HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes.NXGN.Regular.20230301Next gen minutes 3-1
Roll Call: Cody, present; Michaela, present; Zach, present, Tyler, present.
Cody: Motion to approve agenda minutes from 2-1
Tyler: Moved
Roll Call Vote: Cody, yes; Zach, yes; Michaela, yes; Tyler, yes.
Motion passed 4-0
Cody: We will spend this meeting sharing our values and goals, I didn’t get out the housing guidelines
and update. My 3 goals are affordable housing, environmental stewardship, local participation.
Tyler: Can you elaborate on local participation.
Cody: We had this idea of breakfast but that forum is this meeting so we need to change people’s view
of this board or spread awareness that it’s not scary to come and talk to us.
Tyler: Side note on that, did we have any luck putting the application on our website?
Cody: I don’t think so.
Michaela: Communication with/from the City and the local population. The Living Lab team claimed
they spoke with local businesses but then the businesses said they didn’t, so there was a breakdown
somewhere. Now there is a composting diversion program that was just passed by Council and the way
they communicated this change is by handing out a flyer at 7pm during dinner service. So they are
checking this box of yes we communicated but there is not a conversation about best practice or how to
do it properly and no one has even come talk to me about it. There are things the community wants to
relay to the City and the City to the Community, there could be improvements on how that’s done.
Cody: Noticing procedures in the code are in the paper and posting on the website. We could go to
council with a memo and inform them there needs to be more transparent methods for public noticing,
maybe not more transparent but more accessible.
Michaela: How can we make it feel more comfortable or more accessible?
Tyler: It would maybe be making it more digestible, not just doing what they have to but making it
digestible.
Cody: Like tokenism vs actualization.
Michaela: Mitch Osur did this amazingly during the pandemic. He would come onsite and work with us
instead of just sending a flyer. Maybe an onsite team working with businesses? My other 2 are
housing/APCHA regulations and I’m still interested in increasing pay for council members. They do
commit so much time and effort to it. I would like to somehow address the timeline on the affordable
housing projects. The lumberyard has been an active project for 12 years. I have a friend that is a
developer and he said he could have built 4 lumberyards in that time. The Tree Farm just put up 4
buildings in this season alone.
Zach: What is our role in that?
Michaela: It’s a research role. Researching how to improve on the process, this is an example of what is
not working. If this project is taking 12 years, how do we make sure the next one doesn’t.
Zach: and with that info we would use our memo and send it to council?
Cody: It is a complicated issue, something we can look into.
Michaela: Maybe we could invite Joe Sherman and pick his brain about affordable housing, he is very
well versed.
Cody: Yea if he is willing to talk to us next meeting that would be cool.
Tyler: Finding shorter term resolutions for affordable housing until the Lumberyard is built. The only
goal I would add is transportation/traffic planning in town. Both traffic and bike traffic is becoming a
quality of life issue in town. Bike infrastructure and how that is growing, ebikes in particular. Our bike
infrastructure is not made for ebikes.
Zach: I want to combine community, pride, and ownership. Is there a way we can create or help
promote gatherings and connection between community members. Is there an event we can host? The
Wheeler has a bunch of events, are those aligned, is there something we can do to partner with it to get
this demographic building their own community. Any program to promote the preservation of the
nature around us?
Cody: What you are dialing in on is the strategy component.
Zach: What if there was something at the Wheeler that talks about nature around here and what we can
do to keep it from deteriorating. The final thing is accessibility, being able to get to places without being
priced out, whether its experiences or transportation. I liked Nicky’s not for profit and wanted to see if
there is anything we can do to pursue that. Doing something to feel like we are a part of this community
and not just living in their world.
Cody: I like the word accessibility, that should be a main value and transportation could be a goal
underneath.
Tyler: On that note, places to eat and the current downtown trend toward more expensive, members
only restaurants and galleries that cater to tourists versus something that benefits local community and
diverse downtown experience.
Cody: This is under a strategic thing, we saw the city’s availability to use ROW for outdoor dining. Could
they do a program that restaurants offer food and beverages under a certain amount and in trade they
get outdoor dining for a few months.
Michaela: What Nicky is doing with the app allows us to track who the locals are. It’s hard to offer a
local discount because you can’t track that but to be able to offer a secret locals menu would be cool.
Zach: Who is local? The people in our age group who are coming seasonally, are they local?
Tyler: Putting the responsibility on the restaurant or business owner versus the landlords driving rent to
exponential levels just trying to maximize profits. If a local bike shop becomes a gallery there is clearly a
loss of community value of that space.
Cody: I have 5 goals as 1. Accessibility-transportation, equity, pricing. 2. Local participation-community
pride, ownership, branding, communication. 3. Environmental Stewardship. 4. Affordable Housing.
Tyler: I think I have a 5 the long-term economic viability and diversity of Aspen and the valley. I love the
diversity of jobs in Aspen that allow people to come and have lifelong livelihoods here. Encouraging
diversity of careers outside of the tourist economy.
Michaela: Mick Ireland put out an article about who is considered an essential worker. The board of
realtors is doing a push on Aspen Deserves better about essential workers and one could argue they are
not essential workers. What kind of community do we want to build?
Tyler: What happens if the ski mountain has to shut down again? Essential workers right now are wait
staff/service workers but what if that pushes out other people because it’s too expensive and we don’t
have people with other income to keep the economy going.
Cody: We got some good stuff. I have 2 pages of notes that we can start building on. I think we should
push off the housing documents review. I will email this note sheet and you can start thinking about
what our next step should be. We should have 2-3 objectives under each goal and then as many
strategies under those as we need. Next meeting we can vote and approve these 5 goals and start
working on strategies.
Cody: Motion to adjourn
Cody: Second
Roll call vote to adjourn: Cody, yes; Tyler yes; Michaela, yes; Zach, yes.
Motion passed 4-0