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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.regular.20200512 1 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MAY 12TH, 2020 At 5:00 p.m. Mayor Torre called the regular meeting to order with Councilmembers Richards, Mesirow, Mullins and Hauenstein joining via video conference. PUBLIC COMMENT: Elizabeth Milias – Ms. Milias said she wants to address the elephant in the room regarding the new city hall building. You continue to build and you’re about 10 million in. She asked if the 23 million will be enough to complete it and rumor is its over budget. She asked why council doesn’t know anything about it and not one of you can speak to the project. We are in no position to pay the costs to complete this. it’s an irresponsible use of public dollars. She asked what the projected cost is and the completion date and what the agreement is with the bond holders. You can’t ignore the elephant in the room. She asked if the city discussed an extension with the bond council. Lee Mulcahy - Mr. Mulcahy said he seconds everything Elizabeth said on the city building. Mr. Mulcahy said that if you’re not a democrat, you don’t get to ask a question at town hall. Kerry Donovan wouldn’t take any questions from Republics on the call he just got off of. APCHA is just like the democrats and you can’t get through to them. They don’t include the homeowner in the executive sessions and they need to open these meetings to the public. Shawn Cox - Ms. Cox said she would like APCHA and the council to work something out that is amicable for both before the corruption is exposed. Kay Anderson- Ms. Anderson said she stands with Lee and his mother. You don’t want a reputation of throwing people out because it will make people cautious of purchasing in your town. Toni Kronberg – Mayor Torre read the email with Ms. Kronberg’s concerns on the new Rio Grande building and when the public can expect a work session on this. She has concerns about parking. COUNCIL COMMENTS: Councilman Hauenstein said his concern is opening things back up safely. It’s up to us to impress on the BOA a phased plan and timing. He thinks this is missing from their current plan. We need a method to contact air and land guests at the airport or hotels. Maybe symptom tracking for visitors would be ideal. He doesn’t understand how we can have a prohibition on short term rentals if we have no quarantine requirement, etc. Councilwoman Richards said the future is unknown and this quarantine is growing weary on all of us. We are still trying to flatten the curve and she is concerned about guests coming from all over the country and restarting the virus spread. It’s not a promise we can make to guests that we are COVID free. Councilman Mesirow said this has been a long slog and is wearing on all of us. We aren’t out of the woods yet and have a long way to go. Care for our health is number 1. We are foolhardy to end up right back in the same place. Calls into mental health facilities are on the rise. There are models that are working in other countries and we should look to Sweden as an example. Mayor Torre said this is a team effort. There has been a lot of talk about reopening efforts and timing. There is a lot of trepidation and caution. Some of the dates that have been thrown out are changing every day. Stay calm and please be patient. 2 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MAY 12TH, 2020 CITY MANAGER COMMENTS: Sara Ott said she has no comments tonight. BOARD REPORTS: Councilwoman Mullins said she will give more details at the work session on the RFTA meeting, but they have moved into phase 4. There are back up buses due to the limited number of riders. On their website you can see all the information about ridership, etc. CONSENT CALENDAR: Councilwoman Mullins has questions on both resolution #36 and #38. She’s been very supportive of #38 and asked if we know how effective the program has been and if there are any metrics. She hasn’t seen any recent data. Ms. Ott said she is happy to pass along some info and said Mind Springs is required to do quarterly reporting. She asks for their patience as the reporting has probably not been at the top of their list. Councilwoman Mullins asked about the payment of Resolution #36 and Raquel Flinker said that they are paying a total of 300,000 for both phases. Councilwoman Mullins asked Tyler Christoff to speak to the expense. Mr. Christoff said this is a massive scope of work and forecasts out to 2065, which involves a considerable amount of public outreach. These consultants have the expertise and have worked on cities like Los Angeles. We feel like this is a reasonable expense to plan for the next 50-70 years. He is very pleased with Corrolo Engineering on Phase 1 and Phase 2 is about working on that plan. Councilwoman Mullins motioned; Councilwoman Richards seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. NOTICE OF CALL UP: 134 E. Bleeker Sarah Yoon Ms. Yoon said this is a single-family home and in the R6 zone district on a 4,500 square foot lot. There was a 4-0 vote of approval by HPC on April 22nd. There are two historic structures on this property. There will be no moving of the structures, just underpinning the historic resource. Unless council calls this up, resolution #11 stands as approved. Councilwoman Mullins asked about attendance. Sarah said two people had to recuse themselves. She said it’s always concerning to see 4 out of 9 votes, and that is her only concern. She also asked why all of the new projects are all white, and if we could go back to having some colors. She has no interest calling this up. Councilman Hauenstein asked about what they are going to do with the fence. Ms. Yoon said the wrought iron fence isn’t historic to the site and there’s no way we can ask the applicant to keep that fence. Sara Adams said they discussed the fence after the meeting and they really want a white picket fence. The architect is taking the wrought iron fence to reuse. Councilman Hauenstein has no reason to call this up. 3 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MAY 12TH, 2020 Mayor Torre said this is preservation but he doesn’t know what it’s preserving. Part of a historic structure, but is a definite change to what was there. A color change modernizes it so he starts to not see the connection to the past. He doesn’t see any desire for call up, however. Councilwoman Richards said she’s not interested in calling this up. We all have diff perspectives on preservation and there’s a living story here. She doesn’t like it but is a little more accepting of it over time. Councilwoman Mullins said its historic projects but also new construction that is making things bigger all over town. ORDINANCE #06, SERIES OF 2020 – First Reading – 920 East Hyman Avenue – Establishment of TDR Councilwoman Richards motioned to read. Sarah Yoon gave a summary of this project. It’s a single-family historic property. In January, HPC approved a minor development approval. This got approval with a 6-0 vote and HPC was in favor of establishing one TDR. Councilwoman Richards asked where the TDR’s are allowed to land in the city limits and Ms. Yoon gave specific zone districts in the land use code. Councilwoman Richards asked if this is exceeding the underlying FAR and Ms. Yoon said yes. Councilman Hauenstein asked if any HPC bonus was granted and Ms. Yoon said there was no floor area bonus was granted. Councilwoman Mullins seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Ms. Henning read the ordinance. Councilwoman Richards motioned to approve, changing the hearing date to June 9th; Councilwoman Mullins seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5- 0, motion carried. ORDINANCE #07, SERIES OF 2020 - First Reading of 2020 Spring Supplemental Pete Strecker Mr. Strecker said this is a follow up to the work session from last week. This is a repackaging on screen of last week’s presentation. Pete summarized and presented the revised budget which includes the COVID reductions. Councilman Hauenstein said there is a lot of information on financials out there on the city website. He doesn’t think it’s a secret like some people in the public are assuming. He wanted to bring forth the transparent nature of where this can be found. Mayor Torre said he wants more information on what’s already been done on the new city hall building and the Armory building on second reading. We should share those changes with the public. Councilwoman Richards motioned to read, Councilman Hauenstein seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. 4 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MAY 12TH, 2020 Councilman Hauenstein motioned to approve Ordinance #07, Series of 2020; Councilwoman Mullins seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. RESOLUTION #041, SERIES OF 2020 - Extension of Vested Rights for Aspen Valley Hospital Kevin Rayes Mr. Rayes said the master plan was approved in 2009 and has been built in four phases. Phase 4 has yet to be built, and additional fund raising is needed to complete this phase. They are requesting a 5-year extension. The 7-year vesting period expires on May 23rd. He summarized phase 4 and explained the criteria for council to consider. He said that staff finds all criteria are met for this request and are recommending approval. Councilwoman Richards asked about any significant code changes and Mr. Rayes said there are none. Councilwoman Mullins said she supports the extension and said the hospital has done a fantastic job in this COVID crisis and she wants to support them. Councilwoman Richards said she is happy to approve the request. Chris Bendon of Bendon Adams gave his presentation to the council. He asked for some amendments to the language in the resolution. Phillip Supino said that staff does not support all of these changes which Mr. Bendon proposed. We don’t have full clarity at this time on the affordable housing credits. In the interest of moving forward, staff suggests that the language be amended to tie the extension to the resolution from 2009. Any remaining mitigation requirements will be in accordance to this resolution. Councilwoman Richards said she is willing to let this go, but suggested having a work session this. Mayor Torre supports the staff recommendation. Mayor Torre opened the public hearing. The public hearing was closed. Mr. Rayes outlined two options for council to choose between. The first option is the most broad asking that all requirements including housing mitigation shall comply with the land use code at the time of submission. Option 2 offers the requirements to comply with the 2009 approvals (Resolution #03, Series of 2009). Councilman Hauenstein moved to approve option 1 and include other changes which Jim True made, replacing paragraph B; Councilman Mesirow seconded. Councilwoman Mullins said she supports option 2. Mr. Bendon encouraged council to support option 2. Mr. Supino shared a proposed resolution. 5 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MAY 12TH, 2020 Councilman Hauenstein said this all is much ado about nothing and accepted this as a friendly amendment. Councilman Mesirow accepted the amendment. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Mayor Torre thanked everyone. Councilman Mesirow motioned to adjourn. Ms. Ott notified the council that last Friday she made a $250,000 disbursement from the city’s response efforts to the Aspen Community Foundation. Councilman Hauenstein seconded to adjourn. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. ______________________ Nicole Henning, City Clerk