokes and those kind of things. But we we know the importance of water safety. And we're going to continue to do that programming here into 2025 as well. Really exciting that we're able to design and name Primo's Park. And so that's super exciting. Again mark and his team did a phenomenal job with that, and we're excited to see that come to fruition and and thank you all for for naming that park. I think it was a a really neat thing to add to our community. Also, in 2025 I mentioned, we're going to continue to do some of those free workshops. I will say that we're looking at ways to continue to expand, swim lesson programming, moving forward because we know it is one of the key staple factors. You all have expressed interest in the past about the importance of of learn to swim programming. So we're going to continue to grow that. I'm also really excited about the boulder nature everywhere. This is one of Mark's passions as well. And really, we're gonna really try and be intentional about creating neighborhoods.

[79:23] Which really creates spaces for children and community members to come in and connect with nature. This is not just something we can do solely on our own. This is done in conjunction with other organizations throughout the community as well. Mark anything you want to mention on boulder nature everywhere. Just that. I will be able to bring that to the board in June, and you'll get to get a more sort of deeper dive on it. Cool all right. Next slide. maybe.

[80:08] Well, the next area that we're going to talk about is building community and relationships. And this is something we continue to focus on as well. You've heard quite a bit of the work that we do with our play foundation? And one of the areas where I'm really excited about is our volunteerism. So I was able to get that next slide pulled up. There we go. You'll see some of the information about our volunteer hours. Volunteer hours did slightly decrease in 2024, one of the areas that I I think, this could be attributed to. We had a lot of requests to do cleanups and volunteer projects along Boulder Creek. Unfortunately, this summer we we held back from some of those projects just or participant safety. There's certainly a lot of work that needs to go into that, and we hope to to launch some more extensive volunteer opportunities here this next summer. But that's 1 area that we did see a bit of a decline. However, we have so many people that are volunteering, so actual number of volunteers has continued to increase.

[81:11] Oh, can I ask a question? Or yes, please do. What are some of the safety concerns that prompted you to dial back the volunteer opportunities? Yeah. I think. The lack of personal protective equipment Ppe for volunteers with potential sharps needles. because of some of the challenges going on down there. We've seen it. It's not safe necessarily to just go on. Throw a set of gloves on, and and start picking up trash. Which is unfortunate, Ali. I don't know if you have any other thoughts on on that, but we're going to continue to work towards making it a safer place for folks to volunteer and and create other opportunities throughout the community. But we don't want anybody getting hurt. It's just not worth it. Yeah. So that's really sad to hear and not to direct your presentation. But just to follow up question, does that mean that Mccrete just doesn't get clean up, cleaned up at all? Or does your staff do

[82:13] more work than they might have. Otherwise I can join, sure. But so we have. I'm gonna just we have groups who are interested in. So they see the conditions along the creek. They understand the challenges that our community is facing, and they want to help. And really, this is more about, we're not able to accept those offers because the level of training there. If we we require for our teams to work in those areas because of biohazards because of potential sharps and the equipments. We can't just let you and your 12 coworkers go show up for a day. And so it's more about that. We just our team is doing what they do. There are people who would love to help, and it's just it's not that easy. But there were opportunities for that in the past. That there are not now is what Scott is saying. I I think we've reduced them here in this last year, from what we had been doing in previous years is my understanding. Yes.

[83:04] and I think those safety concerns continue to to escalate and that's where we look at bringing in companies like, serve pro to do cleanups versus us trying to use volunteers to do that cleanup? Yeah. Understood? Has this been communicated to console at all. Are they aware of the problem here that we are facing. just trying to maintain these parklands along there that we can't really clean them up? I mean, I went down the creek this year, and I thought the same thing I was like when it was trashed. And you just want to like, you know, I floated down with my kids on a you know, a couple of days, and it was just a tragedy, and I think I came with the same question. I was really surprised that, like, you know, there isn't a creek cleanup day because of the safety issues. And I feel like this is something that is goes beyond the prep and really needs to commit. It's a city wide problem that we need to start tackling. And you know, it's frustrating because it just seems like we just keep sweeping it under the rug and let somebody else do it, or it doesn't get done. And so that's it's not an it's not an easy solution, but it does

[84:05] warrant some work on this. I'm bristling at a couple of statements there around, start doing something or start under the rug. The Sydney spends millions of dollars on trying to provide safe management. The program is called Safe and manage public spaces or stamps. Since 2016 there has been regularly used to be contracted, and since 2021, the city has 2 teams of people that actually work to address, really what is just a symptom of much larger crisis. In our country. We have a housing affordability crisis. We have a mental health crisis. We have substance abuse crisis. But so city council is aware, and regularly gets updated on the Sams program. So there are 2 in house teams that address cleanup. There are Enforcement teams in both the police department, the Limited Commission Park Ranger teams, and by all statistics. The data is that everything from Boulder High to Evange park is cleaner since it's been before we started tracking data. I hear you. I you know I've only lived here 6 years, but I can tell you it is getting worse, and if you talk to the community it is getting worse. People are really fed up with it. So I'd love to, you know.

[85:11] Yeah, I'm sorry, but I just kind of hit a with me, because I just sure this, it's it's just people are. You talk to the neighbors and everybody who lives around the creek which I do. It is not getting better, it is worse every year, and that's my own personal. I don't have any data support that. And it's just. It's hard to say that it's getting better. It's getting. It's it's unsaver than it was. You know. There's more camps. There's more needles. There's more people doing drugs down there, and I just don't see any response. So in the interest of staying on track for tonight's conversation, because it is. It is a whole other meeting. I hear the frustration. I would like that. I encourage that. I think we need to do something about this, you know, and just to say, we have volunteers that want to do something about it. But we're sweeping them away because, you know, it's everybody the community sees this problem in the city. I feel like we're not responding that way.

[86:02] you know. So where I was, the piece I was gonna add, is that in April we'll again be talking to City Council on the next phase of Civic area project, and when we talk about that we'll be talking about the park management plan that looks at what is the governance structure? What is the operating structure? What is the maintenance structure? And what is what is the structure that makes it gives us capacity to make sure that everyone feels safe and welcome statistically. there are. We work closely with the police department to see what types of crimes are happening, and the reality is is that for me, running on Goose Creek this morning by a camp I am. I am not statistically unsafe. I am not less safe. There is incredible victimization and crime among members of the homeless community against other members of the home community. But that is a those are the statistics. People feel unsafe when they see camping in parks when they see drug use in parks. When they see people yelling. There are significant perceptions of safety, and that is a conversation. It's the number one thing we hear in the civic area engagement. So we'll be talking about it again with City Council in April, and at that

[87:07] time we'll be sharing what's doing. But I'll leave it. That one. Let Scott continue. Yeah, sorry. And I didn't mean to get us off track there, either. But I do think we're going to continue to look for for volunteer opportunities throughout the entire community a couple of key accomplishments. Ali mentioned our our amazing urban rangers. They did start a copy with the Ranger program this year and had quite a bit of outreach there and then. We've really grown in our partnerships with both Cu and Bbsd to best serve the community. And those relationships, I think are stronger than they've been in a really long time. We have 2 other committees or groups that we've got working in 2025. One is focused around partnerships. You can see there. We're looking at creating a transparent approach to forming and maintaining partnerships. And that's 1 of the the number one priorities, and then creating an interface or a database of services for the community that people can easily access and know what is happening throughout the community. With all the different organizations that we have.

[88:09] And then the community access framework is really intended to. Streamline, how folks can use our public spaces. Everything from food trucks and parks to really, just how we rent spaces and what that looks like. And so quite a bit of work is going on with with both those 2 groups as well. Can I add just to build on part of the intent with both of those projects given our limited capacity and, Sonny, this ties to a conversation we had last year at East Boulder Community Park about the opportunity you noticed you thought it would be a great spot for food trucks. We do not have capacity without additional funding or stopping, doing something, doing more things, and so if you see us try something new. It's because we've stopped something else, or we've repurposed programming. So both of those projects are, how do we make it easy for other people to have good activities in the parks and to bring to bring people together in the parks. And so we're really excited about that work. It's really time

[89:08] with the parks projects we have underway in the civic area at North Boulder Park and at Primo's Park, where really there's great neighbors in the community who want to activate the parks, and if we can create good mechanisms for that without additional resources, this is just really good good governance going to the next one. Alright. So financial sustainability. Really, the heart of this theme is just recognizing kind of what we just talked about. If we're not taking care of our financial resources. We can't do anything. And so you can see that earned revenue is up over 2023. Jackson reminds me often when I get excited about these numbers and think they're going to give us potential to do more that our costs continue to raise at a faster rate. And so, and especially when you look at our new minimum wage, these revenue numbers are good and they're exciting. But they're not. They're not

[90:06] solving our financial issue. We still have a financial imbalance, and we still are looking at service reductions financial aid, though the amount that we're supporting. I think this goes hand in hand with, we're seeing more folks needing it. One of the statistics we're really excited about across total visitation to the rec centers. 13% of that is folks who are benefiting from the financial aid program. We're gonna update the analysis. We think about 15% of the community qualifies. And that's our goal. We want the people who visit using financial aid to match. How many people could be based on. And so that's that's that's 1 of our targets. So for 2024, we're just excited through the city's budgeting process. We had to establish outcomes for all of our programs, and that the intention with that it's called budgeting for resilience and equity. The intent is to show for every program we have. How is that contributing to a citywide comp

[91:02] citywide outcome. It's an effectiveness measure. It's our Well, I wasn't gonna talk about waste, or there's a lot happening at the Federal level that makes all those conversations tricky. But this is a really way way that the city is looking at. How do we make sure every dollar we spend is having an effect. We also, I'm really excited about this. So the city gets about 1.2 million dollars a year from lottery proceeds. This is this due to the original ballot language when the lottery was enacted in Colorado. That money based? Is there some old agreement that said it was split 3 ways between open space utilities and parks and Rec. and with the budget process to the development for 25 Jackson and Mark, we work together to just use some of the data around projects we haven't said, Hey, we think maybe we should have all of that. And we should revisit this agreement. We were successful. So we that's a realignment that we're pretty excited about. I don't know if the other departments are celebrating it the way we are, but I call that a win, because it was informed by the the storytelling we're doing and the need and the fact, you know, utilities is driven by user revenues, and they don't need that money in the same way that

[92:07] we do. For 25 plans. You all are carrying a lot about the long term financial strategy. That is a city council priority. They're gonna get an update. Their midterm retreat is Thursday night. Rosa, or someone. If someone could add, we should give you all an update on that at your March consent, agenda. So they're on Thursday night talking if they're in year at the midpoint of their 2 year term. And this long term financial strategy is one of their their key priorities. So they're gonna get an update. You all are going to hear a lot about that. As we develop the budget. these 2 gentlemen and many folks across our department spent today in Demos for new software, they're doing the same thing. Tomorrow, we're going to be implementing a new recreation software. This is huge. It's under financial sustainability because it's gonna give us better data on what things cost which will help us set fees which will help us advocate for subsidy. It's also gonna give us better demographic data on our participants which I know, Anna, that's something you've been interested in. It's just been a gap for us.

[93:04] So as we set up this system, equity is embedded in Rfp. In Jackson. I don't know. Maybe if you want to add something here, because I do think this project is so critical to so many of these goals, I think you captured it? There's so many changes. We've relied on the same software for 8 years, and it was piggybacked off a prior version of the our big emphasis is better working with our citywide Erp enterprise resource platform, our financial software. We are focusing on equity. We are focusing on cost. Recovery digital accessibility is a key priority, and then an area of collaboration. I really want to. Highlight is housing and human services also piggybacks off the system. So they have been an active partner in. How do we support our older adult population that we are achieving the department and goals as well? The person recreation rules and everything's expected to go live November of this year. I recognize that change management is a scary component of anything. That has been a top component of every vendor's response of not only for the staff side, but also for the public side. We have about 60,000 active or 60,000 accounts in the system.

[94:13] Obviously, we don't have 60,000 active users. So the migration will be important to make sure that people are using the software in a way that makes sense and provides us meaningful data comment to that. We're going through a software update at my law firm. And I can just say from experience, don't be afraid to push off the live date. We went live with a new financial software as a city as of December. January one, January one. We went live with the new financial software, and we all got paid in January, and the bills are getting paid. And this is incredible. Like, I'm so impressed that we've got a half a billion dollar budget and have a new financial software. And it's really gone well, and it's Stacy on our team, who, you all know well, has been one of the key players in that project. It's pretty impressive. So I just say, we we do software updates. We they're being really thoughtful about it. Yeah.

[95:13] alright. The other one on here. Just Fyi. And this was in your consent, agenda. The the play campaign is live. We are trying to hear from those community members who said, We'll we'll help you. We'll write checks, and so we're asking them to put their money where their mouth is and help us would make these core projects great. Mark and his team have worked closely with Brian and with the play team to say, Here's where people can write checks. And it would make these projects even better. We're looking to continue utilizing the city's naming policy, where, if people make a contribution that is more than 50% of the value of like for a court, $100,000 check, it can be. It can be the Elliott Hood tennis court in honor of your bad service. I mean, it sounds like great going away gift to me.

[96:00] I'm just saying, Not yet. The campaign is really just taking off. I this week just started making in some out yeah outreaches to those folks who've said, Hey, let us know when you're ready. And then Brian, very on our team, who is listening. I know he's working closely with Angie at play a team to look at those direct targeted asks, because that's really how you get the significant gifts. It's not going to be. Someone got a flyer in their mailbox all right next step. Yeah, really. I can't remember the guy's name. Someone, someone essentially paid for the resurfacing of the court. Yes. Well, the name is Tbd. He will have it. He gets to provide the name with our approval. We've already, you know. He's he's a big pickleball guy, and he's proposed some pickle focus names that we've had to encourage him to keep looking. But yes, that court will be. And it's actually the city's 1st application of that naming process, and we're hoping that some of the publicity around that and the opportunities we have will help

[97:11] more people see that, you know. Naming of of city facilities is a great way to get more money. I'm all for it. Thanks, Matt. Yeah. alright. Taking care of what we have. I wanna just highlight that we are spending more on taking care of what we have, where which means we're spending less money elsewhere. Mark has assembled a really great team that is reinvigorating our asset management program and sprinkling it across the department so that people understand the value of the routine maintenance, the value of the preventative maintenance and doing things that are really important, like replacing the bridge at Coot Lake like completely refurbishing these tennis courts. And I know you all have heard about these these court replacements a lot. They're great examples for us. We've also updated our park maintenance plan. This is where we outline all of the frequencies at which we perform each task. And so I get an email from someone who says.

[98:04] Why aren't you hosing off all the walkways in Harlow plants? Part right now I hear all this stuff about boot flu, and there's good goose waste everywhere. I have at my fingertips what our current frequency is for how often we're to address that hardscape at that facility. And this is true across the system. And that's gonna continue to mature this year, so that in every truck people know exactly what the frequencies are. This also informs the funding conversations, because if people say, Hey, we would like. we would like the grass to be greener in every park. We're kind of over the dandelions. Okay, well, that and that requires more aeration that requires more fertilizer and the cost per acre is this. And so it just really helps us inform level service conversations for 2025. Again, under Mark's leadership and the maturation of the asset management program, we are updating the current replacement values of all of our assets. And this is critical, because that's the baseline for which you determine how much you should be saving to replace those things, and how much you just spending every year just to take care of them. It also helps us inform when people say we would like

[99:05] new bathrooms in every park. We would, too. It'll be a million dollars over 10 years, please, because it's $500,000 to buy it and install it, and then 50,000 a year for cleaning and security. And so the old way would be sure. Here's $300,000. You can buy the unit. Okay? Well, we have to pay the permit to install it. And then we have to operate it. And that's just the 10 year cost the life cycle of a park bathroom is probably 30 years. So this work, it's behind the scenes work that is critical for the success of these funding conversations. Really, the biggest accomplishment for taking care of what we have is hiring mark Davison in 2022. So that was that was a couple of years ago. We don't necessarily have that on the slide, but I'll just highlight that. And then we're doing. We're bringing back training for all of our teammates. We have over 60 folks who work the land and facilities across the system and making sure we're investing in their development so that they can can help us achieve these goals is really important.

[100:04] which is the greatest segue to organizational readiness. This last key theme is really just about making sure we're taking care of the people. We have a hundred 51 full time equivalents in our department. not only is it more than half of the expense of the department. It's the only way we do anything. And so this theme is all around, just making sure that we are taking care of our people. So, Capra, you all have heard about the Commission for the accreditation of park recreation agencies. The next time we see you we will have had our visit. We have submitted over 140 standards. They're getting picked apart by these folks from all over the country who they're really the fidelity check this accreditation. Less than 5% of agencies across the country have achieved it. And it's it's no joke. They're really saying, what did you mean? What you say when you did this, show us what you mean like. If we just wrote something on a piece of paper, they now, when they're looking at the documents, and then their visit in 2 weeks, we're gonna say, show us what you mean by that. Who actually attended that? And how do they use it?

[101:02] And last year we hired more seasonal employees than we ever have before. This speaks to the effectiveness of our recruitment campaign. This speaks to the effectiveness of all of our supervisors in onboarding and training those folks this year we need to hire about a hundred less non standard employees because so many of them have stayed with us because they're having a great experience. So again, just big hat tip to our supervisors and all the work they do to make sure all of these folks, so many of them young kids working their very 1st job that they have a great experience with us. For 2025. So we've submitted the standards through this year. There are a couple of big milestones for accreditation. The 1st one is in 2 weeks. When we have that visit, the next one is in September, when we sit for a hearing at our National Conference 3 days stay tuned for an invitation. It means a lot to them to see elected and appointed officials. And so you're going to be invited to a reception where, if you could help us welcome these folks, it sure does mean a lot to them. March

[102:02] 11, th 12, th 13, th 10, th 11, th 12.th Had the dates off. Yeah. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Monday afternoon. 4. 30. Can you say a little more about like what the benefit of the accreditation is like, what I have a whole slide. I mean, I'm so glad you asked that we're actually gonna make a video for the community. Because if you're the community member, why has my department's been spending time on this? What does this mean? Actually, if you look at this graphic at the top it this, this was developed by our graphic designer, and it really conveys the reason. One. The people there represent our team. And in documenting all of these policies we have made it easier to on our entire organization, because it is a standard that you have a fee policy. Well, before we started this process, if you were a new teammate to Bpr. And you are a recreation programmer and wanted to know how to design a program and set a fee, I would say, here you go, read these 25 prab memos. and it was just buried. And so now we have an online and accessible to the community. We have a fee policy makes onboarding easier. It makes training easier. And it's been an incredible development opportunity for our people. It will continue to be a development opportunity because you re accredit every 5 years, and you can't just update the dates on things you have to continually make it better. And so that's that's the road there. This is a journey on continuous improvement, so we expect to achieve a

[103:23] accreditation, but to maintain it. You have to reaccredit every 5 years, and you have to. You have to show that you're you're regularly achieving these standards of excellence in our profession. The mountains represent the community. We are doing this because we think that this community has high expectations, and their department should be one of the best in the country. We also think it's a credibility check. If we're going to be asking voters for money, they should know that they're giving money to a well organized well run department. Finally, the flag there just represents. This is our industry's mark of excellence. So our mission is to provide high quality parks and recreation. Well, what does high quality mean? And and Capra really, is that definition?

[104:05] Does that answer your question? I think so. Yeah. I mean? I I didn't know. Yeah, like, who would even know? Yeah, this is amazing. Like, who who would? Who would recognize it? People in parks and recreation. Right. I mean to the average community member. They're not going to hear Capra and think Yay Parks and Rec. But what they should see here and feel is when they go to our facilities, and if especially compared to other experiences in public parks and recreation, that we're doing high quality work. Yeah. And were we already aligned with their boxes to check? Or did we have to switch things around? There was a lot of things, but I came in just over 2 years ago, and it was a big learning curve because there weren't the the organized resources. But as I go through, and Ali and I reviewed all the standards and all the materials that came through the entire process. things like the creation of a marketing plan. The work that we've done to ensure, you know, safety plans and and some of the work with asset management that we're doing. We're we're doing things the right way, and we're very intentional. Which I I greatly appreciate as an employee, but as a community member, I think it was also good to know that

[105:12] we're good stewards of our resources. We're making good informed decisions. We're engaging the community properly and and doing things the right way. So it's definitely a point of pride for me. So the accreditation is more a reflection on how? It's not a well, I guess how the business is run, how the versus our assets versus what the parks look like. It's not a measure of quality, the system it's and I'll note like. So, for example, chapter 5 is all about financial procedures. It forced this guy to document a lot of what's in his head because he's been our business services manager since 2018 now, and so like that for us is a huge benefit. And then thus for the community? Right? Because there's not this knowledge loss when you have it, when you have a transfer. And so back to your question on. Was it, you know? Was it an easier, a hard lift? Our department began this process in 2,000,

[106:03] and it quickly fell apart because we had such a mountain to climb. There was so much work to do. We didn't have so many of the fundamental documents. We have been looking at this. Since 2019, it was on our 2020 work plan. We obviously did not go for accreditation in 2020 or even 21. But we've had it on our eyes. And so we've been slowly checking the boxes on some of the things that were fundamental standards, like the historic places and cultural plan that Grab approved several years ago. That's a fundamental standard. You have to have that document. But on your mark on quality, we are developing a quality measure that will help us give a report card on the condition of the parks, and I'm so that's 1 of the deliverables. I don't know if that'll be done by the end of the year. I'd like to think we'll be able to bring it in early 2026 in a polished way. Yeah. And so you're going to see a report card on the condition of the parks. It's going to be really eye-opening for people. It's an interesting point, because it's an internal document, but it causes to think of efficiencies how we better operate. And then there's an external aspect to improving community services. It's like any business you want the best practices in it.

[107:07] Good question. Thank you. Yeah. The last thing I'll just note Scott is leading a team of folks just formalizing a learning growth team plan to make sure that we are providing development opportunities for for staff not only in house but connecting them to opportunities. That exist in the industry. With that I'm going to turn it to Mr. Davidson to talk about capital projects. I've just got a couple of slides, so it'll be quite brief, and, as you know, Jackson and I will be diving into greater detail as we get into is that April, April, May, and June. There you go. So this is just a quick summary of sort of major park projects. And Ali mentioned earlier things like fixing up courts. So it's this diving into, like the smaller individual assets taking care of what we have. This is a combination taking care of what we have and meeting levels of services. So park renovation type projects. One of the things I just want to point out is Ali mentioned about also is how we're fulfilling our department plan and city wide goals and strategies.

[108:08] And so if you if you just look around the place to the north, we've got Primus Park, this is really, frankly, finally, taking care of an equity issue we should have took care of 50 years ago and providing a new park and service levels for that community. If you look to the north, to Tom Watson, and then southeast Boulder Park. That's us implementing the courts plan. So it's taking a system plan and putting that on the ground again. That was very much in our department plan to prove that level of service for racket sports again over to the sort of northwest west side of the city. You can see North Boulder Park and Barker Park. That's a good example of really aging parks that need updated. And I just point out with North Boulder Park. It's a great example where we're partnering with utilities so that we can improve drainage issues in the park. improve park amenities, and it's actually gonna save us a bunch of dollars by working together on that project as well.

[109:03] Then, as you look to the east, you'll see Boulder Junction. Great example of the city expanding out really more density in terms of housing, and us frankly not having a service area for that in terms of parks. So Boulder Junction will be a new pocket park. Even few years down the road would be updating East Mableton to also support service levels for that area in the city. and then the last few I want to mention here are where, frankly, if we, as always pointed out, we can't afford to do big, big efforts. So the civic area, for example, has 18 million dollars plus or minus 5%. Usually, you're spending 10 million more than we have. So there's an example where we went out to the community for the community culture, resilience, safety tax and the community started direct. What was the priorities for the city. So funding came forward for Pearl Street, for the Civic and for the Rec. Centers. There's a department we couldn't afford. But as a citywide tax helps take care of these big issues that we need to manage.

[110:11] And then, finally, the purple is obviously the rec centers. You've heard a ton about that. to my mind there's a nice example of, you know Cip is planning. It's 1 of the titles within the cip world as well as design and rehabilitation, and, you know, taking care of assets. So there, where you're seeing is us in the purple thinking about the system, wide approach to our major 3 major facilities, the Rec centers, and we work on them all together and think about them. Where you've heard Darren talking about this, and we're coming back to you. And how did it work as a system? And that moves us? Then into the orange projects on the map. Here. next slide, Rosa. And here's just a slide to quickly summarize. The the only thing I see here is is Ali, pointed out, we when I 1st arrived. You know we were coming out of Covid. We had a bunch of projects almost lined up for a bunch of years that we couldn't get moving. We also had a I think, 3 people on the team, maybe 2 at the time, so we did not have enough staff. We had to hire a bunch of staff that were big positions.

[111:08] So what's nice about this side is, you'll see that these projects now, which last year, when we talked, we said, We're on the runway now, they're actually the planes are actually in the air flying, and you'll see, though, that most of the projects are planning and design. In 2627, you'll see a lot more construction there. And just the column on the right is the various touchdowns we'll be doing with you all to keep you updated on those projects. And Ali. I think, probably, was it your suggestion to move this into the consent agenda? So you can actually see when the touchdowns will be you already have the chart. That's the summary of projects. We thought we'd add this column. So you know, when you next are, gonna see something that if you hear something out in the community, you know one. We always want to hear your input on the prab agenda. But you can see. Oh, I have questions on the civic area. Oh, good. That's gonna come in. April. Yeah. Yeah. I think too great. So that's just a quick summary.

[112:01] Well, you went for brevity tonight. Good job. Okay. Work oops. That is not our slide. So we are done with this. Any questions on the work plan. You know what I'm gonna say, if you go back to the slide with the map, and it shows sort of where the work is happening. What's on the in the plan. You know, I just have to point out again. There's nothing in South Boulder, and that was my concern. 3 years ago, when I got on Prab it was why I got on prab it. When I got on I was told that Shanahan Ridge was on the plans for 2025, and I know there's lots of moving parts, and I don't want it to seem like I'm not really appreciating everything you're doing. I think you have amazing work, but I just don't understand still, why things are prioritized the way they are when you know I don't have the numbers in front of me or the years. But I've I've been in South Boulder for 25 years, and I've seen North Boulder get renovated a couple of times. Now we're gonna see East Boulder get renovated a couple of times I've seen North Boulder Rec. Get renovated like.

[113:14] why is South Boulder still? Not even in the plan like, why is Harlow flats. Why can't Shanahan Ridge get a couple of picnic tables like there's such big numbers thrown around on these big renovations, and I feel like there's so many little parks that could be really improved with little little investments in in capital. And so I just I don't know how to be. I don't know how to advocate for South Boulder. Well, I'll say a few things, and then Mark can add one. You do advocate for South Boulder regularly. We hear we hear from you regularly on that. And so I mean, you have been right. The the reality is is one. This map doesn't show past projects. And so, you know, Tantra Park did have a playground replacement in 27 like this doesn't show past investment. It's not. This does look like a gap based on the current 2 year horizon that mark is showing. But there have been investments in South Boulder and

[114:09] so, just for from an accuracy perspective, I wanted to add that, but just to know when the projects that are up here, every single one of them, they don't just have old infrastructure, they have deficient infrastructure. And if Mark could tell you a little bit about the conditions we're seeing at Barker Park that is also the home to the city's only childcare, with an affordable sliding scale childcare. And so that is a priority. It's and the reality is we do not have funding to do everything. And so we are constantly having to make decisions based on condition and based on who is it serving? So, Shanahan Ridge? We've we've heard you. That is a very small park that serves a very small population. And unfortunately, when we've had to make choices, it did fall off because of that prioritization. We we it is challenging to go in and just do little bits and bobs in a park.

[115:00] When there's deficiencies we we do not have the capacity to do beyond this, and if if you want to add anything, please do, yeah, no, totally agree. Ali. Actually, we just out there a couple of weeks ago, and the kids can't use the play equipment being banned from the instruction. All they can do is stare at the slides and the climbers. And then they just go and basically sit on the fence in the during the daytime. So there is things in really poor condition that need fixed to Ali's point. I would say, this is the exciting part, though, is you heard about this idea of park quality? What does that score look like for the quality of parks, while we also completely updating our asset management system. and it's took a few years to get there. But when we come back in like next year, you'll see the transparency and the fairness of how we're assessing the box. It won't just be a black box anymore. You'll be able to see the numbers, the data, and you can question it will make it a little bit wrong and then adjust it. So you'll be seeing a much more transparent process for prioritization as well.

[116:01] That's a really good point. I'm glad that you added. The other piece that is on the dream list is the next step is a community report card where the community could give us their input on the condition and their experience in the park on a more regular basis. Right now we get it really well and good when we plan a specific park. And during the department planning process, we want to provide a more regular feedback mechanism. And and you say there's it's it doesn't serve that many people. It's a pretty high density. Shanahan Ridge. It's a pretty high density population area like it's all townhomes around there. People who don't have yards. So I'm just curious how you come up with the numbers like, is it? If it's based on usage. it's because people don't use it because it's either super hot, and there's no shade. Or there's not really that many structures to play with. I mean, there is this 96 parks in the system, you know, you can see here. This is just for 2025. There's a history of park redevelopment. This went through the department 2022 plan with ton of community engagement to help prioritize this along with things like internal condition assessments. So you know that department plan is what we're guided by, which Prime reviews sends to Council council approves.

[117:11] So that is a community engagement policy direction that informs where we're at here. We're not just picking it up. But, as at least pointed out, we don't have enough funding to do it all. So unfortunately, yeah, things northeast west answer fall off the list. The other thing that's fascinating about the smaller pocket parks like Shanahan Ridge. So in the park classification you do look at who uses a site in a small park like Shanahan Ridge is A is a pocket park. It's the closest to home, neighbor, so you don't have any parking. You don't have anything that would, you know, bring in programming or a need for additional intensity on the Park, that department. We just had an event where we were looking back 30 years at the department I was looking at 1995 memos, and they were designing Shanahan Park and some of the proven to that point, and the most active voices in the neighbors that are captured in the crowd. Meeting said, Do not bring things that are going to bring more people. This is a small park that that just cannot handle other things. And that really is the design typically of a pocket park. Not have a ton of amenities. And

[118:07] I hear you that you and perhaps your neighbors are are interested in other amenities, but that that's not how the park was designed, and not how typically pocket parks are designed because they they're not a community gathering space in the way that Harlow Platts is, or you know, other neighborhood parks. Yeah, there's 1 more statistic, I'd love to add, is, we've got 48 play areas we just worked on this last week, as you know, you approved last year 500,000 a year for play area replacement player replacements, unfortunately, are now at 800 to 1.2 million, so times that by 48, and then understand that to replace our play areas it would take 50 years to get through them. And the fact is that average life cycle has gone from about 2020 years to 10 to 12. So even through that replacement cycle, they're going to be up to date. And this is an example where we're having to make hard decisions on what we prioritize. And hopefully, we can get more funding to support things like that.

[119:01] I appreciate what you said about making it more transparent and helping understand the prioritization. When we bring you the cip this year, we'll try and be more explicit about how things were prioritized, because you're also gonna see that underfunded and unfunded list. And so that'll be part of the conversation with the board is, how how did we choose? And what is your input, I mean, the board has approval over the capital improvement program. And let me, can I ask you a question? I lived in Denver, too. If I had to choose. I was sacrificed Shannon Henbridge, and put money into Harlow Flats. Does that make sense to you? I would love Parliament to be Redone, I for Shannon Ridge. We just want some picnic tables. picnic tables, and maybe like couple improvements, just something. There's 2 slides that are small for 3 and under kind of kids, and there's 2 swings. But you can now fundraise right and like, put that through play boulder and do that right. That's there's a mechanism there. If you, if the community wanted this to collect donations, run it through, play boulder, and target it towards that right? So I think that's the reality we're in right? There's no, there's no money for anything anymore. Right? Like, it's like, it's either you get a pony up. I think it's like.

[120:19] how would you? How would you feel about it all grown to that part? It pretty much. Is a dog run right now, and I would not want a dog run. I mean, I don't know what you mean by like fencing off for the area part of it. Part of it would be fine, because the dogs run, and then the kids, you know, get their balls chewed or chased away, or something. So yeah, it's it's just not a. It's not activated in a way that I think it could, and I don't think it would take much to make it a place where people would gather more if there was some place to go, and, you know, gather right now you're either sitting on.

[121:00] and a wet, soggy ground or right in the sun. There's just not a place to gather, and and it's sloped, and there's not a place to really like. You can throw Frisbees to your kids or your dogs, and that's kind of how I see it used, and it's a beautiful space. And it it could be a great place for neighbors to gather. Yeah, when I, when I lived next to the park, which I did for 4 ish years, like what I noticed was the the dogs illegally running, but it feels to me like, and I'm not a dog person. I actually really don't like dogs, but every I'm the only person in Boulder right? But like that's a thing in many neighborhoods, including that one. And it just feels like you talk about bringing people together. That's a way to do it. And maybe that would be that expensive? That's maybe not as expensive as the play area. Yeah, no, it's all fair. I think the park quality scores looking at governance models we're looking at always. How can we manage parks? Better fund them, taking care of what we call making small improvements as well. That's why one of the projects we're developing is park refresh rather than a full renovation to hopefully spread the dollars around a bit more in the future as well.

[122:12] I like that idea for Shanahan Ridge Park a refresh some. you know, modest investment to refresh right? Because they could use some love. We're really excited that for this time next year as we're preparing for the 27 budget, we're gonna have this park queue approach that'll show visitation condition population nearby all of that, and show you all what like more transparently the way the prioritization is happening, I would just hope that, like visitation takes into consideration what's there to visit? Because I think there, there's a lot of people who would visit it if there was something there that would bring them there, and I I don't think that would give you an accurate picture of

[123:06] the interest in the in that community by just looking at who's actually there right now? Alright, so I think that, concludes our sorry, my agenda. Just that is, that was the end of that. And again, that was the setting, the foundation. We'll include this in that April orientation, I think for. So that, did we? I'm sorry. I just realized Jenny is online. We need to do and make sure. Did she have any questions, Jenny, do you have any questions. I'm all good. Thanks. So much for checking in. Yeah. okay. So now we've got matters from the board, which is basically a discussion about the April study session draft agenda. And this looks awesome to me. I think it looks good, too. The only thing I had on this one is that and now I've lost it someplace here in my files. Oh, here we go.

[124:05] I was just wondering. I think it looks absolutely perfect, so I can't say enough wonderful things about this agenda, and I love agendas, and this is just a really really good one. But I was wondering about be the a subsection B role of boards, board liaisons to Vpr. Project assignments? Can we just like attach an addendum or an exhibit, or to to show us what those are. For sure. And that'd just be an updated list, and we'll actually move the order on that one. My vote would. if you all agree would be to make that last, because that's not time sensitive as a new board member. And, in fact, what I recall typically from that conversation is, you all are like, I'm brand new. I have no clue, and and that might be a May June or July conversation. Yeah, that was the only feedback I have on. This is the order of subsection. Ab.

[125:07] which is like it makes more sense to start with the Advisory Board Board roles and functions, and then go to the communication protocols, meeting management and agenda overview. or vice versa, and then have board liaisons be the last one. Otherwise I thought it looks good. and maybe even board liaison goes after d. 3 that make. Here are the major projects and plans, so that folks even know what they're interested in being a liaison, for we could couple those 2 items together. And maybe even add to that outcome. Then, like by, you know, to provide an opportunity all the way for community questions like by May or by April. Or by May, I mean.

[126:04] so we we're not making. We're not making people think that they have to sign up right there if they want to take a second to think about it. But. Yeah, I think on this, and it'll help us update. You'll see a draft perfect. Include it with the March meeting. Oh, deadline! That would be helpful great. So just to recap. Seems like we wanna move or we're in agreement to move the what's currently b 1 liaisons down to D after d. 3. So now the new D 4, and then we just move up the B 2, 3, and 4 to like 1, 2, and 3. Okay, so let's see. I like how we've put team building, slash physical movement that's nice to be like, actually engage with the full movement. This looks good. Who who created this you all did.

[127:01] But I mean, who typed it up. Thank you. This is really well done. Thank you. Any other feedback for the agenda. Anybody. Now that we're in matters from the board. Mention anything I know we've all we've we've all had a chance to share opinions about stuff and comments about parks and rec business. But anybody else want to add anything that's on their mind related to to share that. I went to the sweetheart dance, and it's very sweet, really fun, very, very much enjoyed that and then I do have a question, and I don't know appropriate time. But I've been watching the movement on the west. Pearl ballot measure and knowing that Pearl Street is under parks and rec review, if that passes, will that be under parks and Rec. And will that

[128:03] directly affect the budget? And how does that play into? You know I'm just very curious about that dynamic, because that would be millions of dollars to create 2 blocks of of pedestrian area. And I think a lot of citizens like would look at that and be like, why not? Sure, you know, but they don't realize necessarily that that's going to be a choice that they're making right about where the money goes versus, you know parks and Rec. Kind of more typical stuff. So just curious. If you could talk a little bit about that where you see it going, how it will affect parks and rest in the budget. Yeah, I appreciate that question. I haven't seen final ballot language for that, and it will depend right. But as I understand it, it is. It is an unfunded mandate. So it would. You know there would be some kind of capital construction. What happened after the pandemic was very responsive and ad hoc. To address the needs of that time there would need to be, you know, it was Jersey barriers and very, very impermanent infrastructure you would wanna

[129:11] there would be more thoughtful design, I would assume. And then the ongoing operations, the the 4 blocks of the Pearl Street pedestrian Mall are the most intense cost per acre in our system, and they are funded by the general fund. And so it's not parks and rec dedicated money. But we do. We do manage that in partnership with funding from the central area general Improvement district and operated by the downtown boulder partnership. If if that ballot, if that were to make it on the ballot, and if it were to pass based on what I understand somewhere in the city budget, you would have to find money for both the capital and the ongoing operations of that new space. not to mention loss of working. I parking revenue. I am not a parking specialist, but I would. I would guess that it's pretty minimal and would not. I mean, on a half 1 billion dollar budget. I don't think it would be a driver in the decision. What I have heard is that the businesses that are adjacent and on that area are off the bricks for a reason, and and their position is that there would be a loss of revenue to them which would be a loss of sales, tax dollars. I think that would be the more.

[130:22] And I think there's also I've been just looking into this a little bit more extensively and putting it on the if it does get on the ballot this year. It's not a it's not a directive to close pearl. It, then, is subject to the Mall Act, which then requires, like the the businesses that are in that area to weigh in, and then it would go back on the ballot, so it would take 2 ballots plus some pretty intensive. Not litigation, but some pretty intensive policy discussion in order to actually get it passed. For this. So the Mall act is what would prevent it from potentially happening in the end.

[131:03] Thank you any other questions, comments before we adjourn. I just would like to do a quick update from play I sent over to. We have a couple of the tree tender trainings coming up. I sent those to Rosa and Ali so hopefully they can send those over to the team if anybody would like to do that. There's also a tree giveaway at the boulder farmers market coming up some sapling giveaways. We're still working on doing storytelling through cool boulder we've had a lot of community engagement. Obviously we mentioned that the capital campaign was launched for the courts. That's super exciting. Brian, of course, gave a wonderful placemaking update at our last meeting, and that's all very exciting about all the new courts that are in in the works.

[132:01] and our golf outing is coming up again September 12.th So we're working on getting that off the ground. And we're still recruiting for board members. So if anybody who might be leaving Prab is interested in joining the play boulder board. You are welcome to come and attend a meeting and see how you like it. Thank you. Thank you. Ready? So this is a question for you, Ally, like, obviously, we've all been in the layoffs the Federal Government. I'm just wondering if you're doing any hiring, and might want to seek to bring on anyone who's lost their job at national parks recently or we are about to launch summer squad. We'll have all kinds of jobs available for all kinds of people as well. Osmp, which is a natural fit for some of the folks that might be losing their job. Working for the Department of the Interior. I know the Chamber is also standing up a partnership that to support folks who might be losing jobs. There's a lot of Federal labs here in Boulder

[133:13] I think I answered your question. Yeah, thanks. Yeah. And then I just want to say I heard your concerns about Samps earlier in the meeting. I'd like to bring that to our agenda setting meeting and figure out when we can put that on the agenda for the next couple of sessions to get it an update on where where we are and what we're doing. And from what about unhoused people in the parks. and maybe potentially after our end of our show is. it's an important topic that we tend to knock deals directly very often. Let's put that on our agenda for our agenda setting. Yeah, I'm opening up the calendar now, so I can pencil. Something in. We can talk about it tomorrow. It will come up a little bit like I mentioned for council with the Civic Area Conversations, because it's because it is a key thing. And but it'd be specific to that project, not just generally, but

[134:07] yeah. great. Well, any other comments? Questions for the good of the order. Okay, with that. Thank you.