HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes.NXGN.Regular.20201124-2Next Generation Advisory Committee 11-24-20
Participants: Leah Fielding, Kimbo Brown-Schirato, Christine Benedetti, Stephanie Janigo, Nicky Byrne
Date and Time: 11/24/20 5:30 PM
Leah: Torre had requested summary notes. Last night there was a council session on the lumber yard.
Christine pulled together a letter and sent it to council. Ward replied defensively. He asked a lot of
questions. Kimbo and I replied. Ward wanted Nextgen to reach out and I did so. I reiterated that we
were representing the positions that are held by our demographic. I would like to share some of the
questions that he has so that we can provide feedback to him.
Kimbo: It seems like council is back to square one on the lumberyard project. I am pleased that the
council has decided to get more input before developing such a large project.
Leah: They did increase the units to 320. This is an increase from the last conceptual design. There is
opportunity to increase the number of units further. My goal is to pull up Ward’s questions and allow us
to discuss them.
Kimbo: Can you CC us on the notes emails you send to council.
Leah: Yes.
Stephanie: Can you share Ward’s emails with us.
Leah: Yes.
Stephanie: It sounds like Ward needs some more detail from us.
Leah: Is that what Ward is saying about what I sent him?
Stephanie: No, this is before.
Kimbo: Send the summary to all of council and Cole. I’m not sure people are making use of the notes.
Leah: Yes. I am going to share my screen and we will just address Ward’s questions as a group. I think
this would be a good use of our time.
Kimbo: My only caution is that Ward is only one of five council members so our comments should
address all of council, not just Ward.
Leah: I will include other council members on the email that we craft which address some questions on
the lumberyard.
Kimbo: Looking at these questions, they are really quite good. So, I take my comments back, haha.
Leah: First question.
Kimbo: Do we agree with the mix between rental and ownership?
Christine: This is a question whose answer should be data driven.
Leah: I imagine that they have data on this from APCHA.
Christine: I would preface this by saying that this is a question that is answered by the data.
Kimbo: We know that studios and one bedroom are the things that we need the most. We could answer
by telling them to look at the recent housing study.
Nicky: If you are going to do a majority of something then it should be ownership.
Kimbo: For people who live in centennial, how does the rental vs. ownership there feel? Burlingame is
all ownership, right? That is pretty amazing. I do know.
Leah: We can tell them what we think but we don’t know what is needed.
Stephanie: Is it possible to put all the ownership units in one building so that there is not so much
turnover?
Kimbo: You are some of the youngest people on Nextgen so what would make sense for you.
Nicky: As long as the ownership properties have more value in them, I would want them. Burlingame 1
phase are rentals but Burlingame 2 and 3 are all ownership.
Stephanie: I think that it is all about getting a head in a bed, having the workforce here, and it isn’t all
about buying a place. I’m not the expert either but I think that people are just looking for a place to rent.
Getting to the point where you can buy it is awesome, but most people are just trying to stay here. So
many people have had to move away because there is no housing opportunity.
Leah: So it sounds like more rentals.
Kimbo: Yes, and if there is ownership then it should be all one phase.
Leah: If there is one phase that is all ownership then maybe it should be all one area.
Christine: Rachel suggested rentals for the first couple phases and then maybe ownership for the rental.
Stephanie: If possible, I would like to put all the owners in one section.
Christine: I agree. Renters are typically younger and more transient. If we are talking about livability,
then you don’t want your neighbors changing all the time.
Leah: any more thoughts on that? Ok, do we think that the ration of 62% rental, 38% ownership is too
high on ownership?
Christine: Are we taking notes and sending it.
Group: We should do all rental (everyone agrees).
Christine: It sounds like they are doing sales to make this financially feasible and I don’t know what the
minimum for that is.
Kimbo: They are probably going to do a public private partnership and I’m not sure how that will impact
the City because of their requirements to develop this.
Leah: I’m happy to send these notes along to everyone.
Nicky: The childcare issue is a yes, right?
Leah: Definitely yes, that’s a resounding yes. Something Skippy brought up last night was possibly
turning childcare into housing and moving childcare somewhere else in the ABC. Rachel made some
good points that we just need to get childcare. I agree but I wanted to let everyone know that is another
idea.
Kimbo: I think it depends on who we are housing. Ideally, we are housing people who work near the
lumberyard. That is something to consider. There is a desperate need for infant care.
Christine: Maube some of the units should be reserved for childcare workers in the area.
Leah: I like that.
Kimbo: That is excellent.
Leah: Moving on, he was also asking about the specific location of the site. Where the childcare should
be located. I don’t have any ideas about location.
Christine: The current location makes sense for pick-up and drop-off.
Leah: The phasing of the project. It looks like that in phase 1 and phase 2 there is a lot of green space
that could be used for housing. We can add green space elsewhere. People responded in the survey’s
that they wanted green space.
Kimbo: If there are children in these units then there needs to be somewhere for them to play.
Leah: I think we can cut some of the green space and house more people.
Kimbo: I wouldn’t put much into the current design because it sounds like council wants it changed. I’m
not sure why Ward is curious about phasing.
Nicky: You just mentioned that they are reconsidering orientation and we should think about how
sunlight factors into that decision.
Leah: Council mentioned that last night.
Kimbo: The last part is very good. “Do you feel the public outreach has reflected the public view and that
we should move forward based on it. What does next gen think about the public outreach?” What do
we think?
Leah: There wasn’t a big enough sample. We need 500 or 1,000 people and this isn’t a good time to get
public outreach. I don’t think this is landing with the generation that it needs to which is our
demographic. I fell like a lot of voices, particularly those who would live there, aren’t being heard.
Kimbo: Some of the points are that the sample size is to small. Rachel was wondering whether Skippy’s
push to get more density was impactful. The survey didn’t collect demographic data so there is really no
information there. To Christine’s point, the questions in the survey should be answered bt data, not by
community members.
Christine: We are gonna have a huge shortage in housing. Trying to build something for everyone in one
project is set up for failure. We just need to get this done.
Nicky: We need firm leadership and decision making.
Kimbo: Why are we asking the community about why they want parking? We can’t give people
everything they want if we want people to live here.
Stephanie: Having a car might be a sacrifice that you have to make if you live here.
Leah: I don’t think anyone wants to slow this down.
Kimbo: We did not need to have $300,000 on public outreach for this. Most of the decisions here should
be data driven.
Christine: The City got a lot of heat for being bad communicators and this is their reaction.
Leah: That is an interesting point. I agree with Kimbo that our sample size is too small.
Kimbo: If we are going to do outreach then we need to do it properly and have a marketing firm do it.
The people who completed the survey, may not be reflective of the community who needs to be
providing input. They are asking the wrong people in their public outreach.
Leah: Was there any questions sent to the APCHA lottery list?
Kimbo: We have talked a lot about this. Those lottery people are who we need to reach rather than
potential NIMBY’s.
Christine: I’m not sure if we could get the list of people who can’t move to Aspen because of the lack of
housing but that is who we need to reach.
Kimbo: This whole thing is crazy to me.
Leah: Why doesn’t APCHA want to be involved in that way?
Kimbo: I do not know if the Jason group tried to get that information. Steph and Nickie, how many of
your friends filled out the survey. The answer is that the survey was a self-selecting group and it needed
to be targeted.
Stephanie: I signed up for the park and park and I was surprised how many people were signed up for
the lottery list to try and find housing. That group is a lot bigger than I thought it was.
Kimbo: At this point we need to let him know that the questionnaires are not being filled out by the
people that need to be. We can ask him if the people on the lottery list were targeted in the surveys.
Leah: Well, I think that this was constructive. I really hope that this effort isn’t just to make him feel
better, but I hope he takes some of these points seriously.
Kimbo: Don’t feel shy responding to all of council with his questions and having a robust conversation
between us and council.
Leah: I will send a draft to all of you tomorrow.
Kimbo: How are the flights?
Nicky: We added at least eight flights this week alone.
Christine: Applications for vacancies are due next week. Let people know that the deadlines are coming
up.
Leah: I will try to get the newsletter out and include the information for the vacancies in there.
MEETING ENDED 6:40 PM