Longmont City Council – Regular Session – May 14, 2024

Video Description:
Longmont City Council – Regular Session – May 14, 2024

5:42
Good evening everyone and welcome. I’d like to call the May 14 2024 Longmont City Council regular session to order the livestream at this meeting can be viewed at the city’s YouTube channel, or at Longmont public media dad or.org forward slash watch. Or on Comcast channels eight or eight ad. May we have the roll call please.

6:10
Mayor Beck

6:11
present. Councilmember

6:12
Crist Here. Councilmember Hidalgo Ferring. Here, Councilmember Martin. Councilmember McCoy,

6:23
somewhere else.

6:26
Councilmember Rodriguez Here.

6:27
Councilmember Yarbro. Mayor, you do have a quorum.

6:31
Thank you, per rule 25.2 of the council’s rules of procedure. I would like to move to allow council members McCoy and Martin to participate remotely when they are as long as until they are able to attend in person. Can I have a second? Second? All those in favor say Let’s vote. I just want to just say say aye. Aye.

7:07
Aye. You did I see both you and Councilman McCoy have voted. So that carries unanimously. Let’s stand for the pledge.

7:24
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.

7:42
As a reminder to the public, only Longmont, residents and employees of the city of Longmont may speak during first call public invited to be heard. You must provide your address on the signup sheet before the meeting, or I will not call your name. Each speaker is limited to three minutes. Anyone may speak on second reading or public hearing item. And you’re asked to add your name to that item on the speaker list. Anyone may speak during final call public invited to be heard. Members of the audience shall refrain from disruptive, vulgar or abusive language applause, heckling or other actions that interfere with the orderly function of the council. The Chair may recess or call to adjourn the meeting after three attempts to maintain the orderly function of the council are ignored. Can I have a motion to approve the April 23? Regular Session minutes. Second, it’s been Moved by Councillor Rodriguez seconded by Councillor Hidalgo. fairing. Is there any discussion? Seeing none Let’s vote.

8:53
Mayor, I don’t see councilmember Martin’s vote being recorded. So maybe

8:59
councilmember Martin and did you vote or say yay, on mute? I’m on mute. Dude, that doesn’t help. Can you hear me Marsha?

9:14
She’s on mute.

9:15
Can you unmute Marsha?

9:26
I don’t have a small screen. Okay. So what is your vote on the minutes? Okay. And that carries unanimously. Thank you. I’m getting a lot of feedback up here. Yes,

9:45
she can hear you. Don’t worry. We’ll keep that guy. Okay.

9:57
We are now at Agenda Review. shins. Do we have any revisions? Done?

10:04
I don’t have any revisions. Mayor. Okay.

10:07
Do I have any motions to direct the city manager to add agenda items to future agendas? Councillors McCoy RR Martin, do you have any items to add to future agendas? Okay. I’m assuming Councillor Martin does not either. Okay. Thank you. Can we have a city manager’s report

10:34
or report Mayor Council?

10:36
Okay, thank you. Now we’re at the fun part of our meeting. It’s the Longmont multicultural Action Committee presentation.

11:13
Right Thank you. Good evening, council Mayor Peck. My name is Adriana Perea, and I’m the Social Equity coordinator for the city as well as the liaison for the Longmont multicultural Action Committee, better known as El Mack.

11:52
Thank you. I’m honored to be here tonight, along with committee members of L Mac groves Hoffman, Carmen Ramirez, Sam safey, common witness site and our consultant Neil Watson. I also like to welcome all of our members from the Walmart multicultural Action Committee who are here tonight, as well as my fellow German or county commissioner who has also been a former Elmax member. of the city council initiative effort that focuses on creating engaging opportunities for residents to learn about and celebrate the many different cultures represented in our community. Our important work helps cultivate stronger connections that bridge relationships between community members from diverse cultures and local government. Today, Elmax is considered the most diverse committee in all of Boulder County, consisting of 20 community members ranging in age from 25 to 65. Our members represent over 10 different countries, including China, Mexico, Iran, Ecuador, Nepal, and many more. I would also like to highlight that there are over 12 different languages spoken among our committee members. I’ll make is LED is led by a dedicated steering committee of community members and volunteers. We are here today to discuss why elnec exists the impact we have had in our community, present our cultural assessment report, and most importantly, ask for your support to continue our efforts for years to come. Our city is experiencing significant growth and with it, the demand for cultural engagement and celebration has never been higher. As our community becomes more diverse, it is crucial that we invest in initiatives that promote understanding inclusivity and unity. ALLMAX programs and events provide invaluable opportunities for residents to connect, share and celebrate their unique cultural heritage. Elmax events have brought together 1000s of residents fostering the sense of belonging and pride in our communities diversity. For the past 22 years l Mac has received $25,000 annually to support our initiatives. However, to sustain and expand our efforts, we need your support. This is why for the first time and 22 years, we are seeking an increase in funding today. Thank you.

14:31
Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of Council when we were deciding who should parsing the responsibilities, they pointed to me and they said you are the oldest Why don’t you do talk about the history. So here I am. The multicultural committee used to be a Latin Task Force. And then about 2021 years ago I had just joined the Council, the committee for the good food they had those days. But then I got stuck. Anyway, we used to meet behind your Mayor’s office in that small conference room. And so we decided to change the name because the Latin action was not good enough for all of us. And they looked at me, they decided to change it to multicultural committee. And then the L m, c was not good enough. They said, Okay, we’ll put an A in the middle. So we put action in the middle. So that’s how the name came about. Anyhow, in the last two decades, we have you have supported many events, some of them over 20 years, some of them years, some of them about a decade, you will see the names later on. We also started handing out awards to people who had dedicated their lives to the city of Longmont one way or the other. And that word went from 2006 to 2016, I believe 2000s. The first recipient was Mr. Woody Pulaski in his memory. So you can imagine how long back we are going. It’s important for you and the members of the public to know that all our events that we support, or free to the public, and are run by volunteers who are also free working freely.

16:58
Anybody who needs funding from us, they need to send an application yearly. So actually, this has become a sticky point for some of the members after 20 years, they still have to go through the process. And but we have insisted that they we want a application and we want a list of their expenses, and so on. So when we award a sum, it is done in the proper manner, there is no favorite favoritism. It would be nice to show you the list of events. I’m not going to read them. But there are many events that the cinco demiral And they have the dead, for example, have been there for a long time. There is one event that we hope, and we support these groups from managerial point of view financial point of view guidance. So they will be on their own. One of them that graduated early on was rhythm on the river, those of you remember the name, rhythm in the river, the first few years we supported them, but then financially, they became independent, they need our help. So spend the money somewhere else. It is noteworthy to say to tell you that other municipalities, north of us in particular, have copied our our strategies, our plans, they came and visited, I visited those during our meetings, and they learn from us and if you check their website now you will see it’s very similar to what we have developed over 20 years. So thank you for your time, and I will pass it along to the next person please. Rose

19:18
Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone. I’m very proud to be able to stand here representing l Mac. Because I feel it’s a really really vital organization, for the community for all the cultures that we represent in the community. And it would it is you know, Sam had mentioned how other cities have tried to emulate what we’ve done here in Longmont so I think city of Longmont should be very proud of what they offer the community because I know once three Ana and I were at an event Two years ago, and it was somebody from Fort Collins and they had said, Oh my God, where do you how do you get funding for that? And we said, well, the city pays for it. And so we’re allowed to do these things. And so they’re one of the ones that emulated the program that city of Longmont allows us to have. So we should be very proud of that. So Sam mentioned a few of the events that we put on, we don’t put on but we offer grants for and help support. One of them is Martin Luther King celebration, the Lunar New Year. Those are huge, very big celebrations. We have Black History Month, Cinco de Mayo has evolved just in leaps and bounds over the years. It’s crazy. Juneteenth is one of the newer ones, Peruvian festival. Nepali is fairly new as well Nepali genre, Pride festival and Day of the Dead Day of the Dead is, as you know, one of the largest in Colorado, here in Longmont, other things that we’ve done our voices of change, steering committee support, promotional materials, supporting yearly efforts and initiatives. So those are some of the things that we also help with, that’s where our money goes. So Elmax sponsors and supports these yearly events, such as the ones that I’ve mentioned, and over 90% of Elmax funding directly supports these community events, which are key to their success if they use us to start out. And then they grow from there. But it’s their introduction into the community to, you know, give people a little piece of what their culture is. Many of the event coordinators work closely with schools, involving youth to ensure the next generation continues a tradition of community engagement and contributes and involves these efforts to current times.

22:22
really likes what I’m doing,

22:24
I guess, Rose, where where’s that from?

22:26
I don’t know. I don’t know where that’s coming from. So elnec would like to always encourage new events in the community by offering grants for them. With the increased growth in our long run community, we anticipate additional requests for multicultural events for new multicultural events. So I’d like to go over the influencing the community. So we talked about the cultural grants program. There’s tamales and talk initiatives, and key partnerships. So the cultural grants program administers a yearly grants program for inclusive community events, like we spoke of some of the ones that we’ve mentioned, it tracks the events and attendees while expanding county wide partnerships. So we make sure that as people request the grants, we kind of keep them on track and say okay, this is the outline of how you need to do it. So we try and be as responsible we as we can with the money that we’re we’re allowing them to have for the event. And then additionally, our program serves as a statewide model like we talked about for the multicultural committee. We have tamales and talk initiative, hosted over 60 Community Dialogue events in a span of five years. These events led to significant changes, including improvements in city advisory board recruitment, and services within the city and organization as a whole. These community event dialogues also played a major role in the implementation of fair bilingual pay for city staff and contributed to long runs recognition as an all America city in 2006 and 2018. We’re very proud of that. Some of our key partnerships Elmax key partnership helped establish the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County and collaborated with the st. Rain Valley School District on cultural competency, training and youth leadership. It partnered with the city of Longmont to enhance the rental inspection program and fair housing workshops. This advocacy led to the creation of a fair housing office and a crime free housing program. Additionally, key partnership worked with a local hospital to provide cultural competency training for medical personnel. I would now like to introduce Justin Veatch, the program manager for the lung Museum, who is one of our key spot partners and we have enjoyed working with him over the years. Thank you

25:28
mayor, city council members. I’m delighted to be here today to give kind of a testimonial. Regarding el Mack and its impact here in Longmont. Back in 2020, we launched a series called Voices of change which is dedicated to effecting positive change in the community providing a platform for marginalized voices, and generally to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive, long mod. And since 2020, we’ve we’ve reached nearly 800 people through a total of seven programs on subject matters, including the history of race and social justice in Longmont parts one and two panels on the Japanese American experience, the rise in hate crime, missing, murdered and indigenous relatives, farm labor, and a program with motors theater just about a month ago featuring stories from transgender and non binary leaders. This fall we’ll be featuring will be partnering with the creative nations out of the dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder on a program featuring native storytellers. And regarding just other partners and collaborators that we’ve worked with, through this series. They include you know, the Jewish Community Center, Boulder County, the NAACP, Boulder County, the Native American Rights Fund, we just have a creative nation’s just it’s been a really great vehicle for connecting with other organizations in town and in the county. And to really kind of, well Mac has been essential in helping us reach a broader community with these programs. That’s all I have for you. Thank you.

27:26
Thank you, Justin.

27:32
Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Nia Wansink, I am a resident of Longmont but I’m here today as Elmax consultant. Last year, they hired my firm prismatic consulting to support a bit of a needs assessment. So after over two decades, it was an opportunity to step back and say, How is this work really making a difference? Where are we seeing changes? And where do we have opportunities to continue it? And so that is exactly what we did. You know, Elmax sits at this really interesting intersection of cultural celebration, education, creating belonging, and also fighting discrimination in Longmont. And so that’s a lot of what we are trying to assess is what are the experiences of people here in Longmont. We also wanted to assess the events themselves, even though el Mack might not be hosting them directly. We want to know if they were meeting the community’s needs and if there were opportunities for those to grow and improve. So we put together a survey, I helped facilitate the process. But this was very much an L Mac directed survey, they helped come up with the questions, the lines of inquiry, and then we worked to distribute it over a nine month period. And many of our council members actually helped out when you had those booths at Cinco Demayo and other festivals with the tablets and the QR codes. That was referring back to this Elmax survey. We also worked with just city facilities that were QR code posters all over the city, which I have to say it was such a proud moment just to see l max logo all over Longmont and then leverage those partner relationships to get them to send it out to their email list directly as well. When it came to responses, we had 5.8% of respondents prefer Spanish language. They were monolingual Spanish speakers and the rest preferred English. We had a pretty interesting age range in terms of demographics. As you can see, there, we had a number of young adults under the age of 18. And then pretty well distributed age population beyond that, except for that 18 to 24 group, we had a hard time cracking that nut of connecting them in with a survey. And then in terms of the race and ethnic background of respondents, you can see there where we had people of color over represented, which was very intentional on our part, we worked really hard to ensure that the folks that are most historically excluded or marginalized in our community really had an opportunity to get feedback in the survey. And that is what we were able to do with those demographic responses. So of course, you’re wondering then what did we learn? I’ll start off with the experiences part. So we did I learned that 35 Out of every 100 respondents had experienced direct discrimination in Longmont at some point. Those experiences really ranged from light touch kinds of things that they explained they were able to actually give us stories in these surveys, to some pretty significant traumatic events. When we asked about where those experiences happened, the most common response was in the community at large, you know, they’re out and about, like any of us who live here in Longmont and are experiencing direct discrimination. So to us, again, that validates the need for the continued work, the more we can do to educate to lift up diversity, the more we can continue to fight discrimination. Then we asked, of course about these events. And first and foremost, it was amazing. 64% of respondents had attended one of our community events in the last year, and over 90% have attended one at some point in their lives. So our respondents were folks who are really engaged in the community, right, they’re showing up for these community opportunities. They’re wanting to engage with other folks, Cinco Demayo, and day of the dead were the top two, which I think is pretty indicative of what we’ve experienced here in Longmont. Those two are very large, respected events that draw people from miles around. When we asked about their actual event experience, we were bombarded which is love and appreciation for these events and for the city’s support of them. One specific respondent said I love being able to celebrate and experience the different cultures within our community. And they really see that through these events that we listed. When we asked how we can improve them, we had three very clear themes, increase marketing and awareness. And a lot of the the nuance of that was that they wanted more people to experiencing experience them, they loved them so much. They want more people there. They wanted improved accessibility, everything for mobility was so many events happening at Roosevelt, folks were saying it’s hard if I have a mobility device to actually navigate the field that Roosevelt so how can we ensure that we really have inclusive accessible events, as well as hearing and language access for the myriad of languages spoken here in Longmont? And then the last request was for more, we had folks saying I want to go to a cultural event every single month in Longmont, some folks had really specific events that they want to see cultural celebrations from their own background or once they want to learn about. And with that, I’m gonna bring Carmen in as the closer.

32:46
Mayor and Council, thank you, we’re gonna close this out. So as you can see, l Mac has had a long history and an impactful history. We want to start by saying thank you, thank you to the council that heard us in the beginning 20 years ago, 20 plus years. Thank you to the Council today. And hopefully we’re going to say thank you to the Future Council to continue this and supporting us. And I also want to thank the L Mac members. And I want to ask Elmax members, not only that presented, but those that are here to please take a stand. If you could just stand up all of you past present, existing Martha, if you could stand because these are the folks that have dedicated years of working with us in the community all of their time. So I want to thank you all. Thank you. And as you heard about these events, I also have to mention that a lot of these events are about relationships. These are about presenting our communities as assets and not a deficit. So that is also very important. When we mentioned some of these events and these events that are today very popular. And I have to tell you very quickly that, for example, they have the dead Day of the Dead, Martha Clevenger came and said she was the director at the time said Why do Latinos not come to the museum? And I said I didn’t know we were invited. And she said would you gather some folks? And could we have a conversation? And so elnec also has served as that convener, of trying to find out what can we do to build relationships? What could we do to build programs and services? And so we started Day of the Dead before we even built that new museum when it was across the street. And we had little wooden toys and we had a hot chocolate and abundant maltose and it grew and to this great event, that was the biggest thing in the state of Colorado. But it was based on those little conversations of courageous conversations of asking the question, tamales and talk when Spangler Elementary was open. And we had teachers that actually were in tears because they had never had a conversation with their students, because they had never had an interpreter that would sit and allow them to have an in depth conversation with their parents. So I think it’s important to call those things out. Because we are more than just the party. We are about this deep relationships that also help us with the issues of misunderstanding that go to the discriminatory and the bias. So as you know, we are in budget season and community and neighborhood resources, we’ll be putting in a request for L Mack. But we wanted to have this opportunity, we haven’t had this opportunity to come before you. What would we do with this additional requests for funds that you will be seen, we will add some funding to support the steering committee for meeting expenses, we will add additional funding to community events. We have more people coming as you heard, we started as the Latino strategic plan, we’ve had more and more communities of color, I can remember when Sunanda invited us to her basement to invite us to a celebration. And now we’re going to have in July Nepali chatra in the downtown area, because we actually have outgrown the museum. And we’re expecting to have over 1000 people in the downtown area. So we will have hopefully maybe even a Tibetan celebration. So we will have more and more communities coming forward. We hope to have about additional funding in our lead committee. And the lead committee is supporting opportunities to foster abilities to build skill sets to become leaders, we have many communities that feel maybe when you’re not part of the majority of the community may not feel as visible. And so we have to help to build those leadership skills. And the learning committee will have additional funding and I won’t go through the numbers, you can see the numbers there. To engage in opportunities for educational projects, Rita Lu, who runs the lunar celebration, does a great job of going into Silver Creek and talking to students. And so we want to provide the opportunity to support to continue to educate about different cultures, different countries, voices of change, as Justin said, we want to continue to support those panels on different subjects, local history, and also different subjects. And then we also want to be able to as you heard in the survey, people want to find out so we need those promotional materials, so that we can do a better job on that. So that is going to be really what we would do with that additional. Can you flash on that photo that you just showed? So I want to tell you that I’ve had the pleasure of doing two census for the city of Longmont. So l Mac is really important because when we did the 2020 census, and we looked at how do we reach communities that are hard to reach. Everybody on this committee helped me reach a lot of people that typically would be really hard to reach. So on that note, I want to thank you for your support and hope that we continue to have your support in the future. And if there’s any questions, we’re all here to answer. Thank you. I

38:51
want to say thank you I think Almanack is one of the best things that we have in Longmont. And I’m very proud of all the different cultures and ethnicities that we have. And I I just love it. I think I’ve been to every single solitary event for years. And it was great meeting Sanada. And thank you so much for Juneteenth and I have to thank Chiquita Yarborough I’m so happy that a counselor got involved in in giving support and coming up with ideas to engage more people in our community. So a heartfelt thank you to all of you. I don’t see any people in the queue to ask questions, but I do have one for you, Carmen. Okay, go back. Can you go back to the funding page? Sure. So this is a additional funding that you would like, yes.

39:45
Our current budget right now is 25,000. We will be requesting 50 in our budget request for elnec. So

39:54
you are requesting and this is where I’m Excuse me. I’m a little confused. That’s a 75 Epson, the

40:00
total currently we have 25. And we’ll request 50. Additional. Okay.

40:08
I hope we have me too. That’s great.

40:16
Thank you so much. Yes. And that was part of the reason why we wanted to do the cultural assessment because we wanted to make sure that we were on the right path.

40:24
It makes sense. So thank you for doing that. And yeah, it’s really important to know that you’re going in the right direction.

40:31
Yes, thank you.

40:32
Thank you very much all of you.

40:45
So now we are on first call public invited to be heard. And remember that you have three minutes and we would like your name and address. If it is written on our sheet, you’re good to go. You do not need to announce it, unless you want to. The first one is Arthur jock.

41:13
Mayor councilmembers Thank you, Susie, I’d like to thank you for showing up on long speak Avenue when we were discussing the sidewalk project that was completed our disappointment with that project. But that’s not why I’m here. The reason I came here was to discuss the annexation on Nelson road, at the end of the runway on Vance brand airport, which is potentially going to cause problems with noise, lead pollution from the aircraft that people are going to complain about when we put more houses closer to the runway. And those people need to be made aware that the houses that they are either purchasing, renting or leasing, are made aware that those potentials exist, the closer we get to the final approach to that runway, that the noise there single engine aircraft, piston driven, they run with AV gas, which is leaded. And that is becoming a complaint with a lot of people around the country that the closer they get to the airport, the more lead they’re taking in. Until we can solve that problem, the smaller airplanes are going to be running on that gas. And they need to be made aware that if they’re purchasing leasing or renting somewhere, that that is potentially a hazard that they’re going to be put in front of if you guys keep moving towards the airport, I’m already concerned about all of the houses that we’re putting in right now behind Home Depot that they’re going to start complaining soon. As soon as people start moving into them, and they become aware of the potential noise. We’ve already heard a lot of the noise problems with skydiving airplane from the person in gun barrel that complained forever. So the closer we get, the more noise is going to be heard by these people. And we can, how are we going to put up with that? Are we going to shut down the airport like they’re talking about in Boulder, because of the noise or, you know, I’m just concerned that the closer we get to that final approach, with all this housing and development, that there’s going to be more and more people complaining about that. And that airports been here. I don’t know exactly when it was put in. But it’s been quite a while. And it’s somewhat of an asset to this community. I know a lot of people who do fly, I don’t personally fly. But I’ve had an interest in in aviation my whole life. And I just see the concerns that are going to come up I see it a Jeffco airport, you know, they’re starting to talk about all that. Nobody was at the end of the runway when that airport was put in. But now we’re starting to hear the complaints about the leaded AV gas, it’s dropping down. Yeah, I know. And until we can do something about that, we need to be aware and make the people that are potentially buying leasing or renting these properties, that they understand that that is a potential hazard that they’re going to encounter if we allow all these people to move into that area. So that’s my big concern right now. And I hope you take that into your account when you annex this property for development. Suzy, I’d also like to say thank you again for showing up and meeting with us. Thank you.

44:18
Thank you, Arthur. Morgan Trexler.

44:29
Morgan truckster just wanted to start by thanking the staff for their work on the recent parking changes. I want to speak tonight in support of Oh Dash 2024 Dash 39 specifically option two. So, to me building parking is like buying a printer from Best Buy. might sound a little odd. The reason for that? A couple things. First, printers expensive on the front, just like parking, parking spaces cost between 10,050 $1,000 to build So that’s a ton of money and parking spaces. The second thing is that it sits unused most of the time. If you have if you buy your own printer you got you got the printer and works, right. But and then you could you could you go to fedex or to the library and print things when you need to print something once a year, right, you don’t have to have a printer. So parking, similar thing, we can use alternative options a lot of the time. And that’s, that’s part of our goal for the future. The next thing is that the ongoing costs of parking much like a printer are enormous. You go and you have to the printer on the front end, you’re like, oh, okay, it’s $100, I bought my printer. But then the ink is $60 a cartridge. The parking is the same way, the costs for the city to maintain parking are multiple. So there’s the cost of maintaining the parking lot that usually falls on whoever’s developing the property or whoever owns the property. But what about the extra space that we have to plow for that parking, that extra distance that our houses are spaced apart, that those costs are passed on to the city, the extra distance that we have to run pipes, the extra distance that we have to run gas lines that can then leak and we have to maintain all these things add up the extra stormwater infrastructure that we need for all this parking, enormous costs, they continue to add an on and on, we got to watch out for when the lawns and parking lot start turning a little magenta because we’ve run out of blue ink. And so the other thing is that we can start to hold developers accountable for these costs. By making these changes to parking. Right we can, we can make sure that we’re assessing, Hey, these are the costs associated with this. And we are limiting to you to these additional marginal costs. Unless you file for changes with the city. And you can validate that you can you can prove that this is going to be a benefit to the city to add extra parking here that would otherwise cost us significant amounts of money. The next thing is that a paperless future is our goal. What I mean by that is today, it feels weird to buy a printer because we’re having meetings on Zoom. Right? We’re having all this stuff happens on the computer. The same thing is the goal for transportation. We’re trying to move away from cars as part of our climate action plan. As part of our Vision Zero initiatives. We’re trying to increase the amount of biking and public transit use in our city. If we want a paperless or car light future, we parking should not be a central theme of our development plan. Thank you.

47:31
Thank you very much. John Lemke?

47:45
thank Council, this is my first time coming out to speak. Would you mind

47:50
giving your name and oh, yeah,

47:52
my name is John Lemke. I live 744 Stonebridge drive in Ward two. Thank you. Yeah, I apologize for not reading the entirety of both options. I’m here to talk about the parking maximums, I think it’s listed as I’m here, because I grew up in a city that I would say is dying or dead Buffalo, New York, I never realized why it was we had so much parking, and so few people. I go to all over the place, and we have parking lots like you wouldn’t believe all over the city. It’s also a city that’s huge level of poverty. And it wasn’t until last year that I read a story about what happened in Oregon, a bank wanted to move into one of the big cities in Oregon. And because of their parking laws and parking minimums, they were going to have to demolish buildings around the headquarters they plan to build because of their parking laws, they needed a certain number of parking spaces. So instead of they worked with the city to get a waiver, so they wouldn’t have to buy up buildings or their existing businesses just to knock them down to build parking spaces. So, you know, I would like for us to be a little bit more wise. Yes, I have a car. I’ve been to Europe, I’ve written their trains. They have fantastic alternatives to driving everywhere. I’ve driven on the autobahn, it’s a lot of fun. The German trains are even better. But the big thing is that the last mile of transportation is the tough part in us. We have so many parking spaces. It’s really unbelievable. And you know, I’m going to pivot a little bit on the pitch, having parking minimums forcing developers to to put in parking spaces is really taking away people’s freedom to make the choices they want to make in life because we’re requiring them to spend money on something that doesn’t get used very often. So, you know, I apologize again for not reading the entirety of the the Yeah, um, parking issues that we’re talking about, but I definitely do not want there to be parking minimums are in the city of Walmart. Thank you.

50:11
Thank you John Katie Filkins.

50:26
Hi, I’m Katie Filkins. Nice meeting you. I’m actually here also to talk about annexation and development. I find myself here kind of by accident. In March, I came home, and from a family vacation, I found out that there was going to be huge development down the road, sorry, is a little unusual. And they were going to tie in my road, I did not get a message because I wasn’t within 1000 feet of this development. But I would have totally changed our whole world that that road has been tied in from Nelson to Clover basin, the airport. So I will try not to be emotional with it’s about a home. I moved here over 20 years ago, and I moved here for a reason. I love this community. I love the mountains. And that’s why I am here. And this development around us anecdotally is starting to feel a little overwhelming. So I’m specifically speaking about quail road was what brings me here today. We have another one just coming up tonight. That sounds like at 809. Nelson is going to be framing us on either side. And I think at this point, the biggest discussion is this density. It’s a huge push for Max density. And I don’t think that that is necessarily the definition of affordable housing. The true attainable homes, people want to purchase homes. And that push that I’m feeling from various people is just Max density is the answer. What that’s actually going to do is let the developers decide whether it’s a rental or for purchase. And that’s concerning that we just want to let developers create our new skyline create our new city, simply because we know we have a housing crisis around the country. I totally understand that. But letting developers decide what the city looks like, simply because we’re on a one push note for Max density makes me really sad. My son said to me, Hey, Mom, have you ever heard of the song California? Keishon? It did red hot chili pepper Islam has it? Absolutely. Son. He said, Do you know that there’s an actual word? There’s a definition. It’s a term popular in the 1970s referring primarily to haphazard mindless development that has already gobbled up most of southern California, which some attributed to an influx of California to other states. I am not suggesting that Longmont is haphazard in this, but I am asking us to pause for a minute. Maybe look at the metrics of what we have pushed through in the last eight years since 2016 envision of Longmont was actually looked at and see what has happened to these developments. Whether they’re rentals is that solving the problem? Because I want my children to be able to afford it to just pause for intelligent thoughtful. Thank you.

53:34
Thank you, Katie. My carry

53:42
Mayor Council, thank you. My name is Mike Carey 2413 che Mar in the North Park. I’m here to speak on the parking. Very interested in park. So I’m very interested in making sure that we do have parking maximums. No, I’m in favor of density. We can do it smartly. We can do it in a way that benefits everybody. And I think the city can work with developers to make sure that people have the option to purchase homes but also we can not invest so much money in parking spaces not invest so much in sprawling, wide open areas that are used only for cars and keep our wide open areas for our nature and our wildlife. And I guess that’s all I have to say.

54:38
Thank you Mike Lance Whitaker.

54:53
Well, hello, mayor and city council My name is Lance burka, 1750 call You’re st Longmont, Colorado. I’ve been a resident for 43 years as you all know, and I’d like to tell you California fornication has been happening for over 40 years so I felt it and I’m not really for Max density but that’s me. I would like to say though today is buttermilk biscuit day as y’all know. It’s also American National decency day and Nashville underground America Day. So I would find it decent for the mayor to show me the underground da city at times you ought it is also national dance like a chicken day. Not gonna happen.

56:06
Lance Lance Lance. Ah, Steve all Schuler, can you beat that one Steve?

56:16
Evening, Steve ALTSCHULER 1555 Taylor drive. I wanted to remark about something you guys were talking about last night? Or was it last week? The regarding the marijuana lounges that you are considering, and a couple of points stood out to me. First, in the presentation, they mentioned that there was a law or an ordinance to only have four pot shops in Longmont. And then the next one said, but we can undo that, and we can do whatever we want. So if this occurs, yes, not much of a law, it can be thrown out anytime somebody wants to. Second, I’ve talked to police officers before, and I’ve read articles in the paper. And it seems very obvious that there’s a huge increase in crime and car accidents, since marijuana was made legal. And if you allow marijuana lounges, it doesn’t matter that they can’t buy it. They’re they’re bringing their own. They’re getting stoned, and then they’re driving home. And that’s going to allow for more accidents. And obviously, the potential for more crime. But certainly the accidents from driving stoned is ridiculous. I’m a big constitutional person, I don’t care what someone does in their own home. But when they get in the car and go out on the streets, then that does concern me. And Mark Twain said the right of one man to swing his arm stops or another man’s face begins. So I’d like you to keep that in mind. And third, although I understand the noble intent. At the very end of the presentation, there was talk about allowing financially challenged or minorities to buy in at a lower licensing rate, you had a fee of 2000 and a license of 1000 every year or vice versa. And I just want to point out to anyone that’s paying attention. That’s actually called discrimination. I understand the intent and it’s noble, but it shouldn’t be legal because it doesn’t happen for other people. That’s all I have. Thank you very much.

58:33
Thanks, Steve. Seeing no one else on the list, I’m going to close first call public invited to be heard. And we will move on to the consent agenda. Would you mind reading the titles into the consent agenda?

58:49
Absolutely. Mayor, it’s a long list so bear with me. Second reading and public hearing for all ordinances introduced on this agenda will be held on May 28 2024. Nine A is ordinance 2024 Dash 30. A bill for an ordinance making additional appropriations for expenses and liabilities of the city of Longmont for the fiscal year beginning January 1 2024. Nine B is ordinance 2024 Dash 31. A bill for an ordinance amending title four of the Longmont municipal code on revenue and finance by creating the first and main transit facilities fund nine see our house pad envision Longmont comprehensive plan land use amendment rezoning and concept plan amendment. There are three ordinances their ordinance 2024 Dash 32 a bill for an ordinance approving the house Pat and vision Longmont comprehensive land use plan amendment ordinance 2024 Dash 33. A bill for an ordinance approving the rezoning of lots five and six are when Thomas first filing final plat, generally located west of Harvest Moon drive and north of bountiful Avenue, changing the zoning from residential multifamily to planned unit development and ordinance 2024 Dash 34 a bill for an ordinance approving the second concept plan amendment to the Irwin Thomas annexation number one concept plan, generally located north of bountiful Avenue and west of Harvest Moon drive. Item nine D is ordinance 2024 Dash 35 a bill for an ordinance repealing and reenacting chapter 7.04 of the Longmont Municipal Code regarding animals. 90 is ordinance 2024 Dash 36. A bill for an ordinance amending section 14.0 6.04 row of the Longmont municipal code on backflow and cross connections concerning enforcement and certifying charges to the county treasurer. Nine F is ordinance 2024 Dash 37. A bill for an ordinance authorizing the city of Lamarque to lease the real property known as Vance brand municipal airport hangar parcel H 35. To Paul Dixon. Nine G G is resolution 20 point 24 Dash 25 a resolution of the Longmont city council, declaring the intent of the city of Longmont, Colorado, to issue or otherwise assistance support the issuance of private activity bonds to finance the acquisition rehabilitation, renovation and equipping of multifamily residential housing facilities known as Parkside Mountview Plaza, authorizing a carry forward election for the 2024 allocation and related matters. Nine H is resolution 2024 Dash 26 a resolution of the Longmont City Council approving the intergovernmental agreement between the city and the Longmont housing authority to provide non federal American rescue plan Act funding for the assented overcrossing Early Childhood Education Center Project. Nine is resolution 2024 Dash 27 a resolution of the Longmont City Council approving the revocable permit and agreement between the city and able to sail for some summer camps at Union reservoir and nine j is resolution 2024 Dash 28 a resolution of the Longmont City Council reversing the decisions of the Planning and Zoning Commission acting as the board of adjustments and appeals denying the 530 Alpine street variance requests.

1:01:56
Thank you, Don. That was a long list. Do any LISI counselor crest

1:02:05
Yes, I would like to remove D and E. That’s David and Edward D and E.

1:02:12
Okay. Councillor Rodriguez?

1:02:18
Thank you, Mayor. I would like to remove nine J resolution 2024 28.

1:02:25
Okay, and I do see further on the list that someone has removed a Is that correct on

1:02:35
Not that I’m aware of Mayor

1:02:44
that’s that was on another agenda

1:02:46
that that item. There’s an order of events. So that item is on consent, but it’ll be taken later because the order of these items matter. Um, so we placed it there purposely so you won’t address it until you get there.

1:03:01
First attended. Okay. Perfect. So we are Can I have a motion then? Councillor Rodriguez, would you like to make your own microphone that would help.

1:03:18
Thank you, Mayor. I moved the Consent Agenda minus items D E and J

1:03:27
It’s been moved by Councillor Rodriguez seconded by Councillor Crist to approve the Consent Agenda minus d and J That’s it. Councilmember Martin Councillor Martin? Are you able to vote? Okay, great. And that passes unanimously. Thank you. We will now move on to ordinances second reading and public hearings on any matter. The first one is the public hearing to consider action on amendment number 20 Dash 08 t zero, the 2020 CDBG action plan and Molly O’Donnell is going to get the presentation.

1:04:56
Wonderful Mayor, Members of Council Molly O’Donnell. How’s it Director, I’m gonna do a brief presentation tonight since we do have a public hearing that is required for your consideration of amendment 2020 Dash eight to the CDBG action plan. So this is in related to our, our CDBG CV allocation of funds. So this is COVID money. That is way back from 2020. And I am crossing my fingers that this is our last amendment eight is definitely more than more than we typically ever do. But this was a particularly difficult funding source to get expended. So we’re about 78% Done with the allocation. We do have an additional 68,528 left, we have identified CVX eligible projects. And what we’re doing with this amendment is shifting projects around because the recovery Cafe project was a feasibility study for the design and construction of an addition at the suite supportive housing that has been deemed infeasible on the financial side. And so there’s they’re switching directions and looking for another site, which we the city has been assisting them in figuring out that plan. But that meant that their CV, the rest of their CV award in the amount of just about $68,000 needs to be reallocated. So that’s what we’re here to get your approval on tonight. The LHC accessibility project was awarded last May, so one year ago, and they’ve spent 100% of their $100,000 award. This is our CV eligible activities to do more accessibility work, curb ramps asphalt to remove trip hazards and Stripe ADA spaces and add some more sensory units for those that have hearing or vision impairment. So they can spend the money here this year. It’s an eligible use. And so that is the proposal tonight. Here’s a summary of your proposed changes that’s also in your packet. And this is how we’ve spent all of the money since it was received in 2020. And so at this point, I would ask if you have any questions on these proposed changes, and then request that you hold the public hearing.

1:07:08
Mayor Council, I’ll jump in real quick. This is a continuation of finishing the work associated with a voluntary compliance agreement that HUD placed on the Longmont Housing Authority.

1:07:19
Okay, Councillor crest?

1:07:25
Thanks. Now, Molly, you’re of course most familiar with housing, and appreciate all the work that you’ve done to make sure that this funding ends up in the right places. However, in the original plan, there was $200,000 assigned to small businesses, which was zeroed out. And I’m wondering if there is a way that we could take some of this money or all of this money and use it to benefit small businesses, because I continually hear that small businesses feel that they have not fully recovered from COVID. And I also want to add that many of the restaurants in our area are multicultural restaurants. And a lot of those have significantly not recovered, I was just talking with, particularly if they’re on the Asian continent, and that would be from India, Vietnamese, Thailand, all those cultures represented. And in talking to some of those restaurant owners, they say that their businesses still 80% takeout there losing money on their brick and mortar shops. They’re being hit with bills to take care of their parking lots and other, you know, strata around the restaurants. And I think they would benefit from some COVID relief in this topic particularly comes up when we talk about the minimum wage in terms of small businesses feeling like they needed need more of a hand up, if you will. So how do you feel about taking the rest of that money and applying it to small business owners? So

1:09:14
we actually have a lot of information on that, because we did look at that at the beginning. But then our the housing division did assist other city wide efforts during COVID When the cares program came through, and we actually did do a small grant business small business grant program that offered up to $10,000 in assistance. And the requirements were similar to this funding source, and they’re very in depth and detailed, and we had to have those businesses demonstrate exactly what their financial loss was zero out any other systems received, including PPP loans, and all of the other COVID money that came through. And we actually went all the way through that application. The list of applications that came through and funded had to every eligible business that we could. And then actually, the applications did dry out. Because it was so difficult to prove the dollar for dollar requirement that this funding source and the one at the time required, it was very heavy on the paperwork, and it was doing extreme math. And so that’s why actually one of the original changes to this funding source, we switched over to that cares program, because it was at least slightly simpler. But then we did max out the requests at that time, I absolutely agree that there are still I mean, we will be working on COVID impacts, I think, for four generations. But in this case, I think that we would struggle meeting the extremely high level of detail required to demonstrate the need directly from COVID. At this point.

1:10:54
Unfortunately, that’s a social injustice. Because in talking with a lot of these folks, when COVID happened and continuing, they’re very resistant to filling out that paperwork. Some of it is because maybe they’re not full citizens. Some of it is because they come you know, during COVID, I’m one of the owner said, you know, in our country, they’re locking people up for walking the streets at night. They’re just very hesitant to, to cause any ripples. And it’s a shame because these are first generation. They’re a pathway for other family members to immigrate and have a place to work when they get here. And I’ve had other clients. So we’ve talked about how do we support these people and keep them in business until they fully recover? So I don’t know how we can address the paperwork issue except to say that I’ve offered my help. I don’t charge for it. But, you know, there’s this hesitancy that? Well, you know, we don’t want to owe the government we don’t want to. So if you have any suggestions, please offer them now. Well,

1:12:07
HUD funding is, is one of the most challenging funding sources out there. There are a lot of strings attached, there’s a lot of steps to take to get through the door, which I I can see that is also one of the hardest barriers to getting underrepresented folks to participate. It’s a challenging source, especially this one. As you can see from the eighth time, we’ve tried to switch funding around to try and make it work. Yeah.

1:12:37
And I really appreciate all the work you’ve done on this. And I know it’s benefited a lot of people in in the city. Okay, that’s my piece.

1:12:50
Any more discussion? Seeing none, I’m going to open it up to the public for the public hearing. Is there anyone in the audience that would care to discuss the CDBG funding? Seeing no one I will close the public hearing and now we need to take action on this. Can I have a motion

1:13:17
I move approval of the 2020 action plan amendment 20 2008

1:13:21
I second that any any more discussion? Let me look at zoom and see if Marsha and no so let’s vote

1:14:03
Miss Lee, thank you Molly. Do we need to take a bio break before we move on? Anyone? See none we’re gonna move on. We are now on let’s see what else we have here. The next one on our second reading is a bill for an ordinance conditionally approving the vacation of a seven foot wide LPC utility easement generally located south of the intersection of Rogers road and South flat circle. And this is Bill 2024 Dash 29. Do we have any comments or questions from council or discussion? Seeing none, I’ll open up 2024 Dash 29 to the public hearing. Is there anyone in the public that would like to do Guess this bill? Seeing no one I will close the public hearing and ask for a motion.

1:15:06
I’ll move ordinance 2024 Dash 29

1:15:09
Second

1:15:12
All right, let’s vote. It was Moved by Councillor Hidalgo fairing and seconded by Councillor crest

1:15:24
That passes unanimously. Thank you.

1:15:33
We are now at the items removed from the consent agenda. We’ll start with a I’m going to ask clerk to read the title into the record.

1:15:45
Sir mayor, this was confusing. Item. Resolution 2024 29 is a resolution of along with City Council approving the Second Amendment to the intergovernmental agreement between the city and the Longmont housing authority for accessibility improvements to various properties through the 2020 Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus program.

1:16:05
Is there any discussion from Council? Seeing none, can I have a motion? Counselor Yarbro Do you want to turn on your microphone?

1:16:30
I move resolution 2024 Dash 29

1:16:35
Second Second.

1:16:39
It’s been moved 2024 Dash 29 has been Moved by Councillor Yarborough. seconded by Councillor Martin. Is there any discussion? Seeing none Let’s vote.

1:16:53
That passes unanimously. The other item is moved from the consent agenda. Our D and E removed by Councillor Chris. I’ll turn it over to you counselor.

1:17:17
Officer.

1:17:25
Officer, can you tell me is this written? Was this the way it was written to begin with? I mean, including all of these pieces, and I’ll tell you why. I had a discussion with a constituent who felt that this was government run wild that there are a lot of people in our ward that are out of compliance with this. So I felt like it was something new, particularly talking about the six foot space all around chicken coops, that would be five point g point. Seven. And the concern was that some of the yards in our area are not large enough to allow for those types of chicken coops and the people who most need eggs, therefore can’t have chicken coops. And those who have big enough yards won’t have them. So

1:18:24
although all the chicken parts of the ordinance were written in 2009

1:18:29
Okay, so that’s been the standard up to now. So, yeah,

1:18:33
the only changes that are on this set are the fiber cells that are listed on the package.

1:18:44
Okay, so Additionally, there was some concern that there are certain cultural groups that favor owning exotic animals, such as a potbelly pig is considered an exotic animal. And then And then we talked about the chickens, but additionally about the chickens. There’s concern of what are you supposed to do with your old chickens? Has no chicken seem to die of old age? They’re usually eaten, or a predator catches them because they’re small.

1:19:17
I know. We’ve been with the chickens on the ranch that I grew up on but

1:19:20
Right, right, but there’s a provision for no slaughtering. So

1:19:26
yeah, I don’t know the answer for what to do with chickens when they’re too old. I guess.

1:19:32
There’s no retirement program planned in chickens. Okay. So and then the last concern that I received was about spaying and neutering. And there was a concern about not people that are breeders, but actually I’ve showed dogs. And also, I think, in addition to that, where owners plan to breed the pet in order to have a replacement pet of the same bloodline, which I have heard of that. So those are the concerns I received. And what it makes me think is that we should move this item to a first reading so that there’s a little more time for community input. Oh, yeah. consent, I’m saying, maybe give it a first and a second, a little more time for people to consider.

1:20:27
Because it’s an ordinance. Yeah.

1:20:29
I’m saying that people haven’t had time to digest this yet. Maybe you would like to diet. delay it for another reading. I always understood the consent agenda was to consent to move it to second reading, or we could consent to move it to a first reading. Not necessarily,

1:20:47
you can pull it to amend it, table it. Send it back to look at the codes again, and consider what you would like them to consider in in the codes.

1:21:06
Okay. Would you be willing to consider those three items? differently?

1:21:12
Yeah, those are all parts of the original ordinance that no changes were made to in this one.

1:21:18
Yeah, I think if council wants us to look at other sections of the ordinance count and need, we need to have a motion and the majority of council vote for us to look at those items, the items that we brought forward today, we’re really regarding two very, very specific operational issues that we were running into. And in terms of if you look at the background issue and analysis, the code allows for potbelly pigs. There are more breeds than Vietnamese. So they’re striking the words, Vietnamese. And so these are operational issues that we’re bringing in terms of what we’re seeing. If counsel wants us to look at the ordinance, then we’ll need counsel to vote on that piece for us to bring that back to you.

1:22:02
Okay, so my motion. Go ahead, is that we take up further look at this ordinance to take into consideration some of the concerns of the citizens that have just come before me.

1:22:17
Can you mention those concerns against each other in

1:22:19
the motion? Yes, it would be five point g point seven, which has to do with the construction of a chicken coop. It has to do with

1:22:40
five point i No slaughtering and then F two about animals being being required to be spayed or neutered.

1:22:53
I’ll second that motion. I see that Councillor McCoy has his hand up. Councillor McCoy. Can you unmute? There you go? Thank you. Yes.

1:23:05
I was on council in 2009 when this came up. And I want to make clear that as far as any sort of Slaughtery that was never thinking will be approved. And and chickens become pets out these days. Most of the people that reported what they were seen with their chickens is that they have about three or more chickens that follow me around and take time to sit on their laps and then be pets for the remainder of their lives. And we had a rule we had a very deep discussion about any slaughter or anything like that. And we made sure that you were talking about backyard chickens and roosters. And we had those conversations in depth. But I want people know a little bit of the history of this. We were in one of the most difficult economic times that this country has seen since the Great Depression. And some folks said, Well, why should we be out there trying to bring in business, because the business is it just laid off some 30 some 1000 people in this area that oppressed for a range or more. And if they were it wasn’t up to us to try to tell them what to do. But we were trying to give people something and that was called home. And I’ve said for years people said, oh backyard chickens. This was hope for people that were struggling to make ends meet and to be able to feed their parents and with those eggs. That was the thing was about being the families with chickens. It’s about feeding their families and providing some sense of protein, that sense sense of hope. So I want them to be clear because So that was the entire contents of that. And big cities like Chicago and LA and other places like that have backyard chickens in their communities? It’s not. So that’s my two cents about get your chickens. So literally a decade. So I I am concerned about talking about again.

1:25:26
Thank you Councillor McCoy.

1:25:27
I remember those discussions. They were lengthy and long they were very close to the prairie dog discussions. So I seen count Councillor Rodriguez.

1:25:39
Thank you very much. I would be happy to have a discussion about items that are problematic, maybe, or questionable. In the current ordinance. That’s not being said. Not the change is being suggested tonight. Separately, I would prefer to push the the items that were specific to the counselor calm tonight forward, and then have that additional conversation at a later point. That’s just my two cents on that.

1:26:11
Would you put me would you like to comment on that?

1:26:18
Would you need a separate motion for that?

1:26:21
Yeah, what I would suggest is that the next meeting when we are putting things on future agendas, then you can bring that back with those specific items you would like discussed in the code.

1:26:31
Okay, To be continued. next council meeting, you need to withdraw your motion, I will withdraw my motion and replace it with a motion to advance Item D from the consent agenda.

1:26:47
All right, it’s been moved to wha events 2024 Dash 35 from the consent agenda. And it was seconded by Councillor Rodriguez. Let’s vote.

1:27:13
And that passes unanimously, thank you. And we are now on Item e 2024. Dash 36.

1:27:24
Good evening, mayor and council members. I’m answerable again with water and waste Department. Thank

1:27:30
you for being here, of course. So let me ask this question. Currently, if someone is in arrears on their water bill, it’s pushed to a lien against their property. And then this initiative would ask that it be attached to or go through the county assessor and be combined with property taxes, is that correct? No. be treated as property taxes, I think is the way it’s written. Right. But

1:27:59
we’re not talking about utility bill.

1:28:03
You’re talking about? Okay, I’m

1:28:04
talking about backflow. So let me give you a little bit of context. What this was about, I was in front of the council, late August. And the reason for that is a state mandated regulatory program for protecting our drinking water system. And that program involves backflow prevention and cross connection by enforcing installation of backflow assemblies on commercial lines or multifamily lines, not residential, necessarily, unless there’s a specific risk that’s determined that would require it. And also mandated annual testing of these devices. And the requirements involved if we don’t complete more than 95% of actually, it might even be more, I might be not remembering totally correctly right now. Then the city would be fined for that, because we’re not protecting our residents health through protecting our drinking water system. And this has been going on for a while, but recently become a lot more stringent by the state as the way that they mandated it. And so if I was in front of the council before your term started, Councilmember Christie Crist’s. I’m sorry, and and then I was seeking for direction on how to improve our program and adjusted so we make sure we protect our health, our public’s health. And one of the this piece so now coming to your question, and if you’d like to learn more, I’m happy to explore more but I just want to not like over, you know, discuss this. So this piece that we’re asking you today is about our frequent fliers. This mandate is So for property owners and property managers, mainly, they are the ones who are responsible. So it’s not part of the water usage, or water utility bill at all, this is specific for the property owners to take care of their system. And so this piece comes in if the property owners are not completing their annual testing, and that we have to follow through, we have to make sure they do it and they’re not getting it done, and they’re putting the system at risk. That’s what this is for, then we issue a civil penalty. And as a last resort, we want to collect through county assessors. So

1:30:42
there isn’t any time when you actually do the work and charge them for it. Well,

1:30:47
so Okay, then I’m going to need to give you a little bit more context, our proposal involves that we’re going to send letters to notify them to go with their own testers. And if they don’t do it on the amount of time that we give, we have a contract, and this contractor is going to go out and test it for them. But we’re not going to enter anybody’s property if they’re not there. And at that point later on, at the end of the year, if that’s not still completed, then we charged a civil penalty. But again, this has not done before, this is the first time we never charged anybody with civil penalty, although it was civil penalty peace was in the code before we made the changes. And now we’re asking to enforce it, not necessarily to go out and do it. But when we have the frequent fliers coming back at the end of the year, because we have to go back and either shut the water off to these properties, or otherwise, we’re going to be in violation as the city towards the state, we want to be able to have this ability to go for these people and charge it through their property taxes.

1:31:52
How much is the civil penalty, it says up to

1:31:55
$1,000. So we’ve determined it as $500 per device for now. But we can charge up to $1,000 if

1:32:02
need be any of the ability to turn off the water or to do the work yourself. Now, okay, so here’s my concern with it when it goes to the county assessor, and then you have to pay your property taxes, your property taxes may continue to stay in arrears until you pay that civil penalty, which, when that happens, eventually, your property can be sold for, you know, failure to pay taxes. Whereas where there’s a lien, the owner could sell the property, which would automatically pay off the lien first, and then still get the equity out of the property. So I’m just wondering, you know, if these are if these frequent fliers, are they people that are in duress, or their properties are, you know,

1:32:49
they’re just just mostly property managers have big multifamily complexes most of the time,

1:32:54
just disorganized is where you’re going with that. Okay. So when you assess the civil penalties, do you then give action out of them? Yes, this

1:33:03
has been applied by code enforcement for weed and they are collecting it. The reason this didn’t come as part of the original package in August, because we wanted to investigate it further, we wanted to make sure that this was possible. And this was valid that we could do it. But again, I want to point out to you, this is a last resort that we don’t hope to use ever, but have it in the system just to make sure that it is something that we could ask, because when you think of the other side, let’s talk about an a community where they do not have a backflow device, and they don’t want to install it. Who are they risking at that point? There has to be some consequence so and protection. So that’s the purpose of us wanting to have this tool in the packet.

1:33:50
Although I would think turning off the water would be a pretty good way to get somebody’s attention.

1:33:57
That’s true. And that’s in there too. But turning off the water would harm the tenants, not the owners. Yes.

1:34:06
or turning off the water, we actually have gotten close to having to do that on some commercial properties is that when you’re looking at a multifamily residential area, and you turn the water off, and you’re not going to have water for a period of time, then you start creating other issues in terms of habitability, that’s actually more punitive for the residents even though they’re not directly in connection with this. And so this gives a different tool that doesn’t necessarily impact the residents of these multifamily units

1:34:38
well I would always prefer that you went in and did the work, and then charge the fee because as you mentioned, code enforcement can go around and and be collectors on that. I feel like this puts a little bit of proper The REITs at risk, because everybody does their best. But sometimes these tax sales through the county or not, you know, things happen. No, I

1:35:13
hear you. I agree. But here’s, here’s how the program works. We do go, we make three calls to schedule that appointment. And as long as they’re willing to work for us, we go ahead and do the test and never gets to this point. As I said, this is something that’s extreme. If it happens, just also as an encouragement, I mean, discouragement, I would say, for the frequent fliers, so that they don’t continue to, like work the system, I would say, and, yeah, so if they’re willing to work with us, that’s our route. And we have the contractor this year is our first year. It is our first month, we send our first list. And it seems like people are cooperating. So hopefully, we won’t get to that point. And actually, on that program, right now, we are charging way below the actual testers out there. So you know, that if they work with us, we get it done. And we get it done cheaper than what the industry charges right now. Okay.

1:36:15
So there’s been some training because this is a fairly new requirement. Okay. Well, I do you have anyone that has not fulfilled their obligation

1:36:27
this year just started so, so we’re good so

1:36:30
far. Yes. Okay. So I am actually not in favor of this. I’m gonna hold off on voting yes. On this. So.

1:36:40
Okay, so I am going to move. Yes. Oh, I’m sorry. Kelsey Yarborough. Yes. Thank

1:36:49
you, Mayor. I just want to say to Councillor Crist, I stay in a unit that actually is required. And I think we talked about this last time that it’s amazing that they are on it, like three letters, we do have to be home. They send out information every time if I’m not home, I’m not able to do it. But they are on it. So they know what they’re what they’re supposed to do. And and if I’m not able to the owner is calling me like we should gonna be there. So they can come in and do their what they’re supposed to do. So I know for a fact that if my, my place understand and know what the requirements are, and their stand on it, then I’m pretty sure they’re the majority of people are doing what they’re supposed to do. But it will be advantageous if we were the ones going in there and doing it. So. So but I mean, as long as it’s getting done, realize it was each unit. Oh, yeah. Every unit they walk around in front of all the units with buckets, just saying.

1:38:01
It might be at the watermain.

1:38:05
So is there any more discussion? Seeing none, I am going to move 2024 Dash 36 Or it’s been moved by myself seconded by Councillor Yarbro. Seeing no other discussion. Let me check with these two on Zoom. Nope, they’re good. Let’s vote.

1:38:37
And that passes six to one with Councillor Crist in opposition. Now we are going to the next item that was pulled which was if I remember correctly, J Councillor Rodriguez.

1:38:50
Thank you, Mayor pack. As you all remember, this was a variance or a number of variances that we granted by reversing the planning and zoning at King as the board of adjustment appeals for this specific property. What I was somewhat concerned with though is that we didn’t have a sunset on the variance. So I propose that we amend the resolution for the variance to expire upon the owners relinquishing possession of the home, be it through sale or natural causes.

1:39:34
Okay, so there’s been a motion made to amend 2024 Dash 28 to put a sunset clause on this resolution. It’s been moved by Councillor Rodriguez seconded by Councillor Hidalgo. fairing is there any discussion? Seeing none let me check again with they did. I’m glad you’re watching that. Let’s vote. You Hi

1:40:08
and that passes unanimously now we need a motion for 2024 Dash 28 to move as amended.

1:40:16
I’m in as

1:40:19
that’s what counts. Councilmember Martin. Okay. Thanks for chiming in. So, the motion was moved to move 2024 Dash 28 As amended. Is there any discussion? Seeing none Let’s vote

1:40:42
and that passes unanimously thank you all right. We are now at general business now. Do we need a break anybody? We’re gonna take a fight. Let’s make it six minutes.

1:48:32
So we’re all back. Thank you. We’re now welcoming Jim Goldin for the 2025 budget discussion.

1:48:39
Thank you, Mayor Peck members of council. I’m Jim golden chief financial officer with me here is Teresa Malloy as well, the Assistant Chief Financial Officer. And we and of course the city manager is going to be involved in this as well. It’s a discussion of the 25 operating budget process, which we begin and have already begun actually, within the last month or more. Annually, the city manager is required under the charter to present the proposed budget to the city council by September 1 of the year. So this here is a calendar that will be following staff is already working on preparing budget requests through this month. And then in June and July. budget staff will review those requests and we’ll have meetings between departments and the city manager over the requests. In also in July. Finance staff and other department staffs will be working on 25 revenue projections I will and then in August, we will finalize proposed budget and CIP get it ready to present to the Council on August 27. throughout September we’ll have staff presentations and public hearing and then again And in October, we will have City Council give us direction and the ordinances that would need to be considered along with resolutions on the final 25 budget. So what I wanted to do tonight is give you a little bit of an idea of some of the things we’re looking at as we’re going into this budget process. We are finalizing our audit currently and hope to we will have done by law have that to you. Next month, we’ll probably have it at the end of next end of June, presenting the audit to the council. But these are numbers from the audit. For the general fund. We have a fund balance of $54.2 million at the end of 23. In the General Fund, it’s a $5.8 million balance greater than it was for the 22 year end. Part of that that is specific just to the general fund itself, is 52 point 1 million. So the difference between that is things like art in public places and some smaller funds that get rolled into the general fund for our annual audit purposes. But of that $52.1 million $6.3 million of that is the required table reserve. And then $15.26 million is mergency reserve under the city council’s emergency reserve policy. So altogether, that gives the general fund about 21 and a half million dollars of emergency reserves. And there’s also $9.6 million of encumbrances or carry overs and those were included in the ordinance that was considered on first reading just a few minutes ago. And then seven and a half million dollars are mounts that are assigned for specific purposes. More than half of that is money that’s set aside for for oil and gas purposes. We have $980,000 set aside from the for youth programs that was from the stadium district monies and other purposes for things like treatment, tree mitigation, wildfire, wildland fires and fee waivers and money for union reservoir. They all make up that seven and a half million dollars. We have $4.33 million budgeted in 24 budget that was for one time expenses, that is a part of this total fund balance 1.1 and a half million dollars of non spendable restricted dollars. That’s for prepaid expenses from the end of last year. And as well it is for staff contracts. And then finally, we have seven and a half million dollars that is unassigned. And in a sense it’s available for use in the 24 budget as one time dollars. We are typically in the last few budgets been saving or taking about two and a half million dollars of that last year and putting it into the 24 budget, I mean into the to the emergency reserves in order to keep that percentage of reserves up. So as I have here on the second bullet, the emergency reserves of 15.2 6 million equate to an 8% emergency reserve and a five and a half percent stabilization reserve. And the financial policy goal is to get that stabilization reserve up to 8%. So the two and a half million dollars keeps us in line with the growth in the general fund budget to keep us with at the same percentage and typically to try to add more towards that 8%. So from 23, we had where we had leftover fund balance from was a combination. On the revenue side sales tax revenue came in strong gas franchise revenue was over budget, development revenues as well and good deal of investment income interest earnings were pretty significant compared to what we had budgeted for 2023. So those all provided some unassigned fund balance and then there was expenditure savings for where we did not make commitment of dollars budgeted dollars and stayed below the budgeted level. That also goes to fund balance. And the public safety fund it ended 23 With a total fund balance of $15 million. About $9.8 million of that is currently in a sense on budgeted although that on budgeted balance could still be needed for completion of facility rehabilitation projects. So it’s very useful that that budget is available. Again This was again combination of sales tax revenues and investment income, and also a good deal of expenditure savings within the public safety fund below the budget level. Public safety fund maintains an 8% emergency reserve, which is about $1.4 million. The public improvement fund that’s funded by sales tax, excuse me, and it is used for capital projects, that would typically be for non enterprise type services. It ended with an unbudgeted fund balance of about $4 million. And most of that amount, though, is being held for projects that we are anticipating to be used in the next three years of the CIP. So there are just tight timing of some projects that are going to be over and above the normal amount of sales tax that we have going into that fund was still receiving fund balance to use for those. For those purposes. The street fund ended 23 With a total fund balance of $32.7 million. And all about all of about except for $7.6 million of that is, is budgeted, or carried over. So 7.6 is unbudgeted at this point in time. So from a revenue perspective, in 23, sales and use tax revenue, finished up 4.2% over 22. And this exceeded our 23 budget, which called for a 1.71% increase. Because we have conservative projections that we used for our sales and use tax for 24. And again, in our, our budgeting process for 24. We were being conservative as well. So our sales and use tax, we only need 1.53% growth, to reach the budget for 2024. So through March, that number is up six and a half percent, you’ll be getting that hopefully, we’ll get new that report. And typical email I send you with updates on sales tax should be hopefully going out this week, we’re trying to correct some issues with that data currently. But again, we were up six and a half percent after three months, dropped in March from about a 10% level and in February roll down to six and a half. Just last week or so was the one week anniversary of Costco opening. And so what that means is, you know, Costco is doing well, but now we are running into its second year. So we’re not going to have as much sales tax revenue growth, as we have had over the past 12 months. Because we were comparing to not having a Costco before these 12 months are up. And when you make a comparison to next May, this may to last May, we won’t have the level of growth we’ve been seeing over the last 12 months. So what I’m trying to say is that six and a half percent, I expect that to go down, it would naturally be going down. So

1:58:26
may sales tax, we will not have that information available to us until early July. As I mentioned, we’ll do our revenue projections in July, it’s going to be tight for us to know what to expect, because we’ll have, you know, basically less than one month of that overlap of a second year of Costco sales. But so we’ll be somewhat project conservative and projecting our growth. At this point, it’s too early to say we do typically hope that a conservative projection will be 3% a year. If we were to say that we’d have 3% in 24, followed by 3% growth on top of that, and 25 that generates about $4.71 million of new sales and use tax which could be used for ongoing expenses in the 25 general fund budget. Now, if we would have assumed 6% and 24, followed by 3% and 25, that would be $7.9 million instead of $4.71 million. But, you know, I think we’re gonna just have to wait and see in the next couple of months before we land on what our projection might be for this budget process. I just want to give you that as an example of what we could be looking at

1:59:49
the gym let me back up so I saw some to that. Well, I want to go to the question on Costco just to be very clear. Okay, well on that one because I saw some looks of what we’re seeing is Costco is still performing. But January through April, and this is as much for the community as anything. When we see the growth in sales tax, it’s because they were not paying sales tax, January through April. And what Jim is saying is then starting in May, we’re only seeing the growth of Costco over Costco. Okay. And so that is going to then pull down and sales tax growth.

2:00:33
Right. So just to clarify what he said, when he said they were in pain January through April, he meant in 23.

2:00:40
Right. So go ahead. Have you been able to see any cannibalization with Costco yet? Or will we have to wait another year

2:00:53
to see if there is myopic you can never really tie it down as to where it goes and where it’s from and such. But we certainly had impacts in grocery stores. You know, we’ve had liquor stores having impacts all year long, but there was that’s a combination of the grocery store change with selling wine, as well as probably something from Costco, we had impacts, where we saw some reduction in revenue at Sam’s Club, as well as some discount stores. So we could point to that you can ever tell exactly how much it was because you don’t know what was from because it went to Costco, or for whatever other reason, but you know, we would notice that from getting and so last eight or nine months. Yeah, I don’t wasn’t significant. Let’s put it that way, to those major retailers that I just mentioned. Okay. So

2:01:54
that was always a concern. Yeah, we were talking. And when

2:01:58
you look at it, when we gave you a total, our reports talk about how much growth there is in the same categories like groceries, were doing very strong. Now, of course, again, they were selling more liquor. So but that might have played into that as well. But the groceries didn’t seem to suffer that much. One or two smaller ones might have and probably did have some negative impact. But it’s hard to say whether that was already trending, or was whether it, you know, increased because of Costco opening. So but yeah, I think it’s about as far as I can go on that. Okay, thank you. So property tax revenue, again, now 24 is not a reassessment year. So the only new property tax revenue that we would expect to receive in 25 would be from new construction. And that’s in general. We’ll talk here in second about the changes, though, there was $2.8 million of property tax revenue from 24 that we budgeted to use for one time expenses in the 24 budget. And we do that knowing looking ahead that we know that in non non reassessment year, we don’t have much new property tax, so we don’t use it for ongoing expenses in the first year with the hope of using it instead for ongoing in the second year. So that’s what the $2.8 million would allow us to do. As you know, there, there was a bill passed last week at the end of legislation session, SB dash 233. And that’s going to certainly impact a property tax. I haven’t had an opportunity to try to analyze what that might be to Longmont, I think that’s going to take a little bit of work. I did take I bought the bill. And those property tax bills are always even after we’re done doing it the last time we never figured out the right amount anyhow, but we’re going to take a look at that and make a rough estimate going into that budget process that could eat up this $2.8 million that we’re have we have set aside certainly Mike will reduce it to some degree. We’ll get an estimate together between now and July to figure out what we think that impact will be. So, you know, I’m just gonna make a general statement here the sales tax and property tax projections based on what I just threw out at you could generate anywhere from 5 million to $7 million of new ongoing revenue for 2025. And that’s just my best guest standing here now, without knowing enough for the property tax impact. And I guess I should back up and say, regardless of what happened based on the new legislation, we’re facing potential ballot question in November, maybe two, that could have an even greater impact on that property tax. So, so we have to take all that into consideration. You know, I think the one thing I will point out to the city council city manager in the budget process is that we do have that pretty significant emergency reserve. So I’m not gonna you will keep in mind, what we’re what we’re planning to do offer ongoing expenses in the 25 budget process, while at the same time, I don’t think we should overreact until we know better. And, you know, we may have to wait till November and make adjustments in in 2025. For and for that year and the subsequent years. So. So beyond that, just wanted to just talk about some of the challenges besides what has what could happen with the property tax. So the current inflationary environment is still a factor in our budgeting, and will make an impact on our operating and capital budgets. And then compensation and benefit increases are going to be a significant knee, we are currently doing collective bargaining contract negotiations with police and fire. And it’s been three years since the last negotiations. So you know, our intention is to try to get our employees at market pay. And that’s going to be a significant expenditure for these two groups. So with that, we are interested in first of all, try to answer any questions that you have about the information that I’ve just given you. But as well, as we’re going into the budget process, we are interested in hearing from the council. Any general guidance you might have on the what you’d like to see in that 2025 budget and how you want to see it support the council’s vision and work plan.

2:07:15
One of the things on the as we look in Jim talked about collective bargaining is one of the things that we do is we adopt what we have within the compensation philosophy in terms of how we look at market. And so we approach it in the same way that we look at market for all staff members, and how we look at where they need to be. So that’s we’re consistent with the philosophy that Council has adopted as part of the pay plan in terms of how we’re looking at this. And that’s how we’ve been moving through this.

2:07:53
I have a question. Is there any scenario that we could use the Tabor reserve that we have?

2:08:03
Mayor Peck? You know, in general, I’m just going to say no, but I will explain why. And for one, I think you always would probably need to go to the reserve from underneath the City Council policy first. The thing about a table reserve is that under the law, you have to replenish it by the end of the year, which in practically speaking, I mean, you could do that by by putting a new tax in place, which could be allowed under Tabor. But you know, short of that the likelihood of you being able to use it in the same year and replenish it in that one same year is not practical. So I’ve always looked at tape reserve being you know, we’re meeting the law, but it’s just not likely we would touch it. And I will say that, you know, it’s been 30 years, and then we’ve not ever touched it, including through some, you know, pretty large disaster with the flood. So we probably won’t do it for quite some time hopefully not have any kind of emergency reserve to need it for.

2:09:08
And we are getting we’re going to get more asks from organizations within our city, like elnec just asked her a pretty hefty one. Yes. But I I also want us to remember equity because the library needs dollars. And she said so. I just want to keep that in mind that. Yeah,

2:09:35
I think in terms of this, we want to we want to hear from counsel in terms of what you are interested in. Obviously. We’ve heard from the library. I think we’re due to hear from the Senior Center Advisory Board we’ve heard from Mike, I think what I want to reiterate is what Jim said in the last slide. We’re still seeing inflation impacting our ongoing operating cost. And if you think about last year, we put in 2.2 Point 6 million in level one request. And so what that really means is, that’s what we’re doing now. And that’s what we had to put in to continue doing that. That almost doubled what we typically see in level one request from year to year. And then, obviously, in terms of the market component to this on police and fire, because the contract was for three years, and we talked about getting them to market. And then we just look at compensation generally, it’s highly possible that when you look at the revenue project projections, we’re going to be limited in what we can do in this budget process. Because of everything that Jim talked about, so I want to be very overt and say the headwinds probably are coming at us from multiple directions, as as we began looking at this budget, may

2:11:01
actually had a couple of stats that I didn’t put on the slide that I wanted to point out. So on the slide here, I have that we would have five to 7 million of new ongoing revenue from taxes from these two major sources of taxes, and, you know, there are other sources of revenue, but they are not to this degree of dollars. And last year, our ongoing budget, our increase in ongoing expenses for the 24 budget was $8.72 million. And again, I’m telling you here that we may have five to $7 million available, pending what we’ve figured out what that property tax bill. And if if something more significant were to hit, it could be even less. And then we had 4.3 million that we spent on one time and or budget, I should say, for one time and two and a half million, as I mentioned, that went into the emergency reserves. So we spent 6.8 million, so pretty similar to the amount of one time dollars that I said that we have for this year. But we’re not looking like we may even have as much ongoing revenue as we did last year. So it’s going to be tough.

2:12:20
And we have to look at a different transit type of station within three to five years if what the governor is telling us is on track.

2:12:35
That’s one time funds. And so that’s a different conversation in terms of how we can look at it. How we’re leveraging multiple funding sources is something that we’re going to have to look at. You know, I think what we’re seeing is the ongoing funding piece. Not that it’s not all going to be difficult. But what we’re saying here is the ongoing funding piece is going to be we just need to be cognizant of the headwinds that we’re going to be looking at over the next few months.

2:13:08
Okay. And I know you’ve answered this before, Jim, but for people who haven’t heard it, for example, we’re talking about public improvement funds, or I’m sorry, street funds. You said of what their balance was, they have 7.6 million that to unbudgeted still saying that they don’t use that money in these to the end of August. Does that go back into the street fund? Or does it go back into the general fund? No, it

2:13:36
stays in the street, and that street fund sales tax money, and or else, it’s from other sources that are dedicated to the street fund? And yeah, it’ll go into future projects that there jimang sensor got it all. His thoughts are already going towards? Well, it’s going to be spent on but it’s, it’s going to get used eventually for street fund purposes.

2:14:01
So if they ask for another 37 million this year, in 2025, is that do you subtract the 7.6 out of their new ask? Or does that added to it? Yeah,

2:14:15
you would take Yeah, you would that but that new that new ask probably is a too high anyway. So but yeah, sorry. You definitely start with the 7.6. And then whatever the revenue from the sales tax is generating, so Okay,

2:14:29
so think so that’s a good example on that is if you think about Kaufman Street project, when we when we brought that we brought an item to Council and the project increased by I want to say, four $4.3 million until we weren’t able to do it. So then you start looking over a couple of yours. And so then when you have something like this, then you start pulling funds to then fund the project. And they’re, you know, they’re getting hit by inflationary cost. If you remember we had two that touched the street fund. One was Boston bridge. And the other one was Kauffman, where we had to work through and try to figure out how you bring the funding to fund those projects. So you can move forward in the bidding process. So similar to as you look at what we’re doing in transit, transportation, and you think about vision, zero, the work that they’re doing on the signals and those types of things, those are all things that will come into the budget process that we’ll review.

2:15:26
And the reason I asked is that, I get comments like, well, you have 7 million leftover in that fund, let’s use it for something else. It’s not leftover money. It’s no, I understand what you’re saying.

2:15:41
Yeah, some of it is, again, each of these funds that get sales tax, as well as the investment revenue had access for it more than we budgeted. But this second bullet here that the 32 point 7 million that you were just referring to, that was a total fund balance at the end of 23. So 7.6, I said is on budget, the difference was, again, also part of that appropriation ordinance that you just right, considered on first reading. And so a lot of The uses are outlined in that communication, about $25 million, that was already budgeted for those purposes. That will, you know, take place more in 20 and 24. So, okay,

2:16:21
great. Any more discussion from Council? Seeing none, thank you very much. Thank you, and we’re very much looking forward to this budget always.

2:16:52
So now we are on the proposed ordinance options, amending chapters 15.05080 parking, stalking and loading. Ben Ortiz is going to be our presenter. You go

2:17:12
so Mayor, Members of Council My name is Ben Ortiz transportation planner I’m accompanied by Phil Greenwald transportation planning manager. So as requested by City Council at the March 26 meeting, zero reading staff is bringing back an ordinance with amendments to chapter 15 Oh 508 Auto parking stacking and loading. As I mentioned earlier, this was originally presented during zero reading to incentivize affordable housing by reducing minimum parking requirements for affordable and market rate multifamily housing. So based on the zero reading discussion at city council and subsequent staff team discussion staff developed a second ordinance for city council’s consideration that, if approved, would result in the elimination of minimum parking requirements citywide for all use categories in all zoning districts. So at the April 15 meeting of the transportation Advisory Board, the staff team recommended the elimination of minimum parking requirements, as this action would have several positive outcomes including increased housing affordability, reducing stormwater runoff and the urban heat island effect by reducing the size of future parking lots. Parking is a land use it takes up valuable space in the city longer. And also parking lot costs a lot of money to build and maintain. So the idea to right size the parking Twitter developer believes should be built and not mandating parking, more parking than what’s needed. Parking maximums are also in place that put a pat a cap on the amount of parking a developer can provide unless they can prove they need more by submitting an alternative parking plan to the department. And the transportation advisory board unanimously recommended that the city council approve the ordinance that eliminates minimum parking requirements citywide. So as part of this discussion, I think it’s important to note that the governor that Governor polis signed into law House Bill 24 1304, which would prohibit it enforcing minimum parking requirements within a quarter mile transit stations and bus routes meeting certain criteria. And so on long month this would include all the future BRT stations as well as residential development within quarter mile a to local Longmont routes 324 and 326 because they run at 30 minute headways, which is the criterion that triggers the legislation. So the version eliminating minimum parking requirements city not wide would not be impacted by the new law. But if City Council were to approve The original option staff presented during the zero reading, it would be necessary to bring back another ordinance to incorporate provisions of the new state law prior to it going into effect on June 30 2025. So the state requirements after looking at the law would be difficult to administer, which is another reason why the project team is recommending the version eliminating minimum parking requirements citywide for all use categories. So, that concludes my presentation. With that we’d be happy to answer your questions.

2:20:41
recording in progress. Thank you, Councillor McCoy. But yeah. Councillor McCoy, Can you unmute it? It just Yeah.

2:21:07
Well, zoom just rebooted. So here comes our master of There you go.

2:21:13
Can you hear us now? Okay.

2:21:15
Counselor, McCoy. Unmute. And you have the floor or the zoom.

2:21:22
Just assume it couldn’t hear. You say? Oh, yeah. Now, he did not hear what he was saying.

2:21:38
You didn’t hear the presentation

2:21:41
into this presentation.

2:21:45
Can you give the end of it as far as the Governor’s bill? And what?

2:21:51
This bill? Yeah. I’ve been nervous about it.

2:21:57
Okay, and we’re getting some feedback here. Zoom had to read. Oops, there it goes. Zoom had to reboot. Councilman McCoy, which is why you couldn’t hear us.

2:22:10
I’m sorry.

2:22:13
So we’ll start at the Governor’s bill. If that’s okay, we’ve been driving. I’ve been that’s project just think you had

2:22:35
left him

2:22:36
Is this good? Yeah.

2:22:48
Great, there you go. Sorry, this guy won’t go away. There it is.

2:23:02
So, I think this is where we left off. So as part of the discussion, it was important to note that the governor polis, Governor polis signed into law House Bill 24 Dash 1304, which would prohibit enforcing minimum parking requirements within a quarter mile of transit stations and bus routes meeting certain criteria. So in Longmont, this would include all future BRT stations, as well as residential development within a quarter mile of two local raw Longmont routes 324 and the 326 because they run at 30 minute headways, which is the criterion that triggers the legislation. So the version of eliminating minimum parking requirements citywide would not be impacted by the new law. But if City Council were to approve the original option staff presented during the zero reading, it would be necessary to bring back another ordinance to incorporate provisions of the new law prior to it going into effect on June 30 2025. So the state requirements would be difficult to administer, which is another reason why the project team is recommending the version eliminating minimum parking requirements citywide for all use categories. So with that, city staff is requesting that city council make recommendation on the version you would like for us to bring forward on second reading.

2:24:39
Counselor McCoy

2:24:41
Thank you very well, I would be as supportive of version two. I think that if that’s where we’re going to society, I think that’s the right thing to do. I think the more people deciding to have a device as their second into a former transportation opposed to a second vehicle in our household. I think that’s a trend that we’re going to start seeing more and more. In some cases people will not even buy a car or they’ll rent cargo they need it. So I’ll wait to hear what other people say before I make a motion.

2:25:27
I’d see no one else in the queue. I hope this doesn’t lead to those huge parking structures for cars. The vertical ones that I see in Denver, Councillor Martin,

2:25:42
Councilmember,

2:25:44
she is go ahead, Councillor Martin.

2:25:51
Yeah, I agree. I don’t think there’s any others that needs to be parking structures. And I I think that, you know, we need to trust the private planners and who are going to build as much parking this they think their enterprise needs. And they know, they typically know what they’re doing, and we’ve made a little too much. So I am for option B as well. And all that shot a little bit because he must

2:26:32
move option two that we’re looking at for parking.

2:26:40
Thank you. So option two for eliminating minimum parking standards was made by Councillor McCoy seconded by Councillor Martin. We have any discussion? Seeing no one in the queue Let’s vote.

2:27:13
And that passed unanimously. Thank you, Ben. Thank you. Thank you, Phil. Mayor,

2:27:17
before we move, move beyond that item. For the record. Can we just read that title into the record? Just to be say, Yes, I’m happy to do that if you’d like.

2:27:27
Sure. What we voted on was version two, eliminating minimum parking requirements citywide for all use categories, requires no further action on the city’s part.

2:27:39
And that was ordinance 2024 Dash 39 a bill for an ordinance amending chapter 15.05 boring a section 15.05080 of the Longmont Municipal Code concerning off street parking return requirements and repealing and re enacting table 15.05080 section one public hearing and second reading will be on May 28 2024. Thank you

2:28:12
Councillor Martin? Yes. Can you hear me? I can. Yes.

2:28:18
Okay. I just wanted to make this could be like zero. I’m not sure what this means. Is this going to be a secondary or is it on the 28th? Or is it going to be a first

2:28:31
second

2:28:38
so now we are at see 809 Nelson road annex session referral.

2:28:44
Good as the mayor pack members of the council Jennifer Hewitt, Apperson, principal planner with planning and development services department. So I’m bringing to you this evening a annexation referral for property located at 8809 Nelson road. So this is referral counsel is not being asked to make a final decision. Rather you are being asked to direct the applicant whether to proceed with a formal annexation application

2:29:15
this is very close to the veteran’s village is that

2:29:26
should be good. It is near the Veterans Village it’s sort of southwest of it. Okay, so the study maps of 88 or nine Nelson road is a 9.65 acre parcel of property located in the north side on the north side of Nelson road between Airport Road and Anderson Street. This area is designated as mixed use employment on envision Longmont, the applicant is seeking to build a residential product consistent with the minimum work higher density of 18 units per acre in the immunity zoning district. High density residential uses are permitted as a secondary use in the immunity zone. So at this point the concept plan is very high level with basically showing the envelope for development general location of access general location of where they anticipate things like stormwater facilities to be So, anticipating their primary access would be from Nelson Road, north of Schlegel street with emergency access on the western portion of the property. And then stormwater detention at this stage has been anticipated is anticipated to be on the eastern side of the property at the northeast and southeast corners of the property. There would additionally be some right of way dedicated for for expansion of improvements to Nelson road as well.

2:31:06
Is this the property we were talking about? Okay. I got a little confused there. They look very close and similar.

2:31:14
This one is North visual Eagle county subdivision. The previous one from what about a month ago was south of or maybe not quite a little more than a month ago. The Quilt one that was discussed off quail road is south of the Schlegel subdivision. So it’s all in that general west side of long line area. So so the subject property as in, as I mentioned, indicated with this red star right here just to give a bigger context, it is within an area of Longmont designated as mixed use employment on the Envision Longmont plan. It is near Vance brand airport. It is however not within the area that we were discussing last week, it is not within that zone B that we were discussing last week that we were concerned with. So it would not be impacted by any of those discussions. So this property is eligible for annexation into the city of Longmont. It is within the Longmont planning area. It meets the contiguity requirements of state statute, so it is actually contiguous on three of its four sides. So about 75% of the property is contiguous to the city of Longmont state statute requires that 1/6 of the property perimeter be contiguous to the city. And as I noted, this is not within that area, Zone B area that we were discussing last week as part of the airport influence overlay proposals. So with that, I will stand by for any questions the applicant is also available if you have any specific questions more specific to the property as well. Okay.

2:32:56
Councillor Martin

2:33:00
Yes, I understand that it is not within some beat which is the yellow fan from last last week. Is it however if there is a larger airport influence open would require aggregation

2:33:14
Correct? Correct. This is within that larger airport influence overlay? I would anticipate that we would require navigation easements as well as any sort of additional notice to tenants as well as prospective buyers that something that we would we would definitely require for a property in this close proximity to the airport.

2:33:36
Councillor McCoy

2:33:38
and for community understanding that aggregation easement was on last week’s map was the green circle. Okay, that’s correct, quarter of this did fall in in that the the alert zone because there was concern possibility that we might lose some FAA funding.

2:34:08
So, this property is very the Northeast section corner of this property is very close to that zone B it is however not within it. And in addition, the areas in closest proximity to that particular area at this stage are contemplated for detention facilities

2:34:32
that part of it will be used for detention

2:34:34
right there actually is not any portion of this property within that area. But but the portion of the property closest to that zone B area is is anticipated to be used for for non residential purposes basically, not not developed not for development. know

2:34:52
much. We know we can go to a team,

2:34:56
you can you can actually go over 18 in this particular district

2:35:03
Alright, thank you.

2:35:06
Yes, there’s mixed use mixed use employment district. It isn’t intended for higher density, it actually has a minimum density of 18 units per acre. It is possible to seek variances and such from that minimum density. But as a rule, we’re typically going to see higher density, residential development in these mixed use areas.

2:35:31
Counselor crest.

2:35:34
One of my concerns is transportation. It does. It is right on right on Nelson, excuse me. But there is no transportation there other than car. And I noticed in the packet that there is some suggestion of using Schlegel Road, which was a problem also with the quail property, in that those roads, in Schlegel farm, are basically country roads, they don’t have sidewalks and they’re really not meant for higher traffic.

2:36:10
So it is not anticipated that this property would use this development would use Schlegel, as a general rule, when we’re putting in new driveway accesses. They we want to see them lined up with others, we don’t want to have offset intersections. So the entrance, most likely would be in alignment with Schlegel however, in Schlegel is not a through road. So there would be really no purpose to go south on Schlegel. So that’s really done from a safety standpoint, as far as having those aligned intersections.

2:36:50
And then there’s this issue of Senate Bill 24 Dash 1313, which is about looking at density, and, you know, bus transit. And I think if we’re really looking at where the density is in town, we may actually be looking at traveling on airport and not necessarily going through those types of neighborhoods, I think we may be going just in a square around the town, we think about 119 has a lot of density. And when you go up pace, there’s a lot of density. And now there’s also a density out in highway 66. And then parts of airporter also have density. So it seems like if we want to be expeditious and also mindful of our budget, that maybe if we kept those areas to the density, and kept these other more agricultural areas to employment, and less density, we would have less trouble with working transportation around that area. And making access for for people who live in a high density area.

2:38:12
Good evening, Phil Greenwald, transportation planning manager with the city of Longmont. Just a quick reminder that bus rapid transit is going to be coming up Airport Road in the very near future in two to three years. And using Nelson road. So there’ll be a actual stop location right there on the map at an airport and Nelson for bus rapid transit. So the idea is that may help with some of the density pieces that are at that location and this location as well.

2:38:41
Is there is going to be a stamp there, but you’re trying to reduce the number of stops from airport into coffin. Is that correct? Because you want you want rapid? Yeah,

2:38:51
yes, we do. And this is just one of those very rare stops that are on bus rapid transit, for that density that’s at Nelson an airport. Okay.

2:39:03
So my basic concerns, so But while I’ve got the microphone, is it possible for us to take a look at a more detailed map in terms of the navigation area and where the zone be where it actually overlaps?

2:39:19
Don’t have anything I can easily pull up. Well, I can tell you,

2:39:24
I’m in the city. I’m at the city building on on Monday. So just tell me when you’re in your office and I’ll come by

2:39:31
I’ll be in my office. I should be there all day Monday. So feel free to reach out. Okay. Thanks, Jennifer.

2:39:40
Councillor Hidalgo, faring.

2:39:42
Thank you, Mayor. So I guess you know, my concern is we’re moving forward with development. And you know, I see a lot of things in the pipeline surrounding apartments and for rent, you know, that doesn’t necessarily meet you know, the needs of working class people as far as being able to build equity and, you know, build that build that opportunity for for wealth. So, you know, is part of this plan? Is there going to be any for sale units as part of this development?

2:40:18
Defer to Jim Chang, who is the potential applicant on this project? My understanding is they’re still working out the final details, the preliminary of what their development plan would be, but he can speak more, certainly, as far as I

2:40:33
wasn’t sure if this is too early in the process, but I wanted to get it out as soon as possible.

2:40:44
Jim chanin, I share your concern there and would like as much of this, if not all, to be eventually for sale product. However, at this early stage, it’s so conceptual, we just don’t we just don’t know at this point. But yes, that is that is my, that is my goal. For the for the project when it becomes one. Absolutely. Okay. Okay, thank you. 100%.

2:41:13
So that was my concern as well, especially when you look at Nelson road, it’s just apartment complex. But we try to do, we’re trying also with our development to have generational wealth. And when there’s only a minimum amount of units, that just screams apartments to me. So once it’s annexed, then it goes to planning and zoning and they can follow code and we don’t get a voice. So now we’re going to give you a voice that for sale townhomes. And I’m just afraid we’re going to have a lot of apartments with no general wealth being being created for our residents. So I just want to put that out there. Any other discussion? If not, oh, Shawn, there you go. Sean McCoy, Councillor McCoy.

2:42:17
I agree with the mayor. And I agree with Tim, dog a fairy. We have to have some sort of generational wealth, I will not support you the sending station without some sort of absolute confirmation that we are going to see this. So I’ll be voting no on this just so that it’s on the record. Why? Because I want to absolutely on the record to say that we have to have more than just a Yeah, I think we’ll do two or three does sound like growth in depth with departments? Again? No, some airports filled with apartment complexes there. So in opposition to this.

2:43:02
So let me just clarify Councillor McCoy, you’re in opposition to the referral? For annexation. Okay. Can I have a motion? It looks like there’s no one else in the queue.

2:43:17
I’m a referral.

2:43:19
All second. Okay. Councilmember Rodriguez, made the motion to refer this to for annexation and Councillor Hidalgo. fairing seconded. Any more discussion? Seeing none. Let’s start

2:43:46
so that passes five to two with counselors. McCoy and Crist in opposition. Thank you. Good luck. I hope you’ve heard us

2:44:10
All right. Thanks for your questions, Susie.

2:44:23
I think that is it. Am I missing something here? I know that final call public invited to be heard.

2:44:31
Here we go.

2:44:35
There’s a gentleman over here. I don’t know who he is, but he’s walking up to the podium.

2:44:43
One morning,

2:44:47
Stephen left. But I would like to sort of review what he had said earlier today. Cannabis has been a part of Our human mental health since the beginning of time. It’s been with us for the longest time and we’ve been fighting misinformation since 1920. The Miami Herald had put out an article that said 500 deaths a day due to alcohol. They also said that with over 500,000 people using cannabis every day that they could not attribute one death to cannabis use. So it’s been with us for the longest time. It’s been used before tree bark. So, and we’ve been fighting a lot of misinformation and a lot of this information is just now coming to aware because of the legalization of marijuana. So a lot of these studies still need to be made. Thank you, Mayor and Council. You’re

2:46:19
welcome. Thank you. Seeing no one else I’ll close final call public invited to be heard. Do we have any Councillor Hidalgo Perry?

2:46:32
Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to bring this to everyone’s attention that this Saturday, May 18. The march for childcare will be at Roosevelt Park from 845 to 11am. It is sponsored by the Early Childhood Council of Boulder County with sponsors from city of Longmont and the Longmont Community Foundation. So if you would like to come out and join us that would be that would be fantastic. So they’ll have children activities and speakers, and of course the rally in the march for building that equity for childcare. It’s outrageous. Our working class can’t afford to work in pay for childcare.

2:47:14
Thank you. I also want to say bring your own water bottle. Zero Waste. Councillor Chris

2:47:25
Thank you, counselor Hidalgo. faring. My word just lost another childcare center. Yes, so and then I just want to do a shout out for art in public places who is a shrink wrapping these utility boxes with photos, old time photos of Longmont. I was at of a stoplight and look to the moraine went, Hey, that is the neatest thing. So I think they’ve done one in each section of the town and they’re trying to do five or six a year or five or six every couple of months every six months. So look for that. It’s really neat.

2:48:08
nitzer Are there any other comments? Seeing none from resume, folks? City Manager remarks.

2:48:16
No comments. Mayor,

2:48:17
council, city attorney. No comments. Mayor. Can I have a vote to adjourn? I mean a motion

2:48:24
to adjourn.

2:48:25
Second vote was made by Councillor Chris seconded by Councillor Hidalgo, fairing. All those in favor just say aye. Aye. That passes unanimously. We are adjourned.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai