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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcclc.min.072121 1 REGULAR MEETING COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION JULY 21, 2021 Chairperson Jeb Ball called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. Commissioners in attendance: Jeb Ball, Angi Wang, Amanda Tanaka, Candice Olson, Kiki Raj, Bill Dinsmoor. Absent were Charles Cunniffe and Terry Butler. Staff present: Nicole Henning, City Clerk Mitch Osur, Parking Services Director Other attendees: Councilor Ward Hauenstein, and ACRA representative, Mackenzie Sexton GUEST PRESENTATION: Daniela Kohl of the Roaring Fork Valley Bear Coalition Ms. Kohl said she is here to speak about the bear problem in the valley and how we can help to protect them. She founded the coalition back in 2019, and her mission is to protect the life of black bears to prevent negative conflicts. We need to keep bears out of town, and there are innovative ways and solutions by changing human behaviors and retrofitting trash cans to secure them. In the core, there are trash compactors overflowing, which causes huge issues. We have such a privilege to live in black bear territory and keeping them from the core and coming into the city is our main concern. You all know there is a problem. Someone’s life could be at risk, not to mention, all of the bears being euthanized. Bears will be looking for easy food sources all summer. We should ask if what we are doing is working and if it is sufficient. The possible solutions could be to create a bear committee or task force amongst the CCLC. It could be using the city of Aspen app and add a section for trash violations to be submitted to the police for enforcement and followed up on. It could be anonymous reporting. She has been approaching restaurants with flyers regarding their trash cans and alleyways. She suggested that CCLC suggest or request a full-time code officer for the core to issue fines and enforce. Ms. Raj said a fine in Aspen won’t be a deterrent. People don’t really care about it. Ms. Kohl said that Stuart Breck, Research wildlife biologist, can help to provide adequate solutions for transient mountain towns like Aspen. If we could also help to clear up the alleyways and trashcans, it might work better now and have a food buffer zone. We could do this with the Open Space board or ACES. A lot of things could happen here to help the bears coexist. Mr. Osur said bear policing used to be under the parking department and was under the police department after that but is now under the parks department. Mike and Emmy recently have been communicating with restaurants and there have been no issues in the core, so it’s been really successful. He said that policing the dumpsters if really difficult because the majority of the dumpsters are shared, so it’s hard to say who did what. Mr. Osur said next week they will have a tag that can be put on dumpsters, which will be bright orange to get the message out. Ms. Tanaka asked for this to be in Spanish as well. Education is key. Ms. Olson said all the tourists go to all the coffee shops in town and she’s happy to hand out these flyers to everyone. The coffee shops alone can cover 50% of the tourists in town. 2 REGULAR MEETING COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION JULY 21, 2021 Ms. Kohl said she will make her flyer in Spanish as well and she will give some to Jeb and Candice. Mitch said is this something we should add to our list of focus points. You guys should think about if you want to help with residential. Ms. Raj said there should be a citywide policy and doesn’t think we’re doing enough. Mr. Ball said he recommends that we provide a resource and that CCLC is interested in helping in some fashion. Summer Update Ms. Tanaka said it’s busy in her store and she’s sold out of everything. Ms. Wang said shipping and receiving is slow and there is a cotton shortage. Everything is slow to get here. Ms. Tanaka said it’s been great anyway. Ms. Olson said her customers are very patient this summer. Mr. Ball said he’s rented his home starting today for three weeks and the process of trying to find any lodging for the next two weeks is a nightmare. He can’t find anything in town. It’s insane here. He was blown away that there is no availability at all. Ms. Wang said that people have rented out their places for the first time because why wouldn’t you. They will just leave town and go camping or something. Councilor Hauenstein said one of his top three goals from the retreat was commercial gentrification. This needs to be addressed by the private sector. It’s important to me and critical to the town if we can find a way to address and mitigate it. We need a citizens group. Candice said it may take some support from the city. She’s not sure it’s too far gone at this point and can’t be reversed. She said it’s a long-term issue. Let’s make sure the local businesses can stay and we don’t need to focus on incubators. Mr. Ball said the issue is with the rent. Mr. Osur said there is a meeting on Monday regarding street ROW activation. Mr. Ball asked what the rent should be and said we should have a recommendation of $2.00 a square foot or whatever it is to allow the restaurants greater capacity and greater support from the city. Councilor Hauenstein said this is where CCLC could be a real asset. He went on to discuss locally serving, locally operating and locally owned and defining those. Mr. Ball said we should spend an entire agenda session talking about this. He recommended focusing on this in September because we have two deliverables before then. Ms. Olson agreed that this is a great CCLC issue. Mr. Dinsmoor said we had this conversation 15 years ago about this very issue and it’s so difficult. Mr. Osur said we’ve lost almost all of the local retail. Now we are losing all of the locally owned restaurants. Mr. Dinsmoor said the revolution is coming. Ms. Olson said that maybe we need to look at how locals can still get an inexpensive meal or kids’ underwear in Aspen. Ms. Tanaka motioned to adjourn; Ms. Wang seconded. All in favor, motion carried. 3 REGULAR MEETING COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION JULY 21, 2021 _________________________ Nicole Henning, City Clerk