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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19880112Continued Meeting Aspen City Council January 12, 1988 PM10 STANDARDS 1 RESOLUTION #1, SERIES OF 1988 - Calling Special Election 6 RECONSIDERATION OF ARCHITECTURAL FEE FOR ASPEN MOUNTAIN LODGE 7 REQUEST FOR FUNDS - CAST Meeting 7 REQUEST FOR FUNDS - United Friendship Cup 7 INTERIM OFFICE SPACE 8 SPA AMENDMENT - Smuggler Mobile Home Park 9 SUBDIVISION EXCEPTION - Woods-Hall 9 ORDINANCE #1, SERIES OF 1988 - Senior Citizens Water Rates 10 RACKS IN RIGHT-OF-WAY 10 12 Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council Januarv 12. 1988 Mayor Stirling called the meeting to order at 5:05 p.m. with Councilmembers Tuite, Isaac and Fallin present. PM10 STANDARDS Mayor Stirling said he would like staff to address why only PM10 standards are being addressed, and what PM10 particulates are and why the city is not dealing with the more toxic particles at this time. Tom Dunlop, environmental health director, told Council the state will address why Aspen is in the high priority cate- gory. Dunlop told Council this is based on 11 years of collect- ing data which has indicated non-compliance with the health standards. John Leary, deputy director of air pollution control division state health department, whose function is to organize all the state implementation plans pertaining to PM10 standards, and Jim Ring, senior air pollution control specialist and on the national wood stove regulation committee, will make the presenta- tions for the state health department. John Leary told Council the air quality planning comes out of the clean air act passed originally in 1970 and using the 1977 clean air act amendments. The clean air act requires the EPA to identify harmful air pollutants. The EPA has identified 6 criteria pollutants that are regulated; ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide, lead, carbon monoxide and particulate matter. Leary said if an area has a violation of these pollutants, there is a requirement that the state submit a plan. The state has the ultimate responsibility of submitting plans to the EPA. The clean air act requires these be put together by organizations of locally elected officials. The role of the state is to assist the local governments in preparing these plans, in providing technical assistance and the base of information needed to draw up these plans. Leary said the state evaluates the strategies but not does make policy decisions. The state does adopt some strategies, like the state-wide standard developed on wood burning stoves. Leary said once a local area adopts a plan, the state will do what they can to assist in implementing the strategies. Leary said at this time, the state has only monitored violations of PM10 standards in Aspen, and there are no other pollutants being monitored. Up until last summer the standard the EPA used was total suspended particulates. All particulates in the air were measured and there was a standard f or how much the EPA would allow. Research over the years has showed that only the fine particulates have health impacts. The coarser particulates are filtered out by the body systems (Councilman Gassman came into Council Chambers). PM10 is 10 microns in size and smaller. The new standard is much more specifically a health-based standard. The standard is based 1 Continued Meeting Aspen City Counc__l Januarv 12. 1988 only on particulate size and does not get into the issue of whether the particulates are carcinogenic or mutagenic. Leary showed an emissions inventory, which is to assess overall where the pollution is coming from and to begin the planning process. After this information is collected, it is put into models to determine what sources are impacting at the monitoring sites. Leary told Council said the state health department will be collecting the fine particulates and will be able to do the actual analysis of the filter patterns. Councilman Isaac asked if fireplaces contribute more per fire- place. Leary said there are more fireplaces. A fireplace itself puts out less than a wood stove. Jim King said fireplaces are cleaner per pound of wood burning but the burn rates are higher so on an hourly basis a fireplace is dirtier than a stove. Ms. Cassin pointed out there are 5 times more fireplaces in the metro area than wood stoves. Ms. Cassin told Council the environmental health department did a survey to determine the number of fireplaces and stoves. Ms. Cassin told Council Steamboat Springs and Telluride passed a law stating people had a certain amount of time to register their stoves. Telluride charge a fee for people to register their stoves, but it was only by registering that one could sell their fireplace rights. Ms. Cassin told Council the environmen- tal health department sent out 1,676 surveys random throughout town. There are 6544 dwelling units in the core area. There was a 25 percent response rate. The environmental health department used this to determine the number of stoves and fireplaces. Ms. Cassin said the survey asked how many cords of wood a year were burned, how many days a week and how many hours a day people burned. Ms. Cassin said an average of one cord per stove and fireplace is used per year, which amount to two cords per dwelling for fireplaces and one cord per dwelling f or stoves. There is an average of 1.3 fireplaces per dwelling and .3 stoves per dwelling. The average stove is used 3.5 days a week, the average fireplace is used 2.6 days a week during the winter. Stoves are used an average of 5.9 hours a day, fireplaces an average of 3.4 hours a day. The most common times for fires to be started are 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. The average number of hours a day is 3.4. 77 percent of the people surveyed use their fire- places more than their stoves. 7 percent of the people use their stove or fireplace as their main source of heat; 2/3 of the people use their devices primarily f or aesthetics. Ms. Cassin told Council they sent surveys to 30 lodges, and the rest of the list came from the city's water customer list. 2 Continued Meeting Aspen. City Council Januarv 12, 1988 Jim Martin asked if these were sent to second home owners as well, and if so, was there a way to determine the percentage of time spent in Aspen. Ms. Cassin said the survey asked how many weeks of the year people are here, and how much wood is burned in their fireplace per year. Jim Colombo asked how Aspen compares to similar areas in fireplaces per capita. Ms. Cassin said she does not know. Leary said Aspen is required to meet the standard in 3 years and also to maintain that standard. There are 13 other cities in Colorado that have to prepare a plan to show they will never violate the standards. Ms. Cassin told Council the County wants to wait and see what plan the city is going to adopt. The county has indicated they are willing to go along with some of the items the city adopts. Sally Roach asked who is requesting towns that do not yet have a problem to submit a plan. Leary said it is a federal requirement to obtain and maintain standards. It is better to prevent health standard from being violated and not have to go in and correct the violations. A preventive situation is much more economical. Mayor Stirling asked if it would make sense to come forward with a plan that relates to carbon monoxide and integrate it in this plan. Mayor Stirling said the city could add to this plan all the things that relate to auto disincentives, transportation, high occupancy vehicle lanes, etc. These would also help reduce the sanding issue. Ms. Cassin said the city had no violations of carbon monoxide last winter. Leary said in the next few years, people will continually get the benefit of cleaner cars. Cars are over 90 percent cleaner than they were 15 years ago. Tom Dunlop said the primary objective is to get the PM10 plan in by the deadline. Mayor Stirling said the plan can list these auto disincentives to be included. Bill Martin said it seems the city of Aspen has exceeded the PM10 standards 15 days out of 12 years. Martin asked if the city has more cars and fireplaces why the figure for 1987 is not 10 or 15 days, rather than only one day. Martin said he does not under- stand how the figures can show the city has to do something as severe as not allow fireplaces. Leary said one reason the problem is not getting worse is that streets and roads have been paved. Leary said some of the pollution used to come from mud and dirt carry out on unpaved roads. Leary pointed out Pagosa Springs, which has a high pollution level, has few paved roads in the mountains. Leary pointed out until 1982, Aspen was 4 out of 7 years violating the annual standards, which is more difficult to violate than the 24 hour standards. Councilman Gassman asked why the city's PM10 pollution has not doubled in the last 10 years. If it has not, how can the state 3 Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council Januarv 12, 19.88 significantly reduced its wood consumption. There was an effort the f first year and sort of an effort the second year . There has not been much of an effort this year. Ms. Campbell said she does not think the city has used or exhausted all the public awareness and voluntary programs that could be more effective. Suzanne Caskey, Clean Air Board, told Council they had appealed to the ARA for help. Ms. Caskey told Council the Clean Air Board also went to the lodging association for help. Ms. Caskey said the lodges in Aspen are run very differently; they are different sizes, character, managers. What works for one lodge does not work for another. Ms. Caskey said some of the lodges remind their guests about pollution and woodburning in various ways. Ms. Caskey pointed out that Aspen cannot educate well a tourist who pays extra for a fireplace and expect them to change their view in one week of what a ski vacation is about. Ms. Caskey said although she would like the voluntary approach to work, she has lost some faith after the last year. Mayor Stirling said the volunteer program was not a grassroots effort, it came from the city. There seems to be a shift and the volunteer program is coming from the citizens up. Ms. Caskey said Sally Roach has spent her own money and time on the volun- teer program. These type of volunteers tend to get burned out. Councilman Tuite said the grassroots effort may be working because of the threat of conversion to gas logs. Councilman Tuite said the city still has to come up with a plan that will be approved by the federal government or the federal government will come in with their own plan. Leary told Council to be acceptable a plan must contain the standards to be attained in 3 years, maintained thereafter, the control measure describe a particular action to be taken and the agencies responsible, the implementation time frame and a commitment to the resources to implement this. The plan must contain the participation process that took place and some evidence of adoption by local officials. Leary said the fire- place conversion would need a schedule of when it would be adopted. Leary recommended this not be adopted until the strategy is adopted by the EPA. This could be as much as one year. One reason for this recommendation is that the state has not monito- red PM10 and has not done the filter pad analysis they are going to do to confirm the information. Leary said this monitor will be running next month so that they can get some winter months. Leary said the state wants to work with the city on financing options in the strategies adopted. Leary said they would work with the utility companies, work on loans for low income people. 5 Continued Meeting _Aspen Citv Council Januarv 12. 1988 Leary said the state would like to be able to provide feedback throughout the process to make sure the plan is acceptable. Ms. Roach asked how quickly the city will be receiving PM10 data. Leary said it will take a couple of weeks to get unofficial results. Ms. Cassin asked what would be required in a voluntary program to meet the state's acceptance. Leary said one issue is the transient population who are not here year round and may not be as committed as long term residents. Leary said the predict- ability becomes an issue. A monitoring program with quick feedback would be required. Leary told Council Denver is spending $750,000 cash on the voluntary clean air program in Denver . They may get 9 percent compliance. Leary said going after a 30 percent reduction on a voluntary basis would be very difficult. Jim King told Council there are about half a dozen cities throughout the country that had voluntary programs and have switched to mandatory. King said a general figure for voluntary programs have been 15 to 20 percent participation. King said natural gas for PM10 is 99.9 reduction over wood. Councilwoman Fallin asked if the EPA has imposed a plan on any city in the country and what is their plan like. Leary said they have the same options the city has. Leary said there can be a freeze of all federal aid to towns that do not comply. These could include federal assistance like f orest service approvals, highway funds. The EPA has issued sanctions in places around the country. Leary said if Aspen does not turn a plan in on a date specific, they are in violation of the clean air act. Mayor Stirling asked what would happen if the city does not turn in a plan and voluntarily cleans up the air year after year. Leary said there would have to be a demonstration of what the town is doing and the emissions. Mayor Stirling moved to adopt as a preliminary draf t plan to go to a public hearing items 1 through 10 of the environmental health department memorandum dated January 22, 1988; seconded by Councilman Tuite. Councilman Isaac said he is not in favor of eliminating the parking on Main street until there is an alternative place f or cars to park. Councilman Tuite said this is crucial to the community; Council should have a work session to get a more comprehensive plan and then go to a public hearing. Councilman Gassman said Council is responding to an artificial deadline that is not of their making. The Council is working on this plan. Mayor Stirling suggested this be an agenda item on January 25th and have the public hearing February 8th. RESOLUTION #1, SERIES OF 1988 - Calling Special Election 6 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council January 12, 1988 Mayor Stirling moved to adopt Resolution #l, Series of 1988; seconded by Councilman Gassman. City Attorney Taddune said there are 3 proposed questions for this election; the sale of city hall, the sale of the ice garden and the sale of 1,500 feet adjacent to the trail system near Shadow Mountain. Taddune said Councilwoman Fallin is interested in a Charter amendment to limit the terms of Council, Mayor and Board members. Taddune said if it is Council's pleasure, he will prepare this Charter amendment. Taddune told Council PRO is interested in sponsoring 3 additional Charter provisions; requiring a primary, changing the day of the municipal election to the general election date in the fall, and limiting the terms of offices for elected officials. Taddune told Council PRO had said they will do an initiative petition to change the Charter. Taddune said PRO may not want to put their ballot questions on this election because of the timing. Councilwoman Fallin asked if it is state law that special districts and municipal elections have to take place in odd years rather than with the general elections in even years. Taddune said he would have to inves- tigate. Mayor Stirling suggested this be on the agenda January 25th for more in depth discussion. Mayor Stirling amended the resolution to have the election April 5, 1988; seconded by Councilman Gassman. All in favor, motion carried. All in favor, motion carried. RECONSIDERATION OF ARCHITECTURAL FEE FOR ASPEN MOUNTAIN LODGE Mayor Stirling moved to ask the Aspen Mountain Lodge as the developer to pay the $1500 fee for the architect to assist the planning department; seconded by Councilwoman Fallin. All in favor, motion carried. REQUEST FOR FUNDS - CAST Meeting Mayor Stirling moved to allocated $500 ceiling f or money to pick up any loose ends for the legislative tours if the money is needed; seconded by Councilman Isaac. All in favor, motion carried. REQUEST FOR FUNDS - United Friendship Cup Mayor Stirling moved to allocate out of the contingency fund to allocate up to $1,000 to fund this and get the snow moved into the park as part of the segment of Winternational; seconded by 7 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council January 12, 1988 Councilwoman Fallin. All in favor, with the exception of Councilmembers Isaac and Gassman. Motion carried. (Mayor Stirling left the Council Chambers). INTERIM OFFICE SPACE City Manager Bob Anderson said Council has given the direction of not wanting the child care center moved to the basement. Anderson said he would like direction of going to alternate space versus fixing up city hall temporarily. Anderson said city hall is under sanction by the fire district and the city should respond to these concerns by either making certain portions of the building safer or move out of those area. Anderson said it will take about $120,000 f or the bare minimum safety improvements and up to $300,000 to make the building usable for other depart- ments to move back in. Anderson said it may make more sense to spend the money where it will not be torn out immediately. Anderson recommended spending money and move departments tem- porarily, like building, panning, zoning, environmental health and engineering to the community center and moving the administrative offices to the courthouse plaza. Anderson said he would like authorization to spend money to better determine what the costs would be. The county commissioners has agreed to allocate $2500 to determine what these costs would be. Councilman Isaac moved to allocate up to $2500 to study the feasibility of moving the 2nd and 3rd floors over to the court- house plaza and community center; seconded by Councilman Gassman. Anderson said he would like to get this project done in the next few weeks and then go out for bids. If this move is not feasible, the staff needs to make another plan. Brooke Peterson said the Council should look at who the public deals with in terms of who will be going back and forth between the buildings. Moving planning to the community center will cause a lot more automobile trips a day. Jim Colombo said the business district in Aspen is still in the central city. This city hall functions very well for its location. Anderson said for the long term solution, he hopes that city hall and the county offices are located in the downtown area. This is only an interim plan. Anderson said the county wants to get out of all their rental space by April 1988. The city has the parameters of safety they needs to respond to. Both governments want to keep logical groups of offices together. Anderson said professional help is needed to see if the proposed plans are workable. All in favor, motion carried. 8 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council January 12, 1988 SPA AMENDMENT - Smuggler Mobile Home Park (Councilman Tuite left due to a conflict of interest) . Steve Burstein, planning office, told Council this is an application to amend the plan and to eliminate some parking. Burstein pointed out a strip of 37 parking spaces on the southeast border of the park. The applicant would like to reduce this to 7 and move them toward the dumpsters. This is an SPA amendment. The area that would be vacated would become open space. Staff comments confirm that one space per bedroom should be adequate. There was also a survey done by the homeowners, and there does not appear to be a major parking problem. P & Z and staff support this application subject to 5 conditions. These are (1) an amended plat be recorded showing the changes; (2) two 3" pipes be placed desig- nating the opening for the fire hydrant; (3) a water sampling well have some type of barrier so it will not be run over, (4) a contingency that if the homeowners find out that parking spaces are needed, they can initiate an amendment, (5) the plat will be amended to designate this areas as open space. Brooke Peterson, representing the applicant, told Council there is a functional problem with the requirement for an amended plat. Peterson reminded Council the homeowners obtained approval f or the subdivision of the property. Peterson said he and staff have come to the conclusion to file an amended plat, they would have to have the signature of every owner in the park as well as every mortgage holder in the park. Peterson said that would be 150 signatures. Peterson requested Council exercise its power under Section 20-19(c) to vary the standards of the subdivision regulations. Peterson said this is a logistical problem and would cause a hardship. Peterson told Council the applicants do not have problems with the other conditions. City Attorney Taddune suggested that the plat be signed by the homeowners association officers. Councilmembers Gassman, Isaac and Fallin agreed to exempt this from the requirement of having all property owners and mortgage holders sign the plat. Burstein read "(1) an amended plat shall be recorded to the satisfaction of th e city engineer and city attorney. The association shall sign the plat, there shall be indemnity provided to the city with respect to that waiving the requirement that all property owners and mortgage lenders have to sign". Councilman Isaac moved to approve the Smuggler Mobile home park SPA amendment to reduce the number of parking spaces along the southern edge of the park subject to an amended condition (1) and conditions 2 through 5 in the planning office memorandum; seconded by Councilman Gassman. All in favor, motion carried. SUBDIVISION EXCEPTION - Woods-Hall 9 Continued Meeting Aspen City Council January 12, 1988 Cindy Houben, planning office, told Council this is a request for a boundary line adjustment. Ms. Houben pointed out there is a garage encroaching on one of the lots and does not meet the setback requirements. The applicants would like to be in conformance with the zoning district regulations. Ms. Houben told Council there are only 182 feet involved. Councilman Isaac said this is a new carport and asked how it was allowed to be built. Ms. Houben said it was given a building permit. Both parties are consenting to a boundary line change. This does not change the rights for either property. Councilman Isaac moved to approve the Woods Hall subdivision exception for a boundary line adjustment with the two conditions in the planning office memorandum; seconded by Councilwoman Fallin. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE #1, SERIES OF 1988 - Senior Citizens Water Rates Assistant City Manager Mitchell said this ordinance sets proced- ure for senior or hardship cases to get reduced water rates. Councilman Isaac moved to read Ordinance #l, Series of 1988; seconded by Councilman Gassman. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE #1 (Series of 1988) AN ORDINANCE AMENDING DIVISION III, ARTICLE 3, OF CHAPTER 23 OF THE MUNICIPAL CODE OF THE CITY OF ASPEN, COLORADO, ENTI TLED " WATER RATES AND CHARGES", SETTING FORTH THE PROV ISIONS FOR DEALING WITH HARDSHIP CASES BY ADMINISTRATIVE MEANS AND SETTING FORTH THE PROVISION FOR DEALING WITH QUALIFIED SENIOR CITIZENS BY ADMINISTRATIVE MEANS was read by the city clerk Councilman Isaac moved to adopt Ordinance #1, series of 1988, on first reading; seconded by Councilman Tuite. Councilman Tuite asked if this is one the same basis as the last ordinance. Mitchell told Council social services will qualify th e people. This ordinance has to be done because of the new water management plan. Roll call vote; Councilmembers Tuite, yes; Gassman, yes; Isaac, yes; Fallin, yes. Motion carried. RACKS IN RIGHT-OF-WAY 10 Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council Januarv 12. 1988 Councilman Gassman said if this is prohibited under the municipal code, why is it before Council. Jay Hammond, city engineer, told Council the applicant originally went to the CCLC, who thought this was a newspaper arrangement. The CCLC's experience is that they cannot prohibit newspapers in the right-of-way. The applicant proceeded with his racks in the right-of-way. The CCLC found this was purely commercial advertising, not press related. The applicant had the impression he had the city's approval. The applicant would like permission to continue with the brochure racks; staff is recommending against that. Council said staff and CCLC should have found these brochures were not what was represented and had them removed. Council said staff had clear authority to prohibit this. Councilman Isaac moved to add to the consent agenda the special event for the Aspen Historical Society; seconded by Councilman Tuite. All in favor, motion carried. Councilman Isaac moved to approve the consent agenda; seconded by Councilman Gassman. The consent agenda is liquor license renewal - Les Bistro des Amis; Resolution #2, Series of 1988, HPC Guide- lines; Minutes - December 7, 9, 14, 1987; Special Event Permit- Historical Society. All in favor, motion carried. Councilman Isaac moved to adjourn at 7:41 p.m.; seconded by Councilman Tuite. All in favor, motion carried. Kathryn Koch, City Clerk 11 Continued Meeting Aspen Citv Council January 1.2,__1988 project a level for 1991. Councilman Gassman speculates the pollution is getting better by itself. Leary said the pollution has not improved in the last 11 years. Jim Colombo asked if the standards are the same since 1977, and are the standards projec- ted f or 1991 the same as they are today. Leary said the stan- dards are same and are based on the same measurements. Leary said the standards are the same but they have switched the particulates. Leary told Council everything that comes out of a woodburning stove is fine particulates. Colombo asked if the standards are the same for Aspen as for other cities. Leary said the standards are strictly health based standards; if a person gets so much particulates into their lungs over a certain period of time. Leary said this is why it is a national standard and does not address elevation, wind, weather. Sally Roach said she questions the data, the mode of measurement, and whether the city needs to go to the severe extremes of this plan. Sally Roach told Council she is working very hard with the community on programs to cut the problem down. Ms. Roach said she resents the state and EPA coming in and working the numbers. Ms. Roach said she does not deny Aspen has a problem but it is minimum compared to Denver. Colombo said the size and acces- sibility of this community makes it better for a marketing program to regulate the pollution rather than get into an enforcement type of program. Wainwright Dawson said these solutions get rid of fireplaces and that may not be the problem. Mayor Stirling said this program is not doing away with fireplaces; it is combusting something different in fireplaces than wood. Jim Martin told Council he has recently installed gas logs and found that Colorado is one of three states that requires an AGA log set. Because there are such few states that use this, very few sets are manufactured to meet this. Martin said this is a state level problem and a hurdle to the implementation of this plan. Martin told Council because of the AGA standards, the gas logs available in Colorado are more expensive and not all treatments are available. Councilman Isaac said he has heard one cannot put gas logs into an existing fireplace in Aspen because they can be removed and wood burned in the fire place. Ms. Cassin said that is not the case, gas logs are allowed in fireplaces in Aspen. Ms. Roach explained that the building department was not allowing gas fire starters, and the interpretation was so strict, they disallowed gas lines going to a fireplace regardless of the ultimate use. Ms. Roach said there are problems in determining if the programs and working and measuring any progress. Molly Campbell, Gant, told Council about two years ago a volun- tary program was started. Over those two years the Gant has 4