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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.20090413Regular Meetin¢ Aspen City Council April 13, 2009 COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS......... COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS......... CONSENT AGENDA ............................... ...................................................................... 2 ...................................................................... 3 ...................................................................... 4 Resolution #23, 2009 -Contract Construction Pit Replacement for the Wheeler.. 4 Resolution #24, 2009 -Contract - East of Aspen Trai] II ...................................... 4 Resolution #19, 2009 -Contract Skid Steer Loader ............................................... 4 • Resolution #20, 2009 -Communication Board E-911 Agreement ...................... ... 4 • Resolution #21, 2009 - 210 West Francis Extension of Ordinance #48 Review. ... 4 • Minutes - Mazch 23, 2009 .................................................................................... .. 4 • Resolution #22, 2009 -Exemption From Vested Rights Lot 1 Boomerang Subdivision continue to Apri127, 2009 ........................................................................ .. 4 ORDINANCE #10, SERIES OF 2009 -Disconnect Territory South of the Airport....... .. 5 ORDINANCE #5, SERIES OF 2009 -SPA Amending Pitkin County Jail .................... .. 6 ORDINANCE #7, SERIES OF 2009 -Code Amendment Bicycle Safety ...................... .. 6 RESOLUTION #3, SERIES OF 2009 -Aspen Valley Hospital Conceptual PUD ......... .. 7 411 PEARL COURT ORDINANCE #48 REVIEW NEGOTIATION ............................ 10 Re¢ular Meetine Aspen Citv Council Aaril 13, 2009 Mayor Ireland called the meeting to order at 5:10 with Councilmembers Skadron, Johnson, Romero and Kasabach present. 1. Kathryn Koch, city clerk, and Jim True, special counsel, showed Council and the audience the sample ballot for the May election, where on the city's website the FAQ about instant runoff voting, the instant runoff voting brochure and video can be found. 2. Bill Wiener said there was a transportation work session in the Council Chambers showing various solutions. The community should be working on how to reduce the traffic, not how to make more cars flow into Aspen. Wiener presented some papers for Council to review. Wiener said he attended the presentation from the architects to the Wheeler board. Wiener said he sees a way to reduce costs and have a better building for the expansion. Wiener said he would like to present an option for Council to examine in an executive session. John Worcester, city attorney, said he will have to review the subject to see if it is appropriate for executive session. 3. Lisa Mazkalunas brought up the construction at the Aspen Institution and the destruction of native landscape. Ms. Markalunas said it was not clear to the public that the Greenwald tent would be in a different location. Aspen's mayflowers, to the north of the tent and on city property, are being threatened. Ms. Mazkalunas said the public process failed the public. Ms. Markalunas told Council the Institute said they would not start until today and in fact they started last week. Ms. Markalunas said the work destroyed all of the sage, the serviceberry, and gamble oak on city property. Ms. Mazkalunas requested Council require the Institute not to artificially water or shade the site. Mayor Ireland said Ms. Markalunas' letter indicates some mayflowers survived and should be protected by a fence. Ms. Markalunas said these are within 1 to 2' of the construction site. Mayor Ireland said the city can talk to the Institute to see what else can be preserved. Councilman Skadron said he met with Ms. Mazkalunas, Tricia Aragon and Stephen Ellsperman on the site this morning. Staff is addressing the concerns. Ms. Mazkalunas said when the approval to move the tent was approved, there was no further notice to public. Jim Curtis, representing Aspen Institute, said they will work with the parks department on this issue. Curtis pointed out the tent was in the approval process for 16 months. The discussion of the tent location was discussed at HPC, P&Z and Council. Curtis reminded Council at the Council meeting March 9`h, the trail location was farther south and was moved at the request of the neighbors to the north. Curtis said the Institute had proper approvals and followed those approvals. Curtis said the Institute is willing to work with city staff on anything the staff might consider to be an improvement. Curtis told Council they received their building permit last week'and began work that day. 2 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council April 13, 2009 Ms. Mazkalunas said her concern is the change in process. Ms. Markalunas said she was all right with the change from a temporazy to permanent use; however, the public was not informed that the location of the tent was moving. Ms. Mazkalunas said there should be a notice that there is a substantial change to the neighbors. Mayor Ireland said the city will preserve what is left and will look at the process to make sure major changes are not done without notice to the public. 4. Jim Markalunas passed out pictures of the mayflowers and said his concern is to preserve the area north of the tent on city property. Mazkalunas said the city did not take into account the natural vegetation when they approved moving the path to the north and into space zoned conservation or open space. Markalunas said there is hope to preserve some of this property. Markalunas said there are very few locations where these mayflowers grow. Markalunas suggested the city should construct a small split rail fence south of the dirt path and north of the asphalt path to prevent further damage to the natural environment. Markalunas said there is damage from plowing and salting of the paths. 5. Andrew Kole reminded the business community the Commercial Core and Lodging Commission is having a meeting Wednesday April 15`h at 8:30 to consider ideas for the businesses in the summer. Kole said the Mayor and Council debates can be viewed on grassrootstv.org under videos on demand. 6. David Schoenberger, representing Greensnow Management system, presented a packet of what the company does. Schoenberger stated Greensnow is the most innovative snow management and snow removal system. Greensnow is cleaner, greener technology and environmentally compatible. Schoenberger requested a work session with Council to explain their system. Mayor Ireland asked staff analyze this system. Randy Ready, assistant city manager, said staff has concerns about the Council meeting with a single vendor, contrazy to the city's procurement code. Ready reminded Council the city reviews their snow management program every 2 or 3 years. Mayor Ireland said if this is an alternative to the city's current process; the city would need to open this up to all bidders. Schoenberger said this is a service, not a product. COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS 1. Councilwoman Kasabach suggested the city eliminate neighborhood parking during the off season. Mayor Ireland said staff should analyze the pros and cons of this suggestion. 2. Mayor Ireland thanked Eric Skaravan for putting on the Doggie Uphill. This event is fun and raises money for charity. 3. Chris Bendon, community development department, requested Council continue action on Resolution #22, at the applicant's request. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council April 13.2009 4. Councilman Romero reported RFTA met last week, the topics were mostly around budget refinements and analysis of contingency planning; comparing routes with projected revenues. The Boazd conducted performance reviews of the CEO and the CLO. CONSENT AGENDA Mayor Ireland moved to approve the consent calendar adding VIII (d) continuance of Resolution #22, 2009 -Exemption from Vested Rights -Boomerang to Apri127th; seconded by Councilman Johnson. Mayor Ireland opened the public hearing on Resolution #22, 2009; there were no comments. The consent calendar is: • Resolution #23, 2009 -Contract Construction Pit Replacement for the Wheeler • Resolution #24, 2009 -Contract - East of Aspen Trail II • Resolution #19, 2009 -Contract Skid Steer Loader • Resolution #20, 2009 -Communication Boazd E-911 Agreement • Resolution #21, 2009 - 210 West Francis Extension of Ordinance #48 Review • Minutes -March 23, 2009 • Resolution #22, 2009 -Exemption From Vested Rights Lot 1 Boomerang Subdivision continue to Apri127, 2009 Councilman Skadron noted the pit replacement for the Wheeler is being funded out of departmental savings. Councilman Skadron asked the balance of departmental savings for the Wheeler. Gram Slaton, Wheeler, told Council it is around $100,000. Councilman Skadron asked how departmental savings are funded. Randy Ready, assistant city manager, told Council departmental savings are 50% of what is left in a department's budget at the end of the year. These savings maybe used for projects that improve customer service; the savings may not be used for projects the Council has said no to. Councilman Skadron asked if this improvement is safety related. Slaton said it is. Councilman Skadron asked about the east of Aspen trail and where the connection will be made. Jeff Woods, parks department, said it goes across the Cooper bridge east to Stillwater. This contract is to analyze the safest way to go east. Woods said the goal is similar for trails that have been built in the Cemetery Lane neighborhood and up to Highlands. This is to connect the east side of town into town safely. The exact alignment will come out of this process. Councilman Skadron said the trail system is an extraordinazy community amenity. Councilman Skadron said he is frustrated when people use the streets instead of the trails. Councilman Skadron brought up the E-911 agreement and that this will increase the monthly surcharge to $1.25/month, which is about a 70% increase. Richard Pryor, chief of police, told Council this IGA will allow the E-911 board to review and increase the per 4 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council April 13, 2009 line/per month charges. Mark Gamrat, communications department, told Council there are many reasons to increase this surchagge, the cost of technology and the cost of staffing levels. Gamrat told Council this fund has contributed $10,000 for staff for years and the costs of the communication center have increased. Technology expenses have increased and will continue to increase. Pryor told Council the majority of the funding for the comm. center comes out of the city's general fund up to $450,000 for the communications center. Pryor said the increase of the E-911 surcharge will pay for increased technology as well as transfer the burden of the service to the users rather than the general fund. Councilman Skadron said this increase seems substantial and deserves discussion. Mayor Ireland said Council can request a work session with law enforcement. Councilman Johnson noted this is $15/year for an important service, which is an appropriate cost for that service. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE #10, SERIES OF 2009 -Disconnect Territory South of the Airport John Worcester, city attorney, pointed out where this parcel, owned by the county, is located. Worcester said the county would like to disconnect 3 pazcels totaling 9.7 acres. Worcester said the county plans to extend the runway and would like control over their parcels. Mayor Ireland asked if deannexing this limits the city's ability to annex property using the contiguity. Worcester noted these properties are next to the airport and the city will probably not want to annex the airport. Mayor Ireland asked if there were tax implications to the city in this de-annexation. Worcester said there are none. Councilman Skadron said the property will be rezoned PI and asked what jurisdiction the city would have over a property zoned PI. Chris Bendon, community development department, told Council this property will be in the jurisdiction of the county. PI allows for public and institutional uses. Bendon said the use of the land will be controlled by the conservation easement held by the Aspen Valley Land Trust. Tim Malloy, representing the applicant, told Council the PI zone requires a master plan prior to any development on the property. The county's intent, in addition to the PI zone designation, is to adopt the deed of conservation easement as the master plan, which memorializes the conservation easement into the zoning. Mayor Ireland asked if this could be a condition of disconnection. Malloy said that would be fine, even though the county is required to rezone it. Malloy told Council the airport is going through a study to look at potential runway extensions. There are two alternatives recommended for study in the environmental study; one is 800 feet and one is 1000. The 800 foot extension would require no changes in this property. The 1000 foot extension might require some changes to this parcel. Councilwoman Kasabach asked about staff comments on the trails and the engineering concerns about losing jurisdiction over this property. Bendon said these should be resolved or discussed at second reading. 5 Regular Meeting Aspen Citv Council April 13, 2009 Mayor Ireland moved to read Ordinance #10, Series of 2009; seconded by Councilman Skadron. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE NO. 10 (Series of 2009) AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ASPEN, COLORADO, APPROVING THE DISCONNECTION OF CERTAIN TERRITORIES ADJOINING THE PITKIN COUNTY AIRPORT COMMONLY REFERRED TO AS THE "AREA NEAR SOUTH END OF ASPEN/PTI'KIN COUNTY AII2PORT Councilman Romero moved to adopt Ordinance #10, Series of 2009, on first reading; seconded by Mayor Ireland. Roll call vote; Councilmembers Kasabach, yes; Skadron, yes; Johnson, yes; Romero, yes; Mayor Ireland, yes. Motion carried. ORDINANCE #5, SERIES OF 2009 -SPA Amending Pitkin County Jail Councilman Johnson moved to adopt Ordinance #5, Series of 2009, on second reading; seconded by Mayor Ireland. Stan Clauson, representing the applicant, told Council this is a proposed 324 square foot addition to the rear of the jail, a small pre-cast concrete building. It will be finished to be compatible with the jail building. This building is intended to house data processing servers, to provide a secure climate controlled area for the servers. Staff feels this is essential for the safety of this equipment. Clauson noted there is a landscaping plan for this addition. Mayor Ireland said his brother-in-law is the jail administrator; however, there is no financial benefit from the construction of this addition. Mayor Ireland opened the public hearing. There were no comments. Mayor Ireland closed the public hearing. Roll call vote; Councilmembers Kasabach, yes; Skadron, yes; Romero, yes; Johnson, yes; Mayor Ireland, yes. Motion carried. ORDINANCE #7, SERIES OF 2009 -Code Amendment Bicycle Safety Councilman Johnson moved to adopt Ordinance #7, Series of 2009, on second reading; seconded by Mayor Ireland Mayor Ireland opened the public hearing. Mayor Ireland noted this code amendment is the result of a bicyclist riding the bike trail on Cemetery Lane hit by a car going the same direction and crossing on a driveway. Richard Pryor, chief of policy, said this code amendment will require vehicles to yield at intersections and on entering a driveway. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council April 13, 2009 Mayor Ireland closed the public hearing. Roll call vote; Councilmembers Johnson, yes; Skadron, yes; Romero, yes; Kasabach, yes; Mayor Ireland, yes. Motion carried. RESOLUTION #3, SERIES OF 2009 -Aspen Valley Hospital Conceptual PUD Jennifer Phelan, community development department, told Council since February 9`h, the Aspen Valley Hospital has been working on expanded uses for the campus based on the comments at the last public hearings with Council. The applicant has worked on traffic analysis. Dave Ressler, Aspen Valley Hospital, reminded Council employee generation is a significant driver for housing, parking and traffic. Russ Sedmak, architect, said they have examined locating employee housing on site and the applicants feel it is feasible to build some employee housing on site without detriment to the overall campus. Sedmak said they feel they could accommodate between 18 and 22 units in two buildings. Ressler told Council they are attempting to keep all the adjacent neighbors, including the senior center, involved in changing plans. Ressler said they have also met with the Meadowwood homeowners. Sedmak said they have attempted to preserve the open space and the Nordic trails; they have not changed from the original plan. The plan is a cluster of buildings surrounding a surface parking lot, replacing the loop drive in front of the senior center. Ressler said the limiting factor in the employee generation is that the hospital is not at capacity now. Demand drives employee generation as much as the facilities expansion. Ressler told Council every department was asked if they were at full capacity currently, how many employees would it take to staff that department. Ressler presented a chart showing 2009 FTEs, maximum capacity current and maximum capacity build out and the difference between those figures is the employee generation and this number of employees generated was assigned to each phase of the build out. The result of this exercise shows 48.4 FTEs, 15.6, 16.1 and 4.4 in the next 3 phases. Ressler noted an additional 12 FTEs categorized as overhead will be required. Ressler reiterated demand drives staffing requirements more than capacity. Ressler told Council these employee generation figures were given to their traffic engineer to work on traffic and parking impacts. Leslie Lamont, representing the applicant, told Council they used the land use code to analyze how many employees would be generated by medical office space using the mixed use categories and number of employees generated per square feet. The applicants used the decompression analysis for the hospital expansion. Ms. Lamont reminded Council the applicants asked Council if they could utilize the previous affordable housing built by the AVH that was not required housing as credit. Council agreed those units could be used as credit. Ms. Lamont said using all these methods to get to employees generated and housed, credits, decompression, the applicants feels they can house 100% of the employees. Ms. Lamont noted affordable housing possibilities are 18 to 22 units on site, adding units to the Beaumont, to come to 100%. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council April 13, 2009 Ressler told Council the hospital has a transportation program including bus passes, car pool, van pool, trails for hiking and biking, monthly prizes for using alternative transportation. Alex Areniello, Leigh Scott and Cleary Transportation Consultants, told Council they have been working on the traffic study for over 2 years, submitted a study in 2006 and an updated study in 2008. Areniello said recently they have focused on the employee demand and how that affects traffic. The main driver of the previous studies is the floor area of the expansion of the hospital; however, they feel the FTEs and the patients will drive the traffic. Areniello said his company collected traffic data, evaluated the existing traffic conditions, determined new trips from this expansion and combine all this with background traffic. Areniello said CDOT has traffic count data from an automatic recorder on highway 82 at Snowmass Creek road collecting data hourly. LSC did traffic counts in 2006 specific to the hospital and on Castle Creek road. LSC did a travel survey of employees and staff of the hospital. They did a count in 2008 and March 2009 and an updated survey of employees and patients. Areniello presented a chart showing traffic patterns, the percent of the annual average. The counts in July are 14% higher than the annual average and in May it is 91 % of the average. Areniello said these are 8 yeazs averages. The traffic was flat in 2001 to 2003, increased through 2007 and dropped in 2008 due to higher gas prices and the economy. Areniello noted the summer traffic count to the east of the roundabout is 1,000 trips per day more than the winter count; 28,000 in the summer and 27,000 in the winter. The count on Castle Creek in the winter is 5000 and in the summer is 6800. The counts on Mazoon Creek are higher in the winter, due to the schools and the ski area. Areniello said they looked at altemative traffic mode use with the hospital employees and 67.3% of the employees drive along to work, which is low compared to most suburban communities. There is a high alternative commute mode at the AVH. At medical offices, the drive alone is about 70%. Areniello noted 68% of the AVH employees live down valley. Areniello told Council they observed 1504 daily trips to the hospital now, which is 752 in and 752 out. Areniello said the peak hour of traffic generation at the hospital is 11 a.m.; the commuter peak hour is 7 to 9 a.m. Areniello noted there are several components to this; the expansion of the hospital and the increased 48 FTEs as well as medical offices. LSC looked at existing generate rates, national rates and based on capacity increase, they estimate 234 new trips/day from the hospital expansion components. The medical offices will generate an estimated 595 trips/days based on squaze footage. The total new trips estimated are 866 vehicles trips/day. Areniello noted the medical office traffic is already on the highway. LSC projects 2016 traffic, when the hospital will be built out, there will be 120 new trips or .3% traffic increase on highway 82. There will be a larger impact on Castle Creek. The roundabout will be evaluated and CDOT's consultant will look at that to make sure the estimates are correct. Areniello told Council they examined parking demand based on employee demand, on medical office space and patient stations. Areniello said the parking demand for the staff is, .75 vehicles/employee; for medical office space it is 3.5 vehicles and for the patient Regular Meeting Aspen City Council April 13, 2009 stations it is .75 parked vehicle/station. A patient station is defined as an exam room or ER bed, any space that accommodates a patient at any given time. This totals a maximum peak demand of 193 vehicles. Only 175 parking spaces are proposed. Areniello said the hospital has a good travel demand program and they continue to work to improve that program and to increase the alternative modes use. The expansion and medical office space will result in .3% increase in the roundabout and the total hospital trips through will represent a 3% increase. Councilman Romero said a lot of analysis is riding on the decompression assumption. Councilman Romero asked if staff has a recommendation of the analysis of decompression. Ms. Phelan said the purpose of conceptual is to create the baseline to study for the final application. Ms. Phelan said staff wants to know whether Council agrees with the conceptual approach to these numbers and generation rates. Councilman Romero said these assumptions go through employee generation to traffic numbers. Ms. Lamont reminded Council the applicants made a presentation on using decompression, which was supported by P&Z, and was presented to Council in February to a consensus that the applicants could use decompression. The code gives the applicant the flexibility as an essential public facility to have discussions about methods of mitigation. Councilman Romero said Council should discuss whether the requirement for 3.5 parked vehicles/1,000 square feet in the mixed use zone should be applied to this project. Ressler said there may be more vehicles on site depending on the activities at the senior center. Councilman Johnson said he does not agree the creation of medical office space at AVH site will not be problematic. Councilman Johnson said the AVH should consider reducing the existing vehicle trips to offset the increased traffic. Councilman Johnson said he is pleased by the proposed expansion to the senior center. Councilman Johnson said he would like to hear from the people involved in the senior center to report to Council what they think of these proposals. Councilman Johnson said it is not known the requirements for assisted living in the future. Councilman Johnson said he would like to hear an assessment of the assisted living needs for the next 7 years and that there is a relationship between this proposal and the AVH expansion. Councilman Johnson said the applicant has done a good job taking Council's concerns seriously. Mayor Ireland noted Leigh Scott and Cleary are the consultants 2030 for the intermountain transportation committee. Mayor Ireland said he does not favor affordable housing units centered on a parking Mayor Ireland opened the public hearing. Patrick Sagal suggested that the medical offices should be located at the AABC or in Basalt so there is not increased traffic in the roundabout. Sagal noted procedures in doctor's offices are elected procedures and these do not need to be on a hospital campus. Sagal said often the hospital parking lot is full already. Frank Goldsmith, president of the Meadowood district speaking for himself, noted his property is adjacent to the hospital and he is in favor of this project. The hospital has been good neighbors and is working 9 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council April 13, 2009 with the homeowners. Toni Kronberg said the bike path and intersection are very dangerous. Ms. Kronberg said the bike path should be relocated. Marty Ames, Senior Services director, agreed with the suggestion about Council getting a memorandum from the senior center. Ms. Ames said this plan is changing and she requested the hospital include more of the users of the senior center in this information process. Councilman Johnson moved to continue Resolution #3, Series of 2009, to Apri127`h; seconded by Councilman Skadron. All in favor, motion carried. 411 PEARL COURT ORDINANCE #48 REVIEW NEGOTIATION Mayor Ireland moved to release 411 Pearl Court from Ordinance #48 negotiation; seconded by Councilman Romero. All in favor, motion carved. Councilman Romero moved to adjourn at 8:20 p.m.; seconded by Mayor Ireland. All in favor, motion carried. Kathr .Koch, City Clerk 10