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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19890403Continued Meetinq Aspen City Council April 3, 1989 DRUG GRANT APPLICATION 1 ORDINANCE #7, SERIES OF 1989 - Substantive Code Amendments 5 AMENDING DRUG AND ALCOHOL POLICY 10 GOLF COURSE PARKING LOT 10 12 Mayor Stirling called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. with Councilmembers Isaac, tuite, Fallin and Gassman present. DRUG GRANT APPLICATION Mayor Stirling said this is a grant from Communities for a Drug Free Colorado for a drug information officer. Mayor Stirling said the application has to be presented this week. John Goodwin, police chief, told Council this grant is intended to address the crime of illicit drug dealing and none others. Goodwin said the salary for the drug information officer is provided by the grant monies with 25 percent participation from the city. Goodwin said the city's participation will come from money seized in a drug arrest. Goodwin said the $3,000 training request is for police officers to be able to act responsibly in the arresting of people who deal drugs. Goodwin said the police department has applied for money for radio scramblers so the police can communicate without people listening in. A night scope is also in the grant in order to be able to see if drug deals are being made in public at night. Goodwin said undercover operations are not a part of this grant. Goodwin said the same methods of investigation will be used as are used with all other crimes. Goodwin said the police department receives information about crimes. They check out the reliability of the information and of the informant. Goodwin said the police department is looking for people who deal drugs, not use drugs. Goodwin said they will compare their information with other agencies in the valley. Goodwin said this will enhance public safety through a more intensive investigative procedure and training. Goodwin reiterated undercover work will not be part of what the agencies will do. Goodwin said dealing drugs is not a victimless crime. Goodwin told Council in 1988, the police department received reports of 1435 crimes. It is a common estimate that about 10 percent of actual crime gets reported to the police. Goodwin said 90 percent of the crimes in this town are drug related; 90 percent of the people arrested were either under the influence of a substance or after in custody it was determined they had a chronic substance abuse problem, including alcohol. Goodwin said 70 percent of the police budget is spent on reacting to substance abuse and crimes related to substance abuse. Goodwin said in the last 7 years there have been 3 murders in Aspen, all directly related to cocaine. Goodwin said statistics indicate that 75 percent of all family violence cases are drug related. Goodwin said billions of dollars are spent addressing drug abuse in American society. 1 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 3, 1989 Goodwin said this grant will not reduce the local efforts at education, prevention and rehabilitation. The money for this grant has been allotted to law enforcement alone and money allotted to education and rehabilitation is not touched by this grant at all. Goodwin said if this grant is not used for law enforcement, it cannot be used for something else. Goodwin said he feels announc- ing to drug dealers in the community that they are at greater risk is important. Goodwin said he feels this project will discourage rumors as currently the police department gets information they do not act on. Goodwin told Council he anticipates this will be a full time position. Goodwin said the program can be evaluated at the end of a year to decide whether it is not a full time position, not to continue with the program, or reapply at a smaller rate. Goodwin said the program will be evaluated by the police chief, sheriff and Communities for a Drug Free Colorado, and there are requirements to evaluate the program throughout it's existence and at the end of a year. Goodwin said the focus of this program is to encourage the community to take responsibility for its own health and peace. Goodwin said recognized strategies for communities to address problems with drug use consist of prevention, intervention, treatment, law enforcement and after care. Goodwin said currently the law enforcement component in not in proportion with the other efforts in the community. Goodwin said the police department is involved with ASAP, with the school district, and in the liquor server training. Goodwin reminded Council the police department applied for and received a detox van. Goodwin said the applicants for this grant will go to Denver later this week and make a presentation. City Manager Bob Anderson said the staff does not want to be in a position where they accept the grant, and the City Council decides to reject it. Goodwin said this is a joint application with the county and the sheriff has committed to going forward with the grant application. Goodwin said there is a serious trafficking problem in Pitkin County. Councilman Tuite asked how come a drug plan or officer had not been requested during budget sessions. Goodwin said this last budget was his first one and he was addressing issues that were more basic. Mayor Stirling said if the police department with the current level of personnel cannot respond to this issue, the emphasis should be reallocated. Anderson said the police depart- ment was going to ask for 3 more officers during budget time. Anderson said there has been annexation and an increase in crime reports. Anderson said it is not unusual to change priorities during the year given funding possibilities. Councilman Tuite said he supports more law enforcement personnel. Councilman Tuite said he would rather have more uniformed officers on the street, and if this were not a grant, the Council would probably not be discussing 2 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 3, 1989 it. Anderson said this is last minute because that is the way the grant came to the city. Larry Dragon, director of community education ASAP, urged Council to support this grant. The grant will not cost the city any money. Dragon said the grant will give a chance to put some risk into dealing drugs. Dragon said this is an opportunity to put to rest the myth that dealing drugs is a victimless crime. Arlene DeVries, director of ASAP, told Council drugs and alcohol cost this community a lot of money. Ms. DeVries said it is everyone's problem and everyone needs to be part of the solution. Ms. DeVries said in order to prevent and reduce substance abuse, a comprehen- sive, multi-faceted approach is needed. Ms. DeVries said this is an opportunity to give a message to the community. Chris Bigley said if there is trafficking in this valley, the drugs are going to come in through the airport. Bigley said the airport should be a place where things are checked. Bigley said there should be a committed effort to the health of the community. Steve Crockett said this seems to be rushed through the process because the city saw some available money. Crockett said this project will accelerate the distrust of law enforcement and may constitute an invasion of privacy. Crockett said projects like this have a - tendency to get out of control. Crockett said he does not feel the problem exists in a sufficient magnitude to warrant this level of response. Crockett urged Council not to act in haste and to gather more information from the community on the magnitude of this program. Walter Ganz said this grant is directed against drug dealers. Ganz said Aspen has a sensitive and good police department, and they will not step on civil rights. Frank Peters said no one would argue there is a substance problem in Aspen. Peters said the question is whether Aspen is going to be taking a hand-me-down policy with the $40,000. Peters said the police department better serves the community when they are wearing their uniforms and doing their investigations. Goodwin said there will be surveillance as part of this program, surveillance is what any normal citizen can see. Mary Ellen Smiddy told Council when the students did a drug and alcohol survey, one of the things they said what they could not believe adults did not know what the dealers in town were. Chuck Vidal said the community has been sending out a statement of live and let live. Vidal said he would like to see a tough policy adopted. Vidal said by not adopting this, the city will be sending out the same statement. Sy Coleman said the police department may need to change their priorities, and to increase the level at which the police department deals with the drug problem. Coleman said this grant commits the city to an outside agency which circumvents the Council. Coleman said the Council represents the opinions of 3 Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council Abril 3. 1989 a message that the town wants to clamp down on drugs . Councilwoman Fallin said she does not want any infringement on people's rights. Councilwoman Fallin said if the city does not receive the grant, Council should look at making this a priority within the police department budget. Council clarified the grant to not include night scopes, that it be local emphasis, not at the airport, and there be an evaluation process including Council. All in favor, with the exception of Councilman Gassman. Motion carried. ORDINANCE #7, SERIES OF 1989 - Substantive Code Amendments Mayor Stirling opened the public hearing. Alan Richman, planning director, reminded Council at their last public hearing, they made duplexes in the C-1 zone a prohibited use, and in the office and RMF zone they are a permitted used with one of the two units restricted to the middle income affordable housing guidelines. Richman told Council staff is taking this to P & Z with the concept of making it applicable in all the residen- tial zones. Councilwoman Fallin said she would rather have duplexes in the office zone a conditional use. Councilwoman Fallin said she does not want to dilute the office zone. Richman said if one of the reasons for moving duplexes to conditional use is to make is less attractive without making it a non-conforming use, this will achieve that goal. Councilwoman Fallin moved to reconsider making duplexes a permitted use in the office zone; seconded by Councilman Isaac. All in favor, motion carried. Councilwoman Fallin moved to make duplexes with one unit deed restricted be a conditional use in the office zone; seconded by Councilman Isaac. All in favor, motion carried. Council had no changes or amendments to the FAR bonus section The third issue is the section to repeal and reenact the section regulating demolition of historic landmarks. Richman said the main issue has been to come up with better review standards to insure when demolition applications are reviewed that the city has adequate tools to determine demolition is inappropriate, to look at relocation plans. Richman said currently the only thing regulated through these demolition standards are structures rated 4 and 5. Richman said staff is concerned about structures rated 1, 2 and 3 as they have no protection. Richman suggested Council 5 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 3, 1989 consider expanding the number of structures on the historic inventory that is subject to demolition review. Mayor Stirling moved to include in Ordinance #7 protection for structures rated 1, 2, 3; seconded by Councilwoman Fallin. Richman said staff will notify each individual owner of the change in status of their structures. Richman said rather than debating the merits if a structure should be saved, staff ends up debating whether a structure should be a 2, 3, or 4. The real issue is what is happening to the town. Richman said this action is an expansion of the original ordinance. Richman suggested separating this out into its own ordinance, or at a minimum, renoticing the ordinance. Mayor Stirling withdrew his motion. Mayor Stirling moved to remove ##16 in the memorandum and have it brought to Council as a separate ordinance and have a first reading April 10; seconded by Councilman Isaac. Richman said number 4, 6, and 10 will become and unnecessary if a separate ordinance is done. Councilman Isaac said he is concerned about losing houses in the next two weeks. Mayor Stirling said the only way to avoid that would be to institute an administrative delay. Fred Gannett, city attorney's office, said if Council leaves this ordinance intact, structures in some zones will still be protected. Mayor Stirling withdrew his motion. Mayor Stirling moved to direct the city attorney to bring a first reading on a full demolition protection ordinance for April 10; seconded by Councilman Isaac. Councilman Tuite said the city has always taken the position that anyone caught in the process has been able to complete the process because they acted in good faith. All in favor, with the exception of Councilman Tuite. Motion carried. Councilman Isaac moved to initiate an administrative delay for demolition of structures on the historic inventory; seconded by Mayor Stirling. Chuck Vidal said when people come and talk to staff about projects, sometimes the staff and Council reacts. Councilman Isaac said if the city has to notice all the historic structures in town that there will be a review process, this will take time and the city may lose a dozen structures. Gannett said in the last administra- 6 Continued Meetina Aspen City Council April 3, 1989 tive delay, Council put in an exemption process. Mayor Stirling said he feels the city should go through the process without creating an administrative delay Councilman Isaac in favor; everyone else opposed. Motion NOT carried. The next section is a proposal to amend the HPC appeal provisions, define who can appeal and institute a call up provision. Richman said these changes have not been controversial. Councilman Gassman moved to approve #17; seconded by Councilman Tuite; All in favor, motion carried. Richman said in the minimum maintenance requirements, staff amended the language to add that the normal penalties of the Code would not apply to violations of this section, that there is some account- ability for this program, allowing an extension beyond the 10 year period. Richman told Council Gannett is working on the loan to value ratio criteria. Gannett said in order to get the loan to value, an applicant may have to go to a title company, which will cost money. Mayor Stirling said the loans will be so low on a property that has increased in value that this may be unnecessary. Councilman Tuite said even if the city does not get the money back, they have maintained a house that is in the inventory. Council agreed not to include this amendment. All Council favored this section. The next section addresses variation requests in PUD and SPAs. Richman told Council SPA and PUD are very similar processes. In the past, staff has looked at combining them. Richman reminded Council SPA allows all the variations that are allowed in PUD plus it allows variations in use and in density. Richman said these two things the city would never think about allowing in PUDs. Richman said the items that have been of most concerns in reviewing SPA and PUDs have been the ability to vary FAR, density and height. Density is only allowed to be varied in SPA. Richman said the minority position of P & Z was not to eliminate the height variation but j ust the FAR and density . P & Z has recommended that limits be placed on PUD and SPA, and the form of those limits would be the terms minimal or modest and that a clear basis be given for the compensation or the benefit that is given to the community for those variations, whether it's increased open space, increased setbacks, or some kind of an economic or social benefit. Richman said originally staff suggested that minimal and modest are too loose; they are subject to everyone having a different interpretation. Richman told Council the more he thought about this, the more he started to move on to the side of the minority 7 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 3, 1989 P & Z position. Richman said one reason he is changing to supporting no FAR and density increase is the experiences the staff has had in going the Code amendment process. Richman told Council the development community has bid up the cost to the community of the code amendments. Richman said this also happens in the PUD process. Richman said no one will ever agree what is a reasonable trade off for more FAR or for more density. Richman said the city is better off not having the ability to bid things up. Richman said he feels Aspen would be better served right now with a process that does not allow increases in size. Councilman Tuite said he agrees, and asked if the Hotel Jerome could have been restored if they had not gotten the FAR bonus. Richman said the height would have been allowed. Richman told Council it would be impossible to answer if the Jerome would have been built at underlying zoning. Richman said the city has never given a density bonus through an SPA and the Meadows is not asking for a density bonus. Mayor Stirling said the question that occurs to him is why there is any quid pro quo at all. Mayor Stirling questioned how one can made a determination what an ice rink is worth or what a park is worth in terms of additional units. Mari Peyton, P & Z member, told Council the city should make exception for historical buildings. Ms. Peyton said historical buildings could be rezoned or they could be exempt. Chuck Vidal said the city gets stuck in thinking about points in time. Vidal said there would have been a point given the economic conditions of this community where the Jerome would have been renovated, and there would have been a time where it would not have happened. Vidal said the developer speaks to Council about today's condi- tions, and Council doesn't always have to respond to satisfy economic conditions today. Joe Wells said he thought the thrust of the PUD process was to make a decision at what point a project has greater public benefit than cost. Wells said there a more philosophical issue in the long run. There is a benefit in public improvements that bears no relation- ship to the cost of the improvements. Wells said it is clear this change is directed at very specific language in the code having to do with lodges that are approved under PUD. Wells said the first is that~the limitation on the size of lodges is tied only to the amount of square footage that is approved by Council. Secondly, the density cannot be varied in a PUD but there is no density assignment for lodge rooms. Wells said one way to get at the problem is to establish a density for lodge rooms. Wells pointed out that P & Z has clearly decided not to take that approach and has forwarded language that says that lodge rooms are not density related. 8 Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council April 3, 1989 Wells said the other approach is to take away the flexibility on FAR so that the number of lodge rooms is governed by the FAR that is established in the zone district. Wells said in doing this Council may not have given consideration to the effects on residential projects on raw land. Wells told Council his bias is for clustered residential development with the maximum amount of open space. The market place right now is for the largest lots possible, the maximum amount of exclusivity and privacy for the buyer of single family lots. Wells said it would be unfortunate to send the development community a signal that the city is not interested in trying to come up with a better project for the community by discussing flexibility under the PUD provisions. Wells said he would like Council to preserve some flexibility to get better projects. Bil Dunaway said flexibility remains in other things that can be varied. Dunaway has the time has come when the community is saying that they are not going to increase the size of development above underlying zoning. Frank Peters said P & Z is put in a difficult position when they take on the burden of what they think increased FAR is worth in terms of community benefits. Peters said minimal or modest seems like a small incentive for developers, and it is not worth the effort. Peters suggested the city make PUD mandatory for projects over 27,000 square feet. Mayor Stirling said that is an intriguing suggestion, and suggested Council look at this as a separate issue. Perry Harvey told Council the Meadows has submitted a proposal. There is no zoning on the, property, and the submitted proposal calls for a certain density and FAR within the guidelines of certain zone districts. Harvey told Council the Meadows applica- tion is in negotiations with groups throughout the community who are giving input and discussing issues like greater density and greater open space. Harvey said he has never seen an SPA or PUD development submission come out the way it went it. Harvey said he is concerned about limits when he does not know what is going to happen to the Meadows proposal. Richman agreed this application will probably change in the process. Harvey said they have already submitted the proposal prior to the enactment of this ordinance and it may not apply to the Meadows SPA. Gannett said it depends on the stage at which the application is, to the reliance they have made with respect to the existing districts. Mari Peyton pointed out this cannot have any effect unless Council zones the land. If Council zones the land, then it has underlying zoning and the FAR cannot be varied. Ms. Peyton said if the process continues the way it is, the zoning will not go on until approval for the SPA. Wells said someone has pointed out that rezoning is a solution. Wells said in 95 percent of the examples, rezoning is inappropriate because the land may be zoned at the highest intensity already or there may not be an alternative zone district that would accom- 9 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 3, 1989 modate the existing uses. Wells said spot zoning is also a problem. Mayor Stirling moved to eliminate in Section 7-804 (d)(2) the word external and minimum lot area per dwelling unit and in bold print the balance through the word appropriate; seconded by Councilman Isaac. Councilman Isaac asked about giving an exception for historic buildings. Richman said he cannot think of a historic building where a planned unit development will apply. Councilman Gassman asked if the intent is also to amend the PUD section. Mayor Stirling amended his- motion to include the PUD section to eliminate subsection (i) the word external and the bold that follows, leaving the last paragraph; seconded by Councilman Isaac. Mayor Stirling said he regrets losing some flexibility but the community has reached a point where it is under a lot of pressure and there are limits. Mayor Stirling said the only way is to take away discretion from the Council and to protect the scope and scale of the town. Mayor Stirling said he feels minimal and modest can be defined in many different way, and the best interest of the community is very ambiguous. Councilwoman Fallin asked if there will be some degree of flexibil- ity. Richman said there is the ability to increase height. Richman noted a lot of the zone district map is designated PUD, areas that are required to go through PUD like steep slope, stream banks, etc. All in favor, motion carried. Mayor Stirling moved to continue the public hearing to April 10; seconded by Councilwoman Fallin. All in favor, motion carried. Mayor Stirling moved to continue the public hearing on Ordinances 8, 10, 13, 14, to April 10; seconded by Councilwoman Fallin. All in favor, motion carried. AMENDING DRUG AND ALCOHOL POLICY Mayor Stirling moved to table this to April 24; seconded by Councilwoman Fallin. All in favor, motion carried. GOLF COURSE PARKING LOT Mayor Stirling moved to pave the golf course parking lot and go with the bid amended due to less activity; seconded by Councilwoman Fallin. 10 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 3, 1989 Councilman Gassman said he feels it is a mistake to put a major expanded parking lot at the entrance to town. Councilman Gassman said the community has struggled to keep the entrance to town different from other communities. Councilman Gassman said this seems to fly in the face of many long term community objectives. Mayor Stirling said he does think a golf course can be run without a parking lot. Councilwoman Fallin said as long as cars are going to be driving to the golf course and in an effort to clean up the dust, the city has to do something with the parking lot. Mayor Stirling agreed about the dust and the air quality. All in favor, with the exception of Councilman Gassman. Motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m. Kathryn Koch, City Clerk 11 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council April 3, 1989 the community. Crockett said this seems to be asking the police- department to solve problems which start in the home. Councilwoman Fallin moved to support the application by the police department for a grant from Communities for a Drug Free Colorado; seconded by Councilman Isaac. Councilman Tuite said he wants to see the money spent in the community on enforcement, not at the airport. Goodwin said what the Council directs is what he will represent in Denver. Goodwin told Council the section he applied under is a multi-jurisdictional intelligence gathering function, and Basalt, Aspen, Snowmass, Pitkin County are involved in the grant. Goodwin said the grant has been narrowly defined as an information officer. Councilman Isaac said he is amazed that information is coming in the police department, and they are not able to do anything about it because of other work. Councilman Isaac said he does not see this application as a change in attitude of the police department. Councilman Isaac said this grant is only for one year, and if the city gets the grant, there should be a review in 6 months. Mayor Stirling said his major concern is the violation of civil rights of the citizens in town and the issue of undercover work. Mayor Stirling said people fear their individual rights may be threatened by this grant. Mayor Stirling said the evaluation of this grant has to be expanded beyond the police chief, the sheriff and the state in order for him to support this. Mayor Stirling said an evaluation should be done by Council and some other local groups. Mayor Stirling said he is also concerned about reallocat- ing resources within the police department, and that this could have been done without applying for the grant. Anderson said this will be a good experiment for a year. Anderson said this grant is not anticipating undercover personnel or a lot of high tech regalia. Anderson said he feels the city ought to take advantage of this opportunity. Mayor Stirling said he will support this if there are no night scopes, there is no undercover work, and there is a clear evalua- tion process in order to give the community a chance to comment. Mayor Stirling said there is a potential in this grant to move the community more towards health and awareness. Councilman Gassman said the drug problem is getting worse in the face of enormously increased expenditures of law enforcement. Councilman Gassman said Aspen has been lucky because of the people who have been working on the problem and in trying to get people to be healthy. Councilman Gassman said he feels that is the correct approach. Councilman Gassman sid he cannot support this drug grant. Councilwoman Fallin said she supports this grant for a year and because the people involved are saying they need even more help. Councilwoman Fallin said this drug grant and work will be sending 4