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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.19990524Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 Mayor Bennett called the meeting to order at 5:05 p.m. with Councilmembers Vickery, Paulson, Markalunas and Richards present. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION 1. Lily Garfield urged Council to re-examine the DEPP and maybe put it to a citizen vote. Councilman Vickery requested the DEPP Contract from the consent calendar and put it on the Action Item agenda. 2. Rob Snyder, property manager of downtown properties, said neither the owners nor any of the tenants have every been contacted about the DEPP. The only information they have received is either through the paper or at the open house. Snyder said his tenants are opposed to the downtown plan. 3. Heidi Friedland said businesses in the downtown are being hurt by all the construction. Besides the cost of the program, there is cost to the businesses. 4. Robert Wilson said he feels residents have been deceived by Council with the parking and the street project, where Council is borrowing money for that project, and with the roundabout and funding for the highway. Wilson said the DEPP should have been an election issue. Mayor Bennett said the downtown plan is the product of a 3-year effort and has been in the newspapers and many public hearings, some of them televised. This is one of the most publicized plans of the city. Councilwoman Richards said the work early this spring on Mill street has been for the utility relocation and was way before the election. The roundabout funding has been the issue of public debate for months. 5. Amy Martineau said the downtown plan was proposed as an aggregate of the entire city being enhanced. Ms. Martineau said each block should be notified when that specific block or street is being discussed. 6. Toni Kronberg thanked Council for passage of the recreation bond. Ms. Kronberg said this is a 10-year dream of the parks and recreation department. 1 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS 1. Councilman Markalunas said KVOD, the classic music station, was removed from the airways by the owners without any notice to the community. The station has been moved to the AM frequency, which is almost impossible to get in this valley. 2. Councilman Vickery brought up an article in the newspaper, “Can You See the Elephant” by Georgia Hanson about addiction and the loss of the local detox center. Councilman Vickery said he hopes Council and the community supports a local detox facility as well as support continued efforts to do something about alcohol and drug addiction. 3. Councilman Vickery said there was a letter from Bonnie and Paul Murry about the city borrowing funds from one area to fund another area. Councilman Vickery said when the community supports a tax or a fund for a type of activities, the Council has a responsibility to make sure these funds are spent on that purpose. Mayor Bennett said the city has a legal responsibility to do this; restricted funds can only be spent on the purpose for which they were approved. Fund balances are invested and the city can invest outside the city or within the city to save borrowing costs. 4. Amy Margerum, city manager, asked to add a request for funds to fix the radiant heat at the Ice Garden, Resolution #44, total of $31,000; a motion to approve the funding request for roundabout should also be added to the consent calendar. Ms. Margerum requested Council take off the Golf Course pro shop contract to a future agenda. Councilman Vickery moved to add Resolution #44; to approve the funding request for the roundabout, to add the Board appointments and to delete Resolution #40 from the consent agenda; seconded by Councilman Paulson. All in favor, motion carried. CONSENT CALENDAR Councilwoman Paulson moved to read Ordinance #21, Series of 1999; seconded by Councilwoman Richards. ORDINANCE #21 Series of 1999 2 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ASPEN, COLORADO, AMENDING SECTION 18.04.030(b)(6) OF THE ASPEN MUNICIPAL CODE PERTAINING TO CONSTRUCTION WORK HOURS Councilwoman Richards moved to adopt the consent calendar as amended; seconded by Councilman Paulson. The consent calendar is: · Resolution #39, 1999 – Wheeler Structural Analysis Contract · Appointment of Phil overeynder to MEAN Board of Directors and David Cox as Alternate · Resolution #41, 1999 – Mall Leases · Ordinance #21, 1999 – Code Amendment – Construction Work Hours · Board Appointments – HPC Heidi Friedland; Suzannah Reid: P & Z Roger Haneman alternate: Board of Adjustment – Rick Head; Bill Murphy, Deanna Olsen; CCLC – Eric Cohen; Wheeler – Nancy Greenway; Edward Sweeney · Minutes – April 26, May 11, 1999 · Resolution #44, 1999 – Contract T & E Marshall Ice Rink Radiant heat · Roundabout Funding Roll call vote; Councilmembers Paulson, yes; Markalunas, yes; Vickery, yes; Richards, yes; Bennett, yes. Motion carried. RESOLUTION #42, SERIES OF 1999 – Moore Annexation John Worcester, city attorney, told Council the original petition for this annexation requested 4 annexations in a series. Since the petition was filed, state legislature allows a municipality to annex an entire parcel as long as it could have been done in a series. Deputy City Clerk Jackie Lothian reported the publication and mailing to other districts is in order. The property is 1/6 contiguous, that the owners propose to be annexed and there are no other annexations pending. Mayor Bennett opened the public hearing. Shellie Harper, BOCC, told Council they have discussed with the school district the ability for the district to hold the employee housing units on the Moore property in the district’s name. Worcester said this annexation still needs to go through the ordinance procedure and the city can organize the timing with the county schedule. Julie Ann Woods, community 3 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 development director, told Council the school board has not yet submitted an application to the county. Councilwoman Richards said she does not have a problem with the Commissioners making the final decision but there should be a discussion with the housing board and Council about it. Mayor Bennett closed the public hearing. Councilwoman Richards moved to adopt Resolution #42, Series of 1999, Moore annexation; seconded by Councilman Paulson. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE #17, SERIES OF 1999 –Housing Guidelines Dave Tolen, housing director, said the housing board and housing office are trying to recommend the best public policy through these housing guidelines. Tolen said they have no desire to discourage private involvement in affordable housing. Tolen said the outstanding issues are whether the resident occupied program should become category 5 or whether there should be a category 5 and a separate RO program. Another issue is who is the RO program intended to serve and at what price should these units be set. Fourth issue is what price the affordable units in an AH project be set to get away from last minute negotiations. Tolen said one reason to create two different programs for category 5 and RO is if there is such a large diverse group of people who need housing provided by the community. There is not agreement on this issue. Tolen said another issue is whether a higher financial incentive is necessary for private developers to create RO housing. Tolen said there does not seem to be this financial incentive necessary to create private involvement. Tolen said there may be other incentives, such as reducing the level of uncertainty about the AH program and negotiating the class of units and price at the final hearing for an AH project. Tolen said the housing board and citizen task force has spent a lot of time on who should qualify for the RO units. The collaborative forum recommended that the RO program is for households whose income exceeds category 4 and are not able to purchase free market housing. The issue left is at what income level can one begin to afford free market housing. The forum suggested entry level to the free market is being able to purchase a home 4 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 costing $800,000. The housing office and board suggest that price be $600,000. Council requested this number be re-examined. A small group looked at 6 free market units and assessed the quality and adequacy of these units. This group felt there are units in the free market for $450,000 to $750,000 and could serve the needs of a family; however, the quality and location makes these units inadequate to serve the housing needs of a certain segment. Some of the reasons for the inadequacy are they are in short term complexes, do not have adequate light, or do not feel like a neighborhood. The housing board recommends that families who can purchase homes up to $600,000 should be included in the RO program; this recommendation is in disagreement with two citizen groups. Mayor Bennett opened the public hearing. Shellie Harper said the top sales price in the guidelines is $230,000 for a single-family house. Ms. Harper suggested the city have a mortgage broker tell what category assets and incomes equal in purchasing power. Ms. Harper said the city should look at raising the housing prices as someone can purchase a category 1 one-bedroom house for $30,000. Tolen noted the asset limitation for each category is quite high, which is to make sure the program does not discourage savings. Mayor Bennett noted the public subsidy for RO is allocation of land; there are no public monies in RO units. Ms. Harper said in an effort to keep housing affordable, the guidelines are eliminating a large section of residents. Ms. Harper told Council the BOCC passed a cap of $375,000 for RO and are finding it is not reasonable a year later. Councilwoman Richards noted that the asset limitation was set high with people who own small businesses in mind. Frank Peters, housing board, said growth is going to be more restricted and land resource is becoming scarcer, it is difficult to be more expansive with the housing program. At some point with these limited resources, one has to determine people who will be outside the program. Peters cautioned against combining assets and income before looking into this more; perhaps the assets should be raised rather than giving housing to someone who could purchase a $750,000 house. Heidi Friedland said it may be absurd to think that affordable housing may be in the $500,000 range but in a community where people are willing to 5 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 purchase 6 lots so no one will build near them, it is not so ridiculous. Councilman Vickery said the issue on the table is who in the community should affordable housing be serving. Mayor Bennett said another issue is purchasing power and where to divide the categories and the upper limit of asset and income. Mayor Bennett said he would like to focus on the upper limit. Councilman Vickery said the maximum selling price of an RO unit should be $475,000. Tolen said no matter what the price of an RO unit, Council needs to decide at what income is one not allowed to qualify for an RO unit. Carolyn Harvey, member of collaborative forum, said the RO program was designed to keep people who were leaving Aspen as they could not afford to live in town and the exodus is tearing apart the fabric of Aspen. Council should focus on the spirit of the program, not the numbers. Councilman Paulson moved to table the housing guidelines and have the housing board bring back all categories so Council can address this at once; seconded by Councilman Markalunas. Councilman Markalunas said Aspen has become such a great place, everyone wants to live here. Mayor Bennett said the issue is whether to cut off income for RO units at $600,000, as recommended by the housing board, or $750,000, which was recommended by Leadership Aspen collaborative forum. Councilman Vickery said he would prefer to support a motion approving a compromise on the housing guidelines that are an improvement to the guidelines but are not the final result. Councilman Vickery said the private development community has been in limbo for over two years about RO units. Councilman Vickery suggested a top sales price for RO of $450,000; that RO units be excluded when averaging unit categories to come out to category 3.5 but say that categories 1 through 4 should average at category 3. Councilman Vickery said the cash-in-lieu payments are increasing 40 percent. Councilwoman Richards agreed the guidelines should be passed at this meeting as there are many policies and numbers that are important to the city staff and to private applicants to be using as soon as possible. Councilwoman Richards said she would compromise on the buying power/sales cap issue but will not compromise on an average mix within a 6 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 project. Councilwoman Richards noted the AACP recommendation is not to do any upzoning unless the project will be 100 percent affordable housing. Councilwoman Richards said currently in an AH project, only 40 percent of the unit are required to be category units. Councilman Paulson said he does not have enough information to vote on a cap for RO housing. Councilman Paulson said he cannot vote for the whole guideline until he satisfied with each part of the guidelines. Mayor Bennett said it is Aspen’s success that make this conversational necessary. There are limited resources with an unlimited demand, no matter what the cost of the units. Mayor Bennett said the city can never create enough housing; there is not enough land in the upper valley to build housing. Mayor Bennett said the reality is Council has to draw the line on who can benefit from affordable housing; no matter where the lines is drawn, people will be excluded. Mayor Bennett said if the RO category is continued, he urged Council to pass the rest of the housing guidelines. Councilman Vickery moved to call the question. Motion DIES for lack of a second. Councilman Richards said she would be willing to compromise that the RO selling price be raised to $425,000, that the average mid-point between category 3 and 4 remain and that the RO units are averaged into that, and that the average buying power be $600,000. Councilmembers Paulson, Vickery and Markalunas in favor; Councilwoman Richards and Mayor Bennett opposed. Motion carried. This leaves the city with 1998 housing guidelines. Councilman Vickery moved to reconsider; seconded by Councilwoman Richards. Councilman Vickery said if these guidelines are not approved, it will be taking money out of housing funds. It is better to compromise and approve the guidelines for the community’s long term values. All in favor. Motion carried 7 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 Councilwoman Richards said in order to reach Council’s goal, the guidelines should be adopted as presented separate from the RO section. Councilman Vickery said he would not approve that. Councilwoman Richards moved to adopt the guidelines Ordinance #17, Series of 1999, excluding the RO section; seconded by Councilman Markalunas. Councilman Markalunas said he will support this motion; however he feels there are serious deficiencies in the guidelines. Councilman Markalunas said he wants to be able to provide as much housing as possible for the community. These guidelines are limiting to certain groups of people. Councilman Vickery said he will not support the motion as there are things in the guidelines that need to be approved; there are issues Council has not even discussed. Councilwoman Richards said the public hearing has not been closed because a motion to continue was placed in front of Council. City Attorney Worcester said the motion is out of order as the public hearing has not been closed. Sherry Sanzone, Pitkin County P & Z and Board of APEH, asked if the average for unit prices is still parts of the guidelines. Worcester said the average price of 3.5 is part of these guidelines. Ms. Sanzone reminded Council the Barbee affordable housing project is being done by a non-profit organization and there is no profit and they were not able to do category 1 or 2 units. Ms. Sanzone said she does not feel the private nor the public sector can afford to provide categories 1 and 2 units. This will have to be done by the housing office. Tim Semrau told Council the appraisal for the Snyder property was $3 million whether a person were to build 37 units or 1 unit. Semrau said the 3.5 average price will always result in an average revenue $170,000 per unit no matter what the mix is and it makes no difference what the mix is. Semrau said the appraisal is based on the assumption of getting 37 units on the Snyder property, which is not a reality. Tolen said the appraisers looked at projects recently approved in the same neighborhood and used that for their figures. 8 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 Semrau noted since 1995 there have been six RO units built in the city under the existing guidelines. The existing guidelines have no price cap, no unit mix requirement and only six have been built. Construction costs have gone up at least 30 percent in this time; land costs are going up 10 to 15 per cent per year. If only six RO units have been built and these guidelines propose to cut revenue by 40 percent, it is unlikely that any RO units will be built in the future. Semrau said there is support for private housing. The 1993 AACP called for RO housing program as an incentive for private developers. The 1998 AACP also encourages private development of affordable housing. Semrau said if the community wants private development, revenues cannot be cut by 40 percent. Tolen noted that the appraisal concluded that these proposed guidelines do not eliminate the economic incentive to affordable housing. Shellie Harper, BOCC, quoted from the appraisal, “to promote AH construction, the city and county must create the greatest possible monetary advantage between that and the single family construction”. Ms. Harper said she feels the appraisal is based on a high-risk proposal. Mayor Bennett closed the public hearing. Councilman Vickery noted that half of the city’s affordable housing stock is rental units. Councilman Vickery said there should be a housing ladder so that one can work up from the entry to the higher level. Councilman Vickery said the system is clogged with people hanging out at the lower category units rather than moving up when they could afford to. Councilman Vickery said government should be providing categories 1, 2 and 3 and the private sector providing category 4 and RO units. Councilman Vickery said the scarcity of housing is from the amount of funds available to build units. Councilman Vickery noted RO units built by the private sector do not cost the city any monies. Councilwoman Richards said in an affordable housing project, 30 percent of the units will be RO and can be priced at $425,000 and start appreciating from there. Without the midpoint average, there is no surety that the return from RO will go into the category units at all. Councilwoman Richards moved to adopt the RO guidelines with a $425,000 maximum selling price; the average buying power be at $600,000 and the entirety of an affordable housing project average midpoint between category 9 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 3 and 4 as part of approving the 1999 affordable housing guidelines; seconded by Councilman Markalunas. Mayor Bennett said he cannot remember any private AH projects that have category 1 or 2 units in them. Mayor Bennett said Council has forced these units in AH projects. Mayor Bennett said there is only a certain number of AH units that will be built in the upper Roaring Fork Valley, which is about 700 units. Every $500,000 unit built is one that is not supplied at $150,000. Council’s responsibility is to define how many units will be built, where the need is the greatest and to allocate the units accordingly. Councilman Paulson said he does not feel the RO cap is high enough to get units from the public sector and the average midpoint should be 2.5 rather than 3.5. Councilman Vickery said the income from RO units is what makes the average midpoint go down. Councilman Paulson said he wants to see 25 percent of every housing project be each category 1, 2, 3, and 4. Councilman Vickery pointed out the larger the subsidy, the lower number of units that can be built. Councilman Vickery said this program is limited by dollars. Councilman Markalunas said this program has problems; the threshold needs to be raised to have the private sector participate. Councilman Markalunas said he is not willing to scuttle how far this program has come. Roll call vote; Councilmembers Markalunas, yes; Paulson, no; Vickery, no; Richards, yes; Mayor Bennett, yes. Motion carried. Councilman Vickery said the private sector will walk away from affordable housing projects and there will be no units built. RESOLUTION #43, SERIES OF 1999 – DEPP Contract Phase II Ed Sadler, asset manager, said a scope of work is attached to the contract; the price is $107,000. Amy Margerum, city manager, noted this work is only for phase II Mill street, no other parts of the downtown. Ms. Margerum said this is only for engineering work; staff will come back to Council for actual construction contracts. Amy Martineau, business owner, said her primary concern is the timing, length of time of construction and disruption of business on Mill street. Ms. Martineau said if this construction takes place in September and October, 10 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 her business customers will have been denied access for 25 percent of 1999. Ms. Martineau suggested postponing this contract and expenses until all merchants in the area feel properly informed. Ms. Martineau said if it is a great idea, the merchants will be convinced of that. Ms. Martineau presented letters from Rob Snyder, Aspen Collection, and Christian Dior from business owners who are out of town and want to be heard. Ms. Martineau read a letter from Barry stating he is 100 percent again the project because of loss of parking within the downtown core; the sidewalks are not so crowded, loss of revenue in April and May, and the general disruption. Ms. Martineau said she has other questions, like parking for the Isis theatre. Ms. Martineau said she feels the DEPP project warrants further discussion and that this decision be postponed. Ronnie Marshall, Mill street business owner, said she has been in business since 1984 and the current construction on Mill street has affected her business greatly. Ms. Marshall said this project needs to be discussed more to see if there are other options. Paige Wheatly, Blue Salon owner, agreed with putting this project off. The information could have been proffered better. People deserve to be better informed. The manager of Zona said if there is construction this fall, businesses will have to downsize, to order less inventory, to not hire help. Making more of an off season than there is will affect employees. Julie Ann Woods, community development director, said DEPP was a multi- phase project looked at by a task force. Each time a phase was completed, the task force passed a resolution on their decision. This project started two or three years ago. There were meetings with P & Z, HPC, and there was a public open house at the Wheeler with drawings of the project. Ms. Margerum said the city did a tremendous amount of outreach on this project; however, the project did take 3 years. Once this became a construction project, the city did go door to door and did send out notices to the landlords. Ms. Margerum said apparently this did not reach a lot of people. The city used various ways to get information out to the public including mailing notices, newsletters, and newspaper stories. Ms. Margerum said if people have suggestions for better ways of getting information out, she would love to hear them. Mayor Bennett said there have been many public meetings on this project; many on television, all of them reported in newspaper. There was an entire 11 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 ACRA luncheon on the DEPP. This project started from a citizens group to expand the malls in downtown. A citizens’ task force was formed and met for 2.5 years. Mayor Bennett said in addition to mailing notices, flyers were handed out in downtown. A survey of downtown merchants was done to get an idea of what they wanted in a downtown beautification program. Mayor Bennett pointed out there is no net loss of parking in this plan; this is not a sidewalk widening project but a downtown beautification project; the consultant and citizens task force have said this is good for downtown business. Councilman Markalunas said he feels this project will give a more pleasant experience for visitors. Councilwoman Richards said the city receives lots of letters from visitors saying they will no return to Aspen because downtown is too congested, too full of cars, too many people circling blocks, the town smells like diesel. Councilwoman Richards said this plan is a chance to improve the downtown. Councilman Paulson said he favors going forward and would like to see if there are ways to mitigate problems for merchants on Mill street. Councilman Paulson said he feels this project will help business. Ms. Martineau suggested postponing this project until next spring when there is a greater off-season. Ms. Martineau noted that sales tax reports show September to be a very strong month. Councilwoman Richards moved to suspend the rules and extend the meeting to 9:40 p.m.; seconded by Councilman Markalunas. All in favor, motion carried. Ms. Margerum said Council can approve the final engineering contract tonight, which indicates a commitment to the project, but does not mean the construction will be in the fall. A meeting with the merchants can be held to go over schedules, drawing and the actual work. Sadler said he would need to know by July whether this will be postponed until next spring. Councilman Vickery said considering the merchants’ reactions, the city should take the million dollars and spend it around public buildings, public areas and parks. This could demonstrate the treatments proposed for downtown. Councilman Markalunas moved to approve Resolution #43, Series of 1999; seconded by Councilwoman Richards. All in favor, motion carried. 12 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 ORDINANCE #12, SERIES OF 1999 – Barbee Annexation Councilman Vickery moved to continue to June 28; seconded by Councilman Markalunas. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE #20, SERIES OF 1999 Design Review Guidelines Councilman Markalunas moved to read Ordinance #20, Series of 1999; seconded by Councilwoman Richards. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE #20 Series of 1999 AN ORDINANCE OF THE ASPEN CITY COUNCIL APPROVING AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER 26.58, RESIDENTIAL DESIGN STANDARDS OF THE MUNICIPAL CODE LAND USE… Councilman Vickery moved to adopt Ordinance #20, Series of 1999, on first reading; seconded by Councilman Markalunas. Mayor Bennett said he agreed with eliminating some of the materials allowed and would eliminate some more than do not fit into the simple building materials for this valley. Councilwoman Richards said she would like “no reflective materials” added under the roof materials. Councilwoman Richards said she does not feel that the window grouping should be linked to what is behind the windows, living room family room, whatever, and should say that primary window groupings must be on the front façade. Julie Ann Woods, community development, noted this requirement is currently in the land use code, and there have been no variance requests from this standard. Mayor Bennett said requiring what is behind the “primary grouping” of windows does not pass the reasonableness test. Roll Call vote; Councilmembers Paulson, yes; Vickery, yes; Markalunas, yes; Richards, yes; Mayor Bennett, yes. Motion carried. Councilwoman Richards moved to continue the meeting to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday May 25; seconded by Councilman Vickery. All in favor, council left the chambers at 9:40 13 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 Kathryn S. Koch, City Clerk 14 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council May 24, 1999 CITIZEN PARTICIPATION ................................ ................................ ....... 1 COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS ................................ ........................... 2 CONSENT CALENDAR ................................ ................................ ............. 2 ORDINANCE #21 ................................ ................................ .................... 2 ? Resolution #39, 1999 – Wheeler Structural Analysis Contract ............. 3 ? Appointment of Phil overeynder to MEAN Board of Directors and David Cox as Alternate ................................ ................................ ............. 3 ? Resolution #41, 1999 – Mall Leases ................................ .................... 3 ? Ordinance #21, 1999 – Code Amendment – Construction Work Hours . 3 ? Board Appointments – HPC Heidi Friedland; Suzannah Reid: P & Z Roger Haneman alternate: Board of Adjustment – Rick Head; Bill Murphy, Deanna Olsen; CCLC – Eric Cohen; Wheeler – Nancy Greenway; Edward Sweeney ................................ ................................ ..... 3 ? Minutes – April 26, May 11, 1999 ................................ ....................... 3 ? Resolution #44, 1999 – Contract T & E Marshall Ice Rink Radiant heat 3 ? Roundabout Funding ................................ ................................ ........... 3 RESOLUTION #42, SERIES OF 1999 – Moore Annexation ...................... 3 ORDINANCE #17, SERIES OF 1999 –Housing Guidelines ....................... 4 RESOLUTION #43, SERIES OF 1999 – DEPP Contract Phase II ............. 10 ORDINANCE #12, SERIES OF 1999 – Barbee Annexation ...................... 13 ORDINANCE #20, SERIES OF 1999 Design Review Guidelines .............. 13 15