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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.regular.20200414 1 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL APRIL 14TH, 2020 At 5:00 p.m. Mayor Torre called the regular meeting to order with Councilmembers Richards, Mesirow, Mullins and Hauenstein joining via video conference. PUBLIC COMMENT: Elizabeth Milias – Ms. Milias said that she doesn’t want them to approve the consent in a single motion tonight. She can tell that many of these contracts were put forward in a very different time. She mentioned the aerial photography, the traffic light and the various as needed contracts in an extensive packet. We are facing a very different world at this point. Lee Mulcahy – Mr. Mulcahy said he is grateful for many things and for Mayor Torre. He seconded everything Elizabeth said. He read from a 2019 APCHA meeting from public comment of Tom Coggins, who owns High Mountain Taxi, who spoke in Lee’s favor. He spoke about a balanced community. Councilman Hauenstein said it’s nice to see some normal items on the agenda tonight besides COVID related issues. He extends his best wishes to everyone and he said that now is the time to do all we are told to do regarding maintaining distance and washing hands and staying home. He thanked everyone for their vigilance. Councilwoman Mullins said she wishes everyone the best. She said she waves at people going past her house who are out making the best of it and getting exercise. She said she hopes everyone gets on board with wearing face masks. She said the stage 1 fire ban right now is to preserve emergency resources and she warned everyone to be careful in the mountains right now due to avalanches. She reminded all to fill out the census forms. Councilwoman Richards said the neighboring counties have been hit harder than we have here. As Anne said, the census is critically important for long term recovery and issues going forward. Tomorrow is April 15th, taxes are due if you have not filed already. She wished everyone well. Councilman Mesirow said he has seen all four council members working all hours and stepping forward to help. He gave a shout out to city staff as well. He said little kids and elders are stepping up. He took a moment to offer gratitude. He said it’s a good time to ask what more we can do to support the community. It’s up to each of us each day and it is a pivotal week. Let’s invest in each other and choose the future we want. Councilwoman Mullins verified the tax deadline was extended to July 15th. Mayor Torre offered his thoughts and prayers to our community. Now is a time for togetherness and support. He thanked Skippy for his positive messages. He said it’s very important to be looking on the brightest side. He thanked the IMT for their work, the city, county, and all essential workers. We have the on-going testing effort and the public health orders issued are ways to contain. He said it’s up to folks to see out relief for themselves through the resources available. He confirmed the extension for tax filing to July 15th. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS: Ms. Ott said that city staff are working closely with municipal partners and county partners to lobby our congressional delegation regarding the CARES Act. They are still working on the stimulus funding for smaller communities. She said Governor Polis agrees with our concerns. The Board of Health will be 2 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL APRIL 14TH, 2020 having a meeting on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. They will hear data that is affecting Pitkin county and the valley on re-opening, etc. On April 20th, there will be a change to the public bus route. They are combining the Burlingame and Mountain Valley routes for an interim time frame. She has appointed Nancy Lesley as interim director of the Wheeler Opera House and will take that on starting next week. BOARD REPORTS: Mayor Torre said APCHA is meeting tomorrow. Councilman Hauenstein said there is a CORE meeting on Thursday. CONSENT CALENDAR: Councilwoman Richards asked for an overview of all the consent calendar items. Councilwoman Mullins asked for the same. Ms. Ott explained that each consent calendar item has been vetted by finance, city attorney, as well as herself, before they go on the agenda. She described and gave details on each resolution and council asked her questions. Councilwoman Richards motioned to approve the consent calendar as a whole, Councilwoman Mullins seconded. Councilwoman Richards said as needed service contracts is the way to go to already have these contractors vetted and ready to go in case of any emergencies, etc. Mayor Torre said he went over the consent calendar prior to the meeting and sent his questions and comments into staff earlier this week. He commends them regarding resolution #030 where they were able to scale back. The as needed contracts are a must for having contractors vetted ahead of time. Regarding the Wheeler audio console, that money is allocated for that purpose and would still be there regardless. He’s supportive of all of this including the minutes. Roll call vote: Mesirow, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mullins, yes; Torre, yes; Richards, yes. 5-0, motion carried. NOTICE OF CALL UP: 125 W. Main Street Amy Simon Ms. Simon said HPC granted approval on March 11th with unanimous approval. This is a historic Queen Anne. The applicant plans to dig a basement under the house and will excavate with the house in place. HPC had a number of conditions of approval and staff recommends that council uphold HPC’s approval. Councilwoman Mullins asked about an addition and Ms. Simon said no addition is being added. Councilwoman Mullins does not support calling up. Councilwoman Richards said she is also not interested in calling up. She asked if they could come back for an addition later. Ms. Simon said they added in a condition that the bonus for floor area would have to be revisited if they ever decided to come back for an addition. Councilwoman Richards congratulated HPC on a good project. 3 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL APRIL 14TH, 2020 PUBLIC HEARING: 949 W. Smuggler Historic Lot Split Phillip Supino Mr. Supino said they will continue this item to May 26th. Mayor Torre opened the public hearing. No public comment. Councilwoman Richards motioned to continue to May 26th, Councilwoman Mullins seconded. Roll call vote: Hauenstein, yes; Torre, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Mesirow, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Resolution #026, Series of 2020 – Lacet Subdivision – Amendment to Resolution #058, Series of 1994. Garrett Larimer Mr. Larimer said this subdivision is located east of the Roaring Fork river off of Highway 82. It is zoned affordable housing with a planned development overlay. The subdivision and planned development approval occurred in 1993. The approval branded 7 single family lots, and lot 8 contains 13 deed restricted town homes. The development and allowances were not clearly stated. City council approved a 25-foot buffer at the time, which is reflected on the plat. He said in the approval documents, the allowances and limitations were not explicitly stated for this area. In 1994, an applicant sought clarification and then approved Resolution #58, 1994 to clarify the types of development allowed. Since then, there have been permitted and unpermitted improvements. The applicant wants to amend reso 58. Seeks to replace language with treating this buffer as setbacks. He provided a list of the approved types of development allowed in the setbacks. All of the owners support the requested amendment and it has garnered significant public interest. The neighborhood was concerned about this amendment affecting the currently existing easements and he said it does not. Staff believes that a 25-foot setback does provide a significant buffer. Staff supports the request and recommends that city council approve this, striking section 1 and replacing with language that all areas outside of the building envelope are subject to the allowances and limitations established by the land use code. APPLICANT PRESENTATION: Sarah Oates There are still two of the four original owners here. The neighbors and the adjacent neighbors all support this change along with the owners. There have been improvements to lot 1 and 7 that are consistent with the setbacks. The walkway is used by a lot of the neighbors to get into town. In terms of changes to the development, there are platted building envelopes. This is just addressing improvements basically on grade. There is one neighbor that has objected and is not an immediate adjacent neighbor. Mayor Torre said it sounds like there are improvements in the buffer currently and it’s easier to do away with the buffer than remedy what is non-conforming. Ms. Oates said there are significant improvements that were permitted by the city. Mayor Torre asked if she has any idea how far those improvements encroach into the buffer and if the Riverside Drive properties have a 10 ft setback and if there is a middle ground. Ms. Oates said on Lot 7, the improvements go all the way to the lot line and on Lot 1, there’s probably 10 feet. 4 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL APRIL 14TH, 2020 Councilman Mesirow asked Mr. Larimer about the history of what happened. Mr. Larimer said the buffer was passed through a separate resolution and this one was missed. Councilman Mesirow clarified that it was a mistake or oversight on staff’s part and Mr. Larimer confirmed. Phillip Supino mentioned that what’s being proposed in this change would prevent this mistake from happening again in the future. Mayor Torre opened the public hearing. Mr. Larimer said there were three letters submitted after the packet was put out; one against and two in support. Maryanne Sefton – Ms. Sefton said she lives on Lacet Lane and has done most of the improvements on the house and most were permitted. It would be most disappointing if we had to pull all of these out. All improvements that have been done are not intrusive. We hope this will be looked at as favorable. We do think 25 ft is excessive. There is one concern, that we are two lots over from the public access. Safety is a concern because people walk through all hours of the night and leave trash. There is a concern for privacy. Mr. True asked about the platted easement being dedicated to the public. Ms. Oates said it is a 7 1/2 ft pedestrian easement on the plat. It is not retained as a private easement. Mr. True asked if she has issues clarifying the language as requested by Rachel about expanding the limitations. He asked if there is language we can put in and if she has an objection. Ms. Oates said she doesn’t have concerns with stating that it will remain open. Given the nature of the easement to have signage is excessive. We are not barricading it off and not doing restoration work so it isn’t a path. Councilwoman Richards said Mr. True is right on target with this. She doesn’t want to see a demolition by neglect. She agrees that we don’t need signage. It can be used by people coming to visit neighbors as well and she wants to make sure it’s preserved in perpetuity. Mr. Larimer submitted a comment in the chat feature of WebEx and Mr. True read the comment to the council. Mr. True added the word “public” before the word “pedestrian”. Councilwoman Richards said she’s ok with that language. Councilwoman Mullins moved to approve with Garrett’s additional language and Jim’s edit, Rachel seconded. Councilman Mesirow said he doesn’t want to reward bad behavior. He’s leaning towards voting no. Councilwoman Richards said she can get where Skippy is coming from on this. It’s challenging that some of these improvements were permitted and those folks have a right to have reliance on the permit issued and the money spent. She doesn’t see trying to enforce removal at this point would be fair. She asked if it would be helpful to do a site visit and continue this as she was comfortable before because it doesn’t increase FAR. Mayor Torre said he keeps seeing things like this slip away from a good intention. He doesn’t think he is going to be supportive of this tonight. Mr. Supino said, in order to split the baby, they could amend the original plat or take no action tonight. 5 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL APRIL 14TH, 2020 Councilwoman Mullins said we need to pass this to be fair to the neighbors. We need to have consistency and fairness and we need to have support for this. Councilman Hauenstein said he’s coming down to supporting this resolution. Roll call vote: Torre, no; Mullins, yes; Richards, no; Mesirow, no; Hauenstein, yes. 3 no, 2 yes. Mr. Supino said that staff will work to find a compromise and the applicant will work with their client to find a solution. Ms. Ott read off some dates. Mr. Supino suggested a June date instead to provide ample time and they ended on June 9th. Councilwoman Richards motioned to continue to June 9th, Councilwoman Mullins seconded. Roll call vote: Richards, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Torre, yes; Hauenstein, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Council break – 25 minutes. Reconvened at 8:20 p.m. RESOLUTION #032, SERIES OF 2020 – Appeal of Denial of Variation at 835 E. Durant Kevin Rayes Mr. Rayes said that the applicant, Kim Raymond is on the line as well as Tori Thomas, the representative from the HOA. The hearing is not intended to focus on the original request that went to Planning and Zoning, but the process in which the board made the denial. This is a residential multifamily complex. The photo on screen shows the property looking north. There are three criteria for city council to consider: 1. Denial of due process 2. The administrative body exceeded its jurisdiction or 3. the administrative body abused its discretion. The applicant is claiming 1 and 3 took place. Mr. Rayes said that the applicant claims she tried to make move towards continuance in the meeting but was not seen or heard by staff. There is no evidence in the recording or in the meeting minutes that any such request for a continuance took place. There is also no evidence that continuance would have changed the outcome. Staff recommends that council uphold planning and zoning’s decision. Staff provided three options: to uphold, to reverse P&Z’s decision or to remand back to P&Z. Staff is going off of the minutes, audio and written. APPLICANT PRESENTATION: Kim Raymond Ms. Raymond says she asked Mike Kramer and he ignored her request. She said she raised her hand which wouldn’t have been reflected in the minutes. She says the board based their decision on whether it was a street or alley. She read the abuse of discretion definition. She said that Kevin said in the meeting that “many other properties” in town have similar situations, but when she asked him, he could not come up with any properties as examples. She feels like this is an abuse of discretion. Councilwoman Mullins said this is tough because Mike Kramer isn’t here to speak to it. We should take this seriously and maybe remand back to P&Z so they can revisit it. Councilman Hauenstein said he’d prefer it go back to P&Z with all evidence presented. 6 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL APRIL 14TH, 2020 Councilwoman Richards mentioned if there a fairness question about whether everyone is entitled to a covered parking place. If the code won’t allow it because it was built prior to design standards, is it a fairness issue or not. Councilman Mesirow said he doesn’t know that she will get a different result by remanding it back since it was a unanimous vote and after spending years on P&Z, decisions usually remain the same. If she wants to do that though, ok. Councilman Hauenstein said by remanding it, the process will be complete and true. Tori Thomas said only four people were present on the night of the hearing. Mayor Torre asked Jim True if this is done via motion to remand it back to P&Z. Mr. True said they can modify one of the resolutions to remand it instead of accepting or denying. You could make a motion to approve resolution #032 to remand back it back to P&Z, that would work. Councilwoman Mullins motioned to approve Resolution #032, Series of 2020, that it be remanded back to P&Z on due process, Councilman Hauenstein seconded. Councilwoman Richards is supportive of the motion and has great respect for staff. She anticipates a full and complete hearing and encourages the applicant to look at code changes, etc. Roll call vote: Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Mesirow, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Mr. True said that Resolution #034 was in the packet and was continued in the last meeting and was combined with Ordinance #05 as an action item and is not listed on the agenda. Councilwoman Richards said she’s a little confused by the numbers. Resolution #034 still has 2.5 million listed. Mr. True said Ordinance #05 now says 3 million and that change was made. Mayor Torre summarized the ordinance for the council. Councilman Mesirow asked when they can start distributing these funds. Ms. Ott said council does not make the decisions on actual awards. We received feedback regarding rent relief, and she has another meeting with stakeholders tomorrow on how to release these funds. Councilman Mesirow said he’s comfortable moving forward. Let’s make sure as we move forward, we commit to making sure council isn’t a bottleneck. Councilman Hauenstein said he is in support of moving forward and also doesn’t want a bottleneck at the council table. Councilwoman Richards motioned to approve Ordinance #05, Series of 2020, Councilwoman Mullins seconded. Roll call vote: Richards, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Torre, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Councilwoman Richards motioned to approve Resolution #034, Series of 2020, with the amendment to increase the dollar amount to 3.5 million, Councilman Mesirow seconded. PUBLIC COMMENT: 7 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL APRIL 14TH, 2020 Elizabeth Milias – Ms. Milias said the devil is in the details. She said that Breckenridge and Longmont are providing small business loans. Last week you were being Robin Hoods, just giving money away, but loans are appropriate. It’s important to keep in mind that these are public dollars paying back the general fund so loans are appropriate. We really need landlord participation but should not be mandatory. A tenant cannot control what his landlord does. You’ve done a nice job here and there is a huge segment of the population that is getting caught in the middle. We do need to take care of people, but people should be getting loans. We shouldn’t just be giving money away to everyone. Mayor Torre encouraged her to share her thoughts via email, but said she was heard clearly here. Councilwoman Richards said it’s time to move forward. These are up to amounts and not mandatory spending. She thanked those in the community who have stood up as private donors. It’s meant a lot to people. There’s no way that government has the resources to take care of all of this. We’re all going to feel the pain. We would like to see the landlords participate in a fair and equitable way. We can’t continue to support the rental rates that we saw in 2019. Roll call vote: Torre, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mullins, yes; Richards, yes; Mesirow, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Councilwoman Richards motioned to adjourn with thanks to city staff, Councilwoman Mullins seconded. Roll call vote: Richards, yes; Mesirow, yes; Mullins, yes; Torre, yes; Hauenstein, yes. 5-0, motion carried. ______________________________ Nicole Henning, City Clerk