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Home My WebLink Aboutcclc.min.0419171 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF APRIL 19, 2017 Chairperson Bill Guth called the meeting to order at 8:31 a.m. Commissioners in attendance: Bill Dinsmoor, Bill Guth, Charles Cunniffe, Steve Fante and Kiki Raj. Staff in attendance: Nicole Henning, Deputy City Clerk; Dan Nelson, Downtown Coordinator; Phillip Supino, Principal Long Range Planner; Jessica Garrow, Community Development Director; Reilly Thimons, Planning Technician. Mr. Guth had an addition to page 2 of the minutes from April 5th. Mr. Cunniffe moved to approve the minutes, Mr. Fante seconded. Mr. Nelson began by speaking on the Pedestrian mall and stated that the character is intended to be the same. He mentioned that he no longer wanted bricks, but it sounds as though they will be present. Ms. Garrow mentioned that Tina Bishop will be working on this project and she is known for designing historic landscapes, while trying to keep the character. Malls are not required to be frozen in time and based on the advisory group feedback, folks like the look of the brick, but they could also use a brick like pattern. Further questions will be answered like, where should public art go on the mall in the future, etc. Mr. Dinsmoor mentioned the Kai Davis fountain on the mall that’s been talked about for past 20 years and Ms. Garrow said that there are mixed opinions on the fountain, but things like this are certainly up for discussion. Next Thursday there will be a listening session for the mall mentioned by Mr. Nelson who will be in attendance. Ms. Garrow mentioned that the City will be doing potholing to go down and see what they get and to find utilities. She then proceeded to read an announcement about it to the group. Mr. Guth mentioned that mall leases start on the 13th and that he hopes plenty of slack has been built into this schedule of potholing. HOPs will definitely be out there by the 13th. Mr. Nelson agreed and said the potholing can’t be going on while people are out there eating. Phillip Supino took over for the sign code update regarding commercial signage and free speech. Mr. Guth asked what would happen if we chose not to update and Mr. Supino said that there would be nothing short term, but instead, there would be long term legal challenges and mentioned that it is a First Amendment rights issue. Ms. Garrow said that content and neutrality are the standards under the new code and this is a targeted issue. Sandwich boards are not allowed for all businesses anymore and this is going to be of most interest to folks. We cannot tie sandwich boards to a specific use any longer because it is not content neutral. This is regulated based on location, such as ground floor only or regulated by zone district for commercial core, etc. and there can only be one person walking around at a time wearing a sign in town. 2 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF APRIL 19, 2017 Mr. Cunniffe said that 2nd tier retail stores need sandwich boards so people know of their presence. Mr. Fante asked about his own store, CB Paws, and how this will affect him. Ms. Garrow said they will have to discuss who qualifies and figure out who can use them as discussions further. Mr. Supino said that the sign code will lose some of the nuance is has presently, but will gain some clarity as well in terms of who is entitled to what type of sign, etc. Complying with the supreme court standard is the key and there will be a public outreach process starting on May 11th, 12th and 18th, which will be public meetings. The idea is to collaborate with CCLC, ACRA and the Board of Realtors. We will also be using www.communityvoice.com to provide project info to the public. The timeline started with the work session last night and will begin collaboration and public outreach in May, work session #2 will be in June, outreach analysis and first and second reading will be in July and then public outreach follow up and trainings. All of this info will be on community voice and will go live next week. Mr. Guth moved the discussion onto how to discourage employees from parking in the core. Mr. Cunniffe started by saying that people that are single and live in town want to make the town for themselves because they do not have kids and would like everything to be geared towards pedestrians and bicycles. In addition, Mr. Fante said when they change the bus schedule, behavior has to change and it’s hard for people to keep changing behaviors and we should have more consistency than that in order to expect people to use public transportation. Mr. Guth said he really likes the WeCycle program and uses it all the time when it’s in season. Mr. Cunniffe said that he provides free bikes to his staff to get around and has a car available for them to use. Mr. Cunniffe, Mr. Fante and Mr. Dinsmoor said they have all heard that people want Aspen to eventually have no cars at all and they all agreed that this is completely unrealistic. Mr. Fante said that there has to be some activisim in town to have more parking lots. Mr. Guth summarized the discussion with the following topics: having family parking spaces available, later enforcement of parking during specific time periods/locations, more consistent bus schedules especially at the woody creek/galena stops, more bike storage on buses, build more parking, have a carpool program with free or bonused parking for three or more people, make public transit cheaper than driving, provide free employee parking in Rio parking garage, build better bus shelters, free WeCycle passes for locals and employees and make sure it’s promoted and educated. Mr. Guth then moved the discussion to the subject of alleyways. Mr. Dinsmoor said they visited this a decade ago and Mr. Cunniffe said that he was a part of a whole study on this topic ten years ago. 3 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF APRIL 19, 2017 Mr. Guth stated that people in town say that we need more retail space, but we’re making it impossible to build new retails spaces. We’re in an impossible period of time right now, stated Mr. Cunniffe. Mr. Nelson cut in and said that he needed to exit the meeting and mentioned that fence and tarps are coming and we are one to two weeks out for Wagner Park to be back open. He said that May 1st is a Monday and they will be fully staffed and will be ready to go. Getting back to alleyways, Mr. Fante mentioned that the government run trash pick-up down in Denver works very well. Mr. Guth summarized the alleyways discussion with the following topics: explore reducing the numbers of trash trucks and companies, explore a city run program, move some loading and unloading out of the alleys, use the mall renovations as an opportunity to improve alleyways, better snow removal, restricted delivery times, closing off alleys to incoming traffic except for private vehicle traffic and permitted vehicle access only, gated alleys, enhance pedestrian use during evening hours, address lighting, safety and security issues. Mr. Guth moved the discussion to ideas for restricting trunk shows in private non-retail spaces. Ms. Raj said that contents of rooms should be seized until the issue is resolved and that we should enforce existing ordinances. She also suggested that we create a hotline for people to anonymously give a heads up. Mr. Guth suggested that the hotels be involved in the discussion and include them on what the penalties should be. We can invite hotels to CCLC to continue a discussion. Mr. Cunniffe commented that the real angst is because of the internet, not because of these trunk shows. Brick and mortar retail stores are turning into return centers from purchases made online so this won’t fix their angst. Mr. Dinsmoor agreed that this is just throwing a snowball at the problem. The next meeting will be on May 10th due to the election on May 2nd. Mr. Guth adjourned the meeting at 10:02 a.m. ______________________________ Nicole Henning, Deputy City Clerk 4