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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.regular.20210622 1 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JUNE 22ND, 2021 At 5:00 p.m. Mayor Torre called the regular meeting to order with Councilors Richards, Mullins, Mesirow, and Hauenstein in attendance. CITIZEN COMMENTS: Scott Ormond – Mr. Ormond said he works for a resident in the west end on Smuggler Street. He is a representative of the West End Pedestrian Safety Group and said there is also a website under the same name. On that website, they have a mission statement and other information that he recommends checking out. He said many people use the west end as a shortcut out of town. On any given day there are hundreds or thousands of cars racing through these neighborhoods to exit town and it creates a dangerous environment for residents on Smuggler Street. The children are in a dangerous situation, and they can’t go outside during these hours from 4-6 pm. These short cutters should get in line on Main Street with everyone else. If we need to stage an officer or do a detour or make this area a bike pedestrian corridor like other area, we should do that before someone gets injured or killed. We need to fix this problem. Councilor Hauenstein said they will look into it and see what they can do. Mayor Torre asked Trish Aragon, City Engineer, about Scott’s comments and if she has any new thoughts. Ms. Aragon mentioned the bikeways that have been put in. She said they recognize the afternoon traffic and there isn’t anywhere for pedestrians to go with no pedestrian infrastructure. They are currently trying to see how to balance all needs. Mayor Torre asked City Manager, Sara Ott, about putting signage up. She said it’s a false promise to the neighborhood because they can’t regulate that. City Attorney, Jim True, agreed and said it’s hard to enforce. Ms. Ott said it’s a question of resources. Mayor Torre asked if they could get data on the amount of traffic that moves through that area. Ms. Ott said she can get these numbers to them in an info only memo, but the numbers are probably four years old at this point. Councilor Doyle said the traffic going to and from the music tent during the summer for concerts is also a problem as people are running stop signs and speeding. It’s a bigger problem than people just leaving town. Ms. Ott said she can come back to council with some options in an info only memo. Councilor Richards said she has great empathy on where they are coming from and said it’s the whole west end because it’s the default exit. She’d love to have more current counting information. Councilor Mesirow said it’s definitely a problem and he’s used that route as well. If there’s something more we can do, he’d like to start with information. He wants to understand the tradeoffs before we give a false sense of hope. Ms. Aragon said that for the 2022 capital budget, we do have monies to study the west end traffic issue. COUNCIL COMMENTS: Councilor Richards said she wants to remind everyone that we are not out of the pandemic yet. We received an email about a traditional gathering and parade this summer. She doesn’t want Aspen to become the center of a super spreader event. It’s blowing up in Garfield and Mesa counties again. From 9 News, Missouri is the only state that has more delta cases than Colorado and she read an excerpt from the story. Councilor Hauenstein said the most important thing to do is get vaccinated. If you want to have a lot of fun this summer, get vaccinated. 2 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JUNE 22ND, 2021 Mayor Torre led a remembrance of Chason Russel who passed away this week in a kayaking accident. He was a true mountain lover and loved giving back to the community. He loved serving on Mountain Rescue. He asked for a moment of silence for Chason. He said next Tuesday June 29th from 5 to 7, there is a conversation about the Pandoras ski area regarding the forthcoming plans coming in for approval. This year the theme of the 4th of July is an old-fashioned 4th. It should be a hell of a good time. Go to aspen4th.com or to the ACRA website or the City of Aspen special events page to find out details about the 4th. Please be patient with your traditions and look for new ones this year. You can sign up for the parade on this website as well. AGENDA AMENDMENTS: Mr. True said he would like to move the vote of Mayor Pro Tem to before the consent calendar and said council can do this by motion. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS: Ms. Ott said the city is coordinating with Pitkin County for resources for the Sylan fire. Pre-evacuations are in place for the Frying Pan area. Secondly, she has an important announcement on Jeff Woods, the former manager of Parks and Recreation. He has been nominated and accepted as a fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects. He is only one of 35 in North America to receive this honor. His imprint in Aspen will live on beyond all of us. She read an excerpt from his nomination to honor his legacy. There will be a formal presentation from the society this fall on the east coast in Tennessee. He will be visiting Aspen later this week, but please drop him a note to congratulate him on this amazing accomplishment. Lastly, she asked Tyler Christoff and Steve Hunter from the Utilities department for an update on the current drought conditions. Mr. Hunter said about two months ago, the entire state was in some level of drought. This has changed on the eastern slope, and they are now out of drought conditions. Everything to the west of the continental divide is still in a drought. We’ve deteriorated as the front range has improved dramatically. The drought monitor is published everything Thursday. We are in level two, which is severe drought. It’s dire in other western states also, such as, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. We’d like to give you once a month updates on this and have been getting calls on a daily basis from customers and have been sending out flyers with the water bills. They are going to continue to monitor this behind the scenes and have good awareness and compliance in the community. Councilor Richards said there is a joint BOCC meeting on August 3rd, so we should have discussion on this. Everyone is feeling it and we need to take this seriously. Ms. Ott said that tomorrow we are moving to stage 2 water and fire restrictions. Councilor Hauenstein asked about streamflow of Maroon and Castle and Mr. Christoff said they are at the 45th percentile. Mr. Hunter said they are well south of where they should be. BOARD REPORTS: Councilor Hauenstein said that he had CCLC, and they discussed the Saturday market which started two weeks ago. This was the best opening Saturday they’ve had in a very long time. He brought up the bear issue downtown and keeping alleys clean. 3 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JUNE 22ND, 2021 Councilor Doyle said he attended the Nordic Council and they presented needs for having snowmaking to create a three-kilometer loop on the Moore fields to have enough snow to make a place where skiing can happen and are looking into more infrastructure questions. He spoke about water shortages. Mayor Torre asked about the mixed-use trail on the Rio Grande. Austin Weiss, the Parks & Open Space Director, said there is a lot of compelling data from open space that people really enjoyed it. This is a case where we can’t please every user group, but we did collect a lot of data, and most people were in favor of it. We are going to be coming back with an info only memo to follow up. Councilor Hauenstein said he had CORE and had a review of the financials, and it was John’s first meeting. Councilor Doyle updated on this item and they both said they will give more information during the Board Reports work session. Councilor Richards said the CML annual general business meeting was held yesterday, and she was unable to attend. Tara Nelson was able to attend, and they discussed the budget for the coming year. Councilor Mesirow said he had APCHA, and they passed on second reading, regulation changes which includes inspections prior to listing for sale. They also discussed doing a comprehensive study of energy efficiency. The board gave a unified direction as to how to make that work. This is a really big step forward in people being held accountable. There’s a lot of “how” that will be forthcoming, and we expect to see more details as we move forward. Mayor Torre asked for a summary of regulations that were passed and Councilor Mesirow said he will pass it along to the council. Mayor Torre said ACRA meets this Tuesday morning, and he has no other reports. He introduced the motion for Mayor Pro Tem and said in a prior discussion everyone agreed to have Ward continue on as Mayor Pro Tem. Councilor Mesirow motioned to approve Ward as Mayor Pro Tem by acclimation; Councilor Richards seconded. All in favor, motion carried. CONSENT CALENDAR: Mayor Torre pulled Resolution #055, #057 and #058 about fleet changeover. Councilor Hauenstein pulled #059 and #062. Resolution #055, Series of 2021- CDOT Agreement for Aspen Roundabout Improvements Mayor Torre asked them to speak about what the contract means and what to expect. Jack Danneberg, Pete Rice and Trish Aragon of the Engineering Department were present to answer questions along with Bart Necessary with CDOT available to answer questions on WebEx. The project is a major maintenance project run by CDOT for resurfacing from the ABC up to the Castle Creek bridge. This will fund the difference between concrete and asphalt. We are making a million-dollar investment on a 7-million- dollar project. This is a good return on investment. You’ve seen a traffic study that incorporates signage, etc. and this is helping us maintain control of our infrastructure. CDOT wants the roundabout be the first piece of the project. We will come to council at a later date for a work session to make sure everyone is aware of what’s coming down the pipe. Pete Rice said they will fully replace the west side of the Castle Creek bridge. 4 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JUNE 22ND, 2021 Mayor Torre said this would close the whole bridge and Mr. Rice said it would be similar to what they’ve done in the past, and they would reroute traffic through the west end. Councilor Hauenstein pushed for this, for CDOT, RFTA and the city of Aspen to use low carbon concrete. Let’s keep looking at it and if we can have it available here in the valley. Resolution #057 and #058, Series of 2021 – Replacement Pickups for Electric Department - Jerry Nye, Streets Superintendent, Tyler Christoff, Utilities Operation Manager Councilor Mesirow asked them to speak to whether nonelectric options were considered. Mr. Nye said these trucks carry a lot of weight, so based on that alone, electric wasn’t an option. Mr. Christoff said they’re continually watching this technology, and we aren’t seeing anything on the market which matches what we need. Resolution #059, Series of 2021 – Approval of On-Call Contract for Telemetry, Software, and Electric Services with Timber Line Electric and Control Corporation – Tyler Christoff, Utilities Operation Manager and Justin Foreman, Utilities Operation Manager Councilor Hauenstein said his concern is with cyber security and what level experience Timber Line has with it. Mr. Christoff said that a member of our IT staff is trained for this and is doing our check and balances with this vendor. We are going through EPA mandated risk and assessment, and we feel pretty good about where we sit today. Resolution #062, Series of 2021 – DHM Lumberyard Contract Addendum #5, Housing Needs Study & Land Use Pre-Application Support - Chris Everson. Councilor Hauenstein said there has been a lot of public outreach on this and it’s mentioned that they are aware of 2018 valley wide study. He wants to know how a free-market study is relevant to work force housing. He also wants to know why we are paying for a trend analysis for the mid and lower valley. Mr. Everson said this scope of work came out of the March 8th work session. The city of Aspen received seven proposals and are interviewing four of those teams this Friday here in council chambers. They hope to have a contract to council by July 13th. This scope of work ties into this contract. We’ve had concern in the past about only looking at income levels of the upper valley, so also looking at the lower valley, helps us know what incomes to serve overall. Councilor Richards motioned to approve the consent calendar; Councilor Hauenstein seconded. Mayor Torre thanked Nicole (City Clerk) for the minutes. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Ms. Ott made a note about Club 20, so she will handle administratively to appoint Tara Nelson, who will have voting authority. Councilor Richards said the city is a member and she is also a member. Ms. Ott said they can talk offline about it. PUBLIC HEARING: Ordinance #15, Series of 2021- 925 King Street – Minor Subdivision and Establishment of TDR’s – Michelle Bonfils-Thibeault and Sara Adams of Bendon Adams Ms. Bonfils-Thibeault said that all council members were in attendance at the site visit today at noon. 5 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JUNE 22ND, 2021 Ms. Adams gave a background of the property and showed an 1896 Willits map, which shows a mix of mining claims and shacks. She showed the existing conditions and said she is working with historic preservation staff to restore these two buildings on site. The first six buildings on this site are approved for demolition and are non-historic and building 7 and 8 are the ones on site to be restored. The review criteria for the lot split are: 1. There is guaranteed access to a public way 2. There is alignment with the original townsite 3. There are no nonconformities created or increased and 4. Zoning Conformance. She explained how they met each of these. She showed the lot split and parcels 2a and 2b. She said the Historic Preservation Commission was supportive of this application. Ms. Bonfils-Thibeault said in general, this application meets all requirements and went through the criteria again. She showed the breakdown of square footage allowed for each lot, which is also in the packet. Councilor Hauenstein asked for clarification on the calculation of the TDR’s. Ms. Adams, Ms. Bonfils- Thibeault and Amy Simon provided explanation. Councilor Hauenstein suggested a double dip and Ms. Simon said there is none. Councilor Hauenstein asked about lot 2a not being designated historic and Mr. True noted modified language in the ordinance that 2A will not be designated historic. Councilor Richards said she is curious about the ditch on the property and who has water rights. She wants to make sure we’re not losing any senior water rights. Mr. True explained the current situation and said it is an on-going discussion and does not think there is any risk. Council continued to discuss lot split versus subdivision. Ms. Bonfils-Thibeault explained the TDR criteria and how the project meets the requirements. She that both HPC and staff recommends adoption of Ordinance #15, Series of 2021. Council continued to ask clarifying questions. Mayor Torre opened the public hearing. Mayor Torre closed the public hearing. Mayor Torre asked Mr. True about the water rights and if we have the assurances that we need. Mr. True said we will continue to work on the status of the abandonment, appropriately, but it’s really not connected to this application. There is no language here addressing the water, and this is not the place to do that. Mayor Torre asked if the language in the ordinance regarding further lot split or subdivision is covered appropriately. Ms. Bonfils-Thibeault said she has a minor amendment to section 2 to strengthen that. Mr. True clarified that Michelle’s language is regarding historic designation so council will need to propose language if they want something added. Mr. True suggested adding clarification to section 3. Ms. Bonfils-Thibeault read the suggested language, which is an amendment to the language in the Councilor Hauenstein sees no reason to deny the subdivision but would like to strike section 8. Councilor Richards agreed. She might be welcome to TDRs in the future, but it’s too unknown. Ms. Adams asked if she can withdraw that piece since they are not denying it. 6 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JUNE 22ND, 2021 Mr. True suggested adding a whereas clause so that it does not appear to be a denial. Council Hauenstein motioned to approve Ordinance #15, Series of 2021 with the exception of section 8. Mr. True changed his mind and said that council should just accept the withdraw of the TDRs. Councilor Hauenstein revised his motion acknowledging the withdraw of TDRs. Councilor Richards seconded the motion. Phillip Supino, Community Development Director, asked for five minutes to re-write the motion to include all changes. Council agreed to give them five minutes and Mayor Torre said council will reconvene at 7:41 p.m. Councilor Hauenstein withdrew his motion. Councilor Hauenstein motioned to adopt Ordinance #15, Series of 2021 as amended by Philip Supino. Mr. Supino read the motion; Councilor Richards seconded. Mr. True added another small amendment to section 2. Councilor Richards and Hauenstein both accepted the amendment. Councilor Mesirow said the site visit was great. The more we can do this, the better, now that we are getting back to normal. He was having flashbacks of Hotel Lenado in regard to this project. Councilor Doyle said he also enjoyed the site visit today. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Mr. True introduced the executive session. Councilor Richards motioned to move into executive session; Councilor Doyle seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. _______________________________ City Clerk, Nicole Henning