City Council - Regular Meeting

It is time to call our Tuesday, June 2nd, City Council meeting to order. And I will ask Councilmember Collins, will you lead us in the pledge tonight? That felt downright civil tonight. Goodness. Okay, Madam City Clerk, roll call.

Mayor Mills.

He is in Poland tonight.

Mayor Pro Tempidia.

I am here in his stead.

Council Member Carbajal.

Present.

Council Member Collins. Here. Council Member Fidler.

Here.

Council Member Green. I am here. Council Member Snyder.

He is ill this evening.

Councilmember today Oh president that's a member worth. Yeah, you have a quorum your honor.

Thank you very much Hasn't moved and We advanced to the next page on the agenda while mine is coming up should be the consent agenda And I'm sitting clerical you read the consent agenda into the agenda or into the record I

Item 2A, approval of the May 5th, 2026 City Council Minutes. Item 2B, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Brighton, Colorado, approving the 2026 amendment to the cemetery rules and regulations for Elmwood and Fairview cemeteries.

Thank you very much. What is the pleasure of counsel on the consent agenda? Council Member Tadeo.

Thank you. I move to approve the consent agenda.

Thank you very much. And Council Member Fidler? I will second. Thank you. Roll call vote. The item passes seven to zero with two absent. Thank you. Next up is our regular agenda. Do we have any action from council? Councilmember Green.

Thank you, Acting Mayor. I move to approve the June 2nd regular agenda.

Excellent. Councilmember Wirth.

I second that.

Thank you. Roll call vote. Okay, the agenda passes 7-0 with two absent. Next up, we have ceremonies, and I'll call on Councilmember Taddeo to read our proclamation for the evening.

Thank you, Acting Mayor. Is that what it is? LGBTQ plus pride month. Whereas the city council and staff are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and welcoming community in Brighton for everyone, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer LGBTQ plus community. And whereas Brighton denounces prejudice and unfair discrimination based on age, race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, and is a city in which all persons should feel valued, safe, welcomed, respected, and affirmed by their peers and the community, And whereas we must acknowledge that the LGBTQ plus community has faced and continues to face systematic discrimination, including restricted rights, social stigma, challenges accessing health care, and other basic social services. And whereas the city of Brighton is strengthened by and thrives upon the rich diversity of ethnic, cultural, racial, gender, and sexual identities of its residents, all of which contribute to the vibrant character of our city. And whereas during LGBTQ Plus Pride Month, we affirm our obligation to uphold the dignity of all residents and dedicate ourselves to standing in solidarity with LGBTQ Plus community in their ongoing struggle against discrimination and injustice. So now, therefore, be it resolved. On behalf of Gregory Mills, Mayor of the City of Brighton, on behalf of the Brighton City Council, do hereby proclaim June 2026 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to recognize the achievements of the LGBTQ plus community to celebrate the great diversity of the American people and to wave their flags of pride high. Dated the second day of June 2026.

Thank you. Mr. City Manager, I'm going to go slightly out of order because we have a member of the public who would like to speak on this topic, and we'll include her in the picture and have the proclamation accepted in a moment. So I'll call on Cindy Vigasa.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem and council members and members of our community. I just wanted to come forward today as the parent of a transgender child that was raised here in Brighton, Colorado, and thank the council for making this proclamation and letting everyone know that everyone is welcome in the city of Brighton. This is an extremely important time. in Colorado, especially for allies and everyone to stand up for the community for the LGBTQ community, and especially the transgender community. So thank you very much. Happy Pride.

Thank you so very much. I truly appreciate you. And I think you have two amazing kids, now adults. And so I appreciate you being here this evening. Mr. City Manager, who is going to accept the proclamation officially?

Thank you, Acting Mayor. Officially, on behalf of the city this evening, our city staff, as well as Cindy, will be accepting the proclamation. So at this point, I'll ask any staff member to come up and accept the proclamation and take the picture.

Fantastic.

So you're going to have to squeeze and release it.

I truly appreciate all of our directors and the leadership at the city for coming up to accept that proclamation. I think it's important. It's meaningful to our employees, and it's meaningful to our residents that that recognition is offered to this population in our community. So I appreciate you all stepping up to do that. Thank you. That is our only ceremony. So that brings us to public invited to be heard on matters that are not on the agenda. So speakers are allowed a three-minute opportunity to speak to us on any topic. We have one person signed up this evening, Mr. Tom Lampo.

All right. Hello to everyone. Hello to Brighton. Hope everybody's doing well. I'm Tom Lampo, and I'm here to lift Brighton up to the Lord in prayer. So please join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, we come before you tonight in humility. There's no one greater than you. We want to invite you here to Brighton and for you to be with us and to guide us in our decisions. In Zephaniah 317, your word states... The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt you over you with loud singing. Your word lets us know you are in our midst. Your presence is welcome here and wherever we are. Brighton is yours as well as all creation. With a sincere heart, we humbly give you thanks and praise for the moisture you continue to provide us. Give Brighton and her neighbors moisture. Wet your earth, fill our streams, water our farms. We lift up your name above all others. There is none that approaches you. Your provisions have no end. Philippians 4.19 states, My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Moisture is essential to our lives. Please do not lift your hand of provision from us. Continue to bring moisture to your land. We are truly blessed. With our vote, we can shape and mold the society we live in. In your word in Daniel 2.21, it states, he changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. So as we prepare to cast our ballots, we will take you at your word. Help us to walk in humility and apply your word to our lives. Help us turn from our evil ways and rejoice in you. We submit and trust in you with an obedient heart. Bless us with your wisdom and knowledge. We're living in incredible times. You've placed us here for just these times. We are witnessing the work of your hand in Brighton and across our world.

One minute.

We are living in time of transformation. Many are struggling, and there is still a period to go through. So we'll claim your word in Psalm 62, 1 through 2, which states, For God alone my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken. When the pressures of daily life seem overwhelming, impress upon our hearts to seek out quiet time with you. Bring us peace in these silent times. Lead us to calm waters. You are our God, and we are your people. In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen. Thank you, guys. Have a nice night.

Thank you very much. Okay, we are up now to our first public hearing this evening. Public hearing on an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Brighton amending section 10.4 of the land use and development code relating to wireless communication and facilities. This is the first reading and Mr. City Manager, who's going to present this tonight?

Thank you, Acting Mayor. Here tonight to present this item is Associate Planner Gray Shipman.

Thank you. I understand we're supposed to give you lots of questions and make this difficult and challenging.

Yeah, yeah, especially for a topic as exciting as this one. Let's do it.

Thank you all. Apparently I need to open the hearing before the presentation. I was going to open it after you did so. So I will open the public hearing now.

Great. Good evening, members of city council. My name's .

I'm sorry. I have a few steps now before the presentation. Again, because I thought the presentation was first. OK. Go ahead and proceed. We'll get to our steps when we have discussion. Thanks.

Great. Good evening, members of city council. My name is Gray Shipman, and I'm a planner for the city of Brighton. As some of you may recall, last year we had a study session to discuss some upcoming changes to the land use code, specifically about wireless communication facilities. Since that study session, city staff have made edits and red lines to the relevant sections of the land use code, and we're prepared to present those changes to you all now. Let's start with a quick refresher about what wireless facilities are. Wireless facilities include all the components that are necessary to have functional radio systems and telecommunication systems. Generally, when we think about wireless facilities, we think about large cell towers, but it also includes smaller concealed towers, as well as antennas mounted on walls or mounted on existing poles. According to a 2025 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, it is estimated that 98% of Americans own a cell phone. This statistic highlights the importance of wireless facilities in this type of infrastructure. So why are we here discussing wireless facilities? Last year, the state enacted legislation that limits a local government's ability to require permits and applications specifically for minor modifications to wireless facilities. Generally, these minor changes are when a wireless provider, for example, Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, when a provider swaps out antennas in a like-for-like swap or they install new similarly sized equipment. The city can still require permits for work in the right-of-way and other health and safety permits like permits for electrical work. It's just that we as a city can no longer require separate permits that are specifically and solely for minor changes to wireless facilities. Okay, so those are the key regulatory changes for minor modifications. The new state law does have some language that affects wireless facilities more broadly, including new cell towers and new radio towers. Both federal and state law include very similar review time frames in which a city must approve or deny a wireless facility application. Under existing federal law, the consequence for failing to meet the review time frames is that the city is regarded as acting in a non-timely fashion. Basically, that just means that an applicant could potentially bring a lawsuit against the city. With the new state law, the consequences for missing a deadline is more severe. If the city fails to make a decision to either approve or deny an application within the timeline, then the application is deemed approved. We didn't really have to modify the code for this. It's just something staff are keeping in mind as we receive these applications to make sure that we're on top of it. Article 10 of the land use and development code includes the city's regulations for wireless facilities. We removed the term site improvement permit from the city's regulations for minor modifications. To reiterate, that's just for small changes to existing facilities. Thinking about wireless facilities more generally, we've also corrected some inconsistencies with federal and state law. In the few cases where federal and state law have different review timelines, we've adopted whichever timeline is shorter to make sure we're complying with both, whichever is the stricter of the two. We've changed some wording to make the public hearing process consistent across wireless facility applications, and we've also reorganized the section a bit to make it easier to read and interpret. The new state law prohibits local governments from requiring permits inside applications for minor modifications so we've removed the term site improvement permit instead the city will require providers want to make minor changes to submit a verification form to the city in the verification form providers will attest that their changes qualifies minor changes in accordance with state and federal regulations. There are some other changes staff are proposing to the city's wireless facility regulations that aren't directly related to the new state law. It's just that while we were working on bringing the code into compliance, we saw some other opportunities to make it easier to read, interpret, and administer the code. There's one change in particular that staff want to highlight. In some zoning districts, a wireless facility is a permitted use, which means that staff review and can approve these applications. For applications where staff can review and approve, the code is currently written, so the Director of Community Development may choose to refer potentially incompatible applications to the City Council for a final decision instead. We're proposing changing the code so the Director of Community Development may refer potentially incompatible applications to the Planning Commission rather than City Council. And the main reason for this is so the public hearing process is consistent across similar application types. The Planning Commission is already the body that conducts public hearings for wireless facility applications that require a conditional use permit and then votes to approve or deny those applications. The Planning Commission is already the appeals body for administrative staff decisions, and they make interpretations about the city's code. Staff feels that it makes sense to refer complex cases to the Planning Commission to ensure the public process is similar across similar application types. We did make some changes to the text here from when we had the public hearing with the Planning Commission. We realized there wasn't a clear appeal pathway. It was unclear whether City Council or the courts would decide on any appeals that had been on decisions that had been made by the Planning Commission. To remove this uncertainty, we have elected to include the phrase by means of a conditional use permit. The conditional use permit process is clearly spelled out in the city's land use code and appeals would be heard by City Council. The land use and development code does have specific review criteria that city staff, the planning commission, and city council should use when evaluating whether to adopt amendments. In a world that is increasingly reliant on digital mediums, wireless connectivity is a crucial piece of infrastructure. According to policy 1.1 of the B Bright and Comprehensive Plan, new growth should favor areas with existing infrastructure, Due to increased demand and new technological advancements, wireless facilities need to be modified on a semi-regular basis. The proposed code amendments simplify the process and make it easier for wireless providers to maintain, swap out, and or install new similarly sized equipment on existing wireless facilities. The proposed amendments would simplify the approval process for minor changes to existing facilities. An easier process may facilitate new investments into existing facilities and improve connectivity and signal strengths. Reliable wireless communications, for example, cell phones, are important for people to access emergency services such as police, firefighters, and ambulances. In addition to changes that are being made in response to the new state law, staff are also proposing edits to improve the clarity and readability of the city's wireless facility regulations. The proposed modifications will make it easier for staff and applicants to interpret and to adhere to the wireless facility regulations in the land use code. Public notice was provided in accordance with land use code notice was published to the city's website in April 24th at least 15 days prior to the public hearing which is required by the land use code information about the code amendments was also posted various social media sites in the packet you all received a public comment was included with attachments. Staff have reviewed the code amendments and believe they're in general compliance with the requirements of the land use code. Staff recommends approving the proposed code amendments. And here are the options for how you all may choose to proceed. Thank you.

Thank you. Before we proceed to questions and comments, Madam City Clerk, I'll also ask you to verify what was also in the presentation for posting and publication.

Yes, Your Honor, the notice of public hearing was published on the City of Brighton website on April 24th, 2026.

Thank you very much. Okay, this is the opportunity for public comment. I don't have anybody from the public who has signed up to speak at the meeting. I do believe that there was one person who provided comment in advance. Madam City Clerk, is that correct?

That is correct, Your Honor.

Thank you. And that was in the packet. So the Council has that available. And given no other questions or comments from the public, I'll turn to City Council. Do you have any questions or comments? I hear chatter but not not a request for comments anybody from the City Council meeting to comment on this one. Okay, then I will close the public hearing. And now this issue is for the council, how would you like to proceed. It didn't have a mission to. Thank council members Dale.

Thank you, and move to approve 6A? Yes.

Yes. Okay, Council Member Fidler.

Thank you, Acting Mayor. I will second.

Okay, fantastic. Thank you very much. Roll call vote. The item passes seven to zero with two absent. Thank you very much. Nice job. You baffled even the council. They had no questions left for you. or explained so clearly they were not baffled. Okay, let us move on to Item 7, Ordinances for Initial Consideration. We have an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Brighton, Colorado, adding Article 8-26 of the Brighton Municipal Code relating to unauthorized camping on private property. Mr. City Manager is presenting.

Thank you, Acting Mayor. As you'll recall, this item was in front of you previously. Staff has made some changes based on the direction of council at that meeting. And tonight to talk about the changes and the proposed ordinance is Commander Domenichini.

Thank you very much. Good evening, members. Sir, the floor is yours.

Oh, thank you, sir.

Good evening, members of the council. First of all, I just want to express my appreciation for this opportunity to represent this topic. With the help of the city attorney's office, I believe I am presenting a revision that takes into account the bulk of the valuable feedback we received on the last presentation. In the interest of being thorough, I will continue through from scratch here. The city of Brighton community services officers field calls related to quality of life issues within the city of Brighton. Private RV and tent camping complaints are among the most resource intensive requests for assistance from our community, often requiring several staff hours to resolve. As far as work involved in these matters, it can really run the gamut. Primarily, we handle it with an initial contact with a private property owner. In that initial contact, we'll provide guidance to that private property owner. Our patrol officers will post with the private property owner's permission encampment and trespassing notices. And then our CSOs will give a violation notice to set a deadline, a guideline with that private property owner for remediation on the property. Of course, this results in some continued follow-up, both through our officers and our community service officers as well. But the patrol officers will follow up the encampment to try to work with the property owner to make sure that we're safely ensuring that the encampment has been cleared. The CSO officers, once cleared, I should say, the CSOs issue an extension, a citation, or begin the abatement process on a private property to make sure that a cleanup occurs after an encampment is vacated. As far as impact is concerned, the private property owner generally incurs at the expense of cleanup. They can receive a summons for failure to mitigate if they refuse to clean up on that property. And significant personnel hours are generally expended. There are delays in mitigation that come up quite often. Generally, a cleanup, an unanticipated cleanup on a private property or parcel is challenging, right? For a lot of private property owners, that involves having to learn how to have a site cleaned up. There's generally hazardous material considerations that come into play, especially for a long-term encampment. And so quite a bit of work goes in there. If the city itself needs to take action to abate an encampment because of those same considerations, it can be quite costly, especially if there isn't a restitution remedy or recovery remedy in that process that's readily available. Just to go over a little bit of the numbers. Thank you. Just to go over a little bit of the numbers for private property camping. You'll notice that these are different from the last time I presented. We were able to get full complete numbers from last year and also get into a little bit of the revision and cleanup that comes in from end of the year statistics. I was able to find in 2025 that community service officers alone fielded more than 33 reports of private property, tent, and RV encampments just using the C-Click Fix website. I also mentioned, I know I wanted to be clear on this too, we have significantly more complaints of this that pop up in our computer-aided dispatch system, but they always come in through a litany of different call classifications. So it's very hard to quantify that. I didn't want to estimate off that data. As far as challenges are concerned, Enforcement and mitigation can be really challenging when we're dealing with an uncooperative or difficult-to-contact property owner. As you can imagine, when working on private property, we want to do that collaboratively, and we want to do it with guidance, trying to seek mutual remedy in those circumstances rather than enforcement. Our existing tent enforcement or encampment enforcement relies pretty heavily on trespassing complaints requiring a cooperative property owner in the first place. Without that owner cooperation, we're really relying on existing ordinances that are based on rubbish and trash cleanup. So if we do have these situations, we can really tend to the secondary or peripheral concerns that come from those encampments, mainly the accumulation of refuse. But we can't eliminate the ongoing source of that being the encampment itself. The city of Brighton does not currently have a mechanism to limit or restrict short or long-term RV camping on private property. So for us on the ground level, abandoned commercial properties can attract groups of RVs seeking a place to camp. And CSOs often receive and manage complaints of guests living long-term in driveway parked RVs as well. I will also add that we used to have in the state of Colorado, it was a really wonderful program. Can comfortably mention that call the Colorado safe parking initiative that was funding limited and closed down at the end of 2024, but it did give us a resource a place that we could send folks that were living in RVs or in their vehicles who are temporarily displaced. Proposed ordinance 82620, which I won't read in its entirety, I'll leave for you to review, does make it unlawful for any person to camp on private property except in any location where camping is expressly authorized by the City of Brighton. It is not a violation of this section if a person is specifically camping on residential property with the express written permission of the property owner for not more than seven consecutive days and for less than 15 days in a calendar year. Ordinance 82620 does also make it unlawful for any property owner to allow the same on their property using the same language. We intend to apply this ordinance in such a way that would allow our community service officers and patrol officers to directly address private property tent and RV camping where other related violations are not already present and where a property owner has not authorized the encampment explicitly, if on a residential property. It would also allow us to restrict the establishment of unpermitted long-term tent or RV campgrounds. And it will also allow us to compel both residential and commercial, and I'll ask you to please excuse my typographical error in there. It should be both of those. Both commercial and residential property owners to address unauthorized long-term camping on unmonitored properties. I will add that to date. I have not been able to identify any complaints from city from anyone within the city of children or family campouts on residential properties. And whenever possible, even in those circumstances, we seek voluntary compliance with any resident within the city. All right. And with that, this ordinance is presented to the City Council with the following options. To accept as proposed, to deny as proposed, and to make a motion to modify or continue for modifications. Any questions?

Okay. Council Member Green.

Thank you, Acting Mayor. Thank you for your presentation. Appreciate the changes you made here. Nothing in this says it has to be there for seven days before we can do it. That's only for residentials, correct?

That's correct. For residentials, that's correct.

And if the officers go by and see them erecting one, they can basically nip it in the bud right there before they even, or do they have to wait until this is established?

So we would not necessarily have cause until we saw a violation, and that violation would only occur for residential property if we were to learn that that was not with the consent of the property owner or if it was in excess of seven consecutive days or more than 14 days in the calendar year.

I was talking about private property.

Yes, sir.

So if they were going by private property, they'd have to still wait until they sensed a violation or they could see if they were starting to set up camp?

Under the law for cause, they would have to wait. However, our CSOs are very good at engaging our community. So if we saw an encampment where we had cause to just have a conversation, ensure that that permit was in place, right, that they were explicitly permitted by the property owner, we could have an initial conversation to verify that as long as there's a reasonable encroachment on the property.

What about city-owned properties?

City-owned properties falls under our responsibility as a city, so we have a procedure in place for addressing encampments on city-owned properties that generally involves our officers posting that property, really similarly to how I described it within the presentation, that would actually direct a clearance of that encampment, and then a city staff then clean up that site or whatever is remaining.

What about a gray area like Main Street Creatives, which was having a problem for a while, but I haven't seen it in months, so that's been very good, but...

Yeah, so I would say that would really depend on exactly and we've had to look into that area very precisely because it really falls on where the private property landlines fall and the public property landlines fall. So it would really have to be addressed circumstantially based on how that individual encampment was set up. I will say that because those areas are so tight, sometimes it's both right? So that encampment can cover both areas.

And you did sort of address it. You at least spoke to it a little bit. There is a mechanism for a private property owner to allow camping to go on their property. They'd have to do a permit, correct?

Yes. Yeah, business permitting would still be the same as it would be for any other business, but I would defer specific questions about that to the city attorney's office.

City attorney, would you care to venture into that?

i don't know may i respond yes please um i'm not quite sure you're hypothetical i fully understand i think you're asking if it's on private Not in most residential zoned property. That would violate the zoning. But again, you'd have to look at each situation because zoning can vary and the information can vary.

What about a commercial owned property that's vacant?

Well, if it's vacant, there's no one to ask for permission, but... Right. And if it's vacant and they're trespassing, the police department can trespass them.

What if they want to allow? Is there a mechanism for them to allow to do that?

Well, that would be a separate business and they'd be creating the business of camping. And so we would go through that same process looking at what they're zoning in as in what's allowed on the property.

Okay.

Okay, Council Member Carvajal.

Thank you. My question is more about preventing getting here, I think, and looking at code enforcement. There's a few things that come to play when we think of the motorhomes or the RVs, like covered. They have to be covered, correct, if they're in driveways? Is there rules around that currently?

So are you talking specifically about just storage of RVs?

Yeah, storage of them on site.

Yes. Now, what I'll say is I haven't fully prepared to answer those questions about storage. But, yes, we do have things that do allow storage on site. Usually a visibility blocker is a component of that storage. It could be that. I know a lot of residents will park in a non-visible portion of their property or erect larger than usual fences or cover or blank out fences. So we have a few different circumstances for storage that would apply.

And that would help with preventing us getting to this place because we'd know if someone was living there or not.

So typically we have a pretty clear idea if somebody is living in there. Generally it's complaint driven. In fact, it's almost entirely complaint driven, especially in residential areas. So somebody would say, hey, I do see evidence of residency or habitation within an RV or a tent. Usually what we're going to see is potentially even water or sewer hookups. We could see electrical lines that run to it. And then you see pretty typical evidence of habitation, which would be like laundry or property out front or food or cooking supplies, things like that are generally really good indicators to us.

And in terms of like inner city where there isn't space necessarily to remove them, any vehicle that's left on the street for longer than 24 hours is also preventative, right? So we wouldn't have a motorhome come into town and have seven days because they only get 24 hours in that location. Is that correct?

Yes. So any street parking would be a completely different enforcement category. We do have mechanisms in place for street parking. This would only apply to private property. Okay. This statute.

Perfect. Thank you.

Thank you.

Council Member Wirth.

Thank you, and thanks for the presentation. I just got a quick question. The first picture you showed, so a little camper out there on one of our typical postage stamp properties. Are property size considerations, I mean, are there any considerations for size? If I have a three-acre property and...

want to park something behind my house um what's what's the situation there still against law that's a fair question yes so this is strictly defined it's actually a fairly simple ordinance that's built off of uh just the definition of a residential property versus a commercial property there are no exemptions that are made based on the size of parcel

Okay, so 40-acre property, got something back there in the back 40, doesn't matter?

That would not matter per the ordinance, but what I would say in practice is generally these are complaint-driven violations that are coming from residences. So if you had a 40-acre property and you decided to set up the tent right in somebody's backyard, you're probably going to get a phone call to us pretty quickly. But if you're somewhere that's out of view, traditionally we don't generate a lot of complaints for that, and it may not even be visible for enforcement purposes. Okay. Hey, thank you very much.

Madam City Attorney, it looks like you would like to comment.

Well, I'm trying to, we're back to the hypotheticals. So, right, the question that you're asking is if you want to put an RV back there, and that's different than what this ordinance is addressing, right? This ordinance is addressing someone else camping on your property. So just to make that clear, you, if you don't want to sleep in your own house and want to sleep in the RV on your property, you can choose to do so potentially.

Thank you for that clarification. I was assuming that it was a third party. Yes. Thank you. And my answer.

Can I follow that? One moment.

It looks like the Chief would like to respond first, and then we'll come back to you. Absolutely. I just wanted to provide a quick point of clarification, because back there it makes more sense sometimes when you're sitting up here. It seems like we're discussing storage of RVs. on private property versus camping. This has nothing to do with storage of RVs, parking RVs on lots where it's allowed. This is specifically restricted to camping on private property. And I also want to clarify It bans it under certain circumstances, subject to the seven days with written permission, 15 days in the calendar year. But it applies to the property owner just as much as it applies to someone on the property. So I just wanted to make a couple points of clarification because I see it's going down a road that maybe we're not really talking about here. Potentially both.

Councilman Brewer still has the floor.

Thank you. Yeah, just to gain further clarification on that or less confusication on that. So if I wanted to allow my kids, adult kids, to park a streamliner back there behind my house, which, by the way, this is not really happening. This is like a hypothetical still. Yes, sir. Because I could do that, it's not storing the trailer or the camping unit, but they have my permission, right? And everything's okay, then that's all right. The neighbors can complain away and I'm not at fault?

Sorry, sir. That would be okay within the timeframes allotted within the ordinance.

For seven days?

Yes, for seven.

So I can't let them live back there?

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Okay. Any more council members? Okay. Back to, is there anybody who wanted to speak first time before we get back to Council Member Carbajal? I do have one comment that I want to... You don't need it back? Okay. One comment that I wanted to make is the Colorado Safe Parking Initiative is still active and open. There's only one site, one parking lot in Adams County right now, and that's in Commerce City. So the initiative still works. There just is not a lot of capacity. Okay.

That's very true.

When this came up before, the place that it sort of got stuck was under the circumstance that Council Member Wirth just mentioned. If you have in-laws visiting from out of town, if you have adult children who are coming for the holidays, under the prior version of that, there really wasn't a way to permit your family members, your friends from staying a lot of Christmas vacation in their RV on your lot. But this permits that with the owner's permission, but again, only for a restricted period of time that doesn't exceed 15 days in a year.

Correct, sir.

Okay. The other sticking point that was not the RVs but was the camping one was the ability to throw the kids out in the backyard in a tent is limited in the same way. So you can't have tent camping on your private property in your backyard for greater than 15 days in a year under this one. It wasn't permitted at all last round, which again was part of the challenge of what are the allowed uses of your private property versus the aim here, which is really more at private property with absence landlords who are not here to respond to or willing to create trespass complaints. Is that?

Yes, sir.

It sounds like you understand our motivation here. Yes. Okay. I'm hesitant always on two fronts. The first one is that we risk making it illegal to be homeless while we have more challenges of people being homeless. When we don't allow people to be homeless on public property and we don't allow them to be homeless on private property, we run out of places for people who don't have a place to go to go. So I have a challenge philosophically at that point, and then I'm still stuck a little bit on the private property use, and I'm trying to figure out if 15 days satisfies that for me, whereas I know we don't. want to condone creating an unlicensed RV becoming a permanent ADU. So there's somewhere between your in-laws visiting and an ADU on your property on wheels. And there was a rather public one the corner of eighth and egbert for some time and they crossed that line between between the two so i i i get that that that's the point i'm still stuck a little bit because i really do understand the complaint i understand the issue i understand the impact on the community around and the need to find where that boundary is i'm trying to figure out if we've hit that boundary so

If you wouldn't mind me answering, sir, so at least on the 1st topic, and I won't address the 2nd, because obviously that's a matter of preference for the council. But on the 1st topic, I say, since the last time we presented, I've taken over the patrol division. I am now have the privilege of overseeing of our impact team. And our impact team is truly our first step towards providing engaged resources on homelessness engagement and assistance and guidance for the unhoused, right? And while I would stop very short of saying it's a dedicated team and that it's adequately staffed for the problem, and certainly I will never stand in front of you and say we solved homelessness in Brighton, right? This is a challenge that faces the nation.

If you could solve homelessness in Brighton, I would...

Yes, it'd be wonderful. But what I would say is for the 1st time, I feel very confident in the work of this team to go out, provide resources, provide interconnectivity between our unhoused population and and services and resources that are available across the city. And they're doing this in our parks. They're doing this on private property, and they're doing it on commercial property for every opportunity that they get. We assign them and they really are engaged. They're generating meetings and conversations with our teams all across different city departments, including our parks staffers, and really doing a lot of good work on the initial steps of what I hope will be a more comprehensive solution to making sure that people are treated with dignity and given their opportunity to safely live within our city. so while i can't say that we are have found a solution to this i will say that we're trying a multi-pronged approach to this problem and it does give me some degree of confidence that we can address our primary concern with this ordinance while also exercising compassion across our city

Yep. And I understand we need both positive and negative reinforcement, and we need the ability to handle bad actors across a number of scenarios. I am worried on the funding front for all of those activities because this October is when the significant amount of medicaid tanf snap other funding that assists those people goes away but i appreciate that very much i think that we are trying to find the right balance and and i appreciate that that effort uh i'll turn it back over to councilman green

Thank you, Hector Mayor. And again, I just like to come up with weird scenarios. It doesn't have to be the same vehicle. It could be any vehicle parked in front of your residence for seven days. Well, it would be the same one if it was consecutive, but the total of 15. Who keeps track of the 15 days?

So the ordinance is specific to a person who's engaged in the act, and it would be the responsibility of our police officers and community service officers to manage that and build cases for it as they do any other ordinance violation.

Okay. So basically, the neighbor can't say, he's been out there for two weeks, and you can't take their word for it, or can you?

That could be part of our case building. Now, obviously, we'd want to have more information than that or a witness who's willing to swear to that, but many different things could come together to make our case for this.

Does Walmart still allow people to camp in their lots? I know that they used to be able to.

Yes. Just to be honest with the council, I did not verify that before this meeting, so I don't want to go on record. I will say that we've seen a reduction. I've seen a reduction just anecdotally, the presence of semi-trailers in vehicles that are on that lot. My assumption is that there's been a reduction in it, but please don't take my word for that. I did not verify.

Okay.

Can I just add one thing on your original point? I don't want to belabor the point. I'm sure it's a short agenda, and I'm sure you all would like a shorter meeting too. But one of the things we did talk about in the last time we presented this is there are realistic logistical issues that come with tracking how many days someone has camped at one property. This the part of the reason of the timelines that we established seven days, no more than 15 in the calendar year is there may be scenarios where we don't have enough to prove something happened that we have to wait 15 days in order to take action or seven days in order to take action. This strikes that balance where we can track those things for a short period of time, but we don't have to build some database that tracks each address where, you know, 123 South Main Street has had somebody here for three nights on this day. That's not realistic for our organization, but this provides a timeline that is reasonable to get a problem rectified.

And it doesn't reset if you drive away during the day and come back that night, right? Or, you know, because like parking, if you move the car and you come back, it doesn't necessarily count, so...

Yes, it would in practice for the seven-day consecutive, right? We would obviously have to honor a break between those periods, but at 15 days in the calendar year, obviously they would exhaust that time at some point after.

Thank you.

Okay, any other questions? I see Council Member Green is ready to make a motion.

Thank you, Acting Mayor. I move to approve Item 7A.

Thank you Council Member Fidler Thank you Mayor Pro Tem I'll second Okay roll call vote Okay the item passes seven to zero with two absent thank you very much I appreciate it Council thank you very much for your help Okay, we have one ordinance up for final consideration. That is an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Brighton, Colorado, creating term limits for boards, commissions, and authorities by amending Articles 2-8, 2-25, 2-33, and 2-40 of the Brighton Municipal Code. Madam City Attorney, I believe this was with you. Do we have anything further to add tonight?

There are no changes from first reading.

Okay. Council Member Green, it appears you are ready to make a motion.

I am, Acting Mayor. I move to approve item 8A.

You're in a strangely positive mood tonight. Council Member Carbajal.

I will second.

Thank you very much. Roll call vote. Okay. This item passes 6-1 with two absent. Thank you very much. We are down to reports. The mayor is not here, so I will simply claim the privilege of giving the first report, and I will indicate or share that I was at the ribbon-cutting for Brighton Housing Authority's groundbreaking of the Ravenfield Senior Apartment Complex. That was a fantastic event, although distracted a little bit by the rain. My comments were... interrupted by the rain, so people ran screaming from my speaking. But Council Member Wirth had truly already said everything important to be said, so I appreciate very much the people who attended and the fact that that project is underway. Also, I would mention that I went to the airport coordinating committee and. To really newsworthy pieces of information that came out of that. The 1st, 1 is that we have started to receive monies again for noise violations at the airport. So the mechanism for tracking noise violation is. agreed upon both by the county and by the airport and the city. And that is being used to fund some of the work for the coordinating committee and Aerotropolis. So there's a strategic plan in place for economic development around the airport. And that is targeting specifically at the request of Thornton, Commerce City, and Brighton, getting some direction to the north end, looking at traffic patterns Accessibility and transportation from the north side of the airport. I Will be submitting a policy item request that came as a suggestion at that meeting talking about a transportation alliance based on the i-76 corridor because it appears that that Neda is heavily Influenced at the moment by Broomfield and and older and the 85 coalition it is Also still farther west than some of the things that are affecting us and it may be time to be looking at Development on the i-76 corridor as one of those alliances That is all I have for this evening. So I will ask the City manager if any of the directors have reports tonight

Thank you, Acting Mayor. I'm happy to report that the directors do not have any reports.

I thought that there was a dance session involved here, but if not... An interpretive report?

Is that what you're asking for?

Interpretive dance. Oh, from the police chief, not from development in this case. Yes. Okay. Moving on to the city attorney. Any report this evening?

No. Thank you.

Thank you. And back to the city manager. Report tonight, including board and commission vacancy updates.

Thank you, Acting Mayor. So in terms of board and commission vacancies, we have a few still. But again, the list keeps shrinking. We have one alternate member for Parks and Rec. We have two members and one alternate for Historic Preservation. Three members and an alternate for the housing authority. We do have some applications in there, though, that I'm aware of. We have one member of the district plan and we still have two outstanding positions open for the sustainability advisory board for youth members defined as ages between the ages of 15 and 20. And I'm also happy to report that we are making pretty good progress on the Downtown Development Authority applications as well. I know Erin Herrera has been working diligently on that, and I believe we do have all six folks interested. So making a lot of progress here. But if you are interested in becoming a candidate, you can go to our website, brightoncode.gov, and check out all the vacancies to come and hang out and do some civic duty. In terms of my report, the only thing that I have to report, it's Summerfest time. Don't forget. 10 to 6.

It is Brighton Summerfest.

I said Brighton first. Brighton Summerfest is just silent. I have a cold. Brighton Summerfest. Yes, thank you for reminding me, City Attorney. It's Brighton Summerfest. This Saturday at Carmichael Park. 10 to 6. A lot of fun activities. Some great bands. Come and hang out. Thanks.

Okay, thank you very much. And then we will go to reports by City Council. I will point out that there are six minutes left before 7 o'clock and six of you to give reports. So we have an opportunity to end this meeting in one hour, beginning with Council Member Collins.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. Nothing for me tonight.

Thank you. Council Member Fidler. Nothing to report. Okay, Council Member Taddeo. I can take everybody else's time.

I wanted to say that I was able to attend the Aussie, what are they called? Crazy Train? Crazy Train. At the Armory, and I have to put a shout out to, again, to the city staff and everybody for picking a really good band, entertainment, whatever you want to call it. It was a lot of fun. And they do a lot of hard work there. Anyway, I was also able to attend the Ravenfield ribbon cutting. I'm really excited about that property and that development that's going in. I wanted to also mention that on Friday the 12th is the grand opening of the Ergers Dog Park. So, yes, 9 a.m. I will be there. And, yes, looking forward to Brighton Summerfest this weekend. We have great weather. Even though we do need rain, we could just maybe skip the day that. Thank you.

Council Member Green, thank you.

Thank you, Acting Mayor. I hate to correct our city manager, but it is 10 a.m. to 5. You can come at that last hour.

Hang out till 6.

You can help clean up. The three great bands are Reminiscence, which is 70s and 80s yacht rock, basically, which is just going to be lovely. Message in a Bottle, which is that police cover band. So You know, I'll send an SOS out for that one. And that headliner is that arena rock show. So if you don't want to go for the entertainment, there's lots of tables. Come down, get some free crap, and you'll have it for your home, and it'll be great.

Thank you very much. Council Member Wirth.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. A couple things. I was able to attend the chamber luncheon where we got a presentation from Brian Mason, the DA. Really fascinating. It's not very often I say I like to listen to an attorney. No offense, city attorney. But she probably gets it. But anyway, that was really nice. The Ravenfield thing, it's really nice to see that. I mean, that thing was mentioned to me very early on when I first came on. And now that I'm almost ready to term out, we're finally getting that thing going. So I'm excited. It's really become clear how long these things take. So I've been really excited about that to get some affordable housing in. And then we finished up the BYC interviews this week, and I'm very pleased to announce that we have 13 new youth and two adults coming on to the Youth Commission. So we're very excited about that and get that going and got some great kids coming on. So I'm very excited. Thank you.

Fantastic. Thank you very much. And Council Member Carvajal.

I just want to congratulate all of Brighton's graduates. As we sat in all of the graduations yesterday for the three main high schools, i was thinking that every single one of our high schools has students that are coming from brighton and attending them so congratulations to all of those families over the next couple days as school wraps up there'll be more celebrations for their little ones moving on to different grades so i think that's really important and in that i want to congratulate or thank tanya russell from the city who continues to show up to all of the graduations for the byc members Despite it being a long day yesterday, she only missed one of the long graduations and was in Loveland all day with the rest of us. So I just think that's really cool on the city side, her dedication to the youth that are serving in that committee. So thank you.

Thank you very much. Yeah, my kiddo is scrambling to get all of the rest of his stuff turned in by Thursday when it's due, and this Friday will be the end of the school year. Next week we do have a study session, and you're still stuck with me next week.

Greg will still be in Poland.

But having exhausted our agenda, I now declare that this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.