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Home My WebLink Aboutminutes.council.20151123Regular Meeting Aspen City Council November 23, 2015 1 COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS ............................................................................................................ 2 CITY MANAGER COMMENTS ................................................................................................................ 2 BOARD REPORTS ...................................................................................................................................... 2 CONSENT CALENDAR ............................................................................................................................. 2 Resolution #127, Series of 2015 – Purchase of 81 Cale Parking Stations ............................................ 3 Resolution #132, Series of 2015 – 2016 EOTC Budget ....................................................................... 3 Resolution #134, Series of 2015 – BTC DC Fast Car Charger Purchase and Install ............................ 3 Resolution #133, Series of 2015 – New Year’s Eve Fireworks Contract ............................................. 3 Minutes – November 9, 2015 ................................................................................................................ 3 ORDINANCE #46, SERIES OF 2015 – Miscellaneous Code Amendments ............................................... 3 ORDINANCE #43, SERIES OF 2015 – 2016 Fee Ordinance ..................................................................... 4 ORDINANCES #44 AND #45, SERIES OF 2015 – Utility Rates ............................................................... 4 ORDINANCE #41, SERIES OF 2015 – Fall Supplemental Budget ............................................................ 4 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council November 23, 2015 2 At 5:00 pm Mayor Skadron called the regular meeting to order with Councilmembers Mullins and Daily present. COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS Councilman Daily wished everyone a glorious Thanksgiving. Councilwoman Mullins also wished a happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Mayor Skadron said the mountain is open. He thanked the delegation from Indonesia for their visit. There were 14 members from Paupau who are developing a resort community. They followed the delegation from Whistler which followed the delegation from Abetone. He is going to Paris on Dec 2nd and was invited from by the Mayor of Paris to attend the climate conference. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS Steve Barwick stated there is a series of upcoming meetings on repurposing the Wheeler RETT monies. The first meeting will be December 2nd from 5:30 to 6:30 at the Red Mountain Grill. The meetings will be published online and in the newspapers. BOARD REPORTS Mayor Skadron attended the RFTA board meeting where they discussed the IGA between Garfield and RFTA for joint use, the final draft of the budget and the final draft of the railroad corridor access control plan update. The chamber retreat was last week and they discussed strategies for going forward. One of the principle discussions was ensuring the chambers goals and strategies are in line with the communities. CONSENT CALENDAR Resolution 127 – parking stations Mitch Osur, parking, stated the stations were bought as an emergency last year and installed. We were paying 90 dollars per month for 13 months with 100 percent going towards the purchase price. It was in the budget to purchase in 2016. We can purchase them for 511,000 or continue to rent them for 200 dollars each per month. Resolution 134 charging stations Tim Thompson, asset, said the fast charge station will charge in 20 minutes. There is CORE grant money for the funding. They will be located on the bottom level. Councilwoman Mullins asked how much of the 29,000 is from the grant. Ryland French, canary, replied half, it is a matching grant. Councilwoman Mullins asked if there is any way to know if a station is occupied. Mr. French stated there are some apps that show availability and use. There is an internet connection built in to this station. Councilwoman Mullins asked if you will have to pay to go in to the garage. Mr. Osur replied yes, but the charging is free. Councilwoman Mullins said it would be nice to get them on the street. Mr. French commented on the Aspen Energy Challenge. Park City challenged us to the ski town show down to install the most LED light bulbs and smart thermostats. Park City did defeat us. We saw about 350 LEDs installed and 15 smart thermostats. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council November 23, 2015 3  Resolution #127, Series of 2015 – Purchase of 81 Cale Parking Stations  Resolution #132, Series of 2015 – 2016 EOTC Budget  Resolution #134, Series of 2015 – BTC DC Fast Car Charger Purchase and Install  Resolution #133, Series of 2015 – New Year’s Eve Fireworks Contract  Minutes – November 9, 2015 Councilwoman Mullins moved to adopt the consent calendar; seconded by Councilman Daily. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE #46, SERIES OF 2015 – Miscellaneous Code Amendments Justin Barker, community development, told the Council this is largely to clarify the existing regulations and codify the existing policy. The majority of the updates are in the definitions and calculation and measurement sections. This section is largely technical and deals with how to calculate floor area and how to measure height. It needs to be updated regularly in order to address current building practices and ensure clarity in the building review. Most updates are already in existing policies. A few of the proposed updates involve building envelopes. There are a small number of properties that have these but little or no requirements are listed. They serve as setbacks rather than traditional envelopes. Another update would be projections within setbacks. The code allows for a number of projections within the setback including water features, pools, hot tubs and mechanical equipment. The proposed amendment would help clear that up and allow for screening. Unit floor area for a dwelling unit in a building that contains multiple dwelling units is also addressed. There are two different ways to calculate the floor area for these units and both ways have been used in the past. The proposal is to codify the method that aligns with other methods in the code. An implication is that many units would be nonconforming with the floor area due to the two methods of calculation. Other amendments would be for cleanup items to fix code references, remove conflicting review authorities, relocating text into the appropriate code sections. The proposed changes were sent through the newsletter and reviewed by P&Z. Staff is recommending adoption. Mayor Skadron said all code amendments are subject to a three step process including outreach, policy resolution and a public hearing. Mr. Barker replied correct. Councilwoman Mullins said urban growth boundary is referenced multiple ways including Aspen community growth boundary and Aspen metropolitan boundary. Could it be referenced one way. Mr. Barker said it could probably be unified under one term. Councilwoman Mullins said it is an important term and concept and we should pick one of the three terms and stick with it. Jim True, city attorney, said the terms are equivalent. It would get a little complicated to address it tonight and would require addressing all the specific codes. Councilwoman Mullins stated it does not have to be tonight. Mr. True said it would make sense to use one term and perhaps in another amendment. It should be fixed and there may be other code amendments we are proposing where it could be addressed. Mayor Skadron opened the public comment. There was none. Mayor Skadron closed the public comment. Councilman Daily moved to adopt Ordinance #46, Series of 2015; seconded by Councilwoman Mullins. Roll call vote. Councilmembers Daily, yes; Mullins, yes; Mayor Skadron, yes. Motion carried. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council November 23, 2015 4 ORDINANCE #43, SERIES OF 2015 – 2016 Fee Ordinance Pete Strecker, finance, said there were questions at first reading around the pricing committee and how the fees get set. The pricing committee is the city manager, assistant city managers, and peer department heads. Former Councilman Derek Johnson recommended the annual review. Certain fees are reviewed every year, including recreation. Fees are set by department. Different departments are trying to achieve different subsidy levels. Fees like community development have a multiyear cost recovery. Stormwater was also reviewed this year and they are somewhat unique due to the limited number of fees. Updates since first reading include a 25 dollar permit fee for community development and a 325,000 plan review fee for interior adjustments. Mayor Skadron opened the public comment. There was none. Mayor Skadron closed the public comment. Councilwoman Mullins moved to adopt Ordinance #43, Series of 2015; seconded by Councilman Daily. Roll call vote. Councilmembers Mullins, yes; Daily, yes; Mayor Skadron, yes. Motion carried. ORDINANCES #44 AND #45, SERIES OF 2015 – Utility Rates Lee Ledesma, utilities, stated the rates will be effective January 1, 2016. The average increase to electric is 5 percent and water is 5.5 percent. We continue to move to cost of service. We have been transitioning for about five years. We will do a complete rate study for both utilities in 2016. Question from first reading is where we are in the cost of service transition. There are lots of moving parts in the last five years. We did the tier tightening last year for all four inverted block rate tiers for both water and electric. Or capital plans have changed quite a bit for infrastructure improvements. We have had a lot more renewables and energy efficiencies in our customer base. All of those will be looked at in 2016. Mayor Skadron opened the public comment for Ordinance #44. There was none. Mayor Skadron closed the public comment. Councilwoman Mullins moved to adopt Ordinance #44, Series of 2015; seconded by Councilman Daily. Roll call vote. Councilmembers Daily, yes; Mullins, yes; Mayor Skadron, yes. Motion carried. Mayor Skadron opened the public comment for Ordinance #45. There was none. Mayor Skadron closed the public comment. Councilman Daily moved to adopt Ordinance #45, Series of 2015; seconded by Councilwoman Mullins. Roll call vote. Councilmembers Mullins, yes; Daily, yes; Mayor Skadron, yes. Motion carried. ORDINANCE #41, SERIES OF 2015 – Fall Supplemental Budget Mr. Strecker told the Council the changes from first to second reading include three items. Recording the 3.8 million of refunding the sales tax bonds. There is 200,000 dollars for the employee benefits fund. We are not sure if we are going to need the money, if not it just stays in the fund. There is 250,000 that was originally for the Mill Street property for earnest money. Since we are moving to a lease option he is not sure if we will still need the money now. Mr. Barwick requested we leave the money in while we are working on the lease negotiations. Councilwoman Mullins asked to explain the three million again. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council November 23, 2015 5 Mr. Strecker said we are re-upping the liability that we already had before. We are refunding the old bonds and taking up a new set. We need the authority to pay off the first set. Mayor Skadron opened the public comment. There was none. Mayor Skadron closed the public comment. Councilman Daily moved to adopt Ordinance #41, Series of 2015; seconded by Councilwoman Mullins. Roll call vote. Councilmembers Daily, yes; Mullins, yes; Mayor Skadron, yes. Motion carried. Councilman Daily moved to adjourn at 5:45 p.m.; seconded by Councilwoman Mullins. All in favor, motion carried. Linda Manning City Clerk