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HomeMy WebLinkAboutminutes.council.20180212Regular Meeting Aspen City Council February 12, 2018 1 SCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCES .................................................................................................. 2 CITIZEN COMMENTS ............................................................................................................................... 2 COUNCIL COMMENTS ............................................................................................................................. 2 BOARD REPORTS ...................................................................................................................................... 3 MANAGER COMMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 3 CONSENT CALENDAR ............................................................................................................................. 4 Resolution #22, Series of 2018 – Approving an acceptance of Partnership Interest in Truscott Phase II LLLP ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Resolution #18 and #19, Series of 2018 – Development Inspection Services ...................................... 4 Board Appointments ............................................................................................................................. 4 Minutes – January 22, 2018 .................................................................................................................. 4 ORDINANCE #5, SERIES OF 2018 ............................................................................................................ 4 ORDINANCE #4, SERIES OF 2018 – Amending Section 23.32.150 of the City of Aspen Municipal Code Pertaining to Food Sales Tax Refunds ................................................................................................ 4 ORDINANCE #1, SERIES OF 2018 – 845 Meadows Road, Aspen Meadows Reception Building ........... 6 RESOLUTION #179, SERIES OF 2017 – Appeal of an Interpretation of the Land Use Code – regarding the removal of an Accessory Dwelling Unit at 910 E Cooper Avenue......................................................... 7 EXECUTIVE SESSION ............................................................................................................................... 7 Regular Meeting Aspen City Council February 12, 2018 2 At 5:00 p.m. Mayor Skadron called the regular meeting to order with Councilmembers Myrin, Frisch and Mullins present. SCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCES Award presentation for GHG reduction toolkit – Chris Menges and Ashley Perl told Council the award was given by the Colorado community symposium for excellence in local climate action. About a year ago staff started to rewrite the climate action plan and at the same time created the toolkit. It is a good resource for us and all cities our size around the country. CITIZEN COMMENTS 1. Dick Butera said he is worried that the way the mayor runs the city it can go off the rails. He accused Ann of attaching him personally at the last meeting and said it felt like she was attacking his reputation. He reviewed his comments from the last meeting and said each unit will cost 1 million dollars each. Staff sent an emailed a few days later with the number $937,000 each. It will cost much more. He told the council he will not be muzzled and that it hurt when he saw the video. Councilwoman Mullins replied that he has a lot of information, some is out of context. She apologized if her comments at the last meeting were hurtful. She volunteered to sit with him one on one and go through his points and concerns. Mr. Butera said he has never been asked to discuss this before. 2. Matt Brown said there is an executive session topic for a water discussion. He is working with a team to develop this site. The BOCC approval provides for two homes to be built. Currently an onsite well is set to serve one home but there is the capacity to serve two. They are willing to construct two smaller homes resulting in 25% less gross square feet built. From a financial standpoint it makes financial sense to build one large home. He feels that city and developer interests can be met with two homes. There is a requirement for immediate annexation into the city. It would undo all the work in pursuing the BOCC approvals. He is asking for a water service agreement similar to the Rubey and Little Cloud lots. He asked council to work with them. 3. Mandy Welgos said they have three kids under the age of four and would be really grateful to be able to build a small home compared to the surrounding homes and be able to live in Aspen. 4. Toni Kronberg asked council to put ordinance 4 to a vote. She reviewed why the city is wrong about the petition date. COUNCIL COMMENTS Councilwoman Mullins sent support and good wishes to all the Olympians from the city. She is attending the CML policy meeting on Friday where they will see what bills are in front of the legislature and how they are supported. She attended the Colorado communities for climate change conference last week. It was a very good first meeting in how local communities can direct the state. Councilman Myrin congratulated the two finalists for Wheeler restaurant space. He talked about the street and the slope on Durant at the end of Wagner park. Busses slid into each other the other day there. This may need to be moved up in priority to look at. Steve Barwick, city manager, said that is the worst side street in town. Mayor Skadron said he was on the highlands bus. Councilman Myrin said there should be a conversation about it. Councilman Frisch said the climate conference was great. Kudos to the city. He also attended the outdoor retailer show the week before dealing with the uphill economy. Councilman Frisch made some comments about APCHA and governance. The current structure made good sense at inception but there Regular Meeting Aspen City Council February 12, 2018 3 have been drastic changes that make this structure outdated. The community needs to make significant improvements to our housing program but the current governance structure inhibits progress on behalf of the community members. He is asking fellow council and staff to make a work session dedicated to this topic. He thanked Mike and the staff at APCHA and board members for helping produce a great community asset. Along with protecting the down town core, transportation, historic preservation the pillar of the community is the affordable housing program. The improvements to affordable housing was his main reason for getting involved in community service back in 2009. While he was aware it was a touchy subject, part of the reason we are 40 years plus without taking a big picture look. He was concerned about the governance structure and only more certain we are long overdue for a discussion. He has been working and studying this for more than a decade. This issue is about the current and future residents of the much needed affordable housing program and the current and future housing stock. He is confident the current structure would not be set up now. His view is if something would start from scratch would this be the way. He does not think the status quo is best for the community. This is not about removing citizens who are of retirement age or about using open space. Until the governance issues are addressed it is hard to focus on APCHA’s future. Any governance structure that is 95/5 financial disparity between two groups but more importantly skewed on imbalance of the focus of the two groups. Having a 50/50 decision making power is head scratching to me. This is not about checks and balances but making sure there is proper balance of control. He will remain open minded, sincere and thoughtful of all options. Just because he hopes council makes some decisions fairly soon it does not mean the possible changes need to take effect immediately either. Now is the time to act and he will not sit by and wait for six months to form a committee to study these issues. He said he would not support any changes that do not offer simpler, cleaner and stronger plan to protect Aspen’s affordable housing program and most importantly the community members who live in it. Councilman Myrin said he would support having a conversation about this. Councilwoman Mullins said she would also support a work session on this. It is one of the most important programs we have. Mayor Skadron read a letter that he received this week from Vice president Mike Pence supporting Aspen’s Olympic athletes. BOARD REPORTS Councilwoman Mullins said the Red Brick is moving along. The current showing will be up until March 8th. RUEDI water and power authority, Mark Fuller is retiring and they are now looking for a new director. POD – HHS – main discussion now is making sure the grants are most effective and the upcoming ballot issue for healthy community fund. Mayor Skadron attended the RFTA meeting last week. They adopted mandated changes to drug and alcohol policies for drivers. The big issue me and Jim have been working on is ensuring we have proper language in the access control plan. This is what is used to preserve the bike trail. There were some desires from down valley communities to have more flexibility in the trail. We have a plan to preserve the corridor for years to come. He also attended the CAST meeting in Mountain Village last week. There is a focus on transportation this year MANAGER COMMENTS Sara Ott, assistant city manager, assured council we are down to two RFP respondents for the Wheeler restaurant space. We did not put a confidentially clause in the RFP. She asked council to contact her with questions about the process. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council February 12, 2018 4 Jim True, city attorney, commented on the executive session. Mr. Brown asked me if it was appropriate to make his comments. Ms. Welgos submitted a letter. We will discuss them later. Regarding Ms. Kronberg there are significant issues remaining in both cases. She quoted the judge correctly but misrepresented the basis of his decisions. Councilman Myrin said Sara’s comments felt like a scolding to council. He said council should be included on communication if they don’t want them to find out other ways. It’s a problem if we read something in the paper or on social media before we hear from staff. Mr. Barwick said we will have a discussion on how information is released to council. CONSENT CALENDAR Councilman Frisch gave a hats off to the board appointments. Mayor Skadron thanked Richard for returning to the Wheeler, Rick for returning to housing and thanks to John for stepping up as well as to Bill for returning to LLA and Erik for graduating from citizens academy and joining open space. • Resolution #22, Series of 2018 – Approving an acceptance of Partnership Interest in Truscott Phase II LLLP • Resolution #18 and #19, Series of 2018 – Development Inspection Services • Board Appointments • Minutes – January 22, 2018 Councilman Frisch moved to adopt the Consent Calendar; seconded by Councilwoman Mullins. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE #5, SERIES OF 2018 – Annual updates to Affordable Housing Fee-In-Lieu Jessica Garrow, community development, told the council this ordinance will update the cash in lieu amount. It is a 7% increase to tie to the construction cost index. The land use code allows this type of increase by Council. The public hearing is scheduled for February 26th. Councilman Frisch said there was a comment that a council at some point took over this responsibility and an implication that we weren’t talking about it as often as we should be. It sounds like there are a few ways we could go. Ms. Garrow said going forward there will be another discussion on how to approach cash in lieu. We can get this done and if Council is interested in more periodic increases that it not get buried in the land use code. Councilman Frisch move to read Ordinance #5, Series of 2018; seconded by Councilwoman Mullins. All in favor, motion carried. ORDINANCE NO. 5 (SERIES OF 2018) AN ORDINANCE OF THE ASPEN CITY COUNCIL AMENDING CITY OF ASPEN LAND USE CODE SECTION 26.470.050 – CALCULATIONS TO ADOPT A REVISED AFFORDABLE HOUSING MITIGATION FEE-IN-LIEU RATE SCHEDULE. Councilman Frisch moved to adopt Ordinance #5, Series of 2018 on first reading; seconded by Councilwoman Mullins. Roll call vote. Councilmembers Frisch, yes; Myrin, yes; Mullins, yes; Mayor Skadron, yes. Motion carried. ORDINANCE #4, SERIES OF 2018 – Amending Section 23.32.150 of the City of Aspen Municipal Code Pertaining to Food Sales Tax Refunds Don Taylor, finance, stated the proposal is to amend the sales tax code to increase the refund that’s given to residents of the city who are registered to vote. The increase will be from $50 to $55 per person. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council February 12, 2018 5 There is an additional increase from $100 to $110 for seniors. This is related to when a new sales tax was passed there was community discussion about the additional tax being applied to food. The notion of a refund was put into place. The refund amount has been adjusted a number of times over the years. The calculation was intended to communicate that the $50 refund calculated to a $200 per person per month purchase of food. He did not mean to imply that people spent $200 a month on food. That is what the tax calculated to. Right now, the refund costs about $170,000. The estimate total sales tax from food is 800,000 to 900,000 dollars per year. The balance comes from visitors and those not eligible for the refund. Councilman Myrin asked what was the last year this was increased. Mr. Taylor replied 1998. Councilman Myrin asked if no council has attempted to do it since then. Mr. Taylor said to his knowledge there has not been a request to increase this. Councilman Frisch said there are a lot of funds that come in from non locals. He remains supportive of trying to do the refund. The question becomes what are we trying to do. He will support this short term but there is longer term thinking including the original intent of zeroing out the entire burden on what the average person spends on food. The other way is to take the original intent and adjust it by inflation. If you do that it is three to four times the amount it is now. The third option is the feel good one and take a stab at it. His preference is to get back to number one. He is supportive of this with a further discussion and appreciates the work on this. Mayor Skadron said he understands the intent here. The refund is paid out of the general fund. These are dollars that fund recreation, arts, HHS and all the amenities we like. These keep Aspen exceptional and we should focus on those. It makes more sense to give a tax credit to low income families and individuals. Mr. Taylor stated the refund doesn’t come out of general fund. It comes out of what we do for day care, parks and rec and housing. The general fund sales tax is a share of Pitco sales tax. Mayor Skadron said his preference was to leave this as is but I’m in the minority. Mayor Skadron opened the public comment. 1. Bob Morris said he has tried to listen to all the opinions I’ve heard. As a senior I get the biggest check. The approaches I’ve heard are all band aid approaches. The food tax is a terrible idea and hurts the lowest levels of society most. It is a bad tax being spent on good things. Jim True, city attorney, said to get rid of the refund of $21 enacted in 1972 you would have to have a vote. The ordinance said you can amend the provisions and we have interpreted that to mean you can increase the amount. Mayor Skadron closed the public comment. Councilwoman Mullins said she is buying in to Don’s argument that it is appropriate for the amount of food purchased per person. We need to institute an annual adjustment based on some agreed upon index. In terms of tweaking the program so the refunds go to lower incomes it is already a cumbersome program. Instead of spending more time maybe it is making a donation to various non-profits (lift up or food bank of Rockies) may be more appropriate. It is an interesting idea to consider just dropping the program. Councilman Myrin said he will support this but wanted it to be adjusted for infl ation for the last 20 years. Five dollars does not do it but is better than nothing. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council February 12, 2018 6 Councilwoman Mullins moved to adopt Ordinance #4, Series of 2018; seconded by Councilman Frisch. Roll call vote. Councilmembers Mullins, yes; Frisch, yes; Myrin, yes; Mayor Skadron, no. Motion carried. ORDINANCE #1, SERIES OF 2018 – 845 Meadows Road, Aspen Meadows Reception Building Amy Simon, community development, said this is an amendment to ordinance #17, 2016. The growth management is a standard formula applied to the amount of new square footage and the employees generated. In this project the Institute is considered an essential public facility. There is a case by case discussion asking them to document how many people they employ. In 2015 they gave us their calculations and there was a decision by council to defer the mitigation until three years after the restaurant is open. They would like council to consider rather than using the number from 2015 to use the one from last August. It is a difference of 1.2 employees. Staff and housing are supporting the amendment finding it is an issue of fairness. Jim Curtis and Judd Hall representing the Institute Mr. Curtis stated Judd has been the general manager for 8 years. Mr. Hall said there are 98 hotel rooms and only 100 seats in the dining room to accommodate over 200 guests a day. The expansion is simply the right size to provide accommodations for guest needs. There is a full time year round staff with hospitality students in the summer time. There is an on call staff for a part time basis. We are here to update the FTE numbers given over 18 months have passed since the application was originally submitted. Why was there an increase. The third level of staffing for the on call as needed people will always fluctuate based on the events. That is why there is a difference between 2015 and 2016. It is not an increase in the permeant year round staff. Mayor Skadron opened the public comment. There was none. Mayor Skadron closed the public comment. Mr. Curtis said the institute is very much aware of the issue we are talking about. When they bring in interns they provide housing for them. Councilman Myrin said he can’t support this because anything to cut back on affordable housing is hard to support with the need. The solution is not a reduction in affordable housing and mitigations. Councilwoman Mullins said she will support this. She wants to make sure all our decisions are defendable. The code is asking what kind of increase is seen with the renovation. With the three year audit it is most accurate going back to how many employees were there at the start of the construction. She is afraid if we keep it at building permit level it could be argued it was not an accurate audit. Ms. Garrow stated that is why we are recommending in favor of this. Typically we don’t recommend in favor of mitigation reductions. We see it as a fairness issue. Councilman Frisch said we are trying to get as close to the reality as what it is. Ms. Simon said the number being proposed is based on a year’s worth of employee’s hours worked. Ms. Garrow stated while we have not seen a specific request in the past to adjust this we think it is fair and based off of real data. Mr. Curtis said the only thing we are trying to achieve may be a bit of a catch 22 in the process. We submitted the application in December 2015. We submitted the 2015 numbers at HPC in May of 2016. We had no 2016 numbers at that time. We received the building permit the first part of 2016 and started construction in August of 2017. The only thing we are trying to do is give you the best numbers we had prior to starting construction. Regular Meeting Aspen City Council February 12, 2018 7 Mayor Skadron said generally he would agree with Bert but this is a unique case and a fairness issue. He does not believe it will be a precedent setting decision. Councilman Myrin moved to adopt Ordinance #1, Series of 2018; seconded by Councilman Frisch. Roll call vote. Councilmembers Myrin, no; Frisch, yes; Mullins, yes; Mayor Skadron, yes. Motion carried. RESOLUTION #179, SERIES OF 2017 – Appeal of an Interpretation of the Land Use Code – regarding the removal of an Accessory Dwelling Unit at 910 E Cooper Avenue Councilman Myrin moved to continue Resolution #179, Series of 2017 to February 26, 2018; seconded by Councilwoman Mullins. All in favor, motion carried. EXECUTIVE SESSION Mr. True stated staff is recommending Council go in to executive session pursuant to C.R.S. 26-4- 402(4)(a) the purchase, acquisition, lease, transfer, or sale of any real, personal, or other property interest. (e) Determining positions relative to matters that may be subject to negotiations, developing strategy for negotiations and instructing negotiators and (b) conferences with an attorney for the local public body for the purposes of receiving legal advice on specific legal questions related to 17CV20 Goldenberg and Goshorn v City of Aspen. At 6:50 p.m. councilwoman Mullins moved to go in to executive session; seconded by Councilman Frisch. All in favor, motion carried. At 7:53p.m. Councilwoman Mullins moved to come out of executive session; seconded by Councilman Frisch. All in favor, motion carried. Councilman Myrin moved to adjourn; seconded by Councilwoman Mullins. All in favor, motion carried. Linda Manning City Clerk