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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.regular.20210209 1 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 9TH, 2021 At 4:30 p.m. Mayor Torre called the regular meeting to order with Councilors Richards, Mullins and Hauenstein joining via video conference. Councilor Mesirow was absent. Mayor Torre said that Councilor Mesirow is absent due to a death in the family and that he sends his apologies for missing tonight’s meeting. PUBLIC COMMENT: Will Hodges – Mr. Hodges said he is here to express his gratitude on behalf of the 300-400 supporters of his petition and for council’s hard work last week, as well as to Finance Director, Pete Strecker. You all are handling a lot right now and these investments are just one among many issues. He is encouraging council to make this explicit and official. Aspen could make this policy formal and it’s a great step for the climate. There are 44 cities in the US who have made this commitment fossil fuel divestment commitment, but Aspen is not currently counted in this tally. Mayor Torre said they will be calling on him more as they will need help with this moving forward. Mr. Strecker is bringing back the financial policy soon and will have this as an agenda item. The city is dedicated to doing this right moving forward. He thanked Mr. Hodges. Ben Anderson introduced Tessa Guilander who has a public comment. Tessa Guilander – Ms. Guilander said she is a freshman at Aspen High School and is bringing forth an idea for an event to bring awareness to light pollution and energy consumption here in Pitkin County. We have a few dates in mind in April between the 16th to the 25th, because there are some astrological events which could be an attraction. We will encourage everyone to turn their lights off for one hour that night, which will reduce their energy consumption and CO2 from being omitted into the atmosphere. We would like to set an example and we have support from David Cook of the Aspen Daily News and Sam Barney who has volunteered to help. We are asking for your help and endorsement. Councilor Mullins said she thinks this is a great idea. It’s great to coordinate with the city and she would love to participate. She thanked Tessa for bringing this forward. Councilor Hauenstein thanked Tessa. He is encouraging participation and supportive of the idea. Councilor Richards said she is also supportive. Mayor Torre said we will be in touch to move this forward. This is an opportunity for us to refresh on the dark sky initiative that we’ve gotten away from a little bit. COUNCIL COMMENTS: Councilor Mullins congratulated the Transportation department on receiving 3 million dollars’ worth of grants. Lynn Rumbaugh and her colleagues worked very hard to get this done. Councilor Richards said she’s been reading a lot about the ongoing COVID situation and her concerns are very real. This new variance may be overtaking the vaccination rate. This could lead to the quest for herd immunity being futile. We aren’t even close to being at the end. If you look at the New York times again, it’s the resort communities who are having the biggest struggles. This is no time to stop. Today was also the first day of impeachment hearings and she realizes how fragile democracy is. Lastly, she would like a report back on how COVID has affected our rental housing project and turnover of units. 2 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 9TH, 2021 Councilor Hauenstein brought up the dark skies initiative and he said he’s been up at Maroon Lake taking pictures of the stars and the moon and when you look down valley, you can see the glow of town. He encourages everyone to find those dark spaces and reminded everyone of John Denver and his Rocky Mountain High, who also encouraged dark skies. Speaking of COVID, our orange is fading to yellow and it’s wonderful. The numbers are looking really good. He also wants to extend his condolences to Skippy for his grandmother’s passing. Avalanche dangers are high, so please be careful out there. Now is not the time to be in the back country. Ballots should be arriving in the mail soon for the upcoming election. Please educate yourself on all the candidates. Engage in the process and make sure to vote. Mayor Torre encouraged everyone to vote. Don’t be scared away from the poles. You can register online for the March 2nd election. Please participate. Do the Aspen thing and vote. He mentioned the YPN, and the new Aspen cookbook for sale in stores and online. The proceeds are going to restaurant worker relief and it’s a wonderful cause. Thank you to Mark and Jennifer Styslinger for making a sizable contribution. Mayor Torre said thank you to community members for stepping up. Now is not a time to get relaxed regarding COVID. We all need to do our piece and wear a mask and be conscientious. He mentioned all boards that we are advertising for and asked people to please apply. Mayor Torre said there are no agenda amendments. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS: Sara Ott mentioned the COVID dial 2.0. The measurements are now recorded using a 7-day rolling average, instead of a 14-day rolling average. She introduced City Clerk, Nicole Henning to give an election update. Ms. Henning said ballots dropped in the mail on February 8th and to please contact the clerk’s office if you do not see your ballot by February 16th. She said they are encouraging everyone to mail in their ballot or to drop it in the new ballot box out front of City Hall. She said the handicap spot out front will be marked for temporary ballot box drop off up until election day. If people wish to come into city hall to vote, early voting begins on Friday the 12th and they will have one voting booth available for in person voting. Council Chambers will be the vote center on election day which will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the county will be with new registrations as in years past. Mayor Torre asked if more elections judges are needed and Ms. Henning said they are doing really well with response from the public, but if people are still interested in helping to please contact the clerks office. BOARD REPORTS: Councilor Hauenstein said he attended CCLC and they are fully involved in the Saturday Market vendor evaluations. He is looking forward to a more expanded market this summer. There were some interviews at the Wheeler Board for an executive director as well and some good options. Councilor Richards said this Friday will be a CML policy committee meeting and a Club 20 executive committee call. She and Ann will both be on the CML call. Mayor Torre said he had CAST with a lot of conversation around housing. There will be a public health meeting on Thursday, and he wants council to be thinking about Aspen being in yellow restrictions. 3 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 9TH, 2021 We’ve been trying to be aligned with the state dial as much as we can. He wants council input before Thursday on continuing alignment. CONSENT CALENDAR: Mayor Torre asked to pull the Wheeler Resolutions #017 and #018 and said he would like to make a comment on the Board Appointments. Councilor Mullins would like more information on Resolution #015 and would also like to comment on the Board Appointments. RESOLUTION #015, SERIES OF 2021 - REMP Allocation for CORE – Phillip Supino, Community Development Director Councilor Mullins said she’s interested in the process. She wants to know why this came back to council. Mr. Supino said this has come to council because in order to transfer funds to CORE, it needs to be in the form of a resolution. He said Mona Newton in on the line and can speak to this. Ms. Newton said this is just to formalize the previous discussion that was had with council. Councilor Hauenstein said his hat goes off to Mona for all she is doing. RESOLUTION #017 & #018, SERIES OF 2021 – Robert Schober, Asset Project Manager Mayor Torre said the magnitude of the change order gave him pause and asked Rob for some explanation. Mr. Shober said there is a discovery process that has been on going. There are two change orders, one for the stone mason and one for the painting. The depth of embedment of the stones is much greater than anticipated so the scope has increased significantly. As for the paint, there are multiple layers on the building that were not discovered until recently, so we must remove all of the paint layers in order to move forward. Councilor Richards is supporting the resolution going forward, although it’s never exciting to see cost increases. Councilor Hauenstein said he also hates to see change orders. The original scope should have anticipated this. He said this feels like a bait and switch. He can understand stone, but not the paint. He will support this, however. Ms. Ott said that sometimes these aren’t things you can discover ahead of time on projects with a scope of this size, and until you start doing the work and have onsite monitoring. It would have required a level of investigation that we really couldn’t get into until now. The lesson learned is we should have asked for a bigger contingency in the beginning. Mr. Schober said this was budgeted in the project contingency, and we were expecting something like this along these lines. Councilor Hauenstein said this makes him feel better. Councilor Mullins thanked Rob for what they are doing and said it’s important work. Mayor Torre said the paint change order is very striking to him because it’s more than the original contract. He understands this is discovery as we go, but he has concerns. He has scheduled a tour to see the work up close. He does support the work and protecting this beautiful asset. Ms. Ott said that during his site visit, they will go over the broad scope of work with him. 4 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 9TH, 2021 Mayor Torre thanked the two appointees for Next Gen and Kids First. Nicholas Byrne is returning to Next Gen and Michaela Idhammer is being appointed to Kids First. Councilor Mullins said congratulations and thanked you to the new board members. Councilor Richards motioned to approve the consent calendar; Councilor Mullins seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. NOTICE OF CALL UP: HPC Approval of Resolution #27, Series of 2021 for 423 N. Second Street – Conceptual Major Development, Relocation and Setback Variations – Amy Simon, Planning Director Ms. Simon said this involves a Victorian home that was moved to it’s current site in the 1950’s and was placed backwards on the property. The new owner would like to undertake a full restoration and reposition the house on the site. HPC also approved an extension of this building. The council asked some questions and Ms. Simon gave more detail. Councilor Richards said she has no interest in calling this up. Councilor Mullins said this is a great project and she does not want to call it up. Councilor Hauenstein said he is not interested in calling this up. Mayor Torre said he wants to use these beautiful old structures to educate the public and hopes there could be a plaque to read someday. PUBLIC HEARINGS – Ordinance #02, Series of 2021 – Wheeler Opera House Board of Advisors – Jim True, City Attorney. Mr. True said this is designed to clean up a few items and is change the Board of Directors to Board of Advisors. This is addressing the new mission statement the board created and allows them to give direction. Mayor Torre opened the public hearing. Mayor Torre closed the public hearing. Councilor Mullins motioned to approve Ordinance #02, Series of 2021; Councilor Richards seconded. Mayor Torre received an email earlier today from a board member asking about adding a council member as ex-officio to the board. He said he isn’t interested in that at the moment as we do have a non-voting role at this time. If we feel it needs to change in the future, we can address it at that time. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. ACTION ITEMS: - Resolution #016, Series of 2021 – Council Authorization to Submit Code Amendment by Private Party – Ben Anderson, City Planner. Mr. Anderson said this isn’t about approving an amendment. This resolution would give us the opportunity to receive such an application. It would give direction to pursuing a public outreach campaign and would require a deposit on the application. 5 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 9TH, 2021 Councilor Richards said she is familiar with this coming forward from private parties. She understands the process, but she’s wondering if it will later come to P&Z or council as a thumbs up or down. Ben said it would go through P&Z first and then end up in front of council for review and make any modifications. Chris Bendon of Bendon Adams said they have an applicant who has the ability to build on a multifamily lot. There are conflicting sections in the multifamily district. We think this is something worth talking about, so ultimately this would be an ordinance to amend your code. Mayor Torre asked various questions of Mr. Bendon, which he elaborated on. He asked Ben what the timeline is and he said things are slower right now due to COVID, but if this is approved tonight, he and Chris will sit down and come up with a plan and timeline. They would discuss public outreach, get in front of P&Z and coordinate the required policy resolution with first and second reading. A lot of the heavy lifting will be carried by Chris and his team. This doesn’t have to be a super complicated change. Most likely late spring to early summer before you see this again. Mayor Torre said he has concerns, but this does work into other things he would like to be discussing. It would really come down to housing mitigation for him. Although he’s not against the proposal, he’s not against someone pursuing an application. He’s on the fence. Councilor Hauenstein said he has his reservations, and he is also concerned about housing mitigation. He’s supportive of residential to match that of commercial. He doesn’t want to support it, but there may be some benefits to the community. Councilor Richards said we are all speculating right now, but it’s a balancing act and she doesn’t have hard facts in front of her. We have asked our staff to line up our code in every area to promote the creation of affordable housing, so we can look at this as a small feat of the larger package of what our code should be looking like. She’s willing to vote yes on this. Councilor Mullins said this goes along with many other things they’ve been discussing. Her reservation is passing a new part of our land use code which has just been prompted by a current application. She assumed this would not apply to any pending application. Mayor Torre clarified that if this moves forward, it will not have any effect on a current project on Cooper Avenue. Mr. Anderson agreed. Councilor Mullins motioned to approve Resolution #016, Series of 2021; Councilor Hauenstein seconded. Mayor Torre said he will support this based on staff comments. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. Councilor Richards motioned to adjourn; Councilor Mullins seconded. Mayor Torre said in closing, that he can’t help but notice how many people out there are having a tough time. Things are difficult for people right now personally, with financial business, employment, kids. Please seek help and this community is supportive of each other. He wishes everyone well. This community is coming together for mental support. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. 6 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 9TH, 2021 _______________________________ City Clerk, Nicole Henning