Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.regular.20210323 1 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MARCH 23RD, 2021 At 5:00 p.m. Mayor Torre called the regular meeting to order with Councilors Richards, Mullins, Mesirow and Hauenstein joining via video conference. PUBLIC COMMENT: Peter Fornell – Mr. Fornell said he would like to comment on the April 19th appeal of 1020 E. Cooper. Mayor Torre asked for City Attorney, James R. True, to comment on this. Mr. True said the resolution they will pass later in the evening provides a process for public comment. All comments should be submitted to the record until April 9th at noon in writing prior to the meeting and submitted to the clerk. We will not take public comment the night of the meeting, but only in writing prior to the meeting. Mayor Torre said we are making provisions for ex parte communications. Councilor Mesirow asked if we are censoring or filtering. Mr. True said it’s not our intention to do that, we just don’t want new facts submitted. We want the factual record to remain as it is. Mike Maple – Mr. Maple of 1250 Mountain View Drive said these COVID times are very strange and there has been a lot of appropriate limitations on our rights and city services, but one of the services being terminated again this year is the “spring cleanup”. He doesn’t see how this is a COVID risk environment and would like to see it happen this year. It’s one of the best services provided to Aspen citizens. Mayor Torre said he also missed it last year as well, so we can take another look at this. Peter Fornell – Mr. Fornell said that last week marks the second anniversary of the zoning officer writing a letter to the owner of 851 Gibson writing a letter. We are two years into this now. He watched all summer long with a dumpster in front of his house remodeling his property without a permit. It’s time to take some action here. Miller Ford – Mr. Ford said he is here under unfortunate circumstances reporting here on the mental health issues of Aspen. He thanked council for their help. The meetings are running well. He thanked Ward personally and Torre regarding the emails they sent to the churches. He said he was very active with one of the candidates who ran in this last election regarding mental health issues. The candidate didn’t win, but that’s the nature of politics. He would love to put out something on suicides in ski towns. He asked council to help leave a legacy and save a life. Councilor Hauenstein said that he will continue to work on this regardless of who won the election. Councilor Richards said this will continue to be an on-going issue. She said for him to please be sure to talk to the BOCC. The city is happy to help, but the county through the state is the designated entity for dealing with mental health of the community. We are partners with them. COUNCIL COMMENTS: Councilor Mullins discussed the food tax refund and said she doesn’t see that it’s available in Spanish. We should make sure to look into that. The other concern is that you can only do it online. She would 2 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MARCH 23RD, 2021 like for it to be offered in person, so it is not discriminatory or inconvenient for anyone. She also recognized the tragedy in Boulder. This speaks to mental health and gun control. Councilor Richards said our congressional rep has put out a statement. We need to think about where this leads us legislatively on a bigger level. We won’t let a single sick individual dictate the law for all of us. Councilor Hauenstein reminded everyone, with Boulder in mind, to love without boundaries. The love that we show each other is what is important. Councilor Mesirow said he could see that King Sooper’s from where he lived in college. It’s all been said. We all support doing what we can on all sides. This change ain’t coming from Washington. He said to continue to be grateful and show up at the local level. His heart goes out to everyone in Boulder. Mayor Torre said he is thinking about taking deep breaths and taking it all in. Today, there was a real palpable tension today on the streets. Times are tense right now. Here in Aspen, we got news of moving back to level orange. There are lots of issues people are dealing with. We were busy in March and still are. A lot of people are suffering and having a lot of heartache. Please be smart and be safe. It’s not just our visitors, our locals aren’t taking the full measures they need to in order to stay safe. He hears daily complaints about individuals and business that aren’t in line with our guidelines right now. He’s hoping to get community buy in to make a change. He said to stay calm, connected, and reach out to friends, family, neighbors, etc. We’ll get through this. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS: Ms. Ott said the whole City of Aspen website can be translated into other languages and as for the food tax issue, we do accept people as walk ins at the finance counter. It’s a manual process regardless, and we’ll follow up on Spanish component. BOARD REPORTS: Councilor Richards said that the Club 20 Spring meeting is coming April 8th and 9th. There will be discussion about whether or not to weigh in redistricting that is bubbling up around the state. Colorado is slated to get one new district due to population growth. Councilor Mesirow said he had APCHA where they approved Resolution #2, which contain regulation changes and introduced our standards for sellers. This is a big important one. This will likely be over the course of several meetings. He invites people to join in for APCHA meetings. They will also be touching on compliance. Mayor Torre said that next Tuesday he will return to ACRA. CONSENT CALENDAR: Mayor Torre mentioned the board appointment for the Wheeler Advisory Board and congratulated Lauren Foreman. He thanked her for her application as well as the other applicants. Councilor Richards pointed out that the candidates were great. Councilor Richards motioned to approve the consent calendar; Councilor Mullins seconded. Councilor Mesirow thanked Peter Grenney for his time and service on the board. 3 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MARCH 23RD, 2021 Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. FIRST READING OF ORDINANCES: Ordinance #08, Series of 2021 – 1001 Ute Avenue Minor Amendment to Project Review & 8040 Greenline Review – Kevin Rayes Mr. Rayes shared his screen and introduced the item. He said that this council was present in 2019 when there were some reviews to memorialize and rectify on this site. Ordinance 33 was approved at the time, and all of those improvements have been made. This PD was broken into seven different parcels. The request tonight is to land four TDR’s. There would be two TDR’s on lot 1 and two TDR’s on lot two in order to increase development rights of each of these properties. Staff recommends denial of the request. But because this is first reading, we are recommending approval to have the public hearing on April 27th. Councilor Mullins motioned to read Ordinance #08, Series of 2021; Councilor Richards seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. City Clerk, Nicole Henning, read Ordinance #08. Councilor Richards asked Chris Bendon why this request is coming through. Mr. Bendon explained that there are some areas which are partially enclosed. These are two separate ownerships, and both owners would like to fully enclose. Mayor Torre said that one observation he had is regarding something in the packet. This is the first and maybe only time that in our packet, underneath “dimensions”, the term, “sorta meh”, was used. It’s on page 160 of the packet. Councilor Mullins motioned to approve Ordinance #08, Series of 2021 on first reading; Councilor Mesirow seconded. Councilor Richards said she asked earlier about context of the broader city TDR program. The county would give updates on what landed and price, etc. She said COMDEV recently provided to her a report which states that 82 TDR’s have been severed from their properties. There are 35 out there that have not yet landed. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. ACTION ITEMS: Resolution #033, Series of 2021 – Rules for 1020 E. Cooper Appeal – James R. True Mr. True said the City of Aspen attorney’s office has worked to come up with a process for the appeal at 1020 E. Cooper Ave. We’ve reached out to outside council to come up with a process because we want to make sure all the rights are met. The code doesn’t speak to procedures in a public context. We have allowed for council to set forth rules, and we want to make certain the public understands that the applicant will address this in writing and that council would review arguments in opposition to the item. There will be no public oral comment at that meeting, but those comments are due April 9th by noon and the hearing will be on April 19th. Our recommendation is that council approve this resolution. 4 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL MARCH 23RD, 2021 Councilor Mesirow said they will be able to read the record, watch the HPC meeting and can read written comments. Mr. True said this is still a quasi-judicial decision on council’s part and ex parte discussion is not allowed. Mayor Torre said council has been receiving some emails which have been forwarded to the city clerk and Jim. Councilor Richards motioned to approve Resolution #033, Series of 2021; Councilor Mullins seconded. Mayor Torre thanked Jim because he pursued this out of virtue of this appeal being run in a fair manner. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. EXECUTIVE SESSION: Mr. True introduced the executive session citing CRS 24-6-402 (4)(f) regarding the review of the city attorney. Councilor Hauenstein motioned to move into executive session; Councilor Richards seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. _______________________________ City Clerk, Nicole Henning