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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.regular.20210824 1 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL AUGUST 24, 2021 At 5:00 p.m. Mayor Torre called the regular meeting to order with Councilors Doyle, Mesirow, and Hauenstein in attendance. Councilor Richards was absent. PUBLIC COMMENT: Ziska Childs – Ms. Childs said she hoped that council noticed which chair she was sitting in, and her request is to move the chair or the camera angle. She’s been watching on Facebook a lot and that many attendees are showing her more than she wants to know. She heartily suggests changing the camera angle or removing the chair. Cecil Hernandez – Mr. Hernandez said he is a west end resident. This has to do with the on-going traffic situation. He’d like to know where this issue is on their radar. He’s reached out several times and hasn’t gotten much response back. Mayor Torre said this is an issue for council every day and Councilor Doyle said he has lived in the west end and realizes the problem and has addressed the reasons and said the voters voted to keep the traffic in the west end. Mr. Hernandez said there are dozens of kids walking through west end after school and suggested four way stops. It’s a life and death issue. He has grandchildren who live right across the street. Councilor Hauenstein said it’s frustrating for everyone because nothing can really be done in the short term. Jeannine Burke – Ms. Burke said she has lived on west Francis Street for 17 years. Speeds have increased because of the pandemic and out of town people just aren’t aware. She suggested having signs that are more visible, so people are more aware of slowing down. She said it’s a lot of California and Texas plates. A sign wouldn’t hurt. Ksenia Tyutrina – Ms. Tyutrina said she moved to Aspen four years ago and she has already noticed that it is not the same town. She lived in the west end prior to this year and never worried about traffic and speeding. She is literally terrified for a friend of hers who has children and lives in the west end currently. Aspen’s reputation is on the line. If we’re not safe and family friendly it could be devastating. Councilor Mesirow thanked everyone for coming and said he knows it can feel like things aren’t happening. Everyone is heard. Charlie Givens – he has lived in the west end for 15 years. He is not sure what solution is and he’s not a developer. You ought to be able to solve this by 40% by ticketing people. Kelly Gunther – Ms. Gunther said she’s been trying to work with waste management. They come four days a week to collect garbage all at different times and she’s tried talking to them about picking up all at the same time. Public comment closed. COUNCIL COMMENTS: Councilor Mesirow said he will be out of town and back on Tuesday. Councilor Hauenstein said he would love to have the intercept lot be the entrance to Aspen. We will have to replace Castle Creek bridge eventually, so we need to start opening up this discussion and can’t put it off any longer. He said we need to protect ourselves at all times. Pedestrians aren’t looking, 2 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL AUGUST 24, 2021 drivers and bikers aren’t looking and no one else is looking. Be careful. He bikes through the core all the time. The tragedy of the young child who was killed in town hurts us all. Mayor Torre said Sunday August 29th is the Mayors Cup golf tournament, which is benefitting Aspen Strong and the Hope Center. This event is a fundraiser and is raising awareness for mental health. CITY MANAGER COMMENTS: None. BOARD REPORTS: Councilor Mesirow said they had an APCHA meeting. They are moving a variety of things forward to second reading and public comment will be available. Councilor Hauenstein said he had a 4th of July meeting with a representative from the CCLC. He also had a CORE board meeting. They’ve been discussing methane coming from old coal mines. Councilor Doyle said he and Ward toured a modular home factory in Buena vista. He was shocked at the prices of modular homes in that area. It does show a solution to some issues we have here. CONSENT CALENDAR: Councilor Hauenstein said he would like to have a brief discussion on the IGA. He fully supports it but wanted to point out a few lines about the need for mental health. Councilor Hauenstein motioned to adopt the consent calendar; Councilor Mesirow seconded. Torre pointed out the board appointments and recognized Jessica Garrow and Adam Malmgren. This is a reminder to other members that we have openings on other boards. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. PUBLIC HEARING: 501 West Hopkins: Ordinance #17, Series of 2021 – Kevin Rayes, City Planner & Jodi Edwards. Mr. Rayes said this request has several components to it. P&Z approved this and was also subject to a public vote in November. This is the second step of a three-step process. It is in the R6 zone district. The applicant owns 501 W. Hopkins and the Pride of Aspen mining claim. They would like to put a conservation easement on the mining claim in perpetuity, which would sterilize for any future development and would also provide recreation access. Councilor Mesirow asked about bringing the fee in lieu back with the request. Mr. Rayes said they are bringing back the same request and the applicant is ready to respond. Mr. Rayes said that staff recommends approval for major subdivision, amendments to land use code and official zone district map, planned development, project review and growth management review. Jodi Edwards said he represents the applicant. He said it’s a pleasure to be here for an application that has such exciting benefits to the community. It’s a rare opportunity to bring something as this. Councilor Mesirow asked if they would be willing to drop the fee in lieu. 3 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL AUGUST 24, 2021 Mitch Haas said they have been working on this proposal for three years now. We are excited to bring this to you and we feel what we are asking for is exceedingly reasonable. No owner in the past 30 years has offered anything to us like this. If you do the math, it’s $545,000 worth of value. That is all he’s asking for. Bob originally paid a million dollars for this property, and the rest is essentially a gift. Austin Weiss, Parks and Open Space Director, said he is also excited to present this to council. Howie Mallory of the Open Space Board said a few words in favor of this proposal. PUBLIC COMMENT: Dale Will, Pitkin County Open Space & Trails – Mr. Will said he is echoing what Howie said about this exchange. This is something we’ve been chasing for years. Mayor Torre closed public comment. Council continued their discussion. Councilor Hauenstein said the benefit to the community outweighs the FTE. When talking about such small portions and the gain from this, he is supportive. This is as close to no brainer as possible. Councilor Doyle said the public benefits far outweigh the negative, and he supports it going forward. Councilor Mesirow said there is a lot to like here, and the property is beautiful. The only issue for him is the affordable housing piece. It sticks out for him. It’s .03 now and may not be that way in the future. We’re in a housing crisis. It’s not a big ask. There’s one thing he won’t support and said it’s a twisted presentation of our values. City Attorney, Jim True, said there are two other items to be considered tonight to move this on to the ballot. There is also Ordinance #18 and Resolution #077 and #080 to set the ballot language. Let’s motion and Skippy can amend it, or we can discuss. He’s concerned if we are going to fashion any language, we need to speak with Mr. Edwards to see what we can do. Mayor Torre agreed and called a break for dinner at 7:20 p.m. Council reconvened at 7:48 p.m. Phillip Supino, Community Development Director, presented an edited version of Ordinance #17. Councilor Mesirow motioned to approve Ordinance #17 with an edit to section 6; Councilor Hauenstein seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. Ordinance #18, Series of 2021- Kevin Rayes Mr. Rayes said in order for planned development to become official, both need to be approved for this application to move forward. Detailed review tends to regard architectural details, and staff is recommending detailed review to move forward to a public vote. Mayor Torre opened the public hearing. Mayor Torre closed the public hearing. Mr. True noted that section 2 needs to be amended from “county” to “council” as well. 4 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL AUGUST 24, 2021 Councilor Hauenstein motioned to approve; Councilor Mesirow seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. Ordinance #19, Series of 2021 – WRETT Amendment – Sara Ott & James R. True Mr. True said the ballot language does have some clarifying amendments. The modified ordinance is in the packet. Ms. Ott said that Keith Frederick is with us this evening and will present the results from the poll that was sent out to the voters. The polling results tell us a lot about timing. Mr. Frederick presented the poll results which show a more conservative voter showing up for this election. November 2022 will have a bigger voter turnout than this November. Mayor Torre opened the public comment Ziska Childs – Ms. Childs said she is a member of the Wheeler board but is speaking as an individual. She said she wants to give a little history from the late 70’s, 80’s 90’s. She came across Bob Murray’s obituary, and it said he was director of the Wheeler from 1984-1998. She named off some people that he brought into the Wheeler. All of this was done with the current ordinance. She’s asking them to contemplate to give the new director a chance to come up to that level of programming or better under the same ordinance. Give her a chance to get the Wheeler on its feet again. Mayor Torre closed the public comment Councilor Mesirow said he doesn’t feel strongly on the timing. The language as is currently written, doesn’t inhibit arts for funding. It may be as simple as calling this out to make people aware to drive additional support. Councilor Hauenstein said this got rushed because of the citizen initiative. He said he would not support it unless it had room for childcare and mental health. Now we have an ordinance here that doesn’t call for these things. He feels that it’s been rushed to judgement because of this halfhearted attempt from the citizen initiative. He sees ambivalence here at best. He doesn’t feel the public will support this to pass. It’s not the right time, maybe next year. If he supports it, he wants childcare and mental health to be a part of it as amended. Ms. Ott said there is money in the general fund that she would take direction on as to put into a grant or a different process for funding on mental health and childcare. There is funding there if the council wishes to push it out onto the community. Mayor Torre asked if they should continue and said he’s not ready to vote on it. Councilor Hauenstein said he thinks Rachel should be here and he supports continuing to the 31st. Councilor Doyle and Councilor Mesirow are both comfortable continuing to next week. Mayor Torre said he’s supportive. He doesn’t think it limits them and he’s not daunted by a poll. Councilor Hauenstein moved to continue to August 31st; seconded by Councilor Doyle. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. 5 REGULAR MEETING ASPEN CITY COUNCIL AUGUST 24, 2021 Mr. True suggested continuing Resolution #77, #80 and #81 to August 31st as well. Councilor Hauenstein motioned to continue; Councilor Mesirow seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Torre, yes. ACTION ITEMS: Call Up of HPC’s Approval of 121 W. Bleeker – Sarah Yoon Ms. Yoon introduced the item. Derek Skalko of 1 Friday Architecture gave a detailed presentation and council asked various questions. Councilor Doyle motioned to uphold HPC’s decision; Councilor Mesirow seconded. Roll call vote: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. Mayor Torre asked Mr. Skalko to explain the name of his company, which he did. Mr. True introduced the executive session. Councilor Hauenstein motioned to go into executive session; Councilor Doyle seconded. Roll call: Doyle, yes; Hauenstein, yes; Mesirow, yes; Torre, yes. 4-0, motion carried. ______________________________ City Clerk, Nicole Henning