Video Description:
Longmont City Council Open Forum – January 17, 2023
Note: The following is the output of transcribing from a video recording. Although the transcription, which was done with software, is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or [software] transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to understanding the proceedings at the meeting, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
Unknown Speaker 8:09
Hello, everyone, we’re going to be just playing I don’t know why. We’re having a little difficulty technical difficulty, as you can hear from me echoing just a moment. We’re almost ready. There. Yes. Am I still echoing? No, thank you don.
Unknown Speaker 8:42
Doesn’t matter.
Unknown Speaker 8:49
Hello, everyone. I would like to call the January 17 23. City council meeting to order to have a roll call please. Mayor pick present. Councilmember. You’d have a fairing Here.
Unknown Speaker 9:08
Councilmember Martin. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 9:10
Councilmember McCoy, present. Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez, Councilmember waters. And councilmember Yarbro. Yeah. Mayor, you have a quorum.
Unknown Speaker 9:20
Thank you. Let’s stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Unknown Speaker 9:26
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Unknown Speaker 9:42
So as you know, tonight, this is your meeting. Actually, it’s an open forum. We do not have a business agenda. I do have a sign up sheet here. But if you have not had a time to sign up, you can go to the city clerk at the end of the that person and she Here’s a sign up sheet so you can still sign up. Each speaker will have five minutes and the whatever council member decides to talk to you and address you. They would also get five minutes so hopefully it’ll be a 10 minute per person conversation. We still need your name and address. And that’s about it. I think we’ll just open this up and the first person on the list is Matt Eldoret.
Unknown Speaker 10:40
Yeah, there we go. There we go. My name is Matt Eldridge. My address is 318 Carter lane here in Longmont. And I am a Longmont resident, I’m here tonight on behalf of two different organizations that I wanted to mention to you. I’m the Executive Director of the TLC Learning Center. Many of you know us as the Tiny Tim Center here in Longmont, 66 year old nonprofit early childhood, Longmont loved nonprofit program. So I’m here to share with you tonight a quick update to let you know that we have we have undergone a project of expanding the building that we’re in the new building we moved in in 2005. For those of you that can remember the the new building behind the flower bin over on Corty Parkway, we’ve been there for the last 17 years providing services for children ages birth through 12. We are growing and busting at the seams. So we have with the generous support of the Stewart Family Foundation, which is a Longmont loved Family Foundation, undergone a capital project to expand. And you may have heard about the Longmont hub or the Early Childhood hub project. That’s a TLC Learning Center led project and we’re excited to be the leader of that. To date we have raised with the with the estimated value of our building were about $10.8 million toward a $15 million capital campaign. So in the nonprofit world, I’ve been doing this for many, many years. And when you get to about 60 70%, you’re ready to start talking about this. Well, we’re about 73% of the way toward a $15 million campaign, we have two locations that we’re looking at one is a land that we purchased. Another is an existing, vacant commercial property. So we’re hoping to get that nailed down soon. And that will really help us determine the scope, the size of the project and the cost of the project where we’re estimating a $15 million project, we’ve raised about $10.8 million. The city was a part of the employer based Childcare Grant that we wrote with the city of Longmont. And so that generous support of $500,000 came from the new Department of Early Childhood, along with a few other funders. So that’s the project we’re really excited to partner with a few other nonprofits, the Wild Plum center, the color statewide parent coalition also partnering with higher ed, Front Range Community College, CU Denver, and other programs that will be a part of this early childhood hub project. So that’s exciting. And I’d love to talk to you more about that. I also wanted to mention, kind of in in combination with this. This will be a physical model of what we hope will be a replicable model not only in Longmont, but across Boulder County in the state of Colorado, and maybe even nationwide, we’ve undergone what we call the Early Childhood Coalition, which is now called the Early Childhood Alliance. This started a few years ago where we looked at what are the gaps in needs of children in Longmont, we had a mayor’s summit in 2019, where we identified or we couldn’t identify where are at least 5000 children ages birth to five, where are they? How are they school ready. And so the alliance has really dedicated our work to making sure that every child birth to five is school ready when they enter kindergarten, that there’s a seamless system where children can come into our programs and services and get the resources they need to be ready. Parents have childcare access, and we have enough providers in the field to provide what we need. And that all of our child care providers and child care education is valued as a public good. That’s one of our charges. So you’re going to be hearing about a potential new funding stream that could come in to Longmont and the geographic boundaries. At this time. We’ve determined of the St. Rain and Boulder Valley School Districts, this may be coming. And so I wanted it to bring it to your attention that the st Brian and Boulder Valley School Districts, that geographic area could be a potential special district. This is new to early childhood being added to what could be a special district as we see and other firewater libraries, etc. So we’re exploring that. What could it look like if we brought this in? And the dedicated funding would really go to increasing the number of slots for children, screenings in early intervention services, the range of services from medical, mental health, etc. We also want to make sure that programs have quality and access to professional development, that it’s affordable and families have choice. We’re really really knowing and learning that our friends and family Neighbor Care is an important part of this ecosystem of early childhood, how do we engage them in accessing not only slots, but also funding to provide services in a quality way? How do we include that group of folks that are providing dedicated unnecessary care, compensation and making sure that we get folks in the field and keep them in the field, and also making sure that we have the administration to run a potential special district, these are the things that we’re exploring. And I wanted to bring those two opportunities to you to just let you know that this is happening in our community. And I’d be happy to answer any questions about the Alliance or about the physical location of an early childhood hub and what that might look like. Thank you for your time.
Unknown Speaker 15:35
Thank you, man. It looks like Councillor waters has, like conversation.
Tim Waters 15:40
I would. Thank you, Matt. Everybody in this room probably knows who Matt is. I hope everybody on this council does just for what it’s worth, anybody who would be trying to put together a team to get something done. And you’re going to draft people on your team to get stuff done. He’d be your number one draft choice. You want to get something done. He’s your guy. I’ve never seen anybody who steps leans in and in picks up a challenge and runs with it. It is as effective as Matt is. Matt. You’re you’re describing a potential proposal. That’s significant. Since there are none in Colorado, it’s special district. Why that approach as opposed to what other other other all of the other possibilities? Right?
Unknown Speaker 16:29
Right. It’s a great question. What why why a special district and because it’s never been done before, we really can’t point to this is the right way to do it. What we have engaged with, there are other segments around the state and Larimer County, roaring forks, the Aspen area that have been trying to do early childhood ballot initiatives, some have been more successful than others, typically a property tax sales tax a combination. But to be able to do a special district, that would be a new layer of government that would be able to bring in a funding stream to a local municipality to be able to really infuse what I think could be millions of dollars, to provide what I just mentioned, early childhood services, slots, physical space, as well as compensation. This would be this would be, I think, revolutionary to what we could do. And the big thing is, is it would be seen as a common good, we know that if you call your fire department, as they say, you’re number five in the queue, we’ll get to you. As soon as we get through the next four, or you flip the lights on, they don’t come on and they say yep, in a week and a half, there might be an opening. Well, that’s the world of early childhood folks right now. And especially our young families, they can’t access care, they can’t find affordable care. And so we’re really hoping that through a special district, this is a new layer of government that wouldn’t necessarily govern everything, but it would infuse money right into the system. So it’s a creative way of doing this. And I think a special district is a really unique opportunity. And an early childhood special district in Boulder County in Longmont would be would be really, really unique.
Tim Waters 17:56
You’re suggesting we would value our zero to five year olds, the same at the same level we value asphalt pavement traffic lights, concrete, really,
Unknown Speaker 18:07
I know it’s a I know it’s just worn out concept,
Tim Waters 18:10
wastewater and solid waste diversion. Pretty remarkable idea that we would elevate zero to five year olds to be recognized and supported at that level along with their families. Good on you. Right. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 18:24
Other questions?
Unknown Speaker 18:27
Seeing none in the queue. Thank you so much, Matt, for everything you do. Thank you citing project.
Unknown Speaker 18:33
Thank you for your time.
Unknown Speaker 18:34
You’re welcome. The next on our list is Tom Smith.
Unknown Speaker 18:49
Good evening, my name is Tom Smith. I live at 1049 champions circle. My primary reason for being here tonight is to address some concerns that I have gathered from my subdivision and fellow neighbors in champion greens. I think most of you will recognize this document. It is a proposal for at 513 St. brane. annexation, I believe it was August 23, that you move this forward in the process that led us to an informational meeting with the city’s planning department. Anybody is surprised or not familiar with that. I assume you’ve all seen it. Read it. Thank you. What I’d like to do to start with is to share a little bit of information about our subdivision. I was not present at that meeting. But I was told by a neighbor My name was mentioned and this proposal impacts like 10 or 12 houses. And I’d like to share some demographics for you about those closest 12 houses in the last two and a half months. The occupants of those homes closest to the property in question. I want you to recognize that these are people and not just homes, one individual had a heart attack. Three homes are occupied by single females average age over 65. One individual lost a spouse. A couple of weeks before Christmas, after having spent a year in assisted living. One individual had a hip replacement and is still on a walker, another individual is getting hip replaced on Monday, one individual head and neck fused, two individuals work part time and work from home. When works away from home. The remainder are retired individuals, my invit, or excuse me, my subdivision had the livestream meeting for information last week. And my appearance is mostly triggered by the feedback and the information that we received that some of you might recognize my email address from requests for information and assistance. And I will try to expedite this a little bit. I will leave with you and additional copies of documents that all of you have received previously, as has the city manager. And these are pertinent to one of our primary concerns for our neighborhood. And that is with regard to ground flow of water and the subdivision. One that is I added some color illustrations to talks and addresses ditches that were to be abandoned. And a sump pump issue that fed water 24/7 for about six months. And was the street repairs were not acknowledged as having been done here in the last week or so by the Public Works Department giving you a little more detail. This one identifies some of the pawns and other waterflow that the nether city employee acknowledged for me present a bigger threat to our subdivision than does the underground water flow from the west. It also identify as the water table monitoring wells, the city installed at another subdivision just east of us. So I’ll leave those are all bringing them up for you to take a look at the other frustration that runs along with some of these things are the difficulty of getting information from the city, I probably still have 12 unanswered emails or questions pertaining to procedures, maps and such. As an example, I brought two that pertained to the municipal code. And these happen to be close to this development where it talks about adverse impact or effect. And the one that caught my eye that most is talks about where a building whose height mass is out of scale in proportion with adjacent residential buildings. And clearly what’s being proposed, what we were told about in our informational meeting, crosses that barrier. And what I found interesting was I went back to look at this a day later. And the code system that is used changes the numbering of the codes. And Harold explained that to me that that’s a quirk of the system we use or have. And to me that’s a little bit how I obtained the nickname has some neighbors use for me now as the mushroom. And you can extend that to how you sometimes grow mushrooms by keeping them in the dark and feeding them manure. And I have not really appreciated that yet. So from our meeting in the past frustrations, I need your help.
Unknown Speaker 23:59
Thank you, Mr. Smith. Is there any conversation on council? I do have one question for you is your property in the county or is it in the city
Unknown Speaker 24:10
or entire subdivision is in the city. And there are some unique features to this. And as where some of the mapping issues have come in the sliver of land that is in the proposition has 24 feet I believe in the city limits. And my familiarity for that came with some unenforced code issues about fire mitigation that started the week after the marshal fire. And that’s when I became Harold’s favorite email spammer.
Unknown Speaker 24:44
Okay, thank you very much for this information. I’ll leave these waters. Great. So our next person is Sandy. Is it Sandy sharp Sarah, Sarah sharp.
Unknown Speaker 25:04
Good evening. I would like to follow up with some figures that will support what Matt had to say. Longmont has a child crisis, federal care crisis. We have 5200 children under the age of five. If and it’s a very big if all of our licensed care is fully functional, we have 2000 slots for children. That leaves 60% of our children without access to licensed care. The federal government says that family is reasonable if they pay about 7% of their income for child care. Families in Longmont are paying at least three times that and some of them if they are single, are paying 50 to 80% of their income. All sectors of Longmont our economy are affected by this crisis, particularly those areas of nursing, teaching childcare. Those three sectors are filled primarily by women. And a lot of them are finding that when they do the math, that they mount that they can hurt earn versus the amount that they have to pay pay for childcare is so small that it does not pay them to go to work. And so all of us in this community are suffering from the fact that women want to work and they cannot afford to, particularly in areas of nursing and education. Longmont city of Longmont has said that your priorities are affordable housing, transportation, and childcare. I know I’ve been reading about what you’re doing about affordable housing and transportation. What are you offering to help with the childcare crisis?
Unknown Speaker 27:07
It’s anyone want to on council? So Councillor waters? Are you interested? Okay.
Tim Waters 27:16
Not enough. Zero. Now, on balance. I don’t know if Christine is here. Our youth and families division is does take seriously what we are or not doing with our youngest residents. The city has has we have budgeted if I were to think about? Well, I don’t think there was a budget line my first year on council and in that we’ve grown that for specifically for childcare in early childhood education. And we’ve grown that substantially. So we’ve done we’ve done a number of things. We simply can’t solve this problem by ourselves. The only way we’re going to address the issues you’ve commented in, in in Matt’s comments about having school ready chilled, we have we have kid ready school, so that we are fortunate in this school district or in this community to have kid ready schools. We don’t always have enough score the kids in the reason are the very numbers you’ve talked about. So I would say everything we are doing as a city and as a council is necessary and insufficient to the task, the necessary and sufficient is to figure out how to move childcare from being a broken business model into the kind of public good that to which Matt made reference earlier. Any less would be relegating our youngest residents to you know something less important to us than the things we mentioned earlier, fire protection, street maintenance, wastewater, et cetera. And we got to, we got to own them. If we’re going to, you know, as well as I, if we’re going to stabilize a workforce, that’s what you were, where you started, that won’t get done, you can’t stabilize the workforce, and maintain a childcare system that exists in Boulder County or any other county in the country right now. So thanks for addressing the topic. Thanks for asking the question, and we need to have a better answer as we go along.
Unknown Speaker 29:14
I would just say I’m in the words of Marian Wright Edelman if we do not stand up for our children, who do we are what do we stand up for? Thank you. So Sarah,
Unknown Speaker 29:25
I would like to weigh in a little bit on this too, because it feels like with comments that we don’t care. And I think that is an invalid thing to put on this council because we did make that one of our priorities and our vision and immediately the Longmont economic I was on that council for a little bit and have gone to some of the meetings the the Longmont early childhood coalition started up immediately to address the problem. It is a huge problem to solve. It’s not something that we can just do. And as Matt told you, we are Now here, at this point, it’s called the alignment now. So I feel like even though we’re quietly on the, it doesn’t mean that we haven’t cared, we have been working on it.
Unknown Speaker 30:13
So one of the one of the problems is, is that this is just below the surface, it is affecting every aspect of our economy. And we know that it and the public generally is not educated to the huge problem that it is when you want to have elective surgery. And you have to wait weeks because they don’t have the staffing or, or now that we’re going to be putting in additional kindergarten and for children. We need teachers.
Unknown Speaker 30:41
So Sarah, your five minutes is up, but I understand we get it. Okay. And we’ve been working on it. And we started this off before Longmont early childhood coalition with a community educational process that we brought in educators showed films, et cetera, et cetera. And the coalition also had a community thing invited the governor out to speak to open it. And so we have been trying to educate it’s up to the public to pay attention. And and so I can say that until 2019, maybe we haven’t paid attention, but that is why it is one of our work plan. Visions. Thank you. You’re welcome. Counselor. Hold on for a moment. Sarah. Oh, Hidalgo, fairing, Sara, one more. One more counselor, counselor, Hidalgo, fairing.
Unknown Speaker 31:43
I suppose you could go back to your seat. I just you know, I wanted to also explore weigh in on my perspective. I’m 30 years teacher been 30 years in the profession. 10 years preschool, I also ran a home daycare for a period of time when my kids were babies. i This has been the story of my adult life is trying to afford to be able to work. Because much of my salary was going into childcare, especially having a son with autism. So it was special services for him. You know, the thing that I’m hearing and I often hear when I, when I attend just general community groups and having dialogue with with folks who are trying to move forward on providing adequate care and early childhood opportunities is how, okay, we have child care. And then we have preschool. So for about seven years, I taught in a program with the city, not with our city, but the city where I lived out of state. It was not a daycare facility, the kids were there strictly for the learning educational experience. In the district, we have preschool classes that are two times a week, half day, per, you know, so a child can sign up for Wednesday, when Monday, Wednesday or Tuesday, Thursday, you know, so it’s, it’s part time, it’s not intended to serve as childcare. So when we look at what, you know, which one which is our goal is our goal to provide the childcare which is very needed, areas, our goal to provide preschool opportunities, which would not be under that childcare umbrella. So you know, just separating those two. So if we’re looking for daycare, daycare opportunities, quality daycare opportunities, then you know, what I would like to see and, you know, I’ve talked to a few businesses about this, but coordinating with employers, especially large employers, where they can have something in house where it makes it a benefit. That on the flip side, you know, we do have the universal preschool, I have no idea what that looks like we you know, I do a lot I sit on a lot of committees in the school district, we have no idea what that is going to look like, there. It seems like they’re kind of making this up as we go along. So we really don’t have any, you know, we tried to wrap our head around, what will that look like, for our school district? And how could where would the opportunities be there for a municipality to connect with the district to create preschool opportunities? So you know, there’s there’s a couple of things going on.
Unknown Speaker 34:26
I think it’s really important to understand how the, how infants brains work, we don’t know, it isn’t that we start learning at kindergarten, and in fact in Longmont, 20% of low income children are arriving at kindergarten, not ready to learn. We need to start at birth. And and there are many ways not all of it is licensed care. We need to be able to get programs out to parents, a lot of grandparents believe me are taking care of grandchildren and we need to be helping them to understand what the miles tones are, when children are meeting and when they’re not and what we can do. So we need a seamless system from birth to kindergarten, to age five,
Unknown Speaker 35:09
that also includes parent understanding as well. Because a lot of parents, you know, I teach at a title one school in a high poverty, low income school, where the children are not spoken to until they go to school. So the parents are just kind of, you know, doing their thing around. So it’s also part of my job is teaching parents how to interact with their child how to read with their child having to have those quality. So I there’s there’s a whole gamut, we have to look at it from a whole we have some interesting
Unknown Speaker 35:42
programs going on in Longmont addressing that, that particular problem of teaching parents how to educate their child, I’m
Unknown Speaker 35:50
ready to bring this to a close. Councillor Martin has one last comment, and then we’re going to bring this to a close.
Unknown Speaker 36:00
Thank you, Mr. Peck. I just have one quick question. Because you did mention that you’re not sure what the Government’s program is going to do. In particular, I believe that the governor’s pre K universal pre K program funds 10 hours per week per child per four year old. And I wonder if if, because apparently the governor doesn’t, I wonder if you have a plan for making a seamless transition for parents who work 40 hours a week or more so that their child can take advantage of that 10 hours and not have the parent have to leave work? Is that something that you that your organization is considering?
Unknown Speaker 36:44
That is part of the part of the seamless system that we’re proposing.
Unknown Speaker 36:48
And I see Matt shaking his head. Yes. And that is part of the study that’s been going on since 2019. So thank you very much. David Barker.
Unknown Speaker 37:09
I am Reverend David Barker. I live at 4320 A reso. Drive. I’m also a pastor at Central law, my Presbyterian Church at fourth and Kimbark. And I want to begin by emphasizing that my words to you this evening are mine alone. I am not speaking in an official capacity on behalf of the congregation I serve, although I suspect that a good number of them would agree with what I’m going to be saying this evening. I want to commend you on the statement that you recently passed unanimously on legislation affecting public safety, especially related to guns and gun violence. An action you took I know with an eye toward the discussion that you’ll have in June concerning gun safety ordinances. I will tell you that while I support such ordinances should you ultimately pass them. I’m not optimistic that they would ever be implemented let alone in force is the experience of sister communities who’ve attempted to put such ordinances in place reminds us. In fact, post Sandy Hook I have little confidence that such ordinances could gain much traction anywhere. If the murder of 26 and seven year old children and their elementary school classroom didn’t result in meaningful gun legislation. It’s unclear to me how even the best intentioned actions of a city council can. And yet the broader issue of violence in our community and all its forms is too important to not look for other ways in which together as a community, we can address it. We have tried. I was part of the leadership responsible for organizing the community wide conversation on gun violence at the Longmont museum several years ago. It wasn’t the success that we’d hoped. We encouraged those who participated to commit to understanding rather than being understood, but it became clear that most in attendance regardless of what side of the issue they were on, were more intent on giving voice to their own agendas. Looking back, I’m convinced that much of the reason that happened was because people were motivated by fear, be it fear of gun violence or fear of gun control. And my guess is the most conversations are similarly motivated with similar results. This is why the comments of council member waters last Tuesday evening, concerning what he calls project peace and safety really caught my attention. Focusing on our fears about violence is completely understandable. But history suggests it’s also unproductive, shifting our focus from fear to hope, from violence to peace and peacemaking does more than provide us with a way forward that can avoid some of the pitfalls of control. in litigation, it also reminds us that violence is not just a socio economic or a mental issue. It is also a spiritual issue, or more to the point of failure to recognize it as a spiritual issue, that every human being is created in the image of God, and has within themselves something of the sacred. want to express my thanks to the area rotary clubs for recognizing the importance of changing our focus. And I for one will be in attendance at the February 15 Peace and peacemaking event. And I also want to express my thanks to Councilmember waters for his willingness to lean into this issue through Project peace and safety. I have to tell you, I have no interest in yet another discussion about gun control. But I will absolutely commit to being part of a discussion about peace and peacemaking. And as part of that commitment, I want to encourage the leadership of central law, my Presbyterian Church to host one of the community conversations that Councilmember waters described. And the time I have left, I would like to ask councilmember waters. Can you say some more about the ways in which you see the community being able to lean in to this?
Tim Waters 41:18
Thanks for your pecs. Can you tell that man’s a preacher? Thanks, Reverend Barker. Yeah. So thanks for your comments. Thanks for the commitment. Thanks for your leadership back in 2019. Anybody who was in attendance at the at the World Cafe event in the museum will recall your welcoming folks to that event and and then helping to facilitate the conversation. Anybody who was involved will also remember that it it it’s with fail if it bogged down to the point of stopping when we got to action planning. So all the good intentions require too much organizing too much, communicating too much, it was too heavy or left for folks. So with those thoughts in mind, knowing what was coming with this event on February 15, organized by the rotary clubs in this area for whom peace is an international theme for the month of February now get this the theme is peace is possible, some tagline or semicolon, one community at a time. So it occurred to me it would be worth it would be worth the time. And the interest and the goodwill of people in this community to set an example for what that might mean. So the the invitation that’s going to be extended on February 15. And I And I’m thrilled that your congregation might pick this up in respond to the invitation I hope others will as well. I’ve already heard from the American Association of University Women, they’ve already have it on their calendar. I’m going to interview a panel on Monday night, as a matter of fact, in the backstory to talk about this, if anybody’s interested we’ll be in the lung but public media studios at six. But the but the way that the process is designed or the project is designed, is that doesn’t require the organizing the communicating the action planning in all of the repetitions to get people together to make something work. It is an invitation for people to express their hopes their best to open for a Pete a future of greater peace and safety, to identify strategies that they would recommend to anybody, whoever those people might be. And then I’ve I’ve agreed to take on the task of compiling those, what comes the work product from those sessions, and making it available to anybody in the community who cares about this, so that we might share a collective vision about what’s possible, peace as possible, in this community, among the others, one community at a time. So I’m willing to reach out in brief anybody to listen, to come alongside, to simply sit quietly in watch to learn. But I think this is a unique moment and opportunity for our community. And I’m I’m really pleased that you you’re you listened last week and you reinvigorated the conversation tonight. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 44:31
Thank you. It’s encouraging to hear you talk about vision and community at the same time that we’re talking about violence. Gun violence. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you sir. Thank you
Unknown Speaker 44:45
all right, the next on our list is Jean Shoosh. Know it shuffle. Oh, I’m sorry, Jean. Would you mind just having a seat right there I missed. You can just sit right there in one of those chairs. Gary Hodges is actually next
Unknown Speaker 45:10
Oh, good evening, everyone. councilmembers Councilwoman, Mayor, thank you for doing this tonight. I’ve been wanting to come down here and tonight worked out and appreciate it. So a few months ago, the satisfaction survey was completed came back and there was far recall, three quarters of the respondents listed homelessness in Longmont as either serious or significant issue. Two different categories, I think about half sets, serious and 25% or so said significant. So I think it’s a fair assumption that sometime this year, you guys either directly or indirectly are going to be trying to, to address that, in some, in some ways, probably multiple ways. And I just wanted to suggest something that you might consider before you jump into jump into whatever might be coming down the line, and that is defining what success means in this effort. And defining it before we try to do anything to solve it. I imagine many people would define it in different ways. I for myself, I think it’s pretty simple. And that that would be either, are there more people living on the streets? Are there fewer people living on the streets? So if if an action is taken, and there are more people living on the streets afterward, I think it’s pretty clear it doesn’t work. Vice versa, on the other side of that, and how are you going to know that? Well, you’re going to have to have data, you’re gonna have to get good data. My suggestion would be to find someone who counts transient populations, and and ask them for a five year you know, put a request for proposal and try to get a five year deal set up with someone where you do is quarterly, and not once a year, do a quarterly get all four seasons. And it’s not so important what the what the, the actual number is, in any given time, what’s important is the methodology is the same. That’s why I think you try to get someone for five years that they’re going to do it the same way. Every time they do do a quarterly. And then because So delta is in between that you’re going to be looking for from month to month, and then you can you know, season to season because you’re going to be doing this four times a year, ideally. And now if you come up with an idea, like okay, okay, so we’re going to, we’re going to try you know, an idea, like a safe injection site or something, just to throw something out there. That’s kind of radical, some cities call these Harm Reduction Centers, or what have you. So you put one of these in place, and then you start counting, you know, you’re counting people all along, and then you see, you know, did the numbers go down to the numbers go up. And then I imagine most of you consider yourselves open minded. And I would, I would encourage everybody to be open minded on the negative also, like, I might be wrong, and what I believe and be willing to accept that I might be wrong. So if you try something, and the numbers don’t pan out, you know, to be to be willing to self assess and say, Okay, well, well, I was wrong about that. And, but so that’s an idea. Otherwise, if you if you don’t have a well defined success and want that means you’re going to self validate. So in my previous example, you’re gonna put that out there and then you know, and then at the end of the year, they’ll someone will come and stand right here and they’ll tell you, Oh, we had you know, so many people came in and this happened and this happened and look what a success it is, you know, that self validation is meaningless. You know, it’s like, I’ll example councilmember McCoy’s during the election was you know, he needle drop boxes or something like that. So let’s say we get those you know, up and down Main Street. And, you know, we go in and we count the number of needles in there and it’s like, oh, look, there’s 10 in this one or three in this one, you know, what is success? It is right? Well, that wouldn’t be really what successes it was, Are there fewer on the ground now than before? And it might seem intuitive to think that well of course there are but it’s not it’s really deeper you know, you can’t we’ve got to stay away from so one dimensional soda straw shallow thinking and Kant tried to dig a little deeper into some of the motivations and and such that people have but anyway, I guess that’s really all I wanted to say is that I defined success avoid self validation. There was at the St. Francis Catholic Church one some months ago I went to that there was a homeless thing and and that’s what was happening hope Santa was going up there, our center etc. And they’re like, we’ve got this we did this this many people came through what a success on Unlike Well, you can’t self define your own success. I mean, it’s got to be a predetermined benchmark. So I would say with three quarters of the population of long line, labeling this a significant problem is we’re putting some money into it, it’s worth counting is worth doing a quarterly and really try to figure this out. So thank you.
Unknown Speaker 50:23
So I’m counselor Martin, and then I am going to address it as well.
Unknown Speaker 50:32
Thank you, Mayor Peck. I’m you’re thinking about postulating some root causes. And I think, first of all, we need to understand that there are a number of root causes of homelessness. And they’re not all the same and the same, and one course of action would not address the problem, except for one segment maybe, of the unhoused population. So what I want to understand is for you, if you can describe a process that would not be self validating, because, you know, you seem to have told us what we are doing wrong. And I certainly do agree that we have not reduced the number of unhoused people, or at least we’ve not really reduced vil visibility of the unhoused people in our city, although we have had some successes, because, honestly, I define success as each person who was unhoused, who moves into, you know, work, self support, and has a roof over that person’s head. So I’m not sure that I accept your definition of success. But I definitely think that you have not really stated in any quantifiable terms, what your baseline is, how will you quantify the number of people you’re counting? And how? How will you classify them in terms of what the need is, that is not being addressed for each group of unhoused? People?
Unknown Speaker 52:28
Thank you. Sorry, as your responded to me, I was coming up with answers along the way. But they unfortunately sort of slipped away. But I wasn’t really trying to say what has been what was wrong. I’m trying to look at it from a bigger picture, the average person on the street, what do they view as a success or not? And I think if someone’s coming out of drive thru, and they’re they’re accosted by people panhandling every time, if they go through, and there’s nobody there going forward, I think they would consider that a success, regardless of what reasons of my might have led to that. And as you were saying, in your, in your quick example, there you gave where you define a success as somebody goes through the system and then attains, let’s say, a job and housing become sobers. And that’s a success. Um, well, I won’t argue in in, in in that specific moment that is, but what if two people moved into the community, because there was this, let’s just call it a pathway, this option that was available to them, you know, so if two people are replacing every person that goes through the system, there’s more people on the streets, and I, in my opinion, talking to people last fall a lot. It’s just the numbers of the people that are out there that are living on the streets. And that’s really what I’m trying to get. I’m not trying to assess blame or underlying root causes or anything, I accept all of that, obviously, there’s a multitude of reasons why people are living on the streets. I’m just would like to have some ideas, you know, and that’s why I think it’s important if you if you can give it up just a baseline of what success means. And you might if you have this conversation going forward, you will probably come up with something different than I did. I just think it’s important to have something going into it, but
Unknown Speaker 54:21
I would like to tell you what we are doing. Okay, because it seemed that was the basis of your question to begin with is, what are we doing?
Unknown Speaker 54:29
Well, no, I know, I was just I’m assuming like going forward, you are going to be addressing things we
Unknown Speaker 54:34
already are. Yeah, of course, if you don’t mind, I would like to address that a little bit. Okay. Thank you. So when January of 2022. When I became mayor, the city manager and I talked about this with some problems that we were having, and a task force within the city was formed and we are counting everybody that is on the street. We’re watching them we’re following them. We’re we have database of why they are here, what their issues are, etc. As well as hope it’s helping us. Any other organization that is working with the homeless within the city, we’re all putting that data into a database. One of the issues is, as I’m sure that our city manager probably told you, at some point, is that we cannot move people out of our city per the Supreme Court until we have a place for them to go. And that is what I and a few people have been working on for the past year is to how can we do this within the law? How can we continue to count but one of our problems is our migration from climate. For example, 400 people lost their homes in Lewisville with the with the fire the marshal fire. So even if you say, Yes, we had one success with one person, but two more people came in to counterwoman Water marshes. What is your left Martin’s point? To her point, we need to we need to and we are gathering data on why they’re here. What can we do to help? Do they need to be here? Where are they going? Are they going from city to city to city. This is a revolving door because of all the reasons that people are moving around. And I was at a two things the National League of Cities in Kansas City, Missouri and it was a huge topic of conversation this is going on in every city and no one really has a good handle on it yet. At the the Metro Mayor’s Council on Saturday, we had a retreat, it is a huge conversation and all of the mayor’s are trying to figure out how to do it. Everyone’s collecting data. Everyone is having people move into their two for everyone we take care of that we house that we so it is an ongoing thing. It is an ongoing with our city discovery. And we are going to have a tour of a residential place in Denver on this Thursday that we set up to see what is working in Denver, because it is working and bring those ideas back to Longmont and see if we can address our issues within the law of the Supreme Court. And if we do that, then we have a better handle on giving tools to our policemen to our city manager to move people along. And it’s melt. It’s multifaceted, and it isn’t easy. And it grows faster than we can find results for that. But we are all talking as far as the elected officials on what’s working with you what how can we get together and make it better? And really address the issues. So you’re right about the data collecting about the counting, we’re counting every single night, when we go out the police are there and throwing it into this database. Those
Unknown Speaker 58:26
publicly available I’m kind of curious, not
Unknown Speaker 58:28
at this point. No, they are not. We are not available at this point. As a matter of fact, information I just gave you wasn’t available yet. And the reason for that, to be quite honest, is the negative feedback that we get it I would rather have a plan than to have a theory. So I thank you for your remarks. And just let you know, we get it all working out.
Unknown Speaker 58:56
Understand you do and I just want to encourage you just you know as you go through these processes again, if you have a solid benchmark to start with, that would be great. And we’re going to slip in one thing. Lewisville does not seem to have this issue and I’ve been trying to find out why.
Unknown Speaker 59:11
I’ll talk to Ashley about that. Thank you Now Jean. It is your turn.
Unknown Speaker 59:21
Yeah, yes. Well, good evening. Thank you very much for providing this opportunity for me to share with you concerns with the residents that live along a street I’m Jean shuffle of course. And I live on 1229 Cornell drive and sharing with you the concerns of residents that live along this portion of Cornell drive, which is from Mountain View accessing the city on Twin Peaks golf course. This facility not only serves the golfers in this community, but it also is you For other social events at the clubhouse each day we experienced heavy traffic flow both into and out of the golf course parking lot along the above described portion of Cornell drive. Every day we experienced the number of vehicles operating at speeds well above the current posted speed limit that create a safety hazard not only to the homeowners exiting their driveway, but to many pedestrians and walking their dogs who walk in this area. Some of these speeding issues may be attributed to the fact that Twin Peaks golf course clubhouse also serves alcohol. We have made several requests not only to our console representative for this Longmont, transportation engineering administrator, and our initial request was to be some type of physical traffic speed mitigation, such as those placed along the sunset Street, just east of along was sunset golf course. And this was denied by the traffic engineering stating that the traffic count does not qualify for a physical and mitigation citing a program that the city council had adopted. The end result was the city’s installation of a 25 mile an hour speed sign. I think we strongly disagreed with that decision. The placement of the 25 mile an hour speed sign has done nothing to mitigate the continued speed issues to and from the Twin Peaks golf course parking lot. I’m sure the console realizes that speed sign limit does not that does little to mitigate the speeding issues we experienced here in Longmont. Feel that? Because this is a residential street that is being used to access a city facility it is the responsibility of the city to consider some type of mitigation to address this issue. It’s a very hazardous issue. The speeding issue there for some reason is we do have issues both coming into and out of that parking lot. So we therefore request the city council to grant a variance to the current neighborhood traffic mitigation program set by the console to allow for physical mitigation to be installed in that section of Cornell drive, which is being used to access a city owned facility.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:43
So I see that Councillor McClay would like to address that.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:48
Hi, Mr. Shuffle. There’s several people in that that along that whole corridor there Mountain View that are definitely interested, having talked to quite a few of those folks whose some folks set that in there of George, on Mountain View, right at the intersection or that area of, of Harvard that is also interested in seeing some cities slowing there in the past, we had a roundabout right at that intersection there, if you recall that and was very successful was not successful only because I think somebody was trying to take it too fast to get into the golf course. And so that was taken out very quickly. I’m interested in seeing these things happen along that corridor, there’s people aren’t going too fast. And maybe if these other areas along mountain viewer address, maybe we’d see a slowing in your narrow neck of the woods there. So
Unknown Speaker 1:03:53
yeah, it’s it’s an interesting dilemma that we experience our people coming off of Mountain View going down hill, which is a sloping street that goes into the parking lot. And unfortunately, after the either they’re late for their tee off time, or just want to see how fast they can get there. Yeah. And we experienced the same same speeding issue coming out of the parking lot. And again, I addressed the fact that there is alcohol being served there. And I think we’re experiencing the result of that. So it is creating a very dangerous situation. We’ve experienced some really very near misses just trying to get out of our driveway. And, of course, like I say all the pedestrians that are walking, it’s a beautiful area to walk in, in that particular area
Unknown Speaker 1:04:42
and gravitates folks to walk in that area just because of the golf course.
Unknown Speaker 1:04:46
Yes, the right it attracts. And we do have a lot of elderly people that live along that section of Cornell that are just not adept to dealing with that kind of situation. Every time we try to access our ER residential streets. So, yes, we really would encourage you that some, some consideration there that would mitigate
Unknown Speaker 1:05:07
there’s something that can be looked into. Well, thank you. Thanks. So,
Unknown Speaker 1:05:10
um, I just had a curiosity. Have you talked to the transportation department? You also have okay to Mr. Hanks did
Unknown Speaker 1:05:18
it was a Tyler. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:21
Tyler Stamey is no longer with the city. He took a jogging job in Fort Collins. So perhaps it would, perhaps it would be wise to start the conversation again, I don’t know who else so I do see Mr. Ng stead in the back. He is our Transportation Director. He is the one you need to speak to.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:47
Well, thank you for that. Yes, he did. The city did do a traffic count. And we fell slightly below what is considered in what the city has mandated to authorize a physical mitigation for that particular street. So we fell slightly below below that from the traffic count aspect. So I’m very asking right now for considering a variance to that count that we would be then it would it would serve both both ways going in and out of the golf
Unknown Speaker 1:06:21
and that might be a good idea. But we would have to have that verified with Mr. Angstadt. So perhaps you can give him your email address your contact info. Well, thank
Unknown Speaker 1:06:34
you very much. Thank you. Have a good evening.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:39
Michael snots Meyer.
Unknown Speaker 1:06:54
Good evening, mayor and council members. Thank you for this opportunity of this public forum. I am Michael snots Myra 69, Overstreet Longmont. I’m here tonight to talk about climate change, and the related challenges of environmental and social justice issues. effectively addressing climate crisis is critical to the future of the city and its youth. Doing so requires holistic systems thinking and legitimate public engagement. Many of you know me as tired tirelessly advocating for a period five years before the 2013 flood event for the city to take more aggressive action to mitigate the impacts of this well known and imminent disaster risk. Prior to 2012, the threat of this multi 100 million dollar catastrophic flood threat had not risen to the level of importance on the city workplan equal to that of ice rinks and chicken coops. During those years, I was told by one city official, while knowing the threat to life, property and the economy, it would be easier to wait and just let the flood happen. Easier indeed, and the difficult work of public engagement to address address pushback against flood mitigation projects. The ultimate consequence consequence of two decades of inaction by the previous and no previous city manager on this known threat was a $350 million disaster that affected the lives of 1000s of individuals, hundreds of businesses and families and with disastrous consequences to the environment. Today, the city is currently doing a commendable job on flood mitigation, but only after the disaster. Climate change poses known threats exponentially greater than that of the flood. The complexity of the climate crisis is also related to social justice, equity, fordable, housing, transportation, health and a host of other city challenges. Unlike the flood however, we can no longer afford to wait until after the event in these climate impacts have occurred, and only then act to respond on an irreversible runaway warming climate. If Council is serious about its climate emergency resolution, it is time to align action with ambitions to stand and deliver on the city’s goals at every possible opportunity. To do so the climate and its related environmental issues must become a part of every city discussion concerning new projects, developments, private policies, projects and initiatives. Last week, in relation to the raucous funding windfall, I attempted to do just that by bringing into the discussion a proposal advocating for Youth Environmental Education, promoting stewardship of the St. Vrain Creek. That proposal was first discussed with staff and council members in early December. But I was misinformed about submittal deadlines and effectively prevented from being given the opportunity present in a timely manner for consideration and discussion by counsel. I am not here to point fingers however, the point I seek to make is that Longmont will not be able to effectively address climate change, and its related environmental and social justice issues, without first ensuring the integrity of a fairer legitimate and enhanced public engagement process. The complexity of the climate crisis and related issues will also require Systems Thinking approaches that explore the multi selling solutions to problems with holistic solutions. surfacing and implementing such holistic solutions can only come from a level of creativity and exploration of ideas that is far beyond the current internal capacity of city staff, or vested patriarchal interests, embracing broad community engagement. partner engagement of committee members is also key to effective engagement, and active inflammation mentation of such solutions. Today, this is made increasingly possible with emerging new digital technologies and processes. In summary, taking climate action at the scale and speed necessary will require systemic thinking and multi solving solutions including those addressing housing, environmental and social equity challenges. Accomplishing this effectively requires proactive public outreach and engagement to surface and implement the best solutions. I urge council to commit to preserving the integrity of this public engagement process. We cannot afford to wait until after the worst consequences of runaway global climate warming have occurred. The future of the city at youth and unborn generations depends on it. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:12:08
Councilwoman Martin.
Unknown Speaker 1:12:11
Thank you, Mayor Peck. I have seen the model that you proposed when speaking to us previously, about engaging children and youth in learning about environments, environmental preservation, preservation and habitat, which certainly would have the effect of educating them and I would hope make climate warriors out of them. We have been discussing equity of access to for all the children in our community, and especially noting that, that our recreational facilities as they exist now, are are not sited to where all children have equal access. And sadly, although we can’t really change the course of the river, the Greenway cited that way as well. What would your proposal do about providing equitable access to young people who don’t live close to the Greenway? How would you how would you transport them? How would you engage their families in understanding that this too, is an important youth activity?
Unknown Speaker 1:13:45
Well, assuming that the proposal that I submitted to council just prior by by email prior to the meeting of last week, basically represents an incredible opportunity to partner with the Greenway foundation and their spree program in Denver spree stands for South Platte River environmental education, and the Greenway foundation for over 40 years has successfully engaged with urban students. So the city of Denver with the intention of promoting environmental education and very fun hands on activities in the Platte River in Denver. And they’ve I don’t quote me on the numbers, but that engagement has included over a couple of 100,000 city students city of Denver and surrounding community students. In that process of 40 years they have probably invested again, don’t quote me, but I would guess over a million dollars in developing these programs that have been incredibly successful in that regard. And they are they have offered they actually did this before the 2013 flood in 2012 when the executive director Jeff Shoemaker came When presented a counsel at the annual retreat and said, We will, I can set up an affiliate program here in Longmont to help you do take advantage of these programs. So we’re talking about very, very minor amount of money, being able to tap into 40 years of proven programs, processes experiences, to bring forward the plant the seed of that kind of initiative here in Longmont. So it’s not a hands on thing, it highly leverages a million dollar investment, a very small amount of money, and with proven experiences, and I do have supportive members of the community. For example, Eric Wallace, offered to offer the beer garden next to the brewery there is a staging area for these kinds of programs to be set up. The kids can learn about their water testing, or the ecology systems using the audio visual platforms at the beer garden, and then go down to the river corridor and engage in their on site recorder activity. So it’s really something that is available to every student in the city of Longmont and I would seek to reach out to the school system, nonprofits, churches, other community entities to participate in the program.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:23
Thank you. Do you, counselor McCoy.
Unknown Speaker 1:16:27
Thank you, Mayor back. So back when I was in, going between sixth grade and leaving central Elementary and going to unspeak, junior high. They had environmental discovery school, which we spent a week going to different areas of the of the state, you know, and looking at the different environments and everything. I think that was run through the same Green Valley School District at the time. You know, I’m interested in seeing if that something like that is still out there. I tried to look it up quickly. But I didn’t see it. But it seems like some of that type of thing might be associated with the school district already as a summer program. But maybe other things have taken precedence in these times. So it’s something we can certainly look at environmental education. But that’s just my comment.
Unknown Speaker 1:17:27
So the other thing that I would suggest is to talk to David Bell, who is if you haven’t already, have you talked to David, and Lisa nanoblock, or sustainability, and David is the one that would be interested and works with the same the same brain. So what would he think of the program? How could Would it work into what we’re doing on the same rain? For me their input, because they’re the ones that work with this environmentally anyway, their input is very important. So I would direct you in that area as well as as to the school district and then come back with some information from those two entities.
Unknown Speaker 1:18:14
Well, I guess. So. The question I have for council was I spent better part of a man month working on this proposal, and wasn’t even allowed to participate in the in the process. And so why spend more time on that unless you can assure me that I will be given the opportunity to then move it forward in what happens with the Broncos funding up to 80?
Unknown Speaker 1:18:37
Well, you could, I will tell you that once you get the information, the cost, what it would look like from our staff, because they’re the ones that are the recreation department or the school district, then we would have something to look at. We know what the program offers, but how is it going to be integrated within our city and that’s what our environmentalist need to have input on.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:05
So he was saying I would be given the opportunity to present to present I ration that’s all I’m asking for. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:16
Okay, the next is Georgia Johnson. We haven’t seen you in a while.
Unknown Speaker 1:19:20
Yes. Good evening, Mayor. Peak. And all of you nice Councilman Giorgetto Johnston, 320 homestead Parkway, Longmont, Colorado. So I’m going to mention some things that I don’t understand why we don’t have and that is an indoor ice skating rink for for young and old. The one over here doesn’t have nothing. Why does people have to go at a town to all these situations? I think we need to look at that because this is 100,000 people and I I think some way somehow we ought to get that and we don’t have an in roller skate neither for the young people. So and I’m a grandma, I’m a mother, grandma, a great grandmother. So anyway, we used to take ours to have to take it to a different town now that’s not good. So I’m just telling you that work on God bless you precious people, we love our people. We don’t want them on the street doing all the negative things. You know what I’m saying breweries and marijuana’s I’m telling you nicely, and then that the streets and the roads I’m a little agitated with our streets, bump, bump, patch, half patch, what is the deal here? Where’s the money going? It was supposed to fix that. That’s what I’m wondering. Myself, I’m asking you. And then another thing is buffet restaurants, the Golden Corral and different ones instead of going in one place, and, you know, just one certain thing. So I just want to bring that to the nice city of Longmont. I like living in the city of Longmont.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:06
I think we should just take you to lunch and talk about a lot.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:12
No, these are good things, good things. If you’re wondering what happened to me, I was up at 21st going across in the parking lot. And Lady smacked me and knocked me into another car. So I’m working on that. Lovely, lovely and it was not my fault. So anyway, the Lord will help me take care of it. But interesting, interesting as I get older and more precious. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you for letting us talk. And I’m praying for you pushes people to do a wonderful job. And what I brought to you is good things good things.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:45
So looks like Councilwoman Martin would like to address some of your issues.
Unknown Speaker 1:21:52
At the at the risk of seeming to make excuses. I would like to remind you that was it three years ago, or 219 20. So 2019 We had a proposal for a ballot question that would have in fact, put an indoor skating rink in Longmont. And the public did not vote for that they voted it down pretty impressively. And, you know, we have had a some, you know, after after action reviews about why that happened. And certainly there’s plenty of fault to go around. But I feel like one of the biggest issues was that everybody wanted to promise that skating rink was going to be in their neighborhood. And since nobody was going to get that promise. Everyone voted no. So apparently, although we’re very concerned about our young people, we’re not that concerned about the young people who don’t live in our neighborhood. This is not your fault, either. Any more than that collar around your neck is. But I thought I’d take the opportunity to tell everybody that when a good thing for the city is on offer. don’t quibble about it. What’s good for some of us, is ultimately good for all of us. And I hope we’ll be generous in the future about approving programs for our young people. And for our young and old in terms of of being able to be more active and have more variety in their lives. Unfortunately, we still live in a free market economy and so long doesn’t get to choose what kind of restaurants think that they can make it here. So if nobody wants to provide a buffet, we can’t foursome but I agree with you. Well, you know, have comfort food
Unknown Speaker 1:24:01
and carriage. I mean, you know, I’ve come lots of times and you had somebody going around suggesting all these things. And seriously, we have a good rec center but it’s packed. And this is a big city I mean seriously. Loveland birth it Windsor, Boulder Thornton, I mean, really in Brighton So Lord, bless us all may be different ones are listening. We’ve got to do a better job because this is not good breweries and marijuana and we want to our young people to be good people, good learners, good citizens and a good city. Right. Lawyer. Let’s
Unknown Speaker 1:24:39
hear you.
Unknown Speaker 1:24:40
Yes, Lord bless you all. Maybe I need to come. Thank you, Georgia.
Unknown Speaker 1:24:46
Lance Whitaker.
Unknown Speaker 1:24:54
God bless you. Now you’re not gonna like me too.
Unknown Speaker 1:25:06
Oh Dear Dear Dear Dear I’ve got a lot to go through today. My name was last week here I live in 1750 Collier Street as you all know been a resident of long my 40 years and would love to say God bless you. Today is National hot butter room day
Unknown Speaker 1:25:41
hear you he all here today. I would like to know that I’m on the 12 days of Christmas. I got my true love 12 mo de la RMS. I love the Powerball tickets. 10 Christmas Sox, nine scratch games, eight fireball shooters. Seven days not smoking, six big beers, five rolls but room lifesavers. For or bills were paid three bottles of champagne robot two silver earrings, and one red box rental for the TV.
Unknown Speaker 1:26:29
I’m here on behalf of House Bill 191230 for Canvas hospitality and long which apparently I don’t have much support on today. I do have a lot of support in the community though. A lot of people would love to see my comedy club open up and you know, my little play area start. I am not looking for money from the city. All I am doing is looking for an ordinance so that I can get a license and move on into the state area. As for the Biden versus Trump do, I say block and bolt up on April 1 of 2024 then we can have a real election. My birthday is in a month. And if you can’t get me a Corvette e Ray. I would love to have the governor’s tie. Thank you for your time and any questions?
Unknown Speaker 1:27:44
I don’t see any questions at this point. Thank you so much. You’re always very welcome and entertaining.
Unknown Speaker 1:27:51
Well, thank you. And hopefully I’ll get my license.
Unknown Speaker 1:27:57
You never know. Ed? Is it Gary? Okay.
Unknown Speaker 1:28:16
At Gary and I live at 1005 champion circle and the champion greens neighborhood. I’m here to speak against the proposed development at 8513 St. Vrain. Road
Unknown Speaker 1:28:37
that four and a half acres is an unincorporated area. There is a proposal for a development there for 57 townhomes aren’t our neighborhood champion greens is all single family homes.
Unknown Speaker 1:29:02
When that development in 1998 was proposed and approved. It was a single family zoned development. Recently we have discovered that our zoning has been changed to multi unit we cannot get an answer from anybody in the city as to why that zoning was changed. We are still at eight single family homes as the development was proposed and nothing has changed there have this development at 8513 St. Vrain road is being proposed as a multi year that development the the residents in in champion greens understandably are questioning why was ours the owning changed? We are single family residence we meet all the description of a single family residence zoning area. So we are adamantly opposed to the development at 8513 St. Vrain road we’re not opposed to the annexation, just the development. When we look at Envision Longmont, they talk extensively about the health, safety and welfare of the community enhancing the health, safety and welfare. We do not see where this development will enhance anything in the health, safety and welfare of our community or the community of Longmont.
Unknown Speaker 1:31:27
It’s a proven fact that when you build multi unit developments, that there is a large increase in traffic. We believe that the traffic through our community will be three to four times more than what it is now.
Unknown Speaker 1:31:54
We have very low traffic in our community. This development is proposing to us extend our streets for access to that development. To us, that is totally unacceptable. We have several 90 year old people, a lot of 80 year old people, a lot of 70 over I’d be one of those that live in the community. And the vast majority of the people that live there like to walk around the community walk through our streets, across the streets with adding that much traffic to the area is going to make it unsafe. The other part is that the safety will be compromised. It’s a proven fact that when you put in multi unit development, criminal activity and the safety of the area, the criminal activity increases. And I can verify that I spent 25 years in law enforcement and saw a lot of those developments caused a lot of criminal activity.
Unknown Speaker 1:33:34
Thank you. Does anyone on council went to talk to Mr. Gary about this? Seeing none, thank you so much for your comments.
Unknown Speaker 1:33:51
George Tristan.
Unknown Speaker 1:34:10
Good evening, Honorable Mayor pack and council members. I’ve had the opportunity to address you on two occasions to express opposition to the proposed gun ordinances. Mayor Peck I read your letter to the editor published in the Longmont leader last year. And listen to your comments about the proposed ordinances. At last week’s council meeting. I also read the recently published statement on public safety. Last week I stated that while gun control advocates have good intentions, that their good intentions or not justification to restrict law abiding citizens from their personal and constitutional right to bear arms. In your statement last week, Mayor Peck you specifically stated that the ordinances do not impact Second Amendment rights. And I will concede that as the case. The council’s public safety statement with respect to mass shooting concedes that the proposed ordinances would and I quote, not have made a difference in these crimes in quote, I completely agree. In fact, these ordinances will not hinder violent people from committing violent crime with a firearm. These types of gun restrictions will only harm law abiding citizens. Imagine being a young woman that must wait 10 days to purchase a firearm, relying only on a piece of paper that states her estranged husband or boyfriend is court ordered to not contact her. I suspect that most everyone here has heard the stories of young vulnerable females dying at the hands that their violent husbands or boyfriends were a restraining order was in effect. Councilman McCoy states that citizens do not need to carry a weapon to purchase eggs, milk and bread. That statement to me seems very unsympathetic knowing what happened, King Soopers statistics support the fact that when a good guy with a gun engages a bad guy with a gun, that mass shootings do not occur. Does anyone here feel unsafe at either the A, B, or C terminals at Denver International Airport? Of course not. Why? Because you just walk through TSA, and know that no violent person bent on causing harm and death are in the terminals. That level of confidence is something that school boards and the legislature have the power to provide to parents and children in our schools. children in public schools, such as those in the inner cities are required to walk through metal detectors and are made safe as a result. Councilman McCoy also states that as an educator, he is tired of the active shooter drills. Metal detectors will remedy that problem. Some consider people like myself, a defender of the Second Amendment unsympathetic to families and friends of people killed in mass shootings, this would be a wrong assumption. Speaking for myself, I oppose any and all legislation targeted at restricting gun lights, gun rights because it is a slippery slope. Take for example, traditional marriage, I would surmise that most of the adults in this room grew up knowing that traditional marriage was defined as a union between a man and a woman. President Obama campaigned on that message in 2008, and then change his mind later in his presidency and oversaw the eventual Supreme Court case that legalized gay marriage nationwide. Now, those of us who still hold traditional values on marriage are called homophobic. Fast forward 10 years. Now we have the gender fluid or transgender movement. We can’t define what a woman is, men can get pregnant, and I can lose my job if I did name someone or use the wrong pronoun, that instead of providing children with proper guidance and care regarding sexuality, we are demanded to affirm their obvious confusion about their biology. This is the slippery slope that I speak of. As I stated last week, the root cause of the increase in violent crime, or mass shootings, is not the availability of guns. It is the evil in the hearts and minds of people who have no respect for the sanctity of human life. You can’t legislate against this. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:38:49
You’re welcome. Is there any counselor that would like to address Mr. Christian counselor McCoy,
Unknown Speaker 1:38:55
since you Thank you, Mayor Peck, since you mentioned me a couple of times, I adamantly disagree with you. And I will do everything in my power to make sure that while serving here on council, that I can do everything to make sure that this community is safe. You know, 32% of those adults, adult Americans out there, own 100% of the guns, they are the ones where if guns are not secure, they’re the ones we need to turn to the issue around gun safety needs to be addressed. You know that hearts and prayers, sort of, you know, thoughts and prayers sort of nonsense, just simply doesn’t work anymore. For me, or anybody else. You know, as a teacher, I’m making sure that 30 Some kids are safe in the classroom. And that’s really important. And that’s on me to make sure those kids are safe. And I’m going to take that serious. And I’d like our legislatures to take it serious. And I’d like our members of Congress to take it serious because you know Oh, enough’s enough. And I stand with David Hogg and the students that are about March for our lives. You know, I’m just simply against it. So I will not budge on that. And you will not turn my opinion.
Unknown Speaker 1:40:16
I mean, I briefly respond, please.
Unknown Speaker 1:40:20
One minute,
Unknown Speaker 1:40:22
Councilman, appreciate your remarks. And I understand where your heart and your mind and your emotions are. But we have to look at the hard cold facts. And you haven’t even heard what I said, and you’re shaking your head already. The hardcore facts are this, you take a look at cities all around this nation that have enacted much stricter gun laws, and yet they have some of the highest crime rates and higher some of the highest death rates in the nation. So here’s what I’m trying to get at. And I’ll refer back to the pastor that spoke earlier. The problem that we’re having, whether it’s gun crime, whether it’s homelessness, our societal, there are problems that have happened as our country has continued to progress over the decades. There isn’t any simple legislation that’s going to fix fix homelessness, or fix gun crime, because it is a size societal problem and you cannot legislate away the problems that people have in as a society. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:28
Thank you, George. And Antoinette Kemper.
Unknown Speaker 1:41:46
Good evening. I’m Lieutenant Colonel retired Antoinette Kemper 102 to Fifth Avenue. Thank you for the opportunity to be heard tonight. I’d also like to address a comment. By Councilman McQuarrie made it last week’s council meeting. Councilman McCoy, you stated that as a teacher, you’re tired of doing lockdown drills, because some folks believe their Second Amendment rights supersede everyone else’s rights. And Luke, you’re shaking your head. Great. First of all, this isn’t about my rights versus your rights, versus his rights or her rights. This is about the an inalienable rights of all Americans under the Constitution. I swore to support and defend and you took an oath to uphold. Now we can debate what in practice those rights look like. But to characterize people standing up for their rights is selfish, is counterproductive. As an elected official, such a public comment can or may be interpreted as an attempt to shame and silence the people who disagree with you. This sort of comment is divisive. And a disenfranchises members of this community. Quite simply, it’s scapegoating. You don’t identify the mental health crisis of this country or any other factor contributing to mass shootings. You point your finger at a specific group of people, specifically, those selfish people who are standing up for their rights and say it’s because of this group of people that we have to do the lockdown drills, drills. And therefore, it’s because this group of people, we have mass shooting. Now I’m sure as a history teacher, you can appreciate that throughout history, the scapegoating of groups of people has resulted in the slaughter of billions of people. Okay, so labeling by design is intended to create division and to create conflict between people. So I’m asking in the future councilman, if you could please refrain from disparagingly labeling, the people you were elected to represent. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:44:45
Before I call on Councillor Martin, I just want to make a little correction that I have heard several times that that podium, the enail, inalienable rights term was for the Declaration of Independence. It was not for the Constitution. The Declaration of Independence was a statement to England to tell them that they are going to declare their independence from England. So it was not a constitutional right in our constitute an inalienable right in our Constitution.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:21
Can I comment on that? Sure. Inhale, inalienable rights are also considered our God given rights as sovereign human beings. That is the intention.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:37
Okay, Councillor waters? I mean, Martin, I will get you straight in a moment, by the end of this meeting. I promise.
Unknown Speaker 1:45:46
We can start up you did it. Okay. I just have a question about the exercise of rights and whether they are absolute or not. If I went into a middle school, and waited for the passing period, when students were moving from one classroom to the next, and got out my portable, bullhorn, and scream fire at loudly as I could, would the S R O, be justified in apprehending me and removing me from the school? Or would I be safe? Because I was actually exercising my First Amendment rights?
Unknown Speaker 1:46:39
You know, I’m not here to discuss specific rights. That’s not the issue. That’s not the issue. You’ve missed my entire point here. My entire point is the fact that we have elected officials making disparaging comments about members of the community that doesn’t instill trust in this body. This creates divide between the people and their elected representatives. It makes us believe we don’t have a voice or any representation. It’s not funny. I take it seriously. Words have weight, words have impact. Words cause harm, the use, they are intended to create a certain effect on an audience.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:27
You use the word earlier disenfranchise? Yes. And you say that an elected official expressing an opinion that is different from your own disenfranchised.
Unknown Speaker 1:47:39
You know, that’s not what I’m saying. Disagreement is natural and totally acceptable, as long as it’s done, respectively. Now, when you say this group of people is selfish, or any other derogatory characterization, you are basically encouraging a certain response toward that group of people, and it’s not a good one.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:10
So we are not here to argue with our residents or debate them. We’re here to listen to them. So and to answer their questions. I feel
Unknown Speaker 1:48:18
like I haven’t been heard. I feel like it’s in the right spot. I appreciate that mirror.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:23
Yeah, I am asking for clarification. Because I’m having been attacked at this time, but
Unknown Speaker 1:48:31
you were not. She was addressing McCoy. I’m trying different.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:35
I think it’s cool.
Unknown Speaker 1:48:36
I want to clarify that I haven’t attacked an individual. I am calling out a specific. I know I did not call it name. Call that into it. I did not call him names. I did not disparage him. No, I didn’t. I am calling out the action, not the individual. And I’m asking for this action to stop
Unknown Speaker 1:48:58
with you, Lance. I’m sorry. You had your time at the podium. It is now her time. Thank you. And your five minutes are actually okay. I am sorry. No, you’re you don’t need to be sorry. We heard you. Thank you for addressing us. This is what the open forum is all about. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:23
Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to let you know, ma’am. Ma’am. Ma’am. We’re not against you. And I if I said anything that you interpreted as disparaging, certainly nobody wants that impression. And the thing here is, is that I want to make sure our communities safe. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:46
Thank you and called. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 1:49:49
I’m
Unknown Speaker 1:49:51
Ben Sargent and I think we’re going to take a five minute break after Ben
Unknown Speaker 1:50:03
pay something positive enough upbeat? Yes. My name is Ben Sargent. I live at 744 Atwood Street. And thank you, Mayor pic and council for hearing me out. We last couple years were driving around to different farms and ranches to try to buy good local food. And we thought, Well, this was crazy. Why isn’t there a more convenient way to, to do this. And so we started a volunteer organization called wages of grain. In this last year, we organized orders for farmers. And we help farmers to facilitate transactions to families. And so finally, we call it a farm to family Co Op model. And we’re, we are hoping to expand this year. And the thing that we discovered is that there’s not enough local organic food available for the demand. And this is because a parent, according to some of the research, we’ve seen, 85% of moms want to feed will buy organic when they can, and when they can afford it and when it’s available. So there’s a lot of demand for local, organic, nutritious food. And certainly, we saw that the most amazing thing handing out fresh vegetables to families every week. And what I wanted to ask you is, is, you know, is there somebody that we could work with in the city, who’s thinking about food access, and farms and how to encourage healthy eating. And one of the things that we noticed this year was the some kind of a demonstration by families asking for more local fresh food in the school system. And so we said, Oh, that’s interesting. That’s what we’re doing. So we called the school district. And they said, Yeah, why don’t you come in and give us a proposal. And so the thing that, that they are, that the challenge that the school system has, that when farmers come and drop off food, you know, carrots and shout and lettuce and whatever the school has to call in labor, so there’s a lot of administrative costs to deal with this farm product that gets brought in needs to be Washington and chopped. So in the food industry, there’s enough. So we we are part of the our little coop thing has sort of plugged into the regenerative food hub network. And one of the things that those people talk about is Washington chop operation. So we said, well, for the school system, why don’t we get a washing shop for you, which would allow us to take in the field vegetables, do the Washington chopping, and bagging so that schools can basically get what they what they want, which is the fresh local food without having to organize spot labor. And so with the Washington shop, we deliver, you know, whether it’s once a week, or every day or a couple times a week, bags of today’s fresh vegetables from the local farm, Washington chopped, all that do is open and pour, open the bag and pour. So anyway, we would love to do this. But we, you know, we don’t really have the funding to rent a building kind of thing. And so I just wanted to ask it, you know, is there anybody who could help us at the city? With? Yeah, just getting getting some logistical stuff at a facility. And we have people who are willing to help us get the USDA certification. So we can become a USDA certified food hub, which is what allows you to aggregate from multiple farms and put put carrots from two different farms in one bag, basically. But that’s it. The school district is already working with 25 Farms. It’s just impractical for them. And it’s very expensive for them to do that. And so it seems like we have a good solution, but we need what we really need is a facility that we could take you know If there’s some kind of a facility that that city can help us get into for a year or two to help us get get our volume up to where it could pay for itself. So we have anyway. So, who Who should we talk to?
Unknown Speaker 1:55:16
Uh huh. I would start with the city with Lisa nanoblock, who is our sustainability coordinator. If she can’t tell you how the city can help. I’m sure she has resources. The other group that I would check with his Olin farms, they are on Sunset.
Unknown Speaker 1:55:38
Yeah, we’re talking to them.
Unknown Speaker 1:55:40
Oh, you know, yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:55:43
And that’s gonna be one of our firms this
Unknown Speaker 1:55:45
year. Great. That’s great. Great. Great. That’s, that’s all I have. But Lisa can probably point you in different direction. What
Unknown Speaker 1:55:53
about like the city planner? Like, is there like somebody who knows commercial real estate who might know like, what could might be available that could be adapted?
Unknown Speaker 1:56:05
I don’t know about that. I doubt that they know. Well, oh, I didn’t know you were coming this way.
Unknown Speaker 1:56:15
Well, I was gonna say le DPS, probably the best contact because that’s who we got to do that kind of work. So the Longmont Economic Development Partnership.
Unknown Speaker 1:56:26
Okay. Okay. Yeah, I’ve been trying to reach them. I haven’t managed to get their attention, but I’ll try harder.
Unknown Speaker 1:56:35
Harder. Do you have their contact info?
Unknown Speaker 1:56:39
I not directly I’m I just know somebody who’s married to somebody who
Unknown Speaker 1:56:49
knows. Oh, so we have a division we’d say of health and human services that give out grants. You could there you’re going to have enough another round of funding that we just gave out some money. You can apply with them. Who’s elderberry? So Chiquita Yarborough, our counselor is on zoom on the screen here. And she is the liaison for that board. So she keeps her can you? Okay, I’m up when you get back with.
Unknown Speaker 1:57:37
Yes, I will get back with you, Mr. Sargent and email you more information.
Unknown Speaker 1:57:43
Thank you. I remember meeting you at the farmers market. So I know you’re
Unknown Speaker 1:57:47
Yes. Yes, I am a fan. So it makes me happy about the Washington chop. I’m excited to learn a little bit more from you as well.
Unknown Speaker 1:57:58
Excellent. Yeah, we can. We’ve learned so much in the last year. We’re happy to share what we’ve learned.
Unknown Speaker 1:58:03
Perfect. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you. We’re gonna take that five minute break.
Unknown Speaker 2:06:00
So we have nine more people left to listen to Ryan Forbes, is he still here? There he is.
Unknown Speaker 2:06:24
All right, I’m Ryan Forbes 303 Kaufman. And first, I like to say that I really appreciate what the council and city has done with Vision Zero. And that that goal, I really appreciate trying to reduce traffic deaths to zero. And I think it’s really admirable goal. And I think, and I’m here because I want to help with that by just sharing my experience within Longmont, because unlike a lot of people, I don’t get around by driving, I get around on foot. And so I see traffic from a different perspective. And I just wanted to share that. So I get around on foot and on bike. And the one thing that I have noticed that would make a huge difference man I’ve talked about this before is basically just getting rid of the pedestrian crossing buttons on the actual lights, Denver, Loveland, they don’t have those buttons on the crossing signals. And the difference that it makes is that it’s people that know that the lights will change, and the pedestrian signals will change when it’s time for them to change. And there’s not a button they think that affects this. And that’s going to make a change. And it really makes a difference. And a lot of lights like at fourth and Kaufmann, which I had to come, you know, which I had crossed getting over here, which doesn’t work at all, you can have that button as much as you want. And half the time, it might do something half the time, it won’t, I don’t know if the button has any effect on that. So the other part of that is that the lights are also timed so that it knows that pedestrians are coming, like to expect pedestrian traffic, and to also give pedestrians enough time to cross the street. And on I’m relatively young and healthy, I can cross the street and get across the street in plenty of time. There are plenty of citizens in Longmont that cannot do that. And especially when the weather is like it is right now outside, that can be very scary. And if if they’re not, they don’t have enough time, that can be very dangerous. So being able to time the lights, make sure that everyone has enough time to cross makes a huge difference. And it also one thing that a lot of people I’ve heard come up and recommend I’ve listening to people talk they all talk about reducing the speed limits, but if the lights are timed for the pedestrian traffic, then it will slow the traffic down on its own. And which I think is an important part as well. And I’ll bring up another part about this that I’ve seen. Part of the reason the lights the the buttons may or may not be working is because whether the pedestrians are frustrated with them, whether or not it’s because people just don’t like pressing buttons. And they are like using handles or whatever and they don’t want to use their hands. I’ve seen on many occasions people just kicking them and which I’m sure does not help the operation of the button either. So just not having them I think would be a huge help. I think it would be it would really help to get to to that vision zero Especially since in just in these past few days, we’ve had incidents with drivers and cyclists was on that head of the times call. And so I think it would, that that’s, I feel like it would be a big, big focal point as far as trying to work on that trying to work on pedestrian safety. And it would also, the big thing, too, is it would also teach people they don’t have to jaywalk, they know there’s time to cross, they know the lights gonna change, they know that the lights are counting for them, when they’re on foot, especially when they’re on Main Street going to a business or going to Roosevelt park or going to the Senior Center, or whatever. They know that the lights are going to change for them. They don’t have to just cross in the middle, like just look both ways and go when they can. And that’s, that’s it. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 2:10:55
Great comments. Thank you very much. Do zero. Are there any questions from councillors or comments? Seeing none, thank you so much for your comments.
Unknown Speaker 2:11:07
Susie Grace, Grace, Grace shown? I think I do that every time you come up. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 2:11:15
for many, many years. So and I wanted to say that you know, thank you. Hello, counsel. Thank you for your time and the work that you do. And it’s I’ve been loving listening to everybody on their comments, and I wish that some of them had written my paper for
Unknown Speaker 2:11:33
Susie, would you mind stating your name and address for us
Unknown Speaker 2:11:36
Susie gross, Sean and it’s 935 Marmot court, and lon, man, I’ve been here since 1976 and nursing background so that’s great. Yeah, I had two issues. And the first one is regarding the monies to Longmont from the sale of the Broncos and I heard or read that a recreational dome for the children has been mentioned. And that may be a good idea to discuss slowly and carefully. If it is deemed a good idea by the council and others, please look in an area near the Rec Center or the museum maybe even the east side a sandstone park where not the keep it on the East because you don’t want to black that beautiful view of the West. But something that seems more open and appropriately and usage there. Because regarding the clerk Centennial Park that I was reading about we in that neighborhood I mean I haven’t spoken to everybody but many that I have They love having and we love having a no canopy over our heads there in that park and just being able to enjoy the open view over our heads and and look up at the trees in the sky and the clouds and have our children play there in an open airspace. And then we’re thinking to that since Centennial pool is already there, would it be appreciated and useful to upgrade that pool with the money since I believe the school swim team still goes there for practicing so that was one issue. Number two is regarding our land in Longmont. Please less than the building especially of the apartment complexes. For one it’s depleting the water supply and which is such a precious commodity now and raising our prices and it’s overcrowding our lifestyle, which promotes irritability and anxiety. That’s my nursing background and psych nursing background but it does promote the irritability and anxiety in city dwellers. It affects the wild creatures losing their natural habitat and then foraging into the yards and destroying property sometimes injuring or killing pets. Please help us keep more space and reasonable cost of living. I believe it will promote peace and the quality of life in our long land that we love. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker 2:14:06
Thank you so much. Are there any comments or questions? Seeing none I think we’re just very appreciative for your comments and we will pay attention to them. Thank you straighter Bidston
Unknown Speaker 2:14:32
Thank you, Strider bench 10 951 West 17th Street wow a lot of good stuff come out. One thing to the colonel who spoke a while ago she was saying inalienable rights like to have automatic weapons to carry you know to a shopping center or anywhere you want the nav bar rights were life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That’s the inalienable rights. And about 10 or 11% of the population of the entire world is gay or somewhere in the in the gender fluctuation scheme, and their previous speaker, they should not have the right to marry or have happiness or whatever. I mean, that’s part of what’s going on. This is exactly the similar types of issues that Adolf Hitler organized and built his party around in the 1920s and then kill 60 million people once he got a once he got real power of inalienable right to guns. a six year old boy can carry a gun into school and shoot his teacher. So what about the right to vote, which they are Exterminating? I was on the bridge, and Selma got my head bashed, and that that day, and we thought we had won the right to vote. Now we’ve seen 60 years later that they’re they’re trying to eliminate that. And as far as education, and publish and press, they want to abolish history, truth books. Herman has, back in 1830 said, once they burn books, then they’re going to burn people. But maybe I got the name wrong. But anyway, that’s after Bloody Sunday. We were in the church that night, and people were crying and bleeding and tear gas all inside their church and everything. And a lot of the men were going out to get our guns. And a couple of people made speeches, no guns, you know, and we that they were prepared to have an absolute massacre. That night. The last time Harry Belafonte spoke with Martin Luther King. Martin said, Harry, I think were integrating a burning house. And then they killed Martin Luther King the next day. And so that’s what we’re dealing with history. I learned some last night, Marian Anderson, her story was on channel 12. And I didn’t know that she had been up they had when they dedicated the Lincoln Memorial in 1922, President Harding, it was segregated. They invited a few black people to sit over there in the woods and in the weeds, and hurt concert in 19 3917 years later, was the real dedication of the Lincoln Memorial. 75 to 100,000 people came integrated. And we’re not permitted to know history in Florida. And it’s expanding, they trying to take over the whole country to exterminate the entire concept of truth or history and bring in their ideology of, you know, exterminate gay people. Get rid of, you know, the real thing is the climate catastrophe. And the dictatorships taken over in the world so far, fear, flood, flee. People are emigrating because they can’t survive in the places where they are, because of the dictatorships and the climate catastrophe. If we don’t deal with that, we will have an permanently increasing problem until everything explodes. So that previous speakers that spoke about of food and land and agriculture here, we got the water things. It’s absolutely crucial that we survive the concept of dialogue. And Congress has almost destroyed that right now. That that that guy in New Mexico that shot into six people’s homes up he was in that game, and he needs out
Unknown Speaker 2:19:54
straighter. Thank you. It looks like counseling. McCoy has a comment for you. Yeah, sure.
Unknown Speaker 2:20:00
Thank you Mayor PacMan straighter, I just want to thank you for your your efforts throughout your life to do the right thing and to support civil rights in this country and letting you know that the next generation wants to make sure that the story is told correctly. And even if it’s not happening, happening in some parts of the country, it is happening here.
Unknown Speaker 2:20:22
Well, I would have been in yesterday’s March and rally and Silver Creek, but nobody invited me I had no way to get there. And it’s like, used to be I could speak 15 minutes a year. Now, it’s, you know, it’s like, I’m not here anymore. There’s those of us who were in the movement 60 years ago, who are still alive, are still active in the movement. Everyone I know is in that, you know, like Bernard Lafayette, who started the movement in Selma in 1962. I spoke with him recently. And we’re still trying, it’s the same, it’s the same issues.
Unknown Speaker 2:21:07
So straighter. I’m sorry that you didn’t go ahead. I known that you didn’t have a right I would have taken you.
Unknown Speaker 2:21:13
Appreciate. I just, you know, I don’t have much communication. My computer’s broke down. I haven’t had any heat this year. And on the homeless thing, just quick. Stan toll has been helping me try to repair my hater. I haven’t been able to get any heat any other way. And maybe in the next day or two, a new mother will come to where are
Unknown Speaker 2:21:38
you have my contact information? Don’t you?
Unknown Speaker 2:21:40
Everything is it? I will I mean I can
Unknown Speaker 2:21:45
Okay. Contact me whenever you need anything. Well, we’ll figure it out. Thank you. You’re welcome. Thanks for your comments. This
Unknown Speaker 2:21:54
has been a really good gathering. And that’s kind of why I tried to get here and there’s no
Unknown Speaker 2:22:02
thanks. Try to be careful out there. Kim Edmondson.
Unknown Speaker 2:22:16
Hi, Kim,
Unknown Speaker 2:22:18
hello. Anyway, I’m here for the same usual reason. I’m always here my concern over the smart meters and the lack of safety around that technology. I didn’t have time to write something down because I was busy raising children. It was interesting to hear everybody’s different takes on different things are concerned about. Yeah, I’m not even sure where to begin. But I’m still like, did you watch the thing I sent you the promotional trailer about the upcoming EMF thing? Yes, I do plan on watching any of it or trying to make the time to watch some of it at all. I watched it. Okay. Because you know, like Ali Johansson the dough Kelly has a contacted with it as written us specifically the council was there speaking about we are in grave danger as humanity and the planet if we continue going forward, rolling out all this wireless technology all over the place. Both my dad and stepmom have made the same comment separately in different conversations with me about where they live in Gillette, Wyoming, about how they noticed there was like no insects last summer. And when I go into town, I noticed every single bluff around that town has a 5g tower on it. And it’s like, Gee, could that be part of the problem? Gee, I think maybe. So I think maybe we need to pause and stop and look at this more closely. Instead of going fast forward ahead with this technology, there was an island in Greece, when they put their 5g Tower all their insects disappeared. I mean, this is a thing that’s happening. And I mean, smart meters. Granted, they’re a different wavelength than, say, 5g towers and all that the different frequencies. But it’s the same concept. I mean, they had these little tiny bodies, they can’t absorb the radiation that like a big 300 pound guy can absorb. I mean, even children are more susceptible to radiation. There’s all this stuff coming out about how it interferes with kids learning. And here we are putting Wi Fi in all the schools. And I brought this up with the principal it was at Eagle Crest Elementary, which I pulled my kids from, because they give every kid kindergarten to fifth grade iPad automatically. And they spend time on on every day. And I’ve seen parent forums where they’re talking about how their kids are regressing from what they were learning at home from their parents when they go to public school, because they’re not teaching them they’re just putting them on a device to entertain them. Because teachers apparently don’t know how to really teach kids anymore. And my kids, I mean, if they’re on screens too much, they’re a nightmare to deal with. They don’t retain anything, there’s behavioral issues. But if we’re away from the screens, it’s night and day in their behavior. And it’s and there’s all this stuff about the vibe and the flicker rates on the screens and how they put you just above like sleep in your brain wavelength. When you’re looking at screens all day. They kind of slow your brain down. There’s all this stuff out there and nobody wants to look at it and And then I also sent you to think about the 15 Minute cities that they’re proposing and Oxford, England. And it seems to me looking at all the construction popping up of all these apartments all over town, like you’re kind of going right in the direction. The World Economic Forum’s plan for like these little communities, everybody lives here and you live there, you don’t get to leave. I mean, even in Oxford, and I sent Marcia think she made some further comments, and I wanted to send her an interview of a gal talking about exactly what’s going on in Oxford, about how you’ll only get a pass, where you can leave your little zone of Oxford 100 times a year, you have to get permission, you have to get a permit to leave your part of the town to go visit your friends across town, or to go to a concert or whatever it happens to be. And I’m like, is this I can get depression with all this building and developing and we cramming people in, and a lot of other people have voiced concerns about the water. And there was just a thing this fall in the paper about how Boulder County is applied, and they are going forward with cloud seeding to generate enough water. So you’re all about climate alarmism. And there’s a climate emergency and all this but you refuse to look at the sky and acknowledge all the crap that’s being sprayed, that we’re breathing all day every day. I mean, we used to have all these days of sunshine, but I’ve barely seen the sun in the last month, because of all the aerosolization spring, you’re talking about climate crisis. Well, they’re making it right in front of our face, and no one seems to care to acknowledge that. I mean, the guy was talking about taking kids to learn about sustainability and learning about the environment and all this stuff and the climate. Well, are they testing the water for aluminum, the other chemicals that are being sprayed? Are they looking at the soil to look at the silver iodide that’s being used for the cloud seeding operation for Boulder County, which I talked to the guy who’s in charge of that. And I’m like, where’s Boulder County getting the money. They’re in partnership with the Sierra Club. Well, who’s funding the Sierra Club, you start going down that trail, it’s all these public private partnerships of all the same players like Microsoft, and Pfizer and all those people that are funding all this control of everything. And I’m wondering, like, how can you just keep following along with people are going Hey, yo, wait a minute, especially like with the smart meters, we want to be sustainable. We want to grow our food here. But you’re like, well, let’s grow more and put electric you know, EMF emitting devices everywhere. We’re not going to be able to grow anything here if we keep on this trajectory. That’s the truth. And I wish you people had a little more concern about that. We’ll take people me like serious instead of call me a tinfoil hat wearing person, like Marcia Martin frequently does on social media. I don’t appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 2:27:34
Thank you, Kim. We’re good. Kelly.
Unknown Speaker 2:28:02
Okay, I’m Joe Kelly. Good evening, Mayor Peck and city council up. I live on Barbary drive in Longmont? That’s right. As you guys know, I’ve spoken to you many times in support of safe wire technology. I continue to be frustrated at this Council’s decision to implement wireless electric smart meters in Longmont, thus, adding to the already existing Electrosmog we live within. Over the past three years, you’ve heard testimony of myself and many credible educated, even highly credentialed others like Ola Johansson, and many others I could name including subject matter experts in their fields to do with wireless EMF and smart meters who have spoken or written to you on the problems of these meters. We’ve repeatedly stressed the dangers of fires the risks to human health, the privacy issues and lack of security to do with the meters the liability problems of insuring against injury and harm caused by the meters. Large insurers being unwilling to insure wireless tech and the possibility of lawsuits against the city for damages done. We’ve pointed your attention at the 11,000 pages of recent and current science on the EMF and wireless harms submitted in evidence in the winning lawsuit against the FCC and its outdated radiofrequency guidelines, the suit brought by children’s health, defense and Environmental Health Trust. We’ve talked to you about the problems and health hazards hazards of the dirty electricity that set up when a smart or an opt out non broadcasting digital meter is installed. As you guys plan on doing while removing our trusted analogs, we have regaled you with the tales of people suffering from their exposure to microwave broadcasting, wireless devices and infrastructure. And last but certainly not least, we’ve urged you to consider the probable contribution wire This technology makes to the decline of our most critical pollinators. When I became microwave injured from the next light internet installation in our living room, I was very fortunate to receive both before and after sessions around this injury from a therapist who did brain mapping. The brain mapping showed a clear quantifiable adverse difference in its results from the before to the after. My symptoms including but not limited to, the spots and Blackeye that appeared on my face the day following are next slide installation and no Nobody hit me. were obvious some of them visible telltale signs of a real problem. This injury by microwave or EMS also known as electromagnetic sensitivity, whether in Longmont from a next slide installation in Pittsfield, Massachusetts from a Verizon cell tower at the end of a residential street poisoning the nearby residents to the people in the downtown Loveland Artspace apartments who became ill and had to leave when a 5g base station was placed on their roof, to the numerous reported medical patients whose symptoms have only arisen once a broadcasting smart or wireless digital opt out meter has been installed. I assure you, this problem is very, very real. Now, some questions. Last year in Virginia, many individuals had a smart meter installed without notice or informed consent, most appealed to Dominion energy to have it removed in their analog meter put back, when denied by dominion, they contracted privately to swap out the AMI smart meter back to an analog. When they did this, their power was cut off. There are many of us who want to keep our analog meters, but you’ve not given us you’ve not given us this choice. If we contract privately to have our analogs replaced, once you install a smart, or an opt out digital meter, what will you do? Will you cut our power off as in Virginia, potentially risking a lawsuit from the likes of the Children’s Health defense? I assure you, they’ll know of this if you do. You’ve given us a choice of opting out of a broadcasting smart meter, but only at a cost. With the rising cost of energy. Also, knowing smart and possibly opt out meters give false readings much higher than what they ought to, shouldn’t we have the option of opting out with no penalty fees either up front or monthly? You already employ and pay for people to read the meters doing the work you say the extra fees are for some of those jobs will be lost and you will have less employees? How then can you justify charging us fees? Will you reconsider this rollout as a mistake coming in from a broader agenda that is not humanitarian but potentially totalitarian in its origins, the coming in from highly captured sources and opt for safer technology for your citizens. It’s never too late. And in this scenario, you would become true public servants.
Unknown Speaker 2:33:16
Thank you do I don’t see any comments. So thank you. Polly Christensen.
Unknown Speaker 2:33:36
mayor and city council, thank you for having these twice a year forms the rest of the time. You’re doing business and I think a lot of people don’t understand that. It’s a business meeting with public comment. And I thank you for doing the business because you keep the town running.
Unknown Speaker 2:33:57
So Polly, I think most of us know who you are. But sorry, Holly
Unknown Speaker 2:34:01
Christensen for 10 Jetson street Thank you. I was sorry, I wasn’t really going to speak tonight but I
Unknown Speaker 2:34:12
several people have come to speak that I have to speak about you know, I have two topics of conversation, affordable housing, and gun violence prevention. And I’m just gonna keep rattling away about them over and over and over. So tonight we’ve had some more gun violence. I mean, some more people discuss this issue. You know, since Cain slew Abel we have had murder, but we do make laws about it. We don’t just throw our hands up and say we can’t do anything about it. We make laws about it. It doesn’t get rid of murder. There’s always going to be murder, but there have to be some constantly answers and there have to be some laws about it. I really appreciated Reverend Barker’s comments and I, I agree almost entirely with him, the most profound thing he said was that gun violence is a spiritual problem. It is a spiritual problem is a spiritual problem for the mass murderers who are fed nonstop hatred, and stupidity and revved up to violence against Asians, women, blacks, Latinos, trans, LGBT, people, Jews, and everyone else they think, is oppressing them. That is a spiritual problem. I don’t know how we address that except to find ways to lessen their access to such hateful material on the internet and everywhere else. The other spiritual problem is the masses of young people who are committing suicide. And almost all of them, as I’ve said before, are committing suicide with guns, because people who tried to commit suicide any other way, are largely unsuccessful, thankfully. And they have a second chance at life. But when you use a gun to commit suicide, you’re effective 90% of the time. That is why it is important to have a waiting period. That’s a very simple thing. So what I am Stan gobe, and Moms Demand violence and many other members of the community actually do
Unknown Speaker 2:36:47
Moms Demand demand action, not violence.
Unknown Speaker 2:36:50
Oh, yes, that’s true. They haven’t demanded violence. They may
Unknown Speaker 2:36:54
just the opposite.
Unknown Speaker 2:36:55
Thank you, Mayor. What we have asked repeatedly since last June’s appalling decision by the Supreme Court was for this town to stand up and create some ordinances that would be protective of the public good. Gun violence prevention to prevent mass shootings and suicides. That was the issue. Now what has happened is, you have done nothing other than the mayor who came up with five ordinances, no one, no one on this panel, and you weren’t here within stood up for any of these ordinances. Now, instead of a gun violence prevention statement, it was changed. So it is not even a statement on gun violence prevention. It’s a statement on public safety and Han Gen crime and how state legislators have created several laws that have predictably had bad effects, which I agree they have, they were perhaps well meaning but they hampered the police force, and they let a lot of bad people back out on the street. Anyway, I I am genuinely appalled that the this statement that could have been important, and the ordinances that could have actually prevented some suicides, and possibly a mass shooting has been dissipated into something like just a public safety statement, which is meaningless. I do hope that we will have some more conversations. I found the conversation at the church a few years ago to be useful. I think a lot of people did listen, I think that it’s very complicated. It’s an ongoing conversation to have people who disagree with each other profoundly disagree with each other, sit down and actually have conversations and I thought that that was a very useful exercise and we should do it again. I hope that the Rotary Club will be a good thing but it’s not enough. It’s not enough.
Unknown Speaker 2:39:15
Thank you for your comments. And a Harrison
Unknown Speaker 2:39:25
did you want to say
Unknown Speaker 2:39:27
good evening. I’m Major your big Nice to meet you and conceal. Nice to meet you. Members of the Council. My name is Emma Harrison, the addresses 1612 to me other avenue. Long corner Colorado. I apologize my my accent. It’s beautiful. overlaying resistors vanish. So I am going to try to keep it also simple short because everybody started 10 years ago I came to these nice and fast is growing city of Long long without imagining how big it will become in only 10 years. And I am both happy and proud to witness and also to be part of this chair, this change that is taking place now. And I know now that the decision to come here with my family was the right when we are very fortunate. The surveys or the survey that the city gave us just on October last year 2002 And 22 show up how clear we are happy community living and trying to improve in everyday our lives. Yes, definitely. With a feeling of belonging to a very united city. I have to say that as an immigrant, it is a total pleasure to know that I have raised my kids in a place that provides not only great schools, services and people who has a group Bill’s community per se, but also on city who cares enough about the residents to facilitate as many quality services as possible in a safe and clean environment. It is clearly writing in the version in the vision of the city of Longmont that in 20 years from now, Longman will be the world’s greatest village where children are most ordinated to be born and raised. Elders are supported through their entire life journey where people will have access to food and shelter, and everyone has the opportunity to thrive and feel they belong. They belong. Having said these, my big issue tonight is about also the smart meters. And here’s exactly where I raised my question in the most honest and respectful way. in Longmont steel is long on steel the same place that I found 10 years ago, is this very specific in this very specific case, I’m talking about living with a healthy city environment with city officials that carefully and responsibly make decisions that are affecting the entire environment of people and leaving things in this case, I am speaking of the responsibility of deciding on certain technologies that undeniably are now part of our lives in much more drastic ways than 10 years ago. It is confusing to me because I really love the fact that my kids is attended to the STEM schools here in Longmont. The city provides them proudly and highly This is schools promoted technology, engineering, mathematics and science. And they are very important ways to enrich them education on our kids and their future. My humble opinion is that we have a huge contradiction here. On one hand, we have the schools that provide the respect and knowledge towards science and technology. But on the other hand, we keep going forward with implementation of microwave technologies that clearly are in not in our best interest. And they cannot help us to preserve what is the most precious thing, which is our health. I refuse to think that our city of Longmont is getting blind or ignorant, careless or even passive about these kinds of things that have a great effect in our community residents. After all, 20 years from now, how healthy will our community be? If we don’t care? If we don’t take about the proper approach to towards these technologies? Should we just wait to see them have future grants? Well, we just aren’t doing nothing about it today? I don’t think so. I don’t think this is his mind at all. To tell you the truth. My second question is are you really caring about providing the correct information to our citizens and regard in regards of these smart meters? Or he’s just one more item in the top of the agenda than other many agendas happens, then needs to be approved regardless of the health and impact that we’ll have face later in our very, very real life every day. My third last question is, where does it take for you the City Council of Lomong to stop and place on hole just for our Well, this is my meters. Well, we educate our community. And I’m not talking only about the Hispanic speaking community but everybody because everybody should have access to this. Thank you so much for letting me speak tonight. And for carrying the most appropriate actions around this technology to keep all Longman residents safe and healthy.
Unknown Speaker 2:44:54
Thank you so much, Anna.
Unknown Speaker 2:44:56
You’re welcome. Any question or
Unknown Speaker 2:45:00
I don’t see anybody jumping in.
Unknown Speaker 2:45:03
Alright, so thank you.
Unknown Speaker 2:45:05
Oops. Oh, I’m sorry. We do, Councilman Martin.
Unknown Speaker 2:45:10
Yes. I don’t have any questions for you. But you did ask some questions. And so if you would like to repeat any of the questions, I would be willing to answer. Sure try to.
Unknown Speaker 2:45:25
So first of all, we’ll be in that, that that beautiful city of Longmont that I met i He came to leaving 10 years ago. To me, it was very clean, safe in every way, really. And nowadays, I think just with this very issue of the smart meters, that we are just not even taking the time, with technology comes a lot of responsibility in both sides is a smart technology if we are smart enough to use it, and always in alignment to respect our bodies, and is clear and allow that we have shown and I have been here previously in other councils. I don’t think we are as community to things, educating people and getting informed about the side effects of these technology in the long term. That’s one of the questions. Okay, are we doing it? are we educating our community as a whole to go forward with these things? Or we are just implementing them and rolling them in? Because their other interest is there going on? financial or otherwise? I don’t know.
Unknown Speaker 2:46:38
I can’t imagine what other interests I’m certain based on my understanding of city processes, that there are no financial interests in play, other than the desire to deploy the best technology, that we have to meet the goals that our residents have asked us to set. So that’s the first thing there’s there, there are no financial interests in doing this. Second, I would like to say that we did in fact hold a number of educational events, when the decision as to whether the city would invest in an advanced metering system was being made. And we did have subject matter experts that were suggested by the community and opposition, as well as subject matter experts that came out of the smart metering infrastructure. I have been accused of improprieties, because I worked in that industry for a while. I don’t have any financial interests in it. And I have offered before to prove that nobody’s ever taken me up on it, but I can prove it. But what has happened is that I do understand the technology. And I understand the things like the the the amount of EMF radiation added by the smart meters, is miniscule. Come compared to the other EMF sources in our community, most of which we don’t control at all. So for example, we we have no jurisdiction over cell towers, whether it’s 3g, 4g, or 5g infrastructure that is installed in our cities, we have no ability to prevent our residents from installing Wi Fi in their own homes. We have no ability to prevent our businesses, restaurants, other retail places to install Wi Fi, in their places of business, and it helps their places of business. So the thing is, whether you believe, which I do not that low level, non ionizing radiation is making people sick. We’re swimming in it. And ugly, and mostly the city can’t do anything about it.
Unknown Speaker 2:49:49
I think I agree with you totally on that. But I think also that we should have the liberty to decide if we want to keep the analog or not because we have so are we are trapped and technology just like you say we are breathing. We are breathing in without even a willing to do that.
Unknown Speaker 2:50:08
Yes, I would like to finish the explanation, which is why you’d and you did ask this. Why do it? You said, Do you have a financial interest? No. But we do have a commitment to the public. Because they requested and the council approved that we do that we declare a state of climate emergency, we have goals to make the energy transmission transition to to convert away from fossil fuel use, and toward a much greater percentage of renewable energy use. And the kind of instrumentation that is in that advanced metering system is necessary to control the the distribution grid that is required to adapt to the intermittency and variability of energy from renewable sources. And to keep people’s distribution of energy reliable as they convert from gas appliances to electric appliances, and especially as they begin using electric vehicles, which put a lot of stress on the distribution grid. So I’m going to keep talking because it’s important to say that one last sentence, I’m sorry, because because we do have to reduce our greenhouse gases. And there is very firm scientific proof that the pollutants from the oil and gas industry are making us sick. Yes. Why?
Unknown Speaker 2:51:59
Yeah, there are so many conversations further than that about HAARP technology that also is damaging us by that. Thank
Unknown Speaker 2:52:06
you, Anna. Yep.
Unknown Speaker 2:52:07
Thank you. Good night.
Unknown Speaker 2:52:09
You made great points.
Unknown Speaker 2:52:10
Thank you so much when I’ve noticed,
Unknown Speaker 2:52:12
but it’s noticed. Jim Palmer No. Palmetto doesn’t look like he’s no longer here. Charles Schilling.
Unknown Speaker 2:52:33
Hello, Mayor Peck, Council, thanks for allowing me to come here speak horse. I’m Charlie Schilling. I’m at 224 Francis street. So I’m here to talk about some of the infill developments that are going on into our existing neighborhoods. The envision Longmont document has many requirements and codes in it. And we as a neighborhood, particularly bond farm are looking at these requirements. And we’ve really highlighted four of them to evaluate whether we think some of these infill developments going into existing neighborhoods really meet the code, whether it’s a spirit and intent or literally. So the four we’re looking at is are these new developments compatible with surrounding neighborhoods? Are they close to public transit, like a quarter of a mile as stated in our Envision Longmont document? Is the city really encouraging collaboration and input from neighborhoods and are they taking it to heart and listening and acting on it? And do these new infill developments negatively impact adjacent or nearby homes, you know, the health, safety and welfare of this surrounding neighborhoods. So several of the developments, concepts being proposed Fonfara in particular, but others as we’re looking around, have some general themes. And they don’t seem to meet the codes. densities of some of these new developments in fills have densities two to three times higher than the surrounding developments. Some of these new developments have three concepts have three storey condos next to one storey bungalows. They’re not close to public transit, or shopping corridors. So they’ll just drive more traffic and congestion through our existing neighborhoods where people live and work and children live. And we all are trying to thrive and have a great life. Also, neighbors are trying to collaborate with the city officials to encourage development that meets their needs of the Envision Longmont meets the needs of the neighborhood. So we’re trying to comply with what the code says work with the city
Unknown Speaker 2:54:58
if you ask five to 10 Five or 10 average citizens, a jury or a judge, if some of these new developments meet these codes, I believe you’ll see that they don’t. And that’s kind of what we’re what we’re talking about here. So we all understand that development is needed as important and infills a critical thing, you know, Longman only has so much land, we got to fill it up. So that’s a reality. But please take long Mont Blanc, envision Longmont document more seriously and try to meet the spirit and intent and listen to the citizens and what they have to say about it. So the net effect of some of these high density developments are going to really just drive traffic and congestion through neighborhoods without any public transit, any walkability to shopping like envision, Longmont says I understand that. High density belongs near transit, transit corridors and shopping. That’s great. I’ve lived all over the country, many different cities, I’ve left money because of traffic and congestion. And you see if you read your surveys, but going back 20 years, same thing, traffic and congestion, top one or two concerns, always, always always there. So my question to the council is, what are your thoughts on this survey for the last 20 years? What are you doing about it? I know there’s there’s envision zero, that’s great. But what are you doing? And how does this affect your thoughts on when you’re jamming these high density developments into neighborhoods? Out in the middle of kind of, you know, not near much. So that’s one question. What is What are your thoughts there? What are you doing about it to mitigate these traffic and congestion in these areas? And why are you driving high density developments into existing neighborhoods where there’s no mass transit, no public transit, no plan for it, no budget for it. There’s maybe a vision, hope, a prayer, but it ain’t happening. And we all know that. So why are you doing this? Comments and my questions you’d like to address those questions, that’d be great. I can repeat the questions if you’d like.
Unknown Speaker 2:57:20
My microphone, counter Martin.
Unknown Speaker 2:57:25
Um, I would say that it’ll never happen is a pretty depressing prediction, to make about long months goals for mass mass transit. And I want you to be assured that many of us, if not all of us, and especially including the mayor, who has done yeoman’s work, in terms of negotiating a better relationship with our inadequate mass transit provider RTD we have plenty of active plans that are yes, not fully implemented. But to make it possible before, you know, restricting anyone’s movements make it possible to move around Longmont without the use of a personal automobile. And that’s what we’re doing. And and when that job is done, then pretty much everywhere will be transit oriented housing.
Unknown Speaker 2:58:33
So when I say that’ll never happen, we don’t see a plan going down spruce for mass transit. You might put a bus down there, but
Unknown Speaker 2:58:40
No, that isn’t going to happen. I have to say, I’ve been working on it forever. But Charles, to your one point. I do have a problem with high density in infill neighborhoods. But it is a bigger issue, I guess, and still discussing and I personally don’t know how to go about addressing it at this point. But I was told that if we do not allow high density or multi use zoning in all of the spaces that are available in our city, there is a chance that we would be redlining meaning that we would be putting everyone who lives in an apartment in one part of the city. And that’s where they have to stay. That’s where those departments have to stay. This this term was used a long time ago to basically segregate cities. I can’t say much more on that because I’m still trying to get my head around. Envision long, but I agree there’s a discrepancy in what we’re doing and what it says that that’s all I can say at this point on the subject.
Unknown Speaker 2:59:59
Were you We have a very beautiful concept that we have submitted and we love to share it with you that I think will address a lot of this. And we’ll address more than what the developer has proposed so far. So we’d like to work with you and address all of these issues.
Unknown Speaker 3:00:14
And I do have to say that because the planning and zoning is a commission, and they follow the code, that is their one job basically is that they need to follow the code make sure that everything that is in our planning code, which is envisioned Longmont is carried through. I’m gonna let Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez address that great.
Unknown Speaker 3:00:44
Thank you very much, Mayor Peck. So envision Longmont has a guiding document that is basically an aspirational document where the code comes in is our land development code. That’s basically that’s where the rubber meets the road. That’s where we see the requirements, whether they be setbacks, height limits, things of that nature. Right. And so I think what the the spirit of what you’re trying to ask, is not so much about envision Longmont is about how are we treating the code to reach the goals that we want, which are the aspirational document. And so what you’re looking at is, you know, based on our aspirations for affordable housing and mixture of housing. That’s why you’re seeing a change in certain densities around the city. To me, townhomes are not mega density, you know, to me, a big apartment building is mega density, right. And so this also is part of our aspirations as a city to be better stewards of the limited resources that we have. And and it’s shown that more density tends to give you a better product as far as less water usage, because you’re not watering big lawns, and things along those lines. And so that’s kind of, you know, maybe there are things that we do need to address, because the code is a living document. The counselor can change that policy. And if there continues to be certain problems that are, are beyond. And I’m not accusing you of this by any standard, but you’re familiar with the term nimbyism, perhaps, right. If there’s problems beyond just what would be typical nimbyism, that really are creating safety issues, for instance, we wholeheartedly will have to address that within our code. Right. And so the other thing I would like to say is that when we talk about traffic, ideally, yes, townhome specifically to the bond Farm Neighborhood, or there’s an apartment building that’s going up on Ninth and Alpine, I believe, are ninth and pays maybe ninth and pays that traffic, it’s not like we’re sticking a Costco in the middle of your neighborhood. Right? You know, that that would be really troublesome because that that’s, that’s not, you know, these people that are gonna be living in townhomes or in the apartments, they want to live there and enjoy their right. And I don’t think, you know, there’s obviously occurrences of bad bad apples and bad neighbors. But I think by and large, I don’t think folks will be extremely disrespectful when they’re also trying to, to live in the neighborhood. And, you know, I think that’s the best hope, you know, when we’re talking about our fears versus our hopes. And that’s kind of how I’m looking at it. So I definitely want to continue to have the conversation amongst Council and amongst the members of the public as far as really troublesome parts of the code. And so I’d be glad to continue to have those dialogues with the folks, the folks around bone farm, as well as folks all over town, that are seeing these kinds of different, more, more dense concepts of residential. It was also from a financial standpoint, when City’s looking at when we have to take over maintenance for the streets, and maintenance of the infrastructure, it again, is becomes more of a financial implication that more density helps solve some of those financial, you know, requirements that the city has to meet with, with maintenance and infrastructure. So it’s, it’s a huge balancing act. And I, I definitely understand your frustrations. And like I said, I look forward to continue to have these conversations.
Unknown Speaker 3:04:25
So just just to be clear, we’re not really asking for anything outside of the code, the code is suitably ambiguous. And we’re, we’re working with the code and envision llama within that range of ambiguity. So not asking for density that’s lower than what it’s zoned for. And by the way, the I think the streets for this development on the 13th 13th spruce in Bonn farm will be privately held. The streets will be on privately, but yeah, we want to work with you just wanting to express our thoughts there. And we we have some concepts that we want to bring To you, and I think they’re pretty exciting. I hope you’ll find them exciting. And we look forward to working with you.
Unknown Speaker 3:05:07
So see, I knew that Mayor Pro Tem would give you a much better answer than I could possibly give you. But the other thing is if we, if we decide which infill projects can go in and what neighborhoods it around the neighborhood you’re going to have, we’re going to have horrible complaints as to why. Why didn’t you put that in that neighborhood? They’ve got a ton of land still, or why didn’t you buy it? So those are all things that we have to look at as well.
Unknown Speaker 3:05:35
We’ve got a great store. We can we can give you for that. Anyway. God, I’m
Unknown Speaker 3:05:39
sure you do.
Unknown Speaker 3:05:41
Let’s see. Yeah, that’s, that’s great. Thank you very much. You’re welcome. Take care.
Unknown Speaker 3:05:46
Thank you, Aaron. So that was our last resident is there anybody else in the chamber? Dwayne, Dwayne, lease is here and we’ll
Unknown Speaker 3:06:08
Hi, there, my name is Dwayne lease. I live at 2686 Pearl Howlett road Longmont, I don’t want to take too much of your time, thank you very much for taking this time to listen and get the dialogue going within the community. I stepped before you this evening to bring up the idea of a long range studying plan. Climate change is right here. It’s right in front of us. It’s not like it’s going to abate. It’s not going away. It’s here. One of the things that we have to be concerned about is food. Most basic, most fundamental. I would propose that there be some kind of a study done or studies started, maybe in conjunction with Front Range Community College as just a study that could be done by probably undergraduates as to the economic viability, the technological challenges of having food generated in New Age, very high tech, greenhouses. Now, the reason I bring this up, part of it is that we live with a lot of disruption that’s going on right now. But believe me, and I’m sure you probably are all highly aware of this yourself. So although you may not have thought of it. You disrupt food supplies. us think we have political unrest now. It’s gonna go through the roof. And one of the things that I’ve always thought about with the city, especially with the political unrest that’s going on, I think that we should have the mindset of being a city state trying to generate as much independence as possible. And knowing where our allies are at such as the state of Colorado. We should be tightening our, our support and interconnectivity with the state of Colorado because it’s a buffer against what’s going on politically. But the main point that I wanted to talk to you about was primarily think about doing long range studies, about New Age, high tech, highly efficient food producing greenhouses. And thank you very much for your time.
Unknown Speaker 3:09:12
Thank you, Dwayne. I do have Dwayne, Councillor McCoy, we’d like to Sure.
Unknown Speaker 3:09:23
Thank you mirror real quickly. When I was on council last time, in 2007 through 2011, we had a group come before us talking about grow your own meals. And they’re actually a group that’s out there right now that does hydroponics and I guess a fish farm combination. And they wanted to use land down near the tree and limb you know, just area here in town at one point to do their project. And I think they’re somewhere else now but they’re still round here. concepts still around here and that are actually in a couple of other states as well. So if you’re interested in pursuing that and taking a look at that they’re their contact point.
Unknown Speaker 3:10:10
Okay, and what was the name of the visit? Grow your
Unknown Speaker 3:10:13
own meal? Okay. And they have hydroponics, greenhouses and fish farm combination,
Unknown Speaker 3:10:21
right? I’m familiar with that. There’s, there’s, there’s a lot of more tech, different technologies that are out there. And doing a long range study. That’s one, one thing, but there’s many different ways of going about doing this. And the main thing is to bring up the study of it, so that people are starting to think in these terms, because right now, nobody is. I mean, you start looking at the climate problems that we’re having right now. We have climate, catastrophes, incidents, that are really starting to eat into our GDP.
Unknown Speaker 3:11:04
So I think that those were good remarks and a good a good place for you to connect with. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Martin.
Unknown Speaker 3:11:18
Thank you, Mr. Lease. Just quickly, I wanted you to know, if you are aware, the climate Emergency Task Force had recommendations, not about greenhouses, but about ordinances for city agriculture in general, including allowing people to put, you know, a lot more extensive raised grow in their front yards. And the advisory boards of the city at that time did not recommend doing that. I was not sure why I think it may have had something to do with taking on the homeowners associations who wouldn’t have liked it. But anyway, another suggestion for you is to go back to the report of the climate Emergency Task Force and look at the people who did make those recommendations about ultra local agriculture because I think you may find some interest there.
Unknown Speaker 3:12:20
And also, you have to remember that the more local your agriculture is, the less carbon absolutely into the air.
Unknown Speaker 3:12:28
Absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 3:12:30
Any other comments?
Unknown Speaker 3:12:32
No, I don’t see I apologize. I don’t mean to be walking away from and I didn’t see her light on until you had already left. So I apologize. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for listening. So that is the end I closed this public invited to be heard and I mean, this open forum. And thank everybody for attending and for your comments. Can I have a motion to adjourn? So it’s been Moved by Councillor Martin seconded by Mayor Pro Tem Rodriguez. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed? We are adjourned.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai