January 6, 2026 — University Hill Commercial Area Management Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:01] And get the meeting started. Melissa, can you call a roll? Oh, right. Welcome to the University Hill Commercial Area Management Commission meeting. It is January 6, 2026, and I will call roll. Trent Bush? Here. Cal Jones? Here. Danica Powell? Here? Ted Rothwell? Here. Dean Anderson? Here. I will now turn the meeting over to Chair Rockwell for procedural items. Thanks, Melissa. We got two procedural items here. Standard stop approval of the November 25 meeting minutes. Will anyone have any edits or anything that you need to make? I hear a motion? So moved. Alright, a second. Alright. Approval of the November 25 meeting minutes. All in favor? Aye.

[1:04] Great, that's unanimous. A second item is recruitment updates. So, this is the time of year where we end up having kind of a shuffling of the commission, potentially, and there'll be new candidates for the commission membership. considered. I'm technically on the bubble. My term ends here in 26. So, this is a reminder that we should be actively trying to consider individuals that may be interested in serving on this commission. So, does that one person need to be, a Hill person. I'm an at-large individual, I believe. Oh, it's not a judgment on my weight or anything. It's… I just, I serve as a community member, and that's the position that I believe is, yeah, resident. Okay. Anything staff would want to add to the recruitment side of this, and how this process ends up working in? I have an update for you. Thank you. We're receiving applications, so January 23rd. We had, an open house event yesterday. I think there were about 50 attendees.

[2:16] And John Morris has been reviewing applications, as they come in for eligibility. Great. Any news on anyone who happens to be interested in this commission, or… Not that I've heard of. I talked to a few people last night, but it was kind of hard to tell their, like, level of interest, but I checked some. 12 into her. Thank you, that's helpful. Yes. Anything else on the recruitment updates side of this? Thank you all. Oh, that's fantastic. a few emails. But that's it. Haven't heard any responses. Alright. you all are the best ambassadors for that, I think. Yeah, certainly can speak to

[3:01] level of commitment, stuff coming up that we're working on. So, happy to support, but great if you all can spread the word. Cool. Just as a reminder, too, Danica, I know you currently serve as a representative of the business, if I remember correctly. I can't remember the official title, but that's also an option for people who are looking to serve on the Commission that maybe not reside within the boundaries, but that they… they… Are employed by or work for, somebody who owns property up there, I believe they can serve on the commission as well. Own the property or owns business? Yes. Both. I don't know. Both. I know that, I mean, my term ends 26, and I am literally just an at-large resident, Dane is as well, his position. And so, I think it could be all of the above, is what you're pointing out. I believe so. Danica, I saw you just came on mute. Yeah, sorry, I don't know why my video won't come on, but

[4:01] I… yeah, I just asked the Moxie, because I worked for them, I'm like, hey, can I represent you? And they were like, fine, and I just had them write a letter, so… Yeah, I didn't say box. Sorry, it just moved me to a panelist. Can you still hear me? Yes, yep. So I just asked the Moxie, and they're like, sure. So I think it's, you know, if you can find a business to sponsor you. You know, they don't… they're not super involved, and I think, you know, it's just a way for me to get on the board, so I don't know if there's other businesses that would mind sponsoring people. I don't know if that's the best way to do it, but if we're having a hard time Finding somebody who, you know, works on the Hill? Yeah, that opens up the door a little bit more. Thanks, Danica. All right, I'm going to move on then to our next agenda item, which is public participation. Are there any members of the public here today who would like to address the Commission?

[5:09] Dara West here. Dara, can you raise your hand if you'd like to speak? I don't see a hand raised. Okay. There it is. Oh, there it is. All right. Mute. Oh, sorry, I think I was… was muted. We can hear you now. Hi! So, I… Oh gosh, why is my screen doing that? Can you guys see me? Now, you just see a black screen with your name on it. Oh, okay. Yeah, I feel… I kind of feel like a fly on the wall. I wish I was there in the room. So I am taking over the position for Mary Ellis, who…

[6:06] I believe she was representing the University Hill, Association. As a homeowner on the Hill. Yes, I'm familiar with Mary. She's addressed the Commission a few times before. Yeah, so she's moving to Oregon, so I am filling her role, in that capacity. Excellent. Well, it's nice to meet you. Yeah, you too! Any questions for the Commission, or… Anything in particular that's top of mind for you? I don't think so. I know that we are… we as in the University Hill Association, We're going to start doing meetings quarterly. I believe our next meeting is January 28th at the Academy. If that has an interest to anyone, you are welcome to attend.

[7:02] But yeah, next time I want to make sure to be there in the room with you guys. Yeah, you're welcome to join us. This is a meeting open to the public, so we would love to hear what the University Hill Association has top of mind as well. What time, is this meeting on the 28th at the Academy? It is, I believe, at… It's 6 o'clock at the Academy on, yeah, the 28th on Wednesday. And that's open for anyone to join? Yes, it is. Slack. Does anyone have any questions for Gara? Nope. Thank you so much for tuning in and introducing yourself, we really appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. Sure. Have a good evening. Are there any other members of the public here to address the Commission?

[8:04] All right, we'll move on to the next agenda item, which is Consent Agenda. We all received our Consent Agenda packet. Does anyone have anything that they wanted to try to discuss at this time about the consent agenda? All right. We're on to the Hill Boulder update. Jake was unable to attend, and Dakota wasn't able to fill in. Excellent. Okay. Do we know the date of the rail jam? Yeah, Bill Jam, yeah, sorry. Zippo Rail Jam? Yeah, there. I was told it's February 7th. Saturday the 7th. Okay, my friend. I think we have time, because the agenda's moving quickly, so… It is January 17th. Oh, wow.

[9:07] It's coming up in, like… Let's change that. January 17th? Yes, and that will be 3 quarters from Friday 16th through Sunday the 18th. Did we know a time on when that starts? I can probably get it done. I think it's usually a great start, but I don't mind. A few hours after that. That's when it starts to set up. Yeah. trucks of snow off of this. Yeah, hopefully not 70 because it is. Yeah, right. That'll be fun. who leads that, anyway? Is that Eldora? Is that CU for you guys? Yeah.

[10:02] Like, we need to move back. into, like, February? Yeah, March. I think it's set to coincide with, like, the after-first week classes or something like that, right? That makes sense. But… It's just fun lives. It happened. Right. Anything else about the Hill Boulder that we want to try to, ask about, or advise? Fuck. Alright. Okay, well, I'm gonna move the agenda forward. If something comes up, just holler at me. We are now to matters from staff, and then turn it over, I guess, to Mark, to you? Yeah. Sure. Yeah, and apologies, we didn't have an extensive packet, just the way the holiday schedule, the wind event. Make a couple other excuses, but hopefully we'll provide a couple verbal updates that are helpful. I'll hand it over to Regan here. We're going to talk mostly about some of the next steps related to Downtown Development Authority, and then, mostly related to that topic, thinking ahead to the March meeting, and, what we're thinking for, our next conversation.

[11:15] Thanks, Matt. So things are moving along. We are… some next steps I'll outline and then open it up for questions. We are hosting DBA information sessions that will be open to the public, really targeting those who would be most directly impacted, so property and business owners, residents, community partners within the study area boundaries, but they are open to the public. They're taking place on January 22nd and 23rd. It's a Thursday and Friday. We'll have multiple time options throughout the day, just to accommodate different schedules. And registration is available through the City's DDA website, but I'm happy to share the link, with Melissa to share with you all, or however that works best.

[12:04] So you can register yourselves, or share it with your network. I think those are gonna be a really great opportunity, to really educate the community. That's… that's kind of the purpose. that we're… that we're approaching, so they're not… these sessions, I just want to clarify, are not intended to, propose or present a finalized DDA. They're meant to explain what a DDA is, what they can do, share best practices from other communities. And then we're gonna present some community-informed themes that we've gathered from existing past plans and engagements, that a DDA could potentially focus on and give the community something to react to. So January 22nd and 23rd, and then we'll hold a virtual one, on Monday, January 26th as well. At the same time, city staff and our consultant team, PUMA, are continuing the kind of technical work on the back end, so we're refining the potential boundaries. That'll be a kind of a process through April, so there will be a

[13:15] further opportunity to provide input on the study area. We're analyzing the financial feasibility of a DDA, looking at tax increment finance projections, the use of a potential mill levy. We're reviewing legal requirements, evaluating governance options. All of these findings will be brought back to the planning group. During their February meeting, and then likely to you all in March. So, my goal is to have some slides for you all in March, to give you something to really provide input on and respond to. And then we're scheduled to go to Council for a study session on March 12th. And looking to receive policy guidance at that point.

[14:00] And then we're still targeting a November ballot initiative this year. And then should this move forward, the campaign effort would be led, ideally by the planning group. The city can't be involved in the campaign. I'll pause there, I'll see if Danica, if she's still online, if she has anything to add, just given that you're the UKMC rep for the planning group, or if not, Danica, I'll open it up for any questions. No, I just was wondering… I mean, I'm happy to share the information. How else are you notifying property owners. that… it sounds like you're notifying people it might be impacted by a potential DDA, so I'm assuming that's… Property owners, are you mailing them, or going door-to-door? Or how are you… mailings at this point. Right now we're really just relying on our community partners and the planning group. We've shared the information and just asked you all to, distribute it to your network, so…

[15:07] That's… that's how we're approaching outreach at this point. Once we get further down the road, we will be making contact with each of the electors at some point. Okay. Alright, thank you. question, or two, maybe, I don't know. the outreach that's going on… well, I guess the first thing was that Dara was on the call, she's still on the call. That would seem to be a relatively important group to engage in an info session. I don't know if… they have specifically been contacted for these sessions, and or if it would make any sense to do a truncated version of something like that at their next meeting, 28th. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. I wrote down the date. I've been in touch with, I think, Brenda Rittenhour. She's the,

[16:01] liaison for the University Hill Neighborhood Association, so I'll connect with her and make sure I'm on the agenda for this one. I think that's a great idea. the boundaries of the DBA sort of determine who ends up getting to vote on the DBA, right? Whatever you described it? Okay, so that's… that's one of the other things that I'm just saying out loud, I guess. Captain Obvious is obvious here. That's why that neighborhood association… I don't know if there's other neighborhood associations like that. Again, stating the obvious, you're probably already there, but that would be something that would occur to me as a natural fit for the individuals impacted, but also the organizations around the folks who would be affected, so… Yeah, as a reminder, the electors are a little bit unique for the DEA. It is, residents, property owners, and businesses. So, anybody that, you know, does business in these… in the proposed area, whatever we end up narrowing it down to.

[17:04] We'll have a vote. So there will… a couple elements of that. Just had a discussion today with our consultants, Puma, and they brought up a good point that, turnout is often very low, in these, types of elections. I think part of that is, is that we can coordinate the ballot, with, the county. So, for residents, it's pretty easy. You get a ballot, allowing your ballot would be this question, but that's less straightforward for a business, for a property owner that may not be a voter, in the city normally. And so, they, you know, we have to make sure we get The list of addresses and… are aware that this thing is even happening, and that they have a vote, and so, we'll be working on that as well. The city will support, certainly, making sure people have the information they need, getting, you know, all the ballots to the right people.

[18:00] You know, determining the… advocating for whether or not to vote for it, that is where, kind of, that line is for us. Yeah, I mean, along the lines of associations that gather groups of constituencies together with a common interest, it would occur to me that the Boulder Chamber probably would be a really good, organization to help, kind of, raise awareness, at least, that this is even happening, so that owners, property owners, business owners. aware, so… Yep. I think it stayed the obvious. Yeah, they and, the Downtown Boulder Partnership were both on the planning, and, yeah, I think they are very aware that at some point here. they'll really have to take… and, you know, I don't want to presume an outcome. I mean, certainly, we have an opinion on how this could be of benefit to the business community downtown on the Hill. ultimately, whether or not that's true is something going to be led by the broader business community, right? Hey, this is a good thing for us or not, and here's why. So we'll do everything we can to support that and provide information.

[19:03] You know, hopefully be able to turn a more polished product over to the broader community to go make that pitch. One, one other question, I… I don't remember the answer. Is it the building owner or the business owner within the building? Or is it both? Both. Oh, it's both. So it's the property owner? Property owner plus… Okay, yeah. This is quite a bit of power in this, if I'm remembering correctly. I think it's property owner, you own 10 properties, you get one boat. But as a business, right, all multiple individual businesses If individual investors. Like, business owner. That's how we're getting people to start businesses. Any other questions for Regan or others around DBA progress?

[20:01] process itself. I guess the only ones that the study area, has that been redefined? I know you said you didn't give us information in March, but… For these sessions, I'm guessing, but… It's a work in progress. Right now, it still includes KJID, Eugid, and then it's spanning up north along Broadway and capturing kind of the Alpine balsam area, and then that ideal market commercial area. And then it also extends east along Pearl to Folsom. To Folsom. Yeah. Cool. How many… this is just really, like, curiosity's sake. the northern boundary that is encompassing, I think, the ideal market and then the new campus there. Are there many residents that are captured within that boundary, or is that mainly met as a kind of a business boundary? What's happening there? My understanding, and Mark, you can chime in here, is that it's more to capture that business activity, and also given the influx of city employees that will eventually be commuting that way, and so kind of hoping with the broader connectivity lens as well.

[21:14] Yeah, I think for the most part, DEA boundaries typically don't include a lot of residential areas, and I think that's because the primary purpose is commercial area revitalization, and so that's, you know, it's not exclusive. There will be residents, there will be residential properties within the boundaries, but, yeah, how far you kind of go beyond Pearl Street, beyond Broadway, I mean, those are… the implication is, A, there has to be some value for a voter, right, if they're going to decide to opt into that. Even, you know, one major policy consideration is whether or not a DEA, a proposed DEA, would come with a mill levy. property tax, so… Those are some of the balance of figuring out what the right proposed area is, ultimately, and who benefits from being in that area.

[22:07] Sense. Thank you. Anything else? Yeah, well, very related. So, you all are tackling, kind of the implications of a DBA, We have representation on that planning group. DMC does as well, downtown Management Commission. So our thought, our proposal, for March is to have a joint meeting with DMC. We are actually looking at your date on March 3rd, for that. We have not pitched that yet to DMC members, so we can see that next. The reason being that, as Regan mentioned, we do have a scheduled study session with City Council on the proposed EDA on March 12th. So it gives us a chance to get some feedback, for you all prior to the Council meeting, and to be able to report out on that.

[23:08] we're still working on, kind of, the scope of that, but I would imagine that you'll see a proposed boundary, you'll start to see some of the policy implications on… I mentioned mill levy. Mill levy is going to directly implicate how we think about the future of both general improvement districts. I can't say what that is ultimately today, but, you know, whether or not we maintain the GIDs, whether or not you maintain a GID at the GID mill levy, and then add on a GDA no levy. you know, you have to make that pitch to voters if we go down that road. If we don't, and we don't have a no levy for the GIDs, what does that mean for the future? There are different operating models of these, where DEA could manage the general improvement districts. There's models like that. There's models where the city maintains ownership operations of the GID, some hybrids of that. So those are the types of things that we won't be

[24:07] we won't have a final recommendation for you all or for City Council in March, but we're going to want to start to get feedback on, you know, what some of those options are. we're pursuing a mill levy, we'll want to… for the DEA, we'll want to know that pretty far in advance so that we can plan messaging and think about, how it would be used and all that kind of stuff. I think… so there's the structure and the governance piece, which I think is really important to you all. getting your feedback on that will be really important. And then also the… what's called the plan of development, which is essentially the strategic plan for the DEA, which sets out a vision for how would we function, how would we use the funds that are available to a DEA, that will have kind of a… I would say a pretty rough draft of that heading into March that we'll also be wanting feedback on. So, I think for you all in particular, we'll be

[25:04] you know, I think it's really exciting that this proposal really binds and ties the Hill to the downtown. Is the plan of development doing a good enough job of really articulating our vision? You know, how do we prioritize our efforts if it's created on, you know, November 26th? Do you see those priorities reflected accurately? All that kind of stuff. So that's generally what we'll be seeking feedback on. You know, we could certainly have a similar meeting with UCAMC and DMC, but I just thought, for efficiency's sake, it might be nice to all get in the same room and have a similar conversation. And I also just want to note that Given that a plan of development serves as kind of the strategic document for the 30-year lifespan of a DDA, it's pretty high level, but it also can be amended. So, it can be written into, the plan of development itself to be amended every 5 years.

[26:00] Just to reflect priorities and community vision. Love the flexibility. Yeah. So would… would March also be when we're potentially onboarding new mission members? I believe the timeline is March would be the last meeting of this group as seated, and then your subsequent… Could be the next one, yeah. The other big question I have… Is that correct? Yeah. I think, I think Council doesn't make formal appointments until March. Okay, okay. Oh, this is a really procedural thing, and it's very selfish to me, I have a doctor's appointment that day. And I'm already kind of gonna be… it's gonna be tight for me to get here on time. Sure. So if that factors in at all for how this gets scheduled. I was going to appeal to push it to 4.30 if we could, to allow for me to be here, but by the same token, if it decides to be, or needs to be on the date, at least this person sitting here would be able to be flexible and get that done. So, just saying that, I love where they are.

[27:15] But we'll check in with DMC next week, and see what the calendars look like. If we need to adjust, I'll… One of us will send out an availability request, and maybe we can just slide it to 4.30, so that's important for you. We also… we have a placeholder for DMC as well, following Wake. So… you know, if we need to… if it's during UCAMC's normal time, maybe it's scheduled to 4.30. If it's during DC… DMC's normal time, then maybe it's a point for everybody, but to Mark's point, we'll… We'll follow up with DMC next week, kind of peel them out, make sure that everyone's okay with the combined meeting, just given the nature of the agenda, and then, we can look at which day works best for everybody.

[28:00] Are there any concerns with the combined meeting that's being suggested, or the dates that have been mentioned, March 3rd or 10th? I'm good. Okay, it's okay. Okay, Danica, any… any concern? Nope, I don't have any concerns. Alright, thank you very much. Great, thank you. Alright. Well, hey, we're, we're working towards the end of the agenda here, so… I'm gonna… so we had, matters from commissioners is what's coming next here. We had a bi-monthly check-in recap, on December 9th, and… Let's see here… so much of this was around DDA considerations. We… a lot of the stuff we just heard was something that was presented there as well. And…

[29:06] I think in that meeting, we were learning that there was going to be a new position to help with Commission support. Was that Melissa? Is that what we're talking about? I think that was also on the docket for that conversation as well. And then also a little bit of conversation about Council priorities coming up, and that that's… that's something happening probably starting right now. Let's think of that. Council should be updated on the DBA stuff, as we just heard, sometime March 12th, I guess. Yeah, I can, just briefly on Council priorities, just for your awareness, Council will have a retreat, so this is the new Council that was elected in November, will have their retreat on Monday and Tuesday of next week. So, we are working with them to try to establish one-year priorities, because we get to do this all over again in November of 26, as we shift to even-year elections.

[30:03] They had a few dozen, proposed priorities. They are doing some kind of, like, ranking… ranking of those, and then they'll come together and kind of talk through, priorities over GAs to see, ultimately, what they land on. We're certainly selfishly hoping that they are achievable within a year, so that'll be the challenge, because some of these are big ideas, but… You know, a few highlights, which are just kind of in title, but, you know, certainly feel free to tune in, and we'll be providing kind of an update after the retreat on where they land and what the implications are. E-bike, safety. Looking at, residential vacancy tax, looking at, accelerating efforts to address commercial vacancies, a lot of, wildfire, information…

[31:03] minimum wage on there? The… yeah, the scoping… I'm sorry, the exploring the modified TIP credit, so that was one proposed, So that will be certainly one to pay attention to and see if there's support for that. There's some middle-income housing, work Some rewrites or, the simplification of our lands code, building code. So, some interesting stuff in there. Certainly, some of those are more, kind of, scoping for future work, as opposed to Rewriting our building code at one year, but, it'll be interesting to see where they landed. To work right away. Thank you. really cruising now, guys. So, there's only a couple more things here on the agenda, so I'm just gonna ask to see if there's anything that matters… matters from Commissioners, kind of also random things that may come up. So, is there anything anyone wanted to bring up at this time, for the Commission's attention or for staff?

[32:13] It's all good coverage for me today. Alright. The upcoming meetings, I'm going to point out something here that's in error. Yeah, the next bi-monthly check-in meeting is Tuesday, February 10th. That is with, Dane Anderson, and myself, and not Trent. Trent is the last one. I paid my ticket. Yeah. Oh, oh yeah, I have it in my calendar, so it is me. Do you need a reminder of this, the calendar? Because I have dates. I think I have all of them. I will double check, and then I have the cadence. I think I just copied it over from the last agenda. Do you record these, and do you use that to do the notes? I'm gonna say that I love that. So, February 10th is Dane Anderson, April 14th is Danica Powell.

[33:05] June 9th is Tell Jones. August 11th is Trent Bush. Let me get away with just one chair. October 13th, Dane Anderson, and then December 8th, Danica Powell. You'll have that for me. I appreciate it. All right, our next, a reminder that our next UCAMC Commission meeting, will be, Tuesday, March 3rd, time to be determined whether or not that date actually holds also to be determined. So… Anything else for the yearly order? Alright, we are germs. Wow. Did you prank? Did you prank last time you're right here?