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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19971208Aspen City Council Regular Meeting December 8, 1997 Mayor Bennett called the meeting to order at 5:05 p.m. with Councilmembers Vickery, Markalunas and Paulson present. PROCLAMATION - World Human Rights Day Mayor Bennett read a proclamation declaring Wednesday December 10th, Human Rights Day in Aspen. Dennis Tuma said he hopes this proclamation will help remind everyone how fortunate they are to live in a free society. There will be a candlelight celebration Wednesday from 6 to 7 p.m. at the gondola. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION 1. Robert Harth, MAA, told Council they are planning their 1999 season, which will be the 50th anniversary of the MAA. One of the goals is to open the season with a remodeled tent. Harth told Council the MAA held a focus group on a new tent, which was televised, and has met with the performers and Board of Trustees. Harth said it is important to everyone that the ambiance be kept but that the tent remain up year round and also have better acoustics. Harth told Council he will come to the brown bag lunch December 15th with a model and drawings for the tent. 2. Dan Blankenship, general manager RFTA, told Council the RFTA board has already had a public hearing on their budget and the RFTA budget can be moved to the consent calendar, if Council chooses. Councilman Markalunas moved to moved the 1998 RFTA budget to the consent calendar; seconded by Councilman Paulson. All in favor, motion carried. COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS 1. Mayor Bennett reminded everyone of the community lecture by Congressman Earl Blumanauer tomorrow at the Wheeler at 6 p.m. 2. City Clerk Kathryn Koch reminded Council about outstanding board appointments for the city position on the Weed Board and the joint appointment to the Housing Authority. Councilman Markalunas moved to appoint Carol Craig to the Weed Board; seconded by Councilman Paulson. All in favor, motion carried. 1 Aspen City Council Regular Meeting December 8, 1997 CONSENT CALENDAR Councilman Vickery moved Funding Requests for Development Projects to the action items. Councilman Markalunas moved to adopt the consent calendar as amended; seconded by Councilman Paulson. The consent calendar is: Request for Funds - Project Graduation ($780 from contingency) Transportation Funding Requests RFTA 1998 Budget Iselin Master Plan Task Force at Large Appointments - Bob Camp, Howie Mallory, Steve Wickes, Georgia Hanson , Toni Kronberg Unanticipated Loss of Grant Revenue - Police Department All in favor, motion carried. RESOLUTION #83, SERIES OF 1997 - Adopting 1998 Budget Sheila Steinauer, budget director, noted there has only been one change since Council saw this two weeks ago. The $1.016 million for the Hummingbird purchase was budgeted for 1997 and will actually close in 1998 so the money was transferred to 1998. Mayor Bennett opened the public hearing. There were no comments. Mayor Bennett closed the public hearing. Councilman Markalunas moved to amend Resolution #83, Series of 1997, to allow for an increase in the electric department fund for increased street lights; seconded by Councilman Paulson. Mayor Bennett said while he agrees with increased lighting, he would like to hear from the Asset Planning Committee and from the electric department staff before doubling the budget for street lights. Councilman Markalunas said in community meetings, citizens indicated they wanted more lights. Councilman Markalunas withdrew his motion with the assurance Council will consider this early in 1998. Council agreed. Councilman Markalunas said he feels 2 Aspen City Council Regular Meeting December 8, 1997 $25,000 is inadequate to get the street light program the citizens have indicated they want. Councilman Markalunas moved to adopt Resolution #83, Series of 1997; seconded by Councilman Paulson. All in favor, motion carried. RESOLUTION #84, SERIES OF 1997 - Certifying 1998 Mill Levy Sheila Steinauer, budget director, told Council there has been no change in this resolution since the last meeting. Mayor Bennett opened the public hearing. There were no comments. Mayor Bennett closed the public hearing. Councilman Paulson moved to adopt Resolution #84, Series of 1997; seconded by Councilman Markalunas. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE #38, SERIES OF 1997 - Pomegranate Rezoning to RMF and SPA approval Chris Bendon, community development department, told Council this rezoning to RMF best fits the current development and the previous approvals given by Pitkin county. Bendon showed Council a drawing of the parcel, the development, and the city and county boundary lines. The portion of the property in the city contains the new garages, driveways and landscape improvements. The SPA approval specifies the current development and restricts development closer to the highway. Mayor Bennett opened the public hearing. There were no comments. Mayor Bennett closed the public hearing. Councilman Paulson moved to adopt Ordinance #38, Series of 1997, on second reading; seconded by Councilman Markalunas. Roll call vote; Councilmembers Markalunas, yes; Vickery, yes; Paulson, yes; Mayor Bennett, yes. Motion carried, ORDINANCE #39, SERIES OF 1997 - Hower Subdivision Exemption: GMQS Exemption Mitch Haas, community development department, told Council this is a lot split for a 12,734 square foot lot at 930 West Francis street. The property is zoned R-6 with 3 Aspen City Council Regular Meeting December 8, 1997 an existing single family house straddling the proposed lot line. There should be a plat note stating any new development will conform with all setback requirements. This application includes a GMQS exemption request. The lot split is exempt from the scoring procedures but is deducted from the pool of annual development allotments. One lot would get a credit for the existing house; the other lot will have to mitigate with and ADU, cash-in-lieu, or an RO deed restriction. Haas told Council this meets all criteria for a lot split, subdivision exemption as well as the growth management exemption. Staff recommends approval with conditions in the memorandum. Mayor Bennett opened the public hearing. There were no comments. Mayor Bennett closed the public hearing. Councilman Paulson said a lot split seems to eliminate a lot of existing open space and fill it up with two houses. Councilman Paulson said Ordinance #30 was supposed to take into account the character of the community. Stan Clauson, community development director, said Aspen was initially platted with 30 foot front lots. Clauson said relatively small structures on smaller lots is the historical character of the townsite. Clauson noted Ordinance #30 specifies design standards which are intended to make the house relate more closely to the street to make houses more community minded. Mayor Bennett said it might be time to review Ordinance #30, to see how it is working and whether it addresses the original problem. Heinz Coordes, adjacent property owner, told Council the alley behind this property has been sodded over and not used. Councilman Markalunas asked if this is a vacated alley. Haas said it is still city right-of-way. Councilman Markalunas said the city is trying to encourage parking and garages off the alleys. Mayor Bennett said after a roundtable and a lot of discussion, the city decided it made design sense to put garages off alleys rather than off the street. Councilman Vickery asked for the comparative floor area ratio between one lot and two lots, two houses. Clauson said there is a sliding scale FAR which is proportionately reduced for larger lots. Clauson said there would be less development for a single lot on the large lot then two houses on two lots. Councilman Paulson moved to adopt Ordinance #39, Series of 1997, on second reading; seconded by Councilman Markalunas. Roll call vote; Councilmembers Markalunas, yes; Vickery, yes; Paulson, yes; Mayor Bennett, yes. Motion carried. 4 Aspen City Council Regular Meeting December 8, 1997 BURLINGAME RANCH Dave Tolen, housing director, requested direction from Council before putting a lot more time and work into a potential joint venture between the city and the Music Associates on parcel B of the Burlingame Ranch. Tolen told Council the housing board was concerned about making a commitment to sell parcel B until more work has been done on parcel A. Tolen noted the housing department is working on a master plan parcel A and two other sites, owned by the Zoline family and Aspen Valley Land Trust. Tolen said the final meeting on this plan will be in two weeks. Jim Curtis, representing the M.A.A., pointed out the various parcels to Council. Curtis said the M.A.A. request is to continue with the recommendations made at the September 30th work session and to bring all the information concerning the total property, the details, all the options, to a work session with Council in January. Curtis reminded Council the activities they were directed to do were to work with the adjoining neighbors (Zoline, Aspen Valley Land Trust, Maroon Creek Club, Caudill and Harvey) to look at a larger development rather than just parcel A on the Burlingame Ranch. Curtis said they will have another meeting with the neighbors in December with the objective to report back to Council in January. Two issues are the number of units in the larger parcel and how the traffic flows from the development. Another direction from Council is to have MAA and city staff work on a conceptual agreement of understanding for a partnership between the MAA, the city and the Ski Company. Curtis said he looked at parcel D and the benefit of acquiring additional lands from U.S. West. Curtis said he has confirmed the steps and legal requirements for annexation. Some survey and title work has been done on this. Curtis reminded Council he was directed to look at the suitability of the land on the west Buttermilk for single family parcels or small affordable housing. Curtis said the MAA would like a work session in January with Council and also requests that staff continue to work with the MAA on negotiation of the conceptual agreement. Curtis told Council the Land Trust has been asked if they would consider development on their parcel and/or use of the parcel for access to the north. Robert Harth, MAA, said while they understand the desire to wait until all planning for this area is done, time is not on the MAA or Ski company’s side. Councilman 5 Aspen City Council Regular Meeting December 8, 1997 Paulson said he feels that parcel B could be developed immediately and not wait for planning on parcel A. Tolen said the housing authority feels parcel B is good for development; however, they are hesitant to commit to giving it away before everything else is planned. Councilman Markalunas said seasonal housing is in critical demand and plans should be kept moving along. Councilman Markalunas said he does not see the need to hold up parcel B while planning everything else. Councilman Vickery agreed to a January work session on Burlingame. Councilman Vickery said he would like to have more information about the $100,000 request for funds to work on Burlingame. Tolen said there is a detailed list and he will give it to Council; they can delete that request for funds from the other two. Council all agreed on a spring vote on disposition of the property. Mayor Bennett said he supports both a work session and a continued process for Burlingame. Mayor Bennett said there is a housing crisis, and Council needs to make a decision if this is a location for community affordable housing. Mayor Bennett agreed with the housing board’s feeling that this land ought to be planned comprehensively; this is 200 acres and the community should have a sense of what is going on in this property. Mayor Bennett said he does support an accelerated process. Mayor Bennett said he will not support this development unless is it transit oriented, so the location on the property does make a difference. Mayor Bennett noted there is no one representing the AABC on the committee reviewing this and they should be included. Councilman Vickery said he wants all stakeholders to be part of this process. City Attorney Worcester pointed out the city does not have a regularly scheduled election in May. This issue can be voted on anytime and Council can take the disposition of this property to the electorate before they are ready to complete the deal. Stan Clauson, community development director, told Council the city cannot plan this entire area because the property is not all in the city ownership. Clauson said some very visionary planning has been done by some of the neighbors. Some of the plan would require the cooperation of 4 landowners and various interest groups. Mayor Bennett said almost 3 years ago, the city extended the required demolition of the Grand Aspen hotel to keep rooms for music students. There was a community roundtable with small lodge owners on keeping the Grand Aspen open. At that time, the Council and community said it was time for the music school to find other 6 Aspen City Council Regular Meeting December 8, 1997 rooms for their students. The MAA is meeting that responsibility with this plan. Councilman Markalunas said he would like to see this be an environmentally sensitive development. Council scheduled a work session for January 20th at 4:30. FUNDING REQUESTS FOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS Councilman Vickery moved to approve funding requests for Aspen Country Inn and Snyder property and to continue the funding requests on Burlingame Ranch to December 15th; seconded by Councilman Markalunas. All in favor, motion carried. HOUSING BOARD APPOINTMENT Councilman Markalunas moved to appoint Cari Britton as the joint appointment to the housing board; seconded by Councilman Vickery. All in favor, motion carried. Council said for joint appointments in the future they want to meet with the Commissioners to interview the candidates. Councilman Markalunas moved to go into executive session at 6:50 p.m.; seconded by Councilman Paulson. All in favor, motion carried. Councilman Markalunas moved to come to come out of executive session at 7:20 p.m.; seconded by Councilman Paulson. All in favor, motion carried. Councilman Markalunas moved to adjourn at 7:20 p.m.; seconded by Councilman Paulson. All in favor, motion carried. Kathryn S. Koch, City Clerk 7 Aspen City Council Regular Meeting December 8, 1997 PROCLAMATION - World Human Rights Day ................................ ...................... 1 CITIZEN PARTICIPATION ................................ ................................ ................... 1 COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS ................................ ................................ ....... 1 CONSENT CALENDAR ................................ ................................ ........................ 2 Request for Funds - Project Graduation ($780 from contingency) ....................... 2 Transportation Funding Requests ................................ ................................ ......... 2 RFTA 1998 Budget ................................ ................................ ............................. 2 Iselin Master Plan Task Force at Large Appointments - Bob Camp, Howie Mallory, Steve Wickes, Georgia Hanson, Toni Kronberg ................................ ..... 2 Unanticipated Loss of Grant Revenue - Police Department ................................ .. 2 RESOLUTION #83, SERIES OF 1997 - Adopting 1998 Budget ............................. 2 RESOLUTION #84, SERIES OF 1997 - Certifying 1998 Mill Levy ........................ 3 ORDINANCE #38, SERIES OF 1997 - Pomegranate Rezoning to RMF and SPA approval ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 3 ORDINANCE #39, SERIES OF 1997 - Hower Subdivision Exemption: GMQS Exemption ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 3 BURLINGAME RANCH ................................ ................................ ....................... 5 FUNDING REQUESTS FOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS ................................ 7 HOUSING BOARD APPOINTMENT ................................ ................................ .... 7 8