Town Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and uh welcome to Basalt Town Council's uh Tuesday, February 24th meeting. Um this is our work session. We're going to start um our regular meeting will actually start at 6, but we're going to have a work session on uh parcel 2e community outreach and basically all the findings and results of those efforts. So, um, Michelle, you have this and, uh, I'll let you take it from there.

Yeah, I'll just do a quick introduction here. Um, we have our our team here from Design Workshop and Charles Kof Architects, Allison and Ashley. And today we really are just doing we're not asking for um, a yes or no or anything. We're just giving an update and a a report out on the community outreach. Um and then what will happen after this meeting is we'll have follow-up meetings on um specifically um construction costs and density discussions and information and then a separate work session again just on the um community space um to talk about business plans and build out and all of those things. So um this is just a report out on what we've been doing for the last year and a half almost two years. So I'll hand it over. Um, do you mind if I just make one edit? I want to note that in the packet there was a letter um that regarding 2E that went in the correspondence at the back of the packet. Um, so that should have been included in this. It is in all of the um printed packets but not on the online version right now. So just wanted

I think it is I saw the I saw it. Oh, did it get moved? Okay. I just wanted to double check. Okay. Sorry. Go ahead. Making sure our sharing here is working.

Perfect. All right. Hi, I'm Ashley Satderfield with Charles Kenns and um Michelle gave a great intro to the project. Um we're just here to give you an update today. So, we will walk you through a summary of the timeline of the project, um the direction that we received at the last work session and then um walk through the steps that the design team took to respond to that uh direction and uh then talk about next steps. So, I'll hand it off to Alison.

Hi. Um I'm Allison. I'm with Design Workshop. um been enjoying working with this team and I'm excited to share a little bit on some of the public process uh that helped to inform this project moving forward. Um so um starting off with just why are we here? Why why does this project matter to the Basalt community? And it's probably no surprise that there's a significant need for housing um throughout the Roin Fork Valley. Um recently, um the regional housing needs assessment was presented to all of you, I think just a few weeks ago on January 27th. Um and that was included as an exhibit in this packet. Um we also know that there's gaps in the regional housing which was um reported in that housing needs assessment completed in July 2024. So, this is a a challenge in our communities that's been ongoing for quite some time. And there's a significant amount amount of units, 4,000 units needed um valleywide um to help address some of our our community challenges around traffic on Highway 82 um and just some of those things that we see in our day-to-day lives. Um in addition, we um there's a significant need for youth space. Um, we've heard this through many of our focus groups that it's important to provide youth, especially kind of that middle school age, a place to hang out that's safe and productive, um, and helping them to become good members of society. Um, in addition, there's kind of this idea around community space. And I'm going to share a little bit more about our exploration of this in future slides, but really place for the Basalt community to come together to to foster that connection and really celebrate what it is that you love about living in Basult because it's really your neighbors and your people and those places where you gather. Oops.

Back. All good. Yeah.

Um so this slide here shows a little bit of this entitlements process and you can see we are just at the very beginning um at the end of concept and programming and we have a long way to go until we would get towards anything that would be considered a final plan. Um that includes the whole sketch plan process um and um design revisions that'll come along with that preliminary and final. So you're going to have the opportunity to see this plan many more times and really watch it evolve through comments from the community as well as comments from staff and comments from all of you to help this project really be right sized for the basalt community. Um, so this project actually started quite some time ago back in early 2004 with um the more housing now grant that was awarded um from the state of Colorado which allowed the town to issue an RFP for design and entitlement services. And so design workshop and CCA teamed up um responding to that RFP and were selected um as the consultants for this project. Um, and then you know, we got to work and it was uh we had a kickoff with staff and I'm going to share a little bit more about some of the engagement that we did in 2004 on the next slide. So, we actually had a lot of fun in 2004. So, throughout the fall, um, we had several different focus group conversations. We had one-on-one interviews with a number of different um people who had kind of a diverse perspectives that we wanted to learn and understand from. Um we had a couple different meet and greets at the Element Hotel with the neighbors to try and understand their concerns for the site um and what's important to them. We had a really fun event with the Bosalt leadership class where we played kind of this interactive game and allowed them to be a planner for the day um to learn what it is that they would like to see

on the site. And then we took that game out to the community and it was a cold and snowy evening, but still we got a lot of people um kind of interacting with us and and talking to the to us about um what this community space might look like. Um, we also had a couple surveys so that um, we had some additional ways to do outreach um, through the engage website um, and gather additional feedback on some of those concepts. And so we got some really good feedback. We had over 132 survey responses. Um, a lot of dots placed on our visual preference boards. We had um, 26 different completed game boards that we kind of used in the process and nine separate focus groups. So, we really tried to listen to a lot of people and a diversity of voices. And what came from that is that number one, not surprisingly, housing is really important. And the idea of maximizing affordable housing is just a really critical community investment, especially for the families that live and work in these communities. Um, and there's a direct implication with that to reducing commute times and and traffic on 82. Um, one of the questions that we asked in our engagement was kind of gauging from the community recreation space or community space. And um, there was definitely a lean towards this idea of a community space and flexibility was definitely one of the most desired elements of that community space. So something that can really be used at all times of day. Um, interestingly, the the high school students really wanted a basketball court. I think every high school student that we engaged with, that was like their number one thing. Um, and so that's why we listen to a lot of different people and hear from different things because the needs of a high schooler might be different than the needs of a senior uh resident um than the needs of, you know, a young, you know, 5-year-old who's looking for tumble time. So, we're really trying to understand that diversity of perspectives. Um, within all of this, there's really a focus on kind of youth and families, which I think is just part

of the Basalt community. this idea that this is a family oriented community and thinking about spaces that might allow for after school activities, learning, um flexible programming to accommodate tumble time in the morning, maybe game night in the in the evenings. Um really thinking about that flexibility and adaptability. Um we also heard a little bit there was a desire for outdoor amenities and food. Um the link everything from vending machines to commissary kitchens. And so we really listened to all of that and integrated it into some different con conceptual site plans. Um that work uh started early last year around this time where we are starting to explore site layout program massing how are we going to fit all of these needs on the site and then we shared those ideas with Bach we shared those ideas with you. We came back to the community with another neighborhood meeting to get their feedback on those ideas. Uh we had a site visit with all of you last summer if you recall kind of walking around the parcel and then came back to town council work session. And on the next slide,

oh sorry town and from that we heard um to keep the community space um in in in the overall planning concept, but to explore reducing the density um the current design at the time was 44 units um and to reduce the height of the Lewis Lane building. Um we heard that overall the height of the development is a concern and really um we wanted to do some additional outreach to kind of um make these changes and then bring it back to the community to understand you know how do you feel about this? Then it takes us to fall community engagement. Um once again we had um so we're like a year after our events from uh with our games and activities. We came back with these ideas to um neighborhood coffee chats. We hung out in Starbucks and people were allowed to kind of just drop in and share their thoughts and ideas with us in a really casual setting. We had 15 participants there. Um, we had a neighborhood openhouse to really target on the PE targeted to the neighbors around the um, the project site and that way we could really have some one-on-one conversations with them. And we had about 19 participants there. And then we opened it up more broadly to the community to understand kind of how they felt um about this as being part of um, you know, the future of Basalt. And we've got about 35 participants at that event. Um so overall about 69 attendees. Um we feel like we got some strong feedback. Um the visual preferencing exercises that we had really highlighted um afterchool youth programming once again reinforcing that idea of flexible space and then the idea of food. Food brings people together. So cooking classes were really top comments that we heard. Um we also heard a little bit about the site. So the desire to make sure that it stays native. um that lighting is considered and we're kind of thinking about kind of the art and cultural pieces and and

thinking about places for gathering when it comes to the site as well. All right. So now we will present the content that was created um for this round of community outreach. So we had three areas of focus that we uh studied and so the first one was the aerial view and the study of the development um within the context of town center and the surrounding neighborhood. So this was really kind of zooming out and seeing how uh the development on parcel 2e fits within the larger scale of the neighborhood. Then we looked at studying some key pedestrian views to really understand what the development looks like from that individual streetscape perspective. Um and then we provided uh reduced density study and scenarios um to present options to either reduce the amount of square footage and reduce the height of the building. So this aerial is part of um that uh large zoomed out scale that we looked at. So this is looking um northeast. And so the uh rendering also includes the future massing for the Takah Theater that they hope to build as a future phase um right across the street from parcel 2e. Uh this also incorporates some heights of the buildings in Willletstown Center um which many of them approach um 40 4550 ft in height as measured from the sidewalk scale. Um and then also want to uh kind of circle back on something we've talked about previously, the residential development that exists in Town Center. Um the average units per acre here is about 54 units per acre. And on parcel 2e, we're looking at um a reduced

density of about 30 units per acre um at that at our parcel here. Uh so this is the area looking in the opposite direction again to just give you some scale of how it fits in the overall feel um of the neighborhood. And then we kind of wanted to understand how the proposed buildings contribute to the streetscape. So this is kind of zooming in at the next step. The top image is a view from the third floor of the market street loft. So you can get a feel for um the height and scale of how it feels when it's framed um between the Lumen building and Taka future expansion to the right. And then the image on the lower portion of the screen is the view from the third floor of the Lumen residences. So zooming in a little bit more, you see one will uh place on the left and then the T future Takah expansion on the right. So the second portion of our uh design studies looked at the scale from the pedestrian height. Uh so this is standing on from the southeast corner of the parcel and there's the key plan in the upper right that kind of gives you the uh where you stand in the view we're looking at. And we understand that when a lot is vacant for decades uh it's difficult to finally see it developed even if that development was planned um in as part of the original vision. Um, so really wanted to kind of get a sense of sorry the scale of go back a little bit. Um, the seeing the site as it exists today and then adding that future Takaha expansion um

to get the feel of the height and scale of that in the distance. And then we move into the block massing for the town homes. Um we want to emphasize that this is block massing only. There's no fenestration, no materials. This is really just kind of um you know roof line and scale and then adding in the starting to ghost in the town homes and adding in the uh Willlets Lane building behind which from this particular view would not uh you wouldn't see the Willlets Lane building and then adding in the Lewis Lane building um behind that. So the majority of that uh building would be block also blocked by the town homes with the um in the upper right hand corner you see the partial fourth floor just above the roof line of the town's homes and then adding in the landscaping and site improvements um really to help screen and filter views and then you know trying part of this project is really enhancing that vegetated buffer um with the appropriate plantings and species. So now we're looking um at the southwest corner of the parcel um looking east. So this is the site as it exists today. Again we don't see Takah from this particular view. So adding in the town homes and again the Willlets Lane building and um the Lewis Lane building. So, you know, I think this view does a good job of understanding how the massings kind of stack behind each other um to create the development. And then again, um adding in the landscaping and site improvements, um to really help filter and screen here a lot that you know, there's a lot of um as you can kind of see on the right hand side of the image, the trees and the

screening works really well on a lot of um areas and willlets already. So thinking that we would add to that streetscape. Um this is standing along Lewis Lane looking west. So you see uh the one will place town homes on the right of the image. The site as it exists today and then adding into CA and the town homes again the Willlets Lane building and then the Lewis Lane building. So in all of these images, the Lewis Lane building is depicted with the partial fourth floor um still included in the height. Um so you can see how the the Lewis Lane building relates in um height and scale to the buildings across the street. And then again with the site improvements and the landscape improvements, we really see the streetscape as being a very inviting um place for pedestrians to gather and um yeah build community and have events. And then the last part of our study looked at different density scenarios. So this was the design presented last August um just to give us a baseline. So the number it's 44 units. Um all residential parking is uh parked on site and that includes the guest parking for the residential units. Um the community center is approximately 13,500 square feet. 35 parking spaces for the community center would be provided as street parking along Lewis Lane. Um and again this shows the partial fourth floor on the Lewis Lane building. Um and then the Willlets Lane building holds 11 units. There are 10 town homes and 23 units in the Lewis Lane building.

So looking at our reduced density scenario, um this takes off that partial fourth floor of the Lewis Lane building. And so we reduce the number of units by up to six units. So that's where we get 38 to 44 units. And so we can either to reduce the the amount of square footage, we can take it out of the units or we can take it out of the community center. And that uh square footage is approximately 5,900 square ft. Um and then the Willlets Lane building and the town homes uh remain the same in the second scenario. So really it's about that fourth floor, that partial fourth floor and removing that square feet um and where that what program comes out of that. So, we have a rendering view. Um, very conceptual, very sketchy, not meant to really depict um materials yet, but just kind of um a field of mass and scale. Um, so a lot of work to move forward here, but you know, this is showing the partial fourth floor um on the Lewis Lane building. And then we also provided an image of doing just three stories there. So, uh this concludes the content of everything that was shared um during this last round of outreach. So, now we'll get into uh what we heard.

Yeah. Great.

Thanks, Ashley. Um yeah, so kind of going back, we had those coffee talks, we had those open houses. actually shared a lot of what was shared at those meetings and what we really heard that there was kind of a mix of both positive and negative feedback but in general there was a lot of support for housing. Um we some of the concerns that we heard were around parking traffic and access. So making sure that um parking can be accommodated on the site um for the community uses um and that the street parking is regulated um and thinking about mitigation strategies um to make sure that it it's not creating a negative um uh parking impact for the neighborhood. Um overall scale height and intensity was was kind of top of the conversation. So some concerns around the height and density and just kind of overall intensity of the uses. Um and so that that exploration on the reduced massing really came out of that conversation with the partial fourth floor or the three floor option. Um and so that was something that we heard a lot of and wanted to make sure that we were exploring. Um, and so we heard some, you know, concerns on on height and density, but we also heard some people saying that it felt contextually appropriate to the Willlets um, neighborhood, which does have some of the the larger massing of buildings um, in the town center area. Um, that in general kind of the land use mix of housing versus community space. Um, I think there's generally support for the idea of the community spaces. Um, and there's definitely support for the idea of affordable housing and and having employees that can live and work in Basalt. Um, and then I think very positive response to the overall site design and kind of livability. I think people were excited about the streetscape. They were excited about the rehabilitation of the vegetated corridor

um, which currently has quite a bit of invasives. So bringing that back to a more riparian um natural context um and thinking about some of the little pocket seating, pocket gathering spaces on the site that can contribute to that sense of community. So just once again, affordable housing was really a need and should be a priority for the community. Um there was some comments that suggest maybe using the site entirely for housing um and thinking about putting the community space elsewhere. Um but then there was also kind of that same comment about the desire to see um a space for community and where that right location might be. Um once again had kind of height density and scale um that three four stories and then um open space circulation. I think this pretty much covers comments from the community. So, we did just want to kind of humanize like who might live here. Um, and so we we took a moment to be like, all right, who are the future residents of Soprus Tui? And so, we have Polly who's a preschooler. Um, she comes to morning education programs and learns about nature play. Um, she's got a little tumble time with her classmates in the gym space. Um, then we have Billy and Brian. um they like to go use the basketball court after school. They're middle schoolers and it gives them a really good place and and safe place to hang out um in their after school hours. We have Jen and Gemma who um use the gym space to practice choreography. Um and then we have Sonia and Sandra who are local residents and they could potentially live in the space and they hang out there to meet um meet with one another and play games. Um, and you know, so these these could be some of

your potential future neighbors. Um, I did want to add that um, Taka um, did approve the concept of running a youth empowerment space for Pi, Brian, and Billy. Um, and in the vacant town space near Mesoluna. Um and so that is something that the town is currently working to explore of of how can we think about kind of TKA as a real partner in this process. Um and explore some of those youth program needs. Um so recently um this could be Sonia and Sandra from our other other slide. Um but Eagle County's aging well presentation was made um Monday, February 9th, so just a few weeks ago. um to the Eagle County BOCC. Um and that is really important, I think, to kind of emphasize um the need for senior space um in the community um for that this project might be able to um help to support

and the potential for senior housing as part of the affordable housing component. um giving people a place to go when they're, you know, not willing or wanting to live in their homes anymore.

Yeah. Um there's also um a recent update from the recreation director um that he presented to council um which shows increasing participation, registration fees, and challenges with programming. And so, um, the idea of incorporating some sort of community space, um, might be able to fill some of the gaps that currently exist, especially around gym space, um, winter programming options beyond basketball. Since this is kind of an indoor space, it might allow for, um, more diversified programs as well as, um, the opportunity to have overflow space for for summer camps. Um, there's a need for space, especially indoor space. Um similarly, um there's kind of this renewed focus on adult populations. Um and this could really provide senior housing. It could provide spaces for seniors to meet and gather um and be an opportunity to bring that population together as well. And all in all, this has um it can really help to revenue generation and growth within the community. So, there's definitely positive impacts to the idea of a community space and this shows how um it could potentially increase increase revenue for the town of Basalt um through recreation use. Uh so, again, just want to emphasize that we're here to give you the update um since our last work session with you, kind of let you know where we're at and what we've done. Um we understand that two additional work sessions after this are being proposed. So the first work se work session will address the affordable housing and uh address the density cost per unit phasing and financing. And then in the second work session, it will

address the community space and include um the business plan and cost analysis um to help you know give more information about the feasibility of this project. And then once again um just want to talk about the project timeline and um you know we started in 2024 we continued in with public outreach and we continued in 2025 with um concept design and more public outreach and in 2026 um we're queued up for to be able to move into sketch plan and entitlements. So really emphasizing we're not trying to rush this or fasttrack this. Um we want to do the right thing here. So, um, thank you for allowing us to give you an update and we are happy to take questions and look forward to feedback.

Thank you both. Um, that was good good information. Um, I'll start off with questions for my fellow counselors or comments. Well, I'll I'll I'll make a couple here then. Um I think the next two work session topics make sense. Um as part of that, you know, I I've been um talking about this a lot. You know, what's the operating model for the community space? And then you got kind of back the truck up to what are we going to use the community space for? Um you I've been thinking about this. you know, different functions are going to require um different, I guess, levels of of an operating model as far as I guess the intensity and the the tempo of it, right? If you're letting somebody into a basketball court or there's a code for it, I mean, that's a lot different than having to run something like what you know, the cause is proposing for their um their proof of concept, for lack of a better way to put it over in the other condo. you know, there's going to be somebody there staffed, right? So, I think we have to get really clear about what we're going to do with that community space before we can really do the design. Um, you know, one thing that I would like to get out of the um um the process are the outputs from what to call is doing. You know, some of it they probably already have from other um doing doing the services or doing the programming they're doing in other places, but there's going to be new learnings. that are going to come out of that. And so I the timing, that's one thing with the timing that kind of makes me a little bit um gives me a little pause is that I want to see how we do and what else we learn and what else comes out of what they're doing and how that kind of grows organically so we can

um use some of that in what we're going to be um basically, you know, doing as a green field over in uh this new space. So, um, the other things I had, um, there was a me a memo that we did on zoning. I think you guys did it a while back. I'd like to when we get to the next work session on density, cost per unit, all that stuff. Let's go back to that. It's not so I mean, we've seen the letter and the packet, but like what is the position on what we're able to do? you know what um would uh if it's PUB amendments or whatever to in order to accommodate what we're going to do like I would like to make sure that we include that in the work session um just so we have a sense of kind of what we're we're talking about here um from our perspective and um the only other thing I had was this is a lot and 2026 is or here we're almost a quarter of the way through it I mean Maybe not might be a little bit of hyperbole there, but um you know, we're we're good ways into 2026. We've got other priorities. So, I want to make sure that we're looking at the prioritization from a staff uh perspective and from you know, what does this council want to be spending the time on during uh um 2026? Um we've got other things that we've got to be doing too. So, we need to make sure that we're um managing that from like kind of an air traffic control perspective and a prioritization perspective. So, that's those are all the com. I didn't really have questions. I thought it was a great clear preso, but um just wanted to get that out there. What else do you guys have?

Well, um the word intensity is being used a lot these days in other parts of the valley about the level of activity around different spaces and public spaces and theaters and concert venues and nightclubs and everything else. And I I think what I'm seeing happen more and more as new land use applications come in and and things redevelop. You know, there's an example up in Snow Mass that's going to happen, I guess. But the trend is to try to bring everything to everybody in these developments. And you know, sometimes you have to kind of sit back and go, do we need to have everything here? Can we have a place that's just got a little bit more um peace and quiet engaged with it or like you're bringing in the point of view of nature and the streetscape? And I think one of the things that uh as an example um is, you know, our river park, it's great, but there's an intensity level there that's being reached. And it was intended to be a passive park initially with with some boating and some other activities and much smaller. There was a children's area, play area over there. And now now we have a band shell. We have playgrounds. We have swing sets. And it's great. It's got a miniature golf course. But I think that once in a while you get to step back and go, okay, where where's the calming place? Where do you go to get some respit from your drive down Highway 82 and you know your job and maybe some other things that are going on in your life and and I also think the connection between children and seniors is really important too. Both don't need a lot of intensity. you know, children are just fine with the less intense environment sometimes

and seniors I know, speaking for myself, um, do enjoy, you know, a relaxing evenings and things like that, too. So, I I think we're looking at, that's what I'm looking at in this is, are we trying to fit everything into this thing, you know, or are we trying to say what is priority now and what is priority later? Um, so that I think maybe and maybe making it a little bit smaller would address some of that and not have programming 247, you know, that kind of thing. Thanks, Rick. What else?

I think it was a informative session. I appreciate it to update us on just on where we're at on this, you know, project. I think most of my questions or concerns or um will be better um suited for some of the following work sessions. So,

and I'll just add that on the some of the zoning questions. You know, we did receive a letter from the snow capers meadows one HOA's attorney. I did put a letter together to council that I didn't get out until this afternoon just with some thoughts on the issues raised there which I think would be um well suited to have some discussion in exact session and then get it you know that we can figure out the right timing of that but then have those discussions as to you know uses and density and so forth in in these continued work sessions you know as town council determines how it wants to proceed. Okay.

So, it sounds like it might be good to have that exact session to level set before we do the work sessions. Okay.

I would appreciate that because just in reading through the packet today and going back through the master plan, I just I don't see on 2e in the master plan where it says that it allows medium density housing. and I've only been on council for four years, but I've I've seen other proposals for 2e and my understanding was always that the housing component was intended to support whatever the public facility was on 2e. So, it made sense to me when there was a child care facility that needed six units for their teachers. And I think that's what people in So Meadows and in Willlets have expected. Um, so I would really appreciate if somebody could explain to me why we're putting medium density housing on a parcel that isn't zoned that way.

Yeah, I think we'll get into that discussion.

I I want to understand it. I just I haven't been able to understand it. And I think um you and I'm not the only one, right? There's a lot of people in the neighborhood who don't understand it and who have been, you know, very supportive of a community center. Um I think that's what we started out talking about 2e was we do want that community center and now we're so fortunate that Taka is going to give it, you know, a test run for us and we can learn so much from that. Um, so personally, I'm I'm comfortable with seeing where Chicago goes with the community center and how successful it is before we make more decisions about another community center. And thank you for all your hard work. You guys have done so much in your outreach and just a really great presentation. Yeah, I will add I think that um I do want to applaud y'all as well and and and staff for staying on it because I think a lot of times we we do get um we hear from community members that there hasn't been enough outreach. There hasn't been enough outreach and I feel like on this project we um are meeting the bar there. So, thank you to staff and to you guys for for stepping up on that cuz um I think that everyone that wants to be is well aware of of you know what's going on with this parcel and that's the intention.

I agree. Good point. Do you have anything? I think most of my questions will be answered later once we kind of have an exact session about this. Um, but yeah, just echo I think the democratic process here of doing community outreach. I see Taka and ECF and others in the room. That's a really positive sign in in my eyes, making sure those nonprofits are engaged and involved and I I love that we're getting feedback directly from kids. Um, so I appreciate that part. Thanks, Anna. Deer, did you have anything? I don't want to ignore you online. I do not at the moment.

All right. Well, thank you very much. Well, we're um scheduled to go to 5:45, but I'll take the four minutes unless anyone has anything else and uh we'll go ahead and uh take our council break before our regular meeting at 6. Thanks again for a great presentation, a lot of great information. Um you the renderings in particular, I was like, I'm a visual person, so I it was really helpful. So appreciate all your work on this uh project. Thank you. All right, we'll see you all at six. Thanks.

Good evening again and welcome back to our regular uh meeting uh regular town council meeting for the town of Bault. Today's Tuesday, February 24th. Um just a couple notes before uh I call the meeting to order. I wanted to remind everybody if you want to join the meeting online, go to basalt.net and go to the agendas and minutes tab. click on the February 24th uh meeting packet and you'll see instructions in there to join via Zoom for those who are maybe watching on grassroots or but want to interact later on in the meeting. And uh with that I will call the meeting to order and uh Pam will you please call the role? Happily. Let's see. Let's begin with deer Schindler.

Yeah, he's on mute. But okay, we'll maybe come back. Angela Anderson present. Rick Stevens here. Hannah Berman here. Angel Dupra Buchart here. Ryan Slack. He's probably going to join later. Uh David Knight here. We'll give deer another chance here. Peter, are you there? Peter, you're muted if you're trying to talk. Okay. Okay. So, he's off now. He's probably on his way in. Um, okay. So, we have the vast majority of the crew here.

Great. Thank you. Um, so next up we have our consent agenda item two. Quite a few items. I'll go through them. Item 2 A, which is the minutes from February 10th, 2026. 2B, the resolution number four, series of 2026. Resolution to the town council of Basalt Colorado granting approval for a community garden on the grace she open space parcel that's jointly owned by the town of Basalt in picking county for the 2026 growing season. 2C is resolution number seven, series of 2026 resolution of the town of Basalt, Colorado, authorizing the town manager to apply for a 2026 Colorado Department of Local Affairs Grant. 2D reappointment of green team members reappoint Charlie Eckert and Eileen Fagan to the green team for three years. Three to for three-year terms to end February 24th, 2029. And is Charlie here?

And I Okay. Well, thank you for your service and and coming in. And then we have reappointment of uh Basalt Public Arts Commission member reappoint Karen Andrade to BPAC for a three-year term to end February 24th, 2029. Thank you for coming in. This is going to be a pretty quick agenda item despite all the reading, but I so I appreciate you all coming in. And then last, we have item 2F, reappointment of a planning and zoning commission member. Reappoint Kyle Overcottter to PNZ for a three-year term to end February 24th, 2029th. I don't see Kyle. Um, so, um, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented, unless anybody wants to take any of these items off and discuss separately.

Mayor, I move that the town council approve the consent agenda items as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I.

Thank you very much. And uh thanks to Charlie, Eileen, and Karen for coming out tonight. And thank you for all your service for your boards. Um next up, we have our call to the public. And that's uh you can talk about anything, but you should if you have a want to talk about any of the topics where there's a public hearing later in the meeting, I would encourage you to wait and uh make your comments uh in conjunction with those agenda items so they can be on the record for those agenda items. Um otherwise, please limit your comments to three minutes and address your comments directly to me. identify yourself by name and address for making comments and there's a sign-in sheet in the back of the room as well. Um, and then comments should be courteous, civil, and constructive. And we will make no decision or take any action except to direct the town manager. And so with that, I will open it up for uh for public comments. And I got a trusty timer going here. I'm usually not timer guys, so bear with me. Um, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Uh, excuse me, Saul Abrams, uh, live on Sober Circle in Basalt. Um, I my comment is regarding the SAS 2e parcel. I know we just listened to a um, work session on that and I I just wanted to share some thoughts on how that's gone from from a neighbor perspective. Um, first of all, I I there's two points I'd like to make. one has to do with the process of of outreach and the other has to do with the legal aspect of of the project. Um the first was I I felt the process was flawed. Um, I know that that presentation talked a lot about community outreach, but having been in the construction development industry better part of 20 years, um, we often see those ideas brought in big picture and then multiple ideas brought back to the community and more of an iterative process. What we saw with this process was here's our idea, town, take it or leave it. um comment on it, but this is our one idea and I felt that was flawed. I felt that they the town could have brought multiple ideas, brought multiple iterations, brought multiple suggestions and taken feedback and and brought two or three different ideas from which to grow and develop from. So I felt that that was not a a really in inclusive way to elicit feedback from the community. it was here's our one idea and they kept trying to sell it and sell it and sell it and I I didn't feel that that was a good use of community time or consultant time. So that was very frustrating uh just seeing that singular idea continually kind of pushed through with only the option to grow and grow and grow. The other was I strongly encourage council, council attorney, mayor, uh,

town council to really thoroughly review the letter that so meadow presented from our attorney Lucas Peg. I think we've made a lot of really salient points and I'm concerned that the town is putting themselves in jeopardy by jamming through a dense housing in a public parcel and would strongly encourage all of you to thoroughly read that letter. It's probably around page 200 of the packet or 300 of the packet. Please thoroughly digest it. You've got counsel. he can give you any guidance and and filter on on what any of those things mean, but I strongly encourage you to review that because I'm not sure that your the town can build that level of dense affordable housing on that lot.

Thank you. Thanks all. Appreciate your comments and the feedback. And mayor Jason's hand up. Jason, uh you are online and you have your hand up to make public comment. So, we will promote and unmute you and go ahead and get started whenever you're ready. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you.

Okay, perfect. Yeah. Uh, good evening, uh, mayor, town council, and town management. My name is Jason Boston. I'm a candidate for Eagle County Sheriff in 2026 with a clear, practical vision to foster community focused partnerships, transparent and unified leadership and accountability. I have lived in Northport Valley where I started my law enforcement career within the Pass Police Department. I later served the Salt and Communities as a road deputy Eagle County Sheriff's Office and as a patrol officer with the Salt Police Department. Through this experience, I have an acute understanding of how isolated can feel and be disconnected from the rest of Eagle County and how this affects access to services. I've spent my career in public service, beginning as an infantry man with the US Army's first infantry division, serving on tactical peacekeeping missions in the balance, later serving as a deputy with the Eagle County Sheriff's Office, and now as a chief investigator for the district attorney's office, where I command team that leads major investigations, homicides, sexual assaults, use of force incidents, and complex economic crimes. I oversee personnel, budgeting and resource management, implementing best practices and policies that promote accountability, transparency, and inter agency collaboration. I develop training programs, evaluate staff performance, and foster a culture of professionalism and psychologically environments. My approach is grounded in collaboration, listening to our residents, working alongside our local partners, and leading with transparency and professionalism. I understand this community and what it needs from a sheriff's office to be better served. As sheriff, I'll modernize our organization, strengthen staffing, and rebuild trust inside and outside the sheriff's office. As your next sheriff, my vision for the county sheriff's office is clear, necessary, and practical. Centered on five main pillars: safety, building staffing,

community trust, constitutional, equitable policing, and thoughtful technology integration. My top three priorities are organizational structure, implementing modern day command structure with a unified focus on recruitment, retention, training, and career uh career development, building a healthy internal culture, rebuilding strong relationships with the community and our local law enforcement partners. I put these values into action, developing a sexual assault response protocol for the judicial district, partnering with our school district on Title N, and I contribute to a Department of Justice paper on our response to domestic violence and sexual assault. I've also kept close to our community by teaching in local schools about our US and Colorado institutions, instructing at the police academy, and serving as mountain safety, keeping our mountain ski area safe. Whether it's mentoring high school students, working with ski patrol, or teaching new recruits at the academy, my focus is on education, prevention, and partnership. As sheriff, I'll bring the same values forward: service, integrity, and teamwork. If you'd like to learn more about me and my vision for the sheriff's office, you can find additional information on my website, bostonforeaglecount sheriff.com, or through Facebook and Instagram at Boston for Eagle County Sheriff. I'm also hosting a meet and greet this Sunday, March 1st at Westbound uh between 3 and 5 if anybody would uh care to come have a conversation.

More about myself or my vision for the sheriff's office. Thanks, Jason. Appreciate your comments. Thank you. Anyone else uh would like to they like to make comments? Anyone else? All right, seeing no one coming up or raising their hands. Um, thank you for the comments, everyone, and we'll move on to mayor and council reports and comments. Item number four, what do you guys have?

Nothing.

All right, I had something, so let me pull it up. Um, I know. So, just an update from the raft meeting. Uh there is a uh a uh real grand trail corridor safety uh task force being formed. I just wanted to make you aware, you might have already heard Gloria, but everybody else um to address trail safety with the specific focus on ebike management. Um that's something that staff is currently working on to finalize the objectives and key results, the OKRs and uh the and work to ensure that the task force operates with clear metrics and all that. So that's getting uh started up and probably have more updates on that and I I would assume that will be tied in with some of the stuff that you're spearheading as well. So just wanted to give you all that update and with that we can move on to our manager's report item five.

All right. So a couple of staff announcements. Effective February 17th chief not has retired. Um we have opened up the chief position internally and um we'll have an announcement in the coming weeks um by the next council meeting. Um and then we also have another transition. Michelle um is uh moving on to Snow Mass Village. Um so she will be resigning effective March 20th. I'm currently evaluating the department before posting for this position. Um this evaluation includes interviews with staff, former managers, and comparing work plans and job descriptions. um to explore the department and I hope to have an announcement by the next meeting on the direction we will be going with that department. Um and then before the meeting today I was met with residents of Homestead um they had several proposals um that they've brought several times um to staff and to council um talking about parking permits and abolishing 72-hour rule. Um, so they will likely be coming in the next couple weeks uh during public comment. Um, and would you appreciate direction from the board to either pursue that or um, help prioritize that in our work plans.

Okay. Thanks for that update. Congratulations, Michelle. Thank you. It's bittersweet. It's always good advancing career and all that, but we hate to see you go, too. So, thank you. appreciate all your your um your accomplishments in here and what you've contributed. I'm we'll have more to say later, but I just wanted to say that. Um all right. Well, thank you for that, Gloria. Uh next up, we'll move into presentations. Uh first up is item 6A, energy codes and electrification discussion. And Michelle and Sarah, um you guys are up here. Sarah.

Oh, sorry. I was turning down the volume. We're we're running close to actually we're three minutes ahead. So you're sorry about that. Good. Take my time. Okay. Well, as you know, I'm Sarah with the planning department. Um, do you have uh the presentation? Yeah, wrong one. Sorry. Kim's online. Pardon? Kim. Kim's online. Yeah, I'll introduce her in a moment. So, this is a presentation regarding um the town's building codes and a discussion around electrification and response to council's direction for more information on this topic.

Very cool just a moment. I'll just introduce online. I do have uh Kim Burke. She is the director with the with Walking Mountains, the climate action collaborative and she will be uh providing a little bit more information today um regarding our regional pathway. And Mitch Miller, the chief building official, is also here to help answer any questions that you might have regarding codes or anything that I'm not able to answer. Is it This is it. No, this that's Yeah. Oh, I don't know why it's frozen there.

It's not Oh,

okay. We can start there. Sure. So, just to give you a little overview so we can kind of frame this. You know, we're talking about building codes. So, I'm going to just going to give you a super brief introduction to our layered approach that we take with the town of Basalt. So, the building code has three key components. Um, the first uh is the international building code or IBC and this lays the foundation and deals with things like life safety and components of a structure. Our second layer is the International Energy Conservation Code or the IECC. Um and this covers indoor air quality and factors that relate to the comfort of a space such as lighting and insulation. So these are two um kind of building blocks of our code. And sorry I should take you to the second one. And if you can go to the third slide um this is the third layer of the basalt building code is the sustainable building regulations. And these are known informally as SBRs. You've probably heard these many times. These regulations are basalt specific and exceed the underlying code requirements to maximize a building's efficiency and to support resiliency. Um, new developments and significant alterations are required to meet the SBS through either the performance or prescriptive pathways. Go to the next slide. Um, some of these I'm going to run through a little quicker and these this is a presentation that was given to the green team and I wanted to keep the slides in here to share them with you. Um, but I won't go into all the details these next couple of slides. This slide is intended to show the progression of the sustainable building regulations and significant changes throughout the years. It doesn't account for these minor amendments that were, you know, made to provide clarification, but really first established in 2029 and it takes us through today. Uh next slide please. So Basel has long been pursuing actions towards energy efficient development and net new construction. So this graphic lays out

significant steps as well as the future steps towards achieving the salt's climate action goals. And I'm happy to get more in detail of any of these if you are interested in hearing anything. I'm going to focus for a moment on the road maps which are the tools to aid in basalt's achieving its climb action goals. The basalt road mapap to net zero was adopted by council by resolution in 2022 and at that time there was you know it was kind of a standalone document. It was really um uh you know a nice tool in the toolbox that we would have to achieving our goals. But there was really no no way we would know at that time that Basalt would be invited to participate in a similar regional effort just two years later. So the road map has served as a guiding tool to basalt's climate action initiatives. It's further been bolstered by the regional net zero roadmap. I'm going to focus a little bit on the regional approach here. Uh the regional net zero roadmap provides local governments with a clear pathway to achieving net zero building requirements by 2030. The regional approach fosters ongoing collaboration, dialogue and trainings. It supports adoption of the same cycle of building energy codes which is important because it leads to greater regional consistency and it creates predictability for designers and builders. It prevents jurisdiction shopping. It leads to greater uh support and buyin. And after I finish my presentation, I'm going to hand this over to Kim Burke uh to provide more information on the regional purchase. This is pulled out of the regional road map. As you see, step A um which doesn't show up great in the screen unfortunately, but step A of the regional road map takes us through 2026. Uh it requires an electrop preferred code and this is in line with the salt's current code. Step B overlaps the 2026 year through 2029. And this requires all electric residential development with a

few with few exceptions. And these exceptions are aimed at enhancing resiliency as currently the code does not operate on its own or the town does not operate on its own micro grid. So this kind of prevents that um uh provides resiliency in the event of uh lines going down. And this is another section of the new construction uh road map relating to all electric residential development code again with few exceptions. So built into the regional roadmap, thank you for following along. I keep forgetting I'm not the one doing the turning. Thank you. Built into the regional roadmap is the new new model, low energy and carbon code. And so in July of this year, all Colorado municipalities will be required to adopt the state's new minimum energy code, which in part will require the adoption of either the 2024 or the 2027 IECC. The town is planning on and in track on to adopt uh on track to adopt the 2027 IECC. Generally, Bald is already ahead of this new minimum code and continues to be a leader in state for energy efficiency for new construction.

I had one question from a couple slides ago. What is what does supplemental heat encompass? I'm sorry, could you say that again? What does supplemental heat encompass as far as supplemental heat It's for the all electric exceptions for gas supplemental heat before. Oh, I'm sorry. I I You're good. Sorry. I I didn't frame that at all. So, no, that's okay. I was looking back and I was thinking I don't know. I don't remember reading on that. I am going to um

So, it says on here like emergency generators um and additional heating if the electricity goes out so that you have another source of heat. So Sarah mentioned that we don't have a micro grid here to have storage um of solar um electric energy and so sometimes in these um deficits of having that resiliency having the ability to have an emergency generator that's gas operated as an option. What's the AHJ? Yeah, we're not we're going to have to come back to those with um that like affordable housing jurisdiction or something. Uh it's essentially your building official. It's like the I can't think of the acronym right now, but it's Yeah.

who's in charge of interpreting. Yeah. And I think that's because every community is going to be different. You know, you have some communities that have large medical facilities and they probably really require on that extra resiliency piece um more than like a single family home may. Um there's going to be a lot of different um different needs for different communities. And I think that's why there's not like a brush, you know, sweeping brush stroke on this kind of thing. But I can let um Kim might be able to to respond a little bit more to that when I turn the presentation over to her. And I'd be curious though, the supplemental heat, is there like some kind of um you know, some some product line out there that we're not aware of where you can, you know, it's like it's enough to

to keep, you know, keep everybody safe, but it's not you don't want to heat your house on. I don't I have no idea um if that is something or if it's just simply referring to um what the like your generator would uh would do if it if it kicked in and and that's how I've been taking it but I can get more information on that for sure.

I just want to provide an overview of the building code adoption process. So generally this takes longer than I think anyone's really aware of and it's good to kind of frame any decision and really understanding how long something might take. So you know just going over quickly step one is you know drafting those proposed amendments to the building code including those local amendments to the IECC in line with practice and implementation in this region as well as to ensure that basalt stays above the code minimum standards. Um, we're going into gathering input and feedback, engaging in outreach to contractors as well as design professionals. Um, hosting education sessions and trainings. We've done a lot of lunch and learns and things like that. Uh, refining and updating the draft proposed amendments based on the feedback as appropriate. And then we amend the SBS as needed in relation to the IECC update to continue exceeding that adopted code minimums. We don't want to be duplicative with those those two uh portions of code.

And then it goes to public hearing. So there's council you know two council uh readings of the ordinances and then it goes through the adoption process. So the estimated time from beginning to adoption is approximately one year. So considering this you know um a couple of pathways adopting an all electric code now or continuing with the the regional approach uh with the goal of an all-electric code in 2027. said the town continues with this regional roadmap. Resources that are required for the code consultants, the education training sessions in that process are expected to be covered by funds received through the impact accelerator grant, which we'll know about in the very near future. Um, moving on, I'd like to just provide a look at the building permit data for a period beginning in 2022, which is was a um big lift for the sustainable building rags through 2025. And looking at this, we find that the majority of building permits are not for new development, but for alterations and remodels. We're talking roofs and fences and windows, you know, things of that nature. So, we really have a very small amount of building permits that are for new residential development. Um and so we took a look at the f fuel used by the new residential units comparing all electric versus dual which is gas and electric and also looked at uh the solar permits to get an understanding of the number of units that are benefiting from on-site renewables. So with this, we're seeing, you know, a very small number of permits that came in in 2022 for um this covers, you know, anything that's that's residential. Um and really electric is, you know, barely outweighing um the dual fuel at that point. Moving on to uh 2023, we saw a large number of units employing dual fuel. And this large discrepancy is

due primarily to a 13-unit multif family project. the data that's represented is by unit, not by individual permits. You know, breaking it out by individual units. So, it looks like a very uh large discrepancy that year because that was under one permit for 13 units. And worth noting is that the 2021 IEC was also adopted in late 2023. And that's after nearly all residential building permits were already distributed for that year. I think there was two single family dwellings um that came in after um the majority of all these permits. So a significant number of these units also received on-site solar including that multif family unit. So we're seeing that there is um you know that that renewable is built into the fuel for this this building. Uh moving on to 2024 and an overwhelming number of units received building permits that year. A lot of multif family came uh came through the building permit process and most of these were all electric and also contained on-site solar. So, we're seeing that it really um was impacted. We did have a solar requirement at the time that went away in 2024. And then this cont this trend continues into 2025. So, we're seeing really a large number of of uh electrified units and a smaller number of dual fuel units. So, um the code is really getting at what we've been trying to to to move people towards with new development. Is there a way to kind of dig into that trend a little more? Because basalt is so small, right? That one building, you know, made the red line go up and the green line go down and vice versa. We got a couple all electric multif family buildings and it looks like the scales have totally turned. Like

do you have more insight into how much of those are attributed to cost? like buildings making decisions that because we're incentivizing electric that's why um I just have a harder time seeing it as a trend line because like a building or two is going to totally flip the scales for what we're seeing in past years and going forward if a building were to come with dual fuel or not

I can't say that has that I have any insight into the cost um of of that and That's something that I could dig in with possibly Mitch a little bit more. Um, he's graciously provided a lot of access to to the building department data. So, I've been able to go golf through and get an understanding of like what came came in at what time, what IEC was in place, what were our requirements for, you know, solar, things like that. Um, cost is not something that I've been able to dig into. I think worth noting too is that there was a time there was a lot of federal subsidies for things that are really have weaned out or are in their way of going away. Um so there might have been a time when it was like easier to do things like solar. You know I think solar is really the thing I'm thinking about there. Um

can't really say more about the electrification piece at this time. Do you have anything you want to add? I I would say with the exception of that 2023 outlier, um what you're seeing here is these numbers are higher in the all electric um category even though the numbers of permits that are submitted is different every year. Um but that that ratio is higher is because the sustainable building regulations continue to be amended and are more um uh impactful and the rent fee also went up. And so it's more advantageous to go all electric than to pay the rent fee, if you will. Thank you. Thanks, Michelle. Great explanation.

Um, do you want to go to the next slide? Just want to point out that Bald's climate action goals are supported by many regional and state organizations as well as partners and supporting groups that are operating at the regional, state, and federal levels. These organizations serve as resources. They provide education and they continue to aid Basalt on its sustainability journey. It's really nice to know we're not operating, you know, in in kind of a silo. There's there's a lot of work going on at this level. Uh before I hand over to Kim, I just want to conclude with with this slide. Um we brought this to the Basalt green team as an overview in December and really dug into the presentation at the January green team meeting. Um so the board heard this pres presentation and provided some discussion as well as some feedback. Um it was expressed that there's finding value in continuing on its current course towards electrification at a regional level and net zero development with its regional partners which includes code updates in 2027. Uh, additionally, since the majority of Basalt's building permits focus on alterations, repairs, and expansions of existing building stock, the green team suggested that additional effort should be put into increasing energy efficiency and enhancements of Basalt's aging buildings. And to that, to get at that, um, Basalt's benchmarking program, it's currently voluntary. It is suggested that staff work with core to increase the visibility of this program and the benefits of participation and return with a phased plan for mandatory participation in the benchmarking program starting in 2027. Buildings that participate in the benchmarking program are eligible for grants and rebates for identifying uh energy work. So, um I'm going to leave it there and if you want to, um maybe let Kim have the floor here and just want to um again introduce Kim Burke with uh Walking Mountain Science Center and the director of the climate

action collaborative and she can provide uh more insight and discussion around the regional approach and the benefit of of uh maintaining that approach. Thanks Sarah. Thank you. Great. Can you all hear me? We can hear you. Thanks.

Great. Thanks so much, Sarah. Thank you, mayor and town council for having me. Um Sarah requested that I join just to provide a little bit more perspective on our regional approach to codes. So, just wanted to start off with a little bit of background in case you're not aware. Um our region has been working together on codes for several years. Um, in 2022 2023, we created an Eagle County cohort with support from the Colorado Energy Office, uh, with the goal of supporting Eagle County communities in adopting a consistent energy grid, including E ready, solar ready, electric ready, or preferred amendments. Um and this resulted in several communities adopting the same building code, renewing collaboration among building officials and workforce training, the creation of code enforcement and compliance resources. That was really one of our first foray into this regional approach. Sarah already talked about the regional net zero roadmap. Um, again, a lot of this was made possible through funding from the Colorado Energy Office and we were able to expand the cohort beyond Eagle County to include other towns and cities in Pickicket and Garfield counties. And as she already mentioned, we defined net zero new construction. We developed this step approach to construct buildings with net zero attributes. Um, and several jurisdictions including facult adopted the road map across the region. And then after the road map um was published, we've been working on yet another grant from the energy office to support energy code adoption and enforcement. So the climate action collaborative, walking mountains and core um we've all been working across the region to host a number of the code trainings um for the local workforce on the 2021 IEC including all the events and this

funding has also paid for net zero a net zero code cost analysis case studies exterior energy offset program training and resources such as a code and messaging toolkit to help with some of that education and outreach. And we have some exciting things in the work. It works. Again, as Sar mentioned, the town of Assold is part of the cohort together with the city of Aspen that applied for the state's impact accelerator grant. And if awarded, this grant will help pay for the next round of unified regional code updates and trainings aimed at achieving net zero instruction by 2030. We put a lot of time into this collaboration and we're really excited about the potential for this funding. And I think the important thing to point out is that through all of our collaborations, we learned that consistency and predictability were key elements across the region so that the workforce can prepare for and be familiar with the codes. Um, this really helps increase their knowledge and comfort and improve overall code compliance. We truly appreciate the advocacy and momentum from council members to move to an all-electric code and we encourage communities to move forward thoughtfully with regards to resources. Moving forward alone would require significant resources and time from town staff. Um several jobs ago I worked with the Colorado Energy Office and I actually overstock code training and technical assistance program and I know it can take a lot of resources and time. Um I think one year is a pretty opportunistic viewpoint. We had worked with some jurisdictions back then that took 18 months to two years um to adopt new codes. Um and also AHJ means authority having jurisdiction. So it kind of just encompasses counties and municipalities. Um so maintaining this current regional

approach will get communities to an electric code with just a few exceptions um in 2027 and 2028. And we will seek to leverage funding and resources across the communities to ensure that codes are aligned and the workforce is well prepared for these changes. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. Thanks, Kim. questions uh for Kim and Sarah or comments.

I have some questions. Um do we know uh I have to imagine there's some idea of what's coming down the pipeline in the 2027 IEC regulations and what changes or new requirements they are going to hold in forms of sustainable building regulations.

I can step in um in case anyone else wants to answer too. I don't think we know exactly. Um I think we'll have a better idea uh later this year. Um typically the codes have been anywhere between 8 to 10% more efficient with each new iteration every 3 years, but I can't say for sure and I would defer to an under expert on that or maybe the building official. Our building official is shaking his head no. So, um, yeah, it's they I don't think they have idea what's exactly.

Okay. Um, and then a couple times it it's either been in writing or it's been thrown out of net zero construction. And I kind of want to dive into that term a little bit more because I am pretty familiar with construction. There are a lot of bakedin emissions uh in the envelope, right? Let's not look at operational uh emissions. Um how do you achieve that with the level and amount of concrete and trucking and dirt moving and big cat machinery and all of those things that are baked into buildings?

That is a really good question. And when this region defined net zero, I don't believe we incorporated all the embodied carbon that goes into construction as well. We do we did come up with a regionally defined approach and that essentially says that net zero is powered by electricity, uses renewable energy from the grid or on-site generation, has the ability to store energy or shift energy use to reduce peak demand on the electric grid. achieves energy performance above the base international energy conservation code is well as it is designed to minimize embodied carbon and doesn't get rid of it totally and is ready.

Okay. So so then in my opinion to be clear when we are using that term we're talking about net zero operational emissions not embodied net zero in the envelope. Yeah. So currently there's there's kind of two descriptions of net zero. Net zero energy um creation or consumption and net zero emissions or carbon um emissions. So that's I guess my point is just saying net zero construction is pretty misleading.

It's kind of like a marketing ploy. I thought it was interesting of like it's been redefined so many times and now we're going to redefine it again. And I guess to the extent that you could speak to it, I'd be curious like this a new definition for a couple years, a lot of years, forever and ever. Like I I working in the sustainability space, like there's a new term every other year and then it means a similar thing or a completely different thing, but it's the same word. So, I think um yeah, figuring out where we're going to find consistency would be interesting to me and and making sure that it's reflective of whatever we're talking about. We did spend Oh, sorry.

Makes sense then. I mean, not not even think about those in the same bit, you know, like logistics, supply chain, you know, moving transportation. I mean like that is a different thing that to to uh reduce emissions on a different set of solutions than like how the house runs after it's put together. I mean it's just to in my mind it's a it's like what we should be focusing on is that um and I totally agree with the terminology. It's like kind of like that zero construction. It's like what that kind I'm not even sure there's a way to make concrete um you know like low emissions. I mean maybe somebody's coming up with that but I mean that's that yeah that's not a thing to my knowledge.

We we did spend significant time and I want to say two significant portions of two meetings uh were spent on defining net zero and really all the building officials in the room for the regional approach. you know, all the we had energy uh people in the energy sector and utilities and and planners and all sorts of stuff and really coming to a consensus was a really interesting um exercise, but I think it was very well thought out and I take your point, you know, what you're what you're saying. Um but I think that what we are moving forward with is the definition that that Kim did provide. Yeah. Okay. Um any other ones?

So I I mean look, I have a lot to say on this topic. a lot. Um, but I don't know if this particular meeting and this is is the place to say it. So, I'm going to look to maybe Gloria and you for guidance on that. If this is just meant to be kind of like the work session, right, an educational presentation. Um, and I should hold my comments on, you know, how I feel about an all-electric building code for when we're actually like kind of moving forward with that or

Well, I think it would be helpful, I mean, for count anybody on council to to kind of react and give their feedback to you guys on what they saw here, what what we've seen here as far as um, you know, what what those different stages of the regional roadmap mean, you know, and how that pertain pertains to what we're going to do from a policy perspective. And I think that's fair game.

So I mean in in the presentation what I saw um was that from 2022 to 25 we have 77% of people going all electric. You had 135 electric, 31 dual fuel. That's a pretty good number. That's with some from 22 and 23, you know, pretty lower level incentives to do it and then 24 forward higher incentives. As we've heard from Kim, in 2027 with the IECC just as the baseline, we can expect 8 to 10% more efficient expectations, right? Which will further incentivize people. I also think that if we want to, you know, dig in and do a little bit more work with our rent program to even further incentivize people, I am firmly in the camp of I believe in choice. I do not believe in government oversight and overstep. I believe that if we do if we want to incentivize people to make that choice, then that is one thing. But I do not believe in demanding it or dictating it. I think that people are moving that direction on their own. I applaud Holy Cross for the work that they're doing on the grid, but I think that people should have fuel choice and I think that people are choosing electric. So, we don't need to we don't need to make them uh do it. And I don't believe just personally that it is our place to do that. So, um you know, that speaks to again the presentation and saying that like we're already seeing a big trend. Um, and to me, you know, for the number of new construction permits that we have in our town boundaries, which is what this would affect, it seems to me that doing this would be just kind of giving ourselves a pat on the back and some unnecessary virtue signaling. And the downside is taking people's rights to fuel choice away. And

for me that doesn't that doesn't feel good. I appreciate the comments. That's fair game in this discussion. I think so.

Well, and again looking at net zero like emissions, um the IC, our own town building codes, they are already doing what they can to minimize the embodied carbon and the efficiency of the envelope. But when you look at the you know comments that you know 60% of our greenhouse emissions come from construction that is mostly coming from the envelope not the ongoing operational emissions. So that's why I believe that if somebody wants to pay the fees pay the rent fees not be incentivized because they want a gas burning fireplace or a gas burning cook stove in their homes I think they should be allowed to. If we really want to material change greenhouse emissions, we should focus our efforts on composting or things that are going to make a more a bigger difference for the size of town we are.

Thanks. Yeah,

I appreciate it. What other uh comments are out there? I think um you look at it from Basalt's point of view where they're not we're not spending hopefully 500 $5,000 a square foot to construct a single family home, but then you go 20 miles up the road and the REM fees are lunch money for most people and it's really uh and it's hard to um hard to have a level playing field when you see the amount of investment there is to increase amenities and to provide more stuff um bigger, better, faster, whatever you want to call it. And I think the culture is the key to the case. If we have a community that recognizes that, um they can do the best they can and still wants to preserve some freedom of choice that they should be allowed to do that. And if there's incentives enough, I look at my own home, if I have it, like the question I would have is if I put an ADU on it, is it going to be all electric or does it get grandfathered in because my home is dual fuel? And uh that's what we're trying to look at. And you know, one person at a time taking this on. I think that's what what you're seeing in the data is people are voluntarily doing it and they're getting incentives too, right? But every time we've initiated a change here, it's always been tougher to put the code language in place because it takes seven or eight years. But in the meantime, you're hoping you get a cultural shift too, right? That people when they come in with a design, they're going to be respectful of the attempts are being made to, you know, take it have less carbon footprint. But but we're not seeing that example in other parts of

our valley, you know. I mean, sure, build a 120 room lodge and have all electric, but have 120 SUVs delivering people to the system. And that's what I think you're trying you're talking about. And you know, we've we've basically eliminated any u material outlets, concrete plants, gravel pits, lumber yards, everything's imported. And I think that that that's another issue. Um maybe that's for the transportation committee to look at, but that's what our projects I see up there now are taking. They used to take 18 months, now take three years. Same house. And that's a pretty big footprint.

So with our focus on smaller homes, which is what the county's heading towards, keep him keeping them down to 9750 as opposed to 15,000, which that's like three homes or five homes, I don't know. But that those are the steps that I think to your point too that are going to make a difference if we have smaller homes um you know ADUs that can use the same fuels as is already being used on a site. Maybe that makes sense. And we still have two more years to figure it out, right? in terms of when you're finally going to adopt this code.

If we continue the regional road map, we do look into 2027, which Yeah. Yeah. 2728. So, we're heading there. Yep. Yeah. So, I think and since we're already in the lead, right? Salt's already ahead of the game. We're ahead of the game. Why don't we just keep that position and not wait and have the discussions now going forward and get a consensus when there's seven people up here and see what they feel like.

Let's not put the brakes on because nobody else has caught up to us yet. I do think it's good to have the if we have a a same kind of set of steps, you know, steps. Yeah.

But yeah, I think the more aggra it's it to me it's about the emissions, you know, if and I don't think you want the absolute to be the enemy of uh the good um either. But um but one way the other like the only way we're going to despite the uh endangerment finding being um um abandoned or whatever, you know, you know, we're uh we got to lower emissions. I mean, that's just whatever we call net zero and this that and the other. It's like we got to lower emissions every way possible without, you know, sacrificing health or safety, you know, in certain instances, right? But um yeah.

Yeah. Um Rick kind of mentioned like we're having and Anel mentioned this too like we're having this cultural shaft uh shift and I think we often have cultural shifts and I would say in this case that cultural shift is due to policy. It's due to policies that implemented rebates and incentives and updated building codes. Like I don't think it was quote unquote organic. Like I think it was pretty curated in terms of policy. So in my eyes, we can't rest on our laurels cuz that didn't happen organically. And future momentum towards lower carbon emissions in building stocks is also going to be policy that shifts how people build. Um, I also in in talking with other communities or being parts of different kind of climate nonprofits and regional groups, I love the I hate that I'm saying this, but I don't think that there's a consensus that we're a leader in building codes that was something that's surprised other people as I've presented that. Um, so we've got all the heart behind it. we've got the intention, but I think I don't want to overindex on thinking we're ahead of people when that might not be too much of the case. Like I think Rick, you said it well, like if we're ahead of the game, let's not put the brakes on. So regardless of where we are in the pack or where we view ourselves or other people view us, I'd say full speed ahead. Um, in terms of a regional approach, well, I'll start on IEC. The IEC is very detailed and complex and complicated. There's a reason it takes a

long time for communities to adopt it once it comes. And at an overview high level, I think just getting your fuel source is far more important than like how many panes your windows are, what exactly your water filtration system is. So in terms of our focus, I would far rather have the focus be on an all-electric building which has a very simple definition that has not changed and will not change. And that's also less cumbersome for the building community and figuring out like talk about choice like figuring out what you're allowed to have for windows or not allowed to have for windows. Like I'd rather have more choices on my windows, on my construction materials, on my you know things like that. um but have the fuel source be all electric. Um and in terms of talking about choice like I do believe it is the role of government that sometimes you do take away people's choices. Like one example is that it is the law that you have to wear a seat belt. Like when we realized that cars and car accidents were dangerous, you had to wear a seat belt. You got to wear a bike helmet or a ski helmet, things like that. Um, and so as we've realized since the 1970s that climate change is causing wildfires and flooding and poor winter conditions, like I hit a rock when it should have been covered in snow this year. Now my ACL is broken. Like we're finding that climate has all of these human impacts. And so I do think it is an appropriate role of government to be able to mandate things for public safety. Um, and in this case too, climate is also jacking up our home insurance costs through fire danger. Climate change has cost our

state $100 million in climate specific infrastructure damage like the mudslides in Glenwood Canyon that came after the wildfire from 2014 to 2025. Like this is an expensive problem for society and I think it's appropriate to address it. And so in terms of what we ought to tackle to David's point to do the most on carbon emissions or to gel talking about composting we should probably go after the biggest chunk of carbon emissions and they twothirds of carbon emissions in our region come from buildings. Composting is a pretty small percentage. Um it's nice. I like it. I do it. I'll keep doing it. I think others should too. but that's not our biggest leverage on this issue. Um, and so I do think it's appropriate to go after the building emissions. Um, and let's see, in terms of regional approach, I do think like it is great we are involved in these groups. It's great what Gina McCracken is doing and the grant that Clare McGlaughlin applied to for a regional approach for the city of Aspen. All of that is good stuff, but Basalt is not Aspen, right? If when Aspen was thinking about adopting an electric building code, the size of those buildings in the core of downtown would mandate new transformers and things like that that they said like physically wouldn't fit in the space and that were cost prohibitive. Like we don't have that. You can't build a 9750 square foot home in Basalt. So, I think while it's nice to take cues from the region, like we're not Aspen. We're not

these big gigantic mega homes in Pickin County or those big Aspen core buildings that are struggling with this. Like, because we're smaller, we should be able to be nimble like if we want to be that leader. Um, and so like as I as I look at this and the plan and I hear from green team members on what they would want, um, I talked to some that were like, "Yeah, no, I want an all electric building code." And I don't know that that was reflected in the notes here. Um, like I would say, "Let all the gritty details be figured out in the regional approach. if they want to do whatever on windows, we could consider that as a region. But I feel really strongly that we should be adopting an all electric building code. And I'm confused as to why that hasn't happened already. So we just created a road map, but we had a road map in 2022 after a public process, after we used taxpayer money for consultants, after we did public outreach, after we looked at a code. and we were supposed to have done this by now and we didn't do this by now. We were supposed to adopt it in 2025 and we haven't. So I guess I don't have confidence that a future road map would be executed on because of that. Um, and I'd really like to try and hold ourselves accountable to what we already committed to.

Thanks, Hannah. Sorry I'm late. Um,

can I just one quick thing? I just want it just goes back to the operational emissions versus the embodied emissions. I do think it's important again to just be clear and specific um and and accurate because that statistic about seven or 2/3 so 66% of emissions coming from construction I think is misleading because if you drill down into that 66% the percentage of it that is embodied in the envelope already is the overwhelming majority that is not what this would change so I think using That statistic to argue for a policy change that would change the operational emissions is not entirely fair because this policy would not change the embodied emissions in the structures.

Yeah. The only that's all I have to say about that. No, no, that's a good that's a good call out. The only thing that would impact it is the size of the home. The embodied emissions. A bigger home is going to have more embodied emissions of course which this code is this policy code would not be addressed. Yeah. And I think does the road map just I can't remember does the road map talk about sizes or is that just is that not been kind of tackled at the regional level?

Sizes um I can't speak to that off the cuff. I know that the Colorado new model low energy and carbon code really is getting at sizes. Um, and I had some notes on that. You know, the code is to aim aims to lower long-term utility bills for residents, cut 17 million metric tons of carbon pollution, and its impact may be felt more significantly in larger projects is is kind of the details on that. And that is going to be the new base code, right? And so anything that is adopted has to be that's the basic and has to be above that. Um and that's going to be all of Colorado's Colorado's code. Um so yeah, I think it's it's kind of targeting those larger projects. Um I can't speak to Kim if you have any information if the road map.

Well, I was just say the question is how are we limiting house size or it's more like are we looking at that on a regional basis? I I don't know regionally, but I mean the town code I think has a general limitation at 5,000 square feet. Yeah. So, which it's a big place, but that's good, you know, in the sense that um if you Yeah. If these big places really the house size be an all electric house would be as efficient as a 2,000 foot house, but it's the service demand

from the other amenities that are there, whether it's a pool or a equestrian center or some other thing that in a house that's vacant that still has people servicing it all day long. That's that's one of the things that is going on that I think is part of the conversation, too. And you know, these policies, you mentioned the 70s, you know, these policies are generational. They they change over time. You know, back in the day when I built my house, gas was the only thing you should use. And now you've seen a shift in people's thoughts and more solar coming on board. It just is a matter of time before it's everybody just does it, you know, whether they have a choice or not. Some people will still argue against all electric and some people choose carbon, you know, oil and gas and whatever. And um but it's it's that's why it takes so long, I think, sometimes because these things are generational. And I, you know, I count on uh that evolution to get us to where we need to go because there's no question to your point fire mitigation to the storms that are on the east coast right now that stuff once in a 100 years and you know all over the country and this summer is going to be an eye openener. That's a bigger incentive for most people than giving them an extra 10 grand towards their heated driveway or pay you know or non-heated driveway whatever you want to say. Back to the embodied carbon bit just for a moment. Like you're right, like cement is like 8% of global emissions. That's terrible and we should figure out a better system. But we don't have jurisdiction over global cement supply. What we do have jurisdiction over is like the

operational energy carbon emissions that are going to come from a building. Which is why I do think it's okay to be like, yes, should people work on embodied emissions? Yes. But it might just have to be a bigger bigger scale and scope than than we have jurisdiction over. Um, and like EVs are similar, right? About half of a car's lifetime emissions come from the production of that car. But we don't have car manufacturing, but through our code, we incentivize adoption of EVs through charging, through EV ready stuff, things like that. Um, so I see a parallel between what we have power over for EVs is what we have power over for for buildings in terms of embodied admissions in a product. And I know Ryan, you guys probably have something to say, but I, you know, I think just to make sure looking at the time and kind of the intent of the presentation was to answer the question about, you know, what, you know, what what are we doing with the code? What is the process for changing the code? What are we doing as you know, all the things that came out of that initial discussion? And I and I would encourage us to have a future discussion about um about this because it is a kind of a right versus right in the sense of rights bumping into other rights and how do we handle that from a policy perspective. Um but you know I just I just wanted to kind of level set kind of where we are in the meeting and this discussion but also give Ryan a chance.

It's all good comment.

Uh just two quick things. One, I'd ask Jeff what exposure an all electric building code would have us to say some of the other towns that have done it and some have had lawsuits happened and some haven't. And then I'd also like to ask our building department um Mitch Miller just what his thoughts are on it since he's seen all this stuff firsthand and I I have a lot of experience installing these heat pumps at houses that I manage and you know I think there's an interesting thing that will eventually come out on these of they are more efficient technically, but the delta they are creating as they create heat or cool is actually using somewhat more energy that I'm seeing physically on some of my clients houses because of the way it runs and it has to run longer and yes technically it's more efficient but in some ways it's consuming more energy. Granted, I know we have Holy Cross and uh the striving for their all their green emy and it's awesome, but there is this realworld thing that I don't think unless you see it hands-on and and I know you guys see it at Sko, but you had buildings that you guys didn't put triple pane windows in because of the cost. And so, what is the what is the end cost and the end gain of turning something all electric? And I think also the the cost for the consumer, you know, for me, I have a ton of solar panels on my house and I have batteries and it's awesome, but I actually get the majority of the heat for my house from a gas fireplace. And I know that's not the best thing, but costwise it's way cheaper. And you know, I wonder the the the the excess cost you're putting on some consumers with that with that

in the long run. And then this is just for new buildings to clarify, right? Not correct. But it's a slippery slope. But with that, you have federal programs and subsidies that are expiring. They're suns setting that were offsetting the cost of those programs and no longer are. And that needs to be taken into account. Mitch,

I just want to start off. You are all asking the right questions. Okay. And maybe I can bring some clarification to what we have going right now. uh what we look for in the future um and how well we've been doing. You know, we've been doing very well as a small town. What we've accomplished is is far more than most people. Um we talk about net zero. You know, to me net zero is whatever the building uses for energy, it has renewables to take care of it. So you're not you're not taking anything and using it that isn't being replenished somewhere else uh somewhere else. You know, when you get into electricity and gas, it's a lot easier to renew electricity than it is gas. That's pretty simple. You can't renew the gas. Um, you know, Rick, you talked about uh services and how they affect Well, yeah, they uh normally most smaller houses are getting 200 amp services. That's pretty adequate for an all-electric house with some extra amenities with it. You get into larger houses, we have a whole different discussion. Um, I just can't express, you know, we talk about the PV solar that we had and we were putting on houses when they were brand new and we've done such a great job. We've been able to slow down on the residential side, but our commercial side is really, you know, that's one of our bigger assets that we're putting in towns right in town. We got 16 plexes, we got 12 plexes, we got a lot of housing going on. Well, they get solar

on them and so we are putting a lot of uh renewable energy on there to make it work. Um, you know, the direction you want to go as a council is I'll support 100%. You know, so I I won't have an opinion on whether it's gas or electric.

That's not my job. You know, we talk about cost and and the increase in costs for all this. Yes, there are increased cost, but we're also going through several different types of code changes with wildfires. Uh how we're doing our building envelopes, which is very important, by the way. You know, having a a good value window is is extremely important. Uh, and we've been, you know, I mean, since I can remember 2003 on these energy cords really coming into their own, how well we've been going. Now to consider we're going to get 10% better than we are now. It's it's a big jump to me because when we started, yeah, we could easily jump 10%, 15%, but we're getting closer and closer to having such great buildings,

airtight, um, and wonderful insulation, you know, supplemental heat. You mentioned something, Mr. Mayor, about supplemental heat. Uh, heat pumps, as Mr. Slack had said, they don't always handle the load to heat a house. That's that's a bottom line fact. Uh, we do supplement them with uh electric heaters sometimes. Um, but that might be another reason why you would have a gas heater to supplement a a time and place where it is it doesn't handle the load. We regulate the size of the heating and cooling units per the energy code and so sometimes they we can't allow them to be such a large size because they they create too much energy use. you know, it's all a bunch of moving parts and you know, you your questions are great. They can't they can be addressed, but you know, it's it I think it would be something to have a better discussion about, you know, and I'd be happy to, you know, let you bend my ear on stuff like this any time, but there is no real yes or no answer in some of this. It's more of, you know, what are we doing? How far are we going? And and tell you the truth, Balt has been a a real pioneer in some of this stuff. You know, we we have the down up valley people with Aspen and Picking County and they've always been way ahead of the curve. Well, we're there with them. you know, we we're showing a lot of promise and we're moving forward in the right direction. And I don't see us stopping or slowing down, but we we are getting people more cooperative in trying to do the right thing for their homes. You know, they they want to

do better energy tactics. They want to build better. They want to do the right thing. Sometimes they find themselves that they also want an alternative.

So with the road map, this is something that the that is been discussed and you know they're trying they're trying to do lofty goals and they're trying to make it happen. So you know not to uh it's a it's a good it's a good uh path to take and look forward to. But to get there, you have to be realistic on how fast you can get there and how fast you can do it and what is reasonable, which is what you are able to decide for this town.

Hopefully that helps some. No, that's it's great context and I think um you know what we what you've said and what we've seen with the roadmap and that's the direction that we are currently moving like if we don't do anything else right now like you know and we'll obviously have to make decisions about code and at those decision points within the road map. I think the question before we kind of close this agenda item out for tonight is do we want to have further discussion about pushing ahead on electrification um as like Hannah has described where it's you know we for type one construction no gas line or something along those lines we want to continue you know that discussion at another point of another work session um I would be game to have that I believe you would be a

big game, but I I want to make sure we have, you know, uh a majority of council wants to do that um before we um you know, burden staff with the time taken to to do that prep. I think it merits more conversation. Like Mitch, you even brought up something of like, oh, the code is preventing us from having bigger heat pumps. So, if we could have bigger heat pumps, does that address what Ryan said? Is that state code? Is that our code? like questions like that I I would love to discuss and learn more about.

I think the better educated we are, the better education we can do with the public and they can make a choice of what they want to do. You know, I'm I've learned more in the last 20 minutes than they have in the last 20 years. So, we we should keep that kind of activity alive and invite more people like Mitch and and users, Ryan, you know, that builders and get, you know, get some on the boots guys, you know, on boots on the ground guys and and look to see what are the some of the unintended consequences if people we approve ADUs in all zone districts, but it becomes prohibitive because they're already chose their fuel. And uh the other thing real quickly on the fire mitigation and the WOOI ordinance that's coming up, we were talking about that the other night and I guess those um building codes and things are that are tied to that WOOI regulation from the state are only going to apply to new construction. And I I'd like to look at a way that as people remodel that some of that stuff can be um implemented as well. you know, because it doesn't redevelopment is is the ongoing thing here. And

not to get too unattained, this will take 30 seconds, though, but it it does apply to remodels where you're doing an addition that's uh more than I think 500 square ft that that addition would apply. If you're replacing more than 25% of your siding or your roof, then it's the same thing. Yeah. So, it does apply in some to a certain extent to remodels. I agree. Yeah. So, I think I'm hearing at least three. Are you game to continue the discussion?

I'm always game to continue discussion. I think the more we discuss it, the more the public becomes aware that we're discussing it. And the same vein of like community outreach about anything else. Um, and the more opportunity they have to weigh in. Yeah. And to Ryan's point, um I know there was there's some pending litigation related to uh electric all electric code. Basically, you cannot have gas about it violating the National Energy Conservation Act or something like that. So, I can provide a

you know some information regarding that to help with your guys discussion as well. Yeah. again like the lowering emissions what we want to do to the the extent we can but we want to make sure we do it in a way that's like actually achievable um and we all agree upon in a way that the community wants yeah that we all are the same we're we're elected by the community to represent that voice so we want to hear but we ultimately have to make the calls um as you know is there anything else on this one for now

no I just think we got to very aware of unintended consequences. I don't remember if everyone was here when Chief Thompson was talking about it, but I had asked him straight up about net zero houses and we are building them so tight that they do not they will if they know it's a net zero house, especially with batteries, they will let it burn and they will protect the neighbors houses. They cannot enter these houses because the backdraft is so strong that it's a danger. And so, and I now worry about that, too, knowing that I have batteries in my house. I'm super grateful for it. I love my solar. I love my batteries. But it's a it's a it's a Oh, wow. That's that's an interesting fact that we we're making these choices and we're pushing this stuff that we we don't know down the line what the issue is that we are causing. So, just just that devil's advocate.

Thanks, Ryan. All right. Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks, Kim, for hanging on there. And thank you. Answering questions and presentation. Love them. And Dave and Angela, thanks for your patience. Next item is item 6B, update on draft IGA to administer Mid Valley Trails funds. And Michelle and Angela, you guys can go up to the table, both of you. I gave them the option to stay in the audience if they wanted to. But I'm happy to have you come up. You drove all the way here. Yeah. Bust. Yeah. Can you pull that part of the agenda? I'm like 17 minutes behind that.

I'm being I'm being really I'm trying real hard.

All right. So, um we've discussed this opportunity before. I'm going to give you a quick um review of um the mid mid valley trails funds. Um the committee was established in 2002 to advise on expenditures from the Eagle County Regional Transportation Authority and administer that transportation tax in the Roaring Fork Valley um for dedicated trails. And really that's trails connecting to um transit and interconnectivity to support microtransit and bike um transport as well as other microtransit options. In um you can keep going. We're on three now. I'm going to get us back on schedule. On 2011 um RAFTA was appointed to administer those funds. um the citizen board that had been looking over those funds has been awarding, you know, smaller grants. It's a citizen board. It's not a an organization. So, smaller grants for things like the Roaring Fork uh mountain bike association, Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers. Um but certainly citizen boards really are challenged with doing larger capital projects. So, um, the fund has acred a significant amount of money at this point in time, even after having administered grants over the years. We're at, um, plus $500,000 in that fund, and it can continue to acrue if you wanted to save it for a certain project. Um so on the next one so that's where we get here um where RAFTA is proposed um to enter into an IGA with the town of Basalt um to administer those funds um through the post committee. Um we would

have the post the existing Mid Valley Trails committee members which there are four left of um join post um to help advise on these funds um and how they should be spent. that um request for the funds because that's really what this is is really kind of it's like a grant request annually. So there's not uh an organization to manage, there's not an operational thing to manage. This is requesting funds to help support things um that we may already be doing or may want to partner on. Um so just the kind of the bottom bullet point here is this is for financing, constructing, supporting a mass transportation system including bike paths, bikeways and similar. So for example, there are things that these funds could be used for. Um the town has a wayfinding sign package that we've just completed the design on. We don't have construction yet. Um, but that would be a really easy um continuous thing that that fits in this that POST could advise us on to use these funds for. We could save them. And James, if you go to the next one, um, this could be a chunk out of what will probably be three or four phases of improvements along the way to the Willlets Lane connectivity plan. Um, it's really kind of a great opportunity to get Eagle County to participate in fixing the Hooksboro Bridge. Um, go to the next page. Um, improvements to D Rocks Park, improvements on the next page to the C dot boat ramp that's under design. They're just examples post and the Mid Valley Trails Commission members on that group would advise on those. So, that brings us to that's that's the quick and dirty overview of it all. um we would request the funds every April um based on the post programming and the

sections of where we are in different capital projects or not. Um we would come to council for that um recommendation and then take that recommendation to RAFTA as our annual request. So this is really just an FYI or an information and for you to give me questions on that. If we want to go forward, we'll bring a resolution with the final draft of the IGA, which just got completed um a few days ago. Angela, Dave, do you guys have anything to add?

Uh just that we feel the salt's in a better position to manage these programs. Uh one of the challenges that we've had at RAFTA is in overseeing this committee is that we don't get land use referrals for things up in Missouri Heights. our land use referrals come if they're going to impact a bus stop or if they're going to impact the Rio Grand Trail. So, there's been some opportunities for trail connections up in Basalt Mountain that we have missed because we didn't get those referrals. So, we think Basalt is in a better position to get those and be able to say, "Hey, there's an opportunity here to connect a trail that we've wanted to put in place for several years." So, but we do want to stay involved because there are a lot of projects in the Mid Valley Trails plan that we're interested in being participants in and we will be also attending um post meetings on a pretty regular basis just to stay in touch and see where we can be helpful to the process.

Got it. So, I know I I I've I've been asking, you know, at RAF day and here about roles and responsibilities and what, you know, that is going to take what sounds like if I'm playing it back is that this is um a matter of post just taking the current members and future members that would normally go to that and the scope of what that committee would discuss and just folding it into the post process. Um, and then that that's really what we're talking about from a responsibilities perspective. Is that fair?

Yeah, that's exactly that's exactly it. And and frankly, the post uh members have um been really excited about this opportunity because Post is really moving into a lot of maintenance of the parks and not a lot of trails opportunities. So, this kind of bridges some of the other letters, if you will, in their committee. Okay. And why April 15th? Um, could we do it earlier in the year or is that like a deadline or is that is that how does that work with our like, you know, kind of capital planning process if we or do we know what we're going to request before? I'm just kind

Yeah, I think what I it it would work um for us. I think we could probably do it earlier if we wanted to. Um, but we would probably line out what funds are available in the Mid Valley Trails Fund um, with our work plan that we present at the end of the year. Okay. And then pick projects and things to fund from there. Okay. What other questions or comments? I've just had sense.

Yeah, I've just had a lot of questions about post and and the revenues that are generated and what they go for and what our priorities are sort of shifting to police and public works. And I look at the police as the caretakers of the community, you know, in terms of security and enforcement. And I think um expanding our reach into other parts of the Mid Valley. Um we're trying to build a facility. They keep our parks and public spaces safe and um respond to incidents, things like that. and public works spends a lot of time and a lot of their budget maintaining parks and trails and so on within the town. Um so as we take on these areas that are outside the UGB and extend into Missouri Heights. Um I I I wouldn't know why we weren't a referral agency in the first place on some development except if it's just outside the town limits. But there's got to be a co-art. There's got to be a discussion with Eagle County, too, because they're the funding entity. So, I think they need to sign off on this agreement at some level. And then we need to go forward and take a look at um the mission of post as it was originally, you know, looked at as to participate in open space purchases. And we've kind of bought it all, I think, with that we can buy around here. So, how do we re rejigger that a little bit so that funding for other needs that support our parks and open space and trails could be paid for? And this could be a short-term thing. You know, it could be that um some of this funding goes towards some of the town's other priorities and when they're completed, it shifts back to other opportunities. And that that's just what I'm looking. We have we only have so much money in the cookie jar. And if it I think you guys mentioned

somewhere around a half a million dollars that comes in from this fund. Is that what it is a year? No. Annually it's only about $125,000. Uh those funds haven't been expended over the last few years. We've come kept them. So how much is in there you think? Well, right now there's about just over 500,000. We're estimating right around 700,000 at the end of 2026. So that that would be the first task is to look what's in there. Mhm.

And then figure out what where that gets allocated now if it does. And you know, I just like to see a little more detail on it and make sure we're dealing with and then if it's a issue for um the Mid Valley, then I think Crown Mountain should have an opportunity too. They have a lot of plans for they'd like to see a bridge built across to Hooksburg connection and all that stuff, too. So if we're going to be the placeholder or the place where that receives the money, we need to have good strong partners with the Crawfords and the Crown Mountain folks and anybody else within our reach, Tree Farm. So that's what I would encourage anyway. I just say that that's what you hit on there is one of the primary reasons why we think that it's beneficial for these funds to be administered um by the town of assault as opposed to on RAFTA's side because you guys are more on the ground and able to engage with these partners uh to a degree that um we're just not able to we're very focused on transportation um and not as engaged on the land use side uh and the parks management side. So I that's where one of the advantages that we see um in going in this direction. Um these funds do have limitations. They can't be used to say purchase open space or something like that. They are limited to uh transportation purposes um primarily for foot and bike path uh traffic uh that connects to um mass transit in some form. Uh so it's not an open checkbook. You know, Eagle County provides the funds to us. we then um would distribute them to you um based on the work plan. Um and then we would have the responsibility to make sure that all of the requirements um within um from those funds coming from Eagle County are are

satisfied. Uh which would be our role in terms of participating within the post committee. Um and then before any funds would be distributed, we would have to verify that. So that's um that would functionally be our role um going forward. So you're the AGC kind of. And just to be clear, Eagle County has been involved in the conversations between Basalt and Rafta regarding this. They're very excited about Basalt actually taking on this role. Okay. And they will sign off on the IG once if we agree to signing off on the IG.

Cool. Any other questions or comments? You guys looking for a nod or harump from us? Yeah, I think that's good. We'll bring back um a resolution with the um final draft of the IG to the next meeting. Thank you. You post more trails. Yeah, that's that's the end. I love it. All right. Making people happy. Well, thank you both. Oh, I actually have one that I might All right. Now, we have after the next section item uh right here. Item 7 A. Uh the first of our council actions item guys

item 7A is an interview and appointment of prospective basalt green team member u interview and appointment of prospective green team member Daniel Sherry and uh see you both are up there Sarah and Daniel welcome. Thank you.

I'll just do a quick introduction. Um so this is Daniel Sherry has expressed an interest in becoming a member of the Basalt green team. Um Daniel's a resident of Basalt. He's currently employed by the city of Aspen. He works as a construction mitigation officer and previously served as a sustainability intern with the Aspen skiing company. Um Daniel is a Basalt local, returned after college to to move back to Basalt um and has expressed just a a passion for sustainability and a desire for an opportunity to become more involved in our community. Um, currently there are the bylaws allow for up to seven voting members of the green team and we have six members. If Daniel is appointed, the green team board would be at full capacity for the first time in I think a couple of years, which is pretty exciting. Um, Daniel's attended three green team meetings to date and he's his appointment's been unanimously supported by the existing green team members. So, I will turn it over to Daniel if you want to just introduce yourself quickly and maybe give a few thoughts of why you want to be on the board.

Um, I'm Daniel Sherry, born and raised in Basalt like she said. Went to CU Boulder to get my environmental engineering yes buffs uh bachelor's degree and then stayed there for mechanical engineering master's degree. Throughout that whole time, it's been sustainability focused. Um, I guess just learning and now that I'm back working, I want to be able to learn more and be involved. So, I reached out and now I'm here. Yeah. Well, thank you for throwing your hat in and uh appreciate somebody like you who grew up here and wants to come back and wants to contribute and all of that. So, yeah, I love this town. Yeah, it's a great town.

Um, any other questions for Daniel? Otherwise, I'd entertain emotion. Allstar Aspen Kiko sustainability intern. Did a great job. Do you guys work together? Yep. He put up with me in my normal job, so chances are he can put up with me now. All right. That's all I need to hear. Mayor, I move the town council appoint Daniel Sherry to the Basalt Green team for a three-year term to expire February 24th, 2029. Second. Go Buffs. Go Buffs. It's been moved and seconded. We got deer online. So Pam, please could you please call the role? Sure. Uh, let's begin with Hannah Berman. Yes. Angela Anderson, yes. Rick Stevens, Angel Duprey Buchart,

yes. Ryan Slack, yes. David Knight, yes. Peter Schindler, yes. Thank you, deer. Motion carries. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Daniel. Welcome aboard. Thank you. Great addition. Next up, uh, we have item 7B, which is a public hearing and second reading of ordinance number three, series of 2026, an ordinance of the town council, the town of Balt, Colorado, amending section 82 in appendix C of the Balt Municipal Code to provide for electric vehicle charging rates and policies for town EV charging stations. And Katherine and Justin, welcome. And you're up.

Yeah. Um tonight we're just bringing to you second reading of that ordinance you heard at the last meeting um related to establishing a fee system for the town's um six EV chargers as you all have outlined in your strategic work plan. Um really the only updated um oh just to review I guess the policy itself um is that the level two charging rates would be the 15 cents per kilowatt hour and the level three rates would be the 40 cents per kilowatt hour and that all chargers would be allowed a grace period of 15 minutes after charging is complete and then the 25 uh cents per minute uh overstay rate would be charged and you all directed us to slightly changed the ordinance to say that um only the level two chargers would have that um overstay exemption between 1000 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. and otherwise there would be the 24hour um overstay charge on the level three charger. So, we made that amendment. Um, and as I I'll just remind you that moving forward, we'll staff will continue to monitor the fees and make any necessary adjustments um just to make sure the program's working over time and happy to report back to on how it is working. And for the public's general knowledge to um based on uh the public noticing period, the plan is that these uh fees would go into effect on March 19th. Um I haven't checked what day of the week that is, but um but um anyway, per the noticing period, that's what that's when they would begin. And it sounds like that's that's something that staff can accomplish with what need what remains uh to put this into effect. So

happy to answer any questions. What was that? Sorry, Hannah. Oh, you said one day of the week, it's Thursday. Oh, okay. Perfect. Any questions? We This is a public hearing. Let's go ahead and just do that. um see if we have anybody who is going to make uh wants to make a comment. So, I'll open the public hearing and I don't see anybody. So, I'll close the public hearing. Any questions or comments? Otherwise, entertain a motion.

I think it makes sense. I mean, I'd of course love them to stay free, but I think you got to give a little take a little. This is a chance where if it helps maintain the program and keeps things moving around along, I'm all for charging a little fee. So, I think the intent was was always to charge for them at some once we worked through that, right? It was never, you know, just make sure everybody's clear and the public, you know, is that it was getting everything worked out as far as merchant services, etc. Um, and I hope everybody enjoy I know I charged on them. Um, but you know, 43 cents is pretty good deal. Pretty good deal. 40 cents. May I move that the town council adopt ordinance number three series of 2026 on second reading.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Pam, will you please call the role? Absolutely. Let's begin with Rick Stevens. Yes. Angel Dup Prebuchart. Yes. Ryan Slack. Yes. David Knight, yes. Deer Schindler, yes. Thank you, deer. Hannah Berman, yes. and Angela has stepped out of the room. Thank you. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you both. All right. Next up, we have item 7C, which is a public hearing and second reading of ordinance number four series of 2026. Ordinance of the town council of the town of Colorado approving code amendments uh to the town code amending section 164 definitions section 16-22 district regulations. Section 16-31, supplemental requirements for R4 mixed density residential zone districts. Section 16-65, Plan Unit developments approval procedures. Article 19, housing mitigation and additional article 23, Chapter 16, Accessory Dwelling Units, James and Michelle.

Yeah, thank you. This is a public hearing and second reading of an ordinance that would approve of code amendments uh to permit ADUs throughout town in the residential zone districts uh and to approve amendments to the town's affordable housing mitigation requirements. Uh as the council discussed at first reading, uh economic and planning systems uh EPS uh completed the town's housing needs assessment in 2024. And amongst the policy recommendations that were in that needs assessment uh were for the town to consider creating an ADU incentive program as well as to permit ADUs throughout town. Uh and then also other policy uh recommendations were to uh consider code amendments to the affordable housing mitigation requirements. And as a result, the town contracted with design workshop and EPS uh to establish that framework uh for an ADU incentive program as well as to produce code amendments on those topics. And at the last meeting, uh, Eric, uh, Cronold from, uh, design workshop, uh, provided a presentation on the proposed amendments. Uh, Eric is here on the Zoom this evening if you have additional questions of him. Um, council approved the ordinance on first reading and there haven't been substantive changes. Uh staff did want to highlight uh that the planning and zoning commission uh proposed uh slight adjustment uh to the code language that was done by design workshop. Uh they requested that the uh ADUs uh be uh occupied as a requirement as a primary residence for tenants. Uh and so if council wanted to go with that

uh recommendation from the PNZ, uh you could uh add the language in your motion that's attached in exhibit B to your packet materials and be happy to go over that in further detail if council had questions. Uh but that was a slight adjustment that was recommended by the PNZ. Um, so staff would suggest asking any questions you have of Eric or staff and then uh taking public comments and providing council discussion and ultimately uh making a motion.

Thanks, James. Um, since it is a public hearing, I will open the public uh hearing 7:48. If anybody would like to speak, you raise your hand online or come out of wherever you might be in this room. Um um otherwise seeing nobody coming forward I will close the public hearing and uh open it up for questions comments from my fellow counselors.

I did have questions about the language in exhibit B. Um and I I searched through it and I I didn't find the answer. So am I understanding it correctly that any ADU that's developed after this is adopted even that's not using the incentive program would need to be a primary residence

and how if that's the case how would we as a town enforce that or monitor that? So, so the language that's in the draft ordinance does not require that, but the PNZ's recommended language in uh exhibit B, if you chose to add that, would require that the ADUs developed that are not part of the incentive program. Uh would have to be a primary residence for somebody. Um that is basically the requirement that we currently have for ADUs in the R3TN zone district. Uh basically one of the two units on a site either the primary residence or an ADU has to be deed restricted as a primary residence. Um so you know the the way it's enforced now in the R3TN zone district is it's basically on a complaint basis. Um, and you know, we haven't received very many complaints um because usually people are complaining uh if there's too many people and and not not somebody actually occupying the unit. Um there are other strategies the town could could use. we could require people to provide a lease on an annual basis um if that's how council chose to to go.

I guess my question would be, you know, I feel it's somewhat of an undue burden. I get where we're trying to go with that. But if you're building an ADU and let's say you want your parents to stay there or your elder or a family member or I don't know. I just feel like it's one more thing and it's one more thing for you guys to do. I appreciate the intent, but I feel like we're kind of just going down a road of controlling everything. If I can just add one quick thing to that, this is divergent from what BOP recommended. So BOP recommended the language that's in the ordinance. Um, P and Z just wanted to add this extra twist on it. So for whatever that's worth,

I think it's an overreach for me. I and I just think it's difficult to enforce and if somebody's using their own funds to build an ADU, I think that's their business. I agree. I think obviously if they're taking part of a town incentive program, taking town money, then we can place that restriction on it, but otherwise I don't think there should be restrictions placed on it. Would this if if if we take the ordinance as written, would that change the existing zone district where one of the two dwellings has to be a primary residence no matter what?

It would. So it would it would make still make everything the same. However, existing deed restrictions would would not change. So any any new ADUs in the R3TN, okay, wouldn't would fall under this. Yeah. So, okay. That the consistency part was the only thing that was a little bit like uh you know, but if if everybody's going to be on the same playing field going forward, drawing a line and yeah, I kind of agree with you guys. Could it then be a short-term rental? Uh, in terms of short-term rental requirements, it was not taking town money and it was a definitely if they're taking town money, they would not be able to be a short-term rental

if they were. Uh, let me make sure. Eric, do you know the question the answer to that? Yeah. So, we have a a lease agreement that has to be a minimum duration of six months for participation in the program. Um, so there is that that kind of buffer built into it across the board. If they don't participate in the program, it can be a short-term rental then. Is that what I'm hearing? That's what I'm asking. Yeah. I think that's b kind of what he said. But but that's why we have the huge fee. Yeah. Yeah, I mean that's we don't need we're just going to

We don't need a layer on layer on layer. Yeah, I think let it be. Mhm. That's a good qu I mean I think it's a good clarifying question, but I agree. You already have the the the schema for short-term rentals. So So and and we can't completely demonize them because they do bring people to the town and fill our restaurants. I just feel Yeah. And it's a good Oh, I'm not saying good question. Yeah. Like one of the reasons we wanted to allow ADUs was to allow people to either age in place or stay in place with rising property values. A way in which they might do that is build the ADU to STR it to have that additional income to stay in their home or they go live in the ADU or

they live in the rent the house. But like that was the whole point, right? Is to give people optionality to be able to stay. Yeah. I mean I that could be a really great option for a lot of people just some kind of rental in their main house and And to clarify, the way the ordinance is written now, uh it just requires that you can't short-term rent in in the incentive program. Yes, that makes sense. That's that makes sense. I think um I think we're good as written. May I move the town council Oh, yes. Sorry. Sorry, Jeff.

James, did you mention the park the change with the parking variance procedure? Oh. Uh, yes. The the parking variance procedure as was outlined in the memo uh was adjusted to to add a variance procedure uh at the uh discretion of the town council in the event that somebody didn't want to provide the parking space on site for the ADU or couldn't. Uh staff thought it appropriate to establish that as a public hearing review uh because it might impact neighbors um and availability of parking in the area. Okay. Thanks. Mayor, I move that the town council adopt ordinance number four series of 2026 on second reading.

Second. So moved and seconded. Family, please call the role. Absolutely. Let's begin with Angela Anderson. Yes. Rick Stevens. Y Angel Dup Prebuchart. Yes. Ryan Slack. Yes. David Knight. Yes. Deer Schindler. Yes. And Hannah Berman. Yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you.

Great. Uh next up we have item 7D which is the first reading of and thank you um James and Michelle. Um first reading of ordinance number five series of 2026 ordinance to the town council of the town of Basalt, Colorado amending the town code with the addition of section 88 regarding utilize util regarding utilizing automated vehicle identification systems and amending the penalty schedule in appendix C of the town code. This is Erin and Jeff, but I understand we're gonna uh we want to continue first reading and table this because we're gonna get for next time a um either a services agreement and or contract to review as part of this agenda item.

Yeah, it sounds like that would answer a lot of your questions in this. Um we did send you uh their privacy statement, but that didn't get to you until 5:30. So, I didn't expect any of you to actually see that at this point. Um, so would like to continue that conversation. So I' I'd entertain a motion uh the town council continue first reading of ordinance number five series of 2026 to March 10th, 2026. And someone can just say so moved. So moved. So moved. So moved. Second. Second. It's been moved and second and will you please call the role? Yes. Thanks Aaron. Thanks Erin. Award for most efficient. Let's begin with deer Schindler. Yes.

Thank you, deer. Hannah Berman, yes. Angela Anderson, yes. Rick Stevens, yes. Angel Duprey Buchar. Yes. Ryan Slack. Yes. And David Knight. Yes. Motion carries unanimously. They're privatized. Thanks. Thanks, Aaron, too. I don't know. Just figured do it all. All right. Uh, look at that. Look at that. Let's not squander it. We're going to get ahead. Thought I was going to get a break. Next up is item

Next up is item 7E, resolution number five, series of 2026, resolution of the town council of Basalt, Colorado, authorizing a final development plan application for the So Meadows parcel 9 project and Katherine and Michelle.

Yeah, thank you, mayor. Um, as you know, in the fall of 2021, um, through the basalt forward process, the town put forth a ballot initiative asking, um, for v for approval of voter approved bonds to be used in part for affordable housing. And that ballot measure passed with a margin of 72%. Um since that time we've been using those funds um with Zgroup Architects um to plan out the development of Sus Meadows parcel 9 affordable housing project. Um the objective of this project um is the creation of deed restricted affordable housing units to support Basalt's workforce as described in the 2024 housing needs assessment update. Um, you all considered the POD sketch plan application at a public hearing on April 8th of last year and approved that via resolution 14 of 2025. And then later last year, you considered the PUD preliminary plan application at a public hearing on November 11th. Um, you also approved that PUD preliminary plan application via resolution 55 series of 2025. Um the site plan before you is the site plan that was presented um at preliminary plan and um James if you switch to the next slide. We made a subtle adjustment based on your feedback. Um the team adjusted the site plan um to provide some additional screening um and snow storage uh just south of the building structure. Um and then uh resultant was some adjustments to the parking further to the north um to be to you know continue to accommodate the full extent of the parking needed. Um so tonight we would be seeking direction from you to move forward just with the final plan um

application um with this revised site plan. It of course would go through um the next steps of the land use process, but just needed a nod and approval from you all to submit that application. And Michelle can expand on that. Yeah. He'll have another um public hearing um section and a whole another review of where we are on the project. Yeah. So, we're just we're simply the applicant tonight um signing off on our application. Exactly. Yep. Okay. They have any questions, comments, otherwise entertain a motion. Thank you guys for making the adjustments. Looks great. Appreciate you guys listening.

Uh, mayor, I move the town council drop resolution number five, series of 2026. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Pam, will you please call the role? Absolutely. Let's begin with Anel Dup Prebuchart. Yes. Ryan Slack, yes. David Knight, yes. Peter Schindler, yes. Thank you, deer. Hannah Berman, yes. Angela Anderson, yes. And Rick Stevens, yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you. And it looks like you're up again, Katherine. So, we have item 7F, resolution number six, series of 2026, resolution of the town council of Balt, Colorado, authorizing the town manager to approve a contract for fabrication and installation of basalt park signs. And Gloria and Katherine, you guys have this one.

Yeah. Thanks. Um, so the town staff is continuing the implementation of its long-standing goal to establish a cohesive and consistent signage system across the town's park networks. Um, since 2015 or before that time even um post the post committee committee has been working toward the development of a unified park signage plan. That goal was further reaffirmed in that 2024 park financial sustainability strategy and maintenance asset management strategy plan that you all approved um a couple of years ago. Um last year the town engaged aceto uh landscape architecture to develop a comprehensive signage design package. Um, and last year in the fall of 2025, the town contracted with GM Johnson Construction to fabricate and install the first four park signs. Um, and those were installed perhaps you saw at Music Park, Confluence Park, Arbony Park, and the Jazella skate park. Um, the contract that we're bringing forward to you all tonight um is for the fabrication and installation of 18 additional park signs throughout the community. Um again, this furthers um the impleation of the town signage master plan and you know there's some efficiency in doing the remainder of them all at once. Um this construction company already has um the kind of the layout of the signs themselves, the correct construction approach, and so we'll just make sure that we have a consistent um consistent package that they can deliver cost-effectively and in a timely manner. Um, so we're bringing this forward to you all tonight. Um, and perhaps Gloria could expand on kind of the budgeting behind this.

Yeah. And so initially you had 150,000 budgeted for this project. Um, but when we received this quote, uh, we thought it'd be beneficial to bring it to you since uh, doing it all at once would create that cohesiveness and um, breaking it up into phases as we had originally anticipated. Um the contractor gave us some advice that you know they might not all be conforming if we break it up into pro into those different phases. Um so it is uh about $100,000 more this year that would come out of post and um we do have a a fund balance there that we could pull from for this project.

Makes sense. And we I'm assuming we'll also do a um a supplemental appropriation later in the year to kind of um memorialize all these budget changes. Correct. Yeah. It may not be necessary if we underspend in other areas within those. But if we do we spend everything has been budgeted then we would have a supplemental. What's the reasoning behind them not being conforming if we split them up into phases? So the materials might not be avail the exact same materials might not be available next year. And so that was his his um argument was that we it might they might look slightly different next year if we were to phase it out.

Um I will admit I audibly gasped at how expensive these signs are. Yeah. What is the total? It's like 250 sign 19 sign. My question is how how long are these expected to last? Like what's their longevity and what is the upkeep to keep them up there in pristine condition? And then my other not related to those two things was do we have any sort of like accessibility responsibility to like include braille or something like that? I didn't know.

Yeah. So that's a good question. I I don't have an answer to that, but I can find that out for you. didn't know. But mostly because I thought about touching it and what that would feel like. But um the the upkeep and the longevity are my biggest questions.

Yeah. And um and I guess just as a miss uh to clear up, there's some pictures of the some of the signs we've already installed. And they're they're far from a street sign, right? They're a full foundation with a metal structure with welded metal lettering and a gabian basket with um the stones installed. It they're very much in line and actually it's the same fabricator that that did our big sign on the entrance to town which was close to $100,000 just in itself. Um and then similar to um the the sign that's at the Basalt A roundabout and then the one at the entry to Southside. So, um, these signs because of the metal material shouldn't really include much maintenance at all. There's no painting involved. There's no, um, sealant involved. So, they should be very low maintenance, but um, with the metal and I mean, labor is always the big cost these days. Um, this you have to dig the foundation, you need to pour the concrete, let it cure, and then place it. Um, it all it it's it there you know it costs some money but um it's in line with with other um you know other things we've seen along these lines when uh when we priced other signs of this nature um it's not divergent from what we've seen other

and if I can give you a little bit of background as well the general design here um was started uh just a few years after post was created by one of the founding post members. So, this is this particular design has been brought back time and time again, and we actually worked with posts to reduce the size of a lot of the signs so that these would get smaller and not bigger in all of the parks. Um, so we're trying to honor that um committee's design requests and the longevity of these. I'm not sure that we've ever actually replaced any of the existing park signs since they've been installed. They look sturdy.

Yeah. So, um, but that's the background on where the design came from. Um, it's these have been on the list for post since almost since it was created. Yeah. Will Patina. Yeah. Yeah. I wish Nixto was still in the community. Well, he happened to be out here and so that's how we got some assistance from him and um Julie Kolar on post was really excited about how these turned out and the direction they were going. Doing some amazing stuff. Did we do an RFP for this or is this

No. Well, he did some init the initial install last year and he's done all our other sign and I will say trying to get any sign fabricator to bid on anything is takes an act of Congress. So yeah, so u and because we wanted it to be consistent with the signs that have already been installed. Um, yeah, but the other bids I we got when bidding this, I guess, in the first place were were above, you know, what this contractor provided. So, and this is with the 10% reduction.

Do we have like what's the estimated pie chart of 250K for 18 signs? Like is a materials, two/ird labor? Like I'm just trying to get a better conception of how we get to that number. Uh I I didn't request that he break that out. Is it I mean because it is a lot of I mean you think about what you could do with 200 and I know it comes out of the post money so but um

I mean is everybody doing like these big signs that require a crane for the park? I mean you know you know what I mean? Like it makes I just have to step back and think like like Why so much construction for something that's that's signage for a park? You know what I mean? That's that's what I'm struggling with. I'm like, man, it's a lot. I know it's post money and that's we can't really use it. We're limited what we can use it for. We can't go and use it for a deep buy down, which would, you know, be amazing. But, um, I don't know. Is it I mean, is this the way this the wind's blowing with what people I kept using expressions. Is this the kind of signs that people are doing at other jurisdictions in their parks too? Like

so investments in in your parks brings more value to your community and to your property values. And so this is one of the recommendations in the asset management plan for post. Um so it is in different ways. It's like updating your playground equipment, updating the fencing, updating the land, the irrigation systems. Um it's we don't disagree that it's expensive, but it is steel and that is an expensive um piece of material when and if you'll have to replace these. I mean that's the other thing your opportunity cost of how long they're going to be there. Um you know the if if if you ask us to go back to close to know that it's going to be more time. It's fine. No, I and I'm more just like I I get it. You want to invest in your parks, but I'm like wouldn't like a really awesome threetory slide be a lot cooler.

It won't last as long as this sign. It it could be on the horizon. You have some parks that are going to get new playgrounds in the next few years. Really big zipline. I don't know.

I on the other hand, I I first of all, I think they're beautiful. I really do. I think they're striking. And I think that they match they meet and match the update and the investment that we have made in our core. We invested a lot of money in updating Midland Avenue. We invested a lot of money in updating the park here. We are continuing to invest money in updating all the parks. Right. I I personally think it's a natural progression of continuing to update, you know, our infrastructure and the aesthetics of the town.

The middle expensive, but I mean, I build stuff that stuff is expensive. I actually wasn't that surprised by the cost. Yeah, I get that. It's just a sign. I And I'm I'll get over it. I'll vote. I'll vote yes. It's just like that it's not functional except to look at like as far and it's not really it's artsy but it's not like art either. It's this kind of middle ground of like between art and functionality as the fish. It's the 50% tariff and they're pretty for what they are. Yeah, it's

you know the the Midland Avenue Bridge and the sign when Midland Avenue extension was built and all those signs along the sidewalk on the right hand side by the library were all nico. The Midland Bridge has an arch in it. There was an extra $600,000 so that when you drove over it, you could see Basalt Mountain, things like that that have been added over the years. And the sign committee, it's got to be 25 years old. And these guys,

the original the original idea was to try to draw people to Southside because there was no signage showing Southside. So people over there had businesses organized with Toeot Gallery. I forget her name, but

Lynn Lynn. Yeah, she was the driver. And Nick Nick was part of a group in the community that was really engaged that the um that's kind of disintegrated during the discussions of the park. So, he's hung in there with us for a long time even though he was really disgruntled when he left. But, um and he's doing some incredible urban planning in Maine right now. So if you go to his website, you can see some of the other stuff he does and uh good guy

is part of the cost of this like I know steel has a 50% tariff on it and with the Supreme Court decision theoretically you can get your money back for those if it's made after February of 2026 which this would be included in. So like a are we getting US steel or are we getting hit with that tariff and b is there a part of this contract that says like if that holds which is the supreme court so I assume it holds like that money comes to the town rather than the sign maker

do you have an opinion on that sign it's the contract stretcher so it's a fixed fee or is it as a not to exceed? It's a fixed fee. It could be worth seeing if ask him to see if it would be affected at all by there not being a tariff if it's, you know, not US steel.

I'm happy to ask. So the other question I have is um for Doug is the 100 grand pier or the 150 to 168 or 268 and then we also taking money out of the post fund to make up the difference over here on the safe path to school 7-Eleven bridge, right? Um nope. We are within budget on our confluence park project. So we aren't take going beyond our budgeted amount there. I thought we were supplementing that line item too. The number down. The amount that we went under contract on is less than what we have budgeted in 2026.

I don't want to keep going on this, but where which are the 18 signs we're doing? Is there Oh, that's a good question. All the remaining parks. I don't have the list in front of me. I should have printed that out, but it's all of the remaining parks in town. Okay. Eight large and 10 small. Yeah. Yeah. I just I wonder if they're some savings in there on some of the parks, but I know he's giving us a discount. The signs are beautiful. I do not deny that. I just a quarter million dollars for heartburn.

Signs is just crazy. It's a part of life. Um, can we not do any text though? That's like what do you call that word? Vertical justification. You read it like that. But that's that's how they look. That's I know. And now they're going to be bigger, David. Now we're going to get double. That's a big sign. That's one of the big things. I know. Can we make it make them not like that? How are you going to fit it? It's going to be I mean Arbony is already there and no one can steal it, right? is an ar. It's just the justification. I haven't seen the street. I don't want to micromanage. You guys want to talk about I agree with you, David. I don't like that. Yeah.

Just when you think you're going to get off easy. No, they're they're they're to to sum it up, they're beautiful. Like you guys put a lot of work in the artist. They're very they're very good. So, I mean, what I'm hearing it's it's in the post budget. It's in the post plan. Like, it's been planned. It's So, to me, that ticks a lot of boxes. Like, it's been on their their long-standing list of things that they want to accomplish. I think it's in the parking lot technically, but we have the money. Well, we do have 150 budget. You need another 100, but it's we'll spend it once

with the anticipation of phasing it, but we got this quote with the 10% discount and wanted to see if that was palatable for you all to go forward with the entire project. So, we're technically just borrowing from next year's budget. I know it's more or there's a fund has been spent from prior year, right? Yeah, we we should memorialize that just I mean I like we're doing a really good job with with the parking lot versus and like actually so it says this is what we're spending, you know, this where our budget is for the signs for this year. I'd like to see that.

Um and just to be clear on this on the parking lot thing, if we're doing a public works project, which is is not I think is not we can't enter a contract unless the m money's been appropriated already. And so if we're doing this as uh you know because there's fund balance and we can you know maybe we'll need to do the supplemental down the road or not spend elsewhere within the budget. I think that works but I think that I just want to be clear on when you might have to go procedurally in a different way.

That's fine. Yeah. As long as at the at some point it says we spent this much on when you go on the website with the budget. I trying to keep that clear. Yeah. Cool. All right. Mayor, I move that the town council adopt Can we amend it though with the sorry tariff piece of like if all of a sudden it's 50% less for his materials, we get that money, not him. If not, that's okay. You are on a roll. You do it. Do it on.

Yeah, I'll help you out here. You could have a motion to approve resolution six, series of 26 26 with uh direction to staff to investigate or rebid based or investigate a material price change based on the change in tariff regulation. So moved. Second. So moved and seconded. Uh Pam, you please call the role. Yes. Wait a second. Down here. All right. Uh, let's begin with David Knight. Yes. Deer Schindler. Yes. Hannah B. Hannah Berman. Thank you. Angela Anderson. Yes. Eric Stevens.

Yeah. Angel Dupraart. Yes. And Ryan Slack. No. Motion carries six to one. Thank you. Well, thank you. Uh, next up we have our last item, which is item 7G, resolution number 8, series of 2026, resolution of the town council of Salt, Colorado, repealing and replacing the town's salary schedule for employees. Gloria, Doug, and Jenny. You guys are up for this.

This won't take long. Okay, so most of this is just um housekeeping. So, we contracted with um Lori Graves and her team again to look at our salary schedules. And James will pull up the general um government salary schedule. Last time we did this, we did a big overhaul in 2024. And so, we had her look at it again and she really just suggested a 2% slide, which is kind of an based on inflation. We did do a 3% cola for all our employees this year. So, she doesn't ever recommend doing like apples to apples because then an employee doesn't move up their scale as their time goes on. So, she suggested just a 2% which helps us keep um our minimums higher for new hires and our maximums higher for our more tenured employees. So, this one's just a really just a housekeeping change. And then um we looked at our police more in depth at the end of last year and into this year and we worked with Lieutenant Munch a lot with making sure that this still works for the police department and we the items on the left side in red are our changes. So, um, Lori Graves and her team kind of gave us some other different step plans that other police departments have, but it we felt that it our step plan we have now works well with our police officers as they move through the steps. So, we thought that taking from P1, police officer one, all the way through P2 would be a one through nine verse doing like a one to four and then start back

over and do one to four again. And then, for some reason on the first rendition of this, there was a 4% um width on step three and four on the left hand side one. We don't really know why that was there. Um, but to keep it consistent throughout the board, we were going to update it so that it's 5% all the way through for step eight and nine for the new proposed one. So, this whole step plan as they move up will have a 5% increase going up their steps. This changing that 4% will affect the budget by like 7,500 because we have four officers currently in that are in that step 9 that we will have to change from 105 to that 101. But this will be affected the next payroll. Um, and when looking at this too, changing that 5% really gets us more competitive with our local authorities too, especially with Rifle, Glenwood, and um, Carbondale. And then the investigator part that was under the corporal, we talked this through. And an investigator is more like an assignment pay and can be on any of these positions. So it's never really tied to a corporal position. So we are going to use that as assignment pay and not list that here like how it is. Um and then that was really it. That is all our changes. Just update it. We're going to continue monitoring the um what do they call it? the internal equity of all of our positions this year to make sure everyone's where they are in all of these grades and steps.

I have a super ignorant question, but tell me more. The investigator that's like if someone's investigating a case, so it's a for a specific amount of time. I just don't know. Sure. Uh it's a specific I'll just stand there. It's a specific assignment. Uh um so we kept it out of um more of like a rank structure. It could be a police officer one who could be an investigator or could be a corporal. So it's not just a corporalinvestigator. So like Jenny said, it's an assignment. Um like the SRO. Yes. Good example. Yeah. Just like that. That's awesome. Who's doing that now? If anyone

hoping to get the ranks filled and patrol and then uh we're very close. Uh, but I think that's probably the next task that we need to to get on just with the amount of larger cases that we deal with. So, nobody right now because we had a guy but he resigned at some point. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Pastor Brad. That's right. That's right. Oh, good. I saw that Nino was coming back, which is they did police academy with him. Yes, he's back. Yep, he is back. So, that that helps get the numbers up. That's awesome. Yeah, you won't be sitting. No, he and Travis watched me shovel snow 25 minutes and snow.

No, they sat in their patrol car and watched the stop sign and I'm like, they're probably radioing back and forth, laughing at you. Yeah, exactly. That's the snow plow on the north facing. Yeah, Jess, it's because the plow blocked my driveway in shadowed out snow blower. I have I have an electric snow. Hey, you have to charge the battery five times to do a drone or shovels in the office batteries. That's the way it is. And thanks for thanks for though patrolling that stop sign cuz it's it's good. It's good to have people not run stop signs like in the neighborhood. Um maybe put some speed cameras back there, huh?

I mean, not on 82. Maybe on all our side streets. There'd be some pain. So call. Okay. All right. Can I move? May I move that the town council adopt resolution number eight series of 2026? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Pam, will you please call the role? Sure. Uh let's begin with Deer Schindler. Yes. Thank you, Deer. Hannah Berman, yes. Angela Anderson, yes. Rick Stevens, yes. Angel Duprachart, yes. Ryan Slack, yes. And David Knight, yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you.

All right. Well, that is our agenda for tonight. If you're watching still, thanks for picking us over State of the Union and uh we'll catch up with you later. We're journed.