Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutcclc.min.07172019 1 REGULAR MEETING COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION JULY 17, 2019 Chairperson Jeb Ball opened the meeting at 8:35 a.m. Commissioners in attendance: Jeb Ball, Kiki Raj, Bill Dinsmoor, Angi Wang, Steve Fante, Amanda Tanaka, Charles Cunniffe, Terry Butler. Staff present: Nicole Henning, Deputy City Clerk Mitch Osur, Parking Services Director Other attendees: Councilperson Ann Mullins MOTION: Mr. Dinsmoor moved to approve the minutes of July 3rd, Ms. Tanaka seconded. All in favor, motion carried. Ms. Wang, Mr. Fante and Mr. Cunniffe entered the meeting. Ms. Mullins announced that she will be the alternate council member attending CCLC meetings besides Mr. Hauenstein. PUBLIC COMMENT: Shane & Kristine Brown of Georgia Brown Mr. Brown asked that CCLC reconsider letting him into the Saturday market. Mr. Ball explained the process that the vendors go through to participate in the market, the due dates, what is required, etc. Mr. Ball asked Mr. Brown if he had a contract for the previous summer that Mr. Brown did not fulfill, and Mr. Brown said that is correct. Mr. Ball explained that due to the broken contract and the fact that he did not apply this year, it prevents the board from just letting him in. Ms. Brown said since they are a pop-up store, they should be allowed in since they don’t know if they will have the space until last minute. She said it’s a thing with Aspen, it’s difficult to get a lease and keep a lease. Mr. Ball said the board appreciates where they are coming from and that they are not trying to be a barrier or road block to businesses. The fundamental issue here is that there are a set of rules for all applicants to follow and we need to stay on board with this. Ms. Butler suggested the board take a look at pop ups and potentially amending the rule if this is a new experience that we haven’t had to deal with in the past. Mr. Brown mentioned the “bronze gentleman” and said he currently has 10 or 15 spaces and that the guy sleeps in his truck. If we push him down and just give me my space, I don’t see why we can’t do that. Mr. Cunniffe said we have limited opportunity for people, unfortunately, with only so many spots available and we can’t be flexible on this after our December deadline. Ms. Brown asked if they could have applied even if they didn’t have a lease and the board unanimously said yes, they should have applied. Mr. Brown said there is no waiting list, so he can’t understand why they just can’t let him in. The board informed him there is, in fact, a long waiting list. Ms. Wang said we can’t be making exceptions for people every week because everyone would be coming to us all the time with their lawyers. Mr. Brown said that is what he is considering. 2 REGULAR MEETING COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION JULY 17, 2019 Ms. Wang said the board is looking to amend the rules for all retail spaces for next year due to these issues. Mr. Osur agreed and said Mr. Brown is the third request that has come before the board for the same situation. You are third in line. The other issue is the space issue and safety issues. He addressed the “bronze guy” and why there are barriers in that area blocking certain spaces and that is to prevent cars from driving through the market. Mr. Fante said that the “bronze guy” isn’t the issue anyway; the issue is that all applicants must go through a set of processes so that it is fair to everyone. Mr. Brown said he can show copies of sales tax they have paid. Mr. Fante said that is irrelevant and not the issue. Mr. Brown asked if any of the board members own businesses in town and they said, yes, we all do. Mr. and Ms. Brown exited the meeting. Mr. Osur explained to Ms. Mullins what the board has been dealing with recently regarding the retail spaces and how they want to get back to just artisan and aggies who have Colorado grown and made products. He explained our idea for an amendment for next summer and she thought it was a great idea. Ms. Wang said she has knowledge of Mr. Brown working on the lease for that space eight months ago and that he had more than enough time to apply for the market. Mr. Cunniffe told her that they looked at the streets and creating an avenue on each block which allow sandwich boards, etc. The gap will have signage and they will not be required to have Colorado made and grown products. He also said he feels that the pop ups have an automatic advantage over other retailers because they are not paying a full year of rent. Mr. Osur said he feels it’s good to have Ms. Mullins and Mr. Hauenstein coming to these meetings so they can get the full picture and because the board will be presenting its new idea to council. Mr. Cunniffe agreed and said it’s important that we still have standards and a theme. Ms. Mullins said that ACRA came up with a map of all the stores that aren’t on the market route. This is something else to utilize and another way to highlight businesses. Mr. Ball said he would close out the convo on this subject by following up on Pure Barre. He said he and Ms. Strickland met with Ms. Bullock last Saturday morning and explained to her that she can’t have a booth, but that we were trying to find a way to give her a sandwich board and we think she could place it at the entrance to the market where the Ute is. Her form of a sandwich board could be a cycle bar with balloons and we told her that is an acceptable alternative. Ms. Tanaka said the bike is the same size as a sandwich board. Ms. Wang said that if Georgia Brown wants to put out a sandwich board, that is fine. NEW BUSINESS: Newsletter Mr. Ball personally thanked Ms. Wang for her help on the newsletter and for red lining the info received from the interviewee. Mr. Ball said he hoped to get the newsletter out by this Friday. Mr. Cunniffe suggested printing some and putting them next to ATM’s, etc. Ms. Henning asked Mr. Ball to send her a PDF of the newsletter to add to the CCLC webpage on the city website. 3 REGULAR MEETING COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION JULY 17, 2019 ACRA Mr. Dinsmoor said that events seem to be the place where we have the most potential to work together and have some overlap. He mentioned the “fall in love with Aspen” campaign they did a few years back in the fall when stores brought all of their goods out for a sidewalk sale and thought it was very successful. Mr. Ball agreed that an event would be the easiest and best place to join forces. He said this is more about how we can help ACRA with an event instead of looking for how they can help us. Ms. Mullins liked that notion and she suggested just reaching out and offering our help. Mr. Osur mentioned a report which was completed through the help of ACRA and an outside consultant around ten years ago which reflected the vision of downtown Aspen. We need to update this. The city and ACRA paid for it together and there was some great information in there. The world has changed, so let’s do this again and update our vision on how to make downtown more fun and vibrant. Ms. Mullins agreed and said she would love ACRA and CCLC to start curating more events together. She suggested pulling back a little to prioritize which events work best in town and appeal to people. She said to find a focus, whether it is the arts or something else. There is such a choice and range of things going on, so we need to fine tune this. She said it’s important to have a main calendar. Mr. Osur said he can talk to Nancy in Special Events about putting this together. It’s important for everyone to have this. Mr. Ball said the next move will be a meeting with Debbie Braun at ACRA. Mr. Osur said he will set it up and Ms. Wang said she will do an outline. Alleyways Mr. Osur said he met with Sara Ott the previous day and they have her full support to go ahead with dumpster day. We will place dumpsters on the street for two days. We need to clean first before we do anything else. Over the next 60 days, we need to come up with some guidelines and rules. Ms. Wang asked who is going to start policing the alleyways and Mr. Osur said that will be one of his 17 jobs. Ms. Mullins said we aren’t going to reinvent the wheel. There are cities all over the country making alleyways green. We should have a discussion with Torre about this. Mr. Osur agreed and said that our alleyways are currently full of delivery trucks, so we need to deal with this before we can make them green. Mr. Cunniffe said to only allow truck deliveries for certain hours of the day and then after this time, bollards go up and only allow pedestrians. It is very manageable, and many cities and towns currently do this. Ms. Mullins exited the meeting. Ms. Tanaka noted that the chairs around the fountain, topple over easily when there are children sitting in them. We need chairs with a wider base. Mr. Osur said he will bring this up with the Parks department. Mr. Fante brought up the engagement zone in front of KemoSabe and said it’s not very engaging right now. It’s an open space. Mr. Osur said it’s not complete and that KemoSabe is still fighting with the Engineering department on how to block it off. 4 REGULAR MEETING COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION JULY 17, 2019 Mr. Osur said someone should go to the Basalt market on Sunday and see what vendors are there and if there is anyone worth talking to about coming to our market. Ms. Wang said she loves the pizza guy down there and will suggest it to him. Mr. Dinsmoor said we shouldn’t go down to Basalt and poach people since we’re the gorilla up here. Mr. Osur said he understands where he is coming from. Ms. Wang motioned to adjourn, Ms. Raj seconded. All in favor, motion carried. _____________________________________ Nicole Henning, Deputy City Clerk 5 REGULAR MEETING COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION JULY 17, 2019