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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.regular.20210727 1 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JULY 27, 2021 At 5:00 p.m. Mayor Torre called the regular meeting to order with Councilors Richards, Doyle, Mesirow in attendance and Councilor Hauenstein joining via WebEx. CITIZEN COMMENTS: Jim Pomeroy – Mr. Pomeroy said he lives in Aspen and is a city employee. He is speaking as a private citizen and not speaking for the city or his department. He said the APCHA board is looking to modify their guidelines in the next month or so and are getting rid of a few things. He would hope the members consult with their fellows on how to proceed. They are planning to get rid of the special review committee which grants variances. This is walking into the lion’s mouth because it’s aimed at he and his family. The committee has a right to grant variances if there is an unusual hardship that can be shown. They got a lot of grief for it and now the board wants to eliminate this. This is a solution in search of a problem. To assume that the board or staff is automatically going to know how to solve these problems, is foolish. There has to be a way for big issues to have a way out. A teapot has to be able to let off its steam. It’s ok to modify or add more criteria. Fixing is better than eliminating. He’s happy to talk about this offline. Bob Dylan – Mr. Dylan said he lives at Chateau Chaumont. He has formed an alliance of groups surrounding the W hotel and it is all of the properties surrounding the W. He filed a formal complaint with Jim True and distributed to council. The wet deck at the W has become a nuisance to everyone. The loud music coming from the speakers and thumping bass from the external speakers is what is so bothersome. They originally told us they wanted to be good neighbors with sound proofing on the wet deck. The city asked us to start calling police which we’ve done. This has been to no effect. The decibel level is most of the time met but the thumping bass comes through your windows. The association is all of the condos surrounding, so something needs to be done. Sky Hotel wasn’t a problem because it was ground level. David Arnold – Mr. Arnold said he lives at the Little Nell Condos located on West End Street. He has been authorized by the board of directors to be here tonight. The noise and primarily bass coming from W makes it very uncomfortable. At night it’s a real issue. We need help from city council. It just doesn’t stop. Ken Rifkin – Mr. Rifkin said he lives at the Aspen Alps and is troubled by the penetrating sound at the W Hotel. He has visited them a number of times and their response is that their main focus is dealing with the city and if they are in good standing with the city, they don’t care about us. Another time they were offered a 10 percent discount. The wet deck should have public access, but last week they said they had a minimum food and beverage charge, so this is also in violation with what they are supposed to provide to citizens of Aspen. This is about what they can get away with. They have a DJ with a sound board and portable speaker, and this is against the rules. The decibel level was about 85 so this is also incorrect. He spoke with a manager and head of security and has spoken to half a dozen people including the manager of the wet deck. He wants them to be successful but not at the expense of the community around them. Nes Wygin – Mr. Wygin said he is a member of the West End pedestrian group. He said he can’t believe how much the traffic has increased over the past year and it seems out of control and not just over rush hour. It’s a serious traffic and safety issue. He spoke about people using the west end as a cut through. A 2 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JULY 27, 2021 close friend of his said he was up on the cemetery on his bike and was almost hit. It’s a dangerous issue. He appreciates council’s attention to this matter. Michael Newman – Mr. Newman is an owner at Chateau Chaumont and in preparation for the meeting, he went to the wet deck at 3:30 today to listen to the noise. He knows he’s an older gentleman, but he found the thumping of the bass speakers was very uncomfortable and he left shortly. The decibel of constant noise is not integrated with the level of bass. He had a conversation with John Sarpa when they were planning the new hotel, and he said they understood and were committed to being a good neighbor. If you look at the sound deadening equipment, it’s deficient. The booming of the bass must be controlled. Please focus in on this. Scott Lupow – Mr. Lupow said he lives at the Dumont, and it’s been so annoying. He said on the weekends, it starts around 1 pm and goes on until 7-8 every night. There’s nowhere to escape to because you can close your windows and go inside and still hear the loud bass. There are ways they can tone it down, like fabric or awnings of some kind because the glass they have there isn’t doing it. Val Stevenson – Ms. Stevenson said she lives at 610 W Smuggler Street and is a member of the west end safety group. She’s adding her concerns about the traffic safety issues in the west end. There is a backup of cars bumper to bumper for three hours. Smuggler is unusable during this timeframe. This is creating environmental and health concerns. We have cars idling in the neighborhood for three hours and is not ideal for commuters either. She’s happy to be a part of a group to try and fix this issue. Please consider a task force. Councilor Mesirow is wondering how much of this is people being scared to ride RFTA again because of COVID and may go back. Sara Ott, City Manager, said that transit still has capacities under public health orders. They are currently running at 60 percent compared to pre-COVID. She doesn’t think it will change for the summer season. Mayor Torre asked what we are doing in the near term to address the problem. Ms. Ott said officers are out there five evenings a week. This is not a high accident zone that would make it a priority call over other needs of the community. They are pulling out old data to get a sense of the hourly distribution. The neighborhood needs to reconcile the pedestrian environment without the pedestrian infrastructure. It’s a tough request. It’s a volume issue and I don’t see it going down, at least for the summer season. Councilor Richards said she agrees with everything Sara said, but it’s on us to find ways to deal with this. She believes until we tackle the entrance to Aspen, we’re just going to keep rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We’ve seen a lot of residential growth, so traffic just continues to grow. She requests to get a memo from Jim and Sara about closing power plant road for 3-4 hours a day. We’ve got to deal with the entrance to Aspen. She’d like to know their full range of options. Mayor Torre asked about the W issue. He’s concerned about access and wondered if they are in violation of anything that Mr. Rifkin brought up. Jim True, City Attorney, said he received the message from Bob Dylan last week, and has attempted to pull together the approvals granted to the W through the process. He does know that the environmental health department has received complaints and hasn’t had a chance to connect with CJ about his investigation yet. Phillip is aware of the complaints. It’s a little premature to determine what all the issues and violations are. We are in process of working on this and he will coordinate with all other departments. Phillip said sound levels are compliant and said 3 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JULY 27, 2021 he had a conversation with John Sarpa two months ago and said they do have an obligation to the public. Councilor Richards said she would like verification on the bass vs decibels. Maybe our sound ordinance needs some tuning up and wondered if this is contemporaneous with 2021 issues. Mayor Torre said it’s a shallow dive into this. Ms. Ott said there are other communities that have a section about bass in their noise ordinance and we can bring back some educational materials about how that’s gone in other places, and we’re happy to do that. COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS: Councilor Richards said that some communities are asking for masking inside again because COVID is growing across the country and rising in a number of areas. Be safe out there. She is glad to see that AVH is bringing back the health fair this fall, but doing it differently this year, by appointment only. There will be no walk ins and will be from September 30th – October 2nd. It’s been a while, so please check with aspenhospital.org Councilor Doyle said the Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that the Great Salt Lake is at its lowest water level in recorded history. Lake Powell is at a record low as well. Things seem to be getting worse before they get better. Councilor Richards said they are taking excess water from the Flaming Gorge and the Blue Mesa Reservoir. We’re starting to empty the safety buckets out on the Colorado system at this point in time. Mayor Torre said this is the best thing going on tonight. It’s interesting times right now in Aspen and at this table. We just heard about noise complaints on the east side of town, and car complaints on the west side of town, constant stress and strain of locals and workers, a lack of employees and housing. We have a lot of issues ahead of us. This community needs to stay together and stay connected. Please reach out to us anytime you want. Today he had a half hour call with someone in tears for 27 minutes of that call. There a lot of things eating at a lot of us, and it’s more than ok to bring your comments to council. We have solidified the Wheeler opening date as august 27th with a Beetles tribute band. August 29th is the Mayors Cup golf tournament and is open to anyone who has the ability to play. We want to make it a mental health awareness event. Aspen Strong and the Hope Center are to benefit. You’ll hear more about this to come. AGENDA AMENDMENTS: Mr. True said he is amending the executive session to add the Aspen Film Isis lease. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS: Ms. Ott said the community picnic is coming up on August 18th at the Red Brick lawn if any of you are interested in serving or hosting, we’d love to have you with the community fellowship. This coming Tuesday, a joint meeting with the BOCC will be hosted by Pitkin County and she is unsure of how many applications we will have for the APCHA board, so she is thinking through alternate talking points. Councilor Mesirow asked for the link to the application for the county. Sara announced that it’s on their website and to go to boards and commissions and the application is right there. 4 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JULY 27, 2021 Mayor Torre said he is speaking to Kelly Kury-McNicholas regarding other topics of discussion. He is very interested in talking about the AABC area. Ms. Ott introduced the monthly drought update in conjunction with fire bans in the county. Tyler Christoff, Steve Hunter, and April Long presented. Mr. Christoff said they are lucky to be speaking to council that is interested in these resource issues. Mr. Hunter said the dates have changed, but the graphics have not. Things have deteriorated on the west side and now we are in a severe drought and west of us is extreme drought. The temperature outlook is showing 50-60 percent above average temps for August, September, and October. The precipitation outlook is the same, which is below average precipitation. We are seeing some monsoon moisture up here. Ms. Long explained the comparison of flows in dry years. Mr. Christoff said it’s their recommendation to stay in stage 2 water restrictions for now and come back to council in another month with an update. BOARD REPORTS: Councilor Doyle said he had Nordic Council and they are discussing setting up a 3-kilometer ski loop behind the high school. It’s a community asset so it would allow for opening one month before and a month later than usual. A pump would be needed. He spoke about securing water. Councilor Richards said she had the Club 20 policy meetings in Craig last week. At the subcommittee level and passed a resolution and at the fall meeting it will be accepted or not. They passed a resolution regarding childcare on the western slope asking the state to support quality childcare facilities and staffing. Mayor Torre said he had ACRA, and they had a Pandora expansion presentation. There’s not a lot of excitement around planning, tourism, events, etc. and there is a lot of introspection going on currently. They spoke about tourism management as opposed to marketing. Councilor Hauenstein said he had CCLC, and they had a presentation from the local bear coalition. They spoke about alleyways and commercial gentrification. We need private sector involvement. It’s an important issue. He also met with the 4th of July committee this morning and there were 320 respondents to the survey. CONSENT CALENDAR: Councilor Richards pulled resolution #067 and Mayor Torre pulled resolution #070. Resolution #067, Series of 2021 Councilor Richards wants to make an amendment to the land use restrictions section regarding the CDOT easement being referred to as “the straight shot” and that is incorrect; it should be “the modified direct”. Mayor Torre asked for staff input regarding the comments that have surfaced around the bike park. Matt Kuhn, Parks Director, confirmed that if a bike park does come up, it will be a focused discussion with the community. The concerns are about keeping Marolt Open Space as it is in its current state. Councilor Richards motioned to approve Resolution #067, Series of 2021, with the amendment to correct the name of the easement for transportation across the Marolt; Councilor Mesirow seconded. 5 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JULY 27, 2021 Mayor Torre pointed out that Ted Mann is here and asked if he had any thoughts. Mr. Mann said the Open Space board voted unanimously to approve this. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Resolution #070, Series of 2021 Mayor Torre pulled this to check in and what this resolution means to the process. Chris Everson, Affordable Housing Project Manager, said he is here with Wayne Freeman, a principle with Cushing Terrell. The scope of work for this contract, aims to pick up the ball where we left at the end of 2020. Wayne’s first piece of work will be to work on the parking alternatives analysis and address some of the other outstanding matters. We received seven proposals and four of those were fully complete and evaluated by staff. Cushing Terrell was highly qualified. They have a lot of experience, horsepower, diversity and volume. This has been a community engagement driven process. Councilor Hauenstein said he’s going to support this and thinks the team has done a great job to respond to council. He appreciates their efforts. Councilor Mesirow asked about an integrated transit plan. He wants to know when things get locked in. Mr. Everson said they have the rest of this year to discuss parking, and nothing is locked in until you decide the application is ready to be submitted. Councilor Mesirow said he will support this moving forward. Mayor Torre said that Wayne is here, and he understands the gravity of this project and the challenges. Mr. Freeman said that every community throughout the west is faced with this number one problem of housing and it’s just getting worse. We have an entire division of people to deal with this issue. Bozeman Montana, for example, has the exact same issue, so we totally appreciate where you are all coming from and your concerns. Mayor Torre is going to support this enthusiastically. Councilor Richards motioned to approve Resolution #070, Series of 2021; Councilor Doyle seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Councilor Richards motioned to approve Resolution #069, Series of 2021, and the draft minutes; Councilor Mesirow seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. PUBLIC HEARINGS: Resolution #068, Series of 2021 – Temporary Art Installation Phillip Supino, Community Development Director, said this is a request for continuation. The design of the exterior art installation that will be mounted on the north façade, is continuing to change, so the applicant has asked for this to be continued to Sept 14th and the updated design will be presented at that time. Councilor Richards motioned to approve Resolution #068, Series of 2021; Councilor Doyle seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. Mr. True requested that council move into executive session regarding Centennial vs City of Aspen and the Aspen Film Isis lease. 6 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL JULY 27, 2021 Councilor Mesirow motioned to move into executive session; Councilor Richards seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Richards, yes; Torre, yes. 5-0, motion carried. ______________________________ City Clerk, Nicole Henning